Snakebittenn Posted November 26, 2019 Posted November 26, 2019 Pretty simple sugg this time. If you attempt to join in the game without flavor text, it tells you to fill it out (at least the general section) and doesn't let you spawn. It's reasonably obnoxious to have people (especially like fuckin heads of staff) be a complete enigma as to even what height they are. I would really rather have everyone have at least a few words in their general text saying what they look like, it would really help immersion on my end.
MattAtlas Posted November 26, 2019 Posted November 26, 2019 A better solution would really just be adding a very X/X/average/Y/very Y type of descriptor to character setup for height and build imo.
Guest Marlon Phoenix Posted November 26, 2019 Posted November 26, 2019 You can see what my character looks like by using your eyeballs. Making FT mandatory is annoying
Pratepresidenten Posted November 26, 2019 Posted November 26, 2019 2 minutes ago, MattAtlas said: A better solution would really just be adding a very X/X/average/Y/very Y type of descriptor to character setup for height and build imo. This. More mechanical enforcement things!
Dark1Star Posted November 26, 2019 Posted November 26, 2019 I think this is a good idea, but we could also do what Matt said.
Kintsugi Posted November 26, 2019 Posted November 26, 2019 I am of the opinion that mechanical systems that automate the flavor text and character creation process do nothing but water down the character creation process. Maybe that's just me, but it stems from my experience with such systems on Baystation and the likes. Anyway. Mandatory flavor text is a good thing IMO - Nobody is asking you to write an essay. If anything, it'd be a good anti-greytide tool. The only people I imagine are low effort enough to quit instead of writing "A young man standing at 5'10" with tan skin and an average build." would be griefers. If anything, I think forcing people to write something might stimulate them into writing more.
Shenaanigans Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 Agreed. It is true that you can glean a bit about someone's appearance from the sprite, but even a single sentence mentioning height, hair style, and body type (even if it's just to say "brown hair, brown eyes, average build") expands upon that a lot and makes me feel that someone didn't just roll a random character to mess around. This is a HRP server, you should at least put in the effort to jot down a brief description of your character.
Xelnagahunter Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 If you do this you will find significantly more bad flavor text from shitters. I'd rather there be nothing in there than something facial spammed 50 times that staff now have to go and take care of. The moment we force FT people are gonna have bad FT left and right.
Kintsugi Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 50 minutes ago, Xelnagahunter said: If you do this you will find significantly more bad flavor text from shitters. I'd rather there be nothing in there than something facial spammed 50 times that staff now have to go and take care of. The moment we force FT people are gonna have bad FT left and right. I would argue that this lets us determine who is a shitter at a glance, and act accordingly.
wowzewow Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 (edited) Yeah, honestly I think this would be a good thing As well as fucking heads of staff, geez. Nothing like seeing your boss having the same RP equivalent of a bald greytider really fucking up your sense of respect for them and meme response, but muh immersion Edited November 27, 2019 by wowzewow
Nantei Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 4 hours ago, MattAtlas said: A better solution would really just be adding a very X/X/average/Y/very Y type of descriptor to character setup for height and build imo. Yes. Please. I would really love that.
Shenaanigans Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 15 minutes ago, DanseMacabre said: I would argue that this lets us determine who is a shitter at a glance, and act accordingly. Exactly what I was thinking. If needing to write FT bothers someone so much they just troll with it then, well, HRP isn't really the right environment for them.
Guest Marlon Phoenix Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 This kind of change is a small brick in a wall of elitism. Sometimes people make throw away characters and want to play them before settling. I've been playing here for years and I often wait for awhile before settling on a FT. Would you rather have a description rely on the sprite itself with a blank FT or have the FT change periodically, or be a placeholder? How much does it actually harm your play for someone to not have a FT? In what other online game like ours is this a thing? The only impactful info you need is height so you know if you look up or down at them.
Nantei Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 1 hour ago, Marlon Phoenix said: Sometimes people make throw away characters and want to play them before settling. I've been playing here for years and I often wait for awhile before settling on a FT. The only impactful info you need is height so you know if you look up or down at them. I think that is sort of the point. I don't think it's a big ask to settle on how tall your character is. No?
geeves Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 I'd be behind mechanical introduction of heights and such. We can cap the minimum size to 6' for that Aurora feel.
Guest Marlon Phoenix Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 6 hours ago, Nantei said: I think that is sort of the point. I don't think it's a big ask to settle on how tall your character is. No? Having the game refuse to spawn me in because I don't have a flavor text is going to be extremely patronizing and annoying. Why is it so important to you that i cant play the game without the height? Weird
SatinsPristOTD Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 Some of our best players start out as "hey this is my first time on a hRP server. Let me see if this is my thing" ordeal. I'm not too sure forcing a FT for someone that's brand new to the ss13 HRP is actually going to give us any sort of decent FT. A FT of "She's 5'4" doesn't actually add anything to my play style. I simply work around not knowing their height (or assume they're average height for the time period.) If the character was a SOLID concept from the get-go, they'd already have a mindset to make a FT giving off the unique characteristics of said character. I really don't need "She is an average height, average build Caucasian that has a feminine voice." And JB is correct. Some of us do make throw away characters. All my characters are fairly well known. Sometimes, I just want to slip through the cracks. May I suggest a rework of the flavor text system? Sometimes the FT box can be intimidating. "I have to fill all these out? No way." Perhaps we could include presets (as mentioned above) that are chosen the same way faction, religion and skin tone are? "Tall, average, short". "Large, Average, Thin." Any further details could be expanded upon in the FT, but at the very least, you'd start off with the basics, AND it's easy to set those basics for the "new to HRP" players.
Scheveningen Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 I don't really care for this suggestion, I don't think character creation should take more than 10 minutes for a newfriend. "You must be this verbose to enter this HRP server" seems really insidious of a requirement.
Alberyk Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 +1 dismissal. Stopping people from entering the game just because they did not add flavor text is not really a good idea; people can just be trying out a job or a character before investing more into them, or they are just new. Besides, this would just promote people adding whatever stuff to just get past the check. Neither I think we should add a system for automatic flavor text, I would prefer if flavor text was more optional like records are.
Doxxmedearly Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 Alb pretty much sums up my thoughts. While people SHOULD do FT, especially if their character isn't a throwaway, because holy shit, come on, you're on a HRP server, putting in a mechanical gate like this isn't a good idea.
MattAtlas Posted November 27, 2019 Posted November 27, 2019 Voting for dismissal. Same reasons as alb. If this has to be implemented, then consider doing it the way I said to.
RadiantRose Posted November 30, 2019 Posted November 30, 2019 (edited) I kinda feel like this would be a bad idea. While adding more measures to prevent dumb stuff would be good, some people opt not to include flavor-text as a tool for having interesting RP. There can be a number of reasons for it, such as self-encouragement to define the character through interaction rather than making stuff obvious at a glance, making more creative choices with the sprite's appearance rather than just writing it, and so on. One of my characters has fully-written flavor text for each section; another has one line that doesn't even describe her properly. Each serves their own function, and is roleplayed in their own way. Edited November 30, 2019 by RadiantRose
Seeli Posted December 2, 2019 Posted December 2, 2019 When I was bald, I didn't know flavor text existed. When I found out what it was and what it did, I remember being excited and now I try to have it for every character. But sometimes, when I am trying out a new character I have no idea what to put their FT as. Enforcing flavor texts seems like a bad idea. It could make FTs a chore, not an exciting flavor for your character.
StationCrab Posted December 2, 2019 Posted December 2, 2019 I think it should remain optional. However I do agree if you are playing a prominent role like the Captain or other figureheads, you should put the effort in. Everyone should, but throwaway characters do exist, for certain gimmicks or maybe even just learning a job. Maybe a middle ground could be a prompt that reminds you that the feature exists when saving a character.
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