Seeking RP & Matching

[Myrella]

Apparently I'm prone to elaborate suggestions. I was thinking giving people a command to indicate they're seeking RP, and giving some sort of reward to players who "accept" the challenge and earn a certain amount of RPxp with them.

Well, but if it's someone they play with all the time, anyway, this is... I dunno? Call me Devil's Advocate, but I see this being... (am I awful?)

I see this being something like... "Hey, put up your flag so we can get extra RPXP", "Ok!" - but if it's the person they play with all the time anyway, then it's nothing that wouldn't already be happening on a regular basis with or without the flag. Nor does it target a specific player or class of players. Maybe I need to confess with an orderite. I want a command or method to setup that scene with an available orderite quickly.

There is already extra for being in a public room, being with certain individuals (newbs, orderites, nobles, troubadours playing instruments, etc. - I mean, the characters that AREN'T on these lists are the ones at a disadvantage...), hemotes, thinks - so many ways to earn extras, and this is the one that I think could be potentially abused.

To clarify, I'm not against an "I'm looking for RP" flag, just... I have concerns about the additional RPXP for taking up on it, I guess?

I agree. This sounds like more mechanics to keep track of, but nothing to actually make finding RP any easier. I don't think a more complicated RPXP bonus is a solution. I'm more interested ideas that make setting up a scene easier and quicker. Without tells and guildchannels, setting up a quick training session with another guildmember online will be more difficult, and adding "seeking rp" flags doesn't convey specifically that you're looking for training, or what ever sort of scene you're looking for setting up. Like if I want to confess with a orderite. I want a method or command that makes setting up a confession scene with an available orderite to be as quick and easy or easier than it would've been done through tells, finding out who is online and available, and where the scene can be set up.

[Niamh]

I like the paging idea from Star - replicate what the Physicians have.

That'd be super easy for me to do with mob scripts. Would that be helpful for guildhalls across the board, you think? Having a "paging mob" who puts a guild notification out when someone is in the lobby looking for a Reeve/Merchant/what have you?

[Taunya]

I'd be for it.

[Niamh]

I did this for the Physicians at the request of a past GL, so the script is already written. Would just need minor edits per guild.

For personal RP, maybe something like "check <name>" could send "X checks to see if you're available for IC contact." Player can confirm or reject, which notifies the sender. A lack of answer is pretty much an answer all on its own. Prevents extended waiting periods for messengers on an unavailable player, prevents waste of silver on a player that is online but can't RP for OOC reasons.

[Starstarfish]

"Notify" seems the command/term used in a lot of other places.

"Notify room" then also shows/replies you are available and where.

[LonelyNeptune]

Some players have raised that they want a better system to approach or radiate an interest in RPing rather than looking at where and trying to figure out how to get somewhere, if even possible.

What ideas and suggestions do the pbase have about how we could do that? Any rewards we could offer for successful RP pairing? What might that look like?

I'd send them a tell.

[Niamh]

Guildhalls have their own "I need a Reeve/Priest/Whatever!!" greeters across the board now, save for the Brotherhood's base and Knights' Keep (which already has an alert, just a different sort).

Notify sounds better than check. I think we already use check for something...

[Kuzco]

Maybe we need to find a framework for that to work for normies too.

You mean humans, Star. xD

An 'available for RP' tag works. Perhaps an XP bonus for having where on? Not sure if that was implemented already.
Other than that, really, come to troubadour parties. We bust our asses to bring people together and establish RP connections, and sometimes we have a 5-man party, 3 of those being troubs, while there are 10 other people elsewhere.

[galaxgal]

Maybe I'm just a bizarre exception but I usually have a harder time spending RPXP than getting it, so I don't know if we'd need an RPXP bonus for seeking RP tags? I'm not sure if this is common among the pbase, so I don't want to speak for everyone. I do totally want the tag though.

[Helena]

I had proposed ideas to improve "where", long ago.

'Where', does not work well as a way to offer/seek rp: most of the time, lonely people on where are afking, don't have an action set, and do not know what to offer to RP. On the other side, it's not always easy to figure a reason for your character to go on that particular room, and even harder, to provide something to RP with once you arrive.

I thought about inversing the process, and provide an 'offer' rp. To 'offer' rp, you must have an action set (the bare minimum meaning you have something to RP around). Then, people seeking RP could see the various 'offer' and the anonymized actions (ie, "someone is repairing the cobblestones in the church square").

That's not a straight replacement of 'where', since it remains useful to know that people are here or there.