My suggestion on how to improve things so far

[MrUntouchable215]

So, this won't be a long and detailed post, but I've been away for a while and I've been thinking about a few things that could possibly benefit the server in the short and long term. While playing on ECRP, from the moment i joined a few months ago, up to this point, a few things were noticed. Firstly, I noticed that this server is pushing towards heavy-RP but the approach is in my opinion, incorrect. You're trying to throw heavy RP habits onto a casual RP community. Most of the people I ran into on this server are here because of the huge differences between this and official GTA, it's almost an entirely new game; props to the developers for everything they've done so far. The fact that you can be a scripted in police officer and actually put someone in jail is sick. The fact that you respawn with an empty inventory at MD and not directly next to your previous opponent is amazing and the fact that everything is just so...detailed and different from the normal GTA is breath taking. 

With that being said, the server's problem isn't things that might be broken or things that need to be added in, it's the people that need reforming and to be motivated to jump into character. People get robbed so much because of the action that's involved, not because they actually need the items they're robbing off of said person. People in PD want action just as much as the criminals and you can tell the RP is casual because OOC salt gets thrown into most losing battles. When everyone first joined this server, it was mandatory that we write our character bio before you guys allow us on the server, but how many of us actually stick to that bio? A lot of us join, cause chaos or join a faction and abandon most thoughts of RP, only doing what's scripted in front of us and the factions have become extremely lazy in their approach and has been for a very long time.

These will be my main and only suggestions I think the server needs in order to improve.

 

1. MD

   Excuse my french, but get off of your asses and actually hire people and put them through training. If you're not going to make time to do these things regardless of the reasoning, hand the job to someone that will and most of all, lower your expectations; give people a chance. When I first joined this server, it didn't take me long before I ended up joining a government faction. I was playing a character named Flint Johnson and I ended up joining LSC. I was hired by Cynthia and trained by James Carwyn. Keep in mind, this all happened extremely quick. I put my application in, it got reviewed and accepted, I did my interview, training and started work within a day. LSC from my experience has been producing players with quality RP in drones for as long as I've been here to witness it. Even when they no longer work at LSC, their presence and experience on the server is usually well off because they were given a chance and learned so much RP along the way. When I was there, Noah had the gavel at LSC and now it belongs to James Carwyn, who's been pushing for higher quality RP and working his ass off to keep LSC improving for as long as I've been there. I say that to say; take a lesson from LSC. You don't always have to hire the absolutely most qualified people, just hire people, train them and let them work. The server requires more MD and has needed it for a very long time, this needs to stop being ignored. My girlfriend signed up for MD and ended up quitting because the training took so long. Most people didn't feel like doing it or were too busy doing something else.

 

2. PD 

  Seriously, I've seen such a huge improvement in the PD faction as of late. They acquired more members, reformatted the way they take people to prison and actually show up with back up most of the time. I rarely see cowboy lone-ranger cops anymore and I take my hat off to you guys for that. The only suggestion I have for you is to make an OOC agreement with criminals to let the north be the north. What I mean by that is this, PD response times are limited by the area of which you can patrol and the people you have online at the time. Unfortunately, compared to the city, the north side of the map is almost extremely lawless. It's to the point where most of the police shootouts happen up there and most of the people getting robbed are there too. Allow the north to be a gang infested cesspool, treat it like Mexico. This isn't to say "Don't do your job" but you will see the crime rate decrease if the amount of officers you have, patrol the city all at once, majority of the time. If you need to respond to a call up north, go for it, but don't prioritize it. This is an area where people go to make drugs, chop cars, rob people, shoot people and they do it whether you're there or not. I'm sure you guys notice it if you really think about it. Your chances of dying go up a lot up there in comparison to the city where people actually need you. Allow gangs to handle other gangs up north, as long as they're staying out of your way. I'm almost positive this will improve to overall quality of RP on the server, as backwards as that seems. People are more afraid of numbers than one good shooter. Protect innocents, don't meddle in gang affairs unless it spills out directly onto the civilians. This suggestion is not needed, I'm well aware but I thought I would put my finger on it anyway. I don't really have much to say when it comes to PD; they're improving but the OOC shit between you guys and criminals have to stop.

*Edit* One more thing. If you want higher quality RP and you want to truly separate criminals from civilians and lower the rate of crime...Start actually suspending gun licenses. If I kill someone and you think I deserve a max prison sentence, you don't think it's odd that I can get out of jail, walk to a gun store and just buy a gun like I'm shopping at Walmart? This doesn't even have to be elaborated on, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Feel free to ignore most of the other shit I said above as that wasn't really important and I know making north a lawless zone is extremely unlikely and possibly a bad idea.  T'was just a thought.

 

3. Staff

   I'll be blunt here, so I apologize if I offend anyone. Just. Do. Your. Job. Seriously, no one cares about how much you dislike a certain faction or a certain person. You have the privilege of still being able to actually play the game while you're also an Admin, don't abuse it. Use your head, not your emotions. There's so many staff members that do a swell job and this post is not for you. This is for the staff that wear their emotions on their sleeve. I'm talking to you MarcoD. You're not a bad guy, I'm sure of it. I'm sure you're a decent person outside of ECRP but on this server, you have an extremely sour reputation for being abusive. I've witnessed this first hand quite a few times. I've watched you die in character and teleport back to where you died, just to take your car. This happened at LSC. I watched you ruin so many RP situations that didn't involve you and I've seen clips of you just completely taking things too far. There was a report a while ago against some members of Los Zetas and because of this report, several members of the gang were banned Cynthia made the report but you were at the scene. Come to find out later, there was information left out of the report that justified the shootout that happened and neither you or Cynthia thought it was important to include it in the post. They got their ban lifted after Osvaldon investigated it further but you didn't think it was important to say anything? As a member of staff? As a person that was directly involved? I've spoken to officers that also said the same exact things about you, not just criminals. 

I'm not saying these types of staff members should be fired, but there needs to be a serious discussion about when and when not to use Admin mode and how to present yourselves to the community. Are you here to help the server and the people on it, or are you here to only punish people?

 

4. This goes for everyone

  Stop judging people's Roleplay so much. Stop telling people "That's not realistic" "That's horrible RP" so much. I get it, some things just go too far, like saying you're immune to bullets or power gaming to shit but constantly saying shit like "Gangs don't rob cops" or "gangs don't do it like this" needs to stop. If they aren't breaking rules, leave it alone. If they're actually trying to RP but you don't like it, leave it alone. If you're not involved in the Mafia, Cartel or any gang or criminal organization in real life, and you're also not a cop in real life..you don't know what the hell you're talking about. I remember when gangs used to war over territories on ECRP and you couldn't try to take someone's territory without a "Valid RP reason" so some players would literally have an inactive gang with two people owning a warehouse and hide so hard behind the rules, that it could never be taken. In REAL life, a valid reason to take your territory is as simple as wanting it. If you are pushing drugs on a corner and you're alone but it makes a ton of money, someone is going to take that shit from you. You don't have to offend them, kill one of their guys, nothing. If they want it, they're going to take it. You basically telling us that in order for us to take a territory, we basically have to be offended is ballcocks. I get why the rule is there and I think it should remain but I said that as a means to say, not everything is going to be realistic and you can't contradict yourself with unrealistic rules and constantly tell people how shit and unrealistic their RP is. If you think RP needs to be improved, lead by example or teach us how to do it. Don't expect us to act a certain way, when we don't know how to. This goes for everyone, not just staff or PD; criminals too and normal civilians too.  

 We need to fill these factions in and teach people, not just punish them and outcast them because you think they aren't good enough. I can't edit this post or even type properly at the moment because it's 3:40AM and I can barely keep my eyes open, but hopefully you guys can get through the terrible grammar and understand what I'm trying to say. I'm not trying to rant, it just came out that way, I'm typing as the thoughts flow. This server is amazing and I truly want to see it continue growing. I'm just tired of all of the drama within the community and the confusion. This is a suggestion post but I also want a discussion as well. Even if you disagree with everything I said, please at the very least post your opinions and suggestions about what could improve ECRP below. If you guys have a problem with a specific person, faction, anything; post is below and try to talk it out in a humane manner. Let's settle everything all in one go.

Edited December 15, 2018 by MrUntouchable215

[Aldari]

29 minutes ago, MrUntouchable215 said:

MD

The comparison between LSC and MD is not a fair comparison. MD is by it's very nature a heavier role-play faction with a lot more to learn, it also includes a lot more interaction with community members and potentially new players on a context (roleplay) they might not understand. Standards are high, but they're high for a reason in MD and that is because of the level of roleplay involved. Apart from cops, MD probably interact with more people of the server than anybody else. "Just let them work" is a bad philosophy when the work MD do can really ruin or make someones day, and when they have such powerful script commands. They have to make sure those that get access to such commands are putting in the RP to compliment it. 

I agree MD need more people and I think there is other ways around this that don't include just letting anybody join.

 

 

32 minutes ago, MrUntouchable215 said:

PD 

Reworking gun licenses is currently a work in progress. 

 

35 minutes ago, MrUntouchable215 said:

Staff

If you have a problem with another member of staff or see them abusing their power then report it, admins that have abused their position in the past have been punished and if they're seen abusing their position then they will be punished. It's curious to me that there is many accusations of staff or certain staff abusing their powers, but so little evidence of it. In a world where recording softly is freely and readily available and almost all games have built in screenshot functionality you'd think there would be evidence of this, but so far there hasn't bee anything, but word of mouth. 

Secondly, this is also why we have an appeals process. Admins are not infallible or incapable of making mistakes, we're subject to the human condition just like everybody else, that's why everybody has the right to appeal their punishment and why no decision made by an admin, or any punishment handed out, is considered final for all of time. If someone does appeal their punishment successfully don't instantly assume the admin that handed out the original punishment was in anyway malicious, we're not, sometimes mistakes happen or sometimes a more senior member of staff disagrees. 

Lastly, being a member of staff is potentially a thankless job that can lead people to confirmation bias. Everybody will remember those punishments you handed out to 5 people or a gang, or everybody will remember that one time you made a slip up, but does anybody remember the times you help people out? Not really, because they're not always public. So, when judging a member of staff, perhaps take the time to also consider the things they might have also done that day that you don't necessarily know about. 

[MusketDeezNuts]

Locked and archived for disrespect towards some of our community members.