lux

This is incredibly insensitive. Many disabled people use roleplay to achieve normality that they cannot achieve in real life. It's an important mental health tool that they can use to put aside their difficulties and feel a sense of normality. When I was bed-ridden for a year, GTA was my crutch and the only thing that made me feel human and gave me social interaction. just because YOU don't value it that way doesn't mean that many others don't.

I've always been of the opinion that people should not be restricted to joining factions on a text-based roleplay server. If illegal factions must survive without VOIP communication, then there are ways to incorporate people with disabilities into factions with certain limitations. Last year I was in the LSPD as a no-mic due to an illness that medically made speaking difficult - causing pain if I talked for extended periods of time and extreme lethargy that could lead to my vocal chords being extremely damaged due to muscle deterioration - I spent a year of my life limiting how much I talked whilst being bed-ridden with only GTA:W to keep me entertained. I wouldn't have been able to call out a TAC comfortably and whilst I wished to join the PD to be with my friends, I didn't want to sacrifice my health for a video game so accepted the no-mic terms and was determined to prove it was possible. During my time in LSPD, I think many people would confirm that I did everything I possibly could for the faction. I won the LSPD faction video contest, hosted multiple events in MRCAD (including two Christmas parties and a mental health caffeine club), was active on-duty and won multiple medals/awards in a very short span period, including officer of the month - something I don't think a no-mic had ever achieved before and I was proud to be proving that it WAS a possibility for people with disabilities to roleplay an officer. I made it to P2 and was accepted into Traffic Division by @honey. - the ONLY division leader to actually make accomodations for me in arguably the division that required microphone the most and I'll never be able to thank her enough for doing that. I was a dog handler in the prison service for a few years and had zero chance at actually using my real life credentials in-game as a K9 officer and whilst I was bummed out about it, I accepted that those were the rules. When I joined, by the manual, no-mics could reach Sergeant 2, I believe. A few days after I had done everything required of a P2, submitted my application for FTO and won the faction video contest (which I spent all of my Christmas working on), they updated the manual to change the restriction to P2 - zero courtesy to inform me that this decision was made, zero discussion with me before they made this decision and as the only no-mic in PD at the time who was really, REALLY trying their best to do whatever I could for this faction - I was hurt. I attempted to have discussions but was met with, "We can't make you P3 because you'd need a mic to be an FTO and if you weren't an FTO then you wouldn't be 'pulling your weight' in the faction and that wouldn't be fair on the other officers". - Despite the fact that I arguably was doing more than your standard P3 officer would be doing. I resigned and swore I would never go back. Now I'm on the mend IRL, I can talk, I can move again, I've returned to work and would be able to go into PD with full-mic perms as was the plan - I swore I would never, ever go back to the LSPD for the way I felt I was treated. I have friends there that still ask me to come back but the sadness and rejection really did kill my love for LEO RP, no matter how much I'd enjoy RPing with them again. I feel for you, buddy. I really do. I've been there and LOVED the roleplay. I made so many friends that I consider actual friends that I talk to daily who still ask me to reinstate under different circumstances - but I can't do it because I gave it my all and was burned badly. There are 100% ways to incorporate no-mics into LEO factions. I always patrolled with people and they were happy to have me with them. I made real friends that way and connections that you expect to make on a community. If you can't become an FTO, you can help MRCAD with events and press releases. Just because you're limited IRL does not mean your character is limited ICly and if this is a heavy-based text-RP server then this needs to be fixed so people like this guy can RP who they wish to RP.

Love this character, wholesome asf. Merry Christmas ❤️

Something I've learned on this community - you can't always win. Sometimes players will shit on you for nothing, when you've caused them no harm and never interacted with them IC or OOC. I've seen things posted about me and my friends on unofficial Discords from people I genuinely have never spoken to. Toxicity is rampant and all you can do is try to find the people who are happy to engage you, your ideas and develop a tough skin - which can be difficult when you're like me and can't help but get affected by things. I've had some past projects completely trashed because it doesn't fit what people like - and that's okay. You will never, ever be able to exist in a community of this scale without having some people tear you down because it's not what /they/ consider to be fun. The way you combat this is by just enjoying what you do and carrying on with your ideas and passions, even if things can get to you on an OOC level. Surround yourself with good friends who will motivate you to stay refreshed and willing to bring your visions to the community. I admire you guys for trying to uncover what could potentially be holding your faction back - I've never really interacted with you IC or OOC, so the only comment I'm going to give are aimed at the faction as a whole and the PR person, who I can see right now is probably feeling a little jaded and upset OOC: PR person - I can see you're really passionate about this faction, but don't try to force it. When I see something negative aimed at me or an idea I've had, I usually sit on it for a while before posting/reacting to something negative being said because I don't want to say or do something that may dig me into a deeper hole - something I've fallen down many, many times in the past. I've been there with LSPD - when I was running Lifeguards they would trash us for absolutely no reason - some of it making absolutely no sense from an IC or OOC perspective. We couldn't even attend a scene that was in our medical jurisdiction without LSPD making our characters lives hell and it wasn't fun at all. What I tried to do was appeal to the characters that had issues with us, whatever they may be, whether justified or unjustified - and ended up befriending a lot of them ICly. Things got better over time when I realized that snapping back with a snarky remark or arguing wasn't going to help the issue - sometimes people will be dicks for the sake of being dicks, and that's okay. Don't let that minority number of people overwhelm you because there's a lot of heart and goodness in this community and right now you're giving emotionally charged answers that are really not helping your case. You're passionate, that's enough to show that you really believe in this idea and want to improve not just for yourselves but for the community - this is a good thing, we need more people who show willing to improve. Don't let the negativity turn you defensive, even if it does hurt on an OOC level - because you really can't appeal to everyone here because the simple fact is some people can't help but shit on ideas that they don't care about - and that's okay because we're all human with different wants, needs and levels of enjoyment for things. What's important is that YOU have fun and are happy to share your faction with the community. I've always said a roleplay community is the weirdest community you can be apart of. All of these different people, from different walks of life, with different views, beliefs, sexual orientations, religions, everything - we all come together and share the same passion/hobby and do the same thing - tell stories. It's wild to me that at it's core - we all share this unique hobby and yet can't understand that allowing people to exist and do what they want or roleplay how they want can't be met without someone bashing on them for their own amusement or because that's not what they consider fun. I wish people could be free to express themselves and share their ideas with the community and not be met without trashing each other - but this will never be the case, ever. We're more alike with each other than people will ever realize - so don't let the negativity bring you down because a lot of people have been there on GTA:W - the only important thing is that you provide fun, creativity and good roleplay that can co-exist with all the other different factions/civilians. So my only advice to you guys would be to just keep going, focus on your development, try to bring some creativity to the community, extend your roleplay beyond who is in your faction - don't lock yourselves in. Take all the negativity you guys face and build off of it, even if it's based off of misinformation or blatant lies. Don't let people wear you down OOCly because they will if that's their personality. Don't let OOC events bleed into IC because you'll be discrediting the hardwork you've done - even if sometimes you feel like saying fuck you and throwing in the towel. The only thing that matters is that /you/ walk away from your PC at night and feel happy knowing you spent a few hours having fun with a hobby you're passionate about with some like-minded people. Don't let the negativity stop you from improving, learning and adapting.

I thought it was fairly obvious that they describe the event so that when dealing with the unban report they can remember the incident easier? Just look at the report section and scroll through some of the shit they have to deal with - most of it being DM - incidents can become /very/ blurred. But reading the unban reason as, "Dressed as a monkey and threw shit everywhere. Trolling." is more descriptive than, "Trolling." At the same time, you're asking unpaid volunteers who are human to act on corporate level. These people were trusted players who volunteered to help the community - key word being 'volunteered'. You can't expect them to act as PR specialists, they're players like you and me. I agree that sometimes decisions are made that leave me scratching my head - but it's not my place to question or judge. Everyone views things differently, they just have the power to make a final decision on things, that's life and that's not an issue at all. Be the change you want to see, put your application in and volunteer - I think it's very eye-opening just how much these guys do and that's not in an ass-kissing way, that's just how it is. It's a fun, stressful, unpaid responsibility. You can't criticise them for having a bit of fun IMO.

What I find interesting is that civilian roleplayers are constantly met with: "mallrats get this and that, all they do is club RP" but it's exactly because of things like this where civilian roleplayers can't win. Same goes for Vespucci skatepark, used to be a fun spot for the BMX/skater community - now you can't go there or you get harassed/robbed/killed. Now that area is dead and void of heavy civilian RP - on a tourist beach. There's a professional soccer league that's started - are the gangs going to stop an organisations roleplay on that field now? I understand that this "can" happen in real life but as the argument is brought up - 100% realism doesn't ever work on a roleplay server. There needs to be some leeway and allowing civilians to actually roleplay in areas should have some minor OOC enforcement imo. Can't go to the whole Davis area (which is fair enough). Can't go to Vespucci skatepark. Can't go to the outside gym. Can't go to the soccer field. Don't even think you can go to Two Hoots Falls anymore. It gets very frustrating because there's a gang on every corner. And about the whole gang injunction thing - that is not easy to get. I've sat in a meeting with the DA handing them evidence of murders being commited with videos and photos all taken ICly via dashcam - and nothing could be done about it.

As said, if they can make it so it doesn't impact interiors, cool, I'm all for it. But because community member #23827 is having issues with his PC not handling a 7 year old game, lets remove it.

How does it ruin your immersion, exactly? I'm interested.

It's a few days out of a whole year that a lot of people have been wanting and enjoy. There's so many, "Oh we should have server events!" and then when management try, you just shit all over them. I commend them for trying something new, I'm gunna do my best to enjoy the 1-2 days we have of it before we go back to normality. If they can fix the interior issue, it really isn't a huge deal for a couple of days - it still rains inside a lot of interiors and no one makes posts about "STOP MAKING IT RAIN". Let parts of the community that do enjoy it, enjoy what little time they have with it because the server probably won't ever get it again.

We know too little about it right now to really make a decision. If it has small towns with possible businesses, housing and roleplay opportunities for everyone, sure. If it's just a big Cartel mansion then no, I don't want an island to exist for a faction who'll DM you for stepping foot there.

So many, but I don't know your forum names. Lilypad, @Jura, @Hood, @Nuka Quantum, Eva, Nelly, Elena Alvares, @Scunt, @Hugh-Gi-Oh, @Ale, @harrison, @Powley - you guys have made my time here not only fun in game but OOCly, I've made some real friends for life and ily guys. Some I haven't spoken to for a while or we've drifted apart - but I'll always remember you ❤️ @joshua @Ari- @Westen @Saccs - From Lifeguards to Hawaiian Snow - we've always tried to bring a lil creativity and new ideas, and without you guys I dunno if I'd still be playing here. From our roleplay to OOC friendships, I legit don't know what this past year woulda been like without you guys. And to the whole community, really. The fact that so many people from all over the world, from different walks of life, race, religion, sexuality - and all share a common interest in telling stories, creating characters and developing these memories that'll last with us a life time. From the gangbangers, ricers, mallrats, robocops, it doesn't matter - we're all part of this place together and I think that's pretty special and i cant forget my @Bombie and @Pillsbury and @Frezemis ❤️

I'd love for clothing menu's to get a total revamp. Running a clothing store right now that's street-wear and seeing someone buy a suit kills me inside as it's something we wouldn't stock. It would be cool if suits were in the higher end stores, tees/hoodies in the Suburbans/Bincos. Player owned clothing stores being able to choose what "category" they want to sell to appear in their menu would help clothing stores become more of a thing, I think. It wouldn't be too difficult to categorize the clothing as you suggest: Suits, Street-wear, Designer-wear, etc. - much like the mechanic menu where you can choose your different types of wheels?

I think it's really simple - be considerate with your mods. If you have a hoodie mod, replace a vanilla hoodie. If you have a tshirt mod, replace a vanilla tshirt. The issue stems when there's people running around with missing elbows - which I'm starting to see a lot of and is actually breaking server rules as seen: Not saying it's intentional - but it's not fair on the players who don't install these mods (and they shouldn't be forced to /unless/ the server requires it ala 1.1) Custom mods are fine so long as you consider how other players see your character without a description. Scenario: police dashcam shows footage of a gangmember running away in a red shirt and couldn't see a /do. Crime broadcast goes out for a guy with a red shirt and then that person complains that "they weren't wearing a red shirt cause my mod is actually a green hoodie". As long as players ensure that their mod correlates with the vanilla stuff (hoodie for hoodie etc.), doesn't have missing body sections and understands that the community > your own modding experience, it shouldn't be an issue.

I think the person who does this with full intentions of CK should atleast have the courtesy to inform the officers that they intend to CK and not stall the scene for too long. Yes, suicide calls happen IRL - but back when I was PD, it went from "this is great development for my character" to "I'd rather go off duty." and that's an issue I know a lot of officers have atm.

Username: LFR Comment: white boy with a lisp fakin bein native be chantin like hey how r u, hey how r u? on god lmaaaaaao

Username: LFR Comment: this guy is white as fuck wtf that aint no native accent

Name: LFR Comment: arrow is clearly from davis and doin his best impression to pretend to be native and tryna educate people about somethin he has no fuckin idea about lmao

Username: LFRZ Comment: this bitch name sounds like a world of warcraft character i like her

Hey, I agree with you. Anyone that knows me personally knows that I always try to bring ideas forward that aren't the norm on this community. I tried to bring Park Rangers and got really far with that before being closed down via a forum PM months after we had been established. I made Lifeguards which is still going today - but arguably can't comment there as I haven't kept up with what's currently going on. We had a cult that had a good 20+ members in it before FM shut us down. My interactions with FM haven't really worked out positively to the point that I've said I'll never attempt to start a unique faction again on GTA:W. A friend once went to FM about starting up a fake ID thing that again, got really far with - but were told to put it on hold and never heard back. Now I'm currently in the process of making a clothing store to give people more RP rather than just using a menu - and working with Property Management to get set up was smooth, easy and what you'd always hope for. @Bombie is a credit to the server, btw. So this isn't so much as me defending FM because I have my own issues and reasons for why I agree with the overall conversation here. People do need to be allowed to express their creativity and ideas more - at the end of the day, this is a game and we're here to have fun. But at the same time, I can look at it from FM's point of view and they probably get 50 terrible faction applications for every 1 decent one. I fully agree with you, those with clean admin histories AND long serving members of the community should be given more trust and support to push their ideas. We've all seen Gangbanger Faction #232, White Supremacist Faction #13 and the likes - some of them are an absolute credit to the server even if I don't particularly like that kind of roleplay - but we don't need more of the same IMO. The ones we have are good at what they do. Too many cooks spoil the broth. The biggest issue is that the community as a whole needs to be more accepting to these unique ideas that DO manage to come to life - because as someone that has managed to bring something a little unique and different to the table, the community made it less fun than it should have been. I do think that FM should be more open minded in their approach and easier to talk to. Getting answers or even support is sometimes more hassle than it's worth, but they're also players with lives and admin responsibilities that we shouldn't overlook. An FM discord similar to the PM discord where people can swing by a support section to ask some simple questions that don't need a big forum PM that sits in an inbox for 4 weeks before being denied would be a good start, I think. Transparency is the key and right now, we don't really have that.

Honestly, I think demotivation in factions stems from a lot of outside factors and how if parts of the community do not care about your faction - you'll struggle to overcome the issues. Creating something and dedicating time and effort into building something fun and unique - which people keep asking for - can only go as far as the community allows it and is mature enough to role-play along with it. Perfect example would be Lifeguards. When we started it originally, we had no big plans to be any bigger than a small team of people with similar interests and trying to bring something that hadn't been done before while bringing some activity and realism to Vespucci. The amount of shit we had from the community would strip the fun away from it. Whether it was people constantly faking drownings (everyday), cops saying "Oh great they sent Lifeguards" (despite being medically trained) and making our lives difficult to RP, people attempting to rob us at the tower (despite it being a safe-zone) or people calling us "mall-rats" for.. posting menyoo pictures? I'm not really sure. The fact is, the community constantly screams for more unique and creative ideas but when those ideas actually manage to sneak through the crack and become established - you get 90% of the community giving that faction shit for little to no reason. I don't like gangbanger RP. I will never partake in it. It's not for me - but I don't go talking shit about the factions that exist because I know that a few bad eggs in the report section do not dissuade from the work that the leaders are putting in. Leading a faction isn't easy. Hell, after Lifeguards and as written above, I'd never want to lead anything on GTA:W again. While this thread seems to be on the train of kinda.. bashing FM - and while I can say I've definitely had my own issues with FM in the past, they really are "damned if they do, damned if they don't." If this community wants creative and unique factions to work then it needs to mature and allow these ideas to be worked through with Faction Management so that they're consistant with current server expectations. What's the safest option for the community? Continuing as it is - accepting similar factions like gangs, mobs and not allowing more creative ideas to come to fruition or trying to be more lenient on peoples ideas? FM can't win IMO - they either stick as they are and get called out for it or they try and allow more freedom and the community lashes out because it's just not mature enough to allow these creations to exist. I'd love a FM discord similar to PM. But currently as it stands - you can't please everyone. People will always talk shit about an idea and go out of their way to make life more difficult for those that are trying to do something unique, it's just human nature online. We're lucky that the past two BIG GTA RP experiences have both been based in San Andreas - where gang RP is common. If GTA chose a location or time period where these gangs didn't exist, I legit don't think people would know what to do.

Actually, the reason we stopped is for two reasons: 1. FM didn't want to go through with it. (And realistically, we needed some of those buildings turned into properties. We had a lot of members and formed a good community up there. Still one of the most fun role-plays I've experienced on the server. 2. The server isn't mature enough, simply put. The amount of meta-game we had from our thread with people showing up in sports cars just to troll us was intolerable. We had two people show up as devil worshippers with full intentions of getting us in trouble with the law (that luckily, SD didn't end up charging us for defending ourselves). @Hugh-Gi-Oh put in a tremendous amount of work with our cult and people still ask to this day why we don't start again - those are the two simplest answers I can give. On the overall topic, I do agree that some clarity needs to happen. FM seem to keep things very close to their chest compared to other managements on the server - like PM who you can easily ask a question to and receive an answer ASAP in their Discord. I think a public FM Discord would be great, much like the PM Discord where people can ask questions that don't typically need a big answer.

On top of this, can we get some bicycle/ATV/dirt bike love? Cars are are awesome but I'd love to see some more things expanded like BMX or more Enduro bikes! Even just liveries would be cool! https://www.gta5-mods.com/vehicles/real-street-pro-bmx-pack-1-0 https://www.gta5-mods.com/vehicles/yamaha-yzf-450-atv-monster-energy https://www.gta5-mods.com/paintjobs/yamaha-vr46-hd-sanchez-retexture

But then the bank, airport and other places are off limits? If the rules in place for other locations that aren't manned, it should affect all regardless if they're in operation or not. Again, the issue isn't to stop illegal RP or crimes, it's to make people go, "am I really about to murder someone when there's a police station there?" I'd love the LSPD to open these as actual faction HQs but that's asking a lot. When the rate of illegal RP is affecting legal RP and legal factions then I think some form of balance and cooperation needs to be in place because it does affect people's roleplay, it has been reported to PD icly - but it doesn't deter anyone. There's nothing stopping sports cars driving on the sand or walkways, there's nothing stopping people getting murdered en masse - and it is affecting legal RP. We need some help to bring the area to a fun place for both legal and illegal rpers. Saying "report it to the police" doesn't help as we do report it, but the police have an entire state to run and we'd end up calling them 50 times a day - which again just ruins the roleplay. I'd love some beach cops, but thats something that relies on a lot of different factors to set up and get going, where as just adding two more buildings to the already established server rule is a simple solution to a big problem, at least for now.

But, if we're going by server rules, as we should - Government buildings are non-crime areas. These two areas are not currently under those rules and should be. This would still mean that crime can happen on the beach and around the skate-park. The police station would not be able to cover the skate-park with CCTV as there is a gigantic statue in the way. Illegal RP can still happen but putting this in place can hopefully deter illegal RPers from being idiotic. There's so many businesses on the strip of Vespucci and the pier and while I'm not against people committing crimes around the beach, the immersion is definitely at a low-point as it's a constant area of crime and death. By placing the non-crime zone at these two police stations, it will help reduce these things not remove them entirely. We're a Heavy RP server - things should be taken into account sometimes to help areas flourish and bring people there to roleplay - a beach is an ultimate tourism spot, so of course robberies and muggings will happen - but they're happening in really dumb, unrealistic places that kills the immersion of legal RPers. Vespucci is the wild-west right now where realistically, it should be no where near as bad as it currently is and that's using real life crime statistics of an area that, while it can't be that populated in-game, would still be a well populated area. Exactly like we treat the highways from an IC perspective - the same should be given to the beach. It's give and take. The illegal RPers don't notice or care about the effect they're having on the legal RPers there. Cooperation and discussion to reach a middle ground would be wonderful - and I think by having these two areas (not including the skate-park but it would make people think twice as they totally ignore the fact there's a police station less than 100 feet away) would really help the legal RPers whilst also not stopping the gangs or illegal RPers from doing their thing. It's a good middle ground between reducing the ridiculously high number of murders and assaults (a few hundred feet from a police station) and still allowing criminals and gangs to control their areas and do what they do.

You're skipping over the entire point of the thread. A server rule is that government buildings are classed as non crime zones, there are two police stations that do not fall under these rules - people here supporting are asking that they be considered in those rules aswell. I don't dispute that these things happen in real life. The people with the 15 year old kid were reported and told to stop taxing also. The issue is that there are multiple murders a day at Vespucci. A silly amount in all honesty. I don't dispute that it's realistic that murders happen - but they're happening multiple times a day within close proximity of many businesses, two police stations, two lifeguard stations and a fire marshal head quarters. People are asking for the rule that covers non crime zones be extended to these two police stations - were not trying to stop illegal RP down Vespucci, I'm all for it - it's the amount it happens in these hot spots that are right next to all those Government buildings. I've been on Vespucci every single day since March - it's not a fun place for regular legal RPers to relax and meet friends but by putting these two stations as non crime zones it could hopefully bring it up to the standard the server expects and reduce the unrealistic murders and crime that happens a few feet away from where there would be CCTV and an active police presence.