Explaining the drug market changes

[Hidduh]

Rock Stars version 5.2.007 has just been released and I am writing this topic to explain a few changes made to the old drug market system everyone knows. Before you get excited: this is not an entire new system, so all the commands associated with the old drug market still work.

- Selling drugs
You can still sell three types of drugs like before at any drug market dealer: heroin, methamphetamine and weed. The biggest cosmetic change which players will immediately notice is the removal of the spinning white package icon. This has now been replaced with a creepy-looking male behaving non-suspiciously at all. You can initiate a drug trade with the command /selltomarket, followed by the type of drug you would like to sell. Dealers don't want to attract too much suspicion, so there will be a small time-out (15 minutes) to prevent them from looking more suspicious than they already are. Once this period has expired, you are able to access the market again.

Drug prices are still dynamic and have been altered a bit in a few different ways. The most noticeable change for everyone is the price per gram for any type of drug. This has been modified to give those running a recognized or official group a small pat on the back for their efforts on creating a fun and challenging group for players to role play in. There is still a base price set, and it will never duck under that set price, however based on what dealers are currently buying, prices vary. If you are seeing a noticeable drop in price per gram, it will most likely mean that the amount wanted by dealers was lowered. This changes constantly, so if you don't like it - come back later.

As mentioned before, recognized and official groups are given several bonuses when selling to the market. First and far most important: they can sell for higher prices than normal criminal groups. The formula that calculates the price for all groups has been split so all three different types of groups will be getting different prices. Recognized groups also receive a bonus of one extra contract option with a higher amount of drugs and a higher cash payout, whereas official groups also receive this option on top of their own official group contract bonus. This will encourage groups with the 'normal' status to work harder and to initiate role plays more often. This will mean you will have to put effort into your group: managers may decide to promote your group to recognized status (and those who already are promoted to recognized, to official) if your group promotes decent role playing and can be looked at as an example for the criminal community.

- Buying seeds
Buying seeds through a drug market dealer is still possible, however limited to encourage role playing with your bosses or family members. As a regular, you are able to buy up to 25 seeds per 10 minutes from any drug market dealer around San Andreas. If you however are a group leader, you are able to buy in bulk and bypass the limit of 25 seeds per transaction. Family members or lone wolves now have to contact fellow criminals to see if they have any seeds to share for a reasonable price.

- Important to know
I have been receiving a few questions regarding this new system, I will try to answer a few to clear things up.

Q: Will I lose any drugs I am currently carrying?
A: No. All drugs in your inventory will still belong to you.

Q: Will this version of the drug market stay like this?
A: Yes - for now. We will be keeping this version and making small adjustments based on constructive community feedback.

Q: Why have you changed the prices compared to the old one? This isn't fair!
A: The old system was outdated and gave new players the chance to collect insanely large sums of cash in a reasonably small time span. The reason for altering the old system was to prevent this from happening, promote role playing instead of typing a few commands, and to give all families a reason to work harder: a 'promotion' to recognized or official for more in-game perks.

Q: I don't care about all of that, just bring back the old system.
A: No.

- Summary
This update is now live on the server, please check out the server changelog for all changes made, or refer to any of the helpers for assistance. For suggestions to further improve the drug (market) system, please refer to suggestions & ideas.