Suggestion Give Combine their equivalent of contracts

[TedHatty]

Suggestion: Just like the resistance has contracts, give CPs their own objectives

Why it would be worth adding: So far the Combine do the following:

- sweep bunker, SS-4 and warehouse hoping to get some action;
- raid stashes after the resistance deals a blow, whether it is destroying a generator or anything;
- generally hoping to get some sort of great escalation so that they are allowed to ram through the entire resistance base.

And they're not to blame, they've got fuckall to do!

The resistance has Lambda contracts. They have contributed to a lot of shit happening IC on the rebel side. But most of all, they allow players to organise operations, prove themselves to be great strategists and if successful, they are rewarded!

Give CPs some sort of weekly agenda or a list of objectives. Everything Combine does right now does not contribute to anything. If they raid a stash or manage to exterminate an entire cell in a single assault, the people who have died get their weapons and armor back not so long after.
From what I know CPs aren't even allowed to use weapons that they loot off of dead resistance members, they have to be put in a container or something. There is basically zero reward, which leads to the player getting no satisfaction whilst playing Combine.

That is why I propose to set some sort of agenda, or a list of objectives given by somebody with a degree of authority (like Lambda for the resistance).

I don't have any specific and defined ideas in mind for I'm not exactly that informed on the current state of Combine, although from what I've seen activity has dropped in favour of playing resistance characters. I hope we can construct something great in this thread that could hopefully favour the roleplay on both sides. It seems to me this iteration is just focusing on the resistance, leaving Combine players no specific goals.

Necessary content: Nothing at all.

 

[Alexander The Great]

Combine needs their equivalent form of event master over cp force,
whatever that may be.
cp experience def shouldnt be aimless wandering 24/7, and running out of things to talk about, and eventually raid and combat.

maybe dispatch coordinating with eventman and sending CP forces to do a task, or even Councillors creating events and situations for CPs to go exploring and experiencing
that's their purpose after all.

just like rebel force have their own eventmasters that think in terms of resistance events, Combine force also has big staff presence and eventmen, they shuold def push fine free rp and events from their own making from the CP perspective :)

 

[STUCK IN A CAKE]

I like the idea of "Advisor Mandates" which lead to goals on the map which are slowly built up, with clear goals to the resistance to oppose it.

Rp_apoc did it well where we needed to find and maintain the various facilities around the map and in doing so got access to it's equipment. From synths, rations and hoppermines to finally getting the Transhumans facility open

 

[Cindy]

do I get jungle inferno war paints from it

 

[Erkor]

I think if we're already in the "active war against the resistance" phase of Half-Life 2 we should also structure map quirks around it. Apocalypse had a very interesting system, and while I wished certain things would be more heavily emphasized (e.g. a certain scarcity on resources beyond weapons and/or armor batteries; particularly devices and materials to construct them like generators and so on and so forth), I think no map since that one has really hit the same kinds of notes as that. Asheville had an interesting locale, albeit no proper reason to drive cops out to perform certain dangerous tasks; the metro, inversely, completely dropped that notion in favor of having certain resources we had to protect, rather than maintain. I didn't like that personally, but I generally wasn't a huge proponent fo metro_sf for other reasons than that.

Still, I think the generator-based system in City 24 is an interesting Rebel Objective™ to consider. How, though, would you flip this to the Combine side? Hearkening back to rp_apocalypse, all the objective areas on the map were driven towards Combine expansion--I wasn't there for it so my assessment may be completely innacurate--and the construction of a Dispatch node in the deep outlands. Now, the Combine are focused on defense and protection, rather than expansion. I don't think there's much you can do on this map without potentially disrupting the flow of how things are now, but with the narrative element of the Combine forces being on the back foot as it were, it would be interesting to see a more practically competetive system in play.

@MaXenzie has written an extensive suggestion adjacent to this already, but to springboard off of his concepts, I think that key areas of interest that can be assaulted, established, or controlled could possibly add a very interesting twist to what we have. Think unconventionally; we're not just talking about destroying Combine technology here. The Combine should have an opportunity to co-opt resistance territory, and the resistance should have an opportunity to co-opt Combine territory; in turn, if one pushes the other out, they'd probably be exposing a flank that allows the other faction to move in and take control over something else. Sure, it'd ultimately be a constant dance of swirling around a map (main base notwithstanding), but...

Imagine if the Resistance had control over a transhumanization facility and subsequently access to unstable, low-potency gene cycles.

Imagine if the Combine had control over the same supply paths that usually feeds the resistance, and cuts them off entirely from it while using it to ferry in fire support from their own reinforcements safely.

Imagine if the Resistance temporarily co-opted a hopper mine station, reprogramming the explosive devices to use at a certain limit for a certain time.

Sure, those ideas that I've just spouted might sound radical or stupid or terrible for design purposes, but they're just ideas that I think would be cool and spice things up. If the server were more focused on cross-faction roleplay, rather than cross-faction PvP, I'd offer more of these ~Radical Lines of Thought~ because they'd be able to have so much greater of an impact. Grody & unstable black-market gene therapy? Congratulations, you've got the strength of a transhuman and stage 2 cancer. That kind of an "impact" might feel like a simple, easy trade-off, but that's only if you decide to completely disregard roleplaying the side effects -- which people, of course, would, considering the focus here. People don't tend to roleplay the extent of their wounds unless they've just come back from an engagement with 4 HP.*
​

Conceptual ideas aside, I think the core issue at hand is that the Combine don't have anything to do and that should be fixed. I can't not agree to a suggestion that intends to promote things to do for players. Combine play has become increasingly stagnant after the citizen RPers left, at least it seems like that from the perspectiveof [REDACTED].

*I've seen this with CivPro characters. Don't @ me if you're a rebel and are such a great roleplayer that you emote cussing when you stub your toe mechanically.​

 

[Ron]

From what I know CPs aren't even allowed to use weapons that they loot off of dead resistance members, they have to be put in a container or something. There is basically zero reward, which leads to the player getting no satisfaction whilst playing Combine.

This only applied when Dispatch was online. People can use guns they pick up, it's just a matter of them not having ammo so they tend to hand them in so it doesn't take up inventory space.

As for the rest of the suggestion, this has been brought up many, many, many, many times before so hopefully we'll see some change with this.

 

[MaXenzie]

I think if we're already in the "active war against the resistance" phase of Half-Life 2 we should also structure map quirks around it. Apocalypse had a very interesting system, and while I wished certain things would be more heavily emphasized (e.g. a certain scarcity on resources beyond weapons and/or armor batteries; particularly devices and materials to construct them like generators and so on and so forth), I think no map since that one has really hit the same kinds of notes as that. Asheville had an interesting locale, albeit no proper reason to drive cops out to perform certain dangerous tasks; the metro, inversely, completely dropped that notion in favor of having certain resources we had to protect, rather than maintain. I didn't like that personally, but I generally wasn't a huge proponent fo metro_sf for other reasons than that.

Still, I think the generator-based system in City 24 is an interesting Rebel Objective™ to consider. How, though, would you flip this to the Combine side? Hearkening back to rp_apocalypse, all the objective areas on the map were driven towards Combine expansion--I wasn't there for it so my assessment may be completely innacurate--and the construction of a Dispatch node in the deep outlands. Now, the Combine are focused on defense and protection, rather than expansion. I don't think there's much you can do on this map without potentially disrupting the flow of how things are now, but with the narrative element of the Combine forces being on the back foot as it were, it would be interesting to see a more practically competetive system in play.

@MaXenzie has written an extensive suggestion adjacent to this already, but to springboard off of his concepts, I think that key areas of interest that can be assaulted, established, or controlled could possibly add a very interesting twist to what we have. Think unconventionally; we're not just talking about destroying Combine technology here. The Combine should have an opportunity to co-opt resistance territory, and the resistance should have an opportunity to co-opt Combine territory; in turn, if one pushes the other out, they'd probably be exposing a flank that allows the other faction to move in and take control over something else. Sure, it'd ultimately be a constant dance of swirling around a map (main base notwithstanding), but...

Imagine if the Resistance had control over a transhumanization facility and subsequently access to unstable, low-potency gene cycles.

Imagine if the Combine had control over the same supply paths that usually feeds the resistance, and cuts them off entirely from it while using it to ferry in fire support from their own reinforcements safely.

Imagine if the Resistance temporarily co-opted a hopper mine station, reprogramming the explosive devices to use at a certain limit for a certain time.

Sure, those ideas that I've just spouted might sound radical or stupid or terrible for design purposes, but they're just ideas that I think would be cool and spice things up. If the server were more focused on cross-faction roleplay, rather than cross-faction PvP, I'd offer more of these ~Radical Lines of Thought~ because they'd be able to have so much greater of an impact. Grody & unstable black-market gene therapy? Congratulations, you've got the strength of a transhuman and stage 2 cancer. That kind of an "impact" might feel like a simple, easy trade-off, but that's only if you decide to completely disregard roleplaying the side effects -- which people, of course, would, considering the focus here. People don't tend to roleplay the extent of their wounds unless they've just come back from an engagement with 4 HP.*
​

Conceptual ideas aside, I think the core issue at hand is that the Combine don't have anything to do and that should be fixed. I can't not agree to a suggestion that intends to promote things to do for players. Combine play has become increasingly stagnant after the citizen RPers left, at least it seems like that from the perspectiveof [REDACTED].

*I've seen this with CivPro characters. Don't @ me if you're a rebel and are such a great roleplayer that you emote cussing when you stub your toe mechanically.​

i think i have a second addendum to my suggestion

 

[STUCK IN A CAKE]

Grody & unstable black-market gene therapy?

this gave me an idea. Add in the HL:A weapons, make them gene-locked to OTA - but give rebels the ability (oocly a flag I guess) to get 'gene theropy' through a line of events if they take over a Transhuman facility. Giving them the ability to use those weapons but with a hefty risk to personal injury.

this is in no ways a balanced idea - i just remembered the line Russel says in HL:A saying 'unless you're open to a little gene replacement' and rolled with it

Hell, I want more whacky sci fi science shit to occur. Lambda is a group filled with nerds from Black mesa (Basically the CEO of nerds), who make nerd shit. Roll with it

 

[Ricsow]

do I get jungle inferno war paints from it

 

['77 East]

From what I know CPs aren't even allowed to use weapons that they loot off of dead resistance members

Whoever told you that is out of the loop, cops are allowed to use nonstandard weaponry (unless sociostability came back).