Roleplay is single-handedly the thing I care about most in an MMORPG. I have ridden the wave long after a game has supposedly "died" thanks to roleplay and the community surrounding it.
It's important to me that the overarching lore of a game remain consistent. There have been a lot of games that end up retconning or totally breaking their own lore, and that can throw a wrench in long-lasting storylines developed by players. So, internally, I would hope that the Ashes team--especially the writers and people responsible for in-game text--keeps solid records of what has been established by existing game lore, and what has not.
I do have a little wish list for immersive things I'd love to see in the game. I'd echo the posters above me who have mentioned emotes being an important piece of flavor, as well as facial expressions, and I'd add that animation overrides are very nifty. Animation overrides would essentially change the animation of what a character looks like standing idly, or walking, or running. Characters "looking" at targeted players is also a nice touch that I think a lot of games overlook.
To that end, I also think that having a lot of character customization is important. Being stuck with one body type, or unable to really make a character look unique and distinguishable is a huge draw, not only for myself, but for many roleplayers. That is something where I think games like FFXIV and ArcheAge fall a little short. The character creation was a little too limiting, leaving people looking essentially the same. I think having a pitch and/or timbre slider for character voices is also great. (Character customization is also important to me specifically regarding Ashes, because the character I want to play is going to be very androgynous, and I have been a little worried about what looks like a pretty noticeable dimorphic difference between male and female character models for some races. I would honestly love it if people couldn't tell what gender I selected at creation.)
If other languages come into play, I would love languages to be something you can toggle, and something you can rely on an in-game system to learn. Though I'm not sure if that would apply in Ashes.
Last but not least, just for funzies as I know Ashes draws a lot of things from ArcheAge... I would love dance emotes alike to those in ArcheAge that allow you to move and dance, or combine other emotes and still remain dancing, instead of either pinning you in place until you stop the dance emote, or abruptly ending the dance the moment you move.
Support from Devs. I know this sounds like a big ask. But support from the devs. Support from the studio. Here's why:
Every MMORPG has bad apples that play them. When it comes to PVE? Bad apples can be excluded. When it comes to PVP? Bad apples can be roughed up into going away. RP? Nothing happens. Time and time again, in countless games, RPers get harassed, people make stereotypical assumptions, and /ignore does nothing because if a player is on the screen disrupting a scene, they cannot be made to go away. This cannot be. Now with Ashes having a lot of PVP elements and other assorted measures, this might make life easier. But there NEEDS to be some sort of system so that if you harass someone, get asked to leave, and don't stop, you shouldn't be allowed to keep playing. Simple.
Everything else after that is gravy.
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VulkanMember, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One
From the perspective of a Guild Leader of an RP Guild:
Where games have gone wrong with the Roleplay aspect, like New World, is in the building and systems of their guilds. For me, and many like me, a guild plays a central point in immersion. Rather it's fighting alongside your guild, or moving up in the ranks of it, there needs to be some sort of organized, in-depths, systems for Guilds. We also need to know these systems beforehand so that each Guild can prepare and make sure they're ready to implement them before jumping into the game.
My question would be, what in-depth Guild systems are going to be established in the game and what can Guild Members look forward to with immersing themselves in that element of Roleplay?
Taverns present a bevy of potential when it comes to RP! Here are some of my musings:
- customizable outdoor signage... obviously can't let people freely draw or freely write, cuz then everything will be named "Penis McPenis-taurant", but perhaps a selection of sign shapes, colors, and words to choose from to name it? In Diablo 4, you can choose a prefix and suffix for your title eg Brave Trash, and that could serve to ID a particular tavern... Greedy Spoon, Brave Tomato, stuff like that adds a lot of flavor
- maybe mini-games that you can plonk down in the tavern, like dart board or skeeball. They could all be based on the same "timing game" template but with different animations
Non-tavern specific things:
- For town management, RP could be played up with a "newspaper" template that mayors could use to distribute news at a bulletin board. Instead of the town news being in a boring UI box, it could be on parchment paper-esque images
- different visual skins for common freehold placeables... it'll be a bit sad if you go to several freeholds and find many of the same toolbenches and placeables. Maybe a freehold in the high snowy mountains will be able to place icy-chairs and such to match their igloo or ice-tower building.
My role play experience is limited compared to some. I do have table top experience, played on 2 dedicated RP servers, and have watched quite a bit of RP streamers. My first concern is that I have been told that there wont be a dedicated RP server. It may be a moot point, but that's what these discussions are for. Open thoughts. I will first make an argument to the contrary. While this doesn't make or break the option of RP I do think it changes it quite a bit. On an RP server, there may not be as many skirmishes or fights, thus PvP may take a slight backseat in many situations, BUT the skirmishes and fights that do happen would have more weight behind them. There would be a meaning as to why. Even if it is just 2 adventurers squabbling over who deserves to pick the rare flower. The one who got there first and had to kill the beast in the way, or the person who just walked up and took it while it was being fought for. However, it could also be who insulted the princess of what kingdom by leaving the head of Tumok floating in the town square fountain with a note that says, "A cyclops only has 1 eye and even he would rather die than look upon the face of your princess." (Ridiculous examples I know. Just making a point.)
The reason people who do table top RP tend to have a whole room dedicated to it, is for immersion. Even making a custom table for the comfort of the players. I find it hard to get immersed when the scheduled broadcast keeps getting interrupted before it even gets to the good part. I think there would be enough RP players for at least 1 dedicated RP server, if not 3 or 4. I can't see why non RP players would want to roll on such a server, even to troll. They can't do much damage as a low level, and without RPing would be banned from the server before reaching a high level. Intrepid has stated ways they plan to mitigate issues with players harassing streamers, I would think having a RP server would eliminate most issues for streamers who want to RP. I don't really want to play with people who don't want to RP, and I'm sure that people who don't want to RP aren't excited about playing with me. There should also be a separate additional ToS for agreeing to play on an RP server.
On to RP ideas.
I think a lot of systems that have already been discussed/revealed lend to RP friendly play, such as clans, naming system, city development, character creator, cosmetics, alliances, corruption system, reputation and many more.
1. Gift Wrap - Being able to wrap any item/s to hide it's contents/stats/icon opens up lots of options. Not only for gifting, but also for jokes, transportation, and RP. I think weight should still be shown, because wrapping platemail wouldn't magically make it 1 oz... or would it. Enchanted wrapping paper anyone?
2. Local Voice Chat - On an RP server that I played, you were not allowed to chat with other players using text, you had to do voice. It led to a lot of memorable interactions. I'm not saying that this should be required for RP but it does open up a lot of RP options. Like people hiding around the corner eaves dropping on a conversation about robbing the next caravan that leaves town. Also having the option to mute some people would be good, so we don't have to listen to "Insulting Name" riding around on his Hippo mount while blasting Sir Mix Alot over local voice.
3. Vendetta/Arch Enemy system - When someone decides to target a particular person and single them out for abuse or harassment through physical means (within the short span of a couple hours or a day), at some point they could be marked as a Vendetta or Arch Nemesis. Triggering some kind of reward or achievement system for taking revenge. Even if it is something like a title or reputation points. Of course this would have to be either disabled or drastically adjusted for Daily Sieges as the likelihood of 2 people fighting each other repeatedly within the span of several hours is highly likely!
4. RP tag - If Intrepid refuses to see the light and insists on having mixed servers, an RP tag on a players name could help RPers find each other, and help players who don't want to deal with them avoid them. The tag could be a different font, a symbol or just the letters RP somewhere in the players floating info.
If I think of more ideas I will edit and add later.
Guild Wars 2 had a number of great features I loved to use duing RP, here's a few that come to mind:
* Squad leaders could place down markers, and GMs often used these like tokens in a TTRPG to denote NPCs or points of interest
* Playable musical instruments (I believe this one was already confirmed?)
* Furniture that can be interacted with to sit/lay down. Unusable chairs are always a little disappointing.
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PagemasterMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
edited June 2023
What systems and features make RP fun?
1. Emotes and alot of them, I'm even okay with Paid emotes as long as there is a solid number of base free emotes that does grow. Then, I'm okay with paid emotes.
Emotes locked behind minigames,events, pvp, pve, found, religions, questlines, dropped, professions, etc. Are also a fantastic idea, just make sure any emotes once bought or "unlocked" are available account wide.
Any specific emotes needed for a quest or objective should be free or unlocked previously through the quest line. Some emotes should also have variants with wielded weapons and gear. Emotes that interact with pets and mounts would be awesome too.
2. Proximity voice chat, within a certain radius, I dont need to hear what someone is saying across town. Add a mute function, push to talk, open mic and thresholds.
3. Mini games, we know there's parlor games, let people gamble on games or even, in game events, like arenas or duels. rolling should be a thing and it should be base off the "/roll (X value)" so people can deathroll or for other things. Rolling dice should be added. I'm gonna steal this from new world but emotes like rock, paper, scissors would be cool too.
Card game tournaments would be fun like that of D&D three dragon-ante or the Ashes equivalent. Mazes would be awesome. A mage tower with progressive rewards and difficulty would be awesome (grouped or not).
4. With some of the systems that Intrepid is incorporating, they should also keep the RPer in mind. If my Guild is existing in the world and I know there's an established king over my zone, im going to bring them a gift and offer them some of our best PvPers incase they go to war. In return, I may want better taxes, free passage, if my caravan is attacked within their zone of influence I may request that they punish who may of done so if they oversee them also, I may want to go into trade contracts, etc. Keep Players in mind when you incorporate these systems.
5. Sound Design/Audio, its no secret, New World has some of THE best sound design. There are audio bugs here and there, but when youre out in the world, you feel immersed. With all the systems Intrepid plans on creating and expanding on, I expect their audio to be better than that of New World.
6. Immersive ai/enemies. Whether its pathing, attacking, healing, defending, maneuvers or retreating, when an npc makes an action it should feel as it its a player driven decision.
7. Allow crafters to add their "signature" to crafted items, along with availability to change the item dye scheme even if its too a point.
That also includes re-dyeing.
When im in a guild war I want the opposing faction to know my colors and see a wave of it crashing down on them. It also adds an element of psychological warfare. (Visual harassment)
8. ERPing is going to be a thing, no matter how much you crack down on it, just embrace it and set rules.
9. Sheathing/unsheathing weapons. Also includes variant ways to hold your weapon(s). Left handed, right handed dominance, leaning on a staff or spear, resting 2handed weapons on shoulder. As peviously mentioned, emotes that interact with wielded weapons and gear and their variants.
10. I even like the idea of hiding your nameplates, but I can see the downside to it. Maybe a toggle that can only be used when you're so far away from your node and only at night?
Just something else, we know there's no official specific RP servers or atleast not mentioned. So, players shouldn't be surprised when they do come across RPers and guilds should welcome RPers into their guilds.
What features help remove hurdles and barriers?
Systems that promote organic and healthy interactions, whether it be conflict, passive, peaceful. It shouldn't be forced, clunky or completely immersive breaking.
Emotes, Outfits (please don't go the FF14 route...keep it within the theme of the world), Titles, Idle animations that can be set by mood, facial expression set by mood.
I think RPing is fine, but Intrepid.... PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS. PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT BREAK IMMERSION WITH STUPID COSTUMES. This is so vitally important. Its all or nothing - ONE stupid outfit and thats all you'll see, cool looking medieval fantasy... and a rubber chicken..
Don't let the inner voices win in the art department - no memes, no Aprils Fool's Day jokes, JUST in-universe immersion.
RP is important to make the world more interactive, and most games suck in this area.
Overall, you can have passive RP elements in the game without being a roleplayer.
Things that everyone interacts with - has to interact with.
Side info: I am not an RP player
- The more you can interact with the world, the better the immersion?
It starts with simple things, like chairs to sit on and maybe even food "decor" on the desk to interact with - animation + Buff. The longer you eat, the stronger the buff gets, but at a certain point it decreases again - a mini-game?
In most games you just press a button and you have the buff. That's fine if you don't want to waste time, but the ability to have an animation would be nice too.
- Things shouldn't be lovelessly slapped all over the place with no rhyme or reason and then you can look at things without interacting with them (Sometimes there are beautiful places that look great, but since you can't do anything there, you leave after a second.). In some games there are pots or other things where the character changes its appearance in different ways, e.g. total transformation, bigger heads, bigger characters, smaller characters, drunken seeing. When you are drunk or high, you "understand" things differently than when you are normal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWdhhateitk
- Some things were mentioned by Interpreted Studios anyway, like Node Events, freeholds and more.
So I won't go into detail here.
TL;DR:
- Gw2 Novelties - personal chairs, Stances, music instruments, pots, mini games, etc.
- Personal buff banners with the guild logo?
- Personal Emotes, pvx rank emotes ( ./rank)
- Mini Games - Tavern, Pet fights, open world mini games for buffs.
- Overall interactions in the world.
- Costumes
- Visual effects, like the highest pvp ranks, castle owners etc.
- Taverns or other rooms that only certain races, players with certain titles etc have access to.
- Own RP Quarter
- GTA 5?
- RP quest, music events, ( like in fortnite, gw2 etc.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1mJW9mdQHU
- Simply places that invite you to linger, have a "good, gloomy etc" atmosphere and offer things to interact with.
- Black markets - no taxes, Items that you normally can not trade, you can trade there, like titles etc. (Underworld, only corrupted players can enter)
These places could also lead to underworld dungeons, shortcuts, portals and more.
- Red Light Districts - quests (kill a vampire), love/moral buffs to get additional access to locations and items from NPC salesmen - time gated npcs.
- RP duels.
- Synchronized emotes(dances) with others.
- RP titles, RP storylines or a way to support unique RP storylines.
Just a few quick thoughts, if I took more time I could probably go on for a long time.
I'd argue that Roleplaying relies on immersion. If the game has a lot of mechanics that are not explained or don't make a lot of sense all the while not providing a compelling story then most players won't try to play an actual role.
If the quests tell me that I am Most-Import-Person-In-The-World#556878 without explanation for the other ones then no suspension of disbelief can happen.
As a player that enjoys the RP aspect & other characters that do not... Either way IMO a Strong Story to follow is important. Especially if your reputations & play style affect how the story changes &/or how the environment reacts to the choices we've made good/bad/indifferent.
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DygzMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
I was planning on asking Steven about his plans to support RPers when he joins us on the Ashen Forge July 9th.
Any specific RP questions you would like me to ask?
Interactable objects- The simplest being something like chairs. Allow us to be able to interact with and actually sit in the chairs or on benches etc. That's just the basic of it anyway, anything beyond that just adds more options rather than just a group of characters standing idly in a crowd.
Emotes- Variety is the spice of life, a few games I've played have had /dance, /dance2, /dance<insert race>, etc. Again that's just a basic idea. If it could go beyond into various types of greetings, bows, waves, etc that would be icing on the cake. The more the merrier.
A roll system- Although I've never really relied on using a roller in game, it can be fun to add some rng to roleplay.
Different Chat types- Going off the proximity chat thing: A /say, /shout, /whisper, these sort of things would be great. Wouldn't mind a /e or /emote system either. In Lotro, /e would change the text to read as a third person emote in its own sort of chat with similar range to /say.
Music- Going back to Lotro again for this inspiration. It had one of the best systems I've come across. It allowed you to equip an instrument and it could read a special text file that would play different songs. I forget what the type was called offhand, but there were converters and everything that you could use to 'transcribe' a midi into a text written file that could be read by the system and played on whatever instrument you had equipped. They even had it set up where a party could play multiple pieces of songs for a full ensemble. This was always a highlight for me and honestly even to this day you can usually see groups gathered around outside the Prancing Pony dancing and playing music.
Intrepid, it upsets me when you ask questions this way, because I have a dayjob and your question would literally take an entire book to properly answer. So the question either comes from a place of not assuming people have very involved and lengthy answers, or not realizing yourself that this is possible and I don't know which I dislike more. I would welcome more targeted questions moving forward. Thanks.
Roleplaying is very strongly tied with immersion, with how one feels the world around them and their place in it. A compelling weather system gives you many avenues for roleplaying as it relates to the environment itself. I've talked about the effects of Weather on immersion multiple times in your own previous Dev Discussions, I'll just link them here:
One other thing I can add is an explanation of my own place in the world of FFXI, which comes from a seamless merging of lore, economics and what you'd call 'RP'.
I like catgirls, you see. Which means that in a world such as FFXI's Vana'diel where immersion is a given, I am likely to think of my place in the world as catgirl adjacent (Mithra adjacent in this case). There is a village of Mithras called Kazham in that game, whose NPCs make sure to establish that the kind of man MANY of them appreciate and look for is one who is a capable hunter of some kind. They also establish themselves as having a good sense of smell.
In addition to that, FFXI as a whole kind of forces you to find the way you specifically make gil and it's not the same one for everyone because not everyone is capable of earning the same amount doing the same thing, due to the nature of their class and their personal skills and interests. I discovered that the best farming method for me specifically to make gil was to hunt Cockatrices in the Labyrinth of Onzozo for their meat (and sell it on the Auction House) and do it very effectively. It required getting good at the game. And I mean actually good. You can beat one Cockatrice, but to make it worth your while, you need to develop methods to efficiently hunt a certain number per hour, without resting to recover HP.
This meant a lot of things for me. It meant I had found my place in the world economically speaking. But it also clicked for me, that tying back to Kazham's lore, I was the kind of accomplished hunter the Mithra would find appealing and that unlike many other games, this wasn't just empty flattery to make me feel good about myself, because it required actually getting good at the game. And given that village has an Auction House, one could literally walk in the village carrying large stacks of Cockatrice Meat to sell them from there.
As a result, the image of me walking into Kazham to impress the Mithras with my hunting skills as I strongly smell of bird meat never left me for the rest of my time playing the game.
Now, what does this mean for you, Intrepid? Recreate that type of experience for me, please. Onzozo (my hunting place) and Kazham (the village) are nowhere near each other, but it still worked for me because I can travel between. It was a combination of compelling, established lore, the "strain" of having to make ends meet in a world where you have to Git Gud, a healthy economy, as well as FFXI's tendency to have a lot of possible things people could be good at. Not everyone can be good at hunting birds. People who roleplay will thank you if you make them think about their place in your world.
Bow before the Emperor and your lives shall be spared. Refuse to bow and your lives shall be speared.
I was planning on asking Steven about his plans to support RPers when he joins us on the Ashen Forge July 9th.
Any specific RP questions you would like me to ask?
Yeah, please ask him this: "Can players just randomly kill noncombat NPCs in the world like in World of Warcraft?"
Bow before the Emperor and your lives shall be spared. Refuse to bow and your lives shall be speared.
In my opinion, one crucial aspect of Role-playing is freedom. The freedom to do things that aren't combat or quest related such as fishing, fief or homestead management, and general leisure activities. PvE and PvP are fantastic, but if that's all you do, it breaks immersion.
Another crucial aspect in my opinion is character creation customization and class availability. Please don't gender-lock or race-lock the classes. Some people want to play as an elven gladiator (Even though it makes no sense racially). Racial bonuses also aid immersion. What's the point of having multiple races if the only thing that differentiates them is aesthetics?
Features such as pets and pet interaction would help too... and instead of giving a group of animals to choose from, why not make certain animals tameable as pets? Like the Tidebreakers for example. And make mounts other than the beginner mount a tameable animal as well such as the Cloudburst Pegasus (Though I am not sure if this is already a mount). The point I am trying to make is that the sense of achievement that we'd get from taming and caring for these animals on our out would help will immersion.
Alright! Thank you for this design challenge, it gave me a cool thing to do for an afternoon, so here's the results of my hard work!
The Current Quest Box
Another team member will be along to explain all of the reasons why this is important or needed in specific ways so I'm going to stay focused on the bases and the purpose.
Players need an easily checkable way to see the current aim or disposition of another player by examining them without needing to talk to them. In FFXI there are actually two of these. The first is what is officially(?) referred to as the 'Bazaar Comment'. It is a 3-line block of text that appears when you /check someone to see their gear. It is used for multiple things. A short intro, a general idea of what that person is available for, etc. It is changeable whenever, but only people in physical proximity can generally check it.
The second is the Search Comment or '/seacom'. This is used when you want people who use the game's search functions (which allow you to find people's locations online or such) to see something, so for example you put your 'LFG' flag up, and in the /seacom you explain what you can do, what you're willing to do, how long you have to play, and what types of party you're interested in.
Or, since /seacom doesn't actually require you to put the flag up, you can specifically put the opposite, the equivalent of 'I know I'm the only tank in this level range online but I'm busy raising my chocobo don't blind invite or talk to me'. Anything you want, really.
Contrast with the Bio box
There's a great benefit to having a character background bio to give detail on what type of character your avatar is. There is an equally important benefit to giving detail on what you are into/trying to do right now or in the near future.
Integration With Quest Journal
The idea I have is that instead of having to write up their own (this should still be an option, I'll get back to this), players who have a quest to do XYZ should be able to just select that Quest and set it in this box, and then the game provide a short less-spoilery Quest Description (somewhat customized for this box, probably very similar to whatever the initial concept for the quest/quest stage was).
This way, players can check and see what you are up to immediately and therefore know if they want to engage with you, long before you even set out. Why this and not just talking/sociability? Because having to talk to people to even find out what mental state/goal flow they are in, isn't actually innately immersive RP. It's just shots in the dark, which can lead to unnecessary friction.
The Poor Man's Custom Quest System
The second function of this would be that if Intrepid uses the right 'kind' of Quest Descriptions for the ones that appear in this box, and still give players the option to write them up themselves, everyone who wants a 'custom quest system' can just use it for that. Make up your own quests, write them in your Current Quest Box, and now you've given people Roleplay Context for interacting with you. The more your own Custom Quest matches the general style of Ashes Quest descriptions, the more you will probably be known for writing 'good quests', even though those 'quests' have no real ingame direct support.
The Poor Man's RP Tag Too
Giving people this box also immediately acts somewhat like an RP tag. You can see the RP style, level of interest, or similar things, without ever explicitly talking to them. Most of the time, you should talk to them anyway, but 'mismatched' RP partners can drag out into a miserable experience for all. A person who has in their CQ Box - "Training In Carphin For Exp Gains" is a different type of RolePlayer (might absolutely still be one) than someone who has "On the behest of the Lady Tyrania of Windermere, I aim to delve the Depths of the Tower of Carphin in search of the Amulet of her beloved, who fell in the darkness while seeking the truth of the choice made by the $LoreCharacters of the past..." and definitely different from "Carphin Run. No RPers, no noobs."
As noted, another group member will explain why this helps people who are not innately strong RP-ers. Since I tend to be one of the 'RP Leaders' of my small group, I don't have as many personal 'contrasting/bad' experiences to draw from. Mine tend to work out as long as the game isn't actively crushing my immersion like BDO (she'll explain that too).
So that's my suggestion/feature idea. Games already have some of this, but in case you weren't already considering it.
Scope creep is a big concern I have. Even tho I enjoy some RP, and I find those communities awesome, I do not wan't AoC, a game that was initially supposed to launch before 2020 to focus on anything besides delivering the original core promises, with a solid MVP and leave RP and QoL features for post-launch.
I believe it is safe to say that most RP players if faced with the choice of the game getting pushed further or getting the MVP so they can create their own RP with whats available, considering they would get updates post-launch, that would be the most obvious choice.
If theres an MMORPG, there will be someone there roleplaying, no matter how unfriendly it might be. (except Bless, that 128 characters was murder on top of the bad game >:|) I'll admit to being old school, from the days when chatbox RP was the primary opposed to this new fangled voice chat RP so thats the perspective I'll be coming from.
Features that I think are necessary are things you all have already talked about, primarily a character sheet, or some means to check if a player is RP friendly or not. I know there are a lot of players who have no interest in this aspect of the game and would like to be left alone, if we have a means to check without the RP tag that would inevitably just be a bullseyes, no one gets bothered who isn't interested.
Personally an immersive environment, interactable towns/buildings/furniture really helps one dive into the world. A beautiful world that I can engage with and experience change/explore is enough for me to enjoy RPing in. Sound design also comes into play with this, as many have said music would be wonderful to integrate even if it is a later feature for bardic classes or an emote that just lets you play.
Chat Box Customization - This is something in a PVP game I feel is a must. Anyone who has played a game with any sort of faction element knows how vital a chat box can be for seeing enemy/rival faction damage nearby even if you can't physically see them yet. I personally love being have to have my combat tab - my roleplay tab - my 'screw you rngesus" tab all having access to different channels who whatever I am doing. If I am out and about, I want to limit what text I am seeing to go hunting or prep for a fight, and while RPing I want to have that text in one box and be able to tab swap to look at very specific settings.
-- With this there should also be proximity. One of the biggest complaints can be that /say or certain channels get bogged up with RP while other people are trying to talk as well. The radius should be localized so not everyone in an area is affected. Folks want to be open but the whole forest doesn't need to know if people on a homestead are RPing, or in town, all of /say doesn't need to see the tavern's RP, just short distances.
Skills
- non-combat skills (such as baking, gardening, music, sailing and diplomacy)
Housing
- possibility of getting a small apartment or house
- houses could also have some functional use, such as organising gatherings, baking a cake or practising a piece of music as part of quests
Sailing
- wind shadows (islands and other ships)
- polar charts that affect speed
- various abilities related to sailing and sea battles
- beautiful waves (like in Sea of Thieves)
Social
- support to make friends with other players
- PvP should not be too discouraging for a novice or solo player
- compatibility with a real life casual lifestyle
The biggest thing here is to make sure you're not locking all the emotes/idle animations/etc behind a pay-wall. If you want people to enjoy their RPing, then give them the tools to do it. ESO made you pay for some emotes and idle animations, and it always felt like a really shitty way of trying to squeeze the pennies.
By far the most beneficial feature to RP is a good VOIP system as long as it's intuitively designed. It has to be enabled by default for anyone to use it but also very easy to disable and to mute people as it's not the most popular feature out there among the majority. However, for those who actually use it, there's a ton of fun to be had.
Open world VOIP is one of my favorite things about ESO console and New World (and other off-genre games). Sure there are some weirdos out there who are still learning how to communicate, but if you ever get into a situation where you meet someone and have a little RP session it's going to be one of the most memorable experiences you have with the game. Believe it. I still remember fun, random dialogs I had from 10 years ago and that makes me miss the game.
Being able to VC (voice chat) with someone out in the wild right before you take on an encounter together adds another dimension to the game. It's also a lot easier to make a new friend. Instead of feeling out a random through their text chat (zzz), you can instantly get a feel for them with VC. It makes for better RP and gaming experience in general.
A good VOIP system has these features besides standard audio controls:
-Mandatory PTT
-Enabled by default
-Easy to disable from the GUI
-Easy to mute individuals from the GUI
-Realistic proximity
-Ability to see when someone has it disabled
-Ability for someone with the feature disabled to visually see that someone is talking
-As an added feature for Ashes, you may want to consider providing the option to auto mute for instances where there are a large amount of players. This would most likely be fundamental to the general approval of the feature.
I fully expect to get flamed for this suggestion, but that doesn't change the fact that I've had some fantastic experiences with VOIP. Usually it's easy to just turn off if you're not in the mood so it's never been an issue for me. As an added note, I've tried some survival game RP servers where VOIP was disabled entirely and everyone just types to each other. I found it rather lame and sleep inducing waiting for several minutes for the other people to type out their responses, which usually takes a good while since they're crafting them for RP. If we're talking about actual roleplay, VOIP is the best way to go.
Not sure how voip has been classed as rp. I don't want my toon to have my voice. I want my toon to be fleshed out.
There's not really anything special required for rp. I either feel the rp or I don't. Depends entirely on experiences gleaned in the game. If I fall in love with the lore I fall in love with the toon. If I fall in love with the toon I will rp.
Not much else amounts to rp in my mind. A house is nice but not required. I have a house in real life. A garden is nice but I have a garden in real life. What would make my rp special would be taunt emotes and emotes in general.
Another good addition would be various dances which can be synchronised with others or used in conjunction with others. I would stretch to musical instruments too for bands to be created but musical instruments are a tad more work.
My only experience with RP is D&D and the biggest thing I enjoy about D&D (and would like to see it in Ashes) is the freedom to explore.
Having the ability to go anywhere in the world (without non-physical walls blocking you) at the consequence of being killed almost instantly by much higher leveled creatures is part exploring a new world, and personally helps with the feeling of being in a world and not being the world like in other games.
Добрый день. Самое главное в RP это казино и голосовой чат. В GTA RP в основном это было казино со множеством игр. Таверна отличное решение для скопления людей и мини игр. Только она должна быть довольно большая, и должна быть не одна. Для каждой таверны свои игры и развлечения.
So many suggestions, if even half were done well it would be awesome. I personally hope for there to be "social systems" put in the game that can be easily added to and expanded post-launch.
Emotes - You can have unlimited different kinds of emote. I think it might be cool to have some "combat emotes" which are special emotes that can be unlocked as part of some kind of content or achievement. Kill emotes that unlock after a certain number of PvP kills or a special "Banner emote" of your character holding and swinging a faction banner after competing in and winning a certain number of sieges. Tie gloating emotes to arena competition and dancing emotes, learned through side quests with NPC factions. Have the acquisition and learning of emotes be a part of exploring the world and developing your character.
Housing - With carpentry as a profession and various types of housing available in Ashes. (and with Stevens's penchant for cool interiors IRL) I really hope that Ashes embraces the weird thing that so many humans have of wanting to spend countless hours making little digital homes for their little digital characters. I don't know what it is, in even the most rudimentary games with the most basic of building/decorating systems, I'm there in the wee hours making little houses. Again, this is a system that is almost limitless. Have a defined set of items to start and then expand the offerings through content.
I've Roleplayed for many years in many MMOs and I think there's a couple core features that are necessary for an enjoyable and immersive Roleplay Experience:
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1) RP Character Profiles -
Profiles that we can set up for our characters that have different sections we can write information in for other players to view, such as "Physical Description", "Background/Biography", "Current Mood", "Noticeable Hooks", etc.
If you want an example of a great character profile system, I'd go take a look at how TRP works in WoW. You get to fully flesh out, write in, and visually customize a RP profile for your character that other players can view in full when inspecting your character, or get an abridged version by mousing over them.
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2) RP Tags
The ability to tag yourself as being a RPer and more important to tag yourself as being "IC" (in character, and thus looking to actively roleplay) or "OOC" (Out of character, and thus not currently roleplaying).
This allows RPers to easily identify each other and to connect and interact without having to ask in zone chat or private message people.
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3) A very open and free customization, dye, and cosmetic system
- Elder Scrolls Online is probably the best at accomplishing this. Any class/race can transmog the appearance of any style, item, armor type, racial style, etc. if they've learned it and go to the Transmog station.
- All armor and costumes can be fully dyed, all cosmetics/costumes and armor pieces have 3 dye slots (main, secondary, and accent) and you can place the dyes in them to create a ton of different combinations. Despite this freedom, everyone still looks grounded in the reality of the game universe, which I know is a concern Steven has expressed with having a dye system be too open ended. But I think it's necessary for player freedom and enjoyment in an MMORPG. I know Steven's stance on it but I really think costumes need to be fully dyeable. If someone buys a fancy dress cosmetic, they should be able to dye it any color they want, even if it's a "Wedding dress". Because if they dye it black, now it can make sense with their evil Vaelune sorceress. It would make people have more of a reason to buy/farm costumes and cosmetics.
- All cosmetic costumes can have their helm/head piece hidden and you can equip a DIFFERENT head cosmetic if you want. This would be great to have in Ashes, it would be awesome if we could, for example, use the cool Gloomroot Cap November 2022 witches hat cosmetic with the matching Witches costume. As currently it sounds like the system you have planned would not allow this for some reason. Idk why there would be a limitation on using head cosmetics with fullbody costume cosmetics as clearly the technology exists in ESO, and people love it.
The more restrictions you put on dying and transmog, the more restrictive the game feels and it's hard to say you truly have freedom of customization of your character. Especially for roleplayers who love to create their own looks that represent their unique character and stories.
4) Lots of makeup, tattoo, accessory, jewelry, and hair options and customization
These are the details that allow characters to stand out and look visually distinct and complete in MMORPGs. WoW finally started adding an abundance of new accessories, hairs, jewelry, makeup, and tattoos/markings to their races and it has made a world of a difference.
I've seen how great your tattoo system looks in the character creator preview, I hope that level of detail and control carries over to the makeup/face marking options. Let us control the opacity, shine, colors, placement etc. of makeup and face markings, like you can in Black Desert Online's character creator.
Two Orcs might have the exact same face but if you slap a myriad of scars and a heavy black eyeshadow on one and bone-white tribal face marks and tusk piercings on the other, suddenly you have two very distinct looking characters. The same can be said for more "beauty" makeup which I know a lot of players often feel is missing in MMORPGs. Stuff like different eyelash styles even is something Black Desert has which is great.
There also should be a wide, WIDE variety of hairstyles. When races only have several hairstyles and only a handful are visually appealing it ruins immersion and uniqueness because you see half the characters around you running around with the same hairstyle. The way you guys let us control the length of the pre-existing hairstyles in the Character Creator preview is an AMAZING way of helping create visual uniqueness among players.
Elder Scrolls Online has different "Idle Stances" known as Personalities that you can purchase in the shop such as "Noble", "Angry", "Pirate", "Rogue", "Cheery", etc. and they change the way your character naturally stands still and gives a few unique idle animations. Some also even change the character's run animation.
This is super great for RP purposes because it allows you to even further customize your character and makes it so not all members of the same race have the exact same idle stance.
One Elf may have a "Rogue" personality equipped, and so their character stands with one hand on their hip near their weapon, a slight slouch in their back, and their eyes downturned. But another Elf of the same race may have a "Noble" personality equipped and thus is standing stall, nose upturned as if everyone else is beneath them, and may pull out a fan to fan themselves with occasionally as an idle animation. They are the same race, but they look visually distinct just from how they are standing.
I'd love to see a system like this come to Ashes eventually.
I am definitely RP lite these days, so what I am primarily looking for is extensive character customization options. Looks, obviously, and things like titles, special and hard to get emotes, character background & biography pages, and such. Make our choice of religion and social organization give us specific customization options too please, that the others don't get. Emotes, costumes, titles, dyes, etc.
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VertasMember, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
For me there is three key aspects for me when it comes to player expression and roleplay.
The first is cosmetics, make sure there is a lot of different clothes so that you don't always have to walk around in your combat set up and a choice to display weapons or not. Housing should have a lot of different cosmetics to decorate with, choice in music and easy to grasp games to play with friends.
The second one is player expression choice in their emotes, FFXIV are quite good at this and for example they allow you to choose different poses for emotes. There isn't just one sit or idle emote for the each race and gender but you can choose different ones for more player agency in how to express your characters personality. I really like FFXIVs work on this although I wish for there to be even more than what they have.
The third is casual content, simply put, things to do with others while chatting that is not tied to progression in game but things you just do for fun.
I am excited for roleplaying. I know not everyone likes to role play so I am wondering how they are going to coexist with non role players that is not antagonistic.
This is one of the main concerns that I am certain many roleplayers will have. I currently roleplaying extensively on World of Warcraft, and, while they don't actively enforce the specialized rules on their rp servers, those separate servers at least provide a beacon, a gathering place for those who intend to roleplay to go, rather than become spread out over many servers, likely isolated amidst the pve and pvp crowds. I know it has been state that they do not plan on making separate servers for roleplayers, much to mine and other's disappointment, but what means will be put in place to report those who grief rp events and other such issues?
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It's important to me that the overarching lore of a game remain consistent. There have been a lot of games that end up retconning or totally breaking their own lore, and that can throw a wrench in long-lasting storylines developed by players. So, internally, I would hope that the Ashes team--especially the writers and people responsible for in-game text--keeps solid records of what has been established by existing game lore, and what has not.
I do have a little wish list for immersive things I'd love to see in the game. I'd echo the posters above me who have mentioned emotes being an important piece of flavor, as well as facial expressions, and I'd add that animation overrides are very nifty. Animation overrides would essentially change the animation of what a character looks like standing idly, or walking, or running. Characters "looking" at targeted players is also a nice touch that I think a lot of games overlook.
To that end, I also think that having a lot of character customization is important. Being stuck with one body type, or unable to really make a character look unique and distinguishable is a huge draw, not only for myself, but for many roleplayers. That is something where I think games like FFXIV and ArcheAge fall a little short. The character creation was a little too limiting, leaving people looking essentially the same. I think having a pitch and/or timbre slider for character voices is also great. (Character customization is also important to me specifically regarding Ashes, because the character I want to play is going to be very androgynous, and I have been a little worried about what looks like a pretty noticeable dimorphic difference between male and female character models for some races. I would honestly love it if people couldn't tell what gender I selected at creation.)
If other languages come into play, I would love languages to be something you can toggle, and something you can rely on an in-game system to learn. Though I'm not sure if that would apply in Ashes.
Last but not least, just for funzies as I know Ashes draws a lot of things from ArcheAge... I would love dance emotes alike to those in ArcheAge that allow you to move and dance, or combine other emotes and still remain dancing, instead of either pinning you in place until you stop the dance emote, or abruptly ending the dance the moment you move.
Every MMORPG has bad apples that play them. When it comes to PVE? Bad apples can be excluded. When it comes to PVP? Bad apples can be roughed up into going away. RP? Nothing happens. Time and time again, in countless games, RPers get harassed, people make stereotypical assumptions, and /ignore does nothing because if a player is on the screen disrupting a scene, they cannot be made to go away. This cannot be. Now with Ashes having a lot of PVP elements and other assorted measures, this might make life easier. But there NEEDS to be some sort of system so that if you harass someone, get asked to leave, and don't stop, you shouldn't be allowed to keep playing. Simple.
Everything else after that is gravy.
Where games have gone wrong with the Roleplay aspect, like New World, is in the building and systems of their guilds. For me, and many like me, a guild plays a central point in immersion. Rather it's fighting alongside your guild, or moving up in the ranks of it, there needs to be some sort of organized, in-depths, systems for Guilds. We also need to know these systems beforehand so that each Guild can prepare and make sure they're ready to implement them before jumping into the game.
My question would be, what in-depth Guild systems are going to be established in the game and what can Guild Members look forward to with immersing themselves in that element of Roleplay?
- customizable outdoor signage... obviously can't let people freely draw or freely write, cuz then everything will be named "Penis McPenis-taurant", but perhaps a selection of sign shapes, colors, and words to choose from to name it? In Diablo 4, you can choose a prefix and suffix for your title eg Brave Trash, and that could serve to ID a particular tavern... Greedy Spoon, Brave Tomato, stuff like that adds a lot of flavor
- maybe mini-games that you can plonk down in the tavern, like dart board or skeeball. They could all be based on the same "timing game" template but with different animations
Non-tavern specific things:
- For town management, RP could be played up with a "newspaper" template that mayors could use to distribute news at a bulletin board. Instead of the town news being in a boring UI box, it could be on parchment paper-esque images
- different visual skins for common freehold placeables... it'll be a bit sad if you go to several freeholds and find many of the same toolbenches and placeables. Maybe a freehold in the high snowy mountains will be able to place icy-chairs and such to match their igloo or ice-tower building.
The reason people who do table top RP tend to have a whole room dedicated to it, is for immersion. Even making a custom table for the comfort of the players. I find it hard to get immersed when the scheduled broadcast keeps getting interrupted before it even gets to the good part. I think there would be enough RP players for at least 1 dedicated RP server, if not 3 or 4. I can't see why non RP players would want to roll on such a server, even to troll. They can't do much damage as a low level, and without RPing would be banned from the server before reaching a high level. Intrepid has stated ways they plan to mitigate issues with players harassing streamers, I would think having a RP server would eliminate most issues for streamers who want to RP. I don't really want to play with people who don't want to RP, and I'm sure that people who don't want to RP aren't excited about playing with me. There should also be a separate additional ToS for agreeing to play on an RP server.
On to RP ideas.
I think a lot of systems that have already been discussed/revealed lend to RP friendly play, such as clans, naming system, city development, character creator, cosmetics, alliances, corruption system, reputation and many more.
1. Gift Wrap - Being able to wrap any item/s to hide it's contents/stats/icon opens up lots of options. Not only for gifting, but also for jokes, transportation, and RP. I think weight should still be shown, because wrapping platemail wouldn't magically make it 1 oz... or would it. Enchanted wrapping paper anyone?
2. Local Voice Chat - On an RP server that I played, you were not allowed to chat with other players using text, you had to do voice. It led to a lot of memorable interactions. I'm not saying that this should be required for RP but it does open up a lot of RP options. Like people hiding around the corner eaves dropping on a conversation about robbing the next caravan that leaves town. Also having the option to mute some people would be good, so we don't have to listen to "Insulting Name" riding around on his Hippo mount while blasting Sir Mix Alot over local voice.
3. Vendetta/Arch Enemy system - When someone decides to target a particular person and single them out for abuse or harassment through physical means (within the short span of a couple hours or a day), at some point they could be marked as a Vendetta or Arch Nemesis. Triggering some kind of reward or achievement system for taking revenge. Even if it is something like a title or reputation points. Of course this would have to be either disabled or drastically adjusted for Daily Sieges as the likelihood of 2 people fighting each other repeatedly within the span of several hours is highly likely!
4. RP tag - If Intrepid refuses to see the light and insists on having mixed servers, an RP tag on a players name could help RPers find each other, and help players who don't want to deal with them avoid them. The tag could be a different font, a symbol or just the letters RP somewhere in the players floating info.
If I think of more ideas I will edit and add later.
* Squad leaders could place down markers, and GMs often used these like tokens in a TTRPG to denote NPCs or points of interest
* Playable musical instruments (I believe this one was already confirmed?)
* Furniture that can be interacted with to sit/lay down. Unusable chairs are always a little disappointing.
1. Emotes and alot of them, I'm even okay with Paid emotes as long as there is a solid number of base free emotes that does grow. Then, I'm okay with paid emotes.
Emotes locked behind minigames,events, pvp, pve, found, religions, questlines, dropped, professions, etc. Are also a fantastic idea, just make sure any emotes once bought or "unlocked" are available account wide.
Any specific emotes needed for a quest or objective should be free or unlocked previously through the quest line. Some emotes should also have variants with wielded weapons and gear. Emotes that interact with pets and mounts would be awesome too.
2. Proximity voice chat, within a certain radius, I dont need to hear what someone is saying across town. Add a mute function, push to talk, open mic and thresholds.
3. Mini games, we know there's parlor games, let people gamble on games or even, in game events, like arenas or duels. rolling should be a thing and it should be base off the "/roll (X value)" so people can deathroll or for other things. Rolling dice should be added. I'm gonna steal this from new world but emotes like rock, paper, scissors would be cool too.
Card game tournaments would be fun like that of D&D three dragon-ante or the Ashes equivalent. Mazes would be awesome. A mage tower with progressive rewards and difficulty would be awesome (grouped or not).
4. With some of the systems that Intrepid is incorporating, they should also keep the RPer in mind. If my Guild is existing in the world and I know there's an established king over my zone, im going to bring them a gift and offer them some of our best PvPers incase they go to war. In return, I may want better taxes, free passage, if my caravan is attacked within their zone of influence I may request that they punish who may of done so if they oversee them also, I may want to go into trade contracts, etc. Keep Players in mind when you incorporate these systems.
5. Sound Design/Audio, its no secret, New World has some of THE best sound design. There are audio bugs here and there, but when youre out in the world, you feel immersed. With all the systems Intrepid plans on creating and expanding on, I expect their audio to be better than that of New World.
6. Immersive ai/enemies. Whether its pathing, attacking, healing, defending, maneuvers or retreating, when an npc makes an action it should feel as it its a player driven decision.
7. Allow crafters to add their "signature" to crafted items, along with availability to change the item dye scheme even if its too a point.
That also includes re-dyeing.
When im in a guild war I want the opposing faction to know my colors and see a wave of it crashing down on them. It also adds an element of psychological warfare. (Visual harassment)
8. ERPing is going to be a thing, no matter how much you crack down on it, just embrace it and set rules.
9. Sheathing/unsheathing weapons. Also includes variant ways to hold your weapon(s). Left handed, right handed dominance, leaning on a staff or spear, resting 2handed weapons on shoulder. As peviously mentioned, emotes that interact with wielded weapons and gear and their variants.
10. I even like the idea of hiding your nameplates, but I can see the downside to it. Maybe a toggle that can only be used when you're so far away from your node and only at night?
Just something else, we know there's no official specific RP servers or atleast not mentioned. So, players shouldn't be surprised when they do come across RPers and guilds should welcome RPers into their guilds.
What features help remove hurdles and barriers?
Systems that promote organic and healthy interactions, whether it be conflict, passive, peaceful. It shouldn't be forced, clunky or completely immersive breaking.
I think RPing is fine, but Intrepid.... PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS. PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT BREAK IMMERSION WITH STUPID COSTUMES. This is so vitally important. Its all or nothing - ONE stupid outfit and thats all you'll see, cool looking medieval fantasy... and a rubber chicken..
Don't let the inner voices win in the art department - no memes, no Aprils Fool's Day jokes, JUST in-universe immersion.
Founder and Guild Leader of -Providence-
Overall, you can have passive RP elements in the game without being a roleplayer.
Things that everyone interacts with - has to interact with.
Side info: I am not an RP player
- The more you can interact with the world, the better the immersion?
It starts with simple things, like chairs to sit on and maybe even food "decor" on the desk to interact with - animation + Buff. The longer you eat, the stronger the buff gets, but at a certain point it decreases again - a mini-game?
In most games you just press a button and you have the buff. That's fine if you don't want to waste time, but the ability to have an animation would be nice too.
- Things shouldn't be lovelessly slapped all over the place with no rhyme or reason and then you can look at things without interacting with them (Sometimes there are beautiful places that look great, but since you can't do anything there, you leave after a second.). In some games there are pots or other things where the character changes its appearance in different ways, e.g. total transformation, bigger heads, bigger characters, smaller characters, drunken seeing. When you are drunk or high, you "understand" things differently than when you are normal.
- Some things were mentioned by Interpreted Studios anyway, like Node Events, freeholds and more.
So I won't go into detail here.
TL;DR:
- Gw2 Novelties - personal chairs, Stances, music instruments, pots, mini games, etc.
- Personal buff banners with the guild logo?
- Personal Emotes, pvx rank emotes ( ./rank)
- Mini Games - Tavern, Pet fights, open world mini games for buffs.
- Overall interactions in the world.
- Costumes
- Visual effects, like the highest pvp ranks, castle owners etc.
- Taverns or other rooms that only certain races, players with certain titles etc have access to.
- Own RP Quarter
- GTA 5?
- RP quest, music events, ( like in fortnite, gw2 etc.)
- Simply places that invite you to linger, have a "good, gloomy etc" atmosphere and offer things to interact with.
- Black markets - no taxes, Items that you normally can not trade, you can trade there, like titles etc. (Underworld, only corrupted players can enter)
These places could also lead to underworld dungeons, shortcuts, portals and more.
- Red Light Districts - quests (kill a vampire), love/moral buffs to get additional access to locations and items from NPC salesmen - time gated npcs.
- RP duels.
- Synchronized emotes(dances) with others.
- RP titles, RP storylines or a way to support unique RP storylines.
Just a few quick thoughts, if I took more time I could probably go on for a long time.
As a player that enjoys the RP aspect & other characters that do not... Either way IMO a Strong Story to follow is important. Especially if your reputations & play style affect how the story changes &/or how the environment reacts to the choices we've made good/bad/indifferent.
Any specific RP questions you would like me to ask?
Emotes- Variety is the spice of life, a few games I've played have had /dance, /dance2, /dance<insert race>, etc. Again that's just a basic idea. If it could go beyond into various types of greetings, bows, waves, etc that would be icing on the cake. The more the merrier.
A roll system- Although I've never really relied on using a roller in game, it can be fun to add some rng to roleplay.
Different Chat types- Going off the proximity chat thing: A /say, /shout, /whisper, these sort of things would be great. Wouldn't mind a /e or /emote system either. In Lotro, /e would change the text to read as a third person emote in its own sort of chat with similar range to /say.
Music- Going back to Lotro again for this inspiration. It had one of the best systems I've come across. It allowed you to equip an instrument and it could read a special text file that would play different songs. I forget what the type was called offhand, but there were converters and everything that you could use to 'transcribe' a midi into a text written file that could be read by the system and played on whatever instrument you had equipped. They even had it set up where a party could play multiple pieces of songs for a full ensemble. This was always a highlight for me and honestly even to this day you can usually see groups gathered around outside the Prancing Pony dancing and playing music.
Roleplaying is very strongly tied with immersion, with how one feels the world around them and their place in it. A compelling weather system gives you many avenues for roleplaying as it relates to the environment itself. I've talked about the effects of Weather on immersion multiple times in your own previous Dev Discussions, I'll just link them here:
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/comment/300813/#Comment_300813
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/comment/381433/#Comment_381433
One other thing I can add is an explanation of my own place in the world of FFXI, which comes from a seamless merging of lore, economics and what you'd call 'RP'.
I like catgirls, you see. Which means that in a world such as FFXI's Vana'diel where immersion is a given, I am likely to think of my place in the world as catgirl adjacent (Mithra adjacent in this case). There is a village of Mithras called Kazham in that game, whose NPCs make sure to establish that the kind of man MANY of them appreciate and look for is one who is a capable hunter of some kind. They also establish themselves as having a good sense of smell.
In addition to that, FFXI as a whole kind of forces you to find the way you specifically make gil and it's not the same one for everyone because not everyone is capable of earning the same amount doing the same thing, due to the nature of their class and their personal skills and interests. I discovered that the best farming method for me specifically to make gil was to hunt Cockatrices in the Labyrinth of Onzozo for their meat (and sell it on the Auction House) and do it very effectively. It required getting good at the game. And I mean actually good. You can beat one Cockatrice, but to make it worth your while, you need to develop methods to efficiently hunt a certain number per hour, without resting to recover HP.
This meant a lot of things for me. It meant I had found my place in the world economically speaking. But it also clicked for me, that tying back to Kazham's lore, I was the kind of accomplished hunter the Mithra would find appealing and that unlike many other games, this wasn't just empty flattery to make me feel good about myself, because it required actually getting good at the game. And given that village has an Auction House, one could literally walk in the village carrying large stacks of Cockatrice Meat to sell them from there.
As a result, the image of me walking into Kazham to impress the Mithras with my hunting skills as I strongly smell of bird meat never left me for the rest of my time playing the game.
Now, what does this mean for you, Intrepid? Recreate that type of experience for me, please. Onzozo (my hunting place) and Kazham (the village) are nowhere near each other, but it still worked for me because I can travel between. It was a combination of compelling, established lore, the "strain" of having to make ends meet in a world where you have to Git Gud, a healthy economy, as well as FFXI's tendency to have a lot of possible things people could be good at. Not everyone can be good at hunting birds. People who roleplay will thank you if you make them think about their place in your world.
Yeah, please ask him this: "Can players just randomly kill noncombat NPCs in the world like in World of Warcraft?"
Another crucial aspect in my opinion is character creation customization and class availability. Please don't gender-lock or race-lock the classes. Some people want to play as an elven gladiator (Even though it makes no sense racially). Racial bonuses also aid immersion. What's the point of having multiple races if the only thing that differentiates them is aesthetics?
Features such as pets and pet interaction would help too... and instead of giving a group of animals to choose from, why not make certain animals tameable as pets? Like the Tidebreakers for example. And make mounts other than the beginner mount a tameable animal as well such as the Cloudburst Pegasus (Though I am not sure if this is already a mount). The point I am trying to make is that the sense of achievement that we'd get from taming and caring for these animals on our out would help will immersion.
Another team member will be along to explain all of the reasons why this is important or needed in specific ways so I'm going to stay focused on the bases and the purpose.
Players need an easily checkable way to see the current aim or disposition of another player by examining them without needing to talk to them. In FFXI there are actually two of these. The first is what is officially(?) referred to as the 'Bazaar Comment'. It is a 3-line block of text that appears when you /check someone to see their gear. It is used for multiple things. A short intro, a general idea of what that person is available for, etc. It is changeable whenever, but only people in physical proximity can generally check it.
The second is the Search Comment or '/seacom'. This is used when you want people who use the game's search functions (which allow you to find people's locations online or such) to see something, so for example you put your 'LFG' flag up, and in the /seacom you explain what you can do, what you're willing to do, how long you have to play, and what types of party you're interested in.
Or, since /seacom doesn't actually require you to put the flag up, you can specifically put the opposite, the equivalent of 'I know I'm the only tank in this level range online but I'm busy raising my chocobo don't blind invite or talk to me'. Anything you want, really.
Contrast with the Bio box
There's a great benefit to having a character background bio to give detail on what type of character your avatar is. There is an equally important benefit to giving detail on what you are into/trying to do right now or in the near future.
Integration With Quest Journal
The idea I have is that instead of having to write up their own (this should still be an option, I'll get back to this), players who have a quest to do XYZ should be able to just select that Quest and set it in this box, and then the game provide a short less-spoilery Quest Description (somewhat customized for this box, probably very similar to whatever the initial concept for the quest/quest stage was).
This way, players can check and see what you are up to immediately and therefore know if they want to engage with you, long before you even set out. Why this and not just talking/sociability? Because having to talk to people to even find out what mental state/goal flow they are in, isn't actually innately immersive RP. It's just shots in the dark, which can lead to unnecessary friction.
The Poor Man's Custom Quest System
The second function of this would be that if Intrepid uses the right 'kind' of Quest Descriptions for the ones that appear in this box, and still give players the option to write them up themselves, everyone who wants a 'custom quest system' can just use it for that. Make up your own quests, write them in your Current Quest Box, and now you've given people Roleplay Context for interacting with you. The more your own Custom Quest matches the general style of Ashes Quest descriptions, the more you will probably be known for writing 'good quests', even though those 'quests' have no real ingame direct support.
The Poor Man's RP Tag Too
Giving people this box also immediately acts somewhat like an RP tag. You can see the RP style, level of interest, or similar things, without ever explicitly talking to them. Most of the time, you should talk to them anyway, but 'mismatched' RP partners can drag out into a miserable experience for all. A person who has in their CQ Box - "Training In Carphin For Exp Gains" is a different type of RolePlayer (might absolutely still be one) than someone who has "On the behest of the Lady Tyrania of Windermere, I aim to delve the Depths of the Tower of Carphin in search of the Amulet of her beloved, who fell in the darkness while seeking the truth of the choice made by the $LoreCharacters of the past..." and definitely different from "Carphin Run. No RPers, no noobs."
As noted, another group member will explain why this helps people who are not innately strong RP-ers. Since I tend to be one of the 'RP Leaders' of my small group, I don't have as many personal 'contrasting/bad' experiences to draw from. Mine tend to work out as long as the game isn't actively crushing my immersion like BDO (she'll explain that too).
So that's my suggestion/feature idea. Games already have some of this, but in case you weren't already considering it.
I believe it is safe to say that most RP players if faced with the choice of the game getting pushed further or getting the MVP so they can create their own RP with whats available, considering they would get updates post-launch, that would be the most obvious choice.
Features that I think are necessary are things you all have already talked about, primarily a character sheet, or some means to check if a player is RP friendly or not. I know there are a lot of players who have no interest in this aspect of the game and would like to be left alone, if we have a means to check without the RP tag that would inevitably just be a bullseyes, no one gets bothered who isn't interested.
Personally an immersive environment, interactable towns/buildings/furniture really helps one dive into the world. A beautiful world that I can engage with and experience change/explore is enough for me to enjoy RPing in. Sound design also comes into play with this, as many have said music would be wonderful to integrate even if it is a later feature for bardic classes or an emote that just lets you play.
Chat Box Customization - This is something in a PVP game I feel is a must. Anyone who has played a game with any sort of faction element knows how vital a chat box can be for seeing enemy/rival faction damage nearby even if you can't physically see them yet. I personally love being have to have my combat tab - my roleplay tab - my 'screw you rngesus" tab all having access to different channels who whatever I am doing. If I am out and about, I want to limit what text I am seeing to go hunting or prep for a fight, and while RPing I want to have that text in one box and be able to tab swap to look at very specific settings.
-- With this there should also be proximity. One of the biggest complaints can be that /say or certain channels get bogged up with RP while other people are trying to talk as well. The radius should be localized so not everyone in an area is affected. Folks want to be open but the whole forest doesn't need to know if people on a homestead are RPing, or in town, all of /say doesn't need to see the tavern's RP, just short distances.
- non-combat skills (such as baking, gardening, music, sailing and diplomacy)
Housing
- possibility of getting a small apartment or house
- houses could also have some functional use, such as organising gatherings, baking a cake or practising a piece of music as part of quests
Sailing
- wind shadows (islands and other ships)
- polar charts that affect speed
- various abilities related to sailing and sea battles
- beautiful waves (like in Sea of Thieves)
Social
- support to make friends with other players
- PvP should not be too discouraging for a novice or solo player
- compatibility with a real life casual lifestyle
Compatibility
- Linux support
In my opinion:
By far the most beneficial feature to RP is a good VOIP system as long as it's intuitively designed. It has to be enabled by default for anyone to use it but also very easy to disable and to mute people as it's not the most popular feature out there among the majority. However, for those who actually use it, there's a ton of fun to be had.
Open world VOIP is one of my favorite things about ESO console and New World (and other off-genre games). Sure there are some weirdos out there who are still learning how to communicate, but if you ever get into a situation where you meet someone and have a little RP session it's going to be one of the most memorable experiences you have with the game. Believe it. I still remember fun, random dialogs I had from 10 years ago and that makes me miss the game.
Being able to VC (voice chat) with someone out in the wild right before you take on an encounter together adds another dimension to the game. It's also a lot easier to make a new friend. Instead of feeling out a random through their text chat (zzz), you can instantly get a feel for them with VC. It makes for better RP and gaming experience in general.
A good VOIP system has these features besides standard audio controls:
-Mandatory PTT
-Enabled by default
-Easy to disable from the GUI
-Easy to mute individuals from the GUI
-Realistic proximity
-Ability to see when someone has it disabled
-Ability for someone with the feature disabled to visually see that someone is talking
-As an added feature for Ashes, you may want to consider providing the option to auto mute for instances where there are a large amount of players. This would most likely be fundamental to the general approval of the feature.
I fully expect to get flamed for this suggestion, but that doesn't change the fact that I've had some fantastic experiences with VOIP. Usually it's easy to just turn off if you're not in the mood so it's never been an issue for me. As an added note, I've tried some survival game RP servers where VOIP was disabled entirely and everyone just types to each other. I found it rather lame and sleep inducing waiting for several minutes for the other people to type out their responses, which usually takes a good while since they're crafting them for RP. If we're talking about actual roleplay, VOIP is the best way to go.
There's not really anything special required for rp. I either feel the rp or I don't. Depends entirely on experiences gleaned in the game. If I fall in love with the lore I fall in love with the toon. If I fall in love with the toon I will rp.
Not much else amounts to rp in my mind. A house is nice but not required. I have a house in real life. A garden is nice but I have a garden in real life. What would make my rp special would be taunt emotes and emotes in general.
Another good addition would be various dances which can be synchronised with others or used in conjunction with others. I would stretch to musical instruments too for bands to be created but musical instruments are a tad more work.
Having the ability to go anywhere in the world (without non-physical walls blocking you) at the consequence of being killed almost instantly by much higher leveled creatures is part exploring a new world, and personally helps with the feeling of being in a world and not being the world like in other games.
Emotes - You can have unlimited different kinds of emote. I think it might be cool to have some "combat emotes" which are special emotes that can be unlocked as part of some kind of content or achievement. Kill emotes that unlock after a certain number of PvP kills or a special "Banner emote" of your character holding and swinging a faction banner after competing in and winning a certain number of sieges. Tie gloating emotes to arena competition and dancing emotes, learned through side quests with NPC factions. Have the acquisition and learning of emotes be a part of exploring the world and developing your character.
Housing - With carpentry as a profession and various types of housing available in Ashes. (and with Stevens's penchant for cool interiors
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1) RP Character Profiles -
Profiles that we can set up for our characters that have different sections we can write information in for other players to view, such as "Physical Description", "Background/Biography", "Current Mood", "Noticeable Hooks", etc.
If you want an example of a great character profile system, I'd go take a look at how TRP works in WoW. You get to fully flesh out, write in, and visually customize a RP profile for your character that other players can view in full when inspecting your character, or get an abridged version by mousing over them.
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2) RP Tags
The ability to tag yourself as being a RPer and more important to tag yourself as being "IC" (in character, and thus looking to actively roleplay) or "OOC" (Out of character, and thus not currently roleplaying).
This allows RPers to easily identify each other and to connect and interact without having to ask in zone chat or private message people.
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3) A very open and free customization, dye, and cosmetic system
- Elder Scrolls Online is probably the best at accomplishing this. Any class/race can transmog the appearance of any style, item, armor type, racial style, etc. if they've learned it and go to the Transmog station.
- All armor and costumes can be fully dyed, all cosmetics/costumes and armor pieces have 3 dye slots (main, secondary, and accent) and you can place the dyes in them to create a ton of different combinations. Despite this freedom, everyone still looks grounded in the reality of the game universe, which I know is a concern Steven has expressed with having a dye system be too open ended. But I think it's necessary for player freedom and enjoyment in an MMORPG. I know Steven's stance on it but I really think costumes need to be fully dyeable. If someone buys a fancy dress cosmetic, they should be able to dye it any color they want, even if it's a "Wedding dress". Because if they dye it black, now it can make sense with their evil Vaelune sorceress. It would make people have more of a reason to buy/farm costumes and cosmetics.
- All cosmetic costumes can have their helm/head piece hidden and you can equip a DIFFERENT head cosmetic if you want. This would be great to have in Ashes, it would be awesome if we could, for example, use the cool Gloomroot Cap November 2022 witches hat cosmetic with the matching Witches costume. As currently it sounds like the system you have planned would not allow this for some reason.
The more restrictions you put on dying and transmog, the more restrictive the game feels and it's hard to say you truly have freedom of customization of your character. Especially for roleplayers who love to create their own looks that represent their unique character and stories.
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4) Lots of makeup, tattoo, accessory, jewelry, and hair options and customization
These are the details that allow characters to stand out and look visually distinct and complete in MMORPGs. WoW finally started adding an abundance of new accessories, hairs, jewelry, makeup, and tattoos/markings to their races and it has made a world of a difference.
I've seen how great your tattoo system looks in the character creator preview, I hope that level of detail and control carries over to the makeup/face marking options. Let us control the opacity, shine, colors, placement etc. of makeup and face markings, like you can in Black Desert Online's character creator.
Two Orcs might have the exact same face but if you slap a myriad of scars and a heavy black eyeshadow on one and bone-white tribal face marks and tusk piercings on the other, suddenly you have two very distinct looking characters. The same can be said for more "beauty" makeup which I know a lot of players often feel is missing in MMORPGs. Stuff like different eyelash styles even is something Black Desert has which is great.
There also should be a wide, WIDE variety of hairstyles. When races only have several hairstyles and only a handful are visually appealing it ruins immersion and uniqueness because you see half the characters around you running around with the same hairstyle. The way you guys let us control the length of the pre-existing hairstyles in the Character Creator preview is an AMAZING way of helping create visual uniqueness among players.
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Additional wishlist:
5) Idle Stances / "Personalities"
Elder Scrolls Online has different "Idle Stances" known as Personalities that you can purchase in the shop such as "Noble", "Angry", "Pirate", "Rogue", "Cheery", etc. and they change the way your character naturally stands still and gives a few unique idle animations. Some also even change the character's run animation.
This is super great for RP purposes because it allows you to even further customize your character and makes it so not all members of the same race have the exact same idle stance.
One Elf may have a "Rogue" personality equipped, and so their character stands with one hand on their hip near their weapon, a slight slouch in their back, and their eyes downturned. But another Elf of the same race may have a "Noble" personality equipped and thus is standing stall, nose upturned as if everyone else is beneath them, and may pull out a fan to fan themselves with occasionally as an idle animation. They are the same race, but they look visually distinct just from how they are standing.
I'd love to see a system like this come to Ashes eventually.
The first is cosmetics, make sure there is a lot of different clothes so that you don't always have to walk around in your combat set up and a choice to display weapons or not. Housing should have a lot of different cosmetics to decorate with, choice in music and easy to grasp games to play with friends.
The second one is player expression choice in their emotes, FFXIV are quite good at this and for example they allow you to choose different poses for emotes. There isn't just one sit or idle emote for the each race and gender but you can choose different ones for more player agency in how to express your characters personality. I really like FFXIVs work on this although I wish for there to be even more than what they have.
The third is casual content, simply put, things to do with others while chatting that is not tied to progression in game but things you just do for fun.
This is one of the main concerns that I am certain many roleplayers will have. I currently roleplaying extensively on World of Warcraft, and, while they don't actively enforce the specialized rules on their rp servers, those separate servers at least provide a beacon, a gathering place for those who intend to roleplay to go, rather than become spread out over many servers, likely isolated amidst the pve and pvp crowds. I know it has been state that they do not plan on making separate servers for roleplayers, much to mine and other's disappointment, but what means will be put in place to report those who grief rp events and other such issues?