Hello again! I see a lot of shit flinging, doesn't matter. I have some input for CCC overall thanks to what happened. May be biased even trying my best otherwise, so have loads of salt just in case. Bombs away!
Anyway, I think what we also want to take away from this (And in part what
@Blitz0012 was going into), is that I see the quality of RP dwindling down for inter factional stuff. There is the fact that inter faction RP with the Combine is quite difficult; but when you get it, it is... Not rewarding? I will focus on CMB due to thread, but there are some Rebel can of worms that have yet to be properly untapped.
As an anecdote, we got City 14. My rebel boy was randomly searched for the 424th time in five minutes, got caught with some contraband. OK, it was bad, but I guess I can see what can be done. I know the cop whom I was with was a decent RPer (Won't name and shame out of respect), so I had faith with some cool interaction or even a chance to get away. Yet... All protocol was followed cleanly. I read most if not all lines feeling out of character for what
I knew as a cop. Then, well, NLRed and some drama on other principles ensued. For being what was losing all
earned in exchange for a very meh situation... Something tickled me very wrong from the faction I was with for most of the server, too. And do note some staff cop I had no exact OOC relation with until after that was really trying to make something interesting instead.
Looking at this again, I believe I am seeing a generalization/pattern. To me, the moment you see citizens the pattern overall is that cops be cops first, a character second. They let the procedure be flawless, follow the book with zero question every single time... OK, it may happen to some learning from the faction, but the thing is that I am seeing this again and again even with more seasoned players. So much for me to advocate Inter-factional RP when I'm seeing interactions straight up best F2Bed into NLR or not worth going into
at all.
Part of the charm that would make cops still exist at this point is that... They are human. And to literally show otherwise the moment we get outside of base, I must say I get a little disappointed. I have seen quite a few of you have actually good potential when I was a cop. But... I don't see any of it? To an irony, you make the CMB soldiers (which are supposed to be the machine men (and women)) look like humans in comparison.
In that case, I actually see little to no sensical reason to keep cop as a faction from the perspective of an outsider or narrative if they are lacking actual humanity to show. Come on, you can do better than this, you don't need to share the rich results of a story some of you have going on with
only the faction.
I may not be the exemplar since at the start of the server I was this what I'm describing overall; but in the end, when there was little risk, my character was... Sorrowful of the victims, he tried to ease them, he empathized for the time I basically has a robocop. He even whispered I'm sorry to someone who was about to be stalkerized. It felt impactful, made my cop feel like a man who is also a cop. It was literal character development there.
Other interactions include trying to win hearts and minds, make them feel neutrality for the Combine, or be more convincing to make spies/collaborators. Point it with this that you don't need to shy away from characterization to be part of the Combine. Make the world Grey and Grey, not Black and Grey. Combine may be objectively bad, but are they absolute evil?
Anyway, dumb me or whatever, but if I get you to think just for a millisecond, then my job here is done. We are in an RP server, so in a TLDR for ALL: Just think about being a character above everything, lads! :)