State of RP (General and Factions)

[Medi]

Topic/subject: General State of RP
Whom it may concern: General Server with some factions such as MOP.
Summary: TLDR: The administration is promoting a negative-feedback loop of gameplay that comes off as self-defeating to the player-base, especially those who have already dedicated time and effort to the server. This has gotten to the point that numerous players have begun asking: "Why bother?" and drawn down on their hours or plan on leaving entirely. "RP it out" and "Claw your way back up" are the half-hearted statements given in reply that seem to suggest a lack of care or a lack of understanding how the player base will handle this OOCly. If I am going to get kicked over and over again to the point I make zero progress at any time, seriously- "Why bother?"
In depth analysis of the issue:
Please note that this complaint will mention or refer to a few people specifically but this is intended to be a general complaint about the state of RP that is being perpetuated by the Admins / Faction Leads. This isn't meant to be a direct criticism against any one person, rather a complaint on the overall direction that things seems to be trending and how it's not healthy for the server.


I'd like to make it very clear that I understand that HL / HL2 is centered in a dark, dystopian alternative reality where an oppressive force has settled on Earth and that it's meant to be bleak and somewhat punishing. I say that because I fully acknowledge what this game is supposed to be and I think that definition is often used as a basis of misunderstanding or an outright excuse for some of what we're seeing.

As of late there is a reoccurring motif that the players "aren't suffering enough" and that we need to be constantly kicked down over and over again so that we have something to "climb back too". The issue is that these kicks are becoming more and more frequent to the point that I, and a number of other players, are starting to ask: "Why should we bother?" Why should I invest hours of my life when the admins can decide at any point that because something happened that my character has no relationship too: I'm getting punished and set back. On the other hand, even if my character does make a minor slip-up, it's treated as a major issue instead to justify further kicking down. Meanwhile, those at the very top who are administrators holding key positions can flagrantly do far, far worse in open public in direct contradiction to the Combine and there's Zero repercussions. Not even Breen could get away with some of the stuff that's being pulled and yet it's the guys in the middle and the bottom that are being kicked.

Established players have earned their seats and have dedicated a lot of time and effort to get where they are but they're the apparent center focus of getting rolled down the hill at current in favor of new players who, with little to no effort, can surpass them with relative ease. Once again, if all my effort can be invalidated so quickly and easily with or without my input, why bother?

While it's important to "rattle the cage" and make sure that players have something to progress toward, the act of constantly punishing and kicking players down does not "make good RP". The act of punishing players for roleplaying (as seen in instances where civil protection are punished for "fraternization" for issuing verbal warnings and corrective actions instead of just beating someone and moving on- because that's great RP) doesn't come across as intend that "oh, you didn't do it by-the-book so we're punishing you for that" it comes across as: "If you're not perfectly in line with our image we're going to catch you and punish you for it." In one of my conversations with a faction lead on this topic I was told: "You need to be sneaky and try to get away with things then and roll with the punches that you're dealt." Why are characters being encouraged to constantly break the "rules" just to even remotely do their jobs little less something that they're not supposed to do? Just because I dislike someone or the decisions they make, apparently my recourse is that I have to get auths to PK them?

Even outside of that specific instance we've seen repeated attacks by the administration on the Ministry of Progress. Despite the discord server that this took place in being an "Official Server" for Willard, not everyone has access to it so I'll refrain from positing direct commentary from it. It's been made clear that the vision for the MOP was that we're supposed to be "Evil Scientists" despite whatever morals our characters are supposed to have despite us also getting a lot of people who ICly and OOCly criticize the MOP for when they were doing edgy / evil things, thus further creating rifts and issues. The issues with the MOP have gotten to the point that it's been made ICly clear that, despite literally getting tasks from the Benefactors themselves, no one gives two shits about what the MOP wants to accomplish both ICly and OOCly. The MOP has been repeatedly told "No" and "Hold on indefinitely" any time we're attempting to do something significant, meanwhile the CMU and CWU can just march right on ahead if they want to do something that has any amount of significance with the server. At the same time, attempting to do some of our "low priority" projects has resulted in a LOT of pushback from Admins, CPs, Workers, etc. These projects, by design, are supposed to promote RP by including other factions so that we're out of the labs and interacting with people. Instead, we're constantly shut down because the MOP has the lowest priority of any ministry to the point that we have to basically beg our minister to intervene on a regular basis to just let us get things done.

At the same time, we're being told that some of our more significant attempts at projects that could generate entire expeditions and are the culmination of a lot of IC and OOC work don't matter. More and more attempts to get the MOP to do something are shut down while it's been made known to me that there was an attempt to put more issues on the faction for apparently no reason other than to have the faction fall apart.

Meanwhile, I don't feel like I need to point out all the issues with what has recently happened with the loyalists but that was another poorly timed kick that's basically trying to push players to generate grievances and be rebels. Why does the administration seem to bent on telling me to "RP" but at the same time continually pushes my character away from the RP I want. At the same time making it seem like they want to force us to be rebels? Where is my player agency? "Go with the flow of the RP or get kicked in the teeth more" is not agency, that's being narratively railroaded.

Suggestion for improvement: These administrative practices need to be identified and modified if not entirely removed. Those who are attempting to push down factions need to give clarity as to their expectations and make them reasonable, not just try to kill off the faction. Please stop trying to paradoxically "Generate RP" and at the same time kill RP at the same time with these "Kick them in the teeth constantly" measures. It makes people not want to play, not "rebel" or "Try again".

 

[Malic]

From afar it does seem as though the MoP receives some of the most scrutiny, but I can't really comment on that since most of my experience is with the MoE which seems to have a great deal more opportunities to affect the server at large. In contrast to the potentially fundamental impact regarding the sciences on a dystopian scifi setting, propaganda's perpetual need gives us plenty to do and many ways to approach it both for evil and ostensibly evil purposes.

The MoP to my mind should be first and foremost an exploration of the way in which science itself can be utilized as a method of further control on the population at large. In reality all developments within science manifest new vectors through which power can be utilized, and the Half Life 2 setting deliberately explores this.

As for the Collaborator Party side of things, I think it's still early days. I believe @Armenian Union is cooking up something quite compelling, but I'm typing from the perspective of someone who is in that particular kitchen. I'm optimistic that moving forward loyalist rp can be a lot more dramatic than a mere kick in the teeth.

To my mind like so many things in life it is ebb and flow.

Opening weekend was the ebb.

 

[wysiwyg]

I feel this, constantly, it's like going around in circles most of the time. Thank you for speaking out about this.

 

[RedHotGinger]

Usually I'd type some long and arduous thing, but we've been here before from the sounds of it, which I can only extrapolate from since I'm not apart of MOP or loyalists RP anymore, this is just a repeat issue.

All I'll say, it's not really much of a secret that the higher you go in the CCA space, the more and more OOC driven and singular the narrative becomes. Very little happens in an organic, natural manner at the highest level. There's a story wanting to be told, and it's gonna 'Telltale' its way through that storyline, from one angle or another.

I'm not even here to harp on it all over again. I'm just pointing out, It doesn't sound like this is anything new. Not really informed enough on what's happening for insights this time though. Sounds similar, but maybe that's just happenstance.

 

[TheGamingPlumber]

At the same time, attempting to do some of our "low priority" projects has resulted in a LOT of pushback from Admins, CPs, Workers, etc.

Out of curiosity, when has CWU ever pushed back on the MOP? We haven't even interacted with the mop on V3 and the only time we've interacted with them on v4 is when they asked us to make energy drinks with them. Even going further back, we didn't interact with them in Terminal Seven and in City Eight...

 

[Inspector Orlok]

Even outside of that specific instance we've seen repeated attacks by the administration on the Ministry of Progress. Despite the discord server that this took place in being an "Official Server" for Willard, not everyone has access to it so I'll refrain from positing direct commentary from it. It's been made clear that the vision for the MOP was that we're supposed to be "Evil Scientists" despite whatever morals our characters are supposed to have despite us also getting a lot of people who ICly and OOCly criticize the MOP for when they were doing edgy / evil things, thus further creating rifts and issues. The issues with the MOP have gotten to the point that it's been made ICly clear that, despite literally getting tasks from the Benefactors themselves, no one gives two shits about what the MOP wants to accomplish both ICly and OOCly. The MOP has been repeatedly told "No" and "Hold on indefinitely" any time we're attempting to do something significant, meanwhile the CMU and CWU can just march right on ahead if they want to do something that has any amount of significance with the server. At the same time, attempting to do some of our "low priority" projects has resulted in a LOT of pushback from Admins, CPs, Workers, etc. These projects, by design, are supposed to promote RP by including other factions so that we're out of the labs and interacting with people. Instead, we're constantly shut down because the MOP has the lowest priority of any ministry to the point that we have to basically beg our minister to intervene on a regular basis to just let us get things done.

As far as I'm aware I've never seen the Ministry of Progress get shut down for being "evil" or "edgy", they get shut down for being ICly stupid. Case and point when the Minister herself acted condescending to the City Administrator over a public relay, what precedent does that set for others?

attempting to do some of our "low priority" projects has resulted in a LOT of pushback from Admins, CPs, Workers, etc.

I'm aware to some degree factions need some OOC breathing room to operate, but even when given this breathing room, the MOP fails to produce anything of substance. It's a very hostile take I'm well aware, but this is a repeat problem we have been coming to time and time again.
MOP goes inactive<Management/Server Council give FLs kick up ass<MOP do something for two weeks<Go inactive again.

 

[Medi]

Out of curiosity, when has CWU ever pushed back on the MOP? We haven't even interacted with the mop on V3 and the only time we've interacted with them on v4 is when they asked us to make energy drinks with them. Even going further back, we didn't interact with them in Terminal Seven and in City Eight...

Admittedly I got the CWU to help participate in a number of statistical studies that went rather well outside of interference from the CPs who, on multiple occasions, forbid my character from making progress because it was "outside the norm" and instead forced me to work / do something else instead, thus literally preventing me from doing what my mission was to do.

Aside from that, the CWU at the upper levels has jumped over one project we had in eliminating the sewer monster, gave us numerous logistical hold ups and issues, and on one occasion pushed back on a delivery for a project that pretty much halted it. Really, the bulk of the CWU aren't to blame and it's rather here-and-there where these interactions fall apart but it's a bullet point on a much larger sheet. Overall, most of the CWU players are great and get stuff done when we ask them too.

As far as I'm aware I've never seen the Ministry of Progress get shut down for being "evil" or "edgy", they get shut down for being ICly stupid. Case and point when the Minister herself acted condescending to the City Administrator over a public relay, what precedent does that set for others?


I'm aware to some degree factions need some OOC breathing room to operate, but even when given this breathing room, the MOP fails to produce anything of substance. It's a very hostile take I'm well aware, but this is a repeat problem we have been coming to time and time again.
MOP goes inactive<Management/Server Council give FLs kick up ass<MOP do something for two weeks<Go inactive again.

We've literally had a conversation brought up about the expectation of the MOP to be more in line with being "Evil Scientists" while rejecting several project proposals and active projects because they "Didnt go with the intended story" or were "stupid" to a subjective person. The issue is that the MOP requires the cooperation of the administration to ALLOW things to happen, Devs to help MATERALIZE what they're doing, and the IC factions to either assist or not outright prohibit work. For example, my character isn't allowed to ICly continue his project without a high level escort. At the same time, we're getting OOCly told to "Hold on" and that we're not allowed to continue.


The MOP isn't the CMU or the CWU, their work is measured in months because the impact that it is supposed to have is much larger than those organizations. Keyword is "Supposed" to because the MOP is constantly hit with roadblocks and of course that's going to grind everything to a halt. When we have 15 bottlenecks to cross that no one else does, of course we're going to have issues. You can't expect results and simultaneously shitcan the most impactful stuff that we can do.

The grudge against the Minister, regardless of IC implications, has gotten to the point that by attrition of course the MOP isn't working because we're not Allowed to work. Hell, it's the ministry that has to RP everything out. We don't have scrips for anything aside from crystals which really are a prop more than anything else. Your expectations are not exactly fair on any level.

 

[Inspector Orlok]

We've literally had a conversation brought up about the expectation of the MOP to be more in line with being "Evil Scientists" while rejecting several project proposals and active projects because they "Didnt go with the intended story" or were "stupid" to a subjective person. The issue is that the MOP requires the cooperation of the administration to ALLOW things to happen, Devs to help MATERALIZE what they're doing, and the IC factions to either assist or not outright prohibit work. For example, my character isn't allowed to ICly continue his project without a high level escort. At the same time, we're getting OOCly told to "Hold on" and that we're not allowed to continue.


The MOP isn't the CMU or the CWU, their work is measured in months because the impact that it is supposed to have is much larger than those organizations. Keyword is "Supposed" to because the MOP is constantly hit with roadblocks and of course that's going to grind everything to a halt. When we have 15 bottlenecks to cross that no one else does, of course we're going to have issues. You can't expect results and simultaneously shitcan the most impactful stuff that we can do.

The grudge against the Minister, regardless of IC implications, has gotten to the point that by attrition of course the MOP isn't working because we're not Allowed to work. Hell, it's the ministry that has to RP everything out. We don't have scrips for anything aside from crystals which really are a prop more than anything else. Your expectations are not exactly fair on any level.

Who is saying these projects “didn’t go with the intended story?”

I feel as if a lot of your issues with the MOP, correct me if I’m wrong, are stemming from the factions upper management, as from my perspective and stance on it all, as long as projects aren’t egregiously outrageous, most of the administration (aka other ministries) don’t care.

 

[Cengiz]

Who is saying these projects “didn’t go with the intended story?”

I feel as if a lot of your issues with the MOP, correct me if I’m wrong, are stemming from the factions upper management, as from my perspective and stance on it all, as long as projects aren’t egregiously outrageous, most of the administration (aka other ministries) don’t care.

This doesnt make sense to me, everytime the Ministry of Progress has tried to do something intresting was it shot down by other faction like @M!NT Secret Ultris Idea or my idea with creating a failing portal event which was halted by TRL when he was an ET Lead. I just wish to say that most things are just blocked by the ET Leads and I believe that @Rabithunter can also feel my frustrustation with the rest of the MOP.

Alot of people go :You why arent you doing anything as the MOP or Why are you doing this?! This is stupid NO! NO ! NO !

Which doesnt help at all, we wish to be included in narratives and I believe that we are just being left out on purpose at this point.

 

[Inspector Orlok]

This doesnt make sense to me, everytime the Ministry of Progress has tried to do something intresting was it shot down by other faction like @M!NT Secret Ultris Idea or my idea with creating a failing portal event which was halted by TRL when he was an ET Lead. I just wish to say that most things are just blocked by the ET Leads and I believe that @Rabithunter can also feel my frustrustation with the rest of the MOP.

We need to ground ourselves in the universe we’ve created. Portal travel was unknown to the combine for a good portion of Half Life 2, if the MOP managed to figure out how it worked, it was be a great inconsistency in the lore at large.

It’s a major personal issue I have with the MOP but not every project needs to be some earth shattering idea, that’ll reinvent the wheel. You do not need to do that, you do not need nuclear reactors with sentient AIs upkeeping the machinery.

But even looking past that, the ET leads gave the MOP permission to do exactly what they wanted in terminal 7, and you wanna know what they came up with? Nothing…. An entire arc dedicated to making random portals, and they didn’t do anything with it…

With the current narrative, the MOP have more than enough leeway to get involved, but that is up to them.

 

[Armenian Union]

Meanwhile, I don't feel like I need to point out all the issues with what has recently happened with the loyalists but that was another poorly timed kick that's basically trying to push players to generate grievances and be rebels. Why does the administration seem to bent on telling me to "RP" but at the same time continually pushes my character away from the RP I want. At the same time making it seem like they want to force us to be rebels? Where is my player agency? "Go with the flow of the RP or get kicked in the teeth more" is not agency, that's being narratively railroaded.

I assume this part refers to the most recent shifting of the composition of the party.

If I left the party in its current state it would’ve just lapsed into inactivity. Low attendance rates, no binders, people rarely done any loyalist events if at all. I wasn’t keen on trying “band aid” solutions on something that’s already killing us.

The cleaning of the house is supposed to sift through those that actually want to engage in the loyalist party. And if you don’t engage or don’t want to engage in it you’re out.

Granted, it was much broader than you might have expected. But yes, we are testing peoples will to want to engage in the party its a privilege not a right. This was the most radical and effective way to do things.

 

[TheGamingPlumber]

jumped over one project we had in eliminating the sewer monster, gave us numerous logistical hold ups and issues, and on one occasion pushed back on a delivery for a project that pretty much halted

We were waiting on the longest time to hear back from you guys.

Your project and our elimination objective were two different things at the end if the day.

Eventually after weeks of waiting on some information we had to further its elimination due to ic matters.

We couldn't keep waiting on nothing and even I as the defacto lead of the faction never saw, heard or told anyone to hinder your progress

 

[George]

This doesnt make sense to me, everytime the Ministry of Progress has tried to do something intresting was it shot down by other faction like @M!NT Secret Ultris Idea or my idea with creating a failing portal event which was halted by TRL when he was an ET Lead. I just wish to say that most things are just blocked by the ET Leads and I believe that @Rabithunter can also feel my frustrustation with the rest of the MOP.

Alot of people go :You why arent you doing anything as the MOP or Why are you doing this?! This is stupid NO! NO ! NO !

Which doesnt help at all, we wish to be included in narratives and I believe that we are just being left out on purpose at this point.

The issue is that the Ministry of Progress has never once tried to do anything interesting. Literally anything that's come out of that entire faction is either polluted in inactivity or a straight-up ego stroke of "Look, there's these portals and crystals that appear. We are very smart and must get to the bottom of it. Why? Because we are smart. We're doing what smart people do."

Get a grip.


If every two months there's a new post highlighting the issues with a faction, and it's from different people that aren't related to one another, chances are they may be onto something. You're not playing characters, you're playing yourself and massaging your own ego in your super-secret fan club, and people who complain about this are "bad actors" and "malicious".

 

[George]

we wish to be included in narratives and I believe that we are just being left out on purpose at this point.

As someone that has made events for the server in the past, if I were to make a narrative, I would not consider adding your faction to it, nor can I blame anyone else. I wouldn't have the mental strength to put myself through that.

 

[Rabithunter]

The biggest issue from my side of the fence is how long it takes to get anything running in the MOP. Red tape is in abundance when confronted with the ET leads, as evident when I initially wrote the lore behind the crystals (Blue, Green, Orange and Purple). When I first came up with a story arc surrounding those I was told it hadnt been written, the intent from the event team leads was not to have lore behind the crystals and they were merely there as some kind of show pieces. Not being entirely content with this and wishing to produce lore, I got to work writing the backstory to those crystals, formulating a step by step arc for the MOP and wider server to follow or get involved with. This took me weeks, not to write the lore, but to finish the back and forth between ET leads, namely one individual who blocked attempts at the time to do anything with what was being proposed. Not only did this waste time (I work for a living and cannot no life the server) but drove me down mentally.

When the time came to start running the arc after relentless back and forth responses with ET leads (Through tertiary channels/indirect communication I might add) it was time to start running things. This was a slow burn to begin with to prevent players from rushing into the story too fast. Eventually I ran an event on the main server, creating a large admin box build for the MOP and wider server players to explore. This was derailed by CP players, namely a rank leader who prevented any researchers from entering the portal to collect data. Initially it was going to be a moderate level of NPC's inside, however I ramped it up when I saw it becoming an S2K festival, instead of my intended event narrative.

Terminal seven was laced with people playing MCP characters that had no care at all for what was happening around them (Ultima, Neonity). This only made things harder to push forwards, especially with Nath and his talking zombie arc, leading to other possibilities if other factions didn't hard line prevent the MOP from doing what they are here to do. During this time I allowed my co-lead to take the reigns, though for what ever reason things slowed down to a crawl for the faction. I realized this a little too late when I changed my co-lead to someone else, whom I worked with before on countless ideas and knew I could trust to keep the faction running in my stead.

And to be abundantly clear here, although I was given permission to run my arc in terminal seven, I was not given exclusive permission to do exactly what I wanted. It took an overtly long time to clear the narrative I wished to bring forwards, with several changes to the lore I wrote, before I was even allowed to attempt anything. The restrictions put in place, the time it took t get there, was over the course of weeks.

People have or had been complaining that the MOP was not evil enough, that perhaps I need to change how my minister thinks. For this reason I changed the character sitting in the minister position, making them more antagonistic from the word go. After sending two relay messages and barely RPing with this character on the main server, MCP muscle in and demand I see them about insubordination towards the regent. This then lead on to not my character being given threats, but the entire ministry of progress faction at large instead. You want an evil faction, yet when confronted with such an idea you elect to send in MCP to kick those ideas down and over escalate the conflict beyond a reasonable scope, further compounding the general upset and disgruntled mindsets of the players within the faction.

From what I understand MCP are there to deal with internal affairs, the internal affairs of civil protection, not the administration. I was expecting role play from Orwell or Valente, for them to confront me themselves with their own idea's or threats, not for the MCP to take full control behind the scenes with little to no role play on the main server to back it up. This leads me to question whether or not I want to continue playing an antagonistic character, if the only way you feel a resolution can be found is to send MCP in my direction, or worse overwatch soldiers.

Time and time again I asked for help from the ET and got nothing. You complain about lore and how projects are not in line with your visions, how some of them are beyond reasonable, yet wont reach out to offer your help. Apparently this new narrative can involve the MOP, however no one has come forwards to speak with me about what direction you are going with the narrative and how I can push forwards with you to keep MOP player involvement. This boils down to a lack of direction from those who should be doing the directing, yet offer nothing to anyone.

The server is currently suffering from a CvR pandemic, not two or three days into the main server coming online again did this occur. This is not helping with the citizen RP, only aiding to further throw it into discourse and disarray, icly and oocly. Players in the MOP are bored of being constantly forced to stop what they're doing because some rebel couldn't keep their guns in their lockers, insistent in shooting the local CP's and creating fire fights. No matter how many times people complain about this being an issue, no one seems to do anything about it, shrugging and just letting it happen.

The only interesting narrative to come out from anywhere in the last eight months was Ultris. this was such an amazing innovation of coding from M!NT, nothing I have seen done before in Gmod. Lore was written to support the story, mainly by M!NT if I am correct, pushed forwards by M!NT and involving the entire server population, giving people something to talk about. I got involved, bringing people in from the MOP where I could, interacted with rebels and so forth, trying to uncover the story that was being told, right until people in the CWU, CP and idk what other factions complained about it. Since those complaints the arc has been stopped, no longer existing on the English main server. The French server, their staff and players are still working on this arc, enjoying what it has to offer. Again English main politics, red tape and bureaucratic nonsense get in the way of any meanigful entertainment for the players.

The MOP can be used as a narrative tool, much like the CPRD and IMS of old (Just not to the exact same evil extent please), yet we're not given a second look. The potential is vast and expansive, a horizon with a seemingly none existent end, however the expectations are to sit down, plod along with menial tasks, forever making requests for projects that dont get seen, answered or offered improvement upon.

Other events have proved a bias against the MOP (In my opinion). One concurrent event is being ran by Stanford, who plays an inter-dimensional being, capable of teleporting people from place to place at will. I dont know who approved it on the ET side and I dont care if you didnt, or are only learning of this venture as I write it here. More RP is being generated by this event than the main server narrative arc during terminal seven (It was snowing, and cold). Another event being ran is by Mullet, who created a type of sentient goop that can do all sorts of things, evolving from something somewhere and yet to be discovered, yet the MOP are not allowed to test the crystals for their potential.

To increase the servers potential you have to let go of your insistence on being so greatly aligned to the HL2 game and its own lore. If we're going hard core with whats outlined in the game, Gordon Freeman is about to arrive and send the world into a complete frenzy, bringing our current time line to an end. My question to the ET leads here is:

Are you ready and prepared to bring the server narrative to a grinding halt and perform a hard reset on all characters, resulting in the start of a new time line?

Regarding the collaboration with the workers union on the infestation eradication, help had been offered to them, directly between myself, Medi and Plumbers character Varos. After a fifteen minute discussion, we agreed Medi would help them come to a solution to remove the infestation with them. As far as I know, it was down to their leadership and players to liaise with Medi in character, allowing them access to the warehouse when it came to the time for this to occur. Unfortunately no one seemed to invite him back, for one reason or another and the infestation seemed to boil down to a halt.


The bottom line of this rant is simple. ET leads need to work with my faction, not against it. If you think a project is beyond a reasonable scope, something going against the lore you believe is sacred and not already polluted by other events (Trust me the lore is not 100% aligned to HL2, not even close) then work with us to change the project details, its start and end point, rather than telling us we cannot run it and leaving it to gather dust.

Time and time again in the last year we have proposed something greater to do, ot just for us to be involved with but the rest of the server, yet through all the hard work and effort being placed into those stories we get lambasted, told we cannot do these things and offered nothing in return. TRL (A great guy) was previously working with me to develop two of the narratives we were about to start, before he got ejected from the creative team for X/Y/Z reason. I'm now left with half baked ideas and no support from the creative team who creatively seem constricted in their efforts.

Stop working against the faction, and start working with us. Although the text above may seem antagonistic, I have done all I can to provide context to the issues presented over the last year. I want nothing more than the players to enjoy themselves, doing what they find interesting with their free time, creatively.

Look at the current player base and see the potential for creativity. Yes HL2 exists, along with its lore by the developers. Look past their game, their lore and realize how we as a community can shape our own universe. Limitations for narrative will only remain constricted by those who deem lore as gospel, refusing to change based on how our own server 'must' fit into a predetermined story. Only after correcting our misguided ideology can we start to innovate new ideas for players to get involved in and become excited about.

Cheers!

 

[Ket]

People have or had been complaining that the MOP was not evil enough, that perhaps I need to change how my minister thinks. For this reason I changed the character sitting in the minister position, making them more antagonistic from the word go. After sending two relay messages and barely RPing with this character on the main server, MCP muscle in and demand I see them about insubordination towards the regent. This then lead on to not my character being given threats, but the entire ministry of progress faction at large instead. You want an evil faction, yet when confronted with such an idea you elect to send in MCP to kick those ideas down and over escalate the conflict beyond a reasonable scope, further compounding the general upset and disgruntled mindsets of the players within the faction.

To give a little insight into the perspective of this. There's stark between evil and then talking like you're above the administration down a public relay. You can play a hardass character all you want, but at the end of the day within the setting of the server you can't tell your boss what to do, under any circumstances... Unless obviously they're total walkovers lol.

Continuing on, we actually considered much more than just having MCP speak to you. And, well, beyond roleplaying with you directly, you logged on the character once then logged off her for the next day or so in which Atle was away for and I was roleplaying another character. In regards to how the Administration works, we prefer to hand out RP to every faction to do their job as opposed to us arguing with you, which is something the Administrator/Vice wouldn't necessarily do. If Breen wanted to argue with someone, he wouldn't, but instead send someone else (Likely Overwatch). Previously Valente would've definitely gone full face and blown up at your character, but after complaints in terms of quality of roleplay within the role, changes had to be made and so you won't necessarily find a comical villain but instead a genuine Administrative body. All I'd say is to think twice about how important your character actually is in comparison to the rest of the Administrative body, because realistically, you're just another cog in the machine that is the Combine..

As for the rest of it, fair argument, just wanted to quote and reply to that little bit !

 

[Rabithunter]

To give a little insight into the perspective of this. There's stark between evil and then talking like you're above the administration down a public relay. You can play a hardass character all you want, but at the end of the day within the setting of the server you can't tell your boss what to do, under any circumstances... Unless obviously they're total walkovers lol.

Continuing on, we actually considered much more than just having MCP speak to you. And, well, beyond roleplaying with you directly, you logged on the character once then logged off her for the next day or so in which Atle was away for and I was roleplaying another character. In regards to how the Administration works, we prefer to hand out RP to every faction to do their job as opposed to us arguing with you, which is something the Administrator/Vice wouldn't necessarily do. If Breen wanted to argue with someone, he wouldn't, but instead send someone else (Likely Overwatch). Previously Valente would've definitely gone full face and blown up at your character, but after complaints in terms of quality of roleplay within the role, changes had to be made and so you won't necessarily find a comical villain but instead a genuine Administrative body. All I'd say is to think twice about how important your character actually is in comparison to the rest of the Administrative body, because realistically, you're just another cog in the machine that is the Combine..

The idea was to get you both on for ic interactions, which unfortunately didnt happen. It is what it is and I hope going forwards we can do things differently.

 

[Ket]

The idea was to get you both on for ic interactions, which unfortunately didnt happen. It is what it is and I hope going forwards we can do things differently.

Always. Though, in regards to how your faction works. Has it ever happened where like, you've @'d all the faction leads and said, I'm doing this, please lay off the guys when this project is happening, blah blah blah. I'm only asking because if so I've definitely missed it.

I just want a rocket to go mine planet mars really...

 

[Rabithunter]

Always. Though, in regards to how your faction works. Has it ever happened where like, you've @'d all the faction leads and said, I'm doing this, please lay off the guys when this project is happening, blah blah blah. I'm only asking because if so I've definitely missed it.

I just want a rocket to go mine planet mars really...

For projects no, I like being in character to discuss anything and everything with other factions. There might have been one or two instances where I did inform other factions but those were some time ago.

generally my rule of thumb is to keep things on the server, rather than making decision off server such as the recent MCP intervention. I work shifts and was working nights last week thursday and friday

 

[Vasilidesu]

Hi, as somebody that was that co-lead, I'd like to clarify our faction count since i24, back then it was Me, Rabit, Walker and Aurulio that were active, in City Eight it was Me, Rabit, Walker and Marco, in Terminal 7 it was Me, Walker, Marco and Robert. All of those three left on their own accord which left me with Me, Dubik, after that I was not leading the faction. I hope this clarifies that this faction was never able to do anything in the first place, thanks! To clarify, I do think the MOP has some potential, not with this current management, or the crystals or whatever portals you're conjuring up now, be evil! Do some human experimentation or whatever! There's leaking radiation out in the other city and you've got great potential actually helping us out and finding some cure or something, mingle with other factions, don't just walk over people trying to do your own thing just to be surprised to find out people dont like it.