I still strongly believe that a Wikimedia needs to be setup on this webserver that all players, old and new can refer to when stuck or struggling to understand a concept of the server. This game has changed dramatically since I first joined and I like to put myself in the shoes of new players when they ask me questions like "How do I get a job". Each job is different and beyond that, what happens when they want to do other things in this game? There are so many things that are extremely complicated to achieve and understand.
A properly formatted, indexed and laid out Wiki would be ideal and would cut out a lot of the confusion for everyone. Documents can have pictures, diagrams and written explanations... Even videos can be included to give players a - easy to absorb - direction of how they can perform certain tasks, earn money and get themselves in a situation that makes them enjoy the game properly.
I believe that if I joined the server today with no knowledge of Pulsar Effect (or even PERPHeads version for that matter) would be extremely discouraged and would probably give up. The in-game FAQ is useless. It is not formatted well, and lacks important and useful information. The UI and structure of the interface is also out-dated and does not help confusion for new or even regular players.
This gamemode has been modified and changed a lot and most of the new features have been made in such a way that they work around the existing UI for PERP which was always lacking as it was. I believe that there needs to be a large scale redevelopment of the whole structure of the gamemode and the interface while keeping much of the functions the same, if not simpler to follow yet in-depth.
I have been playing Garry's Mod for a long time and unfortunately people move on. Although we can't ignore the fact that the culture around Garry's Mod has changed dramatically in the past 2-3 years there are still good ways of pulling in new players. I personally feel as though the ratio of people moving on and leaving is greater than that of new players joining. Maybe even a dialog to give players the option to watch a short video showing them some very basic information would be a good idea (of course with the option to watch it or not as some people would rather figure it out for themselves)
Adding onto what I said, the Guide Subforum is ineffective and unorganized. It cannot possibly be indexed correctly and a lot of the information is either not current or is poorly presented, which is an opinion that I unfortunately share with the Police Department as well. I believe that the Knowledge area should also be moved to a Wiki format which makes it easier to find resources and feels less restricted. Even the laws and rules could be formatted in - while not the exact same way- could be formatted in a similar way.
In regards to the Police Department, I feel that it is a good system. Having said that, it can be challenging to actually get to a high rank or to get more opportunities. Also, due to applications constantly closing, I sometimes feel left out and discouraged to even attempt to get more roles. While this may be a challenge to combat, there is also a big problem with Civs in the game disrespecting officers due to their low rank and using the power of the ability to request a supervisor to put the officer down and cloud their own judgement. I believe that something needs to be done to boost the moral and self-respect of low ranking officers. This is a problem that is currently happening now in real life in the United Kingdom. Officers are worried about pointing out problems or addressing people and often let crimes go unpunished at risk of being accused of Discrimination or being unable to use their own judgement at the risk they are incorrect. I think this is partially due to the fact that staff have now seemed to distance themselves from Police related issues within the game and instead use Roleplay methods of dealing with these issues. This process can become slow and ineffective.
If you would like to hear any more opinions on the matter feel free to message me as I have ideas of how this could be played out.