[SA:MP] A few proposals..

[Sawyer]

Good day!

It is very evident that our rebuilding process has indeed provided signs of server and overall activity improvement. Not to a convincing point yet but certainly there's more than enough progress for us to realize that we finally seem united.

A rather chill and easy-going vibe for everyone to have fun actually seems to be the key. I believe those who are currently active are all witnesses to a very embracing environment that the server currently offers. All it takes is our will to actually contribute from any possible angle individually.

Now to the actual purpose of this topic, having seen and agreeing with most of Jinn's recent suggestions; whether we like it or not it takes too much time for a scripter/developer to actually implement and even gets boring from their end. While I respect Jinn taking the time to actually provide a few ideas for improvement, I feel like we should not constantly put more weight to the very few scripting/developing hands we have left. All are interesting suggestions though, Jinn, which can stack up for future work to be considered within a larger scale of time, and definitely without pressure.


I believe with a couple of small but effective additions, with no scripted nor mapping or developing work required, the server can actually maintain a stable playercount weekly and hit a respected mark of activity to a point where it can only grow further.


I. Weekly/Weekend Events:

Events imho should be a necessity. Whether that's RPing events, DDs, Royal Rumbles, Escape the shamal.. the list goes on.
Organized "activity vaccines (no pun intended  )" such as events always seem to attract players for the sake of nostalgia, perhaps an extra dollar as well as freelancing purposes.

During Argonath's thriving years, you'd always end up being a part of an ongoing weekly event one way or the other.
People fail to realize the greater meaning of a said event; bringing the active playerlist together. Meet the person you are spending your time with. Have a laugh.. perhaps a bet. Team up with someone you have never had the chance to know otherwise.

To sum this one up; a scheduled weekly event as a sort of "date" for the active playerlist.


II. Economic Stimulus:

.. and no, it's not a joke. Bring this feature back up. It's not about the money, but mainly for the urge of a daily payday being present. Let's be honest; when it comes to SA:MP, cash is a big deal. The first thing you want to do as a newly registered player is to earn an easy grand so you spontaneously work further for assets.

The $1,000 ARD upon entry is a given. Nobody waits for that to happen. You know you are getting the money once you join the server, only for you to fuck around for a little bit and then /q.

Now I am not proposing this for the sake of throwing 10 grand daily like it's nothing, but mainly for having something to look for.. knowing that there are random generous paydays perhaps 3 or 4 times a week is definitely a fun feature for every newcomer to look up to.

The whole meaning of a payday has always been the element of surprise rather than the actual prize.. and yet it has been taken away over the years.


III. Regional variety:

Yes, this one's coming from a 'Fort Carson' mayor candidate. Do not get me wrong, the idea of bringing the rather small society together to a certain town is indeed very effective. Cities like LS, LV, SF are overdone and pretty much do not currently fit our playercount standards.

.. but why strictly Fort Carson? Or any other town for that matter? There's towns like Las Barrancas, Bayside, Palomino Creek, Blueberry, Angel Pine.. all being wasted in a wider SA map. Police Departments are present to most of the towns and even if they are not, there's always an additional mapping possibility.

We do not have to necessarily move regions every other month, but we can definitely have a twist of scenery say once or twice a year.
Players should have the right to vote for their desired town/place and pretty much have the server offer location variety all in the name of keeping things interesting by having to move to a brand new playground.

This addition could also offer a larger boost to new mayoral/elections possibilities for people who really want to run for mayors of the town of their personal liking, and motivate said candidates further to have a higher chance in winning the elections.


IV. Unique state vehicles:

The lack of state vehicles being present (let alone having to pay to use one) is definitely rather hostile environment for newcomers. In order for a healthy server to have a welcoming atmosphere, it has to offer certain small but important features.

How many state vehicles are present in Fort Carson..? The red picador? That's it?!
In all honesty we have to do better than that on this department. Like.. having to pay to use a state vehicle is not bad enough, said vehicle being a picador is surely the final nail in the coffin. 

I've always wanted to propose this;  why the hell don't we promote all sorts of vehicles in the server?

Banditos.. Monstertrucks.. Dodos.. all vehicles of a rather unique type being absent. I don't really see the reason.
An eye-catching state vehicle is always a pleasant feature for someone who's new to the server to actually appreciate.

Furthermore, let's all agree to get rid of the subscription account and the charging of fuel for state vehicles. It really does not belong to the current state of the server. We pretty much had to move to a small town for greater interaction opportunities, yet we charge for fuel for the most common feature of all; access to a damn vehicle.. it doesn't make sense and the sooner it's removed, the better.


I also have plenty of other ideas but let's not have a topic filled with lines and lines that might get you bored.

/discuss (politely!!)

[Majnoon]

I agree to all of what you said.

[Kowalski.]

I agree with all this, however moving towns and centralizing various groups (and their respective HQs, whether state or player-owned) might be a little more difficult, but probably manageable. Might come down to what HQ has planned with where we centralize the server (currently Fort Carson ofc) and whatnot.

[Stivi]

I. Weekly/Weekend Events:

Events imho should be a necessity. Whether that's RPing events, DDs, Royal Rumbles, Escape the shamal.. the list goes on.
Organized "activity vaccines (no pun intended  )" such as events always seem to attract players for the sake of nostalgia, perhaps an extra dollar as well as freelancing purposes.

During Argonath's thriving years, you'd always end up being a part of an ongoing weekly event one way or the other.
People fail to realize the greater meaning of a said event; bringing the active playerlist together. Meet the person you are spending your time with. Have a laugh.. perhaps a bet. Team up with someone you have never had the chance to know otherwise.

To sum this one up; a scheduled weekly event as a sort of "date" for the active playerlist.

Escape the Shamal doesn't belong in a RP server + this is an event we stole from other servers, and it does bring players together to have a fun 20 minutes but that's it. Maybe times have changed, but when it was first introduced to Argo there were players begging for an escape the shamal event daily. These events are only short-term, we need something long-term.

II. Economic Stimulus:

.. and no, it's not a joke. Bring this feature back up. It's not about the money, but mainly for the urge of a daily payday being present. Let's be honest; when it comes to SA:MP, cash is a big deal. The first thing you want to do as a newly registered player is to earn an easy grand so you spontaneously work further for assets.

The $1,000 ARD upon entry is a given. Nobody waits for that to happen. You know you are getting the money once you join the server, only for you to fuck around for a little bit and then /q.

Now I am not proposing this for the sake of throwing 10 grand daily like it's nothing, but mainly for having something to look for.. knowing that there are random generous paydays perhaps 3 or 4 times a week is definitely a fun feature for every newcomer to look up to.

The whole meaning of a payday has always been the element of surprise rather than the actual prize.. and yet it has been taken away over the years.

We, the players, have the ability to spawn money in the economy and we want a stimulus check? Whatever player-to-player interaction implies for you is all I have to say.

[Khm]

Just sharing my opinion on few points raised here.

I. Weekly/Weekend Events:

Events imho should be a necessity. Whether that's RPing events, DDs, Royal Rumbles, Escape the shamal.. the list goes on.
Organized "activity vaccines (no pun intended  )" such as events always seem to attract players for the sake of nostalgia, perhaps an extra dollar as well as freelancing purposes.

During Argonath's thriving years, you'd always end up being a part of an ongoing weekly event one way or the other.
People fail to realize the greater meaning of a said event; bringing the active playerlist together. Meet the person you are spending your time with. Have a laugh.. perhaps a bet. Team up with someone you have never had the chance to know otherwise.

To sum this one up; a scheduled weekly event as a sort of "date" for the active playerlist.

As long as they aren't repetitive why not, events being repetitive would kill roleplay and the environment rather than help it.

II. Economic Stimulus:

.. and no, it's not a joke. Bring this feature back up. It's not about the money, but mainly for the urge of a daily payday being present. Let's be honest; when it comes to SA:MP, cash is a big deal. The first thing you want to do as a newly registered player is to earn an easy grand so you spontaneously work further for assets.

The $1,000 ARD upon entry is a given. Nobody waits for that to happen. You know you are getting the money once you join the server, only for you to fuck around for a little bit and then /q.

Now I am not proposing this for the sake of throwing 10 grand daily like it's nothing, but mainly for having something to look for.. knowing that there are random generous paydays perhaps 3 or 4 times a week is definitely a fun feature for every newcomer to look up to.

The whole meaning of a payday has always been the element of surprise rather than the actual prize.. and yet it has been taken away over the years.

Absolutely not, we dont another economy reset because paydays destroyed the economy. It's very easy to spawn money nowadays but it requires you to work a little bit harder if you want more. Throwing paydays like that would just make people login only for the paydays thus killing the gameplay entirely.

III. Regional variety:

Yes, this one's coming from a 'Fort Carson' mayor candidate. Do not get me wrong, the idea of bringing the rather small society together to a certain town is indeed very effective. Cities like LS, LV, SF are overdone and pretty much do not currently fit our playercount standards.

.. but why strictly Fort Carson? Or any other town for that matter? There's towns like Las Barrancas, Bayside, Palomino Creek, Blueberry, Angel Pine.. all being wasted in a wider SA map. Police Departments are present to most of the towns and even if they are not, there's always an additional mapping possibility.

We do not have to necessarily move regions every other month, but we can definitely have a twist of scenery say once or twice a year.
Players should have the right to vote for their desired town/place and pretty much have the server offer location variety all in the name of keeping things interesting by having to move to a brand new playground.

This addition could also offer a larger boost to new mayoral/elections possibilities for people who really want to run for mayors of the town of their personal liking, and motivate said candidates further to have a higher chance in winning the elections.

This is difficult to do, fort carson was chosen as it's near the center of the map. It took too much time for people to settle in fort carson, it will be harder if we keep moving every period of time.

IV. Unique state vehicles:

The lack of state vehicles being present (let alone having to pay to use one) is definitely rather hostile environment for newcomers. In order for a healthy server to have a welcoming atmosphere, it has to offer certain small but important features.

How many state vehicles are present in Fort Carson..? The red picador? That's it?!
In all honesty we have to do better than that on this department. Like.. having to pay to use a state vehicle is not bad enough, said vehicle being a picador is surely the final nail in the coffin. 

I've always wanted to propose this;  why the hell don't we promote all sorts of vehicles in the server?

Banditos.. Monstertrucks.. Dodos.. all vehicles of a rather unique type being absent. I don't really see the reason.
An eye-catching state vehicle is always a pleasant feature for someone who's new to the server to actually appreciate.

Furthermore, let's all agree to get rid of the subscription account and the charging of fuel for state vehicles. It really does not belong to the current state of the server. We pretty much had to move to a small town for greater interaction opportunities, yet we charge for fuel for the most common feature of all; access to a damn vehicle.. it doesn't make sense and the sooner it's removed, the better.

Quite the opposite, there are a lot of state vehicles in fort carson, monstertrucks are very close near area51, dumpers in hunter quarry which is also close, however I don't know where you could put a dodo in carson, it's a plane and planes need runways.

Subscription script is there to force people to drive their own vehicles instead of state vehicles, before this script people would only use state vehicles since they would pay nothing for repairs or fuel, leaving new players without any means of transportation which forces them to either /q or run for long distances. When the subscription script came that problem has been eliminated. It doesn't annoy anyone, you just need to spend 5 seconds to pay up to from $1,5k up to $8k. Use your own vehicle and you will never encounter the subscription script.

[Badandy]

What about this is about simplifying the server?

[Nathan]

As an outside but as someone who spent over a decade in SA:MP, here are my honest thoughts / feedback:

II. Economic Stimulus:

Hard no on this one. Not only does giving people more money doesn't work, but it also incentives the wrong attitude. What I do suggest is bringing back lotteries and make it significant enough but also a rare occurrence.

III. Regional variety:

This would have made sense when the server had 50+ people but given the current state, I don't see a point to this.

IV. Unique state vehicles:

I 100% agree on this one. Bring back more fun cars for people to try out and use.

[.James]

IMO, we should disable the fuel subscription for newbies for atleast a week from their registration time, then you enable it for them. Spawn more state vehicles around newbies spawn, too, to help them move around instead of having them running.

[Jeremy.]

What about this is about simplifying the server?

Haha, I am willing to know the answer for this too.

[Sawyer]

What about this is about simplifying the server?

I guess few of the points raised are meant to make a newcomer's stay in the server easier; in a way simplifying the server itself.

I was not really invested when it came to naming the topic, changed the title.