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"Here at Los Santos Transit, we are dedicated to providing you with safe, courteous and professional service without exception. With our passion, we know what it takes to consistently exceed customer and passenger expectations." Los Santos Transit limits the number of buses on the road to reduce traffic in order to minimize accidents on the streets. Daily maintenance and performance checks are required to ensure our passenger's safety. Sticking to our daily route schedules are important to us in order to guarantee that you arrive to your destination on time. All employees are put through extensive training program to meet our requirement of providing drivers to the public that are professional, courteous, and aware. From your reservation, through your arrival at your destination, we strive to create an environment that not only provides you with comfort but also, excellent service. Experience developed through extensive training in the classroom and the city streets allows us to provide safe, secure and reliable transportation services for worry-free travel. With our competitive prices, the services we provide will sustain any budget. We pride ourselves on our modern fleet of pristine, well maintained vehicles, with outstanding, courteous chauffeurs. We ensure to present employees with plenty of options to build upon, no matter the role/title. Dedicated, professional work will always be followed up with promising compensation. Transit Operators may earn upwards of $38,000 a week! Your time, your schedule! All employees operate on their own time, not on a fixed corporate schedule. Send us an email at [email protected] (( forum PM to @Syndicate or @Rickaroni )) Need assistance ASAP? Call a manager on duty now! #74968955 or #1758977 ROSTER Chief Executive Officer Henry D'Amico [email protected] Chief Operating Officer Richard Ersatz [email protected] Managing Director Ricky Castellani [email protected] Human Resources Mikhail Vetrov (Recruitment Officer) - Leave of absence [email protected] Lead Transit Operator Cormac De'Valera Vacant Senior Transit Operator Vacant Vacant Vacant Transit Operator Winston Lyden Edgar Ramos Damian Riggins Reserved Reserved Reserved Reserved Reserved Reserved Reserved Reserved

Remembering A Genocide Elizabeth Rankin "A Hundred and five years ago exactly our people were ripped from their homes, their families." During the chaos of the First World War, Armenians were subject to planned, systematic extermination by the Ottoman Empire. Beginning in the city of Constantinople on the 24th April 1915, Armenians were rounded up, forced out of their homes and deported, eventually being killed, with the estimated number of deaths reaching over 1.5 million. The deportees were subject to rape, torture, starvation and outright massacre. The genocide is denied, against all historic fact, by two states; Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, and Azerbaijan. Click here for a visualisation of the Armenian Genocide. The story doesn't end there, however, many other countries, such as Mexico, Iran, the United Kingdom and Spain, do not officially recognise the event as genocide in fear of harming trade relations with Turkey. It was not until November 2019 that the United States officially recognised the Armenian Genocide as a whole. Click here for a map of massacre sites in the former Ottoman Empire. On the anniversary of the genocide today, no entity of the Los Santos Government has made any mention of the genocide. However, the lack of recognition from the city did not stop the small, tightly-knit Armenian community of Morningwood from remembering the event and honoring their ancestors. In a cultural event hosted in Del Perro this evening, Los Santos' Armenian community gathered, paying tribute to those that they have lost and proving the strength of their community in the face of historic adversity. We spoke to a local man, Matevos about his community, and what the event meant to him. ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ This right here? This is a very important day to us, hundred and five years ago exactly our people were ripped from their homes, their families. By the Turks, who killed them. I don't know exactly what about, some difference in belief, color, something. Some people stand up and they say it's not fair to call it a genocide, we say it's not fair to deny what happened, happened. Ideally, we'd all still be at home - but our homes were taken from us a hundred and five years ago by an illegal genocide by the Turkish, It blows my mind how still to this day people deny what happened - not just everyday people, but the people at the top. The people who pull the strings. The government in our own city, Los Santos refuse to acknowledge the genocide as what it was - a genocide. We face misrepresentation every day, exploitation by the LSPD who refuse to acknowledge our community and our role in the city. Even Donald Trump, our own president hasn't spoken on the genocide in his four years in office - something President Obama did, which was a big step - but right now it looks like we're going back a few steps for the one we took. Fuelled by passion, Matevos continued. Our community is one fueled by passion, our pride in our heritage - that's why today's so important. Honoring our ancestors, the people who were murdered by the Turkish so we could be here today. But people don't see that. They see the brown in our skin and they can't see past that. They can't see past the word 'foreign', and when we say our wounds are still open? It's like they never even heard us open our mouths. But let me tell you this; Our wounds are still open for the atrocities committed a hundred and five years ago, and we're not ever gonna forget that - not while we still got Armenian blood runnin' through our veins, our ancestors' spirits are in our hearts. A mural on display at the event. I push Matevos to his community, the community spirit that was showed in great numbers today. Morningwood - Little Armenia, we call it. It's a community founded on just that, you know? Community. Do you see that smoke shop over there? Armenian owned. Kebab shop behind the truck? Armenian owned. Liquor store? Armenians run it, our people are all connected here, even the ones who ain't - they show respect, they treat our community like they would their own homes. They're part of the community. It's all about that, though. Respect. You show respect, you get respect. Matevos' friend arrives, throwing his arm around him, joking around with him as Matevo continues onto his passionate rant, immediately, it's obvious to see that this community is very close to one another, a rarity perhaps, throughout Los Santos. People don't realize there's a whole community in Little Armenia, everybody assumes that just because we're in the hills it's all white people and rich guys, They don't understand it runs way deeper than that, but there are a whole lot of hardworking, Armenian people just trying to get by you know? Living paycheck to paycheck. let me put this out - Anyone's welcome in Little Armenia, you know this - you work hard, you show respect to the people here, you're welcome. But if you spit on our blood, our heritage? Show nothing but disrespect to the people around here, their livelihoods, businesses? That we can't accept, you know?

To the people who are vocal about their expectations of the jail, I would like, as an outsider who is familiar with prison RP, to share my own thoughts on the matter, generally speaking. Managing and actively creating roleplay in a jail or a prison in a game server is a particularly complicated task for several reasons: Activity fluctuates in the jail, and always will; because it's an extremely niche thing to roleplay and so people often move on; sometimes it can take several weeks for others to replace those who leave. Meanwhile, deputies are still there and need something to do when the jail is empty. Many people may not cooperate and participate in roleplay that's offered due to an ideological opposition to the concept of correctional roleplay. This can be extremely frustrating, and this factor pretty much is unique to jail. Most people do not know what to do in a jail, since it's an aspect of life that is rarely portrayed in popular culture. When it is portrayed, it is very inaccurate at best. Those people need to be educated and actively guided, almost permanently, and that takes a lot of work. Work is typically not fun, so jail deputies preferring street patrol over custody duties is not surprising to me. In an ideal world, there would be perfect script support for everything on the server. In our world, this not the case; this is likely not due to malice by whoever is in charge of script, but probably because there are other priorities. To add to that point, requesting script and other support is not easy. It's not just, "hey give us a job script". Details need to be worked on, and examined on a frequent basis. Think the garbage job, but x5; and that's all for one small niche of the server. Irregardless, deputies shouldn't be confined in the jail arbitrarily, this is not the way. They'll just resign, it will generate OOC drama within LSSD, and you'll be back to square one. I don't claim to have a solution (I don't know the specifics of jail in GTAW), but it should be a bit more subtle than that... Before pointing fingers at the LSSD faction, you should definitely keep in mind external factors that they do not have any control over. The LSSD chose to have a jail, and the people who lead LSSD are there because they want to manage it. That's axiomatic and it should not be called in question without a very good reason to do so; behaving like that is bound to just make things worse and heated. They deserve useful ideas and shouldn't be accused of "abandoning the jail".

An outstanding faction, I don't think there's ever been a moment that I've doubted the judgement or any related procedures of even the lowest of rankers in the LSSD. I know this was a thread for questions and/or potential criticism but I hope there's some room for a bit of good ol' fashioned flattery as well.

For transparency that wasn't included here, in tandem with releasing properties that require custom mapping the following changes have been made to the prices on the UCP. 50 FURNITURE SLOTS - 100 WP from 50 WP 500 FURNITURE SLOTS - 750 WP from 350 WP This is what I would consider unnecessary price gouging and almost a non-cosmetic transaction at this point. It takes roughly 500 slots to 1000+ slots for a medium to large sized property to complete a mapping project. Even if you go and have someone else do it for you, you're being restricted by your OOC budget if you ever want to make small modifications as you need to have at least the number of slots the property has. To put it into perspective, I could purchase two copies of Grand Theft Auto on steam for the new price of the 500 slots. I could purchase a full price, new release AAA title for the cost I'm being asked to put in for half the slots required to furnish a property properly. Realistically, you're looking at purchasing 1000 to 1500 slots if you want to be certain you won't run out. Even with the bulk price for World Points it's still at least four times the price of the game. Even as someone who has maintained Gold or Platinum donator status since the dawn of the server (excluding breaks taken from the server), I still don't appreciate when something is too expensive. As the property requests were just released though, this is the equivalent of a store charging quadruple the price for toilet paper just to take additional advantage of the current situation in the world.

A tribute to our enemigas, they know how they feel right now... gone but not forgotten, this one's for you big homie.

I'll make it very transparent what our goals are in the present and the future. The OOC goal is listed below directly from our manual. It's one of the first things you see when you open our manual. When we first launched, our goal was also to fill the niche of corrections roleplay - unfortunately, the realities of how jail roleplay works set in. I've made it very clear to our faction members that if we intended to launch patrol-focused first, Sandy Shores would NOT be our primary station. We would NOT have established a full infrastructure for custody operations. We would have told everyone involved it was our intention. It was very much an experiment. I made that very clear from the beginning to everyone involved - this faction is always a work in progress, and at least for the first year, things will always be very much in flux, from policies, to procedures, to direction. The welcome letter people receive when they join our faction ensures they come to an understanding in this regard. And as noted, on average, deputies are present in the jail at least 10 hours out of the day. This is something we track. We fully intend to push for more people of European and Oceanic timezones to apply next recruitment drive.

My question is directed toward the faction leadership; Why is there currently more focus on the patrol side of things than the correctional side of things? It seems when the faction started there was heavy emphasis on corrections being the primary service this faction provides, and patrol being the secondary. Now I'm being told by current and former members of the SD that basically everyone is a patrol deputy and the only time the jail gets worked is when a command member forcibly places deputies into the jail. Their statements seem evident by the fact that a drive out to the county makes it seem like deputies make up the majority population for that area. So onto my question, are there any plans to roll back the number of patrol deputies and have more emphasis on the jail?

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Farming, Hunting, Fishing and Food system Short description: A demand and supply circular economy based on food products with actual scripted effects and RP interactive jobs. The suggestion is simply to have the ability to create food products from farming, fishing, and hunting which will then be transported to restaurants and stores where these ingredients will be used to create different consumable recipes, which will satisfy the player's hunger and thirst. Detailed description: The food industry is a huge influencer in real life's economy. The fact that food doesn't have any effect pushes people away from RPing eating and impacts our economy heavily, as the only sources of depleting one's money in-game are taxes and insurance which are very little. A food system is much needed to help with the server's economy and this suggestion is especially aiming to do that while providing RP jobs that interact with each other in a circular economy. Before we get to the food system, these are the different methods to produce ingredients that will then be used to create food recipes. Farming (Fruits and vegetables): This part is pretty basic and was already explained more or less here by somebody else. This requires the addition of a farmer job and farm ownership just like a business. Farmers will have the ability to do different activities related to farming (planting grains, harvesting, picking fruits) which will end up in creating different food products, mainly fruits and vegetables. These products will be stored in the farmer's market to be sold for personal use or they will be transported by truckers to stores and restaurants. Hunting (Meat and chicken): I know there are some problems with hunting in RageMP or that's what some people say, I actually saw some servers having a working hunting system in Rage, but anyway, this suggestion is for the long term and it is not necessary for the entire food system to work. Basically, people will be hunting animals and taking meat out of them, which will also be transported by truckers to stores and restaurants. Fishing (Fish): We already have a fishing job. I have never tried it but I believe fish is being sold somewhere. These fish products will now be sold in the fish market. They will then be transported by truckers to restaurants. Food system: Basically, the food products that were produced from farming, hunting, and fishing will consist of different ingredients for different recipes. These ingredients (eg. meat, vegetables, fruits, fish) will be mainly used in restaurants to create different recipes and each recipe will satisfy the hunger and thirst of the consumer differently. Eating a steak is not the same as eating ice cream. Players will have hunger and thirst bars somewhere on the screen which will go down as time passes. The hunger and thirst bars will have four stages: STARVING -> HUNGRY -> FULL and THIRSTY -> SATISFIED. The bars should probably go down every 6 hours you play in-game. 6 hours is enough for players to finish RP situations and this will also make food a minor issue as I don't want this to become a survival game. When the bar goes down to STARVING and THIRSTY, there should be some visual effects to cause discomfort for the player which would urge him to go grab a bite. Eventually, if the hunger bar stays at "starving" for too long, perhaps this will cause stamina problems and eventually will drain the health bar. EDIT: As a lot of people have shown their concern about this being RPGish, and I agree with them completely, I decided to edit this part to be more representative of real hunger and thirst, following @DRUNKY 's excellent idea, by removing the HUNGER/THIRST BAR completely and replace it with occasional notifications similar to an SMS received message, which will appear whenever your character feels hungry or thirsty. Depending on the intensity of the hunger and the thirst, the frequency of the notifications would increase, alongside the aforementioned visual and stamina/movement inconvenience. Recipes and ingredients: There will be two types of recipes: NUTRITIOUS and UNWHOLESOME. The former will satisfy your hunger for 6 hours while the latter will only satisfy your hunger for one hour. Example: By using different combinations of the same ingredients, we create the following recipes: Ingredients: Meat, Fish, Fruits, Vegetables, Dough, Flour, Water, Wine, Pasta, Milk Recipes: Seafood Pizza (+90 hunger / +10 thirst): 1 Dough, 1 Flour, 1 Water, 1 Tomato, 1 Fish Salad (+70 hunger / +20 thirst): 2 Vegetables. Spaghetti with meatball (+90 hunger / +20 thirst):1 Meat, 1 Pasta Hamburger: (+80 hunger / +20 thirst): 1 Dough, 1 Water, 1 Meat, 1 Vegetables Milk Shake: (+0 hunger / +80 thirst): 2 Fruits, 1 Milk Water bottle: (+0 hunger / +90 thirst): 1 Water EDIT: I've given it some thoughts and I've seen how the server is progressing so I'm reshaping the recipes to fit the newest update. By using one of these ingredients, you could create customizable dishes: Alcohol: You could create any alcohol-based drink which is customizable to have a unique name to every bar/club. (e.g. Vodka, Martini...) Meat: You can create any meat-based meal with a customizable name. (Hamburger, Pork Chops...) Vegetables: You can create any vegetable-based meal with a customizable name. (Salad, some vegan food...) And the list goes on... Food in restaurants will generally be NUTRITIOUS. Restaurants should have a kitchen inventory for storing ingredients (/kinv). Only those with the "Cook" job can cook outside houses. The cook will be able to create different recipes and sell them to customers. Having nutritious food limited to restaurants will push people to visit restaurants from time to time to promote RPing with restaurant staff. Food in 24/7 stores should be limited to UNWHOLESOME food: biscuits, crackers, chocolate, etc. These products will be directly transported from the supplier to the stores. This type of food will only satisfy hunger slightly, pushing people to go to restaurants and fast-food chains. Food in houses: People should be able to buy food products from the farmer's market directly and some products from 24/7 stores also (e.g. milk..) for cooking food in their homes. Each house should have a kitchen inventory similar to those in restaurants but obviously with less space. Food carts/Food trucks: People who work at food carts will have to buy ingredients at the farmer's market, transport them in their car and store them in the "food cart kitchen" just like a restaurant. Recipes in carts and trucks will be NUTRITIOUS. Food in prison: Inmates will now also have the possibility to eat and drink in prison. Following the same system, ingredients will be transported to the prison where a prison cook will create food for the inmates. Food animations: There are a lot of eating and drinking animations that can be triggered when you /useitem a recipe. Commands to add: /cook [name]: to create recipes using ingredients from the kitchen's inventory. /kinv: to check the ingredients present in the kitchen's inventory. /recipes: to see all available recipes. Items to add: Recipes, ingredients, Farming Business, Fish Market, Farmer's Market, Kitchen inventory in restaurants, houses, prison and food carts. How would your suggestion improve the server? Realism, don't need to explain this more. Creating more RP opportunities and more RP jobs. More RP in the county. The difference in food items will now be important. Additional information:

Who are we? GNAG Autos was founded by Four friends in early 2020. Their main ideology was to provide the cheapest and the best quality refurbished vehicles to the customers with ease. The idea originated when the friends realized that buying vehicles in the city was very tedious and hectic for the customers to locomote again and again from one place to another to get the perfect vehicle they want; Which made them think that it would become trouble-free for the customers if the vehicles were directly delivered to their desired places with the highest quality of refurbishment and with various payment options to choose from. After a lot of planning the ideology was put forth and the website was published. What do we offer? Zion Classic Zion Classic: A superfast coupe with a mafiaso aesthetics. Insured:Yes Turbo:Yes Dealership Price:$80,000 Our price: $80,000 ((OOC STATS)) ((3/4/4/3)) Scout Scout: An eye-catching 4-door SUV for cruises around the streets! It has the best quality performance upgrades! Insured:Yes Turbo:Yes Dealership Price:$90,000 Our price: $90,000 ((OOC STATS)) ((3/4/4/3)) Vapid Radius Vapid Radius: A powerful SUV for all the enthusiasts out there! It has no aftermarket upgrades on it! Insured:Yes Turbo:No Dealership Price:$17,000 Our Price:$14,000 ((OOC STATS)) ((0/0/0/0)) ((NOTE: THE OOC STATS ARE GIVEN IN THE FORMAT: Brakes/Engine/Suspension/Transmission)) Contact Information: 8339409 OR 20406140 E-mail address: @SimonT OR @Napier To book your car online please fill the form below: ((Reply on the topic)) Simon Throne Simon undertakes the division of refurbishing the vehicle and he overlooks the website Henry Richman Henry undertakes the sales division, he takes cares of the prices and is the head of buying/selling cars Tanner Wilson Tanner undertakes the quality control division and takes note that every vehicle is neat and tidy Shang Takashi Shang undertakes the feedback division, ensuring that our customers are satisfied We are looking for investors! We are a new start-up and we need some help to keep everything running silky smooth! If you would like you could always invest in our company! Special perks will be given to you as a reward from our company and free advertisements on our page for you every month! The other perks will be shared with you personally after we have a deal. Investing in us also gives you a certain cut from our profits which will be shared personally. Last but not the least, if you decide to invest in our company, we will be very glad and grateful for your help! Is your small business struggling to stand out? It’s time to pump the brakes on your worries. Our creative advertising agency can help you accelerate your brand value. To know more about our advertising scheme please send a message on our e-mail (@SimonT OR @Napier) (25/04/2020)We have opened up an offline store! After a lot of hard work and dedication, we have finally opened up an offline store! It's located in Downtown Avenue, Clinton Avenue. We have provided you a map with a pinpoint location of our lot so that you can locate us with ease!

Short description: create a system to save custom interior variants for businesses. Detailed description: Right now it takes a huge out-of-character effort to create custom scenes for certain roleplaying situations in businesses. For example, let's say you run a bar and you want to roleplay that your bar is dusty after an opening. You want to hire a cleaning brigade to come over and clean the place but to make the experience better, you want to change the interior a little bit by placing down dust, moving the chairs to make a messy appearance, leaving cigarettes at the counter et cetera. The only way you can do that is making everything by hand over and over again and if you want to run your business realistically you need to repeat the process after every opening. This takes a huge effort from the business owner and ends up killing the mood for certain roleplay setups. We should add a command which saves the current interior mapping to a slot and after that, we can switch between mappings with a single command. Business owners can save different mapping scenarios (for example dirty, clean, formal event, etc.) and apply them easily. You need to create the scene only once, save them and after that, you can set up the roleplay scenario for other groups (cleaning companies for example) instantly. Commands to add: /interiorvariant -- the root of the command. save [name] -- for saving the current setup. E.g. /interiorvariant save dusty; /interiorvariant save normal apply [name] -- to apply a certain setup. E.g. /interiorvariant apply dusty; /interiorvariant apply normal list -- list all the variants you saved before. E.g. /interiorvariant list -> prints 1.) dusty 2.) normal Items to add: N/A How would your suggestion improve the server? I believe it would give a really good tool to the business owners and potentially create several new roleplaying situations which aren't really a thing now because of the effort it takes to transform certain scenes into others. It would help the server financially too because we can limit the usable interior slots depending on the donator rank. For example, the free tier could save two variants, bronze donators can save three, gold can save five and platinum ten. Additional information: This script can be abused by mapping completely different things into a single venue. I believe the script should check for the changes made in the furniture list and if the difference is more than 50 items then it should refuse to save the scene.

That's unfortunate that your friends are bitching but we're going to be making plenty of decisions that not everybody likes. I've lost an Assistant Sheriff, a Division Chief, and and Undersheriff over decisions that they didn't like. I make decisions that have the ultimate goal of ensuring long-term success. There's always going to be conflict. I would encourage you to not take into consideration opinions from other people, develop your opinion alone. Encounter us and contribute, or else you're just spreading hearsay. While we'd like to grow as a faction, we have the intent on quality over quantity. We've capped our recruitment drives at roughly 10 vacancies per drive. We maxed out at 50 recently, due to attrition we're at roughly 43 people right now. There's no such thing as a "primary patrol" area, and the server's population is constantly growing. We obviously encourage our people to stick to the county on an internal basis, but we almost always have less than 10 deputies in-game anyways whereas PD can have upwards of 25 officers. If you go through the number of court cases, you will struggle to compare the number of absolute cases SD has contributed as compared to PD - obviously, we're smaller, less coverage, but this means we enforce a higher quality. The Courts would need to have more activity in-game. This is beyond our control. In terms of giving jail guys more to do that isn't patrol, this is something we tried to explore in the past, but we ran into similar obstacles of inactivity on the end of criminal roleplayers - e.g. parole. We are constantly looking for ideas to promote the jail or alternative activities other than patrol. If you have ideas, more than likely we've already experimented with it. Fundamentally, most illegal roleplayers have already made it very clear to us that scripting is a necessity for them to return to jail roleplay. This is outside of our control. We are still exploring other alternatives and options at all times. This is a huge priority for Executive Staff. These already exist, but due to experience at prior communities, both parties came to the decision that a strict "map" would do a massive disservice to our relations simply on the basis that geographic boundaries don't make much sense in the context of a videogame and prior experience at other communities taught both parties that it can create a cut-throat territorial mindset. I do not want people frothing at the mouth any time someone in a blue uniform crosses into the county. So far, we have had an excellent relationship with PD and we envision this will continue. We have already clearly branched away from and delineated clear operational boundaries in fields we operate in - for instance, one of the primary goals I had was to model an accurate Search and Rescue unit - this is already something we've worked on thoroughly with FD. In addition, to any specialized units we've created, something was made clear to us - there's more than enough room for two law enforcement agencies on the server. Detective work a plenty, patrol work a plenty. Quite literally within a week of launching, our detective unit has too heavy of a workload to manage. The number of replies (which I didn't even request from the people replying) should demonstrate to you the passion of the team I've assembled to complete this project. I am equally as passionate. I started with 2 other people from the very bottom. I made 150 pages worth of material for this faction. I am not average. I am not from "many past servers." If this faction dies, so does my interest in this community, but I am so passionately invested in its success that I will ensure I would sooner be banned than to see it closed. There is nothing except exterior forces which would cause this faction to "fail." There is no internal strife, and there is no structural collapse. We are accomplishing all of our objectives. This passion is what sets my team apart from any other team. We have a passion to consistently deliver quality police roleplay without any regard for any other condition. We want people who share that vision to join our faction and help us succeed in that goal. We want to portray an immersive organization. We want people to walk away from any scene involving our characters and say "wow, that could've been me in real life with an actual cop!" So far, this goal is successful. We have had almost no OOC complaints from illegal factions, in fact, we have more complements than complaints. This thread demonstrates that. This is a project - I have made it clear from the beginning, I view this as a hobby, a passion project, and I want it to succeed. I have invested too many hours into this. Even including the people who have left our faction for disagreements over its direction, they have applauded our roleplay quality. I don't know who's telling you that we're "straying down the path of other failed attempts" but I have some inkling. To be frank, it doesn't concern me. Concern comes from many directions, but often times those with the most concerns are those who we have wronged. That isn't to say that I hold any ill will towards them, because ultimately this runs into the managerial concept of people believing that someone is incompetent when they really just don't know the internal workings that well. They believe they know the private discussions - they believe what we're doing is the wrong way of doing it, they believe they may know better. I'll tell you who I am. I'll tell you why I believe I know better than anyone else. I spent years fighting in the trenches on a very successful SAMP community to become the head of a legal faction of 200 people. I'm not bragging about that - people who desire power are often the same kind of people to abuse it and use it to bully people, but this isn't me. That's not my intention and it never has been. If I were a bully, this faction would've already collapsed. If I were using this as some form of escapism to avoid real life, it would also be a failure. My intention is to run a successful top-down organization, because I enjoy that simulation. I've had to make management decisions that would trouble a manager of a real company. I've had to get rid of people with genuinely good intentions. I have had to upset people that I considered close friends and confidants simply because it was the best decision at the time. The direction of this faction is clear, and those who claim otherwise, I feel, just don't appreciate the perspective I share. That's fine! Not everyone is going to appreciate your opinion. I certainly don't appreciate the opinion that this faction is going the wrong direction or is failing, because I have typed for hours on end on this topic. One must note - friends often follow friends. Of my faction, it's impossible for everyone to be in harmony. Sometimes, groups of friends begin to share the same opinion because one member feels wronged. Unfortunately, this can cause everyone of that group to feel wronged. I cannot control that. But of the 40 some odd people we have in the faction now, everyone is satisfied, and we make an effort to keep it that way. If there's someone dissatisfied? I don't know. If there's someone who was dissatisfied who left? I would've made every attempt to try to get them to come around to my viewpoint had they made it known. But some people will never come around. A valuable quote from Teddy Roosevelt describes the position of a faction leader: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” The only other person who can share this view is my counterpart in Smokey - he is an excellent faction leader, and from what I've gleaned, an equal in this regard. Therefore, anyone who says my faction has failed or is failing has designs due to decisions made against them or is concern trolling. I make it clear here - I have no ill will towards those that make those claims that our faction is failing, because ultimately I feel they simply don't know the truth of our internal discussions, and they may be making hasty assumptions. They just don't know how hard this faction leadership has worked to see this ship set sail. And that's fine with me, they'll come around.

Two possible suspects (one not pictured) and one officer down after shooting on Clinton Ave. Chaos on Clinton Katja Kaufman A shocking press release from Media Relations has added another two people to the collection of victims in this incident- bringing the total to six. The first responding police officer was met with multiple shooters with automatic firearms. One shooter was neutralized, and four other victims were downed early Friday morning in a tragic gun battle on Clinton Street. Rapid gunfire rang out for several minutes, followed by complete silence. It remains unclear at this time if all shooters were downed at the scene, or if anyone remains on the loose. The frantic 911 call brought both the Police and Sherriff’s departments together. Residents of Vinewood, as well as bystanders, ran out of their homes and businesses to find a gruesome scene that included the officer, who was in street clothes. The officer was transported to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. They have not yet been identified, and their condition is not known. The second downed possible suspect. Two more victims would be found in the apartment complex across the street. One man barged through police barricades to try and get answers from one of several officers, shouting more than once, “What the f*ck happened here?” with no response. He would end up walking away with no definitive answer on who was involved, and if it were a family member or not. The angst of not knowing was a common theme among everyone at the scene. What exactly had happened? Officers could be heard going back and forth between one another as tensions ran high. It's understandable, as one of their own was fighting for their life right nearby. Police recovered multiple firearms from the scene. With seemingly no witnesses and a ground full of shell casings, they were left to wonder how, and more importantly why, this occurred in the first place. This senseless act of violence has seemingly left behind more questions than answers, and devastation along with it. LSNN will continue to update this story as the investigation unfolds.

New developments

When using a minor traffic violation or otherwise to stop a vehicle with the intention of generating an arrest personnel should be able to use a mobile terry frisk and K9 resources as they see fit based on their availability. Discussing the “thin” line between IC and OOC, police encounters every day violate rights and law. Police officers are not caselaw experts nor are they the authority of all things legal. They should also not be expected to be that. Illegal detainments and seizures should be legally challenged in court. If not, people should accept the L and stop seeking recourse OOC. Keeping things IC on all levels should be the top priority. If a police officer illegally detains somebody, files bad charges or violates an individual rights whether they are constitutional or otherwise, they would likely not remain intact in court. Reiterating a previous statement, this happens all the time. Large and small agencies alike, neither the LSPD or the LSSD should aim for perfection in this regard. Personnel with egos too large to conduct themselves properly, overcharging, abuse of power, legal misinterpretation, misconduct, the violation of (constitutional) rights. These are realistic challenges for both departments to deal with IC. They are common, and constant. They are arguably one of the major problems with American law enforcement, and this is reflected in their relationship with their community. Although anecdotal, I have noted that both departments fully commit to internal investigations surrounding complaints in this regard. If you report it, they move forward with it accordingly. However, you not reporting something IC doesn’t give you the high ground to complain about it OOC. We have a legal system for a purpose, and not just to inconvenience people. With the vast plethora of avenues for players to use IC, officers should be free to employ their questionable tactics as they would in real life as they see fit. I see no reason why anything should be mandated OOC. The only time an administrator should interject is when server rules are violated, or quality is subpar.

Taking out the Trash

Thanks for making this post, it's interesting to read some of the replies & I've added the video about MMO Economies to my watch list! This is incredibly timely as I've actually been having conversations with players about the recently. @liafriuli if you have want to have around the economy please feel free to forum pm me directly and we can have a chat. For players who don't understand the system we've built I strongly suggest you read the relevant feature showcases on the economy, we've put a lot of consideration into the economy, and considering we're nearly three years in, I don't think the inflation is that bad. We certainly want to make tweaks, changes and improvements, like we do with everything but we're not looking at an overall of the system. One of the most difficult balances we have to make is not implementing changes that will disadvantage one group too heavily, for example while there might be certain people who get paid on a paycheck and accumulate assets, others might be struggling to sustain a creative & well roleplayed project that isn't aimed at making loads of money, we want those players to be able to roleplay without going into too much debt. Which is why some of the specific & Ad Valorem taxes proposed here might not work.

Faction is now closed following atrocious level of roleplay, deathmatching and OOC racism. Faction owner is banned.

Hello everyone. To bring this back on topic & to show you some results of what has been discussed on this thread, what has been discussed internally & what we have come up with ourselves, here are a few things we've recently done to improve our faction. Reworking recruitment I'm writing this as I'm finalizing the recruitment process, but the front end is already very much done and something I can link here. I took a little inspiration from what the Sheriffs Department did with their recruitment process, which is setting the bar & making clear expectations from the very start. You can find an example of this in the topic I just posted in our general recruitment area here: https://lspd.gta.world/viewtopic.php?f=1195&t=32613&p=160762#p160762 As you can see this topic is completely OOC, which was intentional. Something we've always lacked besides the obvious RP testing during our recruitment phase is actually explaining to potential applicants what it is that we expect from them coming into the faction. We have removed the in game academy because we felt it wasn't working as intended. People that hit the ''academy stage'' of our recruitment are now given a plethora of OOC resources to give them an idea of what the academy process would be like and how it would affect their character, while being given IC resources to serve as a replacement for classes they would have received attending the academy. Although the LSPD manual remains a big resource for people doing the exam, they will be substituted by materials in video form to give form to how those policies would apply in an in the field context. Knowledge A few days ago one of my Deputy Chiefs, @Sam2, finished what he likes to refer to as ''Hanlon's handbook'' or as it's officially known the Peace Officer Standards Handbook, which is a well and truly in depth piece of writing on the deeper procedural questions and ethics that come to play in day-to-day events that police officers come across. This also forms the basis for our new handbook system, which is now 8 parts rich. The next few volumes have already been written and are a-waiting proof reading so they can be rolled out in the days to come. One chief complaint (whether warranted or not) has been that either we have not provided the right resources for people to study, or that people lack knowledge. In combination with our new Field Training Program we are currently working around the clock to provide more resources both in character (how-to guides, more in depth reading) and out of character (roleplaying an American law enforcement officer, passive roleplay, etc) resources for people to study and refer to during their time in the faction. Field Training As of last Academy drive we have completely redone our field training program from the ground up. What used to be a simplistic system of constant evaluation now has evolved into something much more then just that. The emphasis has returned to senior officers functioning as teachers within the game where they instruct their rookies on a giant list of subjects they need to cover while in training, rather then file mile-long reports after the end of a patrol that the rookie never gets to read RE a select few skills that we asked them to be graded on. This goes coupled with a team that is dedicated to do the actual evaluating, to ensure the evaluations that are done are of high standard and most importantly consistent. The work that the Field Training Program Management Team (as they are called) has been putting in the past few months has been absolutely vital to evolving the faction to where it should be. Passive Roleplay Passive roleplay may be the last on this list but it's certainly not the least. Over the past few months the leadership team of my faction has been discussing our goals for 2020, but as it happens passive roleplay (and by extent roleplay quality) is our biggest concern and priority. Although we feel like our faction has been moving in the right direction, we don't feel like we are where we want to be and that we, as a leadership team, have not in the past placed enough emphasis on providing support and materials in this area. Passive roleplay is not just something I can take two paragraphs to explain, nor can I even explain what my plan is on doing with it. The simple reason for that is that I don't have the solution. I don't have a one-two-three step plan on how to improve it. What I do have is a list of long term goals and a list of short term ways to improve it, and as time progresses I want to re-evaluate where we're at and sit down with faction members in general during our Chiefs hours (monthly open Q&A sessions) Anyway I digress, this week I've started with two initiatives: first and foremost, at a supervisor level we have started a discussion (involving non supervisor American players) about how to introduce proper Americanization to the faction. Due to our large European player base it is sometimes difficult to get properly immersed in playing someone of an entirely different background when there is little to use as an example. Combined with our American players (and supervisors) we are starting an initiative to provide more support for people in terms of personal guidance, written guides & video material to help people achieve those goals. Furthermore, I've started by implementing more individual guidance on roleplay quality in certain individual chains of command. This is through both observing the officers that directly work under you if you are in any way shape or form part of a command structure or play a more senior role, and having people readily available to provide feedback to those who ask. So it's a combination of both taking initiative and being reactive, because one adds to the other and vice versa. Last but not least as was referenced just before me, we've put out a reminder regarding passive roleplay, which you can see here: Now although these steps may seem small, please mind that this is only what has been done in the past few days. Everything that we had in place before this aside, I am massively ramping up both the attention we pay to these subjects and what we can do internally to improve it. Some things will be easy to explain & for you to witness, such as those things I've referenced above, but others may be more difficult to see the benefit because they require intimate knowledge of how the faction works to see the effect. Regardless, I aim to keep you guys informed as well as I can. I know it's been a while since one of these updates came out, but I hope it helps you see that we are indeed actively working on improving our faction every single day. As a closing note, I appreciate the positive comments me and the faction receive both in these threads and in private. It's always awesome to hear that you had great interactions with my members, and for those that have messaged me in the past, I promise you that I passed it on to the people you were speaking to me about, who genuinely appreciated receiving such great words of praise.

Too late to feel sorrow Too late to feel pain He's just an old hobo And he's Lost out in the rain He'd never cause trouble So don't have no fear He's just an old hobo And he'll soon be far away from here INTRODUCTION The Strawberry Bums, or known to the locals as simply 'The Bums', are a small group of less fortunate community members who have resided in Los Santos for eight years, after the great financial crisis of 2012. These community members found themselves hard-up after many of them lost their jobs, and in turn their families and homes. The code of the hobo is a strong one: "What's ours is ours and what's theirs is ours... if we ask politely". Though the group have their domestic disputes and battles, they all see one another as the family they never had. A hobo will always look out for another hobo in times of need, and the bond they have is like no other in the city. Viewed as second class citizens; sub-human scum and detriments to society, the Strawberry Bums have had to evolve and develop a tough outer skin when it comes to mingling with the public, which they tend to keep to a minimum. The police force seem to pity them, though they are viewed as no threat - a lot of them too old to run let alone cause trouble. There are hobos of all shapes and sizes within this community, as despite the racial slurs they all use, they are not discriminatory. If someone needs a bed for the night, they'll offer it. If they've got spare food and someone needs it, it's theirs. They look after one another as though they are relatives, and if you pick on one hobo you're usually picking on the pack. HISTORY After the great financial crisis of 2012, many people became redundant and then therefore unable to provide for their families and their homes. A lot of these mainly immigrant residents migrated back home, whereas some chose to stay and try to rebuild. For those that opted to stay, the rebuilding process wasn't always easy. It led some down a path of drugs, drink and crime. It led others down a path of inner peace and solitude, now they no longer relied on materialistic things. The name 'Strawberry Bums' was a name given to the group by residents of the Strawberry/Davis area, however the collective has since claimed it their own. Their presence within the community became noticed when a certain Fred J. Frederickson decided to take a lot of people in to his shelter as his own. He's seen as a father figure to most, and a drunken hobo waster to others - but still his group remains the centre of his life. Other founding members such as Joseph Jones, Karen Kurtis and Happy Henry are leaders within the group, often keeping the younger members in line. They are dirty, certainly not house-trained and are most certainly a burden on society - but they're also a group of prideful, respectful citizens who just need a break. PRESENT DAY Nowadays, the bums can be found in and around the under-pass at Strawberry, where they have created a small ghetto. Their regular shop, "Strawberry 24/7", has accepted the fact that they're not going anywhere and has taken them in with open arms. One staff member even quoted something as lovely as, "Hey, at least they pay". The older males in the community tend to have a bit more traction when it comes to making decisions, whereas females of all ages are used to generate income... Not that this is ever successful. They are not criminals, intentionally. They're not a group of thugs who mug and steal - they make their money through begging predominantly. Though some of them choose to offer their services in terms of soliciting, this is not too prevalent in the community. CHARACTER PROFILES OOC INFORMATION The Strawberry Bums are a collective of individuals who are after a break from the standard bar scene roleplay. Though they may be perceived as 'trolls' by the outside community, people who actually attempt to interact with them will see that Roleplay is our highest aim. You will never get bored if you come across one, or a group of these individuals and many people can vouch for the experience we provide. If you're interested in becoming a bum, then all you have to do is choose a skin/make a rough looking character, and hang around the Strawberry underpass (pictured below). There are no requirements for joining, besides a high level of roleplay. We do not reserve the right to CK characters as that is not our motto. We are not participants of gang wars, drug wars or any illegal activities as quite frankly, our characters are either too mentally disabled or too poor to participate in such. If you fancy a change, and what to give a different style of roleplay a go, come and hit us up. Everyone is welcome!

Username: Remember1915 Comment: We demand formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Mayor Rockford and his cabinet! (Amazing interaction and an even more amazing article, Well done @HaveADream, glad you were able to stumble across our event!)

I'm seeing misinformation and baseless accusations being tossed around, so I'm going to be stepping in and locking this thread for the time being. Character portrayal will always be emphasized and there are steps in place that a player may pursue if they find someone isn't adequately portraying their character to the point that it's detrimental to those around them. Somebody already linked it, but I'll link it again: The server will never be 1:1 with real life because it's simply not feasible. The economy is a great example of that - it will never be possible to replicate a real economy, with the expenditures that come with it, and thus we need to work with what we have. Players are given a lot of freedom on the basis that they will be responsible. It's very true that I could make a character and roleplay as, for example, an apprentice mechanic - and then make a fortune in just a week - to the point that I could, through the script, purchase a high-end sports car. But do I take the number in the top right of my screen as an accurate representation of my character's wealth? Absolutely not, because I appreciate that in a real life setting - there's no possible way that my character, an apprentice no less, would be able to accrue enough wealth in just a week of legitimate grafting to purchase a high-end sports car. I could buy it, but I choose not to in favour of adequately portraying my character. You are welcome to roleplay whatever you like, but what you choose to do must make sense and have some explanation behind it. You're supposed to be portraying a character, which requires some thought. KV has answered virtually all of the concerns listed in the original post very well;

I agree - It does encourage meta game and is a pointless thing for the majority of players to see. Unless it was RPly given via News bulletin via the radio or other IC means then everyone should not know about it. On the other hand it is good to congratulate the player on ending their character development if you personally have been following their story. all in all agree with the suggestion.