Information HALF LIFE 2: MIRAGE OF FREEDOM

[Mickee]

IDYLLIC NETWORKS PRESENTS ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

RELEASE DATE: TBD


I truly did not expect to end up here when planning ZRP: Virulent. I was sort of bullied into taking the mantle of the server lead and it soared from there into something I never thought would've been possible. I cannot thank all of you enough for everything you've done and the impact that has been left not just upon me but everyone else that built and ran Virulent for nearly a year. I love you all...You're the best community I could ask for. Now enough with all of the sappy stuff and let's get onto the stuff I've been hinting (and leaking myself lol) to you guys.

Since early July the idea of this server was being pushed around within my mind. Toyed with and squished as I ran ZRP after we finished the Rockwell arc and began to trek further down south. Since that point I have been amassing a team of people that I trust deeply to express their creative ideas and help as much as they can. Which they have. Half Life 2: MoF originally began as an Eastern Russian HL2RP server but quickly changed into what it is now. We wanted to go for a stark contrast to what ZRP provided however and that lead us onto developing the story on the desert dunes of the Caspian Desert within the Combine controlled Worksite 14.
​

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What is HL:MoF?

This server will be taking place in the Caspian Desert, even more dried up and forgotten due to the draining of elements by the Combine occupation force. Half Life: Mirage of Freedom will be a primarily outlands based server. Following our characters and their journey within this camp and throughout the world that has been crafted within the Half Life 2 universe. The stylistic approach that we have been placing down has been to chase and pursue the original feeling that HL2 took along with inspiration from the HL2 mod 'Swelter' and 'Snowdrop Escape'. We have crafted this server with the idea of originality yet familiarity in mind to try and capture the element of familiar yet new experiences. Much of the lore for everything involved (which will be updated very frequently) can be navigated through The Index.

The server will start present day of the year 2021. It will have been nearly 18 years to the date after the invasion of the Combine and the 7HW itself. This decision is made from the headache that was ZRP and us planning to fix the issues that arises with that struggle to follow. The server itself will be heavily focused upon the Rebellion side of things however we will be allowing the growth of Civil Protection Characters, now thrown under 'Rural Police Force'. The reason for the presence of the RPF within this Worksite is to provide security and overwatch the citizens during their work there. The Civil Protection characters will all be lower ranking individuals and we will actively push for the narrative Rebel side of things. We advise that you plan your characters while remembering that this is NOT CITY ROLEPLAY. It is Outlands.

With these cast of characters comes Vortigaunts too. Vortigaunts will be a very large part of HL:MoF. We will be open to endless amounts of Vortigaunt applications and actively encourage people to look into making them! This also goes with the ability to apply and play O.T.F, O.S.F, and Xenians. The playing field will open vastly in comparison from Virulent and we hope this pleases the people that wish to involve themselves more in entertainment and creating narrative pieces for the other players. The formats for these things will be uploaded shortly along with it.
​

---

What is new?

This server will finally introduce the long awaited Game Master role. Fitted to work hand in hand with admins to allow people to operate at their max efficiency when creating events in their own spare time. On top of this I will also be posting more frequent and in-depth sneak peeks within the forums for people to easily gauge and react to what is being shown and created...Unfortunately with these new additions there is one thing that will be toned down as we are stretching ourselves more...Lore Watchers. Lore Watchers will be brought down to bigger events and happenings only so it is easier for people to slide in and not need to scroll past a wall of text just to follow things.

However we will be creating a new system, the 'Active War System' or A.W.S for short. The AWS will allow us to actively engage with players and promote initiative amongst the populace to create something that feels organic and fluid. These things will consist of such structures as Thumpers, Outposts, patrols, tunnels, etc. We will be trying to make the entire map feel like an actual war during this servers tenure to allow people to truly start things whenever they want. Obviously admin run events will still exist and will happen but we want to take away from late ZRP's focus upon logging on for events only and instead giving people a reason to log on every day and push their own narrative.
Crafting. Crafting will be expanded heavily...I will show this off eventually however I am just letting you all know it is in the works. The same goes for looting to work in tandem with this expanded crafting system.

ALOT OF NEW SHIT AND REVAMPS OML ZRP FEELS SO OUTDATED LMFAO​

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ANY QUESTIONS CAN BE ASKED HERE!!! GO HAM!




Active War System Explained


​

 

[Avg_Joe]

OKAY, MICKEE, I HAD TO SPEEDRUN MAKING THIS ACCOUNT, SO BIG Q AND A COMING UP.

Q.1 >Civilian Roles

Given the harshness of the desert, the lack of resources, the overall approach to life out here - how shall Civilian Life be approached? Given the location, the token assignment, total war system, and so on and so forth - how will those who can still call themselves 'Civilians' be handled?

Will there be those with dedicated jobs or positions within frontier society like an Engineering Core or Civil Workers Union, or shall it be much more freeform without the typical structures people have grown to rely on, with either State Commissioned Workers or Contractors or Locally Recruited Workers/Volunteers?

Will Civilians, should the situation be decidedly rough enough to warrant it, be called upon in times of crisis to help stem the tide of things - perhaps even DEFENSIVELY if need be?

Given how there's a low number of seemingly under-funded Rural Protection Force, will Civilians be able to act as Watchmen of their own accord (assumedly with a lot of restrictions and scrutiny) as Hunters or even Union-aligned Militia? After all, in the desert, nobody can hear you scream - and there'll likely hardly be anyone coming to look for us.

But on the off chance, how will local governance be handled? Yes, it's Union, and yes undoubtedly 'Overwatch' ( The spoopy AI lady voice, not the soldiers ) is the highest authority at any given moment seeing as how they have an all encompassing direct line back toward the Union Heartlands. But besides them, who will manage the menial day to day? Perhaps imported Government Workers from the Union Heartlands to oversee paperwork and relay the happenings of the Outlands Town?

Union versus Rebels - Civilians inbetween, what is the pictured dynamic? Will people be thrust to take a stand, or, will there be a possibility for there to be those who tread a fine grey area? Take a bribe from a Rebel one day, and take up a rifle to save a RPF Officer the next day?

Q.2 >Rebellion

Warlords, Splintered Groups, Organized Structure? What is it looking like out there? Will players assign themselves groups and try to come together to fight against the Union, or, will there be an actual pre-existing organized force in the Desert for people to rally their banners behind? Seeing as how Swelter went, will there be groups who - although are allies in Purpose - have ideologies which might pin them up against one another, even if they have a shared enemy?


Grey Area - What are the RPF willing to put up with? Does Corruption flourish in the Ranks, will they bargain with Civilians, or be willing to wheel and deal with less-than-ideal figures for their assistance in Navigating the Desert and help keeping things safe - for the right price? What can Civies and Cops do for one another which the Union at large frown down upon?

Q.3 >Union

O.T.F and O.S.F - just who are these jokers? Unyielding Defenders of the Unions Ideals, there to enforce orders relayed to them by Overwatch and those whom Command them, or will there be an odd nuance? Are they the cold, perfected Generation of Overwatch we've come to expect of most servers, or are they the imperfect, early generation variants we've seen of the likes of Half-Life Alyx? What can they do? What WILL they do? How will they react?

Given the Territory Mechanics at play, if the Union loses too much ground, will they crackdown - or will the Region be considered loss? What measures is the Union willing to take in regards to our little outpost? Will there be punishments? A shutdown of vital supplies like Water in order to ensure compliance, or can we potentially see rewards if what the Union demands of us are met?

 

[richard]

I am a skim reader, and things take far too long for me to commit to memory so I apologise if any of this has been addressed in any of the threads that are already up. In no particular order of importance, vast interest or wanted answer...


It appears that each "nearby" city offers two squads of law enforcement; is there a specific plan for who does what, fills whatever niche or are these just presented as an opportunity for people to use as they see fit? Will we be seeing all of these named squads on server?

Other than the RPF and Overwatch, can we be expecting any other faction that is commonly seen on Half Life 2 servers?

How would the management team like people to express their willingness to involve themselves more than being the average playerjoe (factions, certain roles in-game etc)?

I understand there is no set date for launch as of yet, but is there a rough window? Within the next 6 months? Longer? Shorter?

 

[Mickee]

Q.1 >Civilian Roles

Civilian life will be a bit more defined earlier on than later. Our entire idea is to shift towards Rebel RP and do it organically rather than railroaded. If people want to go and revolt day 1 they are entitled to do so. We already have what comes after the camp planned out its really up to the players when they decide to go full rebellion and break out...Same goes for CCA. During this period we will toss character and decision defining moments onto the table for people to experience and push them towards the inevitable.

Beside that we do advise keeping things low. This camp is governed by the RPF which isn't underfunded and is just as well equipped as the MPF (CivPro). Rebel activity will be presented and the opportunity to do so will arise but I won't go into detail on that as I don't wish to spoil the experience entirely.

As for jobs...Yes. People will have the ability to carry out jobs within the camp such as Laborer, CMS, CMC, etc...Maybe even a few assistants in there too. We plan to give you guys stuff to do so it doesn't grow stale and everything feels as if its consistently evolving and growing.

Q.2 >Rebellion

Warlords, Splintered Groups, Organized Structure? What is it looking like out there? Will players assign themselves groups and try to come together to fight against the Union, or, will there be an actual pre-existing organized force in the Desert for people to rally their banners behind? Seeing as how Swelter went, will there be groups who - although are allies in Purpose - have ideologies which might pin them up against one another, even if they have a shared enemy?


Grey Area - What are the RPF willing to put up with? Does Corruption flourish in the Ranks, will they bargain with Civilians, or be willing to wheel and deal with less-than-ideal figures for their assistance in Navigating the Desert and help keeping things safe - for the right price? What can Civies and Cops do for one another which the Union at large frown down upon?

I cannot spoil that first half but there is going to be things to explore within the dunes...Just make sure the RPF or worse doesn't catch you.

Same goes for the secondary half...You will just have to wait and see

RPF applications will be taken in also. Players will have the opportunity to apply and we will review shortly.

Q.3 >Union

O.T.F and O.S.F - just who are these jokers? Unyielding Defenders of the Unions Ideals, there to enforce orders relayed to them by Overwatch and those whom Command them, or will there be an odd nuance? Are they the cold, perfected Generation of Overwatch we've come to expect of most servers, or are they the imperfect, early generation variants we've seen of the likes of Half-Life Alyx? What can they do? What WILL they do? How will they react?

Given the Territory Mechanics at play, if the Union loses too much ground, will they crackdown - or will the Region be considered loss? What measures is the Union willing to take in regards to our little outpost? Will there be punishments? A shutdown of vital supplies like Water in order to ensure compliance, or can we potentially see rewards if what the Union demands of us are met?

OTF and OSF is our version of COTA and Synths

Overwatch Transhuman Forces and Overwatch Synthetic Forces. We plan to dive deep into these two groups and bring some pretty diverse enemies for you guys to encounter. As for experienced or non-experienced there will be a bit of both. We have some homecooked enemies too on our drive that will be exposed (New Synth!!!) But these two forces entirely will be the governing force and the main QRF force for anything that happens within the Caspian Desert.



Hope this answers some questions

 

[Mickee]

It appears that each "nearby" city offers two squads of law enforcement; is there a specific plan for who does what, fills whatever niche or are these just presented as an opportunity for people to use as they see fit? Will we be seeing all of these named squads on server?

The squads are simply choices for players to choose from when making their RPF characters. I mentioned earlier its similar to deployments within the military and thats it. These MPF turned RPF cops will still represent their squad even when dubbed RPF. Its us wanting some bonding for cop characters over their home and what they may have inadvertently experienced together. You will be seeing them on server and we are making colored armbands to associate with them...Diversity is the goal.

Other than the RPF and Overwatch, can we be expecting any other faction that is commonly seen on Half Life 2 servers?

Conscripts and a bunch of HL2 inspired ideas. Both beta and retail.

How would the management team like people to express their willingness to involve themselves more than being the average playerjoe (factions, certain roles in-game etc)?

GM's will obviously be present but we also want you guys to post some stuff upon the character profiles area and just ask more questions in general. These sort of questions you are asking rn give our teams brains functioning and allows us to keep sharp on our server rather than letting things fall behind and go into the void.

As for in game we will have mini-factions basically that can interact with the RPF and other potential parties. All of that will be seen in the coming weeks and months.

I understand there is no set date for launch as of yet, but is there a rough window? Within the next 6 months? Longer? Shorter?

Around 4-6 months yes.


I am completely redoing the script for the most part and doing alot of QOL changes.

A little hint is that I am currently trying (and failing lmfao) to make damage swep based instead of ammo based so I can provide some pretty detailed buffs or nerfs for you guys. I am also paying out of pocket to get bodygroups done for nearly every single weapon we have along with getting a bunch of new CCA models made. We're deep into the planning stage and basically in production atm.

 

[yoursteamfriend.royce]

 

[indigogo]

IDYLLIC NETWORKS PRESENTS ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ View attachment 153

RELEASE DATE: TBD


I truly did not expect to end up here when planning ZRP: Virulent. I was sort of bullied into taking the mantle of the server lead and it soared from there into something I never thought would've been possible. I cannot thank all of you enough for everything you've done and the impact that has been left not just upon me but everyone else that built and ran Virulent for nearly a year. I love you all...You're the best community I could ask for. Now enough with all of the sappy stuff and let's get onto the stuff I've been hinting (and leaking myself lol) to you guys.

Since early July the idea of this server was being pushed around within my mind. Toyed with and squished as I ran ZRP after we finished the Rockwell arc and began to trek further down south. Since that point I have been amassing a team of people that I trust deeply to express their creative ideas and help as much as they can. Which they have. Half Life 2: MoF originally began as an Eastern Russian HL2RP server but quickly changed into what it is now. We wanted to go for a stark contrast to what ZRP provided however and that lead us onto developing the story on the desert dunes of the Caspian Desert within the Combine controlled Worksite 14.
​

---

View attachment 156


What is HL:MoF?

This server will be taking place in the Caspian Desert, even more dried up and forgotten due to the draining of elements by the Combine occupation force. Half Life: Mirage of Freedom will be a primarily outlands based server. Following our characters and their journey within this camp and throughout the world that has been crafted within the Half Life 2 universe. The stylistic approach that we have been placing down has been to chase and pursue the original feeling that HL2 took along with inspiration from the HL2 mod 'Swelter' and 'Snowdrop Escape'. We have crafted this server with the idea of originality yet familiarity in mind to try and capture the element of familiar yet new experiences. Much of the lore for everything involved (which will be updated very frequently) can be navigated through The Index.

The server will start present day of the year 2021. It will have been nearly 18 years to the date after the invasion of the Combine and the 7HW itself. This decision is made from the headache that was ZRP and us planning to fix the issues that arises with that struggle to follow. The server itself will be heavily focused upon the Rebellion side of things however we will be allowing the growth of Civil Protection Characters, now thrown under 'Rural Police Force'. The reason for the presence of the RPF within this Worksite is to provide security and overwatch the citizens during their work there. The Civil Protection characters will all be lower ranking individuals and we will actively push for the narrative Rebel side of things. We advise that you plan your characters while remembering that this is NOT CITY ROLEPLAY. It is Outlands.

With these cast of characters comes Vortigaunts too. Vortigaunts will be a very large part of HL:MoF. We will be open to endless amounts of Vortigaunt applications and actively encourage people to look into making them! This also goes with the ability to apply and play O.T.F, O.S.F, and Xenians. The playing field will open vastly in comparison from Virulent and we hope this pleases the people that wish to involve themselves more in entertainment and creating narrative pieces for the other players. The formats for these things will be uploaded shortly along with it.
​

---

View attachment 157

What is new?

This server will finally introduce the long awaited Game Master role. Fitted to work hand in hand with admins to allow people to operate at their max efficiency when creating events in their own spare time. On top of this I will also be posting more frequent and in-depth sneak peeks within the forums for people to easily gauge and react to what is being shown and created...Unfortunately with these new additions there is one thing that will be toned down as we are stretching ourselves more...Lore Watchers. Lore Watchers will be brought down to bigger events and happenings only so it is easier for people to slide in and not need to scroll past a wall of text just to follow things.

However we will be creating a new system, the 'Active War System' or A.W.S for short. The AWS will allow us to actively engage with players and promote initiative amongst the populace to create something that feels organic and fluid. These things will consist of such structures as Thumpers, Outposts, patrols, tunnels, etc. We will be trying to make the entire map feel like an actual war during this servers tenure to allow people to truly start things whenever they want. Obviously admin run events will still exist and will happen but we want to take away from late ZRP's focus upon logging on for events only and instead giving people a reason to log on every day and push their own narrative.
Crafting. Crafting will be expanded heavily...I will show this off eventually however I am just letting you all know it is in the works. The same goes for looting to work in tandem with this expanded crafting system.

ALOT OF NEW SHIT AND REVAMPS OML ZRP FEELS SO OUTDATED LMFAO​

---

ANY QUESTIONS CAN BE ASKED HERE!!! GO HAM!





​

Make sure there are chestrigs and camoflauge availumbull foe da rebulls yo

 

[Mickee]

What is changed?
One thing that can be for certain that we are changing is the way S2K and S2RP works. Ammo scarcity won't be as big of a thing as it was in ZRP however it will still play a small part in the long run. Weapons will be built upon and in depth nerfs and buffs will be handed out to them if needed and the same goes for melee weapons.

Each weapon will now host a baseline set of attachments. At the start we will be seeing primarily Scopes and Silencers for weapons with the occasional extended magazine for other things. Stuff like red dot sights, holographic, etc etc will be bestowed onto the weapons to give each weapon a distinguishing factor.

S2K and S2RP will be switching. S2K will happen frequently and be a larger staple of the server going forward just to give some mindless detox here and there for the players to enjoy...Ontop of that we will also be expanding S2RP to be on a player-filled role and level now instead of primarily sitting down and using Animated props like we did for Virulent. Such things we could get away with before but now we want to have a more hands on experience for you all to get lost on. An award system will also be present here too.

The award system will play out when we want to make a 'Casting Call' to ask for help from players to fill certain roles like an RPF/MPF enemy or OTF/OSF. If the player surrenders their opportunity to head into an event and instead stays back to play an event character they will be gifted an award for their help during the event. That be script, narrative, or something else. This part plays into us wanting more player controlled enemies.



this is just a small update of stuff I forgot to include.​