Serious HL2RP - Moving Forward

[Raiden]

Hello everyone!

I’m making this thread as a general appeal to past and current players to see what people would like to see in any future iteration of the HL2RP gamemode on Nebulous.

We’ve certainly faced some stagnate times over the last few months and we’re in a position now where truthfully, the server’s outlook looks incredibly bleak. That being said, however, there is still even now a desire to move forward with the server and try to reach a consensus on what you, the player, wants to see from any future version of this game.

I for one am of the mind that Nebulous’ story with HL2RP is not yet run. Obviously, we’ve not achieved the development goals we previously set nor have we progressed in any way in the form of a story to accompany the server - which is why I personally believe that we should return to a more standard running of HL2RP, something similar to that seen in the first iteration of Helix.

The purpose of this thread is to simply gauge some interest. It makes no promise of an extreme developmental plan being put into place, nor does it promise to revolutionise the gamemode itself - but I believe a return to standard running of HL2RP is a good start to attract that interest again, and in turn, attract potential developers who would be more willing to work on a server with a steady player as opposed to one that currently has nothing to offer.

I’m aware some of you may be thinking I’m flogging a dead horse, or something akin ti that, but frankly, my only desire here is to go back to enjoying a game-mode with the people I’ve played with for years in a
more familiar setting in a community that I’m comfortable in.

Feel free to discuss any and all ideas you have - try to remain constructive.

 

[fofa]

I for one am of the mind that Nebulous’ story with HL2RP is not yet run. Obviously, we’ve not achieved the development goals we previously set nor have we progressed in any way in the form of a story to accompany the server - which is why I personally believe that we should return to a more standard running of HL2RP, something similar to that seen in the first iteration of Helix.

no, you've experienced the death of the current iteration first hand (and the absence of the main developer wasn't the sole reason). drop the day-to-day server formula and do something new for once, gmod is a dying medium and you're not willing to adapt. hl2rp has been overdone; people want to tell different stories set in different worlds, but if you're really so hellbent on it being half life 2 roleplay then at least make it an event server for people to tell stories instead of getting hourly rations from the RDC

 

[Sil]

no, you've experienced the death of the current iteration first hand (and the absence of the main developer wasn't the sole reason). drop the day-to-day server formula and do something new for once, gmod is a dying medium and you're not willing to adapt. hl2rp has been overdone; people want to tell different stories set in different worlds, but if you're really so hellbent on it being half life 2 roleplay then at least make it an event server for people to tell stories instead of getting hourly rations from the RDC

Agreed.

HL2RP of the past is gone. Attempting to have the server be up 24/7 just isn't going to work and it's going to stagnate more. Personally I would like to keep it as HL2RP however there are so many fun IPs accessible through Gmod's workshop that it doesn't have to continue just being HL2. Fallout, Terminator, Stalker, Metro, Skyrim, honestly there are so many potential worlds we could make use of.

Hosting the server on an event basis a la Alplands & the serverwide events of the past would be the best way going forward. Planned stories that last a week or two, at most, with an ongoing story. In downtime, people can still RP via the forums & the RP documents, and make applications for what they've done in order to access things from the previous event.

Take modern LARP (at least in the UK) as an example. Lorien Trust and EMPIRE both operate on a "we're open for a few weekends a year, rest of downtime", and they do amazingly successfully. They have an ongoing story, and those big meets (the moots) are when big things happen like fighting super mega demons or organising giant alliances between huge factions. The rest is done in downtime, completely at the discretion of the players with some help from staff if they want to do things like create items, cast big spells etc.

Obviously HL2RP isn't a high magic fantasy setting, but the same can be applied. A small group of people could organise a quiet drug trade and be able to approach the next event with coke & weed to sell and use. Or possibly get a few guns and ammo readied up. Maybe if we're including combine as playable and not just generic antagonists, a CP could acquire a better rank/access, a weapon upgrade, an MMR etc. One big group could work with another and organise a heist, either being able to do it during downtime or having it be one of the big things doable during the uptime event.

We have options. Many options. But if we keep picking the same ones expecting something different then we're going to go nowhere

 

[Raiden]

no, you've experienced the death of the current iteration first hand (and the absence of the main developer wasn't the sole reason). drop the day-to-day server formula and do something new for once, gmod is a dying medium and you're not willing to adapt. hl2rp has been overdone; people want to tell different stories set in different worlds, but if you're really so hellbent on it being half life 2 roleplay then at least make it an event server for people to tell stories instead of getting hourly rations from the RDC

I do understand where you’re coming from - but any such server that runs by default on the normal HL2RP forumla shouldn't just be left to see what happens. Events, stories, those sort of things should accompany and add to the experience rather then being the sole thing that's going on. One of the key components of this is that things happen more organically rather than being forced down everyone's throat - and no two events are the same in terms of quality and actual enjoyment that players get out of it.

One of my key concerns of having arbitrary 'downtime' is the fact that there's nothing inbetween that can be filled by the players better defining their characters. A lot of what makes a good story is the 'fleshing out' process of the character, finding their feet, building their relationship with people around them. If the servers only open a few hours every weekend, it almost puts such an emphasis on getting something done in that limited timeframe rather than actually letting people develop such things between them.

The standard cityRP forumla has the stereotype that nothing will happen ever, which is far from and need not be the case. You can make a long, detailed storyline that's both engaging to players, immersive to the universe and overall fun to play without just leaving it as it is and letting the the server remain largely the same without any significant change.

 

[Thood74]

24/7 servers aren't gonna work, being blunt.

We haven't got the population to sustain it and I imagine its a lot easier for staff to be able to have time to plan things to do on only a few specific days that the server are open with a good interval in between, guaranteeing that a lot more people will be on and a lot more will happen when the servers up. I for one would love to have a HL2RP server thats only up on certain days for me to hop on and be sure that something interesting will happen and there will always be people to interact with. You don't even have to abandon the CityRP structure to make this work necessarily, nor guarantee that the server will have a short lifespan so long as you think you can keep drawing interest on those active days for long enough.

As for what story you should tell in that format? Fuck if I know. I just know I'd like to see one, as opposed to the aimlessness servers before have had whenever an event wasn't happening or CAB or some other sufficiently large enough group wasn't fighting tooth and nail to get things moving. Usually against the whims of Overwatch, but thats neither here nor there.

 

[heaveN]

Event only / limited opening times servers are super easy to suggest for the people only tasked with playing on them. Good luck finding enough motivated people to basically put multiple weekend aside just to entertain people while also suffering the stress of being expected to make every opening quality

 

[constantdisplay]

One of my key concerns of having arbitrary 'downtime' is the fact that there's nothing inbetween that can be filled by the players better defining their characters. A lot of what makes a good story is the 'fleshing out' process of the character, finding their feet, building their relationship with people around them. If the servers only open a few hours every weekend, it almost puts such an emphasis on getting something done in that limited timeframe rather than actually letting people develop such things between them.

this is the SAME THING. opening on a limited amount of days only guarantees that stuff is more likely to happen which and ppl have to use their time well which = development and more chances to flesh out characters. i dont get why people stick to this line of thinking, it doesnt make sense. downtime has been proven to work with other servers

anyway, i do want to see neb hl2rp again in the future but i dont see why volunteers would put time into neb at this point. there are no developers, there is no development money. alex and headstaff have no idea what people actually want, and staff who put work into the current iteration and the last months of the last one have been disrespected and/or burned out. there are multiple other (better) alternatives out there which ppl can put their time towards and i dont blame them

 

[constantdisplay]

Event only / limited opening times servers are super easy to suggest for the people only tasked with playing on them. Good luck finding enough motivated people to basically put multiple weekend aside just to entertain people while also suffering the stress of being expected to make every opening quality

being able to plan ahead and actually enjoy what you do is less stressful than trying and failing to maintain a constant 24/7 cycle. the last year of neb hl2rp has literally just been a cycle of staff going in and out of burnout trying to do this

 

[Raiden]

Event only / limited opening times servers are super easy to suggest for the people only tasked with playing on them. Good luck finding enough motivated people to basically put multiple weekend aside just to entertain people while also suffering the stress of being expected to make every opening quality

Also this - this is why I believe we should go to a more standard format so these events are actually interesting and well-planned rather than being forced.

 

[Raiden]

being able to plan ahead and actually enjoy what you do is less stressful than trying and failing to maintain a constant 24/7 cycle. the last year of neb hl2rp has literally just been a cycle of staff going in and out of burnout trying to do this

Maintaining a norm is much easier then churning out events one after the other every weekend.

 

[Tinbe]

The thought of traditional CityRP format has not been appetizing to me for the last couple of years. It makes sense from a certain developmental standpoint because the framework was designed for it, and because it is theoretically self-sustaining.

Citizens going about their daily lives, occasionally bullied by Civil Protection, influencing and being influenced by UU factions (cry about it UU is the shortest umbrella term for whatever CWU, UM, news and science factions there are), occasionally flaking off to brood underground as rebels before they die and the cycle begins anew on fresh citizen characters. Admins can focus on OOC matters, because Civil Protection acts as an IC regulator for anyone trying to do weird RP that might not technically be a rulebreak, but still doesn't fit the atmosphere of the server.

That's not really my cup of tea nowadays, but neither are one-off servers that last a weekend or even just single evening, because their limited playercounts result in pre-event forum app battle royales that decide which <10 players out of >60 applications gets to play.

I definitely had the most fun in recent memory while playing HL2RP2. Shedding the overt focus on PvP and ensuing OOC factionalism, there were a lot of really cool stories whenever the server didn't experience a drought. Delving into the antlion hive underneath Azov's dried-out seabed to extract hive combs, trying to figure out the Gonarch, the Alien Controller and the Kingpin, the absolutely jaw-dropping Breen speech, all the stories around Romania... not to mention Race X and the bombastic conclusion we had with them. There's just so much.

Of course there were a slew of problems beyond what I mentioned above, and lord knows I can't even begin to fathom just how much there were in terms of difficulties for staff behind the scenes, but I'm really glad I got to experience that iteration from start to finish.

 

[NiGHT]

I once again propose we use the event server more often as the outlands to the city server, allowing the staff to change the outlands map to spice things up (using trains to be the transfer between maps, maybe even air transport). I love the wacky events that admins like @Ricsow and @SmoothAsMilk come up with, and they should be able to create more wildy events on the "Outlands" server. For the "outlands" server I once again propose NPC followers like the HL2 squad system to enable low player counts to have meaninful combat if the admins want to raise hell.

We needed more raw materials like wood scatter around the map as well, and the crafting system needs to be updated and expanded, which would allow for more player self reliance regarding crafting.
Tracking deaths in a tally would be a way to measure the fight between the UU and Lambda forces.

 

[Ricsow]

I think something akin to what Sil suggested would probably be the best of both worlds. Have the server be open 24/7 and unwhitelisted, but mark out distinct times (weekends or specific days) where main story progression happens. The rest of the time serves as 'downtime', where while you can still hop on and play your character and communicate with a staff member to prepare for the upcoming events.

 

[Raiden]

I think something akin to what Sil suggested would probably be the best of both worlds. Have the server be open 24/7 and unwhitelisted, but mark out distinct times (weekends or specific days) where main story progression happens. The rest of the time serves as 'downtime', where while you can still hop on and play your character and communicate with a staff member to prepare for the upcoming events.

Thats actually something that I wanted to do, really. A steady progression during a ‘downtime’ period (doesn't mean nothing happens but it’s not guaranteed and then a set amount of active events progressing the story of the server on.

 

[Trains]

which is why I personally believe that we should return to a more standard running of HL2RP, something similar to that seen in the first iteration of Helix.

this is exactly what we just tried

it died in 2 weeks

so

 

[fofa]

Event only / limited opening times servers are super easy to suggest for the people only tasked with playing on them. Good luck finding enough motivated people to basically put multiple weekend aside just to entertain people while also suffering the stress of being expected to make every opening quality

good luck finding enough motivated people to sustain a 24/7 server and to keep it consistently interesting so that the playercount doesn't plummet. running events doesn't equal with putting multiple weekends aside; it can be run during the week, on select days, on select weekends - and you don't even have to have a script for it, as long as you have a group of motivated people who like to toss ideas around

 

[Raiden]

this is exactly what we just tried

it died in 2 weeks

so

I don’t think the structure was wrong, rather the circumstances around it and the individuals doing it either disappeared or lost steam.

 

[heaveN]

good luck finding enough motivated people to sustain a 24/7 server and to keep it consistently interesting so that the playercount doesn't plummet. running events doesn't equal with putting multiple weekends aside; it can be run during the week, on select days, on select weekends - and you don't even have to have a script for it, as long as you have a group of motivated people who like to toss ideas around

Not saying that a 24/7 loop server would work. Just saying that the limited time event idea gets thrown around too easy as some sort of golden solution by people that are often only interested in playing rather than organizing

 

[Lewis!]

Only thing I could suggest is doing like an explicitly limited run story.

Do the 24/7 server because as far as I'm aware that's still want headstaff want, but set a definitive start and end date so people know when to tune in and can structure their character around that.

 

[Lewis!]

which is why I personally believe that we should return to a more standard running of HL2RP, something similar to that seen in the first iteration of Helix.

Also yeah do NOT do this. As @Trains said neb just did this and it was literally dead on arrival.

You have to do something fundamentally different. The numbers iteration was so good because the drop in drop out gameplay loop was fundamentally different to just city RP. Even if you change the story setting (like doing that post 7 hour war thing) it will NOT work. You MUST do something different on a gameplay level.