Xalphox

January 12, 2299 TOP SECRET: OPERATION MARLOW: AFTER ACTION REPORT BELOW INTELLIGENCE ACQUIRED FROM TBX COMMUNICATIONS OUTPOST BY 112TH MOBILE INFA NTRY ON RECENT OPERATION: ---- KEY: diogenes ENCRYPTED (AES256): 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 DECRYPTED: PRIORITY MESSAGE. DATE: 2229-02-02. FROM: <STATION 14> TO: <ALL STATIONS>. CAPTAIN JEE-UN CHOI, COMMANDER OF FEDERATION WARSHIP ULYSSES S. GRANT, SURRENDER ED SELF TO TBX OPERATIVES ON 02 FEB 2299. CHOI FACING CHARGES OF "CONDUCT UNBECO MING", LIKELY TO FACE CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. INFORMATION OFFERED IN RETURN FOR SAFE PASSAGE. PLS ADVISE ON HOW TO PROCEED. 14.

Hi all, As many of you will have noticed, the new psychic abilities are now on server, however they should be considered to be in beta as we iron out bugs, lag, and any gameplay issues that arise. The hope is that these new abilities will finally give psychics a role that is not only unique but also universal (in that they are of practical value on all events rather than the 1/50 events specifically tailored to psychics), in such a way that it doesn't rely on an admin actively intervening on your behalf. And thus the goal is that psychics will emerge as a division of equal standing to the medics, engineers, and the marauders. With these new freedoms comes new responsibilities however: MIPOD as a faction should limited to 8 active members. Orwell and Kris (on Verbeck) are excluded from this count - Orwell not only because he is the leader of the faction but also because he is the XA entrusted to make sure things don't get out of hand, and Kris as a reward for his multi-year commitment to roleplaying Intelligence even when it wasn't quite so sexy. (EDIT: Litcoins and N y x have been added to this list) Of those 8, at least 4 must be players (or must have been players at the time of joining). MIPOD members may not join other factions (engineers, medics, marauders). There are no limitations on what rank MIPOD members may hold.

shouldnt you be off squatting somewhere

i'm not rating you useful, i'm rating you tool

Hi all Got fed up of Teamspeak being dumb so I decided to finally make the move to Discord - see below. https://discord.gg/yca7z5d

+10

Very Legal and Very Cool!

but... it's us...

very kind of you to say @nikb

Hi all, Usually I'd try and post this during the first week of January however things have been a little hectic and I wanted to lock in plans/developers/etc before I made any sort of announcements. But now that I've got some assurances, I think it's time to loop the community in to what they can expect this year: Storyline The next major chapter after the Progenitors and the Civil War will focus on our old arch-rival, the Arachnids: During the Progenitor War, we humans like to think of ourselves as the hardest done by - we lost our homeworld and we took billions of casualties. However whilst the Arachnids did retain Klendathu, they took casualties in the hundreds of billions, perhaps even trillions, they lost thousands of colonies, and their hierarchical structure that forms the centrepiece of their species has been ravaged. Since then, and since our tepid cooperation with the God Bug Quetzalcoatl to neutralise the Progenitor threat last Autumn, the formal incorporated Arachnid Empire have retreated beyond the veil of the Arachnid Quarantine Zone (AQZ). Yes, we have had interactions with arachnids since then, but all intelligence suggests that these arachnids were unincorporated: they were dumb, disorganized, and acting on a biological imperative to expand, and very unlikely to have been at the direction of a God-bug tier intelligence. And whilst this Pax Progenitora may be bliss, one simply cannot shake the feeling that this is merely an interlude between wars; that the arachnids simply do not have it in them to override the need to conquer. This will probably begin in earnest come March; the reason why it has taken so long to get moving with this is because I felt in order to do this properly, we would need to invest in a suite of new developments. Which you can read all about below. Oh, also, enjoy having unlimited ammo whilst you can 'cus real soon you fuckers are gonna have to learn about conservation. Development Helix Schema We have a new schema/gamemode that ought to be ready for testing some time next week - it will not only address many of the key bug bears we have already (chat box sizes, etc), but introduces a few new concepts to the server. For example, this isn't the first time we have had a schema that introduces the concept of an inventory, but it is the first time we'll be embracing the idea. Arachnids 2.0 The first of our array of developments to hit the ground: our new suite of arachnids. They have been designed from the ground up to be smarter, more varied with a greater number of castes, and better optimized - making for a much more formidable foe. We've been introducing these gradually on to the server over the course of the last week in order to effectively balance them and they seem well received. Some of the more specific improvements: Warriors/Tigers Their tactics of the staple arachnid of our universe have been upgraded - they now employ a swarming mechanic, they try and zig-zag in order to dodge incoming fire, and their locomotion and target acquisition has been overhauled to be 5x more efficient (less lag inducing) than their predecessors. In addition to this, some new animations have been added. Royals Royals have been substantially upgraded, reducing their health, but giving them new attacks, and making them faster and more deadly. The feedback on the Royals that we have received from the playerbase have mostly been in the form of girlish screams, which I consider to be a positive response. Tankers Whilst we did have tankers, they were built on the standard GMod AI, which means they were absolute garbage. They would not target beyond about fifteen feet, and it was a coin toss even then as to whether or not they actually attacked anyone. Now, they are rigged up on the same framework as our warriors and tigers. They will now chase players from anywhere across the map, and not only is their ability to spit fire improved, but they also have melee attacks and etc for players who are foolish enough to get too close. Blaster Bugs Blaster Bugs (based on the game rather than the Chronicles) are tiny little mites that fire low damage projectiles in rapid succession, but they are extremely agile, making them hard to kill and especially dangerous in groups. And a handful of others that you guys are just going to have to find out about the hard way... Timeline: These are already being phased in on the server, though there are some other classes in development (flying hoppers, etc.) that will likely hit the server in the next two or three months. Humanoid NPCs Separatists and skinnies up to now have used the standard HL2 AI - which is pretty horrendous. Dakota is currently working on a set of Nextbot-based humanoids - meaning they'll be able to engage from anywhere on the map. Because they are using the more efficient Nextbot base, we can have hundreds of them. We can even spawn MI that are friendly to us who will assist in fighting the arachnids, etc. Timeline: This should be ready within the next two weeks. Vehicles Our APC found its use curtailed thanks to players having crashing issues earlier this year - however @El Excellente is confident he has fixed this and it is now on server. The APC can seat numerous MI, will be able to store items, and is amphibious. The tank and TAC fighter was also curtailed thanks to conflict issues - we'll be looking at that in February to try and fix those issues so we can return them to use. Timeline: Fixed APC was put on the server last night; tank + TAC will be looked into before March. Psychics/MIPOD One of the key problems with MIPOD is that almost all of their interactions require admin intervention - and it simply isn't productive for an admin to focus on one player in the midst of a battle. I hope to address this by introducing a suite of scriptual abilities for them - ranging from an always-on ESP that allows psychics to see where NPCs are located across the map, to temporarily hiding the MI from NPCs during stealth events, to emitting waves of psychic energy that stun or even kill our enemies, to even temporarily slowing down time itself to aid the MI at a clinch point. The strength and scale of these abilities will vary from psychic to psychic based on their training, experience and potency - with a significant risk of death should they psychically overexert themselves on an event. (This will not preclude any of their current IC abilities - rather it is in addition to what they have already; it gives them a specific combat role on drops that does not require an admin to intervene). Timeline: This should be ready within the next month. Fleet Bridge Simulator A long sought after request of mine is something on GMod to emulate the functionality of standalone bridge simulators like Empty Epsilon or Artemis that would give Fleet purpose and make the Grant feel like an actual starship moving through the vast expanse of space rather than a static metal fortress that happens to have a starry skybox and occasionally teleports around the galaxy. I've found a couple of developers who are enthusiastic to bring this to life - probably around summer of this year. Timeline: This should be ready within the next six months. Power Armour Most of you will have probably heard through the grapevine that I've had plans to push us into the power armour era of SST and that is true - indeed over the course of the last year we've had a model and a prototype put together. I'm not 100% happy of how it has turned out (this is my fault - I didn't have much vision for how they would work) so we are likely going to rework this, especially in the context of how the Marauders remain unique in the power armour era, but it is my goal to have us moving to power armour before summer this year but in a way that is meaningful but measured so that it is an unqualified improvement rather than a hastily rushed trainwreck. Timeline: This should be ready within the next six months. I expect all or almost all of this to be done by the summer, so expect another of these posts come July! However, as always, these timelines are an estimate - and estimates can be wildly askew.

pleased to hear - very very strange indeed.

Best of luck. Workshop can be a cruel mistress.

@El Excellente These are yours models right? Any thoughts? @Solitaire do you have the following addons in your garrysmod\garrysmod\addons folder?: mobile_infantry_uniforms_2.0_-_materials_1118501223.gma - 90MB mobile_infantry_uniforms_2.0_-_materials_part_1_1118501223.gma - 217MB mobile_infantry_uniforms_2.0_-_materials_part_2_1118523532.gma - 276MB mobile_infantry_uniforms_2.0_1118493015.gma - 308MB mobile_infantry_2.0_-_additional_uniform_materials_1284515946.gma - 257 MB If so, and if these file sizes match up, my suggestion given you've tried everything else would be to extract the materials addons : 1. Take the GMA and drag-and-drop it onto garrysmod\garrysmod\bin\gmad.exe; it'll extract it into an actual folder, legacy addon style). 2. If that still doesn't work, try dragging and dropping the contents (ie. materials) into your root garrysmod folder.

Hi all To assert - Pilotfish's successor will not be chosen by poll; it is not a popularity contest, it is about who would do best for the faction. I appreciate that Optic clearly has quite a following and that will be taken into consideration but ultimately the decision lies with us as admins to pick somebody who can best advance the interests of the MI and the server. Harvey (Pilotfish's XO and nominated successor) has stated that whilst he is happy to serve as interim leader (which I am thankful for) he is not enthusiastic at the prospect of taking up the role long term (not entirely surprising as it it a challenging role that comes with its own unique set of significant burdens - "it is lonely at the top"). That being said until such a time that a new MI lead is appointed, Harvey will have full authority over the Mobile Infantry. I will expect and insist that whoever succeeds him will honour Harvey's decisions (within reason). We'll probably make a decision on a permanent successor this Sunday. It is a tumultuous and disorderly time. Drama is an unfortunate inevitability in any GMod community - fundamentally there will always be conflicting interests. The truth of the matter is that this is the crescendo in a storm that has been brewing for some time, but I think this act of communal blood letting will prove to be cathartic. SSTRP works best when the admin team are on the same page, and I think if there is any silver lining to this scenario it is that we can now expect a staff team who are better aligned, more collaborative, and on the whole a more productive team who generate higher quality events more frequently. It is better we get our shop in order now rather than later as we have some significant plans for March (pending the completion of a handful of other, secret developments) similar in scale to the 2018 Civil War and the 2017-2018 Progenitor story arc. That is not to say I am not deeply grateful for the contributions made by Pilotfish et al. Their contributions over the last six months (especially Pilotfish's) should not be taken for granted nor diminished or devalued. I think we all owe them our thanks.

better dead then red

me personally: (oy vey) Larsen: Brooker:

Hi To prevent scenarios where funerals and whatnot take place and then have to be voided in the future, all PK appeals must be filed (ie. posted on this forum) within 24 hours of a PK having been issued. Appeals for PKs issued by admins may be reviewed by an XA; appeals for PKs issued by an XA will be reviewed by me; and (by convention) appeals for PKs issued by me will be reviewed by one of my XAs. The sole grounds for reversal of a PK is if you think it has been issued in error, or because you think it is patently unfair. Please review the topic below to see the criteria/guidelines we follow with regards to PKs:

Discussed this with the XAs - we have agreed to sustain the appeal (with conditions) on a 2-1 vote. Stevenson would have spent the last 7 days in the tank, and will be soft TKed for the next 4 OOC days - 1 day will be spent confined to the medical bay, 3 days confined to the ship. It will come with substantial recovery challenges that @F r a n c o will probably detail, as pneumothorax is one of his hobbies.

This is pretty key. Nobody has ever been PKed on SSTRP before distinctly because of a lack of OOC medics, or if they have it has never reached me. I would feel the same way in those circumstances too: it's not Stevie's fault or anybody else if no medics decide to attend an event. ICly the MI would never drop without medics. The exception to this is if there are medics, and the MI leadership allows them to be killed or incapacitated. But by your own admission it wasn't the operating and substantial cause of his death - the lack of medics were. That's on him, but again, the operating and substantial cause of his death were the lack of medics. If there were medics, he would have likely survived. Per your request I will put this to an XA vote amongst ourselves once Orwell and co are online later.

@Pacer I am also told you administered medical care?

As I understand it there were physically no medics on the server, however ICly the MI would never drop without medics on hand - they would have been there behind the scenes. If I had been on server with my medic Brooker I know I would have made a concerted effort to come to their aid, up to and risking death myself - I think many of my colleagues within the medical division would have done the same. 1. Does that not effectively mean the operating and substantial cause of his death is an OOC technicality? Is that not unfair? 2. If there had been medics there, would there have been anything substantial that would have hindered our ability to come to Stevenson's rescue?

@Deckers inviting you to respond sweetie

he still is, it's as annoying for us as it is for him, but he can't be trusted with big boy posting privileges yet

silencing the proletariat so they couldn't reply to the thread? now i'm squirting it in both eyes