hl2rp² feedback thread 2.0²

[Simman102]

This isn't a critique really against the staff team as such but its sort of something that needs to be said about the Combine side (having spoken to cop players here, I'm not just talking out my ass).

The Combine just don't have the same level of freedom and attention given as rebels do, frankly.

Rebels have the ability to sort of sit back, thrive and do all sorts of RP on their own that just isn't on the table for cops. When people are bored (and I'm not ripping into cops because rebels would do this if they were in the same situation, as happened in Ineu) they'll go out and try to interact with the other side or just break up the boredom.

Cops become the main driving force for the conflict because rebels have other shit to do and don't often seek it, and so they loop back to being seen as RP killers and shitheads for interrupting whatever the rebels have going on.

I get the Combine are the bad guys IC but they're also never going to be as vocal as rebels will if they're feeling hard done to.

tldr; Rebels have more shit to do and more cool avenues for RP so don't usually seek out S2K. Cops don't, so do, and become the OOC bad guys for it.

I'd argue this is downplaying stuff, by a large margin at that.

I tried playing a "rebel" for a day, and within a single evening I:
- saw a car drive into a lake and explode,
- helped a GTC crew pull the wreck out of the lake,
- saw a train car opened, full of dead stalkers and
- saw some super-zombie get unleashed,
- witnessed the start of some experimental Combine parasite plotline which is still ongoing.

The next evening was pretty much the same, slightly less action.
The entire map so far hasn't offered the Combine even 1/3rd of what I'd gotten in a single evening of playing a "rebel".

Yeah, no shit Combine is roaming the map to find something to kill or capture, they're just straight up bored, it's like rebels are playing a different game.

 

[Rabid]

For the record I'm not trying to make it an "us vs them" thing or discount how fucking shitty it is for rebels to get mown down just outside their base, I'm just saying that cops need the same sorts of engagement that they used to get so they're not pushed into going out and doing S2K.

I hate to say it lads, but the "they shot first!" thing has been an issue since the first map and both sides have built that rep. Its not just cops being S2K hungry, because on various maps you've had rebel kill squads waiting for cops to leave safezones to kill them too.

I'd argue this is downplaying stuff, by a large margin at that.

I tried playing a "rebel" for a day, and within a single evening I:
- saw a car drive into a lake and explode,
- helped a GTC crew pull the wreck out of the lake,
- saw a train car opened, full of dead stalkers and
- saw some super-zombie get unleashed,
- witnessed the start of some experimental Combine parasite plotline which is still ongoing.

The next evening was pretty much the same, slightly less action.
The entire map so far hasn't offered the Combine even 1/3rd of what I'd gotten in a single evening of playing a "rebel".

Yeah, no shit Combine is roaming the map to find something to kill or capture, they're just straight up bored, it's like rebels are playing a different game.

Also as much as I usually wouldn't agree with Simman posts, yeah, this is what I'm saying.

Rebels by nature get a lot more given to them by staff because its easy. Cops... really don't.

 

[MaXenzie]

For the record I'm not trying to make it an "us vs them" thing or discount how fucking shitty it is for rebels to get mown down just outside their base, I'm just saying that cops need the same sorts of engagement that they used to get so they're not pushed into going out and doing S2K.

I hate to say it lads, but the "they shot first!" thing has been an issue since the first map and both sides have built that rep.



Also as much as I usually wouldn't agree with Simman posts, yeah, this is what I'm saying.

Rebels by nature get a lot more given to them by staff because its easy. Cops... really don't.

we need sandy back as event runner.

simple as

 

[Tinbe]

I'd like to clear up some things.

- saw a train car opened, full of dead stalkers and
- saw some super-zombie get unleashed,
- witnessed the start of some experimental Combine parasite plotline which is still ongoing.

See here:

Up to this point, I've been making my own RP by interacting with specific map elements (plus admin oversight) that other people tagged along for (mostly because you need 5+ armed rebels at all times to exist anywhere within coastline for protection)

All of those things you listed happened because I got bored and decided "Hey, I want to open these crashed Combine traincarts" and succeeded through lucky rolls and because overseeing admins springboarded RP opportunities out of them, bless their generosity. Hell, they mostly went uninterrupted by cop patrols because IIRC they occurred when there weren't many of them flagged up at the time.

All of those traincarts are opened now. There's nothing more to get out of them besides maybe scrapping the carts themselves for metal and such.

 

[Simman102]

overseeing admins springboarded RP opportunities

does he know?

 

[Tinbe]

does he know?

Do I know what? I asked in /help if an admin could oversee me opening the aforementioned traincarts, and it's only because of their grace that everybody got roleplay out of it.

 

[Blitz0012]

I think it depends on how willing you are to just make your own RP. Rebels would do genuinely nothing on Agora until admins gave them something to do, same as Combine going to the bunker, etc. Not all the rebels are doing it, but it only takes a couple guys willing to just go out and find a cool prop or textures for some inspiration and just go ahead and RP with it.

I do it fairly often on my IAC dude and have been generally open for other people to show up and join in (though it's not common people just happen upon us RPing). We're not usually with a big group so we aren't noticed too much, yeah. Don't often get staff oversight and we don't like asking the staff for too much in /help. Bigger groups doing improv always gets more notice but don't shy away from doing it on your own, staff are a lot more present than you'd think. I've just been walking around and then Tori or Boots have just showed up (and maybe killed themselves in front of me) a couple times.

I reckon a group of CPs could easily find something random to do, even if you just ask admins to let you search some boats. Or just make up your own random thing, you can always spawn in your own props and do your own /its. Might get a taste for it and get an interest in GM.
You do tend to get randomly interrupted but what you're doing really matters.

It's a shame small or solo CPs can't roam about and do their own stuff, they'd be able to find a lot more improv or other small interactions if they weren't always an organised PT. They're all under the same rules as rebels gettin' PKed, NLRd, captured, whatever - might as well let 'em use it to the same extent and give rebels the same protocols to follow with captured Combine as they'd give citizens.

 

[Tinbe]

Rebels would do genuinely nothing on Agora until admins gave them something to do, same as Combine going to the bunker, etc.

Ineu's layout was the type where you could very quickly get boxed-in by enemy patrols if you spent too much time in one spot, I feel.

 

[Blitz0012]

Ineu's layout was the type where you could very quickly get boxed-in by enemy patrols if you spent too much time in one spot, I feel.

It's almost the same on this map tbh, saved by the fact that if the bridge is on you can go round the other way. I think there's just more interesting stuff to RP with that isn't either actively housing something. Plus the odd zulu crate.

Also have to acknowledge that you're pretty active as the Road Runner who is beneficial for sudden improv rp. Being both RPing with you when you're actually there or people accounting for the road runner even when you're not on.

 

[Tinbe]

Also have to acknowledge that you're pretty active as the Road Runner who is beneficial for sudden improv rp. Being both RPing with you when you're actually there or people accounting for the road runner even when you're not on.

Glad to see I've still got it. I'd go to the Combine side of the map to mess with the refugee camp, but treading across the shore and causing antlion jumpscares as they spawn in (even if they don't attack players on Wild Xenians whitelist) at random isn't good for my heart.

 

[Cavity]

City RP for the win.

 

[Generally Fruity]

I dont blame Civipro players for their hardassery, they've been misled over the years to think that they have to be a "good cop" OOC or be punished. There is a pervasive and unspoken dedication to a metafictional ideal of perfection.

 

[Merlinsclaw]

idk why we still deal with the "suit tracker" stuff. seems to me like cops (who already know they are being tracked 24/7 due to biosignal losses and shit) should know that they are being tracked.

also as for cop stuff, idk man. when we were doing obc/extinctionist stuff, 90% of the cop base didn't interact with us or if they did, it wasn't great. i think part of this is setting (cops/combine are still so 'regular' - there were cooler ideas for warring combine factions and shit at some point) and the other side was combine leadership and a few bad apples.

 

[A. Vaher]

Yeah, no shit Combine is roaming the map to find something to kill or capture, they're just straight up bored, it's like rebels are playing a different game.

I shall work to amend this
You have my word

 

[ovxy]

idk why we still deal with the "suit tracker" stuff. seems to me like cops (who already know they are being tracked 24/7 due to biosignal losses and shit) should know that they are being tracked.

It’s not about cops knowing that they’re being tracked because that’s pretty obvious, it’s about where the trackers are located in the suit that’s restricted knowledge

If a rebel gets their hands on a cop suit, knowing where the trackers are is a difference between having armor and not having armor as not knowing where they are (but being aware of their existence) usually ends up with the whole suit being fried by a frog

 

[Rabid]

when we were doing obc/extinctionist stuff, 90% of the cop base didn't interact with us or if they did, it wasn't great.

Tbh I don't think this is a bad thing because it provides a neccesary contrast for the Extinctionist stuff to stand out and thrive. Imo it would have been far less impactful or memorable if it was expected that every cop in the garrison was some zany extremist by default.

Its why I kinda got bored of Kill City back in the day - when every cop was running around being corrupt, having shady dealings wasn't some super cool choice, it was just what you did. I went into every interaction with another cop knowing they probably wouldn't care or fuck me over because they were just like me IC.

I think the same thing would have happened here, if there'd been a load of factions and groups in Civil Protection.

 

[Tinbe]

Imo it would have been far less impactful or memorable if it was expected that every cop in the garrison was some zany extremist by default.

I don't think that was what merlin is saying, but rather, the non-zany cops just didn't roleplay with the zany cops (either in terms of quantity or quality). It's not about every cop being super quirky, but instead saying those that were quirky were largely ignored by the rest of the cop faction.

 

[STUCK IN A CAKE]

if I have nothing on me. Cops' cant do shit!!! I go wherever I want bitch!!

Imma open a soup kitchen!

 

[Rabid]

I don't think that was what merlin is saying, but rather, the non-zany cops just didn't roleplay with the zany cops (either in terms of quantity or quality). It's not about every cop being super quirky, but instead saying those that were quirky were largely ignored by the rest of the cop faction.

I remember there being quite a lot of good interactions initially (especially around Apoc) but yeah it definately did dwindle over time.

Admittedly I will say that's sort of part of the problem with cults as a whole, and I say that as someone who loves roleplaying that sort of thing. After a certain point (if your character isn't swayed and doesn't believe) there isn't a great deal that can be done interactions wise beyond the norm, especially because the cult's ideology tends to be fairly centralizing for the cultist's character.

Its sort of like how people tended to not know how to handle extreme loyalist cops in CityRP.

 

[Numbers]

I remember there being quite a lot of good interactions initially (especially around Apoc) but yeah it definately did dwindle over time.

Admittedly I will say that's sort of part of the problem with cults as a whole, and I say that as someone who loves roleplaying that sort of thing. After a certain point (if your character isn't swayed and doesn't believe) there isn't a great deal that can be done interactions wise beyond the norm, especially because the cult's ideology tends to be fairly centralizing for the cultist's character.

Its sort of like how people tended to not know how to handle extreme loyalist cops in CityRP.

there was also a point where all we had were cultist cops and OTA, no in betweens