Are isolated roles bad for off-peakers?

[Harmless]

Hey guys

In your opinion, if you are either off-peak or have very short playtime windows when the usual player count is 20's ish, is it better to be in an isolated role or one that has direct contact with centers of civilization (i.e., allanak)?

Just debating a new character concept and would be nice to know what people prefer doing.

[Lizzie]

I think it really depends. If you're playing a role that others would need to rely on, I'd say - don't do that during off-peak, because the majority of players aren't playing when you are and aren't likely to -be able- to rely on your character, much as they might want to.

I've encountered a few roles where I ended up storing for exactly that reason. My character joined a clan and the "boss" wasn't around when I was, except perhaps one hour every couple of RL weeks. I didn't want to rebel, because that wasn't IC for my character to do. But I couldn't quit without the boss, and the boss wasn't ever around. So I said fuck it and stored.

Nothing more frustrating than WANTING to interact with people, but the people you need to interact with, don't log in when you do, and either their minions also log in different times than you, or they don't have minions, or you ARE their minion. That's the worst.

But if you're playing at the same time other people you want to interact with are playing, it shouldn't matter whether or not it's on/off peak.

[BrokenRomance]

Honestly the centres of civilisation seem more ruled over by peak times than anywhere else I've played. I meet players at all sorts of times in isolated clan roles and stuff, but when I played PCs that lived in Allanak or mostly in Luir's it was almost dead any time outside of peak.

Nothing is weirder than walking around Allanak and feeling like aside from NPCs and vNPCs you are completely and utterly alone. I think it's easier to go into a role where you know you'll probably be alone a lot than one where you know if you were on just a few hours ago you'd have seen countless people.

[gotdamnmiracle]

Nothing is weirder than walking around Allanak and feeling like aside from NPCs and vNPCs you are completely and utterly alone. I think it's easier to go into a role where you know you'll probably be alone a lot than one where you know if you were on just a few hours ago you'd have seen countless people.

So much this. I've dodged most rolecalls for just this reason. Also it's eerie wandering the streets and feeling like you're the only person around.

[Jihelu]

Something something lonely road, on the boulevard of broken dream.
My play times range from "On peak" to "Oh look 2 people online" so I think it's kinda funny seeing literally /no one/ around.

[Majikal]

It's really hard to say.

I've gone into the game with the expectation and even the desire to be iso before and found myself surrounded by players and interaction everytime I turned around. My best advice is just tailor your concepts around playtimes. If on average you got 10-15 players some concepts can just have trouble getting off the ground.

[Culinary Critic]

CityBOUND can be really tough.  If you're unable to leave the walls, stuck wandering from shop to shop, checking the stables, listening to same old gossip twice a week and grabbing rat shit, it can be horrible. 

CityBASED, totally different story.  The ability to get out and see things, do things, explore and whatever is what makes off peak more workable, though perhaps infinitely more dangerous.

[Dakota]

Yes. Don't play an SLK for example as an off-peak player. It's rough.

No iso for off peak unless that's the game you want to play.