As someone who has been bringing back the roleplay to Ultima Online ack in the day and also successfully established an ongoing RP campaign in SW:TOR before we decided to move it to a pen&paper website platform, let me throw in some suggestions as to how minimize being trolled:

Pick a spot that is somewhat remote, not one of the major cities. There's entire hamlets and villages where rarely noone ever wanders by. Those few that do so, are usually questing and will most likely not be staying long enough to disturb your RP significantly. In SW:TOR for example we had a spot on Voss, up in a tower, barely touched by any quests but with a perfect meeting room. You don't need much more than that, unless you're the kind of "visual roleplayers" who really need to see what they're roleplaying in front of them.

I never understood these (to me: weird) folks, maybe due to coming from a P&P background myself, but even then there's, as I said, hamlets and villages that don't have much quest content and could easily be taken over.

We did a similiar thing back in Ultima Online when RP was about to be dead - fellow Roleplayers took over the town of Trinsic (where noone ever went, really) and declared it RP country. Everyone in that area was constantly considered to be IC unless he was wearing a special outfit that declared him to be OOC. It took a few weeks to really catch on, but after that time it was "the" spot for RP and was really crowded with players playing any role, from a smith to a guardsman, robbers, city council (elected among players) e.g.

If you still do get trolled, the worst thing you can do is to react. Just don't. No matter what. Just don't react, at all. It gets very boring very fast for them this way and zoom! they're gone! - except for the very few hardcore trolls. But that's another topic, those people are just.. lame.

The way I see it, ESO doesn't need a special RP zone - it'd simply breed elitism all over again with roleplayers feeling superior to non-roleplayers just how it is in many games.

What really drives me mad, personally, is the hilariously awful flower-picking RP that is going on whenever I stumble upon it here (not that I'd participate, I'm busy enough with my ongoing campaign still). I sometimes spend a while and listen in to it and am downright apalled. It's the same old same old, some guys trying to play the Prince of Whatever, someone else is a Count but still helps out in a tavern as a sort of barkeep (go figure! I witnessed that live, for real) and then there's the really odd stuff like eRP and furry-RP plus all the special snowflakes.

If I was to participate here, I would definitely play a rude, mostly drunk, burly mercenary character that doesn't give two crowns about who thinks himself to be some haughty noble, just like I did with all the wannabe-Darths in SW:TOR (about 80% of the imperial RPers there fancied themselves a Darth, the other 20% were usually ripoffs of existing canon characters) and I can't stand that.

Same goes for all the characters being pretty or handsome, clever, smart, noble, heroic.. bah.

Just you wait, I'll be provoked into joining the RP here one day :P

I get the "look for out of the way spots to RP" advice. Often I do just that. But the point is, no one should have to. MMOs will always lack the GM presence necessary to spot and punish the trollers though. So there needs to be a compromise. Most games already provide that compromise as most places within the game world are instanced to the individual or group that is in it. So you have a multitude of settings in which to RP, nothing really needed from the Devs. And yes, yes, I know... use your imagination! Believe me, I do. I'm a vet of PnP games going back to early childhood. I was playing D&D when I was eight! LOL But what's the point of having this magnificent world full of lush visuals if I can't use them?

Gix wrote: »

The reason why you most likely never going to see empty instanced rooms is because you're telling the devs: "We like your game, we just don't want to play in it". Or course, that's not necessarily true and you're only trying to get away from disrupting people but no dev would ever put the time to implement non-content.

That's actually not what anyone is saying at all. All I or anyone else is saying is, "We love your game. Sadly, it is infested with lackwits. We would like the option to get away from them since you have no way to actually deal with them."

Gix wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

I get the "look for out of the way spots to RP" advice. Often I do just that. But the point is, no one should have to.

Yet You're suggesting instanced areas as a solution; which is essentially the same as just going to non-traffic areas.

No, it's not at all the same. Non-trafficked areas are A) not immune to being trolled, just less likely and B ) they may not provide the setting needed for an immersive Rp experience. For instance, I recently ran an adventure that literally took place in Crestshade Cemetery. The entire plot was designed around it and it all worked beautifully. OF COURSE we were trolled a couple of times though. But the point is, some field in the middle of nowhere would NOT have done the trick. THIS backdrop fit the story and everyone afterwards talked about how cool it was to do an Rp session like that where everything was really exactly as described and only needed very minimal detailing/explanation in chat. To simply do it out in a field somewhere and rely on written description for everything...why log in at all? We could do that in a plethora of other chat mediums.

Gix wrote: »

As someone who fully enjoys RPing, I understand your frustration. It just won't happen in an MMO until a dev gives proper tools. Instancing is not a solution. The closest thing you could hope for is a "player filter". Block a selected player and, every time you're in town (without a bounty), he fades away.

Crude, but effective.

Blocking players in such a way that makes them disappear would be lovely, especially if that also meant that my characters disappeared to them as well. However it seems to me that such a wonderful "ignore" function would require even MORE coding than instancing would.

Anyone with any other great ideas if you're opposed to instancing?

Gix wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

Gix wrote: »

As someone who fully enjoys RPing, I understand your frustration. It just won't happen in an MMO until a dev gives proper tools. Instancing is not a solution. The closest thing you could hope for is a "player filter". Block a selected player and, every time you're in town (without a bounty), he fades away.

Crude, but effective.

Blocking players in such a way that makes them disappear would be lovely, especially if that also meant that my characters disappeared to them as well. However it seems to me that such a wonderful "ignore" function would require even MORE coding than instancing would.

The phasing tech of the megaservers is already implemented; it'd be as simple as adding the functionality to allow people to put other players in a list. Right now the phasing is working based on quest progression; I don't see anything that could prevent them from adding a "player filter" into the phase-check. An even simpler (yet much more crude) way of doing it is having your client ignore any server data related to that blocked character. If the [object ID] = [anyone from blocked list], ignore.

Instancing, while simpler to set up, puts more stress on the servers than phasing

If it's more workable than instancing, I'm all for it. I would absolutely LOVE this. Of course, it would have to NOT work in Cyrodil. Do you see any complications that might present?

On a side note, considering how party members will disappear when you enter an area where one of you has completed the quest in the area and the other has not... do you think it would be possible for an entire party (everyone in your group) to phase so that NO ONE but those in your group could see you? Because THAT would be wonderful as well.

One reason I love housing in MMOs is precisely because they provide a private invite-only place to not only have fun designing/decorating/making your own but also a refuge for when you do want some level of isolation. I know that's a long long way off for ESO (if ever), but that would be my favorite way to resolve this because it would also bring other fun activities with it that everyone could enjoy.

There's always some very small minority of players who are too witless to think of anything other than griefing others in whatever way they can. Spell-spamming and interrupting in-world conversations are about the most they can do outside of Cyrodiil.

I love walking by RP sessions, it adds so much flavor to the world. It's a shame those fools make you feel unwelcome. But, for every 1 of them there are dozens more who walk by and smile as they overhear a few sentences!

pullbcarepull wrote: »

What if those folks trolling you are just role-playing very rude people?

This is a very flimsy argument, and one I am quite familiar with (as it was used constantly in ***.

As for the suggestion people RP in group chat? Won't work on big events. Yes, nothing more awesome than having a healer event, or maybe a faire or selling of goods.

I do agree with the OP though. Devs have said they wanted RP to come to TESO, but with one megaserver sharded poorly, no real RP tools (like flags), or many immersion breaking things we have to use add-ons to stop ...

RP here isn't very fun.

Trolls I can deal with to a degree. But /ignore only works so far. When you get a bunch spamming spells and skills, you can't /ignore that. When a pile of them jump on you and play instruments, you can't /ignore that.

Especially if it starts lagging an area (this happened in EQ2 when portable gazebos were given out. Trolls would go to where people RPd, then set up so many gazebos, people started lagging and crashing).

Will see on the 17th though.

I have been lucky as a RPer not to run in to the rude people. BUT then again i RP on GW2 as well...god help me Divinitys reach is bad. Anyhow i agree with the request.

VirtualElizabeth wrote: »

I am curious about something in regards to OP original post. I understand being trolled by non rpers and honestly even in say SWTOR that had RP servers, you still got trolled pretty regularly. In SWTOR mute became my very best friend because of that. But in ESO, when you mute someone does their chat not go away from your screen?

It does. The OP doesn't think that's enough, because they can still see the character in the world. Doing all kinds of anti-RP things. Like... I don't actually know. Apparently having them be in the world and refusing to participate in your RP session constitutes trolling now.

YourNameHere wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

VirtualElizabeth wrote: »

I am curious about something in regards to OP original post. I understand being trolled by non rpers and honestly even in say SWTOR that had RP servers, you still got trolled pretty regularly. In SWTOR mute became my very best friend because of that. But in ESO, when you mute someone does their chat not go away from your screen?

It does. The OP doesn't think that's enough, because they can still see the character in the world. Doing all kinds of anti-RP things. Like... I don't actually know. Apparently having them be in the world and refusing to participate in your RP session constitutes trolling now.

Okay. Let me clear something up (though I'm not the OP). Having someone do something and 'not participate in RP sessions' is ... just ... *sigh*

The 'problem' is that certain players enjoy doing things like getting up on tables and dancing, surrounding RPers and playing the instruments (like /flute or /drum) as well as spamming spells over and over around the area which can cause lag (which is the biggest 'nuisance').

Putting a person on /ignore will stop all chat AFAIK. But cannot ignore the spell and arrow attack spams, or keep them from pile dancing around and on your table.

There is a big difference.

I can at least somewhat get behind the irritation over lag caused through spamming abilities, but I don't think that's as big an issue with the Justice System in place.

But if someone's dancing near you (or if 100 people are dancing near you), that's their prerogative. They don't have to pretend that they're sharing in the same story as you, and you don't have to pay attention to them. If it's too distracting, then it's up to you to find a new spot for your RP sessions.

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

VirtualElizabeth wrote: »

I am curious about something in regards to OP original post. I understand being trolled by non rpers and honestly even in say SWTOR that had RP servers, you still got trolled pretty regularly. In SWTOR mute became my very best friend because of that. But in ESO, when you mute someone does their chat not go away from your screen?

It does. The OP doesn't think that's enough, because they can still see the character in the world. Doing all kinds of anti-RP things. Like... I don't actually know. Apparently having them be in the world and refusing to participate in your RP session constitutes trolling now.

Insofar as I know, adding someone to your /ignore list does not make 1) The player themselves disappear off their screen or 2) Their spell effects disappear off the screen.

Same thing that happened with dye stations - someone is standing there spamming flashy spells at you, or playing an instrument (which I think you can still here the sound? Anyway...)

All that has prolly been said earlier in the thread I retyped it just for you though! Hope this helps, @nerevarine1138

Hey, anyone, how do you handle meeting non-hostile folks from other alliances in Cyrodill?

Zone chat won't work. and it's not like my character can just hold up a sign saying "RP person here".

Had a couple of instances last night (now, let me start by saying that myself and other three adventurers/skypers are fairly new to Cyrodill and none of us care for PvP, we are only there to share PvE since we are disparate levels and it kind of 'evens out' while there). Anyway, we were just finishing a dolmen when one of us spotted "another red guy", and blasted him (by reflex). Turned out to be a group of 3 V14's who were waiting to get the veteran achievement for that dolmen.

Anyway, being that we started the fight - they finished it. We were V1, 2 24ths and a 28th so you can guess how long the fight didn't last. One character (mine) was slightly out of the fight, and ran and hid. The rest died, and we chatted on skype as to should we come back. The other characters hung about. So we figured that they were just waiting to kill us again, so eventually the three dead folks resurrected at a fort, and the one survivor ran off to meet up with them.

Later one of us got a game mail sort of apology/contact. Seems we could have been friends, if we could have worked out the communication.

Later that night, we went into a dungeon (Toad something hollow? Not sure), anyway, we were all standing there mostly looking at inventory and figuring out what to do with the "too much stuff". Suddenly we realize that there is a "red" guy standing amongst us, and with cries of "oh ***" and we unleash on the poor guy (who had probably been standing there for some time), kill him and THEN realize that oh, he is a PC not a dungeon entity.

Well crap. What can you do in that situation? We didn't know. I tried to game mail him to apologize. Not sure if it got to him.

Later after logging out and in to trigger the final boss, we see a sword and board running towards us, who stops some distance away and we all get that he's there for the Boss (and possibly more). After an awkward pause, he starts dancing, and one of our guys starts dancing, and weird e-moteness ensues. One "real" bad guy shows up and carefully targeted non-group shots take him out, and don't harm any of us.

Later on the way out, we see a guy - and again it's something about the movement that says 'PC', who immediately kneels on seeing us. So we all bow/kneel and then we go our merry ways.

So I guess the lesson is there are ways to 'sorta' communicate if you see each other in advance, but dang, it's limited.

Any other thoughts?

Someone on another thread just mentioned that guild chat works across zones. So could I manually invite someone of another faction to a guild while in Cyrodiil? Has anyone tried this?

As a long time role player in both MMO and other virtual realms, giving RPers a separate server or instance really won't stop the trolls. As I said in my post above in SWTOR (with a named RP server) and even in GW2 (informally named RP server), it didn't stop them from trolling. What I would do in the past, besides mute, was actually integrate them into the scene. Works well in bar settings in particular. Once the troll figured out that he or she wasn't getting us mad, they generally left!

VirtualElizabeth wrote: »

I am curious about something in regards to OP original post. I understand being trolled by non rpers and honestly even in say SWTOR that had RP servers, you still got trolled pretty regularly. In SWTOR mute became my very best friend because of that. But in ESO, when you mute someone does their chat not go away from your screen? Is this not a valid option in ESO when it comes to trolls?

Recently trolls talking about their peni$ seems to be a thing. So yeah, once I screenshot and report, I ignore. But as another poster has already pointed out, trolling often takes a far more aggressive approach than just spamming p0Rn in chat at you. Trolls will have their character leaping in your face, spamming spells and other attacks and just do their utmost to completely distract and (insert censored word here) all over your RP just because they can. Once that has happened four or five times in a session I'm pretty much ready to throw in the towel. And it's completely ludicrous to suggest that we should have to go hunt down deserted areas to go literally hide in for RP. The onus really IS on ZOS to deal with this problem because frankly they are the only ones who can. And thus far I've seen their "response" to be extremely lackluster.

Iago wrote: »

MornaBaine wrote: »

VirtualElizabeth wrote: »

I am curious about something in regards to OP original post. I understand being trolled by non rpers and honestly even in say SWTOR that had RP servers, you still got trolled pretty regularly. In SWTOR mute became my very best friend because of that. But in ESO, when you mute someone does their chat not go away from your screen? Is this not a valid option in ESO when it comes to trolls?

Recently trolls talking about their peni$ seems to be a thing. So yeah, once I screenshot and report, I ignore. But as another poster has already pointed out, trolling often takes a far more aggressive approach than just spamming p0Rn in chat at you. Trolls will have their character leaping in your face, spamming spells and other attacks and just do their utmost to completely distract and (insert censored word here) all over your RP just because they can. Once that has happened four or five times in a session I'm pretty much ready to throw in the towel. And it's completely ludicrous to suggest that we should have to go hunt down deserted areas to go literally hide in for RP. The onus really IS on ZOS to deal with this problem because frankly they are the only ones who can. And thus far I've seen their "response" to be extremely lackluster.

Somehow i fear troll money spends just as well as ours meaning it will most likely take a lot for ZOS to step in

This is sadly insightful indeed. My other fear is that while they aren't going to bother with hurrying up player housing one little bit they'll refuse the request in the OP as well because when they finally DO get around to implementing player housing they won't want there to be ANYTHING in place that players feel "works" just as well for RP. The greed factor is....unfortunate.