One last attempt for MilitaryRP

[Party 67]

1 minute ago, BERB_DERE_GOTE said:

You lead the one faction with active members.

Yeah ik that I’m making sure MARSOC stay active as I should 

[Kendal 450]

33 minutes ago, BERB_DERE_GOTE said:

Hammer  is widely available and I'm aware of several people, including myself who'd be willing to help with map-making.

Millerjerm and I (when I was leading PDSS) were actually looking into a couple things, I was learning mapping and getting help from him, I even gave him an idea of an OBJ, and he fucking made it perfectly. As for me, my ADHD just doesn't give me the capacity to retain any real information on how to map. While it's widely accessible download wise, it's fucking hard to work with.

[shrimp 764]

2 minutes ago, Kendal said:

I was learning

Another important thing that I've found to be true; people are willing to learn how to contribute if given the proper resources and feedback. Creating an environment where both exist is essential.

If someone creates a new SWEP or something and there are a few problems with it, reviewing the changes and helping that person fix them goes a lot further than saying "ur code is shite" and making them figure it out on their own.

Edited January 21, 2021 by shrimp

[PraetorDon 485]

17 minutes ago, Party said:

Yeah ik that I’m making sure MARSOC stay active as I should 

So in this case, how are you doing this? What makes your faction desirable to others? How would you implement these changes or give advice to other faction leaders?

This is the thought process I used when advising/ leading factions. Not to mention when on the staff team.

 

Is there someone in MARSOC that you trust that would uphold your values and commitment? Yes? Perhaps it's time to help another faction and bring your skills elsewhere to help the server grow. No? Pick the person who you feel closest represents these values and train them for the position.

First thing I did as a faction leader was plan my departure.

 

Last post on this thread unless someone needs clarification.

Edited January 21, 2021 by PraetorDon

[Kendal 450]

1 minute ago, shrimp said:

Another important thing that I've found to be true; people are willing to learn how to contribute if given the proper resources and feedback. Creating an environment where both exist is essential.

Your idea had me thinking, and got my gears turning. Overall what I've noticed as a whole, is that often times what the community wants, and what the executives and Garnet want, are completely different things. Even if we all seem to be on the same page, I think we HEAR what Garnet has planned for us, an then what we get just doesn't seem as satisfying as what was promised. (DISCLAIMER: Garnet, I'm not putting blame on you here, this is building up to something.) But I think that the "lack of what was promised" situation can be summed up by us having WAY too high expectations, and Garnet trying to meet that demand just burns out on making huge changes, practically solo. Sure, Ozzy, Jake, Pencil, and Miller may have helped test the weapons. But Garnet rebuilt a lot of the weapons in that update, and that can't be fucking easy for one guy.

I've been saying that we need a dev team, but really like you said, there are some pretty creative people in this community who are capable of coding, mapping, etc. I think what we should have is somewhat like a "workshop" type forums section where people from all of Garnet's different servers can share their creative ideas, and maybe this would lead to some player made weapons, objectives, maps, etc that Garnet could put to use (hopefully) at low cost or free. I say that is at least worth a shot.

[Millerjerm 96]

7 minutes ago, Kendal said:

Millerjerm and I (when I was leading PDSS) were actually looking into a couple things, I was learning mapping and getting help from him, I even gave him an idea of an OBJ, and he fucking made it perfectly. As for me, my ADHD just doesn't give me the capacity to retain any real information on how to map. While it's widely accessible download wise, it's fucking hard to work with.

I have had to cut back on my time mapping because of school and a job but I have still been doing some work. I currently have 1 OBJ completed and 2 in development which I am trying to finish soon. I will gladly help anyone out who wants to try and learn how to make stuff in hammer who interested. I also plan on showing off the OBJs once I get at least one more finished which will probably be a part of a personal custom map unless something else happens.

[shrimp 764]

5 hours ago, Kendal said:

"workshop"

Well, the way I've seen it deployed is much more relaxed through Discord. Developers can be broken down into three categories; coders, mappers, and modelers. The way a lot of communities do it is have public channels for each of the three categories, where developers and contributors can come together and discuss things they're working on or things they need help with. Suggestions are also implemented in a much more relaxed way, where there is an additional channel where anybody can just brainstorm ideas and spitball with other community members. If a dev or contributor likes an idea, they make it and request it to be implemented. 

Typically, these larger dev teams have a lot of internal structure beneath the owner to facilitate ease and effectiveness. The team I'm apart of has pushed out over 700+ updates since going open source four months ago because of how efficient the system is. People higher up the chain on the dev team who approve merge requests are more so responsible for quality control and direction of the server than the average dev, and so on and so forth. Lead modelers and mappers have the final say on art direction and aesthetics, etc etc. 

In the context of GG, the dev team would autonomously generate content, and Garnet's role would simplify to merging content to the live branch of the server.

Edited January 21, 2021 by shrimp

[Kendal 450]

Just now, shrimp said:

 developers and contributors can come together and discuss things they're working on or things they need help with.

This COULD be great, seeing that we could see some "cross pollination" type of thing where DRP, Rust players are helping MRP players work through their code/mapping or whatever. I imagine with as big as this community is, there is far more talent within it than we realize. 

The problem I see is the fact that, the Discord is mainly used when someone asks "why did I get banned" or "is Sierrax2 down?". The discord doesn't have a lot of engagement, in fact TS these days like someone else said earlier is typically like 10 MRP players spread around in different channels, 1 mega channel with a ton of DRP staff in it, and that's about it. I've also noticed quite a dip in forum retention as well where most threads these days are related to appeals or staff apps. Sure there's the occasional shitpost or suggestion thread, but for the most part it feels like the community is a lot less "community" these days. 

[shrimp 764]

7 minutes ago, Kendal said:

TS

Discord is essential for creating a development community, as you wont get anywhere with TS not saving message history, and the forums mega-threads just aren't practical. When you have mappers, coders, and modelers who all need to work together and coordinate, you need a functional discord. 

Edited January 21, 2021 by shrimp

[Kendal 450]

Continuing my post from earlier about o-11's and shit:

While I think that having 4 factions again would be interesting, I can't see it as practical in the current environment. Honestly what would be kind of cool is if AFSOC was just reassigned as @shrimp suggestion of G4S (or something like that). Given that the playerbase would be split more (and that we have less of it anyways right now), having a mercenary type faction to assist one side or the other in battles/RP events would be pretty fucking cool. The extra cool factor is that there wouldn't be a need for an RU equivalent to AFSOC because if RU wants to fly, just Hire jake's fucking G4S or whatever for a war. I think as a whole we should probably revisit that idea since it was a BANGER of a fucking suggestion, that ended up going nowhere.

Imagine RU is fat outnumbered, but they earned some cash from an operation or some shit so the Marshal is like "hey let's hire G4S". Then the Marshal and a small squad of escorts could meet up with G4S at an encampment or station (probably gas station or even the little buildings at powerplant would be cool). The meeting is tense since maybe G4S was already contracted by US for the war, but RU is willing to pay more, and then G4S dudes agree to help RU but end up STABBING them in the back and taking sides with the US anyways! After that RU wants revenge so they storm the G4S encampment to get their money back or whatever. Boom. RP event right there. While also being generally an awesome idea.

And again, doing this BIPASSES the need for an RU equivalent to AFSOC. In my opinion, you wouldn't even need to change player models and weapons and shit. (I don't want this to sound easy) but creating a small outpost or something on the map for G4S and giving them spawns would be all that is needed, i think... 

TLDR; change AFSOC to G4S as a small (SMALL) faction, instead of adding 2 more factions to the server, all of which are completely dead. 

 

[shrimp 764]

5 minutes ago, Kendal said:

BANGER of a fucking suggestion

This suggestion would work best on a NS/Helix base, just saying.

Edited January 21, 2021 by shrimp

[Party 67]

31 minutes ago, PraetorDon said:

So in this case, how are you doing this? What makes your faction desirable to others? How would you implement these changes or give advice to other faction leaders?

This is the thought process I used when advising/ leading factions. Not to mention when on the staff team.

 

Is there someone in MARSOC that you trust that would uphold your values and commitment? Yes? Perhaps it's time to help another faction and bring your skills elsewhere to help the server grow. No? Pick the person who you feel closest represents these values and train them for the position.

First thing I did as a faction leader was plan my departure.

 

Last post on this thread unless someone needs clarification.

The difference between my faction and other is 1 - i am active i get on the server as soon as i can  and make sure everything is going smoothly with my faction and as staff im making sure people wont break the rules. 2nd i make sure i look for people who play the game and enjoy it skill is not what im looking for ( even tho it is a factor to join the faction) and obviously i am making sure my enlisted know that if they are not active enough or as i see fit they will be demoted / rank locked / removed from my faction because they can go be inactive in other factions. 

and for the last thing you said im not planning on leaving MARSOC anytime soon i wanted to be in the faction since delta. but if i am needed to go be an officer / leader on another faction ( Depends on the faction ) i may consider taking it. if it helps the server i dont see why not. and yes i do have someone who can lead MARSOC but i dont know if he is ready yet there for atm no i will not leave MARSOC unless its absolutely necessary.    

[Gythem 311]

I agree with shrimp heavily in going open-source. I remember talking to members, one in specific, who wanted to revamp the war system, but in order to do so he'd need access to the source code, which was unattainable.

Point is: people are willing to help, especially when given an easy opportunity to do so with fellow members of the community who can give criticism and take their project and further improve it.

ie. Someone makes an addon, the addon is shared through a Discord with like-minded individuals. Then these individuals can either give criticism or edit it themselves. Then once everyone agrees it is the best they can make it, they send it out to Garnet to implement, but since this team already has the source code it takes out a LOT of the troubleshooting that may have been needed with conflicting addons and such.

I myself have wanted to get into some sort of games development but have never had the time, nor mentorship, nor strong foundation to work from. I was thinking about taking part in a large Skyrim project, but never really had the proper experience (or time to take part with such a large project and dedicated team) and Creation Engine is a bit more difficult than the Source Engine. I think I'd personally benefit from this and others may as well although I do feel it would be a bit of a side project for me as I still am quite busy.

Edited January 21, 2021 by Gythem

[Captainswag 894]

1 hour ago, Kendal said:

expectations

Just wanted to bring it up again

Expectations. You see, you all expect to be given a source of entertainment, and rightfully so, the server transitioned from (at least from when i joined) a place where we made our own fun, being idiots and whatnot, to where the staff are supposed to make the game fun? I don't understand when people were like "Welp lets hope someone does something so we can enjoy our time here." while, at least i remember, just enjoying the general fuckery of a gmod server. Sorry, i know i don't play at all anymore, but i just had to bring it up again, after reading that.

TL;DR: I don't think it should be up to staff and garnet to make your time on here fun or interesting. It is more their job to keep the environment tidy.

[Dillan 750]

Honestly memory's of garnet gaming have last many many years. I started playing at 16 or 17 still in high school, loading into army recruitment because I didnt know better. A tali spy ( when silent raids existed ) broke in a said, yo you wanna be a bad guy. Things were simpler, less strict. On a simple map. When gman added things they were breakthrough points. When vehciles were first added, game changer. When quads were added, game changer. When gman did a weapon overhaul to a different system, game changer. Things were new, things were fresh. I will always look fondly back at tali and the memorys made with wars raid and forming alliances. Silent raids, artillery strikes with a 11 grenade rpgs. A 30 man line for Marsoc when it was a mark of honer and skill. Smokes being a default weapon for strats to counter snipers. Times were simpler. Ive grown since then, I haven't got a chance to play with buddy's for 7 days because of work, probably another 4 still. I honestly can't give technical advise. Marketing advice. I can give advise on fun, what would be fun. 

Maybe playing off of the rotation previously talked about could be a good idea. You have a ton of maps now. Monthly map change. I like the current map for a few reasons, its got nice objectives, and small compaired to others. 

I loved 4 factions, not because of player counts, but the political aspect. People love politics a lot, they really do and that brings that to the table. 

Testing original desert could be nice for the chance to see if people come back due to nostalgia, its certainly a strong encouragement. 

Initation rules could be implemented, allowing for one to proceed with rp properly instead of a set track enforced by others.