Rhona W

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Silverwind growled. Enough was enough, and they'd been dicking around with infantry in the mine for long enough. This mission was long overdue to be ended, and it was soaking up too much of their time and resources. He targeted the catwalk Adrian had under fire and unleashed a burst from the last rounds of the Harlock's autocannon rifle at the structure. With a screech of metal it gave way and clattered to the floor. Pressing on as the dust and noise roared around them, he awkwardly run-shuffled around the remaining obstructions, coming face to face with one of the hostile GEARs. The machine raised its' weapons, and he unleashed a volley of chaff and flares, blinding the civilian-modified GEAR, before body checking it. The added momentum and weight staggered it backward, before he drew his machines' fighting knife, and speared the hostile GEAR through the cockpit, shutting it down in moments. The remaining machine had its' back to the Harlock. and with its' support down, was easy pickings for the rest of the team to take care of.
"Take him out," he ordered. "Then press on. We've wasted enough time fucking around in here, and they've taken out enough of our people".

At the barricade, things were changing. As the squad and Mike discussed options, there were raised voices behind the obstruction. People were arguing, but no further firepower came their way. Finally, there were the sounds of flesh hitting flesh, and then a single gunshot - not aimed at any of them - rang out.
Moments later, a makeshift white flag waved.
"Please, don't shoot!" said a heavily Northern-accented voice. "We surrender! Please, don't shoot, we're opening the barricade and coming out!"
Moments later, the crates and equipment were dragged aside, and a black-furred vulpine emerged, holding the flag up high. A motley assortment of men and women, six in all, followed.None were dressed in truly military gear, but had rough-and-ready practical clothing on, some of it military in nature, and much of the load-bearing gear on it was clearly military in nature. All in all, the classic image of a badlands fighter.
"The hostages," the fox at the front and the owner of the strong accent said, "they are in the main cave. You can get to them if you cut down this passage. I can show you the way. The main cavern is guarded by the last of our heavy vehicles and equipment. Two military-issue GEARs and a detachment of recoilless rifles. But this way, to the rear, there are only infantry, and a few at that. The prisoners - they are in a portable office, at the rear of the main cave..." he trailed off, eyes wide and searching the faces of the men and women in front of him, and occasionally flicking to the imposing shape of Mike's GEAR behind them. It was clear he was pleading for his life with the information.

In the main cavern, Silverwind closed in on the back of the remaining GEAR. With the rest of the squad advancing from the front, the enemy shut down his power, and assumed a one-kneed stance. Moments later, the pilot emerged from the cockpit, hands above his head. The resistance there had been take care of. All that was left was the main cavern.
"Check ammo and regroup," he growled. "Whatever they have left, they'll either be spoilin' fer a fight and kick us wi' everythin' they got, or roll over an' show us their bellies at the first sign of trouble. I don't wanna go in unprepared either way. Make sure you got a full mag, and are ready to move fast. We can't wait around on this one."

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Sorry that you're disappointed, and fair enough that it sounds harsh. I didn't say anything for a while, because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. The thought of actually having to put something up just seemed like a massive pain in the arse, rather than something I wanted to do anymore.

The fact you feel strongly about it does make me think it might be worth continuing, and reconsidering. But frankly, you're the only person who's even bothered to get a post up in a week or more to say anything actually related to the damn game. Which is also doubly surprising considering you're playing the non-GEAR pilot as well, in a game squarely focused on mecha, and one of the more recent people to join in. Obviously christmas and New Years have been and gone, but even so - I think, if I continue, it might be time to cut the chaff.

I think you're right: It's time the group got whittled way, way down to those who can actually be arsed to get their posts up in good time, and show some enthusiasm and enjoyment when they do, rather than bitching about it or moaning.
I'm not doing this as a job, I'm doing it for my own enjoyment, and I'm going to make it enjoyable one way or another, and I want people who are enthusiastic and enjoyable to play with. I like this setting, and I like this story. And I'd like to actually see it through for once as well. So maybe it'll carry on. But I'm likely to be a lot harsher, because I'm tired of feeling like I'm having to shove things into action each time, and watch the game become a fucking revolving door, and slow down to a crawl.

A post will be forthcoming. If people don't respond to it, or to this one, then they're getting kicked off. I've already kicked off anyone who hasn't posted for ages, or replied to messages I've sent previously as well.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

TBH, I've kind of lost interest in running the game, and in online roleplaying at the moment. GEARs has been up for a year, and in that time we've barely covered a third of one mission and I've constantly had to sit around twiddling my thumbs. Things seem to just slow down to a crawl constantly, and it just leaves me not caring about posting any more, or having any real drive to come up with a storyline.
I love the setting, and I have a good group of players, but I'm honestly just finding it such a chore to post anything or even check the site. Not to mention the constant up-and-down of the site itself just makes it incredibly irritating to try and actually get anything done. And on top of that there's the people constantly coming and going all the time - we get new players, or returning players, and they're super-excited, glad to be here, build characters and GEARs... and then they disappear. Which means I have no real reason to plot anything for them either, and just get worn out giving a shit.

There's also all the constant having to plan how everything will fit together now that there's different types of units in the squad. I should've just limited the group to GEARs as it was supposed to be in the first place, as it would've been far less of a headache for me, and been a lot simpler too. In fact, ideally, I would've made everyone pilot the same model of GEAR just with different weapon systems, and be part of the same unit. But that would probably be hugely unpopular too.

Really, I'm just kind of burned out on online RP, after the combination of everything. I get more reward from writing, as I don't have to worry about waiting for other people to pitch in, or not get 'distracted' by whatever new shiny has come up, or to have to chase people down to get them to post all the damn time. Not to mention I can make sure the story goes the way it's supposed to, and that it fits the idea of what's in my head.

Sorry if everyone's disappointed, but honestly, I think I'm just tired of flogging a dead horse at this point. GEARs was fun and all, but I've just had enough of trying to make it work. I know people really like the setting and the game, but I've tried to get it working four or five times now, and it always just ends up crashing due to inactivity and the pace turning to a sluggish crawl, or everyone disappearing. And I'm tired of hearing people say they love it, want it to go, want to see the plot develop and blahblahblah, and then just watching the same things happen over and over again. So it's dead this time, and probably staying dead.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

I'll try and get a post up soon, now I'm back home - though I expect everyone will still be on holiday-schedule until after New Years, of course!
I hope everyone had a nice Christmas though :)

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

I thing I've drunk more in the last four days than I have in the last four weeks. I love christmas, yiuse gaiz.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope you enjoy the holiday season, and it's everything you want. Best wishes for the New year too.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Hey everyone - sorry I haven't got a post up so far. Every time I've been free to do one, the Guild has been down, or I haven't had the motivation.
I'm going away to visit my folks for Christmas as of today, and I'll see if I have time to get one up while I'm away. If not, I'll try and get something up after Christmas when I'm back.

I hope everyone enjoys their holiday season if I don't get a post up beforehand.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Cart, I wasn't necessarily referring to you. It's other people I'm poking :P

Es, go right ahead if you want to, although I'm waiting on a post from Incubus in reply to the last one I made, since his character is with your group, and he might want to chime in too. Though he did say he'd had problems posting due to power outages.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

7 days since I last updated the IC, and there's been only 2 IC posts. That Banhammer's gonna be a-swingin'.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

I posted too, took everything from everyone elses' posts, and hopefully made replies to all of you. I also used Winters' post to elaborate on the layout of the mines. I made sure everything should allow us all to work together in this brief little battle, rather than all being separated out and fighting individually. After all, the idea is we're supposed to have trained extensively together by this point.

Cart, there isn't much for Ken to do at this point, and I'm sorry for that, but I'll make up for it another time!

I'm going away for a few days from Thursday, but I should be able to keep up and reply to any comments as needed. I'll make another post if there's enough replies when I'm back on Monday next week.