Ways to increase player count in ECRP

[Toxine]

6 minutes ago, Jay Plague said:

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 . 

You can't count Bennys, LSC, Bayview, EMS factions as regular Civ's. 
They are vital for the server and crims wouldn't be able to function without them.

But surely, every single one of these https://eclipse-rp.net/panel/#/business/legal-factions provide nothing for either LEO or Crims.

Crim isn't about "just shoot one another", I've been only a crim so far and (especially right now with this player count) there are not many shoot outs. But for some reason the whole dynamic of the server revolves around crims shooting each other (labs being the main & only source of fun, main income method). 

Unless you sort crims & leo's pros and cons, you cannot be asking for civ implementations. Not because I'm a crim and you are a civ, but it's because I provide RP to you by attending your events, and your gatherings and paying money to your raffles, you don't provide a single thing to me (or any other crim per se).

Do you really think that the random LTU that spawns in the server gives a fuck about a free raffle going on at out of towners? They probably don't even understand the wording "free raffle". What RP opportunity are you providing to them? Whereas the LTU is going to rob you, kidnap you, kill you, beat you up, shave you, interact with you and what not.

Crims can live without civs, civs can't live without crims.

Go try and start a server of exclusively Civs, and see how that goes, then go start a server of Crims & Leo's only, and see how people flood in. 

But also, thank you to anyone and everyone involved into organizing actual unique events, even simple club nights are not easy to coordinate, so we appreciate your work and efforts. My comment is subjective, I'm not here to bash anyone's choice of RP or belittle anyone's time and efforts!

[AtlasOLimbo]

21 minutes ago, Gyromite said:

-snip-

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. 

 

Why are we so against heavy roleplay in this faction and others? I am not saying it needs to be prioritized by any means, but I've had really good roleplay on this server, admittedly not for a long time. But it seems that we've done everything in our power to ward away these players.

[Toxine]

1 minute ago, AtlasOLimbo said:

Why are we so against heavy roleplay in this faction and others? I am not saying it needs to be prioritized by any means, but I've had really good roleplay on this server, admittedly not for a long time. But it seems that we've done everything in our power to ward away these players.

If you consider the fact that 95% of the server has never used /ldo, /ame/ /amy /my /melow/ /dolow, makes you understand that we are not a heavy roleplay server. 

Just because some people are creative with their roleplay doesn't make the server a high level roleplay. 

[Jay Plague]

21 minutes ago, Toxine said:

You can't count Bennys, LSC, Bayview, EMS factions as regular Civ's. 
They are vital for the server and crims wouldn't be able to function without them.

But surely, every single one of these https://eclipse-rp.net/panel/#/business/legal-factions provide nothing for either LEO or Crims.

Crim isn't about "just shoot one another", I've been only a crim so far and (especially right now with this player count) there are not many shoot outs. But for some reason the whole dynamic of the server revolves around crims shooting each other (labs being the main & only source of fun, main income method). 

Unless you sort crims & leo's pros and cons, you cannot be asking for civ implementations. Not because I'm a crim and you are a civ, but it's because I provide RP to you by attending your events, and your gatherings and paying money to your raffles, you don't provide a single thing to me (or any other crim per se).

Do you really think that the random LTU that spawns in the server gives a fuck about a free raffle going on at out of towners? They probably don't even understand the wording "free raffle". What RP opportunity are you providing to them? Whereas the LTU is going to rob you, kidnap you, kill you, beat you up, shave you, interact with you and what not.

Crims can live without civs, civs can't live without crims.

Go try and start a server of exclusively Civs, and see how that goes, then go start a server of Crims & Leo's only, and see how people flood in. 

But also, thank you to anyone and everyone involved into organizing actual unique events, even simple club nights are not easy to coordinate, so we appreciate your work and efforts. My comment is subjective, I'm not here to bash anyone's choice of RP or belittle anyone's time and efforts!

The reasons criminals don't rely on civs is because of a lack of development. 

What if player-run restaurants were significantly cheaper than AI-run convenience stores? Would you sometimes decide to buy food from a player instead sometimes?

 

What if a player ran businesses could be robbed? would that not be more fun than hitting the same 5 banks and convience stores? (would also open more opportunities for Security guards, and create more fun for cops with different interiors) as well as offering unique hostage situations. 

 

What if player ran business that offered items that COULD NOT be bought from basic automatic stores that provide 0 RP. 

 

The reasons civs offer nothing to the server other than events, is we are starved of any sort of devlopment.  Even BASIC business ideas get squashed. as you can't offer anything that isn't already being sold by an automated shop that requires zero interaction or RP and chances are your prices will be worse, so no one will choose you over something cheaper and more convenient. 

That could very easily be changed. 

[AtlasOLimbo]

Just now, Toxine said:

If you consider the fact that 95% of the server has never used /ldo, /ame/ /amy /my /melow/ /dolow, makes you understand that we are not a heavy roleplay server. 

Just because some people are creative with their roleplay doesn't make the server a high level roleplay. 

Just seems like we are needlessly against those who are creative in their roleplay. The people that do this level of roleplay are typically more dedicated/willing to invest more time and effort in high-ranking positions in factions.

[Gyromite]

40 minutes ago, AtlasOLimbo said:

Just seems like we are needlessly against those who are creative in their roleplay. The people that do this level of roleplay are typically more dedicated/willing to invest more time and effort in high-ranking positions in factions.

Not at all. If anything, creativity is encouraged. Nobody is going to complain about elaborate /me's or /ldo roleplay. The point is that this server has always strived for realism (to a point), and we used to/still have elaborate requirements that fostered the "heavy roleplay" theme (signing paperwork, /me to show licenses, etc, not robbing stores with heavies, not pulling out a LEO supercar to chase, roleplaying injuries, increased car damage, not being able to "stunt jump", old fearRP rules) . Granted, that has waned and is not the main reason the player count is low. 

On the subject of player count and development, Plague said it best, 
 

Quote

The reasons criminals don't rely on civs is because of a lack of development. 

Yet it's taboo to talk about the issues with development. Also, to reiterate my last post, there are no roadmaps, polls, or anything that gives the community an idea of what's going on. Remember when they teased ATM robberies? Two years later, they finally implemented it, and when it was implemented, it wasn't even worth doing because the payouts were so low. 

Edited for clarity and added additional examples. 

Edited October 2, 2025 by Gyromite

[Peter_Mopp]

I play PD and crim almost evenly. I see issues from both sides.

What's broken, what's encumber some, and what just isn't working? 

DOC - No one likes it. It sucks to work there and it sucks to be a prisoner there. The faction itself is basically dead. Should DOC be an ic punishment? Yes. Should it feel like an ooc punishment? Absolutely not. There needs to be more in DOC to keep people engaged, not just AFK or grinding stamps. 

Lockers - Players should be able to get their own items out of DOC/PD/SD lockers. This issue was recently fixed with the impound. It needs to be fixed with lockers as well. No one likes having to wait hours for their items. I've never met a cop that likes grabbing items out of lockers. 

Excessive punishment when being arrested (the new guilty/not guilty system will help with this): Large fees, 12 hour license suspension (its still too long), an hour+ in a boring prison with nothing to do, impound fees, and you never get items back so there's the hidden fee of buying a new radio, GPS, clothes, mask, etc. It's too much.

PD - is somewhat stale. Crim players are committing crime less and less because it's simply not worth the punishment. Instead, crims work as mechanics, construction, trucking, etc. If committing crime isn't worth it, no one will do it and cops will have nothing to do. Committing crime needs to be worth the risk of DOC, fines, license suspension, etc.

From my perspective, and I could be wrong,  I don't think PD needs many development changes. It's in a good spot other than the mini MDC being a black box.. giving us an actual hud would be nice. 

Crim should take priority, since they're the ones leaving the server. It obvious that something is wrong in this area and needs to be fixed before peak server is 100 players. A recent example would be most of Off Grid disbanding and leaving the server. 

CIV stuff should be looked at and not just dismissed. The server feels like an empty shell without them.

[Bala]

8 hours ago, Jay Plague said:

The reasons criminals don't rely on civs is because of a lack of development. 

What if player-run restaurants were significantly cheaper than AI-run convenience stores? Would you sometimes decide to buy food from a player instead sometimes?

What if a player ran businesses could be robbed? would that not be more fun than hitting the same 5 banks and convience stores? (would also open more opportunities for Security guards, and create more fun for cops with different interiors) as well as offering unique hostage situations. 

What if player ran business that offered items that COULD NOT be bought from basic automatic stores that provide 0 RP. 

The reasons civs offer nothing to the server other than events, is we are starved of any sort of devlopment.  Even BASIC business ideas get squashed. as you can't offer anything that isn't already being sold by an automated shop that requires zero interaction or RP and chances are your prices will be worse, so no one will choose you over something cheaper and more convenient. 

That could very easily be changed. 

I don't think you understand the gravity of the server's situation, at all or have any sort of understanding of the original topic, which is to increase the server's player count.

The Crim and Cop experiences are pretty much fucked beyond all recognition at this point right? Not just from a lack of development, but being subjected to the tangled, oppressive mess that are our server rules and the mismanagement of the overall direction with legal factions being pointed one way, criminal factions another and then things like your factions being pointed another.

I'd expect you to care more about the cop experience, given that you are one and I find it straight that you don't tbh.

If enough criminals and cops lose interest in this server, you know it's game over right? That is your starting point right there. You improve crim/cop and everything else falls into place, including civilians.

Civilian RP is not a priority and it shouldn't be, because it doesn't make a dent in the server's bottom line. The sort of things you're talking about, they're good forum suggestions, nothing more. Majority of people aren't logging into Eclipse Roleplay to cook burgers, they're logging in to play cop/crim.

This thread isn't about civilian RP, it's about increasing the player count and for that to happen, all the attention needs to go where it will make the most difference. 

I'd rather see more support for Burger Shot than a player-run restaurant, if I'm honest.

[DaddyShrood]

The fact there's people genuinely saying in this thread that DOC doesn't need development but we should instead focus on CIV rp is laughable. DOC being in the state it currently is, is one of the biggest single contributors to the current state of the server. To say that we should focus on CIV rp over actually making DOC not feel like an OOC punishment is laughable at best.

If all the crime leave the server then who's gonna show up to these events? It's already the same group of people who attend them, this trend will only increase if we stick our fingers in our ears and pretend that cooking in a stove is the solution.

[Victus]

1 minute ago, DaddyShrood said:

The fact there's people genuinely saying in this thread that DOC doesn't need development but we should instead focus on CIV rp is laughable. DOC being in the state it currently is, is one of the biggest single contributors to the current state of the server. To say that we should focus on CIV rp over actually making DOC not feel like an OOC punishment is laughable at best.

If all the crime leave the server then who's gonna show up to these events? It's already the same group of people who attend them, this trend will only increase if we stick our fingers in our ears and pretend that cooking in a stove is the solution.

The thing is I think what a lot of people are missing is that crim should be the focus due to crim pop increase being in line with a civ pop increase. Think about it, how many crims are out there just doing crim shit 24/7? Most of the "civ" activities like pier hangouts, events, burgershot etc are all populated by crims, either on downtime just hanging out or literally working there on the side. Crims help populate the civ activities just as much as the purely civ players do, and of course the crims obviously populate the crim activities which means the cops have something to do and therefore crim also populate the cops activities. 

In a way everything in this server needs crims to be supported (and of course crims do also need cops/civs but not nearly as much as they need crims, not to mention I can't remember the last time there was ever a genuine cop shortage, as pointed out its mainly the crims leaving and thats whats causing the server death).

[Ritchie Stones]

4 hours ago, Victus said:

The thing is I think what a lot of people are missing is that crim should be the focus due to crim pop increase being in line with a civ pop increase. Think about it, how many crims are out there just doing crim shit 24/7? Most of the "civ" activities like pier hangouts, events, burgershot etc are all populated by crims, either on downtime just hanging out or literally working there on the side. Crims help populate the civ activities just as much as the purely civ players do, and of course the crims obviously populate the crim activities which means the cops have something to do and therefore crim also populate the cops activities. 

In a way everything in this server needs crims to be supported (and of course crims do also need cops/civs but not nearly as much as they need crims, not to mention I can't remember the last time there was ever a genuine cop shortage, as pointed out its mainly the crims leaving and thats whats causing the server death).

They been leaving since 3 years overtime, and now people start to wake up????

i been saying this since 3 years. Also crims have been taking the L’s for the last 3years

- private labs where significant

- gun decay was significant

- people getting deported over DM by people clapping in labs

- the level system that reset a lot of money making

Those are all significant impacts, crims where given all sorts of reasons to leave or change a city. So why not do it if your vallues dont align anymore with what you came in the city for right?

I feel that the crims although many leaving have been pretty resilient over the past 3 years , because it been a long depression.

- one thing can not be argued with. Crims are leaving. It means those “balance” changes dont work. People leave, reality cant be argued with

[Jay Plague]

... As I have said multiple times. ALL areas should be developed with Crim and Leo the priority. Not just Crim and Leo with nothing to civs for 5 years.

There is a reason that most cops and criminals log off the second you are done grinding. And that is cuz there is NOTHING else to do. 

 

When you are done with a successful bank job, or cook at a lab. What are you doing? Just running it back?  or are you logging off to go do something else?

9 hours ago, DaddyShrood said:

The fact there's people genuinely saying in this thread that DOC doesn't need development but we should instead focus on CIV rp is laughable. DOC being in the state it currently is, is one of the biggest single contributors to the current state of the server. To say that we should focus on CIV rp over actually making DOC not feel like an OOC punishment is laughable at best.

If all the crime leave the server then who's gonna show up to these events? It's already the same group of people who attend them, this trend will only increase if we stick our fingers in our ears and pretend that cooking in a stove is the solution.

 

Edited October 3, 2025 by Jay Plague

[DaddyShrood]

We can't even get people to log on and be a crim!!!!!!! 

Why should the focus then be on giving these people extra things to do when we can't even get the basics right?

19 minutes ago, Jay Plague said:

When you are done with a successful bank job, or cook at a lab. What are you doing? Just running it back?  or are you logging off to go do something else?

 

[Jay Plague]

18 minutes ago, DaddyShrood said:

We can't even get people to log on and be a crim!!!!!!! 

Why should the focus then be on giving these people extra things to do when we can't even get the basics right?

Is being able to eat real food instead of cooked meat not a "basic" for a RP server lmfao

[DaddyShrood]

1 hour ago, Jay Plague said:

Is being able to eat real food instead of cooked meat not a "basic" for a RP server lmfao

I don't see how that would increase the player count in any meaningful way. With all due respect Jay, and I do have lots of respect for the work you do, but you're only fighting this hard for civ rip because you are so heavily invested in it. If you take a step back and look at the bigger picture, the server has bigger fish to fry and should be focusing on other things before we start focusing on CIV rp.

[Bala]

Developing Civilian RP would be great but with the way things are right now, it'd be like putting the women and children in the lifeboat before you've properly inflated it.

All that bitch gunna do is sink.

Sort out Crim, especially, which in turn will sort out cop and then look at alternative areas.

[alexalex303]

1 hour ago, Jay Plague said:

Is being able to eat real food instead of cooked meat not a "basic" for a RP server lmfao

It would still take a paragon raffle to get people there. You did a raffle for people to show up at city parking. I don't see what changing the icon on the food item would do to bring people there. Very few people show up to those things for the roleplay or interactions. 

This ties back to what I said before, this is the wrong player base for that kind of roleplay.

[Timmaayy]

More civilian content on the server would be great for everyone and bring a whole load of new RP!

There is already a great suggestion; feel free to add more ideas to it.

 

[AtlasOLimbo]

1 hour ago, Timmaayy said:

More civilian content on the server would be great for everyone and bring a whole load of new RP!

There is already a great suggestion; feel free to add more ideas to it.

 

Is there any progress being made internally towards any of the suggestions made here?

[Quietthecutie]

46 minutes ago, AtlasOLimbo said:

Is there any progress being made internally towards any of the suggestions made here?

a very valid ask. server staff are always very scrupulous when it comes to giving out what they are actually working on. a lot of times in suggestions it feels like bellowing into a storm. no one of consequence hears you.

[Toxine]

9 hours ago, Quietthecutie said:

a very valid ask. server staff are always very scrupulous when it comes to giving out what they are actually working on. a lot of times in suggestions it feels like bellowing into a storm. no one of consequence hears you.

This total disregard for transparency is one of the main reasons people are opting for other servers/games. This is the reason crims are leaving en masse. Because nobody actually knows what Staff/Devs priorities are, and it shouldn't be such a mystery letting your playerbase know what's coming, so they can provide some feedback and/or voice their desires. 

But apparently every single update out there is being done in full secrecy & without taking into consideration player's desires.

Like the latest update with the Guilty/Not Guilty thing is fantastic, but nobody actually asked for that. I'd rather rot in DOC for hours and know that when I leave, I have actual stuff to do, then be at DOC for 15 minutes less knowing that once im out there's nothing to do.

Just like the HSW. It's been in the works for a full year? For what? Who gives a shit about having suspensions separated in the /modview, and having a few additional colors as paint? Compared to activities, QoL, performance fixes, bug fixes, etc..? 

Why are things that nobody is asking for prioritized, but the actual wishes of players get disregarded? 
Why is there literally 0 transparency from Devs & Staff regarding stuff like this? 
Why is not a single Staff member with knowledge of all this not making an announcement, acknowledging the fact that every single aspect of the server is going to shit (even though everyone already knows), and starting to come up with ideas on how to fix it?

Very poor management of the server indeed, it's sad to see. 

Today, Friday night peak number was ~160, which is 150 less than 1 year ago. Makes you wonder why....

Edited October 4, 2025 by Toxine

[Earl Mud]

10 minutes ago, Toxine said:

This total disregard for transparency is one of the main reasons people are opting for other servers/games. This is the reason crims are leaving en masse. Because nobody actually knows what Staff/Devs priorities, and it shouldn't be such a mystery letting your playerbase know what it's coming, so they can provide some feedback and/or voice their desires. 

But apparently every single update out there, is being done if full secrecy & without taking into consideration player's desires.

Like the latest update with the Guilty/Not Guilty is fantastic, but nobody actually asked for that. I'd rather rot in DOC for hours and know that when I leave, I have actual stuff to do, then be at DOC for 15 minutes less knowing that once im out there's nothing to do.

Just like the HSW. It's been in the works for a full year? For what? Who gives a shit about having suspensions separated in the /modview, and having a few additional colors as paint? Compared to activities, QoL, performance fix, bug fixes, etc..? 

Why are things that nobody is asking for prioritized, but the actual wishes of players get disregarded? 
Why is literal 0 transparency from Devs & Staff regarding stuff like this? 
Why is not a single Staff member that has any knowledge on all of this not making an announcement, acknowledging the fact that every single aspect of the server is going to shit (even though everyone knows already) and start coming up with ideas on how to fix it?

Very poor management of the server indeed, it's sad to see. 

Today, Friday night peak number was ~160, which is 150 less than 1 year ago. Makes you wonder why....

A roadmap of "possible" updates would be nice. We got a crim level update and a big chunk of it is bugged with zero info on when it's being fixed. 

[Quietthecutie]

The irony of this also not getting a response and left in suggestion limbo 

[Eliza]

17 hours ago, Toxine said:

Why is there literally 0 transparency from Devs & Staff regarding stuff like this? 
Why is not a single Staff member with knowledge of all this not making an announcement, acknowledging the fact that every single aspect of the server is going to shit (even though everyone already knows), and starting to come up with ideas on how to fix it?

We know just as much as you guys when it comes to new stuff, when there is new content added we rarely get filled in on anything and if we have a question about something we usually have to reach out to the devs in order to help other players

[Quietthecutie]

11 minutes ago, Kazjii said:

This is just a red herring for people to feel like they are being heard. Nothing ever, besides for a single random suggestion every once in a while, comes to fruition in these threads. False hope is really what it is - I mean look at the poll they raked over announcements and IG ads, nothing came from that lmao. "Hey, lets hype up the whole server about some cool additions, and then never add them after people were led on to believe their vote was going to choose the next development project".

one of the best developer to player moments was the discord calls where people could actually speak with and get answers from people who had control of the servers development direction. I think that happened just the once, not sure why because it was so well recieved. would love to see it again.

All due respect to mods and admins but by their own admission, they control none of this and at best the senior staff can make a recommendation or two. their job is to moderate and regulate the server, not make development calls.

Edited October 4, 2025 by Quietthecutie