Story events.........and the players who ruin it for us

[_____________MooKids]

Okay, I know that having a story event is kinda rare now, but it is picking up recently. However, most of us can't get much out of these stories because of other people.

Take for example a couple weeks ago when some of my guildmates came across a Rhinoman Mystic. The Mystic was in need of help and required medical technology to save his people. Well my guild and some others were trying to help them out when some person(s) came along and started attacking the Mystic for no reason. The Mystic disappeared and this person's excuse was that Rhinomen had no business being in Newland. That was one story event ruined.

Another one took place yesterday. Another guild mate told me that the Dust Brigade was on the move near Home in Broken Shores. We go out there to help take out the commandos and afterwards, it turns out one of the commandos defected!!! He said that the DB was going to kill his brother who did not join the DB and he wouldn't stand for it so he left. In the end I believe his brother was killed, but we didn't get the whole story. You see, the ex-DBer had defected to Omni-Tek. So one of the clanners there was pissed off that he was OT or just a former DBer and kept attacking him, even though he said to stop. It got to the point that the DBer just left, leaving us with unanswered questions. We had an intelligence gold mine there to help us stop the Dust Brigade, but some idiot just wanted to kill, kill, kill.

Please people, this game isn't all about killing! Sometimes you have to interact WITHOUT YOUR WEAPONS!!! Don't ruin it for everyone else because you just want to kill. We will never get much out of the story if this keeps happening. Be reasonable. I realize that the clanner thought the defecting DBer was an enemy because he went to OT, but right now, OT and the clans need to work together and not against each other when dealing with the Dust Brigade.

[________________Seid]

Good post.

I doubt the player(s) in question can be reasoned with though.

Another twist on this might be that RP-wise that reaction is not too far fetched...

If such characters do have some information they wish to share, maybe they should forestall hostilities by moving into a safe area...

I dont think you can rely on a player population with ... very varying levels of maturity ... to think before they act in such situations.

[Inocybe]

Good post, good points.
We need more people to bring this up as signal to FC.

The Rhinoman Mystic, the DB in Broken Shore, etc - it's instances like these that provide the avenues for participation and story immersion so that the main plotlines won't seem such far off stuff and out of reach of any player, whether high level or not. Fashions shows, road runs, hide-n-seek games, etc are fun player-run small events ... but in the end, if MAIN storyline participation is lacking, then the core storyline of AO will continue in its current pathetic state - limited to and affected by only bland FC-led PCs and a few high-level trigger-happy non-thinkers.

Gosh, Mookids, despite my Asia-Pacific time (we're the ones that get lots of server downtime, not events) , I would have gladly stayed up late just to have a chance at a case like the Rhinoman Mystic *sigh*

[Dabblez]

I think the responsibility lies with FunCom to protect story-based NPCs. After all the assasination attempts of high profile NPCs, surely FunCom must know by now that for any NPC they put in play, someone somewhere will try to kill it for no other reason than the bragging rights of having bagged a rare mob.

I don't believe roleplaying should be enforced, there is space on AO for all styles of play. What I do think is FunCom should make story or event related NPCs invulnerable so that these events can be run to their natural conclusion without interference.

[Kirandar]

I can sum this up in one sentence:

100% gas, no fighting possible.

[_____________MooKids]

I don't think that would really work, because it would affect a large area and might anger some other players who may be hunting in the area or something (or in the case of the DB defector, it wouldn't because we were fighting Masked Commandos right before it and changing it might be too hard.

As an alternative, the story *cough* GMs *cough* characters could have an attack that does something like 99999 points of damage . That would shut up those other guys real quick.

[Jhoanna]

*cough*
Jhoanna, lvl 84 trader, killed Redstar1, lvl 200 story character soldier....
She RPed it... She did what she had to right?

Hail Jhoanna!

Huntress Jhoanna!

[_____________Cloudeh]

O0ops

[______Ripple of Soul]

Pretty easy, give every story related NPC weapons that does 5000 damange per shot and 500k health. whoever attack him/her got killed and the rest of us can pretend it never happened

[Dabblez]

I am sure it is even simpler. The same way that OT PCs can't attack OT PCs in any zone excpet mayhem, so a story NPC could have a flag that prevent people attacking them. So next Chairman Ross wants to give a speach, we actually get to hear the speach without any interference.

[Myers]

The problem is that you can't expect everyone to act realisticly when especially when there are no consequences.
There is no law enforcement, no jail time, not even death so people who want to not act realisticly have no problems doing so.
Sadlly I can't think of anyway they could do this

[Gantilious]

A few suggestions.

Like if you were the one that attacked Ross. This is what they should have in place.

1. You are outcast from the Omni organization. (All Guards attack on site.)
2. You are restricted from trading with other Omni Employees.
3. You are only allowed to be unharassed in the Neutral areas.
4. All omni machines will not trade with you.
5. All Neutral machines will charge you double the normal rate.

And you would Reverse it for Clans. But that punishment would be easily overcome but a pain to have to deal with.

Tabrose

[_______FeloniousPunk]

Add: your new faction status is locked indefinitely, to prevent you from getting an application form and rejoining immediately.

[Dabblez]

I think it is better to try to prevent these things happening in the first place rather than try to punish the culprits afterwards. A simple code change could ensure that when Player A tries to attack an NPC with an active role in an event, Player A's attack should just result in him getting the message "You cannot attack this person at this time", much the same as if you try to attack another player in a non-pvp zone. Player A might find this a little frustrating but the rest of the players would totally blissfully unaware of the averted tragedy and would be able to enjoy the event as it proceeds to its natural conclusion. Of course in a different event the FunCom GMs might decide the same NPC is a fair target. The point is the FunCom Gms must take responsibility for crowd control. Just expecting people to behave sensibly in this context is naive.

On the other hand punishing players afterwards is likely appear arbitrary, error prone and cause a lot of resentment. But perhaps, more to the point., it doesn't actually help the players who saw the event get derailed in the first place.

[Kzak]

It's clear that -something- has to be done to stop events from being stillborn. There's quite a few trigger-happy players out there who seem to care much about the story; they might just as well try to kill special NPCs just to see if they have good loot.

Thus, I'm for the 'flag' option that sets an NPC to be impossible to attack at certain times, unless there's a possible path in the event that allows for attacks to happen. Trigger-happy people shouldn't be allowed to ruin events just like that.

My character (Kzak) partook at an event in Newland Desert a week and a half ago - guess what happened? Several people (Clan and Omni alike) opened fire on an important NPC who had just changed shape according to the plot - the NPC (probably ARK-controlled) fled, and it was ten minutes later before he returned. Most of the roleplayers present were itching to put several hundred rounds into the trigger-happy people's behinds, but sadly Newland Desert is mostly non-PvP. The event continued, only narrowly avoiding premature termination.

[____________Ironheel]

Something REALLY needs to be done a guild mate of mine was just kinda involved in an event. I say kinda because some people killed the NPCs that were the catalyst for said event. A GM should just stand around at events and insta kill tools that feel the need to screw up others enjoyment of this game.

[Kzak]

Insta-killing people for attacking NPCs sounds a little harsh, even if the players are purposefully trying to spoil an event.

A method which might be 'better' (at least not quite as lethal) could be simply teleporting the offender into a Bad Place(TM).

Say, the northeast corner of the world, into an area with a dozen Cyborg Brigadier Generals or so. At least, someplace which will take them a fair while to get back from, if they manage to get out alive. Of course, they can /terminate themselves, but being teleported might give them a little lesson.

EDIT: Randomly teleporting the offender to one of the four corners of the world might do the trick, too.

[________________Bink]

This isn't a problem I have actually come across myself, although I do keep hearing reports.
Unfortunately, there will always be people in this sort of game who have no interest in RP'ing. I say unfortunately, because where as I do not see this as a problem in itself, there are quite a few within this category who have no respect for any RP'ers in the community. I'm sure it is only a minority ( as it usually tends to be ), but the frustration that they cause to the people who do have an interest in the story does need to be addressed.
How this is to be done ultimately lies with FunCom to decide, and we can only hope they do it in such a way that it reflects the style of the game world, whilst not alienating any players.
Everyone who pays for this game has a right to play it in their own way, but that is no reason to ruin it for others. I would love to hear from any of those players who do attack story NPC's for non-RP purposes, and have them explain why they feel the need to do this? Any taker's on this?

[______________Gerinn]

It is ESSENTIAL to get the NPCs flagged as unattackable. This is especially true of same-side GM characters. I can't shoot my fellow OT employees in Trade, so I damn well shouldn't be able to shoot CEO PHILLIP ROSS (c'mon, gimme a break, like he wouldn't have a major deflection shield or something) in the same area. Stop flagging GM characters as NPCs and that might change things.

The problem with GMs responding AFTERWARDS is it makes the event into an indecipherable mishmash of blood, sweat, and tears. GM characters, once the event starts spiraling out of control, are not averse to using massive AE nukes to kill EVERYONE, just to cut down on the mess. That's totally ridiculous and very unfair.

Don't let people attack NPCs unless they have a very good reason to do so. Give the GM a toggle flag so that if, at a certain critical point, they feel like being open to attack, they can do so, but otherwise let the event run as an actual event.

[Khayne]

I agree that event critical NPC's should be unattackable. However there should be a natural explanation for this like "You cannot attack <name>, as he is carrying a portable suppression gas canister."