Improving the Role-Play experience in Rift

[the_real_seebs]

Haven't seen it yet here, but in WoW, on an RP server, if you started talking to someone in a tavern within a few minutes people with names that didn't fit lore who couldn't spell were saying stupid stuff and bunny hopping.

[Chris Angel]

I would champion the ability to have a last name enabled and in the event of a wedding, for a character to assume the family name of the groom. Also, it would be real cool if we could include special symbols such as apostrophes and hyphens in our names to jazz it up a bit. I understand the technical considerations but still, it would be unconventional for a AAA mmo and people will surely love you all the more for it.

[Proin Drakenzol]

If they're going to throw in marriage why not allow for siblings and such? My friend and I have already decided our characters are sisters, for example. I think it would be cool to support that as well.


But what we really need are houses and guild halls.

[Chris Angel]

Also, and this is a must! Guild tabards! Every guild should be allowed to create a unique tabard to better represent them!

[the_real_seebs]

Just a thought:

With the trial shard thing pushing everyone onto a single server... One of the best things you could do for RPers would be to dramatically increase allowed character slots. Like, 18-24 or so on a shard.

[Grayald]

Maybe there's some kind of obvious developer reason that this can't happen easily but...

Would it be so much to ask for us to be able to have a surname? It wouldn't even need to be a new mechanic. Just allow us to add a space to our name and be done with it. That would be more than enough.

Currently, when you try to do that, it says you can't have a space in a first name. This makes it sound as if there's a way to get a last name. Maybe they're planning on adding the option at some point? Maybe it's a remnant from an abandoned idea?

Whatever it is, however you do it, please, just do it. Even if it's just letting us use a space. Our rp names mean a lot to us, and yea, others sometimes beat us to them, but when those people have been inactive since 1 or 2 months after release, well...it's sorta like getting kicked after you're down.

[Noudamarye]

I am not sure if this has been mentioned, but adding the ability to customize emote text like in EQ would go a very long way.

My troll used to use:

/laugh say sneezes troll snark all over %T

The /laugh animation (which looked just like a sneeze) would come out with the custom text. The 1st word being say would tell the emote to use the substituted emote builder text.

A ton of animations make for great custom emotes. Very little development effort, only limited by player imagination.

[the_real_seebs]

Ooh, neat idea.

Maybe something general like "/emoteanim laugh"... but that format does seem friendly.

[Nam19771]

My thanks to the devs for the new wardrobe options.

[the_real_seebs]

Not something the devs as such can do much about, but:

All the RP-friendly content in the world will be useless to you if the one remaining RP server is a safe home for people who harass and grief RPers.

These people should have been banned from all RP servers back before they drove off enough RPers that there's only enough for one server.

[BMEgal]

Just my two cents...

For things that have already been mentioned, (1) interactive chairs/benches and (2) a barber shop would be great additions. As a female Eth, my sitting position works for chairs, but the male Eth avatars sit with one leg stretched out in front of them...which is not very realistic for chairs. It forces players to either get creative with avatar positioning, or just not sit to avoid looking silly.

Other ideas: we have a Looking for Group feature for instances. What about a Looking for RP feature, where your character name or portrait is flagged with a small symbol or color change indicating someone seeking RP? That might facilitate people's ability to find fellow RP'ers, and help new RP'ers jump into conversations or stories. It can also be used to indicate a conversing group who wishes to remain private (by not being flagged) versus a conversation where anyone can jump in (indicated by members flagging themselves as LF-RP).

I would also love to see a more detailed guild search feature here on the forums, complete with categories for Raiding guild / PvP guild / RP guild (with the ability to list casual, moderate, or immersive RP level). Right now, if I'm seeking an RP guild, I have to search each and every listing on my server forum and hope they included the relevant information in their post, and I think it makes it difficult for new members and new RP'ers alike to find homes where they might meet more fellow RP'ers. It would certainly be less time-consuming than wandering Telara and noting the names of guilds who seem to be RP'ing.

[Proin Drakenzol]

Other ideas: we have a Looking for Group feature for instances. What about a Looking for RP feature, where your character name or portrait is flagged with a small symbol or color change indicating someone seeking RP? That might facilitate people's ability to find fellow RP'ers, and help new RP'ers jump into conversations or stories. It can also be used to indicate a conversing group who wishes to remain private (by not being flagged) versus a conversation where anyone can jump in (indicated by members flagging themselves as LF-RP).

This. I saw two people from the Petal's of Mauriel-Taum guild RPing in Argent Glade the other day and wasn't sure if they'd appreciate someone trying to jump in or not. If there was a way to flag for open RP I'd feel a lot less nervous about trying to hop in.

Note: Not trying to call the PoMT guys out for being unfriendly, I was watching the RP and was about to pm to ask if I could join but I got called away for RL stuff. I just have name recognition for that guild and remember they were doing some interesting RP.

[Hlalakar]

One of the problems I have always had with MMO RP is that you can't really have RP themed adventures. All the quests are pre-made and have nothing to do with an individual group or guild's goals or back story. You can go out as a group together and do things, but without structure it always seemed contrived to me.

I have a solution to this. It would be very programing intensive; I don't know if it would be practical to implement, but if it was I think it could revolutionize MMO role-playing.

If guilds came with quest making utilities then the guild master(s) could design guild quests. These would be things like kill X of this creature, return with X of a certain item, travel to locations X,Y, and Z (possibly within an alotted time), speak to such and such an NPC, or anything else the devs and GM can think of. The guild master would set flavor text for these quests, and they could be picked up from the guild vault, or directly from a GM, or possibly from a guild npc added for this purpose. The GM would set the reward, which would come from the guild vault.

Another exciting possibility of this system would be guild member XP. The GM would set GMXP awards for each quest, as well as required GMXP levels for each rank within the guild. For a character to advance within the guild they would have to gain that much GMXP. Obviously, no real XP would be gained from such quests.

It would be helpful if quest designs could be placed online for download so that well crafted quests could be shared with other guilds and then tweaked to fit the individual groups RP history and style.
This system would allow each guild to bring their goals and agendas to life through actual quests. I know that the programming and implementation would be difficult and time consuming, but I would be very excited to see it implemented at some point.

[Blooderfly]

One of the problems I have always had with MMO RP is that you can't really have RP themed adventures. All the quests are pre-made and have nothing to do with an individual group or guild's goals or back story. You can go out as a group together and do things, but without structure it always seemed contrived to me.

I have a solution to this. It would be very programing intensive; I don't know if it would be practical to implement, but if it was I think it could revolutionize MMO role-playing.

If guilds came with quest making utilities then the guild master(s) could design guild quests. These would be things like kill X of this creature, return with X of a certain item, travel to locations X,Y, and Z (possibly within an alotted time), speak to such and such an NPC, or anything else the devs and GM can think of. The guild master would set flavor text for these quests, and they could be picked up from the guild vault, or directly from a GM, or possibly from a guild npc added for this purpose. The GM would set the reward, which would come from the guild vault.

Another exciting possibility of this system would be guild member XP. The GM would set GMXP awards for each quest, as well as required GMXP levels for each rank within the guild. For a character to advance within the guild they would have to gain that much GMXP. Obviously, no real XP would be gained from such quests.

It would be helpful if quest designs could be placed online for download so that well crafted quests could be shared with other guilds and then tweaked to fit the individual groups RP history and style.
This system would allow each guild to bring their goals and agendas to life through actual quests. I know that the programming and implementation would be difficult and time consuming, but I would be very excited to see it implemented at some point.

THIS!! As Hla already said, it would take a while to implement something like this, but it would also be TOTES WORTH IT!

However, since there's only one RP shard now (thanks, Trion -_- ), and not everyone wants/likes to RP, the whole needing-XP-to-rank-up would need to be an option set by the GL.

With something like this, though, I can see even non-RPers looking for something more to do enjoying Guild Quests, as well as it bringing struggling guilds together again.

LIKE Hlalakar's original post if you want this!

[the_real_seebs]

Side note: CoH allows player-created missions, which turns out to have two traits:
1. Best RP tool ever.
2. Best power-leveller tool ever.

Sort of a tough call. I say it's worth it just for the sheer awesome of the good stories.