Trucking Roleplay

[Brennan]

26 minutes ago, MAGAman said:

Not a trucker,but I agree with Klag.

 

I cba to write more than the necessary amount in a cohessive manner. If one line or even 4-5 word sentence is enough to get my point across I'm good. Typing filler words to /me's and do's to make it longer doesn't mean that the roleplay is good or people reading your text are more immersed.

Totally agree, this even goes for any kind of roleplay. 👍

[Koko]

To be fair, I'm as guilty as anyone of the occasional /me unloads a stack of boxes from his vehicle, but to be fair, if there's not an active player business running there are only so many ways you can type it in an evening.

 

I agree, long descriptions on the operations aren't particularly necessary, often it's a lot more effective to acknowledge the other driver with a bit of a nod and a casual conversation, and it takes about the same amount of time to just go "Hey what's up?" like actual people would to unknown fellow drivers, imho.

[orca112]

1 hour ago, MAGAman said:

Not a trucker,but I agree with Klag.

 

I cba to write more than the necessary amount in a cohessive manner. If one line or even 4-5 word sentence is enough to get my point across I'm good. Typing filler words to /me's and do's to make it longer doesn't mean that the roleplay is good or people reading your text are more immersed.

There is a difference between keeping it simple and keeping it as little as possible. If you just throw out "short" emotes instead of writing half a novel, that is no problem. But those that "/me unloads crates." and speedrun /unloadcrate & /sellcrate, just to drive off ~ 15 seconds after arrival at an active business and return a minute later to repeat the very process disturbs the environment and, often, annoys business owners, customers and other truckers alike.

Though I personally do question the idea of keeping emotes short. You can throw out short emotes for simple actions and if you can describe those actions effectively, no problem. But "/me unloads crates" is summing up an entire work process. With that mindset, you could say "/me builds a house" and skip through the entire process.

 

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I agree, long descriptions on the operations aren't particularly necessary, often it's a lot more effective to acknowledge the other driver with a bit of a nod and a casual conversation, and it takes about the same amount of time to just go "Hey what's up?" like actual people would to unknown fellow drivers, imho.

What @Koko said sum it up fairly well by - instead of writing descriptive emotes for yourself or barely anything and just speed running deliveries - interacting with your environment, even something as simple as a nod to a fellow trucker. At the end of the day, roleplay thrives from interactions between characters. However, the reality is that the majority of interactions you have as a trucker are a mixture of IC and OOC impatience as of "Don't idle here" or "((I thought you are AFK?))" once again leading back to the script encouraging lesser RP because it means more money which led to this toxic environment for truckers.

[Moonsong]

We're always trying to encourage more realistic trucking roleplay, especially with the driving. I mean you're basically driving a deadly missile when you tear through intersections, take shortcuts and generally rush about as if you just escaped from prison. It would help so much more if people reported the unrealistic behaviour you guys are giving examples of when you see it happening, we can only act on what's reported or what we happen to catch by chance. It also has a double edged sword, because often this is what new players will be drawn towards and if this is what they see and they're not told otherwise they'll think it's ok. I can't stress enough how important it is to report this kind of behaviour, in the short term (until script improvements are made) that's what's going to help the most.

 

 

[lost in the sea]

20 hours ago, orca112 said:

I believe there is a big elephant in the room and yet after some voices in 2019 seemingly not spoken about ever again.

The elephant I am talking about is Trucking Roleplay (or shall I say Trucking 'Roleplay'?) on this server, the trucking script and how to tackle present issues as trucker, trucking company as well as third party such as Law Enforcement, Criminals down to the ordinary citizen. But why is it an elephant in the room? Well, glad you asked.

 

Trucking roleplay appeared to have always been sort of a delicate topic. The trucking script itself is not too bad, but reminds of an RPG script and combined with mostly new players and those that are on the "get rich quick" train, it creates a toxic environment to be in as one who wishes to roleplay a delivery driver or trucker. Instead of being rewarded for your roleplay and putting details into what you are doing as well as interacting with your environment (actual business workers, other truckers, customers, etc...), you are being pushed by other truckers to "speed up", " not idle on this spot" or "I thought you've been afk" because you have been taking too long and others are too impatient to wait two minutes for you to wrap up your delivery. This often leads to unrealistic driving, parking and your truck blocked in, even.

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I personally like the freedom around the script which technically allows for individual roleplay around deliveries, however, that is nowhere being rewarded opposed to other jobs such as a business /startshift which forces you to actively roleplay in order to get paid - the polar opposite. By being rewarded for putting as little detail into your roleplay down to no roleplay at all and quicker deliveries, thus quicker cash, it creates this toxic environment and makes trucking roleplay a rather unpleasant experience, especially for new players.

I have been roleplaying around trucking with two characters - one being a trucker with IMEX Logistics, the other one working within private security which customers are basically all operational trucking companies. Through both eyes, I have seen good and bad around the trucking community and characters. I have seen people putting love and detail into what they are doing, but also people rolling up the trucking company yard in an expensive sports car just to zoom off in a truck to hustle and other way around - not even bothering to change their clothes. And latest sadly made up the majority of the trucking community across all companies, freelance delivery drivers and rental truck delivery drivers. Whilst it may be less at one company, it is a consistant issue across the whole board.

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And yes, I pulled through the grind and ultimately was able to drive a Pounder to do deliveries with. But at what price? I lost my sanity and I feel brain cells dying every evening I log onto my trucking character and decide to follow a busy route because there are no other possibilities. Seeing trucks cutting lines, zooming through the opposit direction of traffic, overtaking each other, competing over deliveries and disregarding their entire environment for the sake of being the first and making as much money as possible - and thus pulling the reputation of all and every trucker down. Who does not know the infamous zooming Speedos nowadays? The ones that are a danger to Los Santos traffic and each and everyone out on these roads. The truckers. It drags down the reputation of all truckers as a whole, not only the individual with awful driving.

I prefer the alternate routes. The less profitable routes. The longer routes - the lonely routes. Solely to keep my sanity because I do not have to deal with other truckers - which ultimately pulls a uno reverse card on the idea of a roleplay server thriving from interactions between players. Not a solo ETS2 experience.

 

That is where trucking companies come in place. A social hub, a place to get in touch with colleagues and interact with each other. Recognizing the uniform, the same vehicle color along the way and stopping, having a quick chit chat inbetween deliveries or make nasty remarks on bad delivery drivers. Of course this opinion is biased, but I personally believe that with IMEX Logistics, I found a fairly decent company to roll along with my character. Seeing lots of interactions between employees, actual characters along the way and a solid structure that keeps the company running. Though I cannot speak for other trucking companies, but it always seemed they are not as focused on the roleplay aspect, leaving little room for interactions between deliveries.

These companies are a safe haven - if roleplayed with the proper intent and dedication from its members. If the company solely exists to reel in cash for the owner and manager, then there will not be any quality roleplay coming out of nowhere, but pushing even more to the already toxic environment as of "You got to make cash for us.", the more and quicker, the better. Allowing for properly roleplayed procedures in the hiring process as well as introduction and guidance in the beginning of a characters career within a trucking company lays the foundation for decent trucking roleplay - explaining, presenting examples and encouraging to interact with your surroundings and take your time into deliveries rather than just grinding through the system regardless of your surroundings. Additionally, active supervision and means of contact if issues arise are vital to maintain the quality amongst your drivers. Whilst my character hold the position of a simple driver, my character likes to call out people for their misbehaviour - sometimes subtle, sometimes blatantly open for everyone to hear whilst also acting as a point of contact as experienced driver within the company to help in queries and provide guidance. And of course there is plenty of stuff to be done off work - night outs, socialising with colleagues and many more possibilities to spend your characters free time - with colleagues from the company or without.

 

Regardless, I can probably pull a bunch of videos from my unlisted youtube showing subpar roleplay or no roleplay at all around the trucking scene across all companies. For some reason my lazy ass did not fill a report on it although I could probably throw out at least three reports per day looking at my collection. Maybe I am just too lazy, maybe it feels like a hopeless battle against wind mills. At the end of the day, it would either banish 90% of the trucking community or just swap out the old grinders with new ones - a risk I am willing to take if it eases my headache everytime I got to see a "one liner" or "0rper" whilst trucking. Personally, I do not mind if you do not wish to roleplay for yourself during very repetitive deliveries and you are all alone, but if there are other players around you? For gods sake - roleplay! Roleplay more than nothing or just a cheap one liner and then zoom off again. Use your brain, drive and park realistically, engage with your surroundings - may it be a small wave to your fellow truckers or having a talk with a business owner you are supplying the fifth time tonight.

 

TL;DR - Trucking is a whole mess and giving one headache from bad roleplay and grind to get rich mentality opposed to proper roleplay, the only things keeping my sanity being solo trucking and the roleplay within a trucking company.

 

But enough of my rant and to the important stuff - how can we improve on these issues? How can we, as a community, make trucking great again? There's three different layers here - the truckers & especially trucking companies, the general population of the server - Law Enforcement, Civilians, Criminals, Mechanics, Customers, Business Owners and then the staff and development team. Three layers, three different angles to bring in ideas and do better around trucking. Some points I have touched up here and there, but I am interested in hearing your opinions and ideas - afterall this is the General Discussions section. One thing I ask of you, however, is to keep it civil. I know I have not been a good role model with my rant starting this thread, but I am striving for constructive criticism and ideas on how to improve this aspect of the server.

Hey no shit. Good to see you saying such a thoughtful opinion. I RP as Ryan Walker and you don't goddamn see the fact that the time you took to deliver was immensely high.  Considering that you were sitting inside the truck for brief moments. I just asked in order to check wether or not you did go AFK.  Complications can arise. If you call me a twat on that then listen. I legit do more /me's than you without wasting the other individual's time. You're the same guy trying to defame. I in my entire career have only asked two IMEX drivers. You and Baker wether or not you were AFK. Youre stupid if you think that makes me a bad RPer or someone speeding deliveries. I have well over 800 deliveries and yes. I did grind but that doesn't give me the title of a bad RPer.

 

EDIT:

I also talk to truckers. Ask your own trucker Scarlett Fox whom I chat for like twenty minutes or so at the station or the BlueWater guys. I try to do roleplay but if you're cocky and in a rush then I don't give a damn fuck. 

Edited October 29, 2020 by Wolfgang

[zaXer.]

Trucking is good. It earns a lot.

Trucking also earns a lot in real life.

Truckers in real life do have sports cars in most countries, unless they are busy paying mortgage/huge loans, etc.

Truckers however dont go to work with their Corvette.

IMO: Trucking is fine on the server right now, the payment is fine, grinding is always going to be more paying than roleplay, HOWEVER: Admins must enforce and monitor truckers much more than others. I dont think it'd be too hard to jump in a trucking company parking lot, find the players from their cars and pull them for a bit of a talk.

[orca112]

34 minutes ago, Wolfgang said:

snip

Damn, looks like I hit a nerve there even though that was not the intention of including that screenshot. Then again, it has been my bad for not including a disclamer or censoring the character names. The screenshot has been provided to me through a third party and does not represent, nor show the point of view of my character in the trucking scene which is Tamiko Hasegawa. The comment below the picture is a satirical way commenting the mindset of impatient grinders in the trucking scene mixed with a pinch of salt.

It is nice to see you stating that you do actively roleplay around deliveries. I am not here to argue that, not to mention that indidual player actions are a thing to be discussed through other means as this thread serves for the trucking scene and roleplay as a whole and how to improve on it as a community rather than throwing mud at each other left and right.

 

7 minutes ago, zaXer. said:

Truckers in real life do have sports cars in most countries, unless they are busy paying mortgage/huge loans, etc.

From what I know, trucking is a very ungrateful job that pays little money. In fact, a lot of Logistics Companies here in Germany look at Eastern Europe and employ drivers there because they are even cheaper and less restricted by local law around their work times and safety. With the server theme based in America as Los Angeles equivalent, I have not much of an in-sight on the salary and living standards of a trucker. Though I doubt they would be able to afford modern sports cars and daily drive them as delivery driver and trucker like some do on GTA:W. Sure, the (script) pay is high, but I feel it is hard to translate that into a realistic roleplay environment being a self made millionaire from driving a truck.

[BambiForLife]

That is my character running in the picture with the Kawaii. I was in my work clothes running to a bank to pull out some money. I wasn't driving that truck. If this is a complaint about "unrealistic car ownership" for truckers please go ahead and look up how much a real life version of a Kawaii (MX5) costs in R/L. Can own one working at fast food. Really need to do some research before making compaints about something that is indeed realistic. All the complaining is getting out of hand in my opinion.

Edited October 29, 2020 by BambiForLife

[orca112]

2 hours ago, BambiForLife said:

That is my character running in the picture with the Kawaii. I was in my work clothes running to a bank to pull out some money. I wasn't driving that truck. If this is a complaint about "unrealistic car ownership" for truckers please go ahead and look up how much a real life version of a Kawaii (MX5) costs in R/L. Can own one working at fast food. Really need to do some research before making compaints about something that is indeed realistic. All the complaining is getting out of hand in my opinion.

Sure, the original post I started this thread with is a rant, one of them being a unrealistic portrayal of trucking characters driving high end sports cars. Though, that is not the only reason or problem mentioned as the whole trucking scene and roleplay is flawed. From rushed deliveries over lack of roleplay, OOCly motivated robberies and the script encouraging the grind mixed up with a lot of new players and people that simply do not care about the roleplay, but solely of making lots of cash as quick as possible; Thus creating a toxic environment that pushes you from roleplaying to follow suit and rush through your deliveries - the vehicles are probably the smallest issue whilst still adding up to the overall problem.

You said all the complaining is getting out of hand, yet this issue is barely brought up in the general conversations despite the majority of the player base being aware of issues such as Speedos zooming through town. This thread serves as a means to discuss and find potential solutions to present issues around the trucking script - and thus untimately the trucking roleplay. This is not limited to the script which still remains as a big factor, but at what truckers, especially trucking companies can do as well as the general server population to not only increase the reputation of trucking roleplay and guiding those that need assistance or new to the server along, but to make it appealing and rewarding to roleplay and portray your character rather than seeing trucking as a means of grinding cash with little to no development and disregarding your environment whilst doing so.

[Smilesville]

8 hours ago, Koko said:

To be fair, I'm as guilty as anyone of the occasional /me unloads a stack of boxes from his vehicle, but to be fair, if there's not an active player business running there are only so many ways you can type it in an evening.

 

I agree, long descriptions on the operations aren't particularly necessary, often it's a lot more effective to acknowledge the other driver with a bit of a nod and a casual conversation, and it takes about the same amount of time to just go "Hey what's up?" like actual people would to unknown fellow drivers, imho.

I don't see a problem with this to begin with, especially without other players nearby.

 

I'm not on board with the idea trucking is supposed to be supremely engaging (though meeting people as a result can be) but the job and the players who do it provide a lot more in terms of making the world feel alive. Systems that populate the empty roads and sidewalks will always be a win in my book. 

 

I'm also not terribly fond of a nebulous standard regarding how much emoting while unloading crates is "enough." Is one line enough? Two?

 

Just leave people alone unless they're disruptive in a manner that can't be resolved IC. RP is more than the number of lines you can crank out. 

Edited October 30, 2020 by Smilesville