Hello, Antaresians! So this stable update has been causing a myriad of issues, it seems, for Antares. Particularly in terms of stability and whitelisting. Now that we have the Novakids on board and the plethora of potential issues that comes with their lore, I'm asking myself: "Well, now what?" As easy as it would be for me to simply pick a direction and stick with it, Antares has always been about being shaped by the community that surrounds it. Especially as a roleplaying community, we're all here to tell collective stories and as such, we want to be able to do so in a universe that makes sense to us and fits our needs. Now everyone has a different idea for their ideal server, but I'm certain we can compromise like the sensible individuals we are. My question to you is: Where would you like Antares to go? There's a multitude of options. We still have to explain this wipe in an IC context, or choose to ignore it. There's so much history behind Antares, memories made by the community, precious to each of you. We don't want those to be lost. It's important that there's some form of continuity, no? I've been racking my brain for solutions, but I feel the weight of this decision on my shoulders and it isn't something that I feel I should decide alone. After all, it's not just my history hanging in the balance - it's yours. I know that through whatever hardships may come, Antares will find a way to survive. We're resilient like that. We'll come together and figure things out. I like to think that people are good enough to do that. We've got the capacity for understanding and empathy, particularly because we're roleplayers. We put ourselves in other people's shoes all the times. That's how we have fun! I don't want to see Antares undone by technical problems, griefers, lore issues, or anything else. So let's figure this out. I'm confident that we can survive.
Am I the only one that isn't interested in the super serious gritty uber-realism direction that some people seem to want the server to take? The newest update adds by far the silliest race so far. Space cowboy star people, and the outpost has an NPC penguin walking around right there, with the stereotypical cartoon pirate themed shop. Starbound has been silly and sci-fi lite from the beginning. Just because a setting is not realistic doesn't mean the stories that exist in this world cannot be serious. The word is still dangerous, characters form relationships, people are hurt, people die. The setting also includes oppressive dictatorships, revolution, involuntary ritual sacrifice, cannibalism, slavery, torture, cultists, bandits etc. The great thing about Starbound is the variety, and it allows for gritty, tragic, serious stories to make sense in the world, but also for zany crazy space adventures too. Anything inbetween also works. This server tends the take the middle ground in terms of how ''hardcore'' it is, and for a game with such a mix of serious and silly themes, I think that makes sense, and is why I have been with this server since the beginning, and am still here. I don't feel the novakid race is unbalanced in any way, they are as vulnerable to injury as anyone else. They are silly and unrealistic but that's Starbound's setting. The IC context of the wipe is less of an issue as there was only one public civilised colony that was active at the time of the wipe. I believe it should be left to the individuals and factions to decide whether to quickly rebuild OOC and pretend the wipe never happened, or for the wipe to be explained by some IC explanation. That's all I can think of right now.
When are you and Kazyyk running for office? At the very least write politician's speeches cause that was dead on and left me feeling all happy and motivated for my fake life in a game.
Let's please stay on topic, y'know? It's easy to praise folks, but let's not get lost in the praise. There's stuff to do and things to decide upon.
I'm gonna agree with Wreth on the points he's made here. With the recent trend of super-realism, I feel like the chance for more exciting, more interesting, and more gripping stories has fallen. Now it's the same usual story, characters are fighting to survive on the frontier. This is good and all, and it does work for the setting, but with this being the focal point for RP nowadays, I feel things have become dull and, in a way, expected. If a person has to choose between survival or adventure, I highly doubt they will choose the latter. Maybe people won't agree with me on this, but these are my own personal feelings; I'd rather RP a character exploring an unknown universe, encountering strange, new things rather than a character that's hunting for a job so that he can afford to feed himself.
And some of us prefer to play out stories that make sense in a realistic context. As compared to running around having lolfuntime adventures while clad in 'high tech future metals' to avoid consequences during said loltimes. There is no 'super-realism' on this server. There never has been and most likely never will be. This server is split fairly evenly between those who want something casual and those who want something with a bit more realism towards it. To be honest, this server needs to pick a lane if it wants to go anywhere. Sticking in the middle just causes conflicts between the two groups. So really, what I and many others would like to see is for Kaz to make a decision. What kind of server is Antares? Then we can move forward.
It should be serious/realistic within its own universe; melee and heavy armour is a viable choice; energy and tech should work like intended by game mechanics, maybe edit it a bit to suit our needs, but it should stay somewhat true to the original or edited server lore.
Melee is a viable choice . . . Against melee opponents. Expecting melee weapons to be equal to firearms is just nonsense. Firearms have range, they usually have power, and they have ease of operation. Additionally, heavy armor is A-OK! Have fun, play your tank. More power to you! Just do it with common sense and some logic. If it's really all that heavy, it's going to slow you down. It's going to impede your movement. Hence /HEAVY/ armor. Stuff is as simple as that.
I do agree with Wreth on a lot of points as well. He seems to have pretty much summed up a lot of the opinions I've heard of others over the time as well. I do, however, have an issue with the recurring thought some people have of "Starbound isn't a serious setting, so it shouldn't be roleplayed that way here". While we do use Starbound's lore (To a degree), the game is just a medium. When you roleplay on the server, think of it as writing/playing "Antares Roleplay," not just playing Starbound. The outright silliness of the game mechanics shouldn't affect the quality of the roleplay, which is why some things, such as the Blink techs, are not used IC. My opinion on the whole "Uber gritty realism" thing though pretty much matches up with Franz. This server in my opinion, has never really had any hardcore roleplay on a large scale, and things like a pseudo-economy which pushed towards that were all just fads. From my experiences here, people take to the thought that realistic roleplay follows the rules of the anime universe, where edgy main-character-esque backstories and skills in abundance are a normal thing. The quality of roleplay like this is entirely subject to opinion, but it's not necessarily accurate to label that as realistic. On the topic of anime things on the server, if people end up wanting to move towards a more serious or realistic style, melee would not be a viable option. Plate armor would not really be realistic either. Sure, there is a man alive today who is capable of chopping a bullet in half when it's fired at him (source: http://www.odditycentral.com/videos...n-slice-a-speeding-bullet-with-his-blade.html (source isn't exactly reliable, but there are plenty of videos of the guy doing this and such as well)), but if you have a sword and get into a fight with a guy who has a gun, you have to think about how most peoples' reflexes are fast enough to draw the gun and shoot you in the time that you would be pulling the sword back to strike.
Also you have to realize that he is the only person in the world, nay, universe that is capable of doing this.
I kind of like the realism, and I think we should attempt to keep it at least kind of real, but as many know I despise the current obsession with kevlar vests and phobia of power armour. As for the Novakid lore we can say that they were stuck in the "Wild West" age of technology because of their extremely short memories. However other races recognized the Novakids' intelligence and gave them FTL and Starship technology.
Personally, I have never tried for serious realism. I've always done my best to ground my roleplay to the setting of Starbound, and it's worked out fairly well for me. The thing that really baffles me is the amount of time people spend trying to tweek and balance things oocly to make things "fair" icly. Not everything needs to be made equal. Imbalance adds flare, flavor, and drama to a situation that might otherwise just be two people having a price dispute. I've said it a few places now, but I'll say it again... Roleplay should be given freedom to do what you want with it to have fun. Your fun however, should never come at the expense of the fun of others, which is where compromise comes into play. Lets be real here. It doesn't really matter what the rules say the setting is suppose to be, everyone will wind up doing their own thing anyhow, and then there will be heavy rule thumpers that come along and blast them ooc. More drama. Just play the game. If you use some sort of tech or weapon that is outlandish, think of a decent reason how it works. If you can't, then just don't use it. At the end of the day we are all here to roleplay. You don't have to like the person next to you, but you have to be mindful of him/her. So this basically.
I came here for serious roleplay, not casual crap. Thus why I'm so hard on people with bad grammar, backstories, etcetera etcetera.
Aye. As far as the standard goes, and comparison to other roleplay, this would actually be a very casual server in most peoples' eyes. Keep in mind though, realism=/=higher quality. This is where opinion comes into the matter. Where people like yourself or I would prefer a more realistic and serious approach, a lot of people like the casual setting for their own reasons.
