Bala

Thinking about it, as much as we’d all like more players, there probably isn’t really a desperate incentive to turn things around. We still have a decent player count, we don’t have any competition on RAGE for big English voice servers and ultimately, when there is a credit sale people go crazy. I know crims be saying do this and do that to PD/SD but honestly, all you’ll do is piss off the players that play those factions. It’s not improving problems, it’s just moving them. To actually grow the player base, you’d need to commit to a plan and a direction. That ain’t happening is it?

Ganking the police factions im sure looks good on paper but all that is going to do is piss off cop players, it won’t make the criminal experience any better. The funny thing is, best way to stop people moaning or to get them to play within the rules, entertain them. No one wants to get banned from a server they love playing on. But a server they’re not bothered about, they’ll do whatever to try and find some enjoyment, even at the expense of others. Staff team shouldn’t lower their standards or change their approach to what is acceptable. It might be cops and robbers but it’s also not a FiveM DM server neither. Just look at your player base as a resource and set about improving the quality of life for people playing here. Wholesale changes aren’t needed and I don’t think they are wanted, most people like Eclipse for Eclipse but it’s just improving on the things we do well and fucking off the things we don’t. Be able to do more, with less.

As unfortunate as this statistic is, I've been involved in GTA Role-play communities for the past 17 years and as an admin or a server owner or just as a player, I've seen all the different stages that a community goes through. Stage 1 - The promising beginning, where every new update feels like a leap forward. Stage 2 - Riding the high when the server is popping and you're a part of something big. Stage 3 - On the other side of that peak where you know things aren't as good as they once were but there is enough nostalgia to have occasional enjoyable moments which reinforce why you play here. Stage 4 - The dark times, where you make desperate decisions like mass unban waves or moving to a smaller area to make the most of your population. Stage 5 - The Flat Line. Where you realize that there is no more miles in a community and you make the decision to call it a day. In my honest view, we're a Stage 3 community at this point, that is closer to Stage 4 than Stage 2. There was probably a point in time where we could have gotten closer to Stage 2 again, but that went around 18 months to 2 years ago. But for all intents, currently, we're Stage 3. I would wager that a lot of our long term players play here because they know most people and are known themselves, that they have memories and time invested in their characters and frankly, they hate the idea of starting over somewhere else. The investment of time, the nostalgia of when the server was a great experience for them and the status that being a known person in the community affords them. I was on a server between 2007-2012 and that server peaked in 2009 when it was getting 200/200 players. It was taken off the internet list for SA:MP that year while it was at Stage 2, which meant it was no longer publicly visible. Do you know how long it took for that server to reach Stage 5? Five years. It survived that long, solely by it's reputation and the dedication of it's player-base. I see a lot of that in Eclipse. Say what you will about credit sales, but considering that this has not been the most well supported community in terms of updates in the past few years and there have been quite a few mistakes in the running of the community, there are some seriously loyal people that show the fuck up and drop their hard ended cash, continuing this little server of ours. What is our realistic status in 2025? We're on the wrong GTA V platform, for growth, for starters. There is a reason why no one is making new servers any more on RAGE. You can make a FiveM server quicker than you can bake a cake and there is infinitely more support in doing it too. We're getting development updates from the developers and the trucker update was actually a really nice update by Paulius, but they simply don't have the capacity to either put out enough of these updates, quickly enough, to fix all the problems or the time/trust to allow third party developers to do it. We have an identity crisis as a server. @Salvador Rivera was right, this server is a medium role-play server. I actually think the assumption that when it comes to GOV that we are a heavy roleplay server is valid. I don't personally see the value in trying to over-emulate the LAPD where that emulation starts to be counter productive with the actual in-game experience but at the same time, it's actually still nice for the cop stuff to feel somewhat authentic, right? @XxTheIrishGuyxX was right, every thing about this server points to it being cops and robbers. Yet, we've put more focus, time and effort on supporting something completely contradictory to that, in the Government side of things than we have on better supporting our core emergency service factions (PD/SD/MD/DOC) or our criminal factions. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- I think we have a proportion problem with who does what in the server. I think we've got two massive police department factions that have their own politics and way they want to do things but they're competing, not only over any criminal situations that crop up but also over the people that want to be law enforcement, which inevitably leads to conflict, encroaching on each others areas and ultimately, bad feeling between the two. The problem with giving people too many options is that you over-dilute on the core areas of your player base. Think of it a bit like server properties. How many bars do you think we have in the server? The more bar properties we add, the more diluted it becomes, even if we added the script support for drinks. If you have 2-3 bars that are regularly open, that is infinitely better than 20-30 bars that open only a couple times. We have a lot of criminal factions but respectfully, there is not enough crime to support two full size Police Departments, a Medical Department and a Department of Corrections. That is in part, because the player base is the size it is but also, the other half is that beyond cops and crims, we have three full size mechanic factions, a taxi faction, a news faction, a full size Government faction and I'm probably forgetting some. I don't want to be disrespectful to members of those factions but in a GTA server, you're secondary important factions. The ecosystem of a GTA server is only as healthy as it's core Emergency Service factions and it's criminals. Currently, those factions are like an anchor around the neck of the server. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Additionally, I think as great as new updates and features are to the server, I think trying to do new things, especially when you do not play the server or have an understanding of the players you are making stuff for, can be as counter productive as doing nothing. For me, the main focus would be quality of life additions. Basically, how can we make the most of the things that make Eclipse enjoyable for the player base we have. I think that at this point, our best shot isn't trying to reach new players but retain current players and try and tempt old players to give it a go again. What people value most, I've found, is consistency and feeling like they have a say and are included in the community they play in. It's why I've tried to make my modding projects as personal for the server as possible and involve those people who will benefit. Adding stuff like Radio Jammers is something you do, when you're in great shape and you want to add an extra cherry on top. Not when your current activities are dictated by meta exploits or rely on the same game mechanics over and over. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- If it was me; I would merge Faction Management and Legal Faction Management with one staff member overseeing it, who has the personality and commitment and availability to be able to make difficult decisions but also work towards a shared community goal. Yes, FM and LFM serve different types of factions but communication is really important and frankly, sometimes the left hand in ECRP doesn't know what the right is doing. I'd introduce a faction cap to both PD and SD while the player count is what it is. I wouldn't force them to boot people out but in terms of fresh in-comings, they would have to either let inactive people go or wait for them to dip on their own. Of the Mechanic factions, I'd close Los Santos Customs down and while I know that might sound harsh, Benny's and Bayview are both consistently solid performers and they do a lot of work with the community in terms of events, they're incredibly important to the player base. We don't need three mechanic factions. I'd also impose a cap on those factions too. We don't need a lot of mechanics, we need active ones. LSC for me, is the one that has the most fluctuations. I'd stick a fork in the SAAA experiment. We never needed an Aviation Administration in ECRP but we tried it and tried it, it didn't work out. I'd actively look to downsize the State Government, to dedicated GOV individuals only. I understand the need for GOV and JB but ideally, Emily Whitehorse is a great example, they're dedicated to GOV. They aren't moonlighting in another faction or on a bunch of alts, they take what they do seriously. I'd cut the jail/prison cutoff down from 45 minutes to 20 minutes. Frankly, there is little to no value in someone being placed in a cell at Mission Row or Paleto, they have nothing to do and nowhere to go but AFK for their sentence. In prison, they can mix with people and actually do stuff. I'd make sure that the Prison Faction got more dev support. I take my hat off to anyone that has a DOC main or is a regular prison goer because honestly, the current experience would bore me to tears. Treating DOC as it's own mini-server would be the way to go. While players should try to avoid going IC, it shouldn't be an OOC punishment but it is. I'd also make sure the Medics got more dev support. Being healed by an actual medic would have more benefits to the player. Wounds would be hard coded, to avoid the awkward experience of players not knowing how to treat or how to explain their wounds in a way that makes sense. Adding the ability to knock some out out, as opposed to killing them. Bleeding out would be a longer experience, to allow for more chance of being saved by a medic. Fully dying (respawning) would come with recovery time, that would depend on how often you get injured. Allow for criminal factions reaching certain tiers to expand their member cap when reaching a certain tier. This encourages natural growth and rewards for good behavior. While it is great we have a lot of different factions, I feel like it is better for the ecosystem to have less factions than we have but those with perhaps a stronger identity that stands them apart from the rest. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Sorry for the long post and I know it's not going to go anywhere, but it beats actual sleeping. For me, unless Eclipse addresses it's fundamental issues, there isn't really any point suggesting or even fixing very specific problems because you're just treating the symptoms, not the disease itself. I think at this point, people have what they have, they like what they like and no one wants to risk doing something too different, which is fine. Love you, bye.

Except the poor bastard you murdered

BASED.

Look at the replies on any thread regarding prison times, on this forum. Again, check ANY thread regarding prison times on this forum. I don't imagine there is anything tangible to grab onto, like your posts. It is a game, but the expectation of people like you and some of the other people in this thread is that for the PD, it's a realism simulator. For everyone else, do as you like. There is a pretty clear reason why people are willing to spend 100s of euros on credits for pay-to-win credit vehicles, Harvey, and it's not for the culture. I don't really care about your surprise, lmao. A minority of criminals have had been beating the same drum for years, it's boring and predictable at his point. Now who is making assumptions. You've never been anything of significance in a law enforcement faction Harvey so don't pretend like you know what goes on in them, especially PD. In fact, just this week, a player on the server used our report system to discuss how we operate on the server and we went in depth with those concerns at our supervisor meeting and then took the time to respond to their concerns, because they bothered to reach out. When someone reports someone in-character, Internal Affairs takes as unbiased a view on handling those situations, depending on the incident and the evidence available to come to a fair conclusion. IA is ran by experienced faction members and overseen by Administrators. There has been very little, if any, complaints from Legal Faction Management regarding the behavior of our faction, so with respect, there is no damage to control. We don't have to be liked, it's not a popularity contest but we do our best within the server we actually have, to be as fair as we can. So, what is it? Is it a conspiracy by Legal Faction Management and the Server's Administration to suppress complaints and protect the PD faction or is it maybe, that after digging into most of these complaints, there is very little substance to it or maybe, just maybe, there is a lack of evidence to support the complaint. Again, we were under absolutely no obligation to post that announcement but just as you have on this forum, criminal roleplayers brought that up in /b when they found themselves in a situation they did not like. We acted in good faction and it was weaponised and turned on us, so in the end, we fucked it off. People weren't happy with the carrot they were given, so they went back to getting the stick again. I'll be transparent, if anything, at this moment I feel PD is probably too concerned with the opinions of other players at the moment, if anything. I'd happily hear out anyone that conducts themselves on their criminal character with OOC decency and a positive mindset and do what I could to support those factions, either in terms of the modding stuff or in their interactions with the people. I take issue with specific individuals but never an entire criminal faction. The problem is, there are just too many people like you, Harvey, that don't act in good faith and make things personal against factions for their own reasons. The real long standing issue is that there is no consistency in Eclipse, every one wants some thing different and there is no unifying force anymore to tie every thing together and point people all in the same direction. So, cops face one way, criminal factions another, civilian another and government another then pulls in their direction of choice.

@Salvador Rivera It’s pretty simple. The wait period for licenses is because we’re also not a light roleplay server and there are a few people, especially within GOV factions that think this should be a heavy roleplay server or that it should be realistic. No one said we were consistent. Criminals want a more realistic Police Department but they don’t want more realistic consequences. Would a criminal want a longer prison sentences? No. Would a criminal want, for example, us to add California’s three strike rule, where they could end up with life in prison for repeat offences? No. Would a criminal want a realistic speed cap on the vehicles so not everyone goes 200 kmh? No. So, what we are really saying in this thread is that criminals want it easier to do whatever they want, absent consequences. It’s not about realism, it’s about them winning. If people think that PD is doing something they shouldn’t and they don’t report it to the faction, but come on here to bitch about it, with no evidence then what do you expect us to do about it?

It's highly unrealistic for criminals to be able to be driving vehicles that advertise their amassed wealth because it'd be used against them in real life. Here, full time criminals will mostly drive the meta vehicles., because they want to have the best chance at a favorable outcome. We have the police cars, for the criminals cars we have to chase. As for the guns, we have the guns for the criminals we have. That being said, if you have any documented instances of people having heavy weapons out in situations that they should not, you should report it to the faction leaders. As for looting dead or dying cops, that is probably one of the stupidest things that a criminal could do. You're not only going to murder a member of law enforcement, you're going to run around with the weapon belonging to one. Cops IRL make a really big deal out of police issue weapons being on the street. It invites an ungodly amount of heat upon someone. As for the taser, they have the default range and unfortunately, players are not obligated to roleplay the effects of being tased, so quite often they have to be tased over and over. As for pursuit maneuvers, there is a pretty logical and reasonable appropriate that is followed by almost all cops. There will be instances where people go rambo and make contact when they shouldn't but as ridiculous as you thinking a police vehicle hitting a car going 200 km/h is, it's a server where a lot of people will drive significantly over the speed limit. This ain't real life and it's not heavy roleplay. It's not going to be heavy roleplay, it is what it is. We can tweak stuff, we can improve in some areas but this game is this game.

Yeah great idea, then we can spend three months filling it back up again

Have you perhaps considered that maybe they just don't see the issues the same that you do? Often times, when I see complaints from people or even when I've made complaints, it comes from a point of not knowing why something has been done. Lord knows I've had my fair share of conflicts with both LFM and FM on how they've handled stuff in the past, but ultimately, whether you like it or I like or not, they are the ones entrusted with handling these situations, not you or I. If they decide on a course of action, then we've got to go along with it. The harsh truth is, this server cut the engine years ago and we've been drifting ever since with a lack of identity and consistency across all it's areas. Every one wants something different and depending on who you are to someone, you may get it, you may not. If you do, you love the server. If you don't, you hate it. For some of us, myself included, we've accepted the truth. This place isn't going to wholesale change, especially with a new game on the horizon and for every person that wants wholesale change, there is probably someone else that likes things the way that they are or at least, they don't want to risk a change. Either you can learn to accept that and make the best of it for the time you have left here, you can leave the community or you can keep making these futile threads. I think @Quietthecutie was pretty spot-on with what she said, nearly everyone that comes into the PD faction tries to be fair and play the game in the right spirit. I'm sure it's the same in SD as well. Anyone that isn't operating in good faith, we don't really want as part of our group.

Ayyyy, we made it into the positives column on something!

The island has a purpose, the trucking. That’s it though, we don’t need people even more spread out. It’s extra roads to drive.

It's probably a little bit TOO far away from the main population, one of the hesistances of adding the bridge was that people would just go there to fight and that would be that, so adding a lab there wouldn't be so good. I've spoken a little bit with FM about the lab locations, including some potential new locations so perhaps when that happens, we'll see a bit more variation, as i get the point that people are just going around the same locations and it can be a little stale.

You not caring about winning, but you're making a post like this about losing? I don't even hate to break it to you, but ain't nobody on this server playing to lose. A person's idea of enjoyment on this server is being involved in situations that have a beneficial outcome to them and don't have a negative outcome. In the case of criminals, we're stopping them from doing that, sending them to a place they dont want to be and taking their assets in the process. Of course they're going to hate us. The LSPD faction is the best at it. We're like the in-character embodiment of those admins on the server that you don't want to fuck with. Telling people if they've never played crim to not comment is wild. It's wild because I've never been in a large criminal faction, only ever been a solo crim for a little but been a cop on the server for like six years and I've still done more for crims on this server than most. I didn't play crim but I personally made clothing for 10 criminal factions. I didn't play crim but I added a bunch of extra lab locations for criminal factions. In fact, if you wanna run through the suggestions, some of the most well received threads for suggestions on crim came from me. I don't say that to stroke my massive ego, I'm telling it to you because good ideas are good ideas regardless of their source. I'm not the only person that does this but some people just understand that criminals and cops need each other, but our roles are also different. Criminals can act first, criminals aren't bound by IC laws so there has to be a certain level of imbalance for cops, because if there isn't, there is little to no consequences for you. We get it, you don't like PD. You didn't like PD when you were a staff member and you singled out GND members. That's fine, but honestly, if there really is this huge problem like you say, then I'm sure LFM and FM will put their heads together and tell us about it.

What I tend to find amusing is that in order to try and prove some sort of people like this, a person will isolate a situation, strip it of context and use the parts that suit their narrative as if, like a bolt from beyond, NBDY or Osvaldon is all of a sudden going to go "Cyka blyat! we've been doing it wrong this whole time!" I think the reality is, we have the criminals and the police factions for the server we have and at this point, that isn't going to change so you making this thread, like a lot of the threads get made, are ultimately pointless. When I do it, it's pointless. That being said, PD leadership is regularly taking measures AGAINST it's own interest to ensure that we have as much of a fair playing environment as we can, without completely giving our arses up. You make your thread with your complaints but I really don't see the same fucking energy from the criminal community about the Niobes and the Italis that are blatantly unbalanced. I don't really see the same fucking energy from the criminal community when cop players in the late time-zones are being ran through because people know there is nothing PD can do about it. Last year, whether anyone outside of the PD wants to believe it or not, we made that OOC statement to the community about how we were going to be throttling our responses for the betterment of the community. Do you know what happened? People started weaponizing that shit against the faction, like how dare you arrest me, I thought you were going to go easy and all this. LFM hasn't addressed any concerns of weapon usage with us. We currently have no pending cases of people misusing their firearms in-character, so where is this issue you are so convinced about? The real truth, Harvey, is that you don't want balance at all. You want to win. That is the same for probably 90% of the criminal player base. They want to do what they want to do, with the freedom without consequences. People will make the most of the things they have available to them. This is why most criminals drive the same 8-10 models of car, in a pool of I don't even know how many at this point. It was the same shit in 2019. This is why people rob banks with BF-400s. Because everyone wants to take the shortest and easiest route to a favorable outcome in a situation on this server, regardless of whether it's to further roleplay, whether it's true to their character or not. The win comes first, the roleplay comes second. That is a universal truth for the vast majority of criminal players on this server, and that's fine. So, with all sincerity, why the fuck are you complaining about those times where we do it? You don't need to trouble yourself to answer, I'll answer for you. Because you care about winning, Harvey, more than you care about the quality of an role-play interaction, you always have and you always will. You're not alone in that regard and that's ok, but lets not lie to ourselves and act like it's only PD that is a problem, k?

Personally, I'm of the opinion that GPS' in all non-job vehicles should be removable but it should take like a screwdriver or something of that nature. Someone being able to access the faction storage from the passenger seat and yoink the GPS shouldn't really happen. Someone being able to steal a police vehicle and yoink the GPS instantly shouldn't really happen. People shouldn't really steal police vehicles anyway, it's not really worth the risk but at the same time, fine with that being a thing as it's a game. It just shouldnt be instant. Make it a short timer, maybe like 20-30 seconds to remove one. But don't discriminate between faction or player vehicles in that sense. Not that circle minigame though please, i beg.

Don't thank me, that's how it was when this server was fucking POPPING. Thank NBDY or Osvaldon for making that the way it was in the first place. I actually used to be a solo crim in 2019 when this was a thing and it absolutely was possible to make drugs, you just had to be smart about it.

Hello, I can understand that on the surface sometimes when as criminals, cops show up out of nowhere, it can seem like foul play right? Like if there is no gunshots, how might the cops know? I'm not going to go into why too much but often times, when people are thinking it's foul play, it's just simply that they are not aware of why they've been caught out. Can I 100% say that no one in PD for example has ever pushed a lab, knowing it's a lab? No, I can't. The faction doesn't control of it's members, all of the time so I'm not going to insult anyone by suggesting it hasn't happened. That being said, our faction members for example are well aware of the consequences, both from the staff team and from us as faction leadership for operating in bad faith, as it were. It's also somewhat awkward because you know certain spots are used for labs OOC but you can't use any of that information but you still have to sort of treat those locations like they are innocent, if that makes sense? Like no one is just randomly patrolling the Island but the Scrapyard is just off the main highway for example. To @Macca's point, we try not to shut down the lab if we don't have any other choice to, because we're trying to act in good faith. If there are any documented examples OP, of cops acting unrealistically then you're welcome to file a player report and I'm sure the staff team will take care of it. We try to keep doing our role on the server to the best of our ability but also want to keep things fair at the same time.

If it's cause issues for a number of players, then it's still an issue. Doesn't matter if you have a super computer or not.

I don't know if you would be able to toggle it but I think that we do have to be more responsible with how and where these posters are deployed. At the point where it's negatively impacting people's game performance, it's not really on is it?

They do but if you slow down some and hit them, you'll go through.

Something also to consider is that these objects don't spawn in at distance so if you are travelling at a high rate of speed, you might as well be driving into a tree or a wall. The blue barriers, unlike their orange ones, are fragmented so they will break upon impact. It will effect the speed of the vehicle, of course, but it won't be so drastic. As far as I'm aware, PD doesn't do this for this reason. SD shouldn't either, if they do.

I think we're pretty clear but also the feedback from outside the thread is that the job was better when it was cast and wait for the prompt, rather than the minigame so you have the opportunity to socialise and chill doing it. More money is always an incentive but then it'd probably cuck another job. The rest of the suggestions is ideally taking what we had and expanded upon it.

Forward this one to the devs, won't and can't promise anything will happen with it but it's gone to them.

I dunno Travis, I have a couple every now and then but yeah, part of the magic of fishing as has been explained to me, was how easy and low effort it was, so you could roleplay at the same time. I think thats perfect for spending 30..60..90 minutes in the same location.