Behavior
The behavior of a functionary is integral to the overall goal of preserving the Socio-Stability of a region. For this reason, strict, specific behavior is to be enforced at all times, to not only maintain cohesion but also uniformity, and anonymity, among other things.
Another important note that should be made is a functionary’s relationship with civilians. Under NO circumstances is a unit to distinguish themselves from their cohorts in any way, shape, or form.
Furthermore, from an OOC perspective, Civil Protection is almost always considered to be the front face of a server. This means that new players will oftentimes judge a server based on the behavior of Civil Protection units. Too edgy/serious or unserious/borderline-mingy are things that will make players not take you seriously and lower the overall quality of the server. You are allowed to make jokes and mess around at times; we’re all here to have fun. However, if you fail to read the room and act seriously when required, you will be promptly removed from the faction, sometimes without warning.
Now, obviously, you have the freedom to make your character unique. You will not be forced to act or roleplay in any specific way; these are merely guidelines that you should try to follow. If you plan to have your character act in a way that contradicts any of these guidelines and need advice or have questions, please do not hesitate to communicate with a Faction Leader or even a member of the Event or Administration Team.
In short, CPs should be strict, scary, and oppressive. There are many ways to go about doing this, but it is important to get a good balance and avoid becoming a Robocop or detracting from other people's roleplay. That is not what we want out of CPs - nobody does. We want you to have emotions, thoughts, and opinions, but we want to make the Combine scary. We want to make them oppressive and believable. Immersive, and most importantly, fun. Many servers tend to go to either one end of the spectrum or the other. Either CPs are 'friendly' and nobody dislikes them or is scared of them, or they become so strict and oppressive that it becomes unfun and just takes away from the experience. We want to find a good balance between the two.
One way that we've thought of to achieve this would be to make people actually scared of CPs, just as seen in Half-Life 2. In HL2RP people usually have no issues with approaching CPs and talking to them, but in HL2, citizens actively avoid them. We don't actually want people to avoid Civil Protection, but instead have second thoughts when they approach and talk to one of them, out of fear of bringing unnecessary attention to themselves, or such.
Another thing that we really haven’t seen is apartment searches and interrogations from infractions. Obviously, minor violations like most ACA 6 ones don’t really need any of this, but let’s say someone stole some item from someone else. Normally you’d beat them up, document the violation, and return the stolen item, right? No. Do a raid on their apartment, and search it. Other people live there? Question them. Do they know the suspect? How long have they been living there? Interrogate any others who were seen with him in the past. Does he frequently visit a specific store? Ask the store staff about him. Make people hate (read: your character), as well as the person who committed the crime for getting them flagged as possible accomplices.
There are probably many other possible ways to accomplish what we want that we haven’t even thought of yet. The key is to be creative, unique, and fun. Hopefully, these behavioral guidelines help to establish a more oppressive environment on the server and make the Combine the scary entity that they deserve to be.