A Year in Review: Discussion & Problems

[Atle]

Thank you for writing this up! I recommend you apply for lore team @Merlinsclaw if you're interested to help grow that! I've recommended the same for @AtlasYEET who also likes to write up lore pieces

 

[Sync]

The CRU Was essentially this, We were CRU And tasked with research/containment/extermination of xenians both the mold you see encrusting sewers and fighting off xenian fauna like pit drones anomalies like those floaty germ things and barnacles. Essentially you'd be called in by cwu/cps to suit up get your weapons most likely a fire-axe or a machete (In extremely rare cases a gun) And go deal with them, This wasn't limited to this mind you. Science based factions can be fun however they heavily require things like events and GM's or bare minimum weapons/organization for when they head into sewers or apartments to fight an Infestation. Unless we had a small Sub faction added to the CMU The only other way imo it'd work is to bring the CRU Back.

The day they unified the CWU was a sad day.

However were we to do a Science faction it would likely revolve around a facility that studies xenians and ways to contain and in a very secretive OSI level way, Ways they can benefit the combine empire, Think events where you go off with a group of CP's or OTA to an overrun city or something to research anomalies gathering data which can be practically applied. Or just overall containing the things we see in day to day life, Perhaps an upgraded system to keep antlions at bay is researched.

I have been part of the pre beta cru and cwu since day one with my Russell Makarov character.
I can tell you from my experience that the xen science RP and sewer cleanups were a lot of fun, but that only worked because we always had a staff member around, which was RAD-X and without him, it became pretty stale.
Also, don't forget that we had to heavily rely on CP members to be around in sewer cleanups, which after a while the CP lead from back then didn't allow us to do anymore, since it took too many units.

Today I am still the infestation control lead, but limited to events created by staff members, like @Jinx who created a few of those. This might change a lot in the next two weeks as @Aspect™ is releasing a infestation control system, which will involve citizens if it works out well.

 

[Merlinsclaw]

the fact of the matter is that there are larger problems

Ultimately, citizen RP can be very boring. events on the main server are often stale (ala infestation #102878718) or just ran poorly/delayed.

This is a result of other issues (such as unserious behavior and lore) but ultimately none of this can be fixed by one person joining the lore team or something.

It has to be done from the top downwards and I believe the first good step is assembling a team, of admins or otherwise, to get this megaevent done right.

 

[swagile]

Im gunna be honest.

I hate megaevents.

I hate 120 slotters.

I would much rather run a small or medium sized overarching stories with small events in between (max 10 players) where people feel their actions matter and I am able to properly accomodate people for their character quirks, actions, abilities, etc.

Megaevents can never do this because you need (AT MINIMUM) 1 admin per 4 players to make it so players feel like their actions matter to an event; this is just the cold hard truth.

Before you mention Neb / LP megaevents, ive been both a player AND staff in 100 to 120 slotter events on those servers and believe me they sucked unless you were a minority of people (higher staff / friends of higher staff) that got to make the major decisions; everyone else was only making small decisions that either had little or absolutely no impact on the event(s). The event conclusion was decided before the event was even started and almost always the conclusion was railroaded because there is simply not enough staff to make everyones decisions matter.

It is what it is and ive learned to accept that because that is reality.




As for all the other points made in this thread, the biggest problem I feel we have is there is no storyline. We just get on server, act our respective roles, and thats it. While thats fine in a normal setting, this is a game; we play to escape reality somewhat by playing characters reacting to some sort of story. Thats what we really need to be honest; all the main issues of the server won't get fixed if there is no reason to do anything. For example, if we fix the rebel grind, it won't really fix the fact that rebels have no storyline to contribute to; they just cause chaos and havoc either for the sake of it (as they have nothing to do and are bored) or it is a byproduct of them grinding for scripts (killing a cp is conflict but the main goal was to loot the CP, not cause the conflict in the first place). Same with citizens; they exist in limbo, as NPC's that are waiting to turn into a CWU / Loyalist / Rebel / CP, not as actual playable characters interacting with the world and story at large to affect the server in a meaningful way.

Some servers have figured out how to make the day to day work without a storyline (such as aurawatch) but they do it in a COMPLETELY different way than Willard by being something thats only up occasionally and having scripted features to force people into interaction while being completely retail hl2 in environment. Willard isn't that, so we have to have some sort of story to push people to interact with the world around them actively instead of passively existing.



TL;DR people are passively existing instead of actively interacting with the world which is why things feel so boring; cause nothing is actively happening unless its a byproduct of something else, such as rebels looting, or citizens doing a workshift so they can become a loyalist / rebel.

 

[emmet]

Im gunna be honest.

I hate megaevents.

I hate 120 slotters.

I would much rather run a small or medium sized overarching stories with small events in between (max 10 players) where people feel their actions matter and I am able to properly accomodate people for their character quirks, actions, abilities, etc.

Megaevents can never do this because you need (AT MINIMUM) 1 admin per 4 players to make it so players feel like their actions matter to an event; this is just the cold hard truth.

Before you mention Neb / LP megaevents, ive been both a player AND staff in 100 to 120 slotter events on those servers and believe me they sucked unless you were a minority of people (higher staff / friends of higher staff) that got to make the major decisions; everyone else was only making small decisions that either had little or absolutely no impact on the event(s). The event conclusion was decided before the event was even started and almost always the conclusion was railroaded because there is simply not enough staff to make everyones decisions matter.

It is what it is and ive learned to accept that because that is reality.




As for all the other points made in this thread, the biggest problem I feel we have is there is no storyline. We just get on server, act our respective roles, and thats it. While thats fine in a normal setting, this is a game; we play to escape reality somewhat by playing characters reacting to some sort of story. Thats what we really need to be honest; all the main issues of the server won't get fixed if there is no reason to do anything. For example, if we fix the rebel grind, it won't really fix the fact that rebels have no storyline to contribute to; they just cause chaos and havoc either for the sake of it (as they have nothing to do and are bored) or it is a byproduct of them grinding for scripts (killing a cp is conflict but the main goal was to loot the CP, not cause the conflict in the first place). Same with citizens; they exist in limbo, as NPC's that are waiting to turn into a CWU / Loyalist / Rebel / CP, not as actual playable characters interacting with the world and story at large to affect the server in a meaningful way.

Some servers have figured out how to make the day to day work without a storyline (such as aurawatch) but they do it in a COMPLETELY different way than Willard by being something thats only up occasionally and having scripted features to force people into interaction while being completely retail hl2 in environment. Willard isn't that, so we have to have some sort of story to push people to interact with the world around them actively instead of passively existing.



TL;DR people are passively existing instead of actively interacting with the world which is why things feel so boring; cause nothing is actively happening unless its a byproduct of something else, such as rebels looting, or citizens doing a workshift so they can become a loyalist / rebel.

I'm confused. How are things not happening? You have robberies occuring, people smuggling crap around, killings, shotcoppings and all of that. Not to mention the London and Moscow war thing.

I think people need to create their own agenda, as my character has done. He is trying to improve the CWU, make himself a better CP and make the crime rates go down dramatically

 

[Triviality]

You have robberies occuring, people smuggling crap around, killings, shotcoppings and all of that. Not to mention the London and Moscow war thing.

I think people need to create their own agenda, as my character has done. He is trying to improve the CWU, make himself a better CP and make the crime rates go down dramatically

I think the point is that shotcoppings, Killings, and smuggling don't change the agenda or status quo.

The server right now is built very stagnantly. Factions leads have cohesion if their character dies, Despite having a legislation part of forums, part of the rules is that your not allowed to contradict rules set in place by the faction lead, Lolwebuls need to grind an abysmal event with the constant threat of easily being PKed before they can make a difference in how the map operates, what does an individual player even come on, and think they are gonna do despite making a self-contained story for themselves. Who around makes change if they aren't ultimately part of the teams that pull the strings anyway?

And london and moscow are like isolated events that only 3 chars on CRP are gonna know about. I'm not gonna go on thinking any different because some soviets won s2k, or that bernard nuked them because of that.

 

[ShadoWiz4rd]

And london and moscow are like isolated events that only 3 chars on CRP are gonna know about. I'm not gonna go on thinking any different because some soviets won s2k, or that bernard nuked them because of that.

Moscow today, Geneva tommorow!

(Post made by the SRF Gang)

 

[swagile]

I think the point is that shotcoppings, Killings, and smuggling don't change the agenda or status quo.

The server right now is built very stagnantly. Factions leads have cohesion if their character dies, Despite having a legislation part of forums, part of the rules is that your not allowed to contradict rules set in place by the faction lead, Lolwebuls need to grind an abysmal event with the constant threat of easily being PKed before they can make a difference in how the map operates, what does an individual player even come on, and think they are gonna do despite making a self-contained story for themselves. Who around makes change if they aren't ultimately part of the teams that pull the strings anyway?

And london and moscow are like isolated events that only 3 chars on CRP are gonna know about. I'm not gonna go on thinking any different because some soviets won s2k, or that bernard nuked them because of that.

This exactly.

The story doesn't change because you shotcopped or did a workshift; thats just the normal operations of a City. City 2 and 3 are just things that "happen" off world and literally no one gives a shit cause it doesn't affect City 24 in any feasible way. They are ok events to participate in but they don't change the main server's operations, so they (in my eyes) aren't good events. Its why I refuse to participate in or help SS events; none of them so far have had any effect on the main server's operations.

It is what it is though; the good news is we got a expedition / main event server now so we can start doing events and operations / expeditions that affect the main server without always having to fully adhere to City 24 so strictly. So thats a step in the right direction.

 

[Fedora]

Short Stories has always been based around things outside of the main server, for people to explore places outside of City 24 and experience ongoing conflicts and interesting ideas. My view on it is that you participate for fun, you want to enjoy yourself. And if it is an lore Short Stories, it can get added to the map and there is always part of me that gets enjoyment seeing the world map change. You shouldn't view it as a thing that should effect main server.

 

[Rabid]

The server right now is built very stagnantly.

The unfortunate truth is this is never going to change on a wide scale because no server that deviates from what makes CityRP work can survive long-term and WN has poured far too much effort into the development work to gamble it on something that might not keep the community standing.

I'm not saying things can't change to one degree or another by any means but when most of the current factions for one entire half of the server can only exist under these circumstances its not an easy fix.

 

[Triviality]

This exactly.

The story doesn't change because you shotcopped or did a workshift; thats just the normal operations of a City. City 2 and 3 are just things that "happen" off world and literally no one gives a shit cause it doesn't affect City 24 in any feasible way. They are ok events to participate in but they don't change the main server's operations, so they (in my eyes) aren't good events. Its why I refuse to participate in or help SS events; none of them so far have had any effect on the main server's operations.

It is what it is though; the good news is we got a expedition / main event server now so we can start doing events and operations / expeditions that affect the main server without always having to fully adhere to City 24 so strictly. So thats a step in the right direction.

Short stories is good in concept since anyone can basically start from any point in a fun little contained stories that admins can be as irresponsible with as possible without worrying about breaking main.

problem is from a casual union main is that too many factions are definitely treating their roles as actual jobs instead of fun avenues to do stuff with the citizenry

 

[Merlinsclaw]

Lore/Gameplay 'Changes' wise, Willard seems to pride itself on being a community that allows the player to have a direct affect on how things are ran.

The events over the past few months, the chaos, and the riots just proved that's not true. Everyday there was a battle edging Triumph Street and every day the lore team refused to even change the color on the loremap.

Why have a loremap if it isn't going to do anything?

Solely gameplay wise, Willard is built around systems that don't work sometimes but to much effort has been put into them to scrap it (ala TBC)

 

[Triviality]

Lore/Gameplay 'Changes' wise, Willard seems to pride itself on being a community that allows the player to have a direct affect on how things are ran.

Problem with this is the state of contemporary HL2RP rules, where you get PKed, Fired, Whitelist lost, or make people OOC upset if you try to change things

 

[verTix]

Lore/Gameplay 'Changes' wise, Willard seems to pride itself on being a community that allows the player to have a direct affect on how things are ran.

On large, public servers like this, I don't think individual players or groups should have a direct impact on story elements that affect other players. Short Stories is a different story (hah), but as soon as you bring it into the main server, you get people that start developing Main Character Syndrome. Once enough players achieve that status, they'll be able to essentially do whatever they want IC ("we destroyed 26 striders in short stories so we can raid nexus here") or OOC ("if you don't let me do X then we will all quit"). I'm not saying they WOULD do that, but it's happened in numerous HL2RP servers in the past.

 

[Dog]

Why play on Willard HL2RP? Willardcraft is vastly more superior.

 

[ShadoWiz4rd]

Why play on Willard HL2RP? Willardcraft is vastly more superior.

Reject City, Return to dirt hut with block wife.

 

[emmet]

Short stories is good in concept since anyone can basically start from any point in a fun little contained stories that admins can be as irresponsible with as possible without worrying about breaking main.

problem is from a casual union main is that too many factions are definitely treating their roles as actual jobs instead of fun avenues to do stuff with the citizenry

Am I a joke to you

 

[Rabid]

I'm not saying they WOULD do that, but it's happened in numerous HL2RP servers in the past.

WN's biggest issue in my eyes is that it set unrealistic standards for itself and what it would accomplish despite the fact it was attempting to fit into a niche that required certain sacrifices to function.

A lot of decisions and choices that fly in the face of WN's stance on player freedom, expression and being 'different from the others' make total sense when you look at WN through the lense of a big open community trying to do what big open communities do to survive. But rather than being frank about that from the start it was instead buried under lots of very shiny things that look cool.

So now people are confused as to why things are static, why RebelRP is a grind or why events have very little impact on the city when all of these are (sadly) just a very blunt reality of keeping a long-lasting HL2RP CityRP server going.

 

[Equinox]

QUALITY OF RP

Regular player standard enforcement is a fine line. You want to get rid of minges but keep people who are interested in the server but perhaps just lack the experience and/or quality writing that one would expect. Of course this only applies to Citizens. I agree in that any admin doing shit like this should be reprimanded, and any one in a faction like the Civil Protection, Vortigaunts, or CWU should also be held to a standard.

LORE

For a while, I was for explaining everything in lore. When I was on the lore team way back when, I wrote up tons and tons of lore for the server. I realized at some point that the "Show don't tell" approach is honestly much better. That's why you won't find much of my stuff anymore on the lore section. For a while, we actually were running a lore system where lore was categorized into common, uncommon/vague, and rumor/legend lore. I don't know why this was removed, but even if it was, it'd be better if we just moved everything in the "Uncommon/vague" or "Rumor" category into a secret forum and ONLY allow the Common Knowledge lore to exist.

Half Life works best when it is stooped in mystery. The common trope of explaining every little detail makes the world boring and without surprise.

 

[Maroon]

Willard has a reputation (it's slightly unserious). In the past few months, Willard has improved greatly in several different fields. The quality of Civil Protection is one thing to note. I'd say that we went from 6'9 Darth Vader cops to actual players, and I'm glad about that.

me and all the leads appreciate this