Will be taking the event as a whole into consideration. I may be in the minority and I know some express exhaustion with my criticism, but given there are two sequels and a mega-event on the horizon, I feel honest feedback is probably more important than typical here....
What did you like about the event?
- The concept was pretty fresh. It was a pretty contained environment with the potential for interesting dynamics given the separation between guards and prisoners. With some of these people clearly being the types who might have one day become loyalists given their temperaments and occupations.
- Schedule, beyond the first day, wasn't intrusive to RP. In general, despite being a prisoner, It felt like there was mostly room for Roleplay across the event. Even hiding items away and doing illegal acts, while difficult wasn't rendered impossible by overzealous staff.
- Its perhaps expected, but I do like that the prison event, actually enabled us to remain prisoners for some time. Often, the gates and walls are broken down before long. This felt like it had actual time to cook, and if not for the way the cascade went, felt as if connections/schemes were worthy enough to matter.
- I enjoyed the effort the GM's went through to provide my character with a presence beyond the wall, given his backstory. While making use of his connections proved rather difficult for me, for a variety of reasons, by the end I felt that such was actually ultimately accomplished. Without this, he'd have struggled as a concept, so its something that absolutely elevated the character and experience.
- The lore building via the radios, was very nice. Worldbuilding sometimes feels like its neglected in Willard, and its neat to see something of that sort make a prominent return within this event. My only, mild, gripe is that it probably should have been done using broadcasts. As it was kinda getting mixed in with all the other people speaking, and struggled to stand out. More of this type of stuff in following events for sure.
- Very small thing, but when the cascade started, the rubble appearing suddenly, before our cameras were raised from being blacked-out, was a welcome detail. Just something I noticed and thought was nice.
What did you not like about the event?
- The map choices were pretty weak. The primary prison map was not only ugly, but also rather barren. Lacking alot of quality of life features you'd often expect from Willard (Functioning chairs, objects, entities, etc.) It isn't often that I am too picky with maps, as even relatively bad looking maps can be brought to quality by propping. Ultimately though, the propping enacted was not nearly enough. I do not exaggerate when I say the maps appearance passively lessened the atmosphere of the event, while also being a bit wearing on the eyes.
- The secondary map, following the escape was also weak due to being a direct Half Life adaptation in part. It reduced the feeling of 'being different' in terms of setting. It also didn't really fit the atmosphere of the ongoing setting and, once more, looked pretty rough to a possible lack of preparation.
- The cascade itself was, without trying to be mean,
extremely flawed.
- There was a significant lack of preparation for the cascade starting. On the final day, all we had really gotten was the radio broadcasts and some helicopters flying over. It felt as if a significant portion of build-up was absent.
- The manner in which it occurred, trapping all prisoners in the gym and forcing us to escape brought a screeching halt to any and all machinations that might have been planned within the prison. Schemes, alliances with guards or items stowed away carefully were all instantly nullified with no chance of recovery.
- Once started, there was little to no time for RP right up until the end. The event turned to NPC's being littered before us, giving us practically no room to really react to the alien invasion right before us. Escape was assured and your options were binary. Escape to a bus and live. Remain and die.
- Technically a repeat of the map problems, but the prison maps exterior did not lend itself well at all to the cascade. Made the thing, despite efforts of GM's appear remarkably dated.
- Technical issues, especially the two servers restarts took considerable wind from the events sails.
- RP quality was pretty all over the place. I felt general RP was perhaps more dry and distant than you might have found on main. I believe this is partly due to less developed characters, but I just, personally, find myself not feeling like I really *knew* that many characters in the end. Maybe this is just because the character I myself played, its hard to say. All I can say, that's the sensation I have.
- Warden had absolutely zero presence. Not a major deal, all told, but its a bit noticeable when the 'lead' role is absent. I don't really think this impacted *much*, but still an unfortunate case.
- Some requests for GM assistance could take a considerable amount of time to be responded to. I am supposing this is due to a lack of staff attending. I only had this matter a few times, so its no great fault, but it was ever slightly frustrating.
What could we have done better?
Cascade should have gone like (In order)
Reports coming in
Helicopters and ambience
Storms open overhead, chaos heard outside
Few creatures spotted, perhaps a Vortigaunt who turns hostile quickly.
Mass breaches within the prison. The scattering of the characters begins.
Maps need to be chosen more carefully. Northwing was another map that was considered for this event and I can imagine how much it would have improved the atmosphere.
Chaos doesn't have to equal holding sprint and spawning NPC's. I feel we lost a good amount of drama from the sudden cascade. Secondly, consider prior actions. An event like this should not have bottlenecked guards/prisoners into one respective option for survival.
How would you rate the event?
I cannot lie, it was a pretty mixed bag. I mostly was satiated by it, and outright enjoyed some of it. The cascade section damaged it a lot, if I am being honest, with me being completely checked out by the time we arrived at the second map. The first day had some teething issues itself, with the event I feel, peaking in quality between the second day and just prior to the cascade reaching us.
I would personally give it a
5/10
Do note, that really does mean I just found it *average* not bad. The work that went into is extensive, and for what its worth, I would not call this event bad when taken as a whole. It was a good idea, lessened by technical and planning hiccups. Even despite that, it's not deserving of being called 'bad'.
It was just average. Still enjoyable, and something I cared enough about to show up for all three days, easily. So, don't take this as dissuading towards the future events, cause likewise, I'll probably show up for those too.
Despite the many flaws I found with it, I don't regret my time going towards its attendance.
