LSC and Bayview idea

[Blazejackson]

Coming back to the server after a year I can’t help but notice that factions mainly such as LSC and Bayview are still struggling with keeping active at all times on the server especially for NA hours. This has been a problem for a couple years now but I find the problem is not getting solved.

My main concern is, are the mechanic jobs too boring? Is that the cause for the lack of mechanics in the city? I feel with the new chop system that came into place why can’t that be incorporated into LSC and Bayview to make the mechanic job more interactive, such as taking off the wheels and adding new ones, or replacing damaged doors, or swapping out the engine. The parts can only be used by mechanics to repair vehicles and when the mechanic is done with his/her repair he/she can do a command such as /finishrepair when done with the RP. I feel this would make the mechanics jobs more interesting and maybe gather more interest for more people wanting to be mechanics, because right now it's copy and paste RP in the chats and after a while of doing that could be boring for the player.

-have the chop setups tweaked for LSC and Bayview

-have a warehouse for LSC and Bayview where mechanics can go in a van to pickup parts (doors, wheels, engines, hoods, trunks)

-The mechanic will use the parts to replace on the vehicles, each time a /startrepair command is ran there will be different variations of what parts on a car need to be repaired, maybe if its a small repair for 100 vehicle health only 2 tires need to be replaced, or 1 door but if it's a big repair for 800 vehicle health maybe the engine needs to come out and some of the doors.

-the doors, wheels, engines etc… will not be the same as the illegal ones, these won’t be able to be sold to an illegal NPC dealer.

-Mechanics will have a command to /startrepair and /finishrepair.

-When an on duty mechanic takes off a door, wheel or engine etc.. the parts will either vanish or will be renamed to “broken engine” “broken door” and the mechanics will have to dispose of these parts at the recycling factory or could extend the script of the garbage job to get sent a request to pick up the parts from LSC and Bayview for decent pay.

I feel this opens more doors for LSC and Bayview and could boost interest as we have seen every crim update boosts the amount of crims so maybe a tweak to LSC and Bayview could boost activity making it easier for the community to get repairs and mods, as it is a struggle when only 1 mechanic is online and auto repairs ain’t open and you need to try and get a vehicle with no tires from LSC to bayview just to carry on playing the game, most of the time when players can’t get a repair or have to travel across the map to 1 mechanic then he clocks off and then someone in LSC clocks on it's just a traveling across the map game for a repair, we just tend to log off for the night and try and log on earlier the following day to see if a mechanic will be around. This happens more than you could imagine.

I understand the queue with updates right now and the community begging for the teased updates, but if this is something that is not too demanding on the dev team it would be cool to be implemented, also would like to hear feedback from mechanics on what they think about this.
 

[EnkoY]

Your suggestions are very much appreciated.

I personally run through a lot of ideas in my mind and try to actively think of ways that we can improve upon the current state of mechanic RP.
There is a lot of communication that takes place between myself and LFM on many of these topics, so that we can hopefully get to a point where we can look at the Mechanic RP and start improving upon what is currently in place, and adding features to enrich the Mechanic RP experience on our platform.

My personal commitment to LSC is one that extends beyond just the LSC faction, because the Bayview and LSC factions operate within the same framework from a dev perspective, and it is the social and environmental aspects that make the two factions different. There are of course more factors that contribute to each faction's unique identity, however, the bottom line is that we both operate on the same script/dev framework and to improve and enrich that framework, we need to think on a greater level than just the faction.

While I do not agree with all of your points, I think there is truth to be found in the sentiment.
I don't necessarily think mechanic RP is boring on its own, however, it's very technical and I would argue one of, if not the most text-RP intensive job on the server. It attracts a certain demographic and exists in an ecosystem where it needs to compete with factions that either have much more action-focused RP and are much more dynamic in the nature of the RP, or it competes with factions that simply operate within the pure social aspect of roleplay.
The mechanic job is a very "pure" RP job with a plethora of /me's and /do's put out for each "job", where there is not a lot of physical action or interaction when actually conducting the faction duties.
Mechanics are interacting with customers and colleagues, yes, but in the end, the true faction duties are interacting with an inanimate object: a vehicle.
This leads the mechanic RP to be mostly limited to just typing out lines of RP.

At LSC, and also Bayview, we are actively trying to implement new features to enrich the RP experience for mechanics and improve upon the interactions. One great example is the RP interaction with the owners of the vehicles in the form of the diagnostic tool RP, which prompts the player who owns the vehicle to respond to RP through /do's to indicate what exactly is malfunctioning on the vehicle.
Another is duo-RP, where my idea is that we encourage mechanics to work together on vehicles, which again introduces another dynamic to the RP interaction, because at that point it becomes an RP interaction with another person, not just an inanimate object. Unfortunately for this to work, we need a large player base to populate these factions as most players on the server are incredibly impatient when it comes to repairs.

I think another issue is the way players value their means of transportation. We have players blasting through the streets at 200+ km/h and if they crash their car into a tree, barring a total destruction of the vehicle to 0HP, it costs approximately the same as 2 sandwiches to have it fully repaired. I know total losses can be expensive, but they're supposed to be.
I personally think it's ridiculous that a full vehicle repair costs the same in parts as a single sandwich.

We all know development resources are scarce, however, I can guarantee that there is a large and active push among mechanic faction's leadership to get some of those development resources assigned to improving and enriching the mechanic RP.

It's interesting because a lot of these suggestions can almost literally be found in my application for the LSC faction leader position that I submitted a year ago.

As with all problems, I do not believe we can pinpoint just one issue that causes the mechanic jobs to be less popular, but the nature of the job definitely plays a part in the issues the factions are facing. We can see that mechanic factions thrive purely on the social aspect of the factions, which, when it comes to mechanic RP, honestly just isn't quite what the faction's RP is about in its current state.

From my perspective, I can guarantee that I am personally pushing for changes to the mechanic RP and that my focus with LSC lies primarely on the faction itself, but I fully understand that to be competitive with other factions on the server, we need to work on the nature of the mechanic RP to improve its appeal beyond just the social aspect.

[TheCactus]

@Blazejackson I thought about the same thing. Also make it so the items (tools that mechanics use and "new wheel", "new door", etc.) are like burgershot food so the script won't allow you to drop them or give them do someone that isn't a mechanic.

I would like to see a bonus added for every vehicle you work on.

 

Quote

I think another issue is the way players value their means of transportation. We have players blasting through the streets at 200+ km/h and if they crash their car into a tree, barring a total destruction of the vehicle to 0HP, it costs approximately the same as 2 sandwiches to have it fully repaired. I know total losses can be expensive, but they're supposed to be.
I personally think it's ridiculous that a full vehicle repair costs the same in parts as a single sandwich.

If the vehicle gets to 0 HP you are going to pay a lot more than $1000. I believe it was 7.5k for an elegy retro custom last time I checked. Most people would just push their car in the water and get it from mors instead. Repairs should cost more based on the damage of the vehicle instead of 1k for a vehicle at 899 HP or 1 HP.

Edited May 18, 2023 by TheCactus

[KonaKealoha]

Shit, try to get a mechanic to come to your broken down car even when there's people AT the mechanic shops... After an IRL hour of no reply, I logged out, came back later in the day and called for help again with 3 mechanics online... waited another IRL hour and had no choice but to push my car into a river so I could get an insurance claim on it. 

[Alannn]

+1 good suggestion!!

[Tom Solar]

On 5/18/2023 at 9:47 PM, KonaKealoha said:

push my car into a river so I could get an insurance claim on it

just so you know, i asked around about this some months ago and it was confirmed that destroying your own vehicle as an "insurance fraud" to avoid waiting for mechanics is a rulebreach and considdered nonrp

[KonaKealoha]

3 hours ago, Tom Solar said:

just so you know, i asked around about this some months ago and it was confirmed that destroying your own vehicle as an "insurance fraud" to avoid waiting for mechanics is a rulebreach and considdered nonrp

I get that... But people IRL destroy their own shit for insurance, so I figured it wasn't totally NonRP, and besides that, I waited over 2 irl hours for a mechanic, not sure why them purposefully ignoring a call for essential services wouldn't be considered NonRP either so they can keep hanging out with their friends that are at the shop. So we're just gonna let it ALL slide. LOL

[Tom Solar]

15 minutes ago, KonaKealoha said:

them purposefully ignoring a call

There are plenny ic reasons why they wouldnt accept an mr before you canceled it, especially when there is only 3 (as you mentioned) mechanics spread over lsc and bayview.

I can understand that that is how it feels but they are probably not ignoring your request on purpose.

 

Not that I don't cheer on an update for the mechanics btw, they deserve it, OP's post sounds interesting!

[power]

I would love it if repairing a vehicle became a minigame. The more damaged a car is the more iterations of the minigame we have to play, maybe implement a damage system similar to that in the F1 games:

If the devs want to keep it simple, each car has a similar setup where the spoiler has damage, each of the doors have damage and the front bumper has damage. Or if they want to make it complicated they could also include each individual wheel, and diversify it for every part that the user can choose in the mod menu. Then, using this kind of system, when the customer brings their car to a mechanic shop, the mechanic can see what areas of the car are broken and then must complete some kind of minigame, maybe something like a puzzle of that part? So for example, a door on 0hp would require the mechanic to solve a puzzle of putting pieces into the shape of a door, and having a time limit to do so. Suddenly, mechanic RP becomes about this fun minigame.

[jowebb7]

I am just getting back into the server after a few years away. 

The one of the issues with these jobs is that when you get into the later evenings(NA time zone) it’s feast or famine. There are times when I used to “stand in the ledge” by myself for 30 minutes. I didn’t log into the server to stand on a ledge with no interaction. But you also have the flip side which is there are plenty of times where you have 2 or 3 cars lined up and 3 or 4 mechanic request and you find yourself typing /mess and /dos for 30 minutes straight without any “real” RP because you are rushing through everything because there are a ton of people who need help. 
 

The best RP is always somewhere in the middle where you would have 3 or 4 people on the clock. You could take your time with customers to do fun RP, you can chat with the other mechanics, and there is a person out answering mech request. But that is not what happens in late night USTZ. 
 

But that is also a server wide issue. There is often less police and EMS in these later hours also. The difference is when you get injured, anyone can take you to the hospital. When there is a situation that requires the police, if they don’t show up then fun RP happens. When your car breaks down in the middle of no where(and there are no taxi drivers on for good measure) you are forced to either stand there and hope some one comes to repair your vehicle or run 20 minutes to a city bee while leaving your car to get stolen or chopped. 
 

I think it is less of an RP issue and more of a how can we let people repair their cars when a mechanic can’t get to them. 

[Vitaly Gorbachev]

1. Commission based work

Gives incentive for mechanics to actually work on cars. The funds should be covered by Government (scriptly and not related to the business)

2. Increase the pay per hour for mechanics

Gives incentive for mechanics to actually go on shift. Lots of players just move on to something more interactive that makes 2-3x more money and quit their mechanic jobs.

3. Indicate where the mechanics on shift are based when calling for an MR.

Currently the /mechanic request displays all mechanics online, it should show LSC: 0 and Bayview: 6 so you know you will have to either cancel the request if you are in the city and no one is at LSC, or you have to make a plan (private towing) to get your car to Bayview.

4. Private towing companies as freelance job.

Similar to trucking, a person can make a request for a private towing company. The job will come up similar to the trucking dispatches. Players can choose to increase the bonus if they want their car to be towed first. The tow should be standard $1500 + (amount bonus). Government should subsidies these deliveries so the tow employee makes a fair amount in commission, and should get bonuses from completing 5 tows, similar to that of trucking (I think this bonus is quite low and should be increased by the way, to $2000 and not the pathetic $200 that its at right now). This should also allow for custom tow trucks to be used. The more you pay, the less effort you have to put in to rig the car to your truck (like in real life)

In addition, police can request the private towing company to assist in towing a vehicle out to the impound lot. (to be escorted by police) 

 

[Requiem]

On 9/9/2023 at 4:50 PM, Roo Lestrange said:

1. Commission based work

Gives incentive for mechanics to actually work on cars. The funds should be covered by Government (scriptly and not related to the business)

2. Increase the pay per hour for mechanics

Gives incentive for mechanics to actually go on shift. Lots of players just move on to something more interactive that makes 2-3x more money and quit their mechanic jobs.

3. Indicate where the mechanics on shift are based when calling for an MR.

Currently the /mechanic request displays all mechanics online, it should show LSC: 0 and Bayview: 6 so you know you will have to either cancel the request if you are in the city and no one is at LSC, or you have to make a plan (private towing) to get your car to Bayview.

4. Private towing companies as freelance job.

Similar to trucking, a person can make a request for a private towing company. The job will come up similar to the trucking dispatches. Players can choose to increase the bonus if they want their car to be towed first. The tow should be standard $1500 + (amount bonus). Government should subsidies these deliveries so the tow employee makes a fair amount in commission, and should get bonuses from completing 5 tows, similar to that of trucking (I think this bonus is quite low and should be increased by the way, to $2000 and not the pathetic $200 that its at right now). This should also allow for custom tow trucks to be used. The more you pay, the less effort you have to put in to rig the car to your truck (like in real life)

In addition, police can request the private towing company to assist in towing a vehicle out to the impound lot. (to be escorted by police) 

 

I am in support of all of your suggestions, but I have my doubts with point 4. Tow trucks are powerful tools to have in the server and can abused easily if you aren't careful. With two clicks, you can pick up any car you want and move it, whether its locked or not. If someone abuses it, it can become NRP really quickly. Those who are given tow trucks to use should be a reputable faction and have trust of server staff that they will use it properly. 

[Ash]

36 minutes ago, Requiem said:

abused easily

Just /offerTow LP and they have to /acceptTow for it to be able to be towed? So needs the owners permission

[Vitaly Gorbachev]

Or you have LSC and Bayview issue permits for private towing which gives you the ability to tow, as you are trained and skilled when you get your permit.

Refer to:
 

 

[Vitaly Gorbachev]

could fall under licensing

i.e

[Towing License]