Role Play enforced NS4 server

mgrjebbo · Post by **mgrjebbo** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:18 pm

so i recently came into possession of a server and was wondering 2 things.

1- what type,speed,size..ect of server is needed to host a pw like ns4
and
2- is anyone intrested in having a role play enforced version of ns4.... or a role play enforced version of ns5 for that matter.

oh and 3rd, i wouldnt mind lending it out to staff and devs as a test server either if neither of those ideas pan out.

as for bandwith and such i am ignorant to that aswell, but i do have access to a fiberoptic uplink.

edit: decided to post in english so people could understand what the heck i was trying to say... sorry about that

mgrjebbo · Post by **mgrjebbo** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:43 pm

so what are players thoughts on an enforced role play server?

golem · Post by **golem** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:33 am

Well i do love getting partys together and doing planer runs with my friends and other people, but i still love pvp
.

Post by **AllAmerican** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 12:55 pm

golem wrote:Well i do love getting partys together and doing planer runs with my friends and other people, but i still love pvp
.

Yup, ya missed the point all together.

Role Play =

the modifying of a person's behavior to accord with a desired personal image, as to impress others or conform to a particular environment.

So acting as a character, not as the person behind the keyboard. If you are an evil character, you act evil, and kill everything. If you are Good you do good, and fight evil, even if they are your friend IRL.

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 3:08 pm

actually role play is about making the character you are playing "real."

many people dont understand the vast difference between a real roleplay server and action servers. when i was server hopping a while back i logged an rp server with a friend. within about 30 seconds we learned a few hard lessons on rp.

1. friend got politely but firmly instructed that while he was welcome to play his character name was not "real" and had to have proper spelling etc. deleted. remade. no "[xXx] mulezorr killa 15"

2. 2 minutes after that he and i learned that different races start in different towns. so i shouted out a question on how to meet my friend. instant warning from dm staff... shout is OFF LIMITS. limited to trade/sell/looking for party requests only. actually, i dont think you could do lfp on shout, they had a custom autoparty system script for that. basically.. no SHOUT its wholly out of rp. to the contrary i was told to simply tell a question to a random person. i did, and the folks were universally friendly and helpful and took the time to give complete answers to a noob.

all that being said, while we were out xping we came across a set of tracks. followed them to a young boy who said he needed help getting an tin ingot so a craftsman could make a magic goblet to help cure his father. (all on talk channel!) so we helped him, and he led us to a forge in the mountains where we convinced the smith to help us and then helped the smith work the bellows (via emote) to get a good fire going. we also had to clear the area of hostiles so he could work in peace.

all run by a dm. we got no xp for it, but it was easily the most memorable nwn experience ive ever had. one dm on local channels to make a great night for 2 noobs. THATS rp. that AND there were zillions of scripted quests.

while having a boss shout a taunt out to nearby characters or having a dm port everyone into a deathmatch pit is a lot of fun, it's not "real" and its not roleplay.

3. rest limited to outdoor areas and time limted. nuff said.

4. crafting makes you run out and get/trade the iron ore, the egg whites, the cotton, etc. crafted gear tended to be superior to drops at least at < 20 levels. that led to a vibrant player economy. lowbs could get ahead by grinding out the basic ingredients from farms and trading to the higher levs.

5. pk is fine but damn, your storyline for it better be good. and 'my character sheet sez eeevil' dont cut it.

now, it says a lot that i am back on ns and not on servers like that. indeed I prefer neversummer's action oriented life and i think its a better fit for what i want to do with my spare time. but i've come across maybe 3-4 people on this server that truly understand that roleplay is much more than a once in a while comment made 'in character.' its not that your dude is evil, or good, or whatever. its WHY he is evil, and WHY he does the things he does. his history background etc. not just 'i pressed the evil button i kill puppies.'

so while i applaud the effort to get a rp server going, the real deal requires that lots of dev hours be spent in that direction to make it work. and rp is clearly not a direction the current devs are interested in pursuing (again, i would RATHER that they keep doing what they're doing, i just recognize it as not rp.)

so when you've convinced bink and linux and zing to stop putting in new pure classes, fixing time stop and ftr tokens, new races, gear and other powergame coolness, and instead start coding up long quest scripts and rest systems etc, let me know

i reckon its about another 2,000 hours worth of dev time not including personal dm to player time.

golem · Post by **golem** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:26 pm

LOL yup i missed the point

mgrjebbo · Post by **mgrjebbo** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 7:48 pm

that was a wonderful post disastro, you said what needed to be said very well, and i am glad that you would be intrested in something like this.

The idea isnt to do it right now, obviously they have alot to handle. I am just throwing it out there now so when ns5 is packed every day instead of making a "reflection" of the action server we think about this instead.

Cahaal · Post by **Cahaal** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 10:39 am

Everyone knows I enjoy the action and the rp. I would play on an rp server with my friends from here. It's the people here that make it worthwhile.

Lorkar1 · Post by **Lorkar1** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:41 am

Personally, I believe a RP environment will not survive in the Neversummer community. The time it takes to create a character's background and the deliberate leveling of said character will bore most the current playerbase. Not too mention the ability to stay in character all of the time. I see this server set-up as mostly hack and slash. So I say leave well enough alone and leave the RP'ing to the servers that have a dedicated(to RP, not the game) staff and playerbase. Which is why when I want to RP I play a different server.

Nyeleni · Post by **Nyeleni** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:40 pm

And again, somebody missed the point. It would be a sidedish to the main one. And it would draw some like minded people who don't care at lvl1 what their ab at lvl40 will be: Powergamers aka MinMaxers...
It would be about in character conversations. Enjoying the adventure from another viewpoint. It is not imperative that citius, altius, fortius (faster, stronger, higher [wrong order]) is equal to better...

Lorkar1 · Post by **Lorkar1** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:51 pm

Nyeleni wrote:And again, somebody missed the point. It would be a sidedish to the main one. And it would draw some like minded people who don't care at lvl1 what their ab at lvl40 will be: Powergamers aka MinMaxers...
It would be about in character conversations. Enjoying the adventure from another viewpoint. It is not imperative that citius, altius, fortius (faster, stronger, higher [wrong order]) is equal to better...

The point was not missed. The like minded people you refer to number in the single digits.

Gornickthy · Post by **Gornickthy** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:28 pm

I would have to agree. After spending a lot of time on the NS4 servers I would say that the general population are either 1) unable to play rp because lets face it.. it does take a lot of skill and patience, 2) unwilling to play rp.. they just want to kill and grind and kill and grind, or 3) simple do not want to or they would have gone to a different server.

Usually when the grinding and whining of the server gets old people do leave. Many of those people do come back for at least a while because the hack and slash is fun, and it has its place among the tastes of how some people play.

I really have enjoyed rp servers in the past, but in my experiences I have not been able to find a server that actually met my preferred play style. By this I mean either the death penalties were to great, the level restrictions were to great, the resting policies were to strict, or they required the players to spend to much time worrying about eating and drinking instead of playing the game. Once I find a good one then I would stay for a very long time.

I personally think that NS4 would be a great layout for a rp server. All the tools and foundations are already there, but just not utilized. But it is what it is and the fact that it is a hack and slash server is simply accepted. I know if someone were to put in the time for a rp server in the NS world that I would play it without a doubt.

Nyeleni · Post by **Nyeleni** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 9:52 pm

Couldn't agree more Gorn. Restrictions are just silly sometimes, although even if restricting resting to every 8 game hours (which makes sense imo), it would be less appropriate for the casting classes. Just let's face it, the dnd magic system with spell slots and resting is a bit flawed.
I personally prefer systems with a Mana value, which can be replenished over time. Like the "basic" system used on RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu &c.

Lorkar1 wrote:
Nyeleni wrote:And again, somebody missed the point. SNIP
The point was not missed. The like minded people you refer to number in the single digits.

And those few people would attract more if the usual hack'n slashers would realise that it is another kind of fun to play IC. One thing doesn't have to exclude the other. I play in both kind of worlds and enjoy it. All a matter of educating the mind, I think.

Bargeld · Post by **Bargeld** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 11:04 am

In my online experiences, it's a matter of your userbase. Younger folx tend to want fast action and lots of killing and death so that they can trash talk each other. The older crowd (especially with NWN) is more familiar with the days of PnP and real role playing (we also tend to have more gaming experience/exposure).

As stated, NS really is a good base PW server for either mainstay. Those who want to RP can, and do, and the others can pick and choose (like me, trying to RP as much as possible, but realizing that real questions need to be asked in order to learn about the realm.)

Gornickthy wrote:3) simple do not want to or they would have gone to a different server.

This hits the target! Anyone seriously into RP has already come and gone... and they will continue to come and go.

cRaZy8or5e · Post by **cRaZy8or5e** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 3:25 pm

I like rp a lot. Makes for more fun. For instance, if I meet a party of noobs on the mtn with Ainarato (on one of my many trips to water plane), I'll issue a challenge asking that they declare their allegiance. Very rarely do I get anyone to play along, but oh well. RP adds spice to the otherwise dull equation of; who can do enough damage to kill their opponent while preventing their own toon from taking too much damage.