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Every single house having an alarm


Stiggz

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20 minutes ago, AlphaBatal said:

isn't this an ic issue? why is it being taken on the forums?

Because it isn't an IC issue when it's an OOC server meta. Alarms are overpowered and frankly, poorly scripted and normally that always ends up poorly for the person committing the robbery.

 

Now people might be reading that statement and think "Well don't wanna deal with the punishment? Don't do the crime" but this isn't that simple. From the way alarms function to the way police respond leaves so much more to be desired. First off, when triggered alarms create a noise and flash a red light outside the property (At least in my experience). The issue with this is, even though you can hear the alarm outside, it's still dead silent inside. You basically have to pray the admin handling your request is kind enough to give you a /do informing you of the alarm. 

 

You might say, "Well have someone outside keeping watch". That's a great idea and something I've actually done! Only issue is unless your directly in front of the property (Which would be a dumb move to make) You can't even see the light going off. Awhile ago my faction did this and I was the look out, everything was fine until cops started rolling up. I was confused and decided to drive past to figure out what was going on, only after moving forward five feet did the light start rendering for me.

 

Lastly, PD's response to breakin's is absolutely the most over blown thing I've seen on this server. Real life when an alarm goes off? They send one or two cars to check it out because there's a real chance that it was a false alarm. GTAW? Go rob a house out in the county and you'll be surrounded by half the Los Santos Police department plus an air unit before they even step inside to investigate. There are no false alarms on this server so when that alert hits PD, dozens of them bum rush an area.

 

OP's points are also pretty valid. I know maybe 15 people IRL who have alarm systems on their house yet on this server it seems like every property comes with it preinstalled. The majority of people get by with standard locks and keys, that's just the truth. I wouldn't even have an issue with alarms if instead of routing straight to PD it went to GS or another security company. At least then someone has to go check out if it's a false alarm or not before PD gets involved and people would actually have to go through the process of contacting a company and having them do the install. Right now anybody can be a home security expert with 0 RP.

Edited by Henning
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2 hours ago, Stiggz said:

Title says it all, I’ve broken into actual crack houses filled with drugs and guns and there’s still an alarm that police respond to in 2 seconds, there’s actually no winning anymore. Is there a way we can cut down on this at all?

Only thing I see, is crack-house having an alarm, usually those places are run-down blocks / houses and or apartments .. having an alarm there is quite strange and could be attributed to poor portrayal.

 

If the house is in Mirror Park, Vespucci Canals or in an area with lower crime rate it would make sense.

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mind you, i'm just playing devil's advocate. crackhouse with an alarm routing to the pd? rpqm the owner. they can't deal with poor roleplay without being notified of it beforehand.

now, me responding the standard gta:w way to any issue aside, apart from it being an ic issue, here's two facts we gotta have in mind as we propose solutions; this state is north american baghdad with it's crime rate, and the pricing is alright, since simplisafe's most expensive option costs less than 500 bucks, is non-contract, is 24/7 and is right now, one of the most popular home-security services on market.

think about living in los santos right now. lol, if you had the money, you'd be having two steel-core doors, window bars and alarms/cctv out the ass, just to avoid getting gunned down by someone with less braincells than balls

is criminals securing their stash houses dumb? hell yes. can it be alleviated? yeah. does the majority of people that use alarms want it to be an all-encompassing nerf on the singular system that the server provide to secure your property while you're offline? no.

while im offline, my character's asleep in their home and would be able to respond to someone breaking into their house. that's realistically.

but there's game limitations, and there's game resolutions that we have to contend with. do the vast majority of houses around you have alarms? definitely not, but they got neighbors that can see shit out of the ordinary, people inside able to respond and a lack of trouble in terrorist town crimerates, so get where i'm coming from

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2 minutes ago, AlphaBatal said:

think about living in los santos right now. lol, if you had the money, you'd be having two steel-core doors, window bars and alarms/cctv out the ass, just to avoid getting gunned down by someone with less braincells than balls

sure bro, thats why it takes 3 hours to get an admin to approve your breaking request

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While it is more than justified to have alarms revisited for balancing, the suggestions of creating "hard counters" against alarms is simply not going to happen, for much the same reason as anti-theft is left as it is - the moment a hard counter is added, that hard counter becomes the ONLY acceptable meta, possibly even with members of some criminal factions being punished for adopting roleplayed alternatives.

 

Someone above pointed out several aspects that could be improved without drastic changes, the biggest being occupant awareness - alarms should be immediately observable.

 

As for their use in places where they might be unrealistic, such as drug dens - simply make it police policy to investigate inside any building from which an alarm call is received. 

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I work on alarm systems in a second-hand nature IRL, as a communications worker. Used to be first-hand, as the company I worked for previously offered its own home management / alarm system. 

 

You'd be surprised the houses that I've been in that would subscribe to these services. The services usually aren't very expensive, and depending on who's providing it, installation isn't very expensive either. Though, there were definitely no crack dens. 

 

Even still, I do think people need to think more about what sort of alarm they have in their characters homes. Or if they need one at all. 

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Just going to quote Bospy here for the sake of argument: 

 

 

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If you are on a public street during daylight and someone sticks you up, assume the street is empty while the stickup is occurring. If there are people on the street, let them call 911. If they aren't calling 911, then that's an IC issue. 

 

Quote

While one may argue that these kinds of decisions impact their ability to roleplay, you should seek IC recourse - charter your local government, demand increased patrol presence, hire security. Illegal characters should not be restricted from conducting robberies if they do so realistically. Geography does not limit the commission of crime, but what does limit the commission of crime is the presence of security and the increase of risk to a criminal. If a criminal perceives that the risk of robbing a target is too high, then they will not conduct a robbery.

 

 

So, we are to roleplay what we see. And shouldn't pretend this city is anything other than how we actually perceive it. And we should roleplay accordingly to what we see. Now that we've got that established, lets have a look at what you see by driving through LS for an hour.

 

  1. People getting robbed all the time.
  2. Insane amounts of gunfire, automatic weaponry used even.
  3. Business getting extorted by Tony Spaghettio and his crew on the regular.
  4. Peoples properties being lit on fire for not going along with demands.
  5. The streets are empty, there is nearly nobody around to witness a crime happening to call 911.
  6. Countless of other things you'll see that'll make any regular and healthy human being think twice before living in Los Santos.

 

Nobody in their right mind would live in Los Santos, if we were to take everything IC. But for the sake of argument, we'll just pretend we're on a battle royal island where there's no way out of the island so you're forced to stay here. (After all, this is what it comes down to)

 

You're damn right I'll have every inch of my property covered by alarms, security cameras. I'll have a whole arsenal of firearms in my house to blast the first person that attempts to break into my house. If I'm standing on the street and someone I don't know approaches me in a strange manner, I will have my finger on the dial 911 button right away. If I'm not carrying a firearm at the time, or else I'd have my hand wrapped around the handle with my finger on the trigger on the ready. 

 

 

My point is, we're being told we have to RP what we see. We can all see that in Los Santos we should declare martial law if we're to portray the city realistically. So you can expect players to adjust to this (In my opinion horrible) way of seeing things and prepare for the worst. Because the worst happens insanely frequently. This is a direct result of the community choosing "fun" over realism. Deal with it, you can't have it both ways.

Edited by Martyn
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