(song unrelated i just like desert blues)
lowkey miss early helix c8 where it seemed like there was a good balance. we'd run around as cops regularly patting people down and interrogating them over shit, setting up checkpoints etc. meanwhile there was a shotcop in rb6 every other day and the brave mfers who did it under PK risk usually planned their escape to get away before the response
then i17 rolled around and everything got so much 'safer' city side, barely anyone tried their luck with the combine anymore - those who did seemed to start dropping like flies; i presume it was just the wide streets and huge layout making it hard to slip away/easy to get seen. by the time we'd cycled back to city8 in 2021 exactly what you said happened and it became fairly easy to get away with things, and while there was a lot of fantastic rp going on with the gangs that i experienced firsthand, i could also see that there just wasn't any way for CPs to interact with it without potentially ruining it all with a sneeze; so they were never allowed to (this also happened in joseon where i experienced it from the cop pov, i had a lot of plans for sabotaging the gangs of that time also but my presence was too threatening to the delicate balance between them so i was never allowed)
that's what i can't wrap my head around; it'd have been great to bring back the 'risk' in interacting with the city for rebels, but how do you do that without suffocating all rebel activity? how do you encourage them to go up topside in good faith when the very real possibility exists of losing your character over a bundle of zipties (do not research vlado) and other shit that should normally be "benign" (or at least get you beaten for)? all it takes is for a cop to go "get on the wall." and the moment they're within 3 feet of you, you're fucked on the escape because they'll either block your exit and baton you down with superior run speed or just shoot you
imo the answer lies (and has always lied) in personal containers, none of the d r a c o n i an contraband laws wouldve mattered if we let people hold onto their illegal stuff without having to carry them on their person; and only take them out when it mattered. most people who carry so much as a knife were forced underground simply because a permanent kill was always one CP dialogue prompt away. it's very regrettable that such an essential gameplay mechanic of being an
undercover guerilla fighter was locked behind premium for most of helix
the only time i recall seeing an amazing network of surface rebelRP was in linntrix's iteration, and that was only because authing personal conts was made very easy. a system not unlike premium would've made things so much easier though, a modest space available to everyone at least that can be extended with prem membership