Public labs revamp 2025

[Demonmit1]

Completely deleting public labs is a suggestion I made a bit ago that has garnered a lot of traction, but the likelihood of that big of a server mechanics change actually happening is very unlikely. the post can be found here if you're interested though - 

So, for this suggestion, I have some ideas to revamp labs with minor changes, that wont change the core gameplay loop, but will help change up the scenery a bit, and add more variation to the labs.

The core of the suggestion is to have labs automatically close every set period of time, be it, 6, 12, 24 hours, and open a new lab in a new location.

The second part of this would increase the number of active labs from max of 5, to a max of 7 to 10.

 

 

Why?
Public labs should more regularly cycle through the wide range of different labs locations. currently labs can end up being active for what feels like weeks, and the player vs player interaction and combat happening at the same location day after day after day gets dry. The only way a lab gets cycled out right now is if its shut down by law enforcement, and due to the extremely restrictive circumstances law enforcement can shut down a lab for, certain labs end up being open forever. if labs were on a timer to regularly close, cycle to a new location, and open, that would increase the variety of where criminal players are located, encourage exploration for players to seek out that day's active labs, reduce "clapper" gameplay effectiveness by not having the same labs open for weeks on end that are easy to run a route to check day in and day out, and show off more of the unique lab locations that were recently added.

increasing the max number of labs would help ease some of the difficulty this new lab cycle system would cause, so more labs are active, with a better chance to find one that you can cook at.

thoughts?

 

 

[Diligo]

i like more labs being active at the same time for that i give +1

but how exactly would a solo crim or a gang know when a lab is bound to close? dont want to see my drugs dissapear in the abyss.
A timer above the lab marker? because if so, me knowing that I am first in the lab that just opened gives me easy cooking time without any worry of potential discovery.
on the other hand when i dont know how many people know if the lab is active gives me immersion.
You never know when a clapper gang rollin' through

[Demonmit1]

1 minute ago, Diligo said:

but how exactly would a solo crim or a gang know when a lab is bound to close?

timer on the lab, or set time where it happens every day, midnight, 6am, noon, midnight for UTC

[Diligo]

5 minutes ago, Demonmit1 said:

timer on the lab, or set time where it happens every day, midnight, 6am, noon, midnight for UTC

now that i thought about it, a set time would be nice, but it should happen when the activity is at its lowest in the server.

but still if not the timer then at least please 7-10 labs active at the same time +++1111

Edited January 2, 2025 by Diligo

[Sibyrd]

yeah there definitely needs to be more active labs - cooking right now is just a game of waiting for a group with heavies coming round the corner making solo or casual play impossible - getting rid of private tables was cutting off one extreme, but its just resulted in going straight to the OTHER extreme instead of the middle.

[SpinalShank]

+1

I would also like gangs within their own territory to be capable of making one active with a timer to "put up tables" give them that capability 1 per 24 hours or something to that effect. Choosing an in territory lab seems like a given to me.

Maybe make it where at least two members must be present for the timer to activate 

[DoubleA]

Adding more active labs is a good and a bad thing - more active labs means more for different groups to do, more of a variety of the TYPE of labs, i think the big thing would be the table distribution. Having dedicated crack labs, dedicated coke labs, not a mix of 2 coke 2 crack and 3 weed or something like that, this goes back to my tiered labs solution of having 6 open, could also be more but similar ideas to what youre saying - +1!

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2025 by DoubleA

[Demonmit1]

4 hours ago, Diligo said:

at least please 7-10 labs active at the same time

4 hours ago, Sibyrd said:

yeah there definitely needs to be more active labs

46 minutes ago, DoubleA said:

Adding more active labs is a good and a bad thing

more active labs for the sake of more active labs is a bad thing, full stop. whether we like it or not, the server owners have kept this lab system how it is, with a max of 5 active at once for a reason, which is to foster player to player interaction at them.

the POINT of adding a few extra active labs was to compensate IF the labs would automatically rotate every 6-12 hours. just adding more labs is not the suggestion and i actually disagree with that idea.

[HighTV]

I would like to be able to pay $ to open a lab. Like 10k or something

[alexalex303]

I'm in favor of this, having the same lab for weeks sometimes seems rather boring and against the risk element meant for public labs.

[clickclack]

yeah

[moVex]

I'm not in favor in adding more active labs than it is now as it will just lower interaction between players, I do though agree with the cycle change, having the same lab for nearly a month gets dry and boring.

[Sibyrd]

3 hours ago, Demonmit1 said:

more active labs for the sake of more active labs is a bad thing, full stop. whether we like it or not, the server owners have kept this lab system how it is, with a max of 5 active at once for a reason, which is to foster player to player interaction at them.

the POINT of adding a few extra active labs was to compensate IF the labs would automatically rotate every 6-12 hours. just adding more labs is not the suggestion and i actually disagree with that idea.

looking at how you reply to these types of suggestions you seem like the person people are complaining about, the pvp mindsetted person rolling from lab to lab in a circle with heavies - risk vs reward isn't adding up

[Demonmit1]

11 minutes ago, Sibyrd said:

you seem like the person people are complaining about, the pvp mindsetted person rolling from lab to lab in a circle with heavies

character 1: former Weazel News manager + Director of public relations of JB
character 2: drunk homeless man

very PVP mindset.... lol

just outright opening more labs means labs are easier. access to the fastest way to make money on the server becomes easier with lower risk. you just want money to be easier to get. :shrug:

Edited January 2, 2025 by Demonmit1

[Sibyrd]

2 minutes ago, Demonmit1 said:

character 1: former Weazel News manager + Director of public relations of JB
character 2: drunk homeless man

very PVP mindset.... lol

just outright opening more labs means labs are easier. access to the fastest way to make money on the server becomes easier. you just want money to be easier to get. :shrug:

honestly no, i dont, but as somebody who usually plays solo or in a small group, the game is currently near impossible to play as every 15 minutes you get rolled in on with somebody using a pump.

 

if i "just want money to be easier to get" i'd simply roll around robbing people too instead of cooking, but i'd like to RP as a drug cook, not the average gmod darkrp user

[Demonmit1]

6 minutes ago, Sibyrd said:

the game is currently near impossible to play as every 15 minutes you get rolled in on with somebody using a pump.

if you're playing as a free loot pinata standing in a lab, unfortunately people are going to treat you as a free loot pinata. labs are incredibly dangerous and are effectively treated as a PVP redzone.

have  you considered building relationships with people you know are the types that roll labs for PVP? maybe find a way to make yourself or your small group useful to that group in exchange for protection. maybe make friends with people who have big guns and bigger numbers to cook with them, using them as protection while you cook.

as long as public labs exist, (which in my previous labs suggestion, i suggested the complete removal of) being a solo drug cooker with no connections or relationships, you're just gonna get rolled for whatever you have, cause that's worth more to others in that instance than other things. build relationships outside of labs to avoid constantly getting robbed, and you'll get the experience you need to know when and where you can cook safely, and when you should probably dip.

Edited January 2, 2025 by Demonmit1

[Steven Hayes]

maybe dont have them close so quickly, unless theres a timer like some others were saying, you could be mid cook and just have your shit vanish off the table (unless it just refunds the stuff to your inventory automatically) also drugs are probably the most profitable activity on the server so it needs to have risk or else you are just spawning in infinite money like with private tables.

43 minutes ago, Demonmit1 said:

just outright opening more labs means labs are easier. access to the fastest way to make money on the server becomes easier with lower risk. you just want money to be easier to get. :shrug:

have to kinda agree with this here labs make too much money to be low risk. i remember when you could spawn in hundreds of thousands of dollars with zero risk daily. 

38 minutes ago, Sibyrd said:

honestly no, i dont, but as somebody who usually plays solo or in a small group, the game is currently near impossible to play as every 15 minutes you get rolled in on with somebody using a pump.

 

if i "just want money to be easier to get" i'd simply roll around robbing people too instead of cooking, but i'd like to RP as a drug cook, not the average gmod darkrp user

going to the most dangerous areas on the server with potentially loads of free loot unarmed alone is always going to be risky. this is why ppl bring guns or go in groups or whatever. you have to rp or you could also get creative and succeed in solo cook, but accept that doing these things solo, or doing anything on eclipse solo will be significantly more difficult cus you are playing the server in an unintended way. you are meant to run into issues and find others who can help you resolve those issues to move to the next level u know.

alternatively there are other great ways of making money that arent labs, while you wont make as much most likely, its still possible. 

so i cant support this suggestion as far as more active labs go except for maybe 1 or 2 more and some extra weed plantations around the map i think would be good to have to alleviate this issue, but you cant have it be too easy

Edited January 2, 2025 by Steven Hayes
added something

[Sibyrd]

23 minutes ago, Steven Hayes said:

maybe dont have them close so quickly, unless theres a timer like some others were saying, you could be mid cook and just have your shit vanish off the table (unless it just refunds the stuff to your inventory automatically) also drugs are probably the most profitable activity on the server so it needs to have risk or else you are just spawning in infinite money like with private tables.

have to kinda agree with this here labs make too much money to be low risk. i remember when you could spawn in hundreds of thousands of dollars with zero risk daily. 

going to the most dangerous areas on the server with potentially loads of free loot unarmed alone is always going to be risky. this is why ppl bring guns or go in groups or whatever. you have to rp or you could also get creative and succeed in solo cook, but accept that doing these things solo, or doing anything on eclipse solo will be significantly more difficult cus you are playing the server in an unintended way. you are meant to run into issues and find others who can help you resolve those issues to move to the next level u know.

alternatively there are other great ways of making money that arent labs, while you wont make as much most likely, its still possible. 

so i cant support this suggestion as far as more active labs go except for maybe 1 or 2 more and some extra weed plantations around the map i think would be good to have to alleviate this issue, but you cant have it be too easy

I actually completely agree with you, there should definitely be a good amount of risk - however the risk right now is just too great due to the low number of labs. We’ve gone from one extreme of private labs where the risk was near 0 IF you knew how to do it right to the other extreme; im simply suggesting that there should be a middle ground to avoid some of the unrealistic chain-robbery RP

[Steven Hayes]

13 minutes ago, Sibyrd said:

I actually completely agree with you, there should definitely be a good amount of risk - however the risk right now is just too great due to the low number of labs. We’ve gone from one extreme of private labs where the risk was near 0 IF you knew how to do it right to the other extreme; im simply suggesting that there should be a middle ground to avoid some of the unrealistic chain-robbery RP

in that case yea i think adding 1, 2, maybe 3 labs to rotation might be a good idea, and adding more plantations, good amount of my time on eclipse was as a solo criminal so i understand where the suggestion was coming from. But you also cant make the game too easy for solo criminals or else it lowers player interaction and makes the game feel alot more like gta online.  So yea just adding a couple extra labs and plantations i think would be good, makes things easier for small time people but still encourages networking and shit

[Phantas]

Labs should just be left how they are and let dev time be spent on some new criminal content like a racing script or somthing. Let people play crim without having to do labs,chop,or banks as the main three crim activities

Edited January 2, 2025 by Phantas

[brooklands280t]

I would personally like to see the current labs have the number of tables reduced and be intended for more solo/small groups and the big factions be able to place tables inside of their own territories.

[Salvador Rivera]

I have already said this several times. Gangs don't have anything else to do but ride the Drug laabs and do PVP all day long. We have turfs for which I did not see the meaning at all. Why not change all this so that the gangs have their turf and are in it. For example, the more influence your turf has, the more chance you and your gang have to make drugs there. You and your gang should buy a property or a place to do it. And it would be more interesting to keep that place a secret so that no one else would know about it.  
Speaking of drug tablets and everything else : Make it so that the plants can be grown in flower pots and indoors. But to do that, you need the same fans and lighting as well as water to water the plants with it. As it was done before when you had to cool the tables with water and clean them to reduce the possibility of them exploding. Only here it could be done in such a way as to increase the quantity of quality. I see that dev is trying something and trying to change. But all this is changed to increase PVP on the server. Which again kills people who would so directly want to do some activities related to this.

[Salvador Rivera]

7 hours ago, Ekon said:

I'm not in favor in adding more active labs than it is now as it will just lower interaction between players, I do though agree with the cycle change, having the same lab for nearly a month gets dry and boring.

 I'm also not a fan of adding multiple drug lab locations. Please tell me what exactly you mean with ''interaction between players'' .  I could probably guess it with the first one ......

[alexalex303]

6 minutes ago, Salvador Rivera said:

I have already said this several times. Gangs don't have anything else to do but ride the Drug laabs and do PVP all day long. We have turfs for which I did not see the meaning at all. Why not change all this so that the gangs have their turf and are in it. For example, the more influence your turf has, the more chance you and your gang have to make drugs there. You and your gang should buy a property or a place to do it. And it would be more interesting to keep that place a secret so that no one else would know about it.  
Speaking of drug tablets and everything else : Make it so that the plants can be grown in flower pots and indoors. But to do that, you need the same fans and lighting as well as water to water the plants with it. As it was done before when you had to cool the tables with water and clean them to reduce the possibility of them exploding. Only here it could be done in such a way as to increase the quantity of quality. I see that dev is trying something and trying to change. But all this is changed to increase PVP on the server. Which again kills people who would so directly want to do some activities related to this.

Spawning money inside an interior has been incredibly unhealthy. If these faction labs were outside so that you could be interacted with by other gangs or law enforcement, I would support this.

Locking yourself in your own private world for hours is not good for the server.

[Salvador Rivera]

Just now, alexalex303 said:

Spawning money inside an interior has been incredibly unhealthy. If these faction labs were outside so that you could be interacted with by other gangs or law enforcement, I would support this.

Locking yourself in your own private world for hours is not good for the server.

 

We have both experienced it and know it. The main idea behind all of this is to find a proper approach to all of this and not increase PVP on the server. I'd like to see turf and drug making go hand in hand.  Makes the process much more interesting.

For now, as I see it, it's easy money making with the possibility that someone who has nothing to do will try to rob from you.