I don't know about the rest of you, but I miss Rping here.

The best way will always be to just show up. I know that can be dull, or unproductive, but just being on the server means another person is more likely to actually get on as well.

The biggest roadblock is by far the technical issues as of recent, they are however, mostly centered around a few colonies only. This still allows most people freedom to roleplay anyplace else. I know back in the day when colonies wipes happened very very often, back before the staff had the ability to do rollbacks, I use to go on world exploring roleplay. Just grab some people, and make it happen.

While not the same, I am always in favor of seeing roleplay on the forum too.

 

Well I'm currently working on a story arc plot that I can throw out to the community. It'll take a while but maybe it'll help. Hopefully the technical issues will be over by then!

 

Currently waiting on a weapons project for Knights to complete next Sunday, which one's field-tests are going to act as an IC catalyst for future events for the faction.

 

Currently waiting on some factions or individuals who want to play with the Brotherhood faction...

 

More than welcome to.set up a brotherhood place at the new hub.

Wink

 

By the way us people setting up stuff need coordinates of the new hub :^)

 

Ask, and you shall receive... In pms.

 

currently waiting on a colony that my character could be icly interested in and bothered to visit

 

I think another part of the problem is that we don't have one 'hub' colony anymore. I know alot of people didn't like a single hub colony, and that they would prefer multiple, smaller colonies, but hey, look how this turned out. There are a few good ones out there now, but no great ones. Off the top of my head; Avalon, Asani, NC, Old old Mattis, (definitely more, but I'm tired). These colonies all shared something that brought people to them. RP, general boredom, the knowledge that they could go there, and there would more than likely be someone to RP with. I think it's just going to take a few more attempts before we get the uber-colonys going again, and once that, plus the technical issures, are fixed, I think RP will start back up again.

 

This. It took me a solid four days of trying just to get anywhere and find people to do things with outside of chatting over Galaxy. A combination of people failing to post coordinates and there simply being far too colonies is an issue, as all the available posted coordinates for places (New Tetanus, Uwajima, Dexter's Garden) bring you to places that are more or less always empty.

To be successful with any server in any environment on any platform, there needs to be a centralized location where you can reliably meet people, and then smaller areas that branch out from there - a good way to visualize this is a tree.

Antares currently has the problem of "Too many trees, not enough branches". Every colony is largely independent, unconnected, with no substrates beyond it's core. This means there's no centralized or reliable place to meet anyone, which in turn further reduces server populations simply because everything is so sparse.

Accessibility is something else that's important (This issue wouldn't be as bad if everyone just went and posted coordinates), but even "accessible" areas are inaccessible. New Tetanus is especially bad, as you can't even enter it without there being specific players on despite it being a "main colony". Fort Mattis is thus far the only reliable place to bump into people in my experience so far, and even then it can be few and far between... There's also the issue that the Fort Mattis coordinates either aren't posted on the forums, or are buried impossibly deep.

I would be more than happy to make a listing of "Coordinates of Note" for the server, but I myself don't know even half of the places that people tend to congregate in. Realistically, the server needs a main colonial area that will not only typically be neutral in affairs (this doesn't mean wholly lawless) but be relatively free of drama/the threat of being snuffed out at every waking second (People will only rebuild so many times).

From my observations thus far the server lacks a lot of ease of accessibility things aside from simple colony matters, such as a thorough and clearly posted FAQ along with a straight-forward no-nonsense guide to Starbound roleplay as a whole. The PlaystarboundRP guide is a start, but it's overly simplistic and can leave a thousand questions for someone who's flat-out new to RP on Starbound.

 

I'll be honest, it's been difficult to RP with folks on this server for this very reason. I applied to several factions before finally just starting my own, I was accepted to 2 settlements but couldn't find anyone at the colonies. It was a little disheartening. I've only RPed on this server for about a half hour since I started in the beginning of May.

 

Then mix up the formula, and cull the dead parts of the server that are keeping the community spread out. Communities are a cyclical entity in the long run, and if they try and stick to the same formula without changing it up they quickly become irrelevant and uninteresting - their respective populations dying off.

I don't mean change from Starbound, I mean just switch up the present establishment. Community leaders and mods also need to be an active and relevant part of the community, too. A great way to achieve this is to have administrators work in terms of 3-6 months before taking a break (IE: Having their administrative privileges taken away) for the same duration of time, before they can admin again. That's at least the system that Arelith utilizes, which I'd argue is one of the longest running RP servers on a game out there (It's been around for about 12-13 years now).

Such a system also makes favouritism relatively inert, though I don't think that's a problem here anyways.

 

Oops.

 

I think the problem is much like Twitch said. You got to show up even when it is dead on the server.

Personally if i notice the # of rpers is 10 or less online I won't even bother opening StarBound. More or less the reason im hardly around these days. Ultimately, I become a part of the problem that way though.

The next thing is I find colony owners to be quite passive. Starting a colony you need to be a bit of a salesmen and an aggressive one at that.

Throwing up a colony page on the forums with coordinates/colony info is great but it only works to a certain point.

Colony owners need to make events and constantly(daily) broadcast over the galactic radio that the colony is indeed active and has things going on.

Got a bar? Have a musician play a few songs on stage and let the universe know you are providing music and drinks.

Run a weapon shop? Advertising on forums is ok, but broadcasting 50% off over the radio a few times at peak hrs is bound to at least get a couple interested wanderers. (And don't make a separate colony for a weapon shop. Join with an established colony owner. The two of you both advertising various services for the same colony at the same time is bound to bring in people.)

Most people either sit in their ship waiting to learn of a place that's interesting, or they sit at an empty hub that expects the post they put up in the forums about their colony to do all the work for them.

Once you do get the ball rolling and people start showing up without your regular advertisements and events, then and only then can you sit back and let word of mouth draw in the crowd for you.
(But don't sit for two long, hubs get boring over time toss an event or two in. It doesn't have to be crazy. A musician. A fight Club brawl/wrestling match/arm wrestling comp/selling products, offering a free night in a sweet hotel and a hot plate of food.. use your imagination.)

If I had the time to involve myself into SB the way I use to the first thing I'd do is build another colony.