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My personal run-down of factions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dazor
  • Start date Start date
You gave everything except BMD and Trash burner a failing score....
 
Civil Authority - People who like to write, perform and have fun in a safer, cleaner environment would love this faction. It's integral to have as well because what city would have no leadership? Also Political Drama is the best kind of drama. 8/10

Union Entertainment - I love the Idea of state sanctioned Celebrities, but this could also just be done by regular citizens without the Title. I guess it gets people more focused on maintaining the shows. 5/10

Proselytes - Having an entire faction that is quite literally "Stand next to guy" is already bad enough, but you're also taking a function away from the OTA who already basically have nothing. Easy 0/10

Union news (Newspapers) - The only people who join this faction are the people who enjoy writing, Why would the entire premise of the faction be the downside? I think it gives people a window to influence the inhabitants of the city with their work. 7/10

OTA -OTA is for when shit absolutely goes down, or if some big wig wants to risk getting shanked for a coffee. They are menacing and can back up their appearance with force. The very mention of OTA scares Rebels into hiding in their trash piles. The players have to be extremely respectful of the role in order to make it work, thankfully they always are. 10/10

CP - The CP is just a bluesuit with a cushy job. They're people with a thinking mind and a beating heart. They have friends, they have enemies. They have Obligation and Respect. This faction allows for such unique development (as logn as you dont go for the evil sadist fem cop routine we've all seen 150 times). 8/10

CWU (Work cycles) - The workers keep the economy of the server alive and flowing. From selling items, to providing currency for work. They keep things running, and keep the Citizens Happy. Extremely important. 7/10

CMU - MedRP has always kinda urked me. It's by far the most technical and important form of passive, because you basically need to learn actual medical procedures if you want to be any good at it and not just F2B people's boo boos away. Most CMU players I've ever met either ERP a lot or go rogue in like 10 seconds, so... There's that. 4/10

Science branch - Is this like a Citizen GRID division? Bruh. 1/10

Vortigaunt- Enslaved Vorts being freed can form unique character to character bonds with their rescuers, they're extremely powerful characters as well. They can absolutely put up a fight. it doesnt matter if they need to hide, because the rebels also need to hide... 7/10

Zombies - /y Yabba My Icing /me hit you. Left click left click left click 2/10

Antlions etc - Waste of a Player. Just spawn an antlion. 0/10

Black Market - BMD have immediate control over the server's Rebel faction. It kind of makes them impromptu leaders of the local cell. They also control the rebel economy. Its definitely not for everyone. 8/10

Engineering Branch - So the Engineering branch and Science branch are just the GRID division but for citizens? Meh... At least this Mechanics union makes sense. 6/10

Infection control - Ha ha Flame Thrower go Fwoooooosh. 10/10

Business Owner - If you own a business you're CWU whether you like it or not. ?/10
 
Civil Authority - From what I have observed from servers in recent existance, there are two extremes to a Civil Authority. One is an incredibly well fleshed out system of government that is granted a major role in the server without taking away from any of the other factions in a major way. The other, is an incredibly limited secretariat. Concisting of members representing their faction, an administrator uniting these individuals, and a representative to outsiders. Theres also the TN extreme with a singular individual in charge of the entire city...But that doesn't deserve a mention. One is much better than the other, and the other...Is the one we have since April 22, 2020. 10/10 for the former, 0/10 for the latter. Untapped potential such as UU political roleplay, unique interractions with the various factions and whatnot for us to use. Replaced in light of a secretariat and a massive backseat role, in what is effectively a staff faction. Correct this, and you will have a far greater Civil Authority than we do now. If you wish to maintain this board of directors, you could make the existing secretariat just a part of the upper mangagement of the faction. (Now heres hoping Robert reads this)

Union Entertainment/broadcasting - A role that makes sense from an IC perspective (propaganda) and OOCly provides an interesting pasttime for creative individuals. Invite citizens over for a gameshow live and rewarding the winner with tokens? Sure! Giving a news report over broadcast through a propaganda filter? Go for it. Making up your own fictional show greenlit by the Union and showing it live? Why the hell not. 7/10.

Proselytes - While on this server they make little sense, their existance on a server with a more fleshed out Civil Authority makes some more sense. An effective guard detail for the Civil Authority that allows room for something like character development that would otherwise be restricted to OTA. I have even once seen them used as interrogators for unfortunate citizens invited for a "Politi-Inquiry" by the Civil Authority. An MMRed Militia under orders of some sheltered politicians and overwatch? It works. But with our current Civil Authority, they don't have much of a place in the server. Yet. For the love of gOD REWORK THE CIVIL AU 4.9/10.

Union news (newspapers) - A role simular to Union Broadcasting, but on paper. Interviewing members of the Civil Authority for your newspaper? Talking about a plague of a nearby city that could provide ideas for bored citizens to simulate arriving in C24? Volunteering as a news anchor for Union Broadcasting? Et cetera. I also believe this server has support for ingame newspapers, so... 7/10.

OTA - An intimidating force of the Universal Union. They are an incredibly well armed and, as mentioned, they might aswell have an aura of fearRP enforcement. Every citizen, rebel and cop are afraid of them by their very nature. They have built up a reputation as the literal endgame for every resistance. Their very existance prevents rebels from getting too ballsy and it generally takes staff intervention for them to be in a loss scenario....Then you have the other side of the coin with HL:A OTA. It feels like abit of a "Split-Personality" issue. One moment they are openly showing something like human emotion, the next they are a stone cold soldier...? It doesn't feel right. Either way, OTA scarcely have active roles in a server and typically keep to appearing when it is neccessary. Which is, in my opinion how best to do OTA. 9/10.

CP - Ah, Civil Protection...An important faction that is MANDATORY for any standard HL2RP server. The iconic police force that can offcer unique character development for its members and greatly improve City RP for any citizen(or rebel). Likewise, it can utterly RUIN a server. It all depends on the officers within the faction. No one server is the exact same with its Civil Protection. Typically, though? 10/10 without a single doubt.

CWU (Work cycles) - Providing citizens an easy source of social credit and a regular pasttime? Absolutely. Just make sure the individuals who get in don't do copy paste work cycles and its swell. 7/10

CMU FUCK UNORIGINAL FACTION NAMES - ERP bait, 0/10 As long as you don't allow a certain brand of remade female characters to enter the faction, and actually have a decent medical roleplay faction that is well organized and generally offers sources of medical knowledge to applicants, or even a set guidebook to fac members? Its probably gonna go off without a hitch. It can also offer a source of medical supplies to rebels in the way or rogue auths. Just don't have of your medical proceedures done by F2B. More potential as its own faction organizationally. 7/10.

Science branch - Better offering room for citizens to undergo research projects that ideally effect the server a whole instead of a closeted Civil Protection......D-Division. shudders...But yes, a science division offers many unique opportunities for roleplay. Depending entirely on how the server and the factions leads handles it. Even if they are less well known than the other branches. I also find this kind of faction has more potential as its own thing rather than brought under the "CWU" umbrella, simular to the...Medical Faction. 6/10.

Vortigaunts - The incredibly powerful, wise, and somewhat mystical xenian allies to the resistance. Enslaved biotics can form bonds with the citizens and, on rare occasion, civil protectors on the surface. Aswell as provide unique biotic assistance to the various factions. Even on some occasion using their abilities under supervision, albeit rarely considering the risks posed. As for below the surface, they are incredibly strong individuals who can even equal OTA with the right person in control. Not to mention the variety between the vortigaunt faction member's characters. The roleplay they provide is exceptional and the faction gets my full respect. 10/10.

Zombies/Headcrabs - One may make the argument they are a braindead S2K faction easily played by NPCs. Fuck those people, burn them in the depths of heck. Zombie and Headcrab variants can prove a great hazard for ANY bluesuit or even cop who wanders into their territory. Some are slow and easily evaded. Others are hyper aggressive, very fast. And VERY feared. Even if they don't work with our flawed TBC system very well, they are very hazardous when played by...Well, players. Not to mention the potential for less used variants. Like gonomes, gonarchs, zombines, new armoured crabs, and whatever else you could come up with and get authed. They are still limited in what they can do though. 4/10

Antlions/Xenians- Oh my god yes. The ability to have the various xenian creatures roleplayed by individuals with the ability to simulate their strengths and weaknesses properly? The zombie argument, but with much more variety. Absolute complete YES. 6/10. Possibly 7 depending on xenian infestations presence/faction activity on server.

Black Market - No. Why have a few preset people have the ability to obtain weapons magically in exchange for tokens and magically become the strongest people on server? The concepts of shipments? Bad, every bad. Only works with RP scripts such as drugs and the like...Trader authorisations for further abilities to create things with the supplies at our disposal, on the other hand? That, that could be something. 8/10 for independant traders, 2/10 for a shipment based black market.

Engineering Branch - Typically a secondary branch of the CWU. The only branch that works better under its umbrella as an ACTUAL branch. Though it will ideally not see much use unless theres been some major infrastructure damage or the like, its much better than handling everything through a stereotypical "GRID" Div..D...Divi..Division. 5.5/10

Infection control - Depends WAY too heavily on the server, somewhat new concept. ?/10

Business Owner - Depends entirely on the business owner. Some could be shitlords who get supplies, steal a few, sell the rest in their incredibly unoriginal store to desperate bluesuits, and go on their way. Others could create an IC storechain spanning several cities with well designed brands, offering custom food scripts and whatnot. Actually offering a well made store instead of a front for stealing supplies. Overall? Something more for citizens to show their creativity, offer more roleplay, or just steal supplies. 6/10

Also, we should begin using spoilers for these. Considering how much of the page a single post will take up.
 
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People giving their own run-down of factions
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Mist said:
Has everyone forgotten about the Citizen faction?
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Citizen- The faction that acts as a launchpad to other factions and paths with no properly defined goals. Offers unrivalled freedom, although the very nature of the faction makes it very difficult to rate. Its entirely dependant on the players that make the faction good or bad. I deem it impossible to rate, because at that point you might aswell start rating individual players.

@Mist
 
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Thood74 said:
Citizen- The faction that acts as a launchpad to other factions and paths with no properly defined goals. Offers unrivalled freedom, although the very nature of the faction makes it very difficult to rate. Its entirely dependant on the players that make the faction good or bad. I deem it impossible to rate, because at that point you might aswell start rating individual players.

@Mist
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I think this is actually a pretty fair point. I spoke to narrowly in my previous comment.

Citizens can be a pretty good faction, but it really depends on the person behind the keyboard. While that's technically a rule of thumb for any character/faction, it's usually implied that if you're anything other than a blue suit, you are somewhat capable of decent RP. It's true that they have unrivaled freedom but in a way that can be a blessing and a curse. With no clear cut goal, people often end up doing nothing and dreading playing as a citizen, only using it to, as you say, act as a launchpad into something better.

But the main problem is that to a certain extent, what I said before does have some merit. Saying it is one of the most important factions, while true, is mostly lip service. While in the hands of a skilled RPer coupled with a wide breadth of freedom it can lead to some actually really quality RP, it is true that there generally isn't all that much to do as a citizen for the average player. Some people talk about more events, and sometimes that helps and sometimes it does nothing. A lot of times people end up circle jerking, even as citizens in their niches. Even if you break it down into certain things you can do in a general sense, your options are from that point on limited.

Loyalist: Gotta be loyal or at least pretend to be loyal well enough. Breaking away from that and probably kiss your status or even your character goodbye. Loyalism usually just involves hoarding points by rubbing paper props on windows. (sure they're trying to make it a bit more involved on WN, but the execution remains to be seen)

Malignant: Dodge the law, try and do shady shit. Gives you options on how dynamic you want to be but the likelihood you're actually a half-decent malignant is quite low. Most people fall into tropes and end up lolwebuls or die pretty early on. Even if you go a non-combatant route and try to do something creative like set up a fight club or something, it'd probably get shut down pretty quick because Civil Protection usually squash stuff like this with little mercy because...well, who wants fun anyway.

Blue Suit: Bottom rung, basic and uninteresting. You will just be hanging in the plaza mostly, going for rations and shooting the shit with other citizens in passive.

Those are generally your only real options, granted there are many sub-branches in those three main routes. Every other option you have as a citizen -- going CWU, CMU, CP, CA, whatever; you are at that point in the pool of people who only play citizens because they kind of have to in order to get anywhere.
 
Most proposed factions are useless, straight up. They're either covered by other factions already, can already be implemented into a faction in the first place, or just don't serve any real purpose. I define what's useless or not depending on what helps the citizen faction.

Citizen faction is easily the most important faction, hands down, without a doubt. If you don't have a majority of players playing Citizen, your server is on borrowed time, because Citizens are your lifeblood. Without them, it isn't City RP, and other factions whether they revolve around citizens (like they should) or not will begin to subsequently suffer.

The worst part is that it's a death spiral for servers that starts when the staff take on the viewpoint that "Citizen faction is boring" or think that it just isn't worth having factions focus on Citizens. This makes the citizen faction boring as expected, which in turn causes people to want to be in another faction, which drives the focus away from citizens and into making other factions better. This in turn makes the citizen faction seem more boring, and the spiral continues until eventually your citizen RP is effectively dead, and you start losing players because your City RP server is losing its life blood.

And that's why you have to fix Citizen RP by revolving the ENTIRETY of the server around citizens. You have to make Citizens more appealing than side factions, even if it means that some of those side factions may not be able to play a character that can be fully fleshed out. These side factions, such as CP, Administration, OTA, etc need to be ran with the understanding that those who play them should know, and do so under the assumption that their char development for said factions are limited to their purpose in the server. Civil Protection aren't going to be able to develop characters inside the Nexus because their purpose is to be outside and playing the antagonist. Administration can't reasonably be among citizens, so unless they are doing what they are intended to do as an administrator, then they are quite useless. OTA even more so, and the extreme of sacrificing character over purpose by their very nature.

In the end, I will always rate Citizens to be the greatest faction by default. If the mindset is lost, and one assumes that Citizens are just naturally boring, then your server is fucked. It's why City RP is such a disgustingly hard gamemode to run, because it is naturally flawed and must be ran in a very specific way to work, which is why I'm so gung ho when it comes to anything relating to the Citizen faction and how other factions interact with it.
 
Equinox said:
And that's why you have to fix Citizen RP by revolving the ENTIRETY of the server around citizens. You have to make Citizens more appealing than side factions, even if it means that some of those side factions may not be able to play a character that can be fully fleshed out. These side factions, such as CP, Administration, OTA, etc need to be ran with the understanding that those who play them should know, and do so under the assumption that their char development for said factions are limited to their purpose in the server. Civil Protection aren't going to be able to develop characters inside the Nexus because their purpose is to be outside and playing the antagonist. Administration can't reasonably be among citizens, so unless they are doing what they are intended to do as an administrator, then they are quite useless. OTA even more so, and the extreme of sacrificing character over purpose by their very nature.
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I mean, it's easy to say that but what can you tangibly do to generate that interest and take it a step further by keeping that interest alive for longer than the span of a single event or two? While I am usually the optimist, maybe I've just had just enough poor citizen experiences on the many servers I've played that they inherently bland but there's only so much that can be done about the citizen faction.

You're correct in wanting them to be the server's focal point, you're correct in saying that if the interest in citizens dwindles your server's days are numbered. Yes, characters like CA, CP, OTA and Vortigaunts, etc are meant to play supporting roles but the fact of the matter is that each and every one of those factions are significantly more interesting to play because:

1: they are more exclusive
2: they are a novelty
3: they allow for certain aspects of RP and freedoms that are otherwise unavailable to citizens

Maybe WN is different, but we can't tell until the server is launched. However as far as I've ever experienced, while citizens really have the freedom to do almost anything, they, at the same time, do not. Civil Protection often come around in some way shape or form either in uniform or undercover (*eye rolls intensify*) to completely kill the glimmer of fun that could be had. If you do events, they can be pretty fun but are fleeting and at the mercy of GMs which players can miss or GMs can potentially not do them as frequently or as well fleshed out as many would like...like weather events...those are exciting...

Much of Citizen RP is passive. And while I personally don't have much of a problem with passive, some people don't respond to it as well. And for that matter, just about whatever you are interested in, just like the famous smart phone saying goes "there's an app for that", well....there's a faction for that. And often better done, with more resources and more freedom to do that specific thing. Any community I've been to, everyone says that citizens are important and I wholeheartedly agree but nobody I've ever talked to can really give a tangible solution to back it up. I know I certainly don't, but like you said it's an inherent flaw in the game mode that makes it so tricky.

To clarify, though I am criticizing the faction, I completely agree with you. I love citizen RP when its good and it is totally the lifeblood of any server -- without it you have nothing. But just saying they are important and that they should be a focal point is just emptily stating the obvious.
 
Sexy Frog said:
I mean, it's easy to say that but what can you tangibly do to generate that interest and take it a step further by keeping that interest alive for longer than the span of a single event or two? While I am usually the optimist, maybe I've just had just enough poor citizen experiences on the many servers I've played that they inherently bland but there's only so much that can be done about the citizen faction.

You're correct in wanting them to be the server's focal point, you're correct in saying that if the interest in citizens dwindles your server's days are numbered. Yes, characters like CA, CP, OTA and Vortigaunts, etc are meant to play supporting roles but the fact of the matter is that each and every one of those factions are significantly more interesting to play because:

1: they are more exclusive
2: they are a novelty
3: they allow for certain aspects of RP and freedoms that are otherwise unavailable to citizens

Maybe WN is different, but we can't tell until the server is launched. However as far as I've ever experienced, while citizens really have the freedom to do almost anything, they, at the same time, do not. Civil Protection often come around in some way shape or form either in uniform or undercover (*eye rolls intensify*) to completely kill the glimmer of fun that could be had. If you do events, they can be pretty fun but are fleeting and at the mercy of GMs which players can miss or GMs can potentially not do them as frequently or as well fleshed out as many would like...like weather events...those are exciting...

Much of Citizen RP is passive. And while I personally don't have much of a problem with passive, some people don't respond to it as well. And for that matter, just about whatever you are interested in, just like the famous smart phone saying goes "there's an app for that", well....there's a faction for that. And often better done, with more resources and more freedom to do that specific thing. Any community I've been to, everyone says that citizens are important and I wholeheartedly agree but nobody I've ever talked to can really give a tangible solution to back it up. I know I certainly don't, but like you said it's an inherent flaw in the game mode that makes it so tricky.

To clarify, though I am criticizing the faction, I completely agree with you. I love citizen RP when its good and it is totally the lifeblood of any server -- without it you have nothing. But just saying they are important and that they should be a focal point is just emptily stating the obvious.
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Well, it's that issue that I've wanted to fix so badly, and why I've been with this community for so long. I wouldn't be on board with any of this, or City RP at all if there wasn't a massive push to make Citizens interesting.

Of course the actual methods on paper are all over WN's designs. It boils down to the idea that you have to make every other faction revolve around and support citizens, entirely. You have to be willing to gimp an entire faction for citizens. For example, don't let CP go crazy and try to fuck with everyone all the time. Be willing to, as a GOOD CP lead, tell your forces not to respond to certain things so long as they generate RP, and vice versa, to antagonize out of nowhere when someone is going way over the line or doesn't have RP at all.

Many servers seem to take on this idea that HL2RP is a competitive game, where the goal is to carry your favorite faction to victory. It's how you end up with shotcop rebels and CP forces that will go fucking crazy in order to establish "epic dystopian dominance." The people who lead factions simply have to accept that strings have to be pulled and limitations placed in order to make citizen a better faction to play. Even going as far as to purposefully make certain factions not as fun to develop characters on.

But of course you have to do more than all that, and that just comes with creative planning and ambitious devs, like we have. Businesses are BIG for Citizens. I've seen one business go so far as to turn a Citizen faction from boring everyday drawls into a period of wonderful Citizen RP. One simple Cafe that had an owner who invested time into roleplay, and did more than just act as a vendor. Those who were part of The Earthfall Network (@TheDeNuke) may remember this happening, and it was hands down the best Citizen RP I've ever seen. Of course, it ended when a city administration member shut it down, an example of servers who don't limit other factions and thus allow them to ruin RP because "The business is not in compliance with us :("

It's just a matter of inspiring players and giving them the support needed to run a fun citizen character, as well as merging sub factions. Some may say loyalism and rebels are their own factions, but really, they are still part of the Citizen faction.
 
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