The state of the Server

Jul 23, 2022
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UNGOC - Half baked regiment, doesn't have a proper gameplay loop so they are forced to piggyback off CI/foundation RP. Poor leadership in the regiment with big egos. Poor leadership was the main reason why I resigned from UNGOC Captain. I think they would work a lot better as a regiment if they had more proper roleplay, like the foundation always has roleplay that you can do, studying SCPs, stopping D-Class from escaping, but UNGOC? they don't have any proper roleplay inside their base, usually you can see them just rdming eachother in their base because they have nothing better to do, I even remember doing this with thato and joking that it was training. From my memory of being in UNGOC most of the real, solid proper roleplay came from events, which are cool but they need more.
^ Not trying to say that UNGOC are bad roleplayers, or anything rude like that, it's criticism of how UNGOC roleplay is built to work
Also SL ruling that entering foundation to sample SCPs is part of their gameplay loop is so stupid, I hope this is an old and now irrelevant ruling but you never know since SL don't ever write down or tell the server about their rulings

UNGOC has its ups and downs, and was designed to be the smaller third group, where players would go to be more RP intensive (I.E Diplomacy, negotiation etc) and less combat focused. It was never designed to be a second CI, hence why alot of people considered it combat wise to be debuffed (looking at you, O-Suits). There is a body of work going into getting more RP for GOC, see the GM part below.


SL - Big egos and awkward to talk to, I won't say specifically who but a lot of them are really bad at their jobs and are passive aggressive or flat out toxic for literally no reason other than their dictator-type ego. A lot of people fear them, and it's fair to feel that way. Also there is no need for a roleplay health role in SL, overall it hinders proper roleplay more than it helps. There are a lot of rulings out there made by specific SL that don't make any sense, are plain dumb, or made off personal bias, which is complete bullshit, and since SL don't communicate that these rulings exist you could get in trouble for something that both doesn't make sense and isn't directly against written rules. Example: Rackarain ruled that you cannot Class-F the Mayor or the Rangers to be hostile to the UNGOC because of CI/GOC politics (confused, maybe he'll comment and clarify) Another example, me and another were pulled for FearRP because there was 7 or so in a room with their guns down, attempting to Fears us to put the guns away (we were disquised D-Class), we shot and killed every single one instead, because their guns were down. (ruling is that realistically you would be scared because you're in a room full of MTF with guns)

I'm not going to go into indivual rulings or anything like that, as we have a place for those types of complaints, however, I will remind people that our SL team are all volunteers who give up a tremendous amount of time to better the server we play on. I disagree in the strongest sense with your comment that they are "aggressive or toxic for literally no reason other than their dictator-type ego". On the US side, i deal with alot of the senior complaints made by the playerbase, and overall i look at most complaints for a QA assurance point of view. There may be times where SL get frustrated with indivduals, who want to argue down everything because nobody can ever be wrong, but for the most part, these volunteers work increadly hard to look after the serer.

In relation to the RP Health role, this was something that was requested by players, who wanted a specific individual who took an overview of the RP on the server to ensure things were going well. There was a lot of complaints re appointment of leaders etc taking to long, or getting different answers re Roleplay so we created a centralised role, whos only job on SSL was to look after RP health.


Updates - Updates lately haven't been very well thought out, 8837 harmed the gameplay loop because it's way too powerful (and also 25.52 US dollars for an scp? really?). All of the chemical updates lately, such as Class-X, roleplay chemicals update, and the Gas Grenades have been entirely pointless, they serve almost zero use in combat/roleplay, especially Class-X and the gas grenades, They're just too expensive and time consuming to use.
Also the grenades do jack shit for damage, what the fuck is the point? Like seriously Cyanogen and red phosphorous are straight ASS.
And realistically you will NEVER use Class-X, 1 dose is like 300k, and takes several days if not weeks to make, even if you did manage to afford a dose, there's no actual uses in roleplay for it! It's simply too expensive and too rare to find a good use for it. (Class-Fed personnel is not a reason, just smoke they ass.)

In relation to SCPs being too overpowerful or underpowered, this will be a constant balancing act. NL and SL gets alot of complaints both ways in relation to it. I am of the vintage on this server where i remember 7722 getting ALOT of complaints, same with Type Greens, same with almost every SCP that gets added. In relation to chemicals, they are something that are in a constant state of update. You have to remember however, that updates apply to both servers, and both servers work together to try and balance.

Map changes - Mid, oversized for no reason, why is medbay so large if its just going to be empty all day, also the SS update was terrible. New killhouse is really bad and somehow more buggy than the old one, most of the teasers look good, but then it gets implemented and its just mid or bad.

Everyone is going to have their own opinions in relation to map changes. The maps are what you make of them. If you have a specific bug on the map, i encourage players to report it so we can get it fixed. When it comes to changes, alot of them are things that the playerbase has suggested or wanting areas to RP. I know people gets nostalgic for the old map, but it becomes one of those "grass is greener on the otherside". Recently MRP went back to their old playstyle, hoping that would be the cureall for the issues, but it wasn't.

Lag - The server is absurdly laggy, Server performance declines with every update, but the dimensions update and janitor/dclass update flat out ruined the servers performance. It's normal to see sub 30 average FPS now, with HORRIBLE lag spikes, its unbearable especially during combat.
2023 - pre 8837 and various map changes
70 to 110 FPS, lag spikes on the occasion
2024 - Dimension Update
40 to 60 FPS, Lag spikes becoming more frequent, occasionally freezing during combat
2024 - Janitor/D-Class Update
28 to 40 FPS , Lag spikes happen extremely often, occasionally freezing during combat, sometimes it will go 15-17 FPS with terrible lag spikes.
^ I will not be providing pictures/clips of this FPS trend, you could probably look through old clips to find similar trends though

Lag, The Bain of my existence. I think people tend to confuse update = Lag. Most of the time, that is not the case. Alot of the issues recently has come from other areas which are being looked at. The smaller scale lag tends to be due to issues with peoples PACs, and we have put things in place so that staff are aware of this. There will be constant work to improve server performance, but you got to remember, Gmod is older then alot of the playerbase (came out in 2004). The fact we have a server running with 128 players, with constant updates is quite a rare thing in GMOD nowdays.
SA/SC - Pyro was the last good director of administration, ever since he left it's fallen off and hard, I would say they are incompetent. Site command is also currently really just bad, Both SC and SA are scared to do anything "bad" to UNGOC over the fear that SL will deem it hindering roleplay. This just ends up increasing tensions between departments and SA+ and GOC. If I could describe SA and SC in one word it would be timid. Also both are slow to respond to things, I get that you all get dms constantly but if its taking a week to respond to something or make a final decision then you are just slow.

SA/SC/RP leaders had a big sit down with Yeke and I the other day for about 4 hours. Alot of work is being done in this space, but will take time to develop. People seem to forget that players who occupy this roles are roleplaying, they aren't the real life SA / SC, they have RL jobs / school / lives. Alot of US players come from outside the US as well, and there is a timezone issue.

Gamemasters - 90% of events follow the same few formats, some person comes to the site from X department and makes shit up on the spot, or a new anomoly is discovered and its just roaming the site doing nothing actually interesting, just like running around, an example is the dodo bird event, the deer event, etc etc.or those events where the GM just straight up sells GM effects, those events are the worst, and the majority of the time the effects the game master sells you just kills you, so whats the point? I know gamemasters have requirements to fulfill, but like come on, these are so bland...
In the past 24 hours, some work has gone into this. RP leaders and GMs will be working closer together in relation to building RP. However, we do have to be mindful, that there is performance limitations that are in place, to avoid lag.


Communication - SA/SC and SL are very bad at properly communicating changes/updates, an example is the change to DEAs loadout changing it from H&K P30L to the CZ-75, not even a word was spoke about this, or the time Site Administration announced that during code blacks personnel are to be escorted by DEA and NU-7 to the UNGOC FOB, no SA/SC talked to DEA, or NU-7 regarding this, If you're going to make a change that affects a department you need to tell the departments about the changes :skull: and despite this they continued to have the same site admin over DEA, I know SA never does jack shit when they are "overseeing" departments, but he never said a word in the DEA channels until his second time "overseeing" the department. Another thing, If you make changes to a subdivision, contact the leader of the subdiv about it, it takes like 2-3 minutes just to ask who the leader is or just pop in their discord channel and tell them directly.
Pinging USA in foundation announcements is not an effective way of communicating changes, Not every one has the USA/UK role, and a lot of people just ignore them.


Communications is something that is being worked on, but not everything is going to be discussed with everyone, otherwise nothing will ever get done.


Combat - The current state of combat is so bad, if you don't have a perma gun you are significantly easier to kill especially on surface, despite constant complaints about the poor state of combat nothing is changed, there is no point to trying to "balance" loadouts, when someone can just pay 12 dollars for a FHR-40 or ARX-160. VHS-D2, ARX-160, and MSBS were super cool back when they weren't perma guns, they had mystique, rarity, and they were only on a few jobs, thats what made them cool, now that they are just perma guns its just like whatver its just an ARX. Fighting SCPs is also so boring, it's not fun at all, the gameplay loop of fighting scps (think being E11 or SCU) is terrible. Run out to find where the SCP is, shoot it for 500 damage then die respawn and do it again until someone else beams, cuffs and RCs it. It used to be a lot funner when it was viable to be drinking potent duloxetine for basically the whole breach, you were able to merk the scp, run away shoot run away while reloading and shoot again. Now it just feels like a get eaten by an scp simulator. fun the first few times, after that it's like watching paint dry. I think the QBZ may be the last genuinally good gun thats only available on a few jobs. (unpopular opinion but kbar is bad). Server lag is bad to the point where the majority of my deaths in combat were because of lag, whether it was freezing mid combat or just stupidly low fps and lag spikes, It's bad and only seems to get worse with every update, and is one of the reasons why I am quitting the server, I don't want to play on a server this laggy anymore. It's just not fun.

I've covered alot of it above, however, when it comes to combat, it is a balancing act. Nobody likes overpowered things, and everyone considers themselves under powered. Everyone wants to be the main character, which in a server our size is not realistic.

To discuss other areas of complaint

"remove GOC and make CI better (Bigger base, more jobs, and more things to do)"

In relation to removing GOC, that is not being planned for. we don't just delete a whole group of peoples RP because others don't like it.

In relation to make CI better, alot of the "more things to do" Catagory comes down to your DELCOM+ (CI RP Leaders). Its kind of in the name, RP leaders. Whilst new content can sometimes assist with RP, for CI, its not likely to. CI leadership need to work together and come up with the RP for their players outside of (Main Raid / DC Raid / Main Raid / DC Raid).

"I just want to say when it comes to SL/NL they dont allow CI/GOC/Foundation (from what i heard) to control there faction when it comes to other GOIs. What i mean by that is that foundation cant call for a war or stop GOC from coming into base for testing/sampling bc its part of there "gameplay loop" but is that not what research gameplay loop is? For CI and GOC they cant go to war with each other without SSL perms. I understand that the people are sometimes dumb but why cant a RP leader (The commander of CI or the general of GOC) call for war over things that have been happening within RP. I just think that when it comes to stuff in character that SL/NL should be left out of it because the server should be controlled by the people that are RPing and not the people that are not even in the RP when its happening.
"

There has recently been changes that have been put in, but i'll address the war issue. I was the one that restricted wars on the US. This wasn't an SSL decision, but an NL decision. There was a very good reason for it. I've tried to keep it out of view to not embarrass people, but since people constantly ask, the reason why wars are restricted on US are due to wars being started for:
1. "Don't like someones profile picture on discord (CI-GOC war for 3 days)"
2. "Killed a DEA on surface who was killing a civ (F-GOC war for 2 weeks, total communication blackout)
3. "Assisted CI in freeing a captured Delcom" (F-GOC/CI war for 2 days)
4. "Conducted an AR on Foundation" (Total communication blackout for 3 days (F-GOC)
5. "Being rude over comms" (GOC-CI War for 2 days)

And I can go on and on. Wars were not something which people should be chucking out for no reasons. The reason why UK is not restricted at the moment is because they don't do stuff like this. Is it always going to be restricted? No, work is being done to reduce the restrictions, but as I told the RP leaders the other day, Trust is earned. NL and SSL don't want to be spending 4-5 hours a day in meetings try to resolve issues because players have a spat and then start a war over that spat.

Final note for the thread:

As a community, we all need to take responsibility for the roleplay we create. Not everyone is going to like what we do. Not everyone can be the main character. Nobody is the " Real life (Insert role)". Some of the best RP I've seen in my 2.5 years on this server has come from the player base. If you have an idea you think might be good for RP (like an RP enhancement or minor event) bring it up with our GM/ Event team. If you have a complaint about how something was handled in game, create a thread in the complaints section, so senior staff can look at it and see if theres something that needs to be addressed. Creating long threads to spill all the grievances over along period of time doesn't solve anything, and causes people to become highly defensive. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if we are going to improve the community, we need to respect each other.

MODERATOR NOTE
I'm not going to close this thread for now, but it starts to become a pile on, I will be. Lets all be respectful.
 
I appreciate the feedback wished you would of come talk to us sooner.

SL - Big egos and awkward to talk to, I won't say specifically who but a lot of them are really bad at their jobs and are passive aggressive or flat out toxic for literally no reason other than their dictator-type ego. A lot of people fear them, and it's fair to feel that way. Also there is no need for a roleplay health role in SL, overall it hinders proper roleplay more than it helps. There are a lot of rulings out there made by specific SL that don't make any sense, are plain dumb, or made off personal bias, which is complete bullshit, and since SL don't communicate that these rulings exist you could get in trouble for something that both doesn't make sense and isn't directly against written rules. Example: Rackarain ruled that you cannot Class-F the Mayor or the Rangers to be hostile to the UNGOC because of CI/GOC politics (confused, maybe he'll comment and clarify) Another example, me and another were pulled for FearRP because there was 7 or so in a room with their guns down, attempting to FearRP us to put the guns away (we were disquised D-Class), we shot and killed every single one instead, because their guns were down. (ruling is that realistically you would be scared because you're in a room full of MTF with guns)

^
 
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Aug 22, 2022
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why wars are restricted on US are due to wars being started for:
ur reasonings dont make sense whatsoever,
let CI, GOC, and Foundation decide on what goes on with wars shouldn't be up to SL, if you dont want to change that edit it for example this is how you should do it:
*Foundation/GOC/CI obtain a reasoning for war* Contact SL for the reason if SL deems it is a valid reason we can declare war, if you want restrictions to this make it that SL has the authority to make the war end in a certain days example: your war starts at 2024-08-14 and will end 2024-08-16 or whatever the SL member deems fit
 
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Jul 23, 2022
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Well at the moment, they need to provide the reason to SL/SSL for why they want to go to war.

But we must also remember, this is SCP-RP, not SCP-War. Multiday conflicts shouldn't be a common thing, but instead should be something that is done rarely to resolve big issues.

As i've told the RP leaders, if they believe SSL has unfair denied their reason for war, they can contact myself about it. Nobody has taken me up on that offer.
 
There has recently been changes that have been put in, but i'll address the war issue. I was the one that restricted wars on the US. This wasn't an SSL decision, but an NL decision. There was a very good reason for it. I've tried to keep it out of view to not embarrass people, but since people constantly ask, the reason why wars are restricted on US are due to wars being started for:
1. "Don't like someones profile picture on discord (CI-GOC war for 3 days)"
2. "Killed a DEA on surface who was killing a civ (F-GOC war for 2 weeks, total communication blackout)
3. "Assisted CI in freeing a captured Delcom" (F-GOC/CI war for 2 days)
4. "Conducted an AR on Foundation" (Total communication blackout for 3 days (F-GOC)
5. "Being rude over comms" (GOC-CI War for 2 days)
In my opinion I believe that restricting wars is not the solution to this problem. If this info is true that you listed I fail to believe that any RP leader who did that is still in their position. I do not mean to come off rude in any way, but I feel rather then restricting war, SSL definitely need to talk to the personnel who made the decision to go to war for that reason. It should also be evident that the person should not even be in that position if doing any of that. I understand trust needs to be earned to be able to start wars, but its a two way thing. You cannot expect the player base to have trust in SSL when the same issues come up every month, but always are disregarded in some way. After some point in time you must realize that the players keep asking and keep getting denied as their is always some sort of reasoning how we are not telling the truth or we always dont know the full story. This is a Roleplay server which is meant to be realistic and one of the most realistic things you can have is human error. You take the humanity out by not giving them the freedom and restrict them from learning from their mistakes. SSL is overall too relied on in most situations and rarely are things ever handled out in RP in my opinion. In many situations in the past months SSL has been a factor in handling most problems which shouldn't be a thing unless they are absolutely needed to step in.
 
Jul 23, 2022
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In relation to restricting wars, Trust me when I tell you that we tried other options, but it didn't resolve the issue. I've previously issued warnings ,removed people from positions etc in an attempt to solve the issue. We even de-evolved Site Command and moved alot of the duties to SA.

In relation to SSL coming into things, you got to remember, alot of the time, people go to them asking for help. Recently a discord was created for feedback on the SSL team and we got varying opinions of "They do nothing to they do to much". Both can't be true. But yet, people hold those beliefs.

You cannot expect the player base to have trust in SSL when the same issues come up every month, but always are disregarded in some way. After some point in time you must realize that the players keep asking and keep getting denied as their is always some sort of reasoning how we are not telling the truth or we always dont know the full story.

I'm happy to discuss specific issues in DMs if there's a particular issue you feel that applies to. I am mindful however, that if it involves a player I am limited as to what i can discuss with non-participants.
 
In relation to SSL coming into things, you got to remember, alot of the time, people go to them asking for help.
I understand that, and that's why i, saying the player base is over reliant on SL/SSL which is an issue on everybody. I feel that its been a reoccurring for a while, and that many people are scared SSL will be mad at them for making decisions that could change relations and other forms of RP. Even when people go to SSL, I feel it should be made for SSL to be better and not refuse but more stand neutral on interfering. They can always be an observer READY to step in when asked to do so, but should not always step in immediately when asked to do so.

Another side note I just want to make, is that I feel the poll section could be used more to address some of the issues that are stated often (not talking about things stated in here, just in general if complaints are heard often about the same thing). Ill also shoot you a dm on discord a little later.
 
In relation to restricting wars, Trust me when I tell you that we tried other options, but it didn't resolve the issue. I've previously issued warnings ,removed people from positions etc in an attempt to solve the issue. We even de-evolved Site Command and moved alot of the duties to SA.

In relation to SSL coming into things, you got to remember, alot of the time, people go to them asking for help. Recently a discord was created for feedback on the SSL team and we got varying opinions of "They do nothing to they do to much". Both can't be true. But yet, people hold those beliefs.



I'm happy to discuss specific issues in DMs if there's a particular issue you feel that applies to. I am mindful however, that if it involves a player I am limited as to what i can discuss with non-participants.
I think people don't like that SSL does too much and too little in all the wrong ways. Like doing too much in restricting in-character wars and dictating what in-character policies should or shouldn't be a thing, but then doing too little in terms of enforcing minges and people who dont contribute to roleplay and just play themselves or removing trolls. It feels like SSL gets way too involved in micromanaging roleplay but then not involved enough in enforcing the rules and organizing rulings to make sense. Super Admins are basically just The Administrator as a roleplay role rather than actually being administrative OOC. This isnt to say SSL should never step in for roleplay stuff if it gets bad or just encourages blatant shitty minge-based/ooc "roleplay" (like starting a war over a profile picture on discord) though.

Overall SL should help manage and guide roleplay into the servers vision while the roleplay leaders can dictate their own in character policies and events and such. But the problem is, this server doesn't have an actual vision or story or lore or anything. This server is an embodiment of an identity crisis. This server wants to be combative and adds combative chemicals and guns, knives, weapon skins, and has a clear focus on combat and economy. At the same exact time, this server also wants to be roleplay-focused and wants people to be in character and always initiate roleplay on their own and will condemn those who focus on combat too much. This server tries too hard to make this grand balance that's meant to satisfy everybody and it doesn't work and as the server continues to do this with each update, people get more and more frustrated and confused. A game for everybody is a game for nobody and I think the sooner that's realized here the sooner things can heal (God bless Site 9 for being the roleplay server while Site-65 stays the casual combat server, whenever site 9 releases). And because of this everlasting crisis identity, Server Leadership or other staff will often make on-the-spot rulings based on their own opinions and their personal vision because there's no vision for the whole server to actually follow. It's basically "do whatever you want as long as SSL is fine with it", whether it be focusing on 100% combat or 100% roleplay or a 50/50 of both. There is no set standard to follow and thats an issue in my opinion.

Also the roleplay health officer isnt something Im real passionate about but I will say that the players didnt really ask for a roleplay health officer specifically, they asked for O5, Ethics, A1 and O1 to be removed. It was the most popular suggestion ever made in this servers history that I know of. Instead of that, they got the health officer role because NL didnt want to take the risk of removing so many players from their (very powerful) positions, as itd risk player loss. Whether or not it has or will helped, I dont know, I'm not staff.


TL;DR
- Server has an identity crisis with no lore/stroy, tries to appeal to everyone by being both combat and roleplay focused (somehow), but that doesnt work. Quote: "A game for everyone is a game for no one". Identity crisis leads to staff/sl making rulings based on their personal opinions, visions and beliefs rather than the servers as a result. SL focus on the wrong things and micromanage RP while not enforcing rules/quality enough. And people didnt specifically ask for an RP health role, they asked for SC/ISD to be removed but it was too risky to do despite being the most popular suggestion (afaik).

I love everyone this is not meant to be hateful :D
 
Jul 23, 2022
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Also the roleplay health officer isnt something Im real passionate about but I will say that the players didnt really ask for a roleplay health officer specifically, they asked for O5, Ethics, A1 and O1 to be removed. It was the most popular suggestion ever made in this servers history that I know of. Instead of that, they got the health officer role because NL didnt want to take the risk of removing so many players from their (very powerful) positions, as itd risk player loss. Whether or not it has or will helped, I dont know, I'm not staff.
I want to address this specifically re the O5 / Ethics / A1 / O1 removal. There are currently no plans to remove O5 / EC / A1 / O1.

To remove the groups from the server would displace up to about 136 players on both server from their "primary' roleplay. Where would those players go? We can't just tell these group "oh sorry, you'll have to find somewhere else to go".

Given the sudden loss, we could lose at least 50% of them permanently from the community. 68 players, daily, who bring RP in other roles as well when they are not playing their main role. That would lead to a death spiral.

Additionally, It would fundamentally change the power structure on the server where the third most powerful group suddenly becomes the most powerful. Site Administration has a very poor history of being leaders (Anyone that has been around a while can remember some of the nightmare administrations), and there would be no counterbalance. The good thing about our current system is that is rare for both sides of site command to go off the deep end and cause issues.

I know some of you will turn around and say "Oh but the players want this". I refer to some of the comments in this thread alone that will defeat that argument. They might want it now , but when implemented and things don't go the way they want, or it does't work out like it was intended, then we have a situation where people go "we want them back". (See: Maps)

At that point, the damage is done, we lost the players who were in those roles, and then those that want it back will leave.
 

Mars

Blacklisted Player
Oct 7, 2023
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i agree with pretty much everything stated here, unfortunatly SL/SSL/NL dont have the capabilities to understand that they can be wrong at times so I dont see the community being able to do much for the state of the server.
 
I will give a brief message here, take it as you will.

Firstly I'll speak on the state of Content, during my time as a Super Administrator I have on multiple occasions reached out to various Groups for suggestions to thing they would like changed/added/removed & have only had a handful of things I could reasonably do, of which I have been doing things behind the scenes for changes. As I am only one person & I have other things to tend to along with the server there's only so much I can do besides reassure that work is being done behind the scenes.

Secondly, I'd lke to touch on this comment:

"Big egos and awkward to talk to, I won't say specifically who but a lot of them are really bad at their jobs and are passive aggressive or flat out toxic for literally no reason other than their dictator-type ego"

There is both a lot & not a lot that I can do, this is based on the variable if there's evidence, furthermore if no evidence provided I cannot convict them & infract if needed, all I can do is speak with them & ask for improvement. I'd like to believe that everyone is innocent until proven guilty but sometimes that isn't the case but in the case of no evidence I cannot do much more than what I stated above. I am also not out of reach to being corrected or punished, so in the case you have something that is against me I'd suggest either making a complaint or bringing it to our lovely CS Canoon.

as a Final message i'll say one last thing, if anyone ever needs me please reach out on discord, I know sometimes it may seem as if it might be hard to reach me at times but I do intend to improve on reply times.
 
Mar 20, 2022
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Well at the moment, they need to provide the reason to SL/SSL for why they want to go to war.

But we must also remember, this is SCP-RP, not SCP-War. Multiday conflicts shouldn't be a common thing, but instead should be something that is done rarely to resolve big issues.

As i've told the RP leaders, if they believe SSL has unfair denied their reason for war, they can contact myself about it. Nobody has taken me up on that offer.
Thats mental you got to get permission to go to war. Biggest problem with SCP-RP on both servers is ruleplay over roleplay. Its just another body to add to the ever growing pile of issues you got with your service.
 

Yeke

Community Manager
Community Manager
Group Moderator
Mar 20, 2022
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Hello everyone.

I’m not a big fan of these types of threads, as they tend to be more about venting frustrations than actually moving things forward. I understand that everyone has their own perspective, but often, people get stuck in their stance and refuse to reconsider. That said, I do respect all your opinions. However, much of what’s being brought up here has already been addressed. Canoon and I took four hours out of our day to sit down with the US players to work on improvements and start moving things in the right direction.

Im going to address key points here, as this is not a thread for dogpiling.

Wars:
Restrictions on wars were due to issues with toxicity and excessive mediation. Efforts are being made to return control to players while ensuring responsibility.

UNGOC:
GOC’s role is acknowledged despite complaints. The faction has a unique RP perspective that can be improved if properly utilized. Removal isn’t feasible due to existing content and potential RP value.

Server Leadership:
SL members are volunteers and can't address every issue immediately. Effective communication is crucial. Complaints should be directed through proper channels, and personal biases shouldn't hinder communication.

Updates:
SCP-8837 was recently nerfed due to being overpowered. Feedback on updates, especially chemicals and SCPs, is welcomed and reviewed. Pricing is necessary for server sustainability.

Map:
Feedback on the map is needed but should be constructive. Major changes take significant time and effort.

Lag:
Lag issues are partly due to PAC3. Optimization efforts are ongoing, and speculation about causes should be minimized.

Gamemasters:
Gamemasters face challenges in event planning and execution. It's a learning process for improving event quality.

Communication:
Effective and respectful communication is key. Departments aren’t always informed of all changes due to impracticality, but constructive feedback is encouraged.

Guns:
Requests for new guns should be reasonable. Changes are reviewed but need to avoid excessive, weekly demands.

Combat:
Ongoing monitoring and optimization for combat issues are in progress.

Player Points:
  • RP Leadership: Players should handle in-game conflicts more independently, but staff steps in when necessary.
  • Server Quality: Issues with players avoiding challenges affect server quality. Both players and staff need to adapt.
  • Leadership Selection: Staff and RP leaders are chosen based on availability and qualifications. Issues with current leaders are acknowledged.
  • Community vs. Staff: Mistakes are made by both staff and players. The aim is to improve, and feedback is valued.

Final Note:
Network and Server Leadership are committed to improving the RP environment and are open to feedback for continuous enhancement.




Wars
Wars were restricted for reasons Canoon listed amongst many other reasons which were missed from the message namely wars start to happen, one side wont give in, the war turns toxic and then SSL are begged to intervene, leading to massive meetings, this is unfortunately a MASSIVE waste of time for SL and NL when we have to get involved and trust me when I say this, we would like to give you that freedom, but at the same time, you must be responsible, I understand you all may not see the other end of things on why we make our decisions, which can be hard to see at times.

However we are making efforts to return this back to the playerbase, to see if we can hand it back down and avoid repeated back to back meetings or begging for SSL because one side is being stomped.

This was made as a last resort as I appreciate people say "remove the person who went to war in that manner", however we have done this in the past and then someone else takes up the mantle and does the exact same thing.


UNGOC
I understand the issues surrounding GOC, people aren't happy with them for one reason or another, however at this current time GOC has embedded itself and they enjoy this unique perspective of RP, if properly utilised, this can lead to interesting scenarios, on numeral occasions i've provided ideas to Foundation and GOC to allow GOC to do tribunals on behalf of the foundation for certain cases that would fall under their jurisdiction as an example, this was rebutted, simply because people don't like GOC.

Now I understand the faction is a small one, and its a bit hard to fit into the RP aspect, because it diverts players away, however it is not something we can just simply "remove", this would leave a lot of content in the server that would be redundant including the base, and would end up just going unused, which as you can imagine, we would rather not have that problem, but GOC can be utilised to work with foundation and create their own RP, the issue stems from people with Main Character Syndrome, refusing to bow because everyone wants to win all the time, thus cucking GOC out of any RP going "oh they are just a small faction, i don't have to RP with them"
At this time I cannot justify a removal of GOC, at this time as it is not as simple to just "remove", however we will constantly be monitoring to ensure that there is still a place for the GOC and where improvements can be made.

To further add, I understand ego plays into this as I said above with Main Character Syndrome, however you mention a lack of an RP loop and that GOC just "RDM each other", which obviously shouldn't be happening, they RP leadership should be setting up basic RPs of;

  • Trainings
  • Drills (Marching etc)
  • Combat Trainings / Drills
  • Research and lore creation
  • Observations of the surface to protect the veil (expedient removal of anomalous matter i.e. hume fields and deal with those who have witnessed these)
  • General patrols of surface (I know there will be "But CI" messages)
  • QRF for SCP Breaches
  • Potential QRF for times where CI Are slapping too hard i.e. LAV camping garage and intervening as a matter of interest.
  • potentially Tribunals if foundation can agree on some interesting points to interwork GOC
To finally end off the UNGOC, we are not "protecting" them in any way, however we do reserve the right to tell players they cannot cut contact with an RP faction for 24hrs+ and refuse to RP with them, as thats not fun for anyone, and foundation already get frustrated saying "CI DONT RP" so why do this to another faction. (CI say the same about foundation too), we are all here to enjoy the game, lets just have fun and RP.


Server Leadership

With due respect I understand not everyone in SL is everyone's cup of tea and sometimes you would rather avoid them, but we cannot expect them to be omnipresent to every issue that arises, it is paramount that you get over personal dislikes and communicate, and then if the SL member acts improperly, you make a complaint through the appropriate channels, as Canoon said our SL team are volunteers and are in no way shape or form "perfect" at everything and mistakes will happen, and this is why its important to understand that if you don't talk to us, we cannot help with things.

Furthermore as I said prior, sometimes, respectfully you just have to get over any personal distaste and just communicate, if you aren't willing to do this, then you do yourself a disservice by refusing to speak about your issues and leaving them to be internalised until you cant take it any more.

There are a lot of rulings out there made by specific SL that don't make any sense, are plain dumb, or made off personal bias, which is complete bullshit, and since SL don't communicate that these rulings exist you could get in trouble for something that both doesn't make sense and isn't directly against written rules.

As a result of the 4 hour meeting NL had with the SCP-US playerbase, we are working on this issue, to try improve things and we are always open to continuous review of the rules as and when there is a need, this wont be a fast fix, as there's a lot to cover, as its not just "does it make sense" but also "what is the impact of removing/modifying/adding this rule", rules are generally implemented off the back of poor behaviour which does usually degrade the quality of RP, and sometimes they are made in bad faith, which is why we have our suggestions forms and complaints forms should there be anything you wish to suggest or complain about.


Updates
Updates lately haven't been very well thought out, 8837 harmed the gameplay loop because it's way too powerful (and also 25.52 US dollars for an scp? really?). All of the chemical updates lately, such as Class-X, roleplay chemicals update, and the Gas Grenades have been entirely pointless, they serve almost zero use in combat/roleplay, especially Class-X and the gas grenades, They're just too expensive and time consuming to use.
Also the grenades do jack shit for damage, what the fuck is the point? Like seriously Cyanogen and red phosphorous are straight ASS.
And realistically you will NEVER use Class-X, 1 dose is like 300k, and takes several days if not weeks to make, even if you did manage to afford a dose, there's no actual uses in roleplay for it! It's simply too expensive and too rare to find a good use for it. (Class-Fed personnel is not a reason, just smoke they ass.)

I appreciate not all updates will be up to everyone's tastes, and there will be teething issues and or imbalances that time a while to sort out, so I will break down the above into small bits.

SCP-8837 being too powerful: Yes, this was noted and as such a recent nerf was brought out in order to rebalance things to make it a bit better, however SCPs are meant to make things harder and one thing I would like to note here off what I have seen personally and have heard off many players, players do not fight these breaches as a team, and instead just try to 1 v 1 the SCPs, resulting in constant death.

Furthermore, we are more than open to suggestions and criticisms, which you can place a report on server content if its really that bad via the forums.

Finally regarding SCP-8837, people do forget, this is a standalone SCP that is powerful and also that we are a business and unfortunately, much to the distaste of everyone, we cant just give things out for cheap, as we need to turn a profit to keep the servers up and be able to provide upgrades and pay our Employees and provide bounties for our Development staff, whilst also ensuring Ventz has money to pay rent, as he does this full time, I understand you may disagree with the price, but we aren't doing this out of greed, but necessity.

Chemicals: I understand the chemicals may not be to your fancy, and these can be revisited as needed, as these are flexible, of which Auburn has a keen interest to improve what's available and frequently takes feedback on this topic, have these issues been raised or have these just been internalised and turned into internal mutterings that never reach the ears of people who can fix these issues, however since you have made comments, I will ping @Auburn he can view the concerns surrounding these chemicals.


Map

I understand there are some concerns surrounding the map, and we will take feedback, but "its mid" or "its shit" doesn't really help us, furthermore we cannot make changes on a dime as it requires a significant effort to change up the map and ensure its also optimised and makes sense gameplay wise, but if you have feedback, id be grateful to hear it, as long as its constructive and not just "its shit"


Lag

I understand there is concern surrounding lag, however most of it is likely to do with PAC3, the USA server is on even better hardware than the UK server, and from what I have found in all accounts is that PAC3 is a major cause for lag, however at the same merit it is also one of the key things that keep the lights on, due to its popularity, which makes it hard to just "remove", we can if needed review the limits that are set or reduce if needed to try and reduce the impact, I will also be monitoring for optimisations to try improve any issues, however I would like people to refrain from random speculation on what "may cause" the lag, i.e. just because something is added, doesn't necessarily mean that the new thing is the problem but potentially an older system that doesn't play nice, and needs to be looked at.


Gamemasters

Unfortunately, being a gamemaster isn't easy and requires a certain flair to improve the RP of players with intruiging storylines, and a lot of planning usually goes into events to then be subverted by players, however as canoon says, its a learning process to improve peoples confidence in running events.


Communication

Communication is key, from both sides of the fence, but its not just simply communication but effective communication, however I do need to dismiss this notion that departments "MUST" be informed of all changes that impact them, as sometimes there are reasons it is impractical to notify or work alongside a department, for example gun changes, attempts generally are made to meet in the middle in regards to these, however on numerous occasions, it just results in one server wanting one weapon platform, and the other wanting a different one, in cases like these Content reserve the right to make that decision, however I appreciate most of this complaint surrounds IC issues and not SL.

To pad this part up, when I mention effective communication, I mean respectful communication, as unfortunately a lot of people fall foul of just being straight up disrespectful for no reason because they are angry about something, and if people aren't willing to work on effective communication, you cannot expect the person to sit and listen to your rants. (Not you specifically but this is a generalisation)


Guns

I will take a note to review the perma weapons etc with ventz, however I do want to make something clear regarding this, we cannot just add new guns and if I work on this with ventz, respectfully I don't want to be seeing "Plz add X gun to my faction" every week as was the initial case.


Combat

I will monitor this when im on the US server to get a grasp of whats going on, however it is hard for me to get an accurate grasp connecting from the UK where I am already prone to network delays, as such I will have to utilise the US staff to provide performance data to try optimise these issues.


Now I'm going to address a few player points;
I just want to say when it comes to SL/NL they dont allow CI/GOC/Foundation (from what i heard) to control there faction when it comes to other GOIs. What i mean by that is that foundation cant call for a war or stop GOC from coming into base for testing/sampling bc its part of there "gameplay loop" but is that not what research gameplay loop is? For CI and GOC they cant go to war with each other without SSL perms. I understand that the people are sometimes dumb but why cant a RP leader (The commander of CI or the general of GOC) call for war over things that have been happening within RP. I just think that when it comes to stuff in character that SL/NL should be left out of it because the server should be controlled by the people that are RPing and not the people that are not even in the RP when its happening.

We as a network wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, however as stated prior our hand had been forced in this matter, as these war issues took a significant chunk of our time, mediating due to constant issues, drama and OOC hatred, resulting in constant resignations and even factions refusing to play when being dominated, I would love nothing more than to put this back in the hands of the players, however we do need them to provide us with the sanctity of self-moderating.

A lot of the perm issues also stem from absurd policies which were aimed to intentionally deprive factions of RP for significant periods of times, which on a network level we cannot have, this is a dangerous thing to have happening and we had to step in to resolve this i.e. relating to "Foundation cant cut contact for long periods of time", as we were having 72hrs to even up to a month "RP Blackouts" where the foundation would just straight up ignore a faction for this time, punishing them, this gave the foundation the unfortunate idea that they had within their power to just refuse to RP and if the GOC upset them slightly they would remove RP, and this should not be a tolerated point.

One significant issue on the US server is that players often avoid facing challenges. Instead of taking the necessary steps to progress, they opt for easier paths, hoping that time or future players will resolve issues. This lack of courage and determination weakens the server’s overall quality.

(People unwilling to face defeat, people unwilling to take what is necessary for them to progress, people lack of courage and determination and took the easy way thinking that eventually time, or their successors will miraculously complete what is good to the server or regiment.)

Unfortunatly, this is a key point that sadly people refuse to admit, and results in issues that SSL / NL have to then resolve by force, sadly we cannot sit there and just let the server identity turn into a "Main Character Syndrome" paradise, people always want to win, and a loss is seen as such a hard thing to swallow, when RP should be a mix of wins and losses.

In the past, RP leaders had the authority to resolve in-game conflicts, guiding the direction of roleplay independently. If relations between regiments were damaged, RP leaders would handle the fallout. However, the current reliance on staff to solve these problems is creating a culture of dependency, leaving players ill-equipped to manage issues on their own in the future.
I cannot blame you for this viewpoint, however players do have this ability already, and staff are instructed to only step in when requested or when necessary, I think this falls down the viewpoint of people just want "content" to be the crutch for RP and if nothing new is added they say "there is no RP" and then blame us for the issues, and this results in a combative nature between frustrated players.

(Back then the server and staff teaches you, If you fuck up, face the problems and the fear take initiative and COURAGE TO FIND A WAY TO SOLVE IT. MAYBE YOU GONNA FAIL BUT YOU GOING TO KEEP ON TRYING AND TRYING AND TRYING THATS HOW THOSE THAT FOLLOWED YOU GOING TO SEE YOU SHINE, YOU LIGHT YOURSELF UP SO YOU CAN SHED THE LIGHT ON OTHERS, THIS WAS HOW THIS COMMUNITY WAS.)
(THREE YEARS on the server and instead of moving forward we are moving backwards, how?)
I appreciate the sentiment, however change is a fundamental part and sadly not all change is beneficial and lessons are to be learnt, however the blame is not solely on SL or NL, but the change in the playerbase, which has resulted in this feeling of they don't want to make decisions, and frequently want the involvement of SSL, we can always say "make the decision yourself", however that then will further be another issue of "SL are unapproachable", as such its a lose - lose scenario.

This raises the question: Is the problem really with the players, or is it that the staff are no longer selecting the right individuals to lead RP independently?

We constantly see players complaining and having arguments and bad impressions with staff, this is not how this server used to be. Maybe it’s time to take a look on whether the server really needs some of these RP leaders, Staffs.

You struggle to find a way between combative and RP, hoping to create a utopia or some unrealistic environment for players. But is it really what people want? Or maybe just what YOU want?

There is probably truth in this for staff and RP leads, however, it is nearly impossible to vet everyone to such a significant point, and sometimes we end up with simply no choice to put people into certain positions as the only applicant which makes application denial neigh impossible.

unfortunatly SL/SSL/NL dont have the capabilities to understand that they can be wrong at times so I dont see the community being able to do much for the state of the server.
I have to disagree extremely, we are only human and mistakes are made and lessons are learnt, however respectfully, I understand it is easy to feel that way but the community also can at times be wrong, no one is perfect in this and we all will make mistakes or hold beliefs we refuse to budge on.

I think people genuinely forget that all the staff team are volunteers and put all their effort to try their best to make the community a better place despite all the challenges they face, mainly due to the fact people do not see what goes on behind the scenes, however there is only so much transparency we can give players.

I want to end this with a final point, and just so it is clear, that Network Leadership and Server Leadership are committed to making improvements and creating a positive roleplay environment where everyone can enjoy the game, I understand this may not feel that way at certain times, however we will always listen to your feedback and work to find solutions that benefit the community.

Kind Regards
Yeke
 
Last edited:
Jan 6, 2023
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Hello everyone.

I’m not a big fan of these types of threads, as they tend to be more about venting frustrations than actually moving things forward. I understand that everyone has their own perspective, but often, people get stuck in their stance and refuse to reconsider. That said, I do respect all your opinions. However, much of what’s being brought up here has already been addressed. Canoon and I took four hours out of our day to sit down with the US players to work on improvements and start moving things in the right direction.

Im going to address key points here, as this is not a thread for dogpiling.

Wars:
Restrictions on wars were due to issues with toxicity and excessive mediation. Efforts are being made to return control to players while ensuring responsibility.

UNGOC:
GOC’s role is acknowledged despite complaints. The faction has a unique RP perspective that can be improved if properly utilized. Removal isn’t feasible due to existing content and potential RP value.

Server Leadership:
SL members are volunteers and can't address every issue immediately. Effective communication is crucial. Complaints should be directed through proper channels, and personal biases shouldn't hinder communication.

Updates:
SCP-8837 was recently nerfed due to being overpowered. Feedback on updates, especially chemicals and SCPs, is welcomed and reviewed. Pricing is necessary for server sustainability.

Map:
Feedback on the map is needed but should be constructive. Major changes take significant time and effort.

Lag:
Lag issues are partly due to PAC3. Optimization efforts are ongoing, and speculation about causes should be minimized.

Gamemasters:
Gamemasters face challenges in event planning and execution. It's a learning process for improving event quality.

Communication:
Effective and respectful communication is key. Departments aren’t always informed of all changes due to impracticality, but constructive feedback is encouraged.

Guns:
Requests for new guns should be reasonable. Changes are reviewed but need to avoid excessive, weekly demands.

Combat:
Ongoing monitoring and optimization for combat issues are in progress.

Player Points:
  • RP Leadership: Players should handle in-game conflicts more independently, but staff steps in when necessary.
  • Server Quality: Issues with players avoiding challenges affect server quality. Both players and staff need to adapt.
  • Leadership Selection: Staff and RP leaders are chosen based on availability and qualifications. Issues with current leaders are acknowledged.
  • Community vs. Staff: Mistakes are made by both staff and players. The aim is to improve, and feedback is valued.

Final Note:
Network and Server Leadership are committed to improving the RP environment and are open to feedback for continuous enhancement.




Wars
Wars were restricted for reasons Canoon listed amongst many other reasons which were missed from the message namely wars start to happen, one side wont give in, the war turns toxic and then SSL are begged to intervene, leading to massive meetings, this is unfortunately a MASSIVE waste of time for SL and NL when we have to get involved and trust me when I say this, we would like to give you that freedom, but at the same time, you must be responsible, I understand you all may not see the other end of things on why we make our decisions, which can be hard to see at times.

However we are making efforts to return this back to the playerbase, to see if we can hand it back down and avoid repeated back to back meetings or begging for SSL because one side is being stomped.

This was made as a last resort as I appreciate people say "remove the person who went to war in that manner", however we have done this in the past and then someone else takes up the mantle and does the exact same thing.


UNGOC
I understand the issues surrounding GOC, people aren't happy with them for one reason or another, however at this current time GOC has embedded itself and they enjoy this unique perspective of RP, if properly utilised, this can lead to interesting scenarios, on numeral occasions i've provided ideas to Foundation and GOC to allow GOC to do tribunals on behalf of the foundation for certain cases that would fall under their jurisdiction as an example, this was rebutted, simply because people don't like GOC.

Now I understand the faction is a small one, and its a bit hard to fit into the RP aspect, because it diverts players away, however it is not something we can just simply "remove", this would leave a lot of content in the server that would be redundant including the base, and would end up just going unused, which as you can imagine, we would rather not have that problem, but GOC can be utilised to work with foundation and create their own RP, the issue stems from people with Main Character Syndrome, refusing to bow because everyone wants to win all the time, thus cucking GOC out of any RP going "oh they are just a small faction, i don't have to RP with them"
At this time I cannot justify a removal of GOC, at this time as it is not as simple to just "remove", however we will constantly be monitoring to ensure that there is still a place for the GOC and where improvements can be made.

To further add, I understand ego plays into this as I said above with Main Character Syndrome, however you mention a lack of an RP loop and that GOC just "RDM each other", which obviously shouldn't be happening, they RP leadership should be setting up basic RPs of;

  • Trainings
  • Drills (Marching etc)
  • Combat Trainings / Drills
  • Research and lore creation
  • Observations of the surface to protect the veil (expedient removal of anomalous matter i.e. hume fields and deal with those who have witnessed these)
  • General patrols of surface (I know there will be "But CI" messages)
  • QRF for SCP Breaches
  • Potential QRF for times where CI Are slapping too hard i.e. LAV camping garage and intervening as a matter of interest.
  • potentially Tribunals if foundation can agree on some interesting points to interwork GOC
To finally end off the UNGOC, we are not "protecting" them in any way, however we do reserve the right to tell players they cannot cut contact with an RP faction for 24hrs+ and refuse to RP with them, as thats not fun for anyone, and foundation already get frustrated saying "CI DONT RP" so why do this to another faction. (CI say the same about foundation too), we are all here to enjoy the game, lets just have fun and RP.


Server Leadership

With due respect I understand not everyone in SL is everyone's cup of tea and sometimes you would rather avoid them, but we cannot expect them to be omnipresent to every issue that arises, it is paramount that you get over personal dislikes and communicate, and then if the SL member acts improperly, you make a complaint through the appropriate channels, as Canoon said our SL team are volunteers and are in no way shape or form "perfect" at everything and mistakes will happen, and this is why its important to understand that if you don't talk to us, we cannot help with things.

Furthermore as I said prior, sometimes, respectfully you just have to get over any personal distaste and just communicate, if you aren't willing to do this, then you do yourself a disservice by refusing to speak about your issues and leaving them to be internalised until you cant take it any more.



As a result of the 4 hour meeting NL had with the SCP-US playerbase, we are working on this issue, to try improve things and we are always open to continuous review of the rules as and when there is a need, this wont be a fast fix, as there's a lot to cover, as its not just "does it make sense" but also "what is the impact of removing/modifying/adding this rule", rules are generally implemented off the back of poor behaviour which does usually degrade the quality of RP, and sometimes they are made in bad faith, which is why we have our suggestions forms and complaints forms should there be anything you wish to suggest or complain about.


Updates


I appreciate not all updates will be up to everyone's tastes, and there will be teething issues and or imbalances that time a while to sort out, so I will break down the above into small bits.

SCP-8837 being too powerful: Yes, this was noted and as such a recent nerf was brought out in order to rebalance things to make it a bit better, however SCPs are meant to make things harder and one thing I would like to note here off what I have seen personally and have heard off many players, players do not fight these breaches as a team, and instead just try to 1 v 1 the SCPs, resulting in constant death.

Furthermore, we are more than open to suggestions and criticisms, which you can place a report on server content if its really that bad via the forums.

Finally regarding SCP-8837, people do forget, this is a standalone SCP that is powerful and also that we are a business and unfortunately, much to the distaste of everyone, we cant just give things out for cheap, as we need to turn a profit to keep the servers up and be able to provide upgrades and pay our Employees and provide bounties for our Development staff, whilst also ensuring Ventz has money to pay rent, as he does this full time, I understand you may disagree with the price, but we aren't doing this out of greed, but necessity.

Chemicals: I understand the chemicals may not be to your fancy, and these can be revisited as needed, as these are flexible, of which Auburn has a keen interest to improve what's available and frequently takes feedback on this topic, have these issues been raised or have these just been internalised and turned into internal mutterings that never reach the ears of people who can fix these issues, however since you have made comments, I will ping @Auburn he can view the concerns surrounding these chemicals.


Map

I understand there are some concerns surrounding the map, and we will take feedback, but "its mid" or "its shit" doesn't really help us, furthermore we cannot make changes on a dime as it requires a significant effort to change up the map and ensure its also optimised and makes sense gameplay wise, but if you have feedback, id be grateful to hear it, as long as its constructive and not just "its shit"


Lag

I understand there is concern surrounding lag, however most of it is likely to do with PAC3, the USA server is on even better hardware than the UK server, and from what I have found in all accounts is that PAC3 is a major cause for lag, however at the same merit it is also one of the key things that keep the lights on, due to its popularity, which makes it hard to just "remove", we can if needed review the limits that are set or reduce if needed to try and reduce the impact, I will also be monitoring for optimisations to try improve any issues, however I would like people to refrain from random speculation on what "may cause" the lag, i.e. just because something is added, doesn't necessarily mean that the new thing is the problem but potentially an older system that doesn't play nice, and needs to be looked at.


Gamemasters

Unfortunately, being a gamemaster isn't easy and requires a certain flair to improve the RP of players with intruiging storylines, and a lot of planning usually goes into events to then be subverted by players, however as canoon says, its a learning process to improve peoples confidence in running events.


Communication

Communication is key, from both sides of the fence, but its not just simply communication but effective communication, however I do need to dismiss this notion that departments "MUST" be informed of all changes that impact them, as sometimes there are reasons it is impractical to notify or work alongside a department, for example gun changes, attempts generally are made to meet in the middle in regards to these, however on numerous occasions, it just results in one server wanting one weapon platform, and the other wanting a different one, in cases like these Content reserve the right to make that decision, however I appreciate most of this complaint surrounds IC issues and not SL.

To pad this part up, when I mention effective communication, I mean respectful communication, as unfortunately a lot of people fall foul of just being straight up disrespectful for no reason because they are angry about something, and if people aren't willing to work on effective communication, you cannot expect the person to sit and listen to your rants. (Not you specifically but this is a generalisation)


Guns

I will take a note to review the perma weapons etc with ventz, however I do want to make something clear regarding this, we cannot just add new guns and if I work on this with ventz, respectfully I don't want to be seeing "Plz add X gun to my faction" every week as was the initial case.


Combat

I will monitor this when im on the US server to get a grasp of whats going on, however it is hard for me to get an accurate grasp connecting from the UK where I am already prone to network delays, as such I will have to utilise the US staff to provide performance data to try optimise these issues.


Now I'm going to address a few player points;


We as a network wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, however as stated prior our hand had been forced in this matter, as these war issues took a significant chunk of our time, mediating due to constant issues, drama and OOC hatred, resulting in constant resignations and even factions refusing to play when being dominated, I would love nothing more than to put this back in the hands of the players, however we do need them to provide us with the sanctity of self-moderating.

A lot of the perm issues also stem from absurd policies which were aimed to intentionally deprive factions of RP for significant periods of times, which on a network level we cannot have, this is a dangerous thing to have happening and we had to step in to resolve this i.e. relating to "Foundation cant cut contact for long periods of time", as we were having 72hrs to even up to a month "RP Blackouts" where the foundation would just straight up ignore a faction for this time, punishing them, this gave the foundation the unfortunate idea that they had within their power to just refuse to RP and if the GOC upset them slightly they would remove RP, and this should not be a tolerated point.



Unfortunatly, this is a key point that sadly people refuse to admit, and results in issues that SSL / NL have to then resolve by force, sadly we cannot sit there and just let the server identity turn into a "Main Character Syndrome" paradise, people always want to win, and a loss is seen as such a hard thing to swallow, when RP should be a mix of wins and losses.


I cannot blame you for this viewpoint, however players do have this ability already, and staff are instructed to only step in when requested or when necessary, I think this falls down the viewpoint of people just want "content" to be the crutch for RP and if nothing new is added they say "there is no RP" and then blame us for the issues, and this results in a combative nature between frustrated players.


I appreciate the sentiment, however change is a fundamental part and sadly not all change is beneficial and lessons are to be learnt, however the blame is not solely on SL or NL, but the change in the playerbase, which has resulted in this feeling of they don't want to make decisions, and frequently want the involvement of SSL, we can always say "make the decision yourself", however that then will further be another issue of "SL are unapproachable", as such its a lose - lose scenario.



There is probably truth in this for staff and RP leads, however, it is nearly impossible to vet everyone to such a significant point, and sometimes we end up with simply no choice to put people into certain positions as the only applicant which makes application denial neigh impossible.


I have to disagree extremely, we are only human and mistakes are made and lessons are learnt, however respectfully, I understand it is easy to feel that way but the community also can at times be wrong, no one is perfect in this and we all will make mistakes or hold beliefs we refuse to budge on.

I think people genuinely forget that all the staff team are volunteers and put all their effort to try their best to make the community a better place despite all the challenges they face, mainly due to the fact people do not see what goes on behind the scenes, however there is only so much transparency we can give players.

I want to end this with a final point, and just so it is clear, that Network Leadership and Server Leadership are committed to making improvements and creating a positive roleplay environment where everyone can enjoy the game, I understand this may not feel that way at certain times, however we will always listen to your feedback and work to find solutions that benefit the community.

Kind Regards
Yeke
a lot of yap when it could just be fixed like this

scale back the amount of stuff that requires SL permission and give more control to the players, especially Sr. CL4/CL5 holders

SL ought only to intervene when things grow extreme and players continue to complain
 
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