Hello folks,

I tried the whole roleplaying thing. I became Krenesky of the Russian Mafia, ruthless anarchist and freedom fighter.

And then it dawned on me tonight:

Roleplaying in Freelancer is about as exciting as going to work and not getting paid.

Now, ask yourself, what do the MOST POPULAR MMORPGs have that Freelancer doesn't?

A fully-malleable universe.

I cannot play the role because the entire universe its based on feels fake. You cannot destroy or build stations, you have no unique character creation, you have no crafts or player economy, The economy is FIXED, and MOST OF ALL: you cannot have true political existince, let alone political hold over any region in the game.

Roleplaying in Freelancer is so unenticing because I have nothing to gain by doing it. But, unfortunately I cannot ignore it, because it has simultaneously disrupted the entire Browclops social fabric built up over the last few months.

I imagine most people will come to a similar conclusion, as HRE has disbanded after only a week, and even GOV's numbers are dwindling, and with that so are their ambitions.

Until then, I will probably not be around much. I play Freelancer to kill or be killed, which as always the intent. I'd rather go to work and get paid than try to roleplay in such a restricted universe.

While the big groups may crumble and fall, mostly I feel due to the small amount of players allowed on at one time, but we small, lone players can still manage nicely. Now if only you darn freighter pilots would drop your cargo instead of forcing me to blow you up we would have lots of fun.

~ DaVoid, Expert Star Diver

Well this certainly was short lived, I think it's possible for people to continue to have alliances and allegiances, but nothing so formal.
What's been a killer here is the introduction of what feels like politics and bureaucracy, some people can get into that, but a lot of others won't, it calls for a long term commitment to something that many players aren't interested in making, this is a space sim not a political strategy game.
Look at what's happened here, right after one group declared it's intention to rule Sirius, other groups annexed territory and declared independence, many players thought this was going to be a means to mix things up a bit in the role play scenario of defending and or capturing territory. Instead the leaders of these groups had "peace talks" and made treaties, this may have been entertaining for the individuals involved, but it left many others feeling excluded and wondering what the point was, it's a small wonder that people are losing interest.......... Now If some wish to continue to role play, fine, but keep it small, keep it simple......remember you're not building an empire that will last for generations........Browclops said it himself, in a years time people may not even remember that his server existed, so let's just have fun there while we can.

Edited by - DocFuglyMark on 13-07-2003 10:48:21

Well, what are all these clans and such doing that keeps you from killing or being killed? The only thing I see that the clans are doing differently is that they're posting what they're going to do. Anyone can toll people or offer escort for freighters, and then anyone can respond to these people as they wish. Anyone can claim Texas as independent and fight anyone who says otherwise. People have been doing this too. By playing freelancer, you're playing your role, whatever role that may be. Whether you're a pirate, a vigilante, a trader, you're playing your role.
That's my take on it, at least.

Just because HRE has disbanded, does not mean it is to be discounted. HRE will continue to hunt the dragon. It will oppose piracy. It has scores to settle. It just has no political objective anymore (in that - no political force). If anyone, and I mean anyone, gets in its way - the phrase "free floating atoms" will be the demonstration.

HRE will hunt for pirates everywhere, in every sector, at any time. Have fun...

Pirates, Government Agent, and Criminals...we like you all...just don't get in our crosshairs!

Defaultuser,
it appears to me, that you never liked the idea of 'role playing', and set out from the get-go to 'prove its lack of worth'. But the unfortunate thing is, as DaShadow put it, you role play, no matter what you do in freelancer, it is afterall classified as a space rpg.
Answer me one question, with all the factions, teams, organizations, clans, etc, what is it that you loose?
The game is what you make of it, if you don't have half as much fun as the rest of us, then mebbe you should try something else, but don't post your opinion stating that its fact. Because it isn't. Nearly everyone, apart from you, that I've talked to has told me that they really enjoy what is happening and are coming up with great idea to expand it, gathering forces to start liberating or owning systems, deciding how to run huge team battles, factions and races and all sorts of great ideas. You go and do whatever you like, but don't try ruining it for everyone else simply because you don't like it.
If you were smart you might suggest something new, but by the sounds of things, you are quite antagonistic towards anything that involves change.

An odd thing happened last night while playing flancer on browclops. I switched characters and was then logged off for cheating. While it was cool that I was finally allowed to shameth the monkeys I did nothing that deserved to shame them.

You have angered the monkey gods apparently. Monkeys are quite slow, and when you rpaidly switch names, they get confused. They petitioned their gods and, being gods, they were quite busy. They smited you for shaming them.

nuff said.

Pirates, Government Agent, and Criminals...we like you all...just don't get in our crosshairs!

Browclops - Question here that I would like Answered from you. Here goes: To my understading, PK is allowed anywhere, anytime, right - even in orbit of Manhattan? The only thing is that we are supposed to keep it reasonable...as far as I understand it.

I did just that twice in the past weekend. Friday I vaped a Rhino, just for the hell of it. He flew into my sights, and shortly there after became a collection of Free floating atoms. I did reimburse him for his cargo at market value, and gave him a little extra for the inconvenience of having to relaunch - whatever. He wasn't a little perturbed by it at all. Quite a lark he said.

Yesterday, I was escorting a freighter...very low weps, shields were a joke, and almost no cash. I gave the FL a buttload of creds, some lvl up weps, and was going to escort him on a trade route for 25% and all the weps we came across in the loop. A noob, in a rhino fired on my charge. He became space dust (Eagle w/ Dbax vs RHino). He then started cheering on Sasha as Sasha jumped me. I hit a trade lane, aborted and came back for another kill - for cheering on Sasha. Sahsa kept chasing me, calling me names so I hit another trade lane, looped back and hit the rhino again before docking (this time for the fun of it).

Maybe I got carried away with the nuking of the rhino, but my problem is a character named Bits started making noise about how that was against the rules, and that he was gonna get me booted or something because of an incognito admin. Once and for all - Do you have admins, are there a set of rules to your server, and why can't I protect my charge (the freighter that hires me to cover him on a trade loop) even if it means vaping a noob here and there?

Thanks!

Justinian

Hail Ceasar! Leader of the Free Peoples of the Holy Roman Empire, defender to the lower ranked and faith, lover of monkies (but not those DAMN DIRTY APES!). God Save Ceasar - or the screamer behind him will! Hail Ceasar!!!

So the rhino attacked, died, then cheered on your death when sasha attacked.
Hmmm, I'da done the same to the rhino, but woulda had a try at sasha once or twice too. I think you did good with the trade lane loops.
It certainly not dock camping or anything like that, so I don't think it's unreasonable.
Ships that can't defend themselves shouldn't make a lot of noise. The rhino knew you were still close by, and should have taken more caution by requesting immediate assistance where he was docked. I'm sure someone would have come to its aid had he requested it, and then that may have deterred you to not have killed them.
But that's just all imo, did bits hear your side of the story too, or how did he know of what was going on?

Right, and I was the escorted freighter, but my RAM died and the computer went *pff*. Sorry about that Justinian.
btw, this is Century and Epsilon too.

ATTN BROWCLOPS:
Just a quick note, flew into unknown off omi-gamma last night to pay homage to the monkies, and ask them to bless a new ship.
The nomads were attacking in groups of 6 to 8, but still doing damage.
Not somewhere for the feint of heart, especially when they appear after undocking from primus.

But please note, I think the nomads should attack like this, they should be more of a challenge.

Anyone interested in racing STOCK Starfliers to Malta for the hell of it? Perhaps a rabbit chase with a 30 second head start....destination Planet Primus??? say .....100K entrance fee? Oh - Did I mention I would match the entrance fee? 10 people = 1,000,000 + 1,000,000 for pot of 2,000,000 creds....60/20/10/10 split for 1st thru 4th....any interested????

If your are interested in either or both, email [email protected]. If I get enough interest I will see if we can get the server made private and I would email passwords...

Need to figure out the details...though.

Hail Ceasar! Leader of the Free Peoples of the Holy Roman Empire, defender to the lower ranked and faith, lover of monkies (but not those DAMN DIRTY APES!). God Save Ceasar - or the screamer behind him will! Hail Ceasar!!!

Yeah, we need to get the Browclops games back up again.