We've all been talking in Discord time and time again about the stagnating atmosphere in terms of roleplay. An inherent "upper limit" to how interesting, involved and complex roleplay can get. And I, for one, am exhausted with seeing the same issues brought up every week, talked to death, and agreed upon for 25 minutes, only for it to devolve into 'femboy hooters' and everything is forgotten and nothing is improved, only for the very same discussion to be had next week. The truth is that Aspect can't fix anything if all we do is talk about what we don't like. We have to be active members of this community and provide alternatives and discuss possible solutions to our issues. Because that is ultimately what they are: Our issues.
The fact is that; For a roleplay server to be interesting, you can't just change small things or a few things. A serious roleplay server can be seen as a large "machine". It has gears, cogs, wheels, and belts. There is no way to make a machine more efficient by simply changing one small thing.
Civil Protection and Dispatch
My experience has always been that the most interesting, captivating roleplay happens in the grey areas. When you just don't know. When you have doubts about things, but you're hoping for the best. This state of mind also allows you to convince other characters of your goal and ideas. Currently, there are two very clear sides; You are either with the Union or against the Union, and a Dispatch system, while lore-appropriate, has the tendency to get in the way of the nuances. One of my fondest memories on HL2RP is never really knowing if someone is actually rogue, or if they're just very unorthodox in their means and approach to policing. Not knowing if an anti-citizen is truly an anti-citizen or a citizen who is actually loyal to the Union, but has taken it upon themselves to aid the Union how they see fit.
I'm not advocating for the removal of Dispatch, but rather reserving the Dispatch AI system as pure surveillance, advisory, and coordination, and then having something above Rank Leader for solving these ambiguous situations. Instead of a strict by-the-book CP force, you get units who are allowed to express their character as a whole character, and they can showcase that in their actions. The atmosphere currently in the CP faction, is that everyone is afraid of doing anything remotely "interesting" or out-of-the-box, because of the looming threat of getting 99'd. That, at least to me, doesn't bode well. People are afraid to roleplay their character because they fear for their character. This steers the Civil Protection away from being actual characters with human traits and instead steers them in the direction of human-controlled NPC's, yet they are the second-most important faction, and without them, the whole concept of HL2RP falls apart at the seams. It just doesn't seem fair.
Dispatch is a good idea theoretically. But because we don't have the actual combined knowledge of the Combine, and because Dispatch is not an actual omniscient, omnipresent Artificial Intelligence, it falls flat when asked to fill that role. Especially when that role requires the people playing as Dispatch to adhere to a strict, inflexible set of rules. It just extends the CP issue into Dispatch.
In an ideal scenario, you could convince a superior that; Albeit what you did seems sketchy, excessive, or 'wrong', that it might have been the right thing to do by providing information, context or the description of a larger plan to said superior. Think about it like how court cases work; There are strict, written laws but it is possible for a court case to set a "precedent" legally, which dictates how the same scenario or scenarios comparable to the precedent, is judged. This, in turn, allows the Civil Protection to evolve as a faction as more effective methods are discovered by people being allowed to think outside the box.
Resistance, Rebellion and Anti-Citizens
My suggestion for reforming the way anti-citizens work is to get rid of facial recognition for the cameras, and instead have the cameras read the CID Card in the citizens' inventory (if possible). This means having a BOL put on you doesn't immediately stow you away and doom you to living a circlejerk life in the sewers. Instead, you can acquire a new ID card, and essentially a new identity. This also gives the Civil Protection more work, in that they would want to ensure that Citizens are carrying their ID card, as a missing ID card might mean someone else is "borrowing" it. Additionally, citizens can now sell their ID cards to the resistance/anti-citizens if they're strapped for cash.
This means the anti-citizens now have the ability to fare within city limits again, and thus contribute to the population and roleplay. Additionally, it'd make sense to have a machine in the Nexus that can run a DNA scan or facial scan to verify someone's actual identity. So if someone is suspected of using a false ID, they can actually be verified. Though this process should take place in the Nexus and should take 30 seconds, or have a cooldown. A big one. Like 24 hours. This to discourage this entire idea from falling apart by Civil Protection beginning to just "Imposter check" everyone and everything they come across.
CWU, Stores, and the UAB/Congress.
When it comes to nuance, nobody is riper for that than everything related to the CWU and the business sector. Dividing the CWU up internally to have a property branch, which leases/rents properties to store owners and they in turn must pay the UAB or Congress regularly for the properties they lease/rent out.
Then a CWU Commodities branch that pays the Workforce branch for the items they produce during work cycles. Such as gin and whatever else is produced.
The store owners then pay Commodities to have their inventory restocked, and pay rent/lease on their properties.
UAB/Congress, in turn, gives the Workforce money to put into rations and money to pay for the rent/lease.
The economic cycle becomes;
View attachment 479
This is just a rough draft, and I am partial to removing the "Commodities" branch altogether and just having inventory come straight from the Workforce branch.
Having various branches in the CWU also allows for cabals to form. Heads of the various branches might want something different, or people in the branches might leverage their specific powers in order to benefit from it themselves. There is also the possibility of forming a "banking" operation that will front prospective store-owners the money for the first rent cycle and the money required for initial stock.
These are my suggestions, and I'd love to hear about some other ones from you guys, as well as feedback on these
The fact is that; For a roleplay server to be interesting, you can't just change small things or a few things. A serious roleplay server can be seen as a large "machine". It has gears, cogs, wheels, and belts. There is no way to make a machine more efficient by simply changing one small thing.
Civil Protection and Dispatch
My experience has always been that the most interesting, captivating roleplay happens in the grey areas. When you just don't know. When you have doubts about things, but you're hoping for the best. This state of mind also allows you to convince other characters of your goal and ideas. Currently, there are two very clear sides; You are either with the Union or against the Union, and a Dispatch system, while lore-appropriate, has the tendency to get in the way of the nuances. One of my fondest memories on HL2RP is never really knowing if someone is actually rogue, or if they're just very unorthodox in their means and approach to policing. Not knowing if an anti-citizen is truly an anti-citizen or a citizen who is actually loyal to the Union, but has taken it upon themselves to aid the Union how they see fit.
I'm not advocating for the removal of Dispatch, but rather reserving the Dispatch AI system as pure surveillance, advisory, and coordination, and then having something above Rank Leader for solving these ambiguous situations. Instead of a strict by-the-book CP force, you get units who are allowed to express their character as a whole character, and they can showcase that in their actions. The atmosphere currently in the CP faction, is that everyone is afraid of doing anything remotely "interesting" or out-of-the-box, because of the looming threat of getting 99'd. That, at least to me, doesn't bode well. People are afraid to roleplay their character because they fear for their character. This steers the Civil Protection away from being actual characters with human traits and instead steers them in the direction of human-controlled NPC's, yet they are the second-most important faction, and without them, the whole concept of HL2RP falls apart at the seams. It just doesn't seem fair.
Dispatch is a good idea theoretically. But because we don't have the actual combined knowledge of the Combine, and because Dispatch is not an actual omniscient, omnipresent Artificial Intelligence, it falls flat when asked to fill that role. Especially when that role requires the people playing as Dispatch to adhere to a strict, inflexible set of rules. It just extends the CP issue into Dispatch.
In an ideal scenario, you could convince a superior that; Albeit what you did seems sketchy, excessive, or 'wrong', that it might have been the right thing to do by providing information, context or the description of a larger plan to said superior. Think about it like how court cases work; There are strict, written laws but it is possible for a court case to set a "precedent" legally, which dictates how the same scenario or scenarios comparable to the precedent, is judged. This, in turn, allows the Civil Protection to evolve as a faction as more effective methods are discovered by people being allowed to think outside the box.
Resistance, Rebellion and Anti-Citizens
My suggestion for reforming the way anti-citizens work is to get rid of facial recognition for the cameras, and instead have the cameras read the CID Card in the citizens' inventory (if possible). This means having a BOL put on you doesn't immediately stow you away and doom you to living a circlejerk life in the sewers. Instead, you can acquire a new ID card, and essentially a new identity. This also gives the Civil Protection more work, in that they would want to ensure that Citizens are carrying their ID card, as a missing ID card might mean someone else is "borrowing" it. Additionally, citizens can now sell their ID cards to the resistance/anti-citizens if they're strapped for cash.
This means the anti-citizens now have the ability to fare within city limits again, and thus contribute to the population and roleplay. Additionally, it'd make sense to have a machine in the Nexus that can run a DNA scan or facial scan to verify someone's actual identity. So if someone is suspected of using a false ID, they can actually be verified. Though this process should take place in the Nexus and should take 30 seconds, or have a cooldown. A big one. Like 24 hours. This to discourage this entire idea from falling apart by Civil Protection beginning to just "Imposter check" everyone and everything they come across.
CWU, Stores, and the UAB/Congress.
When it comes to nuance, nobody is riper for that than everything related to the CWU and the business sector. Dividing the CWU up internally to have a property branch, which leases/rents properties to store owners and they in turn must pay the UAB or Congress regularly for the properties they lease/rent out.
Then a CWU Commodities branch that pays the Workforce branch for the items they produce during work cycles. Such as gin and whatever else is produced.
The store owners then pay Commodities to have their inventory restocked, and pay rent/lease on their properties.
UAB/Congress, in turn, gives the Workforce money to put into rations and money to pay for the rent/lease.
The economic cycle becomes;
View attachment 479
This is just a rough draft, and I am partial to removing the "Commodities" branch altogether and just having inventory come straight from the Workforce branch.
Having various branches in the CWU also allows for cabals to form. Heads of the various branches might want something different, or people in the branches might leverage their specific powers in order to benefit from it themselves. There is also the possibility of forming a "banking" operation that will front prospective store-owners the money for the first rent cycle and the money required for initial stock.
These are my suggestions, and I'd love to hear about some other ones from you guys, as well as feedback on these
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