Antares 1.0 and the Future

Lore-
The only thing I have to say with this is please keep Florans bloodthirsty and sometimes, not always, dumb.
I'm fine with everything else.

Whitelisting-
I disagree with this fully. Not only would it put huge burdens on staff, but it could prevent staff from RPing. Instead of having time to roleplay, they have to spend most time on the server accepting/declining applications. Plus, I'm an altaholic. Yeah.

Starting Out & Default Equipment-
Please no. Oh god no. This would get rid of variety. Everyone who beams down to a colony would have the exact same gear and it just.. no. I hate this idea 100%. Please don't do this.

Vehicles & Powerful Weaponry-
Are flamethrowers considered "Powerful Weaponry"? And also, as someone said before, I could possibly see hoverbikes in the future. Just very uncommon and would cost a fortune.

Progression & Economy-
HELL TO THE NO. Please, please please PLEASE, do NOT outlaw cheating mods. Those are essential to roleplay. I'm sorry, but getting rid of this wouldn't be for the better. Trust me on that.
Please.

EDIT: Oh yeah. I disagree with the one faction per account thingy. Your different characters should be able to belong to different factions.
Well, that was my two cents. I'm not exactly good at replying and giving my two cents to these kinda threads, but eh. Yeeee.

 

I don't feel like cloning is a good idea for RP. In reality it would happen, sure but for a RP server what stops you from being a maniac with a gun or offing yourself when you lose a limb you want back. Would this service cost money? If so what about our poor characters. Really I just don't want people forgetting consequences. If your character has a friend who's life is in danger, why would you help them if you knew you could just have them cloned? Cloning just brings the RP experience down to a very unrelatable level.

On the subject of faction representation, I think you should be able to be in multiple factions on different characters. Why leave a group IC when your character has no reason to just because you want another character involved in a different group? That's very limiting.

 

My opinions on these subjects may be a bit strong, but I'll do my best to keep everything reasonable as I discuss this. Antares is one of the best role-play experiences I have had over the years. We all want to see this community grow, and some of these new regulations may dissuade certain Role-players who would have brought new ideas and concepts to the server.

Lore: We will definitely need to have some sort of server lore for certain things, but I do think that Chucklefish's lore in most places, is satisfactory. For altering the lore, you'd need to touch up on points that are more hazy.

Timelines, Racial lore/anatomy, and the History of Antares. These are essential, I think, to balancing out the experience for newcomers.

Racial lore is very vague, and too many players use the race as a re-skinned human. They are biologically different, and the differences need to be more apparent in portrayal of the characters. Florans, for example, shouldn't necessarily act like humans unless the character's back-story provides reason for it.

Cloning: Cloning has extreme potential to be abused, and I can't see handing out cloning being a very good way of resolving issues of perma-death. I'd say creating more refined consent rules that give allowance for the player to escape the conflict would be more effective.

That being said, I'd support cloning if it were balanced and all players restored from cloning didn't have /ALL/ of their memories, /ALL/ of their skills, /ALL/ of their items.

If a character dies, they should at least be somewhat responsible for not exiting the situation. I see the consent card drawn by too many antagonistic characters, who act in a certain way that would have negative repercussions. Stronger, more refined consent rules that dissuade that sort of behavior ( unless consented ) seem entirely necessary. I'll support cloning if it is balanced, and coincides with these consent rules. Perhaps with an appeals forum for bringing back dead characters if need be.

As a side note;
Glitch and Novakid can not be cloned due to the nature of the species.
Glitch can only be rebuilt, and /ONLY/ if the memory core survives.
Novakid vaporize on death, leaving nothing behind but a smoldering, twisted metal 'brand'.

Economy: Cheating mods are essential to the experience, as we aren't a vanilla server. We're a role-play server and should expect to have that sort of thing. Characters 'magic-ing' in items IC, is a completely different matter, unless it is justified in character back-story or purchased while out of sector.

Character logs for expenses and income would be entirely welcome to have, as long as some rough baseline prices were decided on different types of items, and a consistent value set on pixels. Obviously, there would be room for variance, but a drink at a bar, for example, would be 3 - 8 pixels, depending on the quality of the bar/drink.

Whitelisting: I'm opposed to this idea only in that it would be an inconvenience to both the moderators and the player base.

It's not something I think we'd necessarily need, as long as common sense applies to creating and bringing in new characters. A wait time on getting new characters 'accepted', would be disruptive to events and role-play where throwaways / new characters are needed.

Starting out: Everyone starting out with the same equipment and gear is disruptive to the experience. Every character came from a different background, had different life experiences, have different belongings. People aren't just flash clones with the same kit.

You could entirely allow for this by having several 'load-out' options, that at least provide a baseline for what different characters can bring in, as well as options for starting currency values, with room for allowance. It would restrict characters coming in with high-powered plasma cannons that melt through impervium, and that's certainly where the balance side of things come into play. Every character's not going to be the same, so I'm not in agreement with any singular 'starting kit'.

(EDIT)

Colony Construction: I can think of some circumstances where this would be entirely necessary. Overnight colonies are a problem, and I'm entirely in support of restrictions on them.

Vehicles & Powerful Weaponry: It's necessary to have restrictions on powerful weaponry and vehicles, but not void them entirely. They'd have to have reasonable shortcomings that balance them out.


I'm glad that you are taking community input about this sort of thing. As long as Antares remains an enjoyable role-play experience, I'm sure the community will agree with whatever you decide.

 

Maybe in a world where our server is more regularly populated, but as things are ...

Well, hope you're all excited for some stellar 1 person vs 1 person vs 1 person faction conflict.

 

I don't think people are getting the whole "cloning" scenario.

You're only viable for cloning by the staff-faction. You go to them, for cloning. They can turn you down.
If you're a known criminal, they will not clone you.
If you're on a shooting spree, they will not clone you.
More than likely, if you are not registered as a citizen, by said staff faction, you will not be cloned.
If you are a good citizen, live in the protected by the Staff faction, WITHIN the star system. You will be viable for cloning.

If you live in the rest of the lawless frontier, good job you aren't viable for cloning.

Citizens inside the staff faction star system may leave said system, but expect no laws out there.

Cloning is easily balanced. You're a good student? Clone4u.

A bad apple? No clone4u.

 

Lore: I feel Starbound lore should be followed as closely as it can without making things unbalanced, If I didn't want to roleplay in Starbound's setting then I would have chosen a roleplay server for a different game.

Setting: I agree with the whole frontier style setting with relatively low tech. It should take time, and factions with significant numbers of people to produce more advanced tech. Like if your faction wants a mech, it should have existed long enough, have enough people, and enough characters with engineering skills to produce one. That or you have to buy one off a faction that has one.

Cloning: Personally I believe cloning should definitely not be a thing. The server already has a problem with apparently everyone being willing to jump into a dangerous situation. Unless your character personally knows the person in danger or endangering them, is an officer of the law, or happens to have a very selfless personality, they are unlikely to get involved with a dangerous situation that doesn't benefit them.

If you don't want to get killed, don't go to random distress signals without proper preparation. If you don't want to get killed, do as the person with the bigger gun than you says.

If you go into uncontrolled, uncharted space. Don't go alone, and take gear that will keep you alive.

The way I see it, if you character doesn't voluntarily get into a dangerous situation on, or relating to the safety of a public , policed world, then they shouldn't have to consent to death. This links in to the the proposed ''safe zone'' that Kaz mentioned. However even then people in the safe zone should still be at risk of injury and theft, providing it makes sense.

Economy: Mods that allow people to spawn in anything they want are necessary. If people abuse this then they can be reported and dealt with.

Progression: With the quest based progression it will be necessary to spawn in the appropriate items to skip the quests

Whitelisting: Requiring every new character to be reviewed would be too much work for the staff I feel.

Vehicles: Vehicles and powerful weaponry should allowed, but again only if the person that has one is in a faction that has had the people, resources and time to produce these items, or they obtain it legitimately from these characters.

 

I feel a problem with this is the shady 'good' characters will use this as a backup incase their shady dealings go awry.
This also makes law enforcement technically immortal, as we have no basis for cloning.

I suggest (If cloning even makes it, as i am highly opposed to it) genetic material a requirement for cloning. A sample of the original body MUST be used if the clone is going to be remotely similar. You also have issues with certain characters, IG one of my alts.

Razor. He looks to be one of those assassin types. Onyx black armor, red visor, the typical kind that sets you on edge. He's in reality a very friendly baker. What would happen to a character like him? He appears evil but is actually good.

You can't judge a book by it's cover, and corrupt law enforcement is a thing.

 

Lore:
I'm all for server-approved Lore, but I also think that it could take a very long time to completely replace the lore, and to make sure that everyone understands the lore. New players coming in might be turned away by the prospect of having to read through an entire 9001 paged document of the lore, so the playerbase might take a hurt. Ok yeah, that might be an exaggeration, but I think that you understand the concept I'm pushing.

Setting:
I agree that the technology should be strictly limited in the "frontier", but what and how are going to take some discussion. 400 eyars in the future, we can't know for sure what kind of technology is commonplace and what is not. A high powered plasma rifle might be a lowly weapon for an Apex soldier, but to Humans or Florans that sort of technology would seem insane. IC viewpoints, of course. Starting new technology into the server through events could be very interesting, especially if it comes in limited amounts, and could therefore spark conflict between factions or groups.

Law:
I'm all for a Law faction, and a safe town to RP at, but from my experience, any "hub" with security and some sort of way to make sure there is no conflict, ICly, generally is avoided because, well, theres no conflict, so its boring.

Cloning:
I agree with some points that cloning should be avoided, and I also agree that it should be added. My thought is that it -should- be added, but heavily, heavily regulated to make sure that the ability to clone is not abused. Also, that there would be ways to make sure a character did -not- get cloned. For example, the clone...ers might need more than just a blood sample. They might need some brain tissue, or spinal fluid, etc. If the player who killed said dead guy makes sure they cant get any usable material, i.e by burning, exploding, throwing into a giant ass star, etc, then that player cannot clone.

Progression:
Please please please do not get rid of spawned items. That might start a downward spiral that reaches out to custom made things, and thats like the only thing I do here, custom weapons.

Whitelisting:
While alts are a problem, I only think that players should have to resubmit a new character application if and when they decide to make another main. I think every person has a main character they play more than others, so if that character dies, and they want to start a new main character, they should at least submit a small form, maybe a paragraph or so, stating information about the character.

Default equipment:
In a nutshell, no. While players shouldnt come into the sector with an ion cannon or something, default equipment should not be a thing.

Colonies:
I think people should have to supply some sort of story or verification that the colony can exist, almost a sort of character application, but for cities.

Factions:
I think players should keep out of multiple factions, as it can cause accidental meta-ing. Thats all I got right now on that topic.

Vehilces/Powerful shiz
Should be allowed, but heavily regulated and very expensive to maintain, maybe set up an outside person to make sure that the faction who controls said shiz does not go OP with it.

Forums:
I really got nothing on this one.



Those are my views, and I got kinda tired near the end which may explian the lack of giant paragraphs, so....yup.

EDIT:
I understand the moderator approval for posts, but....Meh. That is all.

 

Cloning: Sounds good. Also, I like the rules Solour suggested.

Lore/setting: Anything is fine.

Law: Good.

Progression & Economy: Woah woah WOAH. Nopenopenope. Cheating mods are essential RP.

Whitelisting: I see the staff having a heavy load of applications, people being angered that they cannot RP, and a backlog so big no one could RP anyways.

Default Equipment: No variety = Boring RP.

Colony Building: I'd suggest there be a whitelist for colonies.

Faction Representation: I think people have the right to be in multiple factions, as many alts as we all like to have.

Vehicles and Powerful weapons: A complete restriction of vehicles would not be the way to go. I suggest regulation/whitelist/PM of what's allowed with those who want to build a vehicle.

Forums: Not my forum. I'm happy with just about anything.

 

This gives ''good'' characters an unfair advantage.

This isn't a disney movie. The bad guys can, and have won in the real world. Roleplay shouldn't give any characters with certain moral alignments advantages over the others.

 

Fine. Let me re-phrase.

When cloned, the new man, is instilled with what is referred to as "The Terminator Gene." Rendering them un-able to be cloned, again. This way, baddies wont complain. And goodies won't just keep falling off a cliff.

Well if he is? Then bam, he's bad. If he SHOWS he's a good-hearted man, just selling cookies, and most likely gets a citizenship for the staff faction. and is all happy and all that sweet stuff? THEN WHOAH HE'S NICE. They'd most likely have him on file, if he's known for being a good cookie, if he applies. Corrupt law enforcement? GG they won't clone you. Simple fixes, my man.

 

So far, from the singleplayer, all characters start on the same planet. I think the starter kit shouldn't be equipment, but the upgrade materials required for FTL so you can skedaddle, because not everyone is going to go SP to quest, adventure, etc, and I quite honestly don't think the 50 or so active players are going to love (hate) one another when they're fighting for iron / core fragments.

I mean, some people /could/ turn it into an IC thing.

However - I did notice when I joined a nightly starbound server my quest progression saved, so there's that.

 

I'm only going to comment on the Faction Regulations bit, since my RP opinions tend to lean more towards the casual side, which everyone here's just going to disagree with and flame me out for.

If we're limited to only one character in a faction period, then that really restricts the type of characters we can make. It's either use your one faction character on something you hope you like the absolute best (By that, I mean of the group of factions you find interesting, you can only pick one to be a part of.) or make a character that has absolutely no affiliations what-so-ever and have them sit around in a bar all day. Who cares about the slight risk of metagaming? With that logic, you may as well ban all creative mods, all IC resources, weapons, and armors because they too have the potential to be abused.

In my opinion, the only restriction that should be in place is having multiple characters in the same faction, since that would artificially inflate that faction's size.

 

I can only make a short post in the time I've got this passing wifi so I'm just gonna put in my two cents that cloning was bad before and will be bad again. Putting characters into dangerous situations and then letting them escape from it? It goes without saying some factions that aren't so good IC are going to acquire cloning facilities, and even if it's through 100% IC means, bam, they're suddenly invincible. Not only that, you'll get server favorite characters being restored should they die, and it basically removes all the fun from combat RP altogether, whereas before cloning it held risk, (if barely any due to consent shielding) after it will hold zilch, due to cloning.

It would render the hard working scumbag merc/thief/hitman obsolete, as any Johnny he knocks off, intentional or not, can easily be re-cloned, and he can be named as the person responsible.

TLR, pls don't make cloning a thing I beg of you pls Kazyyk

 

Cloning, it should be heavily watched, which I'm sure it is. But personally, without cloning... things could be a lot more of a punishment towards players' characters. Which is good.
Vehicles. I like the whole vehicles idea, fitting the frontier setting, you know, no armored helicopters that fly just above the ground with .50 caliber turrets.
MAGIC. THANK GOD YOU'RE NOT LETTING IT BE A THING.
Starting with normal equipment, though? Why? God, why?

That was... really short of me... Just what I hurled out in ten seconds. I'll edit this with whatever I have to say on these subjects s'more