Hi and apologies for the long post. I'm unhealthily interested in game design for DarkRP specifically and looked into this server on Fesiug's recommendation. I'm a huge believer in lawless as the best casual roleplay format, so here's some of my thoughts and feedback after checking out the server for an hour or so.
Everything is based on my experience as a server owner and player. I used to host and code for my own DarkRP servers, but my servers were for Chinese players only (though I did play American DarkRP servers), so YMMV.
Rules:
Honestly, there's a LOT of rules for a "lawless" server. Besides the standard rules against bigotry, harassment, cheating and exploiting, almost everything should be solved either with systems or in-character player involvement. This guide sums up my thoughts on lawless pretty well.
The main issue that the guide doesn't cover is prop abuse. Ghosting props and keeping them frozen (as the server is currently doing) solves most issues, but people can still litter props on the streets or stack them in bases. (FWIW I don't really think prop climbing is an issue; ghost props for a few more seconds after freezing if necessary.) Some in-character method to remove/destroy these props should suffice - such as a C4 for illegal roles, and the police battering ram (to remove props with a warrant). Also, I like to make ghosted props die instantly to any damage to limit the use of props during combat.
Sidenote: More powerful police helps maintain general server order but can invite opportunities for abuse. In my server I have whitelisted police roles for trusted members, which worked well but isn't a good solution for every server.
Wallet & Salary:
I dislike the "drop all pocket money on death" dynamic and think it's unhealthy for roleplay servers.
The risk discourages interacting with unfamiliar players too much. I'm concerned this will create an overly combative server atmosphere and frustrate new players who would suffer the most from it.
It's too much reward for picking on people. Players will likely be robbing others constantly, and since no formal announcement is needed (not that I want one), there's gonna be a lot of "robberies" that are more or less just random kills.
The whole wallet is dropped on job change and disconnect. I understand this is probably to prevent combat logging but it's still an annoyance that will probably make someone lose money without realizing.
It's just plain inconvenient to have to carry only the amount of money you need and constantly run back and forth to an ATM in order to minimize risk.
When I ran my DarkRP servers, I tend to set the drop amount on death to a fixed base amount + small percentage of the wallet, so that dying still costs but isn't a massive loss. I also had an insurance entity bank workers can sell that prevents money drop on a single death.
To prevent combat logging, a system to mark the player as in combat on taking damage would probably suffice. Disconnect/job change won't drop money unless the player is marked in combat, with a warning on the HUD to indicate it.
I also think salary is an important thing to keep. It encourages players to stick around the server even if they aren't being productive, and benefits new/poor players a lot, helping retention. Jobs with additional sources of income can obviously have lower/no salary to compensate.
Miner/Money Jobs
As a server owner I'm wary of lone wolf money jobs (I define them as jobs where you do tasks for money without the need to involve someone else). If these jobs don't have a good reason to interact with other jobs, players will avoid all player interaction as it's all risk, no reward.
The Miner job is a prime example of this. Combined with dropping all money on death and the need to refine ores, optimal miner gameplay is to hide the refineries in a building, sneak around to the mines and ATM while attracting as little attention as possible. Plus, due to having no passive income and limited sources of money generation, players who aren't actively earn money have a good reason to hunt miners, further reinforcing this dynamic.
There's many ways around this issue. The server I used to run had miner/fisher jobs with a similar problem. What I did was create some level of job inter-dependency - gun dealers need metals from miners to craft high end guns, and fishers can provide cooks with better ingredients than the ones they can buy. Of course, another way is to simply remove money jobs and reintroduce passive income. With the only way to earn more money being from other players (besides printers but that's another topic), there's plenty of reasons to approach people for good or ill.
Generally speaking, money is a motivating mechanic for DarkRP. Every method of obtaining money should involve other players in some way (for printers, it's to encourage police/gang conflicts), and this is why money is hard to earn in vanilla DarkRP.
Hunger System/Cook:
The vanilla DarkRP hunger system is deeply flawed and doesn't really do what it's supposed to.
Dying resets hunger and costs no money. Instead of paying for food, players would stash their guns and money, suicide, and run back.
As a purely punitive system, hunger feels like a chore and gets in the way of what the player wants to do.
Being a chef is even more boring than selling other stuff, since your food only fills the bar and doesn't do much else.
I still believe having it serves a purpose, as it discourages people from isolating themselves for too long. I did a few things to the food system in my server, for your reference.
Running out of hunger does not hurt or kill you, nor does dying reset hunger.
Players gain bonus salary for maintaining high hunger, and no salary for being starving.
At high hunger, players sprint faster and regenerate health.
A cooking system that is a bit more involved than spawning entities from the F4 menu. I can provide the code if needed, though it's pretty old and janky.
High quality food provides small bonuses like health, temporary armor and speed, etc. Food can be bought from regular NPCs but those won't do anything special.
Combat:
Didn't really test this since I was the only player in the server. The only comment I have is that 37 damage on the cheapest gun is kind of insane and probably won't play well.
High damage weapons encourage aggression, since the player who shoots first is most likely able to kill their target before they can react.
A longer fight is generally more interesting from a roleplay perspective. The two parties can talk or negotiate, a third party (i.e. police or a friend) might arrive to help, and more random people can come across the fight to watch or get involved.
Short, lethal fights limits the option of the weaker party even if they survive the initial clash. They're unlikely to get away due to how easy it is to kill. If the police aren't immediately around, the fight is likely already over when and if they arrive.
My recommendation is to keep damage in line with vanilla DarkRP guns - those do little damage for good reason. Alternatively, some sort of incapacitate/revive system can be added so that going down in a fight doesn't immediately end your involvement in the scenario. Maybe after you lose the fight you can negotiate or call for help while downed.
Money Printers:
The role of money printers in vanilla DarkRP is to encourage conflict between police and gangs (or between different gangs), as destroying a printer grants most of its base price to the attacker. For this reason, I think printers should be limited to certain jobs only and never be legal. The upkeep shouldn't be too frequent, otherwise players will probably choose to stay in their house to babysit the printer instead of going out and meeting other players.
Hope these thoughts help. I'm in the Discord as well, feel free to reply here or DM me for anything. Wishing the best for the server!
Since food is a necessity and there might not always be players available or willing to be a chef, all food has been buffed but water is more expensive.
All food - including water - now restores double the energy they previously restored.
This not only helps remedy the issue of no chefs, but incentivizes players to play chef and botanist since it will be a little less stressful.
Water now costs $5 up from $1.
Once again, this incentivizes players to play chef and botanist since most food is now cheaper than water.
You now lose 0.5 energy every time you lose energy instead of 1.
This is nearly what I intended to do last update where I changed a 3 to a 1, but that was a different value.
You now lose 3 health every time you take starving damage instead of 1.
This undoes the above-mentioned change since it was unintended anyway.
Civil Protection now no longer requires a vote.
While not food-related, this will be interesting. This should help undercover cops and disguised citizens remain hidden for longer.
Added Fesiug's Money Giver to the default loadout.
Fesiug was kind enough to make this for STRP, so I've added it to the default loadout. It makes dropping and giving money much more convenient.
More suggestions and ideas have been coming up and I appreciate all of the feedback! Here's what's been changed today:
General
Reduced starvation speed from 3 to 1.
Players starved way too quickly, so I toned it down a bit. I feel like food still needs a buff, so that may be coming soon.
Reduced the sound level of switching to and from weapon safety.
This should make it so that you can't hear clicks through the whole map.
Props no longer cost money to spawn.
This was annoying and unnecessary for several reasons.
Placed a new ATM next to the Gun Store property.
I'll see how this one works. Theoretically, the police should be able to intercept bank robbers before they get there, and normal players will have more convenient access.
Medkits can no longer be dropped.
The Medkit was meant to be exclusive to the Chemist anyway.
Money bags from the Bank Vault now spawn in the robber's direction instead of always in front of the vault.
Items that certain jobs provide are nice or essential, but if those jobs aren't there, you can't get them. Put them on a shop with 800% markup or some shit perhaps
Today, I opened a new Garry's Mod DarkRP server: STRP. Find more information about it here.
The bigger update to these forums, however, is obviously the new theme that has been applied. This theme is called Emerald Dark and it is much sleeker and cleaner than the previous themes. As of today, this will be the default theme under the name "Modern" and most of the rest of the themes have been deleted. The only remaining old theme is the default green theme, which has been renamed to Classic. Both themes will remain available forever, but Modern is the preferred and supported theme.
The server had a great opening day, and a lot of things have already come up. Here's what's been changed today:
General
Only shotguns can break down doors instead of all weapons.
This should make all doors more secure and give the KeypAdder more of a reason to exist.
Reduced the delay before firing after turning off the safety on weapons.
When using a bolt-action rifle, you'd have to wait a very long time after readying the weapon before firing. It will now take a quarter of a second at most.
Bank Vault money now persists across server restarts.
I thought this was true anyway but I guess it wasn't.
Chef
All food takes 2.5x longer to spoil.
This was one of the main complaints during day zero.
Chefs can now buy up to two refrigerators for $120 each.
These new fridges prevent spoilage of any food inside, which further remedies the main complaint from yesterday.
Chemist Quadrupled the time it takes for the Medkit to regenerate ammo.
The Medkit gained ammo way too fast. It should now be less effective mid-combat.
Morphine production price reduced from $750 to $480.
Heroin production price reduced from $2,500 to $1,200.
Meth production price reduced from $2,000 to $800.
LSD production price reduced from $1,250 to $540.
Antidote production price reduced from $750 to $270.
The scarcity of the economy has already been on full display.
Botanist
Botanists can now buy up to two refrigerators for $120 each.
These new fridges prevent spoilage of any food inside, which further remedies the main complaint from yesterday.
Weed growth price reduced from $500 to $220.
Cocaine growth price reduced from $1,500 to $680.
Shrooms growth price reduced from $1,000 to $510.
Grapefruit growth price increased from $12 to $13.
The scarcity of the economy has already been on full display.
Miner
Halved the value of all minerals.
Mining was a little too lucrative. This should tame it a bit.
Mining Refinery price reduced from $750 to $600.
The scarcity of the economy has already been on full display.
