Bala

Dear Eclipse Community, This is the first development blog that is from the modification team here at Eclipse and it is intended to brief you on some of what has changed, how it's changed and an insight into why it has changed. The main goal of the modification team is to supplement the development updates with a more-personal roleplay experience that is unique to our server and community. Previously, you will have seen that with the last map update in March, as well as vehicle updates and previously our clothes. It is what that in mind, this update focuses on the first of our planned map updates. Restructuring We have undertaken a restructure of our how are modifications are installed on the server and that will unfortunately dictate that you will likely have to redownload the server files when you next play. The main reason for this is that it will allow us moving forward to modify projects individually. Currently, updating some of our maps might come with a 300mb download, all for the sake of updating an individual map. While 300mb is not a large file, when you factor in the size of our player base, it's begins to add up. This is a more progressive way of working and will stand us in good stead for the future. Phased Updates This first release contains what we consider to be required map changes. We determined these to either be updates to maps that are essential updates to our current roleplay environment or global map updates which don't affect anyone specifically, with the exception of a few key faction locations. These global map updates include the Map Fixes (https://www.gta5-mods.com/maps/map-fixes) and Fixes and Improvements (https://www.gta5-mods.com/misc/fixes-improvements) from creator Alex106 as well as updates to the Forests of San Andreas (https://www.gta5-mods.com/maps/forests-of-san-andreas-revised) and GTA:V Remastered (https://www.gta5-mods.com/maps/gta-v-remastered-enhanced) from Larcius. Additionally, we have worked on cleaning up player properties to allowing for better access by removing frozen doors or gates as well as other objects that obstructured access, allowing for deployment of outdoor gates and doors of the players choosing and within their control. Basegame Clothing As a precursor to our future clothing update, we have also added a number of additional textures to some of the base-game clothing where there were simply black and white checkered textures. We understand you will be looking forward to the clothing update and we'll have more details about that in another release soon. Updated Locations Bolingbroke Prison We have made our largest update to the Prison Interior since it was implemented several years ago. This includes a re-work of the prison yard, adding a helipad for medical and prisoner transport as well as segmenting the yard into lockable sections. We have altered the lighting in the cell block to make it easier to see during all times of the day, we have added benches to allow for prisoners to sit, removed bunk beds to allow prisoners to roleplay sleeping as well as fixed the broken cell area. We have also committed to a certain level of personalisation for the DOC faction and the prison as a whole will feel more like Eclipse's prison than just an MLO we bought. Pillbox Hospital We have also made some changes to how Pillbox loads, to hopefully improve performance in and around that MLO. Previously, the interior map was loading however we have taken steps to correctly hide certain rooms of the hospital from being loaded until needed. Paleto Sheriff Station and Police Parking Garages The Paleto Bay Sheriffs Station has been updated with a new, personalised MLO. This not only mores more use of the ground floor but additionally, also adds a second floor for the Sheriffs' Department to use. Sticking with LSSD, we have also added another location at Sandy Shores which replaced the existing station and hospital with a brand new station. For the LSPD, we have added an interior at Vinewood Police Station which covers all the levels of the exterior building. The same creator made both the Paleto Bay Sheriffs Station and Vinewood. Both Sandy and Vinewood have been added as secondary locations, to give those factions more scope to role-play in. We've updated some visuals and also installed parking at Mission Row and made changes to how certain rooms within Mission Row load, to hopefully improve performance around such a busy area. Plus, that pesky invisible wall at Mission Row has now been removed. Mechanic Garages for Los Santos Customs and Bayview We have made updates to the Los Santos Customs MLO, recolouring the inside as well as personalising it to the faction's specification with a front desk and bay numbers amongst other details. We are aware that it is an area where people experience some performance loss and we'll monitor that to see if we need to change things up further, beyond this. Bayview has had a update to it's current map, adding a (currently unscripted) car wash as well as additional branding for Bayview. However, there is something else quite special planned regarding this, in a future, upcoming update. Weazel News Weazel News has had it's interior updated with personalisation for the faction, as well as the implementation of garages for the faction to use as well. Downtown Cab Company We have updated the DCC Headquarters in Vinewood, now with exterior walls instead of fences, new text, a faster gate, a side gate, plenty of flowers and also fixed the broken mirror in the bathroom. City Hall We have removed a significant number of the Bollards around the City Hall, added in some additional water fountains, and updated the helipad.

I'm so glad that you're in my Recruitment Division, what a guy!

I'll stick the Off-Road vehicle flag on it if you want, then it's an off-road car.

Unrealistic for criminals to be running around with a recording device on their chest for a multitude of roleplay-supported reasons but that doesn't quite feed the report mentality. Happily attack cops when they have the numbers advantage but heaven forbid a cop says a mean word to them, then it's a big deal. In fairness to the OP, half the time we're watching a video in game, it don't work properly anyway. Something, something, people lie or have selective memories when it comes to recounting /ldo so relying on actual footage as backup is always the best way forward. You know, because if we place the wrong charge, that gets blown out of proportion.

I'll be honest, I could care less about your personal opinion of me as a person or my suggestions, I'm not saying what I'm saying to be popular or even to provoke a negative reaction. Just giving the same opinion with no frills that I always do. If you feel the way you do, time is a great healer and all that. But, the goofy behaviour needs to stop and because you can't control yourselves, you require the script to control you. You cannot be trusted not to start trying to shoot each other inside a hospital. You cannot be trusted not to fire Heavy Weapons at Mission Row. You cannot be trusted not to picklock vehicles in areas that it makes no sense to do it because either you have no concept of this or you don't care. I know this, deep down you know this, because since we inexplicably changed the rules, this is what you've shown to be the case and since you think it's okay, keep doing it and see what effect it'll have. We're not going to get any closer to where we want to be doing this. That said, I can at least say I tried. See you on the next one, staff can archive this at their leisure.

To review some of the examples that you've mentioned there. You took the Attorney General of the State hostage, to gain information about housing taxes of all things, you broke into city hall to hang around a bit and smoke some drugs and you've graffiti'd the lobby of a Police Station, because you don't like the police. It's not honestly often that I'm at a loss for words but I'm baffled by that, the worst part is that I actually think you're not the only person that feels those are perfectly rational and proportionate responses and that to me is more troubling than the NCZ changes. It's also not even that some of the actions are taking place where the PD can have a proportionate response, it's during the hours where we have very low units and a number of different situations to attend. Likely as you are aware what would happen if you did these things during peak activity times. I can only imagine how people would react if PD took a hard-line stance against your faction, came to your motel and cleared out the objects from the motel as it's a residential area. Found reasons to Impound any and all vehicles used by Underground members then refused to release them. Or, if we profiled and suppressed any and all members and affiliates of Underground specifically and indefinitely. Those would be viewed as disproportionate responses by us but in the grand scheme of things, the RP justification would be that you've actively targeted law enforcement and are operated as an Anarchist organisation. Cop killers might have the same rights in the justice system we like to lean on, but they are dealt with very differently. It'd certainly be effective and I'm pretty confident these incidents would stop immediately if that happens, but we'd be told to ease up and that it isn't fair, even if it allows us to explore more law enforcement things. Mission Row Lobby or Mission Row Parking Garage might appear in-game, empty, but in RP, there are a bunch of armed police around when you're stealing cars and smashing things up at Mission Row. Which again, was why we had the no crime zone.

Respectfully list some examples of how it's changed things for the better then. What roleplay has it created? Smashing stuff up inside the PD? Shooting inside a hospital? Pick locking PD vehicles inside Mission Row Garage? So, in order to accommodate some of the most non-sensical roleplay I've seen in 1700 days, if I don't want my car going through or stealing, I've got to run from City Parking to Mission Row every time or I've got to not use a feature of my vehicle, because people cannot understand that stealing vehicles from a Police Department is perhaps one of the stupidest things that you could do? Make it make sense, please.

I would really love to hear an example of this top-tier roleplay that is happening because we don't have these no crime zones anymore, if someone can point me out to them. I'm going to assume it's not police vehicles being pick-locked in the parking lot, I'm going to assume it's not a police station being RPly vandalised and I'm definitely not going to assume it's a faction going all 13 Hours of Benghazi on Mission Row either? People want to tell me that this is better. How? Please show me some examples. Show me an example of this stellar role-play that couldn't be achieved by simply asking for admin permission to do it, with a proper roleplay motive that could be defended and understood by all players. The point of a no crime zone in the first place was either an area where it would be detrimental to the RP/activity there to allow crime to happen (Bank/Tequil'la) or an area where committing crime would be incredibly foolish, to the point of it being baiting (PD/SD/City Hall). We've had NCZs for at least four and a half years on this server, what in four and a half years has anyone that voted for this learned that makes them think that changing this was going to go any differently than it did. Literally, DAY ONE, there is a shootout at Pillbox. We had a script that showed you where something was an NCZ and prevented you from breaking into vehicles. That was there for a reason, because people cannot be trusted to make these kinds of decisions themselves. We actually had to have our hands held for that. It would be perhaps less of an irritation if we had the faction parking at these locations, that has been on the dev list for eons but we didn't think that far ahead. Now, all of a sudden, the saving grace is going to be the very staff that decided this was the move and have to date, inconsistently enforced it? I don't see how that's going to improve things and inevitably we'll have to go back to NCZs because this will keep happening and it'll effect the right person a few too many times.

For once, I'm going to keep this suggestion simple and the reason that I'm going to keep it simple is that I can't imagine that anyone that is going to look at the big picture here, is going to have a hard time understanding why. Restore the No Crime Zones around Mission Row and Vinewood Police Departments, City Hall, Paleto Bay Fire Station and Pillbox Medical. I get why staff wanted to give players the opportunity for different kinds of role-play in these areas but with all due respect to the players of our server, I think a number of incidents since at both Pillbox and Mission Row (the ones that I am aware of) lead me to believe that our player base can't be trusted to regulate themselves. Yes, players can report if there are non roleplay breaches in these areas currently but honestly, that's like closing the barn door after the horse is bolted. You can't undo a dumb situation or un-frustrate people. I feel like I speak for the PD in this, we're sick of people doing goofy shit at a building that is RPly full of police officers all hours of the day. I also don't think that fighting and shooting and stealing vehicles at a hospital is conducive to a good roleplay experience either. I also don't think people doing the kind of illegal activities they have at city hall recently is conducive to a good roleplay experience either. If players wanna display their quirky personalities or feed their inner criminal, do it elsewhere. It's a big map.

Yeet

You got banned in June 2021, for being linked to a banned account. It was linked because you and your close friend used to play on each others PC and didn't know it linked your IPs. Your friend cheats, you get banned for being linked. You appeal and get told your friend must appeal instead but he didn't appeal because it's too difficult to get unbanned from cheating. So you ban evaded from January 2023, but you provided the community with fun, so you want to know if you should make an appeal or if it isn't worth it? Are you appealing the ban for being banned for being guilty by association or the ban for deciding to ban evade, rather than respect the initial ban reason? I mean, you're asking for opinions so to be honest, I think it's already a bit suspect that you were linked to a cheating friend but I could accept stuff happens, right? Thing that gets me though is, you knew you were banned but then you basically said fuck it i'm gunna play anyway. Now you're asking whether you should make an appeal. I dunno, maybe they'll give another chance but personally, that's pretty sketchy. Between that and the questionable avatar and signature, I wouldn't unban you to be honest but I'm not a staff member.

As active cop @HobGoblin said, if we added this, it'd probably crash the MDC, it'd be that long. Even with an inactivity modifier, our MDC isn't setup for something like that.

It's a bit revisionist to paint the Council as some sort of in-character moderator, because they were actually what criminals think PD and SD is, now. If you behaved as they wanted you to behave, you were allowed to exist. If you didn't, they had enough people and clout that they'd bang on you until your faction folded. Saw it happen with Wanted because they started selling guns and undercutting prices, saw it happen with WCA because they dared to oppose. Both factions, that if they were around today would be at the top end of the performing crim factions as well. The activity and the structure was intriguing but the mishandling of that era has persisted with the restrictions on factions and attitudes towards what is acceptable roleplay for criminals to this day. I don't think a reliance on specific individuals to that degree is healthy, especially if the individuals responsible for keeping things moving have different opinions on how things should go than the factions it effects. Not to mention, that if those individuals are not active, the system grinds to a halt. What perhaps may be better is something a little more organic and lead by the factions themselves, instead of faction management or their IC counter-part. Allow the factions to establish their own hierarchy through conflict AND role-play but without the handbrake constantly on. Let factions figure the criminal scene and themselves out. Put the goal posts out, make sure factions clearly understand how far they can go and leave them to it. If the violence begins to boil, cool it off for a couple days, bring it back to a simmer. This shit works best when you don't know what is going to happen, but how much of what goes on now is predictable? Repurposing faction management as a team that supports and guides a particular faction to be the best version of themselves as an individual faction, as opposed to being boxed into a cookie cutter conformity and punished / threatened for daring to colour outside the lines. That was something I heard in that meeting and I've heard it a number of times over the past couple years, usually right before a faction decides to call it quits. Every faction that drops, is another missed opportunity and another what could have been. Coming at a faction from a perspective of support, rather than management will get you a lot further in the long run. If someone feels that something is a discussion, they're going to be more receptive to changes than if they feel it's an argument or a telling off.

I was being a tease before, I got some props for Cop and Medic that I wanna get added to Blockade besides these bags. Back boards, gurneys, forensic tent, them sexy blue barriers but with lights on.

When someone complained to the devs that PD was using IDs in the MDC to metagame people to place charges (when there was no real proof of any of that) and we got that convenient thing taken away, I didn't say anything. If there are instances of people metagaming, they'll be reported and punished, no? Trying to fix things that haven't broken just leads to more unnecessary restrictions, so "-1" like me saying this means anything.

Na, you want automated functions, play singleplayer.

Lol, about that

I think the title of the thread is a little bit sensationalist, if I'm honest and I think that it's likely going to attract some less than ideal responses. We're not going to be kicking half of our faction members out of the PD faction, to accommodate the criminals on the server. That is simply not going to happen and nor should it. As you put time and effort into establishing yourselves as criminals, many of those in the LSPD have done the same. Unfortunately, the reason why these threads go nowhere is because, like the discussion on Saturday, despite some good initial exchanges, it starts to become people bringing up individual situations and we've seen it already on the thread. The topic of "lab camping" was raised at one of our weekly meetings recently. It was investigated, because whether or not you want to believe it, we take that shit seriously and the only incident in question was found to be something and nothing. I'm not going to sit here and say that it doesn't happen, but it's also not happening as much as you assume it is or more importantly, why you assume it is. There can be a number of reasons, within the rules that a cop ends up at one of these static locations. I said it on Saturday and I'll say it again, the entire server is stuck in a continuous loop and there are a lot of things that need to change across the board to break that cycle. We're neither an action packed, fun time roleplay server nor are we a realistic gritty roleplay community either. In the same server, we have the Constitution and all this excessively serious law roleplay but then we people masked up 24/7, representing all the different colours of the rainbow and doing questionable types of roleplay which if we're being being honest, ends up just being trolling. With GTA VI on the horizon, we're now entering the Autumn of Eclipse RP with maybe a year or two of peak activity left before the inevitable drop off and this server badly really needs an individual with enough stroke to stand up and being counted, cut through all the red tape and grab this community by the cock and balls. Get the developers together with the admins, the moderators, support staff and faction leaders and decide on what we (the community) actually want Eclipse Roleplay to be in 2024. Forget it just being the same people making the same decisions because it feels a bit like there is a disconnect between those at the top of the tree and your average community member and them simply trying to impress their wants and needs for ECRP clearly hasn't worked. That's no less of an echo chamber than one of these threads. You need to get EVERYONE in a position of some responsibility in ECRP all facing the same way, whether staff or not and move in that direction as quickly as possible. Have every faction organise a consensus for their members. What could ECRP be doing better etc.. Have the faction leaders compile it and meet with the staff / devs and see what the common themes are. Work off that list to scratch the issues off, rinse and repeat. Do that, then with a bit of luck, favourable winds and I think the community pops off again. Probably not like during COVID but 300-400 on the regular. Oh and release the clothing update!

Please add! @Paulius

Is it REALLY that difficult? Be for real.

Why would you want to? Prison is so profitable. Silly Billy!

I don't think DCC faction members should pay at all, to be honest, on or off duty.

Aside from my good friend Mick Reefer who was banned back in 2020 by he who shall not be named, there shouldn't be any unbans for those permanently excluded from the community. You know how bad you have to actually fuck up to be permanently banned from Eclipse? There was an entire server that popped up full of those players and look how that ended up. Why would we want to add that kind of poison back to our playerbase? For every player we regain in short term, we lose down the way through either them being re-banned or from being sick of the actions of those sort of people. A mass unban is a sign of desperation from an RP server. We're nowhere near that desperate.

Yes.

What was up with the boat? There are perhaps some collision issues there.