Overhauling SRP - A plethora of suggestions to improve the server

[Ryanark]

I would like to preface this post by saying that what I will be talking about are actual criticisms/suggestions, furthermore, I am not an active member of the SRP community, I have not been active on here for a number of years. I spend a lot of time on the sister server FRP instead, but after FRP has run into quite the rough patch recently, so I would like to lend some ideas to SRP to hopefully improve the entire network as a whole.
But in the end, I believe the players of SRP will find that my suggestions are going to improve the quality of life on SRP immensely.

2nd preface: I have no idea whether or not some of these ideas have already been suggested, as mentioned before I am not an active member of the community so forgive my ignorance!

Alright, let's get right down into the dirt. I'm going to be brutally honest throughout the rest of this post - but first of all to address my Kryptonite with SRP: the chat system.

The chat system is by far one of the most defining features of a server. It's the face of your server, how people will recognize and remember a server when it's mentioned. I'll be honest and say that SRP's chat system is the apex of all eyesores, it is not even a thing that has bothered me recently, but it has been an annoyance of mine even since 2017. So many different colors, the entire spectrum of colors can be found in the SRP chat most likely. And, as far as I am concerned, SRP doesn't have a defining 'palette' of colors, meaning that basically all systems will use a set of colors to keep things consistent. The closest thing I found to this on current SRP is the holograms at spawn with a consistent set of colors; white and pink. Apart from that, SRP is a mishmash of different colors, while on FRP you can instantly recognize a neutral, and mild palette of colors which include dark grey, grey, gold, and purple which you can find everywhere.
In addition to this; Remove the obnoxious prefixes and suffixes. I get it, you wanna show off your donator rank. Cool, how about you show it off with just a color? And who needs to know that you're on the football team? Why not find out this sort of information through roleplay instead?

Deviating from the color aspect of the chat - We must make the change to a more effective roleplay chat system. No more paying for ranks just to be able to do an action and talk in the same /me - you can do this with ease on FRP. Allow me to demonstrate quickly the spoilers below the differences between the two systems. On top of this, up to double-appended emotes would also be added of course. This way, you can break away from Minecraft's limited chat and instead write however long of a paragraph emote you'd like to write with ease.

Spoiler: Typical SRP action

/me &4would reach up high to grab the salt on the cabinet. &f"Here is the salt." &4He would set it back down. >
[obnoxious prefixes]Aldric would reach up high to grab the salt on the cabinet. "Here is the salt." He would set it back down.

Spoiler: Typical FRP action

*would reach up high to grab the salt on the cabinet. "Here is the salt." *He would set it back down. >
Aldric would reach up high to grab the salt on the cabinet. "Here is the salt." He would set it back down.

Just looking at this comparison, you can see quickly how the new system is much easier to use - no more sifting through MC color codes to figure out which edgy color you'd like to use in your action. And of course, no more paying for ranks just to be able to talk and emote at the same time - which many would consider imperative to roleplay!​

To be honest, I would literally just recommend that you log onto FRP and just copy their OOC/LOOC/RP chat look. There is literally no shame in doing so, you are part of the same network, and to be frank it would make even more sense if both servers kept their chats consistent.

So - brutally honest TL;DR: The chat colors are terrible, inconsistent, and the chat as a whole is an eyesore. Pick a set of pleasing colors and use them in all system-related menus and texts to keep it consistent. Use FRP as a template, and copy their OOC/LOOC and RP chat look, no shame in doing so.

Adopting FRP's systems is a great idea, and yet again there is absolutely no shame in doing so. They have an excellent RP Engine plugin that is custom-coded and unique to Roleplay Hub. They also have several more plugins that connect with one another, such as the wardrobe, the settings, the character switching system, and more. Of course, if you'd like one of these things, you have to get all of them. As I have heard, they aren't modular. - Now, why do this? To be honest, I think that SRP just needs an overhaul in general. With a complete redesign, FRP's systems are fresh, modern, and work very well. If SRP were to adopt this, it would be a major gamechanger and a huge improvement.

Now, of course.. These changes aren't going to happen overnight, let's be honest. It's going to take quite a while for these changes to be implemented. But with enough support from the community (you!), I am sure the staff team would consider these ideas, albeit quite radical. In the end, I would say that SRP has nothing to lose, but to gain from this change.

And, if any staff happen to read this if you'd like any help with implementing these changes I highly suggest you reach out to me on Discord; Ryanark#9337
Lastly, be open to these changes. Even provide your own thoughts below!

Thank you for reading,
A concerned member of the community, Ryanark.

P.S. Please add dark mode to the forums.

 

[Omegabet_]

Massive +1

(Edit, +1 from Inde as well cause he doesn't have an account)

 

[Kana]

+1/-1
While most of these are great ideas, SRP already has the wardrobe function, and you can already do the FRPs actions in SRP. You don't need a rank to talk in the same action, the color that it defaults as IS kinda ugly though.​

 

[Omegabet_]

+1/-1
While most of these are great ideas, SRP already has the wardrobe function, and you can already do the FRPs actions in SRP. You don't need a rank to talk in the same action, the color that it defaults as IS kinda ugly though.​

SRP wardrobe was adopted from FRP, as well as Tippie has mentioned another FRP feature currently in the works of being implemented onto SRP (Not saying what cause no clue if it's been publicly announced/done yet).

 

[jeemay]

+1

I don't think there's anything in this thread that I disagree with. Great suggestion.

 

[STBNL]

Ryanark seems like a cool dude

+1

 

[Yume_]

To be honest most of me is leaning towards -1

I can get where you're coming from with team tags, and how it'd be cool to learn that info in character, HOWEVER, once you get rid of the tag it's hard to tell a student on a team apart from any other student. It removes the public aspect of it unless you run around going "IM ON THE FOOTBALL TEAM RAAAAH!!!" which yes, ideally everyone knows who's all on the teams but that's not happening

When you don't have tags for things like that, people aren't aware they exist. We see that issue with school clubs, no one knew there was a dungeons and dragon's club until they had an event. Most clubs go completely unnoticed and hardly exist. Those tags are meant to be flashy and make people go "woah! thats cool i want to be a part of that!" It's much easier to just have the big flag rather than having to sift through everything to figure out who's on what team. It's much easier and simpler to have the tags. . also to be honest they're not that bad.

FRP's chat system is weirdly complicated too, I do agree that servers on the same network should share chat systems but having what? 3? different OOCs overcomplicates things. I like the bright colors of SRPs chats as well, in no offense to FRP's grey. (this is talking about IC chat, not ooc)

mmmight have 2 rewrite some of this to make it sound better but i hope that all got my point across

 

[Anie]

Honestly, I love the chat log idea. That is all.

+1

 

[HATOLA]

+1

 

[toranekos]

I, personally, disagree with what has been said about chat prefixes and team-tags.

TEAM TAGS:
Whilst I agree, just like Cloud, it would be awesome to find something like that out ICly -- but there are many reasons as to why this would be a flaw.

- Being "Iconic"
Yes, white team tags exist to obviously play the sport, there is a reputation that undoubtedly comes with it. As a team, especially Cheer or Football, you essentially pave the rep for the Spartan/Bobcat [depending which you're on] teams. You, directly, are a representative of this side and supposedly are a little more than a normal student. This is why the tag makes you stand out - in a crowd of Grade-12s your tag will be the one that's most noticeable because, theoretically, you should be more well-known. After all, everyone can access the team rosters ICly.

- Rules/Regulations
There are two main factors that would significantly suffer if team tags just evaporated.
The first one is confrontations with the law. The police, just like citizens, can see team rosters.. And there are certain situations where a team-member may get arrested. It would be an immense hassle to have this officer scroll through to potentially find them on a team. They would need to do this to notify the team captain of the arrest so the correct action can be taken.
Next is school staff. Especially for college. College students must attend college classes otherwise their position is at risk - one of the exceptions to this is practice. It would be unnecessary to go up to them each time and yet again search through the roster to find their name on any teams. If you can see a group of people with the same team tag, doing what they're supposed to be doing, there is no problem. You can move on

- General benefits
Say there is an ongoing team event -- or an event in general that requires team members specifically.. And some people decide it'll be funny to just jump right in and begin disturbing it (in this case, it's blatant trolling). It will be 10x harder to differentiate the regular tags from those on the team if there is no visible indicator.

I see no problem with how the team tags currently are. Feel free to respond

PREFIXES:
Yet again, I can see why you would think this is tedious. But I don't think this one should change too much.

- Creativity
Having the prefix be maybe a little more tedious compared to FRP is worth being able to provide creative control to our players. The /me command makes it so much easier to add different colours when need be... For example, many players enjoy changing colours when their character changes tone of voice -- to a whisper for example.. [E.G]
/me &3cackled at the comment.. She brought her voice to a whisper and responded &6'&7Stop it! You will get us caught.&6'
In this case, it is mimicking the whisper command.

- It is what it is, really
/me is a command built into Minecraft already, and a lot of our players are used to using it.. But
There is nothing stopping them from roleplaying how it is above.. Other than the fact that the text will be surrounded in * - which is not a major issue, something that can be worked on. If I were to do
*would walk up to the person*
It would just appear as
[RPNAME] would walk up to the person
This would be because it automatically puts my action into a /me.

If we used FRP's system, I think it wouldn't clash very well with how our current players roleplay. It's important to note that the types of characters on SRP vs FRP are very different.. Both system fit their respective servers.

Nonetheless, this suggestion was quite helpful when seeing another person's POV -- constructive criticism is always appreciated.

 

[Ryanark]

When you don't have tags for things like that, people aren't aware they exist. We see that issue with school clubs, no one knew there was a dungeons and dragon's club until they had an event. Most clubs go completely unnoticed and hardly exist. Those tags are meant to be flashy and make people go "woah! thats cool i want to be a part of that!" It's much easier to just have the big flag rather than having to sift through everything to figure out who's on what team. It's much easier and simpler to have the tags. . also to be honest they're not that bad.

- Rules/Regulations
There are two main factors that would significantly suffer if team tags just evaporated.
The first one is confrontations with the law. The police, just like citizens, can see team rosters.. And there are certain situations where a team-member may get arrested. It would be an immense hassle to have this officer scroll through to potentially find them on a team. They would need to do this to notify the team captain of the arrest so the correct action can be taken.
Next is school staff. Especially for college. College students must attend college classes otherwise their position is at risk - one of the exceptions to this is practice. It would be unnecessary to go up to them each time and yet again search through the roster to find their name on any teams. If you can see a group of people with the same team tag, doing what they're supposed to be doing, there is no problem. You can move on

I believe this argument is quite weak for the simple fact that there can be a simple and realistic fix to this (which already exists by the way); Uniforms. Just as a flashy tag, a flashy uniform can have just the exact effect as an obnoxious tag, with people going "woah! thats cool i want to be a part of that!" Evidently, this is part of the reason why a lot of people are drawn to the military for their status and appearance of, for example, the parade uniform in real life. By now you might be thinking through - Aren't people going to impersonate? The answer is Yes. The way you choose to deal with this is completely up to you in-roleplay, you could easily root out a fake football team member or police officer using some basic logic and investigatory questions. In addition to this, there are a wide array of ways to identify a person. But alright, how about differentiating a crowd of college students from high schoolers? Boom, give college uniforms. Next question. What if they don't wanna wear the uniform? Tough. Guess your character's gonna have to deal with it in some way, just how it is in reality as well really. Okay - but it's way easier to tell some trolls apart from some college kids through the tag! - I think you're just being lazy at this point, to be honest. I'm sure, as long as you make the information easily accessible, any roster should be able to be sifted through for a measly few names in sacrifice for some eye relief and not having your server look like some Hyp*xel-party game color gore (even those servers have a color palette!).

Something I also forgot to mention in my main post - Staff have to manually give these ranks and prefixes, and they can screw up. A lot. I know this from personal experience, and it can get very tedious very quickly, considering this server almost peaks 200 players weekly.

How about a compromise?
Okay, I propose a 50/50 compromise to this issue - The real problem, in my eyes, is the chat. I want it to be clean and easily readable. But if you don't want to sacrifice your precious tags and prefixes, how about not having tags in the chat, but instead having only tags above your head? I'd say this is a pretty reasonable compromise, considering of course that the colors of the tags aren't absolute gore like they are/were.

- It is what it is, really
/me is a command built into Minecraft already, and a lot of our players are used to using it.. But
There is nothing stopping them from roleplaying how it is above.. Other than the fact that the text will be surrounded in * - which is not a major issue, something that can be worked on. If I were to do
*would walk up to the person*
It would just appear as
[RPNAME] would walk up to the person
This would be because it automatically puts my action into a /me.

If we used FRP's system, I think it wouldn't clash very well with how our current players roleplay. It's important to note that the types of characters on SRP vs FRP are very different.. Both system fit their respective servers.

I believe there should definitely be a choice between the two systems - between /me and *, I encourage choice and I nor any of the staff would not like to force anyone to use an unfamiliar system. However, this unfamiliar system is not as hostile as you interpret it. I have seen countless SRP players embrace the FRP chat system, many call it superior in comparison to SRP. As long as you have an easily accessible, fool-proof guide and introduction to the new system, people should not find it difficult to use.

I value your responses highly.

 

[Gunna!]

I agree withTori's claim big no from me -1

 

[Rika]

-1
agree with tori and cloud

EDIT ;
I think with the mention of the whole "compromise" section made, and rereading/thought about the other areas, I do agree with everything then ; +1

 

[Omegabet_]

- Rules/Regulations
There are two main factors that would significantly suffer if team tags just evaporated.
The first one is confrontations with the law. The police, just like citizens, can see team rosters.. And there are certain situations where a team-member may get arrested. It would be an immense hassle to have this officer scroll through to potentially find them on a team. They would need to do this to notify the team captain of the arrest so the correct action can be taken.
Next is school staff. Especially for college. College students must attend college classes otherwise their position is at risk - one of the exceptions to this is practice. It would be unnecessary to go up to them each time and yet again search through the roster to find their name on any teams. If you can see a group of people with the same team tag, doing what they're supposed to be doing, there is no problem. You can move on

- General benefits
Say there is an ongoing team event -- or an event in general that requires team members specifically.. And some people decide it'll be funny to just jump right in and begin disturbing it (in this case, it's blatant trolling). It will be 10x harder to differentiate the regular tags from those on the team if there is no visible indicator.

I agree with what Ryan pointed out, this to me feels like more of a justification against actually RPing situations out, and relying on OOC information. The tag in it of itself is an OOC thing, you don't walk around with a speech bubble above your head telling people what you do for a living.

If a student on a team gets arrested, then the police should be questioning them on if they're on any teams, cause I'd personally say that's better than basically meta-ing information. Yes, I'm aware the KA rosters are IC information, however you can still /me pulls up {whatever] roster and RP out cross-referencing it.
Similarly, the reasoning for keeping tags as is to allow faculty members to easily see if a congregation is at practice is flawed. I don't need to state the obvious that the football pitch is known for college students, especially football and cheer and friends, not going to class. If I'm a councillor/faculty member and did what you said, I wouldn't blink an eyelash at them and continue on my way, because practice(s) are not public information, subsequently I/we wouldn't know if it's an actual practice or just an OOC hang out.


tl;dr The tags can lead to RP situations not happening, which is obviously a bad thing for a RP server IMO

 

[Mark 9:42]

-1
Overall I think these suggestions are unnecessary. But I highly respect your effort in suggesting solutions rather than just "Hey this looks stupid." It's nice to see a feedback post with actual effort.

 

[hebwig]

How about a compromise?
Okay, I propose a 50/50 compromise to this issue - The real problem, in my eyes, is the chat. [It should be] be clean and easily readable. But if you don't want to sacrifice ... tags and prefixes, how about not having tags in the chat, but instead having only tags above your head? ... This is a pretty reasonable compromise, considering of course that the colors of the tags aren't [as much of an eyesore].

for those against tags, consider this part for a second; i was pretty against the idea of taking away all prefixes & suffixes as a whole since, as ryan said, a server's chat is how the server can be easily remembered/characterized. that's why we've had these colors all over for so long! however, i do want the community to consider this part at the very least, where no one can see your tag in-chat but they can over your head. the playerbase's best interest is what staff consider when reviewing feedback like this, so at the very least, you can debate over this in the end

staff will discuss the entire suggestion above + all replies at a meeting, as well

 

[Toto]

+1
A lot of SRPs problems could be solved just by implementing pre-existing FRP methods. Like fr they already have a basic cooking crafting menu and we've had a inactive in-development cooking plugin(s?) in works for how long?

 

[Ryanark]

For the people who downvote/agree blindly with no further explanation, I'd invite you to explain more thoroughly as to what you actually disagree with, and to be constructive in your response. Because, as far as the suggestions I provided, they are only positive, and they literally replace incredibly dated systems from 2017-2016 with newer systems and plugins that were created with the launch of FRP last year!

That is how I see it.

 

[Toto]

For the people who downvote/agree blindly with no further explanation, I'd invite you to explain more thoroughly as to what you actually disagree with, and to be constructive in your response. Because, as far as the suggestions I provided, they are only positive, and they literally replace incredibly dated systems from 2017-2016 with newer systems and plugins that were created with the launch of FRP last year!

That is how I see it.

the right opinion here folks

 

[Nova]

I believe this argument is quite weak for the simple fact that there can be a simple and realistic fix to this (which already exists by the way); Uniforms. Just as a flashy tag, a flashy uniform can have just the exact effect as an obnoxious tag, with people going "woah! thats cool i want to be a part of that!" Evidently, this is part of the reason why a lot of people are drawn to the military for their status and appearance of, for example, the parade uniform in real life. By now you might be thinking through - Aren't people going to impersonate? The answer is Yes. The way you choose to deal with this is completely up to you in-roleplay, you could easily root out a fake football team member or police officer using some basic logic and investigatory questions. In addition to this, there are a wide array of ways to identify a person. But alright, how about differentiating a crowd of college students from high schoolers? Boom, give college uniforms. Next question. What if they don't wanna wear the uniform? Tough. Guess your character's gonna have to deal with it in some way, just how it is in reality as well really. Okay - but it's way easier to tell some trolls apart from some college kids through the tag! - I think you're just being lazy at this point, to be honest. I'm sure, as long as you make the information easily accessible, any roster should be able to be sifted through for a measly few names in sacrifice for some eye relief and not having your server look like some Hyp*xel-party game color gore (even those servers have a color palette!).

This is literally the best arguing I have seen for tags, because IT IS RIGHT. A flashy outfit can easily describe a person's personality and DEFINITELY WHAT THEY DO. Considering these individuals are also likely to hang out in groups, wouldn't it be interesting for a person to go .. " Hey! Who are those cool looking people??" People are definitely going to impersonate, and you know what? That is fine, if that is a problem, your name could literally just be a special color to show you are in a TYPE of team, but not tell you what team you are specifically in.

I have only seen people use these tags for nothing but clout to be honest, and that is pretty lame! You have a whole personality and a whole custom skin to do to describe yourself, and you want a funny little tag to do it for you?? like Ryanark said, you're just being lazy at that point. Show you're not lazy, and show that you're not just for show and that you're the real deal through your character.

After looking at a few screenshots of FRP, I have definitely taken a liking to the idea of your nametag just being your character's name. But if this is utilized in SchoolRP, the age should also definitely be transparent in someway, because there is no way you would perhaps find out the age of some pixels with legs.

I agree with what Ryan pointed out, this to me feels like more of a justification against actually RPing situations out, and relying on OOC information. The tag in it of itself is an OOC thing, you don't walk around with a speech bubble above your head telling people what you do for a living.

Another thing if you're against taking tags out. Because it really is right. You don't see Elon Musk having a floating tag telling you he is the richest guy in the world, this could be a chance to utilize things like ONRAIN, because that hasn't been used as much as its supposed to be like it would in real life. That is the most appropriate place to find out what some characters do, and it is already advertised enough.... people just do not use it.

Say there is an ongoing team event -- or an event in general that requires team members specifically.. And some people decide it'll be funny to just jump right in and begin disturbing it (in this case, it's blatant trolling). It will be 10x harder to differentiate the regular tags from those on the team if there is no visible indicator.

There is already a bunch of players looking at these blatant trolls and probably talking about it in /help, some even probably giving you the username themselves, boom! doing the job for you basically. People can't have the same RPNames, and your unique skin is already protected with one of the rules. You don't need a tag to tell you who a troll is when there is eyes everywhere. This is like saying there won't be staff members at the event where staff members will most definitely be online to take care of these trolls. If this sounded rude by any chance, I am sorry, but I am truly being honest. We are talking about getting rid of tags, not RPname tags.

If a student on a team gets arrested, then the police should be questioning them on if they're on any teams, cause I'd personally say that's better than basically meta-ing information. Yes, I'm aware the KA rosters are IC information, however you can still /me pulls up {whatever] roster and RP out cross-referencing it.
Similarly, the reasoning for keeping tags as is to allow faculty members to easily see if a congregation is at practice is flawed. I don't need to state the obvious that the football pitch is known for college students, especially football and cheer and friends, not going to class. If I'm a councillor/faculty member and did what you said, I wouldn't blink an eyelash at them and continue on my way, because practice(s) are not public information, subsequently I/we wouldn't know if it's an actual practice or just an OOC hang out.

I wanna point this argument out aswell because Omegabet_ is correct, the police should most definitely be questioning them because its what THEY DO. It will add more purpose to the police role and such .... anyway.

This suggestion deserves a massive +1