Planeshift.. boring??

[Draklar]

"Me good, me kills evil" or "Me bad, me kills good"

Your role-playing skills overwhelm me. No, really. They do.

How about this:

Generic Dark Lord says: You're wasting your time here, fool... Your sword now broken, and your leg now crippled. What did you plan to achieve?
Generic Hero lifts himself up. Consumed by fury, he clenches his teeth. "I came here for death. And death it shall be, either yours, or my own!"
Generic Dark Lord says: So your death it is.
Generic Hero makes a desperate attempt at striking the Generic Dark Lord.
Generic Dark Lord sidesteps and slams the back of the Generic Hero with the hilt of his sword.
Generic Hero loses balance and falls to the ground.
Generic Dark Lord says: Pathetic maggot... Sheding your blood isn't worth the stains on my blade.
Generic Dark Lord walks away.
Generic Hero starts shaking in fury, sheding a few tears as desperation takes over his mind.
Generic Squire says: M'lord, do not grim your heart. It is over now...
Generic Hero says: Nothing's over, Generic Squire! The Generic Dark Lord will call his allies. Nothing's safe now... You hear me?! Nothing!
Generic Squire says: M'lord...
Generic Hero says: We must gather the forces... No further mistakes must be made, it is our last chance to defend our land...

Oh, let's now compare this with actual PS logs :D

Psh. I can't say Draklar is any interesting. He's just a boring and completely unimportant hunter/shaman dude... But at least I don't try to hide it.

[dying_inside]

Another thing I would say is that  combat as it stand at the moment is weak. Click, attack, watch until mob is dead. Thats about it. I like the spells in game, but there is space for a few generic actions  and skills here, a character with a shield can smash somone with it, anyone can kick, characters can learn how to "intimidate"; things like that which give  player a bit more to do  with your generic combat maybe. I;m not saying that focus should be put on combat, but seeing as alot of this is based around combat it seems this would possibly  be a good add on to my previouse statement.

However i still believe that  organised events like races, area defence, finding an item or GM first etc, would do alot to add to player  interaction and fun.

[Raleigh]

Generic Dark Lord says: You're wasting your time here, fool... Your sword now broken, and your leg now crippled. What did you plan to achieve?
Generic Hero lifts himself up. Consumed by fury, he clenches his teeth. "I came here for death. And death it shall be, either yours, or my own!"
Generic Dark Lord says: So your death it is.
Generic Hero makes a desperate attempt at striking the Generic Dark Lord.
Generic Dark Lord sidesteps and slams the back of the Generic Hero with the hilt of his sword.
Generic Hero loses balance and falls to the ground.
Generic Dark Lord says: Pathetic maggot... Sheding your blood isn't worth the stains on my blade.
Generic Dark Lord walks away.
Generic Hero starts shaking in fury, sheding a few tears as desperation takes over his mind.
Generic Squire says: M'lord, do not grim your heart. It is over now...
Generic Hero says: Nothing's over, Generic Squire! The Generic Dark Lord will call his allies. Nothing's safe now... You hear me?! Nothing!
Generic Squire says: M'lord...
Generic Hero says: We must gather the forces... No further mistakes must be made, it is our last chance to defend our land...

Oh, let's now compare this with actual PS logs

Psh. I can't say Draklar is any interesting. He's just a boring and completely unimportant hunter/shaman dude... But at least I don't try to hide it.

     There was a time my "guild" had some good times, and I'm sure other RPing guilds had theirs as well, I really miss the old days of intrigue involving money-grubbing lawyer type of characters(And where there is no way to side which of the conflicting sides is the evil one) and members walking around in groups at nighttime like MiBs or FBI people to investigate a potential case of corruption inside it. I know it's partly my fault as well, but lately I'm finding harder than before to find people interested in some more interesting RPs than just "Hello! How are you?" and tea-time. In fact finding people that actually roleplay is becoming harder. But it seems there is still an influx of RPers, we just need some kind of anti-1337 feature that draws little interest to them, and much more to roleplayers.
 
     Unfortunately, interesting logs usually convey the type of information that guilds wouldn't IC trust much about giving to others(because conflicts are not only about open and public warfare), and as it's quite hard to make a distinction between what you know OOC about Guild X and what your character knows IC about Guild X.

[Heyok]

the reason we have so few big RP events is cuz our GM's and stuff are still busy dealing with all the bugs! this game is in pre alpha stages yet! plus, this game is free, these guys don't get much if any money developing the game! so, come on, let them do some work. (if you feel really evil, max out everything combat, then RP as an evil demon here to kill everyone! that would be hecka fun...)

[Raleigh]

the reason we have so few big RP events is cuz our GM's and stuff are still busy dealing with all the bugs! this game is in pre alpha stages yet! plus, this game is free, these guys don't get much if any money developing the game! so, come on, let them do some work. (if you feel really evil, max out everything combat, then RP as an evil demon here to kill everyone! that would be hecka fun...)

     Who said the GMs are the only ones that can push forward a big happening going on In-character? I've witnessed some few player-made events that I can say, that are at least in the same level of the GM Events average, and at best superior. So this is not only a responsability of the GM Team, it also lies as one of our responsabilities to keep Yliakum full of life, interest and immersion. I have something to put, I know people will not like to hear this, but I believe this is a sad truth from what I witnessed: MOST of players participate of the events seeking the rewards of unique items instead of an interesting experience, I say this sad phenomena can be compared to powerlevelling, basically many seem to be there only to get some "ph4t l00t" from the GMs, and even if it might force some people to actually roleplay to achieve it, roleplaying then becomes a mean to achieve something else in game rather than an end on itself, and once not necessary anymore, it will be easily dismissed. Now the question is: Why are so much people who doesn't care about pushing their characters in such things for adventure and glory among other IC reasons, instead of just as a way to get "teh ph4t l00t"?

     The community isn't as good as some people want to believe, now the end result depends on both it and the devs. Unfortunately the lack of people to roleplay has limited my in-game activity so far, and as I don't like to announce beforehand events and prefer to make them in an ad hoc manner instead of planning to add a nonlinear touch to them, I fear it might take some time for me to come with a good, plausible idea and enough people to help.

[Under the moon]

There is no point to guild wars until there is something to fight over, and something to win. Wars are meant to conquer, subjugate, or exterminate an enemy, or win their land and resources. Zero for four are not good odds on any bet.

[Raleigh]

There is no point to guild wars until there is something to fight over, and something to win. Wars are meant to conquer, subjugate, or exterminate an enemy, or win their land and resources. Zero for four are not good odds on any bet.

      There are lots of wars in WoW and I still think it is a very boring game. Wars work better in FPSes and Strategy Games than RPGs, why is there no RPG based on WW2, while exist lots of FPS games based on it?

      What makes of a RPG fun isn't a "1337 W4R fur ur PWN4G3"(Many MMO(RP?)Gs have that and are damn boring), it is adventure, intrigue, the kind of stuff that makes everything interesting, multiple interesting and dynamic subplots, something no MMORPG ever achieved(Neverwinter Nights doesn't count as one). As I said, we need to not rely purely on GMs to host events, we need to know the important aspects of the Settings and do it by ourselves, specially now. Also I suggest some people to stop roleplaying "avatars". I mean, characters that are just representations of themselves in a virtual world chat room for talking with friends, making friends, tea time, etc. Or marriages will be the most thrilling player events that we see around(unless it's intended that some kind of big incident involving criminals or something happens during the marriage to make it more interesting and less like all those "romantic comedy" movies. The unexpected is also something rarely thought about, everything seems to be always supposed to go all right in many player made events.

     About wars, I think there are only two places where they are justifiable, the Death Realm and the Stone Labyrinths, but that is for the future, so for now we should focus conflict in other, less obvious, public and brutal forms of it.

[oningo]

well i must agree that an element of rp action is certainly lacking. Also on the ulber monsters that can be soloed now and thus reduces dependency on team work.This becomes evident when everyone restlessly waits for a next version of the game . The game has however succeded to be more immersive.  I am glad to have read this thread. A very nice bunch of postings and a real discussion  . Hopefully the dev and settings team can surprise us later on in future updates with a more rp action in the game and maybe make supre mobs in stone labrynths requiring team work. And yes the players do an awesom job in being actors and stuff with alts and  create some nice player events  . A very good thread and a pleasure to read all the posts  .

[Xanacru]

I'm not sure why everyone keeps bringing up WoW as a comparison, as if it's some kind of a measuring stick. There are some positives and negatives about WoW, just like about any game. Some things about WoW's wars are fun and some are not. It depends on so many factors that it would take typing up a lengthy review of the game just to touch on them.

However, take a look at Warhammer. That is a great example of fantasy, and now an upcoming MMORPG, based largely around wars. As it is said about Warhammer Online - "War is everywhere!". Warhammer is anything but boring or unsuccessful, whether it's reading a book, playing its tabletop, RTS, RPG or MMORPG based on it. It has first appeared in 1983 and has been going strong ever since. Take a look at MMORPG.com, it's the most anticipated upcoming MMORPG. Here's a video of Paul Barnett talking about the type of quests Warhammer will have (you can actually go through the whole game either solely PvE, PvP or both):

Warhammer Quests (opens a flash video within a website)

Does this sound like cliche or not fun to you? Not to me. In fact, many are saying that "WAR will kill WoW", when it comes out.

For some reason, people are always taking wars in games literally. When you play chess or any sports in real life, each side has an army or a team battling each other, each side can win and defeat one another but you are not physically killing or dying, and most importantly it's fun (just ask Kasparov ). Now, don't misunderstand me. I only posted this because certain points about wars in games were brought up.

As for PlaneShift, after reading some recent posts here, I was under the impression that there will be some wars, such as between Death Realm and Living Realm, Stone Labyrinths, possibly later with Kadaikos and maybe even something on the surface of the planet or the races' native realms, if going through the portals to those realms will be possible in the future. Unless, of course, the real situation is different.

Remember, there is no story without conflict.

I'm just stating my opinion, of course.

[RayvenD]

"Me good, me kills evil" or "Me bad, me kills good"

Your role-playing skills overwhelm me. No, really. They do.

How about this:

Generic Dark Lord says: You're wasting your time here, fool... Your sword now broken, and your leg now crippled. What did you plan to achieve?
Generic Hero lifts himself up. Consumed by fury, he clenches his teeth. "I came here for death. And death it shall be, either yours, or my own!"
Generic Dark Lord says: So your death it is.
Generic Hero makes a desperate attempt at striking the Generic Dark Lord.
Generic Dark Lord sidesteps and slams the back of the Generic Hero with the hilt of his sword.
Generic Hero loses balance and falls to the ground.
Generic Dark Lord says: Pathetic maggot... Sheding your blood isn't worth the stains on my blade.
Generic Dark Lord walks away.
Generic Hero starts shaking in fury, sheding a few tears as desperation takes over his mind.
Generic Squire says: M'lord, do not grim your heart. It is over now...
Generic Hero says: Nothing's over, Generic Squire! The Generic Dark Lord will call his allies. Nothing's safe now... You hear me?! Nothing!
Generic Squire says: M'lord...
Generic Hero says: We must gather the forces... No further mistakes must be made, it is our last chance to defend our land...

This might have been good roleplay with dice rolls, but i think the whole imaginary fight scene thing is kinda weak.  Incidentally I am lookin forward to the warhammer game aswell.  But back to planeshift, I have an awesome time in game with all of my characters, and no, i'm not just saying that. It is what u make it. I roleplay constantly, I have trained my chracter at times, but that was mainly when dueling was still fun and me and friends would retire to the death realm for some good killing fun after a long rp session. Even if people roleplay poorly, you can still roleplay with them, just stay IC and you'll find it can actually be quite amusing. For example when ever people use "msn" style abbreviations, my character acts like they are talking gibberish. When people type smileys my character acts as if they've sneezed or coughed. You don't need a war to have fun roleplaying. Most of the best roleplay i've had has been general day to day activities and trips to the tavern. Birthday parties and weddings make for interesting roleplay with the right group of characters. If you think there is a lack of action, here's an idea for you....go create some bloody action? Just a thought.....

[Duraza]

I would say this though, we have a conflict set up for us. That of Laanx vs Talad.

I'm still not even back and someone's spoiling my idea by suggesting it in a thread  

I'm not sure why everyone keeps bringing up WoW as a comparison, as if it's some kind of a measuring stick.

I guess they do because it's such a big game. However comparing it to planeshift is kinda useless because they are completely different games.

As for PlaneShift, after reading some recent posts here, I was under the impression that there will be some wars, such as between Death Realm and Living Realm, Stone Labyrinths, possibly later with Kadaikos and maybe even something on the surface of the planet or the races' native realms, if going through the portals to those realms will be possible in the future. Unless, of course, the real situation is different.

Remember, there is no story without conflict.

I think the problem people are having is that these confilicts have yet to appear. We can try and create conflicts of our own but most who do use the Good vs Evil and after a while what happens gets repetitive. Its not the fact that the game is boring, only that certain things that attract intrest to the game, like confilcts, are yet to happen because the game has yet to "implement" them. There's only so much players can do. For example if I tried to rp a war between the death realm and living realm would it really be that intresting? I doubt if I start saying I'm creating a army of spirits to attack Hydlaa anyone would be intrested. Even if they got intrested in the end we fight and someone loses. After that its just boring again.

My main point is it takes a lot of intrest from the players to make conflicts intresting and this rarely happens. However if the game started making these conflicts(which in the future I believe it will) more players would be attracted to them making it fun for everyone. Look at gm events. Everyone is drawn towards them for the fact that they know they are "special".

But back to planeshift, I have an awesome time in game with all of my characters, and no, i'm not just saying that. It is what u make it.

I agree completely. For me there's never a dull moment 

[Lokter Tarvitz]

hang on, there ae still a lot of things that haven't been finished yet!
maybe instaid of guild wars there will be wars betwwen races, each race given their own town and a flag put in  the middle! to capture a town you put you races flag ontop of the other team! that is waht they do on games like runescape and aother RPG's
OR
a capture the flag arena would be good!

what do you think? it would take a lot of work but maybe that could be somthing to strive for!
mage arenas and combat arenas, maybe arenas with special rules that limit the types of weapons or spells or items
eg "for this battle you are not allowed axes or helms" or "no healing spells for this round"
maybe tournaments that start against NPC monsters then move on to PvP and knockout rounds!?!?!?

[Karyuu]

There is no race vs. race conflict in Yliakum - there is no Horde vs. Alliance, nor will there be. PlaneShift isn't a PvP game. Remember this.

[Nikodemus]

But pwning is fun ;P heh

I don't think that we need that race vs race conflics and similiar, but if two factions could actually compete, this would be fun Conflicts appear from different reasons, be creative people. We don't need ancient conflict of doom to have fun.

doom doom doom - Nikos word of the day.

[dying_inside]

Basically I dont think that  the whole Race VS race or Good VS Evil thing needs to be player based, but I would really like to see some of these attacks from the stone labryiths that I have heard about.
There is your conflict. There is also to be honest where alot of games just dont do, npc's stand around and wait for players to  hit them.  The NPC's in thois game should from time to time spawn  en mass and  attack a town.  This is apparantly what happens. or so I have been told long ago. The races all live in (general) harmonyapparantly because of the  various  monster lurking within yliakum and the labrynthes which are all big and dark and mysteriouse or so we are told.