Pasta
Radio Bob Approved
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2022
- Messages
- 91
- Thread Author
- #1
Hey folks, while I wish I said something sooner, this has been an issue that's been building up for a few weeks now. I need to blow off some steam and make some issues aware to the public who may not see the other side of the coin. The bombing of the Check Point in Triumph leads to quite an amazing story. Anger boiling over, tensions rising, it was enjoyable then, only to have another Check Point bombed within days of one another that lead to a Judgement Waiver.
That's where some of the issues start appearing.
Note; I will be speaking as a Civil Protection/Combine Player during this narrative complaint.
CP-3 Bombing
If this wasn't one of the coolest things to happen in recent memory, I don't know what is. It was so cool to have players push that kind of deal, and this is coming from someone who was CONSTANTLY manned at that Check Point. It was GREAT roleplay for me and all the other Civil Protection, so why am I complaining about it? Well. The radiation seemed a bit too much, just a bit. I get the goal of it was to try and prevent them from rebuilding it right away, as well as encourage player rebels to DO that. To allow the rebels a chance to make a push, nothing much came from it but it was still a change of pace. Kept us on our toes.
Because for some reason in the future, there was a Headcrab launcher(?) How was that even functional after all the radiation and the BOMB that blew up the checkpoint, not only that for the freezing materials used, it should have really shut down and broken most systems. Kinda strange and shocking to get a notification that the NEXUS was bombed by some checkpoint that was blown sky high.
Once again we rolled with it because hey, it was cool. Dumb and unrealistic? Sure. But still cool to see. (Note; We were almost off JW, less than 4 hours from changing until that thing hit.)
CP-1 Bombing
...The only real complaint I got was the restriction on us not being allowed to repair it. That was really dumb. We were putting efforts into trying to have it repaired with the CWU and Local Citizens. Only to get told no. I don't really like that narrative. Kinda a slap in the face where we weren't allowed to repair the small number of assets we had in control. It only pushed the idea of this strange Triumph = Slums narrative. It was decently early on too.
The Judgement Waiver
The Judgement Waiver was exciting! It was fun! ...For the first two days that it happened, Civil Protection was allowed to be harsh, allowed to be the scary force that the stories within the Half-Life 2 narrative speak about. The masked grunts and thugs follow the orders of a voice within their heads. Heeding all commands ensures "peace" and control of the very city!
This was after us having two of our strong checkpoints taken away from us! Oh man were we ready to fight back, to hit them where it hurt! Finally, a fun arc where two sides would clash into a combat that was going to be fun... Right?
But we were denied Slum Raids. We were denied attacks on Rebels quite often. We weren't allowed to punch back for whatever reason or another we were denied the things that could have made the oppression further for the common slummer and citizens alike. ...It just wasn't fair to them. I don't want to make someone's roleplay experience awful, having someone stand in the Ration Center because we're dealing with an armed conflict for HOURS? I'd of left the server, I wouldn't want to RP that.
And the Creative Team/Admins(?) saw fit to constantly build up defensive positions for the Slummers/Rebels which weren't even player made? ...Odd.
Fine, so we went forward with destroying it. Then we were also told to avoid going into this area because ...??? there wasn't really a clear reason per se, only that we got messages from the FLs (who I'm not blaming for this at all.) We would have to rarely check on this lost area that was once Triumph Street to allow the rebels to push further and further! ...Never happened.
That was annoying, to say the least. We couldn't even go into the SLUMS without something going wrong in an OOC manner. Constantly complaining was just so bad that I know for a fact, I didn't want to deal with it. So I just... didn't. I didn't encourage the harsh punishments that we were all expecting to be allowed because they weren't.
Truthfully the Judgement Waiver should have only lasted 2 days. Until we had constant firefights.
Again we were denied to push the Judgement Waiver to a higher tier for...? No reason was given. Actively it has felt that the Combine players at this point were punished for doing their job, in BEING oppressive. We couldn't. This was strange but I was willing to look past it because there was a new arc coming and everyone was really excited about it. Kept our chins up, and rolled with what we thought was going to end in the slog of RP for us.
...let's talk about that.
HP-1 Bombing
Are we sensing a theme yet? The narrative of bombings got really boring at this point, more so that it was a block of C4(?) to take down a defensive wall that the combine had made against Terrorist Acts AND Antlions. Yes, the situation was spoken about and handled, never sat right with me having it be so late with so few on.
The Antlion Arc
Let me also preface this by saying this:
I can't wait for this arc to end.
If I wanted to play a Combine vs Rebel S2K server, you know what? I would have joined that. If I wanted to join an Outlands Half-Life Server? I would have done that. I GET THE IDEA. It's just being handled very poorly right now, I have not a single doubt in my mind that the Rebel Players are having a blast, they SHOULD be. This arc feels like it was made for them.
I expected both sides to be clinging for dear life to fight against the hoards of Antlions! ...But we got Admins with Bug Bait that pushed an entire objective just because the Combine had secured their Hard Point again. We even spent hours the night before repairing it to have it ready for the swarm WE knew about. But we got crushed out by Admin Rebels and Antlions swarming not only an entire Squad of Civil Protection but some pretty high-armored OTA as well.
Alright, fine. It was for a narrative push. A bit insulting for Combine Players that they had to use Admin Characters and Bug Bait on day one.
What about the NLR Zone? We as Civil Protection cannot patrol it often, not even without Rank Leader Approval. What about the SHEER amount of equipment that the Rebels have? Don't you dare for a second tell me you guys aren't up-armored and ready to go. The current average rebel can take on a team of Civil Protection, for dirt-cheap ammo, for weapons that are easy to get.
There was an odd issue that a certain type of new spawn had a sharpened knife and 200 credits. (The sharpened knife that is.)
Why aren't the Antlions attacking the slums as often as they are attacking Victory? Recently I've been told because of balance but every single 'success' we do as Civil Protection/Combine doesn't have any meaningful effects on the "other" side.
Honestly, I'm ready to let Victory fall. I'm burnt out man. From the weeks of fighting to this?
I'm burnt out from all the chaos that's been sent our way, we're players too.
A great statement made by someone who I will leave unnamed that sums up a lot of how Civil Protection Feels right now:
"What do I feel like? I feel like a fucking NPC whose purpose is to die should the main character plot demand it."
That's where some of the issues start appearing.
Note; I will be speaking as a Civil Protection/Combine Player during this narrative complaint.
CP-3 Bombing
If this wasn't one of the coolest things to happen in recent memory, I don't know what is. It was so cool to have players push that kind of deal, and this is coming from someone who was CONSTANTLY manned at that Check Point. It was GREAT roleplay for me and all the other Civil Protection, so why am I complaining about it? Well. The radiation seemed a bit too much, just a bit. I get the goal of it was to try and prevent them from rebuilding it right away, as well as encourage player rebels to DO that. To allow the rebels a chance to make a push, nothing much came from it but it was still a change of pace. Kept us on our toes.
Because for some reason in the future, there was a Headcrab launcher(?) How was that even functional after all the radiation and the BOMB that blew up the checkpoint, not only that for the freezing materials used, it should have really shut down and broken most systems. Kinda strange and shocking to get a notification that the NEXUS was bombed by some checkpoint that was blown sky high.
Once again we rolled with it because hey, it was cool. Dumb and unrealistic? Sure. But still cool to see. (Note; We were almost off JW, less than 4 hours from changing until that thing hit.)
CP-1 Bombing
...The only real complaint I got was the restriction on us not being allowed to repair it. That was really dumb. We were putting efforts into trying to have it repaired with the CWU and Local Citizens. Only to get told no. I don't really like that narrative. Kinda a slap in the face where we weren't allowed to repair the small number of assets we had in control. It only pushed the idea of this strange Triumph = Slums narrative. It was decently early on too.
The Judgement Waiver
The Judgement Waiver was exciting! It was fun! ...For the first two days that it happened, Civil Protection was allowed to be harsh, allowed to be the scary force that the stories within the Half-Life 2 narrative speak about. The masked grunts and thugs follow the orders of a voice within their heads. Heeding all commands ensures "peace" and control of the very city!
This was after us having two of our strong checkpoints taken away from us! Oh man were we ready to fight back, to hit them where it hurt! Finally, a fun arc where two sides would clash into a combat that was going to be fun... Right?
But we were denied Slum Raids. We were denied attacks on Rebels quite often. We weren't allowed to punch back for whatever reason or another we were denied the things that could have made the oppression further for the common slummer and citizens alike. ...It just wasn't fair to them. I don't want to make someone's roleplay experience awful, having someone stand in the Ration Center because we're dealing with an armed conflict for HOURS? I'd of left the server, I wouldn't want to RP that.
And the Creative Team/Admins(?) saw fit to constantly build up defensive positions for the Slummers/Rebels which weren't even player made? ...Odd.
Fine, so we went forward with destroying it. Then we were also told to avoid going into this area because ...??? there wasn't really a clear reason per se, only that we got messages from the FLs (who I'm not blaming for this at all.) We would have to rarely check on this lost area that was once Triumph Street to allow the rebels to push further and further! ...Never happened.
That was annoying, to say the least. We couldn't even go into the SLUMS without something going wrong in an OOC manner. Constantly complaining was just so bad that I know for a fact, I didn't want to deal with it. So I just... didn't. I didn't encourage the harsh punishments that we were all expecting to be allowed because they weren't.
Truthfully the Judgement Waiver should have only lasted 2 days. Until we had constant firefights.
Again we were denied to push the Judgement Waiver to a higher tier for...? No reason was given. Actively it has felt that the Combine players at this point were punished for doing their job, in BEING oppressive. We couldn't. This was strange but I was willing to look past it because there was a new arc coming and everyone was really excited about it. Kept our chins up, and rolled with what we thought was going to end in the slog of RP for us.
...let's talk about that.
HP-1 Bombing
Are we sensing a theme yet? The narrative of bombings got really boring at this point, more so that it was a block of C4(?) to take down a defensive wall that the combine had made against Terrorist Acts AND Antlions. Yes, the situation was spoken about and handled, never sat right with me having it be so late with so few on.
The Antlion Arc
Let me also preface this by saying this:
I can't wait for this arc to end.
If I wanted to play a Combine vs Rebel S2K server, you know what? I would have joined that. If I wanted to join an Outlands Half-Life Server? I would have done that. I GET THE IDEA. It's just being handled very poorly right now, I have not a single doubt in my mind that the Rebel Players are having a blast, they SHOULD be. This arc feels like it was made for them.
I expected both sides to be clinging for dear life to fight against the hoards of Antlions! ...But we got Admins with Bug Bait that pushed an entire objective just because the Combine had secured their Hard Point again. We even spent hours the night before repairing it to have it ready for the swarm WE knew about. But we got crushed out by Admin Rebels and Antlions swarming not only an entire Squad of Civil Protection but some pretty high-armored OTA as well.
Alright, fine. It was for a narrative push. A bit insulting for Combine Players that they had to use Admin Characters and Bug Bait on day one.
What about the NLR Zone? We as Civil Protection cannot patrol it often, not even without Rank Leader Approval. What about the SHEER amount of equipment that the Rebels have? Don't you dare for a second tell me you guys aren't up-armored and ready to go. The current average rebel can take on a team of Civil Protection, for dirt-cheap ammo, for weapons that are easy to get.
There was an odd issue that a certain type of new spawn had a sharpened knife and 200 credits. (The sharpened knife that is.)
Why aren't the Antlions attacking the slums as often as they are attacking Victory? Recently I've been told because of balance but every single 'success' we do as Civil Protection/Combine doesn't have any meaningful effects on the "other" side.
Honestly, I'm ready to let Victory fall. I'm burnt out man. From the weeks of fighting to this?
I'm burnt out from all the chaos that's been sent our way, we're players too.
A great statement made by someone who I will leave unnamed that sums up a lot of how Civil Protection Feels right now:
"What do I feel like? I feel like a fucking NPC whose purpose is to die should the main character plot demand it."