Hey! Hope anyone who takes the time to read this post is doing well. After joining this server a bit less than a month ago, I have seen an ungodly amount of criticism towards this server and community, but so little of it focused on actually being constructive. I'd like to take a moment to share/offer some hopefully constructive thoughts and suggestions I've had about the server.
-to quickly admit something. I have a lot of experience on Garry's Mod. I've got an upsetting amount of playtime and have done everything within a gmod community ranging from basic moderation to development and staff management. This is to say alot of these are probably not my own original ideas, but things from past experience and things I have seen on other servers that I think Atomic would do well to adopt. Anyways, let's get on with it.
General Stuff:
1) Weapon Shelves should be able to carry armor. Not sure why they aren't. As I was writing this I remembered they were recently removed. Hopefully that wasn't permanent, I thought they were nice. If the spam of them near spawn was why they got removed, maybe add a rule saying they must be placed within a reasonable vicinity of the player's shop?
2) Explosives are insanely overpriced. Shipment prices for singulars it seems. Not sure if this was accidental or intentional. Regardless it ruins their practicability entirely. Either adjust the prices or just remove them please. Can't tell you how many players this annoys or accidentally cons out of money.
-flashbangs/concussion grenades might also be a nice addition, but its obvious why this is probably a terrible idea. Could perhaps change the meta of raiding and basebuilding though, more on that later.
3) Put raid medic, black market dealer, professional printer, and all high-tier civil protection jobs on the regular rank, as opposed to user jobs. No idea if some of those are already.
4) Allow doctors to sell medkits and medkit shipments. Perhaps different tiers of medkits if the devs are feeling fancy.
5) This one might be a bit hard to imagine, so bare with me. I think an ATM addon would do wonders on this server. Anyone who's been on darkrp long enough has seen the atm systems. They work just fine, even on highly-populated servers, and often add an extra extra element of rp. Imagine this:
--You're a thief or kidnapper. Instead of being forced to offer the motd-regulated 10/50k for someone's safety, you can use a weapon/wallet searcher, and you have the ability to rob them for everything they have on them. (See suggestion 11)
-Regulars, Supporters, and VIP's could receive interest rates.
-Thiefs can go around hacking atms. I've also seen the ability to steal people's atm cards and withdraw from their accounts, but personally i've seen it abused far too much. But it's also a considerable concept.
One foreseeable argument against this is someone will spawn in, immediately get mugged/ransomed of all their money, and are now destitute. To counteract this, simply have all starting money start in the atm. I would also suggest a rule change, if atms were added, that any person can only be mugged for the maximum amount that they are currently holding, which I personally think would be fair and interesting to experience. It would certainly add alot more weight to muggings and kidnappings. Anyways, I'll leave this one at that, tis probably my favorite suggestion out of them all.
6) Make piano player a user/regular role. In return, how about creating a regular meth cook and moving master meth cook to VIP? If you cant change the process or production, perhaps they can use different NPCs or sell product at a better price. I know some players join just to use the pianos.
7) Prop persistence. This would be a huge feature for Supporter, VIP, and VIP+. I'm pretty sure this one is obvious, but for those to which it isn't, this would be a system in which all of your props and entities would remain, just for a few minutes, after a game crash/disconnect. This is of course to help prevent losses to technical problems, but can cause predictable problems when provided to everyone, hence why I think it should be reserved for Supporters+.
8) The typical bank inventory system that is present on alot of DarkRP servers, why doesn't Atomic have that? It looks like the server uses the same addon judging by the ui, why not have the stationary ones for extra storage? Would be very nice to have and could add an extra function to the bank if that was the only place they were located.
9) I'm guessing I know the answer to these next two, but I'm gonna ask anyways. Could the ability for weapons to drop on death be added? Would be a slightly immersive thing to add. I'm guessing stability issues is why this isn't already in.
10) How about a slightly longer respawn time? as opposed to an instant respawn, how about adding a 30 second respawn to both assist in combating nlr, rdm, as well as adding some grit to the individual death.
11) Add weapon checker to every class. Why ever not, would add some great rp abilities to security guards, thiefs, kidnappers, etc. Might somehow be fun for everyone else.
12) I'm sure there's a good reason to this, but why not have the checkers n chess addons? I know the casino owner is a common and lazy suggestion, but I think everyone loves some good old fashioned games like chess and checkers. Bonus points if a class could be made that can spawn them. Perhaps turn the piano player into a park manager/keeper and let them spawn/buy that kind of stuff.
13) /pm&advert interfaces. Since chat is so busy and spamming only makes the problem worse, why not have dedicated interfaces so people can easily manage their private messages and look at advertisements?
14) Somewhat of a goofy idea, but what if CP had to actually bring in their arrest targets. They could bring them into the jail, pick a jail time for them (0-15 minutes) and then let them out. This was employed in PERP, a sadly dead gamemode on Garry's Mod, but there was a huge problem with officers forgetting about people in the jail. Something would need to be done to fix this, probably an automatic timer to release them. Would also incite prison breaks/rescues more often, and make arrests feel alot more important.
15) Allow black market dealers to sell restraints. (Rule suggestion 1 would make this necessary).
16) A way to holster armor would be nice.
17) A way to keep ammo in the inventory, and then making only gun/black market dealers able to spawn it would greatly increase the utility of the job.
18) Would be nice if the regular gun dealer could buy light armor as well. Unnecessary, but would be nice.
Rule Stuff:
I have been known to adopt a very forgiving and flexible mindset when it comes to rules, so I don't expect these to be as openly embraced. Regardless, I hope that the people on this forum can give me a chance and give these suggestions a couple of thoughts in their head before drawing any conclusions. Some of this may be confusing and seem sacrilegious to the tradition of DarkRP, but I promise, in action and concept they are intended to make life much easier.
1) One of the biggest problems I see in the rules is that they ignore the intention of the gamemode: roleplay. Instead of engaging in and expanding upon rp, strict and unnecessary rules can accidentally suffocate and weigh down gameplay without much effort. I want to offer a different interpretation of certain rules, hopefully you'll understand where I'm going with it, and can consider applying the ideology to both the rules I am using as an example and others in the motd. Anyways, consider if some rules were written like this:
Instead of
Countering Rules (CR)
You can only counter if...
ECR1. You are in a party with the victim of the RP action (ex. your friend's base is getting raided, since you are in the same party as them you shoot the raider)
ECR2. You are Law Enforcement (breaking into homes is illegal, and a default law)
ECR3. You are the Vigilante (You must advert counter, and you can counter all raids)
Imagine
Countering Rules (CR)
Any job can counter if they have a reasonable rp reason to do so.
Instead of
ERR1. Only jobs with (CAN RAID) in their F4 menu job description are allowed to raid.
EMR1. Only jobs with (CAN MUG) in their F4 menu job description are allowed to mug.
EKR1. Only jobs with (CAN KIDNAP) in their F4 menu job description are allowed to Kidnap.
Imagine
Any job can raid/mug/kidnap if they have a reasonable rp reason to do so.
Instead of giving staff strict blind rules to enforce that tend to completely ignore things like context and circumstance, staff would instead be able to rely on making their decision based off of the tone, rationality, and actual context of the situation. Instead of letting players and staff argue over ridiculous things like "They werent in a party!" or "That person wasn't on their sign!", staff can avoid the nitpicky parts of rule enforcement and focus on ensuring the best experience for the player.
2) The NLR Rules section, among others, could use some expansion. For example, there is no real definition of NLR given. To new players, it doesn't explain what the concept is, why it is necessary, and gives vivid guidelines for how a player should act after death.
3) Building off of the last suggestion, general specifications in the rules are necessary. For example, definitions of when a KOS sign is necessary, the standards of navigation and raidability for bases, definition for rdm, rda, and nlr. If you are going to enforce concepts like these, they should be well explained and explored in the rules.
-I realize much of these are in the terminology page. While that's certainly a nice idea, I don't think it's long enough to merit being exempt from the rules. Essential definitions like those should be directly in the motd, not on a separate page.
4) If my fifth general suggestion is considered, I think removing the mug and ransom limits would be reasonable. If not, then I think mugging should be raised to 50k, to match the current ransom limit. It's a parallel threat, so why not have a matching limit? Also, raising both to 100k might be nice. Its a very little amount, considerably, on the server.
5) The district manager job is still mentioned in the rules despite no longer existing. Just a small note.
6) Job descriptions in the f4 menu could use updating/finishing. For example, compare the descriptions between thief and professional printer. I'm sure you can see where problems may arise.
7) By saying this, I'm probably putting at least half of my own dupes at risk. Nevertheless, it needs to be said.
The building rules need to be reexamined.
I hope this isn't taken as "bases are way too OP and we must ban everything". That is not my intention whatsoever. Instead, I want to propose that they are simply reanalyzed to look for potential unnecessary restrictions, and perhaps for some necessary but overlooked ones. Many of the basing rules are fantastic, but some are vague, unnecessary, and unspecific. For example:
Fantastic rules:
GBB5. The use of entities that cause damage to deter raiders is Not Allowed.
GGR8. A base must be designed in a way where both parties can see and shoot at one another during a raid.
GDR2. Each keypad door must have a Hold Length of five seconds minimum, with no Initial Delay.
GSR2. KOS/Building/RP Build signs must be placed at at least Size 40 or above
Vague rules:
GBB6. Base Designs that require a raider to crouch/jump through the loot pathway are Not Allowed.
--Not sure why this one isn't "Base Designs that require a raider to crouch/jump at any point to enter are Not Allowed." I think 'loot pathway' is a confusing term.
GBB7. Blackout/Texturized/Invisible Base Designs that impede a raiders ability to navigate are Not Allowed.
--How navigable must a base be? There are no given standards to this, so it's tough for them to be followed. Are there only standards for navigatablilty once materials/colors are being used? What about hidden entrances in buildings that are built into the map? Are those usable? Must the entrance itself be obvious, or just the pathway after the entrance?
GGR5. Making changes to your base during a raid is not allowed. (Punishment: FailRP During a Raid)
--Any changes? Whatsoever? I would understand something like prohibiting tool gun usage, but what if an important prop fell over right as a raid starts? How is it FailRP to use your physgun/toolgun to make a quick change? As long as it doesn't create a failbase, I fail to see why this is forbidden. Perhaps "GGR5. Making unfair changes to your base during a raid is not allowed. (Punishment: Propblock, Failbase, etc as applicable by changes made)"
Unnecessary rules:
GBB3. Bases that make use of Angled Shooting Blinds are Not Allowed.
GBB9. Base Designs that make use of elevated walkways that are intentionally designed to make movement/navigation for a raider difficult are Not Allowed.
GGR4. Jobs with door ownership can only base in the building with their respective door ownership. (Punishment: Failbasing)
-I understand this for jobs like the bank owner. However, what about jobs like mayor? Must they really base in PD? Why wouldn't they be allowed to operate elsewhere on the map?
-Can CP have rp builds (for example: a house, checkpoints, safehouse, etc) outside of their door ownership? If not, why?
GGR7. In order to be part of/defend a base, you must have your name on the front door, or visible in the base signage for a potential raider.
GDR6. All buttons to open shooting blinds in a base must be binded to one key. (Separate buttons to open separate windows are not allowed)
-These two are so confusing and unnecessary, I'm genuinely curious as to why they were added.
GBB4. The use of No-Collided Props in a base design is Not Allowed.
-Perhaps, "The use of No-Collided Props to gain an unfair advantage in base raiding/defense is not allowed." I totally understand their abusability, but its also a very useful tool and shouldn't be prohibited entirely, just the abuse of it.
GGR6. Opening Fading Doors using Keybinds is not allowed. (Punishment: Fading Door Abuse)
-At all? How about just during a raid? How about just during combat? Who does it hurt if someone uses them for ease of access to their base or something. Spamming keybinds I understand, but simple usage shouldn't be against the rules, I simply don't see the harm or necessity.
Unspecific rules:
GBB10. Putting materials on Printers/other Valuables to make them harder for the raider to find is Not Allowed.
--Just materials? What about the color tool? What about the fading door tool?
GBB9. Base Designs that make use of elevated walkways that are intentionally designed to make movement/navigation for a raider difficult are Not Allowed.
GDR3. All base designs must have a clear pathway to the raidables. (The raider should know where to go on the first raid)
-For these last two, also refer to the comments beneath the second Vague rule note. "How navigable must a base be?"
Missed/Unspecified:
-Are raiders allowed to use props during raids?
-Can players use props to kidnap/mug people? This is usually met with a propblock argument, but I like to note that using map doors for the same purpose has the exact same effect.
-Are bases intended to trap and confuse players allowed? I know this sounds like an obvious question, but I personally think with proper rp context this kind of thing is fine. Regardless, it is neither allowed nor prohibited in the rules. The definitions of a maze base currently don't mention anything about intentionally confusing/misleading base layouts, by the way.
-What are the players rights for defending their property? Must they have a KOS sign to kill people on their property?
-Are entrances designed to drop players from heights allowed?
I know this is a hell of a lot. I'm sure many people are rolling their eyes at this point, and whoever wrote the rules probably hates me deeply right now lol. As someone who has written a few motds, I will say I completely understand; you simply cannot cover everything. Here are just a few suggestions and thoughts. Personally I love and have remained on Atomic almost entirely because of the freedom I have when it comes to building. That is to say I do not want for this to result in building being suffocated. I simply believe the server, staff, and players would benefit greatly from a revisited and revised building section.
8) Change the warn adverts to being yelled. There's no need for people to spam chat advertising warns, yelling should do just fine and have the same effect, as well as make more sense in an rp context.
9) There is an old system from PERP, where whenever raids were to be initiated, raiders needed proof that there were raidables on the property. This was usually things like guns and drugs. They'd just have to take a screenshot and present it upon starting the raid. I wonder if a similar concept applied to CP would prevent false warrants and arrests. I have no idea if people on DarkRP would actually do it though.
10) Some random rule thoughts:
-Which classes can steal? Is theft even allowed on the server?
-Bases are of course allowed to be sold, or even if they werent there isn't much administration could do to enforce it. However, I'm thinking of the rule "A10. The exchange of in-game money for external resources (real world cash, steam items, etc.) is not allowed." What about for things like sweps, VIP, or even bases? Is that prohibited or allowed? Could staff be available to middleman transactions like these?
-Can jobs be sold? Referring to the classic "Selling professional printer 100k". Personally, I think this is perfectly fine, as long as its not clearly maliciously abused.
Staff Stuff:
1) Add an incentive/reward feature for being on duty, and/or taking sits. I'm sure there are fully developed addons for this kind of thing already, but if not, I'd be happy to discuss the concept in further detail. For now here's a summary. When a staff is on duty, they are completely forfeiting rp time to serve the players of the server, and consequently they're also falling behind in the economical game that is DarkRP. This system is intended to reward staff for their time on duty. The system has two ways of working, as far as I've experienced and can conceive, they are:
-When a staff is on duty, they'll earn (lets say) 1 point every 30 minutes (This causes a problem of staff afking on duty to earn points, however.)
and/or
-When a staff takes a sit, they'll earn 1 point. And/or, I'm sure you've seen the post admin sit surveys that some servers have. If you tied that in to be a 1-3 point incentive, that would also be nice.
Anyways, staff would rack up points, and be able to redeem them in either a digital shop (!ashop or something) or an npc likely placed in the admin box. These points could be spent on things like in-game cash, sweps, items, etc. It would allow staff to earn something from their time on duty.
I have only seen one server use a system like this, and it worked marvelously.
2) Add a check compensation system for staff. Hopefully this is an obvious and self-explanatory concept. If not, this may be a bit tough to explain, but I'll try my best. I've noticed that despite the fact that there are very much circumstances in which the players should be entitled to compensation (server crash, mrdm, mrda, etc), the staff team does not have a way to compensate them without digging into their own pockets. This results in either the staff forfeiting their own money, which is absurd, or the players often not being compensated at all. I have an idea in which staff can use a command (for example, !comp) that would open a screen where they can select a player, very similar to the SAM ui, and spawn a check to the player. I know this is much easier said than done.
3) To gain the staff's favor before I probably ruin it with the next suggestion, here's an uncommon proposition. I personally, even and/or especially as a player, think it would be perfectly fine if staff took sits off duty. Furthermore, as someone with experience staffing, I would actually highly recommend it. Especially if the server is not busy, why not let staff farm, build, run a shop, etc and let them take sits when they have the chance? I don't think there would be anything crippling about a staff rping and discretely taking sits on the site. I think the discrete part is the most important to make that this suggestion work, but I'll talk about that more next.
4) In my experience, moderation is best done behind the scenes. DarkRP is infamous for having obnoxious, inexperienced, ban-happy, and intimidating staff that kill the flow of fun. If Atomic wants its staff team to stand out, be taken seriously, and offer a unique experience, then they must actively fight against those stereotypes. Standards, protocols, and proper training are essential for this kind of thing. I have not staffed for Atomic so I do not know the full steps they take in staffing, but I know every server's staff team can always improve in something. This is certainly something for community directors and owners to consider, and I'm sure they very much do, so I am going to try my best to refrain from overstepping or getting too ahead of myself, but here are some examples/things I think of:
-Staff should either have a spectate ability or be required to cloak themselves when flying around the map. I know immersion is certainly not the point of the server, but this can cause problems and can easily unimmerse some players.
-Staff should do sits out of sight of the public whenever possible.
-Staff should avoid using their physgun as much as possible, especially in crowded areas. This is to avoid potentially accidentally picking up players, props, and/or messing up bases.
-Staff need ways to communicate when players have received verbal warnings
(I know some of these are common sense, but especially to people staffing for the first time, it would be good to have protocols like this in place to ensure a good staffing experience.)
5) I think it would be much appreciated by many if admin actions were kept out of chat. I know it was made a routine practice in DarkRP servers in effort to maintain integrity and transparency, but with such a busy chat already and so many sits, I think it would be reasonable to hide them. If possible, it would be fantastic if there was a command to show or hide them. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, I mean these messages: Staff teleported to Player, Staff gagged Player, Staff jailed player, etc. At the very least I believe they can still be seen in the console, if any players were really ever so curious.
Alright, welp, if you actually read that whole damn thing I applaud and thank you. I intended to do some more formatting n revision to make sure this flowed smoother and looked nicer, but it is already so embarrassingly long and I am so tired, I'll just leave it as it is. Reading back, it certainly could have used some transitioning text lol, sorry about that. Anyways, I'm sure I lost a couple of thoughts along the way, so if I remember them I'll be sure to add them later. I hope at least one of these ideas or thoughts will be useful, intriguing, or at the very least thought inspiring to the administration/community members. I greatly appreciate the time and effort of the people within this community, and hope for all the best when it comes to the future of the server.
Love,
-Frank
-to quickly admit something. I have a lot of experience on Garry's Mod. I've got an upsetting amount of playtime and have done everything within a gmod community ranging from basic moderation to development and staff management. This is to say alot of these are probably not my own original ideas, but things from past experience and things I have seen on other servers that I think Atomic would do well to adopt. Anyways, let's get on with it.
General Stuff:
1) Weapon Shelves should be able to carry armor. Not sure why they aren't. As I was writing this I remembered they were recently removed. Hopefully that wasn't permanent, I thought they were nice. If the spam of them near spawn was why they got removed, maybe add a rule saying they must be placed within a reasonable vicinity of the player's shop?
2) Explosives are insanely overpriced. Shipment prices for singulars it seems. Not sure if this was accidental or intentional. Regardless it ruins their practicability entirely. Either adjust the prices or just remove them please. Can't tell you how many players this annoys or accidentally cons out of money.
-flashbangs/concussion grenades might also be a nice addition, but its obvious why this is probably a terrible idea. Could perhaps change the meta of raiding and basebuilding though, more on that later.
3) Put raid medic, black market dealer, professional printer, and all high-tier civil protection jobs on the regular rank, as opposed to user jobs. No idea if some of those are already.
4) Allow doctors to sell medkits and medkit shipments. Perhaps different tiers of medkits if the devs are feeling fancy.
5) This one might be a bit hard to imagine, so bare with me. I think an ATM addon would do wonders on this server. Anyone who's been on darkrp long enough has seen the atm systems. They work just fine, even on highly-populated servers, and often add an extra extra element of rp. Imagine this:
--You're a thief or kidnapper. Instead of being forced to offer the motd-regulated 10/50k for someone's safety, you can use a weapon/wallet searcher, and you have the ability to rob them for everything they have on them. (See suggestion 11)
-Regulars, Supporters, and VIP's could receive interest rates.
-Thiefs can go around hacking atms. I've also seen the ability to steal people's atm cards and withdraw from their accounts, but personally i've seen it abused far too much. But it's also a considerable concept.
One foreseeable argument against this is someone will spawn in, immediately get mugged/ransomed of all their money, and are now destitute. To counteract this, simply have all starting money start in the atm. I would also suggest a rule change, if atms were added, that any person can only be mugged for the maximum amount that they are currently holding, which I personally think would be fair and interesting to experience. It would certainly add alot more weight to muggings and kidnappings. Anyways, I'll leave this one at that, tis probably my favorite suggestion out of them all.
6) Make piano player a user/regular role. In return, how about creating a regular meth cook and moving master meth cook to VIP? If you cant change the process or production, perhaps they can use different NPCs or sell product at a better price. I know some players join just to use the pianos.
7) Prop persistence. This would be a huge feature for Supporter, VIP, and VIP+. I'm pretty sure this one is obvious, but for those to which it isn't, this would be a system in which all of your props and entities would remain, just for a few minutes, after a game crash/disconnect. This is of course to help prevent losses to technical problems, but can cause predictable problems when provided to everyone, hence why I think it should be reserved for Supporters+.
8) The typical bank inventory system that is present on alot of DarkRP servers, why doesn't Atomic have that? It looks like the server uses the same addon judging by the ui, why not have the stationary ones for extra storage? Would be very nice to have and could add an extra function to the bank if that was the only place they were located.
9) I'm guessing I know the answer to these next two, but I'm gonna ask anyways. Could the ability for weapons to drop on death be added? Would be a slightly immersive thing to add. I'm guessing stability issues is why this isn't already in.
10) How about a slightly longer respawn time? as opposed to an instant respawn, how about adding a 30 second respawn to both assist in combating nlr, rdm, as well as adding some grit to the individual death.
11) Add weapon checker to every class. Why ever not, would add some great rp abilities to security guards, thiefs, kidnappers, etc. Might somehow be fun for everyone else.
12) I'm sure there's a good reason to this, but why not have the checkers n chess addons? I know the casino owner is a common and lazy suggestion, but I think everyone loves some good old fashioned games like chess and checkers. Bonus points if a class could be made that can spawn them. Perhaps turn the piano player into a park manager/keeper and let them spawn/buy that kind of stuff.
13) /pm&advert interfaces. Since chat is so busy and spamming only makes the problem worse, why not have dedicated interfaces so people can easily manage their private messages and look at advertisements?
14) Somewhat of a goofy idea, but what if CP had to actually bring in their arrest targets. They could bring them into the jail, pick a jail time for them (0-15 minutes) and then let them out. This was employed in PERP, a sadly dead gamemode on Garry's Mod, but there was a huge problem with officers forgetting about people in the jail. Something would need to be done to fix this, probably an automatic timer to release them. Would also incite prison breaks/rescues more often, and make arrests feel alot more important.
15) Allow black market dealers to sell restraints. (Rule suggestion 1 would make this necessary).
16) A way to holster armor would be nice.
17) A way to keep ammo in the inventory, and then making only gun/black market dealers able to spawn it would greatly increase the utility of the job.
18) Would be nice if the regular gun dealer could buy light armor as well. Unnecessary, but would be nice.
Rule Stuff:
I have been known to adopt a very forgiving and flexible mindset when it comes to rules, so I don't expect these to be as openly embraced. Regardless, I hope that the people on this forum can give me a chance and give these suggestions a couple of thoughts in their head before drawing any conclusions. Some of this may be confusing and seem sacrilegious to the tradition of DarkRP, but I promise, in action and concept they are intended to make life much easier.
1) One of the biggest problems I see in the rules is that they ignore the intention of the gamemode: roleplay. Instead of engaging in and expanding upon rp, strict and unnecessary rules can accidentally suffocate and weigh down gameplay without much effort. I want to offer a different interpretation of certain rules, hopefully you'll understand where I'm going with it, and can consider applying the ideology to both the rules I am using as an example and others in the motd. Anyways, consider if some rules were written like this:
Instead of
Countering Rules (CR)
You can only counter if...
ECR1. You are in a party with the victim of the RP action (ex. your friend's base is getting raided, since you are in the same party as them you shoot the raider)
ECR2. You are Law Enforcement (breaking into homes is illegal, and a default law)
ECR3. You are the Vigilante (You must advert counter, and you can counter all raids)
Imagine
Countering Rules (CR)
Any job can counter if they have a reasonable rp reason to do so.
Instead of
ERR1. Only jobs with (CAN RAID) in their F4 menu job description are allowed to raid.
EMR1. Only jobs with (CAN MUG) in their F4 menu job description are allowed to mug.
EKR1. Only jobs with (CAN KIDNAP) in their F4 menu job description are allowed to Kidnap.
Imagine
Any job can raid/mug/kidnap if they have a reasonable rp reason to do so.
Instead of giving staff strict blind rules to enforce that tend to completely ignore things like context and circumstance, staff would instead be able to rely on making their decision based off of the tone, rationality, and actual context of the situation. Instead of letting players and staff argue over ridiculous things like "They werent in a party!" or "That person wasn't on their sign!", staff can avoid the nitpicky parts of rule enforcement and focus on ensuring the best experience for the player.
2) The NLR Rules section, among others, could use some expansion. For example, there is no real definition of NLR given. To new players, it doesn't explain what the concept is, why it is necessary, and gives vivid guidelines for how a player should act after death.
3) Building off of the last suggestion, general specifications in the rules are necessary. For example, definitions of when a KOS sign is necessary, the standards of navigation and raidability for bases, definition for rdm, rda, and nlr. If you are going to enforce concepts like these, they should be well explained and explored in the rules.
-I realize much of these are in the terminology page. While that's certainly a nice idea, I don't think it's long enough to merit being exempt from the rules. Essential definitions like those should be directly in the motd, not on a separate page.
4) If my fifth general suggestion is considered, I think removing the mug and ransom limits would be reasonable. If not, then I think mugging should be raised to 50k, to match the current ransom limit. It's a parallel threat, so why not have a matching limit? Also, raising both to 100k might be nice. Its a very little amount, considerably, on the server.
5) The district manager job is still mentioned in the rules despite no longer existing. Just a small note.
6) Job descriptions in the f4 menu could use updating/finishing. For example, compare the descriptions between thief and professional printer. I'm sure you can see where problems may arise.
7) By saying this, I'm probably putting at least half of my own dupes at risk. Nevertheless, it needs to be said.
The building rules need to be reexamined.
I hope this isn't taken as "bases are way too OP and we must ban everything". That is not my intention whatsoever. Instead, I want to propose that they are simply reanalyzed to look for potential unnecessary restrictions, and perhaps for some necessary but overlooked ones. Many of the basing rules are fantastic, but some are vague, unnecessary, and unspecific. For example:
Fantastic rules:
GBB5. The use of entities that cause damage to deter raiders is Not Allowed.
GGR8. A base must be designed in a way where both parties can see and shoot at one another during a raid.
GDR2. Each keypad door must have a Hold Length of five seconds minimum, with no Initial Delay.
GSR2. KOS/Building/RP Build signs must be placed at at least Size 40 or above
Vague rules:
GBB6. Base Designs that require a raider to crouch/jump through the loot pathway are Not Allowed.
--Not sure why this one isn't "Base Designs that require a raider to crouch/jump at any point to enter are Not Allowed." I think 'loot pathway' is a confusing term.
GBB7. Blackout/Texturized/Invisible Base Designs that impede a raiders ability to navigate are Not Allowed.
--How navigable must a base be? There are no given standards to this, so it's tough for them to be followed. Are there only standards for navigatablilty once materials/colors are being used? What about hidden entrances in buildings that are built into the map? Are those usable? Must the entrance itself be obvious, or just the pathway after the entrance?
GGR5. Making changes to your base during a raid is not allowed. (Punishment: FailRP During a Raid)
--Any changes? Whatsoever? I would understand something like prohibiting tool gun usage, but what if an important prop fell over right as a raid starts? How is it FailRP to use your physgun/toolgun to make a quick change? As long as it doesn't create a failbase, I fail to see why this is forbidden. Perhaps "GGR5. Making unfair changes to your base during a raid is not allowed. (Punishment: Propblock, Failbase, etc as applicable by changes made)"
Unnecessary rules:
GBB3. Bases that make use of Angled Shooting Blinds are Not Allowed.
GBB9. Base Designs that make use of elevated walkways that are intentionally designed to make movement/navigation for a raider difficult are Not Allowed.
GGR4. Jobs with door ownership can only base in the building with their respective door ownership. (Punishment: Failbasing)
-I understand this for jobs like the bank owner. However, what about jobs like mayor? Must they really base in PD? Why wouldn't they be allowed to operate elsewhere on the map?
-Can CP have rp builds (for example: a house, checkpoints, safehouse, etc) outside of their door ownership? If not, why?
GGR7. In order to be part of/defend a base, you must have your name on the front door, or visible in the base signage for a potential raider.
GDR6. All buttons to open shooting blinds in a base must be binded to one key. (Separate buttons to open separate windows are not allowed)
-These two are so confusing and unnecessary, I'm genuinely curious as to why they were added.
GBB4. The use of No-Collided Props in a base design is Not Allowed.
-Perhaps, "The use of No-Collided Props to gain an unfair advantage in base raiding/defense is not allowed." I totally understand their abusability, but its also a very useful tool and shouldn't be prohibited entirely, just the abuse of it.
GGR6. Opening Fading Doors using Keybinds is not allowed. (Punishment: Fading Door Abuse)
-At all? How about just during a raid? How about just during combat? Who does it hurt if someone uses them for ease of access to their base or something. Spamming keybinds I understand, but simple usage shouldn't be against the rules, I simply don't see the harm or necessity.
Unspecific rules:
GBB10. Putting materials on Printers/other Valuables to make them harder for the raider to find is Not Allowed.
--Just materials? What about the color tool? What about the fading door tool?
GBB9. Base Designs that make use of elevated walkways that are intentionally designed to make movement/navigation for a raider difficult are Not Allowed.
GDR3. All base designs must have a clear pathway to the raidables. (The raider should know where to go on the first raid)
-For these last two, also refer to the comments beneath the second Vague rule note. "How navigable must a base be?"
Missed/Unspecified:
-Are raiders allowed to use props during raids?
-Can players use props to kidnap/mug people? This is usually met with a propblock argument, but I like to note that using map doors for the same purpose has the exact same effect.
-Are bases intended to trap and confuse players allowed? I know this sounds like an obvious question, but I personally think with proper rp context this kind of thing is fine. Regardless, it is neither allowed nor prohibited in the rules. The definitions of a maze base currently don't mention anything about intentionally confusing/misleading base layouts, by the way.
-What are the players rights for defending their property? Must they have a KOS sign to kill people on their property?
-Are entrances designed to drop players from heights allowed?
I know this is a hell of a lot. I'm sure many people are rolling their eyes at this point, and whoever wrote the rules probably hates me deeply right now lol. As someone who has written a few motds, I will say I completely understand; you simply cannot cover everything. Here are just a few suggestions and thoughts. Personally I love and have remained on Atomic almost entirely because of the freedom I have when it comes to building. That is to say I do not want for this to result in building being suffocated. I simply believe the server, staff, and players would benefit greatly from a revisited and revised building section.
8) Change the warn adverts to being yelled. There's no need for people to spam chat advertising warns, yelling should do just fine and have the same effect, as well as make more sense in an rp context.
9) There is an old system from PERP, where whenever raids were to be initiated, raiders needed proof that there were raidables on the property. This was usually things like guns and drugs. They'd just have to take a screenshot and present it upon starting the raid. I wonder if a similar concept applied to CP would prevent false warrants and arrests. I have no idea if people on DarkRP would actually do it though.
10) Some random rule thoughts:
-Which classes can steal? Is theft even allowed on the server?
-Bases are of course allowed to be sold, or even if they werent there isn't much administration could do to enforce it. However, I'm thinking of the rule "A10. The exchange of in-game money for external resources (real world cash, steam items, etc.) is not allowed." What about for things like sweps, VIP, or even bases? Is that prohibited or allowed? Could staff be available to middleman transactions like these?
-Can jobs be sold? Referring to the classic "Selling professional printer 100k". Personally, I think this is perfectly fine, as long as its not clearly maliciously abused.
Staff Stuff:
1) Add an incentive/reward feature for being on duty, and/or taking sits. I'm sure there are fully developed addons for this kind of thing already, but if not, I'd be happy to discuss the concept in further detail. For now here's a summary. When a staff is on duty, they are completely forfeiting rp time to serve the players of the server, and consequently they're also falling behind in the economical game that is DarkRP. This system is intended to reward staff for their time on duty. The system has two ways of working, as far as I've experienced and can conceive, they are:
-When a staff is on duty, they'll earn (lets say) 1 point every 30 minutes (This causes a problem of staff afking on duty to earn points, however.)
and/or
-When a staff takes a sit, they'll earn 1 point. And/or, I'm sure you've seen the post admin sit surveys that some servers have. If you tied that in to be a 1-3 point incentive, that would also be nice.
Anyways, staff would rack up points, and be able to redeem them in either a digital shop (!ashop or something) or an npc likely placed in the admin box. These points could be spent on things like in-game cash, sweps, items, etc. It would allow staff to earn something from their time on duty.
I have only seen one server use a system like this, and it worked marvelously.
2) Add a check compensation system for staff. Hopefully this is an obvious and self-explanatory concept. If not, this may be a bit tough to explain, but I'll try my best. I've noticed that despite the fact that there are very much circumstances in which the players should be entitled to compensation (server crash, mrdm, mrda, etc), the staff team does not have a way to compensate them without digging into their own pockets. This results in either the staff forfeiting their own money, which is absurd, or the players often not being compensated at all. I have an idea in which staff can use a command (for example, !comp) that would open a screen where they can select a player, very similar to the SAM ui, and spawn a check to the player. I know this is much easier said than done.
3) To gain the staff's favor before I probably ruin it with the next suggestion, here's an uncommon proposition. I personally, even and/or especially as a player, think it would be perfectly fine if staff took sits off duty. Furthermore, as someone with experience staffing, I would actually highly recommend it. Especially if the server is not busy, why not let staff farm, build, run a shop, etc and let them take sits when they have the chance? I don't think there would be anything crippling about a staff rping and discretely taking sits on the site. I think the discrete part is the most important to make that this suggestion work, but I'll talk about that more next.
4) In my experience, moderation is best done behind the scenes. DarkRP is infamous for having obnoxious, inexperienced, ban-happy, and intimidating staff that kill the flow of fun. If Atomic wants its staff team to stand out, be taken seriously, and offer a unique experience, then they must actively fight against those stereotypes. Standards, protocols, and proper training are essential for this kind of thing. I have not staffed for Atomic so I do not know the full steps they take in staffing, but I know every server's staff team can always improve in something. This is certainly something for community directors and owners to consider, and I'm sure they very much do, so I am going to try my best to refrain from overstepping or getting too ahead of myself, but here are some examples/things I think of:
-Staff should either have a spectate ability or be required to cloak themselves when flying around the map. I know immersion is certainly not the point of the server, but this can cause problems and can easily unimmerse some players.
-Staff should do sits out of sight of the public whenever possible.
-Staff should avoid using their physgun as much as possible, especially in crowded areas. This is to avoid potentially accidentally picking up players, props, and/or messing up bases.
-Staff need ways to communicate when players have received verbal warnings
(I know some of these are common sense, but especially to people staffing for the first time, it would be good to have protocols like this in place to ensure a good staffing experience.)
5) I think it would be much appreciated by many if admin actions were kept out of chat. I know it was made a routine practice in DarkRP servers in effort to maintain integrity and transparency, but with such a busy chat already and so many sits, I think it would be reasonable to hide them. If possible, it would be fantastic if there was a command to show or hide them. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, I mean these messages: Staff teleported to Player, Staff gagged Player, Staff jailed player, etc. At the very least I believe they can still be seen in the console, if any players were really ever so curious.
Alright, welp, if you actually read that whole damn thing I applaud and thank you. I intended to do some more formatting n revision to make sure this flowed smoother and looked nicer, but it is already so embarrassingly long and I am so tired, I'll just leave it as it is. Reading back, it certainly could have used some transitioning text lol, sorry about that. Anyways, I'm sure I lost a couple of thoughts along the way, so if I remember them I'll be sure to add them later. I hope at least one of these ideas or thoughts will be useful, intriguing, or at the very least thought inspiring to the administration/community members. I greatly appreciate the time and effort of the people within this community, and hope for all the best when it comes to the future of the server.
Love,
-Frank
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