Make drugs 10x more valuable

[Demonmit1]

Who is the suggestion for?
This suggestion is primarily for the criminal player base, including drug producers, dealers, and the end-users who use drugs for their buffs. More broadly, it's a suggestion for the server's economy as a whole, aimed at improving the roleplay surrounding illegal goods.

Why is the suggestion being made?
The idea comes from observing how drugs are currently treated on the server. My core point is this: drugs on the server feel more like cheap consumable powerups than valuable, illegal goods.
It seems a little weird that a player can get a massive combat advantage from a blunt that costs less than lunch at Burgershot. There’s no weight to the decision to use one; players just pop them because they're so cheap it doesn't matter. This suggestion aims to add value, scarcity, and strategic depth to the drug market.

What are the pros and/or cons of the suggestion?
Pros:
Creates Strategic Value: Using a drug for its powerful buff becomes a real choice with a financial cost. Players would have to ask, "Is this fight worth using a valuable asset?" This adds a layer of strategy that is currently missing.
Fosters a Player-Driven Market: With drugs being more valuable and scarcer, a real player-driven market could finally take off. Instead of just grinding and selling to an NPC, cooks would have a high-value product that other players would genuinely want to buy, creating more RP for dealers, smugglers, and customers.
Reduces Mindless Grinding: It shifts the focus from producing massive quantities of cheap stuff to creating smaller amounts of a highly valuable product. The profit-per-hour for producers would remain stable, so it's not a direct buff or nerf.
Enhances Criminal RP: The increased rarity and value would make trades and sales between players more necessary and impactful, changing the core aspects of the crim gameplay loop for the better.

Cons:
Implementation Challenge: To implement this fairly, we would need to do something about existing stashes to prevent people from becoming rich overnight. A one-time script to reduce current drug counts in all inventories and stashes would be necessary, which could be technically complex.
Initial Shock to Players: Players accustomed to the current system of cheap, spammable buffs would need to adjust their playstyle.

How should the suggestion be implemented?
The implementation should be done in a few key steps to maintain economic balance:
Increase Value: The sell price of all drugs to NPC dealers (and import costs, if applicable) should be increased by a factor of 10.
Increase Production Time: To balance the value increase, the time it takes to produce/cook each drug should also be increased by a factor of 10. This keeps the profit-per-hour rate consistent.
Address Existing Stockpiles: A one-time, server-wide script should be run to reduce all current stashes of drugs (in player inventories, properties, vehicle trunks, etc.) by a factor of 10. This is crucial to prevent flooding the market and creating unfair wealth from pre-existing stock.

[Earl Mud]

-1000 this would increase pvp and player theft. People do small cooks for a reason when their group is low numbers. If the time is increased this much it allows lab rollers to hit every lab in the time it takes to cook one drug causing small groups and solos to not be able to do anything.

[Chilo]

I don’t think there needs to be an increase really. The other day I cooked for 24 mins and made 30k. That’s a 20k profit in less than an hour. Increasing the value would just make it even more profitable and it would not be a good balance for the economy really. 
 

I think a better suggestion would be to make slight adjustments to the boots the drugs gives. Maybe depending on the tier of drug, you get different durations or something along those lines. I don’t think increasing the value by x10 is ideal at all.

Increasing production time also is not a good idea as well, there are a lot of solo Crims who have to try to cook in labs when larger gangs are not active in them and there already hard on its own. Increasing the time would just make it more difficult/impossible for solo Crims to cook.

[Eliza]

This would inflate the economy worse than it already is, most cook and hold until they have 250 or 500 (forgot which one equals to 50 vol) and sell in one batch, and would just get a giant lump sum in one go

[Demonmit1]

20 minutes ago, Chilo said:

Increasing the value would just make it even more profitable

 

37 minutes ago, Demonmit1 said:

Increase Production Time: To balance the value increase, the time it takes to produce/cook each drug should also be increased by a factor of 10. This keeps the profit-per-hour rate consistent.

@Earl Mud I'm genuinely not familiar with the small group strategies. Small groups are showing up to labs and cooking less than 10 of a given drug before you leave? I just... I don't see how that is in any way, shape, or form profitable or worth the effort. Are you going into a lab to make 2-3 blunts and leaving?

Edited October 1, 2025 by Demonmit1

[astrx]

Cooking drugs is already the most efficient money-making activity, it does not need to be any more valuable than it is. -1

[Demonmit1]

Just now, Demonmit1 said:

Increase Production Time: To balance the value increase, the time it takes to produce/cook each drug should also be increased by a factor of 10. This keeps the profit-per-hour rate consistent.

 

Just now, astrx said:

Cooking drugs is already the most efficient money-making activity, it does not need to be any more valuable than it is. -1

There's more to the post than just the title.

[astrx]

36 minutes ago, Demonmit1 said:

Increase Production Time: To balance the value increase, the time it takes to produce/cook each drug should also be increased by a factor of 10. This keeps the profit-per-hour rate consistent.

Also no, god no. So you're saying for a value increase that a single heroin should take 30 minutes to cook? Rather silly.

Cooking is fine as it is, and I understand this is a post with more than just the title, I still don't agree with it.

[YasinByn]

-1

absolutely no

[Demonmit1]

34 minutes ago, Earl Mud said:

-1000 this would increase pvp and player theft. People do small cooks for a reason when their group is low numbers. If the time is increased this much it allows lab rollers to hit every lab in the time it takes to cook one drug causing small groups and solos to not be able to do anything.

 

34 minutes ago, Chilo said:

Increasing production time also is not a good idea as well, there are a lot of solo Crims who have to try to cook in labs when larger gangs are not active in them and there already hard on its own. Increasing the time would just make it more difficult/impossible for solo Crims to cook.

If you are a 1-2 man group going into a lab to cook drugs, you you're currently cooking less than 10 of whatever drug of your choice, you're not cooking for profit, you're cooking for personal use. Yes, this change would heavily affect you then, and hoping in for 120 seconds to grab two plants and make a blunt is kinda silly. Youd end up being a consumer, where yous be a customer of players or groups who focus on consistent cooking of drugs. Yeah, this will change your gameplay loop, but now you're in a position to interact with other players, having to find a dealer, find a plug, to get your personal use quantities of drugs. Solo/small groups would become the demand for the player to player drug market, not just ignoring interaction with other players since individual drug production is so quick and simple right now. 

 

"Instead of just grinding and selling to an NPC, cooks would have a high-value product that other players would genuinely want to buy, creating more RP for dealers, smugglers, and customers."

Edited October 1, 2025 by Demonmit1

[Earl Mud]

27 minutes ago, Demonmit1 said:

 

If you are a 1-2 man group going into a lab to cook drugs, you you're currently cooking less than 10 of whatever drug of your choice, you're not cooking for profit, you're cooking for personal use. Yes, this change would heavily affect you then, and hoping in for 120 seconds to grab two plants and make a blunt is kinda silly. Youd end up being a consumer, where yous be a customer of players or groups who focus on consistent cooking of drugs. Yeah, this will change your gameplay loop, but now you're in a position to interact with other players, having to find a dealer, find a plug, to get your personal use quantities of drugs. Solo/small groups would become the demand for the player to player drug market, not just ignoring interaction with other players since individual drug production is so quick and simple right now. 

 

"Instead of just grinding and selling to an NPC, cooks would have a high-value product that other players would genuinely want to buy, creating more RP for dealers, smugglers, and customers."

You speak a lot for someone who does not know my ic character. I do not fight so no our small sessions are not for buffs. Think of it this way...if Im unarmed taking 12-25 to cook. I can queue tables and pick up what cooks then sit and wait to dip if someone comes and tries to push. I still get half the profit if I escape. This is small crew cooking and how it works to not get insta rolled by pvpers. I wont go into details for metagamers but i do end up doing full 250 cooks just spread out. Doing this change would force more non pvpers  to pvp more and people who roll labs will get the most out of this. 

[Danny_V]

OOH!

Crims not using drugs anymore in fights?
That makes them easier targets!

Sorry -1 from me

(People bring cooks based off of the amount of tables in the lab, basically if there's 4 coke tables, and people bring a 20 batch, they put 5 on every table, cook it and quickly depot... (potentially repeat after securing that share) your new system will force people to bring (what is now) a 40 batch. Force them to be there for double the amount of time and have a way higher risk compared to the same reward)

Edited October 1, 2025 by Danny_V

[Ritchie Stones]

I have been suggesting for player to player drug trade since years. I like the idea. I just dont see how making drugs 10times more valluable is going to make people trade it with eachother. Maybe i did not read good, but as far as i understand, why not sell it to a npc get your cash. No matter the vallue ? 

[Demonmit1]

9 hours ago, Ritchie Stones said:

I have been suggesting for player to player drug trade since years. I like the idea. I just dont see how making drugs 10times more valluable is going to make people trade it with eachother. Maybe i did not read good, but as far as i understand, why not sell it to a npc get your cash. No matter the vallue ? 

The point was to reduce the quantity being produced. But to do that would heavily reduce profit per hour for cooking, so the value of each drug would have to go up based on how much slower it is to cook each drug, making the individual drug item more expensive to not mess with the money per hour.

 

If drugs took 10x longer to cook, they would be more scarce, so more player to player trade would happen since the demand for drugs to use would remain the same, rather than 99% of drugs going to NPCs to print money

Edited October 16, 2025 by Demonmit1

[Ritchie Stones]

11 minutes ago, Demonmit1 said:

The point was to reduce the quantity being produced. But to do that would heavily reduce profit per hour for cooking, so the value of each drug would have to go up based on how much slower it is to cook each drug, making the individual drug item more expensive to not mess with the money per hour.

 

If drugs took 10x longer to cook, they would be more scarce, so more player to player trade would happen since the demand for drugs to use would remain the same, rather than 99% of drugs going to NPCs to print money

that in it self wil not create player to player trade, it might for maybe 1 to 5% but not significant, there is no real evidence that this wil manipulate players behavior into player to player trade, what i believe wil happen first wil be more vulnerable to being stuck on drugtables for long times increasing chances to get robbed, so why do it then ? 
i wont put my money into a drugtable knowing i wil have to wait for 30 minuts, just for the other guy to notice call hes gang, and i lost my money, you are better off making a quick few drugs, making microprofits in a more short while where you make at least some profit. now this wil not be the case and im stuck on that level to, which means that drugmaking wil be 99% massive risk, because how slim are the chances that a druglab remains empty for 30 minuts, you wil literaly put money into a sink knowing anyone who pulls up now wil claim the spot, and the chance of that happening is like 99% of that happening.

i do like how you stimulate the idea's of player to, player trade, i would die to be able be an actual drugdealer with significant profits on that end 

[MaxIntension]

-1 would have to increase the prices of everything else. Everyone would only focus on cooking which would just increase pvp. Small groups would just be getting robbed more than they already are so theres no point in this.

 

[imran]

Cooking drugs is already the most profitable and high risk crim job in my opinion, its safer than store robbery but almost the same, i believe that creating labs near plants growing places would be great, like make grammys 'oneal farm" lab perm, means it will never gets removed.

[Harveyyy]

This will screw up and worsen the already inflated economy; -1

[Demonmit1]

6 hours ago, imran said:

Cooking drugs is already the most profitable

4 hours ago, Harveyyy said:

This will screw up and worsen the already inflated economy; -1

this suggestion changes nothing in the profit per hour of cooking drugs. the drugs should take longer to cook, so to compensate without affecting the profit per hour, the individual price of each drug would go up too.

[imran]

5 hours ago, Demonmit1 said:

this suggestion changes nothing in the profit per hour of cooking drugs. the drugs should take longer to cook, so to compensate without affecting the profit per hour, the individual price of each drug would go up too.

first to whom don't know, this suggestion author is made by a LEO player.

so u saying a blunt will takes 10min to make instead of 1 with a value of 5000£ eash? first of all these prices won't be logicl in terms of Rp, add on that ur suggestion will support robbers to get their targets easy, means no stash or no break between cook to cook, it would be a massive L.
sorry but -1

Edited October 29, 2025 by imran

[SneakySniper]

-1 nowadays i only see 2 gangs in labs, empire and esm. Sometimes we hold these labs for hours on end with no attempt at a push. This would just be too much and become uneven for the economy. Cooking drugs is already the best way to make money. 

[Danny_V]

8 hours ago, SneakySniper276 said:

-1 nowadays i only see 2 gangs in labs, empire and esm. Sometimes we hold these labs for hours on end with no attempt at a push. This would just be too much and become uneven for the economy. Cooking drugs is already the best way to make money. 

OP also said that cooking times would go 10x to accomodate for hourly profits.

But! I still think it's going to negatively impact other aspects of gameplay.

Take for instance sparking a blunt to make lockpicking a house or car easier.
This change would essentially lower the profitability of chopping/house robberies by 5k.

Activities that are already not the most profitable activities. making them less viable.
Its just not a good suggestion. I'm sorry.

 

[Blazendary]

I don’t wanna spend 30 mins to make one LSD -1