Yep, its time we discuss that thing that people love to complain about oh so much. For those who don't know what closet RP is, it's when people roleplay in a private location, often with a specific group of people, avoiding the general server population. This obviously isn't much fun for the others left out, so here's your opportunity to complain about it and discuss. The largest issue in my opinion, is private home planets. People build a single house on a private planet and claim they live there. The first issue, is the immense cost of running a single home on an otherwise uninhabited planet. Electricity would be extremely expensive, as you'd have to buy solar panels, a generator (Which you would have to buy fuel for) or a windmill. Then there's the issue of water, maintenance, getting supplies, getting a teleporter (These are really expensive!) and other things. It makes no sense for people to be able to afford these things, and it only hurts colonies. The whole purpose of colonies is to have people live on them, but people all too often avoid them. Private residences only serve to split up the servers population and make roleplaying harder most of the time. Another issue, though more minor, is people living in their ships. While this is perfectly okay, people need to realize the impact of living offworld. Ships would likely feel cramped and claustrophobic after not leaving it for extended periods of time, which is not fun. You're also breathing the same air constantly, have to deal with artificial gravity - and worst of all - no day/night cycle. Your internal clock would be all sorts of whacked up from sleeping in a place where its always light, and it can cause mental issues. Not to mention the cost of fuel from running the ship all the time, ect. One point of this is that colonies server a purpose that people ignore. Colonies are meant to offer homes and residences to the servers populace, but people just seem to ignore it. Colonies need people to live and rp around them, or else they wilt and die out, causing more people to hide and closet RP. So people, stop building private houses and support a colony, build a home there, and create some interesting RP for people to enjoy in public places. Theres many other things to be said about the topic, but those are the points i'd like to raise. So please do note that you should raise your own points and encourage discussion instead of only addressing the issues I brought up.
Another issue is that people build their private stuff, so other people can't OOCly critiscize them. Back when Taranis was still around, there was this Floran, who had a ship that was literally larger than Ragnarok (the settlement), which housed around 5 individuals, i think. It was also composed of plantmatter. I also pointed this out to this Floran and others told me they agreed with me, the problem was that the person got very defensive and pissy about the subject whenever it was brought up and because it didn't really "harm" anyone people just ignored it. Every house that uses electricity or has flowing water or heated water, with a boiler, requires all these infrastructural things that took Ragnarok about 40 days to get running. Because these houses are all private, nobody gets flack for just building their stuff without these things. Which is basically bad RP. Some players will build on private planets for privacy, but the fact of the matter is, privacy is overrated. If some idiot wants to meta kicking in your door, then your report him. If someone "steals your shit", your report it and void that occurence, because they need your(and/or colony owner's) consent. OOCly hiding things from others makes you a bad player, because you don't trust other members of the community to not meta. If they meta, you report them, that's how it is. Even if your characters are talking about "really private stuff that's all secrety" and you don't want people to know OOCLY you're an idiot. People deserve to be able to witness stuff going on OOCly. That's also a part of RP. If someone spots you doing something in your RP that isn't right then they should be able to witness and report it, even IF it is private RP. I guess in short, what I'm advocating for is that people are more open with their RP OOCly and use their head when it comes to utilising resources. Having a character who "can afford that sort of thing" is a bad excuse. It's be a very inefficient use of his or her resources and I doubt any characters can keep up that upkeep cost for very long without some form of help from outside sources. Rag runs on coal so our electricity output isn't spectacular, nor is our generator state of the art. And yes, even IF it is "the future" you're still out in the space boonies, not very close to proper civilization, it should be relatively hard/expensive to transport/buy/acquire these things regardless of the fact that it is "the future". RP is about sharing and creating a story together, so if you don't want to do that, you're doing it wrong.
Closet RP, a growing issue on StarboundRP. Quite frankly I've been put off role-playing due to the lack of players on during EU because of both lack of EU players and the closet RP they seem to have formed, and I must say, it's progressed much worse since may 2015. Back in May 2015 just about everyone was on Dexter's Gardens, you'd barely see any closet RP, BARELY. Now all of a sudden no one even goes to main colonies, you've got private 'safezone' settlements that no one can go to because there is a friend circle that will only let them role-play in that area. Because I'm not much of a public speaker, I'm going to tag a few moderators/administrators for their input on this situation, seeing how very few are taking this seriously. @Smokestack @Angre @Cole Ombre @Lyro @solaruin @Aero @Kazyyk I'm also going to tag a few experienced long term members who are familiar with it. @WrongEndoftheRainbow @Dodec1 @Shag
Alright, looks like I got tagged. Time to rev up the shitposting fam. This is going to be a rather lengthy post so I'll use spoilers. Spoiler: First Post This is more of an OOC problem than it is IC. To be completely frank with you, IC-wise building some manner of shelter in a completely remote/unknown planet is not really unfeasible. It's a good way to stay off the radar and avoid trouble, It's actually cheaper than you might think. Things like electricity aren't exactly too expensive (Or necessary for that matter). Solar panels can be incredibly 'cheap', and in fact, most of the cost comes from hiring manual labour to install the systems and the solar panels themselves, which to be honest, you can do by yourself. Keep in mind this is right now, I imagine that in 400 years' time things like that will be either obsolete or 10 times cheaper. If you know what you're doing then finding and purifying water isn't much of a problem. Again, in 400 years' time things like that will be piss-easy. In fact they already are. My family and I own a small bit of land outside the city and drilling the hole for the extraction of water of an UNDERGROUND water well wasn't exactly rocket science. Took a bit of money yes, but that's because we had to drill for the water. If the character who wants to live in the wild finds a nearby water source like a canal or a river, then it's even better because most of the time the water is potable and easy to obtain. As for supplies and maintenance, that's assuming the character is living in some sort of medium/high-tech facility that requires constant repair and changing of mechanical parts. If that character were to live in a wooden house, like many people in the country do and did, as well as provide him/herself with food via hunting/fishing/foraging/farming then there wouldn't be a problem. While living on your own is quite challenging it's not impossible. It takes more time than it takes money if you're going full Bear Grylls or Alaskan Bush Family. For the teleporter thing, again it's not exactly necessary. ICly everyone can simply beam down and them beam up. Teleporters simply provide a static teleport 'beacon' so to speak, an area that can be accessed from other teleporters and other ships, without having your ship be physically above the point where you want to beam over. That's just to answer your post about self-sufficiency and living in the wilderness. So it's semantics. There's no IC reason why a character can't live on his/her own. Again it's not an IC problem it's an OOC problem. I too, don't really like people holing up and doing ClosetRP without providing any chance for people outside their ring to RP. While this is true, the latter arguments about breathing the same air constantly, having to deal with artificial gravity and no day/night cycles are a bit less important. Air supply is constantly replenished whenever a character travels to another system. It may grow stale but the character will most likely get used to it, same with the artificial gravity and the day/night cycle, which, to be honest, applies to every character that travels to other planets often since the day/night cycle and force of gravity between them ARE different and may be drastically so. Plus I assume most people don't have windows in the bedrooms of their ship. And if they do they most likely have blinds or something to cover the light. So that argument applies to everyone who travels between worlds often. As for the mental state of the character, that's true, though only depending on how much time the character spends in his ship. If he/she spends weeks on end without stepping outside of course there will be problems, but if the character regularly visits other colonies then there's no reason why s/he'd develop a psychological illness. Again this is purely IC semantics, the real problem is an OOC one. I agree with this, Colonies should be more populated. HOWEVER: To be honest most people in Colonies don't do anything other than sit around and go to the bar or teahouse or cafe or whatever have you. The problem isn't just with the ClosetRP, it's also a problem with the Colony Owners who don't really try to provide an environment that encourages and creates something that provides fun roleplay. There isn't anything that's eyecatching or that makes you want to engage with other people. Things remain mostly the same around colonies, never changing or providing something fun to do. Colonies are mostly all the same in the end, there's nothing quite unique about them, and this is further enforced due to the fact that people tend to roleplay things in a very odd way that certainly looks like cognitive dissonance, having spaceships ships but yet being stuck in either a 14th century tech level, swinging swords and wearing steel knight armor or 21st Century tech level where everything is fuck-all expensive so you can't buy anything or have anything that's relatively sci-fi and most people are basically minimum-wage workers who can't afford things and so they don't like it when other people actually try to roleplay at the timeframe of Starbound. Like I've said earlied Colonies have to PROVIDE RP, not just expect the visitors to suddenly pop up with something. Colonies also often keep to themselves, selling their resources or products to other companies and colonies that are "out of sector", effectively trumping any interaction between the colonies and any interaction between colony representatives or colony residents. They also don't really foster a sense of belonging to the characters, only welcoming and interacting with those who are close to them OOCly. There are no events in these colonies that can provide a way for new characters or players to interact and form bonds with them. In fact in this sense I'd say they're just as bad as Closet RPers. The only difference is that they do it 'publicly' yet still barring any other people from RP.
Following post. Spoiler: Second Post This is something I can stand with. Wanton building for the sake of fulfilling your ClosetRP with other friends while clearly trying to keep it off the radar so you don't get caught for pulling powergame/godmod/metagame shit is pretty bad. I agree, nothing much to say here. There's a bit of the problem with the first bit of the post. Sometimes one or other people might not be online to witness the problem and so that can create a whole new shitstorm while the mods are trying to find the culprit. As for the rest, I can agree with this. Planning things ICly and speaking in privately ICly is more engaging and can bring a bit of suspense, mood and atmosphere to RP, just by knowing OOCly that some other characters are not to be trusted yet still having to ICly be clueless about it. It also takes a good RPer to separate IC from OOC, and meta. It's fun to OOCly let other people in on the details sometimes. You can receive feedback and suggestions sometimes, which may improve your roleplay even more. Agree. Though for the latter I think it depends more on personal tastes. Personally I think that even if we live on the fringe of known space, the technology is still advanced enough to make trips between the Core and the Outer Rim to make things like Mass Effect style colonies possible without much trouble besides the cost which may or may not be too expensive. I suppose it depends on how 'techy' you make it. Though I can agree with the latter, RP is about creating a story with many different characters.
Gonna keep this short because I've been doing nothing but writing for the last few days and fuuuck that. My qualms are purely OOC with closetrp, even though it's sometimes necessary and is ICly perfectly fine. It's the equivalent of a secret club, and if you're not lucky enough to be in the clique, good luck try again next time. Cliques should honestly be the opposite of what happens on the server, because it drives away both new and old blood. It'll just be healthier in the long run if everyone drastically reduced the amount of !!secret rp!! they do. It's not like there's any antagonists that are dangerous enough to force you into hiding to survive right now, anyways.
I havent been tagged but I'll say my piece. Closet RP is bad, mkay. It keeps creating leaks on the rising server population, people flowing away as quick as they arrived. If you see them Meta, report'em. IC-wise I'm okay but with the current state of the population, best to keep it to a bare minimum. No? I roleplay/organise best with co-interaction. If there is nothing for me to roleplay with or organise. I wont pull it out of thin air, because frankly put. I already attempted two times before to get a colony going. But now it /is/ really going great, people stopped coming? Sure, I mean, if you aint into tea or tranquility, Shinsei isnt the place for you. But there was a time when it was going well, lots of people visiting. But those people left? Vanished? I dont really know. Shinsei's still there but I will repeat myself, I am very bad at writing some sort of visit page, law system. Hoped to get Council guards and whatnot, but that didnt pan out. Seeing as there appears to be a new leak in server population once another has been plugged.
I've seen plenty of closet RP in my time here. Even way back in the beginning it was something that would occur, but it seems like it's grown to be more and more of a common occurrence. Now, "closet RP" that has been accused before of places like The Springs, which is a hideout/common ground for Avians who are Grounded and aren't exactly in good standing with some people, makes sense. People who don't trust the general populace in-character, so they group together and hide away. Most members of the Springs spend their days out on other colonies, and the Springs doesn't even have a large population (down to about 4) so it doesn't have a hindrance on RP in any way. However, just refusing to go and co-interact with others at all, staying in a private place with a few other people and just closet-RPing all the time is an issue, especially when there are various "circles" that seem to have made a habit of it, resulting in a server population of 16-20, and only having 5 people on a major colony. Private/Closet RP is something that has benefits and drawbacks depending on context and how often it's done, and it seems like we've gone into the realm of going too far with it in some regards.
This is my issue with closet RP; ICly whatever, OOCly it's pretty dumb. What I mean by that is IC I have no clue about these secret RP groups but OOC I know these groups and how they will stay on some secluded planet just hanging out all day with about half the server population at a time. Saying maybe 15 total people are on then 8-10 of them are in that group doing their secluded RP. It really bums me out because I go to the same colonies to see the same two faces. It must be annoying to new members of the forums too as they see that many people on but can't find them so they leave. That's my personal gripe about it.
I agree with Raideck on this as well. Also with those that are secluded in their RP they close them self off to other Rp events that were planned and needed volunteers. Which is a shame. I guess what I am trying to say that it is a two way street. If they secluded themselves for their own RP they are also losing out on good RP events. However in the end it is the community as a whole that is losing out on it as a whole.
I don't really give opinions on this stuff, but eh, I'll do it this time. And try to keep an open mind, because I'm not going to be blindly agreeing with you all. While I do think closet RP is a risk to Roleplay Quality, I think there's a pattern as to WHY people are doing it that hasn't been clearly addressed (or well addressed) in this post. Responding to Doc, for example, it's not a refusal to go out, its a lack of a more engaging atmosphere to interact in. The most either of the two main colonies at the moment (Shinshei and Ragnarok) can offer is a little bit of bar RP if you're LUCKY. That isn't solely a cause of people closet RPing, its a lack of the colony itself being more interesting from a roleplay perspective. Sure, you CAN go there, but the chances of finding anyone there (At the moment) are slim due to the already low server population. Whereas you might have a friend you know is online, and live with at your 'private' colony or what-have-you, that guarantees someplace where you can go and develop your character. But Diehard, how can we fix this problem? Make the colony more interesting, give it goals and such. Not just the mundane stuff like 'Herp, we need power and water'. Sure thats an interesting little side quest kind of deal, but long term it doesn't really get anyones character rolling. However, if the colony had the goal of 'establishing a forward outpost for [insert faction name here]' then maybe a few people would be attracted to it for the sake of supporting or nonsupporting said faction. My point is, a colony/setting is a LOT like a character: It needs to be developed too. --- I divided up the stuff because I wanna go off on a little tangent here... Soz. As someone who works with electrical and renewable energy, I can testify to the fact that giving rudimentary power, heating, and water, to one structure rather than a whole residential/commercial district is VERY. VERY. DIFFERENT. And I hate to use the 'future' excuse, but it does make sense that things like solar cells, and mobile heaters, would be much more common due to their functions on space vessels. Not to mention they would likely be cheaper due to being a part of a galactic economy as opposed to a planetary one, which would have resource restrictions. Obviously that's offset by being on the 'frontier', but still... It's not ridiculous that someone could power and heat their little homestead. After all, that's how some colonies get started. So I basically agree with Shag's assessment of the power, and other basic resource shizzle.
I can agree with Diehard's assessment. The colonies we have are all cookie cutter from either other. There is no festivals, action, nothing. Any action that does happen is when the coloy is being either abandoned or destroyed. LAME! We are settlers in the fringe of the core worlds. Settlers make up their own culture, customs, ceremonies/festivals and general entertainment. Can anyone say that has been in a colony recently? From what I have seen in my nearly one year being on the server is answered with no. Colonies pop up and go away faster then really any character can actually enjoy where they live. Sure a tournament here, a quarry there. Really nothing. We have floran colony, why not have a fight night, floran hunting games (not saying the hunting party quest), maybe some type of carnival or festival. What about the hylotl colony... well shit that one is easy. Look at the Japanese culture for inspiration. Things like Bon Odori (a festival and dance in order to welcome the dead spirit), Yosakoi (energetic and exciting night time song and dance performance), Noh/Kyougen (popular form of traditional Japanese theater), Bunraku ( puppet shows bare little similarity to their western counterparts), etc. Honestly I think there is a lack of creativity. Sure new things are coming in, but sure it may seem new, but it is the same thing with just a different coat of paint. Nothing new, nothing gained. Can it be said that colonies are actually attracting people to come to them?
I guess its time to throw in my 2-cents in the matter. One of the reasons I hardly RP on the server anymore is because I find there arn't many people anywhere anymore. I remember one day, there was 20 people on the server, I went to every major colony, and absolutely no one was there, I asked in radio, not a single person replied. I thought maybe the server count was wrong, but then one group of people decided to insult another and out of nowhere everyone was talking on radio. So I sat around for a bit, hoping maybe /someone/ would come around, and nothing. It was around 6pm East Coast time, something that used to be peak hours for Antares; I sat alone, no one came, no one responded, everyone was RP'ing with their small group in some undisclosed location. I tried to get a friend to start Roleplaying, just to have them sit in a empty colony ran by basically only NPC's. I really miss the days of Avalon, Was I and most of everyone else (Not everyone) Cringe-level RP'ing? I mean, Yeah, TBH I was a horrid RP'er back then, I had just came from WoW RP. Something we did have was a community of players, dedicated to making RP happen for everyone, Player-Characters running the bars at all hours of the day, Shops open selling Vanilla guns that they found OOCly in some chest off planet, and then duped hundreds of times. People using mods and fucking up the server (I WAS GUILTY AT THE TIME, I'M SORRY I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING), And so much different things. Now-a-days you are lucky to get a small chunk of that, You get maybe one faction, and a few NPC barkeeps and that's it. People need to start making Factions, Maybe go to colonies, HECK do something like what the Holy fleet did, Annex a colony (With its owners consent ofc). That was at least something interesting. Make colonies, Invite people and hire people to do the jobs around. Don't just hide in your hide-y hole bunker of safe RP and get out there. Tl:dr Y'all need to get out there and RP
I made the RSSU for that very fact. However, no one gave a damn and it even got a bad rap OOC from a few individuals (I won't name them) that made the rest of the community become either skeptical or judge us ic for OOC reasons.
No clue on how to solve this problem. I believe isolation and active player numbers is what has killed server population for sure. This game has such potential, I wish more people were active on a single server. I have tried to get back into Starbound here in this community many times but it always seems dead and I give up every time.
One major issue we have with the server population is people being in school/at work often due to the season. Generally when Summer rolls around our population grows, so hopefully that will make the closet RP problem easier to fix. More people concentrated to a hub = Less closet RP.
