- May 14, 2015
- 520
Good evening ladies and gents. It's been more than a few months since we've put out any substantial information regarding the new iteration of Terminator Roleplay.
Foremost I'd like to apologize. Having been deployed for the last 5 months, I've been very busy and haven't had much time or energy to reach out and interact with you, the community, or update you on what we have been working on. I hope this hasn't caused any particular inconvenience for you guys and that you instead are able to enjoy
Decepti
's C13 without too much worry or hassle with TRP.
I'll skip any more pleasantries and get right into the metaphorical meat and/or potatoes of this post.
Setting and Lore
Before anything I do want to quickly recap some of the major plot points and changes we've made to the setting. This won't go into as much depth as our exiting lore threads. It's more or less meant to be quick catchup on what we've changed with the setting.
More information can be found in the server information board for the server.
Planning and Development
I think it's fair to say that a valuable lesson from prior iterations is that rushed planning never leads to anything good. We originally began talks of a new TRP iteration as far back as December 2023, and since then we have put significant effort into solving some of the reoccurring issues TRP has dealt with while maintaining an enjoyable, and immersive experience. Looking back I think that a launch in April would have been impatient and robbed us of some of the recent ideas we've come up with.
What we're hoping for this iteration is a hardcore, s2k focused (with prominent s2rp moments that can be deadly, covered in the TRP Hardcore Primer), setting with a diverse collection of resistance cells serving various goals/purposes within Washington. There will be major plot lines, but instead of waiting for the big events, we want to facilitate a server where players/groups are able to invest in themselves through roleplay and the server's systems, as well as work with staff to accomplish goals a group might have. The hope is to have the server remain on the focused location at that time with an event server hosting whatever may happen outside of that area, whether that be major events, or a group's expedition to a faraway place. This allows us to focus on stories across the nation without forcing EVERYBODY to be involved. Similarly if someone just isn't feeling like partaking in a major event that isn't taking place in the main area, then they aren't going to be forced to be involved, and can instead focus on what they'd like on the main server. Capturing the future war feeling and allowing you to immerse yourself in it and roleplay your character as you feel fits is the most important thing here.
With that being said, I'm now going to attempt to relay the vision we have for TRP, the gameplay and scripts we hope to implement, and why we think these are the best choices for TRP.
Health System:
We've been working on implementing a detailed health system with limb damages, burns, blunt force trauma, and other conditions that properly reflect the brutality of the future war. Despite this we don't want to impede on medical roleplay, and we hope to find a way to include this new system in a way respectful to the tried and true TRP medrp.
We'll also be adding a bleedout and revival system to the server for S2K purposes. Instead of running around, shooting until you die, and then respawning and struggling to find a way back into the fight medics will find purpose traversing the battlefield aiding wounded resistance members and getting them back into the fight. This is where we hope the medical's scripts will come into use. It will in no way be some weird difficult minigame to revive your downed pals, just a quick and simple way to get them up that lets medics have some importance in the fight. If needed you will be able to bypass your bleedout and skip to a death with little repercussion beyond a higher damage tax to your equipment as opposed to being revived.
Machines will not share a health system with humans, they will have an independent one that better reflects the fact that they are machines.
Skills/Traits:
While creating a character, players will be able to choose from various traits to represent their character's growth in the wastes prior to this point. These will mostly affect starting skills, though can be used to impact their roleplay, or will coincide with some systems in the script to reflect the unique circumstances of that trait.
Skills can be improved by performing actions related to that skill. For instance the medical skill may be improved by treating oneself or others, with a higher skill allowing a character to treat wounds quicker and with greater efficiency.
Skills will also sometimes allow players to craft different items/equipment dependent on their skill level. Taking medical for instance once again, characters skilled with medicine will be able to craft various medical scripts or drugs, with the higher their skill meaning a higher yield or ability to create higher quality supplies.
Finally a character can only have so many skill points allocated, outside of their initial skills they get from traits, this will be relatively relaxed, but is more meant to prevent one man armies and instead encourage bands of differently skilled survivors to work together to fulfill the inefficiencies they'd suffer from alone. (If each skill is a max of 10, I think 30-35 would be a comfortable cap.)
Backgrounds will be able to be chosen for the same reasons as traits. But instead of determining skills they will help determine what your character will have starting off, or with certain backgrounds influence avenues of roleplay.
Skynet characters will not have Skills/Traits, however, and instead will utilize the C.O.R.E. system. Skynet players will start with a default assortment of drone models/variants, however they are able to utilize CORE Points to unlock new models/variants which will be useable permanently. From there SkyNet players can change their current model/variant at a CORE terminal and commit genocide accordingly. There will be a few models/variants such as certain HKs/Command units that need to be whitelisted. Points will be given as a reward for spending time on your character, human kills, completing SkyNet objectives, or as a manual award from command for being a good bot.
Core is meant to be a way to encourage and maintain gameplay for SkyNet players rather than forcing them to flag up for the sake of needing bots. We plan for models (T-600, T-700, HK-Raptor) to be released over time, but variants will be commonly added to the server to allow a more diverse range of machine threat (T-610, T-620, etc)
Groups:
There will be an in game system for establishing a persistent group. This is mostly for the server to use for group related systems.
The big one is Safehouses. Groups will be able to establish persistent bases known as safehouses. This is the intended progression for a human group, and allows a group new opportunities and ways to improve their safehouses. As an extension of this, once a safehouse has been thoroughly established it allows the host group to specialize itself. Specializations can range from armories, to garages, to triage centers and allow their groups unique crafting recipes unique to their specialization. This is intended to encourage groups to interact with each other to trade/sell/or otherwise acquire these unique supplies from each other. For instance, a database group may have high grade hacking equipment that it trades to a gunsmithing group for their higher grade weapons. As such this will weave a web between the resistance groups and create a true resistance network.
Outposts:
The counterpart for the resistance's safehouses are SkyNet's outposts. Outposts can be established on server through a system beyond just spawning props. These are temporary encampments that provide a benefit to Skynet, whether it be staging ground, workcamp, or a factory, and can be engaged by resistance in order to be taken/destroyed without the need of a /ev for everything you do. There is a max to the amount of outposts allowed at a time, and the longer an outpost is allowed to remain the more SkyNet will invest into it, providing better defenses and expanding it's circle of influence.
Hacking:
We plan to implement a hacking system for taking down SkyNet's systems. Gates, turrets, etc will be able to be repurposed either temporarily or permanently by skilled resistance members. This may or may not eventually lead to reprogramming.
Looting/Crafting:
TRP4 will follow a component based loot/crafting system. Anything and everything you manage to salvage will be usable in some form. However, not everything can be gained by simply looting trash heaps. Some components require braver methods, decommissioning and salvaging parts from drones, HKs, or from heavily patrolled sites/radiation zone that have otherwise left untouched. I promise you will not find some random toilet paper that can't be used for anything. Junk will be a thing but it can always be recycled for something useful.
Skills will determine what characters might be able to craft. We're not planning on locking everything behind levels, but higher grade equipment will require exploring a skill path deeper to acquire. This is very much meant to be the main gameplay loop of the server. When it's early or late and there's not much going on roleplay wise we hope this can be used to entertain the players.
This will also lead to a lot of roleplay interactions. Remember in previous iterations when Charlie would contract scavs to go out and find them parts? Well now that has more than just an IC purpose. Scavenging can be a very profitable trade, looting and selling components off to groups/characters who require them, and have the alloys to keep themselves out of harms way by contracting others. The quality of the loot you find will also be determiend by where you are. The closer you get to skynet's major outposts the more quality salvage you can acquire, as less people have been able to search that area and get away. Similarly radiation zones, requiring equipment to traverse may provide more yield. Big battles won't just be an event, but the battlefield may very well have leftovers that the thoughtful scav could take advantage of, being weary of whatever SkyNet may have left in the area, however.
More courageous scavs may find their trade as bot hunters. Taking down and salvaging drones/HKs for a yield of exclusive scrap, and an immediate cashout of alloys, however at the cost of poking the sleeping giant.
Equipment Durability:
We have some ideas for how equipment durability will work. Instead of dropping your gear on death like previous iterations, or getting a randomized amount of damage upon death (and often an unfair amount) instead your equipment will take damage as you use it. Firing your weapon excessively may lead to damage, and failing to make quick repairs between battles (lubing and cleaning for minor repairs) may require you to visit an experienced gunsmith for repairs. Same goes for armor, and your other equipment. It will be rare that your equipment will go from pristine to broken in a single battle, and this isn't meant to be a way to punish players for using equipment, but more of a way to encourage interaction between players to repair and maintain equipment, or get the resources required to do so.
This is a bit off topic but we do plan to allow players to have a loadout of 4 weapons. Your primary, secondary, a sidearm, and a melee weapon. With the changes to durability/s2k we feel it's fair to allow the players to be able to change which weapons their using for the sake of minimizing damages to a single weapon. This also just seemed like a more fun way to go. Allowing players to switch from a plasma rifle to a ballistic in order to really pack a punch felt like it played better into the future war, and just felt right.
There's a few other things that I probably missed, but I've done my best to cover our vision for the server here.
If there's any questions, comments, or concerns please leave them here and the team will do our best to address them.
LIkewise, if players have any suggestions for things they think will improve the TRP experience feel free to post those as well. A big part of this process has been considering what the community will enjoy, and reflecting on feedback from the community is a pretty big part of that.
Foremost I'd like to apologize. Having been deployed for the last 5 months, I've been very busy and haven't had much time or energy to reach out and interact with you, the community, or update you on what we have been working on. I hope this hasn't caused any particular inconvenience for you guys and that you instead are able to enjoy
Decepti
's C13 without too much worry or hassle with TRP.I'll skip any more pleasantries and get right into the metaphorical meat and/or potatoes of this post.
Setting and Lore
Before anything I do want to quickly recap some of the major plot points and changes we've made to the setting. This won't go into as much depth as our exiting lore threads. It's more or less meant to be quick catchup on what we've changed with the setting.
- Judgement Day took place in 2004. Prior to Skynet's activation the U.S. Military had designed and developed prototypes for the T-600, with some concepts made for the T-700, as well as various early HK units. This served as a jump start for Skynet post-activation.
- In 2010, humanity had managed to gain a foothold back on the surface.
- In 2011, what was once Colorado state had its human inhabitants driven out or killed as Skynet played its hand and showed itself to the world.
- In late 2011, General Ashdown, who had managed to avoid the hellfire of judgement day via Nuclear Submarine begins rallying surviving military and volunteer militias on the west coast to restore order and fight the emerging machine threat. This organized movement was dubbed 'Pacific Command'
- In 2013, John Connor, a self prophesized leader of humanity, and his paramilitary unit, Technical Command, gain traction in the Los Angeles theater. They quickly gain notoriety for selfless service, casualty ratings, and their victories against the machines. However, many still view them as a fanatical cult believing Connor to be a 'messiah'.
- In 2018 Tech-Comm has grown, Skynet has gained notable footholds across the South-West United States, including San Francisco, South LA (Now the building grounds of IZ-02.), Southern Utah and nearly the entirety of Arizona/New Mexico. Skynet begins expansion efforts, sending forces to establish cores in major strategic locations across the United States.
- Tech-Comm sends expeditionary forces shortly after to help establish resistance movements in Skynet's newly occupied areas. The server follows the story of Tech-Comm's Olympia Expedition dispatched to Washington State (Not Washington D.C. for our European friends) and the Washington Resistance as a whole.
This is still prior to the events of Terminator: Salvation.
Some major lore changes that are also notable:- Assets the way they were seen in prior iterations are no longer a thing.
- Terminator's CPUs no longer explode when oxidized. However, almost all Skynet drone models are powered off an electro-magnetically contained fusion reactor. As a failsafe, if a machine is critically damaged and is able, it will disable said electro-magnetic field, subsequently releasing a volatile amount of heat, melting the machines core components. Luckily the alloy most units are composed of prevents any high dosage radiation yield, except for the immediate area once the core is exposed.
- Skynet plasma weapons will also function differently (to be explained later.)
- Skynet follows an internal hierarchy from the Regional Core through redundant command units down to the standard lines. (Can be read up on in the Skynet Section)
- 'Bloodbands' are a symbol of resistance against the machines, and are not exclusive to Tech-Comm members.
- Tech-Comm has no more than a hundred or so members in Bakersfield. It is not a nation wide established movement, and is instead just a smaller entity apart of the Pacific Command movement. (This is similar to Terminator: Salvation's TC lore.)
- This is unrelated to prior TRP lore, although past groups/characters are free to return as alternative versions of themselves so long as they still fit with the lore. (They do not retain knowledge, equipment, etc from prior iterations)
More information can be found in the server information board for the server.
Planning and Development
What we're hoping for this iteration is a hardcore, s2k focused (with prominent s2rp moments that can be deadly, covered in the TRP Hardcore Primer), setting with a diverse collection of resistance cells serving various goals/purposes within Washington. There will be major plot lines, but instead of waiting for the big events, we want to facilitate a server where players/groups are able to invest in themselves through roleplay and the server's systems, as well as work with staff to accomplish goals a group might have. The hope is to have the server remain on the focused location at that time with an event server hosting whatever may happen outside of that area, whether that be major events, or a group's expedition to a faraway place. This allows us to focus on stories across the nation without forcing EVERYBODY to be involved. Similarly if someone just isn't feeling like partaking in a major event that isn't taking place in the main area, then they aren't going to be forced to be involved, and can instead focus on what they'd like on the main server. Capturing the future war feeling and allowing you to immerse yourself in it and roleplay your character as you feel fits is the most important thing here.
With that being said, I'm now going to attempt to relay the vision we have for TRP, the gameplay and scripts we hope to implement, and why we think these are the best choices for TRP.
Health System:
We've been working on implementing a detailed health system with limb damages, burns, blunt force trauma, and other conditions that properly reflect the brutality of the future war. Despite this we don't want to impede on medical roleplay, and we hope to find a way to include this new system in a way respectful to the tried and true TRP medrp.
We'll also be adding a bleedout and revival system to the server for S2K purposes. Instead of running around, shooting until you die, and then respawning and struggling to find a way back into the fight medics will find purpose traversing the battlefield aiding wounded resistance members and getting them back into the fight. This is where we hope the medical's scripts will come into use. It will in no way be some weird difficult minigame to revive your downed pals, just a quick and simple way to get them up that lets medics have some importance in the fight. If needed you will be able to bypass your bleedout and skip to a death with little repercussion beyond a higher damage tax to your equipment as opposed to being revived.
Machines will not share a health system with humans, they will have an independent one that better reflects the fact that they are machines.
Skills/Traits:
While creating a character, players will be able to choose from various traits to represent their character's growth in the wastes prior to this point. These will mostly affect starting skills, though can be used to impact their roleplay, or will coincide with some systems in the script to reflect the unique circumstances of that trait.
Skills can be improved by performing actions related to that skill. For instance the medical skill may be improved by treating oneself or others, with a higher skill allowing a character to treat wounds quicker and with greater efficiency.
Skills will also sometimes allow players to craft different items/equipment dependent on their skill level. Taking medical for instance once again, characters skilled with medicine will be able to craft various medical scripts or drugs, with the higher their skill meaning a higher yield or ability to create higher quality supplies.
Finally a character can only have so many skill points allocated, outside of their initial skills they get from traits, this will be relatively relaxed, but is more meant to prevent one man armies and instead encourage bands of differently skilled survivors to work together to fulfill the inefficiencies they'd suffer from alone. (If each skill is a max of 10, I think 30-35 would be a comfortable cap.)
Backgrounds will be able to be chosen for the same reasons as traits. But instead of determining skills they will help determine what your character will have starting off, or with certain backgrounds influence avenues of roleplay.
Core is meant to be a way to encourage and maintain gameplay for SkyNet players rather than forcing them to flag up for the sake of needing bots. We plan for models (T-600, T-700, HK-Raptor) to be released over time, but variants will be commonly added to the server to allow a more diverse range of machine threat (T-610, T-620, etc)
Groups:
There will be an in game system for establishing a persistent group. This is mostly for the server to use for group related systems.
The big one is Safehouses. Groups will be able to establish persistent bases known as safehouses. This is the intended progression for a human group, and allows a group new opportunities and ways to improve their safehouses. As an extension of this, once a safehouse has been thoroughly established it allows the host group to specialize itself. Specializations can range from armories, to garages, to triage centers and allow their groups unique crafting recipes unique to their specialization. This is intended to encourage groups to interact with each other to trade/sell/or otherwise acquire these unique supplies from each other. For instance, a database group may have high grade hacking equipment that it trades to a gunsmithing group for their higher grade weapons. As such this will weave a web between the resistance groups and create a true resistance network.
Outposts:
The counterpart for the resistance's safehouses are SkyNet's outposts. Outposts can be established on server through a system beyond just spawning props. These are temporary encampments that provide a benefit to Skynet, whether it be staging ground, workcamp, or a factory, and can be engaged by resistance in order to be taken/destroyed without the need of a /ev for everything you do. There is a max to the amount of outposts allowed at a time, and the longer an outpost is allowed to remain the more SkyNet will invest into it, providing better defenses and expanding it's circle of influence.
Hacking:
We plan to implement a hacking system for taking down SkyNet's systems. Gates, turrets, etc will be able to be repurposed either temporarily or permanently by skilled resistance members. This may or may not eventually lead to reprogramming.
Looting/Crafting:
TRP4 will follow a component based loot/crafting system. Anything and everything you manage to salvage will be usable in some form. However, not everything can be gained by simply looting trash heaps. Some components require braver methods, decommissioning and salvaging parts from drones, HKs, or from heavily patrolled sites/radiation zone that have otherwise left untouched. I promise you will not find some random toilet paper that can't be used for anything. Junk will be a thing but it can always be recycled for something useful.
Skills will determine what characters might be able to craft. We're not planning on locking everything behind levels, but higher grade equipment will require exploring a skill path deeper to acquire. This is very much meant to be the main gameplay loop of the server. When it's early or late and there's not much going on roleplay wise we hope this can be used to entertain the players.
This will also lead to a lot of roleplay interactions. Remember in previous iterations when Charlie would contract scavs to go out and find them parts? Well now that has more than just an IC purpose. Scavenging can be a very profitable trade, looting and selling components off to groups/characters who require them, and have the alloys to keep themselves out of harms way by contracting others. The quality of the loot you find will also be determiend by where you are. The closer you get to skynet's major outposts the more quality salvage you can acquire, as less people have been able to search that area and get away. Similarly radiation zones, requiring equipment to traverse may provide more yield. Big battles won't just be an event, but the battlefield may very well have leftovers that the thoughtful scav could take advantage of, being weary of whatever SkyNet may have left in the area, however.
More courageous scavs may find their trade as bot hunters. Taking down and salvaging drones/HKs for a yield of exclusive scrap, and an immediate cashout of alloys, however at the cost of poking the sleeping giant.
Equipment Durability:
We have some ideas for how equipment durability will work. Instead of dropping your gear on death like previous iterations, or getting a randomized amount of damage upon death (and often an unfair amount) instead your equipment will take damage as you use it. Firing your weapon excessively may lead to damage, and failing to make quick repairs between battles (lubing and cleaning for minor repairs) may require you to visit an experienced gunsmith for repairs. Same goes for armor, and your other equipment. It will be rare that your equipment will go from pristine to broken in a single battle, and this isn't meant to be a way to punish players for using equipment, but more of a way to encourage interaction between players to repair and maintain equipment, or get the resources required to do so.
This is a bit off topic but we do plan to allow players to have a loadout of 4 weapons. Your primary, secondary, a sidearm, and a melee weapon. With the changes to durability/s2k we feel it's fair to allow the players to be able to change which weapons their using for the sake of minimizing damages to a single weapon. This also just seemed like a more fun way to go. Allowing players to switch from a plasma rifle to a ballistic in order to really pack a punch felt like it played better into the future war, and just felt right.
There's a few other things that I probably missed, but I've done my best to cover our vision for the server here.
If there's any questions, comments, or concerns please leave them here and the team will do our best to address them.
LIkewise, if players have any suggestions for things they think will improve the TRP experience feel free to post those as well. A big part of this process has been considering what the community will enjoy, and reflecting on feedback from the community is a pretty big part of that.
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