The Current State of Civil Protection: A Critique

[ShaVeK HaChaver 814]

Welp, time for one of those threads. Let's get started. Let's talk about the Combine problem.

The Current State of Civil Protection: A Critique
or, 'How I Learned Stop Roleplaying and Love S2K'
​

After an exchange with @RedMan, we both came to the same conclusion: there's an issue with how Civil Protection, as a faction, operates. Moreso, there's an issue with mindset, that causes it to operate in such a way. Perhaps because, in seeking experienced leadership, we have inadvertently cornered ourselves into taking instruction from those whose views were shaped by past iterations, who have preconceived biases, who are inflexible in what they believe is most 'efficient,' what is most 'correct.' On any scale, any formation, organization, group, and so forth, will run into this issue. The Old Guard will always believe their method is most tried and true. From Army Generals stressing the vital necessity of cavalry as the age of tank warfare dawns upon them, to server directors who believe radically new takes on an exhausted format 'won't last a month,' there will always be a vocal group of seasoned veterans ready to shoot down those with diverging ideas.

The issue, then, as it stands with Civil Protection, is this concrete inflexibility, this 'municipal mindset' as it is referred to ICly. It is a point of view that exacerbates S2K-goblinery, that so forcefully polarizes two sides of the server that interfactional roleplay is nigh impossible. It is the point of view that, through OOC resentment, sabotages an IC ceasefire. It is the point of view that launches an abortive coup against the Security Council, one that refers to the O.S.C as 'CAB' time and time again, despite being told that their function is separate, that as an entity they are separate. Indeed, it is the mindset that harbors those preconceived biases towards the Civil Authority of previous iterations that condemned the Security Council in spite of their efforts to consistently aid Civil Protection as a faction. It is the point of view that clumps players together into an RL-exclusive PT, guns down a single poorly-armed rebel, and spams the chat with 'haha.' It is the point of view that prioritizes the Rank Leader, not for the development of his character, nor the strength of his roleplay, but his ability to follow orders, to execute them, and to dominate in S2K. It is the point of view that brings up logs from Metro to statistically analyze who's best at S2K. It is the point of view that assembles S2K compilations for the screenshot thread, for the rank-leader channel in Discord. It is the point of view of RLs who, once more, form into a nearly-exclusive PT save for one singular functionary only to be decimated in combat and to return flagged onto their OTA with an APC deployed. It is the point of view of a player who gleefully records a video of him spraying down unarmed citizen characters and pridefully posts it to the forums with little due regard for the roleplay of the other. Because this viewpoint, this mindset, does not prioritize roleplay at all. It is against roleplay, because those who espouse it, those who are now endowed leadership roles ICly by headcops, are the very same that only a few months ago expressed such confusion at the idea of a PT venturing into the wastes with a goal divorced from S2K, with a goal that had sought to engage in interfactional roleplay.

S2K-hunger is not exclusive to our faction, but to analyze the polarization on a server-wide scale would require its own separate, intricate study, which I am incapable of beyond conjecture. My experience is with Civil Protection, and so my criticism is oriented towards Civil Protection.​

The Original Vision: An Uphill Battle​

Being one of the first to write 'lore' for this iteration, as well as one of the first to collaborate with Numbers, I had an idea for how Civil Protection would operate. That being, a faction defined by the desperation that we see in City Seventeen's siege, utilizing the tactics of a cornered dog. I envisioned Civil Protection a far cry from that of previous iterations, one made of the most brutally loyal and most brutally doomed. My precise vision, which has now been relegated to a document exclusively describing the various 'cults' that have cropped up in Civil Protection, was that of Excerpts from 'Modern Studies on Postoccupation Ultraloyalism'. Originally pinned to the roleplay documents section proper, the writing was to serve the function of being a guide for envisioning how one might roleplay Civil Protection, deprived of their defining duty, in the Post-Occupation.

Although the Garrison has seen a resurgence in cult-prominence, the issue that I find is that it is often such that cultism is the exception, not the rule, or, rather, ultraloyalism is the exception and not the rule. To elaborate, the base 'state' of Civil Protection during previous periods without heavy cultist presence was not so different than that of previous iterations' Civil Protection in an out-of-city event. The emphasis on still hovering adjacent to abiding by the rules, even without dispatch presence, is still ingrained. With this emphasis, too, comes the idea that Civil Protection must remain categorically hostile to the other faction. While I had spared much room in the way of Civil Protection being brutally antagonistic, a threat to be reckoned with for its unpredictability, I and those who stick to this vision, particularly players in the Order of the Bleeding Clamp and Merlin's Extinctionist, have been most willing to interact with rebels in ways beyond S2K. One might find some irony in those championing unlimited death for the 'sublunary Lambdan' being those who have strayed from purely hostile encounters with the enemy.

As for the garrison proper, the perpetuation of a mindset most common to previous iterations' Civil Protections, still imbued with a highly strict sense of how to operate, has in its stead left little opportunity for interfactional roleplay. Despite Dispatch being inactive, many still act as if it were. Is this the brutal loyalty I envisioned? Hardly. Brutal loyalty is not correlated here to the ability to unabashedly follow doctrinal procedures to a T, but to remain so ideologically dedicated to the concept of the Combine even in the wake of their defeat and humanity's liberation when one could easily shed their uniform and fall in line with the revolutionaries.

My prescription, then, is a total overhaul of culture. As the situation grows more desperate, so too do the justifications of remaining beside the Combine, people fall into cults, into ultraloyalism. This is what was originally expounded. The 'militarization' of Civil Protection is the exact opposite of what is warranted. Civil Protection should not grow to be more organized, should not rely more heavily on stringent protocol, but instead should slacken its requirements. The goal is to completely distance ourselves from a mindset that relies too heavily on the functionings of previous iterations that in turn limit what we can accomplish roleplay-wise, which serve only to improve our cohesion for the sake of S2K.

Many functionaries, Rank Leaders especially, in the words of Redman, 'are too focused on being a soldier than making a constructive impact on the garrison.' RedMan's Custodians serve as the prefect counterbalance to the Bleeding Clamp. His approach, which is still Ultraloyalist in character, fetishizes the operational dossier purposefully, whereas many others fall in line without reading in-between it. RedMan has made it his purpose to positively improve garrison morale, to conduct trainings, to straighten it out, and to come into conflict with those who would see it undone, all from a justifiable IC perspective. RedMan seeks to enliven internal roleplay, whereas many others make it their focus to engage externally in S2K. Both the Order, the Custodians, and the Extinctionist serve the purpose of enlivening 314's milieu. The Post-Occupation vision for Civil Protection is that of a multiplicity of radical loyalisms, different in their approach, united in their sanctification of the Combine or an aspect of it. The Post-Occupation vision is a vision that stresses the primacy of roleplay over S2K, both for our faction, and for our enemy.
​

The Security Council: Failed, Not Failure
​

"It didn't fail in my opinion, others failed it." So I have been told when the question of Geneva's Security Council had arisen. Although the tense quasi-rivalry between the O.S.C and Civil Protection was a much welcomed area of conflict, which served to add another layer to the Geneva plotline, one cannot but stop and question the OOC side of the conflict.

My experience at the helm of O.S.C leadership both in-character and out-of-character has given me the unique opportunity to dissect my first proper encounter with this mindset we discuss. When attempting to address concerns that emerged from Civil Protection, particularly Rank Leadership, I was met firstly with one constant: addressing O.S.C as CAB, despite the clear differentiation drawn up in Geneva's prologue thread, as well as my OOC reminders. Much of the OOC enmity, that in turn shook IC relations to a degree, stemmed from an entrenched idea of some Nebulous Old Guard roleplayers that this faction would serve, in their opinion, the role CAB took in previous iterations: that it would only hamper an otherwise effective faction. Without much provocation, certain players within Civil Protection took an unabashedly hostile stance OOCly and ICly towards the O.S.C. The faction was not given a chance to supplement the garrison, as was originally intended, and for the remainder of the map, fulfilled the prophecy of hampering Civil Protection, not by its own design, but by those within the garrison that had sought to antagonize it. Their biases were confirmed, if only because they drove the faction into a corner to where the only way it could reasonably operate was by acting in a way that resulted in those confirmed biases.

Some would go as far to claim, as if having been present in the Valve writers' room, that the Combine would never initiate a ceasefire, would never cross the aisle to seek a (self-serving) armistice as it licked its wounds. This idea of an iron-willed, overpowering, monolithic Combine so common to portrayals of the Clockwork era, which has continued to stick with some individuals, actively limits storytelling potentiality. This conception contributes directly as justification for polarizing the two enemy factions to such a degree that the only exchange between them can end in a shootout. There isn't a day where some conflict passes between both factions that someone will question in a sort-of snarky manner as to why the rebels were allowed to do this or that, in such a way that implies the Combine would simply curbstomp them if it happened realistically. The end of Geneva received complaints for having been railroaded. It was. However, those most vocal and critical of Geneva's ending from the Combine side, happened to be those who most demanded the Combine's strength railroad Rebel defeat when contesting regulations meant to keep the Combine from blindly overpowering their enemy.
​

Rank Leadership: An Exercise in Nepotism​

Staff has observed the 'bending of rules' by Rank Leadership to supply lower-ranked CiviPro with higher-ranked weapons and ammunition. Previously, faction leadership would have constituted this as vendor abuse. However, as the server grows more and more polarized, more hungry for minute victories in S2K combat, the prerogatives change, rules are slackened, incidents are observed but not reprimanded. Rules are waived and the faction adopts undocumented prerogatives for the sake of 'winning.' You scratch my back, I scratch yours, we both look the other way.

The choice of who headcops accept for Rank Leadership itself communicates effectively the presence of a mindset that has very much embraced the element of S2K over that of roleplay. The selection process, or lack of a process for some, communicates a degree of prioritization of a certain type of player that perpetuates this mindset we have set out to criticize.

In our introduction, we have singled out two instances of RL-exclusive PTs and the way they have operated. Both instances, without a shadow of a doubt, display an S2K-hungry, anti-roleplay mindset. If the bulk of IC faction leadership are geared towards interacting with refugee and resistance characters at the ends of hot barrels, how can the faction hope to facilitate roleplay with the other side? For them, the Combine faction is rarely interacted with outside of combat. For much of Rank Leadership, everything serves as a means to an end, that end being 'winning,' usually in the form of S2K. If something is not adjacent to that end, it is condemnable, no matter how much roleplay it may generate.

If these examples are not self-evident enough, the hostility one Rank Leader had received, being OOCly called a 'dirty little rat' by another, for something that did not meet that end, should be telling enough. The response from headcops? Lackluster at best, sympathetic to the perpetrator at worst.

Conclusion: Excising Overcompetition, Roleplay Above Victory
​

The greatest threat to this iteration is not a stale map, it's unchained competition, an overreliance on S2K. Roleplay has been put on the backseat. PassiveRP, to some, is intolerable. Much emphasis has been put on 'winning' shootouts, an external thing, which is, due to this poor mindset, the only external (read: interfactional) action that can be mustered. Even then, some express hesitation to attempt to bridge the gap in fear of being shot, as if dying still holds as much leverage when previous iterations would have met you with PK instead of NLR.

The mindset that plagues Civil Protection threatens internal roleplay with its overemphasis on stringency characteristic of previous citybound iterations in tandem with victory in S2K becoming an end in and of itself, it threatens external roleplay by totally cauterizing the ability to do so, from the fear of the opposing faction to let their guard down around a faction perceived as hungry for S2K and from the championing of S2K by leadership IC and OOC.

The solution demands those citybound stringencies become one with the multiplicity. In other words, the point is to let them become an option amongst many, rather than the default. Once more, this is perhaps best categorized in RedMan's Custodials. The solution demands that nepotism is clamped down upon. The solution demands that Rank Leadership is diversified, as it now favors those whose strengths lie in S2K and stringency. The solution demands an outlet other than S2K for interfactional roleplay. One might say that this outlet is already attainable, but the fact of the matter is that it is not only discouraged from an IC perspective, but an OOC perspective by the actions of Civil Protection leadership. Once again, look no further than the 'dirty little rat' comment.

Making a change of this effect upon the server is not a top-down affair, it requires willingness on the part of the players to actively seek to cool S2K hunger, to work towards a healthier dynamic. This thread exists to facilitate such a change of course. It seeks to begin the discussion. Much of what I have laid forth here are my own musings, they exist as a foundation to be improved upon through discourse, not as the be-all-end-all of critiques. Having said as much, I now open the gates of discourse.

 

[A. Vaher]

I liked it.
Good read.
I have nothing to add aside from I hate the APC so much.

 

['77 East]

It is the point of view that, through OOC resentment, sabotages an IC ceasefire. It is the point of view that launches an abortive coup against the Security Council, one that refers to the O.S.C as 'CAB' time and time again, despite being told that their function is separate, that as an entity they are separate. Indeed, it is the mindset that harbors those preconceived biases towards the Civil Authority of previous iterations that condemned the Security Council in spite of their efforts to consistently aid Civil Protection as a faction.

Just want to say that this entire plot within C24 was pretty shitty.

We had schemes to 'win' the battle and ended up with everything pissed away because three rank leaders decided that trying to one-up themselves with being errant retards on a prowess quest was better than doing their actual jobs.

In our introduction, we have singled out two instances of RL-exclusive PTs and the way they have operated. Both instances, without a shadow of a doubt, display an S2K-hungry, anti-roleplay mindset.

It is the point of view that clumps players together into an RL-exclusive PT, guns down a single poorly-armed rebel, and spams the chat with 'haha.'

For shame, seriously.

It's stuff like this coupled with the demand to resign en-masse over a temporary demotion of one of them that makes me absolutely loath this clown cabal. Most of these individuals do nothing but mindless regurgitate a long dead handbook, spew radio codes like dictionaries and exist for nothing more than shooting randoms. Character development is a joke, it exists only so they can join at graveyard hours and ERP with each other; others are on their third or fourth cop by now.

You want to obsess over protocol and cheap laughs this much? Follow Sectus's example and go join the real coppers and yell the n word on your own time, stop fucking it up for the rest of us you utter spastics.

The greatest threat to this iteration is not a stale map, it's unchained competition, an overreliance on S2K. Roleplay has been put on the backseat. PassiveRP, to some, is intolerable. Much emphasis has been put on 'winning' shootouts, an external thing, which is, due to this poor mindset, the only external (read: interfactional) action that can be mustered.

I can list twenty current whitelist holders who will agree that this forced mentality of 'win at all costs' bullshit has eroded most of the faction's fun. What's the point of trying to gain intel or plan things, or even fuck with the insurgents if some retard with authority shoots down the idea in favor of "just kill them"? What's the point of plotting events or trying to have some fun if it all boils down to a handful of people keeping everything in regression?

Why don't I just KILL YOU like real conscripts did to their incompetent CO's?

Oh, right, there's a dozen rules keeping you safe and a few staff who would gladly suck you off to keep you in their buddy club. It might not be clockwork but the game hasn't changed, otherwise half the rank leader corps would be dead and rotated in favor of people who have a functioning brain and aren't closet racists.

However, those most vocal and critical of Geneva's ending from the Combine side, happened to be those who most demanded the Combine's strength railroad Rebel defeat when contesting regulations meant to keep the Combine from blindly overpowering their enemy.

And this is the cherry on top.

We would have ended with a strong pyrrhic victory, but guess what? Three rank leaders (and more grunts, I imagine) intentionally sabotaged the plan because they wanted to spitefully fuck with the O.S.C on an OOC level because they believed they had no control over things. They intentionally, knowingly undermined the path to victory to save their ego.

'IC is IC' you may say, but if that were true there would have been a lot more bodies hanging from streetlights before the arc ended. Those members of staff who were not willing to see this occur can go sit on a pike, they know who they were covering for.

 

[Rabid]

I want to preface my post that I do not at all agree with the OOC attitudes that step blatantly over the line and trample it 24/7. I'm putting this here just because I'm about to give into two points in particular that I feel have a tad more OOC nuance.

Firstly, even though as time has worn on things have soured, the idea behind more than a few of RL's were that they had proven themselves capable of organizing a fairly solid defence so cops weren't reduced to punching bags that lost every encounter (and thus every map) which would have killed things just as quick as the alternative.

Its something we saw during legacy WW3 - when Globs were 'the roleplayers' who lost almost every single map change because they just couldn't compete with the Coals in raw S2K skill without staff intervention, which itself was shat on as swinging the 'real' result. This is very much the trend we saw early on in rp_apoc where rebels felt like they couldn't get a victory because they just kept losing and thus got demotivated to play at all until that changed.

This was especially true during C24 given the map was built on the notion that 'your ability to fight will directly impact who comes out of this with a victory'.

When you set up those sorts of conditions, people are going to push for a win however they can and even your average joe roleplayer will start to get bored if they don't see results.

But again, that isn't me excusing a lot of the shit I've seen some RL's do. Its dumb, its unfun and it sucks.

It is the point of view that, through OOC resentment, sabotages an IC ceasefire. It is the point of view that launches an abortive coup against the Security Council, one that refers to the O.S.C as 'CAB' time and time again, despite being told that their function is separate, that as an entity they are separate. Indeed, it is the mindset that harbors those preconceived biases towards the Civil Authority of previous iterations that condemned the Security Council in spite of their efforts to consistently aid Civil Protection as a faction.

I have to admit that even at the time this was going on - before the coup - I expressed to ARK that I was incredibly wary of what the IC response would be after they'd spent months surviving on their own with nothing but one another for support, because honestly I'd seen some of the IC interactions and I saw how some members of the Council spoke to cops.

It didn't exactly give the feeling of 'we're in this together' especially when the criticism of rebels using the ceasefire to claw back territory and better positions was met IC with, basically, "shut up and do your job, grunts". While that wasn't the attitude most people had by any means it was noticed enough that multiple otherwise RP-centric cops started to chafe IC.

Having divorced suits sitting in a fortified palace surrounded by guards dictating to the characters who're out there fighting and dying in their war for them was always going to be a hard sell, and while I'm not at all saying there wasn't an OOC element to the coup and stuff (even if it worked out flawlessly for the Council via the pulse orb lmao) I do know that there was IC tensions and upsets before those RL's made a move.

 

[ShaVeK HaChaver 814]

I want to preface my post that I do not at all agree with the OOC attitudes that step blatantly over the line and trample it 24/7. I'm putting this here just because I'm about to give into two points in particular that I feel have a tad more OOC nuance.

Firstly, even though as time has worn on things have soured, the idea behind more than a few of RL's were that they had proven themselves capable of organizing a fairly solid defence so cops weren't reduced to punching bags that lost every encounter (and thus every map) which would have killed things just as quick as the alternative.

Its something we saw during legacy WW3 - when Globs were 'the roleplayers' who lost almost every single map change because they just couldn't compete with the Coals in raw S2K skill without staff intervention, which itself was shat on as swinging the 'real' result. This is very much the trend we saw early on in rp_apoc where rebels felt like they couldn't get a victory because they just kept losing and thus got demotivated to play at all until that changed.

This was especially true during C24 given the map was built on the notion that 'your ability to fight will directly impact who comes out of this with a victory'.

When you set up those sorts of conditions, people are going to push for a win however they can and even your average joe roleplayer will start to get bored if they don't see results.

But again, that isn't me excusing a lot of the shit I've seen some RL's do. Its dumb, its unfun and it sucks.



I have to admit that even at the time this was going on - before the coup - I expressed to ARK that I was incredibly wary of what the IC response would be after they'd spent months surviving on their own with nothing but one another for support, because honestly I'd seen some of the IC interactions and I saw how some members of the Council spoke to cops.

It didn't exactly give the feeling of 'we're in this together' especially when the criticism of rebels using the ceasefire to claw back territory and better positions was met IC with, basically, "shut up and do your job, grunts". While that wasn't the attitude most people had by any means it was noticed enough that multiple otherwise RP-centric cops started to chafe IC.

Having divorced suits sitting in a fortified palace surrounded by guards dictating to the characters who're out there fighting and dying in their war for them was always going to be a hard sell, and while I'm not at all saying there wasn't an OOC element to the coup and stuff (even if it worked out flawlessly for the Council via the pulse orb lmao) I do know that there was IC tensions and upsets before those RL's made a move.

W/R to your first point, the matter is diversifying Rank Leadership, not selecting either/or (select for roleplay-centric RLs or select for S2K-centric RLs). Even with the current biases regarding selection, that being S2K-centric characters, more recent additions to the roster have... not proven entirely apt at that either.

As for the O.S.C., I will note that some characters tended to push the line between supplementary faction and being too authoritative. However, the response would always be pettier than the transgression, and the preconceived biases that arose from relying too heavily on previous iterations as a frame of reference for O.S.C as opposed to, I dunno, just reading the lore that was set out for it didn't help either. The faction wasn't given a chance because people (read: Old Guard roleplayers) already had a grudge towards it going in. Those IC tensions and upsets were in part due to this aforementioned OOC element.

 

[Rabid]

W/R to your first point, the matter is diversifying Rank Leadership, not selecting either/or (select for roleplay-centric RLs or select for S2K-centric RLs). Even with the current biases regarding selection, that being S2K-centric characters, more recent additions to the roster have... not proven entirely apt at that either.

Yeah, I can't deny that at all. I was more just saying that even the worst RL's were initially chosen because the hope was they'd be able to get the gang together when needed but without the need to clamp down like the city, they'd relax during the downtime.

Obviously that didn't work out lol.

 

[ShaVeK HaChaver 814]

Yeah, I can't deny that at all. I was more just saying that even the worst RL's were initially chosen because the hope was they'd be able to get the gang together when needed but without the need to clamp down like the city, they'd relax during the downtime.

Obviously that didn't work out lol.

I very much feel that the spirit of dead iterations looms over ours, haunting it, a spook, a phantasm, infecting seasoned players with brainworms. You WILL follow city protocol. You WILL be Ryan Gosling disillusioned character no. 67834. You WILL act like you're just some cop in Vladivostok who's going back to the city in a week, but this time forever.

 

['77 East]

met IC with, basically, "shut up and do your job, grunts"

Just going to say that we (me & @Appetite Ruining Kebab) met with a bunch of RL's in private and outlined exactly why the ceasefire existed (it was a feint, btw, for a greater plan).

The three of them proceeded to deliberately try and trash it, going against their orders for shits and giggles, shooting themselves & the faction in the foot for little more than spite. If none of them conveyed our intentions to the grunts despite us asking them to keep things in order, that's an even greater indication of their crime.

 

[ShaVeK HaChaver 814]

Just going to say that we (me & @Appetite Ruining Kebab) met with a bunch of RL's in private and outlined exactly why the ceasefire existed (it was a feint, btw, for a greater plan).

The three of them proceeded to deliberately try and trash it, going against their orders for shits and giggles, shooting themselves & the faction in the foot for little more than spite. If none of them conveyed our intentions to the grunts, that's an even greater indication of their crime.

I forgot to mention that we planned for a representative of CiviPro to accompany each meeting that involved their faction, going so far as to outline a way to cover the topic first to let the cop out the moment stuff pertaining to them was finished, but that soon fell to the wayside as they grew more irate with us and more preoccupied w/ other matters. We had one for the first meeting, but even then they had to flee to respond to some thing or another.

 

[Rabid]

Just going to say that we (me & @Appetite Ruining Kebab) met with a bunch of RL's in private and outlined exactly why the ceasefire existed (it was a feint, btw, for a greater plan).

The three of them proceeded to deliberately try and trash it, going against their orders for shits and giggles, shooting themselves & the faction in the foot for little more than spite. If none of them conveyed our intentions to the grunts, that's an even greater indication of their crime.

Oh yeah, again I'm absolutely not defending that because I know full well they did that shit, and I'm fairly sure they didn't relay a great deal either.

I'm just saying too I saw some characters get a little overbearing when it came to the whole 'you can't really say no to us so STFU' thing during the early stages of C24 too. This wasn't the majority either (and for my part I think the Council was a fantastic idea that made sense), its just sad it went the way it did.

 

['77 East]

I forgot to mention that we planned for a representative of CiviPro to accompany each meeting that involved their faction, going so far as to outline a way to cover the topic first to let the cop out the moment stuff pertaining to them was finished, but that soon fell to the wayside as they grew more irate with us and more preoccupied w/ other matters. We had one for the first meeting, but even then they had to flee to respond to some thing or another.

From memory we had two separate officers at two meetings, one of them was there for something like eight minutes before some bomb threat had the place evacuated, and another barely did much before responding to another incident.

Afterwards, the coup happened and from there it was rather bad taste to let them walk the halls.

 

[ShaVeK HaChaver 814]

Reminded of a thoroughly-planned and detailed event gone awry by a single grenade. Ahem, "It is the point of view that..."

 

[WstStranger]

hello
cop main here
yuor rebel scum opinion suxxs
s2k rush forevererrrrrrrr




Alright, got the RLs off.

As some who know me as the 'OOCly pissed at demotion for saying a tagline' or as the 'Guy who rants too much in Discord servers', I'm here to give a sort of story/rant/POV onto this.

A small background, I am one of those new RPers, who started out with 2022 WW3RP and staying until it closed. So this server is my second RP experience ever. I also got into TextRP cuz I already knew my shooter performance wasn't going to be good, hell, even fps could be bad just like in WW3RP, so voice RP and S2K focus is a no no with an internet that is just unreliable.

Anyway, I got into CMB faction because I always got fascinated in playing the bad (or 'good' lol) guy, being a huge fan of the Combine at HL2 and seeing numbers telling me that I could apply despite having no experience at all, I got in, despite a shitty app for a character idea I got after reading the ultraloyalism doc and feeling a little inspired.

I also got in as the lore gave me an expectation of slowly but never stallily make more and more transhumans, eventually having my character in that road. I then focused on making a really unique/fun character if he got transhumanized, as maybe it depended on a good RP basis (Clueless).

OK, here come the rants:

We are the Combine, I understand we will need S2Kers for really high positions like the Elite Soldiers, which is understandable. However, I never knew how much S2K was involved in how the server developed, and in consequence, I have observed time and time again that only the good S2Kers got to 75 or transhumanized, sometimes in way less than a month!
What does this mean? I practically won't ever reach 75 ever, so I had no story to tell with the concept I had in mind. I had to adapt over time as I started coming to terms into this as my thinking was reinforced by some units reaching 75 in literally 2 weeks because they knew how to shoot, not because of their RP. And even then I am running out of character development to make with this kind of stall.

Make no mistake, I don't say these lads are bad for having been promoted too quickly. Some of who I go along best are OTA/High ranking cops, and quite a few of them bring good RP. However, those share to a level the same view I have, as some of them also think they got promoted too quickly.

"So, what's you goddamn point?"

I say that if we are here to RP, and that RP will make the natural course of our stories we create, why is a Competitive, sweaty shooter as a middle wall for the development!?

"But you must git gud, skill issue."

You care more about kills and rebel dying sounds/ cop flatlines and the adrenaline rush than a faction that can develop characters, make an actual story we all participate in constructively. Hell, I'm seeing a young RP lad submitting to the S2K mindset because he really wants OTA, so he sacrifices most RP he could have made so he gets what he wants, and that to me is just sad if we are forming "RPers" with that same mindset...

Then it came on my mind, we are cops, but we can interact with the other faction somehow, like trying to get people into our cause, or having captures and interactions that don't have to end in stalkerization or outright death. But, as it turns out, I am blocked by the fear and the view rebels have that I'll shoot them that I barely bother going out from the base at all.
Congrats, thanks to a bunch of rules and actors, I'm blocked from interacting with even a fraction of half the playerbase, and you made some lads leave due to "OTA 'rescue' team BS" a few times. And when I propose ideas, I am kind of met with either silence or just "You simply can't because".

"RLs are an OOC role, you wouldn't get it."

It appears the general sentiment that RLs just aren't leaders is shared, I don't feel inspired or good to work with most of them (RedMan RL good, though, and PM89 RL interesting at least). And that level of OOC protection and role feels that RLs are BS and trying to get to be one as to be a leader is simply a chore than an aim for your character (And don't start me with the 'RLs cant go rogue' BS and even more BSy when rulebreaking that stuff).

I definitely got good moments (Which I appreciate, truly), but the bad and to some level shady stuff going in the background, make me doubt I want to really stay in the faction if the kind of story that I initially (And still) wanted to make, and given how cops impact rebels, HL2RP as a whole has me doubting my stay. After all, I have a life I want to make, and if HL2RP becomes a waste of my creative time into a story I can't even develop properly, I would rather make my own stuff...

But maybe nothing good will ever happen due to this, we stay in a status quo and this iteration dies as GmodRP: On a bad note.

It's done, dumb rate me, whatever. I only want things to get done, and if that costs me leaving RP and doing things for everyone else to have a real storytelling experience, I will. However, I don't feel like letting these issues in the soil keep growing more bitter minds.

 

[Andrew]

Way too long of a read for a point you could've gotten across with much fewer words
Also there used to be rl's who were bad at s2k or ran at like 5fps like Nicrobe

 

['77 East]

I have observed time and time again that only the good S2Kers got to 75 or transhumanized, sometimes in way less than a month!

while this is true (and a problem) I got both promotions by just showing up to a problematic scene and fixing stuff

I have barely shot at anyone during raids

 

[FreeSpy]

We are the Combine, I understand we will need S2Kers for really high positions like the elite, which is understandable. However, I never knew how much S2K was involved in how the server developed, and in consequence, I have observed time and time again that only the good S2Kers got to 75 or transhumanized, sometimes in way less than a month!
What does this mean? I practically won't ever reach 75 ever, so I had no story to tell with the concept I had in mind. I had to adapt over time as I started coming to terms into this as my thinking was reinforced by some units reaching 75 in literally 2 weeks because they knew how to shoot, not because of their RP. And even then I am running out of character development to make with this kind of stall.

Make no mistake, I don't say these lads are bad for having been promoted too quickly. Some of who I go along best are OTA/High ranking cops, and quite a few of them bring good RP. However, those share to a level the same view I have, as some of them also think they got promoted too quickly.

This is what we had a debate at the start of the server

OTA is actually more beneficial to the roleplayers rather than the s2kers - You might ask, why?

Because OTA has higher HP, infinite stuff in the vendors (not a bad thing when the worse off at s2k get it, and i don't mean it in such ways where I am shitting on those that are less skilled at s2k. it's not a bad thing, people make it out to be like that because it's copium), and max stats - This makes being OTA a lot more forgiving and thus equalizing a lot of the gaps between skill. I die a lot less when I play OTA in the same positions i'd die as a cop, because of those increased stats

The conclusion was that if roleplayers were chosen in higher percentages than the s2k mains, we would see it as an incentive to roleplay as that was the main way to be promoted and to make progress in the faction

 

[Provingmedusa]

To preface, I essentially agree with a lot this thread says.

I woke up like ten minutes ago so I'll try to collect my thoughts and organize them proper.

OOC RESENTMENT

As a new player to Nebulous, and this iteration being my "proper" first involvement with Nebulous, everything is relatively new to me in concept. I am by no means an "Old Guard" player, I'm here for lore and story, I don't care (or I literally cannot make the connection) if the S.C is similar to C.A.B as it's not the same from the lore I read and what I gathered from In-Character.

My, now dead, CP Character JURY-2 held no OOC grudge against the Security Council, ICly he was influenced however. A dislike, almost hatred for "suits" as he put it was founded by Kirillian from the Depot, sending the Garrison on a suicide mission. Again in the Metro from EX-DEV sending them on another suicide run where he lost one of his greatest friends. Seeing the Suits appear in City 24 meant nothing good in his eyes.

Essentially, I have not been part of this community long enough to actually have any substantial grudges against anyone.

RANK LEADER NEPOTISM
I'm just going to be clean here and state my opinions. I do not have great views on a good handful of the current Rank Leaders. Having been a die-hard CP since the start of the server, playing for unhealthy hours each day, I saw a lot of this.

I didn't notice much in Depot, and I wasn't there for Apoc, but the existence of Rank-Leader exclusive PT's were abundant, especially on the Metro and City 24. They would frequently go out together without saying a single word to the rest of the Force, leaving those sat at base with either a VERY sudden distress call, sometimes accompanied with a BSL or two after, or they simply come back typically without any words spoken, or a single "Ripcord".

Lots of us took this ICly, discussing their "incompetence" and recklessness amongst ourselves but in the end I always had an issue with this OOCly. I knew they were all friends and in their own voice chats during this, as evident by their clips they'd post owning the rebels.

With being a 75% CP and friends with Ron's character ICly (God bless you), I semi-frequently went along with these RL-Only PT's as @PeaceAndMagick89 put it, "save for one singular functionary" I was. Through this I had gotten first-hand experience of what these PT's were like. Usually? Dead silent. Despite this I still came along with their PT's, why? I'm not sure.
Because of their usually silent way of doing things, I was always left in the dark. I had followed them so much to a point where I started to telepathically know what they were doing, sometimes I actually WAS able to know what they was doing just from the way they look around and at each other, the paths we took, and from just guesswork the rest of the time.

It was these RL's, and these PT's where I was inspired to strive to ensure in my own PT's that no one didn't know what we was doing, what our goals were, what I expected of them, etc. etc. because I didn't want other people to feel the same way I did in these RL PT's.

Isolated and Forgotten.


THE CULT AND ULTRALOYALISM

A relatively small section.

The O.B.C and the Custodians (That I didn't really know of until now) are great examples of more of what should happen with the Garrison. Providing Roleplay inside of the faction is a great way to retain player attention, giving people more to do, to involve themselves in.

Not much to say besides I'm glad they exist, even if some people think they're cringe, I would rather them be there and schizopost ICly than for it to just be another set of generic CP's that provide almost nothing in terms of proper, diverse RP potential.


CLOSING STATEMENT - LAST THOUGHTS

I am glad this thread has come to exist else my opinions on what's been said would have never gotten out there.

I greatly value Roleplay over S2K as the latter rarely provides any meaningful character development or roleplay.

It's a side-show, at least it should be.

I want to play Combine without being completely locked off from the other half of the playerbase outside of shooting each other. Whether that will ever happen, who knows.

I can't say much on the S.C/CAB situation as, again, this is my first proper Nebulous iteration, there's not much for me to say on the topic at all.​

 

['77 East]

Hell, I'm seeing a young RP lad submitting to the S2K mindset because he really wants OTA

Tell him to get a grip, if he goes that way he's going to reach transhuman status earlier but also with nothing to do, he'll have a cardboard character with fuck all to do but shoot things, and most of the time the faction is guarding or messing with stuff, not going on shootouts.

 

[Provingmedusa]

Tell him to get a grip, if he goes that way he's going to reach transhuman status earlier but also with nothing to do, he'll have a cardboard character with fuck all to do but shoot things, and most of the time the faction is guarding or messing with stuff, not going on shootouts.

What has REALLY made the OTA so far has been the characters and the personality (ironically some might think) behind those Soldiers. I really love what some people have done with their characters and you can sometimes really tell they used to be normal people.

 

[Andrew]

I'm on a phone so I'm not gonna go crazy but taking away or resetting the back stocks of guns cops have each map change would be nice
Makes them so the same thing rebs do and fill inventories before mapswitch