Is it time to start a RP server?

TybaltKaine

I've been wondering for quite a while if there should be an option for an RP server. We've all seen the horror stories about trolls and griefing when folks try to RP, so maybe a dedicated space for it would help to reduce those occurrences. It's not like you'd be setting a precedent, as they exist in other games already.

Thoughts?

chessalavakia_ESO

What stops the people that troll and grief from going to said server?

What do you do about people that hop servers just because it is less populated?

What do you do about the potential lack of player density in cities?

Luke_Flamesword

ZOS don't want make harder overland instances, because they "don't want divide playerbase" so RP server not gonna happen for 95%. Also it's too niche to make such a big change and seperate server don't gives any solution to problem - if someone have patient to troll people for full hour, loging into another server will be no problem for him.

Marcus684

If you want to RP completely separate from all other players there’s plenty of ways to do that already, first and foremost being player homes. Player homes have the additional bonus feature of allowing the participants to completely fine tune the home to match the RP setting.

As far as a separate RP server I have no problem with this, and can’t see how anyone would unless they just hate the idea of RPing so much that just the thought of it happening somewhere enrages them. However, as mentioned above, what would prevent other players who have no intention of RPing, including trolls, from hopping on this server? In addition, isn’t part of RPing getting noticed by other players and hopefully attracting new participants?

Ratzkifal

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

What stops the people that troll and grief from going to said server?

What do you do about people that hop servers just because it is less populated?

What do you do about the potential lack of player density in cities?

Nothing, but these people also do not want to go there voluntarily other than to troll, which makes reporting and avoiding them easier and more effective as well. Basically disrupting other's roleplay could be punished more severely on that server. It could in theory also be possible to ban someone just from that one server and not the others, but that would mean some amount of extra work from ZOS.
I don't think people honestly hop servers because it's less populated other than to PvP without lag. But what's bad about having PvP roleplayers in Cyrodiil? Cyrodiil could also be declared a pacifist zone on that server only.

The potential lack of player density in cities is a nonissue. The server will fill up instances until they are full and then open up a new instance. That means that if there is a hypothetical lack of player density, it will just mean there will be fewer instances of the same city running at the same time. If even the last remaining instance is deserted, then that isn't really going to affect the solo players in that zone either. It will make group play more difficult, but if the main goal of that server is to enable RP in peace, then that's also not going to affect the standing RP groups.

The only downsides I can see with this plan are:

• limited growth, as new players will likely join the populated servers over the RP server even if they would enjoy RP
• crownstore purchases not carrying over, meaning that all your roleplay relevant houses and cosmetics will be unavailable as long as ZOS doesn't do a character copy (which they can't for both EU and NA simultaneously)

The most economic solution to this problem is to just add an option in the "social" settings of the game that make you immune to the mementos of others, which you will have to turn off during New Life and Jester's festival to participate in the relevant quests where pies and mudballs are being thrown.

Dr_Con

Horror stories? Can you name a specific instance or provide evidence of that instance happening? I can show you unspeakable horrors from roleplay only servers to counter the reason to why a "Roleplay" server would be worse than what is available now.

P.S. we are on megaservers, a roleplay-only shard does not make sense and would have consequences.

Tandor

Having individual ruleset servers doesn't fit in with the megaserver concept and I don't see it happening. Also, logistically there would need to be three such servers, one for each platform, unless you had six to allow for both regions, and it's extremely unlikely they would carry a viable population.

Marcus684

Ratzkifal wrote:

The most economic solution to this problem is to just add an option in the "social" settings of the game that make you immune to the mementos of overs, which you will have to turn off during New Life and Jester's festival to participate in the relevant quests where pies and mudballs are being thrown.

This right here. LotRO has a toggle for whether or not you can be affected by player emotes so there's no reason ZOS can't do the same. Trolls that get zero reaction from their targets almost always give up pretty quickly and look for softer targets.

isadoraisacat

I would not mind a “solo” server designed for solo play. A sort of more immersive sever where other players aren’t shown and their Pets. Lowered world boss difficulty but maybe harder ever so slightly normal enemies to balance but not too hard just ones that are on par with normal Skyrim adept setting.


So people can play through the main stories more immersive style they are solo quests anyway. Than swap back to the main server for group play for dungeons / and world bosses at full difficulty etc etc

Just an idea that would never happened that I’d love

TaSheen

Dr_Con wrote: »

Horror stories? Can you name a specific instance or provide evidence of that instance happening? I can show you unspeakable horrors from roleplay only servers to counter the reason to why a "Roleplay" server would be worse than what is available now.

P.S. we are on megaservers, a roleplay-only shard does not make sense and would have consequences.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7857540#Comment_7857540

adriant1978

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

What stops the people that troll and grief from going to said server?

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

What do you do about the potential lack of player density in cities?

I'm old enough to remember when they claimed, back before the game launched, that there would be a way to flag yourself as an RP'er and the game would try to put you into instances with other RP'ers. I'm guessing this feature never saw the light of day for the above reasons.

TybaltKaine

My biggest reasoning for suggesting this is the private servers on Fallout 76. While I know they aren't the same team (or even the same studio) shouldn't the "sister series" have some of the same options for it's MMO?

As far as horror stories, I'm not an RP'er and I don't have a frame of reference to draw personal experience from, but I have seen and read the threads that are from RP'ers lamenting the state of RP on the current servers. They can't even mind their own business without groups of people trolling them for no reason at all.

Dr_Con

TaSheen wrote: »

Dr_Con wrote: »

Horror stories? Can you name a specific instance or provide evidence of that instance happening? I can show you unspeakable horrors from roleplay only servers to counter the reason to why a "Roleplay" server would be worse than what is available now.

P.S. we are on megaservers, a roleplay-only shard does not make sense and would have consequences.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7857540#Comment_7857540

Having mud thrown on you by non-RPers in a video game hardly qualifies as a horror story that would necessitate the need for a RP server.

Instead of asking for an option to make it so you don't see the mementos/emotes of others, or to increase the utility and function of the ignore list, the OP of this topic decided to ask for a whole new server.

vsrs_au

From what I saw in the other thread this week, the main problem is insufficient enforcement of trolling. Perhaps this problem should be fixed, then a separate server won't be needed.

TybaltKaine

Is there a specific reason you feel like berating my question, or do you do it just to get a rise out of people? It's not an absurd idea, given the prevalence of other games that already have RP servers.

If you have an issue with me, PM me.

EDIT: To avoid seeming confrontational, I'm mostly advocating for discussion here, as someone who doesn't have technical knowledge of the requirements to create a separate server in a megaserver system, it didn't occur to me that it would cause issues, as I'm sure it wouldn't occur to most players.

Marcus684

Dr_Con wrote: »

Having mud thrown on you by non-RPers in a video game hardly qualifies as a horror story that would necessitate the need for a RP server.

Dr_Con wrote: »

I can show you unspeakable horrors from roleplay only servers to counter the reason to why a "Roleplay" server would be worse than what is available now.

I'd be curious what your "unspeakable horrors from roleplay only servers" are, if we're questioning people's rhetoric.

vsrs_au

TybaltKaine wrote: »

Is there a specific reason you feel like berating my question, or do you do it just to get a rise out of people? It's not an absurd idea, given the prevalence of other games that already have RP servers.

If you have an issue with me, PM me.

Was your previous post replying to me? I was merely suggesting that more enforcement of trolling complaints would be good, I certainly wasn't trying to troll you.

TybaltKaine

No, sorry, it was not. We must have been typing at the same time.

Ratzkifal

Dr_Con wrote: »

Horror stories? Can you name a specific instance or provide evidence of that instance happening? I can show you unspeakable horrors from roleplay only servers to counter the reason to why a "Roleplay" server would be worse than what is available now.

P.S. we are on megaservers, a roleplay-only shard does not make sense and would have consequences.

Several times have I witnessed people throwing mudballs at players in taverns who are having a nice roleplay chat and not bothering anyone with it as their chat is /say and only visible from within the tavern itself.
Do the unspeakable horrors from roleplay servers affect you in any way if you are not playing on these servers? I don't think we need a roleplay server either, but I also don't think what you are saying works as an argument against them.

kargen27

The main problem with a separate server would be your character is stuck there. You can't move characters to different servers as we have seen when players request a move from EU to NA or NA to EU.

We used to get trolled heavy when we tried to hold guild meetings in certain areas so I understand the annoyance. Separate servers isn't the answer though. Homes aren't really an answer either.

Maybe they could create a tavern and other types of places that act like a trial instance. One player forms the group then the group ports in to the instance. When they are done the instance goes away. Players that were not part of the group could enter the tavern but being in a different instance would not see the role players. No idea how hard this would be to implement or what kind of strain it might put on the server.

Best answer would be the return of game masters that could be called in to deal with trolls.

Danikat

It may not need to be a seperate server. The game already has the capacity to make multiple copies of each zone, that's why you'll never be stuck in a queue to get into one except when the servers are playing up.

I'm not sure how the game currently sorts players into copies of a zone but maybe ZOS could add an option for players to be sorted into an RP copy with only other players who have picked that option. Then it's not a permanent choice - any time you don't want to RP you can turn it off and be back in with everyone else, which would help with the potential problem of a low population server or splitting the player base and mean no one has to start over.

I'm not sure how they could ensure everyone role-plays while there though, or even what that would involve. Would it be against the rules to gallop through a town on an atronach mount wearing nothing but a bathing towel? If so does that mean ZOS would have to disable some (most?) mounts, and costumes while you're in an RP zone? What if there was actually a valid reason, as part of a group's story, for that to happen? (It's Tamriel, stranger things than that have happened.)

RP guilds can enforce specifc rules, partially because they have smaller groups to manage and there will usually be an officer available to deal with things on an individual basis, and partially because if a guild's rules don't fit someone else's definition of acceptable RP they can find another guild to join, or even start their own. ZOS would need to come up with a universal set of rules for everyone, and it needs to be something they can actually enforce without having to have individual conversations about which costumes are appropriate for which settings and whether one character has a valid reason to wear something obviously inappropriate.

TybaltKaine

I like the idea of specific RP instances within the existing servers. That way one could form a group and go to those places to avoid the hassle of the casual player or the troll.

UnabashedlyHonest

TybaltKaine wrote: »

I've been wondering for quite a while if there should be an option for an RP server. We've all seen the horror stories about trolls and griefing when folks try to RP, so maybe a dedicated space for it would help to reduce those occurrences. It's not like you'd be setting a precedent, as they exist in other games already.

Thoughts?

No. ESO is about combat, not RP.

Carcamongus

As already said, ToS enforcement would make a separate server unnecessary. Besides, a player's inventory can't be transferred between servers, so people who collected many motifs, style pages and emotes for the purpose of roleplaying would have to start from scratch. I don't think the issue is the need for harsher penalties, but for the already existing rules to actually be enforced by ZOS. If the act of bagging tea is already punishable, why not do the same for trolls? The procedure is the same: politely ask the person to stop, screenshot, if it doesn't work then report. Why should this work for PvP but nor for RP?

isadoraisacat

UnabashedlyHonest wrote: »

TybaltKaine wrote: »

I've been wondering for quite a while if there should be an option for an RP server. We've all seen the horror stories about trolls and griefing when folks try to RP, so maybe a dedicated space for it would help to reduce those occurrences. It's not like you'd be setting a precedent, as they exist in other games already.

Thoughts?

No. ESO is about combat, not RP.

Elder scrolls is a ROLEPLAYING game first.
Elder scrolls is about the lore first. It’s prob the second most expansive fantasy world after middle earth.

Just because you and some elite parse gods make this about combat does not mean that is the center focus.

In fact the combat is one of the reasons true elder scrolls fans won’t play this game and or dip shortly after trying.

So nahhhhh

Carcamongus

UnabashedlyHonest wrote: »

TybaltKaine wrote: »

I've been wondering for quite a while if there should be an option for an RP server. We've all seen the horror stories about trolls and griefing when folks try to RP, so maybe a dedicated space for it would help to reduce those occurrences. It's not like you'd be setting a precedent, as they exist in other games already.

Thoughts?

No. ESO is about combat, not RP.

No, ESO is about playing how you want, which includes combat but also RP. Is your cup of tea just beating things? Sure thing, go ahead, but roleplayers are also playing the game correctly and deserve the same attention from ZOS. Besides, it's kind of silly to say an RPG isn't about RP. What's next, Call of Duty is about admiring the scenery and bird-watching, but not combat?

isadoraisacat

Carcamongus wrote: »

UnabashedlyHonest wrote: »

TybaltKaine wrote: »

I've been wondering for quite a while if there should be an option for an RP server. We've all seen the horror stories about trolls and griefing when folks try to RP, so maybe a dedicated space for it would help to reduce those occurrences. It's not like you'd be setting a precedent, as they exist in other games already.

Thoughts?

No. ESO is about combat, not RP.

No, ESO is about playing how you want, which includes combat but also RP. Is your cup of tea just beating things? Sure thing, go ahead, but roleplayers are also playing the game correctly and deserve the same attention from ZOS. Besides, it's kind of silly to say an RPG isn't about RP. What's next, Call of Duty is about admiring the scenery and bird-watching, but not combat?

That’s my point it’s a rpg series first.
Rpg stands for ROLE PLAYING GAME.

RPGs have combat in them but it’s not the only part of the game.

I feel like these people who think this would be better playing call of duty or fort nite or whatever.

kargen27

"I'm not sure how the game currently sorts players into copies of a zone but maybe ZOS could add an option for players to be sorted into an RP copy with only other players who have picked that option."

You did question how to keep those not role playing out. That would be really tough to handle. Aside from the trolls you would also have players that would take advantage of a near empty overland to gather resources with no competition.

isadoraisacat

kargen27 wrote: »

"I'm not sure how the game currently sorts players into copies of a zone but maybe ZOS could add an option for players to be sorted into an RP copy with only other players who have picked that option."

You did question how to keep those not role playing out. That would be really tough to handle. Aside from the trolls you would also have players that would take advantage of a near empty overland to gather resources with no competition.

Maybe they can do some kind of limit on gathering resources and make these areas more for immersion and playing through the quests and story and do resource collecting stuff only on the normal server. I’m sure there is a way to
Balance that or compromise.

kargen27

isadoraisacat wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

"I'm not sure how the game currently sorts players into copies of a zone but maybe ZOS could add an option for players to be sorted into an RP copy with only other players who have picked that option."

You did question how to keep those not role playing out. That would be really tough to handle. Aside from the trolls you would also have players that would take advantage of a near empty overland to gather resources with no competition.

Maybe they can do some kind of limit on gathering resources and make these areas more for immersion and playing through the quests and story and do resource collecting stuff only on the normal server. I’m sure there is a way to
Balance that or compromise.

That gets back to it being a whole lot of work for what is unfortunately for role players a very niche community. An exact instance to my thinking is much easier to create than would be an instance with different rules.
I also don't see the need for an entire zone. Seems the trolls mostly target confined areas where role players gather. An instance for those confined areas might be a way to go.

Hapexamendios

A new server? Most likely not economically viable thus not happening.

An instanced RP area might be viable assuming it could be done.