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Mmartin

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Blog Entries posted by Mmartin

  1. Mmartin

    IC Social Media: faceinvader is Online

    By Mmartin,


    General
    Hey everyone,
     
    I'm happy to announce that we've relaunched faceinvader.net, our LS-RP:V (RageMP Universe) In Character social media website. Currently it's available to access through your browser, but as of 2.0 which is coming later this week, you'll be able to access it in-game as well. Please have a look at the faceinvader rules before making an account. @badhbh has been appointed as the Head of our IGSM Team and will be responsible for running the moderation team on the sites.
     
    The site offers variety of features besides making friends and posts. It allows you to post events, sell items on a market place, post and search for job offerings and much more. Explore it yourself and have fun.
     
    We're in the process of setting up an equivalent IC social media site for our returning SA-MP server as well. For news about that and more SA-MP related topics, please tune in to our Community Meeting held on Discord this Sunday, 9 PM Server-Time (CEST).
     
    As with any new service, please allow us some time to finetune the site and work out the bits and pieces.
     
    Preview of how faceinvader looks like in-game (2.0)
     

     
    Example of a job offer on faceinvader
     

     
    Kind regards,
    Martin
  2. Mmartin

    Future of LS-RP

    By Mmartin,


    General
    Hello,
     
    Big news today. Never thought I'd be announcing this in a million years, but here goes. Due to popular demand, we'll be re-opening our San Andreas Multiplayer server. Normally, I wouldn't consider this decision because all of our primary focus goes into developing our RageMP game mode, however due to things being a bit quiet lately we've concluded that it won't do us any harm run both servers side by side for the time being.
     
    We'll be releasing the SA-MP server in pretty much the same state as it was last turned off in 2021. We won't be deleting any characters or assets. We'll have to do some database cleanup at least, but it'll be very minimal.
     
    This of course opens a whole new sets of challenges, both personal and technical. I'll try to answer some of the more pertinent ones right off the bat, and the rest will be clarified as we go:
    We'll continue to use this forum and create new sections that are necessary. The old forums will remain available as an archive as they are now. Staff members will be staff on both game servers. Reinstatements into the staff team will be available, even for members who only want to play on SA-MP. We don't want to set any expectations in regards of longevity of the SA-MP server. If there's reasonable interest in it, players want to play it, and it'll support itself financially, this can be more than a limited time experiment "nostalgic blast from the past". Most legal factions will, at least for the time being, remain with shared boards and leadership across both game modes. Reinstatements will be possible, even for players who only want to join on SA-MP. Technicalities of this implementation will be made available later on. Factions will be fully supported by the IFT.  
    We're also going to facilitate some form of asset transfer (cash) from SA-MP to V. This will of course have its restrictions to avoid just massively flooding the RageMP server with hundreds of millions; however with our pending economy overhaul on RageMP, assets will be much easier to come by regardless.
     
    As far as the timeline goes, the main technical challenge why we can't just turn it on now is that some functionality on the SA-MP server heavily relied on the old UCP (spawn change, skin change, etc). We need to re-add this functionality to our current UCP, and adjust our infrastructure to support the new (old?) server. There's also a bunch of small tidbits that aren't compatible with our current database structure (bans and such) that we need to adapt. This won't take too long, but given our track record with release dates, I'll save it for when we really know. But since I can't help it, my current estimate is 3-6 weeks from now we should be open for business!
     
    Keep in mind that some of the information above may change, if it does, you'll know.
     
    I'm sure you're wondering what exactly this means for our RageMP server. The way I see it, opening the SA-MP server up will help us with our current goal to reach the players we've left behind one way or another throughout months since launch. We hope that by engaging players in our community and platform, we'll be able to show you all the incredible progress we've made on both our game mode and process since launching last year. Our primary development focus will remain on RageMP and improving on the already great game mode we've created for you. We've a new defined set of priorities that we want to follow, and most of our focus will be going towards customization, ease of access to assets and features with a non-restrictive economy, and support for illegal factions. Check our Roadmap to see what we're working on right now as a part of 2.0 update, which includes long-awaited features such as Burglary, Social Media, Blackjack (yes, I know), further character customization and more. We're on a good track here, with both Burglary and Blackjack going into testing next week.
     
    All of this was announced earlier today on our Community Meeting. I believe that essentially stopping doing these after launch was unfortunate, however hindsight is 20/20 and with the constant chaos going on, it was easy to forget why they were so important. You can expect these to return on a semi-regular, roughly bi-weekly basis. 
     
    I'd like to close this post by pleading to those who left our community because they were unhappy with the direction, or features we launched with. Now that the chaos of initial months are over, we're steady building on the solid foundation we laid out. Over the months, we've released many great features such as Graffiti, Pets, Purchasing properties, Drug packages, Cinematic mode, Startshift, Turf map, Facial expressions, thousands of clothing, animation and furniture mods, Second hand car dealerships, Spawning multiple cars at once,  Hair ties, Paintball, Modshop, new Makeup script, Scratch off lottery, and many, many more. We've fixed hundreds of bugs and hosted around 40 official events.
     
    And we're going to keep doing that and more. Our sole motivation for doing so, and keeping on even when times are tough and the player base isn't what we'd have hoped it to be, is that we want to bring you, the community, a fun place to play. So consider (re-)joining a faction or creating a one, or joining the staff team. If you believe you can make LS-RP better, reach out to me directly and if it's in the best interest of the server, I'm sure we'll find a way for you to be involved. If you've unresolved grievances that stop you from returning, reach out to me directly as well. I'm here to hear you out.
     
    Martin
    on behalf of LS-RP Leadership
     
  3. Mmartin

    Game Update 1.9.4

    By Mmartin,


    General
    Hello,
     
    Today we bring you yet another game update which includes two new features: nails and pointing. It also addresses a few inconsistencies and bugs, the whole changelog is below.
     
    [Game Update 1.9.4] - Added /nails - Added pointing system (B) - Added /vest to toggle body armor / vest - Removed default stance after shooting a weapon or fistfighting - Removed collision detection for cinematic camera  

     
    In other exciting news, so far it looks like we're on track to release 2.0 next week. This update will include Blackjack, Burglary system, and some other heavy hitters like IG Social media. For the SA-MP crowd, we've also been hard at work getting everything set up for the release of the SA-MP server. Work has begun on process, reinstating staff members to provide support to players on the server, and some of the initial necessary UCP changes. 

     
    If you're interested in what's going on, make sure to join our Discord server at discord.gg/ls-rp, where we'll be hosting another community meeting soon to keep you update on our progress with both SA-MP and RageMP.
     
    Kind regards,
    Martin 
  4. Mmartin

    Game Update 1.9.3

    By Mmartin,


    General
    Hello,
     
    we're bringing out yet another update from our workshop tonight, which includes two new features. One is the first feature in our Gambling update series - a scratch off script. You can now buy scratch off tickets in gas stations around the city and win prizes up to 10 mil.  
     
    Second important part of this update is a complete remake of our makeup script. You can now use /makeup anywhere to edit your look, and also save and load makeup presets. 
     
    [Game Update 1.9.3] - Added scratch off ticket script - Added new makeup script - Added ability to buy multiple items of the same type from stores at once - Maintenance work on the script  
    I'd like to also remind everyone there's a rally event hosted in-game tonight at 10 PM server-time with cash prizes totaling $60,000, so come join us for a chance to win.
     
    We're also hosting a community meeting tomorrow at 9 PM server-time on Discord, where we plan to announce important changes to our community and clarify on the future of what's going to happen with LS-RP going forward.
     
     
  5. Mmartin
    Hello,
     
    Today we're releasing our sixth version of the year - 1.8.3 - and it's still only January! I realized we haven't posted the last few changelogs here on forums so I'll use this post to update you on those as well. We'll talk briefly about some of the highlights of 1.8.3 and the Development Roadmap we put together early on in the month. Some of these have previously been announced on Discord's #announcements, #game-changelog and #snippets, so it may not all be news to you but for the sake of keeping the blog post comprehensive; so let's kick off by today's feature highlights writeup by danut:
     
    Cinematic Camera Mode
    Stepping your screenshot game has never been easier. Gone are the days when you were trying to place your mouse in the most awkward angles or try to get the best with what the native GTA V camera offered you. Now, with /cinematic you can tilt, twist, move and turn your camera at any imaginable angle so you can get that crisp screenshot for your faction's thread.

     
     
    Cash as Inventory Item (Cashpack)
    Another feature which we've implemented is the addition of /cashpack that allows players to create money inventory items out of the cash that they hold onto their person. This feature should enhance roleplay for illegal characters, keeping their dirty money outside their bank account and the government's greedy eyes.
     
    Development Roadmap
    Admittedly this has been in the works for longer than it should, but we finally found a way how to have a roadmap that is both transparent and realistically maintainable. We wanted to avoid releasing one just to stop updating it after a few updates and by integrating it into GitHub that we all use every day, it's just easy to keep up to date. You can find the roadmap by clicking "Roadmap" in the upper bar on the forums.
     
    The roadmap is grouped by release milestones. You can see the last one or two releases that are out at the top, so you can immediately see what's been implemented recently. Below that you have planned releases with what's being worked on in each. While this remains for everyone to see, please keep in mind the roadmap is still fluid and we can add & move things around. 
     
    In-Game Events
    For the past three weeks, we've had events every Saturday, courtesy of Events Team & the Govt. faction (shoutout Mouse!). We've hosted a fishing tournament, Mt. Chiliad Rally, and a trivia night. These events have proven to be a good boost to our weekend player-base, so we look forward to hosting even more of them.  
     

     

     
    Marketing Campaign
    As we approach the 1.9 and more importantly the 2.0 release, we're going to start a major marketing campaign. It's been a bit of a challenge to get off the ground, since we've struggled with keeping an active head of Community Engagement Team (formerly known as Communications Team) for months now - so if you've any real-world marketing experience and are keen to help out, please reach out via a forum PM. We expect to start this project soon however, so don't hold off on applying!   
     
    Complete changelog for 1.8.3
    - Added ability to pack cash into inventory items. (/cashpack) - Added cinematic camera mode. (/cinematic) - Added toggleable typing indicator. - Added toggleable facial talking animations. - Added livery change options for admins. - Added additional pet commands for admins. - Changed player list behavior to put local player at the top. - Fixed pet emotes.  
    Complete changelog for 1.8.2, released on January 14 (includes patches 1.8.2-P1 and 1.8.2-P2)
    - Added ability to change facial expressions - Added automatic closing doors on /lock - Added ability to refresh trucking missions - Added message showing total pay and company cut when completing a trucking route - Fixed tourniquet and bandage self not working - Fixed company log viewing - Fixed tabbed warning not showing correct time - Fixed weapon wheel not working in cars - Fixed weapon adjustment causing UI freezes - Fixed /setcar liveries not saving - Fixed custom liveries not setting (e.g. on the Buffalo STX) - Fixed pet emotes not always showing - Changed /cc to correctly hide chat depending on your chat size - Changed furniture mass selling so cannot be done with other players in the property - Changed trucking success message to show company cut - Changed payday notification to include company cut - Changed trucking pay bonuses to be fairer in relation to other jobs - Changed trucking cargo loading detection area to be more consistent PATCH 1 - Added missing HRMC tattoos - Fixed liveries being set incorrectly PATCH 2 - Fixed new trucking models showing Unknown Model - Fixed forklift forks not detecting properly - Fixed /vehiclecolors ID 139 (green) showing as blue incorrectly  
    Complete changelog for 1.8.1, released on January 5, including patch 1.8.1-P1 released on January 9
     
    - Added coloured blinking fuel indicator HUD elements and digital % display - stringer - Added /sellallfurniture - danut - Added ability to replace structural furniture - danut - Added ability to /helo in SD and FD helicopters - jack - Added a spend limit of $500 to company cards without an appropriate override permission - Imperium - Added rename option to furniture select menu - danut - Added more than 350 new furniture items for walls and floors - danut, Mouse & jack - Added phone animations - danut - Added Burger Shot building to Mirror Park - Imperium - Added a way to create fishing areas on the fly - Imperium - Added fishing spot to Mirror Park - Dos Santos - Added /vicinity - Addresses duplicating furniture not keeping the same tag - danut - Addresses g6speedo not being able to do ATM mission - Imperium - Fixed an occasional bug where some players would not receive a "your vehicle is ready" message from PDM - jack - Fixed invalid attachment bone data - jack - Fixed an issue where more than 4 weapons would not show up in the weapon wheel - jack - Fixed an issue where social security was not increased to 500 from 300 - Imperium - Fixed female clothing mod ID desync - jack - Fixed property stock groups not working - danut - Fixed G6 clothing mod texture issue - jack - Changed taxi and trucking contracts to no longer be paid by the government - Imperium - Changed flatbed load time to make it slightly quicker, and increases pay multiplier for flatbed mission rewards by 25% - stringer - Changed 'Government Contracts' to 'Contract Access' - Imperium - Changed fish prices to about +50% of current prices - Imperium - Changed PDM wait time from 2 hours to 1 hour (instant if premium) - stringer PATCH 1 - Fixed an issue where companies did not get profit from trucking - Fixed an issue where vans would not reliably be able to be loaded with a forklift - Fixed an issue with straps not aligning correctly for non-flatbed trucks - Changed weather to be more in line with a pacific state (not mirrored with Los Angeles however) - Changed reward multiplier from CDL level to use the truck's CDL level - Changed trucking payouts to check company balance  
    Thank you for your continued support
     
    Martin
  6. Mmartin

    Pre-release

    By Mmartin,


    Community Updates
    Hello,
     
    The game server is now open for pre-release. You can join server.ls-rp.com if you have an accepted character, and active Premium Membership. If you're an early supporter, you're now able to redeem your credits at https://ucp.ls-rp.com/ and activate Premium Membership.
     
    The goal of the pre-release is to test the game mode in production before the gates open during the full release. We're happy to invite you in game, however bear in mind that you may encounter a few bugs or some of the scripts not fully set up yet. We'll work tirelessly around the clock in the next week to deal with fixes and finetuning to make the main launch as smooth as we can. Be ready to endure a bunch of restarts and other minor inconveniences as we work on the final polish. I'll note a few things here that I feel many would be asking:
     
    - There won't be a wipe before the main release. We intend to keep everything; however we reserve the right to remove assets from any account if it's necessary due to an exploit we found, or a misconfiguration that caused people to gain money too quickly.

    - Everyone spawns with $500 in cash and will receive $285 into their bank account every 60 minutes spent IG, until you reach level 3. This is considered starting cash but instead of a lump sum it's spread around. We know that the economy is very important for long term stability and are ensuring that there are systems in place to monitor economic growth, inflation and any abnormalities.  
     
    - Rental properties are set up. There will be no personal property ownership in the very near future before the economy is stabilized. We've had some issues with our interior mods and had to change course last minute, so all properties currently have the same 2 basic interiors. This will change over the course of the next week as we add presets our mapping team has been working on. Everyone who rents a property will get one free property interior change to choose what they like.
     
    - There's a grace period of three weeks starting tonight where you don't have to get a driver's license. Law enforcement won't punish you for not having one. You can do all the jobs, with the exception of trucking, for that you've to get a driver's license and CDL. You've these three weeks to get a license.
     
    - Accessories (watches, hats, etc) will become purchasable in clothing stores throughout the week, to be set up.
     
    - Why premium only? We want the pre-release a bit more controllable to find immediate issues that pop up. We also want to reward players who've financially supported the server and allowed us to pay the bills to spin everything up for everyone. Release for everyone is scheduled for next Friday, time TBD.
     
    - You're expected to play as if the server was fully released. Make sure to follow the RULES as they'll be enforced. Stay In Character at all times, like you normally would. If you have an issue, please submit a /report or a /helpme request. 
     
    - Please remember that this is only the first iteration of the server, and we will be continually improving (not just fixing bugs) as we continue to grow. We will be releasing a list of features included at launch, as well as upcoming features ordered by priority. Community surveys and feedback will play a vital role in shaping the future of the server, so keep an eye out for these when they are published. 
     
    Our mission is to provide a fair, fun and enjoyable server for our community. If there is a feature not currently included in the server, or you have strong opinions or thoughts on things we must take into consideration for the server’s launch, please post these in the suggestions board. 
    Please bear with us as we iron everything out and get everything ready for the official public launch, set for next Friday, 16th June, time TBD. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
     
    See you in game!
  7. Mmartin

    Nostalgia

    By Mmartin,


    Community Updates
    Hey all,
     
    Hope you're ready for a trip down memory lane because as of now, our legacy forums are available to be viewed again. They've been transformed into a read-only mode, you won't be able to make, or edit any posts or send messages. So head on to check out the history of LS-RP and grab whatever you were missing over the years.
     
    We've also made a thread in General Discussion to share cool finds.
     
    Please note that the forums come with zero warranty or support. If you can't log in, lost access, or anything similar, you're out of luck. We'll make sure they go back up should the forums crash, but we don't currently have any resources to provide any support at all. Also please keep in mind that the forums are over 10 years old, filled with data and running on outdated software. They will be slow, especially from the beginning as the cache populates. Big shoutout to @Ben who took the time to prepare the forum for release.
     
    Happy browsing! 
     
     
  8. Mmartin

    Economy Update

    By Mmartin,


    Community Updates
    Hey all,
     
    The server's economy is very important to us. You know this because we've been talking about "trying to get it right" for a while now. This article should give you a brief overview of the system we will have in place, and some changes being made today.
     
    Our goals with the server economy are:
    - In-game prices should reflect real life prices
    - People should not get rich quick
    - Grinding shouldn't give players major advantage
    - Money is a tool to facilitate roleplay
    - Players should have access to assets without a stockpile of cash
     
    Mission Rewards
     
    Our initial formula to set paychecks was that if a player spends 7 hours working in-game, they should earn an equivalent of a week's pay for the same job IRL. For example if a lawn mower makes $673/wk IRL, player doing the job should earn $673/7hr, or $96/hr. This formula is flawed because it's linear and gives advantage to players who can spend more time doing the script job.
     
    Our solution to that are tapered paychecks. Effective today, you'll earn more money per mission initially, but the more you work, the less you earn. After 2 hours, it will be borderline not worth it to continue working just for the money. The IRL weekly pay equivalent is still split between 7 hours, with each reward being exponentially lower. This limit is reset every 8 hours, after which you'll earn the full amount again. Here's a real-life example of how this formula works:
     

     
    There are several advantages to tapered paychecks:
    - They allow players with less time to spend in-game to earn money without grinding, and doesn't put more active people into an immediate advantage.
    - They allow players to focus on roleplay and not sacrifice a significant portion of their ingame time to earning money just to get by.
    - They will take strain off of the job script at launch.
     
    People who enjoy doing the jobs could see this change in a negative light because of the diminishing returns. Alternative rewards, such as the CDL XP will still be applied as before. We will look for other alternative rewards for the other missions. That being said, the tapering paychecks will also serve a good purpose by forcing people off of script jobs to RP.
     
    These changes of course apply to faction paychecks as well. Along with a hourly pay, each rank has an assigned "Reward Cycle Limit".
     
    tl;dr: Rewards will go up, but taper off over time. Like XP in CS:GO.
     
    Vehicle Prices
     
    Many of you rightfully pointed out that the vehicle prices we set at pre-release were incorrect. The differences in prices are too significant one way or another to correct for this manually, so we've opted to refund all vehicles. Shortly after this message is posted, all of the following will be refunded: Vehicle purchase (/buy), vehicle down-payments, loan interest payments, loan principal payments, vehicle number plate changes (credits). All vehicles will be detached from their characters, and all loans will be marked as paid. These loans will later be deleted from the database, to not skew the statistics and your character's credit, once that's a thing.
     
    We apologize for the inconvenience, however this is an expected part of the pre-release.  You can see the detailed list of vehicle changes here. In addition, we also lowered the interest rate on all vehicles to 5%. This, in combination with faster earnings from the tapered paychecks should give you more purchasing power.
     
    Other Updates
     
    Besides that, we're working on a plan to support both active and passive roleplay based companies with favorable loans and grants. This is a careful process as we don't wish to inflate the economy by injecting it with unreasonable amount of cash, so bear with us as we finalize the proposal. A separate scheme is cooked up for factions.
     
    We've adjusted the way trucking is paid based on the CDL Level you currently have. Lower levels earn less, higher levels earn more. Lower levels have a lower reward cycle limit, higher levels have the limit raised higher. We've also added more trucking routes, more loading bays, larger containers for the mules, and support for vans. We will be making CDLs bound to character ID instead of character name soon. People who've purchased their CDL twice will have their XP merged.
     
    To continue monitor and adjust the course of the economy, we'll be establishing an Economy Team. This team will be led by people with background in economics and finance. They will have access to the tools necessary to monitor the flow of money on the server, and work with development to cover blind spots.
     
    It's important to remember the economy will be tweaked further. This is not its final form, just first significant change.
     

     
     
     
  9. Mmartin

    Server Release

    By Mmartin,


    Community Updates
    Hello,
     
    The server has been released. The IP is server.ls-rp.com:22005
     
    I want to thank everyone who helped make this happen. The development team for creating an incredible piece of software, and our entire staff team for thousands of hours of testing and valuable input. It's great to see so many experts and generally passionate people come together to make something out of pure drive to do the best they can. I also want to thank our community for the continuous support through thick and thin. We made this for you, I hope you'll enjoy it.
     
    Just to give you some insight, we've spent over 8000 hours on the test server. During development, around 800 bugs were found and reported, most of which were fixed. The entire stack is proudly made in house, with the exception of purchased maps and mods.
     
    Before you hop in-game, please allow me to leave you with a note for the following days. Keep an open mind and explore the server. See what's around. Some features were intentionally omitted to release as soon as we can. If you feel like things could be improved, please make a suggestion, we'll let the community vote on what the priorities are. The next weeks will be primarily finetuning and bugfixes with the odd feature sprinkled in-between. I wouldn't advise you to spend too much time in the character creator in the first few days during peak as despite our best efforts to avoid it, there may be some instabilities and we'd hate for you to lose your character creation progress. You can reset and start over with your appearance until 1st of July. You can also import a Menyoo XML if you'd prefer.
     
    The server may be unstable in the following days, should any unforeseen issues arise. Rest assured we'll be on top of any issue immediately and keep you informed throughout.
     
    There's a grace period for getting a Driver's license of two weeks starting from today. Take your time to get it, it doesn't have to be today, the police won't ticket you. Robberies and scams are not allowed for the time being, they'll be allowed shortly. 
     
    Special note to factions old and new, I know your eyes are on us. I understand the expectations you have and we'll work to make LS-RP the place to be for faction roleplay. Give us time, let us work things out and I'm sure you'll love it.
     
    And that goes for everyone — hop in-game and enjoy the game. This is the start of the second generation of Los Santos Roleplay, and you were here.
     
    - Martin, on behalf of the LS-RP Staff
  10. Mmartin

    Stability & Updates!

    By Mmartin,


    Community Updates
    Hello,
     
    I'm happy to say that after a rocky first few days, our game server is now stable. If you were facing connection issues before, you should be able to log in game now. If you experience crashes after loading the game, this may be due to your mods or other issues we haven't properly diagnosed yet that affect a very small % of the playerbase. For the majority however, you're good to go in-game! If you're unsure how to, check out our How To Play step by step tutorial.
     
    Our main focus this past week has been stability and hotfixes. We'll be closing the suggestion board down sometime during the weekend to go over what's been posted so far and sort the suggestions between what's already been done, what we'll do and what we won't do. Join our Sunday's community meeting where we'll be more concrete about what the next feature priorities are, and how you can help decide the next steps.
     
    Here's some of the changelogs of recent server updates:
     
    - Added spawning at last location within 30 minutes of logout - Added /attributes, /examine - Added /phone, /ph to toggle phone - Added /phonenumber, /pn to view your phone number - Added /trunk support for a bunch of vehicles which have two doors in the back - Fix vehicle fuel not decreasing properly - Added vehicle /limiter - Added blacking out chatbox (/blackbehindchat, /bbc) - Added /togmap to toggle map radar - Last cycle of F7 now hides map radar and nametags - Fixed fuel not saving on /v park, /apark sometimes - Fix pagesize/chatsize sometimes setting to 1 line - Reworked vehicle access code to address crashes - Temporarily removed inventory limits - Fixed command delay - Fixed game crash related to MapTypesStore limits - /leavecompany /leavejob timer lowered to 30 minutes, 3 minutes for premium  
    You can find changelogs on Discord's #changelog.
     
    See you ingame!
  11. Mmartin

    Referral Program

    By Mmartin,


    Community Updates
    Hello,
     
    I'm happy to announce starting today we're introducing a Referral Program.
     
    The LS-RP Referral Program allows you to earn Credits by inviting your friends to play Los Santos Roleplay. After signing up to the program, a unique link will be generated for you. You will receive credits for any player who clicks your link and starts playing LS-RP. You'll be able to use the Credits to redeem any items from the Premium Store.
     
    When a player invited by you spends 36 hours in-game across all their characters, you will receive 500 Credits. For any credit purchases made by players you've invited, you will receive 10% of their value, regardless of their time spent in-game. Any player signing up through your referral link will also receive 500 Credits after spending 36 hours in-game.
     
    For example, if a player you invited spends 36 hours in-game and purchases 2500 credits, you will be awarded 750 credits in total.
     
     
    This is one of the few initiatives we're starting to get more people interested in the server. Word of mouth is more powerful than anything, so if you're referring your friends to the server, we want you to have something in return. This isn't applicable retroactively, so it can't be used for any players who've already made an account. Applying it retroactively would open a whole pandora's box, so we decided against it. The system is live now on the UCP and you can find it in Premium Central > Referral Program.
     
    Yours truly,
    Martin
     

     
  12. Mmartin

    Major Update 1.1

    By Mmartin,


    Development Updates
    Hello,
     
    Today we're releasing our first Major Update 1.1. Let me share some thoughts on the features that are implemented, how the development process will change going forward, and what our immediate next plans are.
     
    We've listened to your feedback on forums, Discord, game, and basically anywhere you were willing to share it. I now understand just how important customization and the access to roleplay opportunities is important to our community and the updates from here on will reflect that. 
     
    The full changelog is:
    - Added Tattoos - Added Makeup - Added business entrance rewards - Added loan extra payments & option to repay loan - Added another motorcycle and bicycle dealership with more showroom slots - Added ~1500 new furniture items - Added ~250 new hair styles - Added /confiscate for pd sd - Added LSFD siren, pager - Added auto cancelling inactive missions - Added Social Security payments even after level 3 (every 2.5 hrs instead of every 1 hour) - Added LSSD West Vinewood Station - Changes to the LSPD Traffic Station - Changes to the LSFD Faction Vehicles & Stations - Enabled weapon stores [setup may be pending] - Re-enabled reset appearance on UCP - Fixed dealership showroom vehicles not respawning - Fixed /localtime 0 - Disabled /extras for non-admin  
    Tattoos
    Perhaps one of the most important missing pieces of character customization were tattoos. We decided to split the tattoo feature into three releases, with the base script starting today. You can find several tattoo shops around the map and use /tattoo to configure your appearance. The system allows you to specify 6 levels of opacity for each tattoo, it can be as transparent or as opaque as you want it to be. As with many things in the gamemode, we aim to create consequences for your character's actions. To remove a tattoo, you need to attend a laser removal session to decrease the opacity of the tattoo until it's completely gone. The lower the initial opacity, the faster it is to remove.
     

     
    This baseline tattoo script is released with the native tattoo set. We've reached out to Factions and are compiling a pack for faction-oriented tattoo, to give every type of a faction enough variation to represent their character accurately. If you'd like to be a part of this, please reach out to DDaniels. Custom tattoos are currently very high on our priority list and we already started working on them. In the third phase of the tattoo system roll out, we want to add faction/company specific tattoos and allow players to create their own tattoo parlors, to give unique tattoos to other players.
     
    Other Customization
    Besides tattoo, we've also added over 250 new hairstyles and over 1500 new furniture items. We've finally populated and enabled our makeup script - you can find a few beauty stores around the map marked by a blip of lips. The initiative of course doesn't end here and we're looking at adding more clothing items and accessories next.
     
    Economy
    We put a lot of thought and effort into our current economy system. We got some things right, but clearly we've missed the mark in some places. Here are some of the changes we've made in 1.1 to stimulate the economy:
    Social Security is extended past level 3. You will receive payments like before, except every 2 hours 30 minutes instead of every 1 hour of play time. Entrance Rewards for businesses. Your business can now be configured by Company Team to receive a cash reward for every unique visitor over a period of time. It's hard to extract the same profit from characters in-game as you can IRL, this system is meant to reflect realistic earnings a business would have. Our goal here is to promote RP and encourage players to set up businesses that are frequented by players. You can now make exceptional payments, or pay off any loans early with zero interest. All furniture items are temporarily free.
      The list does not end there. We're currently revisiting overall earnings once again, and will be increasing them in the near future. We won't be changing the economy model as a whole, but rather shortening the earnings cycle to allow everyone, regardless of their available time to earn more money.
     
    Release Cycle
    From here on, we'll focus on a more dynamic release cycle. We chose to bundle several highly requested features together for 1.1 and we won't be doing this for updates going forward. Instead of working on a single update for 2-3 weeks, we'll instead release features as they're ready. This will allow us to test faster and deploy more frequently.
     
    Player Retention
    The server roll out is currently going according to our predictions. After initial spike of interest, the numbers are starting to settle down and we're approaching a baseline for our community from where we can freely grow upwards. We do however understand that we could be doing much more for player retention. We've identified a few steps to take within the staff team and will be implementing them, if we haven't already, shortly.
     
    Thank you for all your extensive feedback. We value it and learn from it as we enter the new space that is GTA V. 
     
  13. Mmartin

    Patch 1.3.1

    By Mmartin,


    Development Updates
    Hello,
     
    We're following up yesterday's 1.3 Feature Update with a patch to address some bugs and minor additions.
     
    Perhaps most importantly, we're enabling the Vehicle Theft script for everyone to try. We understand that it may be discouraging to have a lot of the illegal features locked behind a scheme or an application, so we'll try a different approach when implementing new features for the illegal scene. We'll start by opening it up with an attempt to balance it to the best of our ability, and then if it causes issues (such as overwhelming amount of vehicle thefts in this case), we'll continue to balance the script out until it fits well into the server. A lot of thought goes into these features so we want you to try them and enjoy them fully. This of course doesn't mean all schemes will become available to everyone, but we'll continue in our effort to make them more accessible and allow individuals to apply for some of them too.
     
    The changelog for today's patch is:
    - Fixed issue with inventory not loading if it had too many (~100+) of items. It will load the first 70 that you can move to access the rest - Vehicle theft has been made accessible to everyone level 4 and above for the time being - Added more vehicle theft containers, max 10 thefts can happen at once - Added max. amount of vehicle stolen over a rolling 8 hour period, currently set to 30 - Added messages sent to LSPD/LSSD when medics go on duty - Added /tems for LSFD - /outfit inside company and faction properties - Fix /setstation inside vehicles - Fix for businesses not getting correct visitor reward - Fix for company vehicles not being added for newly created companies  
    We're planning another feature update ahead of this weekend to introduce long awaited Roadblock script. Spike strips are also in the works, but I'm not sure if we manage to push these out this week or the next so don't want to promise it yet. Some other bits currently being worked on are auto low settings per-player and per-property, graffiti system (not behind a scheme!), and more. 
     
    Additionally, we've changed our #git settings to also include pushes into branches other than the master branch. This means you'll now see what our development is working on that wasn't merged into master or fully approved yet; so take it at that face value - what's being cooked. So keep in mind not everything will necessarily be brought to the table, too.
     
     
  14. Mmartin

    Minor Update 1.3.2

    By Mmartin,


    Development Updates
    Hello,
     
    We're back with yet another long awaited feature. As I advised on yesterday's post, we're adding Roadblocks to the game. All the legal factions were asked to provide a list of roadblocks they'd like to use and we added them to the system. The feature is available for GOV, PD, SD, FD and the events team for the time being. We plan to make it available to companies where it makes sense as well, for example construction companies. Spike strips aren't a part of this update but it's among the next few features coming, so you can look forward to that either this week, or early in the next one.
     
    We've also increased the pay for the flatbed mission by 2.5x, since it was heavily underpaid. You might notice that your trucking earnings aren't as high as they used to be; this is because we've introduced player owned companies with access to the mission scripts. You can now join an existing trucking company, or if you dare so create one. So watch out for job listings.
     


     
    Hope you enjoy & looking forward to deliver more.
     
    Thank you for playing,
    Martin
  15. Mmartin

    Spike Strips

    By Mmartin,


    Development Updates
    Hello,
     
    As promised, we're adding spike strips to the game today. They can be placed by any members of law enforcement with appropriate permissions and are collision-based, which means only the tire that actually goes over the spike strip will be popped. You can use /spikestrip (/ss) with an optional parameter to choose a model of spike strip you wish to use. There are currently 4 models available of varying sizes.
     
    Additionally as a QOL update you can now press 1-9 keys when a context menu is open to select an option. 
     



     
    We're planning a smaller QOL/Bugfix patch tomorrow. We'll continue with more feature deliveries next week. We're also looking into adding more company slots to players, just need a few days to think about how to do it in a balanced way. 
     
    Thank you for playing!
  16. Mmartin

    We need to talk ...

    By Mmartin,


    Community Updates
    Hey everyone,
     
    The last dozen or so posts we've made have been more or less pragmatic, to inform everyone about updates & what to expect next. It's been a while since I made a post about the server and its direction in general. I want to open a honest dialogue about where the server currently stands, and how we can move onwards and upwards from here. 
     
    There's no sugar coating it — we're in a tough position right now, from multiple angles. The player base has been stable for quite a while, but took a major hit in the recent week or two. We had a day and a half of downtime recently caused by network issues and a DDOS attack, and after bringing the server back up we're seeing peak numbers that are lower than we had during the premium only pre-release. Saying it's sub optimal is putting it mildly. I will do my best to avoid any excuses and focus on facts, problems and solutions.
     
    If you ask ten people, you'll get ten reasons why the player base has declined. I'll dive into details of some of the issues we currently face. We've solutions for some of those problems, but I'd like to extend the discussion of how to handle some of these issues to you, the community, as well. 
     
    Failure to manage expectations
    I feel that one of the issues we had from the beginning was our failure to manage the expectations. Handful of us worked on the gamemode for roughly two years, in the spare time we had when we felt like it and weren't working or otherwise busy. The aim from the beginning was to create a barebones MVP, which we could then expand on. I feel that I failed to communicate that, and as a result of that, a lot of the community expected us to be an equal competitor from day one. This led to a massive spike in interest initially, with the player base dwindling over time once more people realized that the experience we offer isn't as complete as they might need. Other players seeing the decline in player base could be another contributing factor to further decline.
     
    I feel like there isn't a simple solution for mismanaged expectations after the fact. I will use this as a much needed learning experience.
     
    Development not keeping up
    Another major contributor to the decline in morale and by proxy in player base is the way development progressed after release. We simply aren't doing enough to measure up. Initially, our main focus was on ensuring stability of the server and fixing critical issues post-release. We got some much-requested features out, but we haven't had more than a handful of completely new features come out since release. That's a major problem.
     
    With only a few exceptions (big shout out to Imperium, who has been carrying the team for the past month or so), the majority of our Development Team either became increasingly busy with work after release, or simply burned out. This was my case as well, as I started a new job in May and had to do a lot of adjusting and some travel; the time I had left was mostly spent on maintenance, handling technical issues, legal/biz aspect and managing the server as a whole. The timing was unfortunate, because we all knew that the real work begins post-launch to make sure the needs of our community are met. While some aspects of this can't be affected by me, I still came short — I failed to keep the development team motivated and to make sure people don't burn out. 
     
    This, in the end, lead to some promises left behind, which is something I really wanted to leave in the SA-MP era. Unfortunate.
     
    There's several solutions that can be applied here. We'll be once again taking in more developers in the coming days to help us with the amount of work that needs to be done. I'll also look for a way to offload my work with managing the system infrastructure, so even fewer things are reliant solely on me and can be handled by another developer as well.
     
    Leadership & Communication
    I feel that a significant chunk of us in the core team (leadership, team leads and devs) switched to a coasting mode too quickly. We got comfortable and complacent. I believe that motivation and strength comes from top to bottom, and we as the leadership must do better to innovate, push forward, show face and communicate everything with the community. This became harder in the recent weeks and there's no other way about it, we simply must do better.
     
     
    Of course the list above isn't exhaustive. We're aware of the frequent shootouts, abundance of weapons in the server, frequent shootouts, jobs becoming stale, etcetera. We put together a two-week plan of action of things we'd like to accomplish. I'll share it with you, but please take it with a grain of salt as it may change and some things may be added, or taken out.
     
    Immediate (today/tomorrow)
    - Communicate the current state of the server (this post)
    - Add more developers to the team
    - Reach out to player-owned companies and factions to make sure they've everything they need 
    - Reach out to admins regarding long report times, and not answering difficult reports
     
    Week 1
    - Fix vehicle loan payments, and transfervehicle after paying off loan
    - Ability to "trade in" a leased vehicle, with the ability to get a % of your principal back
    - Add more clothing mods
    - Make Horsepower affect vehicle performance
    - Level requirement for equipping a weapon (across all characters) to curb DM
    - Add interior presets & interior change
    - Add separate group for /setprop access, so property reports aren't reliant on Leads
    - Adjust mechanic / vehicle part prices (wheels, etc)
     
    Week 2
    - Some gambling script (even if just slots, lotto or blackjack)
    - Graffiti
    - Add more vehicles, whether existing GTA ones to pdm, or modded
    - More trucking routes
    - Investment into marketing
    - Schedule another community meeting
     
    To reiterate, we probably won't be able to do all of these, but these are some of the things we've identified need immediate attention.
     
    Despite the admittedly grim situation with the player base right now, I believe we can turn things around. The entire situation is very humbling and has been a big reality check and a learning experience for me. We've a lot going for us — we've a great staff team, a lot of knowledgeable and dedicated folk on our side, other major servers providing us assistance whenever we need it. But most importantly, we've fostered an awesome community which is what I focus on when it's time to push forward no matter what. I'm sorry I let some of you down, it hurts especially because I know a lot of people really believe in the project and want it to do well.
     
    This is where I'll turn the post towards you. If you're good at something and want to use your skill to help us make the server better, please reach out. If you've opinions you want to share, please do so below. I welcome opinions of anyone with the best interest of the server at heart.
     
    Martin
     
  17. Mmartin

    September Update

    By Mmartin,


    Community Updates
    Hello,
     
    Welcome to September's update. I want to go over staff changes and address a few recent topics, some of which we touched on in my last "We need to talk..." post. I've been keeping up with the comments on the thread and read all of them. I want to thank everyone who took their time to write down constructive criticism and everyone who shared words of support. I want to share my thoughts on some of the discussions that raised from the topic, and add a few of my own.
     
    Development Team
    Last week, we added three new developers to the team. I'd like to welcome GiamPy, java and matical. Neither of them waited a minute to jump right into the trenches and start contributing. Good luck and I'm looking forward to see what you guys bring to the server. Together with the rest of our development team, they put together their first update 1.3.7:
     
     
    I'm glad to say that by week 1, we managed to finish about half of our two week plan mentioned in my previous blog post, although we rearranged the priorities a little bit. The rest that wasn't implemented yet should come in next week's update.
     
    We've also spent some time eliminating any bottlenecks in the development process. A lot of the activities which relied solely on me are now a shared responsibility among the Development Team. ImperiumXVII is also taking on a more leading role within the team as the Head of Game Development. This all essentially means that a lot of the steps in the development lifecycle that were dependent on me exclusively are now delegated to the rest of the team, letting them do their thing even if I'm busy with other tasks. 
     
    This all should allow us to do more work, more frequently. Our goal is to have an active release schedule, but it may take a few weeks to get there as we strengthen our processes.
     
    Circling back to pre-launch, we talked a lot about wanting to include community in development decisions as much as possible (suggestion voting, etc). We'll be trying out a more solidified community driven approach to development starting next week (after the 10th). More info on that later.
     
    In order to facilitate that, we created a new position within the Development Team - a Project Manager. The role of a PM will be to:
    - Organize community feedback and understand the needs and wants of the community
    - Be the bridge between the community and development team
    - Prioritize development work based on community feedback and server vision
    - Liaise with Team Leaders to understand their needs and priorities
     
    In essence, it's a nontechnical position within the Development team to make sure our priorities are in order and in line with the community's needs, while developers' focus can be primarily on developing. This position will be filled by Dos Santos, as he's demonstrated his capabilities within the Company Team, where he accomplished substantial improvements with a continuous feedback loop with company owners. Thank you to everyone from the staff team that applied for the position.
     
    We're still looking to onboard one or two more developers in the coming weeks, so if you didn't apply yet and are interested - now's the time.
     
    Stability
    We've had connection issues a few times since the launch of the server. Rarely, if ever, are they completely in our control. Lately we've been a frequent target of DDOS attacks which impacted our uptime and stability. This is a never ending cat and mouse game which will never be completely resolved, although I can assure you that during downtime, it's all hands on deck on finding a solution for the particular problem we're facing. I'm grateful for other server owners, and even rage dev themselves who have been instrumental in helping us reinforce our protection layers. In this case, I want to ask you for understanding when attacks do happen. We'll keep you updated on Discord in #updates if there's anything going on that would impact connections.
     
    Other Concerns
    When I say I read every single bit of feedback under blog posts and in general discussion I'm serious. I often choose not to engage too early or at all in order to not derail the conversation or turn it into a WPM typing contest. We've aggregated a lot of your feedback and tried to identify the underlying issues of problems players face, and proposed a solution to each of them. Some of the priorities in the near future will be (in no particular order):
     
    Adding more ways to make money, both as a legal and illegal character, and both P2P and NPC; Improve furniture UX; Make mapping easier & more appealing; Invest more time and money into marketing; Find a way to organize more events; Crack down on DM & poor reasons to kill in-game; Add more non-visual perks to drugs; Allow being in even more player-owned companies at once;
     
    This is an oversimplified, curated sample of some of the proposed solutions to some of the main concerns raised by both the staff, and the community. We'll address each point more in depth as it gets addressed and we have something to show for it. Together with the development changes, I'm very confident we're on the right track.
     
    Make sure to follow our Discord, namely #git and #snippets to stay close to the source with information re. new updates. Check #updates for announcements re. server status. 
     
    Staff Changes
    Congratulations to our promoted and returning staff members...
     
    Senior Admin
    accursed — Amine
     
    Game Admin
    Kotwica — Bizarre
     
    Returning Junior Admin
    Zagros
     
    To put an end to the post, thank you once again for all your feedback and support on our last blog post. It means a lot to the team to see the community so passionate. You're why we do it, and who we do it for.
     
    Martin
     
  18. Mmartin

    October Staff Update

    By Mmartin,


    Community Updates
    Hello gamers! Welcome to the October 2023 Staff Update.
     
    First and foremost I want to go over major changes to our leadership structure. If you've been paying attention over the past week or two, we've made quite a few changes. Ben, who's been the Head of Community (later renamed to Head of Operations) has stepped down due to lack of available time. He remains with us as a game admin to fully enjoy the fruits of our labor over the past years. I want to give him a big shoutout and a thank you for all the work he's put in over the years. He remained in the team and helped us rebuild LS-RP after the mass leadership exodus during the attacks on our SA-MP server. It's safe to say there'd be no LS-RP without him today!
     
    With the now vacant spot in Management, we made the unorthodox decision to promote someone from below lead to Ben's previous position. We chose @Dos Santos for the position as he's undoubtedly a great fit and has the energy, time and skills to lead the server. 
     
    That out of the way, congratulations to our newly promoted staff members ...
     
    Management
    Dos Santos (Head of Operations)
     
    Lead Admin
    kendrick (asst. Head of Operations)
    Nature (Head of Testers)
     
    Junior Admin
    bobster
     
    Trainee Admin
    Eagle

    Developer
    Zagros
    And welcome to our new Junior Testers for the first time ...
     
    ChandanW - Dat_block - Endri
    Fantasia - HydraPlayer - Kenado - Stinkywinky - _CYBER_
    badhbh.x - danut - xtcGOAT
     
     
    Mmartin
    on behalf of LS-RP Leadership
  20. Mmartin
    Hey everyone,
     
    June 16th (2023)
    is when we want to go live. Here's a summary from today's Community Meeting detailing how we'll get there. 
     
    We're finishing the last bits of work and fixing what's remaining of our release-blocking bugs. Over the last week, we fixed 24 bugs and we've 2 blocking remaining, both of which are simple to fix, we just haven't gotten around to them with the amount of work yet.
     
    The Communications Team ran a survey recently and among other things, it's clear that three things are of the utmost importance to the player base. Transparency & communication, character customization and a fair staff team & roleplay quality. We've done our best to hit these three points in the weeks and days leading up to the announcement. With establishment of the Communications Team, I'm happy to see positive feedback on the first point, Sal has done an amazing job so far bridging the gap that was forming between the leadership and the community. We've implemented some last minute, yet very important script changes to allow for further character customization as well; not limited to a more open-ended clothing system, more granular character customization, Menyoo imports and so on.
     
     The release timeline is as follows:
    Finish remaining bugfixes and script work until 31st of May. Code freeze 31st of May, or 1st of June, depends on how things go. Jun 1st - Jun 6th, Production deployment and setting up the main server. Jun 1st - Jun 6th, Along w/ prod setup; Fixing custom mods to comply with latest R* & RageMP policies. Jun 7th, Pre-release & Production Testing. We'll open up the main server to Premium members and staff, to make sure everything is working as it should. Apply hotfixes as needed and finish setting up whatever is left over that needs completing. Jun 16th, Release Date.  
    While some of these dates may change by a day or two, we're set to release on June 16th 2023. More information on the pre-release opening will come as we approach that date.
     
    In the meantime, here's a quick update from our sub teams and what they're working on:
     
    Sub-teams Updates
    Aside from the Development and script situation, many of our sub-teams are actively working towards ensuring that the launch goes as smoothly as possible. These include: 
    Modding Team: Still updating branded textures. Mapping: New Head of Mapping assigned: Duco. Legal Factions: Additions to FD roster. Company Management: Awaiting launch. Property Management: Rental properties being set up. Player Support: Wiki population continues. Faction Team: Contrabrand and Prison schemes approved.  
    Communications Update
    We talked through some of the survey results and actions being taken as a result, including:
    Communications Team established  Menyoo importation added Character customisation options added Recruitment focuses prioritised for specific factions Ensuring Visions for the server as a whole match with everyone's expectation Speaking to Team leaders to feed back relevant findings from the survey Continue surveying for overall sentiment  
    Feature Showcase & Demonstration
    This week we gave community members an exclusive look at the Trucking system - we'll be uploading the video to our YouTube channel a bit later in the week. 
     
    Once again I want to thank everyone for their patience and support. This is it baby, we're in the final stretch. 
     
    See you IG soon,
    Martin
    on behalf of the LS-RP Team
     
     
  21. Mmartin

    We're done.

    By Mmartin,


    General
    Hey all,
     
    If you've been following along on Discord you've probably seen the great amount of progress we've been able to accomplish lately. I'm happy to say that after overcoming more hurdles than I was ready for, we're now done with feature development for the release.
     
    Over the last month especially, we've been pushing hard to bring the last necessary features through the finish line. We decided to include more than initially planned because we felt like the server just couldn't launch without them. As much as all you really need to roleplay is a little more than /me, /do and IC chat; we're determined to start with a foundation that allows us to build the next big thing in the GTA V RP scene.
     
    As of tonight, we're starting the feature freeze and enter the very last phase of development, the final testing. During this phase we'll focus on fixing the bugs we caught along the way, and any new ones that come up from the recently introduced features. We currently stand at 7 critical and 18 major bugs that we have to deal with before launch. Like I mentioned, this number may grow a bit before it all falls near zero. 
     
    To help us accomplish this, we've appointed @jack as our head of quality assurance and recently took @Duco on board into the development team; welcome! They, along with the rest of the development & staff team have been very helpful in that final push just ahead of the finish line. Since we'll go full ham on re-testing everything now, we should have a clear picture about the amount of work we still need to do to fix & prepare everything and should have a release date ready very soon.
     
    I want to thank you all once again for the incredible patience you've had while we create something we can honestly be proud of. Our test server has been open to the early supporters for a few weeks now and it's been incredible to see dozens of players ingame on the gamemode that I've played solo or with just a few staff members for what feels like forever now. If you are an early supporter and haven't joined the test server yet you should; it's a lot of fun and I can't wait for it to be open to everyone.
     
    In an effort to increase transparency, we also made the #test-git channel on Discord available for everyone a while back. You can see real time changes being pushed to our codebases there and see what's being worked on. So if you haven't yet, join our Discord for updates as soon as changes happen.
     
    See you all IG soon!
  22. Mmartin
    What up LS-RP Fam,
     
    Since the announcement of feature freeze we've been grinding testing, bug fixing and final touchups. So far we've confirmed over 46 bugs to be fixed and another 24 are pending retesting after they've been addressed by the development team. As it is, we face another 7 critical, 28 major and 73 minor bugs. While we'll try to address as many as we can, the main pre-release focus is on the critical & major ones. Despite a bunch of bugs being found recently as testing ramped up, I'm happy to say we're fixing them much faster than finding new ones — that's good!
     
    We also reached out to our Early Supporters who have access to the test server to gather their feedback and first impressions. We've compiled a list of low effort high impact improvements we'll sprinkle in between the bug fixes. Those include importing character appearance from Menyoo, adding more keybind alternatives to commands and vice versa, various UI improvements to make life easier and more.
     
    While it's hard to quantify because each bug is different, I'd say we're about halfway through the testing and data filling process. I'd like to remind you that if you'd like to follow our progress more closely, the #test-git channel on Discord is just the place for that, as you'll see changes as they get merged to the main codebase.
     
    LS-RP Trailer Remastered
    If you've been around long enough I'm sure you remember the legendary trailer posted in 2011. To get everyone in the mood we remastered the video with the current game mode. Big thanks to danielswe for directing the remaster, Xanakin for putting the clips together, and everyone from staff & early supporters who participated in the recording. Enjoy!
     
     
  23. Mmartin

    July Update

    By Mmartin,


    General
    Hey everyone,
     
    I'd like to update you on what's been going on the last few weeks. We've resumed development in a limited capacity after I had to take some time off due to personal issues and boy we've got a lot to talk about. As promised, it's July 13th so we're bringing you more information on the release timeline.
     
    When does LS-RP come out?
    Given the scope of remaining work & testing, we're currently targeting to release in August. Vast majority of features are either finished or in final stages of development. All features will be re-tested in the coming weeks in case our latest work messed with anything made previously. Concrete date will be given at least 7 days prior to release. This is to ensure that in case we encounter an abnormal amount of hiccups, we don't have to postpone. I know you'd rather a number to look forward to, but I'm sure you'd rather not have to see another delay announcement. I know I don't want to write one.
     
    Where are the snippets?
    The hype we had built for the February release date was something that'll be hard to replicate. Or at least so I thought until we hit a record number of attendees on our first staff meeting back (over 50 at one point!). Some of the activities such as development streams will be left out for the time being to maximize productivity; however as a part of our release campaign to build up interest and hype again we'll be posting a new snippet every day — Starting today. Some snippets, such as today's one, will be accompanied by a short description to give you more insight into our thought process.
     
    So join us on Discord at discord.gg/ls-rp so you don't miss any of them.
     
    Patreon
    As of July, we've paused our Patreon billing cycle. We've raised enough funds to get us off the ground and any further funding will have to be secured through a product/credit purchase in our web store, after we launch. As a token of appreciation and an apology for the extended delay, we'll also be adding 20% credits on top to every patron who supported us (example; 10 EUR tier * 6 months = 120 EUR * 120% = 144 EUR worth of credits).

    In conclusion, the next few weeks will be us wrapping up, merging finished features into the main codebase and getting ready for the big day. Once again thank you for your patience, feedback and enthusiasm. Hope you're enjoying summertime; see you around on Discord
     
    Martin
     
  24. Mmartin
    Hey everyone,
     
    Hope everyone's doing well and getting ready for the holiday season. December was always special around LS-RP, I remember all the treasure hunts and winter/Christmas events we used to hold. I'm looking forward to seeing something like that in-game again as we celebrate the season... next year.
     
    It's been quite challenging over the last few months to keep track of the remaining work. Trying to keep tabs on all the features in my brain has proven quite inefficient, so instead of trying to remember what I'm supposed to be doing and which features are left to develop or test, we made a list. This list itemized every single outstanding feature or activity we've yet to complete before the server is launch-ready.
     
    As I was compiling this list a few weeks ago I realized that even that isn't enough. Really, is the trucking system the same as a phone call? Much different; so we started adding estimates to everything. 4 hours to finish phone calls, 16 hours to finish trucking, 2 hours here 4 there and so on. I've done estimations on an enterprise level in the past and it's a known secret that at the start of the project, unless you have a thorough specification, they're just made up numbers. Nobody knows and everyone's guess is meaningless, you're just working in a ballpark.
     
    Since we're nearing the end of the initial development, we're in a different position and it's much easier for us to list out all the things we've yet to do. So we've done that, and estimated how much it'll take. Based on these numbers, we realized that we've underestimated the amount of work remaining when we scheduled the release for Q4 2021. With the rest of the leadership, we were facing the following options:
     
    Option 1: Release in Q4 2021. 
    We release in Q4 2021, as late as possible, but still meet the deadline. This gives us the pros of keeping up on our promise and taking advantage of the hype the LS-RP project currently has. The downside of this option is that we'd be releasing a game mode without a lot of important features and with a lot of potential bugs, since we'd have to be adding new features all the way to the launch date. Lacking features and bugs will result in a disappointed community and a potential loss of players.
     
    Option 2: Postpone the release for the 2nd time.
    We delay the release a bit. This allows us to work on features we deem essential but didn't manage to complete just yet. We have enough time to properly test these features (shoutout to our staff by the way - you've done amazing job testing so far). The dreaded disadvantage of going with this option is that we won't deliver on our promise that we'd release Q4, which can lead to the community being disappointed, leading to a potential loss of players.
     
    Which one would you choose? Let me know. 
     
    Since we started deliberating postponing again, I had to go back and read my statement when we had to postpone to Q4. Here's a quote from that post:
     
    As I'm reading that I realize that we're in the very same situation now - how come though? Did nothing change since September? There's been no major inactivity for any of the devs or leads, or any "major roadblocks" I could think of that'd cause this delay. I tried to identify the reasons why we're delaying again and this is what I got:
     
    - We underestimated the amount of work remaining. The estimate that we should be done by Q4 was not backed by any real numbers, but rather a "gut feeling".
    - We've added new things to the scope for release. Those things were usually features which we deemed essential but forgot about them early on; or were only made aware of them now.
    - We spent a lot of time focusing on detail and polish of existing features.
    - Personal and professional obligations of the team, although this one was kept to a surprising minimum during Q4.
     
    After hours of deliberation, we chose option 2.
     
    We've taken several steps to make sure this is the last date we give you. We wanted to work towards a concrete date instead of a vague time range ("summer", "q4").
    - As mentioned previously, we made an itemized of all remaining features and activities until we're release-ready.
    - We've added a estimate in hours to every remaining item or activity.
    - We're accounting for a % of risk dedicated to fixing bugs and unforeseen difficulties. This risk is currently set to 10%.
    - We've created metrics to monitor whether we're ahead of, or behind schedule. This allows us to play with the scope and reevaluate our current assignments if we're falling behind schedule.
     
    Based on these steps and metrics, we came up with the official release date of LS-RP:V on February 24th, 2022.
     
    Community Involvement
    With the release being postponed by just a bit over month and a half, we're looking for ways to keep the community engaged with what we're doing. Here's some milestones you can look forward to in the near future:
    - Character Customization made available ahead of launch, first for Patrons and later for the general public.
    - Character Applications made available ahead of launch to the general public.
    - Staff Reinstatements opening ahead to get ready for launch.
     
    The concrete dates of each will be announced separately at one point or another; but we're aiming to release the character customization server this week. There's a few more things we've up our sleeves to keep the community engaged, but I don't want to announce them just yet as they're not as thought through as the rest. If you have any ideas yourself, my inbox is always open.
     
     
    Progress Update
    I'll try to include a progress update where it makes sense when I write these posts. This should give you the idea of where we are in terms of the schedule and how much work is remaining in different parts of the code. Here's the current status:
     

     
    I've been on a mission to be as transparent as reasonably possible during the development of LS-RP:V. I had a lot to learn from the SA-MP days and I sincerely hope that the information we give you is keeping you excited during the wait; whether it's snippets, blog posts or just random talks on Discord. It's hard at times as we don't want to give away too much for several reasons. Sharing this progress update is yet another step in trying to balance out communication, element of surprise and competitive advantage.
     
    Closing Statement
    I understand any and all feelings of frustration at the announcement today. It's not fun news, but at the same time it's good news. It allows us to work on delivering what we've initially set out to make. I'd like to express my gratitude to the entire staff team who has been actively engaging in improving the server's features and standing behind the project the whole time; to the patrons who keep our infrastructure bills on time and to the community for believing in the project. Thank you for being understanding.
     
    If you'd like to be closer to the action, consider joining our discord at https://discord.gg/ls-rp, where we post snippets of our work.
     
    Kind regards and happy holiday season,
    Mmartin
    on behalf of LS-RP Staff
  25. Mmartin

    Applications Open

    By Mmartin,


    General
    Hello,

    As of this moment, registrations and character applications are open for everyone for up to three characters. Head over to https://ucp.ls-rp.com/ and create a character. The character creation server remains locked for our Patreon supporters until the 20th of February, when it becomes available for everyone. Please be patient with us tonight in case there's any issues — we'll try to iron them out as soon as we can.
     
    Also, everyone gets to take a quiz to get a refresher on our rules and general RP etiquette!
     
     
    Please note we don't currently offer a path to account recovery. If you've lost access to an account you've had in the past, we aren't able to help you. You can try resetting your password, or making a new account.
     
    See ya IG soon,
    - Martin
     

Los Santos Roleplay

Los Santos Roleplay is a text-based heavy roleplay community on GTA, providing gamers a creative space to play since 2007

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