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What happened to willard????

  • Thread starter Thread starter Donavin Jones
  • Start date Start date
D

Donavin Jones

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So, I always wanted to make this thread, however, I always thought I'd just shoot myself in the foot, since I thought it'd just change rather quickly. Thats not the case no more, here we go.


So, a lot has changed whether it be for the better or worse. Gameplay wise, mixed bag. RP wise? More leaning towards the worse, in a way.
Anyone remember 2021 December of willard? When the Deliveries was around and the Pint was actually active? There were these Xen Crystals in the slums, they were rare, but they happened, that was fun, and such things like, Xenian aliens like Grunk, Slummer RP, CP's that were assholes but in a good way, and Loyalists that generally disliked the slummers, no loyalists in the slums either, enemies in the sewers. And most of all. FUN. What the fuck happened. All of this just fucking slowly vanished, but in a way where it was kind of hard to notice. Now, I know the enemies in the sewers was from the so called 'Hawkes Madness Episode', but that gave the sewers a reason to carry a weapon. Loyalists in the slums, that for me and I believe a lot of others doesn't feel right. CP's constantly sweeping, and these aux units in the slums, not fun for us.
The only good RP things that I've seen is GM builds and events, and Rebel leads (sort of). I just wish a lot of the stuff above, came back. Now, I know this also is due to the fact Willard is experiencing 'Lack of players syndrome', but this was brought on from the unhealthy lifestyle 'Literally nothing to do lmao'. If you have seen things other wise, tell me. I just wish the things above would be introduced back into willard.​
 
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Hey, I see the problems with slummer RP and I tbh at first I didn't like the aux but, after having them around it adds rp. It brings rp they are easy to kill and there outpost getting destroyed is also rebel RP it was done by a rebel group that was very new when BMD gave them the job. It really helped the roleplay for the group but, everything is slowly dying.
Slummer rp is so gone I started doing loyalist I feel like I can help rp wise more in that area, City RP is a ghost town 90% of the day and 3 of the stores open, is sad. DOB needs reform and so does all the other parts of the server. I think most and I say most because some are running well, most of the Leads need to be swapped out to more active ones or people with more passion, I feel the server declining everyday and it saddens me beacuse like most I really like playing this server, and is/has been one of the best gmod roleplay server I've played, I just think it needs some things reformed that are in plain sight but, not being dealt with.(Sorry this was written like shit I'll make a full thread later on with all the problems I feel needs addressing and if you disagree eat me alive with a comeback please, I want to see all sides)
 
I just want another D47-like event where most of the map is uninhabitable (the sewers doesn't count)
 
Yeah I'll formally address this for you but I'll keep it straight to the point. Baring in mind that I am writing this five minutes upon being awake. To address the "slow decline" or "slow grind" that you have mentioned metaphysically, one of the biggest problems that Willard has seen (and clearly as evident the previous week) was one thing:

Drama. A lot of foot stomping and mouth piecing drama.

People are inherently very emotional, and over the previous year it was drama alone that have caused about half if not more than half of our problems. It is the coherent fact that people simply do not like / want to get along, they have different ideas or thought stimuli that haven't been realised. General perceivement of the guidelines, rules or regulations in the server caused people to leave upon being banned when they break said regulations. Communication issues are a huge red zone, even with steps taken to actually improve it. You can only hope it improves when people actually do and commit to it.

Over the previous year we had:

- Solid narratives.
- Strong storefront RP with rebel networking. (IE Cybercafe)
- Political RP that made things interesting.
- An environment in which people felt comfortable to be around in, contributing more than just solid RP between different factions and groups, but a matter of which had created an ingame "chatter box" for people to come and chill with their friends.
- Active leadership from all counts and parties.

List goes on.

When did the 'decline' really begin? I'd say just before the i17 event. People were generally getting fed up with the status quo for a long time. The previous storyline element was when we had the Food Crisis that peaked interest just some time before the i17 chain which brought about interesting RP. But this was during a time where leadership was fragmenting under activity strains, and nobody below them really knew how to act or commit to their faction without the solidified guidance needed. In turn, they suffered - then city roleplay suffered.

Take the DoB for example.
I'm sorry, DoB.

Nothing good ever came from the DoB. It mortally wounded storefront RP.
Neither did the OSI. It was a huge walking 'double standard' faction.

Tight server polarisation is another problem, where the server eventually divided its playerbase into the two camps: Combine and rebels.
The two oppositional elements of city RP that directly affects the citizens are Civil Protection and the Rebellion groups. As of this moment if you were to compare the polarisation from each side, I can almost guarantee that a growing 'Play To Win' mentality grew between. This had caused a rather devious, if not set distrust between the two camps OOC, which regularly causes arguments, fights or actions from either party that eventually produces a ban. IE metagame, character assassination or shady activity that routinely produces an unfriendly environment.

We had a portal storm which hit City 24 one time, and I'd say was the absolute peak of strong RP when the Xen updates came around the corner especially with Half Life: Resurgence.

We had alien grunts, we had Vortigaunts being able to Vortal-grow living turrets in strategic places to ward off Combine raids, we had Xen crystals and many rituals going on for Vorts.

Overwatch was at their peak of activity, they were SCARY (albeit deployed far too often) and people respected the faction before the... incident with leadership.

Civil Protection had Overseers and Captains walking in the open, visiting stores and interacting with the playerbase and we even had the CCA being an open casket for a while which was a production of the politics RP before it was broken down.

Look, I can go on. But I'm going to say right here that the entertainment value of Willard slowly dipped itself into corrosive acid the moment people started to not get along with each other, and didn't take the "serious" in Roleplay to a fortified degree. Not to mention Short Stories was active and the events they created were practically godlike. Doesn't help when we've reached a catalyst stage where witty comments people make cause massive dramastorms and very select individuals are having to clean up the mess that the original individuals created.

As a CM, I am going to find it difficult for a little while to provide a much stronger and actually attractive environment. But with the recent events of the rogue dev incident, the Short Stories managerial shift and having to fundamentally find a way to update and restructure much of the existing roleplaying formulae for how factions work and maintain the seriousness in RP... my famous little quote: I ask for your patience.

Take this statement from me as my literal stance at the moment. GMs are doing what they can and I've given them complete autonomy to do what they prefer to do while I fix things around in the back, even in groups to attract the players to expedite and explore with them. I'll know if they're showing signs of ware.

I hope that answers your question on "Why is everything looking like a bit of a wasteland?" Well - yeah, follow the bread crumbs of that activity in which influenced it.
 
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