WW3RP 2014 Flashbacks

[Hudson633]

Posted to the nebulous forum (Aug 3, 2016)

With WW3RP returning I wanted to build a picture of what it looked like in late 2014 when it started on LemonPunch. After asking around, a few players shared their memories.

Codfather:

I was invited to lemonpunch by a friend when WW3 came out, I was roughly new to Gmod roleplay, but yet I found it quite interesting. The server was new to me, and I easily came immersed with such players, activities. On the initial launch of the server, it was clear that the Staff team were very dedicated to making events, involving players, etc.

It was on my first patrol I was invited to teamspeak, and this is where it changed a bit for me. Hearing voices rather than text threw me off a bit, it was complicated to keep an ideal of both text and voice, making sure each is heard.

What WW3:RP did for me, more than other servers, was /include/ me, and others, in the events, and made it feel that actions you made effected the outcome of the entire server.

The lore was changeable, and interesting, and it was quite easy to understand. It put me in place as a soldier, gave me a country, and objective. It was a straight forward roleplay server that was interchangeable, and active.

When I got staff, in the second campaign, was when stuff also changed, I found the roleplay came a lot less easier, and I got caught up in both staff related duties and activities. It no longer became a roleplay server for me, only something i helped in.

S2K was a main factor for me, as I found it extremely ideal for a server with the qualities it contained.
It was me, but I found that it consumed roleplay, and even myself at times, letting the server slide from purely roleplay to majorly s2k.

Stephanov:

When I first joined, the server was maybe a week or two old. A lot of work still needed to be done on both sides. Coalition needed more attention in the NCO department, not to mention actual competent people.

Globalists needed an absolute revamp right off the bat. It was cluttered with elitist assholery, especially on GSOC. A lot of people were getting OOCly bullied on it, or never given any chances until Scrub/Wulfeh formally took over the faction.

What I enjoyed mostly is the people I know and the people I roleplayed with a lot. The server, the staff, they were okay but it was certainly not my drive to keep coming back.
It was interesting, the blend between action and serious roleplay. Initially roleplay was a lot more heavy than in the later times of the server. I can't speak for globalists after the reforms, but coaltion roleplay was flourishing. People were starting their on-base mini-factions (the cooking, etc etc) and a lot of passive non-combat things were taking place.

After a while I rose through the ranks in coalition and eventually secured a position on both staff and as a faction lead. I'd like to believe I did a good job, as a lot of people kept asking me to come back as - they way they put it - "it's gone downhill".

When I came back many months later, the server was not even a shadow of its former self. There was infighting, downright stupid arguments, poor leadership, poor roleplay in general. What I hope to see is that none of that repeats itself.

Powley:

Well, creating the server was a easy task to be honest, it was mostly the playerbase that helped made it, especially all the faction leaders. To be honest I never enjoyed the roleplay back then, mostly enjoyed watching other people play. Sort of like the Sim's aint it.

Leadcolt:

Intro
Lemonpunch was quite unique in its own way had a broad spectrum of people from Serious - Alright - Retarded you could find a game to play with almost anyone if you wanted to considering the grand size of the community in terms of players.

How did the server feel?
WW3RP was the server you could hop onto after a difficult day at work or College, there was so much to do with any one character that the possibilities were almost endless, can't be to certain on this but the first faction i joined was the Globalists, was on the map with the motel in the middle.

What was the gameplay like?
A lot easier to get into from the point in which i left LP's WW3RP team. The weapons were nice and easier to handle than what i left with, Scars were the same though with numerous amounts of people on the server they tended to get fairly difficult to control if your internet was bad. I remember the Militia being extremely disorganised in the early days, roster was five pages long waiting for people to be accepted and processed, same goes for some branches as well.

What did you enjoy about it?
I enjoyed the fact that the staff team was competent, this meant that getting issues resolved was fairly easy and could allow you to progress on with your roleplay. Also i enjoyed Military police a lot, encouraged you to stay serious at all times and not screw around like idiots.

What did it do better than other servers?
Simply put the server wasn't to overlycomplicated and easy enough for nearly anyone to be able to get into. Requirements to RP, for example knowing IC, OOC and metagame for example translated over from the HL2RP server, just a different story and better staff.

Were there any interesting or difficult challenges to tackle?
Had to wait 2 months to get my engineer application looked at, by the time it was i already joined another branch. Elliot.

Describe the experience to someone that wasn't there?
Smooth experience, less toxicity and i think less memes and cancerous people which ruined it down the road. Sometimes i wish the server could revert back to those days and still keep the majority of the content we have now, also it'd be nice to have all the staff team be assembled from what it was back then Dora would make a lot better SD than Toasty ever would.

Thanks to Codfather, Stephanov, Powley, and Leadcolt for their contributions.

[Hudson633]

Part 2 - posted to the nebulous forum Jan 16th 2018:

Wulfeh:

1. What was important to you in WW3RP back then?
Admittedly, the only thing I found the most important besides staffing was serving as faction lead for the Globalists. Especially so when the faction was at its lowest peak with people leaving left and right, understaffed and special forces removed subsequently because of the precarious past. I took it upon me as a goal to fix all those issues. So Scrub and I set it right for a time but eventually it felt like I was doing the whole thing solo even with him around. We had our differences, as did I with others, saying and doing regrettable things that, replayed in my head, would have been better if done differently. Moreover the zealousness I portrayed back then was something that plagued me a lot as a faction leader. Despite all this, I held out because of the people in the faction. Although one could say I cared a little too much about the faction itself.

2. Were there any interesting aspects to the gamemode that stood out to you, or lessons that you took from how it was run?
The interesting aspects were definitely the military ones. Delving into rank hierarchy, structure and all manner of military things was really interesting. It hearkened back to those old memories of playing games like Modern Warfare 2 with a more or less immersive (but cinematic) military experience. This time it wasn't on rails but decidedly up to the people playing. However the lesson I learned from that was that there has to be a fine balance between S2K and roleplay, as the two do not work very well on their own in that kind of setting. That became more and more apparent as time passed and newer people joined.

3. Do you have a particular memory of WW3RP from back then that you want to share?
Among many of my memories from the server, one I recall was the invasion of the United States via Alaska which had me placing radios around with ambient military chatter and frequent (yet frustrating) base attacks. The more iconic of those was placing an American flag on a Humvee and charging at the Coalition base in an act of patriotism and valor. Something emulated from World in Conflict with scene of Americans charging a flag up the hill. At that point it felt more like a desperate battle to keep the opposing force from pushing any further into the mainland, which made the warlike atmosphere evermore immersive.

Angel:

I started playing shortly before Stephanov became lead, so I wouldn't be able to tell you if that was before or after the beginning of 2015, but it was still very much within the same time frame in regards to how the server was at the time.

Back then, I think that most of the positions weren't over run by certain groups of people that try and force others to exactly the same as they do - for the most part, members were free to do as they pleased and enjoy themselves, having freedom to do their roleplay and be left alone to it.

Even things such as ERP weren't actually properly frowned upon really, they happened, people did their thing, and that was pretty much it really - there wasn't this culture of 'this character of X gender or X height or X country and thus this person is obviously here to be a retard and we won't allow them to thrive'. If I think about it, many of the more interesting characters at the time were somewhat weird, each in their own regard. I think characters like Wook (the stuttering brain-damaged five foot korean) would be laughed at and ridiculed as it stands, but at the time, people didn't bother with that kind of thing and didn't try to meme it - if the person did their roleplay and provided something for the faction, that was really all that mattered.

Patrols weren't nearly as common, I remember spending entire days in base, simply talking to others or having some random feud going on - the masked traders every now and then, 2stronk doing something funny or some sort of speech/rally... when people did get called to the AP, there were patrol region limits and such things at some point (they got quickly removed), people were competitive and teamspeak wasn't all that important to be quite honest.

The memes weren't really over done, they would show up every now and then and above all, they were, at the time, fresh. The airwolf, the mountain liens, shrek, even weird things like the double barrel shotgun gang later on - or trying to upset @Wulfeh by throwing rockets from a roof directly into the globalist base (lmao god bless @2stronk and @Stephanov ) - the black man who always went into battle without kevlar or uniform and a pistol, the brovaci laps, the campfires in tunnels and so on.

Husky:

1. What was important to you in WW3RP back then?
The roleplay, the shooting mechanics were very old style so I liked interacting with others, it was pretty fun to have the freedom to do anything you wanted in a realistic setting, it's something you don't get in other games.

2. Were there any interesting aspects to the gamemode that stood out to you, or lessons that you took from how it was run?
Yeah taking POW's really surprised me, I was told that basically if I got POW'd I was gonna get tortured and shit, added a sense of fear to the game and realism, It was a pretty fun concept.

3. Do you have a particular memory of WW3RP from back then that you want to share?
Yeah I ERP'd so to atone for my sins my character stabbed herself in the neck with a pencil. There was also the time we caught Finlays fem char fucking herself in the barracks with the barrel of her gun. It was a time of degeneracy but we loved it.

I don't know really, I could expand on the things that made it fun or whatnot, but the thing I think changed the most, and it doesn't just apply to WW3RP, it's the community in general, was the fact that at some point people stopped minding their own business and started to try and police other people's roleplay, to get lemons/nebulae and zings, trying to be the sickest roaster and memer, and honestly I believe it came down to leadership, mostly faction leadership - when I eventually got lead of the medical branch, I remember that at the time no one cared what I was doing on my free time, as long as the branch was active and did the job it was meant to do - we slowly moved the goalposts of what we deem important and necessary, from trying to have fun as a group, which part of is letting each individual thrive and do their own thing, to a minority demanding that everyone act as they want, otherwise it is not acceptable or tolerated.

The unique characters that brought so much new things to the server were slowly deemed 'cringy' or 'unrealistic' and forced to wither away until every day was always the same.

Thanks to Wulfeh, Angel, and Husky for their contributions.

[Hudson633]

Part 3 posted to nebulous forum 19.01.18

PrincessKatey:

1. What was important to you in WW3RP back then?
Back when I started around Alaska I was a minge. I'm honestly surprised no one banned me and I didn't read the lore, so I roleplayed someone who lived in a very remote part of china and didn't hear about the war until I was conscripted. I loved the unknown atmosphere but the main important thing back then was there were more civilians running around and make the world feel more unique.

2. Were there any interesting aspects to the gamemode that stood out to you, or lessons that you took from how it was run?
I had only ever done dark rp and TTT and the rest of those types of stuff when someone said to me try this interesting game mode, and when I first played I got bored almost instantly. Then a few weeks later I played it non-stop, and things I found interesting were it feeling like there was always rp and daily events and training sessions which felt more unique, and PTs, god I miss those.

3. Do you have a particular memory of WW3RP from back then that you want to share?
I have a few I remember in Turkey I believe it was Redrun called us all to the AP and got someone else to speak to us, and then suddenly we heard a lot of shooting everyone assumed it was a base attack when in reality it was Redrun standing outside the gates shooting his rifle.

But probably my favourite memory has to be from the Turkish Metro: I was a coalition MP and I saw this private throw a grenade at another private inside the base, and after I confronted him about it he claimed his friend must of stood on a mine and that they do this all the time (oh and for anyone who was in the Turkish metro who remembers the weird noodle guy).

Weresheep:

World war three has always been something I have been into, I came onto the server a week after it opened on Lemonpunch and was trained by Punchpacket on a Corporal. When being trained I felt like the base was active and live back then something was always moving people in corners roleplaying and talking. Training was detailed and enjoyable. I don’t know if that's how it was put across to me or not.

Passing my training I felt lost for a little while not really knowing what to do until some random solider (Kirsh) after chatting with his character a NCO told me to go to the AP. My first patrol was short lived but it felt planned out (something that has not been done in a long time) That ended by taking a sniper round to the face by Tommy “Rolling Thunder” Rollings. So I found out about the Globalist Special forces.

I defected to the Globalist after a fateful meeting with a monkey brain and red cross members. What has to be some of the funniest and entertaining roleplay I have done. Something about seeing a monkey getting its head blown open and then that been stuffed in a fridge only for the red cross to come in 5 minuets later. Then the red cross being drugged and one killed one being released. Timeless fun.

There I met Wulfeh and his newly appointed lead of the Globalist faction. Staff Sergeant with in 3 weeks from a private. The Globalist at that time where in a state. No Military police. Elitist Special forces. He helped build that faction up from the ground upwards. About 2 months later Thrope was “killed”. Now come Yarrick.

I asked Wulfeh for the military police whitelist. Something that had not been used correctly for a long time and the last people to use it where.. Assholes. I helped build that faction and managed to pull in Stalker who was playing Sophie Lackey as my co-lead. Best thing I did for that faction. I handed over to them because I lost interest in the server and was busy at work with my first job.

All in all WW3 has changed a hell of a lot. The community feels split on both sides and I can see that reflected in the staff team a lot of the time. The softer side of WW3 has done replaced with bitter IC and OOC hate for each faction that I dont think can be changed. Ever.

Thanks to PrincessKatey and Weresheep for their contributions.

[Hudson633]

Posted to the nebulous forum 23rd Jan 2018.

JakeCake remembering the addition of WAC:

When WAC was first introduced to the server after a long wave of suggestions regarding adding aviation to the server; it was finally added, but with only transport helicopters at the time since attack helicopters weren't effective and rather bulky and easy to shoot down. Each side could've applied for pilots. Only 3 were chosen and sadly I wasnt in that first wave. However when the second wave of pilot apps were opened. I was accepted and thus began my short but enjoyable journey of being a pilot.

When I took the flying test, it was a rather low populated server. Globalists and Coalition people doing their own thing. So the people who took my flying test were Toasty and AlexD. I had gotten into the classic huey helicopter which was by far the easiest to control. Our helipad at the base was one of the most challenging helipads for a pilot since it was a platform welded to the roof.

The thing that made it challenging was that you had to position your helicopter very carefully next to it and slowly slide it on the helipad. If you made an error in control and brought it too close to the roof, the helicopter blades could've snapped off and there went your precious helicopter which you only was able to get like two of them. If you were lucky, the body of the chopper just flopped on the helipad. However there was a one time case where the fuckup was so large that it tipped and pummelled right underneath where usually people stood to talk and use the firing range.

Now, I myself was very proficient with using WAC. Since it got added to the workshop (or atleast to garrysmod website since there wasnt a workshop intergration back then.) I was using it nonstop in singleplayer and eventually I got used to the controls and the sensitivity. I took off nicely, flew around and even was able to go at high speeds without crashing. It was so funny that AlexD mentioned: "He flies better than you, toasty lol" if I remember correctly. So the test went well with a flyby over the globalist base. Spooking some of them and then landing nicely again which was pretty scary but I pulled it off.

Thus began my career. I cant remember my characters name but my callsign was Kiowa. The majority of the missions I flew was usually medical transportations. At some occasions I was ordered to do UCTF dropoffs and there were two cases where I had a CO next to me that wanted me to observe the battlefield they lead from above. Felgroove was one of the CO's who flew with me and we were taken under fire. Back then you werent allowed to shoot with rifles at unarmed choppers since it was too easy to take down. The chopper sustained damage and Felgroove's character was wounded. I RTBed and the neat feature of WAC was that if the chopper was damaged, it would shake.

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