Support Passive RPs
Id say we need more depth to passive rp and certain jobs. In some parts i agree with theo and monty here:
Our cab drivers are useless and other then beeing a merchant - there is almost no good gameplay mechanic to promote or support passive / legal rps. If you are not interested in building or otherwise getting creative there is little you can do. And whilst most of us have the one or other interesting dupe - most of us cant be bothered to run it 24/7. So we need something we can do inbetween. What do we do at 3 am with almost no one around? What do we do if we are broke/new to the server?
What do we do if we cant get our store/passive rp running? We simply need more ways to keep people busy.
Decline of Merchant Roles.
With our community and its members getting older and older our inventorys are filled to the brim. I can support an entire freaking army just with my weapons inventory (yet all i really need and us are binoculars and shovels). Why would i ever feel the need to buy from a gun dealer?
The same sorta goes for chefs - while they are far more usefull - and far more used - in the end of the day most of us have a pretty good ration of fish - so why would we bother searching for a chef just to be charged 1-3k for somethign we can obtain in less then two minutes.
Now this is somethign the crafting update (exspecially if it also brings some sort of cooking system) would most likely solve, but since you asked...
Boredom and lack of passive economy
We made it extremely easy and beneficial to grow weed. Probably even a little too beneficial (most of us are already quite rich). Yet we have no effective counterpart on the passive side. Sure passive/legal rps need to be less beneficial as their illegal counterparts as otherwise the risk tied to weed etc wouldnt pay out. But in the end of the day there still need to be passive mechanics. We are not dark rp. Agressive RP is lots of fun but we must not limit outselves to it.
With the severly nerfed woodcutting and almost no other way to make a bit of money on the passive side people have almost no insentives to just discover the map, enage other people or do something passiv if dont have the time or will to setup larger Dupes and RPs. Most RPs and dupes require a lot of preperation to set them up, and a certain level of participation to get them running. But what do we do inbetween - in case of low server population or if we are just not in the mood or position to run a larger rp? We gotta find ways
One approach to passive economy: Trucking
Why dont we add something like a trucking/delivery system, where you basicly can gain a little ammount of money for ferrying goods. Get your truck out, pick up the goods at A, bring em to B... . This is a very simple but helpfull mechanic thats used by plenty of other roleplay communitys: wether its delivery missions in Arma3-RP communitys, smuggling jobs on 5M servers or mailman/truck driver jobs within the gmod competition.
Why should we do this:
- Even with little reward it gives you a good insentive to move to & through less popular/populated areas therefore establihing increased and realistic ammounts of traffic, whilst promoting more remote areas (fewer dead areas). That same traffic and will also promote other rps (accidents, traffic stops etc.)
- It simply gives you something to do - why not tune up some music and drive around a little rather then standing in one spot waiting endlessly for a police slot - or something interesting to happen. This mechanic works as the entire recipie behind some games (truck simulators, elite dangerous etc..) and as a massive addition to others (see Arma RP, GTA etc.). If people dump hours into hauling virtual goods in other games and other servers im optimistic itll work out for us to some extend.
- It provides newer players with a limited yet reliable and immersive way to make a little cash without having to risk loosing all their weed (which can be a lot of capital for newer people) or requiring advanced knowledge about meth etc.)
Rework or replace older features
We have and have had a lot of very interesting and unique features, sadly we lost some. And whilst i am not a dev and therefore cant tell which severe issues some of those features had, i think perhaps a few older ones could be replaced.
Like the Radio:
BBC 1 is (on rare occasions) enjoyable - but it doesnt seem to be as popular as other stations we had back in the day. Why dont we add a few others to the radio. Just to mix up the genre. Lets say we add an alternative rock/punk radio, one hip hop station and likewise. Im not an expert on the legalities here but there are plenty of free stations...
This sounds like a minor thing but think of all the ways music adds to an atmosphere. Most of my rps were allways accompanied by matching music, wether it was my Diner (blasting credence clearwater revival), my concert hall (AC/DC, Queen, Nirvana) or my bowling alley (with more CCR :P )
Music just provides so much depth and entertainment to otherwise mundane situations (driving, fishing, police patrols, waiting for customers....)
I will allways miss atmos, the day/night and wether system... but understand if thats probably not possible. Although it would be pretty epic.
As i said im not a dev and i dont mean to complain. This is meerly just a set of ideas that i would find most interesting (in addition to the ones we have on the roadmap). Ill make matching suggestions although i think the delivery system has been suggested and either denied or abandoned before.