Copa Cabana

Looking very sharp.

Dancso keeping it real, this will be beautiful.

Glad to see Martos still keeping it real!

There's so many issues and solutions that I can think of just on the top of my head. I hope this discussion will be very fruitful and the IFM will not take things said personally. I also hope the community members that do join will remain productive and the trolls will be kicked out real fast.

Adjust vehicle modification, check-up and maintenance prices according to the car's value. Make it so that /vp and /vg would not repair your car unless you have insurance. We need to make sure that the upkeep of high-end cars is also high-end, way too many sportscars around.

Great post, I'd like to add to this part that due to the points you've made in the quoted section, it gives an incentive for law enforcement to more actively and more often target those illegal roleplayers that they believe will go along, provide good roleplay in return and be truthful in their responses to OOC questions about the crime. I often find myself feeling like the fact that I put so much effort into realism and staying careful puts me at a disadvantage against illegal roleplayers who don't even really care about that and will shoot anyone who disagrees with them just to later pretend like they left no fingerprints, DNA or any other kind of evidence. I'm afraid the IFM simply does not understand the entire point of law enforcement and criminal interactions. As a criminal, you're doing your thing until you're suddenly hit with indictments and you hear yourself on tape in the courtroom saying nefarious things or maybe they even play a video of it and bring a few witnesses at which point it's a wrap. Criminals are ALWAYS afraid of getting caught and the ones that aren't will most likely, ironically, spend most of their lives going in and out of prison. It's that fear that naturally brings criminals to behave in a more grounded level, think about what they are saying and doing. If RICO act, more surveillance equipment introduced as well as other techniques that do not require the detective to ask anything OOCly were brought back? We'd see actual fear in criminals because they'd never know if they're being investigated or not, if there's a detective out to get them or not. I don't get this need to make it "fair" for illegal factions. In real life the amount of resources law enforcement can pull to go after criminals is ridiculous, life isn't fair for in real life criminals, why should it be for ones on GTA World.

Exactly. Of course, we can give some lee-way to stray a bit to the side from "realism" since this is a roleplay server in a video game, I don't mind the fact that there are 2 crime families and numerous other crews of Italian-American descent operating in LS, despite LCN presence in Los Angeles currently being rather minimal. However, what we shouldn't accept is every organized crime group doing 1:1 same things as the other group, differences only being in rank structure and nationalities. Pick any given organized crime faction and you will find them engaged in: extortion, gun dealing, prostitution, drug dealing, credit card skimming, car theft rings and occasional robberies here and there. Every thread is basically those 7 crimes (the "brighter" ones sometimes post a fake charity too) over and over again with some generic roleplay sprinkled in between. Let me be clear though, there is absolutely nothing stopping them from doing different things. The construction industry RP as well as certain elements of the ports have stemmed from the Martorano family not being afraid to do something different. (I'm biased because that's the faction I spent most time with.)

Very good point. Those pursuits also tarnish the PDs ability to do their jobs. One ricer tries to evade and suddenly half of all IG officers are flying like rockets in pursuit. Good luck getting someone to respond to your 911 call when there is an ongoing chase.

Great to hear that, and yes, things should carry heavier sentences. If you don't want to RP in T.T.C.F., don't do crimes or make sure you're careful when you do them. I've been RPing criminals since I joined this server and I was never caught on any of them because I RP careful and aware. I don't RP like it's Downtown Kabul and I'm safe.

The saying "the faction is filled with noobs" implies that the nooby players are in management of the faction as well. I literally see no problem with some lower ranking characters in the faction doing a bit shittier portrayal because they're still learning the ropes, but if the nooby players are in charge of the faction, they will never enforce standards that they themselves don't follow.

There's a Discussion topic open right now titled "Hyperrealism" that critiques very high standards put up by some factions. Despite having some truth to it, I don't see it being as a huge and far reaching problem in the server. Instead I'd like to shift the discussion over to exactly the opposite end of the spectrum - surrealism. The difference between joining a legal faction that teaches you all you need to know for your roleplay through IG experiences and guides versus factions where you join and get no help because the entire faction is basically a GTA Online lobby. I know that IFM has taken steps to address the realism crisis, but it's too little too late. If we want to stop the carnage of 1930s level crime waves, we must make sure that ALL factions apply standards that match the way criminals operate in the 21st century. I bring you the consequences of not enforcing standards (or alternatively, enforcing standards that aren't even true today) as well as potential ways to stop it. Consequences: • Car loads of gang characters with (M) at the end of their names and checkered shirts on their body driving around entire LS looking for robbery victims. • Criminals murdering law enforcement officers en masse over something that would only land one or two of the gang members in prison for a week or so. • Criminals murdering each other en masse just to prove how "strong" they are and to protect their OOC ego. • Organized crime factions going on dick measuring competitions and causing wars with each other over it that would realistically end in both sides locked up for life. • Majority of criminal characters not even being afraid of prison or death. • Poor understanding of how crime actually works and engaging in practices that are outdated (shaking down businesses like its the 70s or doing hits in middle of the streets with assault rifles). • No fear of police investigations because cops are too busy chasing a car load of gang characters from the 1st point and will not have time to investigate organized crime. • More things that skipped my mind. Ways to fix it: • It should be mandated by the IFM that all factions and groups have up-to-date resources and guides in their Discord servers. This would eliminate the possibility of poor illegal RP due to not knowing the ropes. • Giving the law enforcement more tools and power to combat crime and investigate criminal activity. The LSSD has done a great job recently with their raids, but every time I read the press releases it is like "5 guns and 200 grams of cannabis were seized" which in GTA W's economy is basically pebbles. • Enabling drastic sentencing for things that are way too wild to be done IRL. For example, a murder of a law enforcement officer should pretty much warrant a CK if the perp is arrested. • Adding a section in Guides titled "IFM Approved Guides" which would feature RP guides for illegal RPers that are vetted by the IFM and considered to be "up to date" to today's criminal climate. • RPQM enforcement in faction portrayals. It doesn't even have to be RPQM investigating the reports made on factions. The person who reports a faction MUST provide proof and sources that the portrayal of reported illegal faction does not match reality. Warnings could be issued and if they are not adhered, faction can be force-archived. • Create initiatives and opportunities, both from OOC and IC standpoints for investigative journalism into crime. I would LOVE to see more crime journalists digging in and exposing facts about local criminal groups for the rest of the server to acknowledge ICly. • Try and change the culture of how players who roleplay characters that turn into informants are perceived. I will be honest, there would be way more characters flipping and giving up their buddies if it wasn't for the OOC friendships and OOC reputation. If you have RPed a character that snitched once, some factions might steer clear of even accepting you in the future. I have no idea how to change the culture, but I hope there are ways. If you have more to add to the topic, please comment, but do keep things civil and calm.

Hyperrealism is a sword that cuts both ways. It can be good, but it also can be bad. Let me explain: It is okay to be hyper-realistic. It's okay to enforce high standards as long as you have an easy way for players to learn. I will give an example from a time when I had a car thief character in Martorano Crime Family. I was sent guides how to steal cars and the run-down on how to get past different locks. When I had to chop a car? I was sent guides on how to correctly strip a car and how it should be RPed. In the end of the day it gave me more knowledge on things I would've never learned about. There is plenty of professionally written guides on the forums, and even if there aren't, you can always reach out to people in that field of RP for some source material to learn from or tips. The only unacceptable "hyperrealism" is when you enforce an ultra high standard and expect everyone that comes to you be on that kind of level without sending them any material or showing any guides.

I think it's fine to report players, as long as you're doing it out of genuine concern and not out of OOC hate. Personally, I let /a lot/ of things slide, even if it's at a loss for me. I try to take it all as much as possible ICly. The only thing that I straight up don't tolerate though is illegal RPers who will provoke a problem and then look for a way to escalate just enough where they will be able to kill you without making it look like blatant deathmatching.

Absolutely supported, but I think the biggest benefit of this would be that we'd finally have a way to be more open to more unique ideas. So far the legal scene is comprised of factions that started as OOC cliques, got started at a behest of an illegal faction as a way to make more money or are a GOV faction that's scripted in. It's incredibly hard to put together something outside of that and this would open the doors for it.

1. More power to be given to law enforcement factions. Current crime rate means that cops go after the ridiculous and outrageous crimes while leaving no resources to actually investigating more lowkey organized crime. All in all I want the crime rate to be way more tame. 2. Introduce more opportunities for illegal factions. Sure, there are scheme requests but they are usually difficult to actually get and the rewards are very underwhelming, which leads factions to just deal in the same 5 or so illegal rackets. 3. More support and organization for the business community. I've recently started a Chamber of Commerce, first one weirdly enough, and I realized how much untapped roleplay and opportunities there are. As a business owner the only RP you get is when you open and when you need to RP with a supplier or two, but with chambers of commerce we could both boost the legal RP opportunities as well as develop the IG areas. Of course this also means that it is way more profitable to create a non-generic business (laundromat, book store, perfume store ect.) in areas with Chambers of Commerce due to lower upkeep.