SURVEY: Willard's Aesthetic - A problem to fix?

[icedout]

Hey everyone!

As the server teeters closer and closer to RLD, discussions on the server's improvement have been increasingly off-loaded onto the concept of V3. Things such as a rework to the lore and gameplay rules harboured within seem to place this update as a massive all-at-once approach to fix the most important issues this server has, with a reset positioned to make all of these changes as palatable as possible.

Regardless of its current development state, I think it'd be wise to use this opportunity and tally complaints/suggestions on problems that otherwise seem too nebulous to fix. One which I have noticed crop up periodically is the concept of Willard's "aesthetic".



This topic has obviously been broached before. Dare I say, some things have improved drastically from the most heinous outliers of the past. But the server moves on, and from time to time I still hear the sentiment that Willard carries with it an aesthetic lack of seriousness/believability.

This, to a certain extent of course, is intentional. We've had age-old discussions about not wanting to ape HL2 one-to-one and yadda-yadda, so Willard walks the tightrope of intentionally deviating from the source material to provide a more interesting setting to roleplay in. The question we now find ourselves with is if the homegrown "style" of Willard HL2RP is desirable in the general metrics of visual design. Are all the elements visually consistent within eachother? Is the style of sci-fi post-apoc alien dictatorship cityscape we've fostered desirable, or are there elements so outlandish or out-of-touch that you consider them harmful to an immersive experience?

Since HL2RP is cobbled together from a wide team of artists, there's always a need to accept a certain amount of deviation in the different sources provided. A lot of the effort is free as well and cannot be held to paid design standards. But this cone can widen or tighten based on popular opinion. An issue I had to oversee personally was an overuse of panels without a standard bar for quality or implementation. This came to be an issue with some, and so had tightened oversight implemented for correction to try and improve signage on the server.

As I've said, I've seen this topic broached from time-to-time briefly, but never in a more focused environment of discussion and proposal. Some inputs also seem to only come from individuals who haven't played in extended periods of time, if at all, and thus, whilst still valuable, don't provide an opinion of the regular Willard audience. If you have any opinions on the matter, I do implore you to leave them below so that a wider "state of things" can be canvassed on what people think V3 should look like and how far V2 Willard deviates from this vision.

And please be respectful xoxo

 

[Marco]

I feel like the aesthetic can be inconsistent at times.

T7 was amazing imo and C8

 

[Ricsow]

I don’t think that the clothing options and such look really out of place and I love the customization the server has (although a few jackets make your character look way too thin)

One issue I have though is hairstyles especially the female ones, the majority of them are Fallout 4 hairstyles that look straight out of the 1950's, I wish we had hairstyles that looked a little more modern

Spoiler

@pillar

Also the beehive and the mohawk hairstyles are a complete waste of space since they look like shit and you can’t even select them - they should be replaced with a bald hairstyle

 

[Lost Coast Chanties]

God I hate these threads.

 

[joe moter]

God I'm hungry.

 

[Elsida]

And then rebels only have very little to wear....

 

[Parsil]

Alright, alright, now let me tell you a story.

Put yourself in the shoes of an Impulse kid. Yes, the original Impulse, the one that ran from 2019-2021 until the owner got exposed for pedo shit. Your entire gameplay loop is spent mindlessly running back and forth in the sewers, picking up trash and/or camping loot spawn spots for a chance at getting a circuit board so you can RDM everyone with bombs. If not that, you're AFKing in the plaza on your cop character, which you unlocked after "grinding" for XP and clicking a button on the menu, for the sole purpose of S2K CvRing random webuls that spend their evenings shotcopping or doing the occasional Nexus raid.

Now, imagine them curiously joining Willard Networks on a sunday afternoon. Like a caveman discovering fire, they're blindsided: the dull and repetitive gameplay loop is replaced by proper character growth and climbing bureaucratic ladders. The dark and gritty Industrial 17 monotony is replaced by a dazzlingly beautiful and game engine-bending map with so many avenues for roleplay. Regular citizens have stuff to do, people to interact with, points to gain and a proper avenue for loyalist roleplay. And I think above all, it's the clothes people wear. We're used to it now, even more so now with the Clothing Update 2 and the Recoloring update, but having Half-Life Alyx clothes meshed into the source engine, fancy suits and dress shoes in 2021 was downright revolutionary.

The Impulse kid was me. These reasons are why I fell in love with Willard's style of HL2RP almost instantly. The mechanics were awesome, and I'd say despite everything they still are, but the aesthetic and radically different world they conjured up was the main pull for me, and I bet many others too. And it might be funny to hear from someone that directly contributed into one of the aspects of that so-frequently-reposted satire screenshot that Hawke made (the t-posing white ragdolls), but I really do think that Willard's style is uniquely perfect and should not be squandered and replaced with more "dark and grittiness" or otherwise attempting to make it closer to the Half-Life canon. No server does that. Not even Aurawatch does that. Hell, even they, the vanguard of "orthodox" HL2-ism, just added a godamn Bob Ross parody to their telescreens. And that's just awesome.

If anything, we need MORE Willardisms. MORE flashiness, MORE luxury, and MORE chocolate and salmon in loyalist rations. If that was able to turn me from a loot-goblin into a principled dedicated roleplayer, I don't think turning up the "realism" would be anywhere near as effective.

 

[Divine]

I would like longer hairstyles for male characters for those who play slummers and homeless people who can’t shave. We have 1 free bodygroup, give me the guitar punk hairstyle.

 

[RedHotGinger]

Visual aesthetics, no. Willard is more colorful than HL2 or HLA but honestly, that's not a massive deal.

The problem Willard has is narrative. It's always been an issue, but recently, it basically went into full overdrive. Whatever technical issues you might be able to point out from Willards visual or audio presentation could not hope to shine like how off-beat and poorly crafted the servers narrative has been.

I think it's largely been accepted V2's narrative is not even possible to recover, which is part of the reason. Though, I desperately hope this mindset will not carry forth should there be a V3.

 

[verTix]

Regular citizens have stuff to do,

LOL!

 

[Processed_Grain]

Willard does not have strictly Half-Life aesthetics. Willard takes most of it's cues from 1984 if anything. This isn't a bad thing and I'd much rather the server take it's own direction as Parsil put it.

 

[nora]

Visual aesthetics, no. Willard is more colorful than HL2 or HLA but honestly, that's not a massive deal.

The problem Willard has is narrative. It's always been an issue, but recently, it basically went into full overdrive. Whatever technical issues you might be able to point out from Willards visual or audio presentation could not hope to shine like how off-beat and poorly crafted the servers narrative has been.

I think it's largely been accepted V2's narrative is not even possible to recover, which is part of the reason. Though, I desperately hope this mindset will not carry forth should there be a V3.

this

story's been such a mess that atp i don't know if it wants to be hl2, 1984, stalker or a secret fourth thing

 

[Rabid]

The problem Willard has is narrative. It's always been an issue, but recently, it basically went into full overdrive. Whatever technical issues you might be able to point out from Willards visual or audio presentation could not hope to shine like how off-beat and poorly crafted the servers narrative has been.

I think it's largely been accepted V2's narrative is not even possible to recover, which is part of the reason. Though, I desperately hope this mindset will not carry forth should there be a V3.

Imo Willard isn't unique in struggling to craft a story as it goes to justify the CityRP server continuing pretty much forever - most big communities have that issue really.

Willard's problem specifically is that it is influenced by several different and very distinct properties (HL2, 1984, etc) but doesn't actually bother merge them cohesively, if at all. The narrative is a chimera of half-formed ideas that never went anywhere and has been that way since V1 - even though V2 somehow made it worse, and I remember V1 being especially bad as it was.

This is also why I think people bring up the visuals so much; without any sort of in-world justification it feels like they are just a grab-bag of whatever sounded cool in the moment that barely made sense when they were added, nevermind now several years on.

 

[joe moter]

Alright, alright, now let me tell you a story.

Put yourself in the shoes of an Impulse kid. Yes, the original Impulse, the one that ran from 2019-2021 until the owner got exposed for pedo shit. Your entire gameplay loop is spent mindlessly running back and forth in the sewers, picking up trash and/or camping loot spawn spots for a chance at getting a circuit board so you can RDM everyone with bombs. If not that, you're AFKing in the plaza on your cop character, which you unlocked after "grinding" for XP and clicking a button on the menu, for the sole purpose of S2K CvRing random webuls that spend their evenings shotcopping or doing the occasional Nexus raid.

Now, imagine them curiously joining Willard Networks on a sunday afternoon. Like a caveman discovering fire, they're blindided: the dull and repetitive gameplay look is replaced by proper character growth and climbing bureaucratic ladders. The dark and gritty Industrial 17 monotony is replaced by a dazzlingly beautiful and game engine-bending map with so many avenues for roleplay. Regular citizens have stuff to do, people to interact with, points to gain and a proper avenue for loyalist roleplay. And I think above all, it's the clothes people wear. We're used to it now, even more so now with the Clothing Update 2 and the Recoloring update, but having Half-Life Alyx clothes meshed into the source engine, fancy suits and dress shoes in 2021 was downright revolutionary.

The Impulse kid was me. These reasons is why I fell in love with Willard's style of HL2RP almost instantly. The mechanics were awesome, and I'd say despite everything they still are, but the aesthetic and radically different world they conjured up was the main pull for me, and I bet many others too. And it might be funny to hear from someone that directly contributed into one of the aspects of that so-frequently-reposted satire screenshot that Hawke made (the t-posing white ragdolls), but I really do think that Willard's style is uniquely perfect and should not be squandered and replaced with more "dark and grittiness" or otherwise attempting to make it closer to the Half-Life canon. No server does that. Not even Aurawatch does that. Hell, even they, the vanguard of "orthodox" HL2-ism, just added a godamn Bob Ross parody to their telescreens. And that's just awesome.

If anything, we need MORE Willardisms. MORE flashiness, MORE luxury, and MORE chocolate and salmon in loyalist rations. If that was able to turn me from a loot-goblin into a principled dedicated roleplayer, I don't think turning up the "realism" would be anywhere near as effective.

As an ex-Impulse player this, not as old of an Impulse player (i played triage and complexity), I can really agree with this.

 

[Ket]

Alright, alright, now let me tell you a story.

Put yourself in the shoes of an Impulse kid. Yes, the original Impulse, the one that ran from 2019-2021 until the owner got exposed for pedo shit. Your entire gameplay loop is spent mindlessly running back and forth in the sewers, picking up trash and/or camping loot spawn spots for a chance at getting a circuit board so you can RDM everyone with bombs. If not that, you're AFKing in the plaza on your cop character, which you unlocked after "grinding" for XP and clicking a button on the menu, for the sole purpose of S2K CvRing random webuls that spend their evenings shotcopping or doing the occasional Nexus raid.

Now, imagine them curiously joining Willard Networks on a sunday afternoon. Like a caveman discovering fire, they're blindided: the dull and repetitive gameplay look is replaced by proper character growth and climbing bureaucratic ladders. The dark and gritty Industrial 17 monotony is replaced by a dazzlingly beautiful and game engine-bending map with so many avenues for roleplay. Regular citizens have stuff to do, people to interact with, points to gain and a proper avenue for loyalist roleplay. And I think above all, it's the clothes people wear. We're used to it now, even more so now with the Clothing Update 2 and the Recoloring update, but having Half-Life Alyx clothes meshed into the source engine, fancy suits and dress shoes in 2021 was downright revolutionary.

The Impulse kid was me. These reasons is why I fell in love with Willard's style of HL2RP almost instantly. The mechanics were awesome, and I'd say despite everything they still are, but the aesthetic and radically different world they conjured up was the main pull for me, and I bet many others too. And it might be funny to hear from someone that directly contributed into one of the aspects of that so-frequently-reposted satire screenshot that Hawke made (the t-posing white ragdolls), but I really do think that Willard's style is uniquely perfect and should not be squandered and replaced with more "dark and grittiness" or otherwise attempting to make it closer to the Half-Life canon. No server does that. Not even Aurawatch does that. Hell, even they, the vanguard of "orthodox" HL2-ism, just added a godamn Bob Ross parody to their telescreens. And that's just awesome.

If anything, we need MORE Willardisms. MORE flashiness, MORE luxury, and MORE chocolate and salmon in loyalist rations. If that was able to turn me from a loot-goblin into a principled dedicated roleplayer, I don't think turning up the "realism" would be anywhere near as effective.

You've taken the words out of my mouth. I especially love the bottom sentence. I'm still massively sad about a load of loyalist items being removed, like ice cream and pizza .

 

[Divine]

You've taken the words out of my mouth. I especially love the bottom sentence. I'm still massively sad about a load of loyalist items being removed, like ice cream and pizza .

It’s especially odd since for some items you could realistically scrounge up the ingredients and make these items - even if it’s cheap and lackluster. Like, a rebel could put in a lot of effort to make pizza but nooo, it’s not grimdark enough. Mf, the combine didn’t laser fucking ingredients out of our heads, did they do a book burning on all cookbooks??

 

[Ket]

It’s especially odd since for some items you could realistically scrounge up the ingredients and make these items - even if it’s cheap and lackluster. Like, a rebel could put in a lot of effort to make pizza but nooo, it’s not grimdark enough. Mf, the combine didn’t laser fucking ingredients out of our heads, did they do a book burning on all cookbooks??

Bring back luxury!

 

[Processed_Grain]

Bring back luxury!

Willard really thrives in it's ability to tell a - dare I say - more normalized occupation. People have let go after almost 20 years and life moves on. There's really no reason to stick to Marc Laidlaw's hardline Half-Life 2 grimdark 'vision' that was probably a bit exaggerated in 2004 as simply a means to signal to the player that the Combine are evil.

There are Corporations, Bureaucracy, Propaganda Machines, Inter-Connected Cities that aren't solely reliant on the Combine's Logistical Network here. The world has recovered and humans are still humans.

 

[Deleted member]

 

[nora]

i would say that the root of most things wrong with willard is the fact that nobody knows what they want and the already confusing aesthetic is certainly hindered by this. the staff and event teams do not seem to be wholly communicative with each other to the point of both story and development changing directions every map. one month it's said that willard will be tougher and more oppressive and then the next that it's going to be more relaxed. this bleeds into everything, but story and aesthetic especially.

i agree with parsil in the sense that i would say that the server is not and should not be a direct rip from half life 2, partially because the dark and gritty aesthetic would get real boring after a short while. it's alright to have a few things that might seem a bit out of place from the game proper, after all, we're somewhat divorced from it. a lot of the server's features, positives one even, would not be in half life 2.

however, i can't help but notice that at times that this aesthetic can veer off to being too liberal. poorly written store signs, paint.net posters being set up in the nexus voting booths, cops with the 7 different human armband colors, so on and so on. just like with everything else the freedom of aesthetic needs to be somewhat restrained lest it drives itself off a cliff and into darkrp territory.