Ways to increase player count in ECRP

[XxTheIrishGuyxX]

Hello All, 

Noone seems to be addressing the elephant in the room, or talking about ways to improve it. So, I wanted to make a discussion on it. I have been on the server since 2020, and have plaid consistently since then. 

For those who may not know, the player count in ECRP peaked in 2021. Since then, we have been losing players consistently year over year. Even though we are losing players nobody seems to be doing anything. Every beginning has an end, and if the Devs want the end of ECRP soon, then it is what it is. We had a great run. But if we want to last another year or longer in my opinion, we need to increase the player base. I care about the server and want to make a lot more memories. This discussion is not to discuss why everyone left, it is to discuss on how we can improve. There is the suggestions forum, but some of the below suggestions can be handled by someone outside of the devs. 

My suggestions to increase the player base, at a high level is simply to focus on criminals and make the server more fun for everyone. If there are more criminals you need more cops, you need more DOC guards, you need more Medics, and so on. More criminals improve a lot of other sections of the server. I don't want to make this Crim vs LEO, but If you focus on LEO's "Law Enforcement Officer" (PD/SD), this does not improve the server as it only effects LEO's and improves only LEO morale. In the past, and currently devs have focused on LEO's. In my opinion to improve the server we need to put criminals first. 

My suggestions to improve the player count on the server is as follows:

1. Developers should put criminal rp first.
2. Losen up the ECRP rules. Specifically, DM, Player Theft (player on player, not raids), and Kidnapping. A crim should not need a checklist to kill a rival gang member. 
3. Add two more LEO's factions. FIB and State Police. (Dont scream yet crims, hear me out). Currently I think PD and SD have too many people in them, compared to the crim population. I am just making up numbers, as for some reason the LEO's numbers have been hidden in the panel. Let's say PD and SD have combined 250 members. I believe it is better for the server to have 250 members split between 4 LEO factions, not the currently 2. 
4. Decrease prison time, or add more things to do in DOC. Add back poker, add other minigames, make the inmate area larger. 
5. Make LEO's lootable, or have it so they lose a set amount of money if they die. I know this might be pending and might go in the server, but it is not at the time of the forum post.
6. Add bank statements for people and business. This was teased a while back, but it was never implemented. If added this will be big for RP, between cops, crims, and Judges. 
7. Remove pocket money. Make money a script item. Remove the timer that makes packed money unusable. This will open up RP opportunities. 
8. Decrease time that limits RP for the player, so the player is not standing around doing nothing. Impound lot NPC to release cars from the impound lot if LEO's do not respond in X minutes. Toolbox to repair cars when cars break down (Dont scream yet mechanics). For toolboxes you could only repair your car to 50 percent health and 50 percent top speed, so you still need mechanics. 
9. This is a big ask, but improve the melee system. Make it so we can target people at the least, so we can fight a specific person in a group of people. 
10. Add a knocked out injury state, where a player losses then regains conscience.
11. Add minigames that people can play in game together. Chess, golf, tennis, etc. 
12. Add an option to conceal weapons on your person. If PD/SD search your person, they 100% find the weapon. 
13. Add options to scriptly conceal items/weapons in a vehicle. If PD/SD or someone else searches your car, its RNG if they find it. 
14. (New Comment 23/APR) New player retention. Find ways to increase new player retention. We are still getting a fair number of new players in 2025, but they do not stick around. I believe the above suggestions will be a start. 

I am happy to go into further detail if any staff or higher would like to discuss. Of course I am open to feedback also from anyone else! These might seem drastic, but we need to make big changes to have any effect in my opinion. 

Thank you,

Edited April 23, 2025 by XxTheIrishGuyxX

[Salvador Rivera]

Stop making up unnecessary rules. And finally decide what type of Roleplay server this is, Heavy Roleplay or Medium Roleplay server. Bala says this will always be Medium and after seeing how many people play here with Clapper mentality I will agree with him but at the same time when entering GOV web it seems like we are on a Heavy light Roleplay server. 

I've been playing here for 6 years myself and I'm starting to get confused by how confusing things are here. I would say this is one of the things why people leave us!

Let's stop banning people for no reason. Just based on suspicion? No one is guilty until they are guilty.

[RJThompson]

biggest +1 in a while

 but the rules are good how they are, i think the mini game stuff and lootable cops should have always been a thing even if its a timer for the guns. but the rules do need to stick

Edited April 23, 2025 by RJThompson

[Jordan]

This is not remotely productive, and will only promote more PVP on the server this is a ROLEPLAY server. Not a fan of this personally.

[RustyOsprey2]

In my opinion the only things i really see that would be cool are, add minigames, make leo's lootable and adding things to do in prison. But the rest is just like useless tbh. Loosening up the rules would be very bad, would make the random shootouts even more common than they already are. I have played a few RP servers, FiveM and then Eclipse. All FiveM servers ive ever played have been absolute dogshit, and this suggestion seems to want to get closer and closer to it. Eclipse imo is very good as it is, new features get released, rules are well made to be able to protect all sides of the playerbase whether you want to be a crim or a cab driver. Sure, some rules are a bit.. confusing? but in general it is always fine.

[alexalex303]

I think it's baffling how a group of players have started to echo the notion that the player base in 2021 was so high not because literally the entire world was in lockdown which saw monumental increases in all gaming and recreational activities, because people had nothing to do and were locked inside. 

Adolescents’ Recreational Screen Time Doubled During Pandemic, Affecting Mental Health | UC San Francisco

Microsoft Word - 24.docx

The drop in the player base is not because an imagine slight to a part of the population, but due to all of those people going back to work, or school. Even a game backed by Activision Blizzard and their gargantuan budget with Warzone, a free to play game, could not retain its peak player base. It's not an issue with the game, it's an 'issue' with real-life taking priority.

In fact, as of right now, with the FM team and recent changes, this is probably the most active criminal scene we've had ever. I was leading an official criminal faction in 2021, and I can tell you for a fact we did not have 21 active criminal factions on the server then; but we do now; If you still find yourself lacking in people to roleplay with, or activities to do, perhaps consider if you focus too much on PVP and this makes other groups not want to interact with you.

Edited April 23, 2025 by alexalex303

[Salvador Rivera]

13 minutes ago, alexalex303 said:

 

In fact, as of right now, with the FM team and recent changes, this is probably the most active criminal scene we've had ever. I was leading an official criminal faction in 2021, and I can tell you for a fact we did not have 21 active criminal factions on the server then; but we do now; If you still find yourself lacking in people to roleplay with, or activities to do, perhaps consider if you focus too much on PVP and this makes other groups not want to interact with you.

I can agree with this. I've never wanted to create an in-depth RP with groups that have a PVP mentality. Nothing meaningful can be expected from those groups. Also one of the factors that makes people choose to leave this place.

[XxTheIrishGuyxX]

7 hours ago, alexalex303 said:

I think it's baffling how a group of players have started to echo the notion that the player base in 2021 was so high not because literally the entire world was in lockdown which saw monumental increases in all gaming and recreational activities, because people had nothing to do and were locked inside. 

I believe that this statement is false, respectively. This is the most common argument I see on why the player count has decreased, which is the player base decreased, due to Covid artificially inflating the player numbers. Is there less gamers now when compared to during covid, yes absolutely. But I think this is false because of two reasons:

1. GTA V RP Player base - If you look at twitch, from 2021 to even now, GTA V is one of the most watched games, this is due to RP. As I write this post, there are 53,510 people in the world, currently on 253 servers, on rage mp. Then you add in Five M... The player base is there, but the players are not choosing ECRP. 
2. Competing Servers - If you look at competing GTAV RP servers, some have gained players. Some have lost players but not as much as us. If this statement were true, all other servers would be struggling, but that is not the case. People are still roleplaying in GTA V in 2025, the problem is that they are not roleplaying in ECRP.

7 hours ago, alexalex303 said:

In fact, as of right now, with the FM team and recent changes, this is probably the most active criminal scene we've had ever. I was leading an official criminal faction in 2021, and I can tell you for a fact we did not have 21 active criminal factions on the server then; but we do now; If you still find yourself lacking in people to roleplay with, or activities to do, perhaps consider if you focus too much on PVP and this makes other groups not want to interact with you.

I believe that this statement is also false, respectively. There are less criminals on the server now, when compared to the past. I would say the server is 80 percent Crim and LEO. Always has been. I would also say the LEO population has remained the same over the years. So, if we lost 2/3 of our player base, the player base has always been 80 percent crim and LEO, and the LEO population has stayed the same over the years, based on this the crim population has decreased when compared to the past. 

9 hours ago, Jordan said:

This is not remotely productive, and will only promote more PVP on the server this is a ROLEPLAY server. Not a fan of this personally.

This is off topic but just wanted to address this. We are not a roleplay server. Never have been. Roleplay in GTA V is portraying a specific character, that is developed, has characteristics, feelings, background, etc. This does not happen on the server. Everybody (excluding maybe a couple of people got to give credit) are self inserts, which means everybody plays themself on the server. We are a "roleplay" server for advertisement reasons only. 

We are a "second life" crim vs cop server. 

[Demonmit1]

1. developers should put having consistent updates first. there is a massive backlog of finished stuff thats been sitting for months not being added to the server.

2. the general concept of this i feel is a bad idea. the rules are pretty fair. Faction Management could put some time into working on a good war system as suggested here: 

3. there are currently 4 LEO factions. LSPD, LSSD, GSB, and JB. adding two more seems like a waste of time? the factions work in their own ways, adding more to the mix would just unnecessarily dilute the law enforcement player base. FIB is already covered by GSB/LSPD/LSSD investigative work, State Police is just HED/TSD departments.

4. Prison time is a max of 3 hours if you can pay your fines, or 5 hours if you cant. this can be reduced by actively participating in earning stamps inside DOC. stamps value for time reduction should be increased. if you want shorter prison times, VIP is encouraged, you can have your prison time reduced to as low as 108 minutes maximum.

5. LEO's being lootable is an interesting concept, I've recommended it before. the new despawn system seems like the way to make it work, as any LEO spawned asset despawns after 6 hours. so players cant just DM hunt cops for free gear to horde. Making law enforcement lose money on death was a suggestion i made a long time ago, but thinking it through makes no sense. if the goal is to make it "fair" when LEO's die, thats not a solution. more should be done on criminal side to generate income rather than removing income from LEO's incentivizing LEO players to have a play to win mentality.

6. great idea. tax crimes are completely unused. lemme go after crims for tax crimes. take down people like the IRS took down Capone. This does exist, but it requires admin intervention, and its not a normal process.

7. yeah... both of these would be nice. being able to horde cash for upkeep would be a nice boost for organized gangs. pocket money being accessible would be great too!

8. no response after 15 minutes would be nice for an automatic release at impound as long as the player has a valid license. the reason why its manual is the info/paperwork from impound/release is useful for investigations. Toolbox i think is a negative. maybe if its very expensive, only purchasable from imports, and only brings your car up to 300 HP, just enough to start, would be great.

9. would be neat

10. i dont really understand this one. how is this different than our current downed system?

11. great. lets do this

12/13. interesting concept. it could be good or bad. there would have to be a lot of script changes for this to work properly. this would need its own entire suggestion to flesh out and find positives and negatives. this should only be a thing as long as theres a script that it can be found in a search, and K9 get script support to find it.

14. ive tried to get a couple friends to play on the server, they make it for a while, but end up burning out due to "clapper gangs" and law enforcement being extremely overbearing. new player experience is rough. 

One of the things they've brought up is limiting standard LEO response. Something like a 2:1 response ratio. Two units per player involved. But then open it up for law enforcement to fully respond based on the crimes committed, be it heavies or violent felonies or if a traffic stop is a felony stop.

I'd also like to see the xp cap for still being considered a new player to be drastically increased. 5000xp is very low, and beyond 5k XP your still very much a new player. Increasing this to 25k or 50k would be a step in the right direction, so real new players are still under the protections of new player rules while they learn the server .
 

Edited April 23, 2025 by Demonmit1

[Salvador Rivera]

12 hours ago, XxTheIrishGuyxX said:

 

My suggestions to improve the player count on the server is as follows:

1. Developers should put criminal rp first.
2. Losen up the ECRP rules. Specifically, DM, Player Theft (player on player, not raids), and Kidnapping. A crim should not need a checklist to kill a rival gang member. 
3. Add two more LEO's factions. FIB and State Police. (Dont scream yet crims, hear me out). Currently I think PD and SD have too many people in them, compared to the crim population. I am just making up numbers, as for some reason the LEO's numbers have been hidden in the panel. Let's say PD and SD have combined 250 members. I believe it is better for the server to have 250 members split between 4 LEO factions, not the currently 2. 
4. Decrease prison time, or add more things to do in DOC. Add back poker, add other minigames, make the inmate area larger. 
5. Make LEO's lootable, or have it so they lose a set amount of money if they die. I know this might be pending and might go in the server, but it is not at the time of the forum post.
6. Add bank statements for people and business. This was teased a while back, but it was never implemented. If added this will be big for RP, between cops, crims, and Judges. 
7. Remove pocket money. Make money a script item. Remove the timer that makes packed money unusable. This will open up RP opportunities. 
8. Decrease time that limits RP for the player, so the player is not standing around doing nothing. Impound lot NPC to release cars from the impound lot if LEO's do not respond in X minutes. Toolbox to repair cars when cars break down (Dont scream yet mechanics). For toolboxes you could only repair your car to 50 percent health and 50 percent top speed, so you still need mechanics. 
9. This is a big ask, but improve the melee system. Make it so we can target people at the least, so we can fight a specific person in a group of people. 
10. Add a knocked out injury state, where a player losses then regains conscience.
11. Add minigames that people can play in game together. Chess, golf, tennis, etc. 
12. Add an option to conceal weapons on your person. If PD/SD search your person, they 100% find the weapon. 
13. Add options to scriptly conceal items/weapons in a vehicle. If PD/SD or someone else searches your car, its RNG if they find it. 
14. (New Comment 23/APR) New player retention. Find ways to increase new player retention. We are still getting a fair number of new players in 2025, but they do not stick around. I believe the above suggestions will be a start. 

I like several of your suggestions that should have been implemented on the server a long time ago so that people have more opportunities to express themselves and create Roleplay.

About Factions! Yes I would like to see SAAS Nation Guards''Army''  So many interesting things that can be thought of for this faction and things that this faction could do to support the others.  Also N.O.O.S.E and F.B.I , State Police .

 

About prison time : You can be imprisoned for several days, for example 3 - 14 days in prison. Not that you have to serve them while you are online, but time counts even if you are not online.Much more time for people to think things through and play all kinds of roleplay and then they would think about whether they would really want to run around in the middle of the city with a shotgun or an M4/AK.

 

About Bank statements : No need ! They already abuse their privileges too much. 

If I'm not mistaken, I saw that Rage.MP plans to add NPCs. This could be a cool thing.

 

[alexalex303]

3 hours ago, XxTheIrishGuyxX said:

GTA V RP Player base - If you look at twitch, from 2021 to even now, GTA V is one of the most watched games, this is due to RP. As I write this post, there are 53,510 people in the world, currently on 253 servers, on rage mp. Then you add in Five M... The player base is there, but the players are not choosing ECRP. 

Competing Servers - If you look at competing GTAV RP servers, some have gained players. Some have lost players but not as much as us. If this statement were true, all other servers would be struggling, but that is not the case. People are still roleplaying in GTA V in 2025, the problem is that they are not roleplaying in ECRP.

FiveM was bought out by Rockstar, the developers of the game, of course they're going to have more players and better, they're first class citizens. There are more players playing FiveM right now than we've ever had accounts created. If you adjust your lens to a more comparable one, and compare us with all other RAGE MP servers, you will find that we're the most successful VOIP RP server. The only realistic competition is text-only. 

 

Edited April 23, 2025 by alexalex303

[HeadShot]

A couple money printing labs that allow you to print packed cash I think could diversify some crim stuff since the only things really getting held are just drug labs. You could add an RNG spawn blank notes in the safes you lockpick during bank robberies ranging from 2.5k, 5k, 10k that would be needed to run the money printer. I think this would add more places for criminals to have RP and make banks a little better since you have that chance of finding the bank notes you need

[Bala]

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

[Billy Valentine]

Let's be real this shit ain't going anywhere;

If you want to fix the server remove a lot of inequality's cops posess to make being a criminal fun again. ( yes I'm saying this because I used to main crim : D )
I foresee someone asking, well what needs to be removed? Here you go:

- Cops currently can take out one helicopter, and if it gets damaged go and unpark another one. To any normal player within the server, a helicopter is millions. While cops just use and abuse them as if they are worth pennies.

- Cops abuse helicopters as gunships, anytime something happens, any sort of hostile situation, you will have a gunship hovering in the area raining hell down on you from above. Most of the time they will be sitting outside of bullet distance to normal guns shooting sniper rifles at you. But hey, that's fair. Oh and realistic:. snipers are also worth upwards of a million for a normal, and multi-millions for a higher variant.

- Cops have access to every single MK II weapon you could think of, combat MG MK II, carbine MK II, bullpup MK II, special carbine MK II, pump shotgun MK II.... the list goes on. They do not need all these guns as cops, I'm sorry, I understand that cops are supposed to be "strong" but it's quite ridiculous how strong cops actually can be on the server. An MK II weapon will typically 4 or 5 shot someone in the body. That's a full auto weapon with a 60-round capacity typically.
Yeah, you can try and argue that criminals have ways of obtaining these weapons but it's pretty hard if the factions that can order these do not like you or know you. The only weapons that are of the MK II variant that can be ordered VIA a criminal faction currently are the Carbine MK II, Combat MG MK II, and the Assault Rifle MK II. these guns by no means are, bad, but are very expensive and again, hard to obtain without the right connections that well, most people lack.
I almost forgot to mention cops can use 175 AP !!!! How fair !!!!

- I'm not saying to give criminals more of these MK IIs, honestly, I think it'd be best for every MK II to be wiped off the server, no more imports for them, they are broken, are overpowered, and with two massive factions that allow fairly low ranking members of the faction to wield these MK II weapons, it's like an army coming at you if cops get involved.
And the worst part about this all is that it seems like a lot of cops just become cops to use and abuse these guns, you're evading and going for a vehicle swap? Oh well, all your tires are shot out because you're endangering the public. This is a game people, not real life.

- Stop banning people for 6 months to a year over stupid stuff, this is again, not real life, as cringe as it might seem; this is a place where people come to escape reality, get away from the real world, and have fun with friends they've made along the way, have a laugh with some cool cops they've met. Everyone is here to have fun at the end of the day, oh wow someone RWTed, boohoo, get over it. You're already going to asset wipe them why do they need to be banned for so long? ( I'm not saying this because of personal experience, it is merely an example. ) I can understand the more serious punishments such as NHTRP being a very long ban, but I don't see the need to keep people banned for months on end for the more, minor may I say, offenses.

All I'm trying to say is, this is a game, not real life, I don't care what u have to say about how PD "need" or "deserve" these guns. It should be fair at the end of the day, and it isn't. 
Some balancing needs to be done.

Nice post Bala.

Goodbye.

Edited April 24, 2025 by Billy Valentine

[RustyOsprey2]

13 minutes ago, Billy Valentine said:

- Cops have access to every single MK II weapon you could think of, combat MG MK II, carbine MK II, bullpup MK II, special carbine MK II, pump shotgun MK II.... the list goes on. They do not need all these guns as cops,

I very much agree with this, these weapons for crims cost several tens of thousands to be able to import. Then you have to mod them and buy ammo for them. And if you die?, you have to buy a new one. Something that annoys me rather a lot, is how cops always 24/7 carry a heavy on their back. I saw a Sheriff step out of a car, and whoops they had a MG MK2 on their back. In my opinion, heavy weapons should only be able to be taken from the trunk of a vehicle. Some weapons like a SMG or a MK1 Pump can be taken from the rack near the driver seat, but realistically. You wouldnt be driving around with a MG MK2 on your back as a cop right?

Not to mention the fact that 175% AP armor is incredibly expensive as well. If im gonna be honest, i dont even know myself if you can import armor over 100% AP. And the 100% AP already costs 20k to import, and cops can simply: Get shot enough to have the entire armor get broken /fl and grab a new one within 2 seconds from any nearby cruiser.

Edited April 24, 2025 by RustyOsprey2

[SquirtleSquad]

W are not going to turn this thread into a PD vs Crim argument. Keep on track, or the thread will be archived.

[Demonmit1]

4 hours ago, Billy Valentine said:

- Cops currently can take out one helicopter, and if it gets damaged go and unpark another one. To any normal player within the server, a helicopter is millions. While cops just use and abuse them as if they are worth pennies.

i agree, which is why i made this suggestion.

4 hours ago, Billy Valentine said:

Cops have access to every single MK II weapon you could think of

from LSSD side of things, the only heavy firearm available to standard patrol units are pump Mk2's. once you reach master deputy, which is the highest non supervisor rank, which takes like 5-6 months, you can carry a SMG. other Mk2's are limited to two divisions. mostly just SED, which is LSSD's version of swat, and they can only have up to two combat MG Mk2's deployed across the entire server at once, and only when a SED supervisor permits, which is only during active situations like raids, and big gunfights. If someone is randomly patrolling doing traffic stops with a light machinegun. OOC IA report it. please.

Bulpup MkII's are limited for full rank investigator units, only for use during active situations approved by SED, SIB supervisors, or in "code 1" situations where officers are down. If someone is randomly patrolling doing traffic stops with a bullpup you should make an OOC IA report.

AFAIK SED operators are allowed to patrol with carbine mkII's, after lengthy training. getting to that point in SED takes like 4-6 months of being in LSSD. so theres time investment put in by the LEO players to have access to these firearms.

5 hours ago, Billy Valentine said:

Carbine MK II, Combat MG MK II, and the Assault Rifle MK II. these guns by no means are, bad, but are very expensive and again, hard to obtain without the right connections that well, most people lack.

at this point, an hour of cooking is pushing 60-80k an hour profit. barebones MkII's are all under 30k to import other than the MG, which is under 40k. ammo is like 3k-4k for 100 rounds. I'm not saying that MKII's arent expensive, but criminal income is capable of affording the best firearms on the server with an hour of work with money to spare.

and you're right. without roleplaying and interacting with other players on the server, you will not be able to access these better firearms. go interact with other people, play on the roleplay server with other people, and you'll gain access to whatever you want.

5 hours ago, Billy Valentine said:

And the worst part about this all is that it seems like a lot of cops just become cops to use and abuse these guns, you're evading and going for a vehicle swap? Oh well, all your tires are shot out because you're endangering the public.

Are you being shot at for ONLY evading? i find that hard to believe happens often, but i can see it being a thing on a rare occasion. again. IA / OOC IA. this isnt a thing thats allowed to be done. provide OOC footage proving you didnt do anything to justify being shot at. most of the time tires get taken, is an evading player shot at law enforcement first, was actively shooting at someone else from their car during the evading, is actively using their car as a weapon to ram or pit law enforcement with multiple attempts, or you ran someone over while evading. Crims dont get shot at by LEO's just for evading. if it does happen, again report.

5 hours ago, Billy Valentine said:

I almost forgot to mention cops can use 175 AP !!!! How fair !!!!

Personally i have access to all Detective and general patrol outfits. no outfit has over 100ap. most have 20 or 50 AP. the only ones that have 100AP are ones with a visible vest.

[Bala]

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.

[olowepolo]

The only thing I liked there was DOC minigames. I personally think if the admins updated the server more, with things people want, it would attract more players. So many suggestions are ignored, and a lot of the scripts in eclipse are ancient. That’s just my view.

[Quietthecutie]

4 hours ago, Billy Valentine said:

Cops have access to every single MK II weapon you could think of, combat MG MK II, carbine MK II, bullpup MK II, special carbine MK II, pump shotgun MK II.... the list goes on. They do not need all these guns as cops

Youre right but youre also wrong. cops do not need access to all these guns, which is why most of them do not. almost all cops will carry around nothing more than the shotgun and a sidearm, because that is all they are authorised to carry. The other guns you reference are carried around by either METRO or SED, both of which do have reason to carry them. they are specialist units.

4 hours ago, RustyOsprey2 said:

In my opinion, heavy weapons should only be able to be taken from the trunk of a vehicle.

I would be absolutely fine with this assuming that its the case for everyone. 

[Rage.]

On 4/24/2025 at 8:44 AM, SquirtleSquad said:

W are not going to turn this thread into a PD vs Crim argument. Keep on track, or the thread will be archived.

It's almost like that's the root problem though.

Pushing it to the side is not helping and hasn't been helping for the past 3 years.

Edited April 25, 2025 by Rage.

[PufferBulletin]

On 4/23/2025 at 5:57 PM, XxTheIrishGuyxX said:

I believe that this statement is false, respectively. This is the most common argument I see on why the player count has decreased, which is the player base decreased, due to Covid artificially inflating the player numbers. Is there less gamers now when compared to during covid, yes absolutely. But I think this is false because of two reasons:

1. GTA V RP Player base - If you look at twitch, from 2021 to even now, GTA V is one of the most watched games, this is due to RP. As I write this post, there are 53,510 people in the world, currently on 253 servers, on rage mp. Then you add in Five M... The player base is there, but the players are not choosing ECRP. 
2. Competing Servers - If you look at competing GTAV RP servers, some have gained players. Some have lost players but not as much as us. If this statement were true, all other servers would be struggling, but that is not the case. People are still roleplaying in GTA V in 2025, the problem is that they are not roleplaying in ECRP.

 

You clearly don't know the numbers of the covid times that boomed the whole market. Biggsest streamers like Kyle, Buddah, Esfand, Kebun, XQC and so many other streamers were pulling on average 20-30k (sometimes even 100k at a time) viewers (you can check that on twitch tracker) and now they barely pull 2-3K, not talking about variety streamers but mainly RP focused which XQC and Esfand aint it. That server used to have 5-10k qued players (with a quite hefty monthly payment) now barely have 200 players online. To this day, that server streamers are pulling the majority of views on the twitch for GTA V.
 

In reality, crims needs better judicial system to protect their rights and hold law enforcement accountable (thats what you want in general). This would work wonders in my opinion where criminals/civs would have their rights protected and PD/SD would back off a bit. Simple rights like speeding shouldn't escalate to all of the passengers being taken out of the vehicle due to assumption "because they usually have guns" and in such instances crims would get a hefty payout (as in real life, not a pennies, police loses cases for incorrectly acquired evidence) and police officer violating citizens rights would get a repercussion - I.E. garnishment from the salary, and for more serious violations suspension and for repetitive violations demotions and such. 

This would create more in depth roleplay, where criminals and PD needs to know a law and it is enforced properly.

Edited April 25, 2025 by PufferBulletin

[Demonmit1]

54 minutes ago, PufferBulletin said:

In reality, crims needs better judicial system to protect their rights and hold law enforcement accountable

https://gov.eclipse-rp.net/viewforum.php?f=1633

go be the change you wanna see and join the Judicial Branch Faction. All of what you want out of a judicial system exists, its just slow due to lack of manpower. apply.

Edited April 25, 2025 by Demonmit1

[PufferBulletin]

55 minutes ago, Demonmit1 said:

https://gov.eclipse-rp.net/viewforum.php?f=1633

go be the change you wanna see and join the Judicial Branch Faction. All of what you want out of a judicial system exists, its just slow due to lack of manpower. apply.

Quite missed my point, I'm not shitting on Judicial Branch. My point that citizens (crims player, without no charges is a citizen - not a criminal, by law in real life) rights are quite non existant. 
Get as many players in JB it won't change the fact that citizens don't have enough rights.

I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a caution against seasoned criminals, but violating citizens rights ain't it in my book (referring to real life citizens rights) Example, player being pulled over for driving 20km/h extra in a city shouldn't be pulled over and then escalated to K9, getting suspects out of the vehicle and then searching them for weapons - as lets be real, that was not the reason for the stop and unless you rp'ly have a valid reason to do that - guns on them, bullet marks on their vehicles, active investigation n such then you should never force it.

Edited April 25, 2025 by PufferBulletin

[AtlasOLimbo]

I believe there to be a lot of missteps and poor interpretations of what's happening in Eclipse in this thread. I'll try and give my (somewhat) experienced opinion and hope it helps us bring the argument in closer.

The Strength of LEOs/The "Ouroboros" effect
Ouroboros means something along the lines of "an eternal cycle". LEOs are at the strength they are at, due to criminals, what they use and how they operate and, although not as many as you may think, to chase W's. Criminals operate the way they do and fire upon LEOs frequently, or what have you, because of how LEOs operate and once again, not as many of them as you think, but to chase W's. Why are police treating high speed units and air vehicles like they cost literally nothing? (Because they do cost nothing.) Why are motorcycle gangs using sports cars to evade police? It's something that has escalated to this point, and neither side seems willing to back down to a substantial degree. Just this week, 2/3rd's minimum of LEO's night shift has been killed multiple times.

I'd like to see street gangs using actual street vehicles, but it's just not in the cards. It'd require a major intervention from management that I do not believe they are willing to engage in, for better or for worse. Unless something changes in the future, I do not believe we can expect the strength of criminals/LEOs and their portrayal to change. Personally, I'd enjoy something more grounded that involves less armor/heavies, less expensive vehicles, more roleplay and more sidearms.

The complete lack of support, especially in recent years, for civilian RP
I don't mean ICly, as both Weazel News and GOV do a lot to try and promote this but we are missing critical features in my opinion to make civillian RP worthwhile. The list of missing features is the following;

• An easy way to pay employees when not a faction.
• Business bank accounts/treasuries when not a faction that can be used to 'invoice' players rather than having customers pay directly to whatever employee.
• Businesses being able to make custom items (which seem to be fully coded, yet not implemented), & especially custom foodstuffs.
• An easy way to contact a business, especially when a specific individual is offline. (Arguably, the biz site solves this but I'd argue that's an extremely high bar for entry for the average player.)
• A way to tell if a business is open or closed reliably.
• A way to generate random numbers beyond 1-6. I feel this would add a lot more than people realize, and I don't see why it hasn't been added yet

We do NOT need more LEO factions. We need to focus on enhancing what we have.