Oh Crazy, Crazy...
"PvP Ape" is term which refers to person who's absolutely not interested in roleplaying, but in PvP fights and tree controll.
We should write the exact definition on the wiki.
You said something like "Adolf Hitler wasn't nazi". Killing people and shouting "It's for the Great Justice" or whatever you shouting then (put your favourite quote) isn't RP yet.
I agree it's a combat taunt more than true RP. Still, it's a RP combat taunt, as a VC NPC could shout "Vault city will prevail!", and very different (from my point of view) from "I p0WN YA NO0B!1!".
It's exactly what my character would shout in combat, so, though primitive, it's still kinda RP.
Roleplay is that, what you'd surely call "drinking e-beer" or "saying shits like Hello, Wastelander".
I do salute people I met. Though I use more the word "civilian". And for me, this still a bit limited RP. RP become really interesting when you start to tell your stories of what happened IG, when you debate of these actions, when you racket people...
Yes. Fight is only the little part, even in post nuclear universe. PK/APK bullshits won't help you to make RP on 2238 server.
I do agree on that, and it's why TTTLA always refused to say that we are "APK". Though if you shoot on sight, obviously, not much RP is possible.
RPing in public places is hard, almost impossible, and also in case of non-guarded places it have to be combined with PvP (unfortunately) to satisfy all.
Why unfortunately? It's what make all the taste of it.
Examples? Not so long ago, Sarmatians held Den, the area next to Metzger's building was guarded by them, and each "guard" wasn't just another PvP ape who says "Imma guard, imma shoot pk, hurr!" but tried to play some roles when town was particulary safe. So as you see, everything depends of people, their goals and motivation level.
I am myself trying to act like my character when guarding a place. And so do many of my mates (special mention to Slaz, living proof that mixing RP and PvP is possible). Even when only half of the team is doing RP, as long the second half don't interfere, it works well.