- Joined
- Sep 25, 2020
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- 847
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- #1
It is no secret amidst anyone who has spent a sizeable chunk of time in Willard that there is a lot of division and general dissatisfaction with many aspects of how Willard handles some of its features. I want to focus on one specific faction in this from the perspective of someone who admittingly does not often directly dabble in its depths personally. As such, take this for what it is, an opinionated piece. One that I feel is still entirely justified to be made. After all, even if every single thing I say is objectively wrong, someone can come along and correct it, and add clarity to the issue that can be brought up in the next discord shitshow.
Without further time wasting:
Rebels.
In my opinion, this faction carries the largest set of afflictions compared to any other aspect of Willards main server. As such, I will not be covering everything, but rather the things that interest me - someone who plays a citizen for the most part, but has a decent overhead of the servers general happenings due to my longstanding presence within it. I am mostly making this in order to neatly put together my various views and takes regarding this faction, so that they may be looked upon with a more organized eye.
One of the first things I want to address is what I find to be the largest problem rebels have. Power creep. It is something that has slowly been presenting itself to Willard for well over six months now. With every few paces the server takes, rebels in some form or another, manage to squeeze more and more advantages from the management. Rebels have transformed immensely when compared to those of the so-titled "Bottlestreet Era." Now, while this may seem a good thing at a cursory glance - given that very few remember this period fondly, myself included - there is more to it than one may first believe. While it was a terrible time all around, there is one thing it did (Kind of) well that has been completely forgotten by modern Willard.
Power Scaling
Modern rebels in Willard are a far cry from what was once known. They, in many respects, match the Combine factions they oppose, or even leap over them with little effort. Civil Protection in particular has been surpassed in almost all respects. Entire faction additions desperately trying to turn them into 'mini-OTA' just to enable them to keep up. Even beyond weapons, countless crippling blows to the Combine factions and endless stipulations and addendums to deployment and counter-insurgent options only further weaken them.
This may not seem like a bad thing to everyone, but I want to try to explain the harsh negative effects this has on the server as a whole. Not just the rebel faction itself. While the Bottlestreet Era was too far in the opposite direction, I do believe a middle ground can be achieved with such power scaling.
Since rebels have so much power, and are so readily able to access weaponry and other gear, the subtle nuances of rebellion are partially left behind. Information hunting, clever sabotage and infiltration are greatly lessened in importance as a result. When the direct method becomes more viable, one can expect it to be the most often used. Especially when it is often the only option to give results. Schemes of all sorts seem to longer hold viability in our current Rebel meta. Where as rebels were once expected to live a double life, going between the city and more secretive slums in order to progress and survive, now one can stay in the slums for the entire process and never really notice the difference. Only popping out occasionally for a ration or similar. There is no real need for a double life. Rebels have no need for the city - and the city has no need for them.
There is very little room for actual infiltrative tact. Or the abuse of corrupt assets the Combine have. Information to mine, or hardpoints to disable. This is because a variety of reasons.
1. The map
While this is something I did not realize at first when looking at the new map, being impressed with its general design, looking at it now, it seems obvious in retrospect what the biggest issue with such a massive rebel space brings. The lack of a playground for them. Compared to the winding, narrow halls of Indigent, the rebels only true targets lie within the two streets of the main city. Entirely visible from pretty much any angle, and impossible to hide in. Many escape routes being located directly in the middle of the road. With no reason to ever sabotage the slums or indigent, they are left with little to actually plot against. Especially given the Nexus is basically off-limits.
In fact, Indigent itself almost feels as if it were a sort of Outland portion of the map. Absolutely no loyalist elements are ever allowed within its area, cutting off any and all interactions rebels may have with their counterparts in their own turf. CP's are not allowed to patrol the region normally either. Only being allowed to conduct basic, surface level walks as a standard move. With anything else not in direct counter being considered a shadow sweep. Indigent has become an entirely separate entity from the city. They do not blend in the slightest. To such an extent, by all accounts, the Combine would just shell it and be done with it in reality.
Will this change? Almost certainly not, but it is a problem all the same if you ask me.
2. The lack of City Incentives
Civil Protection?
Civil Protection are nearly impossible to convince to engage in shady activity as very few incentives exist within the faction to encourage such behavior (afaik). CP's are treated as Tier 8 citizens by default and have almost unlimited power granted to them. They do not feel the boot of the Combine as they should, so despite leads talking about how much they love the idea of rouge CP's, barely any IC incentive exists for such things.
The loyalist party
The single largest aspect of City RP. It is also completely and utterly useless. Even a Tier 6 citizen has practically zero power within, and certainly not without, the law. On top of being cut off from large portions of the map and more strictly watched by Civil Protection, most rebels would intentionally avoid achieving high tiers I imagine. Not even the assembly would appear to be worth the effort due to the highly impotent legislation that they mainly delve in. CCA also falls into this, I think, cause only two positions really matter afaik.
This is also ignoring that, despite having very few benefits, high tiers are the hardest grind in the server by far - even further lowering their inherent value.
CWU/CMU?
CWU has some pretty harsh rogue rules that would deter most rebel activity. CMU is more lax in such respects, but I cannot speak much of this. However, given rebels have such mass supplies of gear, I can only imagine that infiltrating either faction is just not a high priority. Especially considering both factions put material restrictions to prevent one heist from murdering the entire economy. More of a happenstance convenience.
BOE?
Cracked newspapers look terrible and nobody uses them. Why rebels are not allowed to actually print pictures is completely and utterly beyond me. I have no idea why this request was denied in the past - but for the love of God - let rebels print half decent propaganda IC.
BRI?
No hard feelings
3. PK policy
You already know this one. Check below if you do not.
willard.network
You already know this one. Check below if you do not.
A proper discussion regarding the New PK reforms
Lets start with the more pretentious examination of the new system and move on from there. Put Simply! For rebels/partisans: 1. Rebels cannot be PK'ed as a result of a sweep, or any CP incursion unless they were the direct target of the sweep. 2. If not the direct cause of a sweep, rebels can...
willard.network
Surely though, the tradeoff of giving rebels a massive boost of power allows them to do more? Well, I don't think so. What is the last thing rebels have ever actually accomplished? What have rebels actually managed to change in a meaningful way, that wasn't snapped back into order some three days later. Or largely due to admin presence? Outside of the direct method, there is not much for rebels to do. Bombings and shotcops make up the majority of base options available to them, which is why this is most often the only form of action we see from them.
Willards style of rebels is to enable them to do much, but accomplish little. Which is the opposite of how it should be, in my own opinion. Rebels who do less, but manage to make waves that last in the waters when they do show up are far preferable. As it feels more genuine, and far more steady in its application.
NOTES:
This is honestly probably way less structured when compared to my previous PK post. However, this is a huge set of issues that all intertwine and tangle up together, and as stated I do not know everything and do my best to do as little hard assuming as possible. While its quality is surely lesser, in the interest of not spending hours trying to conjure the proper way to bring forth twenty separate issues in one post, I just went on a more general, but somewhat focused route.
(I also may have gotten kinda tired of writing. I have a life too believe it or not)
As mentioned above, I don't really play rebel myself. Most information has been gleamed from my time as a CM, SA or CT member. Also being derived from what others tell me since such times. As such, this isn't really me declaring anything as an absolute, but more just putting my own perception/opinion out there for others to view and possibly discuss. Many people have issues with rebels that seem to flow along this line of thought, so figured I would make a...somewhat orderly post regarding it.
That's all gamers
