Thood74
Member
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2020
- Messages
- 95
- Thread Author
- #1
Yes, this post is based off the other post.
INTRO
High Command has always filled a particular niche. The background of Civil Protection/Overwatch operation. This initially came mostly in the flavour of extremely shallow characters who would use a red eyed model from that one CP pack every server used, probably called the 'Commander/CMD/CmD' or 'Sectoral Commander/SeC'. These initial attempts at establishing a human Combine hierarchy were probably the lowest point of such a concept, as most of these characters rarely contributed anything beyond having an overwhelming presence portrayed by a self-centred individual who guided the events around them to their whims for their enjoyment and nobody elses intentionally.
We moved past this at some point, and are something closer to what we have now, at least on the higher quality servers. Pseudo-political officials who hold a more bureaucratic place in the hierarchy than anything. The overseers on Willard are a variation of this. A far bigger improvement than the SeC's of years ago...
...Yet, it would seem the problem has not been fully handled.
DYSTOPIA AND DOORKICKERS
The presence of a sadistic character in High Command whose only purpose is to hurt, bully and generally lord power does not instill feelings of that ever-important and reused word. Dystopia. Great suffering or injustice.
Whenever I've felt a moment of such great suffering, injustice or better yet, deep thought with regards to HL2 in any medium, it has been the quiet moments without immediate threat that allow me to reflect on the current situation. Overlooking dry coasts where antlions unrelentingly attack in between being able to quietly park myself near abandoned buildings, an abandoned City square with a telescreen of a scientist turned administrator spouting propaganda he uses in an attempt to reassure himself he's done the right thing, or in HLA where construction striders failed to acknowledge my presence even after nearly crushing me and crushing my drone ally while they gracefully moved between rooftops. Or pretty much EVERY non-combat segment in the Citadel or Nova Prospekt.
The feeling that things have been irrevokably damaged, I am an afterthought and I have little to no power to change it. feelings that I am witnessing great suffering or injustice.
There's even a video I'd describe as a definitive style guide to what I like to see in HL2/HLA with regards to the depressing atmosphere, and I'll leave it here for the curious.
Whereas in most servers or fan made mediums in general, the go-to approach seems to be something closer to the apartment raid scene in the third map. The dehumanised Civil Protection thugs with SMGs and cattle prods kicking down doors and incapacitating or killing civilians with no hesitation. The overwhelming presence of the Combine, instead of being able to quietly reflect on the consequences of their rule. While necessary in HL2 for the sake of making the quieter, more existential moments more impactful, I cannot quite say the same here.
HIGH COMMAND
(With a few mentions of the average jackboot cop, who they should strive to use as a tool for action instead of directly taking it upon themselves to appear unless entirely necessary.)
What is High Command? Are they dystopic, malicious, superior entities that do not need to be seen to be heard and felt, or noblemen who lord power over those below them to channel feelings of inferiority and frustration into attempts at motivating them to rebel and develop their characters. Cause it feels a lot more like the latter.
Instead of being the unseen entity reflective of the Combine that they are, High Command appear to engage in activities that seem to schizophrenically range from walking around the City with a Transhuman entourage to beating a loyalist, breaking an arm, hosting a mock trial irreflective of the fact that the Combine have entirely abandoned the illusion of due process and partially deafening them with a firearm just for a laugh without so much as a caution for having effectively just gone down from their metaphorical ivory tower, where they are presumably busy doing what little work could not be automised or assigned to stalkers and observing a citizen being personally beaten following a kangaroo court style scenario.
While the former can be rationalised in some way or another, the latter outright goes against the atmosphere of an unseen, alien entity that is so beyond you it cannot be quantified with the human tongues. It portrays the Combine as administrated by or at the very least represented on Earth by self-centred, egotistical individuals whose only motives are to make those around them suffer with no regards to actually forwarding the Combines goals, either out of the belief that it may benefit humanity in the long run (perhaps by keeping some sort of personality, or human serfdom) or at the very least postpone its decay in the short term with law and order. Instead being psychopaths like those they are supposed to oversee with no further motive.
Controversially, this sort of sadism is miles more UNDERSTANDABLE (IN LORE) when it comes from a jackboot cop, albeit it never should've gone quite so far if it was. High Command are people considered to represent the alien, superior part of the Combine in favour of the Dispatch AI, or a cold and inhuman soldier in layers of body armour. And when I see the sort of generic, tasteless sadism that contributes nothing but the belief that Civil Protection is administered by people no better than the actual sadists behind the masks on the street, it doesn't humanise the ones on the street retroactively. It's an embarrassment to the entire faction.
OVERALL/CLOSING NOTES
High Command should either not exist, being replaced with the presence of Overwatch or Dispatch, or should be distinctly recognisable as characters with their own motives for collaborating, even if it doesn't sit well with them, with the implications that they have their own bosses. For each and every one of them. Yet also trying to remain unseen whenever it isn't necessary. When something is so far above you, it doesn't feel the urge to make itself known. Instead, it'll be so far above you that you simply cannot see it. Instead using the jackboot cop as it's personal enforcer, as it should.
This is only aimed at Civil Protection High Command. While other immersion breaks exist out there that I'm comfortable you can now ID, they aren't the focus.
I'm sorry I don't have a lot of time to fact check or format this post. I'm exhausted (4:50 AM), and I feel like highlighting what I see as a thematic fatal error in Willard's Civil Protection (a faction well known for its importance rivalling only the Citizens) is far more important than making sure every base is covered, as there is no particular reason for this behaviour to be acceptable anyways. And I doubt I've entirely missed my mark after everything I've witnessed across my time on Willard as a lurker. However, if I've made a FACTUAL error, not something that clashes with your own views, feel free to highlight it as I do not wish to spread any misinformation.
I ALSO think it's better off if this post is locked once I've posted it. Believe it or not, this doesn't just exist to continue the argument from the last post about HC. This is simply my prolonged letter about its innumerable flaws as a system. HC does not need to respond with any sort of acknowledgement to make positive change, and yet I feel like this will be willfully disregarded due to the fact it comes not long after that other post that inspired this poorly worded essay. Which I pray it won't.
I feel a lot better now that I got this off my chest, and I also feel very exhausted. So I'm going to sleep now. While my hopes aren't high, I'll see whats become of this post when I wake, if anything.
INTRO
High Command has always filled a particular niche. The background of Civil Protection/Overwatch operation. This initially came mostly in the flavour of extremely shallow characters who would use a red eyed model from that one CP pack every server used, probably called the 'Commander/CMD/CmD' or 'Sectoral Commander/SeC'. These initial attempts at establishing a human Combine hierarchy were probably the lowest point of such a concept, as most of these characters rarely contributed anything beyond having an overwhelming presence portrayed by a self-centred individual who guided the events around them to their whims for their enjoyment and nobody elses intentionally.
We moved past this at some point, and are something closer to what we have now, at least on the higher quality servers. Pseudo-political officials who hold a more bureaucratic place in the hierarchy than anything. The overseers on Willard are a variation of this. A far bigger improvement than the SeC's of years ago...
...Yet, it would seem the problem has not been fully handled.
DYSTOPIA AND DOORKICKERS
The presence of a sadistic character in High Command whose only purpose is to hurt, bully and generally lord power does not instill feelings of that ever-important and reused word. Dystopia. Great suffering or injustice.
Whenever I've felt a moment of such great suffering, injustice or better yet, deep thought with regards to HL2 in any medium, it has been the quiet moments without immediate threat that allow me to reflect on the current situation. Overlooking dry coasts where antlions unrelentingly attack in between being able to quietly park myself near abandoned buildings, an abandoned City square with a telescreen of a scientist turned administrator spouting propaganda he uses in an attempt to reassure himself he's done the right thing, or in HLA where construction striders failed to acknowledge my presence even after nearly crushing me and crushing my drone ally while they gracefully moved between rooftops. Or pretty much EVERY non-combat segment in the Citadel or Nova Prospekt.
The feeling that things have been irrevokably damaged, I am an afterthought and I have little to no power to change it. feelings that I am witnessing great suffering or injustice.
There's even a video I'd describe as a definitive style guide to what I like to see in HL2/HLA with regards to the depressing atmosphere, and I'll leave it here for the curious.
Whereas in most servers or fan made mediums in general, the go-to approach seems to be something closer to the apartment raid scene in the third map. The dehumanised Civil Protection thugs with SMGs and cattle prods kicking down doors and incapacitating or killing civilians with no hesitation. The overwhelming presence of the Combine, instead of being able to quietly reflect on the consequences of their rule. While necessary in HL2 for the sake of making the quieter, more existential moments more impactful, I cannot quite say the same here.
HIGH COMMAND
(With a few mentions of the average jackboot cop, who they should strive to use as a tool for action instead of directly taking it upon themselves to appear unless entirely necessary.)
What is High Command? Are they dystopic, malicious, superior entities that do not need to be seen to be heard and felt, or noblemen who lord power over those below them to channel feelings of inferiority and frustration into attempts at motivating them to rebel and develop their characters. Cause it feels a lot more like the latter.
Instead of being the unseen entity reflective of the Combine that they are, High Command appear to engage in activities that seem to schizophrenically range from walking around the City with a Transhuman entourage to beating a loyalist, breaking an arm, hosting a mock trial irreflective of the fact that the Combine have entirely abandoned the illusion of due process and partially deafening them with a firearm just for a laugh without so much as a caution for having effectively just gone down from their metaphorical ivory tower, where they are presumably busy doing what little work could not be automised or assigned to stalkers and observing a citizen being personally beaten following a kangaroo court style scenario.
While the former can be rationalised in some way or another, the latter outright goes against the atmosphere of an unseen, alien entity that is so beyond you it cannot be quantified with the human tongues. It portrays the Combine as administrated by or at the very least represented on Earth by self-centred, egotistical individuals whose only motives are to make those around them suffer with no regards to actually forwarding the Combines goals, either out of the belief that it may benefit humanity in the long run (perhaps by keeping some sort of personality, or human serfdom) or at the very least postpone its decay in the short term with law and order. Instead being psychopaths like those they are supposed to oversee with no further motive.
Controversially, this sort of sadism is miles more UNDERSTANDABLE (IN LORE) when it comes from a jackboot cop, albeit it never should've gone quite so far if it was. High Command are people considered to represent the alien, superior part of the Combine in favour of the Dispatch AI, or a cold and inhuman soldier in layers of body armour. And when I see the sort of generic, tasteless sadism that contributes nothing but the belief that Civil Protection is administered by people no better than the actual sadists behind the masks on the street, it doesn't humanise the ones on the street retroactively. It's an embarrassment to the entire faction.
OVERALL/CLOSING NOTES
High Command should either not exist, being replaced with the presence of Overwatch or Dispatch, or should be distinctly recognisable as characters with their own motives for collaborating, even if it doesn't sit well with them, with the implications that they have their own bosses. For each and every one of them. Yet also trying to remain unseen whenever it isn't necessary. When something is so far above you, it doesn't feel the urge to make itself known. Instead, it'll be so far above you that you simply cannot see it. Instead using the jackboot cop as it's personal enforcer, as it should.
This is only aimed at Civil Protection High Command. While other immersion breaks exist out there that I'm comfortable you can now ID, they aren't the focus.
I'm sorry I don't have a lot of time to fact check or format this post. I'm exhausted (4:50 AM), and I feel like highlighting what I see as a thematic fatal error in Willard's Civil Protection (a faction well known for its importance rivalling only the Citizens) is far more important than making sure every base is covered, as there is no particular reason for this behaviour to be acceptable anyways. And I doubt I've entirely missed my mark after everything I've witnessed across my time on Willard as a lurker. However, if I've made a FACTUAL error, not something that clashes with your own views, feel free to highlight it as I do not wish to spread any misinformation.
I ALSO think it's better off if this post is locked once I've posted it. Believe it or not, this doesn't just exist to continue the argument from the last post about HC. This is simply my prolonged letter about its innumerable flaws as a system. HC does not need to respond with any sort of acknowledgement to make positive change, and yet I feel like this will be willfully disregarded due to the fact it comes not long after that other post that inspired this poorly worded essay. Which I pray it won't.
I feel a lot better now that I got this off my chest, and I also feel very exhausted. So I'm going to sleep now. While my hopes aren't high, I'll see whats become of this post when I wake, if anything.
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