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Chenoa
24-01-06, 14:59
Currently the storyline progresses in-game via RP-Chars, Mails and of course to a great extent through the out-game magazines. Unfortunately we get very little response and the RP-Char team is frequently confronted with people saying "Never heard of that", "I dont read that", "I'm not interested in out-game websites" ...just a few examples.

In order to nail down the reasons for the slow progress, I would like you to cast your vote and if you like, reply and state your view of things (in an orderly manner). Spam and discussion will be removed.

Multiple selection is possible !!!

Your current sources of info / What would you like to see happen?

nobby
24-01-06, 15:04
I'd like events or "Hints" of incomming events in my in-game mail to be honest...


I'm always annoyed of missing events...Simply because I don't think to look in the events forum of this website...

I'm always looking in Community talk all the time I forget!

Riddle
24-01-06, 15:08
Cast a vote? is this meant to have a Poll attached? Edit/oops its been added :)

As for in game communication i would like to see mails going out say once a week updating you on Faction events and world events but with the current bug (I have upwards of 40+ spam mails from advise dude :( ) this won't work. I hardly ever look at my mail box due to that.

I read Neocronicle for info and of course the forums.

The ingame forums are under utilised due to there woefully out of date system i.e. No ability to see any time frame as they are all in game dates so tbh i don't know when the hell they where posted :rolleyes:

Crest
24-01-06, 15:20
I do not read the ingame mails and usually delete/ignore them

Hmm so i am expected to ignore the faction spam and read the official mails, hmm fix the bug and this might be worth while.

I remember when it said - you have mail - and that meant someone wanted to tell me something, not some faction guy for noobs

Scaramanga
24-01-06, 15:21
I read the mails last night and was really quite surprised. I'm assuming this is the work of the new storyline guy. Well done sir.

elGringo
24-01-06, 15:26
I do not read the ingame mails and usually delete/ignore them
(...) I remember when it said - you have mail - and that meant someone wanted to tell me something, not some faction guy for noobs

I agree 100%
In Neocron 1, I used the ig-mailsys quite often to communicate with other ppl and our faction-leaders -- but since the introduction of the "SKILLADVISOR MAIL" I dont even touch the "Mail tab" of my citycom anymore. It is a fucking pain that really, really, really takes out the fun of ig communication.
The forum has never been that usable -- but the ig mail was acctually working before the feature was crippled. REMOVE the skilladvisor "feature" ..the minor help they provide to new players is not worth the major damage it does to all players who'd like to use the ig mail system. Official mails would certainly get a LOT more attention if that entire skill advisor feature got removed!

giga191
24-01-06, 15:50
I like the email that I got as BD about the vote on what I want to happen to the faction ( as long as the outcome of the vote is independant for each server)

Destino
24-01-06, 15:52
I'd like to RP but my big problem is language. English is'nt my primary language nor is deutch, so i get many trouble and i end not doing RP at all.

I try to follow neocronicles tho as i like to know what happens around.

unreal
24-01-06, 16:06
The boxes I ticked are:

I read all the ingame infomails I get
I read the internet forums to inform myself
I prefer more faction-based events & story content
I prefer more alliance-based world events & story content
I was close to ticking "I do not read the ingame mails and usually delete/ignore them" because I automatically delete the useless Skill Advisor emails without reading them. As that guy just said, REMOVE the whole Skill Advisor feature, or FIX it (so obviously the first choice). The information/advice the Skill Advisors give you doesn't give the average person much of a clue to begin with, because they won't know the skill system that well. Most newbies I've come across haven't even spoke to the Skill Advisors.

I would have ticked "I try to keep up to date with the story and to participate as deeply as possible", but the truth is, I don't even know 95% of the story behind Neocron and neither do half the people I know. The main things I know are just the basics, like how gentanks came along, a few of the faction rivalries, etc. As far as I know some of the factions thought "let's go on a picnic then have a groupy, move to a garbage piece of the world and call it Dome of York, inevitably turning insane and evil towards CityAdmin and its allies". I don't check the Neocronicle for this reason.

I wish there would be more events, could probably link to another post where I went off on one but it doesn't really matter. Even if the events are small and simple, just HAVE them regularly to keep the interest going, whether they're related to the storyline or not. If effort is made, more people will stay.

Neocron is getting rather boring for me at the moment, mainly because of Holy Para. You run along, kill someone, and a moment later, if it's somewhere like Cycrow or DoY, you'll have an APU/PPU team coming at you instead. Last night me and Cmaster were in the Crahn sector, I relogged to get rid of drugflash near the Wireless Network Station and buffed up just as Cmaster almost killed the APU, but had to reload. Few shots from my Exe; APU dead... the APU returns... gets killed again, and a moment later, there's two APU's with a para and DB spamming PPU. Not much point in going up against that. Monks (or elves/wizards essentially) dominate the game, this is something that REALLY needs to be resolved, SOON. Most of us logged off not long after, only to find McPherson had been ninja'd off us by After Dark because they said it was their OP, even though TFC faught FF for it, and yes, TFC are FF alts eh After Dark. My alts are *lists random FF names here*.

Anyway, what I was saying is this: make Neocron interesting. There's all sorts of possibilities for events, for all and specifically chosen classes. Sniper Contests (where contenders have to snipe moving targets at long range, first one to hit all targets in the fastest time wins, points deducted for missing) and possible Stealth contests for Spies and PE's. You have to stealth your way through various mazes or areas which have had high level mobs, NPC's or guards placed in random locations. First one to reach the end, with as few stealths as possible (in which case it would be best to force all contenders to use Stealth I), and quickest time, wins.

kurai
24-01-06, 16:50
I don't suffer from the Skill Advisor Mail Deluge bug, so I tend to actually read any mail I receive.

I don't use the in-game CityCom forums - they are next to useless. On the rare occasions it actually works without dumping you into a Crash-to-desktop the user-interface is abysmal, the incoherent ingame dates and the god-awful fonts/scaling make it a truly masochistic experience.

I *do* use these forums, but very rarely get around to reading the Neochronicle or VotR websites. (Incidentally - I would strongly reccomend permanent buttons/links to them on the Launcher, and some kind of indication of when they get updates - it would certainly get me using them more.)

I do use the Alliance/Faction etc comms channels and would welcome greater use of these to announce/co-ordinate upcoming/ongoing events with the serverwide `GM` flag (there is a reason SysMessages has it's own colour in rposcolor.ini)

As for the nature of RP events themselves ... I like them best when it involves co-operative play of a whole faction/alliance - it breaks down barriers between the normally insular clan environment and gets everyone working for a common cause.

Bugs Gunny
24-01-06, 16:57
I love how the faction relations are being made dynamic.

elGringo
24-01-06, 17:00
I *do* use these forums, but very rarely get around to reading the Neochronicle or VotR websites. (Incidentally - I would strongly reccomend permanent buttons/links to them on the Launcher, and some kind of indication of when they get updates - it would certainly get me using them more.)

Suggested that a while back - good idea imo!

Bishop Yutani
24-01-06, 17:29
i've been trying to get into the plot as deep as possible - reading forums, mails, neocronicles, etc.

But like DT said, you're asking the people who are on the Forum, so you get a skewed answer. I used to play with a good friend of mine who couldnt be bothered with reading ANYTHING. All he wanted to do was shoot stuff. (actually Melee stuff) He complained that there was no plot, but he wasnt going to read a forum or download a PDF to get it.

Anyway, the plot advancing through email and stories is nice, but it would reach a lot more people if events and characters in the game were doing it instead.

Oh yeah, and i really love these forums because i can get a mild neocron fix while i'm at work or not in-game, but they're usually pretty dead AND most of the posts are complaining about PPUs, Click2Pay, or legacy bugs.

In game forums are a waste; i usually check them out when i'm waiting in my APT for my SI to go down, and while i may see something i need, it doesnt feel very convenient or easy to work with.

Funny, i have some ideas about improving the plot vehicle, and applied to KK as a Community Manager, but i havent heard back.

Good thread, Chenoa

EDIT: On a lighter note, it would be great if the Voice of the resistance and such pubs would display while SYNCHRONIZING. That way, everyone will get to read and re-read them multiple times each gaming session!!! :D

Whitestuff
24-01-06, 17:45
I have never come across an official RP character. Seriously, don't even know who they are, or what they do.

I don't bother with the storyline because populations are really low when I am on, usually around 8-10%, so we don't get any events, we don't get any story at these times. But, I do get to hack the belts from the events, so I'm still satisfied with them. Also, I understand that the GM team works hard on putting out some good events, but I'm much more worried aboutthe current state of gameplay and "monk-o-cron".

I read the Neocronicle sometimes, but not always. I'll read it more once I get off my lazy ass and write a story or two for it.

Other than that....

EDIT:: Also, I don't read the mails I get/delete them because I get the login and have no skills/items/implants/SL/cash/Faction symp (any combo of the above 3-4 times each character change/login) and I get the annoying starter e-mails that flood my inbox because the game thinks that I'm starting from noob level each time I have my skills reset.... so, sometimes I get delete happy or just plain don't check my mail cause I know 99% of what's in there is annoying. And yes, it is affecting my decision to keep paying for this game, in case you were wondering.

unreal
24-01-06, 17:53
I've only ever come across one RP character, they aren't that frequent or active from what I've seen. That person was Ironhead, he spawned a load of vandals at a TFC OP (McPherson) so we decided to run around, and got word from a newbie that there was a load of vandals being spawned at Jeriko. We go there, then a couple of After Dark turn up (the owners of Jeriko at the time) and say TFC are helping FF. Got him down to half health before the vandals almost ********** (Edit: raypd) me and I was nib stealthing outside the OP with buggered feet an 12 health with Ironhead on the trail. Luckily I turned right and just hit behind the corner as he went the other way and was able to heal up, but that's when drugflash kicked in, and other people just started to arrive. :)

There should be at least two or three RP things per week IMO. Although "RP" is a bit of an exaggeration for Ironhead; spawning a load of Vandals and saying he's lurking around the coast isn't really role playing as such. Just a fun hunt-Ironhead-down-and-kill-him game. Do it MORE. :)

RusSki
24-01-06, 20:25
Ok first off i do read all ingame infomails... eventually. Ingame email is ruined at the moment with those silly spam mails from the personal skills advisor.
Alot of the time i see the 'new mail' icon appear and ignore it as i expect it to be yet more spam and check it some other time when the icon tells me i have 20 new mails.
Could you not totally remove the personal skills advisor email thing and instead have it so Jones can tell you that information when you are not on one of his missions. Ofcourse he still disappears once his mini epic is complete. That would solve the problem, ofc i dont know how hard that might be to do.

As for the rp chars, i think i have seen john red cloud once, he was getting killed at regents when we were all looking for the ceres datacubes. That was fun. Otherwise they have gone unnoticed by me. Most likely i have simple missed the times they have been around.

The out of game magazines are cool and have had some cool storys but u need to kinda bring it all together.
Make links from the community forums, they dont have to give away info on the story. Just maybe a notice that there are new storys/edition of the respective magazines.
Something to lure the ppl who simply forget to check otherwise.

Nidhogg
24-01-06, 20:51
Don't wander off topic on this thread or I will delete posts. Think of it like the RL picture thread where anything other than what you've been asked to post will be removed. It's in all your interests not to make this thread noisy.

N

Foo
24-01-06, 21:06
Tho what ppl have said about the ingame mails , i still think they are one of the best ways to comunicate to players. So ya get rid of the skill advisor and problem solved.

Dade Murphey
24-01-06, 21:14
I *do* use these forums, but very rarely get around to reading the Neochronicle or VotR websites. (Incidentally - I would strongly reccomend permanent buttons/links to them on the Launcher, and some kind of indication of when they get updates - it would certainly get me using them more.)

I entirely agree with this

As for me, I would love there to be more story and such to participate in but the way it's currently done, in a sort of real time type of setup, makes it very difficult to participate in. Due to my play times because of jobs or life over the course of my years of game play I've missed almost every single event ever...and on the occasions I've actually been on when ones going on I only ever knew about it because I received a message from a friend say "what the hell?! There's an event going on at <insert location here>!" If it were setup so that a series of events repeated over the course of 2 weeks or a month before progressing to the next stage of the story that might be kind of nice...would ensure that everyone has plenty of time to participate...however, using real people for events and things like that it might not be too plausable as it is in some games

I've seen maybe 2 official rp type guys...both times they were giving a speech to about 6 people outside medi...dunno who they were though
Neocronicle and VotR are kinda outta the way considering I always just come to the forums...and permanent link on the launcher like Kurai suggested would be nice

Napalm82
24-01-06, 23:41
I very often read the forums (4-5 times a day) but to be honest i dont read a lot in the magazines, not because they are boring or anything i just never really get around to it :lol:

I'd love to get a mail when my faction is having an event, or even just news from our faction, im a Tangent guy meself, what happens to the other factions aint really my buisness (Unless their buisness involves Tangent)

If Faction mails aint really an option how about putting a news guy in the faction HQ to tell you the latest rumors, dont think its too hard just changing his dialogue once a week to reflect whats happening.

- Nap (Owner of GunRunners INC, on Terra)

a4nic8er
25-01-06, 03:35
An honest answer

Storyline? What story line? It all seems BS to me.

Why are "BIOTECH" anti-gamma bones (created to counter DoY energy weapons) ONLY available at Anti-City vendors?

Why are some "TANGENT" weapons ONLY available at TG Canyon?

Why can Anti-City waltz in and out of the City (and tag 6 unguarded GRs) when Pro-City can't walk into the bombed out DoY and if they did, none of the GRs are unguarded.

There is no story - just a bunch of crap made up in poor attempts at justify bizarre illogical decisions. i.e. "We are going to turn this completely on it's arse, so let's think up some sort of reason we can give for it. Don't worry, if we can't think of one we will just do it without saying anything."

The infomails I get are either skill adviser spam, cryptic garbage, or a form of teaser about something in the future that I can't be arsed raising any interst in. I usually skim them on the first character that gets them then just delete them all.

Never look at the magazines. I am in the game and/or on the forums or I am not NCing.

ZoVoS
25-01-06, 05:12
large percentage of people in game dont read the fourms... simple enough make it so that you have to read an ingame fraction fourm once within ever 10 hour's of gameplay or u lose some fraction simpathy, it stands to reason. who would let sumbody stay in a fraction if there not participating in it. just so people are forced to keep up to date... if they want they can click on click of. but if they see something interesting

"black dragon cartell decide to disband" then they will wana act on it ^_^

or add another icon above you have mail that says unread fraction anouncments

unreal
25-01-06, 11:54
Forcing someone to check the CityCom within X minutes/hours/days is pretty lame, especially if it gives the person a penalty when they don't do it.


I understand that the GM team works hard on putting out some good eventsI know people like Hoder and Phase are answering HELP tickets and such, but as far as events concerned, "working hard on putting out some good events" is an exaggeration. If events were being worked hard on there would be at LEAST one event per week (which is being very minimalistic), and there obviously isn't.

To my sadness the population seems to be dying out even more lately, and I partly believe it's because of monk-o-cron, and lack of anything interesting going on apart from runner/clan rivalries. Bring on regular events damnit, no matter how simple they are, and even if the reward will only be 100 x Smoked Crab. Just give us something extra to do apart from running around Pepper Park 3, Cycrow, and the other one or two active solo PvP spots.

Even the auctions bring more people in because they all try to be there to see what nice things they'll be able to bid for. Runner hosted auctions never seem to go down well, people don't obey the instructions, and tend to interupt everything. It doesn't take THAT much effort to have at least one auction per server, per month.

I think there should be more involvement from those elected faction leaders, although the system is pretty biased since the votes generally get made by the friends of the person, therefore it's basically the same as cheating your way into the position. :P

I also think there should be some sort of graphical storyline on the Neocron home page. As it stands, all the storylines in Neocron are garbled up here and there, I attempted to read several weapon descriptions, but since they were so detailed and complex, they just go in one ear and out the other. Put some of those comic strips and concept sketches to good use, and make more of them, and add a bit of colour in neocron style. Maybe create a new "Neocron Museum" in-game to show statues and such of the people who discovered or created the items. Perhaps a large stage showing a slideshow of how the gentank was created, surely they must have been heavily deformed to begin with, gradually tweaking the DNA to get them to where they are now. Neocron Zoo is pants, and I don't think anyone even notices it, and anyone who does, is hugely disappointed (I know I was). While the Neocron Zoo is in my mind, make it bigger, and more interesting than sticking a few mobs behind some glass with a few plants. Create a sight worth seeing.

PS. Log on Ironhead a lot more often.

Hell-demon
26-01-06, 00:17
There so much lack of story i write my own :(


Roleplay? have to roleplay on my own or wth FETISH. Hardly any events..... :(


We also need more GM support for making our own events and setting up our own RP stuff :)

Tratos
26-01-06, 01:07
The storyline in terms of written content has been quite nice since 2.1 but it seems to have slowed down again since in mid december we were getting around 3 articles a week - so more story more often is always welcome even if its just random articles - since the old format Neocronicle did have up to about 6 storys at the length we see on the new Neocronicle (sometimes a bit shorter) every week in days gone by.

More events are needed and more tools and EGM abilities are a must to be added to the game as the events we do see which are somtimes well ran and go ok are very limited to what happens, either we get some mobs where we usually dont find them or we go to an area kill some NPC gaurds and then some players of the opposing alliance then go home again.

I do read the Neocronicle and VoTR daily....well i check them daily :p also it would be nice to have update notifications on neocron.com, the forum and the launcher so more people will get involved and read them. As anyone will know im quite the forum whore so i dont tend to miss anything here also i do look through my characters mails when i see the icon as i very rarely (touch wood) get the skill advisor mails, possibly due to my lack of connection issues - i got one yesterday after a 50/50 login which is the first i've had in months.

On the topic of e-mails the new Faction Objective project sounds to be making use of this system as well as getting more involvement in single factions again - i hope this continues and in the future we see faction specific events or perhaps events we think are faction specific untill groups of each faction end up together after having a mini event each then moving onto the bigger picture.

More frequency of events and storyline related articles out of game - perhaps the random appearance of NPCs with new and different information would give more flow, also more prior notice in both ingame and out of game forms for events is most welcome.

As a last point having callender triggered events patched into the game would be really cool stuff we know will be there every week/month/year etc for instance one day in each month chosen at random would trigger a Dome offensive on Neocron or Neocron breaching the gates of the Dome to give the appearance of a constant battle - a few days before hand camps could appear and then after the main firefight be gone again untill a day in the following month. Heck even if the patched callendar controled events were just a group of NPC traders setting up in TH once a month to offer more variety of items such as inq 4 and DoY/NC specific items, hell even the odd FSM item thrown in at random to make people find out use and visit the group of inderpendant merchants.

I know some people will recognise callendar controled events from WoW but i do think its a cool idea, if Neocron can support such a thing is another matter but it would create a more dynamic atmosphere and wouldnt require the event team to set things up as on certian dates it would just happen!

Richard Blade
26-01-06, 01:12
We've been trying to gather up new players and give them advice for starting out. A lot of our resources have gone into their gear and getting them a few levels. Some leave us without interest of joining Next, others have stayed and joined Templars.

Click 2 Pay.
1. One member had their payment method invalidated. After a week of problems, c2p wants access to their checking account.
2. Another member has had their payment method invalidated. I haven't heard if they've had any luck getting it renewed.
3. Another member has had their payment method invalidated. This person is having better luck than the others, but is at work and needs to activate it from home. I'm hoping they have good luck with it.

The reason I mention c2p is because these are two of the top ranking clan members and the third is the guy who pays for our vent server and web page.
I'm not saying our clan will fall apart, but it is having a few rough spots because certain people can't access their accounts. If they can't access their accounts, they certainly aren't going to be able to support the faction.

Another thing, we had an auction the other day. Mostly a success. But, certain members of certain clans decided to hold their own auctions while we were trying to hold ours. Not to mention a person who thought it would be fun to stand near the auctioneer and shout obscenities. They got muted and their clan leader apologized. I wonder how much of that was staged just to disrupt us. I mention this because it shows an attitude of various people. We tried to have something that would give other players(even enemies) something to do, and maybe walk out with some good stuff. Because of all the interuptions, we never did sell all the good stuff. We might not bother again, it's hard to say.


So...
A. I haven't run into an official RP-Char Except maybe a newsguy, and that was only as a witness to them interviewing someone else.

B. Our ranking members have been putting personal resources into new players. (whether they stay in Next or move on to somewhere else)
This has taken quite a bit of time we might have been using to further our factoin.

C. C2P has been giving us something more to think about than supporting our faction.

D. Other players are more interested in disrupting events than enjoying them.



I know that some of these things don't sound like they're on topic, but since we are in Next and Next is one of the current factions that has "something" going on, I find they are relevant. I'm sorry Nid if you feel different, delete as you deem necessary.

Tratos
26-01-06, 01:23
Oh yes i very rarely just bump into an RP character and they never seem to be about unless there is an event which i think is disapointing they should be part of everyday life in Neocron.

When i do see them though its only briefly but something other than the event did come out of it last time i saw one - that being the VoTR articles concerning Mr Logos Vaughan :D

Richard Slade
04-02-06, 16:33
If events actually made an impact, people would notice sooner or later...
Gief real events!

Zheo
05-02-06, 10:30
Using city coms causes me to crash so i cannot read ingame forums OR emails, atm I have 230 emails most of which are bloody spam from my skills adviser which brings me to one point kinda OT can anyone tell me how to stop them? I put him on ignore and still he sends them.

Back On topic, I went to the DOY meeting (was kinda late because i misunderstood the times (i added an hour instead of subtracting it). d'oh, it was fun though, the last major event I took part in was a doy attack on neocron (that was with my old account though).

I would like to see events put on the launcher if that'd be possible a huge neon reminder kinda thing.

elGringo
05-02-06, 16:46
Using city coms causes me to crash so i cannot read ingame forums OR emails, atm I have 230 emails most of which are bloody spam from my skills adviser which brings me to one point kinda OT can anyone tell me how to stop them? I put him on ignore and still he sends them.

KK should remove that feature ...does more bad than good and a better working mailsystem would certainly boost ig RP and official announcment would be read by far more ppl.... oh and.. no, theres no way you can stop your ig mail being flooded by the skilladvisor after each failed login :mad:

Faid
05-02-06, 20:27
More Events as I see it would certainly be beneficial to curing the boredom that seems to wreck havoc amoung the player base. Time and time again you see on trade or alliance people asking "is there anything going on" and, sadly, the answer is almost always no. When people get bored enough they eventually leave which is the case almost everyday in NC, thus further contributing to the low populations on the servers. GM RP Events in my experience have always been a huge success. People flock to these events, if for nothing else just to see whats going on. Events in which the entire alliance can work together are my favorite, Like when Doy were attacking the gates on NC. I didnt really have to worry about who was gonna shoot at me, cause we were all on the same side. PPU's of all alliance factions were running around ressing all alliance runners. The event lasted for a couple of hours and was completely enjoyable. It instilled a certain sense of accomplishment amoung the people (in other words it wasnt just another wasted day doing nothing in NC).

I completely gave up on reading the in game mail do to some wierd bugs back in the day it would take me about 20 - 40 times to log in successfully with all my stuff and no 50/80 bug on all my chars. Every time I would try to log in I would get a stupid skill advisor mail which I read once in my first day of NC. I had hundreds of these mails, and whats worse is when I would try to read them the citycom would crash me, thus resulting in me having to try to log in again further resulting in a ton more pointless skill advisor mails.

Anyway, I think more RP based combat would be great for the economy. Perhaps a GM RP Event where all alliance have to take an OP for some strategic RP reason, where they had to fight a coalition of anti city alliance to get it. Kinda like a giant OP war with upwards of 50 - 100 people, not just your typical 5 - 10 people fighting. You could even have 1 GM leading the pro side and 1 GM leading anti, giving insta rezz's to fallen runners. The fight would last for a long time with that many people. Granted it may turn into Monk o Cron but it would be interesting to see to say the least, I would definately want to be there.

BlackDove
05-02-06, 21:54
A small period during the old days in nc1 was fun when content was being dished out, around the time DoY started appearing.

Signaling everyone on the server through "ADMIN" channel that Malstrond was under attack from the DoY bots and then the entire server gathering to push the oncoming bots inside.

Or the event with the apartment where you spawned them inside the Via3 appt skylight and the entire server went inside to defeat them with 20 inches of give and take space to maneouver a shot in.

Those were the FUN events.

Having a lot more of that would be preferable to some storyline you can just "read" about. But, these I believe require a bit more work and preparation than just simply writing VotR, Nema or Neochronicle.

Having them three to four times a week at peak times would probably be best, and it would spark interest if you perchance had the mobs carry some rares and stuff like that (which the DoY bots carried).

My two cents anyway.