Welcome!

By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

SignUp Now!

How should you play as Civil Protection, OTA, etc?

Should civil protection officers & OTA play to loose/holdback?

  • Yes! Both should practice P2L/holdback.

  • No, players should have the freedom to stomp on whoever.

  • No, only OTA should P2L/hold back.


Results are only viewable after voting.

Cloudbucket

Certified Bucket
Joined
Aug 29, 2021
Messages
321
Hello there.

This thread is to discuss how you should play a certain character on the server to facilitate roleplay and general fun for all parties.​



MY OPINION)

Civil Protection and OTA should play with a play to loose mindset at all times and avoid the mentality of PK all rebels.

Why is this? The server is a community full of people trying to create stories and entertaining adventures for their characters. The idea of completely shredding one side is something better executed on a semi-serious server with Combine Vs Rebel mentality. However Willard Networks is not that.

Willard Networks in my opinion should be a server in which you spawn a story with a goal, a challenge, conflict, whatever to make your character interesting and constantly evolving. While consequences will surely come for any actions, it should not be as sudden as many players make it. You should play to enjoy the server AS WELL as play to let others enjoy it as well.

HOW DO WE DO THIS?

Civil protection players:

1) stop executing people bleeding out mid combat. this is a terrible thing to do. at least let them have the decency of roleplay their last breath.
2) when someone unarmed is running away, instead of shooting to kill them, instead hit them a couple times then shoot to miss. their story of escaping will be far better than their story of dying.
3) be corrupt in a sense. let people get away with crimes that would normally have them dead (running away, having contraband, etc.)

OTA players:

1) treat this like roleplay and not a CSGO lobby. if rebels have a chance then give them one. shoot to miss, engage in realistic tactics, understand that your synthetic character dying is far less impactful than a rebel dying.
2) don't execute bleeding out people. instead let them bleedout and if someone comes in after the aftermath they can revive.

Rebel players:

1) stop being script hungry
2) roleplay and give reason to your crimes
3) avoid putting yourself in a situation where there is no chance for survival and always be on edge.


tldr; play this like dungeon and dragons where all parties have fun and have their faults to keep the story moving. let people roleplay rather than ending their life abruptly.




Let me know what you all think.
 
Unfortunately this server is falling into the pitfall of rebels and combine players having a huge us vs them mentality. Rather than them all roleplaying a big story together they’re just trying to kill each other and grab the loot (yes, CPs are script hungry too. Have you seen how fast AKs get snatched once a rebel gets executed?)
 
Like_That%27s_Ever_Gonna_Happen_Banner.jpg


So long as there is a risk of losing ones character, players will always go tryhard sicko mode with no respect to the rp of others. Fact of life at this point.
 
Unfortunately this server is falling into the pitfall of rebels and combine players having a huge us vs them mentality. Rather than them all roleplaying a big story together they’re just trying to kill each other and grab the loot (yes, CPs are script hungry too. Have you seen how fast AKs get snatched once a rebel gets executed?)
I feel as if people start to adapt the principals stated above we can shift this mind set. It may take time, but I have hope.
 
Good concept, but CPs will never P2L when PK of their character is on the line, just like how Rebels would never P2L in the same situation. Rebels also finish off combine and never take the time roleplaying in the aftermath to loot/capture them, and vice versa.

The only way P2L would work in an OOC sense is if all deaths were NLR unless for specific reasons and if everyone did P2L. Otherwise S2M looks pretty dumb unless it's being overlooked and managed by someone.

Artificial difficulty is hard to manage when you've got 12+ people running around with adrenaline pumping and virtually no communication other than some really fast typers. 20 rebels versus six OTA? I can understand that rebels would most likely take a few casualties but otherwise steamroll the OTA - especially if well equipped and well prepared. However, you cannot expect six OTA - which are the product of extensive cybernetic modification, brain washing, and training to be a level above modern high-speed low-drag special operations/infantry units (not counting the fact they are loyal to a suicidal fault) - to be beat back by an equal or slightly higher number of rebels unless they are suffering from a major skill detriment.

Booile did an amazing job of this during expeditions and it was probably the best moments I've ever had as OTA providing a challenge and roleplay for the rebels.

Unfortunately, this would mean that basically any event that would require triggers being pulled having been either brought to the attention to staff a while beforehand and player-run events becoming all but extinct.
 
1) stop executing people bleeding out mid combat. this is a terrible thing to do. at least let them have the decency of roleplay their last breath.
I think the bleedout state should be altered to accommodate this.
You cannot be killed in bleedout, but the only way to get out of bleedout is by decent medical care. No more slapping 2 bandages on someone and call them as good as new. Bandages can be used to stop people from bleeding, but a first aid kit/bloodbag would be needed to get them back on their feet. All accompanied with RP of course.
2) when someone unarmed is running away, instead of shooting to kill them, instead hit them a couple times then shoot to miss. their story of escaping will be far better than their story of dying.
Need to come from both sides. Rebels need to realize that having a couple of scrap items on them means they should just take the L and get a couple points deducted. Might also tie in with moving some red contraband to orange contraband.
If you decide to run you should face the consequences for that decision.
3) be corrupt in a sense. let people get away with crimes that would normally have them dead (running away, having contraband, etc.)
Being human and compassionate as a CP means you get killed by the Combine. I don't see CP characters suddenly going soft knowing it can end with their death. The upcoming CP changes that will make dying more brutal will probably not improve this at all.

1) treat this like roleplay and not a CSGO lobby. if rebels have a chance then give them one. shoot to miss, engage in realistic tactics, understand that your synthetic character dying is far less impactful than a rebel dying.
2) don't execute bleeding out people. instead let them bleedout and if someone comes in after the aftermath they can revive.
Considering I am an OTA main I'll go a little more in depth on this one.
Because of how stocked the Rebel Economy is when it comes to guns that out-class Civil Protection, RebelRP is in a though spot.
Currently, Rebels are too strong for CPs. But because of the health and armor difference they are too weak for OTA.
This is made worse by the fact when rebels do something, they stack the field with 20 player attacks, which even OTA have no chance of defending against.

On the flipside, when OTA/CPs march out in force, they usually catch Rebels off guard and it is a slaughter.

I will stand by my opinion that there is one ultimate reason for OTA on a CityRP server:
OTA are here to prevent the city from falling until the time comes where the Uprising happens and CMs tell OTA to roll over and die.

If the City is not under threat of falling (Rebels in Victory/extended occupation of Triumph) then OTA have no reason to get involved. We will still have the problem of Rebels outgunning Civil Protection significantly. And I think for that reason the Rebel Economy has to be nerfed significantly. Not the grind made harder, but turning the script grind with the smuggler into an RP grind with BMDs.

Pipe weapons should be the only craftable weapons, with actual firearms being obtained from BMDs at reasonable intervals. With high tier gear mostly kept away and requiring special RP (Incursions/expeditions) to acquire.
This will force rebel players to get involved with BMDs through RP to get the good shit, with pure scriptwhoring gameplay only rewarding you with something to use against zombies.
To compensate, CPs should also be defanged, no more fucking AK cops and M249 RLs. That shit is retarded.

Once such an equilibrium has been established OTA can go chill in stasis and come out to fuck rebels up if they make the mistake of openly challenging Combine rule on their home turf (the city).
1) stop being script hungry
Already talked about this above, but to recap. Turn the Script Grind into an RP Grind. Willard has to choose if they want to be an RPG or RP server. Currently with automated mechanics replacing one of the fundamentals of RebelRP (Scavenging), Rebel Gameplay is something you can do without ever having to type.
2) roleplay and give reason to your crimes
Eh. Rebel gonna Rebel CP gonna CP. It isn't hard to justify shit as a rebel. Probably will not change much no matter what people do. Unless Management throws up artificial RP restrictions.

3) avoid putting yourself in a situation where there is no chance for survival and always be on edge.
Comes from both sides. Give Rebel breathing room and they can chill. If the constant threat of CPs kicking in your door is present, Rebels will always be looking for better ways to protect themselves. This is just human nature.
 
Last edited:
I'm just going to get right into the meat of this.

Civil Protection and OTA should play with a play to loose mindset at all times and avoid the mentality of PK all rebels.
I somewhat disagree. I will elaborate further down.

Why is this? The server is a community full of people trying to create stories and entertaining adventures for their characters. The idea of completely shredding one side is something better executed on a semi-serious server with Combine Vs Rebel mentality. However Willard Networks is not that.
Oftentimes, the development of characters comes at the expense of the suspension of disbelief and the cohesion of the universe in which those characters are developed. Of course, no side should be shredded, but that is the IC goal of literally both factions here, and to pretend otherwise is asinine.

Willard Networks in my opinion should be a server in which you spawn a story with a goal, a challenge, conflict, whatever to make your character interesting and constantly evolving. While consequences will surely come for any actions, it should not be as sudden as many players make it. You should play to enjoy the server AS WELL as play to let others enjoy it as well.
This is the problem with 24/7 servers where character development is the "focus" rather than any central narrative. In most other forms of narrative media, the setting is established first, and the characters are developed in adherence to the setting. As the plot progresses through its concrete beginning, middle, and end phases, characters adapt to those changes. Conflict brews. Characters die, and that is used as fuel for other characters to keep moving forward.

In a server with no actual central narrative (cue every City HL2RP server ever), you will often see characters go through many different character-building events and the only remnant of it affecting their psyche is a footnote or addendum on a biography page. Most long-lasting characters on HL2RP turn into generic husks after a certain point.

That's not to say character development ISN'T important. It is. But actual meaningful character development only really happens when major changes in the plot affect them. There aren't really any "major" changes on City RP, because the status quo is what keeps it alive. Switch the formula, and you will see 50% or more of your playerbase quit.

1) stop executing people bleeding out mid combat. this is a terrible thing to do. at least let them have the decency of roleplay their last breath.
From an OOC standpoint, yes, it's rude to execute other players.

ICly, dead-checking is extremely important. What if one of those rebels you just downed shoots you in the back of the head with a previously-concealed pistol? It might make for some good RP, but I sure wouldn't like to have my character PKed because I made the OOC decision to be nice and not dead-check an enemy when my character would do the opposite.

2) when someone unarmed is running away, instead of shooting to kill them, instead hit them a couple times then shoot to miss. their story of escaping will be far better than their story of dying.
Most actual roleplayers aren't going to simply run away and cause a scenario that you're talking about. If they properly RP it out, then sure, I would do this. Most of the time, the people who run away without any RP are minges and they are shot simply to force them into actually having to RP instead of flee without it.

3) be corrupt in a sense. let people get away with crimes that would normally have them dead (running away, having contraband, etc.)
Fine with this, but that's an IC decision for a CP character to make, not an OOC decision.

1) treat this like roleplay and not a CSGO lobby. if rebels have a chance then give them one. shoot to miss, engage in realistic tactics, understand that your synthetic character dying is far less impactful than a rebel dying.
If the rebels in question are actual well-developed characters and not soulless husks that vacuumed scripts up for a week, then I'd be more than willing to give them a bit better of a chance. Realistic tactics is something I want to do, but we don't really have trainings on that sort of thing.

The biggest issue with S2M is that OTA will be seen as less effective if we artificially nerf our fighting ability for the sake of sparing John Scripteater's 3 day old character with an M4 and vest. Rebels will get complacent and do what they did the other day (sit on slum rooftops in full gear) and know there won't be any consequences. The fact that all of their deaths were not just voided but also fully refunded sort of proves that point.

2) don't execute bleeding out people. instead let them bleedout and if someone comes in after the aftermath they can revive.
Again, this gives them the opportunity to RP shooting you in the back of the head. For OTA, the PK risk from this is moot, but OTA would DEFINITELY dead-check enemies if they're on kill order.

1) stop being script hungry
2) roleplay and give reason to your crimes
3) avoid putting yourself in a situation where there is no chance for survival and always be on edge.
If these criteria are all met by a character then I will do my best to keep them alive when it makes sense to do so. If you survive long enough, you will develop main character status. We saw that on V1 after the Short Stories characters were transferred to the city. "If I survived 10 striders on Short Stories then I could survive a sweep!" mentality.
 
Civil Protection and OTA should play with a play to loose mindset at all times and avoid the mentality of PK all rebels.
The main issue I'm seeing with CP is not the PK all rebels mentality, the problem is that they also kill any non-dangerous criminals. From the retarded PK appeals I've read in the last month, IF someone meets the criteria to be executed, they will be executed by CP even if the guidebook suggests a more lenient and development-oriented punishment for their crime. Honestly, I feel like there is a good chunk of the MPF faction that is not exactly playing their role in good faith.
  • It's a pretty bad mindset issue, CPs are out for blood because that's what the faction expects of them, and I'm guessing they execute anyone they can because promotions are based on casualty reports rather than roleplay.
The only way I can think of to fix this would be slowly converting it from a faction fighting specifically to uphold Combine rule (and purges any threat within or without), to a faction of police thugs that fights first and foremost to preserve itself and its shady businesses. You need to create some perceived inefficiency in the MPF to encourage rebels and criminals to actually roleplay in the loyalist side of the city. Headcops here like to throw OTA at any problem, anyway, so it's not like you don't have a foolproof failsafe if the cops give rebels and criminals enough space for them to become actually dangerous.
 
Rebels will get complacent and do what they did the other day (sit on slum rooftops in full gear) and know there won't be any consequences. The fact that all of their deaths were not just voided but also fully refunded sort of proves that point.
This gets stomped out repeatedly.

The rooftop was entirely different in that it was part of an event which separated the slums from Combine control, using that as an argument is ridiculous unless this were to become the case. Nearly everyone who walks around in full gear dies quickly, and not many do it anymore because of that. (As they should)
 
Of course, no side should be shredded, but that is the IC goal of literally both factions here, and to pretend otherwise is asinine.
Shredding should be done within reason.
If Rebels try to take over the city when they are not prepared, OTA should come and shred them for being retarded.
CPs should be shredded if they overextend too far away from their checkpoints.

This can probably be done in V4 by, like I said, restricting OTA to "City protector" status and turning Triumph and Lower Level slums into the CP-Rebel battleground. Where both sides are close enough to their supply bases to fight on equal footing. With the Higher Levels of the slums effectively being cut off from quick CP reinforcements, making an ambush exceptionally deadly.
From an OOC standpoint, yes, it's rude to execute other players.

ICly, dead-checking is extremely important. What if one of those rebels you just downed shoots you in the back of the head with a previously-concealed pistol? It might make for some good RP, but I sure wouldn't like to have my character PKed because I made the OOC decision to be nice and not dead-check an enemy when my character would do the opposite.
While I do not have real life combat experience, I can imagine that if I see the guy who I just shot drop to the floor I can assume he's out of the fight for now.
Remember, we should be asking people not to dead-check in the MIDDLE of a fight, where you have other targets to switch to. Makes more sense to shoot at the guy still shooting at you rather than the guy on the floor bleeding out.

After the fight is over, yeah... Players should have the freedom of walking up to other characters and putting a bullet into their head.

As for shooting in the back:
If you go down you are unconscious and will not wake up till you have been properly medic'd
Rebels will get complacent and do what they did the other day (sit on slum rooftops in full gear) and know there won't be any consequences.
This has to be seen in the context of the event that was taking place.
From what I heard, admins were flooding the slums with zombies multiple times per day (And I mean spawning hordes of 100 zombies, including fast ones and gonomes). It is understandable rebels would have their weapons out and be ready.

The Combine also declared it a dead zone. I have no idea why the bigbrain 3 man CP team went inside only to be shot and trigger the sweep... Really made no IC sense.
I can forgive the sweep because the rebels took a CP hostage and killed 2 others. But those 3 should never have been there in the first place.

Other than that, if OTA only come out to protect the city, they won't have to S2M. Because then the purpose of the OTA is to shred the rebels for crossing the line.

"If I survived 10 striders on Short Stories then I could survive a sweep!" mentality.
Yeah... People survive countless high-risk situations but die because they slipped on some wet stairs and broke their neck.
Anyone can die at any time at any place for any reason.
If you get lucky and survive 10 Striders, good for you.
If you have bad luck and get caught in a bad sweep, shit happens.
 
Yeah... People survive countless high-risk situations but die because they slipped on some wet stairs and broke their neck.
Anyone can die at any time at any place for any reason.
If you get lucky and survive 10 Striders, good for you.
If you have bad luck and get caught in a bad sweep, shit happens.
Going to give an example of this to drive the point home that if you want to keep things realistic.
This man practice a pretty dangerous sport only to be turned into a vegetable because he slipped and fell on a rock during skiing.

I do still think Characters should be a little protected and given the benefit of the doubt, the HL2RP playerbase is limited after all so realism can be toned down a little. And it is.

You'll hardly face the situation where an admin pops up out of nowhere telling you that you're being PK'd because "ICly you slipped and broke your neck". No admin will ever enforce that unless the player decides to RP it.
 
Pipe weapons should be the only craftable weapons, with actual firearms being obtained from BMDs at reasonable intervals. With high tier gear mostly kept away and requiring special RP (Incursions/expeditions) to acquire.
This will force rebel players to get involved with BMDs through RP to get the good shit, with pure scriptwhoring gameplay only rewarding you with something to use against zombies.

Disagree, this usually turns into BMD players serving as gatekeepers to people who want to start their own things, and devalues the points spent into crafting.

Besides, I hear a lot of talk about scriptwhoring, well, if the grind to get materials was less you would have less people in the sewers looting as well.

What I did with my group was to have people going down there in regular intervals and making every crafted thing a group effort. There was rp between ourselves and others.

I really enjoyed not having to rely on a player BMD or admin BMD for once, having our own way of supplying ourselves (even if it's not top of the line weapons), being able to have your group with gasmasks/filters/uniforms/basic firearms just by our own merits felt very rewarding. And there was roleplay involved, employing associates, and buying shit off of people in the Pawn Shop.

Player BMDs serve as a gatekeeping measure usually and you can only ever give so much rp/gear to a certain amount of people/groups
 
Last edited:
What I did with my group was to have people going down there in regular intervals and making every crafted thing a group effort. There was rp between ourselves and others.
And you can still have that top tier crafted weapons go from AKs to Pipe weapons.

The problem right now is that the balance is fucked. CPs cannot compete with rebels able to craft AKs. The BMD system is getting expanded with player BMDs, and measures are allegedly being put in palace to prevent gatekeeping.

In my eyes the big issue right now is that Rebels eclipse civil protection just by the script system. And while people can RP with the script system, people can also just ignore RP and grind it out. For a SeriousRP server this isn't the greatest, in my opinion. This forces OTA onto the field way too often.

The best pipe weapon currently equals the 9mm pistol quite well. The Semi-Auto pipe weapon does 18 damage versus the 15 of the 9mm, has better armor penetration than the 9mm and still uses pistol ammo.
If BMDs can then relatively easily provide rebels with SMGs (Uzi, sterling) then the baseline of a developed rebel would be that of an i3.

Currently it is so easy to get a rifle that matches OTA weapon stats, that CPs really don't have much of a chance. And for CityRP this leads to problems in my eyes.
 
In my eyes the big issue right now is that Rebels eclipse civil protection just by the script system. And while people can RP with the script system, people can also just ignore RP and grind it out. For a SeriousRP server this isn't the greatest, in my opinion. This forces OTA onto the field way too often.

The best pipe weapon currently equals the 9mm pistol quite well. The Semi-Auto pipe weapon does 18 damage versus the 15 of the 9mm, has better armor penetration than the 9mm and still uses pistol ammo.
If BMDs can then relatively easily provide rebels with SMGs (Uzi, sterling) then the baseline of a developed rebel would be that of an i3.

Currently it is so easy to get a rifle that matches OTA weapon stats, that CPs really don't have much of a chance. And for CityRP this leads to problems in my eyes.

Rebels can have better weapons than CP, sure. But scripts aren't all the balance here.

Rebels will always be less organised, and by quite a bit. Outside of massive efforts made by them to group together, they'll always have that disadvantage and it's quite a staggering one. A lot of the sweeps into Indigent recently have been absolutely huge, and as far as I know they haven't actually lost a fight recently if we exclude the three man team the other day. To the contrary, two cells have been entirely wiped out in the past few weeks who were quite well armed.

Not to mention, a rebel only needs to die once. If you wipe one sweep, there'll be further retaliation for you to deal with.
 
And you can still have that top tier crafted weapons go from AKs to Pipe weapons.

The problem right now is that the balance is fucked. CPs cannot compete with rebels able to craft AKs. The BMD system is getting expanded with player BMDs, and measures are allegedly being put in palace to prevent gatekeeping.

In my eyes the big issue right now is that Rebels eclipse civil protection just by the script system. And while people can RP with the script system, people can also just ignore RP and grind it out. For a SeriousRP server this isn't the greatest, in my opinion. This forces OTA onto the field way too often.

The best pipe weapon currently equals the 9mm pistol quite well. The Semi-Auto pipe weapon does 18 damage versus the 15 of the 9mm, has better armor penetration than the 9mm and still uses pistol ammo.
If BMDs can then relatively easily provide rebels with SMGs (Uzi, sterling) then the baseline of a developed rebel would be that of an i3.

Currently it is so easy to get a rifle that matches OTA weapon stats, that CPs really don't have much of a chance. And for CityRP this leads to problems in my eyes.

The option to craft AKs was added recently (I believe this month even, 2-3 weeks ago?) and I'm not even sure if it was by popular demand. Even then they are a pain in the ass to craft (as it should be) and it would be nice to know how many in the AKs in circulation are crafted, and even then, from what I saw during the last attack to CP-1, there was also a fair deal of BMD originated high tier weapons, M4s and so on

I'm just against player BMDs as a panacea or fix because from my gut feeling and past experiences in other communities, I'm against removing player agency and concentrating it in a few hands. Creating circlejerks around BMDs, gatekeeping certain scripts if you don't X.

AKs, sure, shotguns, Judge, leave it to BMDs if you want to fix balance somewhat, but I really don't think it's a fix here, just a plaster and something that sounds good on paper.
 
Last edited:
Civil protection players:

1) stop executing people bleeding out mid combat. this is a terrible thing to do. at least let them have the decency of roleplay their last breath.
2) when someone unarmed is running away, instead of shooting to kill them, instead hit them a couple times then shoot to miss. their story of escaping will be far better than their story of dying.
3) be corrupt in a sense. let people get away with crimes that would normally have them dead (running away, having contraband, etc.)

OTA players:

1) treat this like roleplay and not a CSGO lobby. if rebels have a chance then give them one. shoot to miss, engage in realistic tactics, understand that your synthetic character dying is far less impactful than a rebel dying.
2) don't execute bleeding out people. instead let them bleedout and if someone comes in after the aftermath they can revive.

Rebel players:

1) stop being script hungry
2) roleplay and give reason to your crimes
3) avoid putting yourself in a situation where there is no chance for survival and always be on edge.

It's a saddening double edged sword.

The premeditation is that OTA should focus less on killing and more on capturing action; we did this during the massive rebel sweep that got voided 2 days ago (where I personally took a survivor captive) and tried to RP with them treating their wounds to take them in, and they just ended up killing themselves by putting a revolver to their face.

On the flipside, Leudo's CP was taken captive by rebels after a sweep got demolished, and the results weren't ice breakers either. It was primarily a horde of people trying to fastgrab scripts by spamming /me loots the cop; to the point where we had to make a /localevent to tell people there's nothing else to loot. They then dragged him to the roof, and disregarding any other opportunity they may have had with a hostage for ransom under their hand, they just executed him.

As you can see, the contradictions go both ways.

shoot to miss,

Now, on the topic of enabling more roleplay by incorporating S2M to artificially make firefights more engaging: I've personally never been a fan of S2M and I hate the concept of making anything shoot worse than they have any right to. OTA is one of those cases, as my precursor above had already mentioned, they're not created to allow their targets to run away; it's either kill or capture.

Death is part of the game, and allowing characters, regardless of whether they're a CP, rebel or else, to live much longer than they should have, while making for a great story, isn't really making it very realistic. You could draw the debate over "realism vs fun" but at face value, most people, if given the chance, would make their characters live forever if they had the chance, and for the sake of consistency, we can't really allow that.

I totally agree with you on one point though; we shouldn't end character lives preemptively and at least give them a chance at telling an engaging story and have some RP emerge from it. Though in the long run, there has to be a means to an end and characters must die. And death doesn't have to be an epic blockbuster with long drawn out /me's and theatrical atmosphere, some times they just happen quick and unexpected.
 
I'm not going to write a lot but, my 2 cents on OTA is that they just run around s2k and pk everyone in their path it's really pointless to RP especially when CP and OTA sweep at the same time. I know I may be wrong but, that is all I see about the problem. I agree with everything cloud said.
 
Back
Top