Aurora isn't Heavy.

[K0NFL1QT]

Auroras reputation as a heavy roleplay environment is, like the visual phenomena it is named after, an illusion. The server is labelled, and claims to be, a heavy roleplay environment. But face it, it's not. The endless arguments about balance prove it.

 

• Weapons are tweaked to be 'fair', not 'realistic'.
• The station itself is designed to give antags an advantage, instead of built with common sense and actual security in mind.
  
• Arbitrary limiting mechanics are put in place, such as borgs and IPCs being unable to repair themselves, that defy explanation.
  
• Wizard mode. Magic isn't real.

 

These are just a few summaries, each of which could, and probably does, have a thread dedicated to them where people debate their preference based on balance. I don't know about the rest of you, but I chose Aurora for the 'immersive roleplaying experience' that it promised. Whether this is intentional deceit, or developers merely caving to hordes of complaints gradually over time, I couldn't say.

The defining aspect of any roleplay environment is staying in character, which is enforced. But when a character is confronted with something in game that exists in that state because of balance reasons, there's no way to justify it and all illusion of immersion is gone. Due to this, I'm struggling to enjoy Aurora as the self-proclaimed bastion of 'Heavy Roleplay'.

tldr; Aurora isn't heavy enough for me anymore and other servers handle mid and low rp with more enjoyable mechanics.

[Tainavaa]

I never understood why people wanted to keep everything as balanced as possible. Roleplay doesn't call for balance. Obviously balance should be kept in mind but it shouldn't be the driving force.

However from what I hear, the weapons are much more realistic than other servers.

[canon35]

The reason why weapons aren't tweaked to be realistic is because most people don't suggest it.

The station design is bad, I agree, but how does station design apply to heavy RP

The limiting mechanics are there, because a large majority of the vocal playerbase agreed on them.

Wizard mode. It's something a lot of people want to remove and I've seen serious Wizard rounds before.

TL;DR: Be the change you want to be, maps don't really matter, majority rules, wizards can be fine.

[Guest]

I honestly agree with you, we should push for heavier standards and stop being so antag subservient, we do not want to end up like the other Heavy Roleplay servers that descended into medRP hell... I'm slowly getting turned off from Aurora, and the primary thing keeping me here is the community.

[K0NFL1QT]

The station design is bad, I agree, but how does station design apply to heavy RP

 

Ask your local Chief Engineer why the Bridge and Captains office is one of the most vulnerable on the station. Ask them why the armory is always accessible from space. Ask them why Nanotrasen might implement such a flawed design. Your answer will probably be 'I don't know'. The station design is whatever design the company all our spessmins work for has deemed appropriate and is thus indicative of the companys modus operandi, of which you are supposed to be playing a part.

 

TL;DR: Be the change you want to be, maps don't really matter, majority rules, wizards can be fine.

 

I don't think it can be changed now. Too many people are driving it into Medium RP Hell. We'd need a strong, benevolent dictator as Headmin and an uncompromising Dev team to ever stand a hope of restoring Aurora to where it can fulfill the Heavy RP promise for a Space Sim. If I had the patience to learn Dream Maker, I would have attempted an alternative already. I may still.

99% of Wizards make absolutely no sense. The 1% is a theoretical wizard that I have never seen.

[Garnascus]

Auroras reputation as a heavy roleplay environment is, like the visual phenomena it is named after, an illusion. The server is labelled, and claims to be, a heavy roleplay environment. But face it, it's not. The endless arguments about balance prove it.

 

• Weapons are tweaked to be 'fair', not 'realistic'.
• The station itself is designed to give antags an advantage, instead of built with common sense and actual security in mind.
  
• Arbitrary limiting mechanics are put in place, such as borgs and IPCs being unable to repair themselves, that defy explanation.
  
• Wizard mode. Magic isn't real.

 

i find your arguments questionable.

First point i contest, stun baton and tasers are the bane of most antags. if anything the stun mechanic they bring is far too strong. i find most brute weapons to reasonable as well and thats not discounting bladed weapons which can lop off limbs in a few hits. Lasers and guns also seem reasonable to me, frankly id like some elaboration on this point.

The station is certainly designed to give antags an advantage i agree but keep in mind they are already at a huge disadvantage simply being an antag, namely they are up against the entire crew. Also lets not devolve this into an "us vs them" situation as the goal of every antags actions is not to win but to futher the situation for interesting RP and i feel the ease of access certain areas can provide for this.

Borgs and IPC's have huge advantages over human players, Borgs can surivive in space and are immune to disease and IPC's cant be tasered or flashed. at some point you need to step in and limit them in some other way or their strength becomes far too overbearing.

Finally i find your argument against wizards completely flat. Magic isnt real? neither are aliens, bluespace. slimes, laser rifles, or huge trillion dollar stations floating in space. If you are saying that wizards dont fit the mold of the universe then thats a more reasonable argument however i think the uniqueness of the wizard fills a critical niche that other modes cant, IE the crew experiencing powers they couldnt ever fathom.

[K0NFL1QT]

We will not be discussing matters of 'balance' in this thread.

Wizards are the ultimate immersion breaker. Even in 2d Spaceman games, if you're roleplaying, then there are laws of nature to the characters universe that are to be obeyed. Not just -obeyed-, but -inviolate-. Wizards, by their very nature, defy physics. It's reasonable for Sci-Fi settings to handwave some technological advancements that make things possible that are not possible today, and then there's Wizards who use magic words to do exactly what is not possible. There's not even a pretense for pretending Magic is possible in any other game mode. The Wizard turns up and 'oh by the way, the entire foundation of all your species collective knowledge about physics is wrong'.

[Jakers457]

There's not even a pretense for pretending Magic is possible in any other game mode.

 

Cult uses magic I do believe. Though I do agree that wizard is a god awful game mode, it won't be removed unless there's a large campaign for it.

As for the map design? I've barely touched the Captain's role due to how stupidly insecure it is, so there are parts I can agree with when it comes to the map but eh, it'll do for now. We've got a large map coming in the months to come so it can't hurt waiting rather than having the developers push their projects back to redo the current map.

As for balancing? Well ironically there's a delicate balance to balancing, and it is vital that you get it right. I'm a big preacher on the 'nothing guaranteed' ideal, in which if you find yourself in a situation that is putting your life in danger, then you better accept that one wrong call will get you killed. But at the same time, you don't want to have massively over powered gear being used to tear up the station with very little entertainment value. So you need to find a balance between realism and enjoyable gameplay, I mean we're playing a game with space fish and magical beakers so I don't think realism should be the main priority.

TLDR: Balance is key, it's just going to take some work to find the right level of fair gameplay and realism.

[Garnascus]

We will not be discussing matters of 'balance' in this thread'.

Actually, yes we are. You don't get to dismiss criticism with a sentence like that when three of your points in the OP are about balance. Frankly you aren't wrong about the wizard but its worthy of being called an issue because nobody IC has knowledge of the wizard and they only appear in wizard rounds which aren't canon anyway. Antag rounds are more of a whAT if scenario.

[witchbells]

I've wanted to say something like this for a while. It's been a few months since I could honestly say Aurora felt like a heavy roleplay server.

I will disagree you with you about the wizard thing. Ultimate realism isn't what's important, it's about realistic situations and realistic people. Could the gamemode itself use some tweaking to turn it into a more feasible sci-fi/fantasy crossover? Absolutely.

What we're doing here is writing our own stories. They don't have to be realistic, they just have to be believable. I can't help but feel we've fallen from that.

[rrrrrr]

Finally i find your argument against wizards completely flat. Magic isnt real? neither are aliens, bluespace. slimes, laser rifles, or huge trillion dollar stations floating in space. If you are saying that wizards dont fit the mold of the universe then thats a more reasonable argument however i think the uniqueness of the wizard fills a critical niche that other modes cant, IE the crew experiencing powers they couldnt ever fathom.

 

Here's the thing - D&D fantasy wizards in robes and pointy hats wielding staffs and throwing fireballs don't mix well with science-fiction. You can argue all day about it being just as realistic as FTL, aliens, lasers and space stations, but at the end of the day those are common things in sci-fi. Gandalf isn't.

[jackfractal]

Can anyone define for me what 'high rp' actually is?

The difference between, low-rp and not-low rp is the idea of separation between character and player. If a player knows something but the character doesn't, the player is supposed to act as though they don't know that thing. I as the player, might know that the person I'm talking too is a changeling, but I'm not supposed to react to things my character hasn't personally been informed of during that round. Likewise, I'm not supposed to take actions my character couldn't reasonably know how to take. My janitor should not do brain surgery, even if I, the player, know how to do brain surgery.

But, what's the difference between 'medium-rp' and 'high-rp'? I've never gotten a good answer about where that boundary lies.

I find the idea that part of the definition of high-rp is realistic weaponry to be a little weird. Nothing about SS13 is remotely realistic. Complicated, yes, more complicated then most video games, but not realistic.

[Guest]

I believe there is also a difference between Heavy and High RP.. High RP being where what Fractal described as separating yourself from characters, and using that character to tell a story with minimal restrictions but general guidelines. Heavy RP being that you must RP within certain OOC rules and IC guidelines, and generally you have a lot of hand holding from some sort of overseeing body (Admins, or whathaveyou)

This is why I see Aurora as more of a High RP server, and Hypatia being Heavy RP.

[Tenenza]

Once upon a time, there was a grey-suit from Goon.

This little grey-suit blew their last top, sliced their final clown, and wandered for green pastures.

There was paradise with their karma, alium with their chairs, and bay was just plain weird, like that fruity wine they always keep in the right corner of the room at wine tastings.

Then this grey shirt came to Aurora.

There was a chef who melted someone's face off with peppers.

A chemist with TK, Hulk, and shapechange.

And a captain that probably no one else remembers.

It wasn't heavy RP. It was light RP, with a few serious faces thrown in.

And this greysuit wasn't even looking for Heavy RP, just a fun time.

But this greysuit stayed.

They played reporter, and were in the loop about about every relationship on station

They played scientist, and learned the mechanics of the game from the best.

They played RD, and make sure everyone filed paperwork and even applied for grant money.

They played moderator, and wrote this post because they like to talk about themself in the third person.

The tides of fate ebb and flow.

We've been high and we've been low.

At one point, the HoS and all of security decided to drag someone into maintenance and beat them to an inch of their life for being a massive sleezy dick to pretty much every women on the station.

At another point, I fired someone for filing their paperwork incorrectly and then made security file paperwork about how I fired them for filing their paperwork incorrectly.

Yesterday, I was surprised that someone actually filed an equipment requisition form.

Tomorrow, perhaps I will be surprised by someone failing to file a equipment requisition form.

I've fought the good fight, both for high standards of roleplay and more lax standards of roleplay.

The tide rises and falls, and I've been worn down by it's blade.

Fight your fight, but try not to take it too seriously.

[Garnascus]

Here's the thing - D&D fantasy wizards in robes and pointy hats wielding staffs and throwing fireballs don't mix well with science-fiction. You can argue all day about it being just as realistic as FTL, aliens, lasers and space stations, but at the end of the day those are common things in sci-fi. Gandalf isn't.

You aren't wrong, it doesn't mesh very well but frankly i dont consider the argument you put forth very strong because I think wizard round adds another interesting dimension to this game. Also sorry for format problems, this is awkward on a tablet.

[SgtSammac]

Right... Gonna speak my mind here, Other than being yet another waste of post count about how Aurora isn't what it was 6 months ago. What is the point of this thread. Hmm?

[K0NFL1QT]

The threads point is to discuss the topic proposed, obviously.

I was fully expecting to be told to shut up and go away, and I was surprised to find that people feel the same way.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I was SO excited to wake up to this thread during my morning browsing. I almost wanted to call in sick to work just so I could immediately respond and start lurking it. (not really)

Part of the excitement is that it's something other than the usual controversies, and can all be settled through discussion and debate. The other part is that i already asked in my lore manifesto thread for people to give their feedback on this kind of thing and how the lore is handling it.

Other people already hit the major points I had, but I'll refresh the big ones.

On Wizard

"Magic" can be described as anything we can't explain that doesn't follow our standard accepted rules of nature and the universe. 200 years ago, 99% of modern science is devil magic. Unless you want to claim that in 2457 every single law of the universe and all alternative universes are catalogued, "magic" as a concept is consistent for people to call something far beyond their scope of understanding.

In our canon, the supernatural is regulated to the "other". There are two very vague concepts; the spoopy dimension that Nar'sie inhabits, and the bluespace dimension where all the non-spoop weirdness inhabits. Anything we can't explain that doesn't have Lovecraftian undertones can simply be linked to bluespace. Eventually I'm going to get around to explaining wizards - because it's my job to make all antags and game modes consistent with our universe and not arbitrarily decide which ones are the "correct" ones to enjoy - and you can most definately assume I'm going to explain their magical powers as simply being concepts so beyond current science that we consider it magic. These "wizards" were simply enlightened to the crazy undiscovered potential that allows their abilities to exist.

Wizards aren't even half as outlandish as the artifacts or fossils xenoarch finds all the time, so I think that's fair.

On Mechanics / Balance

Every single game developer ever has to decide how much realism and mechanics share the focus. Realism and player involvement aren't mutually exclusive; you have to sacrifice one to improve the other. The kind of hard realism you are suggesting I will call Super Heavy RP. A Super Heavy SS13 would have 90% of its content stripped out, and a pure scientific simulation coded in to replace it. It would probably have to stop being multiplayer, because most non-retail jobs don't only allow you to work for 4 hours then hard wipe all your progress when you leave.

I will say that 'balance' being the word of the day has both pros and cons. The debate isn't on the legitimacy of game balance trumping realism, but whether we can keep it consistent and if it's worth the problems/benefit ratio.

Personally I would wish to see balance tossed out the window entirely in some areas. I would kill to see more species get natural buffs, while the humans continue to be superior through their own guile and natural robustness, because that creates far more interesting scenarios. Defeating a Unathi in a full breacher suit with a melee weapon should be a rare accomplishment worthy of idolation; not RNJ deciding that the breacher suit helmet will do nothing to stop that stool from one-shot KO. I'm going to make a really cringey example, but Lifeweb exemplifies this. The [security guards] are physically superior to most of the other [inhabitants]. If you picked a direct fight with one, you'd have your head bashed in. So people get sneaky and creative, and it's more compelling.

Balance is still important, but mechanic-communism isn't as engaging.

In a broader response: "Aurora isn't realistic" is a fundamentally broken argument. Realism is unrealistic and arbitrary as a concept to judge a canon or mechanic. It leads to cherry picking, and scenarios like the lore dev team before my brutal reign of terror.

The argument that is drastically superior is:

"Aurora isn't consistent."

That is far more powerful and fair than arguing realism. We claim to be heavy roleplay (not superheavy) but the administration and rules aren't consistent to maintain this atmosphere. What do we do, to become consistent? Do we revert to punishing IC misconduct with OOC? Namely, if a Chief Engineer is unprofessional enough to break into the kitchen to make fried eggs, should that be put on his notes and should his head whitelist be removed? (This happened to me.)

Do we give the Duty Officers more initiative to react to and punish IC misconduct? I've been trying to do this, because I feel it's the best approach.

Do we officially lower our title to MRP? I'd rather not.

"How we remain/become consistent" is what we need to decide on, not how we become realistic.

[Guest]

Right... Gonna speak my mind here, Other than being yet another waste of post count about how Aurora isn't what it was 6 months ago. What is the point of this thread. Hmm?

 

Well, you know, let's make wasteful posts about how other posts are wasteful and see how that works out, right Sam? It's a bold strategy, I hope it plays out well for you. Telling people to shut up and go away (especially when you don't even play anymore, which is fantastic) is definitely a nonstandard method in dealing with things, but we'll see if that works out in the end, hm?

At any rate. KONFL1QT, I will say this. I disagree. It's never been about the roleplay, at least, not to me.

What I've had an issue with lately is lacking the incentive to have any level of fun on the server anymore. Almost all of the people I enjoyed roleplaying with are suddenly up and gone. Also, Jackboot just ninjaposted me, so I'll have to agree with him on that: None of this shit is consistent anymore. The inconsistency with how things go is not fun. I literally bitched this morning about the inconsistency with plasma gas being the absolute catch-all over OOC, only being told to (politely) shut up and go away if I didn't like/accept it. Like, thanks, SkullScopes, I appreciate your complete lack of concern with the lore even though the neither of you have any real interest in playing this game anymore. Anyway, watch this post get deleted because I try to outline why shit doesn't make sense anymore and why it's actually detrimental to gameplay interest.

It is not particularly engaging anymore. The server has a development team that hardly seems to exist, our Head Developer is off to be conscripted, so now we're going to be left with one actual coder come September. So we're just going to have to mull over and anticipate the same things happening over and over again, whilst expecting different results or something. There was a time where there was ALWAYS something to be engaged in, always something to do. For me? That time's past, maybe. I'm still looking for reasons to stay. I really want to stay. I'm losing reasons to do so. Can someone help me here?

But, ah, well. Guess I'll just sigh wistfully and say that it was going to happen, one day. We all get tired of shit we care about, in the end, and it's never pleasant.

I'm having a lot of trouble wanting to seek out people to roleplay with anymore. Believe me, I'm trying, but I'm failing miserably. So I merely looked for a pasture that wasn't exactly greener, but it fit my tastes until I can figure out how to proceed.

So, what now?

[Vittorio Giurifiglio]

Right... Gonna speak my mind here, Other than being yet another waste of post count about how Aurora isn't what it was 6 months ago. What is the point of this thread. Hmm?

 

Well, you know, let's make wasteful posts about how other posts are wasteful and see how that works out, right Sam? It's a bold strategy, I hope it plays out well for you. Telling people to shut up and go away (especially when you don't even play anymore, which is fantastic) is definitely a nonstandard method in dealing with things, but we'll see if that works out in the end, hm?

At any rate. KONFL1QT, I will say this. I disagree. It's never been about the roleplay, at least, not to me.

What I've had an issue with lately is lacking the incentive to have any level of fun on the server anymore. Almost all of the people I enjoyed roleplaying with are suddenly up and gone. Also, Jackboot just ninjaposted me, so I'll have to agree with him on that: None of this shit is consistent anymore. The inconsistency with how things go is not fun. I literally bitched this morning about the inconsistency with plasma gas being the absolute catch-all over OOC, only being told to (politely) shut up and go away if I didn't like/accept it. Like, thanks, SkullScopes, I appreciate your complete lack of concern with the lore even though the neither of you have any real interest in playing this game anymore. Anyway, watch this post get deleted because I try to outline why shit doesn't make sense anymore and why it's actually detrimental to gameplay interest.

It is not particularly engaging anymore. The server has a development team that hardly seems to exist, our Head Developer is off to be conscripted, so now we're going to be left with one actual coder come September. So we're just going to have to mull over and anticipate the same things happening over and over again, whilst expecting different results or something. There was a time where there was ALWAYS something to be engaged in, always something to do. For me? That time's past, maybe. I'm still looking for reasons to stay. I really want to stay. I'm losing reasons to do so. Can someone help me here?

But, ah, well. Guess I'll just sigh wistfully and say that it was going to happen, one day. We all get tired of shit we care about, in the end, and it's never pleasant.

I'm having a lot of trouble wanting to seek out people to roleplay with anymore. Believe me, I'm trying, but I'm failing miserably. So I merely looked for a pasture that wasn't exactly greener, but it fit my tastes until I can figure out how to proceed.

So, what now?

 

The Development team thing is a decent point, but a hard thing to fix, the thing is, even if you code other things, I've heard BYONDcode is really fucking niche and bad.

[Guest]

Heavy role play is not realistic roleplay. if you want the game to be realistic role play, go make a real role play server.

Frankly I am getting fed up of being attacked over a game. When I first came here, none of these things were an issue, the lore was not involved.

Lore is just filler.

[Guest]

Heavy role play is not realistic roleplay. if you want the game to be realistic role play, go make a real role play server.

Frankly I am getting fed up of being attacked over a game. When I first came here, none of these things were an issue, the lore was not involved.

Lore is just filler.

 

Frankly?

I'm sick of the same excuse that has been pitched by the staff over and over again, and that the entire community is out to get them and their jobs. I'm sick of this horrid mindset that somehow you guys have it worse than any other of the other players, or anyone else out in the other communities.

You're lacking in empathy. You're lacking in patience. You've blown up over the stupidest shit when the easiest (and most logical) solution would've been to take a day off.

You torture yourself day and night attempting to manage a rather large community consisting of 60 players cycling in and out. And the ACTIVE staff team numbers no more than ten at a time.

And then you go out and say you never asked for this? Well no fucking shit, of course no one would ask for this. But it's to be expected, is it not? You're supposed to be prepared for this. And then you complain that it's there. Like, what?

You said to me not too long ago to expect the unexpected when I made a bad judgement call in IC. Maybe you should practice what you should preach, because I'm failing to understand why we're all becoming hypocrites here and doing the exact opposite of what we tell each other to do.

Maybe it's a really good time for a lot of us to take a break from this.

[Skull132]

• Weapons are tweaked to be 'fair', not 'realistic'.
• The station itself is designed to give antags an advantage, instead of built with common sense and actual security in mind.
  
• Arbitrary limiting mechanics are put in place, such as borgs and IPCs being unable to repair themselves, that defy explanation.
  
• Wizard mode. Magic isn't real.

 

Well, let's think. Weapons haven't been touched in forever, they are most likely unchanged from the time that you left. The revolver still kills in a single headshot, lopping off the head as well. All weapons are terribly powerful, also due to the fact that they cause very severe infections (anyone who doesn't receive immediate medical aid is going to end up very rather dead). I mean, I have a suggestion up about tweaking the taser, but people are allowed to post suggestions about anything and everything, even if it's petty. So, yeah, I wanted to grind an idea against the community and see where it goes. If it counts as totally converting everything to be "fair" instead of "realistic", then sure, hang me for expressing my opinion, something that I do rather rarely.

EDIT3: We literally have not changed guncode since you left, except a few bugfixes (for shotguns, to eject the proper shell, and for the radbow, to make it actually effective again, so we've literally made changes that go counter to your argument, because if we wanted to make things more fair, you bet your arse I wouldn't let a 2-shot radbow into the mix. And yet. Here it is) and the addition of ballisticurity weapons. You can see for yourself: https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora/tree/master/code/modules/projectiles

As for the station, that wasn't the outright intent. And there were plans to make the bridge harder to assail. Namely, shield generators and other fun things. These may still find a place in the world prior to us switching maps. Also, a part of the design makes it also harder for antagonists: anyone attempting to disable the AI by force is going to have a way harder time than they normally did. Unless they have a max yield bomb, but at that point, it really never did matter.

Those arbitrary limits have always been in place. They weren't added to achieve an effect, per say. Although, the IPCs can heal themselves with nanopaste. Now, why are they still in place? Well, okay. There is a very curious line to be walked here: even if we're an RP server, gameplay is a factor. You cannot deny it. And some changes need to be around to facilitate gameplay. This is one of those things. It seems arbitrary, perhaps. But, I do not know, we still focus on gameplay and combat, and some changes need to be in place to facilitate it (the alternative is stricter enforcement of the powergaming rules on that specific count, as you will definitely see an IPC or two run into combat with a weapon in one hand, and a welder in the other, and they probably need to have their whitelist stripped at that point).

And now that we've had a nice segue onto the topic of the rules.

 

That is far more powerful and fair than arguing realism. We claim to be heavy roleplay (not superheavy) but the administration and rules aren't consistent to maintain this atmosphere. What do we do, to become consistent? Do we revert to punishing IC misconduct with OOC? Namely, if a Chief Engineer is unprofessional enough to break into the kitchen to make fried eggs, should that be put on his notes and should his head whitelist be removed? (This happened to me.)

Do we give the Duty Officers more initiative to react to and punish IC misconduct? I've been trying to do this, because I feel it's the best approach.

 

This is probably something to ponder on. If it would be possible to work with the Admin team to figure out how to walk that line, perhaps something can come of this? It is definately easier than trying to do all kinds of massive sweeping changes to the code, mind you.

 

It is not particularly engaging anymore. The server has a development team that hardly seems to exist, our Head Developer is off to be conscripted, so now we're going to be left with one actual coder come September. So we're just going to have to mull over and anticipate the same things happening over and over again, whilst expecting different results or something. There was a time where there was ALWAYS something to be engaged in, always something to do.

 

This is a tough point. It is the unfortunate reality, at least for a month or two. But, okay, when have we ever had a fully operational development team? Like, we've managed to do a whole bunch more shit, but one of the major factors of that was me actually learning how to code, and having time to code. Before that, Aurora never really was about the progress of the development team, the shift came about whenever we realized that, "Hey. We can actually churn things out now!" And that's going to tie down for a bit.

But a lot of these problems can be solved through alternate means. Focus on the actual rules and environment, instead of just the new fancy toys that we throw into the mix. See about reobtaining that, perhaps?

Also, Scopes needs to wake up. And Delta probably needs to get sleep. Posting while groggy does not mean you're having a good time.

 

I've wanted to say something like this for a while. It's been a few months since I could honestly say Aurora felt like a heavy roleplay server.

What we're doing here is writing our own stories. They don't have to be realistic, they just have to be believable. I can't help but feel we've fallen from that.

 

I am curious about this, though. Do explain further?

EDIT:

 

I literally bitched this morning about the inconsistency with plasma gas being the absolute catch-all over OOC, only being told to (politely) shut up and go away if I didn't like/accept it. Like, thanks, SkullScopes, I appreciate your complete lack of concern with the lore even though the neither of you have any real interest in playing this game anymore.

 

Also, let me say this. It's a trap, yadda, but I'm in a mood to not give a shit right now. Plasma has always been a catch-all for all the things. It does not matter if you call it Plasma or Phoron. It will remain what it is: a magical substance that does all the weird shit, like it has always been. As I noted, if you want to have it changed, speak to the lore devs, and we'll execute on their behalf.

EDIT2: I still do not understand your argument. The reason we were arguing is because I do not understand whatever in God's name you are trying to say. You have a mixed argument that plasma is a catch all for all the things ever. Okay. Do you mean plasma/phoron as an in-game, mechanical element? Or with plasma as a name for said in-game, mechanical element? If you're thinking about the former, then you're going to have a heck of a time recording a massive chunk of code, and trying to enforce arbitrary consistency on something that was never meant to be consistent (plasma). If you mean the latter, the name, then just talk to the lore team, and have them decide on it.

And for the lore bit. There used to be a magical time where server lore and development didn't really matter. What mattered was the environment and the rules. The player generated story. It was a lot more about singular characters doing extraordinary things: no one really needed a long series of posts about how the Unathi are getting waged war upon, or so forth. But this changed. It did so by the virtue of the fact that we acquired a larger playerbase, and as such, facilitating the single, "hero focused" storylines became harder. This is not good, nor is it bad. It's simply a change.

I didn't really change, though. I will always remain stuck in that mode of thinking that I described earlier. Which is why my time here, in my current position, is up. Ultimately.

[spacevoidagent]

I agree with the OP. I also feel that certain players are ruining the experience, they powergame, don't RP correctly, and are just assholes all the time. I won't be saying names because the circlejerk will come out and insult me.

[Nik]

I think the real concern with the current role play potential lays in multiple small things. We have too many "Eh fuck it, who cares" attitudes towards antags, because it's really hard to work up a "OH GOD A MAGICAL ASSHOLE WITH A STAFF OF CHANGE" when it's four times in a sitting that you have some form of antagonist eating everyone's butts with their unique form of murder, which has lead the player base into this place where most people go "Oh, Red alarm. Better go to the slightly less populated area so we don't involve ourselves."

Otherwise, we have these little cliques that hide out behind doors, and people who aren't here to listen so much as speak and all these little wiggling issues that stack up.

No real easy way to handle them, besides setting up a rotation between extended and random, so that a wizard is slightly more threatening then a bag full of cats.