So, after doing some research for a couple days, digging through community forums, things I remembered from past servers, reading some different lore, and lastly going through handbooks for old servers. I've been compiling a sizable list of some ideas, rectified wrongs, etc.
Some of these I feel are pretty obvious but I wanted to get the ball rolling.
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- First and foremost. We should allow citizens to pick their character model, without having some sort of bar from doing that. I've seen countless servers not only charge for models, but only bar them for their friends/staff. I don't agree with this. If you want to make the general playerbase happy, models should be free to choose without question. (Except for the obvious)
- If we focus on performance, and make sure the server runs smoothly. It will add a huge playing value to the game. Smooth looks nice. No need for unnecessary addons or plugins that slow the engine/clockwork to a dull lag. I was discussing this point last night with Songbird. Lag and the likes of stuttering can be easily avoided by not only having a great server host, but limiting unnecessary features.
- Work cycles and citizen inclusive work should be done by people who know what they're doing. I believe that specific units should earn their tags so to say so that they can lead work cycles. (Maybe have units train units into doing work cycles) That way we could have more units able to do work cycles so we don't reach the point of where there is nothing going on. To further explain my point on this we should have a work cycle schedule (Maybe every 1-2 hour(s)?) so that way there is always roleplay available in that aspect. They need to be simple to follow but can feature complex instructions. But easy enough so that they aren't chaotic.
- The MPF Faction (Whatever we may plan on calling it via lore) should have VERY balanced personalities. On various servers that I've experienced they can either be too little or too heavy. They shouldn't be lifeless, but they also shouldn't be flamboyant. I believe the perfect balance lies in between, that way there is a serious attitude towards them but they tend not to be too personal. It's OK to have a quirky character, but there's a difference in quirks and being overbearing.
- Rebel roleplay should be balanced, but an extremely hidden thing. To prevent metagaming we need to have restrictions to areas, or better coverage with patrols so players can't just simply run off to hidden areas. Again, I've seen this a countless amount of times in many servers. If people know the map, certain people will try to exploit that.
- ERP (I know.) I know how everyone feels about that, it's either lets do it or lets not. Either side has it's arguments. If it's going to be done I feel the restriction should be that it HAS TO STAY in STEAM CHAT. That way there is a fair balance between both of them. I'm not a fan it either, and I think it's an eyesore for people who tend to come across it in game chat. That way it makes both parties happy. NO dedicated channels, no stupid NSFW board on discord or the forums.
- Admins NEED to have care for name quality (This one is pretty obvious), stupid and simple names can't be allowed as it will make the server look bad and like the admins have no sense of injecting into or correcting stupid RP that can easily break RP and ruin immersion. This may seem completely obvious to a lot of people, I don't throw any names under the bus cause that's not how I operate, but I have seen PLENTY of servers do this, and just allow people to have the most ridiculous names.
- If possible, edible items should not be useless, I'm not saying we should have hunger cause that ruins RP scenarios (In my opinion). But they should effect your attributes in some way if possible. That being items like foods, cigarettes, anything that you can possibly consume should create a change in your character.
- I understand what we're trying to do with the CWU and elite worker classes, I don't think that there should be anything BUT admin oriented vendors. NPC Vendors severely deter roleplay situations. All shops, quartermasters, any sort of STORE should be RP based. Just clicking on a menu and selecting is boring. It gets rid of roleplay that could happen.
- Events that are S2K should be CLEARLY ANNOUNCED (Another obvious one). That way there is no immersion breaking hesitation and absolutely stupid standstills when the limited action is happening. It can totally ruin a situation and leave a sour taste in a roleplayers mouth.
- I completely support that IC-APPS should be a complete thing. Forum apps are immersion breaking and I don't personally enjoy them. HOWEVER. If possible, we should create some sort of baseline or agenda so that people who can actually roleplay and who are viable to learn in those positions get it. The last thing you want is some unit or rebel who can't roleplay to be in heavy RP oriented situation. This can seriously damage reputation with the server. People who can't RP can be easily seen, and stick out like a sore thumb. That being said, we should teach and provide instead of ignore and replace.
- PIXELNETWORK: I had this issue with my server and community letting a certain someone control damage rp. Please no over saturated damage RP that allows absolutely stupid and overkill rolling situations. If you don't understand what I mean by damage RP: Damage RP is in essence having rolls effected by your stats and creating a not only unnecessary but over saturated damage system that brings RP to a standstill and requires an admin to constantly check an excel sheet (Yeah I was dumb for letting this happen).
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If you have any other ideas that you think should be mandatory, changed on here, or if you agree with anything, we should use this thread to discuss that.
