ECRP - A Way Forward [Feb 2026]

[Bala]

On the day of the Community Meeting, it seems somewhat like the right time to post this. I will try to be as fair but direct in the things that I'm saying as possible because I know a bunch of these get made and sometimes bits and pieces happen but too often they don't.

The Road Map is going to unfortunately be one of those things that inevitably gets brought up negatively because it was a self-declaration from the developers that significant and structured change to the community to attempt to alter it's fortunes would be forthcoming and as of the 31st of January 2026, the final day of the three month roadmap, the only official releases from that roadmap were Fishing, Criminal Odd Jobs and the Racing Script. There were mitigating reasons why certain things were delayed but to be completely honest, in the grand scheme of things it hasn't really had a positive impact on our community or it's fortunes really has it?

The reason why I bring up the roadmap is not to take an unfair cheap shot at the developers, it's to point out two very important points.

One, is that actions speak louder than words.

I find it somewhat incredible that even in the circumstances of the last couple of years, we still retain a loyal player base who continue to play week in, week out but also, donate quite significant sums of their money towards the continuation and betterment of something that they enjoy. Where there are players, there is still opportunity.

If you say you are going to do something, then you have to do it and if you're not able to do it, you explain why you are not able to do it and when you may be able to do it. Most of you know that I spend hours of my life some weeks creating custom content for this server and I take the responsibility of me saying I'm going to do something extremely seriously and I'd like to think I do what I do somewhat well. I don't have a financial interest in the server but like so many of us, even though there may be times I don't like the server, I still fucking love this shit. 

I do not want appreciation and enjoyment for Eclipse Roleplay to be because of memories, I want people to play Eclipse for the experiences of now and in the coming weeks/months, however long we've got left.

Two, is while the incompletion of the Roadmap is significant for the community, the contents of that Roadmap was in some points misdirected and ineffective in putting development where it would make the most positive impact.

We need to stop the occasions we create and put out random updates that address niche areas of the community. The foundation and cornerstones of this community is it's criminal player base and by extension, it's law enforcement. Those two areas are the largest groups of players in the community and while everyone else is important for the roles they play, the stark reality is that you won't get more players in the server by making the civilian aspects better but you will get more players in the server by improving the aspects that effect the areas the majority play.

@risk has frankly done an excellent job of turning faction management around in her short time being appointed but she's fighting a losing battle trying to keep the train on the tracks when the fundamental experience of being a crim, I'm talking the basic stuff like the store robberies, the banks, the labs etc.. is the same it was 3-4 years ago. That's reflected in our law enforcement factions with SD having to resort to finding reasons to come into the City because there isn't enough going on up in Blaine County to sustain them and the effect that has on PD, but also, the experience of being law enforcement in general has decreased significantly over the last year and that is directly tied to the criminal experience.

So, the way forward, as the title suggest is for the developers to finish up the Mining Update and to finish up the Prison update but then set about taking care of the these fundamentals in a meaningful way, which I will give some basic ideas on now as I'm typing this at 8:30am.

I feel quite strongly that if we do most, if not all, we'll be in a much better position at the end of it in a lot of ways. 

Labs

• Introduce my new lab locations to the server, for freshness.
• Expand the amount of active locations available at any one time, to give smaller time criminals more opportunity to cook without getting ganked but also, to avoid the weirdness of cops having to ignore them, if not in use.
• Knocking down a lab should either instantly or within 5-10 minutes spring one up elsewhere.
• Add an NPC at an active lab location that will sell you the materials for cash (there will be a replenishable limit to avoid overcooking) you need to cook at that laboratory and fuck off the Humane Labs treasure hunt aspect of resource gathering, to add convenience but also, add a lower barrier of entry to using labs for criminals. This was the 2019 approach, except the materials were free in 2019.
• Introduce a robbery rule to the lab locations about only being able to take illegal items from someone if you catch them slipping at a lab.
  Add a mobile drug lab item that can be placed in certain vehicles like the Caracara RV or Journey, that allows for players to make their own mobile drug labs out in the world. They would still cook in the game world, with the vehicle engine switched off and it would generate a significant amount of smoke but players could seek their own enterprise for drug manufacture. 

Chops / Car Stealing

• Reduce the amount of repetitions needed for the lockpick minigame and make the lockpicking easier even for the higher tier cars.
  • This is GTA and that minigame is latency dependent. 
• Text a number on your phone and when you do, it will give you a specific civilian vehicle to steal along with it's location for a bonus payout.
  • Random small chance for cops to be informed about the robbery and what sort of vehicle to be on the lookout for/what area its being taken from.
• Replace the current system of the chopping with the old system of waiting for a timer, where you wait in a certain area for a timer to countdown.
  • This allows for greater flexibility in locations for chops as you are not confined by the equipment necessary allowing you to park.
  • The more time you wait, the more damage your car takes so past a point you wont be able to start it.
• Increase the amount of civilian vehicle spawns and the amount that spawn.
• Removing GPS' from Government Vehicles should come with a timer to prevent people just stealing them so easily.

Store Robberies

• Add the ability to steal money from the back room safe to store robberies.
• Replace the manual aim at the cashier to initiate the robbery with a command and aim animation, this avoids issues with latency and issues outside the player's control.
• Allow for solo robberies of stores, since the gun would be no longer required to be aimed, to allow the person holding the gun to help collect money, albeit at a 25% reduced rate.
• Increase the pay-out for stores closer to police stations, to incentivise taking a risk.
• Increase the pay-out slightly for players not wearing a mask, to incentivise taking a risk. Everyone wears a mask and theres no reason not to.
• Add a very small random chance for the cashier to hit the silent alarm when the robbery starts, to give the robberies a little RNG danger.
• Allow for players to switch between stealing packed money and pocket cash BEFORE they start robbing it. Newer criminals want cash, not packed money.

Bank Robberies

• Replace the manual aim at the tellers to initiate the robbery with a command and aim animation, this avoids issues with latency and issues outside the player's control.
• Allow for just the bank tellers to be robbed, without doing the full scale bank vault robbery and would function like a store robbery
• Allow for a "bank security guard" NPC to be taken hostage (in the hostage animation) to avoid those fucking awkward situations where people take their friends or another player hostage then we have to worry about the complexities of whether or not a player can be killed or not.
• Roof Access.
  • Once the vault door has been breached, you could use the world interaction UI to enter the vault from the roof or from the vault to the roof, giving another method of access or exit by teleporting up or down.
• Tunnel access.
  From anywhere in a 100m radius of a bank, allow people to dig a "tunnel" from the point of their dig to the interior of the bank (outside the vault), this would help ease one of the problems with Fleeca banks, that there is only one way in and one way out. Small chance for tunnel teleport use to trigger a silent alarm for cops that something is happening at the bank.
• Controlled Explosive.
  Allow instead of a drill, for the use of controlled explosives that blow the vault door open a lot quicker, the weight is less than a drill but comes with a very loud bank.

Also, add the Pacific Standard (LS Bank) as a robbable interior for some actual variation.

Money Truck Robberies

• Think of these like mini-dynamic banks. Every hour or so, a broken down locked money truck will spawn locked, in secluded locations around Blaine County or LS.
• Inside the truck has packed money and silver/gold bars.
• You can use various different methods to gain entry to the truck, each with their own time, like bolt cutters, crowbar, con saw etc..
• Once you are inside, it's basically a smash and grab as the alarm goes off, informing the police where the truck is.
• You gather up as much cash as you can then dip.
• Staff would be able to add locations for the truck to spawn, so there would be plenty of variation and environments to tackle.

House Robberies

• Add a couple more interiors, including the Diamond Casino and Franklin Apartments. 
• Add a burgling skill, that dictates which interiors you may be assigned, with unlocks along the way making your robberies easier like quicker safe cracking, more room to make noise etc..
  • Tweak the payout to reflect this. Instead of people just doing the Vinewood mansions every time, variety is good!
• Make the job accessible at ANY time during the day but limit the player to doing a robbery every 14 in-game hours, which reflects the 10 hour window they have now.
• Add a very small random chance for the neighbourhood watch to call 911 when the robbery starts, to give the robberies a little RNG danger as right now they only exist for cops at the end.

ATM Robberies

• Reduce the amount of times you twat an ATM with a crowbar from 45-50 in half to 22-25.
• Add a very small random chance for the bank to call 911 about one of their machines getting smashed.
• In the case that players use a tow-rope, add a timer option for them to disable the GPS tracker on the machine if they're willing to wait at the scene of the crime. They will still have to pull it somewhere but the GPS won't be a homing beacon for as long.

Tequil'la NCZ Casino

• Tequil'la was an important spot before the Diamond Casino, where players could meet and play poker against one another.
• Shut down the Diamond Casino interior and refit the Tequil'la interior with the tables and slot machines from that interior, it's easily done.
• Tequil'la is a lot easier to get into and out of that Diamond Casino and while Diamond Casino still gets used from time to time, players would be more attracted to Tequil'la and use it more as a result. 
• Have Government allow players to rent out the venue for events and such.
• Horse Racing
  • Think of this like a daily lottery but at 6pm every day, one of 7 horses wins the Los Santos Derby.
  • You could put a bet down and depending on the odds, make yourself some money.

Coroners, Fires and MD

• I know not crim, but MD is a big faction and Coroner is job in a terrible spot.
• Remove the coroner job and patch the dead body calls through to MD for them to respond to, by answering them, they generate money for their treasury.
• Add server spawned NPC bodies and server created dead body calls every so often to supplement the amount of calls that MD have to respond to, to encourage their activity.
• Also, like the incident workers, spawn random fires in locations around the state and have MD be called to put them out. This gives them a reason to have their Fire Department which adds something extra to their faction.
• The amount of server generated calls that come in would depend on the amount of medics on duty.

Mechanic Roadside Recovery

• For some of the civilian vehicle spawns, spawn them broken and in need of repair, with server generated mechanic calls that mechanics can respond to and by answering them, they generate money for their treasury.
• When they get there they will inspect the vehicle and depending on what is wrong with the vehicle, they will use different mechanic tools to fix it such as a lug wrench to replace tires, socket wrench for car battery or a fuel can for adding fuel back to a vehicle.
• The amount of server generated calls that come in would depend on the amount of mechanics on duty.
• Fixing the vehicle will turn it into a vehicle that a criminal player can steal and use for their own gains.

Server Taxi Fares

• DCC suffers from a lack of activity and requests for calls, so by server generating calls for NPC fares we can substitute the amount of activity they should have.
• If DCC are encouraged to be on duty then the more chance we have of people ordering a taxi.
• The amount of server generated calls that come in would depend on the amount of taxi drivers on duty, but you'd respond to the location. The NPC would get in the back of your taxi and you'd take them to the planned destination and they'd pay the faction treasury.
• It isn't the same as a real player but you have to fake it till you make it sometimes.

Speed Cap Reduction to 220.

I know some of you really won't like it but the reason why Rockstar made some of these meta cars go as fast as they do, is because GTA Online races were getting dominated by people with high end PCs and they wanted to give those with low end-medium PCs the opportunity to stay competitive. This was a GTA Online game mechanic, not a roleplay one and if we're being honest, a 240 speed cap means you've got sweaty people chasing sweaty people. The faster the vehicles go, the less control they have, which means pursuits/chases end prematurely and if crims feel that cops doing the most to try and stop them is truly an issue then by lowering the sweat levels from the speeds, we could look into other ways of pursuing.

220 is still fast and a vehicle that accelerates extremely fast is still going to accelerate extremely fast. It brings a number of other vehicles into play that are not currently meta vehicles and additionally, for those that bought these vehicles with real life money, you've still got your car that is still fast and you still supported the server, which was the point right? Not to pay to have that kind of advantage over other players.

Across the board, no matter what side, tactics and skill should be more important factors that decide outcomes, not exploiting game mechanics.

Interior Teleport Protection

• Allow the player to be invulnerable to damage for 3 seconds when entering/exiting an interior.
  • There would be a cooldown of 10 minutes on this applying again to avoid people playing wack a mole on interiors.
  • If they aim a weapon, the protection will be cancelled.

[RustyOsprey2]

I do think there are plenty of good ideas in this thread, but I do think the following are not the most optimal.

Adding NPC interactions for jobs is, in my opinion, bad. Examples are the following:

• DCC suffers from a lack of activity and requests for calls, so by server generating calls for NPC fares we can substitute the amount of activity they should have.
• Allow for a "bank security guard" NPC to be taken hostage (in the hostage animation) to avoid those fucking awkward situations where people take their friends or another player hostage then we have to worry about the complexities of whether or not a player can be killed or not.
• Add server spawned NPC bodies and server created dead body calls every so often to supplement the amount of calls that MD have to respond to, to encourage their activity.

Personally, I believe the above-mentioned would be bad implementations, and we should attempt to focus on ways of increasing player v player RP interactions instead of adding NPC ones.

The tunnel access and roof access sections of the improvements to the banks sound like a disaster. I do agree on changing how banks are done, there are many great examples of bank robberies done on other RP servers that I believe this server could look for inspiration from. 

Changing the speed cap to 220 would, in my opinion, be a good change. I'm aware most people will argue about it being too slow, or that the change will render plenty of vehicles "useless". But it will also do the opposite. It would revive so many "non meta" cars, as you no longer only buy cars based on their ability to go 240. I do, however, see the issue with some supercars and sports cars that can go 240 currently. Some cars have a good top speed, but bad acceleration, and with the change of 220 max speed, it would make them rather useless.

[Tylerwalk]

+1 to most of the stuff in the thread. I do agree a lot of the crim stuff does need to be updated but overall tho we just need new criminal activitys.

[moment]

Another banger by Bala, well thought and wrote my man.

Edited January 31 by moment

[k0ma]

Oh yeah bring back Tequi la la days where the poker tables used to be full every night, the script was simple and people actually had fun playing it, now the casino is just dead, people go in to play roulette or blackjack solo then leave.

[Pazz]

It's okay, the community meeting and probably the update dated November 2025 have been delayed again, so really, you're way ahead of the curve on this one.

[AtlasOLimbo]

1 hour ago, Pazz said:

It's okay, the community meeting and probably the update dated November 2025 have been delayed again, so really, you're way ahead of the curve on this one.

Me when the leader of the largest legal faction on the server at one point and the current lead for DOC doesn't have faith anything discussed will be fulfilled.

Remember when we were promised change, discussion, communication? Yeah.

[DaddyShrood]

1 hour ago, AtlasOLimbo said:

Me when the leader of the largest legal faction on the server at one point and the current lead for DOC doesn't have faith anything discussed will be fulfilled.

Remember when we were promised change, discussion, communication? Yeah.

I'm so excited for the prison update to release today.........

[Lewis]

Have had a quick skim through, FM are already in the process of revamping some existing labs and we're looking at new locations!

 

[Eliza]

9 hours ago, Bala said:

Introduce a robbery rule to the lab locations about only being able to take illegal items from someone if you catch them slipping at a lab.

This should be in general, pocket wiping is just cringe.

I agree with most of the suggestions on this thread. I also think a lot of the frustration comes from the lack of communication around development. Even small updates or teasers when something gets finished would probably go a lot further than people think. Right now it just feels like things are in limbo, and that’s where most of the frustration comes from.

Edited January 31 by Eliza

[Timmaayy]

The "NPC-generated jobs" won't really provide much, and this isn't really what these factions have been asking for. On paper, it may sound good, but in reality, they won't be done.

Would be nice to see more civilian content too, to benefit the whole server.

[Kazjii]

46 minutes ago, Eliza said:

I also think a lot of the frustration comes from the lack of communication around development. Right now it just feels like things are in limbo, and that’s where most of the frustration comes from.

But even when there is communication and... a roadmap, It's not followed nor executed as promised. That's where frustration really grows for people who still play. I'm here as a spectator but I think its common sense that people don't like being edged on developments. 

Not sure what a community meeting would even do at this point. If the main concern is development for the majority of players, that was addressed months ago with a roadmap being the solution. We saw where that went. And before the roadmap, a poll was released in-game to see where the players would like to see development be at. We also saw where that went.

[moment]

44 minutes ago, Timmaayy said:

The "NPC-generated jobs" won't really provide much, and this isn't really what these factions have been asking for. On paper, it may sound good, but in reality, they won't be done.

Would be nice to see more civilian content too, to benefit the whole server.

I agree to this, I would love to see more scripted business owned by players, such as Legal Marijuana Shop, Jewerly Shop and of course they to be on duty while working on it.

[AtlasOLimbo]

8 minutes ago, Kazjii said:

- snip -

Not sure what a community meeting would even do at this point. If the main concern is development for the majority of players, that was addressed months ago with a roadmap being the solution. We saw where that went. And before the roadmap, a poll was released in-game to see where the players would like to see development be at. We also saw where that went.

Before the roadmap and I believe after the poll was the QoL thread by Lewis, asking for focused feedback on 'easy' fixes. We also saw where that went.

[CharlesXiao]

1 hour ago, Kazjii said:

people don't like being edged

can you edge me

[Kazjii]

Just now, CharlesXiao said:

can you edge me

Please keep all horseplay in my DMs (yes)

[Eliza]

1 hour ago, Kazjii said:

But even when there is communication and... a roadmap, It's not followed nor executed as promised. That's where frustration really grows for people who still play. I'm here as a spectator but I think its common sense that people don't like being edged on developments. 

Not sure what a community meeting would even do at this point. If the main concern is development for the majority of players, that was addressed months ago with a roadmap being the solution. We saw where that went. And before the roadmap, a poll was released in-game to see where the players would like to see development be at. We also saw where that went.

i agree with you

[Earl Mud]

Yeah this and the quality of life updates needs to be looked at asap. We did have a small player spike again but it's lulling again. We need some of these long term issues patched, small but thoughtful updates to all walks of life IC and I think we will be in a good spot

[SneakySniper]

Lovely ideas, i hope the server can implement some of them

Edited March 20 by SneakySniper276
negative

[Bala]

15 hours ago, Lewis said:

Have had a quick skim through, FM are already in the process of revamping some existing labs and we're looking at new locations!

Maybe inquire privately what I have so I haven't wasted my time working on these projects?

15 hours ago, Timmaayy said:

The "NPC-generated jobs" won't really provide much, and this isn't really what these factions have been asking for. On paper, it may sound good, but in reality, they won't be done.

Would be nice to see more civilian content too, to benefit the whole server.

If you cannot naturally generate enough activity to support something through normal means, then you must fake it until you make it. If no one calls a taxi, then DCC is useless. If no one calls a medic, then MD is useless. If no one comes to a mechanic shop for repairs/mods, Bayview/Bennys is useless.

Obviously at peak times that doesn't happen but in the quiet time-zones? If factions haven't been asking for these things, they've not been asking the right questions, especially DCC which is on the fringes.

As for civilian content, while civilian content isn't irrelevant, it is unfortunately less relevant than criminal content because criminal content effects not only all the criminal factions and criminal role-players on this server, our two fully sized police departments/Judicial Branch/Department of Corrections factions are all dependent on criminals doing criminal shit and if we deep it, more work for LSEMS.

More criminals with a better experience reflects better on the server in general, which means more people for events and other enterprises. When you have people logged in and motivated, you can do more with them.

We gotta re-start with the basics first though, like learning to walk again after a bad car accident.

14 hours ago, Kazjii said:

But even when there is communication and... a roadmap, It's not followed nor executed as promised. That's where frustration really grows for people who still play. I'm here as a spectator but I think its common sense that people don't like being edged on developments. 

Not sure what a community meeting would even do at this point. If the main concern is development for the majority of players, that was addressed months ago with a roadmap being the solution. We saw where that went. And before the roadmap, a poll was released in-game to see where the players would like to see development be at. We also saw where that went.

We're all acutely aware of what has happened or rather what hasn't happened. That Roadmap has been and gone, it's dust at this point. The only thing is what happens next and that something happens.

A community meeting would do the same thing the LFM meeting did last week, all roads end up leading to the right kind of development needing to happen and in the absence of it happening, an empty feeling in the pit of one's stomach like we might be cooked.

Even with threads like this, people will look at it, think the things are a good idea but then have the same attitude that @SneakySniper276 has where nothing will happen. It's a really understandable attitude in the circumstances but it's probably not healthy or helpful to think that way.

21 hours ago, k0ma said:

Oh yeah bring back Tequi la la days where the poker tables used to be full every night, the script was simple and people actually had fun playing it, now the casino is just dead, people go in to play roulette or blackjack solo then leave.

We'll never get it back 1:1 like it was, product of it's time but when there are patterns of behavior that clearly the player base gravitate to or elements of play that the player base enjoyed, lean into those as much as possible.

If we have to resort to giving away cars via raffles to get people together, tells you something ain't right about the social aspect.

Tequil'la is convenient, casino games are fun for people. This shit doesn't have to be rocket science but we make it harder for ourselves.

[Aezeryst]

What could be done is reintroduce tables as an item to be bought, labs aren't active, gangs or others could go to the designated location and only be able to set up in the same way the weed growing zones exist. Additionally (might get hate for this one) we should have it that only some gangs can bring in certain things so we can add more interaction between gangs. For example drug heavy gangs like OTF should be able to import drug ingredients and tables, racing focused gangs like Alliance should be able to import toolboxes, anti gov/leo like The Souls should be able to import encryption devices. Sure it would be harder to get these things but I believe it would add more interaction other than PvP with each other and possibly add balance. Tho if we are talking about balance we should really be focusing on cops in my opinion. Because cops get everything for free and realistically don't carry heavy weapons and juggernaut armour everywhere they go

[SneakySniper]

I hope the server improves for the best

Edited March 20 by SneakySniper276
negative

[AtlasOLimbo]

42 minutes ago, SneakySniper276 said:

With the amount of threads I've seen and promises of change with nothing happening its hard not to have that attitude towards it. I'm sure a lot of the community feel the same. If there are changes made then yay, if not then it is what it is, I don't have my hopes up for anything really. Just gonna sit back and cross my fingers and maybe we'll get something

This. Any good faith has been slowly tapped away until more and more voices are left not contributing to these threads, I myself tend to see the same ten or so people on these threads consistently (including myself). It's really hard not to feel completely hung out to dry.

[Earl Mud]

It does start to feel like these convos happen right around credit sale time then poof afterwards nothing for a long time. Radio silence isn't good. It takes 2 minutes to say something 1 time a week. There's plenty of old threads the past few years with great and small suggestions that should get looked at. 

 

[Timmaayy]

13 hours ago, Bala said:

As for civilian content, while civilian content isn't irrelevant, it is unfortunately less relevant than criminal content because criminal content effects not only all the criminal factions and criminal role-players on this server, our two fully sized police departments/Judicial Branch/Department of Corrections factions are all dependent on criminals doing criminal shit and if we deep it, more work for LSEMS.

I would rather see content that affects the server as a whole; focusing on a select number of players isn't fair, in my opinion. 

There are a lot of great ideas out there that would do this. Whilst I can't promise what is developed and delivered, I am trying my best to consolidate a list of suggestions to be passed to the developers to be worked on in future roadmaps.