➤➤➤ANNOUNCEMENT: TACO N BANANA HALF-LIFE 2 ROLEPLAY - CITY 13 REDUX

can you unlock the server before the database wipe so i can copy my character description i forgot what it was i am silly
thanks xoxo :* :*
from my understanding that is the plan, there will be an update on this soon
 
can you unlock the server before the database wipe so i can copy my character description i forgot what it was i am silly
thanks xoxo :* :*

If you have any potential concerns or questions regarding the database wipe, do not hesitate to reach out to me via PM at @Decepti

noticed some people are saying that the server will be open temporarily but that is not quite the plan, please make sure you PM me so that i will be able to see about retrieving your description(s) for you
 
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Stop shitposting on an announcement thread, ask legit questions or share your hype. Deleting snide comments, arguments, etc. You guys will have plenty of time to do that, but leave the announcement thread to questions/hype. Take negativity elsewhere.
 
I'd like to see Civil Protection's duties be stripped back this iteration.

They don't need to be the mechanics, they don't need to be the doctors, they don't need to be the scientists. Their only need should be to maintain civil obedience.

Each responsibility given to the Civil Protection faction is something taken away from a more "Citizen" faction that can handle it. This made Civil Protection ultimately the best place to go for RP since they basically got to do the majority of the cool stuff.

Having several different factions that have their own duties and respectively weight behind them would bolster a more diverse spread of characters throughout them.

CIC was the most active "Citizen" faction last run and it's no surprise why. They got to do cool things that, while often working in tandem with CivPro, were able to be independent in their own way, in a way that almost created a dependency upon them from CivPro.

You might say, well why would Civil Protection not want to be in control of everything? They would still be, just not directly involved anymore. Why would Unit 24938 need to learn how to repair an APC when they could learn better ways of controlling a population? A population that would consist of people that already know or are learning how to repair an APC. Current day police departments (at least in America) don't have their own mechanics and doctors or hospitals, if a patrol car has issues, they bring it to an independent government-contracted mechanic. If they get injured, they go to a normal hospital like everyone else.

Even if my "lore" reasoning behind it doesn't justify it to you, the gameplay implications should.

Think about how cool it would be to be a citizen who's into mechanical work. Civil Protection wants to go on a patrol around the Canals in their APC. You've been around the block a few times and have been trusted enough to work on maintaining the APCs in the garage. Now you're tagging along for the ride just in case something happens to the one on the trip and no, you DON'T get a choice unless you want a bruising. Same scenario with a "Citizen" medical faction. Lower ranking employees are limited to Citizen injuries, higher up and more trusted? You can work on a recently brutally injured Squad Command Unit, but if you fuck up or are even slightly suspicious, you're absolutely cooked at the very least.

I just don't see a downside to this besides obviously the people who want to be a Unit and still do other things, which I understand, but if you want to do those other things, you can still go off-duty or even switch to a different character.

I'm sure there's more about this that may come into my mind, but I wanted to post this here and see what other people think.
 
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In general there should be more effort on interactions with citizens across all Combine aligned factions rather than just excluding them. I found that a lot of groups such as CIC/CEC/CWU, etc would rather recruit a citizen than have to provide roleplay for them outside their bubble. This is something I definitely want to see change and I think that is why medical certs and engineering certs became more commonplace. Cops as well as civil workers/infestation control agents should be seeking out citizens more to do tasks, but I think removing certs is an unneeded move. It is perfectly reasonable in my view to expect the Combine not wanting their units to be too reliant on the local population. I also think a sci-fi paramilitary group cannot necessarily be accurately compared to modern day American policing, the CCA is after all more of a weird cross between guards and the gendarmerie.

Overall I do agree, if an APC needs fixing, grab some people to sort it out and keep a close eye, or if a unit is injured get the nearest CMS employee or citizen with a bit of medical know-how to tend to them urgently on scene.
 
The problem is that without the structural system setup to encourage/enforce what your ideal scenario is, with drawing more citizens into situations, is that I honestly don't think it will just happen naturally. And why would it? Why would Civil Protection units naturally have some random citizen work on their APCs without the canon and system influencing them to take such an action? My suggestion would help cement it in place.

I understand that while CIC/CEC/CMS/CWU aren't technically the "Citizen" faction, they might as well be. They don't have the authority to command others like Civil Protection does and are ultimately all beholden to them at the end of the day, just like the average Joe normal citizen is.

Especially under the banner of more of the HL2 beta framework, I would think like every citizen would have to contribute to the Combine "society" somehow, whether that be mandatory work shifts or any of the things groups like the CIC/CEC/CMS/CWU do. So why would the Combine again not just force them to support the Civil Protection Teams logistically and otherwise?

I don't even really like the lore argument because while I do think I made a valid enough argument as to why it could be even slightly possible for the system to be set up like this in a lore-friendly way, I care much much more about the gameplay effects of it.

I'm all down for including normal citizens in more things, obviously, but if they don't have anything to offer besides labor, what is interesting for them to do besides occasionally move shit around and get credits?

Though this doesn't solve the problem, IMO every citizen should be technically part of a faction, where if you're not part of the CIC/CEC/CMS, you're automatically CWU and are a laborer and expected to perform as such.
 
If the CMS could stay alive for more than launch week and CEC didn't become almost exclusively rebels it'd be great to use them for some things like that.
 
If the CMS could stay alive for more than launch week and CEC didn't become almost exclusively rebels it'd be great to use them for some things like that.
CMS was irrelevant because citizens almost never get injured. It's always obviously those in combat positions like Units (who have medical staff) and Rebels (who also have medical staff?), leaving nothing outside of the extremely rare event for CMS to do literally anything and CEC also really has nothing to do outside of events. Think about how many more possibilities there are for them if they could work on Combine technology without getting executed.

On the rebel thing, I'm not really privy to how frequent that was, but I feel it should be dealt with ICly.

It's like there's an verbal effort to be more hands-off OOCly which is great, but when it comes to things like resistance movements naturally growing its gotta be clamped down on for some reason OOCly. I'd like for there to be reasons for why someone would go rogue or whatever, but honestly with an oppressive regime like the Combine, it should be fairly expected outside of the self-preservation risk. And let's be real, it's not like the vast majority of players who decide to go Rebel really make that decision based on any influence ICly, it's usually predetermined OOCly and metagamed. If it were up to me, Resistance would be an official faction with applications with backstories to get in, a mirrored faction of CivPro.

If Civil Protection doesn't have any citizens to keep in order and prevent from turning to the side of the resistance, it turns into last run where it's a friendly fuck-fest with units and the few remaining citizens not in a faction (which I think can be good RP, but it should be few and far between), and war events between CivPro and Rebels with citizens doing absolutely nothing as usual.

Edit: I don't want to be that guy either that stands and says that scripts are necessary, but let's be honest, we're RPing in GMod for a reason, they help enhance the experience. Even if there was a script that occasionally gave people illnesses to RP (no in-game negative effects necessarily), that could be treated by CMS, it would give them literally at least a breadcrumb of purpose. I'd like to have a Mental Health subdivision of CMS with therapists and whatnot personally, to encourage all Citizens to perform at their best and even for Units who aren't comfortable with MemRep procedures.
 
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Citizen agencies/factions besides the CCA were neglected this last bit 100%, no one denies that and you're right about avenues being unexplored that could be. The team's extremely eager to reward roleplay and people being creative themselves. We believe this will alleviate some of the issues you're presenting alongside the administration's less hands-on approach concerning limiting players' imagination/creativity. TLDR: The Administration is removing a lot of red tape you guys are used to dealing with.

You guys want to grow a garden on the rooftop to help during a period where rations are cut off? Go for it. However, CCA has the right to shut that shit down.

Units have in this last iteration gone to the CMS to be treated for minor things because ICly.. no one wants to be cooped up in the med bay.

Our main thing is, whatever you can think of and you believe would be believable to happen in a dystopian tyrannical alien regime, do it. If you're uncertain about it, ask. We want players to know they don't need to make authorization threads for regular day-to-day things any person living in this setting would do to try to better their life that isn't blatantly going against the Combine.. and if it is, hiding it.

As for CMS, I believe there's going to be a new spin on the CMS by Jon Jon and Snaffle Snaffle so it wouldn't hurt for you to reach out to them about further ideas. It all starts with the players though on actually utilizing the CMS.
 
CMS inevitably becomes inactive. Same with CEC. In both cases, imho, this is because most of their roleplay essentially boils down to roleplaying at inanimate objects.

CMS roleplay at usually unconscious patients. CEC roleplay at like a power box. Neither is particularly interesting or rewarding.

Or at least, this is the case in the paradigm where the roles of factions were pretty limited. Going forward, it's as Bekah said: you can do pretty much whatever you want. Even if you try and do something that steps on the toes of another faction, hey, that's IC and provides good RP. It's a win-win.

But if all you do is wait around for RP to come to you - a patient to come in, or the admins to /ev the power going out - then expect to get bored and stop logging onto that character, because we aren't spoonfeeding anymore. Make your own destiny; don't expect roleplay to magically appear from thin air. If all your character entails is waiting to react to something, you're doing it wrong.
 
On another note. It’d be cool to see a shady clinic in a CCH (Dr. Zed from Borderlands type clinic or something). A place where criminals can go if CMS won’t help them or where rebels can go if injured. Profit off the injured.

Plus rebels can’t go to CMS for injuries often because the CMS is in the plaza and people are too scared they’ll get caught, rightfully so.
 

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