Info Is Willard Dying?

[Steel]

Unfortunately, lately from what I've been seeing is a decrease in players from day one to present. [1/13/2021]
We went from having 70 players max and unable to even join without a queue and then now, having only a steady 20 players. Even after 5 PM EST the player count has not increased. It may just be a bad day, or not. I hate to see this happen with a server that has so much potential, but now I'm going to throw the question to you.

Is Willard dying why or why not?

Note: This thread was not made to become drama. It is only meant for peoples opinions to be shared upon this topic. Please do not target people/harass others for their opinion.

 

[AdamCF]

Unfortunately, lately from what I've been seeing is a decrease in players from day one to present. [1/13/2021]
We went from having 70 players max and unable to even join without a queue and then now, having only a steady 20 players. Even after 5 PM EST the player count has not increased. It may just be a bad day, or not. I hate to see this happen with a server that has so much potential, but now I'm going to throw the question to you.

Is Willard dying why or why not?

Today, I think, was an exception to what we'll see tomorrow and on Friday. The map change should help with population quite a bit. If that doesn't work, then I'd probably say the best decision is to temporarily close Willard until v3's release, smuggling is added, and most issues are sorted. Essentially giving the devs time to calmly fix stuff until a re-open

 

[Steel]

Today, I think, was an exception to what we'll see tomorrow and on Friday. The map change should help with population quite a bit. If that doesn't work, then I'd probably say the best decision is to temporarily close Willard until v3's release, smuggling is added, and most issues are sorted. Essentially giving the devs time to calmly fix stuff until a re-open

Do you think if the population does not go up it might be because of some of the drama from the first week? Or do you think some of that had little to no impact of the community itself.

 

[Fabulous]

It's just the fact that a good amount of population is living underground and it's full with Xen now. Rebels were denied an escape and instead were pushed to hide in the surface because.. Admins wanted to railroad them a scene in which they would have to risk their lives with an amputation by choosing to settle in RB-3. I know groups that planned an escape through canals but apparently this city doesnt have canals under it as Dazor confirmed therefore people been just pooping on the streets this entire time? Anyway, long story short ''rebels risk amputation on the surface until friday only then you can take part in our escape event where you will take even more risks for your characters and we wont authorise your early escape so we can find people for our events that will risk your PK.'' and therefore people just simply refuse to log to go through the map switch event or having to go through ''rebels moving to surface'' bullshit.

 

[AdamCF]

Do you think if the population does not go up it might be because of some of the drama from the first week?

The drama caused most of it imo. Development work was the least of it since all of that was fixed in like 3 to 4 days. Map and drama did a lot.

 

[Steel]

It's just the fact that a good amount of population is living underground and it's full with Xen now. Rebels were denied an escape and instead were pushed to hide in the surface because.. Admins wanted to railroad them a scene in which they would have to risk their lives with an amputation. I know groups that planned an escape through canals but apparently this city doesnt have canals under it as Dazor confirmed therefore people been just pooping on the streets this entire time? Anyway, long story short ''rebels risk amputation on the surface until friday only then you can take part in our escape event where you will take even more risks for your characters and we wont authorise your early escape so we can find people for our events that will risk your PK.'' and therefore people just simply refuse to log to go through the map switch event or having to go through ''rebels moving to surface'' bullshit.

What do you think the fix to this issue is?

 

[Fabulous]

What do you think the fix to this issue is?

Instead of trying to force PKs on rebels, organise events which will risk PKs but will have a reward in the end, making people to volunteer for the risks with their own consent as the admins apparently observed rebels were not taking risks.

Rebels are also not fighting any combine because they can never win in any scenario. They can not set up an ambush because of the turn based combat system, by the time they engage to ambush a unit of CPs, CPs will wait their TBC warmup and will be able to aware of the ambush as they watch the turns being passed from one person to another therefore fight back while in reality they'd be getting sprayed with bullets with no chance to retaliate. Which kills an ambush's point, not even mentioning the fact that TBC will take at least 35 seconds and by that time CP reinforcements will join the fight, eliminating any chance of the rebels fighting any combines therefore risking their lives for something as admins require.

Just don't force PKs on people and they will just wait out the danger like now and server will be empty, fix the unfair disadvantages of the combat system if you want rebels fight things and take risks.

 

[Bodger]

There are a few issues. Obviously the biggest factor to the decrease in playercount is that the hype is wearing off. The second being the map choice, it's not the greatest map, and probably wouldn't even work too well for a playercount like neb's at max. There are things like the issues with staff drama, cityRP turning into rebelRP, economy issues, smuggling not being in which is supposed to be essential to RebelRP and probably a few others I can't think of off the top of my head.

 

[AdamCF]

I cba to read like eight paragraphs because its 11:27pm

but

PK events are okay as long as everyone involved is aware they might die and has willingly volunteered
A "Ok, so, my team's boat just got fucked, we gotta grab this.. thing from the combine outpost on the beach to do the thing and fix the boat. ok so i need u guys, we got supplies like ammo, a helmet, food, and water to help u if u help us. just like... we gon go into the combine outpost ok so its gonna be risky" .// btw pk event thing is fine. High risk, decent reward, entirely optional


This isn't:

atle has entered observer
spawns himself an SMG
flies to rebel base
/localevent combines are raiding your base
/gmroll
/gmroll
/gmroll
3 out of 100
6 out of 100
16 out of 100

/localevent all rebels die (pk btw)

 

[Steel]

There are a few issues. Obviously the biggest factor to the decrease in playercount is that the hype is wearing off. The second being the map choice, it's not the greatest map, and probably wouldn't even work too well for a playercount like neb's at max. There are things like the issues with staff drama, cityRP turning into rebelRP, economy issues, smuggling not being in which is supposed to be essential to RebelRP and probably a few others I can't think of off the top of my head.

Do you think script hunting plays into this?

 

[AdamCF]

Worst case scenario is Willard closes, devs fix stuff, modellers model stuff, testers test stuff, moderators moderate stuff, factions are assessed (CPs should all have to take a questionnaire imo) and the server re-opens with a much better plan and many bugs fixed.
Also smuggling.


So, if shit goes bad and willard dies, they just gotta... put it in a coma for a few weeks.

 

[verTix]

The same thing happened with TerraNova when they put in the Combine forcefield. The script kiddies could no longer move freely to and from the main city, so they left the server. The population halved in the few days that the forcefield was active. Just goes to show what the player count really means.

 

[FreeStalker]

The same thing happened with TerraNova when they put in the Combine forcefield. The script kiddies could no longer move freely to and from the main city, so they left the server. The population halved in the few days that the forcefield was active. Just goes to show what the player count really means.

Not really. I'd argue otherwise when it comes to willard- I met a few new players who came on yesterday that got insta-killed by OTA just for walking into RB-6 when apparently it was locked down or there was an autonomous judgement waiver and there was no warning given to them. They just got S2K'd. Gatted on the spot.

They haven't come back since.

As for other new players I invited to try the server even in the face of that? They feel compelled to run around the map and farm trash spawns because there's nothing on the server happening for them to do. So they fill up their inventories with trash even though they aren't a crafting focused character. There are many flaws with the server with a very- VERY big focus in scripts rather that RP. If your server compels a new player to horde items like that- Maybe we should re-evaluate some things? Perhaps? Maybe?

Or perhaps the fact that two members of staff were found to be abusing their powers or privileges to give themselves and friends higher SCs and items/permits(I'm not referring to the Dutchy so don't bring THAT up). Perhaps a lost of trust in staff contributed as well? Maybe a pattern is starting to show?

Edit: Actually to add onto that- If we did the equivalent of TN and put a Combine forcefield up, all staff would need to do is remove the trash spawns lol.

 

[Maroon]

The same thing happened with TerraNova when they put in the Combine forcefield. The script kiddies could no longer move freely to and from the main city, so they left the server. The population halved in the few days that the forcefield was active. Just goes to show what the player count really means.

LMAO I was thinking about that earlier. Like 5 rebel groups left the server that day.

 

[AdamCF]

LMAO I was thinking about that earlier. Like 5 rebel groups left the server that day.

The thing is, the gate they used to access the city only actually opened cuz of a glitch w/ D47 v2. they werent even meant to be able to use that route

 

[Bodger]

Do you think script hunting plays into this?

The only reason people need to "hunt" for scripts is that there's so few ways to get them, especially for rebels. Which makes it extremely profitable ATM for people with a business permit to sell to rebels, since they can't really make anything themselves from scavenging, and no smuggling is in yet.

Personally I'd like to run a BMD like event character, and I probably will on the next map, at least until smuggling is implemented. I'd also try to start getting chips filtered into the rebel economy, rather than their trading and/or credit transactions, so that it's much harder for "legitimate" business people with business permits to sell their goods, as people will gradually transfer completely over to chips

 

[AdamCF]

Personally I'd like to run a BMD like event character, and I probably will on the next map, at least until smuggling is implemented. I'd also try to start getting chips filtered into the rebel economy, rather than their trading and/or credit transactions, so that it's much harder for "legitimate" business people with business permits to sell their goods, as people will gradually transfer completely over to chips

This is literally what I proposed to Atle about a week ago and posted in discord about, and he said he'd rather not let chips into the economy until smuggling is sorted

Edit: apparently i didnt describe it to atle, I just said it was a way to introduce chips into the economy, although he was still against all that. Essentially: get an event char with 500 chips, set up a small store, get a couple lockers, buy shit for chips (like, really cheap), boom chips are a thing now

 

[Man Blue Trousers]

In my mind, there are a few things that could have been done better. A bit long, but read and you'll see.

#1: (Server Release): Shut the server down until V3. In all honesty, Willard pulled a Cyberpunk 2077 and released "WAYYYY" before it was ready. Completely missing features such as Smuggling, were bawked about. Some things were completely broken like the forcefields. /Again/. The whole reason why Willard had 70+ in the first few days was because the hype was still on. The few days, events were a plenty, and there was a 20 man plus queue to join. Then when we switched to City 24. A Map designed for 100+ players, and having design aspects such as that dumb ramp hamper travel and get in the way. There was no clear RP lanes, either walk around aimlessly in the plaza, or go to the spectacularly circle-jerky Underground Town.

#2: (Civil Protection or UU Factions in General): We all remember the debacle of the first day. A few CA's got taken hostage and a CP bunny hopped around and corner and killed everyone in S2K. This brought into concern the lack of quality control of the early CP's which then carried over to City 24. It's only been two weeks and four days, and there has been little improvement. The CP's numbers have mostly gone inactive, and with Applications /STILL/ closed for "IC Apps" that simply haven't even happened yet. There hasn't been any new bloods to replace those that have chosen to leave. From what I've seen when flying around in Observer that CPs do is just AFK around the main checkpoint. There isn't anything for them to do /AT ALL/.

#3: (The Citizen RP): In about three days, we lost 90% of the shop-owners. Hub-Pub, Sunlight, the Clothing Store, Bottega Veneta. All of them are now closed with no one to replace them. Which makes the town feel eerily empty when at peak EST hours. Some of those had great business the first two days, but then with all the drama and then falling off of population, steadily became closed and empty eternally. There just isn't anything for regular Citizens to do! Besides the DREADED /me pick up ration. /me eat ration. /me stab CP. LP is rarely given out, and there are no members of the CA who even want to interact properly with citizens. No reason to play as Citizens because there is only either Rebel, or Union. No inbetweens. The harsh as hell PK standards don't help either, where CP's literally have no chance to be PK'ed unless its a /very/ specific situation. Whereas Citizens and Rebels can be pk'ed for doing anything remotely rebellious. Not to mention Bennyfridge's infamous literal fucking Nazi Group that allegedly sieg heils at eachother and are racist toward vorts, that is until they got caught with their pants down during a "Rally in an Alley." and had their leader PK'ed twice in a row.

#4: (The Rebels. Oh my god the Rebels.): The Rebels seem to be the only faction on Willard that has any sort of shifting tone or events regarding them. They have actual choice in what they do in comparison to the ridged /me eat ration of the conventional citizen. They have to make challenging choices that actually cause an impact on the city. Well, the only choice they made so far. Is to steal a random CA's Datapad and then get completely bumrushed by fifty OTA two days later rather than the day of. And, were wiped out because one of them went AFK. Then there's how their economy is. The High Table is for some reason /extremely allergic/ to giving out any sort of reward for what they do. For GMs or otherwise in the name of "Muh Economy." For some reason they want the Resistance to literally be struggling hand and foot rather than actually taking the fight to Civil Protection and the Union as a whole. These just encourages the diabolical script hunting that I thought Willard had tried to avoid. Now yeah, I admit. In the first week to get any sort of Resistance Group off the ground quickly required Admin Intervention, but now that is long gone. Oh. One more thing. This Xenian event crap coming in this week and eventually ending with the mapchange to I17. Every rebel now has to risk a PK because now Administration is closing off the key access points into the sewers and not allowing them to hide anymore. Essentially taking away what makes rebels so good. The ability to create a society away from the Union. As of right now, NO ONE is allowed in the sewers anymore. And the GM team who thought it up aren't making any sort of alternate choice other than "Risk your ass on the surface or fucking leave." and from what I've seen. Most of everyone who mains a rebel chose the "Fucking Leave' choice, either permanently or temporary until this map change.

#5: (The Admins as a whole): Now, I might get fucked for saying this but I just have to let it go. In the past two weeks the higher administration. Not going to name any names. But a certain few members have this elitist as fuck attitude to criticism and the conventional player. They have consciously made decisions to /ignore/ the complaints piling on in the Discord and the Forums coining them "Just another troublemaker." Are you serious. What makes a server good is that they can take the criticism and actually make changes to benefit the playerbase as a whole rather than just alienating 90% of the players. It makes us seem like we really can't give a shit about what the players say. Now, me talking about this is out of my paygrade since I'm just a GM. But I have to call out this crap when I see it.

Okay, that's honestly all I got for us as a member of the Staff Team itself.

 

[AdamCF]

#2: (Civil Protection or UU Factions in General): We all remember the debacle of the first day. A few CA's got taken hostage and a CP bunny hopped around and corner and killed everyone in S2K. This brought into concern the lack of quality control of the early CP's which then carried over to City 24. It's only been two weeks and four days, and there has been little improvement. The CP's numbers have mostly gone inactive, and with Applications /STILL/ closed for "IC Apps" that simply haven't even happened yet. There hasn't been any new bloods to replace those that have chosen to leave. From what I've seen when flying around in Observer that CPs do is just AFK around the main checkpoint. There isn't anything for them to do /AT ALL/.

I won't say who I reported it to, or who I reported, but I reported a CP for shitty behaviour both IC and OOC and I was sent some messages from the faction lead in response which were unnecessarily shitty, like I'm in the wrong for reporting him. I reported a guy breaking 2 faction guidelines and community guidelines. don't rlly wanna be given shit by a faction lead for tryna do something good.
edit: was also removed, told I wasnt blacklisted, applied, cp lead made a new rule saying that removed = blacklisted, so i was blacklisted for a retroactively-applying rule. idk, just seems wrong

 

[Dog]

A map change and smuggling won't fix fundamental issues with some staff being incompetent and toxic in key leads and spots of power.