Your View: Antagonist Traits

[Sky 0]

Everyone I would like your opinions on a couple questions, and on the topic itself, that being the traits of an antagonist that makes it work and those which make it fail. I have already made an effort to contact nation leaders, guild leaders and racial leaders, in an attempt to get their viewpoint upon the questions I am putting bellow this but after reading a couple I had come to the conclusion that it would be both more efficient, and beneficial, to widen the audience to quite literally anyone of the community that would like to throw their opinion down and thus this thread was made. Unfortunately some people do not understand but everyone's answers are their own opinions, no need to get personally offended if another view point doesn't exactly line up with your own, and in no way does this state whether an antagonist is in the works, being thought about, or written up, this thread is merely for opinions and for me to set them up, as opinions on an overarching antagonist usually bleed into peoples opinions on their groups roleplay, etc. Now without further adieu the questions.

 

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

 

Thank you for taking the time in reading this, and I thoroughly look forward to the responses.

[Cat Evocation 3728]

Not going in the middle of huge rp fests and turning it into a pvp slaughter fest with an antag plugin that oneshots everyone.

 

>Nomflashbacks<

[Guest]

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

A healthy level of interaction and obscurity. An antagonist doesn't always have to be an obvious force, it just needs to effect many characters negatively. This could be nature, the elements, individuals, etc... I am far more remiss about adding evil deities into the mix since they are boring and only allow for their respective owners to have a total power trip.

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

Evil gods, devils, etc... It's better to do things that motivate characters to antagonize each other. Nothing should act to unify a group, if anything it should break them down with an aim that's sensical.

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

 

To provide a fair amount of conflict.

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

No groups -- only entities. Forces of nature or simple figures make for the best antagonists, not all evil has to be some extremely powerful magical being.

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?
N/A

[colovian fur 8360]

i want bleep blorps to invade

 

[Ambduscias 1028]

can we have a robot invasion this time

[istealyoustuff 2]

14 minutes ago, Aerial "The Wroth" Kebabu said:

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

A healthy level of interaction and obscurity. An antagonist doesn't always have to be an obvious force, it just needs to effect many characters negatively. This could be nature, the elements, individuals, etc... I am far more remiss about adding evil deities into the mix since they are boring and only allow for their respective owners to have a total power trip.

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

Evil gods, devils, etc... It's better to do things that motivate characters to antagonize each other. Nothing should act to unify a group, if anything it should break them down with an aim that's sensical.

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

 

To provide a fair amount of conflict.

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

No groups -- only entities. Forces of nature or simple figures make for the best antagonists, not all evil has to be some extremely powerful magical being.

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?
N/A

i agree with this completely. 

[Tirenas 677]

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

One key quality of a successful antagonist is clear leadership and organization. The antagonist characters should be making pre-arranged appearances discussed by those overseeing the project, and not at the whim of the people playing the character. The playerbase shouldn't be desensitized to these characters and events, so it's important that whatever happens is with the intent of furthering the overall storyline.

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

It cannot be intrusive upon player-driven RP, such as in regards to wars between nations. There should also be close watch on all pex given out, as we saw a great deal of abuse in 4.0.

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

The job of an antagonist is to promote a cooperative story-telling experience through properly implemented conflict scenarios.

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

Server-wide events aren't great, typically. Probably best to have a single antagonist doing a variety of smaller events across the world to later culminate in a large scale event.

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

Good luck with it.

[Booklight12 481]

   

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

Patience, ability to be patient with all types of RPers and not be frustrated quickly like some members of lotc might get OOCly

Accessibility, ability for almost anyone and all to join their ranks, or RP with them and not be difficult to take part in their events or RP

Friendliness, basically the community of the antagonists should generally be friendly OOCly with everyone else and not fall into the mode that happens with differing factions where they OOCly end up disliking one another due to differences in ooc views or RP decisions

Cooperation, those involved must make sure to cooperatee with the general community, to look at feedback, and to try to make it enjoyable for all. (All for these go for both the Antagonist, and general community)

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

-Should make sure not to change the base lore of the antagonist group once it is made, and have one core lore and expand from it

-Not to antagonize community constantly and constantly get defeated (Or be undeafeatable and not create change) in RP.

-Try not to focus on one group, and try to involve the entire community in their events so all can take part. -As well, try to limit giant world events that involve hundreds of players excluding warclaims because often than not it ends up in chaos examples are the release of Rivel.

- Should be some type of corruption/unholy thing so to allow holy groups to be involved imo. But not necessarily a god like figure. Something as simple as necromancers/shades/mystics/dark magic groups to be able to get together, with backing of lore team to do big events and create some form of a group would be the best option.  But having god figures should be strayed away from.

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

To create RP for all people

To create a hub for those who may want to enjoy a bit of antagonist RP

To create some form of fear/coming tide, to unify all players of the server 

To provide serverwide cause to be active that isn't just warclaims/conflict

To create/share more lore to the server, but as well I believe with an antagonist the server should be revealed more core lore that may be hidden

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

- Grey area/views of antagonists not having an antagonist that is purely evil, but is something that can be related to.

 -Having base lore written on the antagonist group/faction to be used as a core but to work out from there and be able to expanded on without changing things entirely like what happened with setherien

- Attempting to make a RP hub/connections for people that want to take part in the antagonist faction, not just come on to kill people, or fight in warclaim type events. But also have standard RP

- I believe one combined group of antagonist factions like necromancers and shades etc athat possibly combine with a main antagonist force would be cool.

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

Nope

 

[ryno2 1285]

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

Provide a real threat for players in a way that affects their day-to-day activities/roleplaying
 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

Avoid putting mediocre people in positions of authority regarding the antag 
 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

Antagonize the server, attack nations equally, and rally the player base together to fight a common enemy
 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

A single entity 
 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

Bring back mob events, or make a different realm with open pvp where players fight swarms of hostile mobs and antagonists, a la the nether realm in the fringe

[Dreek 1633]

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

Clear and decisive leadership, see @Tirenas reply

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

Lore that is too specific, let the minor details be worked with by the lead and his/her teammates. Avoid 'god-like' figures.

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

Introduce large conflict scenarios to tell a grand story

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

Splintered Group, but one that has an overarching link between each 'group' of antags

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

i enjoy pumpkin pie

[LuneAria 169]

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

 

It should include everyone, first of all. No ancient beast only paladins can destroy. It should also have well designed, unpredictable plans. I shouldn't be like "Oh, it's probably going to intrude on the coronation and kill the king." I should be like "Huh, I thought it was going to kill the king, but instead it dug this huge tunnel into our armory and stole the strange sword we recently discovered. I wonder why it wanted the sword? And where does this tunnel lead? I should gather more people and explore it."

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

 

Being a nut job or an evil entity who just kills and kills, thinking they can end the world just by killing everyone. That never works. They need to destabilize the nations to the point where everyone regular person is scared of walking around, and not because the evil Iblees wraith cult makes sacrifices 24/7. No, I want to be scared of the guards, as they're driven to desperation by the lack of supplies and general suspicion of everyone.

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

 

To provide  a chance for the common people to prove themselves good roleplayers, and move up in the world.

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

 

Don't make the antagonist clear, for god sake. Maybe it's a cult. Maybe it's one person. Or maybe it's nothing, we're imagining it. If it comes to final reveal, however, I'd prefer a single overarching entity. It feels a lot better to kill a single, powerful being through co-operation than just "Imperial Legion stormed the Titan's first base. They put down the Titan there. Now we need to find six more. Gj, whoever killed the ancient beast. Back to work!"

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

 

[mmat 7460]

- RP with small groups/individuals. Groups only end up in PvP matches unfortunately.

- RP with people who want to RP mostly. People who don't will just complain

- Don't be contrived with the antag concept, but if you are, make it awesome.

 

 

[DISCOLIQUID 2729]

7 minutes ago, Treemo said:

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?

 

It should include everyone, first of all. No ancient beast only paladins can destroy. It should also have well designed, unpredictable plans. I shouldn't be like "Oh, it's probably going to intrude on the coronation and kill the king." I should be like "Huh, I thought it was going to kill the king, but instead it dug this huge tunnel into our armory and stole the strange sword we recently discovered. I wonder why it wanted the sword? And where does this tunnel lead? I should gather more people and explore it."

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?

 

Being a nut job or an evil entity who just kills and kills, thinking they can end the world just by killing everyone. That never works. They need to destabilize the nations to the point where everyone regular person is scared of walking around, and not because the evil Iblees wraith cult makes sacrifices 24/7. No, I want to be scared of the guards, as they're driven to desperation by the lack of supplies and general suspicion of everyone.

 

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?

 

To provide  a chance for the common people to prove themselves good roleplayers, and move up in the world.

 

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

 

Don't make the antagonist clear, for god sake. Maybe it's a cult. Maybe it's one person. Or maybe it's nothing, we're imagining it. If it comes to final reveal, however, I'd prefer a single overarching entity. It feels a lot better to kill a single, powerful being through co-operation than just "Imperial Legion stormed the Titan's first base. They put down the Titan there. Now we need to find six more. Gj, whoever killed the ancient beast. Back to work!"

 

5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

 

 

I like these answers a lot, except for the bit about moving up in the world. I think the antagonist should provide an immersive, threatening atmosphere to act as a catalyst for character growth, and also give a challenge.

[Aengoth 2890]

Why do we need a psych eval before an antag appears. Just make something barebones and build on from that. Try to keep management of it under the same people rather then the shitshow that was 3.0 antag (which was only saved by Kahzo and those lot for going ham on everyone). Just have something that can reasonably speaking **** up players and deal damage and don't shoehorn yourself into always losing. Albeit it is better to have quality individuals who wipe in groups of 1-3 rather then raid sized antags (asides from large scale ****)

[E__V__O 2000]

1) What do you believe are the key qualities that one should have for it to succeed in creating a worthwhile overarching antagonist?
 

I really did like the Anthos Antagonist, I do agree that the plugin they received was a bit drastic but the RP they provided was interesting with the backstory and everything, something more fleshed out would've been great plus added in to work with the playerbase more as in attack political strife areas which'll spark RP, as with this going into the mentality that the antagonist shouldn't always win. I remember in Aegis when the undead took over Al'zhaza and Alras forcing everyone to move. Once structured up with power this is how it should work.

 

2) What do you believe are the qualities that one should avoid in an antagonist?
 

Magic plugin in high hopes of beating everyone. I believe that if a plugin is made for the new antagonist it should consist of something other then spam. Make long cooldowns which'll force them to find better positions. Some of the antag would die some would live. It should be a balance between this and have the threat that if they die they'll have to regroup and or gain more followers...

 

Also when the antag is over, perm death to all those characters no bringing anyone back. Like we've had in every scenario no matter what.

3) What do you believe an antagonists job is?
 

Spark roleplay while bringing a sense of fear. I remember the undead and the antag in Anthos upon a strike of lightning "**** get out of here" not "Lets attack" cause I knew I wouldn't win by myself or a little group. Get the antag to attack little settlements of population of RP rather then creating big events all the time. With this they can also make recruitment areas...

4) What do you believe would give a more enjoyable experience, an overarching antagonist entity or a splintered group of antagonist entities, or something else?

 

I answered above.
 
5) Any other information you would like to give on the topic?

 

No bringing the antag character over as with protag if created when the whole ordeal is over. No. Please.