Decline in RP Standards | Inappropriate RP

[MazuzaM]

GOOD EVENING LADS WHO ARE READING THIS

Have you perhaps noticed, especially if you are a long standing player in your community, that the server seriousness and Roleplay standards are going down the bin?

Does your experience even less dystopian than what it used to be? I will list every issue with the majority of the Factions as I witnessed first hand:

Citizens:
This is a mixed pot, there's some people who roleplay accordingly but it's a minority in confront to what I have seen.

- There is absolutely no sense or recognition of the situation you are in (20+ years of constant slavery, labour and malnutrition) and people tend to act the way they would in real life, directly breaking the rules under the FailRP Section

"------------- A character's / behaviour and view of the world should match the scale and sense of the world they're living in, not real life."

Civil Protection:
I'm sorry to say this, as a Civpro main, I am afraid that this faction is the one that had the biggest decline in RP Standards, there are so many problems in my opinion and others:

- Metrocops feel like high school bullies, there is no real surgical protocol to follow to interact with Citizens or preserve conversations in public. I feel Starboat bait is part of this problem.

- The idea of a kind Metrocop (Which is overdone) should be rarely done and more punished by Command. No, I'm not saying that your cop should be a sadic that finds pleasure in hurting other people, but keep in mind you passed years of indocrination no matter what if your character chooses a path in the Civil Protection, they should be displayed more surgically rather than some 70s cop in Brooklyn.

ESPECIALLY the problem resides with some Rank Leaders, they recieve the same Memory replacement as Transhumans, the guide clearly states that they should be feared yet they act like some cool coaches for the units and fail to make you feel oppressed.

Resistance:
I've also played the Resistance, RP Hubs are enjoyable but the problem still lingers with inappropriate Roleplay for characters as they are:
- Self Proclaimed Warriors and fearless fighers
- Semi Serious Minges who only play to S2K (Fewer minority)

Before you say ha ha here's the fun police, no, there's ways of enjoying Roleplay by doing it accordingly, this is what Willard HL2RP should be, not a sitcom of silly jokes and corny actions to get on the Starboard.

 

[ford-michigan]

Overwatch'' (The guys meant to represent the Loyalist faction

No, they represent the combine. Only citizens represent citizens.

 

[Processed_Grain]

That is the OTA, CPs, and synths. Loyalists are the citizens.

Contrary to popular belief, the Loyalist Faction and the Combine have a very symbiotic relationship and - without one another, the Combine are just mindless S2K drones fighting for nothing and destined to let the Rebel Faction win (since they're the ''Actual Characters''!!)

 

[Processed_Grain]

Contrary to popular belief, the Loyalist Faction and the Combine have a very symbiotic relationship and - without one another, the Combine are just mindless S2K drones fighting for nothing and destined to let the Rebel Faction win (since they're the ''Actual Characters''!!)

A believe part in the 'decline of RP standards' in recent years can in part be attributed to the abandonment of this principle and the isolation of Citizen/Loyalist roleplay from whatever it is the Overwatch and Rebel factions have been doing.

 

[BrennenW05]

The MCP dissident program should not exist and Rebels don't get PKed nearly enough. The "Powers at Be" see too it that Gordon Freeman in City 17 is turned into a free win for the faction - ergo, they pull up things like this:
View attachment 47533
(thankfully NATH shut this down before it could get off the ground but it *really* says a lot about the Rebel Playerbase when they feel fine coming up with things like this)

My guy, it says potential ending and has pre-requisites. How in the hell is that a free win. Fuck the rebel leads for planning something. How dare the faction try to accomplish its main fucking goal. We should just never plan anything ever and sit down and die.

(Also, we have been told multiple times by staff that a red letter day event, and possible uprising would be a thing for the end of v2, this wasn't some out of pocket thing.)

 

[Processed_Grain]

My guy, it says potential ending and has pre-requisites. How in the hell is that a free win. The horror, the rebel leads to plan something. How dare the faction try to accomplish its main fucking goal. We should just never plan anything ever and sit down and die.

I didn't show the 'pre-requisites' in question out of an attempt to not step on any toes but - for a summarization, the main "attack" would be birthed from several no-risk Admin Box events or 'expeditions'' where Our Heroes have to find several McGuffins that have no right existing out in the wastelands 20 years after the Black Mesa Incident, as well as... posters.


Yeah, no. The fact they will get zero actual pushback from Overwatch besides some S2K within the city (They'll never dare to host an expedition or raid that actually threatens the main body of the Rebel Faction on the main server) may as well qualify it as a "Free win". It's fundamentally impossible for them to lose this given the state of the server right now.

 

[BrennenW05]

I didn't show the 'pre-requisites' in question out of an attempt to not step on any toes but - for a summarization, the main "attack" would be birthed from several no-risk Admin Box events or 'expeditions'' where Our Heroes have to find several McGuffins that have no right existing out in the wastelands 20 years after the Black Mesa Incident, as well as... posters.
View attachment 47553

Yeah, no. The fact they will get zero actual pushback from Overwatch besides some S2K within the city (They'll never dare to host an expedition or raid that actually threatens the main body of the Rebel Faction on the main server) may as well qualify it as a "Free win". It's fundamentally impossible for them to lose this given the state of the server right now.

Seeing that, I agree that is way too little buildup for an uprising, but the way the staff have pushed rebel RP is for things like that to not be on main, and instead in expos, and the like. So, that aspect would be the same even with 10 times longer list of stuff to do and a more in-depth plan.

But I just don't agree with the whole, "rebels never lose" thing, there have been plenty of times throughout the server where rebels lost, entire groups wiped out, and yes losses in expos. (I myself have has multiple group wipes, and seen many groups die out.)

 

[Processed_Grain]

Seeing that, I agree that is way too little buildup for an uprising, but the way the staff have pushed rebel RP is for things like that to not be on main, and instead in expos, and the like. So, that aspect would be the same even with 10 times longer list of stuff to do and a more in-depth plan.

But I just don't agree with the whole, "rebels never lose" thing, there have been plenty of time throughout the server where rebels lost, entire groups wiped out, and yes losses in expos. (I myself have has multiple group wipes, and seen any groups die out.)

The expos themselves are a small part of the issue. The issue is that, while rebels have no doubt lost tactically on many occasions (It's to be expected), strategically speaking, they have gotten win after win almost entirely uncontested for fundamental reasons regarding faction relationships.

I'll try and explain here but - I might just make another thread entirely at this point. But to simplify the issue:

You have two factions.

One of them is made up of actual characters. Rebels. They spend months - maybe years - building up, developing relationships, and planning pro-actively with the knowledge in mind that in only a few months, there will be a Red Letter Day that will do a lot of the heavy lifting for them. Their leadership is Proactive, and want what is best for their faction both OOCly and ICly. This faction has direction and characters to uphold it.

The other one is made up of seemingly mindless drones. Overwatch. They do not spend months or years 'building up', gathering material, developing complicated character relationships - mostly because they have no character (CP and CSF excluded but even then they're still marked as 'Expendable' compared to Rebels). They know there's a Red Letter Day and, frankly, aren't that interested in 'Winning' anyways. Their leadership is Reactive, and want what is best for the general Server Roleplay, giving ceasefires, setting limits to what they will or will not do dependent entirely on what the Rebel Faction has done, and really only do the occasional sweep at best. This faction does not have direction, nor does it have characters leading it or even there to uphold it.

Who do you think comes out on top here? I'll give you a hint: it's definitely not the faction made up of Event Characters with 'Memory Replacement'. As things stand now, It is fundamentally given that the Rebellion wins. There is not a thing we Loyalists can do. We (The Loyalist/Citizen faction) are entirely at the mercy of whenever the Liberators decide to next do another Judgement Waiver with the AR2's they brought over in the 15 hour walk from Geneva to I24. At the mercy of whatever 'Cocochop' deems fit for the server narrative.

The only way to fix this - to make it fair and to actually give the MAIN CONFLICT of the server stake, to generate ROLEPLAY, is to give the player administration (High Council, Chairman, Consul, Administrator, etc etc) influence over Overwatch forces strategically; to give them direction as the PLAYER made intermediary between the Citizen Faction and whatever S2K hell Rebels and Overwatch fight on a daily. In other words; Rebels should not be "fighting" just Civil Protection, they should be fighting the Combine and their Loyalists. Every bomb used on public infrastructure is a blow not to the CP leads or the disembodied voice of dispatch, but to *players*: Everyone from Eleanor Marchand to Wyatt Callaway, Varos Atkins to 'Svetlana Golubeva', Richard Ketterson to Elsa Becker, are all apart of "The Combine". They have as much a right to "win" - to see actual damage done on their behalf to the Rebel Faction trying to destroy everything they quite literally work for - as their Rebel counterparts on the other side of the map.

 

[Garratz]

I believe @Processed_Grain forgot that the rebel side is comprised of multiple groups and even individuals. Grain, you are absolutely right in what you said here. But you fail to remember that some rebels use the forums only for the meta-bio page and PK appeals. What you wrote here will be seen by at MOST 10% of the rebel players.

Sure, you say they should be fighting the Combine/Loyalists, but looking at what you said, what else can they do than bomb stuff? The liberators, sure, MIGHT agree that bombings aren't a thing, but 2 days later you'll find some random John Rebel who just crafted a small bomb out of scrap and decided to go bomb the RDT because "Hynghhh, combine bad, killed family..." and starve the citizen faction because of his bomb.

The rebels aren't as organized as Combine, even if rebel reps tried to police their faction the way CivPro does, there will always be a few individuals that will slip under the cracks and do the exact opposite of what Nath or Coco says.

That being said, y'all need to up your game. I don't find the complaint thread entertaining, COMPLAIN MORE.

 

[BrennenW05]

The expos themselves are a small part of the issue. The issue is that, while rebels have no doubt lost tactically on many occasions (It's to be expected), strategically speaking, they have gotten win after win almost entirely uncontested for fundamental reasons regarding faction relationships.

I'll try and explain here but - I might just make another thread entirely at this point. But to simplify the issue:

You have two factions.

One of them is made up of actual characters. Rebels. They spend months - maybe years - building up, developing relationships, and planning pro-actively with the knowledge in mind that in only a few months, there will be a Red Letter Day that will do a lot of the heavy lifting for them. Their leadership is Proactive, and want what is best for their faction both OOCly and ICly. This faction has direction and characters to uphold it.

The other one is made up of seemingly mindless drones. Overwatch. They do not spend months or years 'building up', gathering material, developing complicated character relationships - mostly because they have no character (CP and CSF excluded but even then they're still marked as 'Expendable' compared to Rebels). They know there's a Red Letter Day and, frankly, aren't that interested in 'Winning' anyways. Their leadership is Reactive, and want what is best for the general Server Roleplay, giving ceasefires, setting limits to what they will or will not do dependent entirely on what the Rebel Faction has done, and really only do the occasional sweep at best. This faction does not have direction, nor does it have characters leading it or even there to uphold it.

Who do you think comes out on top here? I'll give you a hint: it's definitely not the faction made up of Event Characters with 'Memory Replacement'. As things stand now, It is fundamentally given that the Rebellion wins. There is not a thing we Loyalists can do. We (The Loyalist/Citizen faction) are entirely at the mercy of whenever the Liberators decide to next do another Judgement Waiver with the AR2's they brought over in the 15 hour walk from Geneva to I24. At the mercy of whatever 'Cocochop' deems fit for the server narrative.

The only way to fix this - to make it fair and to actually give the MAIN CONFLICT of the server stake, to generate ROLEPLAY, is to give the player administration (High Council, Chairman, Consul, Administrator, etc etc) influence over Overwatch forces strategically; to give them direction as the PLAYER made intermediary between the Citizen Faction and whatever S2K hell Rebels and Overwatch fight on a daily. In other words; Rebels should not be "fighting" just Civil Protection, they should be fighting the Combine and their Loyalists. Every bomb used on public infrastructure is a blow not to the CP leads or the disembodied voice of dispatch, but to *players*: Everyone from Eleanor Marchand to Wyatt Callaway, Varos Atkins to 'Svetlana Golubeva', Richard Ketterson to Elsa Becker, are all apart of "The Combine". They have as much a right to "win" - to see actual damage done on their behalf to the Rebel Faction trying to destroy everything they quite literally work for - as their Rebel counterparts on the other side of the map.

Now this explanation I completely agree with, beforehand your response seemed to just be the bog standard "all rebel players are bad, and I hate them", that goes around the community.

The CA/VA, or who the top loyalist in whatever place we are in should always be a player. As of right now both are event-characters who barely play, one of which: it makes no sense they are alive, and who's only purpose is to post scary things on the forums. And they should be directing the local combine plans, not the GMs or staff. Same goes for the rebels, it should be players making these decisions, not GMs or staff. Currently it does not feel as if we the players get to actual make meaningful decisions and are instead railroaded down whatever path the server's staff and GMs chose.

Personally, I do think some resections on how both factions handle the conflict is a good thing, Rebel shouldn't be going around PKing every single loyalist on the server, blowing every citizen event, nor should the combine send death squad to kill all rebels off the server every week. Both those things don't add to the conflict. It should instead players on both sides directing blows to opposite faction that create interesting RP. Not a massive S2K PK Fest.

 

[MrTuki]

That "shit PK policy" is the ONLY thing stopping the "Liberators", captured rebels, Emiyo Marcum, or any other problematic person/s from being fucking gunned down in a firing line before they could get off the ground btw. Be careful what you wish for because "The Combine being brutally oppressive" goes far in both ways.

Id be happy if the PK policy was stricter. I thrived when you could shoot down bleeding out people and PK them on the spot, I had no issues with it.

PS: Emiyo Marcum will fall...

 

[MrTuki]

A *character* that has existed since 2023 could have been insta-pked by this guy with the current rules with no questions asked.

Yeah because callaway is an important figure socially to the combine, he is a CHAIRMAN. Maybe he shouldnt go walking around without proper escort and maybe he wouldnt have people so close to killing him, hmmmm????

 

[Processed_Grain]

Yeah because callaway is an important figure socially to the combine, he is a CHAIRMAN. Maybe he shouldnt go walking around without proper escort and maybe he wouldnt have people so close to killing him, hmmmm????

How do you miss the point so blatantly? What? Ar- Are speaking a different language? What?

The point isn't that people are trying to kill him, and he did have a 'proper escort'. The point is to point out the gigantic disparity between Rebel and Loyalist faction interactions on a level that goes beyond clicking W + M1 on your keyboard with a popper to try and kill the first important-looking person in your crosshair you ululating hound.

 

[Processed_Grain]

Id be happy if the PK policy was stricter. I thrived when you could shoot down bleeding out people and PK them on the spot, I had no issues with it.

We just went over why that's not necessary and how we could build proper factions who trade blows beyond S2K-shit but by all means - let me use this bullshit deathbeam to glass New Geneva or the next rebel group to do passive in the outlands. Lets see how your "Epic Realistic Occupation" where le EVIL combine are REALISTIC and STAMP OUT ALLLL DISONANCE and OWN stupid propagandized loyalists #based style

 

[MrTuki]

How do you miss the point so blatantly? What? Ar- Are speaking a different language? What?

The point isn't that people are trying to kill him, and he did have a 'proper escort'. The point is to point out the gigantic disparity between Rebel and Loyalist faction interactions on a level that goes beyond clicking W + M1 on your keyboard with a popper to try and kill the first important-looking person in your crosshair you ululating hound.

Ok first of all, quit the fucking attitude because you are being outright disrespectful.

Second of all, rebels get as many if not more PKs than a loyalist for obvious reasons, the Parole system is not even used that much anymore and it is heavily controlled and regulated (If you doubt about it, go ask Malik Johnson, he saw it first hand). If you really expect for a high ranking combine official to not be PK on sight you are outright delusional. No interactions can truly happen between both factions aside from " W + M1 " as you say or anything that is not outright hostile, because all I hear of the faction is Armenian Union (Callaway) yelling on the CCA discord over rebels, doing private meetings and random walks through the streets just to go back to talking to the same chosen few and thats about it.

There will never be another sort of "interaction" between these two groups because they are polar opposites, simple as.

 

[MrTuki]

We just went over why that's not necessary and how we could build proper factions who trade blows beyond S2K-shit but by all means - let me use this bullshit deathbeam to glass New Geneva or the next rebel group to do passive in the outlands. Lets see how your "Epic Realistic Occupation" where le EVIL combine are REALISTIC and STAMP OUT ALLLL DISONANCE and OWN stupid propagandized loyalists #based style

View attachment 47556

That would also glass your lovely loyalist housing, but go ahead! Be my guest, ask the staff for it and see what happens.

 

[MrTuki]

I liked you more when you played the incel rot worm. @Processed_Grain

 

[Processed_Grain]

Ok first of all, quit the fucking attitude because you are being outright disrespectful.

What? I'm only reciprocating the feeling given towards the late-great members of the rebel faction and their disregard for anything Citizen-related. It's not my fault you sincerely think something like this is true.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful - I'm only defending my faction just as you defend yours.

If you really expect for a high ranking combine official to not be PK on sight you are outright delusional. No interactions can truly happen between both factions aside from " W + M1 " as you say or anything that is not outright hostile, because all I hear of the faction is Armenian Union (Callaway) yelling on the CCA discord over rebels, doing private meetings and random walks through the streets just to go back to talking to the same chosen few and thats about it.

This is terribly close minded and I'd like anyone with reason to see why.

1: I think all PKs should be in both good faith and done properly. As shown above; that is not the case. We have throwaway street urchin characters throwing together bombs or pistols and trying to get a lucky shot on a character (Possibly because of OOC bias against Armenian Union after getting in an argument in discord) who, due to the current PK rules - would be instantly PKed with 0 questions asked, something which has happened an innumerable amount of times at this point. This should be remedied at least partially and you're acting in bad faith if you think otherwise. Simple as.

2: That's all you ''Hear'' because that's all we can do. Again - the Loyalist faction is completely neutered and has no real way of interacting; of directing any Combine effort. It is completely isolated from whatever Overwatch or the Rebellion is doing and is completely helpless.

3: ...Over 15 years of Half-Life 2 roleplay on Garry's Mod and this is the best we can come up with?

There will never be another sort of "interaction" between these two groups because they are polar opposites, simple as.

Talk about the "decline of RP standards" -- we have the ''lead'' for the Vortigaunt faction advocating for a utter debasement of all roleplay into Impulse-style CvR shotcops until the end of time.

There will be no complex storylines between Loyalists to the Occupation and Freedom Fighters - moral questions between what's right for Humanity. There will be no dynamism between actually player-led Combine and Rebel factions interacting in a Sector War, planning around each other and constantly trying to out-wit the other. There will be no interaction - roleplay - beyond playing "Call of Duty except you have to raise your weapon first before fighting". No-- YOU, the player, do not deserve anything like that. Instead, you get to watch "The Liberators" and the Transhuman Arm swarm around each other like flies around a rotting corpse outside of the CZ while you and every other citizen are stuck twiddling their thumbs inside the Ration Terminal. Unbelievable.

If you think anything I've said here is toxic or debilitating, If you think I've come off as disrespectful to any degree, just imagine a server built around Taliazure jestermaxxed S2K aurafarming edits and you'll see where I come from (not punching at Talia mind you). Totally mindless. A waste of time. Nothing constructive or interesting to be done. No- It's just pressing E on trashbags and waiting for Civil Pro apps to open.

I liked you more when you played the incel rot worm. Processed_Grain

That was me minging and at this point I'm not surprised *that* was what you call 'peak'.

Again - I am sorry if I come of immature but I really can't help but speak my mind when this is.. this.

 

[Marco]

I feel like staff should start punishing the roleplay clause more. If someone makes a complaint about someone's RP, it shouldn't be dismissed.

Like, I was rping and this guy just starts speaking 2024 newspeak like "
wagwan fam what u doing?"

@ help there's a guy failrping!!

Your ticket has been dismissed by [INSERT MODERATOR] due to your ticket being irrelevant or already solved, etc.

 

[Orion]

I feel like staff should start punishing the roleplay clause more. If someone makes a complaint about someone's RP, it shouldn't be dismissed.

Like, I was rping and this guy just starts speaking 2024 newspeak like "
wagwan fam what u doing?"

@ help there's a guy failrping!!

Your ticket has been dismissed by [INSERT MODERATOR] due to your ticket being irrelevant or already solved, etc.

lol wtf on god frfr this is how i speak

 

[Armenian Union]

If you really expect for a high ranking combine official to not be PK on sight

Who said I shouldn’t be? I’ve been PK on sight for 5 months. It’s the fact that some guy typed in LOOC: “I have a bomb for you.” mid-rp as he throw a satchel of explosives toward me on a character im 80% sure is a throwaway as a way of showing that the PK system is flawed. This has went way over your head.

is Armenian Union (Callaway) yelling on the CCA discord over rebels

When the liberators caused a JW 3 days in? Yes.

I will absolutely not concede this. I have every right to be angry at the current rebels. If they intend to go all out on their operations with their quests and their bounties on me placed by a rebel event char (classic) then the loyalists/combine reserve the right to also go all out in return.

Until the temperature is turned down then we should not engage in this in good faith.

Ok first of all, quit the fucking attitude because you are being outright disrespectful.

Don’t feign outrage.