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Car Theft/Vandalism & You


khadijeh.

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  • How do you feel about the frequency of car theft?

 

So-so. Coming from LS-RP, it is not as bad (r.e. times where alarms were coming in by the minute constantly). On average, I would say we have between 2-10 car alarms per hour with some areas more frequently affected (r.e. Mirror Park, Mission Row) and others left on their own.

 

  • How do you feel about IFM offering alternative routes instead of relying on the script? 

 

More roleplay variety is always appreciated and encourages (quality) roleplay outside the box opposed to rampant script grind with little to no roleplay presented by involved players. Especially with the current chop shop script relying on an RPG and RNG vehicle list, it makes any sort of vehicle potentially lucrative when in reality, no one is interested in some beat up rust bucket.

 

  • How do you feel about the current quality of car theft?

 

From my personal experience? Most situations I came across were shit, albeit commited people motivated into script gains before anything else. Alarms right outfront a police station by people in hopes to get a quick firearm from some cop that left their off-duty firearm in the car. Repeated alarms in areas such as Mirror Park - may this be to simply loot a car or to bait people out of a house just to then rob them...once again mainly motivated by script gains, by the "loot". These people show heavy parallels to LS-RP where vehicle break-ins led to an environment you cannot have a car parked outside for more than 5 minutes without some 4 deep crew armed to the teeth either stealing the car and dumping it in the ocean or robbing and kidnapping one the moment they step out their house/apartment. On a plus side you can say that those that put efforts into their works do not get any attention or caught as often to begin with - meaning they do a good job of keeping a low profile.

 

A lot of vehicles alarms remain unnoticed or unsolved with Law Enforcement being occupied with yet another south LS shooting or the person long gone the moment the alarm goes off - not to mention the sync issues and alarms not showing for either side. From there, there is nothing a Law Enforcement Officer, especially those in investigative entities, can do. All you have is a car, if located in first place (r.e. alarms going by something along the lines of "vehicle alarm on road X" - with road X stretching out through the entiety of the city), and that is about it. You have no suspect name, thus no chance of OOCly confirming evidence such as damages on the vehicle, potential CCTV footage, missing items, fingerprints or others meaning one is either caught red-handed or never to be found. Concepts such as traffic detectives or TRAP are out of the question and remain untouched, making most vehicle alarms a call with little to no roleplay value - they end up in A, if caught red-handed, a pursuit or B a "well, nothing we can do here." and at least 10 minutes of being occupied with a blank car you have 0 information about.

 

As for the alarm issues - one has to pay $50.000 for these security installations. The alarm is only triggered if one is unsuccessful breaking into a car, otherwise completely silent and unnoticed until one sees their car missing. Due to the RPGish chop shop vehicle list, any vehicle can be affected meaning that one may have to opt for a $50.000 investment on a similar or less value vehicle due to the risk of their vehicle being on that list at any given time. This is the only deterrent and tool against vehicle theft at this time and most vehicles I have witnessed stolen were usually vehicles which the character / player behind it was already offline and thus unavailable for any inquiries. If one is online? More than often, the anti-theft is out of range or the person does not consider that option. At best, maybe 1 out of 10 emergency calls show cooperation from the owner and the security systems actually finding use - if the vehicle has not been chopped at that point already which leads back to the overall simply RPGish system and heavy reliance on the script from both sides - the one having their vehicle stolen and the one stealing the vehicle. For example, in ~10 months of Law Enforcement, it happened only twice that people were actually busted at a garage with the owner using the anti-theft to find the vehicle and informing Law Enforcement.

 

Generally, there should be less reliance on scripts and more creative freedom supported by IFM. If you add, remove or replace one script feature with another, there will always be issues and complaints. Add more options to break into a vehicle, you will walk closer to LSRP standards with everyone and their grandma setting off alarms for shits and giggles. Add more deterrents or tools against vehicle break-ins on top of the current alarm/lock/anti-theft, you will mostly hit the ones actually putting efforts into their roleplay first before those that put on the script grindset for a quick lick similar to crime grinders / chain robbers. Not to mention the system and its use at this time being very much outdated with little options or alternatives presented. Hunt after vehicles on a mysterious list, chop them and then create knifes and lockpicks out of it?

 

  • Have you ever seen information markers left at cars/buildings regarding metal having been stolen? 

 

Nope. The only ones seen occasionally were information markers about vandalism, from scratched paint and flat tires to whole wrecks. Looking towards investigative roleplay, it heavily relies and thrives from OOC interactions between two parties. If one garage is used as a chop shop, cars are poofed the moment they are script chopped. If a vehicle is abandoned or a break-in was unsuccesful, no information can be obtained without knowing the suspect and then asking back and forth on a basis of trust - meaning one only faces consequences if they want to...or an admin breathing down their neck and reviewing roleplay logs which sucks for both sides.

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How do you feel about the frequency of car theft?

  • Ridiculously high. Speaking from personal experience, there was a point in time where one of my old character's vehicle was stolen or broken into six times in total in just less than a week. It came to a point where certain law enforcement officers who responded to the alarm asked "Again?" after a couple of times. It happened mostly when my vehicle was parked outside an apartment complex in Downtown Vinewood, which is supposed to be a medium to upper class neighborhood where criminal activity shouldn't happen as often. My character attempted different parking options after the first few times, including parking far away from home in more secluded spots where their vehicle wouldn't be so out in the open, but it still didn't work. Out of all those times, only one was successful, but after searching around for about half an hour, my character and their friends, with the help of the police, found the vehicle parked on a sidewalk in Sandy Shores.

How do you feel about IFM offering alternative routes instead of relying on the script? 

  • I think it's a good idea. There are so many ways of breaking into a vehicle but as it stands, most people simply use lockpicks because it's by far the easiest option with the lockpicking/hotwiring minigames. I'm in support of the whole concept of the script, but I feel like it should either be made harder, or take longer to be done. I believe the high distribution of lockpicks doesn't help this matter either, but I can't provide valuable insight on that end since I'm not quite into the subject. The only downside I see to this is requiring admin supervision which can be painful to wait for at times and adds more red tape to roleplay, but if it ensures quality, I'm all in for it.

How do you feel about the current quality of car theft?

  • Speaking from personal experience again, out of all those six times I previously mentioned, only one required admin intervention. After looking into it, the admin in question said the overall quality of the theft roleplay was good, but the player still needed to get used to how the script works which made things hard for them. If the roleplay is good, I have absolutely no issue with roleplaying my car being gone. Anything that makes my character uncomfortable is challenging and fun to roleplay. However, another time out of those six, a player attempted to break into my character's vehicle which was parked outside a clothing store on a widely populated road while there was a funeral (which was more of a celebration between friends and family in accordance to a certain character's IC culture) on the rooftop of said clothing store, so this is kinda meh. This is pretty unrealistic, in my opinion. No one in their right mind would do it in such a public area, so I'm kinda 50/50 here. I believe there are players out there who roleplay them accordingly, but there are also plenty of them who are only in it solely for the items and vehicle scrapping rather than the roleplay itself.

Have you ever seen information markers left at cars/buildings regarding metal having been stolen? 

  • Never.


 

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How do you feel about the frequency of car theft?

 

They occur way too often, many people don't consider the location whether it'd be realistic to steal from a wealthy area or infront of an upper class apartment complex, which usually would be more secure and out of consideration. The update, where you couldn't check /vstats any longer made people reconsider twice, however they are still too frequent to my beliefs. 

 

How do you feel about IFM offering alternative routes instead of relying on the script? 

 

Yes. The current script is no challenge to steal a vehicle. It takes about a minute to steal a vehicle from lockpicking to wiring because the scripts offer little to no challenge. Even when locks are upgraded, it's still very quick. Hotwiring modern vehicles is just unrealistic at this point and should be required to have additional items present in order to steal a vehicle with a different technique at least. Alternative routes, however sound very good compared to the current situation.

 

How do you feel about the current quality of car theft?

 

Majority of people do not know what they are doing so roleplay naturally can't be of high quality to begin with. Guides are set up, however with only needing a lock pick to fully steal a vehicle and chop it afterwards, it requires some serious re-doing.

 

Have you ever seen information markers left at cars/buildings regarding metal having been stolen? 

 

For vandalism cases, sometimes. For thefts, no. It's no secret the moment somebody steals a vehicle, they try to get out of the area. Maybe an automated information marker depending on thefts should be put up, or something in those regards.

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How do you feel about the frequency of car theft?

The frequency of car thefts at the moment don't occur as often as people think, especially with a server of 800+ players. There is also the OOC 'fear' due to anti-theft making a rise in popularity on the server, players that involve themselves in car theft roleplay don't really want to put themselves in a position in where there is a high chance it's going to result the same way as many others; considering the countless reports these past couple months of vehicle owners showing up to chop shops, where their vehicle is and proceeding to gun down the individuals involved for stealing their personal vehicle. Considering that, people really just don't want to deal with the hassle of having to report it, pushing players away from stealing high-end vehicles. To combat the aforementioned, I have submitted a suggestion to improve the matter for illegal roleplayers, which I suggest all players on the server to take a look at.

 

 

How do you feel about IFM offering alternative routes instead of relying on the script?

I am down for this, 100%. It can add a lot more roleplay than just, 1. /vbreakin 2. Roleplay 3. Chop vehicle. I would rather my character walk outside his apartment to find out his vehicle's tires have been boosted or he has a couple missing car doors. The more opportunities for players to succeed the roleplay they want to do, rather than being limited to having to own a chop shop and a workforce, then I will support 100%.

 

How do you feel about the current quality of car theft?

There's areas for the quality to be improved but comparing it to when I first started in the car-jacking scene, the quality has drastically improved.

 

Have you ever seen information markers left at cars/buildings regarding metal having been stolen?

Only a couple regarding metal being stolen. In terms for vandalism, constantly but the creator of the CIM always end up creating the information marker for 7 days, when it would be miles better if they set it for 1 day, as realistically, the vehicle in question has even been towed from that location or the server restart has sent it back into the void. If it can be enforced for information markers to be only set for 1 day, ONLY for when it comes to vandalising vehicles, but for properties make the information markers last longer, since everyone doesn't use their properties 24/7.

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I feel there should be more options done about how you break into a car. Including just hopping into cabrios, because honesly why would you try opening a door when entire roof is down. That aside, my alt's only source of income is breaking into cars or stealing whatever people may have left unnoticed. Not "boosting" per se. Merely working what I can find inside vehicles. Not everything is about chopping a car, infact stealing a car with intent to chop it is not as common as simple car breakins. I focus mainly on leaving the car where it was, or take it for a drive. But chopping entire car, not my cup of tea, stealing tires or something, yes.

 

Also what @hipsxn said above, pretty much sums up what I wanted to post.

 

And again, more conscious choices for criminal characters. Meth addicted looking for a fix now, character will not bother with FOB hijacking scheme or target super high grade vehicle. They will look inside a car through a window and break the glass to quickly grab something. So people, make decisions on what car you are breaking in and how, based on your character, their knowledge, intelligence and momentary needs.

Edited by Engelbert
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  • How do you feel about the frequency of car theft?

As someone who roleplayed a car thief as a member of a motorcycle club, I found it was stupidly easy to steal cars and while I tried to keep to a limit of two per day; there were times that I would stumble across cars in stupid positions too easy to steal, and it felt counter productive to my characters development to not take the easy mark.   I understand why there are restrictions to realism when it comes to stealing cars, and that there is guidance to stop people chain-robbing them to search for weapons, but a lot of the time it was just too easy to get into a car.

  • How do you feel about IFM offering alternative routes instead of relying on the script? 

I would absolutely rather have alternative routes to getting switchblades and lockpicks - but I absolutely would not like to see people stealing metal from construction sites, or bus stops or whatever for the purpose of crafting these tools.   It is already wildly unrealistic that people chop down cars to make lockpicks, but metal theft from these locations is typically copper to sell on.   I can't see any benefit to allowing people to steal metal with the direct intention of crafting with it like we're all a bunch of blacksmiths.

  • How do you feel about the current quality of car theft?

It's really difficult to roleplay a modern take towards car theft on this server.   Reliance on lockpicking doors and hotwiring cars made within the last 10 years is laughable, and the items need changed up to be an option of various car theft tools which I would love to help out in figuring out the best things to use.   I would also much rather see more freedom as to how people roleplay breaking into cars than just seeing screenshots where people do a single /me then get into the minigame because it's not as easy for them.   Skill based checks in this game are far too easy to learn anyway; so having them in a way that prevents you from typing in a text-based server is just killer for roleplay.

  • Have you ever seen information markers left at cars/buildings regarding metal having been stolen? 

I've never seen anything for metal being stolen, but I'd honestly rather not anyway.

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I really appreciate the feedback from everyone - we're already making moves for some changes to better this scene.

 

I'll keep this open a little longer and will explain everything that IFM will be doing as a result of this thread and discussion in a conclusion post, every opinion and perspective regardless of how detailed or not. It really helps to get a wide span of views, I myself do not roleplay around the legal scene any more so thank you to the multiple PD/SD/Legal roleplayers that have given their piece too.

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The list for wanted cars definitely needs a rework, not entirely sure if it's possible but could it possibly be based on what cars are owned by players, so it removes any that are hard to come by or just not owned in general.

 

IFM offering other alternatives that don't rely on a script is a good thing as long as it's well roleplayed to get the metal parts.

Things like stealing from construction sites which should have plenty of metal laying around, if not locked up somewhere.

 

As for the other points I honestly can't say much, I've only ran a garage and had another group use it for chop the cars and luckily? have barely ran into people vandalising or stealing cars. I have voiced concerns regarding the chopping script before but I don't think this is the thread to raise those concerns again.

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  • How do you feel about the frequency of car theft?

High in frequency in comparison to real life, but the main reason why most of these break ins and car thefts go un-noticed is due to the lack of anything scriptly being within the vehicle or the fact that the person that spawns in their car the next time they log in more than likely ends up /fixveh'ing before /vg'ing.

  • How do you feel about IFM offering alternative routes instead of relying on the script? 

As long as the current list system is overhauled and more modern methods in regards to breaking into vehicles, whether it be through the assistance of an electronic device or just smashing open the window with a spark plug, then it's good enough for me.

  • How do you feel about the current quality of car theft?

Out of touch more often than not. Although this ends up being more so a script limitation in regards to people HAVING to utilize a lockpick as opposed to an indication of the player's roleplay competence.

  • Have you ever seen information markers left at cars/buildings regarding metal having been stolen? 

Rarely. The majority of CIM's placed are done solely with the intent of informing the player of their vandalized vehicle. If you could add something similar to /stashinfo or /attributes but for vehicles, then I can guarantee more people would put down that information. CIM's are rare, and with the frequency of car thefts within a week's time span, is not something that can feasibly be pushed out every single time a car is chopped.

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  • How do you feel about the frequency of car theft?

Very common since the map is large and vehicles are left alone for long periods of time.

  • How do you feel about IFM offering alternative routes instead of relying on the script? 

This is a softball question. Obviously everybody on the forums is going to like the option to roleplay rather than type script commands. Can we get some actual examples of what alternative routes IFM has done?

  • How do you feel about the current quality of car theft?

People are using the current script as it was intended to be used by developers. The quality of the role-play is irrelevant because this was how it was designed to be done.

  • Have you ever seen information markers left at cars/buildings regarding metal having been stolen? 

No, only vandalism to peoples vehicles.

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