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« on: December 09, 2019, 03:59:55 AM »
After a few months off I've started back up again on coding this. I quickly realized this server wasn't near as popular as previous CRP's and died off a lot quicker than anticipated and believe I have identified major flaws with the server and will be working to fix them before the next one.
1) Server was hard to get into - On previous CRP's you could join without the required client add-on but you would be unable to interact with certain things and the HUD would not show up.
• Problem: People were unable to join without the client which probably turned away a significant amount of players. Not only do a large portion of newer Steam users probably not know where their add-ons folder is, but even with the client installed there was a small chance you would still get booted due to an issue with the handshaking while joining.
• Solution: The client will be completely optional from henceforth to play on the server. You will be able to join the server, spawn, and play as regular just with more chat-based menus and a bottom-print as a HUD. The client will still be recommended for regular play but people can "try out" the server before they go through the effort/inconvenience of downloading the client.
2) Stagnant economy, nothing to do - Active gameplay was tied to the economy and people didn't really have a reason to spend money on anything
• Problem: The economy revolved almost solely on crime and crime was not rewarding or profitable for the criminals, thus leading to a stagnant economy. Weapon stores eventually filled up with unsold stock leading to a surplus of resources with no buyers essentially rendering over half the jobs on the server with no real purpose. Since the server was harder to get into as a result of a required client, you had significantly less RDM'ers and nearly all criminals were just bored people with lots of money to blow on killing sprees.
• Solution: Make crime more rewarding and add more parts to the economy that don't revolve around crime.
Adding company-owned banks not only allows the opportunity for wealthy players to make money off of giving out loans but also opens up the opportunity for one of the most rewarding crimes of all: Heists
Heists will give groups of criminals the opportunity to make large sums of money off of crime as well as give the cops something to work together for and stock up on firearms for.
Adding farming and food will also force people to spend money regularly and open up an entire new range of lot types, businesses, and jobs. Hunger was essentially stripped from the mod so I could focus on the other features but hopefully now that I've beta tested the mod's other features I can give it a proper farming and hunger system that it's been needing for over a decade. Adding an illegal type of farming in the form of drugs will also give the criminals something to do in their free time other than mass-murdering half of the server. Collecting taxes that can also be redistributed as welfare will give poorer players a way to make money, even if no company is hiring.
3) Gameplay was generally unpolished and confusing - A lot of the features of the mod were not well explained and a lot of features were hidden behind menus/commands. I didn't put enough time into polishing up the gameplay and relied heavily on beta testers to pass on their knowledge to new players. In the future I will make things more self explanatory, add some guides on how to play, improve the help menus, and set up things so you don't need to rely on other player's knowledge as much.
In short, here are the upcoming features for the next server:
Player-operated banks and loans
Farming
Drugs
Heists and safe-cracking
Taxes/welfare
Mayoral system
Universal storage system?
One thing I also want to try out is a universal storage system where resources and money aren't stored as a number in a database and instead are all physically stored physically somewhere in the city. Some examples:
Your bank funds are stored in a vault in the bank company's basement
Items that are manufactured have to be moved the lot they are being sold from
Building on a lot will automatically deduct that lumber from your safe inside the lot
Cash received from events are stored inside a cash register/safe in the same lot as the event
Items, money, and cash can be stored inside of vehicles that, when blown up, drop what's inside
If you have any thoughts or suggestions please let me know.
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