13 replies to this topic

[Nor Azman]

(because the banter between the DC and FedCom are just fun to read)

hello. I am just wondering. Are the developers or should the developers encourage role-play from players?

One of the fun things of Battetech is that players can role-play their small part in a grand universe constantly at war. The drama, the personal conflicts. Where players can act out a character in another world. Battletech is not just about boys and big giant toys.

I honestly hope the developers can foster an ambience of roleplay in the upcoming MWO. Where at their discretion, player who role play well, be it a fanatic house loyalist or C-bill hunting Merc, players who role-play well could be rewarded 'role-play points' which is totally cosmetic, to be use for role play matters.

The source of role-play for battletech is huge. And I think injecting Role Playing culture into the upcoming MWO could make MWO a real special place and not just another mmo fps with giant robots. I just love battletech and want MWO to be special. Thanks.

[Tryg]

I wouldn't mind a setup in which roleplay was encouraged (not mandatory by any stretch), however the idea of a system that rewards roleplay would be close to impossible to set up in any sort of fair manner. How do you determine what is deserving of a 'reward' and what isn't? Who monitors the Roleplay to decide? And further, how do you ensure that all Roleplay can be monitored in order to be rewarded?

Ultimately, while I would love to see the developers encourage playing your character within their universe, any sort of system built around such roleplay would be unweildy at best. At worst? Well...I'm sure there are a whole lot of nightmare scenario's folks can think up for this one.

[trycksh0t]

I'm with Tryg on this one. While I love the RP potential that the BattleTech universe offers, I'm willing to leave the Devs alone to do what they do best, namely create the best possible BattleMech experience and keep the events on schedule, and let the players handle the RP side of things.

[Joanna Conners]

The most I think that can be done is setting up forum areas specifically for RP and they've already basically done so. The rest is up to the players.

[Kenyon Burguess]

the problem with role players in the BT universe is everyone wants rank systems in their roleplaying. the devs have already talked about rank in the great houses not being available, and with PVE being out of the running (at this time) as Demona says, unfortunately forums is all thats left.

[HanaYuriko]

In my experience role-playing in MechWarrior for most English-speaking players generally involves using broken languages. Bits of Japanese for Kuritan players, or broken German for the Lyrans, broken Mandarin for Cappies, etc.

Of course I'm highly guilty of this as a GM for an ongoing RPG group... >.>

[Joanna Conners]

Obviously we can RP within the game itself as well. Even if the opposing team is OOC it doesn't prevent you from RPing and enjoying yourself. And if people grief you... blow 'em up.

[Durant Carlyle]

Negative on the role-play of individual MechWarriors. The monitoring of such would be impossible, as would being fair in giving RP points.

Do your role-playing by killing the enemy unit you're facing in battle.

Edited by Durant Carlyle, 07 February 2012 - 09:33 AM.

[Adridos]

Role play is good, fun, but till the point you face someone, who you should argue with. I love RP-ing on this forum, but people take it more as an insult and start calling me troll, questioning my intelligence, etc. Talking with a friend (like Metro), or even someone neutral is really nice. Doing it with an enemy will always make you the "insulter" (and ofc. they insult you all the time in the same fassion - yeah, looking at you Davions!). With that said, I'm all for it, if the player base is ready to accept it.

[CoffiNail]

Clan RP should be easier as they have stated they arte trying to do zellbrigen reward style. More so probably if you take a target out solely by yourself you will get bonus points. I mean come on, MOST people will focus fire. MMMM speculation about clan Warfare

[Joanna Conners]

CoffiNail, on 07 February 2012 - 10:32 AM, said:

Clan RP should be easier as they have stated they arte trying to do zellbrigen reward style. More so probably if you take a target out solely by yourself you will get bonus points. I mean come on, MOST people will focus fire. MMMM speculation about clan Warfare

Clan RP is usually the easiest and most fun too, IMO. Playing as Mercs isn't much different than your friends getting together and playing a game. The only difference is you don't want to die and you're getting paid for it.

[Lolpanzer]

RP is fun, something like this would be awesome!

[Lorcan Lladd]

Of course, anything could greatly add to the enjoyment of the game if well implemented, role-playing especially.
I imagine that we, lone wolves, might be depicted as the romantic MechWarriors of old, whom were often compared to the errant knights of ancient Terra - brave combatants, often of noble blood, responsible for the maintenance of their own tools of war.

We would play this role by protecting said tools; sticking to a single, heritage 'Mech, ideally a venerable and rare model remnant from the Star League, always piloting it, and taking good care of it.

Hah! Not likely. But, still, it sounded like a good idea in my head.

[Kyone Akashi]

MWO actually got me to work on my pilot as a proper character; I've even purchase the "A Time of War" RPG and a couple background books (including, of course, the old Kurita Handbook). Once my creativity is triggered it's hard for me to resist, and I can say already that it has been great fun designing this character and investigating the Combine's society in greater detail.

That being said, I presume actual roleplaying will be largely absent from the game. From what it sounds like, MWO will focus on quick and dirty PvP action - much like All Points Bulletin - so I'm fairly certain that people will have a hard time doing RP in the chat. And in APB you at least have actual "people avatars" and social spots, yet still roleplaying virtually doesn't exist there (which is a shame as the setting is quite interesting). Not because there are no roleplayers, but because the game itself does not truly lend itself to it.
Any meaningful implementation of roleplaying will require vast developer resources, all just to build a component for, let's face it, a minority amongst the target audience.

What would be possible, on the other hand, might be specific and persistent chat channels in the game (in addition to a "lobby", which I imagine will exist for people to talk about stuff whilst they wait for the next match), as well as / or special roleplaying subforums on the official website. No special rewards involved. Roleplaying is it's own reward.
Worst case, though, roleplayers can always find a different outlet for their desires, be it an external website like this one (*shameless Kurita ad*) or chat-based RPG on a media like the IRC.

It would be amazing if we'd get to personalize our Mechwarriors' avatars later on, though. The ideal would of course be a tool like the facial construction kit used in EVE (I wonder if it'd be possible to license it...), or maybe a less advanced version. It could even be 2D and involve creating your pilot's appearance out of a selection of premade "parts" like it works here on this freeware face creation software (obviously with a more dynamic stance and in full colour).
An alternative to this might be the upload of non-copyrighted imagefiles, approved by the staff to prevent abuse and possibly as a paid feature. PotBS allowed you to send in your own flags, and as far as I'm aware the MWO devs were planning on offering customization as paid content, anyways.

Oh well. If nothing else, I can always try to whip up a game of "A Time of War" with a couple friends.