Poll Opinions and Options on Server Direction

As many know our server follows its own lore that spun off Chucklefish's lore from way back in the day. The server has since then created its own history with colonies and events and the people in it have created their own vast narratives as well.

Looking at our lore, the staff feels like we should reflect on it to see if what we have right now is the direction we want to be heading. Otherwise, we are open to suggestions as to what direction the Antarans want for the server.

This could mean anything really. We want to create an environment where all can roleplay in and have fun doing so. If you feel RP is currently slow, give us your opinion and/or give us your solution to help us realign the server's direction down the right path.

Basically. in this thread give us opinions on the server direction and your ideas on what can be done to the server to make it better. This can be changes in the overall world, a minor setting change, or lore upgrades.

The suggestion that gets the most amount of positive ratings or popularity will be taken into consideration under the staff. We will deliberate for like a week or two or something after we see that the votes settle.

 

So. I've been putting some thought into it, and, after some input from others, I've come up with an idea. If the universe ever resets again, (which it may not, in which case this idea may still be relevant.) then I think we should try taking advantage of it. If it ever resets again, I think we should try making an alternate universe. As in, the one we reside in now is wiped, and one that is slightly identical but with a few alterations is put in place. Characters now would be different than they were before, but still be that person. Perhaps with a different personality, occupation, etc. It'd give us a chance to redesign overused characters, and perhaps even bring some back, but different than they were before. A romantic interest would be your worst enemy, and vice versa. It would mess with history, yes, and that can be discussed if this ever becomes a popular subject. However, seeing as history is rarely referenced IC ever, it may be easier than you think. Again, as this is just an idea atm, it is subject to change as it is discussed further. Feedback is appreciated.
Disclaimer: Again, this is just an idea, and is subject to change to accommodate to people's interests.

 

Less gun nuts. I think space should be a vast, peaceful and serene place. It's hard to find variety when we have the same quiet, reserved, hardened gun dude copy-pasted all over the place.

 

That's unrealistic, as with most frontier settings there raiders, pirates, and other denizens of space trying to take advantage of the lack of a central authority. Even if we took out the military element, another organization would arise to take its place.

 

This was going to be a small post, but seeing everyone else post, it's evident I need to expand what I was originally writing. Okay... fucking hold on because this is a long ass post. I'll write a tl;dr at the bottom, but realize, you will need to read some things from my main post, which I'll underline what could be tl;dr'd for the main point I'm making in the paragraph.
What does this server need?
An indisputable reason to everyone to exist. We need to offer, and provide what we offer, with purpose. And to me, that's being the best "Serious RP" server. What's this exactly entitle? Our RP is the most serious in tone, with similar characteristics that follow. This doesn't mean we will be the best out of everyone, that's impossible. There will always be people wanting serious RP, semi-serious RP, casual RP, and whatever RP in between all that they want. We will be the best in the serious department. Once we decide on the image we pick, we will be able to all finally begin building and working together towards that area, instead of potentially bickering over what we even are.
What this server doesn't need?
(This is for me arguing against anything/everything I see in here that I disagree with.)
"Less gun nuts. I think space should be a vast, peaceful and serene place. It's hard to find variety when we have the same quiet, reserved, hardened gun dude copy-pasted all over the place." - mithrilld

Absolutely not. Not only is this an assumption this is what the entire server needs (and wants) but this completely puts us in a position where we need to immediately make intense lore changes to the system by doing IC actions (such as a giant military comes in and takes over most if not the entire sector) which would be a huge change to everyone here, including every colony. What this server actually needs (according to you, mithrilld) is 'less quiet, reserved, hardened gun dude copies all over the place' which is less an actual server 'need' and more a 'what i need' need. Does even not having these characters do anything for the server? No, not really. It's just kind of a selfish request when we get to it. It's like me saying 'we need less pussy business owners and slice-of-life oriented characters'. What needs to be fixed(server wise)?

"Mass events that are focused to bring involvement with new players and old.Currently, the RP is so slow, that people literally roleplay dazing into their phones IC. I mean come on, yes roleplay whatever you want - but it shouldnt be something you already do all the time IRL. New players, as myself, have been disappointed to roleplay quickly here. A new player is most likely going to the Berg or Ranch and from what ive witness plenty in the week ive been here - people dont care for change. It basically has to be forced on them, or they will always just roleplay sexting eachother on their IC phones.

Mass events weekly, whether it be story driven, or random incidents that may occur in these worlds that you just cant control as a character. IE; a meteor smashes into half of the Ranch, spilling radiation into the area. The players will be forced to roleplay the more interesting things in life, like how do we fix this hole that bleeds cancer? Its all about trying to get the community to roleplay together. Currently, there are many discouraging factors to every new serious roleplayer.



Cough cough recluse's sour ass attitude for instance" - Michael Malachi

Mass events made to bring players together is in need, I agree. Sorry, but telling people 'what should/shouldn't be rp'd based on your own opinion of what you think is 'correct' rp, is completely unreasonable and to be honest ignorant. If you're disappointed with the RP, then find out why, and act on it in your own way. To say as well people dont 'care for change' is wrong. You've been here an incredible short while, yet you speak like you're a vet and are just now coming out with your opinion. Also, if a meteor did crash in to the ranch, you fail to understand it would make a large majority of other characters unable to go there. Why would a civilian, or anyone with half a mind, visit a destroyed colony thats spilling radiation, assuming they even could? I know only two of my characters have rad suits, and that's because they're in very special situations to have them. A normal character wouldn't have that, and thus, would be excluded. Think about the majority.
(Also, if you think I'm a problem, report me, the buttons at the top of the page friend. That's what report's for, reporting problems that you think pertain to a player.)

In short, to me, what needs to be fixed is how we as a community want us all to RP. This server has no (to me) outstanding problems, or any outstanding issues that have been overlooked. It's stable, the player capacity is well, the rules are in place (for the most part), There's not too much at fault.
What needs to be fixed(community wise)?
Nothing too needing, we're all strongly bonded and there's no true underlying cracks in the weave we have. We're pretty solid, aside from the normal verbal fights we have, which is normal for a community of adults with varying opinions about how things should be done.
What this server could use.
Additional use of the Antares IC forums. A lot of important shit goes on there, and if we could somehow make it more common, we could begin doing out characters jobs in a more natural way. This is important for a few reasons, including the fact that it would make some interactions more natural, it would allow for more IC things to be done, as well as making the forums more active and thus healthy for us all as a whole.

Lore changes could also be implemented as well, specifically relating to the biology, history, and what's acceptable and not acceptable for certain races. Here's another thing we could need; races that are naturally going to have a physical advantage(or biological advantage), to have that advantage. What do I mean by this? A common apex will have (scientifically speaking) more body mass and more muscle then the common hylotl. Why is this? Because it's how they've evolved, of course. Does this make the apex OP? No, of course not. It's simply respecting what they are lore wise.

We need less talk of "Will this make the game balanced/unbalanced" and more talk of "Will this make it more IC believable, and will it improve RP? I get a lot of the feel that we implement and do things IC not because 'it makes sense' but more because 'it would be OP if we did it like this' especially when it comes to the kind of ammunition, armor, guns, vehicles, and other kinds of technology we have. We have ammo that can do a lot of damage to someone, even one shot them. So what? It's part of being in the future. We have power armor. So what? It's the future. If people walking in power armor or using extremely op ammo becomes a problem, we remedy it in an IC appropriate fashion, not OOCly because 'its op.'

More clarity regarding currency, economy, history, technology, music artists/bands/groups, more news stations, more 'little things' so to say. The reason we talk about 2016 music? Because we have no 2416 music written down. The reason we talk about 2016 weapons? Because we have no 2416 weapons. The reason we refer to history from the 2000's and below? Because we have no 2416 history and below. Etc etc.
What this community could use.
Less care bears and less live grenades. I will admit, I am a cunt. That goes without saying. However, there are also people on here who take things personally when they are not meant for personal attacks, especially when it comes to critiquing. If we could all get over our self's, and learn to let things go once in a while, I think a mind-shift change could really do us all a big help in the long run.
Overall, these are my thoughts, and it's going to be a lot of rambling shit. tl;dr idc tl;dring it cause you dont care about reading, so suck off my nob. btw; aint arguring for my points, since it literally argues open mindedness. i will argue for IC appropriateness however.

 

Mass events that are focused to bring involvement with new players and old. Currently, the RP is so slow, that people literally roleplay dazing into their phones IC. I mean come on, yes roleplay whatever you want - but it shouldnt be something you already do all the time IRL. New players, as myself, have been disappointed to roleplay quickly here. A new player is most likely going to the Berg or Ranch and from what ive witness plenty in the week ive been here - people dont care for change. It basically has to be forced on them, or they will always just roleplay sexting eachother on their IC phones.

Mass events weekly, whether it be story driven, or random incidents that may occur in these worlds that you just cant control as a character. IE; a meteor smashes into half of the Ranch, spilling radiation into the area. The players will be forced to roleplay the more interesting things in life, like how do we fix this hole that bleeds cancer? Its all about trying to get the community to roleplay together. Currently, there are many discouraging factors to every new serious roleplayer.

 

Event driven roleplay is pretty much required to prevent things from becoming stale.
Sometime, a long time ago, I wanted to create a world where players could and would create and drive their own events.
It seems like that didn't really work out... folks seem to rely on Staff to drive events, which is understandable. That's how most communities do it.

Suppose, then, that Staff can't drive events - whether that be due to IRL responsibilities, time, or mental exhaustion.

Somebody would have to do it, and those somebodies would need the authority to drive the events. Maybe it's time for a team to be assembled that does nothing but create story-driven events for players to participate in. They write plot lines, execute them, and adapt to to player input and reaction.

In theory, this could resuscitate the server.

 

Judging by what you've said over the Discord about being critiqued for not applying for a character with vast riches, I don't think this will end so well. Maybe a big event once a week, but every day? That's a little tiring for the people playing/running/wanting to do passive RP.

A large overlaying story likely wouldn't end well, too. As if someone has an issue with it, we could lose them from out already small but active group.

 

Never said every day, i said every week.

 

I agree most with this right now. If some of the vets may think back with me, who were the ones pushing events forward in the past? The factions were. The Order pushed out events for Glitch back in their Dark Soul-phase leading into the inception of Taranis then Gryphon's Peak; The Dionaea Tribe ran the server's largest floran tribe with scavenging events all the time (despite controversy with the leader); the USAF ran events and training sessions; The Outcasts ran a campaign of terrorism on New Chicago (iirc); New Chicago had an active police force to combat this and participated in an event that would have eventually lead to the destruction of NC.

Staff never ran events. We've only done one solar flare and the Mawl in the past. Everything was done by the players. It only became time for the staff to do things once the community turned on itself and began to fissure. And because of that, we're still stuck in that hole.

A group selected by the staff and respected by the community for event planning could work in streamlining major events that can further server lore.

 

A team of Roleplay Admins are exactly what is needed.

 

Not admins, just roleplay event makers. Admins and moderators are already "Roleplay admins" who moderate roleplay.

 

I know personally, I'd just like to see more things that make the setting more than modern times with space and aliens. That's playing down a lot of things, but... Yeah. I just want to have a more... Sci-fi feel? Things past "We have more advanced guns, a massive network across the stars, and teleportation." Things that don't really make sense to exist or have. Maybe some unexplainable stuff! Sci-fi is based in fiction, and it helps the setting to have things that just don't have an explainable way they work. It's something I've touched on ever since I joined last year, but... I'd like to see the server really get a good balance of SCIENCE fiction and science fantasy.

In short, I kind of want to see the server branching into more strange and fun areas. Have some strangeness, have some goofiness, have some elegance. Laser guns, consumer cybernetics, fancy technology! Yeah, it requires balance changes and things but... Having a bit of unbalanced things exist is just life! I want to see people create some awesome things I know everyone can. We're all really adamant about our ideas, so seeing some come to fruit would be cool. It might mean moving the "sector" (do we even have a name for it at this point? Beyond "council space"?) closer to whatever the Core is, but I'm tired of hearing the same phrases used as excuses as to why everyone's at each others throats, why everyone's using old tech, blah blah blah! Who says the Core isn't just as dangerous, if just a bit more civilized?

I mean, this doesn't mean "FUCK YOUR SERIOUS RP" it doesn't mean "I WANT SPACE WHALES" it doesn't mean I hate anything about the server. I mean, you can have a hell of a lot of serious RP in a goofy setting, and you can have a hell of a lot of goofy RP in a serious setting. I'm just looking for some more... Content that says "Yeah, we're sci-fi!" Than a space militia and minor improvements to everyday items we have now.

Anyway, that's my two cents. More creative freedoms! Everyone likes freedom, right? Right??

 

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy style RP?

 

I would like to point out that Antares is very much in the hands of its user base. If you'd like to see more consumer cybernetics products, you're more than welcome to introduce a company which sells them in the area, or write a short blurb regarding the who/what/where/when/why/ect of those items in our setting. Wanna do an event? Then go ahead and do it, they don't need to be approved by staff or anything. Wanna write news regarding our setting? You can go ahead and do that too. Factions? Sure, just run it by staff quickly. You can do basically anything you want to, and a vast majority of it is open without staff approval as well.

What the server really needs is for people to stop asking why there's nothing to do and make things to do instead. The experience of the players is totally in the hands of the players, so go make it interesting for yourselves!

 

We need quests.

 

I've been in and out a couple of times over the past half a year, due to multiple RL changes and other related issues, but my most recent leave wasn't because of those reasons exactly. Let me explain myself though. I did (relatively) recently take a couple passes at longer term RP events, and it didn't really work out. The main reason the first one sorta broke down is because everyone's some variation of 'gun toting badass' and wants to be the hero of the story. This didn't really make sense in the context of one of the events, as we were literally raiding a temple and killing it's occupants, but worse was when they weren't allowed to instantly kill the only conflicting character in the story, they threw a massive hissy fit in OOC and basically had to be ignored for the event to continue. It kinda all lost steam after that, and I wrapped it up and started trying another story line, which I used Ava for.

Some of you may remember her, she was the semi-deranged ninja that was basically constantly getting into trouble. I had a couple of missteps with her, since i was trying to compensate for the completely unexpected reactions I got from the players over her behavior, but overall I kept to the plot as it was planned...this one was much less smooth. Long story short, she was nearly killed on like day two, and somehow through playing her to the character personality I mapped out for her I got labeled as an edge lord. This was because of a couple of elements I included, like 'space ninja stuff' which I had made her purposefully fucking awful at, and some ritualistic practices that I honestly only vaguely remember, but they did effectively nothing. So what I had was a character that was less dangerous than basically any given person on the server, who was mentally degrading, with a planned public plot and a story to go with it, and everyone hated her, and myself for making her. Set pieces were made just like in the last event, custom items produced, loose plot notes written, all that good shit. I dropped it all because I noticed that whatever I did, with whatever character I used, or how that character behaved, if I was running an event someone was always there to hate on it OOC in the middle of the fucking thing.

This is pretty much when I snatched up my ball and went home. I've obviously been around the server quite a bit, and seen a load of events both player driven and spontaneous, and this is what I've repeatedly observed. I'm coming back to the server but I seriously doubt I'll get within 20 feet of a public event, and I'll be running closed ones that exclude the vast majority of the players in favor of groups of people that I know. I was always confused about how cliques formed in other servers in other games, but I kinda get it now. The public is immature and selfish, so why should I trust my carefully crafted plots to them? I shouldn't, and I wont, unless I can be convinced that the public can act like adults for the duration of a single event. Good luck demonstrating that to me by the way.

The point of me saying all this is that I really feel sorry for whoever takes up the mantle of public event runner. God speed, but I'll be in my corner. I'm sorry if I come off as a little jaded, honestly if I had any idea how to address the issue, I would be doing that instead of bitching and moaning. Maybe this is more a query than an angry statement, to see if anyone has any insight into this. For now though...

Deuces,
~Solar

 

Spoiler: Lore

Back when I joined in June of 2014, the game's vanilla lore was considered sacred, no matter how stupid, if it was the game's vanilla lore, it was basically word of god. It was only flexible in that it was largely incomplete and rather vague in most instances.
However, as you all know, when the game progressed further and after an increase in scrutiny (muh reahulism!), a team of lore writers has been created in order to create a more coherent or realistic background for the different playable races.

With the advent of 1.0, many people were rather dissapointed, because a lot of the game's original charm in diversity and conflict between species was mellowed out by quite a lot. It should go without saying that nothing related to the Protectorate, or the singleplayer story campaign, is considered a part of our server canon. However, in my opinion 1.0 lore wasn't all that bad.
I feel there were some elements of the 1.0 lore that can be changed around somewhat, in combination with the original lore, to make it useable, for the purpose of not being too jarring to either veteran players, whose characters and view of the game's canon lore are more attuned to pre-1.0 and newer players, who have only experienced the newer post-1.0 lore.

The Floran lore, for 1.0 was changed around quite substantially. The character known as Greenfinger seems to have been removed entirely and has been replaced by a rare archetype of Floran who can control plantlife and use it to interface with technology, to uncover its secrets. These Florans are referred to as "Greenfingers". I believed that this wasn't necessarily all that bad of a change, however, the capabilities of these "Greenfingers" were a bit too exaggerated in how they were portrayed in the 1.0 lore and I didn't want the character Greenfinger to be removed completely from the Floran lore, because I valued pre-1.0 lore as well. However, it was a fact that the original character of Greenfinger was a Mary Sue.

For the purpose of creating Floran lore that encompassed elements of the orignal pre-1.0 lore and the newer 1.0 lore, I was inspired by the great Mongol emperor: Genghis Khan. He was a conqueror and considered to be an enlightened despot, because he was religiously tolerant and interested to learn from other cultures. At the start of his career, he united the diferent Mongol tribes (or confederacies) and that is what made me link his character to that of Greenfinger.

In my version of the Floran lore, the Floran that was known as Greenfinger, in an era long passed, was responsible for uniting the Floran tribes and orchestrating the conquest of the Hylotl homeworld, which brought an era of moderate prosperity to the Florans, as the result of the fact that they were able to plunder the Hylotl homeworld's resources and technologies. After his death, this golden age in Floran history came to an end as well, and the Floran tribes split apart once more, spreading their species across the stars.

Greenfinger's lasting legacy existed in the form of having been responsible for an era of relative prosperity and cultural and scientific progression, which has diminished somewhat after his death and his lasting impact on Floran society, through nurturing an appreciation towards intelligent and productive Florans.

Some Florans are gifted with above average intelligence and wisdom (when compared to the average Floran) and express this gift in the form of being more productive than their peers through either reverse engineering foreign technologies, integrating them into their own, or create tools, weapons and more through a form of plant manipulation, known as bio-forging. The most distinguished among them are awarded the honorary title of "Greenfinger", in reference to the great first Greenfinger.

Spoiler: Setting

I think a couple of the issues with how stale the RP has become could be solved by expanding on what the Council and Council Space as a community are. I believe we could gain a couple of things by forming a divide in space zones. For one thing, Council Space should be directly involved in RP.

Council Space should have a Capital, which serves as the main hub for the Server.
(If we can make that the default planet which players arrive on when they first connect to the server, that'd be great.)
It should have some form of Space port, which transport goods and people to player-owned colonies.
(With custom signs that teleport you to a location on the player-owned colony where they'd be dropped off.)
(I believe teleporters were supposed to only work from ship to beampad and vice-versa, IC.)
(When you beam down from a ship in orbit, but there's no beampad on the planet you're beaming to, perhaps it'd be a good idea to include, ICly, some form of teleporter beacon which is launched by your ship, in order to allow you to beam to the planet temporarily and returns to the ship to recharge after it has transported you. When you want to beam back up to the ship, it has to come back before you can beam up. This makes more sense than "adrenaline messes with the teleportation process"-excuse that I was told in the past.)

Factions, entrepreneurs, merchants, mercenaries, etc... Receive sponsorship or funding form Council Space, as the Council invests into further expanding its influence and developing the economy around it, to benefit from it in the near future.

A zone which is in close proximity and guarded by Council Space and those that it employs (mercenaries) would be established (the spatial location of your planet IC would be determined by the colony founder upon its creation i.e. the IG location doesn't matter IC.). Council Space security forces would supply factions like TQRF with moderate funding and grant them the authority to assist the forces of Council Space in upholding the peace, thus they would be forced to follow Council Space rules, in exchange for the power they wield.
They would also get slightly above average equipment when compared to your average armed goon and will have received proper training to uphold the peace.

An outskirt, lawless zone, where the security forces of Council Space and their mercenaries don't have the authority to act and are generally advised to stay clear of these parts.
This zone harbors the criminal scum of the galaxy, black markets, ...
And is basically the source of illegal activities/crime/...

In general the Council should take a more active approach in its interaction within our setting and promote / create events or opportunities for RP.

Spoiler: Variety and Technology

^This is a valid complaint.

I complained about this in the past as well, as I believe the reason for this oversaturation of stereotypical human futuristic marine / sci-fi gangster is a result of realism constraints making the thematic equivalent of other races irrelevant because they're highly inefficient or inferior to the human way of doing things.
https://www.antaresroleplay.com/threads/complaint-state-of-the-lore-important.11770/
You can't be a heroic Glitch knight, because you'll get shot in the knee.
You can't be a ninja or samurai, because that weaboo bullshit isn't realistic.
You can't have hyper-futuristic Apex technology, because that's godmodding.
You can't have crystal tech-equipment because that's super rare and only in Avos, and it'd probably suck anyway.
You can't have plant or scrap weapons/equipment that can even remotely compete with human weapons.

While this is all reasonable in the sense that it's a more realistic interpretation of Starbound, it DOES limit what people can RP with and in my opinion sometimes realism should yield in favor of enjoyable RP, as Starbound wasn't built on being a super gritty dark realistic setting.

Aside from that, some technologies, like teleporters, should be properly explained how they function IC and what the OOC limitations are and what level of technology is generally deemed acceptable in 2416.
These boundries should be clear and up for debate, in terms of whether or not they are too strict and too restrictive for non-human/suit RP.

 

On another RP server, there were RPA's, who basically helped run events and answered questions pertaining the lore/setting/tech level, ...
We sorta have Lore Writers and other staff members to ask about that, but it's not a common occurence, I think.

 

Khaltor, and with enough progress the Lore writing team can set up the events now. These people need to be nudged in a direction - if everyone does their own thing in a hundred planets, then no one is interacting. Roleplay is interaction, and forced events. Good or bad events. Life happens, and stuff you have no control over will happen. You should become that unknown force.