Vince Torelli

@Melody Frey

So one thing I've noticed is how a lot of faction/character story threads are written as a summary of events, rather than a showcase of actual RP scenes. While this is cool for documenting the progress of a faction, and isn't necessarily a bad thing, I think faction lore and development becomes better nuanced and expanded when actual RP scenes are depicted for the audience of viewers. It demonstrates that you can actually roleplay, including writing quality dialogue and scene descriptions with /me's and /do's. Now, being that Eclipse is mixed VOIP and text (and more people are inclined to use VOIP), it makes writing dialogue verbatim difficult. However, since the traditional way of creating 800x600 RP showcase screens is to only have a few lines and a short summary of the RP scene (as to avoid metagaming), it's easy to save POV of the conversation and transcribe it for the screenshot. HELPFUL TOOLS Photoshop, or... https://www.photopea.com/ For those that don't want to buy Photoshop, this is a web based alternative with the same UI as CS6. PROCESS While some methods involve screenshotting the scene and removing the raw text using a magic wand, I have found this to be detrimental for several reasons - 1, grammar errors. 2, Eclipse's font is bulky and there's too much OOC artifacts. INSTEAD, I recommend the "ROLEPLAY TRANSCRIPTION" method. This means taking a raw screenshot or, in case of VOIP usage, a POV of the roleplay you wanna include - including speech and /me's and /do's. Keep this handy, because you'll be transcribing this roleplay onto a CINEMATIC SCREENSHOT. HEX CODES: Me = {c2a3da} Do = {c2a3da} Talking = {f1f1f1} Whisper = {eda841} Phone call = {fbf724} FONTS: I recommend Arial Condensed Bold or, on Photopea, DejaVu Sans Condensed Bold. REMEMBER THAT YOU SHOULD ADD A BLACK OUTLINE OF 1, 2, or 3 PIXELS (give or take) DEPENDING ON HOW BIG YOUR TEXT IS. CINEMATIC SCREENSHOTS So for the screenshot you're gonna be pasting the text onto, there's a specific method. You want the main focus of the picture to be the characters and/or main item of the RP... this could be a car, item, or anything pertaining to the scene at hand. Since your screenshot will be posted in 800x600 format, you'll want to go ahead and crop/resize your image to fit those dimensions. It is vital that you leave room in the upper-left corner of the screenshot for the Roleplay Transcription. Example: After cropping the image, you'll want to add the text. Your final screenshot should look like this: Now you're ready to post! Remember to check with your faction management if they approve the screen to be posted to the thread. (Every faction's rules is different.)

It's RP. While I'm skeptical if that notion should justify the creation a Klan faction, it should at least justify this word and others like it to be used. There's a clear divide between In-Character and Out-Of-Character. People should be able to freely express fictional characters and their actions, especially something as trivial as saying such a commonly used word like this, without being policed OOCly. It's this stigma and almost hyper-meta approach to RP that's leading to such poor portrayal everywhere on Eclipse. If you can't discern IC and OOC, you probably shouldn't be allowed on this server, for your own mental health. Like always, Mel is speaking words of wisdom. I agree with her 110%. - The Vince has spoken.

Underground on top, forever. Viva la nostra rodentia. ↑ Never forget the Melody Shuffle. ↑ And always remember - clear comms, you bozos. And keep it pink - forever. - Vince Torelli

Hey spencer, I'm Vince. Pro gamer tip: join The Underground you won't regret it

Until next time, you beautiful pink bastards. Vincent James "Lucky Vince" Torelli UNDERGROUND RAT October 19th, 2021 - July 10th, 2022

Glad to see another paesano in the city! Excellent story-writing, keep it up!

("Mischief Night" is Halloween Eve for New Jerseyans)

Good to see another faction that's pushing the boundaries of what is typically made. I'm super excited to see you guys out and about in the city, and I wish you the best of luck towards accomplishing your goals. Super creative, well done!

+1 I would sell my soul for this

They've made it into a dip?

Vince Torelli was laying on his bed, staring above him at the rotating fan blades in his compact hotel room at the Richman. Here lies a man - or what's left of one - burdened by equal parts failure and guilt. Here lies a man staring at the cream colored walls and tasteless, soulless decor of a room that's most likely housed thousands of other contrite souls on the run. Vince was, indeed, on the run. From what, eludes him on the surface. Perhaps himself, he contemplates? Vince Torelli - this depressingly soft and injured creature - would be, to many, the antithesis of anarchy. A Wall Street analyst at peak, an astronomer at heart, he was, eventually, swept into the world of criminality. The question is whether it was by will, or not. Ultimately, he made the choice to jump the fence at Bayview and steal his first car. When he was caught the first time, he made the choice to go back. If self-improvement was a request of the loved ones in Vince's life, it began with him smiling snarkily in the face of God, and admitting he was a criminal by choice. More proudly, Vince would tell God, was that he was an anarchist. He was a member of The Underground. Yet, among his flaws and innumerable amounts of contradictions, Vince is also a pessimist. He has a knack for doubting and lying to himself, and those around him. While his admission of choosing this way of life would be spoken with a proud flair to God, when spoken to himself, he feels as if being part of The Underground, much like his choice to remain on Wall Street rather than pursue his dreams of astronomy, is further demonstration of his weakness as an individual. Above all of the seven deadly sins Vince embodies, slothfulness would stand chief among them. He took the "easy" way out, as he does with every problem that faces him. Vince is a rebel at heart, yet ironically, the illusory Vince on the outside has become exactly like his father. He has slowly evolved into a man that places the dollar over the welfare of human life. He has digitized the world around him to be nothing more than potential tools, ready for him to use to further himself. Vince, the supposed "anarchist", has taken up the Torelli family method. He has become as capitalistic as the monsters he claims to fight against, and he secretly suspects the bulk of his rodent brothers have done the same. The evolution of Vince is happening. It isn't a theory anymore. He is fully aware of the changes, no matter how much he attempts to deny them to himself. Vince, perhaps by being of the Torelli blood, or by realization that he's simply too weak to make positive changes, realizes the path that awaits him, despite his efforts to deny it. Gradually, with every person or thing Vince ever truly loved crumbling away from him, he grows closer to accepting that, more than likely, he'll meet every poor gangster he's sent to hell again, some day. To his credit, Vince made one effort to maintain the goodness he saw in people. However, like his own life, doomed to eventual cancer due to lead poisoning from a gunshot wound to the head, it crashed and burned before his eyes. He blames himself for Grace leaving him, despite knowing that deep down, it was probably out of his control. However, like alcohol, Vince is addicted to the high of affection; and, in his lonely room tonight, he knows full well that when he leaves to go into the city again, he'll be on the hunt for the next person to love, despite the fact that Vince is too far gone to be loved. If there is a peak to the misery and mental agony of Vince's life, it is this: there is no catharsis. Whatever god that inflicts such constant torment on this man has yet to make it clear why. Vince ponders what dreadful sin he could have committed in the past to have become all but a "shit magnet" since the year 2014. Perhaps it was choosing Wall Street over his own dreams? Perhaps it was making that same exact decision again, every time it's presented? If there is an escape for him... if there does lie a golden, wholesome conclusion of retiring to the hills of Colorado with someone he doesn't see as a tool, or a future of loving self-actualization and forgiveness... it is so far departed from Vince that all the effort he could muster would never render it. Vince's story is, by every measure of probability, finished. He has already died, without dying. The torture is that Vince must endure life until it ends. He isn't dead until there is no more Vince. If there's a reason for his story continuing, it is the fact that he hasn't died yet, in a technical sense. Vince thought he would find salvation in The Underground. He has come to find out that he was wrong; the rhetoric of "brotherhood" and "loyalty" and "anarchy" is now, to himself, but never to Melody, an unfruitful dream, stolen by the cold winds of reality. All Vince has found within The Underground is, in ultimate irony, Wall Street come pink. If there is a deeper ideology to life that Vince has adopted, it is that, much like himself, the revolution is already over. America has won. The Underground is as much a needed part of the city as the police are. To Vince, there isn't a revolution, or even a need for one anymore. Vince feels as if he is a cog, doing the job he is told to do yet again, while the police, and the government, and the system does its own job for the same end reason. Vince has changed, yet equally, he has remained the same. There is nothing gained with all he's killed and stolen; this point exacerbated by the assured destruction of any wealth he ever acquires. Of course, it's in his name, "Lucky" Vince. There is truly nothing gained. The only thing that will be lost, eventually, is Vince himself. The shell of a man that could have died among the stars, doomed to worthless death at the hands of himself, and the machine he helped keep alive. Perhaps these thoughts are just the wild ravings of a mad man - a factory failure in modern America, either blessed or cursed with the power of self awareness. Perhaps Vince is, indeed, a revolutionary, whose eventual drunken scrawlings on a bathroom wall could, by chance, inspire the next Vince to take up the rat mask in actuality, not in denial. If there is one truth to Vince's life on this day, it is this: it has meant nothing.

+1

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+1 I really like this idea, and I think your point about having a stolen firearm carry a higher charge than simply an illegal one, plus the timer and gun limit would level the playing field ICly. As long as the risk factor is maintained as very high, so the streets aren't made into literal warzones, this would, like you said, be very beneficial to some smaller factions and their narrative development without having to rely on other factions for guns. It would add a much needed breath of fresh air and criminal realism to the overall criminal RP in the city, especially in the black market/illegal arms trade circles.

So I'm inspired by a system I've seen implemented in several Minecraft towny servers I've played on. Essentially, the command works like a regular private message, except you can send it to people who are not currently online at the time you are. There would be a basic inbox system which isn't displayed unless mail has been sent to you, which can be read from the text box and replied to or deleted. My thinking is that the primary benefit of having a mail system in Eclipse RP would be to streamline the process of non-admins delivering important OUT OF CHARACTER messages to people without having to track them down on Discord or the forums. This could also be helpful for coordinating very specific and inter-faction RP events without cluttering Discords. Only official faction leaders would be able to send memorandums to their own members without having to manually imput each member's name. A potential kink in this system would be, of course, the risk for people to abuse it by metagaming. However, it is still entirely possible to metagame over Discord to people who are not currently in the session, not to mention the ability to /PM people who are in the same session anyway. A possible way to curb this problem would be to limit the /mail command to players who have over 20k experience. HOW IT WORKS: INDIVIDUAL: /mail send John_Smith Remember to respond to the deathmatch report on the forums. MULTIPLE: /mail send Jack_Walter, Kevin_Finnerty, Nick_Porter There's an important RP event next Tuesday at 17:00 UTC. FACTION: /factionmail send Please read over the new rule changes on the Eclipse forums.

The American Dream - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To some, mainly to men born of great nothings, the slight and soft touch of this dream, much like a leper to the robes of Christ, is satisfactory enough when compared to a seemingly endless and pitiful existence of no coin and even lesser hope. The pursuit of happiness, with no guarantee of attaining it, was at one point in American history a filter of the quality of man, and a test of his tenacity to want something, and to take it without prejudice, oft and ironically at the sacrifice of the dream entire; life and liberty. Messina, Sicily - 1927 James Torelli of Sicily, born in 1908. A man no stranger to poverty and decay, raised in the blood-soaked streets of Messina. Known to pick fights with other children and frequently rob local stores, he was feared among the civilian populace, even at a young age. Coming from a family of Sicilian peasant fishermen with distant ties to families in Verona and Milan, the poor conditions of a family of five living in a decrepit two-room apartment drove James to a life of bitter hatred of the rich and powerful, brought on even more so by the repeated business abuse inflicted upon the Sicilians from northern Italian aristocrats. Growing up not far removed from the Cosa Nostra, the wild stories of disrespected, poor men making a name for themselves was further inspiration for James' descent into criminality. However, his nature was childish and petty, and his brutal methods of robbery were looked down upon with distaste from the local mafiosi. In addition, as the womanizing and violent hood grew into a teenager, his father Antonio became indebted to the Sicilian Mafia, when he refused to pay extortion fees to the mobster that ran the fishing boat racket. Sicilian fishermen off the coast of Messina - 1927 In late 1927, the Mafia's patience for protection payment had run empty. Late one night, a band of hired gangsters raided the Torelli house, executing the entire family, save for two who managed to escape - James Torelli and his brother, who was never seen again. On the run with nothing to his name, he escaped Sicily on several industrial ships. Sailing through the Balkans to Croatia, then by land through northern Italy and France, eventually arriving in England, boarding a freighter carrying European exported goods to America. Several weeks later, after a grand voyage across the Atlantic, James left the boat when it was temporarily docked in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Angry at the almost total destruction of his world, he contemplated ending it fully or looking for a better alternative, as he fell in love with the taffy-scented boardwalks of the South Jersey shore. Eventually, he met several other likeminded Italians and Irishmen, who made short work of forming a ruthless syndicate of cat burglars and moonshine peddlers. Dominating the South Jersey highways, if even a shot glass of prohibited alcohol passed from New York City to Philadelphia, it went through Torelli. If it was coming down from Canada to Pittsburgh, it went through Torelli. If it was coming up north from Cuba, it went through Torelli. In short time, an empire was forming beneath his feet. His wealth helped him grow in favor among local politicians, who turned a blind eye to his crimes in exchange for a new Cadillac or a free pass at the cathouse. James Torelli in Atlantic City - 1929 The late '20s were a glorious time for James Torelli. Cars, women, power and essentially every vice imaginable was there for the taking. Every time a member of his syndicate was jailed or killed, two more would sprout up. The police got a slice to keep their mouths shut. Local businesses would receive large donations so they'd stay loyal. The press far and wide praised James Torelli as a philanthropist and businessman, giving the people what they wanted in a nation where it was illegal. He was a champion for beverage choice, and a friend of the working man. Soon, every wiseguy and two-bit gangster on the street knew that every mile between Atlantic City and Philadelphia belonged to one crew alone - the Torelli family. Below the glamorized surface and general public acceptance of a violent criminal kingpin lay countless families traumatized, abused and often ruined. The wives of police officers murdered for doing their jobs. The mothers of sons who were killed in vendettas, or for talking too much. James Torelli was the paragon of cut-throat and ruthless crime, and the epitome of a man borne into an uncaring, cold world of poverty and capital competition, transformed into his own greatest fear through the incessant and often unavoidable cycle of criminality. A man doomed to eventual damnation and the assured ruination of his seed. James Torelli's empire was built on blood. He had chosen to live by the sword. He sold the world for a fleeting sixpence life of sin and perceived power, assured at its inception an eventual end, either by vendetta, suicide or the long arm of the law. He had joined the pursuit of happiness, but at the cost of life and liberty.

STORIES LIST: Intro Video Vince Torelli - The Underground Exclusive Welcome Back, Joe - The Torelli Crime Family Exclusive Veni, Vidi, Vici - The Torelli Crime Family Exclusive Homecoming - The Underground Exclusive Ghosts Chamber of Reflection

Create a sitting animation UI near tables and booths to allow an easy sitting animation at the press of a button, rather than having to slowly position anims precisely to sit at a table. E.G., you'd walk up to a table and a UI menu would allow you to choose which seat to sit at, and what style of sitting to choose.