Changes in VCPD

[Kessu]

After a long period of inactivity in VCPD, I've contacted the ARPD Commissioner and together we've made couple crucial changes to the current VCPD.

1st change we made was to promote DaniGold to Deputy Chief from Sergeant, so he can work to improve the VCPD and not to overload him with duties.

2nd change we made was to set Klaus as acting Chief for the VCPD so he can help the VCPD to the right direction.

Both Klaus and DaniGold (EDIT: myself included) will be working closely together with CBFasi to put the VPCD on it's right path.

In case someone has trouble believing me, THIS could change your mind.


When/if the current high-ranking VCPD members regain their activity and show that their activity stays stable enough then we will have another look together at the decisions made with the Server Management, CBFasi and VCPD Management.

[brian1996]

Now this is very nice.

[Luca Man]

Well, I think it is nice. But, we still need a new SWAT Commander, a new FBI Director and a new FBI Station Commander, all which are pretty inactive at the moment. (both forums and server)

[Mark Knight]

What about Legend?

[Kessu]

Well, I think it is nice. But, we still need a new SWAT Commander, a new FBI Director and a new FBI Station Commander, all which are pretty inactive at the moment. (both forums and server)

We will work on all of the angles of VCPD and try to fix them. Also we will be working together with lower ranked VCPD members to see what they can do

What about Legend?

Legend stays as Chief and will hopefully come back soon. His reqular, long periods of inactivity from the game have become quite a problem for both VCPD and the administration team.

Tho' when he does come back we hope he will be working together with us.

[Mark Knight]

Alright.

[Kessu]

My opinion on current state of the VCPD and how it works (does NOT reflect the thought process in VCPD necessarily, but what it is to us "outsiders")


Leadership of VCPD

The leadership of VCPD is currently inactive, which consists of 3 persons (at the moment).

Legend has been MIA for quite some time, popping in every now and then with peak in activity and then goes back to MIA.
Shadow and Verz both are kinda there, but neither really helps the new cops and create the interest in ARPD, that there's "a bigger picture" behind all copjob.

SWAT has 1 member at the moment who plays frequently and FBI is pretty much non-existant in it's current state (refer to Verz and Shadow).


Application system of VCPD

The process to accept players as cadets takes way too long and the applicants are barely trained by VCPD members themselves (there was not too long ago a training session made by Legend himself where he trained few of the cadets and promoted to Officer) but this happens too rarely, especially when a new player applies to VCPD.

VCPD's job when it comes down to recruitment, is to create that spark of interest to new players and help them become "better players as cops". So far the new cop players who don't want to play criminals etc have been directed to ARPD website by EAF members.


Current activity levels and the past

SWAT Commander is a good example. [WS]Marcus left Argonath a couple years back and somehow, without showing up ingame during that period, he is still SWAT Commander. I see it, and all the others see it, Marcus shouldn't even be part of the VCPD anymore, especially in such a high rank, considering the 2 years of inactivity.


Cops and criminals have always been the main focus of the server and for a good reason; most players are either cops, or criminals. This fact is not being hidden and is apparent in day to day dealings in the server.

Criminals had a lot of script support in 1.9 scripts, but most of those advantages were removed due to public opinion of criminals having high advantage over cops.
Today the situation is highly different. Criminals cannot get weapons from HQ (mostly concerns EAF), civilians cannot heal themselves with drugs (again, concerns mostly EAF since we had 95% of the drugs in the server), players cannot carry food to heal themselves, medics cannot heal civilians that have been suspected by the police etc whilst the cop system stayed pretty much the same, with lack of /c heal command.

Cops still have kevlar vest with /c restock command (or by entering enforcer), cops are allowed to buy any heavy artillery weapon in the server (from ammunations) or stick to their duty ones, cops should have SWAT and FBI backups with considerably higher firepower, high ranked VCPD officers can give players temporary access to the SWAT and FBI skins etc.


Overall my opinion is that cops and criminals are quite balanced in current scripts (when taking in to players AND scripts), but with lack of VCPD activity the cops never reached the state they were supposed to be at, whilst criminals did.


What we all must also remember, the "Ideas" section is there and the scripts are still in beta, if you have a suggestion that has possibility to make the playing experince in the server better feel free to post it!

Once we have finished scripts, all of the database will be wiped out clean and ALL players must start from beginning. (Of course VCPD ranks will be set to those whom they belong to).

[brian1996]

Once we have finished scripts, all of the database will be wiped out clean and ALL players must start from beginning. (Of course VCPD ranks will be set to those whom they belong to).

This is inevitable.

[Luca Man]

Well said, will post something similar tonight.

[Mark Knight]

Thats good.

[Kessu]

I will be keeping players in the loop with all the changes since it affects the players themselves the most.

Also feel free to post your opinions right here about the whole situation so we can better evaluate and take the correct steps to get this over with as smoothly as possible

[Luca Man]

Hello, there! This is VCPD Officer Luca. As I was requested by the management team member, Kessu, to post here my opinion as an ''insider'' of VCPD's situation, here's my opinion.

General VCPD situation

Since RPG 2.01 was released, VCPD was MUCH more inactive as before, and so were the guys who wished to be ''the proffesional cops''. I barely see 1 - 2 members of VCPD online sometimes. This situation is pretty bad, it is because none actually makes patrols or things like this to try to revive VCPD. And so, mostly criminals are RPing, and cops are likely ''pushed away'' from being ones of the main roleplayers.

Another problem of VCPD are the applications. Several people make applications. The staff members then decide to judge it, but after judging it and giving the Cadet rank or whatsoever, their applications are ''prolonged'' because certain staff members that are supposed to train them are very inactive and can join rarely.


Balance between cops and criminals (scripting-wise)

Here I will present the advantages and disadvantages of both sides:

CRIMINALS:

Advantages: can purchase weapons from Ammunation in order to attack the police
Disadvantages: can't use weapons from HQs anymore, can't use drugs to heal up/gain drunken mode advantage, no more food carrying, no more medics who can heal suspects

COPS:

Advantages: can have kevlar vests, they have SWAT and FBI as a superior form of law enforcement, in situations in which they are over-run, can purchase heavy weaponary from Ammunation
Disadvantages: besides of some hard-to-corner standard vehicles, they don't really have a ''proper'' disadvantage

By putting all-together these statements, it seems like cops and criminals are well-balanced, none having a major advantage over each other.


Members status

Here, I will show that a lot of members don't even care about what they are member of. (This doesn't include the new ranks that have been made, it has the old ranks)

LEGEND:
RED = VERY INACTIVE
BLUE = INACTIVE
BROWN = PARTIALLY INACTIVE
GREEN = ACTIVE

Note: The active and inactive statuses are based on forum and server activity all-together.

[WS]Legend - VCPD Chief, SWAT Team Leader
[WS]Bass - VCPD Sergeant, SWAT Operative
DaniGold - VCPD Sergeant, SWAT Operative
Leonardo - VCPD Senior Officer, SWAT Operative
Marco - VCPD Senior Officer
PulseEffect - VCPD Senior Officer
[VU]aXXo - VCPD Officer, SWAT Operative
[WS]DJ_Gianni - VCPD Officer
Harry - VCPD Officer
John_Cooper - VCPD Officer
Luca - VCPD Officer
[WSt]Mark_Knight - VCPD Officer
RazorX - VCPD Officer

[WS]Marcus - SWAT Commander

[WS]Stormeus - FBI Station Commander
[WS]Shadow - FBI Special Agent, VCPD Academy Leader
[WS]Verz - FBI Special Agent, VCPD Academy Leader


From what you can see, the backbone of VCPD (Officers and Senior Officers), and also the leaders are quite inactive, which plays a bad role in VCPD's over-all attractivity for new members and its general image as an ARPD division.

[brian1996]

Both Marcus and Leonardo left the police force a long time ago.

Disadvantages: can't use weapons from HQs anymore

HQs are going to be scripted in the game but they will have some changes.

[Leonardo]

As i unfortunately never thought the situation could reach this level, but it has, as Legend has not been able to fulfill the needs of the department and maintain a certain activity due to other priorities, i assume that's the best decision for the moment. I am not really the best person to say as i haven't played in the server for a long time, but i fully respect CBF's decision and Kessu's initiative and i'm sure that'll bring the best outcome for the moment.

[Mark Knight]

I'll try to re-gain my activity.