Ways to increase player count in ECRP

[Quietthecutie]

1 hour ago, Ritchie Stones said:

you do understand that prison isnt suposed to be a fun thing right ? 
when i get cought i just deal with it, mentality is just getting more weak by the year, 
people need to get smarter and there needs to be more reward making it worth going through such a time 

Games, by definition, are supposed to be fun. Ive already said my opinion to death on the death of said prison....

Bala is right, if you had to draw up a list of areas where our diminutive development budget should be put into, it should 1000% be DOC. You can be as smart a crim as you like but there are also very smart cops. no matter how goated you are you will eventually end up in DOC, its inevitable and therefore unavoidable. right now its about 10% clowning around, 90% afk and 0% actually fun and fulfilling activities.

#makedocbearableagain

[AtlasOLimbo]

44 minutes ago, Quietthecutie said:

Games, by definition, are supposed to be fun. Ive already said my opinion to death on the death of said prison....

Bala is right, if you had to draw up a list of areas where our diminutive development budget should be put into, it should 1000% be DOC. You can be as smart a crim as you like but there are also very smart cops. no matter how goated you are you will eventually end up in DOC, its inevitable and therefore unavoidable. right now its about 10% clowning around, 90% afk and 0% actually fun and fulfilling activities.

#makedocbearableagain

This. DOC shouldn't be an "reward" to the point where you're actively seeking to be imprisoned for lengthy times (see: initial stamp buff) But. It should be fun and offer its own unique roleplay. Right now it simply feels like ajail. Which sucks. Even something as simple as the poker table was taken away with the gambling update and replaced with nothing. Inmates can make some of their own fun with /dice and what have you, but that can only last so long.

You have to be staff or pay to use the TV in the common room. It kind of feels like these things have been discussed to death though and there's no intent to actually act upon this feedback.

[Jay Plague]

My only point is that the server should be developed in all 3 areas. LEO, Crim, and CIV, to appeal to all play styles and all types of RP.  I think if there were more rec and fun time to balance out the "grind," it would have more people join the server and stick around.  The server should feel like a full city, not cops and robbers.

 

[Ms.Somebody]

As someone who is by and largely a civ role player, I have to agree with Jay. I’ve mentioned it before and will mention it again, I am of the opinion Civ roleplay is being starved, and it is having a negative effect on both Leo and crim roleplay if we want to be absolutely honest.

Civ roleplay is a fundamental basis of crim and Leo roleplay, what are Leo’s and crims going to do when they aren’t committing crime all the time? They’re going to be building their connections, their reputations, they’re going to be going around to different areas of the city they enjoy to unwind and relax after whatever operation or mission they have undergone, no one wants to be a cop or crim 24/7.

But if cops and crims have nothing to do outside of the cop and crim life, then they’re just going to go home, and log off of the server and spend the better amount of their time doing something else, leaving a very obvious gap, eventually they’re going to get burnt out and sick of doing the same thing over and over again without any variety until eventually they say “I’ll just stay off the server today” that day turns into two, which turns into five until eventually you just… Don’t log on ever again, because what else do you want to do? Play on a server that doesn’t promote character growth, developing your characters stories be it their group, the people they know, the city they love? If they stuck around doing something else, they could so easily be drawn back into doing the Leo and crim roleplay if their friends or faction needed them, it’s simple logic, provide a need, and they’ll be there when you need them.

The way you retain players is giving them more to do on those characters when they don’t want to be a crim or be an Leo, you give them the ability to go to an arcade and play some randomly generated minigame for the ability to win a small amount of money, to go golfing with their friends to see who can get the best score and rib on each other. Give them the ability to fish, or hunt with other people with better pay outs or skills.

We’ve been promised a fishing skill for almost over a year at this point, and instead we’ve gotten two freelance solo jobs and criminal skills before any civilian skills were worked on.

We’ve received an entirely new hobby before cooking has gotten the refinement we desperately need and deserve.

 People want engagement, they want something they can do while waiting around for their friend, their group or to get back on shift, giving them more things to do, legally is a good way to do it.

The server by and largely has and always will be focused on roleplay, EC*RP*, it’s in the name after all. To say that the only focus should be on cops and crims is wrong. No aspect of roleplay should be ignored regardless of personal opinion and feelings towards that roleplay.

[Bala]

15 hours ago, Ritchie Stones said:

you do understand that prison isnt suposed to be a fun thing right ? 
when i get cought i just deal with it, mentality is just getting more weak by the year, 
people need to get smarter and there needs to be more reward making it worth going through such a time 

What I understand is that there is a key difference between something being fun in-character and fun out-of-character. 

What I understand is that if going to prison is a shit experience both in and out of character, every individual that goes there is going to feel that much more annoyed out doing so, which then manifests out of game, on these forums. Would the prison being better stop people complaining about cops? No. Would it help make the outcome of being caught more manageable on an OOC level? Yes.

If all we expect from the prison, is AFK simulator then we may as well close the DOC faction and send every person to solitary confinement in their own dimension for their sentence since they aren't going to want to be bothered by a silly little thing like RP.

I want more for us than that and we all deserve more than that, no?

There shouldn't be an incentive for going to prison, but you should at least be able to have something of a good playing experience while you are there.

Prison sucks now and it sucked in 2019, but both on IC and an OOC level.

Edited September 29, 2025 by Bala

[Bala]

7 hours ago, Jay Plague said:

My only point is that the server should be developed in all 3 areas. LEO, Crim, and CIV, to appeal to all play styles and all types of RP.  I think if there were more rec and fun time to balance out the "grind," it would have more people join the server and stick around.  The server should feel like a full city, not cops and robbers.

In an ideal world, but LEO and Crim is your bread and butter. It's like when you get on a plane and they tell you in the safety briefing, fit your own oxygen mask first before trying to help others.

If crim, especially, isn't sufficient supported, the community dries and dies out quicker than if nothing else happens with civilian roleplay. There is no comparing the two.

Development time is limited, we all know it and unfortunately, that time has to go where it's needed the most. That's not on civilian stuff, no matter how you slice it.

[Toxine]

Honestly, CIV roleplay is fun and interacting only for the people that willingly decide to RP it. 

Crims provide interactions for a the vast majority of factions. PD/SD/EMS/JB/SASG/GOV/DOC. 
The less crim players there are, the less fun all of the above-mentioned factions are going to have. 

Crims should be #1 priority and probably even occupy #2 and #3. 
PD/SD don't even require a fraction of the development attention that crim does. 

As a Civ, can you please tell me what kind of RP you provide for crims and/or LEO's?
Everyone goes to events and such, but just because there's raffles that people want to attend. Nobody actually enjoys going at these events and have whisper battles and anim battles with other people.

When was the last AltRP requested by a Civ player/faction?
I've been around the city long enough to know for a fact that I haven't seen a single AltRP conducted by any Civ. 
And if there was one, crims were not part of it, and by proxy PD/SD weren't either (If they were, a minimal amount was needed). 

This directly answers all of the civ questions and issues of development. You simply don't need it, not because you are less important or useless as players, I'm not saying that. But the economy and status-quo revolves around crim/LEO. 
This is not a heavy RP server where there's a multitude of scripts that allow you to roleplay whatever you want. 
This is a cops and robbers server, with other nuances of RP allowed but not really encouraged as the limitations on script are pretty evident. 

Unless the developers wake up and start introducing regular additions/updates/patches/meta (call it however you want, just do something) the player base will continue declining. 

I can guarantee you that if developers drop the "Marijuana planting anywhere in the city" patch, the player count will increase by at the very least by 20-30.
Imagine if they actually added some other scripted activities, like counterfeiting, like racketeering, like scripted racing!! Players would start flooding in from every side. 

And once crims start flooding back in, PD/SD will be overwhelmed by the amount of work they have, Plague's events will have more than 9 people that are there only because of the Raffle, EMS will be getting BANK as crims would be killing each other every minute, DOC would be beating up people with batons, JB can actually do something other than look out the window at City Hall. 
You get the idea. 

But it's just ridiculous looking at the complete disregard for the server status by the developers & whoever is in charge and capable of making important decisions.
At this point, ECRP is simply just a money generator for them, and everyone is around to just sink together with the ship. 
Which is sad to see, as there's (at the very least) 1.5 years ahead of us before GTA 6 RP will show up (Ideally). 
Literally just add these scripts, and I can almost guarantee you the playerbase will skyrocket to 300-350 daily players. 

- Scripted racing (Scripted tracks with start/finish + Prize based on the enter fee + Timed Leaderboard of race + Classes) - 7/10 difficulty scripting 

- Civ activities (Golf, Pool, Darts, Triathlons, Shooting ranges with leaderboard and accuracy, time trials)

- Crim activities/equipment (Counterfeiting, Racketeering, Heists that are not banks, Toolchest that allows gun repairs, new unique equipment like the GPS Zero Days & Radio Jammers)
 
- Revisiting some of the obsolete rules (Backup breach, crim faction 30 member limit, hostage rules, FRP rules)

- Introduction of server RP Ops. If they are allowed in factions discords, why isn't staff setting up some RP Ops of their own, and ping the whole discord? @here or @everyone for those RP ops. Imagine the turn out. The latest Server Event was the Weazel event of Last Man Standing, and there were like 80 people present at the event, which was fun as fuck for everyone. 

- Introduce nonRP aspects of the server. PVP Arenas, Racing Arenas, Free build, Paintball arenas, custom dimensions, etc.. - Stop pretending that ECRP is a "high level RP server". This is nowhere near a High Level RP. And there's nothing wrong with it. People like it just the way it is, 200 people fly in daily because they like the server. 
But just imagine having those additional aspects, how many new people will start flooding in and eventually bleed out to the RP side of things. 
Imagine how many LTU's will join ECRP just because of the PVP arena, and eventually will want to make a LTU only gang (oh lord). 
Or how many Civ's will showcase their building skills in the Free Build dimension. 
Or how many factions related to racing will enjoy the Racing Arenas (Alliance, SVR, Redline, Downtown Drift Club, LS Motorcycle Club, etc..) and how many other civs will enjoy the racing aspect, making them more prone to joining some racing gang or legal faction. Why do I have to worry about PD being fucking dicks just because I feel like racing today? You are basically saying "If you like racing, go on another server to race, come back here if you want to do fuckall at Bennys". Whereas you should be incentivizing different kind of people to stay on ECRP and try to attract people from other server, not the other way around. 

But regardless, as Bala said, all of these ideas fall into deaf ears, and next week this thread will be buried so far down that you'll forget about it yourself.

@Paulius @Osvaldon Please just take 5 minutes of your time to read this thread, and the frustration of your player base. Every comment that has been made on this thread is made by a player that loves the community and doesn't want to leave for better servers.

Edited September 29, 2025 by Toxine

[alexalex303]

People are resistive to @Bala because it's not a comfy thought, we all like to pretend and advocate for ECRP being this beacon of high roleplay, but it is not. I agree with him, ECRP was at it's best when it was a light RP server focused on cop vs crim interactions.

Everything that came after that was shoehorned and forced through with admin punishments and asset based rewards. I'm going to give some examples, but I want to make it clear, I am not bashing the people involved. I truly believe everyone that runs a faction, or an event for the server is trying to make it better.

But. And this is a big but. I don't think the player base wants social roleplay or civilian roleplay. This is the same player base that was the happiest when you could say "flex your K muscle" (to unlock your car), this is the same player base that was happiest when you could give demands from moving vehicles.

Is it any surprise that even faction services now rewards factions with assets based on behavior they consider good? You do what we want, we give you bigger guns. Because that's the goal of most players, not this imagined high roleplay standard. It's like "we gotta do some events so we can get ak imports"

Have you ever noticed anything about the most successful civilian endeavors? They're not based in roleplay, they're based in assets.

Bennys started with well known community members in Collie and Larry and they put a good amount of work in, but, if we're being honest, the other half of the reason why Bennys has so many employees is because its 90% gang members farming legal pay in between criminal activity. Have you seen the adverts for weazel recruitment? "come join the highest paying legal job" 

What about the peak of civilian roleplay, the event companies like Plague Inc? Jay Plague and his staff do a lot of work to organize them, but they do the raffles at the end because.. they know everyone is there for the raffle. It got to the point where even giving a free car wasn't enough, and after a bad turnout they started doing pick-up events at city parking to co-opt the people that are naturally there into winning a free car.

Does that not say anything about what our player base wants? Assets and guns to shoot people with.

Everything else is just forced upon them. I challenge anyone that disagrees to cut pay in legal jobs by 50%, and remove all raffles from civilian events, and then see how many people are attending them for the roleplay or social aspect.

Personally, I think it's time we stop forcing people to act in a way that they don't want to act, and pretend this server will ever be what it will never be.

[Earl Mud]

6 minutes ago, alexalex303 said:

People are resistive to @Bala because it's not a comfy thought, we all like to pretend and advocate for ECRP being this beacon of high roleplay, but it is not. I agree with him, ECRP was at it's best when it was a light RP server focused on cop vs crim interactions.

Everything that came after that was shoehorned and forced through with admin punishments and asset based rewards. I'm going to give some examples, but I want to make it clear, I am not bashing the people involved. I truly believe everyone that runs a faction, or an event for the server is trying to make it better.

But. And this is a big but. I don't think the player base wants social roleplay or civilian roleplay. This is the same player base that was the happiest when you could say "flex your K muscle" (to unlock your car), this is the same player base that was happiest when you could give demands from moving vehicles.

Is it any surprise that even faction services now rewards factions with assets based on behavior they consider good? You do what we want, we give you bigger guns. Because that's the goal of most players, not this imagined high roleplay standard. It's like "we gotta do some events so we can get ak imports"

Have you ever noticed anything about the most successful civilian endeavors? They're not based in roleplay, they're based in assets.

Bennys started with well known community members in Collie and Larry and they put a good amount of work in, but, if we're being honest, the other half of the reason why Bennys has so many employees is because its 90% gang members farming legal pay in between criminal activity. Have you seen the adverts for weazel recruitment? "come join the highest paying legal job" 

What about the peak of civilian roleplay, the event companies like Plague Inc? Jay Plague and his staff do a lot of work to organize them, but they do the raffles at the end because.. they know everyone is there for the raffle. It got to the point where even giving a free car wasn't enough, and after a bad turnout they started doing pick-up events at city parking to co-opt the people that are naturally there into winning a free car.

Does that not say anything about what our player base wants? Assets and guns to shoot people with.

Everything else is just forced upon them. I challenge anyone that disagrees to cut pay in legal jobs by 50%, and remove all raffles from civilian events, and then see how many people are attending them for the roleplay or social aspect.

Personally, I think it's time we stop forcing people to act in a way that they don't want to act, and pretend this server will ever be what it will never be.

I agree with this whole heartedly even though I'm not a pvp enjoyer. Assets are the grind that keeps the loyal base in for more hours than not. When the little rp during the day is washed out what keeps people in is the grind for the newest car, guns, properties, etc. I do feel like if more scripts were in place for more rp based stuff itd make rp better. I can't be bothered doing paperwork for altrp for my criminal character just to have an extra bit of fun. I do love when good rp happens but sadly its not supported so the player base we have is mostly asset based. I think you can focus on both for sure but need to lean into the current player base. Most players have 3 characters. Cop, a crim, and a troll or civ. Idk the statistics on this but from my experience this is the case for most people I interact with. 

[Quietthecutie]

1 hour ago, alexalex303 said:

People are resistive to @Bala because it's not a comfy thought, we all like to pretend and advocate for ECRP being this beacon of high roleplay, but it is not. I agree with him, ECRP was at it's best when it was a light RP server focused on cop vs crim interactions.

Everything that came after that was shoehorned and forced through with admin punishments and asset based rewards. I'm going to give some examples, but I want to make it clear, I am not bashing the people involved. I truly believe everyone that runs a faction, or an event for the server is trying to make it better.

But. And this is a big but. I don't think the player base wants social roleplay or civilian roleplay. This is the same player base that was the happiest when you could say "flex your K muscle" (to unlock your car), this is the same player base that was happiest when you could give demands from moving vehicles.

Is it any surprise that even faction services now rewards factions with assets based on behavior they consider good? You do what we want, we give you bigger guns. Because that's the goal of most players, not this imagined high roleplay standard. It's like "we gotta do some events so we can get ak imports"

Have you ever noticed anything about the most successful civilian endeavors? They're not based in roleplay, they're based in assets.

Bennys started with well known community members in Collie and Larry and they put a good amount of work in, but, if we're being honest, the other half of the reason why Bennys has so many employees is because its 90% gang members farming legal pay in between criminal activity. Have you seen the adverts for weazel recruitment? "come join the highest paying legal job" 

What about the peak of civilian roleplay, the event companies like Plague Inc? Jay Plague and his staff do a lot of work to organize them, but they do the raffles at the end because.. they know everyone is there for the raffle. It got to the point where even giving a free car wasn't enough, and after a bad turnout they started doing pick-up events at city parking to co-opt the people that are naturally there into winning a free car.

Does that not say anything about what our player base wants? Assets and guns to shoot people with.

Everything else is just forced upon them. I challenge anyone that disagrees to cut pay in legal jobs by 50%, and remove all raffles from civilian events, and then see how many people are attending them for the roleplay or social aspect.

Personally, I think it's time we stop forcing people to act in a way that they don't want to act, and pretend this server will ever be what it will never be.

This is an incredibly heated take, and alex perhaps lay off the bong for a tick before dismissing an entire portion of the community, but not without truth.

Some players (a minority ill grant you) do genuinely want to put on events and shows for the community as a whole. Orgs like plague and the people who work for them (like me, hello!) along with gov, and a bunch of other civ factions love putting on events. events can be hella fun and highly interactive. its a great way of showing ooc server pride icly.

Are they perfect...fuck no...and you usually do have to stick on some raffles just to get the average player to show up and even then there are the inevitable "when raffle" calls. 

However they are, for better and worse, a core part of the servers identity. people do show up, mingle, buy raffle tickets, beef with other orgs, say hi to new players, its great server lubricant when literally anyone can call down and just fuck around for a bit. 

They are also great for introducing new and old players to other aspects of the server. when an org like MD/SD/PD/DOC/DCC whoever puts on an event, they often get the chance to showcase the various nuuances of their own org to others in a way you couldnt do otherwise.

And the people who put them on such as @Jay Plague @britbritxo do a fucking storming job with minimal script support to make them happen and have my undying respect. Would the server survive if civ rp like this was to suddenly stop being a thing? probably, but it would feel all the more forced and empty for it.

 

Edited September 29, 2025 by Quietthecutie

[Smoke1]

step 1 bring back prison poker pleeeease!! I get it through Going to doc if you're lucky and have vip is at least an hour of not much to do, laundry, garbage, fight, hit rocks. If you don't have vip i think its 3 hours max right? I think that is personally way to long of a time, Yes it's a game its supposed to be fun for all sides but i think personally the 3 hour max time to sit inside a confined area with sometimes no other prisoners or guards sucks... possibly reducing sentence times even more would be a step? the 12 hour license suspension is an amazing addition!! semi automated impound omg life changing!!!  with a license suspension You can choose to ride a bike ride with friends or just drive another car, but your not confined to small rp scenarios with little to no interaction. in doc you cant choose much of anything

[Quietthecutie]

1 hour ago, Smoke1 said:

step 1 bring back prison poker pleeeease!! 

I think the issue with this is the script, which they dumped for the casino one, which would make no sense in DOC. twin this so people can actually play.

[Ritchie Stones]

6 hours ago, alexalex303 said:

People are resistive to @Bala because it's not a comfy thought, we all like to pretend and advocate for ECRP being this beacon of high roleplay, but it is not. I agree with him, ECRP was at it's best when it was a light RP server focused on cop vs crim interactions.

Everything that came after that was shoehorned and forced through with admin punishments and asset based rewards. I'm going to give some examples, but I want to make it clear, I am not bashing the people involved. I truly believe everyone that runs a faction, or an event for the server is trying to make it better.

But. And this is a big but. I don't think the player base wants social roleplay or civilian roleplay. This is the same player base that was the happiest when you could say "flex your K muscle" (to unlock your car), this is the same player base that was happiest when you could give demands from moving vehicles.

Is it any surprise that even faction services now rewards factions with assets based on behavior they consider good? You do what we want, we give you bigger guns. Because that's the goal of most players, not this imagined high roleplay standard. It's like "we gotta do some events so we can get ak imports"

Have you ever noticed anything about the most successful civilian endeavors? They're not based in roleplay, they're based in assets.

Bennys started with well known community members in Collie and Larry and they put a good amount of work in, but, if we're being honest, the other half of the reason why Bennys has so many employees is because its 90% gang members farming legal pay in between criminal activity. Have you seen the adverts for weazel recruitment? "come join the highest paying legal job" 

What about the peak of civilian roleplay, the event companies like Plague Inc? Jay Plague and his staff do a lot of work to organize them, but they do the raffles at the end because.. they know everyone is there for the raffle. It got to the point where even giving a free car wasn't enough, and after a bad turnout they started doing pick-up events at city parking to co-opt the people that are naturally there into winning a free car.

Does that not say anything about what our player base wants? Assets and guns to shoot people with.

Everything else is just forced upon them. I challenge anyone that disagrees to cut pay in legal jobs by 50%, and remove all raffles from civilian events, and then see how many people are attending them for the roleplay or social aspect.

Personally, I think it's time we stop forcing people to act in a way that they don't want to act, and pretend this server will ever be what it will never be.

so you suggest that cops and crims go battle royal eachother in a druglab ? i dont think its wrong to put some standards, i like the events, i like people coming together, however i feel your right about the asset based player base, i myself love owning the coolest things in the server.

[Victus]

I agree with this sentiment from @alexalex303 that most of the player base are not into the idea of super high tier roleplay (or at least don't prioritize it), here is the truth of the matter (from admittedly the pov of a crim main):

Most of the committed, loyal players, specifically career crims, have a playstyle that involves them skirting around the very tight and stringent rules (how many career crims last multiple years with a clean record?) as they try to obtain the most meta, min-max(y) way to farm money as safely as possible (aka with as little risk as possible, which in turn usually means as little RP interaction as possible). I'm sure most crims miss the era of being able to farm a ton of drugs in private labs with ease raking in hundreds of thousands with little risk. While this was a thing it didn't mean these crims didn't go out and engage with the community in other, meaningful ways. (In fact they had a reliable, comfortable money grind so it let them focus more on the RP side of things, growing their gangs, politics, doing more risky crime knowing they had a fallback stash of cash from apt cooking which means more chases/engagements for PD, and just in general hanging out with people and so much more like just purely having fun out in the world). 

For a lot of people Eclipse RP is not like a traditional serious RP server where people come in to tell a story with their characters that they know will die eventually or PK or whatever, this is ultimately a asset chase for a lot of people and the RP is the in between is their goals acquiring of assets. (This isn't to disregard a ton of hard worker players who are here purely for the RP, running tons of great events etc, but I'm talking a vast majority, or at least plurality of players here). I'm sure a lot of people appreciate and engage in that RP "in between", but their ultimate goal is the asset chase (which I think is perfectly fine and is what makes eclipse RP unique/special). (I've long given up on this grind myself having experienced everything I wanted but this is still the driving force for a lot of people and it absolutely was for me early in my Eclipse career)

With all of this in mind, I feel like the devs go absolutely crazy hard on anytime we have a relatively easy way to grind money. I think making the asset grind so much harder, riskier, and grindier and  has turned a lot of people off from the server.

Let's touch on the civ side of things too. When road workers was crazy money (just great money, not economy breaking or anything and much better than it is now post-nerfs), it was sooo popular and an insanely great way to meet people (kind of filled in the void from pier dying). The reason why it was popular was because you could join the job, let someone else drive you around while you would occasionally click E to do a construction and rake in a ton of money per hour. This kind of stuff always gets stamped out in both the crim and legal side of things (and this isn't even including the absolute slaughter job the devs did to poker). Before I see people say about the new trucker job, that just proves my point, that job pays good but it is way more involved (and also way less interactive/social) than road workers (Just do a few trucker routes and tell me how much passion/energy you have, even if that job paid twice as much as it does now, compared to the simple gameplay loop of being hauled around by the dozen, joking around with and meeting new people and hitting E occasionally to make a ton of money in roadworkers). The honest truth is when there is no genuinely relax and easy gameplay loop that also encourages socializing then the server suffers for it. 

Why the devs do this, I have no clue, I think they are really protective of the economy (whether that be to raise value for the credit store or any other reason who knows) and maybe this is a good thing, but they can take this too far imo. The eras I mentioned above where the grind was at it's "easiest" was coincidentally probably the most popular time of the server (at least way more than nowadays).  And I know the devs worked really hard on this trucker script and similar new things for crims and civs alike,  but sometimes less is more. Look at how no one does ATMs due to the payout despite how cool and engaging of a mechanic it is, it's because the devs are too protective of the economy and making the asset grind harder with that abysmal payout for the risk.


I think the solution to improving player count is to acknowledge what the server is, the player mentality and bring back things/gameplay loops/features back that worked well in the past, or in new innovative ways. Since ultimately we are here to play a game for fun, and it's not like a real life  server, there is no harm in allowing people to make money easily (within reason) so they can focus more on actually having fun and engage in RP and I think this will go a long way in bringing the pop back up. 

(Personal gripe, honestly just bring back the tequila la exactly the same way it was before for gods sake, the server home page used to say "pursue a professional poker career" and now it doesn't and we all know why. Can only speak for myself when I say I lost 80 percent of my income as a crim main when tequila la went away and now poker is dead (but I am a bit bias on this last point I admit, oh and Roulette and Blackjack are nothing more than money sinks to balance economy, you don't hear of "pro" roulette/blackjack players because they are pure moneysinks for all my non-poker players about to bring that up. Without poker there is no reasonable way for crims to make the money to buy things like gas stations, supers, etc, and maybe that's why they got rid of it. This would also allow prison/stamp poker to return) 

Edited September 30, 2025 by Victus

[alexalex303]

7 hours ago, Quietthecutie said:

This is an incredibly heated take, and alex perhaps lay off the bong for a tick before dismissing an entire portion of the community, but not without truth.

Some players (a minority ill grant you) do genuinely want to put on events and shows for the community as a whole. Orgs like plague and the people who work for them (like me, hello!) along with gov, and a bunch of other civ factions love putting on events. events can be hella fun and highly interactive. its a great way of showing ooc server pride icly.

Are they perfect...fuck no...and you usually do have to stick on some raffles just to get the average player to show up and even then there are the inevitable "when raffle" calls. 

However they are, for better and worse, a core part of the servers identity. people do show up, mingle, buy raffle tickets, beef with other orgs, say hi to new players, its great server lubricant when literally anyone can call down and just fuck around for a bit. 

They are also great for introducing new and old players to other aspects of the server. when an org like MD/SD/PD/DOC/DCC whoever puts on an event, they often get the chance to showcase the various nuuances of their own org to others in a way you couldnt do otherwise.

And the people who put them on such as @Jay Plague @britbritxo do a fucking storming job with minimal script support to make them happen and have my undying respect. Would the server survive if civ rp like this was to suddenly stop being a thing? probably, but it would feel all the more forced and empty for it.

I specifically addressed the fact that the people involved put in a lot of work, that is not what is being contested.

What is being contested is that very few people actually want to participate. If they did, you wouldn't need to bribe them with raffles. 

[Victus]

26 minutes ago, alexalex303 said:

I specifically addressed the fact that the people involved put in a lot of work, that is not what is being contested.

What is being contested is that very few people actually want to participate. If they did, you wouldn't need to bribe them with raffles. 

And this harkens back to the idea of how RP in this server is asset driven (and for better or worse) it is not going to change. I think them adding raffles to get people to show up proves this point further and how even these RP focused events have to cater to this mentality, now it's just time for the devs to do the same thing imo. Conversely, I do think people would still come to these events if there weren't raffles but not as much, and in turn would probably be a more engaging experience if people are purely there for the fun of it. In an ideal world you'd have these events to solely cater to people wanting a fully RP focused experience while the grinders can do just that (and again not to say there doesn't have to be engaging RP involved in that either)

[HobGoblin]

7 hours ago, alexalex303 said:

I specifically addressed the fact that the people involved put in a lot of work, that is not what is being contested.

What is being contested is that very few people actually want to participate. If they did, you wouldn't need to bribe them with raffles. 

Would love to see them do events with no raffles and see how many people go, my guess is a lot less than now. 

[Toxine]

1 minute ago, HobGoblin said:

Would love to see them do events with no raffles and see how many people go, my guess is a lot less than now. 

Probably just the organizers. 

It's fun once in a while going to listen to some music and chat with people, but after that, it becomes hella boring, and even when people show up to these events, everyone is literally just waiting for the "/b RIGGED RAFFLE" chat. 

Nobody is actually taking their time to organize a proper event that engages everyone and at least provide some fun for the people involved.

Instead of making 10 events a month, make 2 but make them unique and entertaining. 
Again, I'll reference the Weazel "Last Man Standing" with the green purple alien thing, that shit was fun af. 

But other than that, there's not much Civ can provide to the crim/leo playerbase. Which is why Civ is neglected.

Ultimately, without Dev's efforts and dedication, there's not really much that can be done to save the server.

[Ash]

2 hours ago, HobGoblin said:

Would love to see them do events with no raffles and see how many people go, my guess is a lot less than now. 

The sad truth about the server really. People only do stuff if there's assets in it for them usually.
To be fair though, Horny's diner opened up without a raffle and a decent number showed up of both crim and legal, same for the Weazel alien DM event. So I do think the uniqueness of the event plays a huge factor.

[britbritxo]

22 hours ago, Quietthecutie said:

This is an incredibly heated take, and alex perhaps lay off the bong for a tick before dismissing an entire portion of the community, but not without truth.

Some players (a minority ill grant you) do genuinely want to put on events and shows for the community as a whole. Orgs like plague and the people who work for them (like me, hello!) along with gov, and a bunch of other civ factions love putting on events. events can be hella fun and highly interactive. its a great way of showing ooc server pride icly.

Are they perfect...fuck no...and you usually do have to stick on some raffles just to get the average player to show up and even then there are the inevitable "when raffle" calls. 

However they are, for better and worse, a core part of the servers identity. people do show up, mingle, buy raffle tickets, beef with other orgs, say hi to new players, its great server lubricant when literally anyone can call down and just fuck around for a bit. 

They are also great for introducing new and old players to other aspects of the server. when an org like MD/SD/PD/DOC/DCC whoever puts on an event, they often get the chance to showcase the various nuuances of their own org to others in a way you couldnt do otherwise.

And the people who put them on such as @Jay Plague @britbritxo do a fucking storming job with minimal script support to make them happen and have my undying respect. Would the server survive if civ rp like this was to suddenly stop being a thing? probably, but it would feel all the more forced and empty for it.

 

As someone who plays civ, and has tried to do a lot for civ, I do think civ can have a place here in the community as middle ground between cop and crim. I just don't think civ should be expected to be prioritized. I was lucky enough to see things implemented that we fought for at Weazel like pop-up ads and posters. But I've also seen them now be abused on the other side. In terms of events, as someone who literally harassed and annoyed  @Asbo for months to let me convert Weazel News into an event company I do see the value in events. Since doing 100+ events on the server, there were lots of events we did that weren't /anim dance5 alt tab wait for raffle and leave RP. I was inspired actually by @Kazjii and the Bathshebas who literally scammed people into paying to watch a shit show for an hour + of their life, with no raffle. I did the Rizz contest (twice, the first being an event people literally just paid to watch without winning anything), two golf tournaments using /dice, earth day using the garbage job to pick up trash, water collection for a fake water crisis, watched Larry lose in a burger battle at Bennys, Simon says with anims, Gooblin play, baseball using /dice, Horse Derby using masks and the new /panim at the casino, sprunk events using the new /panim ecola can and sprunk cans in game, karaoke contests, Pride parade, launching girlies performance at the pier with cobb, opened a dog park for people to use /pet , eating contests that I only really needed to buy stuff at burger shot for, most recently planned the gun buyback event for PD (that yes, had props placed, but could have been planned by any player). But sometimes, you just wanna dance with bae to DJ Quiet @Quietthecutie cause she changed your life by introducing you to Fred Again on the pier one night. Both can exist. While yes, some of these requested alt rp via forum submission, most tbh could be done without it. And the most fun events were the organic ones with like 20-30 people with nothing but things found in game. I admire anyone who still plugs away at events for the server as a regular player with no pocket admin in their faction. It's a thankless task and a lot of work. Do it cause you love it. The script support likely wont change, I encourage you to get creative using what we have in the city already. Events don't hurt the server. While maybe they feel overdone now, the work LFM is doing to help regular non-admin players see goals met in their factions is awesome. A large part of that is cause of the work admins like Kat has done. If I wish hard enough on a star, maybe we will see Jason Steel doing a /anim dancem at the next parking event ;). 

Edited September 30, 2025 by britbritxo

[NinerTwoGolf]

On 9/30/2025 at 4:06 AM, HobGoblin said:

Would love to see them do events with no raffles and see how many people go, my guess is a lot less than now. 

I think @Jay Plague did a good test of this, advertising a small party. At first it was a come and hang out, in which six people showed up, He suddenly said $100,000 free raffle to those there, like three dozen were suddenly there. He could speak more to it.

On 9/30/2025 at 4:19 AM, Toxine said:

Instead of making 10 events a month, make 2 but make them unique and entertaining. 
Again, I'll reference the Weazel "Last Man Standing" with the green purple alien thing, that shit was fun af. 

I think an event like that should be viewed as an exception, not the rule.

While that event was Weazel, there was not an insignificant amount of the server's Event Team that are not affiliated with Weazel came out to assist with that, myself included.

I'm sure Marco and the Weazel Team put god knows how many man hours into building, planning, marketing, etc. into that event, but something of that scale for other factions is just not possible. Even with the size of Weazel as a faction, other Admins, moderators, and even support were asked to assist.

 

Events are a real fucking bear to plan and execute. Even now, my faction is planning for an event before the end of the year. For starters, we first came up with the rough idea and concept. Then, based upon some faction feedback about wanting to see us out there with other factions more, I reached out to a faction leader who I had known for a long time about partnering with them, giving them a rough idea. Currently, I am no reaching out to a government agency that has juro of the area to utilize the space. After that, I still will need to reach out to my LFM representatives to see about getting some event vehicles spawned, and I still need to put in a build request to have it built.

For those counting at home, that is FOUR different groups that I have to communicate with, and if any one of them say 'No', I'm back to square one. It also doesn't help when policies or guidelines change without warning, such as the recent mapping request changes. And this is all for an event that will last two hours, maybe three. It's exhausting. But I like putting on fun events, so I do it, mostly without complaint. Though I’m sure @Ms.Somebody  is probably sick of hearing my threatening to start smoking again.

On 9/29/2025 at 12:53 PM, Quietthecutie said:

Would the server survive if civ rp like this was to suddenly stop being a thing? probably, but it would feel all the more forced and empty for it.

Hammer on the head right here. If ECRP wanted, they could completely cut out most civilian factions and be done with it. DCC is gone, add more City Bees. Have the automated mechanic system work with mods and you don't need mechanics any more, especially with the new repair kits. Weazel... might be more difficult. There were ways in the past that people could advertise things but I also feel bringing it back and allowing people to hang their own posters could get very messy very quickly.

 

I think, while a minority, is still a not insignificant portion of the player base. I tried my hand at the Crim life on a few occasions. I found the gameplay loop not to my taste and the attitudes I encountered even worse so ECRP came a nice place for me to meet people and hangout, and for a while that was good. Some people just want to meet and interact with others, write their own stories.

I don't think any civilian would say they want to be made the priority, that they need updates beyond anyone else. God knows that DOC is in need of a desperate rework, and has been asking for one for years. Same with Mechanics, and to a lesser extent DCC. But if you look at the past 3 months of updates, you could hardly say that Crims aren't getting love, especially in July with Faction War content, and rebalances to ATM's and Robberies. Though I will say in August there were no updates. I think civ/legal would like a bone thrown to them every once in a while.

As for the asset grind, what's the end goal? What good is all that money if all it does is sit in your bank staring at you? I did the grind for a while and now I have everything, so what's the plan?

I'll end my rant with how I interact with the server nowadays:

I log on. I check my text messages, reply to those that need a reply. I'll browse through my various faction members, see who is online/on duty. If there are people I particularly enjoy the company of, I'll go clock on. If not, I'll peruse the various freqs and make calls if there is any racing going on. If not, I go out and check on and restock my businesses. After that I'll see if there are any events happening at the end if there is still nothing, I'll just log off and go do something else.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who does checklist.

Edited October 1, 2025 by NinerTwoGolf

[Jay Plague]

I very much disagree that without CIVs the server would be fine. I think CIVs are what give meaning to being a cop or a crim. Without Civilian RP and only cops and crims, everything loses meaning in the long run. I would sure like to think that cops earn a paycheck to buy more than GPSs and Laptops when they die. And I assume crims have other things on the agenda other than crime. or else WHY are you playing an RP server? There are a million games to PVP on, the reason RP servers became popular is that they offer an experience you can't get in other games. 

 

At the end of the day, of course, cops and crims should be a priority, as they offer "action". But completely ignoring an entire section of the community is actually wild. CIV activity shouldn't be only "EVENTS". clubs and restaurants, and businesses should be open daily, not twice a year, but the current state of the server makes that impossible. 

 

Civs were promised cooking like 4 months ago, which would be a GAME CHANGER for restaurant owners. Instead, we got a bus driving job, in a server that gives you enough money to buy a cheap car day 1??? Like why?  90% of all civ job are drive from Point A, to point B and press E a few times alone. That is not RP, and offers 0 interaction. 

 

If you don't have a balance to the grind with downtime, which CIV RP provides, people burn out and leave. 

Edited October 1, 2025 by Jay Plague

[Bala]

Disagree, there is an over-reliance on events and those events are being propped up by FM because without the paid incentives, people wouldn't host them as they wouldn't make money and people wouldn't attend them because there is nothing in it for them.

Civilian Roleplay on Eclipse is irrelevant and it's not going to increase the player count by supporting it, you just want it supported because you take part in it. It was non-existent in 2019, events were held and they were special occasions but holding them all the time burns people out on them.

People will spend days and weeks building a bar, they'll run a couple events and then it'll close again. That is the case almost every time, what does that tell you? That the overall player base does not give a shit about that aspect of RP. 

You know what the best brand of civilian roleplay on Eclipse has been in the last seven years?

Fishing at the Pier. Before the change to the job. That is your civilian roleplay right there. People go down there and either they fish by themselves or with friends, they don't have to think too hard about what they are doing, sometimes they play music, but then they profit out of it. They can decide how long they do it, when they do it.

THAT is your civilian RP right there, THAT is how you get some sort of a foothold aside from cops and robbers. Not LFM giving people money to host events because they're out of ideas on how to address it.

The biggest mistake this server made, was trying to make it something that it wasn't. It's a cops and robbers server, with some roleplay elements. There is nothing wrong with that, but call a spade a spade. This is not GTA World. This is Voice RP, not text RP. People don't really portray characters so much, they play themselves.

This community is on it's ass because it's all over the fucking place with the direction.

[Jay Plague]

42 minutes ago, Bala said:

Disagree, there is an over-reliance on events and those events are being propped up by FM because without the paid incentives, people wouldn't host them as they wouldn't make money and people wouldn't attend them because there is nothing in it for them.

Civilian Roleplay on Eclipse is irrelevant and it's not going to increase the player count by supporting it, you just want it supported because you take part in it. It was non-existent in 2019, events were held and they were special occasions but holding them all the time burns people out on them.

People will spend days and weeks building a bar, they'll run a couple events and then it'll close again. That is the case almost every time, what does that tell you? That the overall player base does not give a shit about that aspect of RP. 

You know what the best brand of civilian roleplay on Eclipse has been in the last seven years?

Fishing at the Pier. Before the change to the job. That is your civilian roleplay right there. People go down there and either they fish by themselves or with friends, they don't have to think too hard about what they are doing, sometimes they play music, but then they profit out of it. They can decide how long they do it, when they do it.

THAT is your civilian RP right there, THAT is how you get some sort of a foothold aside from cops and robbers. Not LFM giving people money to host events because they're out of ideas on how to address it.

The biggest mistake this server made, was trying to make it something that it wasn't. It's a cops and robbers server, with some roleplay elements. There is nothing wrong with that, but call a spade a spade. This is not GTA World. This is Voice RP, not text RP. People don't really portray characters so much, they play themselves.

This community is on it's ass because it's all over the fucking place with the direction.

Im really not sure how you can say that. I don't know anyone who's ever joined an RP server because they just wanna drive around and shoot people. That's what GTA Online is for. I don't advocate for CIV RP just cuz im a part of it, The same way I hope you arnt just advocating for cops and robbers since you are LEO player and that fits best for you. This conversation should be about how to better the community, not our own jobs. Most RP servers cater to all 3 areas evenly, to support all players' roleplay.  Im sure there are 100s of other players who main jobs like DCC, Bennys, WNN, bayview, and spent 100s of hours building cool and unique propertys in the city they would LOVE to see open more, but the server makes this close to impossible. And just saying "well, this should be a cops and robbers server" and "Peak CIV RP is standing at the pier doing a fishing mini game" is im sure why so many people who dont wanna just run around shooting one another arnt sticking around . 

 

I am not the only one who feels this way 

 

Edited October 2, 2025 by Jay Plague

[Gyromite]

There is no reason for Civs to interact with anyone on the server. At this point, they just become traffic to dodge while in a police chase. Sitting around at a mechanics shop grinding money while spitting out canned me's is not roleplay. The only way to fix this is by implementing systems to force criminals to need civilians for progression, or vice versa. 

People seem to forget that the prison has already undergone a massive overhaul in the past; the likelihood of it being overhauled again is close to 0. The devs did have a good idea by tying Criminal XP to being active in jail, but nobody wants to run around for an hour picking up laundry and trash for less than half a level of Criminal XP for features that may or may not work. 

On the subject of events, it's all about keeping people engaged. Let's be real, most events that are not done by the event team are just people sitting around, and are usually boring. People want to see progression in their characters, they want to see the numbers go up, and they want to feel like they are doing something. Sitting around listening to music and chatting with other people can be done in a Discord channel, which is what most events turn out to be.  I would also venture to say that the reason they are so boring is that they are mandatory to advance in faction tier. 

Want to increase player count? Drop the idea of "Heavy Roleplay", stop gating guns behind factions, add group size limits for crims and LEO's, and start showing transparency in what priorities are when implementing features. Someone earlier mentioned the bus system... totally unneeded. Wasted development time. Nobody has a reason to use it. If given the choice, I bet the majority of the community would have voted against it.

Any live service game must have a constant stream of good updates; otherwise, they become stale and lose players, which is part of the issue we see here.