Simman102
the Scourge of Roleplay
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2018
- Messages
- 4,013
- Nebulae
- 7,781
Hello.
I bring news about Civil Protection and Combine as a whole.
There is a TL;DR at the very bottom.
Allow me to get the worst out of the way, so that you can cool down while reading through the rest before you type up an angry response:
- nearly all deaths to Civil Protection officers will be considered valid PKs.
And, to add salt to the wound:
- cops will have higher armour in the city,
- cops will NOT drop items on death in the city.
The good news, however:
- there will be only about 6 cops on the roster,
- a new faction will replace cops in most of their day-to-day duties.
I will now explain my reasoning for these changes, and why they're not as bad as you likely think. There are three core issues I'm aiming to tackle:
1. THE PROFIT INCENTIVE TO SHOTCOP
Please, familiarise yourself with this 14 seconds video before you move on:
The protagonist of the video is Zal'Gazath Trargiz, a character using an old man bluesuit model. The character in question owns a USP-M with 7 bullets and throughout the span of the video runs up to a Civil Protection officer who appears to be having a leisurly chat with three citizens, shoots them in the head 3-4 times and makes off with the dropped gun (not shown on screen). The depicted area is the plaza of the i17, right in front of the Nexus - a place that could arguably be considered the safest area on the entire map, short of the Combine-only depths.
Whatever roleplay had been going on was, for better or worse (very likely worse), cut short. You can argue that there is some character development to be gained through witnessing the death of an officer, but the unfortunate reality is that it was a relatively common occurrence at the time which in turn made it lose its value past the first few times.
Before you turn whatever feelings the situation describe might inspire towards the shotcopper, let's stop and think: 'Why did this happen?'. The video originates from Helix 1, a time period notorious for its time-consuming methods of gear acquisition (for the rebels). This type of high-risk high-reward approach of creating characters to shotcop was unintentionally encouraged by the system. If you got lucky, you'd be able to hit it off with a significant advantage. If you failed, onto the next character you'd go. And, a cop occupied with roleplay was the best target possible to score an easy goal. On some maps, a mugging or a shotcop was an almost guaranteed occurrence in specific areas, the frequency of which made the experience completely unenjoyable.
In order to tackle this issue on a systemic level rather than penalizing players who were simply trying to make do in the harsh circumstances, Civil Protection officers in the city will not only have a higher armour level, but also will not drop their armaments on death. Attempts to kill one of them should be done either for ideological reasons, or due to personal vendetta.
Do note that the above will NOT apply while cops are outside the city; be it offensive or reactionary action, once they step into foreign territory they will be scaled down to their usual level.
2. THE MEANINGLESSNESS OF CP-CITIZEN INTERACTIONS
Consider this scenario: you are a drug seller and have been caught by a Civil Protection officer. Through sheer luck, you manage to encounter one that you were able to reason with and strike a deal - you will, from now on, hand over 20% of your profits and be allowed to live on. Both delighted with the outcome and still somewhat frightened, you run into whatever hideout you have and sleep the night.
This deal, under our past circumstances, was completely meaningless. There were about 89 more players on the roster who could catch you the next day and kill you. In fact, considering the turnover within the faction, it wasn't unlikely that you would've never ever encountered that cop again. This, in turn, has historically caused some players to only interact (in good faith) with cops that they were already friends with OOCly.
To alleviate this, the Civil Protection roster will be limited to around six slots. Through the new application process, we will attempt to assemble a cast of diverse and recognisable characters with promise of longevity. At such a size, the entire faction identity will change altogether; they will no longer be the 'hit citizen with a stick' faction. This role will (more or less) fall onto the brand new 'Progenitor Arm'. More on this later.
3. THE STRAINED RELATIONS
Throughout the years, I have had the unfortunate opportunity to see a tendency develop. Originating somewhere between 2019 and 2020, I have noticed an extreme level of disrespect and toxicity in the way some characters were handled. From total refusal to cooperate in situations with a seemingly dead end ("Why give anything up in this interrogation and fuck my friends over?"), disregarding any notion of the instinct of self-preservation to outright unrealistic behaviours due to sheer spite (roleplaying lighting a cigarette while on the ground getting kicked by multiple people). While the aforementioned were extremes, milder versions of these were an everyday occurrence. People who had the PK ruleset memorized would tip-toe the line just to be a nuisance.
Not only were they distasteful, they also created a feedback loop. The only way to leave an impact on those who refused to roleplay injuries and/or pain was to damage them script-wise to the point where their in-game vision became blurry. The only way to 'get at' those refusing to take the presence of a gun aimed at them into consideration was to actually shoot them. And so, the resentment and frustration was bound to only deepen on both sides.
No more. Enough of that; all of the above is absolutely unacceptable in a collaborative writing medium and it's truly a shame the historical staff teams never attempted to somehow put an end to it.
THE IMPORTANT PART:
All of the changes described in the thread are my attempt to fix it. Should I fail, the system will be dissolved without any friction.
When a citizen is shot by a cop, it will in nearly all circumstances be a Permanent Kill. On top of that, the officers will not necessarily be bound by a binary set of laws, but rather a collection of flexible guidelines. Below is a snippet of the aforementioned:
HOWEVER,
as mentioned earlier, the identity of the faction will change. The main peacekeeping role will fall onto the 'Progenitor Arm', a brand-new faction.
The 'Progenitor Arm' is the first human paramilitary force formed under the Combine. Equipped with tonfa batons and stab-proof vests, their role boils down to making sure the general populace is not a threat to itself and that ill-defined order is maintained. Petty crimes, singular Xenians and fistfights are the extent of their expertise.
'Gennies' or 'progs', as they are colloquially referred to, are not above the law. They are mere citizens carrying a baton around. In fact, it's a part-time job - they can go off-duty at will and function as any human would.
They lack the authority to kill - was one to kill a citizen, they would likely be charged and prosecuted by a Civil Protection officer. They don't even have access to the transgression manifest - if they suspect a grievous crime was committed, it's their role to call a CP over as they lack the means to legally deal with it.
Still a recent and unstudied appearance, the general public isn't yet sure about Civil Protection. Some, fed up with the inadequacy of the 'progs', welcome the far more decisive masked officers. The others, however, are filled with dread, fearing for the future of the human way of life.
If the above explanation was unclear, allow me to reiterate it - a new faction of entirely human baton conscripts will be introduced to replace Civil Protection in most of their duties. This faction lacks the authority to kill, has no connection to Overwatch AI and no Combine technology.
In terms of the power dynamic between the two factions, think of these comparisons:
- if conscripts were a street gang, the cops would be Yakuza,
- if conscripts were the local police, the cops would be the FBI,
- if conscripts were knights, the cops would be nobles (keep reading, this particular comparison will make more sense later).
With now the scope of what Civil Protection has to do significantly reduced, we will push an entirely different role onto them. Above the law, with the power to do whatever they want, still an enigma to the public, we will attempt to turn the 'beat citizen' faction into antagonistic narrative drivers.
The app format now focuses on the framework of your character, their personal goals and your skill to portray an antagonist. Selfish, egomaniacal, power-hungry, power-tripping, ruthless, greedy, treacherous - these are examples of the traits we are looking for in applicants. The chosen cops will, OOCly, be tasked with establishing spheres of influence among the citizens. Trading favours, offering protection, dealing with rival groups, exacting revenge are all encouraged actions - the ambitions and goals of officers should echo through the populace. Applicants will be accepted with the goal being generating as much internal conflict as possible. Even if there's an illusion of good intentions in how your character carries itself, at the end of the day they must be always be a bastard, one way or another.
Couple the above with the newfound authority to kill, each Civil Protection character will now carry much more weight. It's in your best interest to be on their good side.
Side note: in order not to ruin the image of the faction, bits of IC protocol will instead become OOC rules to preserve the integrity of the setting (e.g. no pardoning straight-up murderers). As a trade-off, the transgression manifest has been re-arranged to accomodate for the early occupation period, with some laws being relaxed.
I understand that this might seem frightening; fret not, the application process will be extremely strenuous, roster slots will be scarce and the characters will be thoroughly examined in their activity.
TL;DR
- Cops will be harder to kill in the city and you won't gain scripts from doing so.
- The cop roster is being downsized to ~6.
- The basic cop duties are relegated to baton conscripts, a new faction called the 'Progenitor Arm'.
- The usual 'beat citizen grind SC get ranked up' Civil Protection is gone. Cops will be antagonistic narrative drivers; they must now have clear personal goals in mind when joining the faction and must become influential characters throughout their span.
- Cops will have the ability to shoot people who brainlessly antagonize them.
I bring news about Civil Protection and Combine as a whole.
There is a TL;DR at the very bottom.
Allow me to get the worst out of the way, so that you can cool down while reading through the rest before you type up an angry response:
- nearly all deaths to Civil Protection officers will be considered valid PKs.
And, to add salt to the wound:
- cops will have higher armour in the city,
- cops will NOT drop items on death in the city.
The good news, however:
- there will be only about 6 cops on the roster,
- a new faction will replace cops in most of their day-to-day duties.
I will now explain my reasoning for these changes, and why they're not as bad as you likely think. There are three core issues I'm aiming to tackle:
1. THE PROFIT INCENTIVE TO SHOTCOP
Please, familiarise yourself with this 14 seconds video before you move on:
The protagonist of the video is Zal'Gazath Trargiz, a character using an old man bluesuit model. The character in question owns a USP-M with 7 bullets and throughout the span of the video runs up to a Civil Protection officer who appears to be having a leisurly chat with three citizens, shoots them in the head 3-4 times and makes off with the dropped gun (not shown on screen). The depicted area is the plaza of the i17, right in front of the Nexus - a place that could arguably be considered the safest area on the entire map, short of the Combine-only depths.
Whatever roleplay had been going on was, for better or worse (very likely worse), cut short. You can argue that there is some character development to be gained through witnessing the death of an officer, but the unfortunate reality is that it was a relatively common occurrence at the time which in turn made it lose its value past the first few times.
Before you turn whatever feelings the situation describe might inspire towards the shotcopper, let's stop and think: 'Why did this happen?'. The video originates from Helix 1, a time period notorious for its time-consuming methods of gear acquisition (for the rebels). This type of high-risk high-reward approach of creating characters to shotcop was unintentionally encouraged by the system. If you got lucky, you'd be able to hit it off with a significant advantage. If you failed, onto the next character you'd go. And, a cop occupied with roleplay was the best target possible to score an easy goal. On some maps, a mugging or a shotcop was an almost guaranteed occurrence in specific areas, the frequency of which made the experience completely unenjoyable.
In order to tackle this issue on a systemic level rather than penalizing players who were simply trying to make do in the harsh circumstances, Civil Protection officers in the city will not only have a higher armour level, but also will not drop their armaments on death. Attempts to kill one of them should be done either for ideological reasons, or due to personal vendetta.
Do note that the above will NOT apply while cops are outside the city; be it offensive or reactionary action, once they step into foreign territory they will be scaled down to their usual level.
2. THE MEANINGLESSNESS OF CP-CITIZEN INTERACTIONS
Consider this scenario: you are a drug seller and have been caught by a Civil Protection officer. Through sheer luck, you manage to encounter one that you were able to reason with and strike a deal - you will, from now on, hand over 20% of your profits and be allowed to live on. Both delighted with the outcome and still somewhat frightened, you run into whatever hideout you have and sleep the night.
This deal, under our past circumstances, was completely meaningless. There were about 89 more players on the roster who could catch you the next day and kill you. In fact, considering the turnover within the faction, it wasn't unlikely that you would've never ever encountered that cop again. This, in turn, has historically caused some players to only interact (in good faith) with cops that they were already friends with OOCly.
To alleviate this, the Civil Protection roster will be limited to around six slots. Through the new application process, we will attempt to assemble a cast of diverse and recognisable characters with promise of longevity. At such a size, the entire faction identity will change altogether; they will no longer be the 'hit citizen with a stick' faction. This role will (more or less) fall onto the brand new 'Progenitor Arm'. More on this later.
3. THE STRAINED RELATIONS
Throughout the years, I have had the unfortunate opportunity to see a tendency develop. Originating somewhere between 2019 and 2020, I have noticed an extreme level of disrespect and toxicity in the way some characters were handled. From total refusal to cooperate in situations with a seemingly dead end ("Why give anything up in this interrogation and fuck my friends over?"), disregarding any notion of the instinct of self-preservation to outright unrealistic behaviours due to sheer spite (roleplaying lighting a cigarette while on the ground getting kicked by multiple people). While the aforementioned were extremes, milder versions of these were an everyday occurrence. People who had the PK ruleset memorized would tip-toe the line just to be a nuisance.
Not only were they distasteful, they also created a feedback loop. The only way to leave an impact on those who refused to roleplay injuries and/or pain was to damage them script-wise to the point where their in-game vision became blurry. The only way to 'get at' those refusing to take the presence of a gun aimed at them into consideration was to actually shoot them. And so, the resentment and frustration was bound to only deepen on both sides.
No more. Enough of that; all of the above is absolutely unacceptable in a collaborative writing medium and it's truly a shame the historical staff teams never attempted to somehow put an end to it.
THE IMPORTANT PART:
All of the changes described in the thread are my attempt to fix it. Should I fail, the system will be dissolved without any friction.
When a citizen is shot by a cop, it will in nearly all circumstances be a Permanent Kill. On top of that, the officers will not necessarily be bound by a binary set of laws, but rather a collection of flexible guidelines. Below is a snippet of the aforementioned:
(...) The guidelines below are meant to ensure all parties involved are as satisfied as possible with the conclusion of a character and the integrity of the server's narrative is preserved.
(...)
ACCEPTABLE kills are unlikely to be doubted at all.
QUESTIONABLE kills will be thoroughly examined if brought to light. Expect to be approached directly to clarify the matter.
INTOLERABLE kills will result in the immediate removal of your whitelist.
Below are categorized examples of use of lethal force:
ACCEPTABLE:
- the character in question assaulted somebody with lethal or maiming intent,
- the character in question was actively wielding a weapon,
- psychotic behaviour of the character in question made them a danger impossible to reason with,
- transgressions of the highest magnitude were commited.
QUESTIONABLE:
- the character refused to cooperate regardless of means used,
- death of this character was an appropriate culmination of an organic conflict in which you had stake in,
- the character in question was openly and actively antagonizing you (in-character),
- the character willingly and immutably was an obstacle to your goals.
INTOLERABLE:
- you disliked the character,
- you deemed the writing abilities of the person to be subpar,
- the death of the character was the most convenient exit out of the situation,
- you were hired to kill the character in question,
- kills done with seemingly no reason.
(...)
(...)
ACCEPTABLE kills are unlikely to be doubted at all.
QUESTIONABLE kills will be thoroughly examined if brought to light. Expect to be approached directly to clarify the matter.
INTOLERABLE kills will result in the immediate removal of your whitelist.
Below are categorized examples of use of lethal force:
ACCEPTABLE:
- the character in question assaulted somebody with lethal or maiming intent,
- the character in question was actively wielding a weapon,
- psychotic behaviour of the character in question made them a danger impossible to reason with,
- transgressions of the highest magnitude were commited.
QUESTIONABLE:
- the character refused to cooperate regardless of means used,
- death of this character was an appropriate culmination of an organic conflict in which you had stake in,
- the character in question was openly and actively antagonizing you (in-character),
- the character willingly and immutably was an obstacle to your goals.
INTOLERABLE:
- you disliked the character,
- you deemed the writing abilities of the person to be subpar,
- the death of the character was the most convenient exit out of the situation,
- you were hired to kill the character in question,
- kills done with seemingly no reason.
(...)
HOWEVER,
as mentioned earlier, the identity of the faction will change. The main peacekeeping role will fall onto the 'Progenitor Arm', a brand-new faction.
The 'Progenitor Arm' is the first human paramilitary force formed under the Combine. Equipped with tonfa batons and stab-proof vests, their role boils down to making sure the general populace is not a threat to itself and that ill-defined order is maintained. Petty crimes, singular Xenians and fistfights are the extent of their expertise.
'Gennies' or 'progs', as they are colloquially referred to, are not above the law. They are mere citizens carrying a baton around. In fact, it's a part-time job - they can go off-duty at will and function as any human would.
They lack the authority to kill - was one to kill a citizen, they would likely be charged and prosecuted by a Civil Protection officer. They don't even have access to the transgression manifest - if they suspect a grievous crime was committed, it's their role to call a CP over as they lack the means to legally deal with it.
Still a recent and unstudied appearance, the general public isn't yet sure about Civil Protection. Some, fed up with the inadequacy of the 'progs', welcome the far more decisive masked officers. The others, however, are filled with dread, fearing for the future of the human way of life.
If the above explanation was unclear, allow me to reiterate it - a new faction of entirely human baton conscripts will be introduced to replace Civil Protection in most of their duties. This faction lacks the authority to kill, has no connection to Overwatch AI and no Combine technology.
In terms of the power dynamic between the two factions, think of these comparisons:
- if conscripts were a street gang, the cops would be Yakuza,
- if conscripts were the local police, the cops would be the FBI,
- if conscripts were knights, the cops would be nobles (keep reading, this particular comparison will make more sense later).
With now the scope of what Civil Protection has to do significantly reduced, we will push an entirely different role onto them. Above the law, with the power to do whatever they want, still an enigma to the public, we will attempt to turn the 'beat citizen' faction into antagonistic narrative drivers.
The app format now focuses on the framework of your character, their personal goals and your skill to portray an antagonist. Selfish, egomaniacal, power-hungry, power-tripping, ruthless, greedy, treacherous - these are examples of the traits we are looking for in applicants. The chosen cops will, OOCly, be tasked with establishing spheres of influence among the citizens. Trading favours, offering protection, dealing with rival groups, exacting revenge are all encouraged actions - the ambitions and goals of officers should echo through the populace. Applicants will be accepted with the goal being generating as much internal conflict as possible. Even if there's an illusion of good intentions in how your character carries itself, at the end of the day they must be always be a bastard, one way or another.
Couple the above with the newfound authority to kill, each Civil Protection character will now carry much more weight. It's in your best interest to be on their good side.
Side note: in order not to ruin the image of the faction, bits of IC protocol will instead become OOC rules to preserve the integrity of the setting (e.g. no pardoning straight-up murderers). As a trade-off, the transgression manifest has been re-arranged to accomodate for the early occupation period, with some laws being relaxed.
I understand that this might seem frightening; fret not, the application process will be extremely strenuous, roster slots will be scarce and the characters will be thoroughly examined in their activity.
TL;DR
- Cops will be harder to kill in the city and you won't gain scripts from doing so.
- The cop roster is being downsized to ~6.
- The basic cop duties are relegated to baton conscripts, a new faction called the 'Progenitor Arm'.
- The usual 'beat citizen grind SC get ranked up' Civil Protection is gone. Cops will be antagonistic narrative drivers; they must now have clear personal goals in mind when joining the faction and must become influential characters throughout their span.
- Cops will have the ability to shoot people who brainlessly antagonize them.
