(Feedback on this report is welcome and wanted! Please post your thoughts and opinions on:
http://vnboards.ign.com/board.asp?brd=22469 )
Overview
The roleplay community is filled with great ideas and enthusiasm, yet it is struggling to survive. The frustration of roleplayers watching their servers slip away from expectations and a sense of helplessness can be felt everywhere. The community may be down, but it is not out. There has been renewed, yet cautious, optimism expressed since the announcement of a Roleplay Team Lead. There is hope for open communication and enforcement of the ToS specific to the roleplay servers, as well as the development of new ideas and inspirations.
Concerns
* Current enforcement of the ToS specific to the roleplay server. The efforts made by Mythic can not be seen by the average player, leaving roleplayers feeling unsupported. Players are hesitant to ask others to respect the ToS for fear of attack, insult or reprisal. Current policy states that players MUST contact a person and ask them to refrain from OOC in public channels before appealing them. This hesitation and intimidation of contacting other players and telling them what they can and cannot do has lead to an almost surrendering attitude of the servers.
* Name Policy: A lack of consistency on the naming policy has lead to a lot of heated debate. I hope to look into sollutions further in my next report, here is what I have now:
- A clarification of existing name policy, possibly including "Compound names that Mythic deems inappropriate will be changed.” and “A descriptive name can be used as long as it does not break the roleplay immersion”.
- If a name is inappropriate, its requested that the player be informed of this at a reasonable time (i.a. before the character reaches 50).
- In the current system, a name that is clearly bad will be changed relatively early in the character's history, while names that are borderline are the most likely to go a long time before being changed.
Suggestions: An automatic name approval at 5 days /played. This report could be reviewed by the CSR team responsible for name approval. This could help resolve the effects a name change can have on someone who has built up a long reputation only to have their identity changed.
* /level command in Hibernia Percival. The recent addition of /level 30 in Hibernia, Percival, has lead to a significant increase in players ignorant, or unwilling to follow the roleplay ToS. Restriction of /level 30 command on roleplay servers to those with a 50 already existing on another roleplay server may help to relieve this issue.
* The environment is not conducive to roleplay due to real time battles etc.
Solution: Introduction of macro's that will allow for communication without breaking the emersion of the server. It is recommended that this should be a player-specific filter.
/inc yells incoming out loud to whichever chat tab you are on.
/oop announces “My power is drained” to whichever chat tab you are on.
/ooe announces “I grow tired”
/lop announces “My power is fading”
/loe “My strength is fading”
/point announces the direction in which you are pointing
Alternatively, allow the user to create a filter list for common phrases. Similar to the profanity filter, this will change certain words or phrases to those the user would prefer to hear (on their client). For example, one could type /filter OOP=”I am out of power” and whenever somebody says OOP, on your client you’d see whatever you filtered it to. Another example: /filter “pwned”=”I am mighty!” *grins*
Immersion Issues, things that conflict with the roleplay atmosphere.
* Static Environment: Merchants stand in the street, never moving. Perhaps a small wandering area to make the town seem less.. zombied? An increase in wandering characters such as: a rogue cursing and mumbling, Merchants yelling out their wares on occasion, Guards emoting <adjusts his helm> etc.
* Position of Wedding Assistant in Camelot: He is currently right behind the alter, which makes the area difficult to use for roleplay events. Moving him to the side would solve this issue. Maybe a script that has him walk to the alter when activated? If not, to the side with the old goat.
* Limited variation in character appearance: No thin, fat, old or young variations.
* “Idle” animations. Somebody who is standing without moving for an extended length of time should fidget, scratch, shift their weight to the other foot, adjust their armor or clothing, etc.
* More Emotes! /sit /lay /drink /swoon /respect (for a sign of respect in battle) /stagger /strut /shiver /vomit (Hey it goes with drink doesn’t it??)
* Make macros more costomizable: (e.g. "/bow /em bends over to check the steaming teapot" would display "/em Laurindorel bends over to check the steaming teapot" while the character performed the /bow animation.
Wish List
- Increase buildings in the towns of Hibernia: currently many towns consist of mushrooms and small lean-tos. The lack of Inns, taverns, or even homes limits the town atmosphere and roleplay interaction.
-Mythic Run Events and interactive quests and naps. This is the #1 requested item from the roleplay community. Even occasional NAP characters run by GM's of Volunteers would help the community greatly. An old woman who tells fortunes, a historian who researches myths, a barkeep that tells tales and hosts events. The community is hungry for this form of support, it would encourage roleplay more immensely.
-Quests that result in the giving of titles specific to each realm, such as lord, lady, sir, Father (priest), Sister (nun)
-Race (not class) specific emotes and abilities: Lorikeets sit cross legged, trolls kneel, fibrils crouch, Saracen /pray and automatically face east and assume the "pray to Mecca" stance.
- Profile shown in small test box when a fellow character is right clicked. This would allow players to write and edit a small description of themselves for others to read.
-Roleplay specific newspaper (website): Reports on various quests from all realms, blurbs on player run roleplay events and storylines.
- Ability to extend the amount an emote is held. For example, the /point macro has a very short animation. It would be useful to be able to say /3point (or /point3) which would mean “hold the point animation for 3 seconds”. Enforce a maximum limit to the amount of time an emote could be persisted (5 seconds seems sufficient for most uses).
- Is it technically possible to have a /hood command? With the rains in DaoC, many people have expressed a desire to be able to toggle a hooded cloak’s hood up or down position rather than carry two different cloaks.
Bugs
-%t works only in macros. Great command! Would love to see it in regular chat form.