a comment about "events"

[steppenrazor]

Hello folks,

I was playing my agent, saturday, no firday night. He's around lvl 63ish, and started looking for a team.

Well I found one, but apon joining, I was told by the leader we had a "secret special mission"

Once the team got filled, the team leader, then informed us, we were going to Reets. To kill to people.

HUN?!?!?

I ddin't have anything going on at the time, so i deside to sat, one or 2 others in the team, didn't believe or didn't want to deal with it and left.

Well we get to stret west back, buff up, then go in reets.

I see the nice little 100% gas floaty. So i'm thinking this is a total joke. The leader tells us the names fo the targets,

and still highly supicious, i head to the dance floor. just out side the room, i start to sneak. (to them that spotted me, must have been pretty funny.

I sneak my way into the glass floor room, up the ramp and thier are out 2 targets, nice and green danceing. Well i line one up, thinking this has got to be a joke, we're in 100% gas.

And i hit my aimed shot - hisss - 600 pts dmg. WTF?!?!?! the rest of the team opens up and all heck breaks lose.

The 2 targets are running all over, I'm laged as heck, one sec thier in my los getting shot, the next thier on the floor below.

No worries, me and the team run around like fools rooting/shooting ect. One or 2 of the folks in the club deside to join in.

Well, after a longer span then i would have liked both targets fall.

Everything is all well and good at this point. wonderful, i've just been in an event type thing and had a good time. wacking 2 chicks in a night club. evil, agenty, omniish.

well befor the 2nd targets body even hit the floor i'm shakeing the exit stick. burst of speed stim. After all we just killed 2 unarmed women, in the middle of a netural club w/ quit a number of witnesses.

I'm out of thier, big time. While i'm exiting the top exit, i see - a bunch of omni guards and such. Thinking them -

1. the clean up squad.
2 or the cover up squad. (ie omni-pol wants to check out this horrie assassnation
or even 3. we've been set up and these team is here to wack us.

I run past and zone.

I'm thinking we need to get back to good old omni and how.

but No!!!!!

I get tells in the team chat from the leader "come back" ect. so, once again, i deside WTF, and head back.

Enter reets, start sneaking right away. work my way to the glass floor room. where i hear the commander order the guard to secure the location ect.

I do my best to stay Out of site and sneaky.

The commander congrulats the theam leader for a job well done, wants to see the sopts where they died. he then asks to have the team named in a privet chat.

He then proced to go the each of us and pay us (rather well) for the job.

I'm sorry, mabye i'm just being a fussy person but

WHAT KIND OF MORON PAYS FOR AN ASSASSNATION IN THE MIDDLE OF A FREAKIN NIGHT CLUB?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? W/ 30 PLUS FOLKS LOOKING ON!?!?!??!

I'm sorry, but that just bugs the living heck out of me.

now the reason i'm posting is 2 fold

1. the very limited information we got, left a very large ammount of the event up to us believeing the team leader. We had no mission info, just an unknowen person word that this was real. even walking into the club i was sceptial. we lost one or 2 members simply becuase we didn't/were not given enf infomation to let us know this wasn't someones idea of a sad joke. So is thier some way, or somehting the ARKs/Event folks could do to give thier "messanges" a token, item, or knowlwed thingy to show - "This person is not pulling your leg, this is an event"

While it might be a minor hassle, it would allow folks hows never done an event to have some assurance that the person bringing them in isn't some jerk wanting to waste thier time.

2. for the love of pete, please wise up a bit. the ending of that event was a joke. I can see the headlines now "Omni-pol pays off assasins for killing 2 unarmed defenless women in night club, flim at 11"

normal SOP wouldn't, shouldn't ever place a person of athority anywhere near the hit team. Bad press if nothing else. In fact, it shoul dhave gone the opsit. Omni commnader shows up, see the seance of the hit. the order the guard to find a deal with the hit team.

thier by giveing omni some form of plasuabl dinablity? ie - they can say "We didn't do it, we're trying to find the scum who did" giveing omni cover, as well as the hit team some cover.

All in all it was fun and enjoyable, but the ending was a tad well stupid. only way i can say it.


edit - let me stress, i had a lot of fun, it was very enjoyable and entrining. i made my agent as an assassin, it was fun to do one. but. Heck had the guard killed me, i'd have been happier. would have been more realistic then picking up my pay check infront of the folks who watched us kill the targets. grrr!!!!!!!

jazger
Steppenrazor omni Nt 109
blitzdakka agent 65
thudgun omni sold 15

[______________Luxxan]

Yea, the Events team seems to have a hard time with endings

Same thing happened a few weeks ago with an event I was in. A Clan pilot was supposedly down in Perpetual Wastes and an Omni patrol was out looking for him. We were sent in, assumably, to find him first. However, it ended up happening that the Omni opened fire on us, so we wasted them all. Fine...so now we're figuring reinforcements will be coming pretty quickly, so we'd better find this pilot fast or it'll be a warzone. Well, after 10 minutes, the "commander" tells us he needs to "investigate further" and to return home. Ok. The end. The event started off nice and even sparked the possibility of a little mini-war between players in PW...but instead it just...fizzled.

Also, I agree with your statement about giving out a little more information. A lot of times, people will just do whatever a Greenie says no matter what because they know they're a story person. This isn't good role-playing. This weekend a large attack was lead on Omni HQ organized by a few people with green names. Nobody knew who they were or who they were working for or who authorized the attack. When I asked their leader, repeatedly, he said "that information is classified." What? How can you possibly organize and lead an invasion of enemy territory, claiming "evidence" of Omni-Pol wrong doing when nobody even knows who you are? If he didn't have a green name, nobody would have listened to him.

So, bottom line, the Events people need to learn to role-play their role instead of banking off a special green name (ditch the green names!) and they also need to work on story follow-through. Believable endings and not abandoning events when they don't go exactly as planned.

[steppenrazor]

me personaly - i didn't have much IC issues with the lack of info. This is omni, need to know. IC i can deal with it simply.

But ooc - We all know thier are jerks and aholes who enjoy giveing others a hard time. the hit i wne ton coul dhave esily been one of them.

The team leader wasn't a greenie, she was a normal player, who later told me she had been asked by a greenie to do this.

Ic wise i was told - Secret mission we need to kill these 2 people

Cool ic wise, all i need to know. But ooc wise, thier should some way for the arks or somehting to mark, give a mission or somehting to thier 'front man/woman" to help assure the players that this isn't some mean joke.

And i've seen a few like this, on my main steppenrazor, i was cruzieing through omni enterment, when i heard the callf ro folks to come join in fighting off claners.

Being an NT, and only lvl 109 (now, 103ish then) I desides eh, haven't died yet today might as well. I show up, a few toehr do, we then walk to omni HQ.

Zone in. stand around doing nothing for 10mins or so, then the commander gives the "all clear"

what i picked up from the commander chap was e was kinda suprised that nothing was happening.

I've played RPGs for ages, an old DND peep here. moved through them all, shadowrun, vampire, larp, gurps, tales from the floating vagabond. i've played in a lot of systems, i've GMed in a lot of systems.

please for the love of pete = Think things through. we're players, you never know what we're going to do. you may want us to go left, but we'll go right. to be a Gm you MUST take this into account and plan acordingly. you must have the whole thing worked out in your head before hand. if it feels fishy in your head, it will be a hugh flounder once its palyed out.

you don't have to map out the whole thing, mainly the begining and the end. the middle part is up to the players. But the begining must be one that will bring the players in. and the ending must fit the seane/story.

Take the event i mentioen the assassnation. which sounds a better ending

1. the one we had. getting payed off in a night club.

2. being asked to return to omni-1, and meet in a mild out of the way location recive our reward and thanks for the good work

3. being call to the comanders office and getting the kuddos thier?

2 and 3 are somewhat reasonable given the nature of the mission.

Had we been sent to fight off some evil assassins, then the first would be the best rout. the public kuddos and reward would be most fitting.

like your event = you fought off the omni team. so rather then keep the mission moveing, say by finding the guy, getting 1/2 way back to safty before a 2nd team shows. or some other nice twist. woul dhave given a much greater event in the long run then

"hun i need to check some stuff out"

"But what about the polite you said we need to resuce? he's lost out here?"

"hum.... return home folks"

I understand getting a wrench thrown in your plot/plans. we're players, that what we do. your GMs/event arks its your job to take that into acount and figure out a way to still make the story you want to tell flow.

do not just drop it, any talented Gm can come up with 30 no more ways to work around it and keep the story moveing. Heck, in the resuce case, i've thought of 20 just now. (have polite break leg, or be infected w/ an omni bug that eats heatlh and prevents healing. sink hole polites walking w/ team falls in hole - opens a mission for the players. 2nd omni team shows. a wondering group of cyborgs desides the team would be nice targets.

thier are many ways to complet the story your telling with out breaking the flow. Heck GMs and event arks can create mobs right? Create a gourp of reasonable lvl mobs compared to the team and stick them right in thier path. Have some psycho rino men kidnap the polite fromt he team while fighting, forcing the team to track him down. Could even bring in more teams as all begin to scour the land scape for these rinomen.

in short = the event can be the best idea in the world, it coul dbe the coolest story in the whole univers, but the ending needs to match the story. it shouldn't just 'drop' or have an ending that just doesn't mesh w/ the story correctly.

i know your trying to tell stroies for a hugh player base, but these are simple things that must be done no matter how big the player base is. a great story with a bad ending is a bad story. think about it, when you read a book, and love it, but the ending is lame. feel let down, like you wasted your time. no matter how good the book, if the ending doesn't match, you get that "bah waste of time feeling"

But then again, you read a book and love it, but its ending fits nicely, you feel almost relived, almost sigh, that was a good book.

thats what people roleplay for, a good story. and a good story must have a good ending. not nessarly a happy one, or a joyful one, it can be sad depressing, hart ripping you name it. but it must fit the story. telling folks - secret mission kill these 2 people shsss don't tell anyone! then paying them in public and the like, just doesn't fit.


jazger
Steppenrazor omni Nt 109
thudgun sold omni 15

[Jynne]

I have noticed that many, many of the recent actions by the Events characters (henceforth referred to as "the Greenies") have been geared at getting groups of people into political zones to engage in PvP conflict.

I think they are trying to drum up interest in PvP in general and give people some sort of reason to fight, in addition to giving them something besides missions to do, by using their influence to make players feel like they're fighting for the good of their side. Overall I think that's relatively good for the game, even if it isn't always good roleplay.

That said, I think such events should at bare minimum conform and refer to the in-game storyline and the out-of-game background we have. It should be about more than creating excuses for people to head out to 0% zones and let fly at each other.

Raiding Omni-HQ is an egregious violation of the Tir Accords, for example, and at very least a Greenie CoT representative or the Captain of the Tir Watch or something should have been at the Tir Grid plaza telling the Greenies agitating for the raid to take it someplace else because it's against the law, pointing out how difficult the current situation is for the CoT, and that it could give O-T an excuse to invade. That would give people who didn't want to PvP a Greenie who was backing their point of view, and give them a chance to get involved and roleplay, too.

[Myers]

Sounds like alot of fun! Who cares about really small plot holes?

[______________Luxxan]

Originally posted by Jynne
Raiding Omni-HQ is an egregious violation of the Tir Accords, for example, and at very least a Greenie CoT representative or the Captain of the Tir Watch or something should have been at the Tir Grid plaza telling the Greenies agitating for the raid to take it someplace else because it's against the law, pointing out how difficult the current situation is for the CoT, and that it could give O-T an excuse to invade. That would give people who didn't want to PvP a Greenie who was backing their point of view, and give them a chance to get involved and roleplay, too.

That's a good point. I was harassing the lead Greenie about violating the Tir Accord, but only through tells. Ironically, the Greenie was only at the Grid for a few minutes half way through the event, because he kept LD'ing, assumably due to too many people in Tir

Still, it just baffles me how non-RP the RP events are. I know the ARKs and GMs participating mean well, but telling a story is all about believability. How believable is it that the CoT would condone an all out raid on HQ with this threat of an OP investigation looming and the ICC in orbit? This is what made me accuse him of being Dust Brigade because they were the only ones I could come up with who would be so ignorant AND keep their identity "classified."

Story-Telling is about keeping your players interested, not shutting them out. Scripting is bad....you need to be reactive, as Jazger said, because 99% of the time what you plan is not what's going to happen. How good your story comes out anyway is all due to how well you can react to change.

[simons]

...or, you were used to set an example, which appeared to be the case to me. Two "greenies" targeted by a LARGE group of greenies, killed by a group of players sent to do the assassination job. I don't know, but if you ask me, a gestapo raid like what I saw in Reet's raises two questions:

1. To whom are they trying to send this violent message to? If its even a message, maybe they were just looking to be mean as hell to a couple people who caused them some grief. Either way they send a large group into the middle of a known party being broadcast around the world, and in front of everyone there, have a team wipe out a couple girls.

2. Are they really who they say they are? IMHO, just because it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, DOESN'T mean its necessarily a duck.

What you might want to do is figure out who's who and why. I for one understand that there's probably a larger story at play here, that rather than throwing at us all in one session, they might actually break up and make it a little more complex like a good writer would.

[______________Martov]

You are a team of 5:

Bureaucrat
Engineer
Agent
Soldier
Martial Artist

A Omni-Pol officer recruits your group for a 'secret' mission. A group of high ranking officials have decided to defect to the Clans. You must show them what Omni-Tek thinks of traitors. The officer informs you that the traitors will meet their Clan contact and spy in the Reets Retreat club in Street West Bank.

When you arrive at Street West Bank, the Omni-Pol officer informs you that he will direct your team by watching from a nearby house. The officer first directs the whole team except the Bureaucrat to enter Reets.

He then tells the Agent and Soldier to go ahead into the bar area of Reets. The Agent finds the Clan contact and while asking for directions, manages to slip some poison into the contact's drink. Within an hour, the contact will be vomiting his insides out.

The Agent is then told to return to the main desk. The Martial Artist kills the Coat boy and the Agent takes his clothes. The Martial Artist moves into Reets to meet up with the Soldier. Now that the coast is clear, the Engineer moves into the first room and rigs the floor with an electric plate. The Engineer then heads outside.

The Traitors arrive.

Seven of them head inside, while one stays near the door to make sure the cover is clear. The Bureaucrat then moves in and convinces the door guard to take a bribe and leave.

The seven Traitors enter Reets and upon entering are given a strong electric shock which sends them flying (aka stunned). The Soldier, Martial Artist, Engineer and the Bureaucrat all move in for the kill. Once the others are in the room, the Agent joins in the fight.

Everyone is paid well and nobody knows exactly how all these bodies got here. A job done right.

~Fin.

I DARE YOU, to create a cooler possible event. Please do!

[______________Bayala]

you forgot about the fixers role in that one hunny.... we can get you in and out of there with incredible speed so you can leave undetected!!!!!!!!
HA!

[frakk2k]

Thing is;

It is the player events that run rubika, not the gm events. They have their own storyline, and they don't care about the players. They could actually play the whole game with only npc's and gm's, no need for players.

Untill gms starts to get involved in the game it self, instead of leading their own story. (Like when they started CoA, FC starts to undermine their credibility, and making it hard for them to run the show. And all in all, it leads to the dust brigade (*).

Id say, let the players run rubika themselves, and fc, add events that are player based, and not made up by a usless event group. (some of you might be players over there, but once you cross over to ARK, you cannot be accounted for, you are working for fc, and not the players anymore. )


* Dust Brigade is FC's way to supress things getting out of hand, let's say someone are killing guards, then they let in dusties and kill everyone in sight.

endline : AO has the worst storyline ever, it starts of nice, with pre-game stories. Heck, even quake I has a better story.

Im not gonna participate in any GM events in the future, unless they make some serious changes.

[_________YumYum Crow]

OK. So it was a GM run event -a black ops mission run by Omni-Pol.
And what would you rather have them do:-
a) say OK, you have done the mission but we won't reward your time and effort because it will be "unrealistic"

b) tell you to go to location x to meet person y at time z to pick up your reward [and discover that you won't be able to make it for RL commitments]

c) or get the reward at the scene for participating

If you feel bad, I'm sure some witnesses can recall enough of your name and appearance to hunt you down and blow you to hell, as all good clanners should do with merciless OT assasins who shoot innocent people in nightclubs.

PS -ever thought they might be setting you up as fall guys. Omni-Pol are faceless. You are not. People can't fight Omnitek, but they can hunt down some rogue assasins...

[Arila]

So, the AO storyline sucks? Propperly, but atleast tehre is a trace of one. unlike the other games out there.

As for the GM run events. I have yet to be in one. But i do doubt that any players would be able to have a continued storyline for several months. without GM support. (FC read that: GM SUPPORT for player events plz!)

So, stop the yakking plz.

[steppenrazor]

Originally posted by YumYum Crow
OK. So it was a GM run event -a black ops mission run by Omni-Pol.
And what would you rather have them do:-
a) say OK, you have done the mission but we won't reward your time and effort because it will be "unrealistic"

b) tell you to go to location x to meet person y at time z to pick up your reward [and discover that you won't be able to make it for RL commitments]

c) or get the reward at the scene for participating

If you feel bad, I'm sure some witnesses can recall enough of your name and appearance to hunt you down and blow you to hell, as all good clanners should do with merciless OT assasins who shoot innocent people in nightclubs.

PS -ever thought they might be setting you up as fall guys. Omni-Pol are faceless. You are not. People can't fight Omnitek, but they can hunt down some rogue assasins...

A. we were asked to do a job. unless wishing to creat a bad rep, employers tend to pay folks.

b. X,Y,Z. Given the amount of time wasted for the arks and greenies to WALK from the entrance, look around the seane of the 'crime' We could have all been safly back in omni-1.

c. Bah what happened.


did you even read my posts, or just see the topic and deisde to open your mouth?

I covred these already. in depth i felt, but i'll simplfy for you.

1. a set up - Great good idea. i would have been fine with that. the omni comander shows up on the site, order his men to find the evil sucm who did this. Fine by me, decent story, one i could live with.

2. The kill then split. - as i said in the time it took them to show up, walk from the entrance to the hit spot. i had been thier and back 2 times. Plenty of time to meet in a simi secure location.


but no,

1. the Set-up angle is gone thrown out the window by Mr. Ark who deside to bring the commander to the seane. And have the commander pay the killers on the seane. Kind hard to go back later and have it have been a set up, hun? after all can't really set up the killers if the person who hired them and PAYED THEM. is know. Just wouldn't work very well. Omni comander calls pressconfrance - "This blah, Blah, These are the poeple who did it! we will bring them to justic". Reporter - "Hum, sir what about the photos of you paying them off 5 mins after they killed blank" Commander - "Hum, no more questions"

2. i don't "feel bad" i just feel that it was a compleatly and utterly moronic end to what could have been a much more enjoyable time.


The Set-up, in fact that what i thought was happening at the time. i was ok with it, but when the commander starts to thanks us and pay us. that kind blows the whole thing out of the water.

Jazger
Steppenrazor omni Nt 113

[steppenrazor]

Originally posted by Arila
So, the AO storyline sucks? Propperly, but atleast tehre is a trace of one. unlike the other games out there.

As for the GM run events. I have yet to be in one. But i do doubt that any players would be able to have a continued storyline for several months. without GM support. (FC read that: GM SUPPORT for player events plz!)

So, stop the yakking plz.

Ah, so its the 'any story is a good stoy' or is it just sit back and take it? be happy with what you get?

I'm so very sorry, I didn't realise that i should pay my money and just shut up. i thought that customer feed back would be a valued part of thier game. I'm a storytell, a GM if you would, been one for ages. I see a distince lack of follow through in the few "stories" i have been involved in.

So i made a post.

1. to let folks who did not know about this issue, know.

2. to call it to attion and hopeful get the GMs thinking.

3. to vent over the destrustion of my story, due to a pethic stry ending.

I was not trying to 'flame' but more offer my oppion on these events, and offer what i have learned on ways to avoid this.

We are paying for this game. and as a paying customer, I have

1. the right to express my displesure of the services rendred.

2. with that, i also have the obligation to point out errors and flaws in the product, in the hopes that the provider will correct these issue, thier by make it a better product.

i wasn't posting about game bugs, or anything to do with tthe 'Game system its self' but with the personal whos job it is to fullfill the RPG claim the game makes.

for them that do not know this - thier is a whole lot more to role playing then killing mobs and gaining lvls. thiers acting and storying telling.

AO got the killing and lvling down pat. But the actualy 'role playing' part of the game is lacking. Weather its just a tid bit of a story here, and thier, i'm fine with that.

But they should be "good" believeable stories. Not drops becuase somehting changed, not a dead end.

I'm sorry if you folks can't see that. Feel free to settle for mediocrity, I personal believe if i'm paying for a product it should be the best my money can by. if you don't thats your choice.

Jazger
Steppenrazor omni NT 113.

[simons]

Ugh. Please, give me a break. If you're going to be so narrow-minded and whine about everything, don't participate in roleplay stuff and events. You won't even stop to consider some of the suggestions I made, which means you apparently can't see beyond one event... you can't accept the fact that maybe this particular action had a reason for being so public.

I personally enjoy the events I've been involved with, and I don't ever view an event as a one-shot deal, but open myself to the possibility that it may be an introduction to a larger thing.

I'll go back to this one because its really funny:

Yea, the Events team seems to have a hard time with endings

Who are you to say that it was meant to have an ending, or be a single event?