idea for narrative

[「🖤 Morpho-Syntax 🖤」]

Bit confused on the chance to oocly submit to transhumization and then have it say reduce OTA to a staff and narrative position.

Can someone elaborate on what that means

 

[Thood74]

I like the idea of rogue cops becoming a third faction with their own identity, symbols and goals but I think using OTA as an event/narrative tool again is a disappointing stain on the rest of the idea.

While OTA are far less limited when it comes to the, yknow, " Being a character " thing, they're still far more limited than Civil Protection who can suffer from internal disputes like those seen when people were fighting over the AI core, form their own beliefs, cult or otherwise and resist their orders at all

Not to mention a change like that needs some massive buildup, you can't just have Dispatch or even just a single Advisor suddenly decide to dissolve a major fighting arm and turn them all into Transhumans on a whim and keep that from feeling like an asspull.

Not to mention it'd probably be possible to get a large faction of rogue cops through some event that doesn't mean eradicating Civil Protection wholesale, the dynamic between the two could even be interesting

 

[STUCK IN A CAKE]

I liked the 'roaming army' Combine idea, where you go points to point and have to work with what you've got. Flat out broke, running on what's left of your last shipment and scavenging for anything to keep going all while the Advisors mount more and more objectives onto you.

 

[RedMan]

City 24 made cop and ota interactions limited until their barracks were moved underground. I chat shit with them from time to time, but my loyalty is unquestionable

A lot of good interaction and roleplay between the CPs and OTA stemmed from the metro map since we were collectively secluded in our base. That is not mentioning the tiny interpersonal experiences some units had developed. City 24 isolated those interactions and broke them further by introducing a TDM-style scenario focused on combat rather than any meaningful developments like Ashville had.

There is nothing wrong with combat, but dealing with the same chokeholds on a daily basis is not exactly fun after the third time. Regardless whether you are on the winning or the losing side.

 

[Rabid]

The main problem I can see is that a rogue cop population will never be as healthy as the other two factions are and playing as 'Rebel-lite' is effectively going to diminish the rogues into a non-threat. And while the teamup idea is very cool, I frankly don't think most cops would survive those sorts of situations without being robbed and/or murdered at the end of it.

Not to mention that kidnapping and forcibly conscripting people would basically be automatic PK auths, and could the rogues afford to risk a WORSE reputation on top of being murdered in their sleep?

speaking of TnB, though, I recall (and @Cindy or @Rabid can probably offer better insight to this than I) a Post-HL2 setting with a spin vaguely similar to this; as far as I remember, the Combine were properly defeated, and an emergent faction of independent(?) transhuman soldiers became a threat to people. they weren't under the control of an overwatch system, though, as far as i recall, but were some kind of bandit group or another held together by their leader's ability to nourish them (they were called thirsters). i don't know what their purpose on the server was -- I imagine they were antagonists for the players to fight, but i wasn't there -- and i'm probably wrong on a few counts regarding them, but it's still kind of interesting stuff to slurp up and re-adapt, i think.​

The OG Thirsters were a weird half-concept that never really got anywhere but were kind of like 'feral' OTA who'd gone wrong?

The PHL2 Thirsters were OTA who were effectively held hostage by their need for saline to survive - which meant they ended up allying themselves with various barons who could provide them with what they needed so their bodies didn't reject their augments and kill them.

Thematically they were just a cool enemy/part of the plotline to transition the PHL2 narrative from the Race X portion to the finale. Sort of a 'stopgap' that lasted a few weeks.

 

[MaXenzie]

transitioning from competitive roleplay to cooperative roleplay is indisputably a plus for the health of the server.

 

[Flop]

But what about those who want to play combine sided cop without forced OTA? (I don't put this in with malice but a genuine question)

 

[MaXenzie]

But what about those who want to play combine sided cop without forced OTA? (I don't put this in with malice but a genuine question)

easy

rationalize it that your character is still loyal to the combine, and it's in fact the OTA that have gone rogue
it's in the best interest of the combine that you deal with the OTA first, and then the rebels

 

[RedMan]

it's in the best interest of the combine that you deal with the OTA first, and then the rebels

Going off with what Subeh said, if OTA is manipulated by Dispatch on the field. You are simply going to dig yourself a bigger grave. Besides, nothing prevents the Combine from deploying even more OTA into the region since they still hold a firm grip on other urban centres.

 

[MaXenzie]

Going off with what Subeh said, if OTA is manipulated by Dispatch on the field. You are simply going to dig yourself a bigger grave. Besides, nothing prevents the Combine from deploying even more OTA into the region since they still hold a firm grip on other urban centres.

i didnt say the rationalize your character made would be a correct one.

 

[Thood74]

easy

rationalize it that your character is still loyal to the combine, and it's in fact the OTA that have gone rogue
it's in the best interest of the combine that you deal with the OTA first, and then the rebels

That is still just you fighting against the Combine while more than likely cooperating with the Resistance in practice with the change that your character constantly shittalks their weapons supplier

I would like to again emphasise you can probably get a significant faction of rogue metropolice without entirely removing the option to stay with the Combine and not become a soulless flesh automaton, because OTA are still limited in their actions and your initial proposal ignored even that and just said 'make them staff directed event characters'

 

[MaXenzie]

That is still just you fighting against the Combine while more than likely cooperating with the Resistance in practice with the change that your character constantly shittalks their weapons supplier

yes, that's what the suggestion is suggesting

 

[Thood74]

yes, that's what the suggestion is suggesting

your suggestion is dumb and disregards anyone who would want to play the Combine side in any significant capacity outside of S2K from my perspective

 

[「🖤 Morpho-Syntax 🖤」]

Can someone dumb down the suggestion for me?

 

[MaXenzie]

your suggestion is dumb and disregards anyone who would want to play the Combine side in any significant capacity outside of S2K from my perspective

well unfortunately mate HL2RP struggles as a competitive RP a la WW3RP, because any changes made by staff that aren't completely bipartisan in nature will fuck off basically exactly 50% of the playerbase.
either the rebels will get upset that there's combine favoritism, or the combine get upset that there's rebel favoritism.
and one of the actually plausible ways to solve this is to just make a side non-playable for the majority of the players, and instead make them NPCs played the staff who have no obligation to get upset whenever they lose an encounter

so yeah, the suggestion is to remove the combine as a playable faction entirely and allow the current CP players an out by effectively becoming softcore rebels

I'm sorry if you think that's dumb mate but unless something changes we're going to be stuck in the eternal status quo of:
- new map
- rebels and combine have a base that'd equidistance apart
- some opening skirmishes and fights accompanied by plenty of OOC drama and whining
- big map change event
- the events of the previous map are never brought up again

 

[「🖤 Morpho-Syntax 🖤」]

I kinda want to be a transhuman though!

 

[MaXenzie]

I kinda want to be a transhuman though!

in any cooperative RP setting staff would often ask players to see who would volunteer to play the opposition in a given storyline

 

[Pyromaniac]

well unfortunately mate HL2RP struggles as a competitive RP a la WW3RP, because any changes made by staff that aren't completely bipartisan in nature will fuck off basically exactly 50% of the playerbase.
either the rebels will get upset that there's combine favoritism, or the combine get upset that there's rebel favoritism.
and one of the actually plausible ways to solve this is to just make a side non-playable for the majority of the players, and instead make them NPCs played the staff who have no obligation to get upset whenever they lose an encounter

so yeah, the suggestion is to remove the combine as a playable faction entirely and allow the current CP players an out by effectively becoming softcore rebels

I'm sorry if you think that's dumb mate but unless something changes we're going to be stuck in the eternal status quo of:
- new map
- rebels and combine have a base that'd equidistance apart
- some opening skirmishes and fights accompanied by plenty of OOC drama and whining
- big map change event
- the events of the previous map are never brought up again

Counter argument, we should remove rebels. Make the rebellion entirely event-staff driven and instead roleplay as a marching combine army. Moving the advisor and other assets around in a desperate attempt to survive and preferably regain control or communication.

Perhaps due to the more limited means the transhumans become more and more human in action as they remain farther away from frequent stasis, perhaps some slowly get driven insane by it. The procedure for trans humanization is still maintained though slowly more brutalized or desperate meaning not every soldier comes out perfect and some suffer defects that might get solved in time or spell their doom.

 

[MaXenzie]

Counter argument, we should remove rebels. Make the rebellion entirely event-staff driven and instead roleplay as a marching combine army. Moving the advisor and other assets around in a desperate attempt to survive and preferably regain control or communication.

Perhaps due to the more limited means the transhumans become more and more human in action as they remain farther away from frequent stasis, perhaps some slowly get driven insane by it. The procedure for trans humanization is still maintained though slowly more brutalized or desperate meaning not every soldier comes out perfect and some suffer defects that might get solved in time or spell their doom.

so long as one faction becomes unplayable and the server transitions to cooperative storytelling in which a majority of the players are on the same side, I'm happy

otherwise we'll just be in an ouroboros snake-eating-own-tail of cop players and rebel players yelling at each other and posting kill logs in every engagement because winning some made-up war is incentivized even though the actual outcome doesn't matter past the current map

 

[「🖤 Morpho-Syntax 🖤」]

Counter argument, we should remove rebels. Make the rebellion entirely event-staff driven and instead roleplay as a marching combine army. Moving the advisor and other assets around in a desperate attempt to survive and preferably regain control or communication.

Perhaps due to the more limited means the transhumans become more and more human in action as they remain farther away from frequent stasis, perhaps some slowly get driven insane by it. The procedure for trans humanization is still maintained though slowly more brutalized or desperate meaning not every soldier comes out perfect and some suffer defects that might get solved in time or spell their doom.

I like this idea