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Willard Roleplay Atmosphere Discussion

Is Willard largely driven by "Play to Win" attitudes that detract from RP quality

  • Extremely so

  • Yes

  • Only Partially

  • Not sure/No opinion

  • No

  • Not at all


Results are only viewable after voting.
Really, its the crux of the issue with everything people seem to do. "We have to be dicks because if we don't, we'll be dicked first."
again if you had any experience with OWF factions you'd know why its such a big issue
 
I think there's probably alot of symbolism in how bleedout executions currently work. Why does every rebel and CP take the time to double-tap each unmoving corpse in their way? Why did that become the accepted norm?

That one is pretty easy, unfortunately, even if I know you were just giving an example.

When both sides are on the table to suffer loss, neither side is going to compromise for fear of being the one who has to take the L and lose their character. That's even more true when cops are forced to respond as part of their faction duties. Its something that several people noted even back when people were pushing for cops to take PK's like rebels a year and a half ago or more.

You breed leniency by giving one side a cushion or a 'barrier' that lets them feel more comfortable in putting themselves at a massive disadvantage for the other side. That's easiest to do with cops because they're a faction. Unfortunately, people believed that simply putting both sides at a PK risk would push them to take less risks and fix the entire issue.

And so they do take less risks now - but its by making sure the other side can't potentially be healed up and come back to shoot them. It gives them the most chance to get out of there alive.

You're absolutely right that a simple policy change or rule adjustment won't fix these broad sorts of attitudes. When Willard was lenient and death of little consequence, rebels became the dominant faction and it almost outright killed the serer. When it was stupidly harsh, people were getting PK'd by respawning barnacles after server restarts and it was being called valid.
 
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I also do think that P2W isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. Why the fuck would I P2L on any character? Doesn't make sense especially when you consider someone probably put quite a bit of thought into their character before creating them.
 
I dont know why someone with a hatchet is able to s2k someone unarmed. That seems ridulous.

If it was for injury, to make a point, sure. But just killing them for nlr is so silly.

And we really need to enforce the 5 item limit in mugging. If you arent killing someone, why do you need useless shit like a loyalist armband, a junk item, and a pair of standard shoes. You had my AK, 3 mags, m40 gasmask, and radio. Why do u need my blue beanie and a turtle lol.
if my char wants to kill an unarmed slummer, my char should be able to do so given the right reasons
 
I also do think that P2W isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. Why the fuck would I P2L on any character? Doesn't make sense especially when you consider someone probably put quite a bit of thought into their character before creating them.
Loyalist mains realizing that rebels in-fact, do want to live and aren't suicidal1691572429881.jpeg
 
Loyalist mains realizing that rebels in-fact, do want to live and aren't suicidal
Non players, CCA and OTA players when they find out Rebels will try to find a way to live to not lose everything they've worked on for the last months
 
When all sides have an equal risk of PK, all sides will be incentivized to P2W as hard as they can to stay alive.

Cops not being at a risk of a PK when they're forced to sweep so they have the safety net that death won't mean the end of their character would make a huge difference and by far the easiest step to making some change.

If you tell the faction who is also the OOC balance to rebels doing rebel shit "oh, yeah, we're treating you exactly like the other guys" despite their differing circumstances then what do you honestly expect them to do? Throw away their development? Hell no, they're going to double-tap bodies and do whatever they can to make it out alive. Rebels get fucked because of that.
 
Cops not being at a risk of a PK when they're forced to sweep so they have the safety net that death won't mean the end of their character would make a huge difference and by far the easiest step to making some change.
Disagreed. Most times "cops" don't sweep because they're scared. CP being scared of death makes the incursions be as realistic as possible, and it's why they aren't sweeping all the time.
 
Disagreed. Most times "cops" don't sweep because they're scared. CP being scared of death makes the incursions be as realistic as possible, and it's why they aren't sweeping all the time.

Sure, but the staff team aren't going to go "oh the cops are too afraid to sweep, its fine" if rebels are going haywire - they're gonna be sent in anyway. And if not them then they'll just send in OTA which is universally worse for rebels in almost every way. If cops truly and honestly had a choice not to sweep under any circumstance (which they never do or will because that absolutely fucks the balance and staff know it) then I'd agree. But that's not how it works unfortunately.

If I get the drop on a vort right now, am I going to agree to let bygones be bygones and let it go so there's not the potential for casualties on my side? Hell no, I'm going to magdump it because if I don't and it decides to turn on us after the fact, I've just potentially lost my character.

But if I have nothing to lose? Cool, keep your character. If you try and kill us later and die, you're the one who's just lost out.

You can't have one of your balance factions being forced to engage the other side on equal footing with everything to lose and get mad at them for actually doing that.
 
if my char wants to kill an unarmed slummer, my char should be able to do so given the right reasons
Im talking about s2k. Do w/e you want. Just dont do a /me and start swinging on ppl that cant fight back oocly
 
This is a problem that is as old as time and isn't present in Willard alone. There's always been somewhat of a pro-Combine stance in WN (if you don't think this you are delusional + take your meds) but I feel like the scales have been evened out enough that at least when the PK criteria were somewhat equalized.

Still, the cause is quite simple, and has been outlined multiple times in this thread already: you can lose months of progress if your character gets PK'd, and due to the strict nature of the PK criteria, it is very, very easy to get PK'd. Not playing to win goes against any instinct a normally functioning adult has that tries to find a proper balance between having fun (roleplaying, combat) and having a little less fun (rank grind, item grind, etc.). When I backed the harsh PK idea a year or so back I thought it might've posed some magic fix that would solve all outlying issues the server had (mainly the Combine bias, which was a great deal bigger than now) but instead, it appears that it just poisoned the well and caused a new problem of its own.

The only advice I can give is to try something new. Maybe reverse the entire idea of strict PK's, and go with something more lenient for *everyone*. Hell, it would make combat more interesting at least, and might solve some of the try-harding. It doesn't need to be permanent, but it's an idea that Willard hasn't really delved into too deep from what I remember, and it might improve things.

And yes, I know I haven't played for over a year.
And no, I don't care. Also, I'm right, so cope.
 
Why not? Might not be fun for whoever is getting killed, but IC is IC.
Because someone with a hatchet still isn’t guaranteed to take out someone who is unarmed. Shit can easily change the results, but in OOC the dude with the script is guaranteed to win no matter what unless the other person just runs away, which isn’t always an option and is borderline fail RP at times if they’ve already been hit once or twice.
 
This is a problem that is as old as time, and isn't present in Willard alone. There's always been somewhat of a pro-Combine stance in WN (if you don't think this you are delusional + take your meds) but I feel like the scales have been evened out enough that at least when the PK criteria were somewhat equalized.

Still, the cause is quite simple, and has been outlined multiple times in this thread already: you can lose months of progress if your character gets PK'd, and due to the strict nature of the PK criteria, it is very, very easy to get PK'd. Not playing to win goes against any instinct a normally functioning adult has that tries to find a proper balance between having fun (roleplaying, combat) and having a little less fun (rank grind, item grind, etc.). When I backed the idea a year or so back I thought it might could've posed some magic fix that would solve all outlying issues the server had (mainly the Combine bias, which was a great deal bigger than now) but instead, it appears that it just poisoned the well and caused a new problem of its own.

The only advice I can give is try something new. Maybe reverse the entire idea of strict PK's, and go with something more lenient for *everyone*. Hell, it would make combat more interesting at least, and might solve some of the try-harding. It doesn't need to be permanent, but it's an idea that Willard hasn't really delved in too deep from what I remember, and it might improve things.

And yes, I know I haven't played for over a year.
And no, I don't care. Also, I'm right, so cope.
Perhaps PK request should be requested on the forums before that person is hunted down, aside from a few obvious PKs like roleplaying suicide or roleplaying an extreme act of self sacrifice. Requests should meet the primary criteria of being a character that someone else knows on a personal level, whether it be because of personal grievances, or the Combine knowing your face and placing it on BOL.

Anything else, even if roleplayed, should be treated as red-shirt/proxy deaths where the killed person was just some regular dude. We could even take it a step further and have them respawn at the clinic, with a serious wound in tow which encourages character development.
 
Perhaps PK request should be requested on the forums before that person is hunted down, aside from a few obvious PKs like roleplaying suicide or roleplaying an extreme act of self sacrifice. Requests should meet the primary criteria of being a character that someone else knows on a personal level, whether it be because of personal grievances, or the Combine knowing your face and placing it on BOL.

Anything else, even if roleplayed, should be treated as red-shirt/proxy deaths where the killed person was just some regular dude. We could even take it a step further and have them respawn at the clinic, with a serious wound in tow which encourages character development.
injuries would work very well, they should be able to be fixed with proper rp and med items, and they should just respawn at the normal spawn point, or someplace safe. aka no rebels should be spawning in the CWU clinic. and they still had the fight, they just were not killed, just went unconscious, and suffered an injury.
 
its ok you can go afk on the operating table while we write multiple paragraphs above your slowly bleeding corpse
I play Willard to Roleplay... I'll accept the PK and play on a new character like the P2L champion I am.
 
I've said this before but incredibly lax PK rules just creates the reverse problem; there needs to be a middle ground.

People switch from being worried about losing months of dev to losing scripts via NLR or wasting hours of roleplay only to be locked out of a scenario due to that same NLR. The end result is unfortunately exactly the same - worse, in some ways, because people get burned out through not having any noticable impact on anyone else.

Its no less frustrating than dealing with PK's being harsh, tbh.
 
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