Every RP system ever made for blockland (and a majority of those for garrysmod) has been structured around
encouraging people to commit crimes. I don't have the right to speak for other people, nor do I have the privilege of reading minds, but I assume the thought process runs something along these lines: "Order is a great thing, right? People need to follow the rules for an RP to work! But we'll need someone to enforce the rules. How about cops? Great idea! But we can't give them the power to kick/ban, that's too abusive. I know, lets fabricate a completely artificial criminal system that encourages people to run everyone down with a tank so the cops something to do!"
An RP shouldn't be driven by money or inventory. You might as well just make a TDM mod that awards you money for every kill which you can then invest in more guns, because this is basically whatever every RP is (replace the shop keeper with an engineer and you're half way there, rename the criminal to 'spy' and you're done). Not that there is anything wrong with this, TDM is great, but it is a lot more fun when you play it as a TDM then if you try and force people to play an RPG within it.
I think that there is only one thing any RPG mod should only try to accomplish one goal; tell a story or get the players to create a story. From there, the mod should include only those features necessary to accomplish these goals.
Lets take for example, a space rpg. Suppose you want the immediate objective to be for players to build a space colony. You can literally do this with 2 mods, 1 if you use the flying jeep instead of a pretty rocket. Force players to pick up building blocks from a central location and develop their own transportation systems to build on other planets (maybe they can fly there, maybe they'll use events. Creative solutions would be encouraged, but I'm going to have to accept the fact that most people will just build a teleporter or something). In this case, the mod would be some kind of brick limit with a brick dispenser. Then for flavor, you could start adding on mods. Maybe allow people to mine the bricks instead. Perhaps the planet is uninhabitable, the original builders would need to bring some kind of atmosphere filter with them to the planet. Perhaps the filter can break down or take damage, and someone needs to repair it. You take your story and then build on to it.
In my opinion, the mod that has most closely achieved the goal of being a great RPG is, surprisingly, the zombie mod.
Back in the beta, I remember Rotondo creating a briefcase that you had to find and bring back to the spawn. Actually, there might not have even been a briefcase, we might have just walked into an empty building and pretended it was there and then walked back. Then he could have used an instant-win command or something. But I'm pretty sure there was briefcase. The point is, it was easy to create a story, and it was a lot of fun. Here's another example, Sumz ran a zombie mod beta server that had time bombs hidden in buildings. After you turned them all on, a tank zombie spawned. Once the tank died and the bombs were all set, you won the game.
For more rants on RPGs, see this
post. I can't remember who posted it, but they must be some amazing genius because I agree with every word they say.
On the topic of the space rpg, we could force everyone into a minigame and then have them ride around on the missile vehicle. Since people are forced into the minigame, their bricks are fair game for an exploding missle. I propose the penalty for exploding missiles on colonies is death by armed mob of vigilantes. Perhaps we could have a Defense Secretary in charge of organizing civil defense. They could be given the sole right to distribute weapons from the town armory, giving everyone Ak47s or something. Of course, the criminal wouldn't have the privilege of having a weapon, they'd have to hide. Eventually the public would be disarmed by killing each other or natural causes, so there should be some kind of grace period in which you are free to murder your neighbor or something afterward. But the armory would be closed so weapon distribution should theoretically diminish over time (with the exception of being able to bash each other's skulls in with a hammer). The Defense Secretary, of course, would have continual access to weapons, so they could just hunt down the people still terrorizing the public.
This can be done with no new mods. The Defense Secretary would be elected/nominated/appointed by USSR members and would have a special clan tag. Imitators would be banned with a warning telling them to change their tag. Armory control can be done with simple events. Criminals would be reported either by a visible kill in the chat or citizen reports the Defense Secretary deems valid. The missile vehicle would need to be downloaded.
As for pirates and traders, it sounds awesome but I can't think of anyone who would code it for us.
