I want to preface this post by saying it only addresses problematic RP players, and not the rest. I am going to reference the researched information below throughout my post by their respective lettering (A, B):

A. http://tera.enmasse.com/news/posts/give-a-greet-to-our-rp-server
“We know that roleplayers have strong feelings about roleplay rules, and that those rules are complicated to administer fairly and uniformly, so we welcome your constructive feedback on our draft proposal.”

B. http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/roleplay/topics/Roleplay-Server-Rules-and-FAQ-11646
"Roleplaying is a preference of game play that En Masse wants to promote for TERA. Like any preference, there are those that enjoy it and those that do not. If roleplaying is not your style then don’t play on a RP server."

As claimed in B, if RP is not someone’s style, then they should not play on an RP server. I agree with and adhere to this statement as I am on a non-RP server. Using thread A’s information, I understand RPers have strong feelings (in general) about their rules, which is why RP servers are separate from other servers. I too have strong feelings about RP rules: that they belong on RP servers only. We are tearing down this rule with the cross-server dungeon finder tool.

I am making this complaint due to particularly negative experiences with players from Celestial Hills using the dungeon finder tool. The problems I have struggled with stem from these players enforcing their RP customs inside a dungeon, effectively hurting the entire instance run. For the sake of keeping this already long post short, here is a list of just two issues my friends and I have dealt with (repeatedly), both separately and together:

---Issue - Demanding/requiring/enforcing (if party leader) no looting during combat

---Their reasoning – “I do not want to see item rolls during my fighting experience. It looks out of place/it is distracting.”

---Why this is an issue – When the majority of the group does not want this option turned on. During an instance, it is common to continue pulling, instead of waiting to drop from combat. If a group continues to pull, they never leave combat and loot remains untouched. Also, it is common for groups to use CC methods and by-pass certain mobs (such as the stationary golems that debuff with every hit in CR). When groups do this, it also keeps people in combat, even if they are not fighting anything, since the mob is triggered in a combat state.

---Repercussions:
People either complain, leading to sunken party morale, or people flat out leave group.

---Addressing this:
When party morale sinks, I have noticed the run becomes clumsy. One person should not inconvenience the majority. Unfortunately, with this issue in particular, blocking the offender does not fix the problem, since it is not a text-harassment issue. In fact, there does not seem to be any current way to fix this other than leaving the party, which places a 15 minute debuff on you. Lastly, checking that you are willing to lead a party does not guarantee you will be the party leader. What are we supposed to do, clog the report feature with petty problems?

*****************************************************************************************************************
---Issue – RP players…well, RP inside the dungeon

---ONE Example – I had an RP player sit out on a boss fight (without telling anyone) and our group 4-manned it with the RP player sitting in a corner. When questioned why they did not even have the courtesy to tell us they would not participate, the response given was literally, “Because I am having a *good conversation* I’m sure we’re in no danger here.”

This is unacceptable. Unfortunately, they were the party leader, and there is no option to kick (or even vote-kick) unless you are party leader, so I left the group and took my 15-minute debuff. Unfortunately again, blocking the offender does not fix the problem. Lastly again, I ask: what are we supposed to do, clog the report feature with petty problems? While they might exist, I have yet to see this behavior from non-RP players.

---Repercussions:
People either complain, leading to sunken party morale, or people flat out leave group.

---Addressing this:
DPS and even healers are aware of their particularly long queuing times. I play a lancer. Because I preemptively left group, the remaining 4 players probably had to wait some time for another tank to come along. This leaves me feeling bad for leaving, but my only options were to continue dealing with unacceptable behavior, or leave. I also have a DPS and when our tank disconnected, we had to wait over 10 minutes for another tank to come and join. I have no idea if other groups experience longer or shorter tank wait times. Once again, one person is inconveniencing the majority in this case.

*****Why allowing RP to join cross-server doesn’t work for Tera:*****
Unlike WoW, which has had many years to develop a massive player base, Tera is new in NA. WoW also had cross-server LFG. But unlike Tera, WoW had battlegroups: a chunk of servers that could only cross-realm interact with each other, and not other battlegroups. This worked to your favor if you wanted absolutely no chance of interacting with an RP player(s) while in cross-server LFG, since you could just find a battlegroup that did not contain an RP server. Unfortunately, Tera does not offer this same solution, so you will always have a chance of dealing with an RP player that does not contain their rules to just their server.

B contradicts itself since players that do not wish to RP are forced to deal with probable RP customs/mannerisms. So how can we fix this? I understand and agree with the need to do cross-server dungeon finding with a somewhat low overall server population count (half of the servers have a “recommended” population, if you exclude Celestial Hills [RP inclusive = 55%]). What I don’t understand, is why there are not better group tools, such as a vote-kick/reason system as found in WoW, or rules enforced on RP players to keep their culture to themselves. While there are many reasons to play Tera, my biggest reason is from the unique combat system. Dungeon fights are always different since bosses are so dynamic. We should not be forced to stop using the dungeon find tool. Again, this would mean less than 9% of the total player base inconveniences the remaining 91%.

I'm an RPer, and even I think those RPers shouldn't be using the LFD tool.

Unless an RPer is forming a group through LFG chat or Area chat, they should leave their role-play at the door to the dungeon. We're on Celestial Hills for a reason - to RP. The people that didn't roll on Celestial Hills likely chose a normal PvE server for a reason - they don't care to experience RP.

PvP servers are a different beast, but for the most part you can trust their members aren't much interested in RP either, save for the seldom few in established RP guilds on those PvP servers.

OP, I'd say you just had bad picks from the LFD tool. I party solely in-server and have almost never had a single member RP during a run, save for a few times following a bosses death or just as the dungeon begins. In other words, the in-dungeon RP I've experienced was always around convenient times to do so.

Hi Littleman, I appreciate your understanding comment. What sucks is that this hasn't just been something I've seen a couple times from that server. Out of every group I've been in that had an RP player in it, only 2 runs total have been non-problematic (and only because they didn't talk at all). Every other run I've experienced has been laden with the issues (and more) I've discussed above.

I would have never posted any complaints had this not been a 99%-of-the-time problem.

Please don't generalize about an entire population of folks who play the game.

I am an ardent roleplayer and though I do not use the LFD function (my main is a warrior tank and I'm not willing to wait hours on my dps alts), I would never inconvenience a run.

So once again, please do not assume that just because you've had some personal bad experiences, the entire server is populated with folks exactly the same.

Both of the issues you referenced are not specific to the RP server. There are people from all servers that do things like this.

Oh but these ARE specific to the RP server. I have recorded my runs with people from Celestial Hills versus people not from there, and all but 2 runs have been ruined because of 1 server. I am using statistics at this point, which are the straight facts, to my entire post. This is why I posted at all in the first place. Sorry Hifi, I have not seen any of this behavior from non-RP players.

Arwydd, I am generalizing because again, it has been a "general" issue specific to your server.

Celestial Hills is a RP server... That makes a lot of sense now. I have been in a Celestial Hills dungeon run. I left early, I could not stand their awkward behavior in chat.

I play on Celestial Hills, and I don't RP with random people, especially in a dungeon run. People that do what you're describing sound annoying, though.

However, completely removing the Celestial Hills server from the LFD feature is a bit drastic and harsh. There are "normal" people that play there, and want to queue up for dungeon runs, and flat-out denying them is a terrible idea. I'd be for a search filter-type thing though.

i have never seen anyone from celestial hills do either of the things you complain about. not only that, no looting during combat is smart, you dont need a healer or damage dealer shirking their duties to pick up a blue ring that dropped.

Dumbest thing I've read all week.