How Can We All Do Better?

[ScubaStef]

1 hour ago, SCANDALOUZ said:

I echo this.

There's a fuck ton of stuff that exists and is happening that the community as a whole has absolutely no idea is possible.
Hell, some testers/staff members even have no idea is possible.

We need to do a much better job at feature documentation.

This, I do agree on. I know back on SAMP, we always had feature documentation for each new script addition to the server. This would make things a lot easier for people because they wouldn't have to play a guessing game as to how certain things (trucking being the best example) work.

[Sparkles]

2 hours ago, Mitcholodolo said:

I think the issue we think we have is a lack of features/schemes/opportunities, but I think we need to focus on making what we have full proof and complete. Yeah new features are good, but there’s a lot of QoL updates with what we have currently that can greatly improve the server experience in general.

Transparency is important and I believe we’ve been doing a good job with that. I think the issue is not having a clear way for people to find information that they’re looking for, or somewhere they can find a clear explanation in a certain topic, such as the effects of drugs. 

I don't think there's a lack of schemes, but I think that making steps to help new factions get started and make them want to keep going is a good path to go. Also for bizes, I think there was an issue with furnishing. Getting some more objects added, like ones for fast food bizes, would help those who want to run bizes like that get going. 

[Deceive]

6 minutes ago, Fiendfyre said:

 Also for bizes, I think there was an issue with furnishing. Getting some more objects added, like ones for fast food bizes, would help those who want to run bizes like that get going. 

 

No, it's more that there's a lack of people to furnish it. Natasha Valentine is the only person who's RPing an interior designer and mapping team is dead. Unless you have OOC friends who are good at it and are will to help you out (or if you're good at it) you're fucked.

[Sparkles]

6 minutes ago, a_sliceoflife said:

 

No, it's more that there's a lack of people to furnish it. Natasha Valentine is the only person who's RPing an interior designer and mapping team is dead. Unless you have OOC friends who are good at it and are will to help you out (or if you're good at it) you're fucked.

I furnish, but I'm not doing an interior designer. I also have several projects I'm doing already ‍

 

Maybe having some default interiors to choose from like houses would help

[betonists]

44 minutes ago, Fiendfyre said:

I furnish, but I'm not doing an interior designer. I also have several projects I'm doing already ‍

 

Maybe having some default interiors to choose from like houses would help

We already have ones for houses

[Tudounaozi]

When can I have some place to go as RP hub and stop driving around like a mindless NPC zombie? 

 

 

EDIT:

 

I've been crying to have RP hub and stuff for weeks on forums. I was active 10 hours a day but recently I stopped playing because of that reason.

 

Probably won't play again until we have RP hub and I have place to go. 

Edited October 9, 2023 by Tudounaozi

[Deceive]

10 minutes ago, Tudounaozi said:

When can I have some place to go as RP hub and stop driving around like a mindless NPC zombie? 

 

 

EDIT:

 

I've been crying to have RP hub and stuff for weeks on forums. I was active 10 hours a day but recently I stopped playing because of that reason.

 

Probably won't play again until we have RP hub and I have place to go. 

 

Contact @Gazura he's been working on it ICly.

[Dos Santos]

Just to answer a few questions. There is currently plans for a roleplay hub - which is going to be located in Mirror Park. Reason behind the delays is because it's actively being furnished right now with the different businesses which will be used as the roleplay hub. There's plans for illegal street factions such as gangs to acquire 24/7's. tobacco stores and electronic stores to hopefully help with their roleplay so it doesn't seem as "dry" when they're roleplaying around their blocks. 

 

Moving onto the entrance fees. I completely agree, that they can be abused and they are not the best option that we have right now. As there are many flaws to the current way we are working. I have made up a potential feature where we are going to implement so players earn money while working in the company via start shift, so then the entrance fees cannot be abused.  As I completely agree, right now they can be abused. More information on this will come to light when it's being developed but I have already written everything up for the developers.

 

Features - you're all wondering what's going on. I will be releasing something shortly just to keep you guys updated on what's actually going on development wise as there's a lot of features under development at the moment but because they're classed as major features - there's a lot more to do with these features. But I've got something written up to try and give you all an update on what we are currently working on.

 

 

[Tudounaozi]

13 minutes ago, a_sliceoflife said:

 

Contact @Gazura he's been working on it ICly.

I've been working on it with him ICly and OOCly.

 

It won't work without admins actually show up and post an announcement - "hey if you need a place to go, we assemble at XXXX place" 

 

[Tudounaozi]

2 minutes ago, Dos Santos said:

Just to answer a few questions. There is currently plans for a roleplay hub - which is going to be located in Mirror Park. Reason behind the delays is because it's actively being furnished right now with the different businesses which will be used as the roleplay hub. There's plans for illegal street factions such as gangs to acquire 24/7's. tobacco stores and electronic stores to hopefully help with their roleplay so it doesn't seem as "dry" when they're roleplaying around their blocks. 

 

Moving onto the entrance fees. I completely agree, that they can be abused and they are not the best options. I have made up a command where we are going to implement so players earn money while working in the company via start shift, so then the entrance fees cannot be abused.  As I completely agree, right now they can be abused. More information on this will come to light when it's being developed but I have already written everything up for the developers.

 

Features - you're all wondering what's going on. I will be releasing something shortly just to keep you guys updated on what's actually going on development wise as there's a lot of features under development at the moment but because they're classed as major features - there's a lot more to do with these features. But I've got something written up to try and give you all an update on what we are currently working on.

 

 

 

1 day delay = 1 day of people cannot find people to RP with and not wanting to be online and leaving the server.

 

I think you know this deeply in your head so I will keep my mouth shut. 

[ScubaStef]

11 minutes ago, Tudounaozi said:

 

1 day delay = 1 day of people cannot find people to RP with and not wanting to be online and leaving the server.

 

I think you know this deeply in your head so I will keep my mouth shut. 

The best solution anyone can give you is to be patient. If Dos Santos says it's being worked on, it's being worked on. Rushing things causes issues and I think that's something anyone else will agree on.

[Sparkles]

6 hours ago, betonists said:

We already have ones for houses

I said LIKE houses, as in what we have for houses but for bizes.

[Sparkles]

5 hours ago, Tudounaozi said:

When can I have some place to go as RP hub and stop driving around like a mindless NPC zombie? 

 

 

EDIT:

 

I've been crying to have RP hub and stuff for weeks on forums. I was active 10 hours a day but recently I stopped playing because of that reason.

 

Probably won't play again until we have RP hub and I have place to go. 

1 of the mirror park interiors is done, 1 is basically done, another is being worked on. A fourth is somewhat being worked on but there's lack of decent furniture items for the 3rd and 4th interiors tbh. 

[Grover The Good]

Management and Administration

 

Admins are, have been and always will be chosen on the basis of some bureaucratic selection process and out-of-character networking which results in those with the most connections and/or ability to file an application in the best way possible, not those who are gifted at roleplaying, to be appointed to staff positions. This is due to a variety of factors, not least the fact that most of those whom you could consider good roleplayers are here exactly to do just that, roleplay, and not get embroiled into some senseless web of Discord politicking or endless talks about "quality", "standards", etc. that ultimately serve only to stroke someone's ego.

 

What management can do, however, is fostering a mentality where those who are ultimately appointed carry out their duties with humility and with the intent of teaching rule breakers, rather than wantonly punishing them for the sake of it and assuming they know better than the rest of the community by virtue of their forum name being colored differently. Make it so that those in a position of responsibility keep an open mind when it comes to player requests and allow them to use their admin abilities to help the players create interesting scenarios instead of immediately shutting these ideas down because they don't fit some made-up criteria.

 

Grinding and Scripted Jobs

 

Despite this having been noted before, the scripted job system still is scripted backwards. Scripted jobs that should be a magnet for new players, make earning a salary easy and encourage random encounters (i.e. two truckers sharing a truck for faster unloading or a route to the same loading spot, two garbagemen randomly meeting at the landfill and going on shift together) are instead designed to be as complicated as possible with almost zero guidance, offer no way of long-term sustenance and purposefully keep players separate.

 

Staying AFK two hours nets you the amount of 20 garbage trips around the city while offering an arguably better experience in terms of roleplay. Why would anyone waste their time engaging in something that isn't entertaining in the slightest and with no interaction with other players when they could simply leave their PC running and obtain the same reward? 

 

What Makesde LSRP Great

 

What made SAMP's LSRP great was creativity and risk-taking. What makes RAGE:MP's LSRP a failure is the fact that it's the same soup as everywhere else, just reheated. 

 

At its peak, LSRP was LSRP because everyday was an improvement over the day before. There was a constant search for something new, there was innovation and players were not afraid of trying out new concepts or creating organizations completely from scratch. And it worked, until the powers that be decided that making a 1:1 model set of the biggest failure of a State in the Continental US was the new golden standard, at which point any and all attempts at exploring new avenues were promptly shut down and people settled into this California Dreamin' mindset where if you dare to do something that isn't "backed up by sources" you automatically qualify as a "bad roleplayer", as if roleplay meant copying things from government organizations websites or acting out your favorite gangland documentary in-game.

 

There's already a community that does just that, with far more advanced scripts, so for LSRP to follow into the same path was a disaster waiting to happen. It's genuinely appalling that no one ever questioned whether this was a good idea, especially in light of the server's long and tenured history of taking risks that ultimately paid out, making it the premiere English-speaking server on which to play. Faced with having to choose between two similar servers, players obviously flocked towards the more advanced one.

 

LSRP's chance to succeed was at doing the opposite and coming up with new ways to keep the setting interesting and fresh while also maintaining a certain degree of immersion (San Andreas still is a state on the US West Coast, gangs of Liverpool hooligans still are outliers that shouldn't be allowed). LSRP's management decided to not take the opportunity and now the server is paying the price for that.

 

It's not too late to steer the ship in a different direction, but you all need to take a bit of pride in LSRP's history and remember what it was that made 600 players play every day.

 

Player Trust and Communication

 

Speaking of which, LSRP used to cater to such a large playerbase because the players mostly trusted the administration and felt they were approachable. Crooked admins, people who got their staff position through questionable means and outright malicious administration members were a staple, but the majority of the time there was strong forum communication and discussion between the regular players and the staff.

 

This constant communication and discussion made it easier for players to accept a delayed script, an unpopular decision, a lagging in development. Admins, leads and managers would often show up in general discussions and throw their opinion into the midst and, in general, would keep the players in the loop as to what was going on behind the scenes. It created a good sense of community because even if the divide between staff members and regular players was always present, it gave players a voice and made them feel like they could trust those in charge to listen to their opinions.

 

This attitude started fading in the days of post-2016 terminal stage LSRP with the restriction of important discussions to a bunch of selected individuals only, and eventually devolved into what it is now, with a post once every blue moon detailing things that may become a reality at some point, passing through the multiple instances of the server being delayed while the staff was incommunicado.

 

You could argue that this lack of communication between the higher-ups and the playerbase is common on LSRP's main competitor, too, and you'd be right, but LSRP doesn't run itself like the opposition. The LSRP brand doesn't mean anything anymore to most people. Whatever fidelity was built between 2007 and 2021 is gone. Player trust at the moment is more or less at zero.

 

Yes, there is a constant base of holdouts that show up everyday and play on the server and keep it alive, but it's not sustainable long-term and anyone telling you otherwise is outright delusional, and everyone else, people who left for whatever reason, are going to need a little more than an announcement saying "times are tough and we need to do better" to come back. For anyone thinking there was no mass exodus, the server opened with 300 players, which were down to 150 about a month later, which were down to 50 yesterday.

 

The steps taken by @Dos Santos to keep the playerbase in the loop are good, but a "mistakes were made" post every once in a while is not going to change things, and neither are going to be snippets of server features posted on an obscure Discord channel of a server whose notifications most people likely turned off or who have never joined it in the first place.

 

Set and illustrate a vision for the server, both in terms of roleplay and when it comes to features. Explain what you aim to achieve within the next six months and what possible hurdles are on the way so as to prepare the players in case you don't meet the deadlines. Liaise with factions and players and make sure they have what they need to roleplay what they want, don't wait to be approached, and don't let concepts be restrained by some artificial standards that only stifle creativity. Make these things visible to everyone on the forums for maximum impact.

 

It's not rocket science, it's not even Management 101, it's just common sense. 

 

Pretending issues don't exist by isolating yourselves into some ivory towers like others do certainly is an alternative solution. Too bad it isn't the one that will make LSRP succeed.

 

Edited October 9, 2023 by Grover The Good

[Sparkles]

17 minutes ago, Grover The Good said:

Liaise with factions and players and make sure they have what they need to roleplay what they want

This is paramount. I approached someone in Management recently about the uptick in factions popping up around Davis and "what can we do to help them" approach. But all-in-all, conversations with factions need to be initiated from the back end forward.