Ontimedude

🚍Bus Driver Evaluation with @Soft drinks of choice

🌳 FIRE WATCH DUTY 🔥

We clearly disagree on the approach. The bus script has room for improvement, but it isn't a bad script at all. Your suggestion involves taking away the roleplay I've been doing for a year and replacing it with a smart teleporter in-game to roleplay it as a "bus" in hopes of getting more people to take a bus. If you take away the roleplay, which is the big strength of the bus system, you're left with no real incentive. From what I gather, your point of view is "if we make the bus able to get you to places faster and consistently, it will be more competitive." There are other forms of transportation, mainly the private vehicle, that cater to that priority. In relation to your realism argument, Los Angeles (population 3.822 million) and most metropolitan areas in the United States have public transit services (to various degrees). To put it into perspective: "In April, Metro bus saw a 12.5% year-over-year ridership increase over April 2023. More than 20 million (20,504,450) rides were taken on Metro buses." https://www.metro-magazine.com/10222307/l-a-metro-ridership-up-for-17th-straight-month Obviously, this is a computer game. There is no road congestion in GTA:World, for example. There are limits to what works and doesn't work in the server, but I don't think your realism argument stands.

I don't have a way of knowing ahead of time if there are passengers at a bus stop, no. I stop at every stop along the route I drive and open the doors. The N key on the keyboard is the default key bind for that. If I see people near the bus stop, I wait a couple of seconds to gauge if they are interested or not in riding the bus. Sometimes I roll down the window and shout that the bus is about to depart, just in case. What I try to do is to schedule a few routes in advance, so players can know when I'll stop by. Buses on demand are something that I have seen, for example, in Barcelona. They are for underserved neighborhoods who don't have a big ridership demand. Would this be feasible in-game? I don't know. Taxis exist for that purpose. For basic services, all lines cover the bare minimum: a hospital, a police station, a motel, etc. Usually I tell passengers what's their nearest stop. At worst, they have to walk a couple of blocks. Is it the most efficient service? Absolutely not. That's the main weakness. To make up for it, I believe it provides the most RP when getting around. If your priority is to get from point A to point B fast, the bus won't usually meet your needs. If you're not in a hurry, or simply bored, and want to spend some fun time roleplaying, the bus may be for you. I appreciate people who may go out of their way to interact with me. They have no obligation whatsoever and I try my best to reciprocate the gesture. P.S. I have good memories from the bus trips across the State Parks.

In relation to this, the current lines are designed to service RP hotspots. For the most part, if no other drivers are on, you typically do Line 10, which is a loop around the City. All lines go by at least one hospital and one police station. That said, imagine doing the same fixed line for hours and hours. You’d get bored as a driver. After four trips, I usually feel like wanting to mix it up a bit. The lines are not there to be serviced all at once, but it gives you the freedom to choose.

I like driving cars too. If I had the money IRL, I would buy a car. None of this is against car drivers, but maybe try out other types of roleplay as well. You may enjoy it after all.

Hello everyone! First of all, thank you wholeheartedly for all the feedback given. I was positively surprised to see this topic has gotten quite a bit of attention from different members of the community. For the past few days, I have been thinking about this topic while still continuing to roleplay on my bus driver character. I think the original title I chose ("Rethinking How We Move Around") was a bit misleading of what I was trying to convey. A lot of the input to this debate has been about the /fixveh and the /vpark and how buses are not a reliable means of transportation in the server to replace cars. The discussion that I wanted to have was more centered around incentivizing members of the community to engage in roleplay with the bus system and suggest any script improvements to make it more visible / functional. Let's talk about the different modes of transportation and how they compare to the bus: A private vehicle is a must on this server. There are characters, especially minors or homeless people, who don't own vehicles because of realism. For the most part, a private vehicle serves to get from one RP scene to another RP scene. The travel time and experience is seen as a necessity, but not an active source of roleplay. The taxi is a valid alternative if your character does not have a vehicle at hand nearby. Sometimes there are cab drivers available and other times there are not. However, most passengers also see the taxi as a means to get from one RP scene to another RP scene. They want to get to their destination fast. It doesn't leave for a lot of meaningful roleplay. On top of that, taxis are relatively expensive. The subway offers a guaranteed means of getting around most neighborhoods in Los Santos, even if it not very time-efficient. Sadly, it does not cover the County. It is an automated system. No actual character is operating the subway. If you take the subway alone, you are basically roleplaying by yourself. However, if you are riding the subway with a friend, you can create roleplay as passengers. The service is also free, meaning anyone in the service can access it regardless of age or social status. Assuming you are riding it with someone, it's not just a means of getting from one RP scene to another RP scene. Moreover, even legal factions roleplay in the subway, such as the Los Santos County Sheriff's Department or the Department of Public Works. The bus system is currently staffed by bus drivers from the Department of Transportation of the Los Santos City Government. The system is quite extensive and covers almost all areas of the map except for Chumash, the port because it's not City property, most State Parks and Vinewood Hills. You can see the route network here: The main weakness of the bus system is the lack of drivers to offer a consistent service. That is why it will never replace private vehicles. Rather, it should work as a complementary option. This is normal as there is a limited amount of players interested in roleplaying a bus driver. Although not consistent and reliable to get around, it is a good source of roleplay and immersion. If buses are running, it is also a good means to get from one roleplay scene to another roleplay scene, but with the advantage of actively creating roleplay with the bus driver and any other passengers on board. You may take 15 minutes to reach your destination, but you spent that time having fun roleplaying. Moreover, it is free of charge, democratizing the right of citizens to mobility. Any type of character can roleplay riding the bus. Finally, this system does also have script support. You can check for any active buses using the /transitapp or /buses command, or from the transit app on your phone. You can also use the /onduty command to see if any buses are active at the moment. So, after all this explanation, what do we do with buses? I think a lot of people were trying to compare buses to cars. I don't think that comparison is fair. A car will always be faster and more reliable to get from point A to point B. Instead, I would prefer comparing buses to businesses. Why do people enter a café, for example? To get script food to regenerate their script health? No, most people would enter a café to interact with the staff and create roleplay. The same should be with the bus, in my opinion. Why would the majority of people who ride a bus ride it in the first place? To roleplay with the bus driver and other passengers. Their priority will most-likely not be getting from point A to point B in a fast manner. To continue with this comparison between a bus and an open café. If a café posts a /bad to announce they are open, a blip will appear on the map. Players will go there. If I post a /cad in the server like this one: /cad ⌚ LS Transit (DOT) buses are currently on route ⌚ Route map and live timetable available on LST App. ((/transitapp)) Not many players will even notice or try to roleplay with a bus when they are active, despite being a roleplay opportunity like an open business. The difference is a business is stationary and a bus is moving. I can only post one of these every hour since I am not paying gold or platinum. Maybe if I spend my own IRL money to post these every 15 minutes, more players would notice, but I don't feel I should pay IRL money just to post /cads more often in hopes of attracting passengers. Maybe the server management could help here. Perhaps, introducing a moving bus blip on the map when a bus is in service would help. Another idea would be to get a phone notification from your transit app, similar to when you receive a text to be notified when a bus is in service. This option could be toggable in the phone settings if players find it annoying or distracting. Another great source of roleplay, recently, has been from the Los Santos County Sheriff's Department Transit Services Bureau. Having Deputy Sheriff's ride the bus with you patrolling the public bus network helps tremendously ICly, but also provides roleplay for the bus driver. The Deputy Sheriff also gets roleplay by, for example, telling parked drivers to move their parked vehicles away from the bus stop or making sure high school kids fastened their seatbelt on the coach. Thank you to these Deputies for all that they do! I also wanted to give a huge shout-out to @Illuminated and the Department of Health and Human Services. Having the chance of doing charter rides with the kids has offered me tons of fun roleplay because you know you will have guaranteed passengers. M characters, for all the criticism they get in the server, are actually by far the majority of my passengers. Maybe in the future, we can cooperate with Davis High School to create a school bus route for when school is in session. Anyways! Feel free to leave your thoughts below! 😄

This is really unfortunate to hear. The thing with the county line is it's the longest. To do a round trip, you take a full hour. So, for example, if you only have a couple of hours to play, you tend to avoid it. I usually do Line 10, which is a circle line across all districts in Los Santos to maximize coverage. One circle line is 25 minutes. I am in the County Discord server, so if I do take the coach, I'll be sure to tag with @open to let people know the coach is running. Keep in mind as well, the route may suddenly disappear and we have no way to tell passengers if there was a disruption on the line, say a traffic collision or someone trying to mug the bus driver or... someone trying to extort the bus driver and chasing them across LS. (Yes, all of this has happened, LOL.) You're welcome to come to the bus station anytime. I don't understand why someone would threaten your character over visiting the bus station. The only time I can think of calling PD is seeing drivers treat the bus parking lot like some racetrack. This is also rather unfortunate and I'm sorry it happened. If you were at the bus stop and the driver ignored you, I wouldn't blame you from being discouraged. I do try to emphasize to new drivers to be patient or double-check if a person wants to ride the bus. You never know!

For the most part, yes. My bus sticks to the schedule. 😂 I'm in agreement with everything that has been mentioned above. I appreciate the feedback. Maybe another OOC incentive would be to gift panda points for riding the bus. I don't know if that would be feasible.

I wanted to take this opportunity to open a healthy discussion in the community. I have been playing a bus character for approximately a year now. Most of the time, however, it's a constant struggle to get any roleplay at all. Despite the current bus line network having very good coverage, very few people seem to know about it. Most just drive a car. It's relatively cheap and convenient to get one, after all. There is no incentive or reward for riding a bus aside from roleplay. Here is my routine as it stands: Log in. Pick a City bus. If I pick a coach and run the County line, the odds of getting passengers are even slimmer. Log into the system and set up the schedule. I try to program a few routes in advance, so players can anticipate more when I'll be at a certain stop. Post an advertisement to let players know a bus is in service. I no longer pay gold, platinum, let alone have partner. So, I can only post an advertisement per hour. I find this to be a pay wall for my roleplay. How many people will do /onduty or /buses frequently to check if any buses are in service? Not many. Ask in faction chat if anyone wants to ride the bus. Most of the time, no one is interested. Arrive at the first bus stop. Find a suitable radio station for passengers who may board the bus. Proceed to run the route. Routes can be as short as 13 minutes and up to half an hour. Watch out for traffic in Los Santos. This includes people driving in oncoming lanes, drifting around, almost crashing into you, etc. Every intersection is a potential danger. Pray for law enforcement not to shut down the road you were doing a route on. Most of the time, if you talk to them, they'll open up the road for you. Otherwise, you'll just have to skip the stop. Hope no car parks in front of your bus stop or someone spawns a car below your bus. It's not illegal in LS (for now) to park at a bus stop. Stop at the airport and watch characters just land and ignore your bus. They either get picked up by other players or they just get a rental. It's 500 bucks, so they can afford it. Even if the bus is free, they prefer to pay 500 bucks and not roleplay with you. Arrive at your final stop feeling defeated, thinking you're underappreciated. You log off out of frustration. Granted, there are some cool exceptions, but they are not many and very far in between. For example, picking up an old lady, who is the librarian at Davis High School, or interacting with homeless people or children. However, these are not too frequent to make up for all the other issues I keep coming across. It just makes roleplaying a bus driver unenjoyable and, frankly, tiresome. What do you think is the answer to solving the situation?

The Department of Transportation attended the ULSA Career Fair Whe then offered a ride back to those who wanted

Username: Oif Comment: Thank you for taking your time and reporting extensively on the behind-the-scenes work that we do in SANFIRE.

SAN FIRE Office of the State Fire Marshal Local 2881 The mission of Local 2881 is to represent the employees who work for the SAN FIRE Office of the State Fire Marshal. The union is currently comprised of approximately ten members, with membership numbers expected to grow in the future. We are looking for a union attorney to act as our legal counsel. Your task will be to represent union members during internal affairs cases and civil cases if work-related, while also serving as a judicial advisor for the Union Board of Directors. You will be compensated financially on a retainer basis per case you accept. Other advantages include unrestricted access to our fitness center and an office. Experience with Law Enforcement / Internal Affairs cases is preferred. Kindly take into consideration that the amount of work you may be assigned may be limited in comparison to other labor unions from larger police departments. Therefore, it is likely that there will be no legal issues at all in some months. Please contact [email protected] for further information. (( GTA:World Forums > PM “Ontimedude” https://forum.gta.world/en/profile/36101-ontimedude/ ))

Username: Oif Comment: Go get'em Cardona!

This is a very interesting topic. I think everything has mostly been touched upon by now. I used to be in FD and it was impossible to meet the call demand. When night falls, it becomes incredibly stressful. You go from call-to-call nonstop to the point where you have to take a break. This can also lead to a fast burnout if you don't watch out. As for LEOs, the current call volume is simply unmanageable, as has already been reiterated a few times. I have experienced a few situations in the past in which I called 911 and police cruisers simply drove by. I try not to read too much into it. It could be due to multiple reasons. Maybe they're tied up with another assignment; you never know. It's best not to assume. My only LEO experience is in San Fire, which is quite a departure from the two main LEO factions on the server: PD and SD. A lot of it is passive roleplay, which I particularly enjoy, especially roleplay in the office. There is nothing more satisfying, I find, than having someone conduct an interview with an applicant while a colleague brews you a coffee while you're conducting a fire investigation. In San Fire, we don't respond to 911 calls unless they are fire-related or if another law enforcement agency requests our assistance, usually San Andreas State Parks. We also don't patrol like PD or SD do. At best, we conduct fire watch patrols in the State Parks, mainly focused on fire prevention. That said, if we do witness a crime, we do act and enforce the Penal Code. I hope this helps. 🙂