Events mean nothing now.

[ozymandias]

It's so nice having suit connection, datafiles, relays, request devices, dispatch and radios be fully functioning again with a homemade antenna, isn't it? No. No the fuck it is not. I don't know who brought up this idea and executed it, but there was something not right with them when they planned this. We had a whole event that would disable OCIN. Rebels won that, and OCIN was disabled for about a week or two. Afterwards, thanks to a fucking antenna, the Combine now have all their communications again! Yipee!
There's no point in doing events where rebels win if it's gonna get voided entirely without anyone getting to know about it. The "antenna" wasn't even placed in-server, it was when everyone was offline and it was F2B. A "workshift" managed to fix OCIN with an antenna. The Combine are not THAT fucking strong, they're pretty weak in the games compared to what Willard depicts.

This won't change in V3 at all by the way, as the same management or team that made this decision is staying. There's also the matter of Combine mains knowing that this is wrong, but still doing anything to justify it as they don't want their side to lose. This is like the safe-zones in Hide & Seek.

Just end V2, say "rebels lose yall are fucking stupid" and that'll be much better than this fairytale shit made to fuel peoples egos. What happened yesterday should not have happened at all, and should have been completely voided. Also, no event at all for the antenna bullshit. Great.

I apologise for my aggressiveness in this thread, but this shit needs to fucking stop. It's at its peak dogshit state, and it's GOING TO continue in V3. This is just a spit in the face to any of the rebel players, AND the combine players, as they themselves know this is stupid.

The same management will talk about how V2 is in a horrible state, and how they can't wait for it to be over, but they're the ones making it worse.

 

[Fishy413]

-1 rep toxic, fucking dirty s2ker!

fuck man we need tuki and libs back ,we cant even fight the combine

 

[dubik15]

Yeah ngl It's not a big deal, the antenas are city-wide only and don't do much to help combine outside of it. This is not a big deal.

 

[ozymandias]

Yeah ngl It's not a big deal, the antenas are city-wide only and don't do much to help combine outside of it. This is not a big deal.

Radio comms are a big deal lol. This also includes an IC retcon

 

[dubik15]

Radio comms are a big deal lol. This also includes an IC retcon

I'll have to agree with you on this. But overall i don't see this as a huge issue, more of an annoyance

 

[Lost Coast Chanties]

Why didn't the Combine send CWU to repair the C17 Citadel? Are they stupid?

 

[NanCi_]

I'll have to agree with you on this. But overall i don't see this as a huge issue, more of an annoyance

This guy man... I don't know whether this is ragebait or you are generally stupid.
Rebels right.... Rebels had to prepare for an entire expo to shit on a bunch of OTA and CPs that would result in the combine going blind in all of western europe. Now you have this little metadynamist cuck F2B all your progress within a day so all that fighting all that little blood , all that preparation gone.

 

[Purple Knight]

Hey guys, anyone feel like pulling up the logs to see if OTA were using OTA-TAC? You know, since "DIY OCIN" was city 24 only

 

[NanCi_]

Hey guys, anyone feel like pulling up the logs to see if OTA were using OTA-TAC? You know, since "DIY OCIN" was city 24 only

spoiler alert duh. Our only reason for using it is the tactical team comms or something coulda been used within close perimeter but thats about it. Nobody on OTA wanted to deal with radios

 

[nora]

its ok its not ocin, its just radio communications and also relays but dont worry its only in c24. except it also wasnt only in c24 but its ok because the 15 loyalist server fixed it in a workshift

 

[Inspector Orlok]

Status quo called, they need their OCIN back.

Being real, I do agree the bringing back of OCIN was a terrible idea, it only enforced the status quo on the rebels, and in turn undermined their efforts as a whole. As much as I hate to say this, I think the server continuing after the initial I24 uprising was a genuine mistake and gigantic blunder. I wouldn't mind usually, from what I've heard, most servers tend to go on to do Outland RP when their uprising begins (even though I too hate outland RP), but even then the 'CityRP' continued, for the sake of a very-very small minority.

I think the core issue stems from higher-ups deciding to continue the server even after everyone was well done with ending their characters. I've seen people critique the initial OCIN tower event for being only S2K, while the servers closing event was just OTA stomping on a bunch of rebels cuz why not.

Not the direction I was hoping for personally, I just hope the start of V3 remedies the ending of V2.

 

[Omega]

Not the direction I was hoping for personally, I just hope the start of V3 remedies the ending of V2.

It hasn’t because this is the only response staff have. “Hopefully it’ll change in the future” when Y’ALL (staff, not you, Reece) are the ones making it like this! This is literally the fault of staff, and all they do is “Hope it can be different”.

This staff team is literally that “Potential Man” meme. Always saying how things should be different but never changing them.

 

[RedHotGinger]

I will say, I dont think any of us expected some sudden rebound in quality, or miraculous recovery of the server narrative. We all understood this wasn't going to be great. V2 simply does not have the makings of greatness in it. That being said, this is probably worse off than most would have expected.

I could honestly go on a multi-paragraph rant over how bad everything has gone. But its just easier to summarize with:

Compared to the people that mostly just walked offscreen, nothing has really felt like it mattered, or that it led to any sort of conclusion. The fact V2 is now, by all accounts, officially over is actually strange to think about.

The final event - the very last grand cinematic outing of the multi-year project...was a bog-standard S2K slop session between OTA and rebels. There wasn't even any real spectacle involved, outside of a Gbomb that crashed the server. It didn't even make narrative sense. We just...got stormed with nothing we could have ever done about it.

I'm not usually one to call 'Combine bias' as it is often bullshit, but frankly, we're having a weird Combine bias right now. The rebels, during our time in the bunker, were freely being infiltrated ad-nauseum by loyalist players, with staff blessing - actively working towards sabotaging and damaging our efforts. Such infiltrators technically having killed, or at least having attempted to, multiple long-standing characters.

It took the Vortigaunts the whole week there to setup a xenian factory thing, that we never even really got to use. We weren't allowed to setup intranet at all, apparently. No real communication stations or major projects permitted whatsoever. The missile, the whole reason we even showed up to that place, was locked behind a genuinely impossible objective, causing us to fail and lose it.

Meanwhile, loyalists have apparently not only re-established OCIN completely, for all intents and purposes, BUT, they've also engineered a hyper-advanced sentient AI that is even more powerful than dispatch itself. They did this, at a time the Combine is supposed to be at its weakest. With minimal resources. With minimal manpower.

I don't think we're being railroaded to a loss, ultimately, but I do know this:

All of this just feels pointless at this stage. I hope TLM can salvage, not even save, but salvage the ending - but it'll require alot work.

 

[Rabid]

All of this just feels pointless at this stage. I hope TLM can salvage, not even save, but salvage the ending - but it'll require alot work.

Honestly, I think because this wasn't something given any actual planning. V2's storyline was such a conflicting mess that it was seen as a better thing to pull life support and try to wrap it up so V3 could be brought in.

But the problem is that to give a satisfying ending in an Uprising setting you need everyone on the same page and the planning can take months if you want it to be good and rewarding. You need to go in knowing that, yeah, The Combine are going to ultimately lose (because a Combine victory is dogshit for everyone) while letting them be a threat.

This Uprising has seemingly had none of the above factored in.

 

[Malic]

Why didn't the Combine send CWU to repair the C17 Citadel? Are they stupid?

They tried to accelerate its destruction to send the teleportation file but @gordanfreeman killed the workers attempting to make the reactor explode faster.

 

[Processed_Grain]

Let's start from the beginning.
​

After the full blown destruction of I24, I, and the remaining members of the Loyalist Faction, were transported to C24; the Loyalist/CCA server specifically. My character, now 'Consul' Erama, was by all accounts the last remaining, functional, proactive member of the Administration. For an innumerable list of reasons, he -- my REAL, NON-EVENT CHARACTER -- has decided to stick with The Combine, along with everyone else who stands by him in his binder.


As such, he finds it in his best interests to ensure they win, and the first step to this; as proclaimed by Overwatch, was to get the minimum of OCIN back online, be it locally within City 24, or through all of Western Europe.

According to this, he elected to begin immediate work in setting up a series of miniature, local relay towers across the entirety of C24 to replace the now inert, Sector-10 spanning Relay Center that was destroyed several weeks prior...


"Now wait", you might be asking, "How come Mister Erama is able to ignore the valiant efforts of The Rebellion™ and use the remaining, re-organized assets of the Civil Workers Union to set up a Emergency DIY OCIN?? Isn't that unfair? An asspull, even?"
To that, I say



No. You never took out O.C.I.N.. You took out a relay tower that transmitted it across Western Europe from City 24. City 24 is still the home of Western Europe's Intelligence Network; a home that is still completely intact.

Not only is O.C.I.N. majority intact within the Citadel (look outside; it's still standing), but IRKALLA (the cannibalized remnants of SUMMIT 24 turned fortress district that takes up 1/4 of the city) is still standing, and in fact, in lore, has always had its own backup Artificial Intelligence for O.C.I.N. just in case the current scenario happening now occurred. (Sorry @Omega , the Interdimensional Slave Empire is a bit beyond 'Hubris' and, in fact, does have enough foresight to not centralize its entire security apparatus on Earth in a town in fucking Bulgaria).

So, to put it bluntly



Yes. We fixed City 24 with a workshift. A decree ordering said workshift to boot. That is to say; it (C24) was in such a condition that there shouldn't have been any need to have a workshift for it in the first place, yet we did it anyway. I delegated the work to what remaining foremen we had, what remaining citizens we had on our ~12 player loyalist server, and put up a rinky-dink, fucking antenna, to fix O.C.I.N.; all so I can send an E-MAIL (which, by the way, like a lot of other civilian functions, is not actually reliant on OCIN, or, at least I don't think it should).


So, sorry not sorry; the antenna is staying.


Of course, I'd be a fool to think that it was the only qualm presented here in the Thread, or that the IC worries about putting up an antenna are in fact where it ends. No, what's happening here is that players are worried that their efforts are being put down the drain -- even if legitimate. So let me help ease your worries.


1: The original O.C.I.N. Relay Tower event was a clusterfuck, and a railroaded Rebel Victory; one whos results I do not respect.


Looking past context menu-removed CMB helicopters, 20 minute delayed Combine reinforcements even past the wiping out of half of the garrison, Vortigaunts doing double their supposed damage (see Marco's thread), Overwatch not being permitted rifles/AR2s, and the presumed continued usage of the one-shot kill event APC: The event was rigged from the start with several rebel auto-win conditions, ranging from a "Rot Bomb"/Mass Explosive of some sort to Vortigaunt-Jedi tomfuckery using 'Extracctttt' and classic arcane wizardry.


Furthermore, there was no Combine win condition beyond "Survive". Everything in the event was considered to be placed under balancing, and when the rebels were sighted to be potentially losing (god forbid) many-a-gamemaster began to panic, throwing out ideas of, again; blowing it the fuck up.


This is, of course, unacceptable. As a player with no OOC positions I am against event railroading by uneasy, shadowy Admin hands at every turn, no matter if it leans in favor of 'my team' or 'the other team'.


2: The original Valente ICBM event -- while priced in beforehand -- was the result of player actions, and not that of Admin railroading like so many seem to believe.


To give summary as to what happened for those unaware; a day before the event, Francis Erama, utilizing info and evidence gained ICLY within the Administration, exposed the ICBM missile site and plot by Valente to destroy the O.C.I.N. Relay Tower himself with it in order to launch a coup on Orwell. Erama showed a recording of Enzo admitting it to Russel Makarov to F9/39, and was subsequently put in charge on the spot with setting up a sting operation to arrest him that very day.

Spoiler: Zhe Coup

This was a close call, given it was one day before Taskmaster and Company would be raiding said silo; which remained defended only by a small contingent of the Genevan Guard. Not to mention, Valente nearly fired the missile at C24 in a last ditch effort -- killing himself right after.


All of my efforts culminated in getting to the silo before the raid, and thus commencing a launch sequence to fire the missile at New Geneva -- dishing back what they had so generously dished out the week prior with the destruction of the O.C.I.N. Relay Tower.


Erama then left, bidding his great ally F9/39 good luck as he took control of the Overwatch forces sent on the ground to deal a finishing blow to the rebels trapped within.


Of course, our brave protagonists of TLM fought back, and forced a retreat, giving The Combine a pyrrhic victory.


3. For over a week, Erama and the Metadynamist Body has been running circles around the rebel faction via infiltration, sabotage, espionage, strategic use of Overwatch, and various other avenues; All working in conjunction to let me know Taskmaster's orders an hour before his lieutenants do; All in completely in a In-Character effort to divide, weaken, and subdue The Insurgency.


I won't go into detail, as we all know the history the faction has with metagaming (cough cough liberators cough cough). What I will say though is that never before have I met such a (by most of your own admission) dysfunctional, disorganized, idiotic, meandering 'group' of characters I have ever laid my eyes upon. Of course -- not all of you are included in this bracket, or, perhaps none of you are, and what I'm referring to is simply the result of the societal, group-think geist that has been locked in a virtual concrete box for seven whole days (sorry @rae ).


I don't say this to brag or to rub it in people's faces (at least not fully), but to get you all to reflect and realize just how dire the situation for you really is. If you cannot organize the most bare, organizational functions of an insurgency amongst yourselves without help from ET, how can you expect to deserve a complete, rebel auto-win like so many amongst you seem to think you're entitled to?


If you can let some guy preaching the Metadynamist Manifesto at a bar run free to in the future steal a tank; how can you be so sure that you're ''meaning'' anything.


If I can get an unnamed number of men to run around your base; pouring concrete in tank engines, putting fabricators on fire, disabling radios, and spreading dissent between groups; do you really -- honest to god -- think that you're winning?


Sure, I get that you guys have been swamped with back-to-back fighting, events, character development, and so on. I really do.


But





To call for a complete shut down of any infiltration roleplay on all fronts in the name of "not being assed to deal with it", is completely hypocritical. You simply cannot stand on a platform of wanting players to have freedom to develop, progress, influence, and manipulate the world whilst simultaneously asking for even more OOC safeguards to protect your interests.


And, finally


4. The Bunker Raid yesterday was... Complicated, admittedly, and there's far more of a case to be made here about Admins dealing a unfair hand to the rebel action (not that I am saying that).


To begin, what incited it in the first place was the rebel execution of Hikari Fujimori; a diplomat I sent to broker a ceasefire and to invite rebels to offer their opinions and or demands for reform to the Unification State in the near future.


Upon hearing about her death, Overwatch (Eviction Notice) nearly demanded that Erama take action, thus giving the go ahead for the ''preparations'' of an assault.


This was all in response to player actions, and done by player actions... For the most part. OOCly, I wasn't fully on-board with the option. I was quite enjoying the RP that came from the current skirmishing guerilla warfare I had Overwatch do under the command of Ranger 02 (Mullet).


Indeed, to my understanding, a decision was taken OOCly between ET and what not to evacuate the rebels on that day, as well as to have an attack in response; all to make way for more preparations for future TLM events.


All of this coalesced into the attack itself, which arrived just after the 'Shepherds' left on their own and right before the scheduled evacuation of everyone else from the silo.


..Do I think the fight was unfair, and rigged towards the Combine: No.


Do I think the battle shouldn't have happened at all: Yes.


It was like other things in this event line so far; rushed, messy, and not well planned. We should have given the insurgency more time within the bunker -- passive, time -- to plan, develop, and generally 'calm down'. Relentless events help nobody, and to hit them with this does seem like a bit of a bad job, though, there's not much we can do about it now. A mistake on both sides. So, Sorry, on the behalf of the powers at be.


However, I will say that as a technical member of the TLM team, who knows the future of the event line, that things are in the works that improves the war situation for the rebellion in a fair manner. Though, I think the biggest take away here by far is that we need to -- again -- for some reason say to staff (Nath included) that player primacy really must take the helm in these affairs. If they want to work to set up the intranet again, then so be it. So long as they put in a high amount of roleplay and engineer the scenario perfectly, there should be nothing stopping them from doing so. We should also give them more down time to facilitate these things. People are at their best when they're not being shot at.


For the future of TLM, I think all hands should be on deck to improve the rest of the chapters. I am not a pessimist. I believe fully that if the powers at be apply themselves, the event can be mended in full (I've seen what's in store, and retain high hopes because of it).

...But, do not forget this.


I ('Erama') am, in my full right to fight your efforts on every step of the way. I am a player. A character. The face of what's left of the Dream of Collaboration. I will do everything in my IC power to ensure a Combine Victory. I am your opposition. I am Evil! I am the guy who nuked a town of several thousand in the name of ideological Will. Do not think for a SECOND that just because there are more of you than there are Me that you are entitled to a free, happy ending whilst simultaneously attempting to destroy my own character's. All I have ever wanted was a fair (OOCly speaking in terms of rules and engagement, the rebellion obviously will have the advantage ICly) playing field to face the leaders of the enemy faction in what constitutes a great, strategic game for the future.


All of your ails and complaining can be chalked up to culture shock. For the first time in my years of playing this server, The Combine™ are, for once -- even if just partially -- led by someone OOCly willing to see them prevail. Am I glazing the Slave Empire? Sure. But that won't change the fact that I am not going to stop kicking your shit in through the most roleplayed (Non-S2K) of means possible.






Good day.​

 

[RedHotGinger]

I'm not usually one to be rude outright, but goddamn do I really wish you'd stop acting like a CCA member out of character bro.

 

[Omega]

Not only is O.C.I.N. majority intact within the Citadel (look outside; it's still standing), but IRKALLA (the cannibalized remnants of SUMMIT 24 turned fortress district that takes up 1/4 of the city) is still standing, and in fact, in lore, has always had its own backup Artificial Intelligence for O.C.I.N. just in case the current scenario happening now occurred. (Sorry @@Omega , the Interdimensional Slave Empire is a bit beyond 'Hubris' and, in fact, does have enough foresight to not centralize its entire security apparatus on Earth in a town in fucking Bulgaria).

Tell that to the literal video game that you're basing this entire story off of. Your response genuinely doesn't even deserve to be read or given a proper response. You unironically see the Combine as the good guys OOCly. You don't care about a story, but about winning.

Combine lose, that fact is known. Forcing a combine win down the throats of the majority of players with the help of staff for supposedly "peak" is lame and gay. The fact that Robert and Rad-X have let the majority of the player base suffer for what is basically your enjoyment is lame and gay. Buy hey, at least Erama can get groomed by an Advisor, right??? That is where shit gets good! Fuck the rest of what we're subjecting the players to!

Btw, infiltration rules were one-sided. Staff literally threatened Rebel Players if they would try to join the Loyalist Server. That's why they should have never been a thing.

 

[Processed_Grain]

Tell that to the literal video game that you're basing this entire story off of. Your response genuinely doesn't even deserve to be read or given a proper response. You unironically see the Combine as the good guys OOCly. You don't care about a story, but about winning.

You can't tell a story when the main antagonist is a strawman deigned by the protagonist faction to serve basically as mindless cannon fodder and something to shoot at.

It doesn't matter what I think OOCly. I don't let my opinions out of character affect my decision making. What matters is that; the very 'story' you speak of will never have any stakes - never be 'real' without - someone actually driving the enemy.

I'm not forcing any ending down anyone's throats an neither is Rad-X or Robert (Who, in fact, are really bipartisan here all things considered and shouldn't be blamed on my behalf). All I've ever asked was to portray and play the side Erama's on with a bit more depth than the idiotic, comically evil and completely inane and nonsensical 'Combine' so frequently peddled by actors on here.

Your story -- and the endings to all your characters, will always be fake so long as there isn't a chance of The Combine somehow 'turning the tide'. It doesn't actually matter if they do; what matters is the possibility, and the subsequent interactions that come from it.

 

[Processed_Grain]

Btw, infiltration rules were one-sided. Staff literally threatened Rebel Players if they would try to join the Loyalist Server. That's why they should have never been a thing.

A: There was little they could have done on the loyalist server all things considered.
B: There's no ICly feasible way for them to get on the loyalist server.
C: None of that changes the fact that it's simply roleplay. The Rebel's IC inability to narrow down who's an infiltrator is simply that: an IC problem.