Ode to a Sunflower

[desolace_]

"Ode to a Sunflower" was a poem I wrote in the fourth grade; it probably serves as much of a purpose as this very post. Seeing how no one has been seriously discussing these issues, nor do I categorize this community as healthy, I can assume this article will go unnoticed and fall into the ether - becoming a relic, like all things created by those who are sincerely trying to improve the quality of role-play and thought.

I would have put this post into suggestions if not for the opinionated comments I'm about to share. This server is a hypocrisy onto itself and the players housed within. After joining only a short while ago, I have found myself perplexed by both the ego and the lack of awareness this community harbors. The test, itself alone being far different in tone that the actually game, is anything but a simple filter. I did not read the rules, I did not read anything - at all. I was able to pass the test with flying colors, simply because I knew what to expect - drawing an image in my head that went a little something like this: what would a fourteen year old kid consider serious role-play?

This is where I ramble on.

Somehow this server has literally cut all content from GTA V. Clothes, apparel, animations, and NPCs. Some of the most interesting and immersive parts of what makes the series so fantastic lay undiscovered in this community. I see suggestions to add certain things, but the overwhelming fears of "abuse" or "non-RP" deter all sensible arguments. Except, the consequences of such decisions leave the server barren and distraught. Socializing is scarce, money has taken priority. Expensive products remove the ability for anyone to gain their start alone, and jobs that may be suitable for your character either don't exist, or serve you very little in terms of cash (IE: drug-dealing). Here's a tangent:

NLR is fucking stupid; it is literally so lame, so unintelligible, so horribly offensive, that if it was a person it would be considered medically retarded. This system was birthed from those who wished to not lose their characters, but still encounter fun, interesting, and sometimes dangerous situations... And while I can sympathize with the thought, I cannot ignore the fact is sounds like it's coming from a seven year old's mouth. You mean to tell me that if we have a "situation", I'm supposed to pretend like you don't exist? Great. So, what's the point of fucking playing? Farming? Go fuck yourself.

I digress.

The problem that I see, is that this server is 100% a climb to do anything worth-while, unless you say "Fuck you" to the system and create your own fun (which by the way, is what roleplay is supposed to be about). The community offers little patience or understanding. Ideas are trumped by fears of the staff or players already so high up the general hierarchy, they are no longer relatable. Admins care more for keeping the peace than providing RP. The server itself lay inconsistent and unable to keep up with the demands that players have for entertainment. Here are a few examples:

Police Health. Ridiculous. You deter me from being a criminal because... I'll always lose? Is that your solution? Good on you, developers. Really appreciate that one.

Functionality of type-chat to voice. Awful. Almost impossible. Patience of players has hit an all-time low. That doesn't mean to add more immediate, mandatory emotes from them. When I die, I don't need someone to ask if I resist getting put on a stretcher or not. I don't need to spend every waking second ready to type out a response of /me does not resist. It is by far, the most cruel, most insane sense of self-immolation I've ever seen figuratively put onto my screen. It is not RP. That is fucking Math 101. Solve the problem, move onto the next one. Retain nothing. Feel nothing. Repeat.

Oh, and the fucking jailing system...

Jail time is fucking ridiculous. It already inhibits your ability to RP. Even more ridiculous is the fact each criminal must serve his full sentence in-game. I'll tell you this; they don't. They watch Netflix or YouTube. The punishment they get? It isn't IC. It isn't taken seriously. It's just a temporary ban from playing the server, but even worse - because you hold them there. No activities, no social events, no long-term prisoners. No chance of escape. It isn't a fun, rich environment - which is what RP grows out of. You're asking for people to complain. To be miserable. You should never punish players; only create a variety in which players are rewarded. Is that not the easiest concept to grasp? Jesus fucking Christ. The problem with these servers is that the people at the top never hop on and play a normal dude, unnoticed, for just a day. They don't. If they did, they may want to change some of the features.

I digress, again.

This whole server is a poster-child for how RP has been corrupted. Right and wrong? You people wouldn't know the difference if one was helping the poor and the other was fucking your sister. Everything about this place is shallow and without heart. I don't see passion, I see competition. I don't see forgiveness, I see impatience. I don't see rules, I see chains. There is no freedom here, only because this server has been backed into a wall by its own player-base. 

I don't even know why I wrote this thread. I'm just surprised there isn't more like this.

 

Edited July 5, 2018 by desolace_

[InvalidSun]

To be quite honest with you, I agree with most of your posting, but am a bit disappointed by the presentation due to the various scenes of profanity and insulting remarks.

However, I'd like to present a bit of an explanation towards points of the matter that are a bit misrepresented.

I will never personally insult an active member of Development, such as @NobodyLTU, who has always done as much as he could for the server, on their "lack of features". These things take time, and if not done right, could entirely ruin the rest of the server, let it be stability, economy, player interest in other features. It happens, yes, but he does his best. 

The job system and economy were fairly decent at the start of the server. The first few months, everyone was socializing, working hard for their dream cars. But, these were the days when as long as you were on duty, you were paid. Future issues involving members finding private places to enable a script, forcing their character to walk in circles while they sleep, caused economical issues, ensuring a tidy change that would force you to be at least at your job to be paid. This, of course, limited work outside of their general work area, which lessened conversation between areas. Is it a feature I would remove? Not really. Would a slight change make this better? Probably, but I do not know what that change would be.

 

As for the jailing system; originally, there was only the jail, 60 minutes max, roleplay was actually quite enjoyable, especially with Randy Clark/Travis Palmer around. He always made it fun for the criminals in there. However, the jails became packed, since there were only 3 cells down there, and everyone wanted to be a criminal, and half of those always wanted to be arrested by Clark/Palmer so they could roleplay with him from the jail cells. So, they put together a prison. This prison was prepared for some amazing features and could potentially be a genuine experience, once given the development required to become so. Like stated previously, these things take time, and other features and fixes become more important, leaving the prison on the backburner. The most anyone can do for you, from the community, which has no involvement in Development, is recommend you to be a more discrete criminal or just do the time. That is nothing against you in any way, as it is the only two options available, and the only way that member can help you.

 

That is my personal opinion on the matter. The server is a great place to come together with people and make friends, at least, it was for me. The money was a side quest while I enjoyed just having people to interact with visually, as opposed to just a small text conversation. That's what brought the experience together for me in a way that I had always enjoyed.

[NoewUH]

13 hours ago, desolace_ said:

Somehow this server has literally cut all content from GTA V. Clothes, apparel, animations, and NPCs

Clothing and apparel is a great thing to have, though ultimately, compared to developing key features and large systems, it has been placed on the back burner.

Animations, again, would be great to have a large list of 20+. Although, compared to other things, we already have a decent list and are trying to work on other things.

NPC's, I am completely against. Yes, when you watch FiveM roleplay servers and see civilians driving around, it may make the city feel bigger, though it heavily restricts the active players within a community. We would need to cut our playerbase into a quarter, just to have a bunch of brainless NPC's drive around and create the illusion of a populated city. If as stated in your post, that you want more roleplay, why would you not want to naturally populate the city?

13 hours ago, desolace_ said:

NLR is fucking stupid

How could you be against such a basic rule?

Do you believe that players should retain all information on death? Should they be able to declare war on a group of people who killed them moments before?

If you are looking for a permadeath enforced server, eclipse RP is not the community for you.

13 hours ago, desolace_ said:

The problem that I see, is that this server is 100% a climb to do anything worth-while,

How so?

If you wish to play the server to grind, buy supercars and fancy houses, I feel bad for you.

You don't need to grind to create roleplay?

Create a racing event, roleplay a yoga instructor and host yoga sessions for 500$ an hour, run a legal team for loan companies, roleplay a lawyer, get a taco truck and roleplay a mexican immigrant...

You claim that everything worthwhile in the server is a grind, though no one is forcing you to grind for money.

If you want proper roleplay, create it.

13 hours ago, desolace_ said:

Police Health. Ridiculous. You deter me from being a criminal because... I'll always lose?

The point of the police department is not to enforce a criminal v police server.

If you are looking to get in gunfights and have an equal chance of winning, play GTA:O and deathmatching servers.

If you want to be a criminal, don't be dumb about it.

Do your crime in alleyways and in dark neighbourhoods, deal drugs and guns in parts of the cities where cops won't find you. Understand that some situations you will need to accept the fact that officers will win, as they do in real life.

If criminals and officers were equal, criminals would spend their time looking for gunfights and police chases.

The police are here to scare criminals and keep them on their feet, not to be a direct enemy.

As a criminal, your enemies should be other criminals, not a government funded police force.

13 hours ago, desolace_ said:

I don't need someone to ask if I resist getting put on a stretcher or not.

ok, then.

So you wouldn't have any issue with a police officer cuffing you, frisking you, and throwing you in a cruiser without any input from you?

You would be fine if you were forced to comply regardless if you wanted to resist or not?

resistance questions and dice rolls are part of the server to promote roleplay between two parties so that an entire situation is not a few clicks of a button and some probability outcomes.

13 hours ago, desolace_ said:

Functionality of type-chat to voice. Awful. Almost impossible.

I fully agree with you, text-to-voice roleplay can be difficult. Although, as a community that wishes to assist all member of the rageMP community, we want to allow all types of players to use the server.

13 hours ago, desolace_ said:

Jail time is fucking ridiculous. It already inhibits your ability to RP.

I agree with you here, the prison was not implemented properly and was missing a lot of the features we planned to include it with.

I completely agree that there is little to no roleplay able to be had in an empty prison.

I urge you to take a look at FatherOsborn's suggestion, which was made making a large list of suggestions for the prison:

 

13 hours ago, desolace_ said:

This whole server is a poster-child for how RP has been corrupted

Farely strong claims here along with the proceeding paragraph.

I do appreciate your concern for the server, though you are going about it in the wrong way.

If you want to see change, speak to the playerbase: Instead of creating a post complaining of all the bad things in the server, create a post promoting proper RP and specific mindsets.

If you want to see systems and assets included, create a server suggestion and speak to the development team.

If you truly want to change the server for the better, I urge you to do it in smarter ways.

- NoewUH

[Giuseppe]

Agree that the server does lack medium to heavy RP entirely and it is very hard to be not in a money making faction such as LSC, MD or LSPD. The police also are much much stronger than players, since average players can't get the armor like the police have. Excluding police obviously getting free weapons as well.. Which makes many players angry since there's nearly no fighting LEOs. Because they're far too strong. I've been back for a couple days now and I've already had numerous people tell me that it's  worthless to even try to interact or avoid cops and shootouts. Which, quite frankly is saddening because shootouts and whatnot is what people enjoy, police being the common enemy of all criminals.. Maybe create criminal Armor shipments at a reasonable price to fight this issue?

Although there is a string of issue that are also tied to this one, such as it being so hard to make money as a criminal, where as a police officer/mechanic can just hangout and drive out whilst getting paid more money than any criminal could dream of making, unless they come on the server and grind the entirety of the day whilst playing. Officers have told me that they have well over several millions of dollars from just collection paychecks and cruising around ingame. 

 

Aside from the basis of negative issues, the server is on a good route and I'm glad to see that there's a dev team that keeps up with issues and rolls out new content. Since the UI menus and whatnot really bring out a modern feel, instead of majorly text based commands and functions, which is what I'm used to.

[Flucifial]

If you have suggestions on how to improve our server, you are encouraged to provide them.

Due to lack of posting on this thread for a while, topic closed.