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Half-Life 2 Roleplay: After-Life
Introduction
Half-life 2 Roleplay: After-Life is set in the Half-Life universe after the war following the collapse of the Citadel has ended. Following a cleaned up timeline of the events that transpired during HL2RP² we find once opposing forces now signed under a unified treaty known as The Populus. The setting aims to allow full creative freedom on who you play and what you play. Want to be a Vortigaunt Politician? Want to be a Transhuman Gang member? Want to be an Alien Grunt Officer?Things are no longer bound by faction restrictions. Tension in turns comes from the many player driven groups and circles with conflicting ideas. The server will start at a point of political crossroads just before a major vote so the community can determine the direction things will go. On top of this those who still hold loyalties to the Combine now lurk at any level of society. Anyone could be an undercover operative pushing a hidden agenda with their group.
This project will be lead by @Raiden and @PepicWalrus
Welcome To The After-Life
The last few years have been a tumultuous endeavor for all. The world has been left forever changed, the fabric of reality weakened hanging by threads. Resources drained by the Combine and consumed by Race X. War almost re-sparking at least three times bare minimum but thankfully to the vast changes the various factions underwent and dedicated leaders of the various forming factions in lieu of the Geneworms defeat a treaty was signed and The Populus was formed.The Populus is a unified alliance between the many sentient alien species and factions that remained in the wake of the war between the resistance and Combine. What has emerged is a society that now puts that effort forward into rebuilding and evolving beyond what was there before. A coalition of diverse minds with the exotic technology the Combine abandoned in the wake of their dismantling now being used for betterment instead of oppression.
While on the surface things seem promising and bright there are many who have fallen through the cracks. While the towers now gleam high the shadows they cast are also long. An underbelly of crime and poverty holds up this utopia. Black Market development using the alien technology to develop illegal weapons and devices. Technology advances for the better and worse.
Beyond the Bastions of the Populus is a world torn asunder by the years of Combine occupation and the following war. A diverse and alien ecosystem still remains, the majority of the planet is still considered “outlands” and in these spaces tribes, and factions arise. Nations apart from the Populus try to reform, and insurgency groups run wild. While people aren’t trapped inside city walls anymore they may be better off staying behind them by choice.
And evils still lurk in the shadows as now those still loyal to the Combine must heed their puppet masters orders as they pull strings from behind the scenes. Combine Shadow Operatives now exist at all levels of society blending in, from politicians, to gang members, to the guy running the bakery anyone could secretly be pushing the Combine Agenda.
Gameplay
Half-Life 2: After-Life strives to offer an open world experience with a strong focus towards player agency and creation, serving as the base to a multitude of different potential storyline progressions depending on the route players wish to take. There will be a strong emphasis on character customization, an in-depth crafting and resource system that aligns with the world that the gamemode is set in and a fresh exploration of a Half-Life setting post Combine occupation.Gameplay will be community focused, and shift away from narratives and looking at ways to try and automate systems so staff involvement is not always required for the game to progress.
As such, this will include elements not usually accustomed to a standard Half-Life 2 server and will take inspiration from a wider variety of science fiction. The most accurate way to describe this setting is as a Half-Life themed setting rather than a dedicated Half-Life setting.
Character Creation
Character creation is intended to be a major overhaul separating ‘species’ as we are calling them and factions which aims to be more freeing. Letting people choose from a selection of starting “species” and using the subclass system to choose “origins” which function like backgrounds, creating a more diverse selection of what people can choose without having to apply and jump right into what they wanna be. Species that require higher tier roleplay / trust can still be locked behind applications or subscription access.
Some examples of species and their origin options are listed below. This is a WIP list not set in stone. Anything listed as default will be available to everyone the moment they log in for the first time with no additional effort required. While applied races will of course need an approval process and have higher expectations of them.
Humans:
- Human (default)
- Half-Stalker (default)
- Collaborator (default)
Vortigaunt:
- Unattuned (default)
- Populus Attuned (applied)
- Enclave (Tribes, isolationist) (applied)
Transhumans:
- Populus Transhuman (default)
- Outlands Transhuman (applied)
- Convergence Transhuman (applied)
Crafting/Resource Gathering
We will be looking to rehaul the crafting system to match the universe the game will be set in. This includes using different tiers of resources depending on their use and rarity, and a new way to gather resources by interacting with the world through a variety of different means.
We’ll be looking at ways to overhaul the crafting flag system, with a more focus on a stats/skill system as the requirement to create certain items.
How Will We Accomplish This?
I’m quite happy to announce for the first time in a while we are hiring developers, we are looking for coders, modelers, riggers, textureists, SFM creators and more. If this interests you please apply in the staff application section.We would like to welcome @Aspect™ who will be working on the UI for the time being to update the fidelity of the in-game systems. Using this base concept made by @boots - we hope to add a few different things to this concept, for example, the background changing depending on the species of the player, and we’re open to more suggestions as they come.
There will no doubt be hurdles to overcome as things progress, and we don’t have any ETA on when we might launch but it likely will be later in the year given we want to truly develop something here and focus on the core gameplay with a unique setting to follow up. The latest I’d like to launch would be January 2025 but ideally in the late fall / early winter unless development proves incredibly speedy. But I will also state we want to take our time to ensure the systems needed to make this setting work are functional. The server in the meantime will likely be used to host various events to build out the world.
Closing Remarks
This is going to be a big undertaking, and new ground. We want as much assistance from the community as we can get be it people interested in staff, lore writing, making content suggestions, short stories, sharing your input on what you see here and ways it can be improved. We wanna hear the good, and the bad. So please offer any constructive criticism you have.
This takes heavy inspiration from many places, from XCOM Chimera Squad, to Arcane, to Cyberpunk and many more. We look to pull from many sources for both world inspiration and gameplay inspiration beyond just GMOD RP. While I am sure someone has attempted something along this line before in the past I do believe what this will offer is an entirely unique niche for the HL2RP Community to explore in.
This concept comes from many places and people I wanna give credit too. @Appetite Ruining Kebab shared his original story ideas with me which he has recently put into a magnificently made post here that you should definitely read if you haven't while not what ultimately happened the discussions there is what spawned the ideas. I also had discussions with @Generally Fruity about these ideas at the end of last year and early this year that helped evolve them.
I’d also like to thank @MaXenzie for the SFMs for this post As for Early Days @Ricsow he has been hosting a series of events which the finale event will be looked to be held some time in August. This will tie directly into the project.
I am excited for this project, and hopefully you will be too. Please again share your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, constructive critiques with us. We are open and encouraging community involvement as much as possible. Raiden and I will be answering questions in the mean time so please ask away.
Cya in the After-Life,
PepicWalrus.
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