Discussion on Roleplaying Game Mechanics

[Encyros]

There have been some Game Mechanic topics popping up in our conversations over the past few weeks and I wanted to list them here so that they can be discussed and see if the community of both players and the ARK can reach a consensus on how we want to play these:

Info on sight: How much information is immediately known about a person that is seen (name/faction et c.)? How much should normally require a scan?

Shape vs HUD: Is there any point in 29488 wearing a helmet/changing one's appearance via Face Graft/polymorph for concealment?

CommID: Under what circumstances can one start sending a character IC tells?

Suppression Gas: What level of violence should be permitted under suppression gas?

Tells: Are they *normally*, as our standard, considered texts, voice messages, or videos?

Levels/Enlightenment: How should these be played?

[Loriah]

Here's how I usually consider these issues:

Info on sight: How much information is immediately known about a person that is seen (name/faction et c.)? How much should normally require a scan?

Personally I only know their breed and gender from just looking at people. A scan would possibly reveal their name, clan/detachment and faction, possibly even their CommID. I find it more fun to ask about those though!

Shape vs HUD: Is there any point in 29488 wearing a helmet/changing one's appearance via Face Graft/polymorph for concealment?

Difficult one this one really.. but I think a helmet would/should conceal a known face to people. However a scan would still reveal the above mentioned in my opinion.

Regarding changing your face with facegraft, I'd have a problem with that since I most likely wouldn't even notice. I can't remember what faces people run around with anyway, let alone notice if they suddenly change it. Well unless its someone I see around a lot, though I'm not even sure I'd notice it then. *looks at Encyros*

CommID: Under what circumstances can one start sending a character IC tells?

Normally I think you'd have to be told the CommID of someone before you can send messages to them. But I guess a look-up on the name in some databases/scan would give you their ID, much like a phonebook really.

Suppression Gas: What level of violence should be permitted under suppression gas?

Personally I'd just follow the game mechanics on this one. Though I guess you could consider some level of "pvp" in cities, much like being pvp flagged - so for example RP bar-brawls in 75% gas would be okay as well. Only thing I'd be wary about is direct fighting in 100% gas..

To be honest I've not really given this much thought as none of my characters are really into the whole fighting thing.

Tells: Are they *normally*, as our standard, considered texts, voice messages, or videos?

Ugh! Very good question and something I am always confused about! I *think* I consider them voice messages usually, unless otherwise stated in the message.

Levels/Enlightenment: How should these be played?

No idea on this one. I don't really give it much thought in my RP.

[Agentcora]

Info on sight: How much information is immediately known about a person that is seen (name/faction et c.)? How much should normally require a scan?

Same as Loriah, Breed and Gender without a scan. It makes it more engaging than just automatically knowing everything.

Shape vs HUD: Is there any point in 29488 wearing a helmet/changing one's appearance via Face Graft/polymorph for concealment?

Personally, if you've changed your appearance and/or are polymorphed i don't think a HUD would recognise you without a detailed scan. Why would it? Facial, size recognition etc wouldn't work. Lets not forget those trained in deep cover infilitration that use these tactics anyway.

CommID: Under what circumstances can one start sending a character IC tells?

I just say from the start, it wouldn't be difficult to find someones ID with a quick search IMO.

Suppression Gas: What level of violence should be permitted under suppression gas?

I personally don't incorporate the gas into RP. Plus, we've seen violence from ARK storytellers in 100% gas zones anyway.

Tells: Are they *normally*, as our standard, considered texts, voice messages, or videos?

I usually consider them voice, unless stated text only.

Levels/Enlightenment: How should these be played?

I don't really use these in RP, at a stretch i sometimes class levels as security levels.

[Tussa]

Good topic and important for discussion! I think it would benefit us all if there were certain RP conventions we could agree on. I also think the problem mostly lies in the amalgam between thinking realistically ("If this was happening for real..."), seeing what you see on your computer screen ("I treat the game mechanics and its limitations as rules") and the sci-fi aspect of a game set 27 000 years into the future ("If we can do A today, in 2014, we should certainly be able to do B, C and D in 29488!").

I know I have difficulties with this, and I would love to improve my own and other people's roleplay experience by figuring out what works best for most people and then conforming to that.


Info on sight
I think that by seeing a new character for the first time, breed and gender is pretty much all you should be able to tell. Sometimes their profession, depending on their equipment. Let's not pretend that profession specific armour like grid armour or Tier armor doesn't give away the character's porofession. I also think it's safe to say that if you see someone new walking up to you wearing the Sentinel shoulderpads or an Omni-Tek armour set, you could tell their affiliation to either side by a simple glance.

We wouldn't know their names when it's someone we haven't met before. Even if we the players can see the character's name and guild tags, ICly, you won't see letters spelling out names and things floating above their heads. Sometimes, I turn off show all names, and I notice that this really helps the immersion, especially if I can resist target examining them too.

Scanning a person would probably give public information? I think it would be fair enough to assume that first name, handle (nickname) and last name, as well as faction and org affiliation would come up. If someone doesn't *have* a first and/or last name set on their character, perhaps their character's name is classified or unlisted or something?


Shape vs HUD
Loriah has a fair point about facegraft. If it's used, and the second party knows exactly how the first party originally looks, then that's fine - they wouldn't/shouldn't recognize them. If someone I don't know the original looks of has face grafted, I wouldn't be able to tell the character apart from any other stranger. I'd probably also forget the face, if it was a character I didn't see very often. However, if someone asked me to describe them, I would try very hard to stick to the face grafted look.

Helmets, however, should be played on exactly how it works in game. It hides your face, people can't see your facial features nor your eyes. Again, turning off show all names ingame really helps with immersion here!


CommID
I usually send tells right off the bat, though it also happens that I ask for their comlink ID or ask someone else for it. I don't think this is a big deal. However, it invites the option for the receiver to respond with various security checks and "Who is this?" and so on.


Suppression Gas
Interesting point, and tough one. I find it hard to gauge exactly how much violence can be used in zones, as well as how the suppression gas works. It clearly doesn't work by dulling down aggression, so I think I've settled that it somehow, automagically, stops lethal, fast moving attacks, for example firing a gun or a hostile nano program. I do think, however, that bar brawling and simple attacks would be fair. I'm open to fair roleplay. I wouldn't accept that someone simply "pulls out a gun, levels it at Tussa's head and pulls the trigger" without being given room for reaction, or without them having plausible cause to do so by proxy of who their character is - e.g. a roleplaying Omni-Tek official who calls in a lowering of the gas to apprehend or use violence. I willingly accept being hit, grabbed, cut, and thrown things at etc, though. I find it rather hard to roleplay and immerse myself in some sort of magical, cushiony air that would stop my hand.


Tells
I usually consider them voice, unless they've been marked as text messages. However, I've also treated them as messages that don't necessarily have to be emoted on, using some sort of sub-neural technobabble stuff, which could maybe read the messages out through an audio implant, then send a voiced message back through some other implant in the language center of the brain or whatnot. It's 27 000 years into the future! Text to speech has probably evolved to thought to speech, right?


Levels/Enlightenment
I play on Enlightenment by having my character notice the core shifting whenever someone dings 220. I've done it since SL came out and I'll continue to do so. What happens if I one day hit 220 myself, I don't know yet. My character, being an MP, is quite strongly connected to the Source all all that meta-physical hokey pokey. It's the core of her character concept and much of what drives her roleplayed persona.

As for regular levels, including all the way up to 220 as well as alien levels, I roleplay them as security clearance levels.

[Towerblock]

This is an interesting conversation, agreed. I have my own set pattern on how I deal with things like this, but I rarely expect others to conform to my own guidelines. So, let's just throw them on the table.

Info on sight

I take it for granted things are as they appear, unless I have IC reasons to think otherwise. I do use map upgrades, but it really depends on which character I play as to how much I try to utilize the difference between the coloured dots and what they mean. As Bubba, I used them extensively because he needed to be sure who he was dealing with. Some of my other characters didn't really care so much. It was largely a matter of utility. However, that being said I do see this as nothing more than using what technology is available. Map upgrades being technology, I see no reason why I shouldn't have that option. Names, org information, and anything else I bother even less with (Bubba used the Rubi-ka Registry to look people up, but same reasons as before) unless there is a need to. Org bots and their command systems are not what I consider part of the technology, though they do exist on the fringe of whats realistic. When I was playing with the Rangers, the org bot was actually an IC Public Announcement system. But, there was a valid reason for that. I have not done that since.


Shape vs HUD

I think both are fine, provided there are guidelines for them that are understandable and if a question should come up, people can solve the issue between themselves. This places more personal responsibility on the table. Helmets or masks covering faces? Works for me. Facegraft technology? Totally within the technology given. It would be sort of a shame to not allow particularly Agents to use their given IG toolsets to facilitate their RP. However, using these tools should come with the idea that if there are mistakes or traces of evidence or anything like that, someone who doesn't trust the information given can have the opportunity to uncover the truth. That door should swing both ways, definitely.

CommID

Commlink ID's and handles. I think it depends on the level of immersion you are comfortable handling. Skribblez, one of my characters, did not actually have a commID that was usable. Since he was considered a level of barbaric, it made no sense for him to even be registered with Omni-com. As for the rest of my characters, I usually make sure to mention that my character may have one or two CommID (though I must use the same /tell ability) one being public and the other being private. Seems legit to me.

Suppression Gas

This is one that has caused me a moment of pause or three in the past. I have since made it a point to try to avoid actually using violence as a means of handling situations in areas that are marked by the game as being non-active. In active areas, I am forced to deal with it and then all bets are off. However, in the past I have done things of a non-violent nature but partially aggressive, such as flinging food or water or something filthy at someone (as the player of Agentcora would point out!)

Tells

I default them as voice and video conferencing tools. I also have been known to use the code [Incoming Text Msg] or something like it to indicate nothing more than whats on the package. One could logically substitute the indicator [Incoming Voice Msg] and that would seem logical as well.

Here is the kicker, and this is the part where things can seem a bit more Sci-fi. Considering nowadays you can use a particular device and scan the normal airwaves for specific frequencies, then latching onto local signals (provided the other play is okay with it) and then send something. However, I would not use that as a stick to gain information you couldn't normally get.


Levels/Enlightenment

In the beginning I used to find it a little strange to call dinging 220 as actual 'enlightenment' because its really not what I consider anything like that IRL. I do however, notice the core shifting and that to me is an indicator of someone of power somehow connecting itself to the source in a really faint way. Kinda like how all the force users in the Star Wars universe can barely 'sense' one another.

I treat levels somewhat strangely. I use them, but only as a rough guideline. I consider someone whos gotten closer to becoming a paragon of sorts (indicated by the core shifting) and someone whom has not. When it comes to actual combat, I really do not so much care for emote combat. I mean I'll use it, but its not that much fun because there are only illusory elements of AO combat is. It seems Klugey and wonky at best, and even moreso if you do not trust or know the person you are engaging with on an RP level. It never ends well, with me.

However, I find it completely comfortable and am grateful for the /duel command. It was the closest thing I could find to a reasonable answer to that particular issue.

As for AI levels, I'm with Tussa on this one and like to think of them as security levels. Though, it seems to not mean much in terms of actual RP gameplay, and it has only ever come up once in a RP scenario.


I hope any of this helps. I realize were all kinda good at what we do, and most of the time we can negotiate the terms of our roleplay and what certain elements of that roleplay mean. The best advice to give I think would be that 'do not assume' sort of safety catch. If a problem should arise between two players, its usually best to either separate, or find a solution together. I am far more approachable OOC than some of my characters are IC. The OOC channel we use, is entirely appropriate imo to talk about stuff like that should the need arise.

[Lornavash]

These are all really good points.

Here's my two cents on this. I've looked into our storyline information to back this up, so please consider this the ARK/Events Team perspective on this.

Info on sight
From my understanding of this, this could be varied for the character's perspective.

Omni-Pol, Omni-Reform or hell any authoritative body would likely have access to most information about someone when they see them. That is if they're an appropriately registered Omni-Tek citizen. This would subsequently be less detailed if they were looking at a clan or neutral citizen.

The same goes for say the Knights, Sentinels, Unionists, etc looking at Clan citizens, they'd be likely able to gather a detailed piece of information on them but not to the detail that Omni-Tek keeps on their people because the Clans don't appreciate the big brother-esque way that Omni-Tek runs things.

Based on the technology of the era, I think most of this information would be gathered automatically if they are of a reasonable level (above 20) because they would have interfaced with an insurance terminal, used a mission terminal, entered the grid. All of which would gather some piece of information, particularly insurance terminals which need a heavy amount of information to ensure you don't return in the body of a quabbit with the brain capacity of a blubbag.

From this perspective, I'd say this would be the limit of the information immediately known.

Outside of these perspectives? I would say that the regular Joe Bloggs on the street would be able to gather obvious detail such as breed, gender based on body shape. Occular implants or good guess would be able to detail the weight and height of an individual.

My thoughts are split on this one around faction:

• Firstly through assumption you could gather someone's factional detail, ie: are they wearing faction specific armour.
• Secondly, most people wear tokenboards on their collars, simply looking for a faction appropriate collar or 'pips' could give away what side they stand for.
• Thirdly, no tokenboard and no factional detailed armour, you could assume someone's neutral, but pardon the pun it's a very grey area, so I'd say ask if there are no giveaways.

Shape Vs HUD
I'd happily say that a helmet would conceal someone's identity but unless they were actively blocking scans on themselves, you'd be easily able to identify them as per what I said in the previous point.

Facial Grafting, unless someone underwent vocal reconstruction or like changed 'ze way zey spoke', or went through a first and last name change, could be reasonable to assume that you are still able to identify them as the original person that they were. The only exception to this would be say for example a false profession agent who changes faces, changes voice and changes name you could completely assume they are someone else.

Facial Grafting, coupled with a name change and a factional change could in my mind be a fresh start for someone, since you'd always remember them top level as 'Loriah' the clan woman or 'Agentcora' the Omni woman.

CommID
This one I would say, again around the point of authoritative figure on Rubi-Ka this would likely be stored on some database. Omni-Comm would have the commID of every Omni-Tek citizen on Rubi-Ka and it be quite easy for them to get access to the commID of any Omni-Tek citizen across the galaxy.

ClanIDs I would say would be harder to get at, freedom and all that. However they would still be easily gainable through clans.

In my mind it's hard to imagine them as anything other than a string of digits, much like mobile numbers. You could guess at it to contact someone, by starting at 07000000000 and going up to 07999999999 for example but you'd nark off an incredibly high amount of people on the way up.

In theory if you're in close range of a person, it's reasonable to assume that the technology allows for a broadband transmission of a message in a particular direction or at a particular place. Which while you wouldn't need their CommID because it'd be like sending a group message to anyone and everyone within that place, you'd run the risk of someone who shouldn't see it; seeing it.

Suppression Gas
In my mind although this doesn't act like a 'you can't have that thought' gas. It, to quote a certain person, provides a "difference between having an impulse, and acting on it." Suppression gas in my mind is what allows people to draw the gun or unsheathe a sword, but stops them from pulling the trigger or slicing at someone. I would say that it could even interfere with the loading mechanism of weaponry and or interfere with hostile nanoprograms, but the thought of it temporarily dulling blades melts my brain.

It's hard to provide reason to game mechanics but I see this as the direct way suppression gas could affect someone.

Indirectly however I see a way to overcome this. If I built a bomb and carried it into 100% suppression area, could I detonate this and cause damage? *shrugs* probably, but the suppression gas may well interfere preventing detonation.

I see Suppression Gas as an unintelligent inert gas that is simply pumped out across Rubi-Ka at various concentration.

If we were to change our perspective on Suppression Gas. (Which we could write some lore for, because as far as I'm aware there isn't much on this.) We could look at it as an intelligent nano-program or airborne nanites that specifically go out of their way to jam weapons, halt nanoprograms and wrap themselves around blades to dull them. Like active denial of service. Or gremlins in the system.

Tells
I would say these are text based messages normally, initially. But it could be reasonable to assume they are voice based. Alot of the roleplaying I've done, I've included facial emotions like *laughs* *coughs* etc. so it could be assumed that they are viable as video comms as well. For me, it's personal preference.

Levels/Enlightenment
I like the perspective that the people before me have detailed (Cora, Tussa, Towerblock, Loriah) that these are Security Levels.

Almost like a length of service award in relation to a relevant faction that rises through time and merit as a result of actions done onbehalf of the relevant company/association.
ie:
Omni-Tek: From new-starter to well established employee.
Clan: Barely trusted new-clansmen to deeply seated trustee.
Neutral: Uncertain newcomer to frequent devotee to equality and neutrality.

These are all of course open to debate, this is merely the Events Team/ARK perspective and not by any means 'my word is law.'

[Towerblock]

Some of our combined ideas really are not all that far off from each other. I'm down with coming up with some sort of lore reason for things to lock up just before violence occurs.

Example: A part of a nano-cloud that serves to function to identify and terminate any action that causes a person or machine to react in violence. The particles adhere to people as they enter the gas, and the nanomachines within the cloud are near instantly aware. The classification of violence and violent actions can be a detailed algorithm of sorts, and the nanomachines do not necessarily interfere in any other way other than remove the impulse on a technical level. This leaves emotional involvement completely out.

This likely could make gas levels somewhat visible to anyone with scanning equipment. It can also be a thing that people could 'turn off' in a roleplay sense, provided they had access to the equipment that administers the function. However, if someone manipulated or hacked the nano machines to disinclude certain violent actions or even whole engagements, this could be a valuable asset to someone with dubious intents.

[Tussa]

Suppression Gas
In my mind although this doesn't act like a 'you can't have that thought' gas. It, to quote a certain person, provides a "difference between having an impulse, and acting on it." Suppression gas in my mind is what allows people to draw the gun or unsheathe a sword, but stops them from pulling the trigger or slicing at someone. I would say that it could even interfere with the loading mechanism of weaponry and or interfere with hostile nanoprograms, but the thought of it temporarily dulling blades melts my brain.

It's hard to provide reason to game mechanics but I see this as the direct way suppression gas could affect someone.

Indirectly however I see a way to overcome this. If I built a bomb and carried it into 100% suppression area, could I detonate this and cause damage? *shrugs* probably, but the suppression gas may well interfere preventing detonation.

I see Suppression Gas as an unintelligent inert gas that is simply pumped out across Rubi-Ka at various concentration.

If we were to change our perspective on Suppression Gas. (Which we could write some lore for, because as far as I'm aware there isn't much on this.) We could look at it as an intelligent nano-program or airborne nanites that specifically go out of their way to jam weapons, halt nanoprograms and wrap themselves around blades to dull them. Like active denial of service. Or gremlins in the system.

I think this is an important topic to discuss between ARK/Players. Since you guys can bypass the suppression gas by way of GM commands and what have you, LTCs and story characters are always able to open fire and attack, regardless. We, however, cannot.

A brawl or a fight or something like that could also state a point, rather than simply sending someone to reclaim.

It's understandable that characters with certain authority can request the higher-ups to lower the gas levels in an area when a situation really calls for it, but it can also become drab. Also, how fast would that even happen? I don't think of it as instantaneous...after all, when you move from 75% gas into pvp-enabled areas, there is a grace period. A request to lower the gas levels would also take time. It has to be called in, approved, executed and then it'll take time before the levels change.

But again... ARK can bypass it with GM commands. What if these characters could still do these things, but it would take longer before the "gas levels" were down, and instead of just enabling PvP, maybe you could actually lower the gas? I know that's possible.

What would be a great compromise for both players and ARK here?

[Logan]

While I agree with several ideas posted here, I beg to differ on several things that were posted.

Info on sight:
Gender/basic body type/basic facial/hair characteristics. All that depend on what's visible of course. Someone in this for example or anything of the like should not have any such visible characteristics.

Shape vs HUD:
As Vash said mostly, but I can't accept that someone using HUD would simply have access to almost everything about someone, unless on RK there's no privacy at all and everyone has access to everything about someone else. Yes, they can find out, but they need to search. If Eva has access to the database she might know on the fly but I doubt that every OT employ has for example. And even if he has and has the hud connected to the central database I doubt he would walk around with it, not caring if someone gets access to that by any means.

Also scanning people should in my opinion have some input parameters. If you know nothing about someone your best bet would be facial recognition programs, but those wouldn't work on someone with a helmet, and they'd have a big chance of failure on semi-hidden faces (be that because of a hood or poor lighting or long distance). Body type matching could be used as well but it wouldn't be much useful due to the amount of people with alike body types. Access to someone's DNA tho' would yield a 100% result, but again not everyone has access to insurance patterns, especially to people from other factions.

CommID
As before. Altho' I find it possible for someone to find it out, I don't believe it should be abused. Not many people have access to individuals details with no effort. I usually give mine to people my character wants to have connections with. What Vash said about sending info to someone's com without using the ID, through proximity, with a risk of other people recieving the message as well is a nice idea.

Suppression Gas
I don't like it one bit! But that aside it's pretty much what Vash said again. Tussa's idea is logical tho' and I'd be glad if it got implemented.

Tells
I mostly use it as a mobile phone (voice stream), but can as well be used as video stream, if needed. Whenever I send a message as a text I inform the other one of it putting [text] at the start or something along those lines.

Levels/Enlightenment
I don't use it, and if someone does I usually follow along, playing it as he does.
Altho' what Vash said stands to logic as well as what both Tussa and Bubba said.

[Xeenah]

http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...43&postcount=1

The suppression gas suppressing aggressive of violent "thoughts" poses serious limitations. It's already known, in this day and age, that survival calls upon aggressiveness and suppressing it would lead to a deadly apathy. This is what inspired what happened on planet Miranda in the movie Serenity (Firefly).

The notion of suppression gas "suppressing any aggressive or actively violent thoughts" puts a noose around RP held in high suppression gas zones. By this standard, you couldn't even "think" of telling someone "I'm eager to meet you in a low suppression zone", because speaking these words out is taking action upon a violent thought. Heck, you wouldn't even want to get up of that chair...

However, if the suppression gas acts to limit or entirely suppress harmful actions, that would already be more flexible while retaining the desired effect and allows for RP to actually be held, I mean, held beyond discussing rainbows and flowers in high suppression zones

I think it's worth considering, if you want the result to be what you're actually aiming for.

[Xeenah]

CommID: Under what circumstances can one start sending a character IC tells?
As much as my memory allows me to remember. I have no intention of keeping a list of who allows it or not. For me, that's what it comes down to. If I'm met with "I didn't give you my comlink ID", I would probably remove that person from my friends list because otherwise I'll eventually forget who gave me the OK for IC tells and who didn't.

I don't mind receiving IC tells from people without having them previously OK'ed, for that same reason: I don't want them to have to keep records on their computers of who they can contact or not. At any given moment in the IC call, I reserve the right to hang up or task my comlink with other task, like blocking caller ID or sending to message box.


Suppression Gas: What level of violence should be permitted under suppression gas?
I gave a part of answer in my post above.

Another thing on this topic is consistency. Two things:
1) Usage previous consented in a specific zone

If a zone has been consistently used in RP involving a certain level of violence, it's easy to start considering this a "usual thing", no malice intended. Communication's your best friend, before jumping on high horses.

2) Usage previously consented by specific players.

If a player has previously RPed violent actions in a high suppression zone, it's an easy slip to think such player allows this. Again, no malice intended, just working from a very human brain.

For both cases, if a player changes stance on those two circumstances depending if s/he got wind in their back or in their face... I'll draw my own conclusions.


Tells: Are they *normally*, as our standard, considered texts, voice messages, or videos?
I let other players decide for their own comlink.

As for my own comlink, I consider mine voice only by default, unless I use visual emotes like *smiles* or the like. Just like my Skype, actually. Camera's off by default, unless I choose to activate it.


Levels/Enlightenment: How should these be played?
Levels:
I've always treated them as security levels clearances, actions going straight into your personal record by some form of monitoring.

Enlightenment:
I consider it to have different effects on people. I generally tend to consider that it makes one more resilient to "influence" related to faction change inducers. I consider that a faction change from someone who reached enlightenment comes from a deliberate decision of that character, decision which is not induced by forceful mechanisms.

The feeling of "the core of my being shift" doesn't "rock" Xee so much now, but she definitely notices when someone reaches enlightenment, having felt it herself and meditated on it (some MAs do that kind of stuff ).

[Agrestus]

I pretty much agree with what people have posted. The difficulty with blanket rules however is that there's always an exception, given the circumstances and people in question.


Info on sight:

Depends. For most people, what you see (appearance) is what you get. If the person you're looking at is the sort of person that isn't high profile or high security (and there's something akin to a social network or comm-id "bluetooth" on Rubi-Ka) it's possible you could gleam maybe a nickname and some basic information from common implants or datapads, but only if you were actively looking for it.

If your character is a member of law enforcement or an experienced hacker, I'd imagine you'd learn a little bit more from a scan, along with law enforcement having facial recognition technology from ocular implants linking to databases and whatnot if they have it on file (much like Vash's post).

Ultimately, it depends on the type of character each of you are when you encounter each other. One may gleam more information from the other, be it training or surveillance tech.

It's always best to cover this with the other person beforehand though if possible. Doesn't hurt to ask what they might be able to find out!


Shape vs HUD:

Again, it depends on the person you're encountering, and what type of character you play. But generally, given the difficulty (and expense) of changing nicknames and appearance in the literal sense, I'm always willing to accept someone wearing a helmet or convincing disguise as someone else if they RP it well.

Bonus points go to those skilled in such a thing, like agents or undercover operatives. Depending on whether they've actually changed their name and face or not, if they RP it as such convincingly I tend to play along.

As for polymorphs, unless someone goes out of their way to exclaim or act like they're people beneath the fur, I'll assume they're an animal and not a person. If the character I'm playing is paranoid, security-conscious or simply su****ious, I'll perform a scan and ask that person OOCly if I'd be able to spot anything unusual.


CommID:

Depends once again on the type of person you're looking to contact, and the type of person you play. It never hurts to ask OOC if you're unsure.


Suppression Gas:

Suppression gas is an interesting one. I like to think of it as a drug pumped into the air to give people a relaxed demeanour and reduced tendency to violence. The higher concentration of gas, the more powerful the effect.

Given how exposed people are to it however, it's entirely possible people could build up enough immunity to trigger violence if provoked (admittedly a lot longer provocation than in 0%).

There's also those wearing helmets with filtration systems, specialised chest implants or breathing through gas masks. I like to imagine those people are immune to the effects of the gas (allowing Omni-Pol or ARK to beat up people in Rompa Bar for example) if they're wearing a helmet or roleplaying something similar. This also provides an interesting take on the gas, as by yanking off the helmet you could possibly pacify the person trying to arrest you.


Tells:

I like to think of them as typically voice messages for general communication. However, text and video are likely still used under certain circumstances, like a text message for covert messages.

Given there's rudimentary technology these days for speech-to-text and thought-to-text in devleopment, it's possible that those of a sufficient background (InternOps/hackers/MP's maybe?) would be able to convey messages through Tells via "thinking" the text message and being received by a brain implant.

Of course, that's entirely hypothetical but I'd accept it as plausible under certain circumstances.


Levels/Enlightenment:

I generally tend to ignore levels. The actions of the character, and the way they carry themselves speaks a lot about how I respond to them. Playing the game and earning a couple levels does not make your character suddenly more respected or powerful in RP.

If you're good enough to create an atmosphere and weight around the character you're portraying (without forcing it - subtlety is key!) that's worth a lot more to me than a number.

You can be level 2 and terrifying. You can also be level 220 and a complete fool.

[Tussa]

Sidequestion:

I'm curious about how many of the active roleplayers play the game with names turned off?

I do, sometimes, but the more I think about it, the more I want to make it a permanent thing for roleplaying scenarios, given how much I feel it helps the immersion.

[Towerblock]

I play with names turned on, but I only do so because it helps me in PVM. In RP, it only affects me OOC, and I don't even acknowledge it IC. Its the main reason I actually introduce my characters in social and public ways. Besides, handles aren't exactly proper names people always use.

[Tussa]

Well of course they're not IC :-)

[Xeenah]

I play with names on — kicking ass helps when you take names Pun aside, I took the habit of having it on due to griefers.

[Vinele]

Good topic, i'm glad it was brought up as a few of these points always kind of threw me off. I have nothing to contribute, just saying kudos

[Dagget]

The suppression gas situation is, of course, purely a clever game mechanic that is just about impossible to fully rectify with the roleplay view. Saying it is nanobots that disables most types of weapons or neutralizes cast nanobots covers a lot of situations but melee fighting, from simple 'brawling' to edged/blunt weapons requires that the 'suppression' take place as well on the individual. Best I can suggest is that everyone, even lower rank individuals with no implants, still have some embedded chip that is tuned to the local suppression level and is able to block impulses. This is conceivable tech in the 29400's, and still makes allowances for certain individuals to have the ability to 'override' that fundamental implant under certain circumstances.

.

[Towerblock]

The suppression gas situation is, of course, purely a clever game mechanic that is just about impossible to fully rectify with the roleplay view. Saying it is nanobots that disables most types of weapons or neutralizes cast nanobots covers a lot of situations but melee fighting, from simple 'brawling' to edged/blunt weapons requires that the 'suppression' take place as well on the individual. Best I can suggest is that everyone, even lower rank individuals with no implants, still have some embedded chip that is tuned to the local suppression level and is able to block impulses. This is conceivable tech in the 29400's, and still makes allowances for certain individuals to have the ability to 'override' that fundamental implant under certain circumstances.

.

It still falls under the category of 'something that can be removed with the appropriate skill and/or time'. Simple surgery at home can remove a chip in the skin, anyone who has their pet chipped at the vet can tell you its not a really complex scenario. And, with the advent of supertechnology that can remove entire systems and/or implant them while the patient is still conscious, well.. that only makes it less complex.

I'm all for a solution. I'm even for a solution of 'we don't go there' either. But, then you run the risk of no one ever caring about agreed upon RP rules as well.

Which gets back to another conversation earlier in this thread about lvl 1's and lvl 220's. On RK2 we had two situations where people were rolling fresh from newbie island and then joined by a couple of masked vets who eventually demanded IC and OOC that they should be respected for godmoding each other, and anyone that got involved in their RP, which was a set of strange and non-canonical angles that didn't much sense to the rest of us. You do run that risk, and this wouldn't be the first game people used for that platform.

I really only use levels as a guideline, but levels can also be a representation of actual devotion to the game. What would impress me the most (and this happens far more often than not) is that I would follow the roleplay of someone who seems to be stable and knows the ropes, backs it up with well thought out RP, and then has a sense of character evolution over time. Levels none withstanding. Its a hard act to follow, but for someone to come in fresh rolled off of newbie island and then basically enforce a respect of authority rule on people IC and OOC, seems a bit exceptional.

[Vinele]

It still falls under the category of 'something that can be removed with the appropriate skill and/or time'. Simple surgery at home can remove a chip in the skin, anyone who has their pet chipped at the vet can tell you its not a really complex scenario. And, with the advent of supertechnology that can remove entire systems and/or implant them while the patient is still conscious, well.. that only makes it less complex.

I'm all for a solution. I'm even for a solution of 'we don't go there' either. But, then you run the risk of no one ever caring about agreed upon RP rules as well.

Which gets back to another conversation earlier in this thread about lvl 1's and lvl 220's. On RK2 we had two situations where people were rolling fresh from newbie island and then joined by a couple of masked vets who eventually demanded IC and OOC that they should be respected for godmoding each other, and anyone that got involved in their RP, which was a set of strange and non-canonical angles that didn't much sense to the rest of us. You do run that risk, and this wouldn't be the first game people used for that platform.

I really only use levels as a guideline, but levels can also be a representation of actual devotion to the game. What would impress me the most (and this happens far more often than not) is that I would follow the roleplay of someone who seems to be stable and knows the ropes, backs it up with well thought out RP, and then has a sense of character evolution over time. Levels none withstanding. Its a hard act to follow, but for someone to come in fresh rolled off of newbie island and then basically enforce a respect of authority rule on people IC and OOC, seems a bit exceptional.

This sadly i have come across in just about every game iv RPed in. People can easily get the hero complex. Its almost kind of like a single player game mentality. My character is the hero, bow down to me while i save the day. Then you get exclusive little "clicks" that form and you either RP their way or go away. Its sad, but common.