SERVER ECONOMY (DISCUSSION)

[StephenPuffs]

All valid points. While I personally knew marksmanship wasn't a hugely popular idea, this is why I had it exactly the way it was as people always want to be the best shot, it made sense to me they would need to spend a fair amount in doing so. Of course this was a slow process which I can't really do much about, it at least required a fair amount of capital to do though I tried to keep it fairly balanced even if you were level 1.

Same thing essentially for guns themselves, yes they were expensive but for exactly that kind of reason.

 

[Husky]

The reduction in materials didn't help at all.

Raiding for windows being boarded would render half of the properties being useless, a few that come to mind: Slums (1-4), projex (just 1-4), Regals (1-5), Business shops, Puffer and probably a few more if I tried aha.

 

[Sneaky]

People are able to get the most expensive car in a matter of days.
You can honestly grind for three things in this game: Cars, guns and firearms level.
Marksmanship was a fun grind too, although it was extremely pay-to-win and sucked.

I think there needs to be a fine balance between grinding and fun. @StephenPuffs makes a good argument about car upkeep but honestly the 75EUR/month car tax i pay in real life pains me enough, needing to pay to upkeep my cars similar to GTA v doesn't bring any gameplay, it's just going to be as annoying as buying burgers and fueling up your car. In fact, it would make people grow more, since there would be a higher cost of living. You pay for something and you dont get anything in return: you just don't loose anything.

I dont think the 15 year old engine is helping out here. The amount of content and things to do is incredible for the engine, really. In terms of cool toys to own helicopters and boats on a garry's mod map are completely useless although an incredibly cool thing to grind for. Sadly, basically impossible. Some Arma RP players can relate. adding new things to own or making things more expensive wont fix anything. Making a 3 million dollar car 5 million will just mean some sweat skips an extra day of school to powergrow more. Having something besides cars to grind for would be amazing, but unrealistic right now.

HL2RP, despite having permabans on practically all servers in existence did teach me items aren't needed for roleplay. So, i think putting more focus on job immersion can do the trick for the economy. Drugs should either be an extremely high risk/high reward thing or should just pay less overal. Forcing people out of bases and into better paying jobs, even if it pays way less than growing. Will at a certain point interest them more in grinding for jobs than grinding for cars and drugs.

To round this up and to make my half drunk 3AM reply a little more clear: Having something to grind for isn't nessesarily a bad thing but people need a fair chance to grind for it. Sweaty McSweat shouldnt be able to buy his lamborghini by 2 days of growing because he is in a big org. Regardless of the price of this car, it will eventually be purchased by many and you have the same problem. Instead, you should be able to grind for certain jobs, improvements to jobs and similar things.

A server i used to play gave everyone access to the basic jobs, playing as this job(Say policefor example) gained you experience. At certain amounts, you would unlock advancements and some perks. At 1000XP, you get an upgrade to this job, a tazer and increased pay for example. Then at 2000XP, you gain something else. What these should be in perp, i don't know. But there definitely needs to be a few jobs where you have something to work for apart from policing, without adminstration behind it.

as an example:

a normal firefighter gets a small firetruck, a hose and extinguises stuff.
After, say, 25 hours on duty you get promoted. You get access to a firefighter SUV with small firefighting equipment allowing you to patrol. Ranking up further grants you better equipment, a better pay and a ladder truck. Progressing further grants you EMT capabilities or something, idk.

I dont know good examples for this, but i do think the idea of grinding for job perks instead of guns and cars will make people just grind less in general.
People will own that Lamborghini sooner or later. I don't think the economy is the issue itself, its just a consequence of the game mode revolving more about drugs, guns and raiding than ever before

 

[naZa]

This sounds like a situation where only one half would be happy no matter what the outcome (unless someone has an amazing solution). If the prices of things were raised, those that don't have so much money would struggle to get the things they need. Those who are wealthy would just buy what they need as normal. Doing an economy wipe would have been ideal but it is kind of too late for that as those who had a large sum of money would just rage quit (as mentioned above).

Someone also mentioned above that players on Garry's Mod are very money driven which has always been the case, people would rather be a hermit crab and watch their plants slowly grow as they have a gun to the door.

 

[StephenPuffs]

1. Of course, which is why I even floated the idea of nerfing the yield in my post originally. Though as I said, no guarantees.
2. It's yet to be made in full, so I wouldn't judge it before anything is finalized. Yes I know it means people need to be more vigilant within their residence, but the idea is that if it proves to be too much to maintain by having to be in there, then they should look for another job or go out and RP around in other ways. Sure it's not perfect, but growing drugs is not meant to be "easy", it just happens to be that way when you have a large group backing you up, and why org perks while neat in some ways only make them more sought after and thus earn more.
3. Precisely my point, it's not how I'd want either of those being used. But that's really up to staff to enforce.

Even so, it's hard if not impossible for us to predict exactly how effective a system can be because of large orgs. There are some changes I'd really like to make to planters which I may have a discussion of my own about to get feedback about what it may mean, as it would possibly make growing in large bulk not quite as simple for larger orgs. For now that will have to wait as my focus is elsewhere, but when I am done with that it may get floated out there.

 

[Husky]

@StephenPuffs With your communication as a developer being good with responses to posts like this, profile posts etc would you ever consider hosting a sort of community assembly where we could voice these concerns?

 

[Bnjemann]

Reset the economy so all the experienced and highly skilled players can immediately gain their previous wealth back within a week and users who spent ages to get to where they are who are less skilled are kicked Back to square one?

You can wipe inventories, characters, and stats, but you cannot wipe skill.

 

[StephenPuffs]

That's more up to Dom than myself, as he's community manager, community concerns and such should be brought to him, then if warranted brought to senior staff. However, I will reply on my profile page if simple enough.

 

[George]

@BigBenji I see where you coming from, but certain member who have spent time and money(selling vip) would feel hard done by and straight up leave, this is the problem with the situation we are in, there is not straight forward answer

 

[Bnjemann]

@Greg I was sarcastic, I do not support the idea of a wipe at all.

 

[Bert]

In all honesty I know I rant about this pretty often but I personally believe it stands true to this day. If the PD were more of a contending force in fire fights the economy would be in much better state. Let me explain.

As it currently stands any org with some decent experience and 3-4 fully armed members can quite easily rival the PLPD facing off against typically 1-2 TFU (Maybe 3 during raids) 3 - 4 Pistol Cops, and typically 1 - 2 Shotgun Cops. Not only does this force the PLPD into what is almost a completely reaction based strategy (I.E we receive reports of raids, rather than actively seeking raids out) it also limits the amount of firepower the PD can actively distribute. The PD in its prime had an overwhelming impact on the server economy (And at times was a bit OP) but in its current state it is nearly impossible for officers to win 99% of shootouts involving 3 or more people that have AR’s because they are out gunned, and any strategy that could be employed to neutralize the suspect is prohibited by policy.
I’m not saying buffing the PD would completely fix the economy, because it wouldn’t. But if the PD was put in a better position, through policy reforms (including TFU recruitment, and weapon usage), and maybe (just maybe) some buffs. then the PD would be in a much better position to actively seek out, and have a large influence in the servers economy.

 

[George]

@BigBenji didn’t catch on to that at all ahhahah

 

[George]

#BringBackSwat

 

[Bert]

Idk if that would work to the fullest extent but even bringing back Heavy TFU being able to patrol we be a much needed buff in my own opinion.

 

[George]

#bringbackswat

 

[George]

Not only would it bring fun back to the pd, would mean cops aren’t as severely out gunned and can actually have a chance at winning a gunfight l, rather than baretta vs ak 24/7, win win in my eyes

 

[Sneaky]

employed to neutralize the suspect is prohibited by policy

Agreed, half of policy is absolutely cancer and makes absolutely no sense.

 

[Shokron]

The only problem i see is powergrowing. Since the server isnt very active Criminal Raid / LEO Raids wise its ez money for people and its just became a race on who has 500 of each gun in his inventory or the most money in the bank / drugs. Server lacks competition either because people are too scared to raid and lose a pixel or just want to be the next Jeff Bezos in perp

 

[Matthew]

10m in 2 weeks?? wtf am i doing wrong

 

[Husky]

1. Kill IA, then burn it with fire - Staff should be dealing with cops.

2. Give Sgt+ M16's in their trunk, only to be brought out if necessary, similar to remi.

3. Bring back SWAT.

4. Repeat step 1 because fuckkkk IA.

You forget players are simply getting better and I'd put down the majority of firefights you lose due to cancer defenses, the state of bases right now is horrible!