Changing Willard's HL2RP: The Case for a Wipe & More

[ShadoWiz4rd]

You should not be able to walk around like a moron with your gear

That place is relegated to the area between city and Outlands. Or just in the Outlands, I mean if caught out there you're going to be arrested might aswell atleast be packing what you have.

 

[𝔄𝔪𝔟𝔢𝔯𝔮]

even when given every advantage, every opportunity and every helping hand most rebels still refused to crawl out of their metabase to do anything

IIRC, everyone was bickering and arguing every time we would try to plan anything, as everyone had different ideas, as well as any attempt we would have made would have probably wound up like the attempted CWU heist in August 2021. It's like 5 people playing chess against a world champion; a move wont get done because of arguing whether or not its the right one and we'd lose anyway.

Before you answer, asides from the duchy nexus raid in Willard V1, when was the last time staff actually monitored a rebel operation to give them a proper advantage, instead, for example, holding back the combine from entering for 2 turns and once their turn, they throw a grenade in the room and kill everyone instantly?

Anyway, rebels should not be safe. You should not be able to walk around like a moron with your gear - nor spurt out your anti-civil activity to every passerby and expect to get away with it.

Yes, I agree. Shun those people that do, and don't let the ones you should actually judge get to screw the ones actually trying to work towards something.

It shouldn't be too oppressive

So do something about it, instead of, as mentioned above, CPs go after broken bottle people and then choose to surprise raid every apartment because of it.

 

[𝔄𝔪𝔟𝔢𝔯𝔮]

Stages of apprehension. Keep no-patrol zone thing.

Stage I (95ers, kitchen knife or otherwise minor item people, minor illegal trades), once spotted 3 times or reported 5-6 times, go for a 3 cop patrol in the slums, but don't raid bases

Stage II: 9mm, padded pants pants people (medium gear, heavier contraband people, loyalist items, a bit more than minor illegal trading), once spotted 2 times or reported 4 times, send a 4 cop patrol in the slums, raid max 3/4 apartments/bases.

Stage III: UZI, tier 2/3 armor people, SMG people (combination of the two above, approx.), spotted once or reported twice, lock out the slums and search protocol on triumph/next to slum areas, spotted twice or reported three times, 5/6 cop patrol in the slums, depending on if attack happens or not allow sewer raid, and allow a maximum of 6/8 random apartments/bases to be raided (no engagement/engagement)

Stage IV: Actual threats (shotguns, LMGs, explosives, max tier gear OR multiple Stage III threats and the liking), once reported once, lock out the slums, and pat down anyone in next-to-slum areas. If spotted, immediate 6-8 cop patrol in the slums, 10 random apartments/bases to be raided and allow sewer sweep. If engaged, allow OTA if situation gets very dire, 12 random apartment/base raids.

And refine that, and you might have yourself a system. If the staff and/or the players will like that.

If non-target players get killed in Stage I - Stage III sweeps NLR with full refund. Engaged Stage III and Stage IV result in NLR no refund. Target players are PK'd. Captures are PK'd. Items in found containers are not taken in Stage II - Stage III sweeps, unless engaged.

And refine that, you might have yourself a proper system, if people will like that.

 

[RedHotGinger]

when was the last time staff actually monitored a rebel operation to give them a proper advantage

An entire event recently got voided because the rebel bias was so thick. In I17 itself the escape segment was supposed to be much tougher (Since you all didn't do anything), but admins just shrugged their shoulders and made it a breeze instead. Not even mentioning the times 6 Combine were sent forced to go against some 16 rebels for no reason. There are examples, not too many in server luckily, but there are examples.

Lorewise..now that's a proper joke. Fucking SRF.

Besides, just to be clear, rebels shouldn't get favoritism.

 

[Belgg]

Thats because of the no hidden bases rule. In the end, it's RNG if you lose skills and/or items when the 57th sweep or 22nd surprise/"for the fun of it" patrol happens that day. You can't always know when 2 CPs "Bee Gees" - walk in the slums and then cause an X scenario where someone suffers a loss of anything you can as a character, or when a sweep happens. Neither will any amount of "NLR for non-initial targets" or "CP's get pk'd or de-ranked if they die" will allow us to get back on our feet, even with the aforementioned sanctions for CPs during sweeps/patrols.

If the CP's come, you either try your luck running in the sewers or you lose everything that makes you want to play your character, because grenade spam, sending even more CPs or OTA to fight if we manage to repel them momentarily.

Either make the slums a no-patrol zone and don't make CPs 'risk their necks' (PK/lose everything rule) over a guy who shoved a CP in the workshift line and managed to get away, or give us hidden bases back. Or both.

why are you talking about server problems if you have been banned for months and not played since?

 

[Belgg]

why are you talking about server problems if you have been banned for months and not played since?

Like I'm not even joking, how does it make sense?

 

[Lost Coast Chanties]

Either make the slums a no-patrol zone and don't make CPs 'risk their necks' (PK/lose everything rule) over a guy who shoved a CP in the workshift line and managed to get away, or give us hidden bases back. Or both.

It's... Already like this? Slums are a no-patrol zone for CPs, we don't go there unless it's for sweeps.

 

[Belgg]

It's... Already like this? Slums are a no-patrol zone for CPs, we don't go there unless it's for sweeps.

See? There is my point, this guy complains about things that happened 5 or 6 months ago (When he was banned)

 

[𝔄𝔪𝔟𝔢𝔯𝔮]

It's... Already like this? Slums are a no-patrol zone for CPs, we don't go there unless it's for sweeps.

Then disregard my statement. I've been told it still sucks. Which I can guess from those sweeps are for the popular kitchen knife bandits, or are they?

 

[𝔄𝔪𝔟𝔢𝔯𝔮]

Besides, just to be clear, rebels shouldn't get favoritism.

For now, not much. You should reconsider as the server inches closer towards 2021. Gordon time

 

[Lost Coast Chanties]

Then disregard my statement. I've been told it still sucks. Which I can guess from those sweeps are for the popular kitchen knife bandits, or are they?

I haven't seen any knife bandit sweeps, so I can't exactly comment on how rare/often these things happen.

 

[Pasta]

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the segment I like to call

THOUGHTS FROM PASTA
The fun new game show for the entire family to enjoy! Jokes aside, I've been away for almost 8-9 months. I dunno it's been a while so take what I have to say with a grain of salt.

RP Quality
This isn't such a simple fix, I do agree that there are certain items that do seem far-fetched but this was also past my time I am unsure, and unaware if anything more has happened. The biggest solution to this problem is if it is truly lacking. Is some good old TLC, now this can be the case for most things. I recall Civil Protection is in a poor place, OTA, Rebels, and a lot of management were having issues and THAT'S OKAY! That happens when burnout occurs or people cannot handle what they have. This is very typical in every community where there are going to be bumps in the road.

With some care, I would argue this will be just fine. This doesn't solely rest upon the admin team's shoulders. The community itself has to contain and maintain what they want the standard to be. Do you want to encourage wacky RP? Then so will the players around you. Do you want to encourage the serious tone and push that narrative? Then find like-minded players to help you. Yes, this is not the easiest fix but it is a fix that is possible in the hands of the admin team and the community itself.

So ask yourself, what kind of narrative do you want to push?

RP 'Substance'
Maybe I'm going to sound like an asshole here. This might be the case. A server can provide tools for the players to make roleplay, whether this be shops, items, cases, terrorist attacks, zombie attacks, or loyalist/rebel events. It also comes down to the player themselves to also push what they want. Citizen RP will forever and always be the hardest thing to maintain in a Half-Life Server. It's almost impossible to make it truly fun hence why there's a divide between the Loyalist Route and Rebel Route. BOTH have a different flavor that can be provided. That builds great tension.

It feels like I'm going to be repeating myself as the topic of "BURNOUT" seems to be really what I see as many of the issues. AGAIN I could be wrong because I have taken time away from this community and GMOD as a whole. So I'm a bit refreshed and ready to jump into the world I hadn't seen in quite some time. I want to say if the game makes you frustrated over little things (we're taking minor issues or things out of your control) then it's okay to take a step back and rest a bit. Come back with a clear mind. Now for the larger things. Yes, that is frustrating to fight over and try and change. TRUST ME. I fought tooth and nail during my time in Civil Protection, but nothing happened and I got really really upset.

Though my thoughts are as such, Yes I think the server should provide a few more tools for players to make their own content and even push the story forward, but it takes also the players to do some outlandish stuff. Rebels to plan out certain attacks. While the Combine reacts to it with actual meaning. It takes two to tango, while both sides are enemies we as a community should also ensure the roleplay is fun for both of us.

REBEL = PROACTIVE | COMBINE = REACTIVE

It'll take the right people in the right positions to push this. I think still it can be done.


Lore Wipe/Lore Rework
While in some communities this might be acceptable. Hell, in my past communities (StarshiptroopersRP) we've done wipes before. HOWEVER. We also kept elements within the lore that we liked and that would enrich the story for those who kept coming back to SSTRP (I know Willard and .net have been working together so hi to those who are from both!), while I don't fully agree with a wipe. I don't see why the fat from the story cannot be cut away. I know when I first joined Willard that the lore itself was decently overwhelming, but I'm also a lore nut and I adored the sheer amount that was there.

I know this isn't the case for many people, as I am an oddity in itself where if there's lore, I'm gonna read it until I fully understand it. This doesn't mean that the lore itself is right now without any issues. I do think that there should be a team, (Creative Team?) to take a look at what could be kept and what's not needed.

Wipes work only well if there's a grand meaning behind them. In Willard's case, the lore itself is what makes it so special. With the characters written within it, and how certain things work. A wipe MAY work but I would favor the Lore Rework over an entire wipe.

Final Thoughts
No server is going to be perfect, nor is it going to make everyone happy. It's simply impossible. There are certain changes I would love to see but I will have to push those myself to the right people. Trust me when I say this is no easy thing to do. But I hope my words reach some of you and if they do, great! If not. That's okay.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

 

[M!NT]

This is such a mess.

I agree with RedHot, sort of. We CANNOT wipe everything with nothing to show for it.

However, it is clear that the timeline the HL2RP server is on right now is very stale and people are rapidly losing interest in it. This is something that has happened time and time again throughout many of the large servers throughout the years; LP, TNB, Gridhive, SCG, Neb, etc. The issue of people losing interest and the community fizzling out.

Doing NOTHING will KILL the server SLOWLY.

This is why we need to do something to get people interested in playing on Willard again.

We should take the lessons we've learned over these last two years and come up with something fresh. To do that we're going to have to wipe a lot of what exists currently as it just isn't working.

Here's what we should do to steer out of this:

V3 is exciting, in it contains localized damage, resource cultivation, closed economy (gears of industry), huge model update, and many other things.
New and old players will be excited to come on to try out these systems.

When we release V3 we'll get a big bump in players, which will taper off over the course of a few weeks. Eventually we won't even get over 10 players on the weekends and, before you know it, we'll be where we are now once again.

That is why we should take what we've learned these last two years and put that into redoing these problematic factions from the ground up. This means a wipe of CCA, CP, Rebels, good chunk of CWU, and so on.

Trying to fix them as they currently stand is like trying to fix a house sitting on a crumbling foundation.

The reason why those factions need to all be redone simultaneously is because we tend to focus on rebuilding whichever faction is most problematic while neglecting the others. So, they're 'fixed' one at a time in a cycle, which results in big parts of the server being dysfunctional at all times.

Redo the factions, this time with some careful thought and direction. Think of a storyline for the server to follow and set up the factions so that they best adhere to that storyline. Find leads that are passionate, and give them the support and direction they need so that they don't burn out and become inactive.

In summary, I think our best bet is to replace much of what is bad with something new- built using the lessons we've learned these last two years. We will get a lot of players when V3 launches. Make sure this 'something new' keeps them engaged enough to stick around for months.

Of course, I have a lot of ideas about specific things we can do for this, but this post is already long enough

 

[Kaffee]

The onus of responsibility

Unus Annus? I fucking love Markiplier

 

[Conundrum]

Unus Annus? I fucking love Markiplier

defunct youtube channel trademarking the latin language.

 

[Robert]

I am very much pro wipe... however, I will say this. We can't just wipe one thing or another, if you want a wipe, EVERYTHING should be wiped. That means characters, lore, staff, CT, SS, Factions and their leads, everyone's whitelists, scripts/items, eco, skills, etc etc. Nothing should remain even the slightest bit intact.

Why?

The slate needs to be cleaned, and a new foundation is laid for a brand new and fresh face of Willard to emerge. If you leave parts of the old foundation built on sand, it will crumble all the same, with the weak points remaining. For a new Willard to rise, someone needs to be willing to wipe the existing Willard and its foundation and build a brand new one from the ground up with concrete. If you want to fix Willard, you effectively have to make a new fresh face of the Community equivalent to making a new community and server.

There is plenty of reasons for a wipe, some of them stated above but the full reasoning for a full wipe can be summarized down to a list of points:

1. Factions are a complete mess and have no sense of unity nor purpose and at times are led by people who have no idea how to run a faction at Willard's level of a player base.
2. Lore is a clusterfuck as mentioned in this very post and makes little to no sense in a ton of areas.
3. Staff are disunified and from being staff myself, I can safely say it is a toxic environment with no one willing to work with each other, I recommend staff to read the 5 dysfunctions of a team because they represent all of them perfectly. Even to this day... and have done for the last 2 years.
4. Communication never works, related to staff and management but it is a mess
5. I have been told that CT has effectively gone rogue and is actually even more disunified than Staff... from my experience as a CT member in the past, I can certainly say there was that feeling but sounds like it has gotten even worse.
6. Lack of proper management... self-explanatory
7. Short Stories from what I have seen and even heard from insider sources is essentially dead in its tracks due to the constant management changes every so often meaning Fungle was the only person holding that shit together, everyone else is dead weight so far. No offence.
8. Lack of direction or aim, the server has no aim towards anything... its not even HL2RP just a City with a hl2 skin
9. Rp Quality dead in the water
10. Anyone up for team deathmatch? Oh wait, balance is so cucked that I would rather hide than bother the CPs or OTA... even if I wanted to do something bad.
11. Everyone pretty much hates each other up to this point, so better to clean it all out rather than let it rot.
12. Going back to point one... vorts? What is a vort? Oh wait, they're gone and I wonder why... HMMMMMMMMM
    1. PS... CPs are far too nice smh.
13. Rules are weaponized against people staff don't like. Rule 0 is the biggest retard moment of Willard and shows the mentality of some staff members, proving some NEED to be kicked out for good.

I think that sums up the major reasons but that is not even the tip of the iceberg. Many more issues to name on many different levels of the community and server which just shows how much of a mess this place truly is. Anyway, enough ranting...

If we want to fix Willard, then a Full Wipe is a way to go so we get a brand new lore team, brand new staff, brand new lore overall, brand new factions and leaders, brand new management system, brand new gameplay design, removal of the G in RPG, etc etc. I have many ideas for this myself but that's for another thread/topic entirely.

Thank you for listening to my TED talk.

 

[Juicy]

Short Stories from what I have seen and even heard from insider sources is essentially dead in its tracks due to the constant management changes every so often meaning Fungle was the only person holding that shit together, everyone else is dead weight so far. No offence.

Some of the things I agree on however the short stories team that's no longer was organised when events were taking place. There was a few fuck ups for the first few short stories since changes however the organisation for when the event was happening was a lot better. Not trying to diss Fungle he did a good job however non of the GM's for the event were organised and things overlapped one another so much when he was managing it. I think it can be a lot better now than before but I agree in the fact that changing the managers so often is not the one.

 

[Lost Coast Chanties]

The slate needs to be cleaned, and a new foundation is laid for a brand new and fresh face of Willard to emerge. If you leave parts of the old foundation built on sand, it will crumble all the same, with the weak points remaining. For a new Willard to rise, someone needs to be willing to wipe the existing Willard and its foundation and build a brand new one from the ground up with concrete. If you want to fix Willard, you effectively have to make a new fresh face of the Community equivalent to making a new community and server.

A full wipe won't magically conjure "competent" people, nor will it fix anything, rather than just serve as a way to get completely new issues or bring us to the existing ones.

There is no magical "Fix the server button", and even if there was, a full wipe isn't one of them. You're essentially throwing everything off a messy, yet at least functional desk, without actually asking yourself why it was messy in the first place, fully hoping that this time history won't repeat itself.

Unfortunately, it will, since all of the reasons why the server became the way it is still remain. In that case, what you ended up doing has killed the interest of the people who did actually care, only to buy yourself a small time of innovation, which will fizzle out eventually, as it always does.

I know it will sound insane... But how about we actually try to fix the issues without jumping the shark? I mean, do you really need a full wipe to raise vort activity? Change FLs? Improve staff? I know, easier said than done, but how would a wipe fix these, exactly? Does it magically improve communication and "fix" CityRP?

 

[Rabid]

In that case, what you ended up doing has killed the interest of the people who did actually care, only to buy yourself a small time of innovation, which will fizzle out eventually, as it always does.

This sums up the past 16 months on WN, frankly, and I couldn't have put it better.

The initial population boost from being a new server was seen as something that would continue no matter what was done, and so there was a concentrated effort by members of the staff team to steer things in the direction they wanted rather than helping and encouraging their most dedicated and active players. In many cases their efforts got laughed at and shut down while they were branded "problem players" and ignored when they brought up criticism.

So those players quit and most of them haven't been back in a very long time and probably won't come back regardless because they can do what they want to do elsewhere with less chance of getting burned again.

A total reset won't fix the communities culture which has survived multiple attempts to change it - a rigid lack of flexibility on all levels. Its easier to get a complex coding request done than to get RP restrictions loosened. How many of those bright TN players people were bragging about absorbing before launch actually still play now because of this?

You can fix all the factions in the world but if you don't cater to the people who want to do things then you won't have much left when the clumped mass of semi-serious players invariably leaves.

 

[The_Grass_Man]

Wipe there and wipe here, how about you guys WIPE YOUR GODDAMN ASS?!?! This chat-room fucking smells like shit, goddamnit