The fact that the current factions hate each other is not important; what's more interesting and of more importance is how did this happen?
Not to toot my rp horn but Wavemakers gotten her ass kicked fair and square twice. *Proud father pose*
Natural divergence in scope, intent and style. Add in a bit of elitism, a bit of IC hatred evolving into OOC hatred, and a few mistakes, and you have a bunch of very clear, well-defined borders between people. Lines in the sand, cliques. Intercommunication is great, when it works, and it's something I would preach to the heavens. But it's hard when no one wants to communicate with anyone else. A Fleeter kills a Knight? Bam. Hatred spurred. A Tribesman kills a Wolf? Bam, a little bit of animosity. In the end, the IC propaganda gets to us as much as the OOC bickering, the unwillingness to die, the anger at losing a character. It's one of the reasons the Fleet sputtered and died. One of many, but one. Look out for your own, cause trouble for others, and behave along certain lines, and someone won't like it. And someone will choose to take it personally. Really what we need is more civilians, more normal people. Farmers, artists, workers, explorers, crafters. We have plenty of those things, but they're usually also soldiers, mercenaries or some other form of conflict happy badass. And there are a few done properly, but they're rare. The fewer numb, shell-shocked veterans we have; the fewer cold-hearted killers-for-cash; the fewer sneaky assassin ninjas, who's greatest weapon is the edge of their character, not the edge of their swords... the better. Civilians make these people worthwhile. What is a bandit without people to terrorize? A hero without those to protect? When everyone protects themselves, and everyone has all the resources they need, and everyone is a master marksman, power-armor wearing super-soldier... When EVERYONE is spectacular, no one is. Normal people avoid fights, and have an easier time interacting in peaceful ways. Trade routes open up, groups produce resources that can be exchanged to other people who in turn produce different resources. Instead, we have a situation where EVERYONE produces all the everything. Ships, raw materials, food. Every faction is self-sustained, no one needs to interact. Another brick in the wall.
That's why I decided to stop playing Captain. RP= Role Play, that role doesn't have to be a main character. Yes.
Exactly this. And that's where a bit of the 'divergence of ideals' comes in. Think about your real life, how amazing are you? (You're roleplaying on Starbound, don't plucking lie to me.) You might not be a bounty hunter, but your life is about 50000 infinity times more complex than that of any of the characters on the server. You see yourself as the main character, because you don't have another set of eyes to see through. That's because there are two ways to see roleplaying: Either one.) It is a game; or two.) It is a story. If it's a game, it is nothing to you but an instrument of your own gratuitous fantasies. There's no need to make a real person, because you are simply trying to embody one trait that you've come to glorify and fantasize. If it's a story, you're more likely to realize that there's more to people than a single character trait (I.E. Badass, gay, sexy, cool, edgy, etc). You're more likely to improve, to play logically, to think through your actions, to accept consequence. You give your character defining traits, fears, guilts, secrets. You're character becomes more complex, they develop into more than just a fantasy. There are more parts, but they become simpler, more natural to play. Because even if they're a bounty hunter, they're not perfect an untouchable. Even if they're a farmer, they're not boring and unfun. They become more personal. Of course, it's not one or the other, often there are shades of gray. It took me a LONG time (until very recently) to step back and start approaching roleplaying as a sapient, feeling being. Rather than an overbearing ideology of perfect. I enjoy the writing far more as a simple person than I ever did as a grand role. Just because you're not the main character, doesn't mean you're a BAD character. The universe needs ditch diggers too.
I agree that the combat serverwide should be resolved, but i don't think the answer is game mechanic based pvp.
I couldn't agree with this more, actually. Game mechanics are usually tedious, boring, and this is an RP server, not an Starbound server. If you want to play with game mechanics, there's plenty of servers out there. It'll sound strange, but I never had any serious OOC trouble on combat RP, other than the very-obvious-powergamer. I think we all simply need a bit of common sense and logic. I get your point there, though. No, we shouldn't be able to pull off plasma katanas out of hammerspace for no reason. But Antares is a pretty dangerous place, space is drangerous, so the fact that almost everyone has some kind of weapon actually makes sense.
I'm pretty sure I covered this in another thread: http://community.playstarboundrp.com/threads/community-opinion-fleets-and-resources.5495/ If you have further questions, please feel free to direct them at Dreganius.
In addition to what Felonious has said, I think a large part of the problem is actually steam/skype chat. They're echo chambers - one opinion being voiced continuously over a very long period of time that results in a not-at-all accurate opinion directed towards another entity that has zero representation in said echo chamber. Example: <Player 1>: I don't like how -insert faction here- does -gripe here-. <Player 2>: Yeah, I've also heard they -different gripe here-! <Player 3>: Wow, really? Because I've actually seen them -another different gripe here-! With nothing to refute these claims, they're taken as fact even if there was a reason behind the actions. This negativity compounds on itself over time, with new gripes being added in and old ones being revoiced. Even if the hated faction has long since fixed these issues, it wouldn't matter because the echo chamber is still fully functional. By this time the people within the chamber refuse to interact with the targeted faction, because in their eyes it is literally Satan when it comes to roleplay quality. It's like a Great Wall of shit and bad feelings - nothing gets in, nothing gets out. We have seen this happen. It's called the United Systems. They are a unique situation in that they have probably been ostracized by almost every single faction and its members to the point where nobody even approaches them anymore. They had to reach out themselves and ask what they were doing wrong to get any sort of constructive criticism. It isn't only directed at factions, either. I have seen the echo chamber go so specific as to target individual members and their roleplay styles, and go so broad as to target the server's integrity itself. "This server is shit" "oh totally" "yes I agree" on and on and on ad infinium. If there is one thing we have all successfully roleplayed here, it is a real life hatred simulator. This shit is how political parties and social groups work in real life. Calling ourselves "a community" is frankly laughable; it's like calling humanity's entire population "a community". We are not a community, we are groups of communities populating our own little countries talking shit about the other guys behind their backs. Occasionally we fire ICBMs loaded with their "you-suck-at-roleplaying" payloads over to the other country (http://community.playstarboundrp.com/threads/ban-solour.5680/), start a political incident that is promptly halted by the toothless United Nations, and then back off, rev up the echo chamber, and the whole thing starts once more.
When at least 95% of active factions turned out to be military, unfortunately. Most characters were either: a) Fighters b) Marksmen c) a + b d) Weapon/armor designer/builder e) Other kind of military grade equipment researcher (like mechs) (I said were? The % has lowered, but it's still very high). Custom weapons brought more harm than help, as it was a new tool back in April/May and it probably had too many fans (even if they were few), as it let everyone be 'special' with their cool and awesome weapons. It has it's uses, but got out of hand in few weeks. There's clearly a problem in server if it's more strange find civilians like farmers, shopkeepers, etc. than duelists, militars, mercs, and so on. Another one, which is just one more reason that made me decide sending Lyra back to Avos (realistically, it had to be done, but even without them final destination for her is the same) is a huge problem of everyone's main character (don't confuse it with the hero). Practically no one wants to lose their first character (I know the feeling, had the same wrong feeling some months back), not even willing to listen that possibility. That's a toxic though, and when a character time comes to an end, do it. Fleet and people leaving rp (TD, Bunshuu, we don't forget!) have shown it's not necessary to kill any. PD: About the Fleet, doesn't matter anymore. It has already left Antares and is currently heading back to Avos ICly. Every PC who decided travelling back with them for their personal reasons have already lost the ability to contact the quadrant or use Starnet due being too far away. If there is any question how it worked out something in particular (resources, relations, etc), I don't have any problem, but their relations or possible plans are out of the question. http://community.playstarboundrp.com/threads/official-notice-of-withdrawal.5655/ TLR, to sum it up: -More civvies, less fighters. -Stop thinking your main character can't be sent to grave/out of quadrant. -There's no place for a hero in Antares. One/a few can be the focus of attention for a short time for reasons like events/conflicts, but it's not permanent. Skarti was a simple Initiate and owns an avian gun > : > But it's a fact there's an incredibly low number of chars without any form of weapon.
ICBMs? Wow. Godmode harder next time. Owns, but rarely has on-person. Seriously the only times I've had him use it, he has to physically go and GET it first. But that's beside the point. I'm saying that due to the number of "Lawful" colonies, people shouldn't feel like they have to be armed at all times. ...Actually, on the topic of "Lawful" Colonies, interestingly, much of the hate about the fleet was when they started actually enforcing very basic laws. People threw around claims of oppression, religious indoctrination, etc. etc. Just because we wouldn't allow joe average to walk around in full power armour and point guns at people.
To be fair, I was around for some nonsence fighting with the fleet. I wouldnt want to die to shenanigans either.
