This post made me really angry. You've worked on several FOnline projects, and yet you're acting as if you don't understand how difficult it is to create, maintain and moderate a proper RPG server. Well, to be honest, maybe you don't, since content creation never was your forte. Creating the content for an RPG server is extremely difficult, especially when compared with creating content for a PvP-centric server. The difference is like preparing a proper, narrative-based World of Darkness session vs preparing a simple dungeon crawl for D&D.
I don't mean to start some dick-swinging contest here, but I've also made a few dialogues as well, like profession teachers on FO2 or part of Kenny's, the first NPC you meet after creating the character. Gave me a rough idea how many tears, blood and beer it takes to create some content, even a minor one.
But yeah, I agree, PvP content is way easier to do - a map, a banana box, some guns and bullets, maybe some automated script (Hinkley) and boom, there you go.
I know, because I spent countless hours writing dialogues for Wasteland 2155. And when that metric fuckton of work translates to 3 finished locations with literally nobody else to back you up, and your real-life work you actually get paid for also involves writing for video games... well, it's pretty fucking easy to give up. The scrypting involved is also considerably harder - and since noone has ever done it before, it's pretty much uncharted territory. The planning, gamedesign... don't even get me started on that. Let's just say that there's a reason commercial RPG games aren't released as often as tactical shooters and they're usually buggy as hell.
I feel the pain brother,
I've tried that. Then real life came up and chewed my ass, so I didn't achieve anything really apart from some textwalls, map or two and some pictures, all in all the result is pathetic. But it's also a valid experience to share with all other "woohoo I've got some idea for brand new FOnline server, let's get it done" dev-wannabes.
You do tend to post complaints of this sort fairly often, but to me you sound like a typical entitled asshole. In the end, when the community had a real shot at creating a proper RPG server all you could contribute was a few maps and a lot of unnecessary drama. You had your chance and you blew it. Stop blaming the devs that actually tried or the community in general for not realizing the potential of this engine to its full extent.
I'm not blaming anyone, I'm trying to explain why yet another bunch of great ideas to attract hardcore Fallout fans won't work. They are looking for something totally different from what this or that FOnline is for real.
Oh, and one more thing - making this a faction mod was a brilliant idea. Can't create content? Tough shit, better create a system that rewards players for creating their own world. Yes, it's not exactly 100% Fallout, but the rich history of this game, all the factions, the politics, the feuds, even the drama - all that simply proves that it was the right call. This community is actually somewhat magical since it proved to be perfectly capable of making rather empty gameworlds interesting for a very long time and will probably keep doing its thing for years to come.
Yeah, but it scared off the die hard Fallout fans mentioned above. Countless people observed, their posts and conversations led me to this conclusion. Which community - ape-faction-based or Mad-Max-Wannabes-based - would work better in terms of players count, magic or amount of drama? No idea, we're not gonna know this anyway.
Btw it is somehow funny when players from every FOnline server complain about low number of players, and then when wipe or something happens and a flow of fresh souls comes to the game, they troll the shit out of them until they ragequit, and eventually oldfags keep complaining about low population again.
Wise man had spoken.
5. Find a GM that's going to create new Epic Adventures for you on a weekly basis (just some basic scripting, since the key NPCs would be replaced by actors anyway).
Also he/she has to be truly authistic creature, locked up in some basement with no real life in place and not being a chan-tard at the same time. Yep, sounds easy to find one.