Willard Networks Discussion and its Future

[Takyon]

that is a weird thing to try and use to attack me cause I’ve got a differing opinion on neb than you

What is your opinion of nebulous then? You obviously have an infamous character going here so I'm intrigued.

 

[Deleted member 4795]

Why's the nebulous playercount so low then?

Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that it's 4th of July weekend (if you're referring to this weekend in particular).

That's very consistent. Like a heartbeat. Regular dips in activity that run right along side peak hours. If you're comparing this to something like Willard you're only going to confuse/disappoint yourself.

 

[deathwolf]

with the rebel premium circlejerks it's pretty much that

the what?

 

[Trains]

Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that it's 4th of July weekend (if you're referring to this weekend in particular).

That's very consistent. Like a heartbeat. Regular dips in activity that run right along side peak hours. If you're comparing this to something like Willard you're only going to confuse/disappoint yourself.

ye its honestly only been this week that the server pop has been a bit poopy dooky fresh

i dont speak for everyone, but the combination of covid restrictions being lifted, school being over, burnout with other games being out and ready to play, and holidays in other parts of the world mean that people are prolly just...doing other shit for a while. i know i am


this happens literally all the time

 

[Trains]

anyway say what you will about willard but the meme vids they make about us are a bit weird

like some southpark edit traplayer (permabanned LOL) made
or the stages of grief thing

rent free i think

 

[Mute]

as a literal newbie, what made the playercount go into the dump? bc i remember seeing neb last year with a usual playercount of like 50 60 most nights what happened there

Nebulous players are incapable of being nuanced in their arguments so the 2 answers you're gonna get is "neb is dying cope and seethe" or "neb always has periods of activity/inactivity this is all normal" before it devolves into personal insults and le lock thread but here's my attempt to explain things

So behold my ultimate essay in what I believe the cause of inactivity to be:


In the end I believe it boils down to stagnation and ironically, a lack of drama ICly

In order for a HL2RP server to prosper both sides need to prosper and interact (that being city/Unon and rebel side). At Nebulous' peak during Clockwork and Early-ish Helix this was the norm, rebels were forced to interact with the city if they wanted to get shit done, that interaction was obtained by getting tokens just by going city side to grab their ration and maybe sticking around for a bit and interacting with people OR by owning a store and getting even more tokens (which is what most rebels did) which equaled to 1) more rebels in the city owning/manning and working at active stores and 2) Union/City players having plenty of hubs to roleplay at

During this time drama was also at its peak, which lead to a lot of infighting in rebels and a lot of assassinations/killings, harsher reactions by CPs and OTA were also the norm which lead to more deaths/PKs, this lead to a high character turnover rate which means people played new/different chars and had to go through the grind once more, leading to more interactions, etc. This lead to less "stagnation" in the end as people were less likely to just get bored of playing their characters by hitting the ceiling

That and drama attracts people (it's why these types of threads always blow up and get people to talk even if they don't play lmao) whether people wanna accept or deny it


With Helix' release and the shift from a token based economy to a material based economy rebels were less reliant on the city, a lot of major figures in various spaces in the community both rebel and city side also left when we swapped due to the loss of their characters and the lack of interest to play which lead to the first "significant" player drop

Over the course of the next few years rebels became even less reliant on the city by getting farming added (no need to venture to the city to food, at this point if you care little for gear you can be self-sufficient and segregated from the Union side), the "softening" of the civil protection faction which has lead to less harsher responses and retaliations (loosening of laws, adjustments to PK/sweep rules, etc) for better or worse, leading to less deaths rebel side which again equals to a smaller char turnover rate

A mentality shift occurred during Helix which lead to rebels being unified with barely any infighting since early Helix, coupled with the aforementioned softening of the CP factions which leads to extremely long living characters and a low char turnover rate, which again leads to stagnation, boredom and lack of innovation

The unification of the rebel scene then typically leads to every map or so there being one "major" group with very vague ideals that act as the "main" resistance group and de-facto governing force of wherever rebels are, that being the ELA>Trident>Marshals, these groups seem to become less and less reactive as we go along, barely acting in the server and simply sitting in the outlands waiting for the next event despite holding the most resources, with there being limitless resources constantly being funneled into them by new characters/events/or people just generally trading with them cause theyre the only ones around there's even less reason for them to venture into the city to interact with other people

As rebels stay more and more in the outlands/canals/sewers, and become more independent the city suffers too, which leads to lower playercounts as the server is practically segregated, with nobody to work/run these player hubs such as stores (which are just can farms 99% of the time) and little innovation leads to less citizens, which leads to less interactions with union factions, no reason for union players to play and barely any citizens means cops dont flag on

The city is now dead and rebels can't do much since there are barely any cops on to meet the limits, there are no people to interact with either, rebels stop playing since there is practically no danger and it becomes sitting around at a bar roleplay, their characters live on for ages and they get to do whatever


Everything can be added, weapons, ammo, scripts and scripts and even more scripts, you can make all the changes in the world, but the reality is the longer people live the more bored they get, the less drama there is the more bored they get, the longer those characters stick around and hoard resources the less innovation there is, and the independence that rebels requested for so long and finally achieved ultimately lead to the falling playercount


In the end it boils down to once you have everything, there is nothing to live for

 

[Trains]

Nebulous players are incapable of being nuanced in their arguments so the 2 answers you're gonna get is "neb is dying cope and seethe" or "neb always has periods of activity/inactivity this is all normal" before it devolves into personal insults and le lock thread but here's my attempt to explain things

So behold my ultimate essay in what I believe the cause of inactivity to be:


In the end I believe it boils down to stagnation and ironically, a lack of drama ICly

In order for a HL2RP server to prosper both sides need to prosper and interact (that being city/Unon and rebel side). At Nebulous' peak during Clockwork and Early-ish Helix this was the norm, rebels were forced to interact with the city if they wanted to get shit done, that interaction was obtained by getting tokens just by going city side to grab their ration and maybe sticking around for a bit and interacting with people OR by owning a store and getting even more tokens (which is what most rebels did) which equaled to 1) more rebels in the city owning/manning and working at active stores and 2) Union/City players having plenty of hubs to roleplay at

During this time drama was also at its peak, which lead to a lot of infighting in rebels and a lot of assassinations/killings, harsher reactions by CPs and OTA were also the norm which lead to more deaths/PKs, this lead to a high character turnover rate which means people played new/different chars and had to go through the grind once more, leading to more interactions, etc. This lead to less "stagnation" in the end as people were less likely to just get bored of playing their characters by hitting the ceiling

That and drama attracts people (it's why these types of threads always blow up and get people to talk even if they don't play lmao) whether people wanna accept or deny it


With Helix' release and the shift from a token based economy to a material based economy rebels were less reliant on the city, a lot of major figures in various spaces in the community both rebel and city side also left when we swapped due to the loss of their characters and the lack of interest to play which lead to the first "significant" player drop

Over the course of the next few years rebels became even less reliant on the city by getting farming added (no need to venture to the city to food, at this point if you care little for gear you can be self-sufficient and segregated from the Union side), the "softening" of the civil protection faction which has lead to less harsher responses and retaliations (loosening of laws, adjustments to PK/sweep rules, etc) for better or worse, leading to less deaths rebel side which again equals to a smaller char turnover rate

A mentality shift occurred during Helix which lead to rebels being unified with barely any infighting since early Helix, coupled with the aforementioned softening of the CP factions which leads to extremely long living characters and a low char turnover rate, which again leads to stagnation, boredom and lack of innovation

The unification of the rebel scene then typically leads to every map or so there being one "major" group with very vague ideals that act as the "main" resistance group and de-facto governing force of wherever rebels are, that being the ELA>Trident>Marshals, these groups seem to become less and less reactive as we go along, barely acting in the server and simply sitting in the outlands waiting for the next event despite holding the most resources, with there being limitless resources constantly being funneled into them by new characters/events/or people just generally trading with them cause theyre the only ones around there's even less reason for them to venture into the city to interact with other people

As rebels stay more and more in the outlands/canals/sewers, and become more independent the city suffers too, which leads to lower playercounts as the server is practically segregated, with nobody to work/run these player hubs such as stores (which are just can farms 99% of the time) and little innovation leads to less citizens, which leads to less interactions with union factions, no reason for union players to play and barely any citizens means cops dont flag on

The city is now dead and rebels can't do much since there are barely any cops on to meet the limits, there are no people to interact with either, rebels stop playing since there is practically no danger and it becomes sitting around at a bar roleplay, their characters live on for ages and they get to do whatever


Everything can be added, weapons, ammo, scripts and scripts and even more scripts, you can make all the changes in the world, but the reality is the longer people live the more bored they get, the less drama there is the more bored they get, the longer those characters stick around and hoard resources the less innovation there is, and the independence that rebels requested for so long and finally achieved ultimately lead to the falling playercount


In the end it boils down to once you have everything, there is nothing to live for

LETS KILL EVERYONE

 

[maxi]

I, personally, have purchased a few games from the summer sale. In particular CK3. This game confuses me to no end as I've accidentally impregnated my character's sister and married my son off to a 2 month old without even trying.

Nebulous must take a backseat whilst I correct the family tree.

 

[Trains]

I've accidentally impregnated my character's sister and married my son off to a 2 month old without even trying.

cant help being a gemini

 

[jb]

Nebulous players are incapable of being nuanced in their arguments so the 2 answers you're gonna get is "neb is dying cope and seethe" or "neb always has periods of activity/inactivity this is all normal" before it devolves into personal insults and le lock thread but here's my attempt to explain things

So behold my ultimate essay in what I believe the cause of inactivity to be:


In the end I believe it boils down to stagnation and ironically, a lack of drama ICly

In order for a HL2RP server to prosper both sides need to prosper and interact (that being city/Unon and rebel side). At Nebulous' peak during Clockwork and Early-ish Helix this was the norm, rebels were forced to interact with the city if they wanted to get shit done, that interaction was obtained by getting tokens just by going city side to grab their ration and maybe sticking around for a bit and interacting with people OR by owning a store and getting even more tokens (which is what most rebels did) which equaled to 1) more rebels in the city owning/manning and working at active stores and 2) Union/City players having plenty of hubs to roleplay at

During this time drama was also at its peak, which lead to a lot of infighting in rebels and a lot of assassinations/killings, harsher reactions by CPs and OTA were also the norm which lead to more deaths/PKs, this lead to a high character turnover rate which means people played new/different chars and had to go through the grind once more, leading to more interactions, etc. This lead to less "stagnation" in the end as people were less likely to just get bored of playing their characters by hitting the ceiling

That and drama attracts people (it's why these types of threads always blow up and get people to talk even if they don't play lmao) whether people wanna accept or deny it


With Helix' release and the shift from a token based economy to a material based economy rebels were less reliant on the city, a lot of major figures in various spaces in the community both rebel and city side also left when we swapped due to the loss of their characters and the lack of interest to play which lead to the first "significant" player drop

Over the course of the next few years rebels became even less reliant on the city by getting farming added (no need to venture to the city to food, at this point if you care little for gear you can be self-sufficient and segregated from the Union side), the "softening" of the civil protection faction which has lead to less harsher responses and retaliations (loosening of laws, adjustments to PK/sweep rules, etc) for better or worse, leading to less deaths rebel side which again equals to a smaller char turnover rate

A mentality shift occurred during Helix which lead to rebels being unified with barely any infighting since early Helix, coupled with the aforementioned softening of the CP factions which leads to extremely long living characters and a low char turnover rate, which again leads to stagnation, boredom and lack of innovation

The unification of the rebel scene then typically leads to every map or so there being one "major" group with very vague ideals that act as the "main" resistance group and de-facto governing force of wherever rebels are, that being the ELA>Trident>Marshals, these groups seem to become less and less reactive as we go along, barely acting in the server and simply sitting in the outlands waiting for the next event despite holding the most resources, with there being limitless resources constantly being funneled into them by new characters/events/or people just generally trading with them cause theyre the only ones around there's even less reason for them to venture into the city to interact with other people

As rebels stay more and more in the outlands/canals/sewers, and become more independent the city suffers too, which leads to lower playercounts as the server is practically segregated, with nobody to work/run these player hubs such as stores (which are just can farms 99% of the time) and little innovation leads to less citizens, which leads to less interactions with union factions, no reason for union players to play and barely any citizens means cops dont flag on

The city is now dead and rebels can't do much since there are barely any cops on to meet the limits, there are no people to interact with either, rebels stop playing since there is practically no danger and it becomes sitting around at a bar roleplay, their characters live on for ages and they get to do whatever


Everything can be added, weapons, ammo, scripts and scripts and even more scripts, you can make all the changes in the world, but the reality is the longer people live the more bored they get, the less drama there is the more bored they get, the longer those characters stick around and hoard resources the less innovation there is, and the independence that rebels requested for so long and finally achieved ultimately lead to the falling playercount


In the end it boils down to once you have everything, there is nothing to live for

Too long; didn't read

 

[maxi]

cant help being a gemini

God I fucking hate aries or something

Look at how inspirational I am

 

[Mute]

Too long; didn't read

rebels dont interact with city
city dies
people see lower playercount dont get on
rebels get bored, dont play = even less players
rebels cant do anything cause theres nobody to do anything to = less players

 

[FreeSpy]

Everything can be added, weapons, ammo, scripts and scripts and even more scripts, you can make all the changes in the world, but the reality is the longer people live the more bored they get, the less drama there is the more bored they get, the longer those characters stick around and hoard resources the less innovation there is, and the independence that rebels requested for so long and finally achieved ultimately lead to the falling playercount

honestly, i agree. i feel like this puts into words what i've been thinking for a bit, even on my somewhat medium rebel - I have too much and no conflict (tho i've been trying to start some)

 

[jb]

rebels dont interact with city
city dies
people see lower playercount dont get on
rebels get bored, dont play = even less players
rebels cant do anything cause theres nobody to do anything to = less players

Thank you mute

 

[Saggy]

rebels dont interact with city
city dies
people see lower playercount dont get on
rebels get bored, dont play = even less players
rebels cant do anything cause theres nobody to do anything to = less players

Epic and true

Barriers between factions are bad, tear them down and facilitate interactions between players. Citizen roleplay is key and every faction needs to participate/contribute.

 

[PilotBland]

What is your opinion of nebulous then? You obviously have an infamous character going here so I'm intrigued.

I've been here for four or so years and have a lot of posts for it, like, more than a majority day-oners, and my opinion has changed... a lot.

I feel there's a lot of things to criticize, I guess one thing stems from disinterested management.

And I mean disinterested, not disorganized nor incompetent (not in dev side of things, especially) just people who don't... 'care'. And I mean care as in give a fuck about HL2RP. They've got a server box up for a """dead server""" I'm sure is amounting to the potential of cutting the costs which is a semblance of care, but there's no passion for it.

I think passionate people who enjoy writing either stick around grimacing like they're doing the place 'a service' by doing events or they're just gone. I have a lot of friends who I consider very, very capable writers who I have just... sitting in my friends list like a memento, no reason to talk to them either doing their own small tight-knit things or other smaller communities who either quit neb or know of it's 'culture' to dislike it and not come onto it even if i recommend it just for a short while (not much you can do about the latter guys, but rip to those who came and went cause they didn't agree with neb,) so they still wanna rp is the point just not on neb.

then you've got this tug of war between hardline hl2 people and le 'liberals' merlinsclaw refers to them as, which both want their leaning of a more hardcore brutal society yet in different ways, and i think blackquill tried to sate both give some their liberties, the others their own. which isn't bad but one sides gotta win otherwise both are unhappy cause it's this mish-mosh, not cause you can't have a brutal whilst 'toned down' hl2 setting but because the ideas are so WILDLY different at times, like cops having personal condos and being able to do drugs in their homes but then dispatch has a camera in each asshole / heartbeat monitor / a notification regarding being tied, meaning that the other doesn't learn to suck it up, so they don't fuck off.

there's people in the middle. im in the middle. there's also me who *thinks* it's possible to do both. i just feel like its too risky for neb sake and it will kill the server if one decides on a way of going about things.

i think flak is given to people who don't deserve it (canaan should not have been cancelled.) whilst other things should've taken a hitch on a narrative standpoint and will, obviously get laughed at (chernaya mesa) and make everything look bad.

i guess i don't hate nebulous. it's always been my fallback if all other projects inevitably fell so i could vent and get some character ideas out, but i definitely miss my old friends, and my only friends on it are the 'heh neb sucks' or worse the jag-offs who go 'roleplay sucks' whilst maining the rp servers 24/7 but 'ironic' kind which, to be fair is funny to say sometimes. but i wish there'd be a decision or two made about how the servers going definitively.

oh and the community itself is alright i like 99.99% of the people here server-wise it kinda blows atm.

that is my most vaguest 'vague' summary of this. i was mid-type then i had to go shop and kinda lost all fervor to vent. oh well

 

[Takyon]

then you've got this tug of war between hardline hl2 people and le 'liberals' merlinsclaw refers to them as, which both want their leaning of a more hardcore brutal society yet in different ways, and i think blackquill tried to sate both give some their liberties, the others their own. which isn't bad but one sides gotta win otherwise both are unhappy cause it's this mish-mosh, not cause you can't have a brutal whilst 'toned down' hl2 setting but because the ideas are so WILDLY different at times, like cops having personal condos and being able to do drugs in their homes but then dispatch has a camera in each asshole / heartbeat monitor / a notification regarding being tied, meaning that the other doesn't learn to suck it up, so they don't fuck off.

there's people in the middle. im in the middle. there's also me who *thinks* it's possible to do both. i just feel like its too risky for neb sake and it will kill the server if one decides on a way of going about things.

All hl2rp servers need to pick a side in this scenario, and then stick to it, embracing it. One side being a hardcore dystopia, where every day is a struggle for survival, even for basic necessities like food. I've never played Aurawatch, but I've had a friend tell me it's like that. And then there's the other side who want to rp "without being bothered by CPs" which I'm sure is something everyone here has heard before. My opinion is that it's fucking hl2rp, and the dystopia has to be embraced or the stakes will be too low to be interesting.

 

[Trains]

All hl2rp servers need to pick a side in this scenario, and then stick to it, embracing it. One side being a hardcore dystopia, where every day is a struggle for survival, even for basic necessities like food. I've never played Aurawatch, but I've had a friend tell me it's like that. And then there's the other side who want to rp "without being bothered by CPs" which I'm sure is something everyone here has heard before. My opinion is that it's fucking hl2rp, and the dystopia has to be embraced or the stakes will be too low to be interesting.

hardcore survival isnt really sustainable long term, it’s fun for a while but eventually it gets a little boring and people will want to be on top like in any other hardcore survival game or server out there

works well in stuff like alplands tho

 

[Takyon]

hardcore survival isnt really sustainable long term, it’s fun for a while but eventually it gets a little boring and people will want to be on top like in any other hardcore survival game or server out there

works well in stuff like alplands tho

Maybe you have the shake the jar a little if a group gets too clever/powerful. There are means to stop these issues from happening, and if your combine dystopia turns into a script hunt then you're doing it wrong.

 

[Mute]

Maybe you have the shake the jar a little if a group gets too clever/powerful. There are means to stop these issues from happening, and if your combine dystopia turns into a script hunt then you're doing it wrong.

staff intervening with what players are doing isnt really something we do unless its breaking the rules

we arent gonna go around doing le hitman chars or fucking up groups cause they get too powerful