District One - General Feedback

[Halostrophe]

@nath1234567

Halostrophe's feedback states that GMs directed him to focus gang warfare on the Black Flags, and that this produced the only real battle of the event. That directed targeting, plus the acknowledged uneven handling of several FailRP incidents in varying severity and punishment, is the pattern I'm raising. It is not simply "D1 is a conflict zone". It is staff steering conflict onto one group while applying different standards to the players once the conflicts happen.

We were told repeatedly and emphatically, that the constant focus on the Black Flags had nothing to do with OOC influence. That claim is obviously false. Being gaslit for weeks into accepting that the targeting was purely IC, while GMs were privately directing the cartel leader to make us the designated enemy, is not a misunderstanding. It is an active abuse of trust, and frankly abhorrent.

You do know it was their characters when I mentioned their names? Renault and Scordato. I get misunderstanding when I mention them OOCly but what I meant by the pair of them was the cops they played which is an IC handling.

 

[Janek]

You do know it was their characters when I mentioned their names? Renault and Scordato. I get misunderstanding when I mention them OOCly but what I meant by the pair of them was the cops they played which is an IC handling.

Makes no difference. Two staff members who also play cops, that steered you, a major cartel leader, onto the Black Flags is not neutral. It is still staff characters actively shaping the conflict onto the one group that was least participating in the advertised high conflict gameplay.

That remains staff influence, just exercised through their IC personas instead of explicit OOC PMs.

 

[Lab]

Makes no difference. Two staff members who also play cops, that steered you, a major cartel leader, onto the Black Flags is not neutral. It is still staff characters actively shaping the conflict onto the one group that was least participating in the advertised high conflict gameplay.

That remains staff influence, just exercised through their IC personas instead of explicit OOC PMs.

(I did not play the event)
But from what I've seen I don't think it's fair to call them "staff characters", if you're implying they're asspulls. They're the faction leads. At what point are the local leaders of the faction allowed to exercise their IC influence? Only if they've achieved the position purely IC? By that standard any character that begins in a position of power at the get-go mustn't exert influence and should be an impotent placeholder, which would be silly

 

[Janek]

(I did not play the event)
But from what I've seen I don't think it's fair to call them "staff characters", if you're implying they're asspulls. They're the faction leads. At what point are the local leaders of the faction allowed to exercise their IC influence? Only if they've achieved the position purely IC? By that standard any character that begins in a position of power at the get-go mustn't exert influence and should be an impotent placeholder, which would be silly

No one is saying faction leads must be impotent, or that their positions are invalid. The point is, that when staff members play the local "leadership" that steers a major cartel onto a specific low aggression group as a vehicle for the event's only real gang warfare, that is still staff influence shaping the conflict. The dual role (GM authority + IC faction lead) is exactly why the uneven handling of FailRP cases between the attackers and defenders is a problem. It is not "IC leaders acting". It is staff controlled non-event characters selecting the Black Flags, followed by staff enforcement that actively ran against the Black Flags.

For context, the FailRP cases are (as I remember them):
Black Flags: Bounter runs away from a witchhunt, gets killed, PK'ed, then permaed for toxic behavior. One subsequently does a /me runs away from mugging = 24h ban.

Attackers in the "real fight": One gets a slap on the wrist (warning) for removing a HAZMAT suit from my character without proper RP. I get no refund. The group chasing Bounter should've made a ticket, and instead initiated S2K. At least one in that group was given a slap on the wrist.

@Cocohop If you're going to make fun of my post, at least read it and the context of it. I couldn't care less if staff plays influential characters, that happens anyway. The problem is, that several GMs and staff members push the event as organic IC gang warfare, when it evidently isn't the case.

 

[Cocohop]

God forbid staff play the game

 

[nora]

@Janek

hey janek, sorry for not replying sooner, ive been taking a break and enjoying the new deadlock patch (vote harrow BTW) so i havent had the opportunity to scour the forums in any meaningful way. there's a few things you mentioned that i want to dispel, elaborate on or even agree with you

at no point have i interacted, roleplayed or thought about the black flag in an oocly negative way. to the contrary, i thought they were probably the most interesting gang, and when concerns were brought up about the group when it was submitted, i batted for you guys. i dont regret it, but its pretty disheartening to be accused of ooc malice and bias. i cant really hold malice for people i barely talked to or roleplayed with. ic is a different story, of course, cops will never like anarchists.

when it came to me directing halo to attacking you guys, i wanted to build it up later down the line instead of him going for the throat on the third day. likewise, i earned ooc ire from him because i straight up pm'd him "yo dont go too crazy and just kill them all that shit's not fun". i was also under the impression that he wouldn't straight up pk someone for being in the black flags, and the fact that he got away with a slap on the wrist is so very questionable, but that's 100% a staff issue and not a gm one. i will say, the ONLY reason why nobody got pk'd during the bar attack is because the overseeing gm fucked up and made a /looc "s2k now" instead of making it an event.

the black flags weren't the only ones getting targetted, either. @0xNiklas can confirm, i helped him rile up people to attack the appachis as well down the line, considering how much of a boiling pot the district was. this led to the clinic fight which further spiralled into personal and district wide consequences, but that's a story for another day.

my point is: it didn't come from an ooc place. i quite liked the flags as a group, i earnestly believed (and still do!) your guys' presence on the server would have enhanced it a lot. call the handling sloppy, call me an incompetent gm, but please do not accuse me of ooc malice. thank you.

 

[Janek]

@Janek

hey janek, sorry for not replying sooner, ive been taking a break and enjoying the new deadlock patch (vote harrow BTW) so i havent had the opportunity to scour the forums in any meaningful way. there's a few things you mentioned that i want to dispel, elaborate on or even agree with you

at no point have i interacted, roleplayed or thought about the black flag in an oocly negative way. to the contrary, i thought they were probably the most interesting gang, and when concerns were brought up about the group when it was submitted, i batted for you guys. i dont regret it, but its pretty disheartening to be accused of ooc malice and bias. i cant really hold malice for people i barely talked to or roleplayed with. ic is a different story, of course, cops will never like anarchists.

when it came to me directing halo to attacking you guys, i wanted to build it up later down the line instead of him going for the throat on the third day. likewise, i earned ooc ire from him because i straight up pm'd him "yo dont go too crazy and just kill them all that shit's not fun". i was also under the impression that he wouldn't straight up pk someone for being in the black flags, and the fact that he got away with a slap on the wrist is so very questionable, but that's 100% a staff issue and not a gm one. i will say, the ONLY reason why nobody got pk'd during the bar attack is because the overseeing gm fucked up and made a /looc "s2k now" instead of making it an event.

the black flags weren't the only ones getting targetted, either. @0xNiklas can confirm, i helped him rile up people to attack the appachis as well down the line, considering how much of a boiling pot the district was. this led to the clinic fight which further spiralled into personal and district wide consequences, but that's a story for another day.

my point is: it didn't come from an ooc place. i quite liked the flags as a group, i earnestly believed (and still do!) your guys' presence on the server would have enhanced it a lot. call the handling sloppy, call me an incompetent gm, but please do not accuse me of ooc malice. thank you.

I never accused you of OOC malice. I accused you of OOCly influencing what was supposed to be IC organic conflicts, then gaslight our entire group to think that it was rooted in IC developments.

For someone who supposedly liked the flags as you claim, you sure as hell did not fight for their existence.

 

[Badger]

Halostrophe's feedback states that GMs directed him to focus gang warfare on the Black Flags, and that this produced the only real battle of the event. That directed targeting, plus the acknowledged uneven handling of several FailRP incidents in varying severity and punishment, is the pattern I'm raising. It is not simply "D1 is a conflict zone". It is staff steering conflict onto one group while applying different standards to the players once the conflicts happen.

The dual role (GM authority + IC faction lead) is exactly why the uneven handling of FailRP cases between the attackers and defenders is a problem. It is not "IC leaders acting". It is staff controlled non-event characters selecting the Black Flags, followed by staff enforcement that actively ran against the Black Flags.

For context, the FailRP cases are (as I remember them):
Black Flags: Bounter runs away from a witchhunt, gets killed, PK'ed, then permaed for toxic behavior. One subsequently does a /me runs away from mugging = 24h ban.

Attackers in the "real fight": One gets a slap on the wrist (warning) for removing a HAZMAT suit from my character without proper RP. I get no refund. The group chasing Bounter should've made a ticket, and instead initiated S2K. At least one in that group was given a slap on the wrist.

Hey Janek, you pinged nath but he's a busy guy, so you'll have to contend with me.
Let me start by saying I have read and will take to heart every single comment made in this thread. The reason I am replying to you in particular is because of how you and some of the other Black Flag members chose to OOCly handle what happened to them, which I found honestly baffling.

1 - You claim Halostrophe was both ICly and OOCly led by GMs to attack the Black Flag. I have to say I have found zero evidence of any OOC meddling- What I did find was a lot of IC planning regarding taking out the Black Flag. I'd be willing to bet it's because of the nature of the group, and how you outwardly presented yourselves as Anarchists with no attempt to hide it, while expecting others to be completely okay with that. This is a HL2RP server post-7HW. Individuals saw your group as a threat to the District's very existence, as the Combine certainly do not look kindly upon anarchist groups, so people decided to take matters into their own hands before it grew into a bigger issue.

2 - You claim favoritism regarding staffing and bring Bounter's case up as an example. There were rule breaks on both sides- The major difference (and why Bounter got banned and not a slap on the wrist like the other party) is, like always, OOC Conduct. After his character dying in the S2K fight, here's what Bounter said in LOOC:

[2026-08-26 20:10:39] [LOOC] Otton Fischer: I hope you guys get in a fucking car crash btw
[2026-08-26 20:10:52] [LOOC] Otton Fischer: you'r legit S2K Lootwhores
[2026-08-26 20:11:03] [LOOC] Otton Fischer: Like, legit just s2k lootwhores whose parents don't love them

Again, this wasn't a matter of simple rule breaks. It's a matter of toxic and utterly inadmissible behavior towards community members, and the community as a whole. Which, as a matter of fact, seems to be a pattern for certain individuals when things don't go their way. I certainly found many logs similar to this one by other Black Flag members.

3 - This is a personal one for me. You have come here to the complaint threat to complain- Which is what you should have done in the first place. However, ever since most of your group stopped playing and EO shut down, EO discord turned into prime battlegrounds to shit talk the D1 event, accusing us of event mismanagement, OOC meddling, gaslighting, and any and all of our decisions. I find this legitimately offensive, especially considering I was Dubik's crafting ticket lap dog during the first week, and that I was more than happy to try and give Black Flag everything they said they needed (even though dubik was obviously just rushing gun and armor crafting like he does in every event). You were given every single chance by everyone and only replied with hostility both towards GMs and towards other players. I have several logs to confirm this, if you feel it necessary.

4- In the end, you guys were actively shown OOC favoritism yourselves, as GMs desperately tried to keep players from instantly murdering all of you OOCly through DMs (because you were extremely open with your anarchism). That's the only instance of OOC meddling I found, and it was in your favor.

When everything was said and done, you guys wanted to just run away from the District and we said it wouldn't be that easy since D1 was supposed to be shut off from the outside. Did you try to find any of the plentiful other ways we had established to leave ICly, through roleplay? No. You called us out for "blackmailing" you into continuing to play, and then went off to the EO discord to shit talk our decisions.

For the entire event members of your group skirted around staff and constantly went higher up on the staff chain (against the rules) just because you didn't like the outcome of certain situations, felt you got inadequate script rewards, or simply because you felt targeted (despite said targeting being completely IC). When things didn't go your way you instantly devolved into DMing other staff members and trying to skirt around decisions that were already made, and when that failed, you just stopped playing entirely (not all of you though, some of the Black Flag actually stayed and managed to roleplay with others. Shocking.)

I'm directly asking you to stop shit talking our team in sister communities, and to take some accountability for your own actions, both IC and OOC.

 

[Janek]

Hey Janek, you pinged nath but he's a busy guy, so you'll have to contend with me.
Let me start by saying I have read and will take to heart every single comment made in this thread. The reason I am replying to you in particular is because of how you and some of the other Black Flag members chose to OOCly handle what happened to them, which I found honestly baffling.

1 - You claim Halostrophe was both ICly and OOCly led by GMs to attack the Black Flag. I have to say I have found zero evidence of any OOC meddling- What I did find was a lot of IC planning regarding taking out the Black Flag. I'd be willing to bet it's because of the nature of the group, and how you outwardly presented yourselves as Anarchists with no attempt to hide it, while expecting others to be completely okay with that. This is a HL2RP server post-7HW. Individuals saw your group as a threat to the District's very existence, as the Combine certainly do not look kindly upon anarchist groups, so people decided to take matters into their own hands before it grew into a bigger issue.

2 - You claim favoritism regarding staffing and bring Bounter's case up as an example. There were rule breaks on both sides- The major difference (and why Bounter got banned and not a slap on the wrist like the other party) is, like always, OOC Conduct. After his character dying in the S2K fight, here's what Bounter said in LOOC:

[2026-08-26 20:10:39] [LOOC] Otton Fischer: I hope you guys get in a fucking car crash btw
[2026-08-26 20:10:52] [LOOC] Otton Fischer: you'r legit S2K Lootwhores
[2026-08-26 20:11:03] [LOOC] Otton Fischer: Like, legit just s2k lootwhores whose parents don't love them

Again, this wasn't a matter of simple rule breaks. It's a matter of toxic and utterly inadmissible behavior towards community members, and the community as a whole. Which, as a matter of fact, seems to be a pattern for certain individuals when things don't go their way. I certainly found many logs similar to this one by other Black Flag members.

3 - This is a personal one for me. You have come here to the complaint threat to complain- Which is what you should have done in the first place. However, ever since most of your group stopped playing and EO shut down, EO discord turned into prime battlegrounds to shit talk the D1 event, accusing us of event mismanagement, OOC meddling, gaslighting, and any and all of our decisions. I find this legitimately offensive, especially considering I was Dubik's crafting ticket lap dog during the first week, and that I was more than happy to try and give Black Flag everything they said they needed (even though dubik was obviously just rushing gun and armor crafting like he does in every event). You were given every single chance by everyone and only replied with hostility both towards GMs and towards other players. I have several logs to confirm this, if you feel it necessary.

4- In the end, you guys were actively shown OOC favoritism yourselves, as GMs desperately tried to keep players from instantly murdering all of you OOCly through DMs (because you were extremely open with your anarchism). That's the only instance of OOC meddling I found, and it was in your favor.

When everything was said and done, you guys wanted to just run away from the District and we said it wouldn't be that easy since D1 was supposed to be shut off from the outside. Did you try to find any of the plentiful other ways we had established to leave ICly, through roleplay? No. You called us out for "blackmailing" you into continuing to play, and then went off to the EO discord to shit talk our decisions.

For the entire event members of your group skirted around staff and constantly went higher up on the staff chain (against the rules) just because you didn't like the outcome of certain situations, felt you got inadequate script rewards, or simply because you felt targeted (despite said targeting being completely IC). When things didn't go your way you instantly devolved into DMing other staff members and trying to skirt around decisions that were already made, and when that failed, you just stopped playing entirely (not all of you though, some of the Black Flag actually stayed and managed to roleplay with others. Shocking.)

I'm directly asking you to stop shit talking our team in sister communities, and to take some accountability for your own actions, both IC and OOC.

Halostrophe's event feedback, in which he explicitly thanked Nora and Nezoose for directing his character on a focus for striving gang warfare by going for the Black Flags.
Nora's own later message, in which she confirmed she directed Halostrophe toward us, stated she wanted to build it up later down the line instead of him going for the throat on the third day, and mentioned she also steered conflict towards e.g. Appachis.

You write that the sole OOC intervention you found was GMs trying to stop other players from instantly wiping us through DMs. Even if that protective effort happened, it still doesn't take away from the directed targeting, which both Halostrophe and Nora described.

Bounter's behavior is as you say, and I won't defend it, nor was that my intention in any of these posts. The ban was deserved. It still doesn't change the earlier staff acknowledgments, including moderators at the time, that the underlying FailRP disparity was handled inconsistently, Discord's search function is your friend in that regard.

The core issue raised from the start wasn't that conflict existed, but that conflict was actively steered towards a low aggression group under the guise that it was organic IC devlopment, followed later by claims that no OOC influence took place. Nora's and Halostrophe's statements support the first half of that description.

I wasn't aware of the shit talking that happened in sister communities, and it's frankly disappointing to be accused of such, when I haven't taken part in it, nor am even a member of the Discords. I've evidently been very forward with my opinions and feelings on main, as I have on EO when I once played there.

Regardless, thanks for taking the time to look at the row of complaints I had. I'm not going to push this matter any further, unless someone wants me to.

 

[Lab]

crazy aura