TnB Community Announcement - TRP

So, a question. Two really. Okay I lied, three.
First, are we going to be using the TRP NPCs that Tanknut made late last iteration? Or will it be entirely players?

Second, how cucked are we going to be on plasma? We going to see it early on, or is it gonna be the long burn till we see them commonly?

Thirdly, what sort of starting line up are we expecting to see for Skynet? Mostly T-600's with T-700's mixed in, or will the T-800 be a threat from the start?
 
I don't got nothin' of value to add, other than I'm excited! I missed TRP3 cause of burnout following me no-lifing HLNA for the end of its duration, and I've been on a terminator kick lately that I can't shake off, so I'm really looking forward to this, and to seeing what y'all have cooking up. Plus its cool to see folks come back.
 
So, a question. Two really. Okay I lied, three.
First, are we going to be using the TRP NPCs that Tanknut made late last iteration? Or will it be entirely players?

Second, how cucked are we going to be on plasma? We going to see it early on, or is it gonna be the long burn till we see them commonly?

Thirdly, what sort of starting line up are we expecting to see for Skynet? Mostly T-600's with T-700's mixed in, or will the T-800 be a threat from the start?

1: Tanknuts npcs may return, hard to say right now. But there will be npcs of some kind to aid skynet.

2: what's plasma? Nah jk, here's some insider knowledge, we will be rewarding tech to roleplay. I'm not going to come in and say you can or can't do something, if you can present good roleplay, a good series of events leading up to you doing it, and good reasoning for why it fits with the setting, it'll happen. Our goal is that every breakthrough the resistance has is theirs to claim, so sit down in your meth lab and see what works. Don't be shy to ask for us to tailor some events around your prototype railgun killing the guy shooting it.

E: if you have any concerns or input on tech rp and plasma feel free to dm me and we can talk about it.

(I'll do my best to elaborate on what we're looking for to Auth new tech sometime closer to launch.)

3. Blaze will be able to provide more info when we get skynet docs out but in a quick answer, 600s and 700s will be in skynets armory. There will be no slow burn skynet here. It's progression is dependent on its players, and the actions of the Resistance.
 
Hey all, hope you guys had some good holidays. This is something we've had in the works for a few months now and I'm excited to give you some quick details about what's going on with the server, and the Washington (Olympia city) Resistance.

Quick Timeline:
The setting will be derived from the Salvation lore. This means JD was 2004 and we have a lot more equipment to work with. To that effect we will also be set in the early years of the war, early 2018, and 4 years after TC is founded by John Connor. This is before the events of the salvation movie.

Onto the details

Firstly, this iteration of trp is going to be trying some new things in retrospect of trp3, which save for Ricky Luz wasn't as successful as we'd have liked.

Arguably the most important change is the plan to focus on a balanced resistance where TC is the figurehead of our local resistance, reinforced by pbgs who work together to contribute what's necessary for humanity to win; Basically, TC is no longer going to be a one man show. TC is resistance but the resistance isn't just TC.

Secondly, we've drafted many changes with how skynet will be played. There will be more information on this before launch but in quick summary skynet players will have goals, a more defined command structure, and more things for players to hop on and do outside of events and random wandering. Conflicts with skynet are going to be made more balanced for either side so both teams can play to win and have fun, to that effect a skynet victory will have longstanding effects and help skynet accomplish current goals.

There's a lot more information that will be shared over time, but one final thing I want to mention is that we will be returning death to the setting. Your character dying, albeit a bit to chew, is ultimately healthy for the server and for you being able to have new experiences. To that extent we wanted to be more strict on our pk rules but also leave room for fairness, we want death to not be forced onto you as players but instead be a risk you know about well ahead of time.

There will be a post with proper details about what this harsher system entails but for now the consensus among the team is that s2rp will always carry the risk of death, while s2k will remain free for people to shoot bots, die, and have fun. The default interaction with skynet will be s2k aside from some exceptions.

I hope you guys can be as excited for this iteration as we are, and we're pretty much immediately going to start working on making this information more digestible and getting your input.

[Insert jc you are the resistance line here]

I honestly hoped TC wouldn't even be a thing as for the average person seeing TC should be a miracle, end-game kind of thing. I mean, they gotta make themselves hard to find so that the *machines* can't find them, how do ordinary people end up finding them. It'd be cool if we used TC similar to how we use COTA, in a sense I guess where they're there as a set piece and as a backdrop to all of our stories. We should all be regular people hiding and running from the horror that is SkyNet or being nomadic in nature settling in one hard to reach place, well concealed and guarded, to the next.

I really would like Skynet to be this massive insurmountable force that, in the absence of TC, you can only delay and run from and it'll take significant planning on part of others teaming up and stuff and crafty traps and ideas to overcome them.
 
One thing I'd really like to see change about TRP is the power balance. Skynet's threat comes from its numbers and the fact that it can replace lost units instantly, not because every one of its soldiers is an impervious tank. Meanwhile, mankind is dwindling and there aren't billions of replacement humans waiting in the wings. Avoiding losses is critical for human forces trying to break Skynet's hold, but they should be able to claim limited victories when they play smart and are able to control a conflict.

We see in the future war segments that ballistic weapons are perfectly viable against the low grade terminator units. One reasonably skilled human combatant with an automatic rifle is an even match for a regular Terminator. The trouble is that if you go and kick the hornet's nest, you won't be facing one terminator, or two, or five, or ten, or fifty. More like two hundred. The films show us that guerrilla warfare is the key for survival - not total victory, just survival. Hit a Skynet control point and keep moving, return to your holes.

I agree with Hacksaw that eliminating Tech-Comm from the server, at least as a "main faction", would be really good as well. I know the big flashy S2Ks with air support and shit are really fun, but the day to day roleplay kinda falls apart after a while when TC is portrayed as basically the United States military with unlimited backup and is also the main thing on the server. Not being in TC really really cut you out of the fun because you were unable to get weapons that could harm terminators and were excluded from the majority of the events that had any semblance of a story (as opposed to serverwide S2K).

One thing you guys might consider to make the server more roleplayable is a sort of 'post-TRP' where perhaps Skynet has suffered some major blows to its production/command and control facilities. It is unable to field as many units and mankind is kind of in the clean up/rebuilding phase. It would be easier to justify perhaps having a tank or helicopter around for the friendlies to play with because Skynet is no longer in a position of total domination, while humans are kind of squabbling among themselves over what's left. I feel like a really faithful future war roleplay would be better off as an RR otherwise it will just turn into something like Metro roleplay.
 
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One thing I'd really like to see change about TRP is the power balance. Skynet's threat comes from its numbers and the fact that it can replace lost units instantly, not because every one of its soldiers is an impervious tank. Meanwhile, mankind is dwindling and there aren't billions of replacement humans waiting in the wings. Avoiding losses is critical for human forces trying to break Skynet's hold, but they should be able to claim limited victories when they play smart and are able to control a conflict.

We see in the future war segments that ballistic weapons are perfectly viable against the low grade terminator units. One reasonably skilled human combatant with an automatic rifle is an even match for a regular Terminator. The trouble is that if you go and kick the hornet's nest, you won't be facing one terminator, or two, or five, or ten, or fifty, or a hundred. More like two hundred. The films show us that guerrilla warfare is the key for survival - not total victory, just survival. Hit a Skynet control point and keep moving, return to your holes.

I agree with Hacksaw that eliminating Tech-Comm from the server, at least as a "main faction", would be really good as well. I know the big flashy S2Ks with air support and shit are really fun, but the day to day roleplay kinda falls apart after a while when TC is portrayed as basically the United States military with unlimited backup.

In response to both you and Hacksaw Hacksaw

TC has its own purpose to serve in the Resistance. It has garnered a reputation across the West Coast as an LA unit that are relentless in their fight against skynet.

TC does not have a unit in every city or every county with tanks and apcs and an entire aviation wing. There is a specific reason for why TC is here in Washington. To that end, TC Washington are no more than a handful of disgruntled zealots who earned the trust of JC and were sent on another of his seemingly crazy missions, but this time an extended stay with almost no support from back home. There is no backup, there are no tanks.

We have deliberated over TC for months now and we think this is the best way to retain a core element of Terminator lore, while serving a crucial role icly and oocly for the resistance. I don't want to get too specific yet but more details will be provided soon.
 
Lambda Lambda I know its a long way off but has there been any discussion on Reprogs?

I'm very biased about this but I never liked the idea that most Reprogs were a revolving door, especially those that had R/W on and could learn/grow like a human character could, given enough time. It got to the point that a lot of newer Reprogs would intentionally apply to be hacked by PBG's so they wouldn't be forced into a time-limit for playing their character, unlike in TC.

Chiron remains my absolute favorite character arc I've ever done on TnB, despite the hurdles it took to get it there, and I'd love to see others get a chance to go down that route (or even do something myself again).
 
One thing I'd really like to see change about TRP is the power balance. Skynet's threat comes from its numbers and the fact that it can replace lost units instantly, not because every one of its soldiers is an impervious tank. Meanwhile, mankind is dwindling and there aren't billions of replacement humans waiting in the wings. Avoiding losses is critical for human forces trying to break Skynet's hold, but they should be able to claim limited victories when they play smart and are able to control a conflict.

We see in the future war segments that ballistic weapons are perfectly viable against the low grade terminator units. One reasonably skilled human combatant with an automatic rifle is an even match for a regular Terminator. The trouble is that if you go and kick the hornet's nest, you won't be facing one terminator, or two, or five, or ten, or fifty. More like two hundred. The films show us that guerrilla warfare is the key for survival - not total victory, just survival. Hit a Skynet control point and keep moving, return to your holes.

I agree with Hacksaw that eliminating Tech-Comm from the server, at least as a "main faction", would be really good as well. I know the big flashy S2Ks with air support and shit are really fun, but the day to day roleplay kinda falls apart after a while when TC is portrayed as basically the United States military with unlimited backup and is also the main thing on the server. Not being in TC really really cut you out of the fun because you were unable to get weapons that could harm terminators and were excluded from the majority of the events that had any semblance of a story (as opposed to serverwide S2K).

One thing you guys might consider to make the server more roleplayable is a sort of 'post-TRP' where perhaps Skynet has suffered some major blows to its production/command and control facilities. It is unable to field as many units and mankind is kind of in the clean up/rebuilding phase. It would be easier to justify perhaps having a tank or helicopter around for the friendlies to play with because Skynet is no longer in a position of total domination, while humans are kind of squabbling among themselves over what's left. I feel like a really faithful future war roleplay would be better off as an RR otherwise it will just turn into something like Metro roleplay.
i really want skynet to be more of a "better to avoid direct conflict" antagonist rather than a "we're a week in and we're having a bombastic battle that could change the tide of history" feel. something people always forget is that while a terminator like a T-600 may be wandering alone and not too difficult to defeat, it is never truly alone, as it doesnt even need to trigger a radio to call for help - as seen in Salvation when they kill that lone 600, and literally seconds later an aerial drone shows up to see what happened. i really love the dread terminators inspire in people and want to see them be scary again.
 
i really love the dread terminators inspire in people and want to see them be scary again.

The problem is that this is at odds with the overall 'power creep' the server experiences over time (I agree with you though, naturally).

When people start getting plasma, intimidation flies out the window.
 
Patience my friends. What I can say is that Skynet is gonna kick some teeth in, if people are daring enough to challange it headon. That much I can give you as granted...
 
Lambda Lambda I know its a long way off but has there been any discussion on Reprogs?

I'm very biased about this but I never liked the idea that most Reprogs were a revolving door, especially those that had R/W on and could learn/grow like a human character could, given enough time. It got to the point that a lot of newer Reprogs would intentionally apply to be hacked by PBG's so they wouldn't be forced into a time-limit for playing their character, unlike in TC.

Chiron remains my absolute favorite character arc I've ever done on TnB, despite the hurdles it took to get it there, and I'd love to see others get a chance to go down that route (or even do something myself again).

Honestly reprogs are difficult to address so soon. There is a lot of rp between now and then that we want to see before I think we'll see our friendly blue-eyed bots roaming around.

I will say this though, Reprogs will be a thing provided people put in the work and rp to make them happen. Ultimately it is up to the group/reprogrammer to decide what they want from their machines. It's very likely some may see them as tools of war, to be thrown in the field and killed just as easily as any man, while others may find value in the little things, advising on combat or helping move boxes, and everything in between. As for how they will be handled OOCly, I think that is something that will be better fleshed out once we're able to see how things are going on server.

If you have any concerns with the way the reprog system worked OOCly, I'd be fine with writing down some notes for when we feel more ready to decide what we want to happen.
 
If you have any concerns with the way the reprog system worked OOCly, I'd be fine with writing down some notes for when we feel more ready to decide what we want to happen.

Speaking personally the biggest issue that myself and most other reprog players after me experienced was that on an OOC policy level, the expectation was that no matter your model of Reprog you would literally be thrown into pointless situations until you died and then replaced by someone else.

Not only was this incredibly demotivating for people OOC (it could take weeks to get a Reprog set up and done) but ICly it flew in the face of the fact TC literally couldn't afford to keep replacing the smarter Reprogs IC. Imagine having a superhuman machine allied to you that could adapt and evolve and do things your human soldiers couldn't and you aimed to get it killed the first chance you got? As I said in the post above, it hit the point where reprog players would avoid TC just so they had a chance to roleplay for more than a day or two before being PK'd.

Imo the smarter Reprogs, with R/W on, should be treated the way you'd treat human characters when it comes to not forcing people into PKable situations just to get rid of them to free up the space. Hell, that's not even getting into some of the really weird ways the staff team concocted to kill off certain Reprogs like magical non-existing Infiltrators or character-dev reset worms.

I never would have had the experience I did on Chiron nor brought the RP I did if I'd been treated the way Reprogs after me were.
 
Yeah... There is a reason Minerva weren't a TC Reprog.

But a different question, is there going to be vehicles? Be they cobbled together, or even refurbished military affairs? I've got the slightest inkling of a PBG in my head, so I figure I'd ask.
 

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