GEAR WIPE

[ultima]

Rebels dont have too much gear, there's simply more rebels on average than cops/ota (static number per deployment)

You can have the best gear on the world, the highest health out of everyone and the highest damage but the moment you are even slightly outnumbered and running towards a defensive position you are severely punished.

It's easy to abuse simple things like headglitching, long hallways and third person to stop a OTA sweep in their tracks. There's only 5 or so of them (usually) and triple the amount of rebels. You can argue that the combine should just "use all their might" but realistically if we look at it
- Helicopter isn't configured to do damage with its bombs
- It only does around 3 damage per hit
- It's usually told the S2M as per the ruleset
- Manhacks AI is retarded
- Roller AI is retarded
- Synths are just asking for an abuse report (IF PLAYED BY A GM) or asking for them to sit and stare at the enemy as they are shot down

So in the end you're left with the 6 guys that deployed with you who are just looking for the usual skirmish. (REMEMBER THIS IS A ROLEPLAY SERVER, NOT ARMA 3. NO ONE REQUIRES YOU TO OR SHOULD REQUIRE YOU TO KNOW SEAL TEAM 6 TACTICS)

Now take all of what I said, and factor in that rebels have a 200 health creature with a 80% damage reduction to all forms of hits that also does (even after being nerfed) a flat 80 damage per hit juggernaut that can run at mach 7.
Can you really blame a few peeps wanting to do some evening s2k for fun on their favourite gmod server and having to endure running around the map for 30 minutes until they get funneled into a tunnel and die? I hope not, because they aren't really to blame.

When the PK rules were being rewritten they were made pretty "Hardcore" compared to other servers, with an emphasis on PK's being the default form of punishment for a characters death.
(THIS WAS NOT THE INTENTION, kinda)

It was our priority to actually LOWER the amount of combat SIGNIFICANTLY ENOUGH to the point where "Death/PK's" itself were a RARE occurrence (maybe say once a month someone died?) which would allow for stakes to raise, for roleplay to improve and for people to actually try to not gun each other down at the first instance of aggression due to the innate fear of losing your character, and the attempted "control methods" for both sides.
(this didn't happen, lol, we failed)

Instead, a certain combine faction was essentially forced onto the map and in an attempt to accommodate to them they beltfed some rebels with loot like a factory machine, leading to a small part of the rebel playerbase being able to gear themselves up with all of the best weapons while exploiting an unbalanced faction and a map not made for head on s2k engagements. Again, this is a SMALL amount of rebels which simply were so active that it lead to them becoming the "face of rebel rp" and overshadowing everything else that other groups did/ might have done.

To answer your question after all this yap in a tldr:
Rebels too much gear? Not really.
Wipe? Maybe.
Will it fix anything? No. Too many fundamentals need to be changed for it to not be a repeat of the same thing over and over again.
Solution? A lot of new stuff in place during break. We'll see if it works.
Reason for all the deathmatching? Cuz'Wez'Let'Em'.

I'm a bit drunk sorry if this reads weird hihi.

 

[Cengiz]

I would welcome a Equipment Wipe but not a Character wipe

 

[NanCi_]

I have forwarded this to rebel reps to discuss further, thanks for the suggestion.

Many people have always agreed that yes, a full wipe would fix most of the issues we face - but previous rebel reps/lead have fought against it constantly. We would like to hear if more rebel players agree with this than disagree, too.

 

[NanCi_]

Rebels dont have too much gear, there's simply more rebels on average than cops/ota (static number per deployment)

You can have the best gear on the world, the highest health out of everyone and the highest damage but the moment you are even slightly outnumbered and running towards a defensive position you are severely punished.

It's easy to abuse simple things like headglitching, long hallways and third person to stop a OTA sweep in their tracks. There's only 5 or so of them (usually) and triple the amount of rebels. You can argue that the combine should just "use all their might" but realistically if we look at it
- Helicopter isn't configured to do damage with its bombs
- It only does around 3 damage per hit
- It's usually told the S2M as per the ruleset
- Manhacks AI is retarded
- Roller AI is retarded
- Synths are just asking for an abuse report (IF PLAYED BY A GM) or asking for them to sit and stare at the enemy as they are shot down

So in the end you're left with the 6 guys that deployed with you who are just looking for the usual skirmish. (REMEMBER THIS IS A ROLEPLAY SERVER, NOT ARMA 3. NO ONE REQUIRES YOU TO OR SHOULD REQUIRE YOU TO KNOW SEAL TEAM 6 TACTICS)

Now take all of what I said, and factor in that rebels have a 200 health creature with a 80% damage reduction to all forms of hits that also does (even after being nerfed) a flat 80 damage per hit juggernaut that can run at mach 7.
Can you really blame a few peeps wanting to do some evening s2k for fun on their favourite gmod server and having to endure running around the map for 30 minutes until they get funneled into a tunnel and die? I hope not, because they aren't really to blame.

When the PK rules were being rewritten they were made pretty "Hardcore" compared to other servers, with an emphasis on PK's being the default form of punishment for a characters death.
(THIS WAS NOT THE INTENTION, kinda)

It was our priority to actually LOWER the amount of combat SIGNIFICANTLY ENOUGH to the point where "Death/PK's" itself were a RARE occurrence (maybe say once a month someone died?) which would allow for stakes to raise, for roleplay to improve and for people to actually try to not gun each other down at the first instance of aggression due to the innate fear of losing your character, and the attempted "control methods" for both sides.
(this didn't happen, lol, we failed)

Instead, a certain combine faction was essentially forced onto the map and in an attempt to accommodate to them they beltfed some rebels with loot like a factory machine, leading to a small part of the rebel playerbase being able to gear themselves up with all of the best weapons while exploiting an unbalanced faction and a map not made for head on s2k engagements. Again, this is a SMALL amount of rebels which simply were so active that it lead to them becoming the "face of rebel rp" and overshadowing everything else that other groups did/ might have done.

To answer your question after all this yap in a tldr:
Rebels too much gear? Not really.
Wipe? Maybe.
Will it fix anything? No. Too many fundamentals need to be changed for it to not be a repeat of the same thing over and over again.
Solution? A lot of new stuff in place during break. We'll see if it works.
Reason for all the deathmatching? Cuz'Wez'Let'Em'.

I'm a bit drunk sorry if this reads weird hihi.

Also about said juggernauts! Just adding onto this. Obviously ICly you wouldn't win against a vort as a human but if you were daring enough to commit to a S2RP. FUCK OFF! them lot are on some next gen 6 hour steroids. How are you meant to go up against vortigaunts if they have a flat +10-15 on all stats for 6 hours?

 

[Botulism]

Also about said juggernauts! Just adding onto this. Obviously ICly you wouldn't win against a vort as a human but if you were daring enough to commit to a S2RP. FUCK OFF! them lot are on some next gen 6 hour steroids. How are you meant to go up against vortigaunts if they have a flat +10-15 on all stats for 6 hours?

CLEARLY from that, players don't have too many items. Obviously, like, this is normal for a HL2RP server. What, a dystopia doesn't scream having a bag full of a hundred Xen pies!?

This pretty much disables the tension in any roleplaying event like a food shortage/famine coming about, yeah, everything needs to be wiped. I'll be losing my 6 surgical kits I use for medrp on my slummer but idgaf. A worthy sacrifice to normalize the RP.

 

[ultima]

Also about said juggernauts! Just adding onto this. Obviously ICly you wouldn't win against a vort as a human but if you were daring enough to commit to a S2RP. FUCK OFF! them lot are on some next gen 6 hour steroids. How are you meant to go up against vortigaunts if they have a flat +10-15 on all stats

They aren't for S2RP. Those items return vortessence during s2k.

 

[Purple Knight]

Rebels dont have too much gear, there's simply more rebels on average than cops/ota (static number per deployment)

You can have the best gear on the world, the highest health out of everyone and the highest damage but the moment you are even slightly outnumbered and running towards a defensive position you are severely punished.

It's easy to abuse simple things like headglitching, long hallways and third person to stop a OTA sweep in their tracks. There's only 5 or so of them (usually) and triple the amount of rebels. You can argue that the combine should just "use all their might" but realistically if we look at it
- Helicopter isn't configured to do damage with its bombs
- It only does around 3 damage per hit
- It's usually told the S2M as per the ruleset
- Manhacks AI is retarded
- Roller AI is retarded
- Synths are just asking for an abuse report (IF PLAYED BY A GM) or asking for them to sit and stare at the enemy as they are shot down

So in the end you're left with the 6 guys that deployed with you who are just looking for the usual skirmish. (REMEMBER THIS IS A ROLEPLAY SERVER, NOT ARMA 3. NO ONE REQUIRES YOU TO OR SHOULD REQUIRE YOU TO KNOW SEAL TEAM 6 TACTICS)

Now take all of what I said, and factor in that rebels have a 200 health creature with a 80% damage reduction to all forms of hits that also does (even after being nerfed) a flat 80 damage per hit juggernaut that can run at mach 7.
Can you really blame a few peeps wanting to do some evening s2k for fun on their favourite gmod server and having to endure running around the map for 30 minutes until they get funneled into a tunnel and die? I hope not, because they aren't really to blame.

When the PK rules were being rewritten they were made pretty "Hardcore" compared to other servers, with an emphasis on PK's being the default form of punishment for a characters death.
(THIS WAS NOT THE INTENTION, kinda)

It was our priority to actually LOWER the amount of combat SIGNIFICANTLY ENOUGH to the point where "Death/PK's" itself were a RARE occurrence (maybe say once a month someone died?) which would allow for stakes to raise, for roleplay to improve and for people to actually try to not gun each other down at the first instance of aggression due to the innate fear of losing your character, and the attempted "control methods" for both sides.
(this didn't happen, lol, we failed)

Instead, a certain combine faction was essentially forced onto the map and in an attempt to accommodate to them they beltfed some rebels with loot like a factory machine, leading to a small part of the rebel playerbase being able to gear themselves up with all of the best weapons while exploiting an unbalanced faction and a map not made for head on s2k engagements. Again, this is a SMALL amount of rebels which simply were so active that it lead to them becoming the "face of rebel rp" and overshadowing everything else that other groups did/ might have done.

To answer your question after all this yap in a tldr:
Rebels too much gear? Not really.
Wipe? Maybe.
Will it fix anything? No. Too many fundamentals need to be changed for it to not be a repeat of the same thing over and over again.
Solution? A lot of new stuff in place during break. We'll see if it works.
Reason for all the deathmatching? Cuz'Wez'Let'Em'.

I'm a bit drunk sorry if this reads weird hihi.

Personally I disagree and agree with points made here, you are right, it is just a single group with all the gear, however that single group is responsible for 90% of offensive rebel actions, and it stifles the other rebel groups as they're unable to compete with them.

Also I agree with the OTA point, I personally believe they need to actually be a threat, and so deployment rules should be more fluid to adapt to the threat they face (incredibly difficult to put into practice, perhaps GMs or dispatch relaying how many potential threats there are)

OTA are supposed to represent the ultimate threat the rebels face, they shouldn't be a trivial force that a single well armed group can easily dispose of without any casualties, it should be something rebels fear engaging, and should only be done in the absolute worst case scenarios, but it's gotten to the point we have to use OP synths to even hope to achieve that level of threat, which is shite for everyone involved.

And yeah, I agree with the whole vort part, this is as an ex-vort player, I've faced OTA before as one and it's pathetically easy to beat them due to the power of the vort beam (bare in mind this was prior to most of the nerfs, which didn't do much as vorts apparently still are OP)

I personally think too much has been focused on balance, it's not meant to be balanced, perhaps rebs vs CPs yeah, but OTA are *meant* to be unbalanced, they're supposed to be elite soldiers, filled with nothing but combat knowledge, strong armour and powerful weapons, so it should have to be a very well coordinated defence to beat them, not a simple outnumbering or even in some cases, 1:1 still being on equal footing.

I think part of the issue with the CvR stuff as well as the gear, is the over thinking about balance, this isn't an actual CvR server, it's a roleplay server, I think the tendency to fight OTA would be fixed if OTA were more powerful, resulting in people actually facing a credible threat of loosing their characters if they decided to stand and fight them without serious advantages on their side, which as a result, would reduce the amount of sheer non-sensical combat that happens on the server as of late.

And I absolutely agree with the Conscript point, I'll say it plain and simple, as someone that has played the faction before STOP TRYING TO ADD CONSCRIPTS!! There's simply no place for them, they absorb other combine factions roles, are generally easy to beat, and like stated above, and everyone knows it, they're a fucking lootbox faction, which has contributed heavily to the gearing issues the server currently faces.

To reinforce the point above - They took outlands jobs from the CPs, they took guarding duties from the OTA, resulting in both factions losing a part of their unique gameplay, and furthermore, due to the sheer amount of them last time, it negatively impacted CivRP as well, as half the server at times were playing as conscripts, instead of actually contributing to the citizenry, meaning you could walk around the city and encounter one or two other players at times.

There will be arguments to state both sides of the conscript story particularly, but personally I noticed whenever conscripts were out in force:
Civs complained at the lack of population
CWU found it hard to get turn-out for workshifts due to the lack of civs
Conscripts being over-focused on, resulting in lack of GMs for other faction and individual needs
Torrents of issues regarding combat, RP quality and rule breaking

EDIT:
Also to make it fair, OTA should be deployed a lot more sparingly against attacks, if they do get buffed that is, the only reason they deploy so frequently to rebel attacks now is that rebels stomp CPs so easily OTA have to be used, but to be fair, like others have stated, the Combine do need to be slow to wake, as is stated in the game, so OTA should be a rare, and incredibly dangerous thing to come up against IMO

 

[Marshall]

Can someone give me an irl recipe for the Xen pie and how I can achieve that same effect irl

 

[Purple Knight]

Lean

Can someone give me an irl recipe for the Xen pie and how I can achieve that same effect irl

 

[Imperator RAD-X]

I'm putting this into total consideration.

 

[Asimo1234]

They aren't for S2RP. Those items return vortessence during s2k.

"Our form is reloading!"
/me shoves cake down throat

Technically speaking those things are just vort ammo boxes

 

[Asimo1234]

Agree if you support a general wipe of weapons/armor for all characters, Disagree if you think there is another solution present.

Limiting the amount of (high end) equipment is certainly a solution. But it does feel like a one-sided and incomplete solution.
It is a fact that rebels are over-armed for what you can realistically have if you want to maintain a cityRP server.
It is a fact that for 1.5+ years rebels have had the gear in their locker to storm the city and bring it down if they could unify.
It is a fact that a normal CP sweep against a rebel force of equal number might as well be called suicide-rush.

Rebels were ready to destroy the city at the end of the Antlion Arc, and they did, messily but it still happened. Except when that was over and done with, we went into the metro, and walked out of the metro holding the same weapons that brought down the district. So in effect, rebels could do it all over again. Instantly.
It'd have been a good time to do an equipment wipe, because rebels had accomplished something of note, and it'd be a good moment for a fresh start.

The situation we have now makes it clear that an equipment decrease/wipe would be good for server balance health. And it makes some sense with a new map and all that. The only problem more or less is that when the server went down, there wasn't really this big rebel hurrah moment what gives them a pay off for all the build up they have done.

Because I do genuinly think that all the rebel buildup and grind has a reason that falls roughly in line with the idea of wanting to "Deal a decisive blow to the Combine."
Wiping that buildup now might leave some rebel players with a bad aftertaste of "what was the point?"

Then there's also the point of "Just hitting rebels" with any sort of wipe talk.
Let's not kid ourselves in saying that the only grind on the server is the trash -> script grind. There is also the ration terminal grind and the workshift -> SC/Credit grind.
Not to mention with Gears of Industry there's been a CWU grind with producing stuff and selling it for big cash numbers.

If you really want a fresh start, then you'll not only look at a rebel's stash and inventory. But also their chips, and the credits and SC of every character on the server.

Ideally speaking I'd like to see a wreckingball going through some factions and freeing up a lot of IC positions that have been occupied by the same people for a long time now be vacated so people can get a fresh experience in a different position or even different faction. But this is probably a bit radical.

I don't think a full character wipe is a great idea, especially because the shutdown didn't allow for a lot of people to put some closure on their character's story.

Also depending on how hostile non-combine locations are going to be on the next map (Think gas or NPCs), to be a rebel you'll need something to protect yourself. Like a gasmask or a melee weapon/basic firearm. So in that regard a full equipment wipe could very well mean quasi-dewhitelisting a rebel back to a regular citizen. And while for a lot of rebels this isn't the end of their character, but someone who is AC (Or otherwise a KOS by the Combine metric) will have the choice between running into death by NPC or death by amputation.

Spoiler: You don't need items to roleplay explaination

"Do you understand that you do not need items to roleplay?"
Anyone who's played Clockwork will know that question. And while it is true to some degree, it is also a complete lie depending on the situation.
Traditionally, rebel roleplay has happend solely away from Combine-Controlled areas for obvious reason. And these areas have always had some form of accepted risk to them. (Not so much as of recent, but that's a different point).
If a rebel event takes place in (for example) the sewers, but these sewers are filled with gas and hostile NPCs, then going in without items is suicide. You will not be able to join this roleplay without items.
So if GM events and other rebel mechanics are limited to areas that are filled with such a risk, then rebelRP will become something you will need items for. And by clearing out a rebel's inventory, you will effectively be kicking them out of rebelRP.

Does all rebelRP need to be focused in areas that are hostile to characters? No. Slums are a great example. Slums are usually part of the (safe) city, but aren't directly within Combine-Control. But this does rely on CPs avoiding this region for the vast majority of the time, and sweeps in the area won't happen for the smallest things. Then GMs will be able to organise rebel content in such an area, and a character can join RebelRP without needing something like a gun or gasmask.

So yeah, the "rebel equipment wipe" while being something that is needed, isn't the whole solution. Unless you more-or-less just want to flip the finger to just the rebel playerbase. It's part of the solution, but not the whole solution.

(Time to ruin my reaction score)

 

[Botulism]

Ideally speaking I'd like to see a wreckingball going through some factions and freeing up a lot of IC positions that have been occupied by the same people for a long time now be vacated so people can get a fresh experience in a different position or even different faction. But this is probably a bit radical.

I don't think a full character wipe is a great idea, especially because the shutdown didn't allow for a lot of people to put some closure on their character's story.

Completely understood. If I were going to do it, I'd probably do a direct downgrade for all players rather than a complete wipe. Strip the inventories of all characters, and distribute reduced equivalents to certain others. If a rebel had an AR2/AK, he gets an SMG. If he had an SMG, a pistol. If he had a pistol, a melee weapon. Cops would be at the mercy of what their rank allows them, with any custom equipment likely going out the window. Maybe this new city confiscates their weapons in-lore? Maybe pistols cost a hefty sum at the quartermastery and most cops have to rough it with stun-batons for the first few days of play-time?

Personally, I'm against the special treatment given to long-time characters. This'll be something many WILL disagree with and especially find hypocritical or audacious of me to say, considering I'm new to this community and I haven't had a long-term character myself, but I'll just say that it is of my personal belief that HL2RP is not meant for long-term survival. All of my characters since I began this gamemode a long ass time ago never lasted more than a few months because I always took risks and when I got bored, I took million to one-style risks. In a story where everyone's meant to die eventually, why post-pone it?

Either way, that's all I gotta say, thank you for your reply Asimo. Your commentary is always appreciated wherever you bring it.

 

[Purple Knight]

Not to mention with Gears of Industry there's been a CWU grind with producing stuff and selling it for big cash numbers.

Worry not, this part is already being dealt with in-house, the money doesn't go to people individually, but the city as a whole, so we'll be starting with a poor amount as we're in a terminal, the CWU will also be starting bare-bones on the map change, this was an internal decision between myself and Plumber, so we've already got a grasp of what's being suggested here

Also the usual GOI trade system will be nerfed for a long while while we utilise a specially made trade system by yours truly.

Overall, the CWU will be very resource and money limited at the start, until we build ourselves up with hard work like everyone else!

 

[Inspector Orlok]

Not gonna read ever comment but I get the gist and agree. The question that's on MY mind is how are we going to take everyone's gear? Just take it away OOCly, staff intervention and all? Well, that's not very fun and I think there could be a better IC alternative, as for what that is, I'm not too sure.

And as OTA co-lead yeah we're looking to reduce the amount of OTA deployments coz you know, not particularly a fan of letting OTA do the job of CPs. Most shotcops should lead to CP sweeps but OTA have primarily taken that over, which is obviously taking away RP and fun from CPs.

 

[Botulism]

Not gonna read ever comment but I get the gist and agree. The question that's on MY mind is how are we going to take everyone's gear? Just take it away OOCly, staff intervention and all? Well, that's not very fun and I think there could be a better IC alternative, as for what that is, I'm not too sure.

And as OTA co-lead yeah we're looking to reduce the amount of OTA deployments coz you know, not particularly a fan of letting OTA do the job of CPs. Most shotcops should lead to CP sweeps but OTA have primarily taken that over, which is obviously taking away RP and fun from CPs.

In general there's too few cops to go around, a good cop ratio would be 1:3, which is atleast 23 cops in a server of 70 people, however it is routinely less than that, with the max cops I've seen being around 10-12.

What causes people to burn out from CiviPro so fast? The lack of things to do? The lack of engagement with citizens? No need or force applied to engage and be engaging with citizens? All of the above IMO. I hope to publish a Prigozhin-filled meme sequel containing what I'd do for CiviPro going forward.

I'll continue writing these until the willard admins promptly ban me for being a loser or make some good, lasting changes.

 

[ultima]

In general there's too few cops to go around, a good cop ratio would be 1:3, which is atleast 23 cops in a server of 70 people, however it is routinely less than that, with the max cops I've seen being around 10-12.

What causes people to burn out from CiviPro so fast? The lack of things to do? The lack of engagement with citizens? No need or force applied to engage and be engaging with citizens? All of the above IMO. I hope to publish a Prigozhin-filled meme sequel containing what I'd do for CiviPro going forward.

I'll continue writing these until the willard admins promptly ban me for being a loser or make some good, lasting changes.

I think the issue is the nature of the server being more s2k focused, leading cop WL holders into a constant state of anxiety until an inevitable ambush and a loss of character development because someone decided they wanted to show off their guns to the nearest i5. The more we push away from this the more cops will interact with each other and the citizenry, leading to better RP and more activity.

 

[Goulashnikov]

Agree with an item wipe. But to prevent this from happening again, my suggestions are:

• Remove scrap guns/make them far more difficult to create (higher crafting level, more expensive ingredients)
• End Conscript patrols.
• Reduce instances of CivPro carrying guns that can be mugged/killed for.
  • For example: i5 and i4 are only authorized pistols during low sociostability or when on special assignment (i.e. a sweep). i3s+ may carry pistols at all times but are only authorized SMGs during low sociostability or when on special assignment.
• Nerf. The. Fucking. Vorts.

 

[Botulism]

Agree with an item wipe. But to prevent this from happening again, my suggestions are:

• Remove scrap guns/make them far more difficult to create (higher crafting level, more expensive ingredients)
• End Conscript patrols.
• Reduce instances of CivPro carrying guns that can be mugged/killed for.
  • For example: i5 and i4 are only authorized pistols during low sociostability or when on special assignment (i.e. a sweep). i3s+ may carry pistols at all times but are only authorized SMGs during low sociostability or when on special assignment.
• Nerf. The. Fucking. Vorts.

Absolutely based suggestion, limit cops to not even having pistols!? Someone with a restrictive and dare I say, non-action filled mind thought of this! Brilliant!

 

[ultima]

Absolutely based suggestion, limit cops to not even having pistols!? Someone with a restrictive and dare I say, non-action filled mind thought of this! Brilliant!

Real ones know we already tried this but it wasn't sustainable with all those shooties around...