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The current deplorable state of vortigaunt roleplay

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M3ntal

Radio Bob Approved
Joined
Mar 4, 2022
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I've had some discussion with players, and I feel as though I need to let some things off my chest about certain grievances I've had about vortigaunt (biotic) roleplay.

First off, the current social credits ration credit thresholds. This change has made biotic roleplay an abhorrent slog. What it feels to me is that apparently, it was decided that the grind was not enough, and it was bogged down even more. I get that there should be consequences for getting on the combine's shitlist, but the current mandate makes the grind to get something like employment or the ability to even wear clothes harder than it needs to be. Now, with the credits being nuked, you get 10 credits per 3 or so hours, and your credits are capped at 80. This wouldn't be so bad if this was done with consideration to the current state of the stores, and the CWU. I've noticed that at some days, barely any workshifts happen at all, and your reward for each is one point. This essentially forces you to choose - do you go and seek roleplay but potentially miss out on workshifts? Or do you stand near the warehouse like a jackass and forgo any and all potential RP to be had for the sake of the grind? (I have experience with this, while trying to get my vortigaunt to 60 cohesion points. Let me tell you, I was lucky I even had a job, this grind wouldn't have even mattered if I didn't have it.)

Second, the de-whitelisting of @BurgerWithOnion, and others of the tribe had essentially killed it. Only me, Chaa'Tii and It'Er are the remaining active tribe members, along with one other I don't particularly remember of. I think that this completely rushed and inconsiderate decision had pretty much killed one of the only remaining in-server groups of vortigaunts for them to pursue goals or quests amongst themselves, now relying on the ever-so-unreliable assistance of rebels whom, the recent generation of at least, appears to all exist with sticks permanently lodged in their asses. This isn't an appeal thread, so I'm not going to ask for their whitelists to be returned, but I just want to make it very apparent that what was done was a completely rushed and ignorant decision that essentially had killed a lot of what already been there.

Thirdly, and I don't want to sound insulting to the people who organize the faction, but I feel like it's screaming at a wall sometimes. We get no option to provide feedback on the changes made, like the mandate change which drastically changed the grind, but literally affected fuck-all about how biotics are treated. The mandate was implemented without a chance for us to voice our thoughts about it and was essentially forced on us. Most CPs gave a shit for the first week or two, now, I've talked to one of my fellow vort players of inadequate cohesion points with plenty of CPs in view, and they didn't once give a shit. I've talked to some fellow vort players about why they didn't care, and it's obvious. Below the very first tier, you are literally not permitted to leave the housing unless you go to get work, and you're supposed to work, work and work. Nobody enforces it. Why? Because it's, to be blunt, ABSOLUTE FUCKING HORSESHIT. Preventing RP in the RP server for the sake of some pathetic sense of oppression is NOT a good compromise. It never was. THAT'S why CPs don't care about harassing low-tiered vortigaunts about their tier anymore. Either they forgot, because the mandate change was that meaningless, or because they feel bad for how shit the environment to RP for us is. We don't even get a chance to play much amongst ourselves because the tribe was essentially killed, and three vortigaunt players got de-whitelisted on the same day.

All in all, the state is quite honestly abhorent. And I wish for what changes could be made to be discussed in this thread, because these changes are NEEDED. Vortigaunt players have NO INCENTIVE to play on their vortigaunts anymore because the city experience, which the staff are consistently pushing people to play in, is gimped to the highest degree for us. It's not fun. At all.

EDIT : Don't get me wrong, I'm not speaking from the perspective of 'waaah, grind hard, I want easy thing', no. I've played through the grind. I didn't say so much as a word about it and I worked hard to get it. A month. A month of time to get to this point. Interspersed with roleplay, which I had to do in sacrifice to lack of progression within the city, which is the environment we are all funneled to one way or another.
 
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Going to put this in the Vortigaunt CCC forum as the complaint is specifically for that faction.
 
As a second note, when the person who plays the loyalist vort Var Ras, who is technically as good as a regular citizen in terms of privileges, makes a HUMAN, to not be bored? That says a lot about the current state of the faction's roleplay within the city.
 
Second, the de-whitelisting of @BurgerWithOnion, and others of the tribe had essentially killed it. Only me, Chaa'Tii and It'Er are the remaining active tribe members, along with one other I don't particularly remember of. I think that this completely rushed and inconsiderate decision had pretty much killed one of the only remaining in-server groups of vortigaunts for them to pursue goals or quests amongst themselves, now relying on the ever-so-unreliable assistance of rebels whom, the recent generation of at least, appears to all exist with sticks permanently lodged in their asses. This isn't an appeal thread, so I'm not going to ask for their whitelists to be returned, but I just want to make it very apparent that what was done was a completely rushed and ignorant decision that essentially had killed a lot of what already been there.

willard deplatforms players who make roleplay over pedantic bullshit then wonders where the roleplay has gone, incident n1351

when will you guys learn
 
Making Biotics feel like actual slaves isnt fun. They're not just window-dressing, they're characters, and making them unappealing as possible to play is a poorly thought out move.

Like, not allowing Vorts to legally leave their housing if they're not doing /me cleans roleplay? C'mon. Its no wonder CP's don't care about it or bother to enforce it.
 
Gotta remember, people aren't characters.
If you dial up the "le oppression" shit to 11 solely by taking away opportunities to play, people aren't gonna look at it and think "immersive" or "oppressive". They're gonna think "boring".
That's clearly what's happened here.
 
three vortigaunt players got de-whitelisted on the same day
Hello, I was one of the Three vortigaunts who got De-Whitelisted on that day, To my knowledge I am the only person of the three to re-gain my WL as @BurgerWithOnion has left the Willard Community as a whole and I'm unsure what occurred with @Ekrell but my guess is he has done the same as Burger.

loyalist vort Var Ras, who is technically as good as a regular citizen in terms of privileges, makes a HUMAN,
I do play as a Grand Collaborator vort called Kura'Nar and can agree with this fully. The entire grind to Tier 4 only really amounts to a loyalist Ration and the rights of a basic Human Civilian. There really is not any more benefits to the role other than maybe getting a higher position in a job like CMU and CWU other than a Janitor
 
The excuse of 'IC is IC' fails here. IC consequences be damned if the entire fun of playing a vortigaunt gets abolished for no good reason whatsoever.
 
Before you read the transcription of the bible below... I'll explain how I even wrote it to begin with... I mentioned an issue with the faction that I've experienced personally in my time playing... and then I offered a possible solution for it, I encourage you, the person who had enough patience to read this, it be my FL's, Staff or whoever, to offer your own thoughts about what I wrote, as well as anything you might want to add...
That being said... We have a lot to cover... So buckle the fuck up once again folks... This is gonna be one for the ages.
First off, the current social credits ration credit thresholds. This change has made biotic roleplay an abhorrent slog
I'll just correct this statement real quick
Ahem...
''This change has made biotic roleplay EVEN MORE of an abhorrent slog'' it already was before the ration credit changes, it's just even worse now.
How I'd fix it is either, exclude biotics from this in the code making it so they get the usual 17 credits a ration every 2 and a half hours plus their wage, and the limit 150, or just remove this entirely... Also I'd like to add 2 questions and 2 answers to this...
Is this REALISTIC? Correct, it is entirely realistic to the setting as well as opressive.
is it FUN? Nope, not in the slightest... Once again back to that same conclusion... Opressive doesn't equal fun.
I've noticed that at some days, barely any workshifts happen at all, and your reward for each is one point.
I quick way to fix this is to just make the arbitrary soul draining grind be less soul draining by changing like... 2 numbers, if you want to keep giving vorts less, sure thing, then give vorts 3 SC per shift and humans 5, pretty sure people who play human chars would be happy with this too, if you don't want to increase it for humans then just even it out and give the same thing to vorts and humans, 3 for both, whichever you're in the mood for, they both make it less horrid, this is for @Coroneljones to decide
This issue isn't specific to vorts, Im willing to bet human players can also agree with me that the grind from 100 to 200 SC is just an arbitrary time waste they gotta do if they want to get to the RP they actually wanna do, CP enlisting takes 160 for example, if you want T4 you need the 200 and then... whatever that hellish process that comes after is supposed to be I guess... Even if it's something small like 125?... That's still 3 days of grinding minimum of essentially a ''cooldown'' so to speak for you to apply for the faction you want as a citizen.
We get no option to provide feedback on the changes made
The mandate was implemented without a chance for us to voice our thoughts about it and was essentially forced on us
Our FL was about as transparent as a brick wall when it came to these changes, he just decided things were this way now and that was that... I'd like to genuinely ask... what was the objective of the reform, genuinely I'd like to know, Did you want to stiffle RP? That's all this succeeded in doing... Let's go over what happened to my char because of it shall we?

Tier 3 became inacessible to me since I wasnt nulled, as such I lost my apartment since by the time the reform dropped I was tier 3 already and owned one... Now I'll be honest I basically didn't care at all about that, all that changed is that my hidden stash had to be moved outside of the apartment which didn't belong to me anymore, cool, I can live with that.......... Then I got demoted from a worker in the CWU to an assistant... What were the consequences of this you ask? I lost the right to do shifts, lost the right to try and achieve a management position as a vortigaunt, an extremely interesting avenue to try and pursue and got my wage deducted (I didnt care about this until the recent wage treshhold changes, but now it's got to a ridiculous extreme) Fun isn't it? Is this opressive enough folks? Boy howdy I sure hope so.

How would we fix this? First and foremost have you all ever heard the term ''If it ain't broke don't fix it?'' Well it applies here too, the cohesion system was not perfect in the past by any means but this is just so much worse I can't even compare it. You could revert it back and I'd already be satisfied... but what about actually picking up the interesting tidbits in the new system and appropriate it to the old one? Let's see how that would go if I was trying to do this.

Let's start small... Get rid of the ''no talking unless it's for work'' and ''don't leave the biotic housing if not docile'' garbage, If I didn't want to RP I wouldn't be in an RP server now would I? Put wearing clothing back to tier 1 as well seeing as if anything? It provides something for CP's to identify vorts easier, we get our little bit of individuality and CP's get to actually distinguish us (Not like it was hard in the first place only 3 of us actively play lmfao)

Keep certain rules in the mandate like tier 4's being allowed to be totally unrestrained and the such, If the things I write about below about uncollaring procedures are actually looked into? Then those have potential for really cool things to happen.

Make tier 3 acessible for non nulled vorts again at 60 cohesion and tier 2 acessible without ''full employment'' again at 35, if it wasn't broke no need to fix it, this also goes well with the next point I'll write below...

Currently it's said in tier 3 that a vort can own a shop in a high sociostability zone... Ok... We got something there... That's an interesting avenue... but it being in a high sociostability zone doesnt allow for that MUCH now does it? So... Make it so that a non nulled vort can own a shop in triumph or victory... but... if you're nulled? You get the extra benefit of owning a shop in the slums as a vort if you choose, things like THAT are what I expected out of nullification, I wanted it to be a DILLEMA, what do I mean by that? If a nulled vort gets to own a shop in the slums... The potential for that shop to become a coverfront for major resistance ops would be incredible, You could plan with the tribe (If it was active seeing as there's no incentive for it to be) for a vortigaunt to make a sacrifice and accept nullification to create this coverfront so that further resistance can be prepared.... It would make nullification an APPEALING CHOICE for more than just total loyalty and betrayal, it could be a meaningful IC sacrifice for something greater.... Currently nothing in the system really provides that. Of course this is just ONE of the things that could be done, there's plentiful other ideas out there and I'd be happy to hear if anyone's got any.

As it stands those who accepted nullification, are players that OOC'ly had to make their entire backstory revolve around that concept, because being influenced to do it IC'ly Is impossible unless you're outright threatened with the death of your char (COUGH COUGH Var Ras and Telzah COUGH COUGH), it's just an objectively shit choice, you're stripping away from your vort by far the MOST unique part of RP'ing one, you lose vortal sensing, vortigese, you can lie to vorts and they can lie to you removing that instant bond between players... essentially you become a ''green human with less rights''... So why would I ever think to do that? That's right, I wouldn't, and before you talk about the employment in the CCA and CPRD?... sure that's cute and all that but clearly being part of the LA as a vort doesnt exactly mean jack shit seeing as Var Ras gets played once a blue moon... why? cuz it's boring to be nulled, and the benefits he got are negligible at best.

.....Look I could talk about uncollaring procedures but... They just aren't a thing, in the 7 or so months I Played this WL I have not seen it done ONCE, I just entirely gave up on trying after my first char since I realized nobody from CP's, OTA or dispatch would ever accept the procedure to occur... Why?.... GOOD QUESTION... I DON'T HAVE THE FOGGIEST OF A CLUE EITHER... I didn't read anything in the CP handbook about how it's done and what bureacracy they have to deal with, as such I can't make suggestions as a vortigaunt on how to make it more acessible for Combine factions and us...
So... That's bad... How would I fix it?... this one's quite major, and as someone who DOESN'T know how hard this would be to implement it might be far too much effort... But hey, writing never hurt anyone, so let's get to it.

Instead of ''uncollaring procedures'' or ''unshackling'' or what have you, call it a ''deactivation procedure''... as the name implies, you wouldn't take the collar and shackles off... but you'd deactivate it for a set period of time, maybe between 15 minutes to an hour with a ''biotic controller'', a new script which when used in front of a vort could deactivate their collar, their shackles, or both at once, giving you acess to the vortal manipulation skills you have such as vortal healing, vortikinesis and the such, as well as offering vorts +2 strength and +2 agility if the shackles are deactivated as well, albeit in a temporary manner instead of permanent (Seeing as free vorts get a +2 to str and agi by default)... If during the specified time a vortigaunt was to resist, anyone with a biotic controller could instantly use this script to activate the biotic overload for the vort in question sending him into bleedout instantly, maybe show a small menu where you input the CID of the vort in question for this, you could teach CP's to use and allow them to have this should they take the training or the specialization for it, of course keys would still be a thing as tier 4's have the right to be entirely unshackled and you'd still need them to check if a vort is using fakes restraints of any type at all.
This is entirely a speculation in the microscopic chance it becomes a reality... It would be a colossal task if it was to be accepted... But amazing if so.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
With the exception of the uncollaring procedures rework I just suggested above... Everything else are extremely simple changes that barely even require any work from the developer team, all it takes is a couple FL's to changed some words here and there, some numbers, maybe one line of code disappears and boom, suddenly playing a vort is objectively more fun and less soul draining...
Maybe all of these things I just wrote about were already being discussed... But as it was said above... Communication from FL's to players... or just anyone above staff in general... is about as transparent as a brick wall... as such Im left to assume that these things aren't being talked about in that side of the fence, so I'll just have to mention them here...

Here's something that really stuck with me as I was playing in the server... A new WL holder flagged on for the first time, he was transported to the biotic housing as he was below tier 1... This was back when the reform was new and some CP's actually bothered to enforce it until they realized the spectacular shitshow it is... I using vortal sensing went up to biotic housing seeing a new name and interacted with him... after a brief 15 or so minutes of RP... He said he had to go sleep IC'ly, as the reasoning to disconnect... He flagged off...

I never saw him online on that vortigaunt again... He instantly gave up after seeing what was in store for him in the WL to deal with if he was to stick around... This was more than a month ago.
Make of that what you will.


I could have made this post 3 times bigger... But for now... I just want to ask for the bare minimum... Thank you for reading.
 
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As a second note, when the person who plays the loyalist vort Var Ras, who is technically as good as a regular citizen in terms of privileges, makes a HUMAN, to not be bored? That says a lot about the current state of the faction's roleplay within the city.
Oh yes, he is bored, and I can feel it the entire time.

Anyway, although I'm not a part of the faction, let me add a stake to the fire: The faction needs a new lead. Too many people adopt the "I need to fit in" persona, which just leads to additional temper tantrums along the way since they would rather repeat what ten other people (varying staff roles or just the same group that essentially minimizes anytime there is a convenience) are saying than divert attention and speak out in an effort to balance or at least level out the current issues or situations.

Let's also suppose that the faction is essentially dying out in order to be decent and fair. And when something did occur, for example, a fight pitting vorts and rebels (or just vorts) against CPs, it quite plainly, either it ending in being voided due to a TBC problem or in injustice because someone had complained after getting necked by one of the two. In my point of view, it seems like It's a cycle, and you can tell it's losing its edge right away when the same people have control of it repeatedly for who knows how long.

And in my efforts to grasp differing points of view, I noticed that practical improvements that account for greater accountability and justice are not being committed to with as much as words and moaning. But how else do I put this? I'm assuming the faction lead merely doesn't like the position per se, as if barely hanging on for some reason. I've also seen some hints of favoritism, nepotism, and narcissism, but I think trying to point out factors in regards to that in this sort of spectrum is beyond the community.

But let's face it, the lead deleted all the high-quality and active vorts, and it appears that he just went his own way; either that, or he was instructed to do (Not to mention how easy it is to be put in an assumption that faction leads essentially follow orders from the other high-ranking staff members and don't care about what you as a member of the faction have to say, in general Imo)

Maybe all of these things I just wrote about were already being discussed... But as it was said above... Communication from FL's to players... or just anyone above staff in general... is about as transparent as a brick wall... as such Im left to assume that these things aren't being talked about in that side of the fence, so I'll just have to mention them here...
staff-transparency.gif
 
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Don't care lol u guys are literal aliens.

would've taken this more seriously if...
a; the criticizing player wasn't a vortigaunt
b; the topic wasn't vortigaunt-related at all (worst faction)
This isnt the thread to joke about. Seriously. It was attempted to be handled IC but got vetoed. Now it's escalated to OOC.

And thanks for letting me know you don't know what it's like. I'll keep that in mind.
 
This isnt the thread to joke about. Seriously. It was attempted to be handled IC but got vetoed. Now it's escalated to OOC.

And thanks for letting me know you don't know what it's like. I'll keep that in mind.
It occurs on each thread. The severity eventually reaches a shitpost cemetery level.

Don't care lol u guys are literal aliens.

would've taken this more seriously if...
a; the criticizing player wasn't a vortigaunt
b; the topic wasn't vortigaunt-related at all (worst faction)
Go back on to your PDA and metabait more info why don't you? You got told off once for it already :angrycop:
 
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Gotta remember, people aren't characters.
If you dial up the "le oppression" shit to 11 solely by taking away opportunities to play, people aren't gonna look at it and think "immersive" or "oppressive". They're gonna think "boring".
That's clearly what's happened here.

All roleplay is derived from out of character enjoyment, ergo all roleplay is fundamentally spun upon the loom of "I roleplay because I would think it's fun; not because I believe my character thinks it's fun."

Sachimii is 100% correct in their perspective. When there is a disproportionate power balance within the roleplay scene it should, with few exemptions, be made to cater towards those who hold the proverbial 'small end of the stick'; those without the power to control the situation.
 
Hello, I was one of the Three vortigaunts who got De-Whitelisted on that day, To my knowledge I am the only person of the three to re-gain my WL as @@BurgerWithOnion has left the Willard Community as a whole and I'm unsure what occurred with @@Ekrell but my guess is he has done the same as Burger.
what tf happened?
 
what tf happened?
Ask them in DMs, so as to not derail this thread. While their bans are intertwined with the point I'm trying to make, the details aren't, so please ask them in DMs to keep this thread clean(ish)
 
the monotonous repetitiveness of city-rp is not something wholly unique to the Vortigaunt faction alone; and is, as a matter of fact, shared between it and citizen roleplay.
Particularly the reason I'd have preferred a server break to ready up a new narrative for all factions, players and staff alike to get involved with.

Otherwise, the clamour for reform is what's otherwise received from the majority. Whole system needs a refresh, let alone Vortigaunts which haven't gotten much love since... forever?

I've tagged DeNuke, since he is the Vort lead. I don't know if he was the one who dewhitelisted you guys (seems unlikely, given his approach) but I'll accept the chance of me being surprised.
 
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