HL2RP Reprise Gaming- Story Driven HL2RP.

Why “Reprise”?

From the ashes, there’s an opportunity to rebuild. For some of us on this project, our experience with the gamemode has been somewhat brief -- 1-2 years. For others, it’s been a project that’s been in the back of our minds for upwards of six to seven years.

There is always a single point of failure with regards to Half Life 2: Roleplay. Whether that failure be in administration, atmosphere, upkeep, or some other category, when a server finally shuts its doors there’s usually a diagnosis to discover what went wrong.

After watching so many failures, and after seeing so many players become disenfranchised, leaving the gamemode entirely because of solvable problems, we’ve decided to take a stab at the whole “running a server” thing. We hope that, through our cumulative experience and willingness, we can construct an experience that actually isn’t just a small group of people having all the fun, but instead constructing an environment of roleplay for everyone. Be that the first time role-player to the hardened veteran. From the civvie to the anarchist, from the lowliest recruit to the mightiest commander.

That is our goal.

The core of our team is two people:

Tyler Pirrilo (http://steamcommunity.com/id/djteddy): I've played HL2RP for around 11 years now(started mid 2006). Played/ran at many communities, such as: Catalyst Gaming, TnB, CasualBananas, Quantum Roleplay, Deadrock Gaming, Jacgmod, Trauma-Roleplay, Synergyrp, Gmod.biz, Pubgamer, along with more than several other small communities that I can't remember the name of. It was about mid to late 2006 when I started playing garry's mod serious roleplay. I joined HL2Land, like most other players, I started out my initial HL2RP experience by playing a character who eventually got mixed up in anti-union activities. My first character was a wreck to say the least; doused in cynicism and arrogance. My second character was more focused to what I was aiming for, sometimes losing himself in his goals and projects. He came from Indianapolis, Indiana. He had a pretty bitter youth, to say the least- But I prefer to keep my characters story IC- to give myself something to do and to interact with others. After HL2Land, I joined TnB; which at the time was just starting up. I know some of you have played at TnB before, so here’s some history: those who joined TnB around when it started in 2007 started their story in Central City 17, people from 2008 started in City 18. I have waaaaayy too much shit to discuss on my times on HL2RP. If you want to know more, you can always add me on Steam and ask for a story. Aside from HL2RP, I’ve played mainly anything you can imagine, Starship Troopers Roleplay, Fallout Roleplay, Terminator Roleplay. On Terminator Roleplay at TnB, I had several Skynet machines; a hunter-killer, a T-800 I think, and I also held positions in several other factions. On SRP, I had a technician and trader; being near the highest tier.

Bill (http://steamcommunity.com/id/46675): Began roleplaying on “Mobius Servers” back ~6 years ago. I’ve been off and on since then, but I’ve always kept an eye on the Clockwork / HL2RP community. Not too much else to say about myself -- I write, roleplay, and play Overwatch / R6: Siege / other games fairly often.






A game’s story is nothing if you aren’t actively exerting a force on it. Any enjoyable narrative experience has to make the player feel as if they are not simply a spectator, but, instead, are actively pushing the story in one direction or another. That is one of our underlying principles -- there is a larger narrative to the world which the world of Reprise Roleplay exists. The city where your character lives is not the only place in the world. Cities and places far away can affect the events that occur within the sphere of Reprise through the multi-server system. This includes, or plans to have City connected to Canals, to Outlands, and then onto Caves/Coast, along with a more fleshed out Inner-Nexus server itself -- Half of this is already functional as well.

There is a larger framework for events to occur that is drawn up within the administration/event team -- but nowhere near the influence that players themselves will exert on the world. In the world of the Union’s rule, every breath drawn is a reason to be worried. Any one person’s actions can cause the shoulders of the system to tense, and one’s actions can shape the way the game plays.


From a fistfight with civil protection to the shooting down of a gunship -- from the lowliest noodle stand rolling around the plaza, to running a large business -- starting an underground gambling ring or ratting out the suspicious character two apartments over, every action has consequences -- but it is the players that will decide where the story goes from square zero.And if you come from another community, there is the option to apply for a character transfer, giving you the option to take the stories and experiences you had from another server, and get to try to add on to that here. Keep in mind, you won’t be able to transfer unreasonable items or traits, giving you any significant advantage over other players straight off the train.



There has always been this slight disconnect between the playerbase of many communities about the specifics in roleplay. Usually, there is a large quantity of arguments and ideas being thrown at each other to try and make a streamlined idea of what's what, and we’ve tried to make sense of it here at Reprise. This regards many things -- augments, CCA rank systems, brainwashing, lore, events, just to name a few. Basically all the nitty-gritty specifics that everyone has their own opinion on. We’ve taken a few distinct separate positions, incorporating what we believe creates an environment that actually portrays the feeling of living in the dystopian world of Half Life 2.

Extra care has been put into every element of the server in an attempt to create the unique story we all have wished for over the collective time of roleplay shared between us. Every subject is grounds for an in-depth discussion and we’d like to just showcase a few ideas that we’ve decided to stick to.

To make this clear, as it was mentioned earlier, the way the server functions is through player-made and administrative events that keep the cogs moving and the roleplay flowing. Player events being the bulk of it, with administrative likely being dedicated to a specific team of players who would spend their time keeping others entertained through their own intricate storytelling. They keep the ball rolling through creative ideas and large-scale roleplay events that are carefully thought out, not just the generic “Here, have some antlions.” It would be of utmost importance to actually keep it engaging and meaningful, instead of the generic random judgement waiver/autonomous blurting out of High Command every time some citizens get a little touchy after they wait in the plaza trying to do anything that isn’t standing on a plaza corner and coughing into their sleeve.

But who else is there with them? There’s always going to be the Civil Protection, and everyone loves to talk about how they work, what they use, how they use it, etc. People enjoy touching everything up in this department in their own ways. There's been a fair amount of thought put into them from hundreds of servers, all making their own little “Adjustments”, and we’ve seen it all. That’s why we’ve decided to use what many servers call, “Squads” in our attempt to organize and properly form the faction into something more functional and streamlined.

Anyone who is familiar with the Squad system could recognize the difference from the most commonly used “Divisions” but for those who don’t, they kind of seem almost identical.We’ll start at the top.

The unit in charge, simply named the “Sector Commander” is tasked with running and maintaining the entirety of the CCA and the area of Combine influence within their City and it’s outer reaches. Assisted closely by his Deployment Leaders, they influence all matters passed through the CCA when deemed necessary of action.

But, the units below these ranks are divided into sections of groups, simply named “Squads”, and are populated by ground units and their respective Field Command, titled Squad Leader (SqL) and Adjutant (AdJ). They are the leaders of their own division of units, consisting of a single Squad Leader per division, and usually a pair of Adjutants. They are to keep their units working efficiently through the city on their task of maintaining constant sociostabilty, which all squads universally practice. Instead of specific specialization identical to the proper “Divisions” system used frequently by a great many HL2RP servers, they practice Medical or Engineering by earning commendations through their Chief Medical Officer (CMO) or Chief Engineer (CE).

This system has helped to create a more streamlined, simplistic and easily managed CCA to allow better roleplay between units by forcing closer interaction instead of backroom office management of the general CCA by high-command units and their field command. And, removing that disconnect and non cooperation of the separate divisions, by practically making them all but the same to allow more easily managed work on the ground.

But to drone on and on about the systemic cogs of the machine and the grease that oils the engine, do you still get a good CCA? If the quality of the players and the opportunity for roleplay is less than sufficient, what’s this all matter?






The way you use a whitelist, for this example Civil Protection, can massively change everything. They’re there to enforce this feeling of oppression without indirectly standing there with a whip and a chain, and if done wrong just makes the world feel like a slightly more fleshed out “Stare at your shoes simulator.” The importance of taking the steps to create interesting roleplay with other players is what we aim to focus on having on everyone's mind, and it’s why it’s so important to talk about it. The hope is that at the very least, we can get something between units that isn’t just a simple spout of a voice-command like an automatic roleplay trigger to approaching citizens.

Interacting with the environment independently in interesting ways is what drives everything, instead of waiting on others to call upon you, units are expected to take some initiative. Units have immense capability over citizens to develop more character beyond “Hush, the CP’s are coming - and we’re low on rations!”. And to try and be what you created upon joining the server, a character in the world. The hope isn’t for an army of robots itching to use their stunbaton, or for a crusade of emotion over the fact that you did a bad thing. Be unique, and think about you, in the real world, how you might do things if you were in this person's shoes.

There isn’t the expectation of a try-hard sense of roleplay your every breath, movement, itch, thought, or want, but to try and incorporate more thought into your actions. Think about your roleplay beyond the five seconds of glory you originally planned might have.

Though, the intent of roleplay with the civilian populace on your unit is not to directly say “We’re oppressing you, shut up.” it's to indirectly influence how their life is going to play out that day, and to create the illusion of peace and freedom in a world you very much control and move wherever you wish, whenever you wish. Open aggression on civilians is a great way to trigger a rebellion, so avoid a hideously stupid public-amputation or beating. Units should be trying to interact with the citizens beyond an arrest, and should instead take some action along the lines of some random questions, searches, and some “You fit this description, come with me.” sort of action.

And with that, CCA roleplay should be more than easily understood of what’s expected. But, not everyone plays a unit, so what about the citizens? What type of roleplay is good for them? To explain this to others, here’s it put simply:

The key of citizen roleplay is taking the initiative -- lying around passively is likely not going to work for creating roleplay, and most everyone understands this. With this in mind, citizen RP should be focused on intra-faction roleplay. Citizens should be the main focus of the roleplay within the server. That much is obvious.

But with regards to the actual substance of the roleplay, there’s a few important steps we’ve taken to make sure that citizens have actual agency within the world of Reprise. Firstly, shops are delegated entirely to the citizen population. Within the realm of selling items, the CWU will not contest citizens for the ability to sell items or provide services. If citizens want to take actions or act in a positive manner for the city, that is entirely within the realm of unaffiliated citizens.

Along with that, a careful attention to detail among other main factions present on the server that frequently interact with the citizens. More specifically Civil Protection, who have been better tasked with their objective in sociostability through the city. They’re not your friend, but they won’t scream at you from across the street to trod your feet forward down a road just because you stopped for half a moment either. Along with more frequent work-cycles, coordinated rations, proper checkpoints, searches, questioning, patrols, etc, they’re constantly keeping an eye on you and anything can happen.

But apart from Civil Protection, citizens have other places to turn to find something to do. Jobs as an employee under businesses are also available. The current default, being the Civil Workers Union, operates the factories and warehouses and some levels of maintenance across the city, using their main workforce of employees they’re usually tasked with manufacturing goods, recycling materials, restocking machines, conducting maintenance on apartments/stores, etc. They receive an automatic paycheck, and they take tasks from the Work Shift Manager. Or separately, they might be assigned by a Warehouse Manager to move supplies and goods to a separate place.

But not everyone wants to work with the first option, and there are plenty of opportunity to start your own business, or work under another. Buying and selling items to the citizens under a separately owned business, perhaps with different, or better pay rates is also an option. There are numerous stores scattered all throughout the city available for purchase to sell goods to the citizens of the city.

The standard day on Reprise should consist of a few small events, and if it’s been organized, and if it’s on the right day, an event by the team in charge scheduled to that day and pre-planned beforehand to keep the story of the events of this city flowing.

There won't be the regular drawl of the same thing over and over, day over day. Things will be planned, and the hope is you stick around to experience the events, and the story that will expand upon that. Your character, and potentially a hundred others, will move with it.

That’s what we hope to achieve here. An enjoyable experience for all the players with the freedom to create the things everyone enjoys.


Teamspeak: rg423.ts.nfoservers.com

Content: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/fi...=558089650

Steam Group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/reprisegaming

Server IP's:

162.248.89.187:27015 - City

162.248.89.187:27016 - Canals

162.248.89.187:27017 - Caves

162.248.89.187:27018 - Coast

EDIT: Please alert me of any errors, the post fucked up spacing. It also fucked up the images, sorry that they are so large. Working on fixing it.

 

That's a lot of text to take in at once, but otherwise great job. I quite like the idea of multi-server travel too. I think four servers is a little much for a newly opening server which could really stretch your staff team. If you do it I'd just recommend keeping the other server slots fairly low until demand requires you need to add more.

 

Hello Delta, I don't know if you remember me from Catalyst-Gaming. They'll be low slots for the moment, yeah. The server's been up for awhile, but due to hosting issues and such, we've been down for a few months, this is our relaunch- so to speak.

 

I remember Catalyst Gaming, but I don't recall you. After a quick search on the CG forums I think you were in CG far before me, or at least right as I joined. Was only around for the very end of City 8, and stayed up until the death of HL2RP.

 

Yeah, I joined CG when they launched. I only really remember you from your forum posts(rants mainly), and some of your characters. I ran GRID for a few years, and helped Kom'rk, Kronic and Killmeplease behind the scenes with the MPF.

EDIT: For anyone wishing to join and roleplay, I'd like to apologize- Our box is having issues at the moment. I expect all servers to be back up tonight, sometime after 4PM EST- As that's when I get off work.

 

Really excited for this, this is pretty well made it seems.

Side question, what's your plan for combine and rebel economy?

 

This looks pretty good.
And the content pack is so freaking tiny. Which is a relief.
I'll check this out for sure.
Good luck.

 

Economy will be player-based for the most part, I want to avoid the market being flooded by admins, instead give the players power to do as they please, whether that's inflating the price of a common item, or low-balling other competitors with two credit breen's water. I'll give you a more detailed response when I get off work, as I'm on phone at the moment.

Thanks! Yeah, the maps will make up most of the content pack. We have no need for silly things like M9K, and over-used model packs such as the metro police pack. We have our own weapons, models and maps being made for us aswell.

 

Good thread and all, but...

On this regard, is your aim to be a TNB carbon copy?

 

TnB is my home. It's the system I've seen work the best for everyone involved, and has the best chance for character development. We don't plan to be, no. I've ran squads at TnB and I've helped improve this system many times since 2007. I can see where you are coming from, though. We have a lot of pioneers and veterans of old and new era TnB at reprise- even our script that's in development is being worked on by a past TnB dev, so it is heavily influenced by it, simply because we have seen at its core how fun HL2RP can actually be. I've been around since 2006, with pubgamer, catalyst and all the old era communities gone, people were looking for a new option, which is why we have influences from TnB, Catalyst and others- we have storytellers and lore writers from old SSTRP communities, faction leaders from TnB's HL2, SRP. Not to mention mappers from catalyst, among others. When it comes down to it, we're all here just to have as much fun role playing in HL2 as we did from 2006-2013. Excuse spelling and grammar, I'm on phone.

 

There will be a population event tomorrow if anyone's interested, information is in the Steam group. Join for a notification when it starts if you're interested in coming.