Damaging Mentality Regarding Scarcity and Conflict

[nath1234567]

Damaging Mentalities​

I'm going to be covering quite a lot in this post as I intend to highlight all the issues that I believe are plaguing Willard and Rebel RP right now. The server has seemingly seen a massive shift in priorities since we have arrived to Terminal 7, and I believe all factions except for Combine affiliated ones, excluding Civil Protection, have been damaged due to this. As always, the input of the community is appreciated.

The Rebel Roleplay Problem
​

Old players are bored of it, new players are confused as to how to participate in it. Rebel roleplay has stagnated into nothing status and it doesn't seem that there is any urgency in solving this issue.

Imagine that you are a new player who wants to roleplay as a member of the resistance. You join with no connections, no OOC friends, and a limited understanding of the gamemode.

You will probably catch on quickly enough that gathering materials from trash bags is important so that you can begin making things. But wait, all of these crafting recipes require glue, how do I get enough of that? The answer is, you don't.

You won't be getting enough to reliably do anything on your own. Instead, the solution is to make a CWU contact that can use your plastic to make adhesive for you with a fabricator. This priviledge is reserved for well established characters that know people within the CWU, and isn't something that comes easily.

This issue used to be non existent, as you were able to buy glue from smugglers and from stores, though this is painfully no longer the case. The current smuggler is nestled deep within the sewers, can only buy sixty items worth of scrap, and doesn't sell many useful things at all.

You're going to be hard pressed even visting her frequently with the rate that gas is gained in the sewers, and death by gas is for some reason a PK, as if there's any roleplay attached to dying to gas.

So, how do we solve this? My suggestion here is to move the smuggler closer to one of the sewer entrances, increase the amount of scrap she can purchase to pre rebel RP death initative, and give her some useful things to sell, namely glue. The old smuggler system needs to come back and fast, and gas needs to be lowered in the sewers by a very wide margin.

It was said once upon a time that the radio tower arc would be the introduction of smugglers back onto the server. Not only did the radio tower take a ridiculous amount of time to be repaired, but the smugglers took forever to be added after it was repaired as well, and the smuggler we got? Well, she really is doing nothing for anyone. She may as well have not even been added in her current state.

PATH TO PROGRESSION
​

I touched upon this but wish to expand here. The current rebel path to progression does not include much engaging roleplay and doesn't include any narrative impact toward the rest of the server. Your character will get involved with a group, grind trash bags to gain materials, and eventually be able to arm themselves with scrap weaponry.

What sort of impact do you get with scrap weaponry? Not much, you can kill zombies and antlions, but you certainly are not ready to take any sort of fight to the Combine. If you're lucky, you'll be able to involve yourself in an expedition to retrieve weapon blueprints to advance the black market and unlock some things for purchase.

The issue with these black market quests however, is that they have no narrative impact on the main server. They don't actually do anything except allow you to buy things later down the line, and since I've already covered how ineffective the only smuggler in the sewers is, good luck actually getting that done. You're still stuck to the mindless trash bag grind to acquire these items so that you can sell and get chips for these weapons anyway. If you're lucky, you might get some chips from quests that GMs like to run.

I'm proposing for this that the mentality where rebels have to earn all their equipment through quests for BMDs be changed. A real rebellion is going to see people going through great lengths to arm themselves and their allies with the weaponry they need to take the fight to their oppressors. They aren't going to bother with capitalistic exchanges, it makes little sense.

Expeditions where rebels walk away with equipment should be allowed to take place, provided that the risk they took is worth the reward they receive. These BMD quests can and should still happen, but it shouldn't be our only avenue to advance things.

It was said some time ago that the path to getting better equipment should be done through RP, but I haven't seen that happen. We are still regulated to an unenjoyable trash bag grind where we have to sell scrap for chips.

Rebel RP Areas​

There's basically no good rebel RP areas, which provides further damage to the server.

The outlands? Too cold, nobody can RP with you here unless they have max cold insulation. I'd rather not get PKed to a temperature death, as much RP as that would provide for the server (it would provide zero RP for anyone.)

The sewers? Too much gas, you will die and be PKed with no RP in less than an hour, and good luck getting to that smuggler.

The ideal solution to this is to lower the lethality of the gas in the sewers, and turn it off entirely for rooms that could be used as bases. Vortigaunts have the luxury of being able to base within the sewers because they do not generate gas points, and surprisingly enough they still roleplay outside of their sewers bases quite often.

The fear that players will do nothing except sit in their bases RPing with themselves (rp, mind you) isn't doing anything except damaging rebel roleplay. If a rebel group IS doing this, it is because they have literally no option. They've been marked with Anti-Citizen, which has always been a massive negative on your ability to roleplay with the server, but now? It's a complete death sentence, you may as well just delete your character entirely. (sorry to anyone that was a sentinel but you have effectively been removed from the server lol)

It has been said that rebel players will be able to RP solutions to removing the gas from potential sewer bases, but I don't think we should wait for this. Rebels will have to ICly figure out how to ventilate a single room of poisonous gas that is stuck in a sewer system, surrounded by more poisonous gas.

Note: I have been approved to set up quests related to repairing these sewer rooms for bases, which I will begin setting up today or tomorrow. I'm leaving this part of the post in however as I think it's very important to convey that yes, rebels do in fact need decent RP areas just like any other faction does. Allowing rebels to have bases doesn't harm the server.

Newer Note: Nevermind, I didn't get approved.

Civil Protection and Conflict​

I do not have a Civil Protection whitelist, so I don't have a first hand account of what the experience is like, but I wanted to talk on these guys anyway. From what I've observed, Civil Protection doesn't have much going on considering the lack of conflict and the state of Rebel RP.

For maybe the first time in Willard, there's no person or group that can stand against the Tyranny that the Civil Protection imposes onto the citizens.

The server seems far better off when Civil Protection is engaged in squashing out the rebels. It keeps them on their toes, creates a better environment and adds more to roleplay. Half-Life 2 is a game about shooting people, and conflict is a key component in nearly every roleplay setting.

Right now, Civil Protection don't seem to be getting much beyond being the guns to facilitate some CWU stuff like outlands mining, and protecting the city from panthereye attacks and other aliens.

The faction will benefit from conflict with rebels. We just need to make sure we're all on board with rebels not getting equipment that outclasses Civil Protection, which I think we all are. Rebels shouldn't be running around with anything more than SMGs, otherwise we'll go back to the same problems we had before.

Closing Notes

As I said I said at the start of this, community input is appreciated as I have made this post in hopes of improving the experience for all of us on Willard.

I would ask that if there's anyone who is doubting my take on the rebel experience to go ahead and try to play one as if you were a new player. No OOC connections and work with friends, just you versus the current state of Willard.

 

[Curbalas]

Now, after reading every single concern, I have decided to write a TL;DR of the problems and their potential solutions so everybody can understand the issue at hand and its effects on the server.

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• Unrewarding grind—SOLUTION: Increase the number of trash bags and containers, increase the reward ratings and luck, OR make everything client-sided as soon as possible. Refer to the first option before making it client-sided if it is going to take long; the players are dying.

• Unacceptable BMD prices—SOLUTION: I will not tell the BMD prices here, but to even buy a singular medium-level gun will take an estimated 5-6 months with this current rate of grind. Either lower the prices A LOT or refer to "Unrewarding grind option one" unless it is legitimately so demotivating and not rewarding at all for rebel players to even play the game as the server intends.

• Loot hoarders - SOLUTION: Simple enough, make the crates clientsided ASAP, OR, add a limit to players limiting their capability to open crates so one AFK person does not hoard everything, but for this exact point you have to make the loots much more better or it just turns to the system we have at hand, extremely unrewarding.

• Roleplay rewarding - SOLUTION: Current roleplays or tasks given to rebels are extremely unrewarding, you can do a task, have fun, do good RP, but at the end? You get nothing at best, yes this is related to the Server Council's balancing, not GMs fault but, they should at least increase the threshold or we are not gonna be able to survive anything upcoming.

• Non-existent combat - SOLUTION: Yes, everybody knows that we don't want another CvR era just like we had in City 8, but nobody wants zero combat either, the current state of the server does not imitate the HL2 universe at all, it just feels like we are in New York United Nations Headquarters 24/7, I have seen both sides comments regarding this MAIN issue at hand, the Server Council, in my opinion, should focus on the points I have stated, either change them slightly and ensure a fun experience for both CPs and rebels, currently both sides are deprived of anything related to resistance roleplay and extremely tired of political RP.

• Political RP focus - SOLUTION: Yes, there is a whole storm coming, everybody knows. But nobody did any events regarding the rebels to prepare, everything done was for politicians to vote upon stuff, give funding, and nothing related to the slummers that have a lot of players that play actively. It seems that the focus on the PoliticalRP is too high and should be diverted to other places consistently, or it just feels unfair OOCly.

• Listening to public concerns - SOLUTION: Simple enough, everybody have stated their problems, whether it be Civil Protection side or Rebel side, we all just want the Server Council to look into our complaints and take action regarding the current conflict balancing, or we are all doomed for a burnout and stop playing.

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I hope it was simple enough for your eyes to comprehend what we have all talked, these are the extreme issues at our hand that is causing players to drop exponentially, please take action:

 

[nath1234567]

we are in New York United Nations Headquarters 24/7,

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real

 

[ItsLiam]

• Unrewarding grind—SOLUTION: Increase the number of trash bags and containers, increase the reward ratings and luck, OR make everything client-sided as soon as possible. Refer to the first option before making it client-sided if it is going to take long; the players are dying.

• Loot hoarders - SOLUTION: Simple enough, make the crates clientsided ASAP, OR, add a limit to players limiting their capability to open crates so one AFK person does not hoard everything, but for this exact point you have to make the loots much more better or it just turns to the system we have at hand, extremely unrewarding.

I don't think an increase in everything will improve the issue. If people are found to be standing AFK all day and hoarding loot and trash bags and crates, please make a player report. This is against the server rules and actively harms the community, as such, when we see this we will warn them about this. If this continuously happens there will be harsher consequences.

• Unacceptable BMD prices—SOLUTION: I will not tell the BMD prices here, but to even buy a singular medium-level gun will take an estimated 5-6 months with this current rate of grind. Either lower the prices A LOT or refer to "Unrewarding grind option one" unless it is legitimately so demotivating and not rewarding at all for rebel players to even play the game as the server intends.

Considering how big of a reward we got for that simple expedition (1300 per player iirc), I don't think the prices are unrealistic at all. I know what you're referring to with 'medium-level guns' and I'd like to point out that we're moving towards an economy where rebels will be on par with RLs, where the best you will likely get is a SMG/Shotgun.

Of course, AR2s are able to be gotten as well as repaired and unlocked by Vortigaunts, however, I think we both know this won't happen for a while.

• Roleplay rewarding - SOLUTION: Current roleplays or tasks given to rebels are extremely unrewarding, you can do a task, have fun, do good RP, but at the end? You get nothing at best, yes this is related to the Server Council's balancing, not GMs fault but, they should at least increase the threshold or we are not gonna be able to survive anything upcoming.

You were there at the last quest @Cocohop and @Poaches did, right? Do you think the rewards we were given were unrealistic? I will say the opposite. The rewards were pretty good. If you'd like to disagree I'd want to show you that in the Intranet it said 'Bring 4 people', meaning, the rewards were balanced around four people doing this. 250 Chips per person together with 120 9mm bullets, painkillers, bandages etc. is more than enough of a reward, no? We made the mistake by bringing along 10 people, which made the reward feel little in retrospect.

• Non-existent combat - SOLUTION: Yes, everybody knows that we don't want another CvR era just like we had in City 8, but nobody wants zero combat either, the current state of the server does not imitate the HL2 universe at all, it just feels like we are in New York United Nations Headquarters 24/7, I have seen both sides comments regarding this MAIN issue at hand, the Server Council, in my opinion, should focus on the points I have stated, either change them slightly and ensure a fun experience for both CPs and rebels, currently both sides are deprived of anything related to resistance roleplay and extremely tired of political RP.

If I recall correctly we used to have a discussion regarding a possible 'event day' during AP where we could just CvR for a little bit. I think I was against it at the time, considering that in my eyes; if you're here simply to s2k and you must quench your thirst for S2K in such a way that you need an entire event day dedicated to you, you shouldn't play Willard. However, I will compromise and say that perhaps discussions for this need to be reopened. We should just do bi-weekly event days during AP where we go on a new map in the expo server, have 2 sides and just S2K without any risks. Think this will help the on-server climate as well, considering everyone is in a bad mood (according to this thread).

• Political RP focus - SOLUTION: Yes, there is a whole storm coming, everybody knows. But nobody did any events regarding the rebels to prepare, everything done was for politicians to vote upon stuff, give funding, and nothing related to the slummers that have a lot of players that play actively. It seems that the focus on the PoliticalRP is too high and should be diverted to other places consistently, or it just feels unfair OOCly.

There were no events given to the Combine side of things regarding this. As someone who owns a store I was pretty much left to fend for myself, only being warned of it once. I also think that everyone saying 'Political RP is winning on the server' is simply wrong. Nobody from staff/CT team is focusing on giving political RP everything to do, it just so happens that ICly there's so many things going on, it may seem like the focus is high.

Meetings where people get outted for powergrabbing, meetings where their fate gets voted on. Meetings where gets decided the current chairwoman has to step down from her position, or give away the first secretariat of the party role. These are all things that are happening ICly, nobody is making events for this.

If you want things to happen ICly, you got to work for it as well. Don't expect anyone to spoonfeed you, don't expect Roleplay and Events to just come your way. Build awesome character relationships, have goals in mind for your own character, work towards said goals, do anything. Honestly, in my case, every day when I log on I'm locked in RP for hours, none of it being events, simply because I have an interesting character with an interesting goal in mind. Nothing's stopping you from doing the same.

 

[Curbalas]

Considering how big of a reward we got for that simple expedition (1300 per player iirc)

1300 chips per player...? That is completely false, false and falser, and the falsest. We certainly did not get 1300 chips per player, it was at best, 1300 total.

If I recall correctly we used to have a discussion regarding a possible 'event day' during AP where we could just CvR for a little bit. I think I was against it at the time, considering that in my eyes; if you're here simply to s2k and you must quench your thirst for S2K in such a way that you need an entire event day dedicated to you, you shouldn't play Willard. However, I will compromise and say that perhaps discussions for this need to be reopened. We should just do bi-weekly event days during AP where we go on a new map in the expo server, have 2 sides and just S2K without any risks. Think this will help the on-server climate as well, considering everyone is in a bad mood (according to this thread).

No, this is entirely false, we are on the other extreme side of server balancing wise, there are absolutely no combat and both sides are deprived of rewarding stuff, everybody is basically a citizen right now since they are unable to conduct rebellious activity, if they try doing something major, they have to have a ton of scripts which nobody does, and nobody can get so many stuff. You as a rebel rep should know this best.

If you want things to happen ICly, you got to work for it as well. Don't expect anyone to spoonfeed you, don't expect Roleplay and Events to just come your way. Build awesome character relationships, have goals in mind for your own character, work towards said goals, do anything. Honestly, in my case, every day when I log on I'm locked in RP for hours, none of it being events, simply because I have an interesting character with an interesting goal in mind. Nothing's stopping you from doing the same.

I feel that we are either playing on different servers, or you are being helped OOCly, the rebellion side are unable to conduct anything without tasks being given to them, let's say we want to go on an expo for reward, we are called scriptwhores, let's say we want to grind, which we don't, and players are always strolling and memorizing the times for the crates to respawn, I am sure that actual rebel players are aware of this situation, you cannot grind at this current state and work for things to happen ICly, Civil Protection is being sent event rebels for everything since current rebels physically cannot reach the strength the event rebels have, or/and they keep being spawned NPCs for their fond of roleplay.

There were no events given to the Combine side of things regarding this. As someone who owns a store I was pretty much left to fend for myself, only being warned of it once. I also think that everyone saying 'Political RP is winning on the server' is simply wrong. Nobody from staff/CT team is focusing on giving political RP everything to do, it just so happens that ICly there's so many things going on, it may seem like the focus is high.

That is because there is already a system set for the PoliticalRP, everything related to the political RP is already in-set, but for the SlumRP or RebelRP, you need scripts to conduct stuff, whether it be barricading buildings from storms, protecting people from diseases and cold, everything needs absolute grind and nobody is dealing with the dooming plague upon the server's rebel side. This also affects the Civil Protection in a bad way causing them to go to burnout due to doing the same stuff, over and over again.

You were there at the last quest @@Cocohop and @@Poaches did, right? Do you think the rewards we were given were unrealistic? I will say the opposite. The rewards were pretty good. If you'd like to disagree I'd want to show you that in the Intranet it said 'Bring 4 people', meaning, the rewards were balanced around four people doing this. 250 Chips per person together with 120 9mm bullets, painkillers, bandages etc. is more than enough of a reward, no? We made the mistake by bringing along 10 people, which made the reward feel little in retrospect.

These quests are not done regularly, they are rare, and they are only being handled by the handful of CTs that are trying to ensure that we don't just stop playing the server and fucking die of boredom, that is the problem, we should not only rely on the CT for gaining monetary source, shop owners have a way to get credits, people get wages, but Rebels? We can't even properly use the smugglers due to how limited they are, how dangerous it is to go there, 250 chips per person is not enough if there is one event per week, it was never like this in the past and you know this too Liam, you always had to grind for chips, and the grind was not so tedious like it is currently.

I don't think the prices are unrealistic at all. I know what you're referring to with 'medium-level guns' and I'd like to point out that we're moving towards an economy where rebels will be on par with RLs, where the best you will likely get is a SMG/Shotgun.

The problem is that the time it will take to gain those weapons if it is realistically more than 3-4 months for you to get a single weapon, there is no rewarding aspect of the RebelRP which causes a downspike of players of the server, drastically affecting the player counts due to the burnout caused by the tedious and unrewarding grind. We used to be able to turn credits to chips, which recommended rebels to get into CityRP to get credits, now we don't even have that, there is no legitimate way to get chips other than just waiting for CTs to give us events where we beg for them.

The prices of the weapons raised drastically since the last maps, and the chip gaining ways have reduced drastically, this is not a healthy way to ensure server stability, the only thing it causes is OOC unrest and boredom, you cannot say that "no rebels left because of this", more than half of the active rebels left, if not 80%.

I don't think an increase in everything will improve the issue. If people are found to be standing AFK all day and hoarding loot and trash bags and crates, please make a player report. This is against the server rules and actively harms the community, as such, when we see this we will warn them about this. If this continuously happens there will be harsher consequences.

Not my point, even if they AFK and hoard the loot, it is STILL not rewarding for the time you spend, Rebel faction is physically unplayable at this current state and you should know this after all the complaints we have shown as a Rebel Rep, this is a matter of unbalanced "game-style" which absolutely nobody likes, this is a game we are playing and if we even want the smallest purchase from a BMD or a smuggler, we have to grind tediously and dismiss roleplay from our potential time spent in the game.

Read all of this and ensure you have understood our complaints as they are stated, since you are a Rebel Rep, nobody if not a few people likes this current system, and I really doubt those few people are not actual rebel faction players.

 

[nath1234567]

I don't think an increase in everything will improve the issue. If people are found to be standing AFK all day and hoarding loot and trash bags and crates, please make a player report. This is against the server rules and actively harms the community, as such, when we see this we will warn them about this. If this continuously happens there will be harsher consequences.

Ideally it shouldn't feel like a big increase in resources. My suggestion is to increase the time it takes for a cooldown to kick in when it comes to trash bags and loot crates. (I'm talking like, 6-8 trashbags before you're put on a two hour cooldown.) Increase the amount of trash bag locations, decrease the respawn time and decrease the cooldown. As it currently stands, you can't exactly RP and grind for materials at the same time, which means you need to make a decision between having fun and committing yourself to a boring grind just so you can keep up with the needs of being a rebel.

There were no events given to the Combine side of things regarding this. As someone who owns a store I was pretty much left to fend for myself, only being warned of it once. I also think that everyone saying 'Political RP is winning on the server' is simply wrong. Nobody from staff/CT team is focusing on giving political RP everything to do, it just so happens that ICly there's so many things going on, it may seem like the focus is high.

There may not be an active effort to promote political RP, but the impression that we've become a political/loyalist RP server has made their way into multiple people I've talked to, and the support for this post should be considered as further evidence into this being the case. This impression is coming from the culture change regarding Rebel RP, there is simply so much less that you can do as a rebel, leaving many to feel that the faction has pushed to the side, (and i would argue that they're right.)

These changes have resulted in Civil Protection having less to do as well, as there is nobody to stand up or provide conflict with them. I think that Willard Networks has made a critical error in setting up Terminal 7 the way they have. Many of the loyalist sided concepts are completely foreign in presentation to Half-Life 2, and I reckon anybody that is interested in roleplaying in the Half-Life universe is going to feel confused on the experiences that are highlighted and offered on Willard Networks these days.

It was not long ago that you said you feel your own group isn't receiving much in terms of Rebel Roleplay, so to see you disagree with all the points being made is kind of confusing to me. We need to abandon this mentality that rebels having things is bad for the server. Yes, it is bad when they're running around with AR2s that beat everyone else, but it shouldn't be so bad if they have balanced equipment.

 

[RedHotGinger]

There may not be an active effort to promote political RP, but the impression that we've become a political/loyalist RP server has made their way into multiple people I've talked to, and the support for this post should be considered as further evidence into this being the case.

Perhaps I am looking into this a bit too much, but It bothers me that the fact non-CvR factions having an increased activity and content is being skewed as a bad thing. Them having more to do has consistently be brought up, within this thread, in an exclusively negative light. Especially when much of this content is simply player driven and not even really admin centric. Some is for sure but again does that really matter?

We've been a server driven almost exclusively by CvR factions for the better part of a year, or perhaps even much longer. S2K has been the only tool to advance the story, in any large-scale sense for a long time. Sometimes, even minor alterations to the general narrative are unavailable to those without a gun in hand. Is it really so bad that the city proper and citizens get more to chew on just once?

Have your balance changes and what not (within reason), but I'm really not liking the 'us or them' vibe alot of people seem to be putting out, intentionally or otherwise.

 

[nath1234567]

Have your balance changes and what not (within reason), but I'm really not liking the 'us or them' vibe alot of people seem to be putting out, intentionally or otherwise.

The intention is to facilitate an environment where resistance roleplayers feel that they have the tools to make an impact on the main server (within reason.) There is no us or them mentality. I'm speaking purely from the point of view that a good chunk of the underground community feels that nothing is happening and that their ability to progress has been substantially halted.

It is entirely true that a design shift has happened for resistance roleplay in that the gameplay stylists and those in charge of balance want to move rebel related roleplay away from the rebels being able to take on the Combine, this has been said. As a result, people are rightfully saying that the server feels more focused on political and infiltration related RP, which it absolutely is.

Keep in mind I'm saying all of this as an infiltrator rebel myself. My character dreads confrontation and will avoid it as much as he possibly can, and is instead focused on making his product. I myself don't desire to partake in fighting the Combine head-on, but I can see the damage that this mentality has caused on the enjoyment of the rebel scene itself. There is a reason this post has as much support as it does.

 

[nath1234567]

If I recall correctly we used to have a discussion regarding a possible 'event day' during AP where we could just CvR for a little bit. I think I was against it at the time, considering that in my eyes; if you're here simply to s2k and you must quench your thirst for S2K in such a way that you need an entire event day dedicated to you, you shouldn't play Willard. However, I will compromise and say that perhaps discussions for this need to be reopened. We should just do bi-weekly event days during AP where we go on a new map in the expo server, have 2 sides and just S2K without any risks. Think this will help the on-server climate as well, considering everyone is in a bad mood (according to this thread).

Also, this has nothing to do with wanting S2K to happen. I want rebel roleplayers to feel that they have the opportunity to make an impact on the main server, which will in turn create more conflict amongst the factions and generate more roleplay.

Restrictions for what cops can do in their investigations into uncivil behavior have recently (6 months ago) been lifted considerably, meaning that if cops are using the tools that are available to them, they can dismantle resistance behavior and pursue an enjoyable conflict. Unfortunately, resistance players feel these opportunities aren't being facilitated, and so we won't see these interactions until something changes.

If you want things to happen ICly, you got to work for it as well. Don't expect anyone to spoonfeed you, don't expect Roleplay and Events to just come your way. Build awesome character relationships, have goals in mind for your own character, work towards said goals, do anything.

I said this before, but it was not long ago at all that you yourself were saying that your group isn't being properly included in resistance activities. If we're to go off of what you said in this post, then this seems like a contradiction on your part. Yes, resistance activity is going to have to be largely player-driven, but if we aren't facilitating an environment or giving out the necessary tools to people so that they feel comfortable in pursuing these things, then we aren't going to see any quality roleplay or activity coming from the resistance anytime soon. Something has to be done, and the answer isn't telling everyone to open their own store in the middle of the plaza like you've been able to do.

 

[vilhjalmrf]

>The Rebel Roleplay Problem
Currently we're just getting up on our feet slowly and what follows it is a build-up. Rebel roleplay doesn't feel any dead or stagnant to me as we (my group at least) currently got some things rolling. Not hand-fed to us by GMs/Admins but player driven entirely. I just feel like it's lack of initiative from the players as we're just waiting for a GM to hand us down an expedition or a BMD to do a sale. And while I agree that we should depend on CT for roleplay and events, can't always rely on them to bring it to you.

Now about the glue 'issue', I have to disagree with Nath. There is a way that isn't just going to a store. There is a feasible way to get a load of them. The smugglers being changed has made an impact. I myself had trouble figuring how am I gonna get glue besides going to a store to buy flour and vinegar with a limited stock. But from what I've experienced so far, the means of getting these resources has changed. It's no longer running down into the sewers to buy it with chips from a vendor. You now have to actively take part in the city and infiltrate (or can do trade as the CWU takes trash or join the CWU yourself). Resources are not scarce per say, just more so you have to put in a little bit more effort at the start to get what you need.

So far my group has been doing relatively okay. It's not at the same pace as before but it's okay. And it's mostly been one person alone being able to get the glue. It's certainly not impossible or as you put it. I wouldn't even say it's difficult. Just takes a bit more time.

>Path To Progression
I agree. Not much else. Might already be the case but maybe not.

>Rebel RP Areas
I'm not so sure myself how this is damaging to Rebel RP or the server for that matter. Way I see it, Rebels are in a city. We're surrounded by Combine who are actively seeking us out. The only way to handle it is secrecy and infiltration. I've been meeting other rebels in alleys, backrooms, apartments, stores, et cetera. Having a dedicated free-zone to meet? Personally I can take it or leave it but believe we can survive just fine without it.

I do agree that the gas levels in the sewers is way too intense. Considering rebels are mostly isolated in one corner of the map, I think they should ease up more and allow room for rebels to explore down there. Whatever event they have planned for us to handle it, I think should get it rolling because we're already 2 or 3 months into this.

>Civil Protection and Conflicts
Conflict is good. It generates roleplay, creates rivals, grudges, et cetera. But I have to agree what Redhot says. If the state of things gets to the point where it's shotcopping and bombings nearly every week like the old days, then it'll just become incredibly mundane and dull. It's nothing but S2K and that isn't really fun. It loses its touch and it'll be boring.

 

[nath1234567]

Now about the glue 'issue', I have to disagree with Nath. There is a way that isn't just going to a store. There is a feasible way to get a load of them. The smugglers being changed has made an impact. I myself had trouble figuring how am I gonna get glue besides going to a store to buy flour and vinegar with a limited stock. But from what I've experienced so far, the means of getting these resources has changed. It's no longer running down into the sewers to buy it with chips from a vendor. You now have to actively take part in the city and infiltrate (or can do trade as the CWU takes trash or join the CWU yourself). Resources are not scarce per say, just more so you have to put in a little bit more effort at the start to get what you need.

I pointed out that this is the case for glue in the main post already. If you don't have a CWU contact to get it for you you're screwed until you get one. All the groups that do have CWU contacts were long established before arriving to T7, meaning that any new players that want to establish groups of their own are going to be left out until you find a contact of your own. I have no issue getting glue ICly.

Ultimately this isn't much of an issue in comparison to the damaging idea that rebels having an insanely slow progression is somehow helpful to the server when it doesn't seem it is at all judging by the the support this thread has seen.

I've noticed that the majority of support for this system is coming from the one group that has managed to have a succesful store placed within the plaza. I'd like to point out that your experiences are different than that of the rest of the community.

You all are doing well because you have employees that can keep the place open pretty much all day, which is a good thing. Unfortunately though, the potential to compete with your store is very slim. You have the perfect location, active employees and an auth for tailoring, as well as a quest related to making your own alcohol in the works. It isn't gonna get better than that for anyone else.

>Civil Protection and Conflicts
Conflict is good. It generates roleplay, creates rivals, grudges, et cetera. But I have to agree what Redhot says. If the state of things gets to the point where it's shotcopping and bombings nearly every week like the old days, then it'll just become incredibly mundane and dull. It's nothing but S2K and that isn't really fun. It loses its touch and it'll be boring.

The chances of any players being able to fight the Combine just doesn't exist right now, which is an issue that I would argue is more damaging than what we had before. Rebels could if they want spend months setting aside their roleplay in favor of grinding trash so that they eventually have enough to buy an MP5.

This purchase will not include ammo, extra magazines or armor, which judging by the fact that Medium Armor was going for over 1,000 even on C8, I strongly doubt it's going to be cheap here. I'm guessing around 3,000 chips for medium armor.

So, we're looking at over 10,000 chips per player before you can even think about fighting the Combine, which is why the only conflict we've seen on the server has been with vortigaunts, who have also been nerfed into a defense only playstyle despite the fact that a single unit with 75 armor will destroy any vortigaunt (there are quite a few units who have this much armor.)

Conflict between rebels and Combine will remain non existent until something changes. The majority of the rebel scene agrees and it's going to be very disappointing if nothing changes because one group has a successful storefront with auths, activity and location that is near impossible to compete with.

 

[ItsLiam]

I pointed out that this is the case for glue in the main post already. If you don't have a CWU contact to get it for you you're screwed until you get one. All the groups that do have CWU contacts were long established before arriving to T7, meaning that any new players that want to establish groups of their own are going to be left
out until you find a contact of your own. I have no issue getting glue ICly.

My CWU contacts were not established before arriving to T7. Hell, I never even played on C8, or played my Movement character back in i24. I don't know why we're setting this precedent that everyone involved in shit has to have had those contacts before T7, because it isn't true. My character got contacts everywhere now because of the roleplay he has done in T7. My char and his contact have risked their own lives multiple times to truly be able to trust eachother.

We're still risking our lives every day, not just through 'rebel rp' but through portraying realistic characters. People have attempted suicide, people have fought one another over trivial things...

I've noticed that the majority of support for this system is coming from the one group that has managed to have a succesful store placed within the plaza. I'd like to point out that your experiences are different than that of the rest of the community.

You all are doing well because you have employees that can keep the place open pretty much all day, which is a good thing. Unfortunately though, the potential to compete with your store is very slim. You have the perfect location, active employees and an auth for tailoring, as well as a quest related to making your own alcohol in the works. It isn't gonna get better than that for anyone else.

My store doesn't give me any advantage in Rebel RP other than being able to scout members better, and more effectively. You can argue that I'm more 'undercover' because I get more contacts through this, considering I'm able to tailor suits. I've also gained the quest to making my own alcohol through IC means, I got approached for it by the Director of the CWU, someone completely unaffiliated.

All of our chip profits come from other things than the store, we don't gain anything from doing shit in the store.

The only thing we profit on is the fact that we can recruit people effectively through the store, vetting them in the process by letting them do little tasks for us, to see if they're on our side.

 

[ItsLiam]

Also, people need to realize that there are more than enough crates in the Sewers. The lack of crates isn't the issue, the issue is the lack of people who punish/report others for AFKing the entire day and only grabbing crates.

There are 9 crate spots, as I've investigated myself on the server. You can't tell me 9 crate spots aren't enough for the Resistance. Oh, but I hear you say, trashbags? There are 8 trashbag spots in the slums ALONE(!).

If this is still too little, I'm sorry, but ur either just doing something wrong or ur just complaining to complain.

 

[Curbalas]

Also, people need to realize that there are more than enough crates in the Sewers. The lack of crates isn't the issue, the issue is the lack of people who punish/report others for AFKing the entire day and only grabbing crates.

With their drop rates, refresh times, and the stuff they drop? It is not enough for the Resistance at all, I don't know what you are on about but for people that's only source of income being the materials they gather, it is not enough at all. As we all said, either the drop rates should increase for better rewards, or they should add more crates with the player limitation of opening specified numbers of crates per restart wave.

I am sure this is what most, if not all of the other Resistance member thinks, other than your group.

 

[Robert]

• Unrewarding grind—SOLUTION: Increase the number of trash bags and containers, increase the reward ratings and luck, OR make everything client-sided as soon as possible. Refer to the first option before making it client-sided if it is going to take long; the players are dying

This won't fix anything. Just make it worse. Also these eat edicts btw. Just a few extras can reduce edicts by a massive amount leaving less room for events. I know everyone hates the age old "Edicts" mention, but it must be said because we are on a outdated abandoned engine and can only be fixed by hoping one day Gmod is remade on Source 2. S&Box doesn't really count given its lack of a license to use hl2 or any valve assets.

Overall adding more just gives the AFKers more loot as a result, bolstering their resource and grinding efforts tenfold. Boosting them into the same spot of the players who ruined the rebel economy last time. Client side is basically the sole solution until an alternative and faster option is found. Shouldn't take too long though from what I am hearing so far. So may not be a long wait at all.

• Unacceptable BMD prices—SOLUTION: I will not tell the BMD prices here, but to even buy a singular medium-level gun will take an estimated 5-6 months with this current rate of grind. Either lower the prices A LOT or refer to "Unrewarding grind option one" unless it is legitimately so demotivating and not rewarding at all for rebel players to even play the game as the server intends.

BMD prices are fine imo. 5-6 months only if you are literally not partaking in any form of Rebel activity of any kind. Those who have already made over 5k chips in profits, using their connections and the BMDs who offer far more chips for goods vs the smuggler who only buys crafting components from you and nothing more. The aim is to bolster shop trading, bmd trading and player to player trading. Keep in mind the economies are connected so shops too can use chips and credits alike and the 2 economies can translate to one another.

• Loot hoarders - SOLUTION: Simple enough, make the crates clientsided ASAP, OR, add a limit to players limiting their capability to open crates so one AFK person does not hoard everything, but for this exact point you have to make the loots much more better or it just turns to the system we have at hand, extremely unrewarding.

Ye, see point 1

• Roleplay rewarding - SOLUTION: Current roleplays or tasks given to rebels are extremely unrewarding, you can do a task, have fun, do good RP, but at the end? You get nothing at best, yes this is related to the Server Council's balancing, not GMs fault but, they should at least increase the threshold or we are not gonna be able to survive anything upcoming.

This is already been worked on as mentioned multiple times within this thread. Nothing further can be said without being a broken record. See my first post as well on this, rarity is being reworked for TLDR

• Non-existent combat - SOLUTION: Yes, everybody knows that we don't want another CvR era just like we had in City 8, but nobody wants zero combat either, the current state of the server does not imitate the HL2 universe at all, it just feels like we are in New York United Nations Headquarters 24/7, I have seen both sides comments regarding this MAIN issue at hand, the Server Council, in my opinion, should focus on the points I have stated, either change them slightly and ensure a fun experience for both CPs and rebels, currently both sides are deprived of anything related to resistance roleplay and extremely tired of political RP.

Also being worked on, relates to my first post. Will need to read that one.

• Political RP focus - SOLUTION: Yes, there is a whole storm coming, everybody knows. But nobody did any events regarding the rebels to prepare, everything done was for politicians to vote upon stuff, give funding, and nothing related to the slummers that have a lot of players that play actively. It seems that the focus on the PoliticalRP is too high and should be diverted to other places consistently, or it just feels unfair OOCly.

Yes and no. This is actually a bit wrong as the Rebels and slums zone is already mostly prepared. Work done via the first rebel group before they were killed off a while ago by MCP/CP, but they did do a lot of prep for future storms and basically reinforced the slums better than the Combine did with the City. Just nothing has been done in response to the upcoming storm which is where you would be correct that there was no prep recently, but there was some before which quite a lot of rebels got involved in and did a lot of work and RP for. Also got some rewards for it.

• Listening to public concerns - SOLUTION: Simple enough, everybody have stated their problems, whether it be Civil Protection side or Rebel side, we all just want the Server Council to look into our complaints and take action regarding the current conflict balancing, or we are all doomed for a burnout and stop playing.

This is what has been going on its just it takes time as Willard has multiple layers of well managers and leaders. And changing anything without going through one layer makes internal drama flare up. That is me being honest and not an easy to fix issue because not everyone is ever on the same page about where things should be balanced. SC itself cant just snap its fingers and make sweeping changes if someone whom that change affects basically says no and disputes it.

It does make balancing a bit of a pain but does show that there is more than just Rebel related concerns, but a bit of a mix of everyone is involved. The one solution is of course tyranny / dictatorship but that tends to lead to more upset internally than not and causes factions to become uninterested in the server. Its a balancing act of players, faction leaders, staff/ct and other entities.

There is my honest take. So we are working on things but they do ultimately take some time- hence why most changes tend to always happen around AP where we can break down and look into this stuff more when things go quieter for 2 days.

 

[Curbalas]

BMD prices are fine imo. 5-6 months only if you are literally not partaking in any form of Rebel activity of any kind. Those who have already made over 5k chips in profits, using their connections and the BMDs who offer far more chips for goods vs the smuggler who only buys crafting components from you and nothing more. The aim is to bolster shop trading, bmd trading and player to player trading. Keep in mind the economies are connected so shops too can use chips and credits alike and the 2 economies can translate to one another.

Alright, the only thing I want to offer is that to bring back the credit to chips smuggler, that was what revived shop RP for a rewarding Rebel experience in City 8, that would be basically the most viable thing from a perspective of an honest rebel.

Our hopes are up towards the Server Council regarding these critical issues at hand, we are all waiting for your guys actions to be taken.

 

[Gridlock]

i aint readin allat

 

[Robert]

Going to close this post but please note my last 2 posts and the posts provided by basically everyone here respectively all giving insight and feedback and their own views and opinions of how things should go. We are looking into this internally but I best remind people no one in the Community has a magical wand that can fix everything unfortunately and these things do take time to fix which in turn, may lead to people feeling like nothing is done and get burnt out and leave as a result.

There is some changes being made over AP at least which should help those unhappy with BMDs, Quests/Events, Gas and Rebel RP zones and of course the map as that is being updated. So those are the first few changes you will see, some only GMs will see like the changes to Item rarity and event conditions, but players will notice this too via a change in reward system for tasks - Though ultimately still upto the GM to decide what you get for your actions.

We are always trying to improve the server. While some issues may seem easy to fix to you, in reality it takes a lot of hard work and effort and one thing to keep in mind is everyone you see as Developers, staff, council, gamemasters and mentors are all doing their work as voluntaries for fun. So please bare with the Community while we are still working on getting systems setup for all to enjoy the server with everyone else.