Reworking the Alarm System and Burglaries

[Bospy]

UPDATED IDEA WORK IN PROGRESS - ALARM/BURGLARY SCRIPT V2 UTILIZING ZAXER'S IDEAS

 

 

@zaXer.'s contribution to the thread has contributed greatly - we should incorporate security entities into this script, and it has a chance to create a new line of roleplay for in-game companies like Gruppe 6 or other private security firms.

 

Zaxer's idea for a new alarm system is as below:

 

 

 

 

 

False Positives

 

Occasionally, IFM may trigger false positives. In real life, alarm systems are not 100% reliable - much the same way that current fires work, we will trip alarms to keep law enforcement on their feet and react realistically to alarm systems. At the moment, any house alarm brings an entire combat force. If we trip many false positives, a more realistic number of officers will respond. Usually, only one officer is sent to a house alarm in real life.

 

The command to trip a false-positive alarm shall be /falsepositivealarm.

 

See @zaXer.'s idea on this below:

 

 

Houses With No Alarms (same as before)

Houses with no alarms will be commonplace, but probably less so than usual.

 

On entry into a house with no alarms, a player receives the following notice.

"There is no alarm panel. The occupants of the house have taken minimal effort to reinforce the house's security. However, neighbors may note the presence of intruders dependent upon the proximity of the house to other buildings, so caution is always advised."

 

Alarm Fees

A security company must install the alarm package.

 

Purchasing an alarm automatically signs you up for a contract with a security company of your choosing. This will be presented to you at the "alarm spot." The alarm company will contact you in-game to settle the issue.

 

Personally, my idea for this is based off of one of Zaxer's comments: the cost of your alarm fee per paycheck shall be based on who you have linked your contract to. You can link your contract to a security company for cheaper, so that organizations like Gruppe 6 respond to the alarm. OR you can link it to the Police, but this will be considerably more expensive since false positives may become more common with this script. Or, perhaps with both, a combination of charges. 

 

However, Zaxer wants to have alarm fees be purely an IC issue and allow alarm companies to set contracts and handle them on their own terms. 

 

Zaxer proposes that an alarm company utilize two commands when the contract begins: /enableresponse [address] for when the contract has begun. If the terms of the contract are not met, /disableresponse [address] shall be used.

 

See @zaXer.'s idea on these here:

 

 

 

 

Basic Alarm Box

Basic alarms are for cheap houses and apartments. You will buy one of these if you're protecting goods inside of your apartment. A jammer will foil this alarm if it is jammed before the 30 second timer has ended.

 

An envisioned contract (per paycheck) IF WE DO NOT USE ZAXER'S SYSTEM

 

Basic Alarm (Security Company Response Only) - 500 per paycheck

Basic Alarm (Police Response) - 1000 per paycheck

Basic Alarm (All Respond) - 1500 per paycheck

 

On entry into a house with a basic alarm, a player receives the following notice.

 

(The alarm will appear ACTIVE if it has been tripped.)

"There is an alarm panel on the wall. The current status of the alarm is [ACTIVE/INACTIVE]. The house's windows have hard security measures making it slightly harder to break in to, such as bars. The locks to the external doors are also harder to lockpick. One to two rooms in the house require a key or must be lockpicked."

 

 

Basically, anyone entering the house, including the owner, MUST enter a code into the alarm box here. By default, the alarm box is NOT armed. The home owner must arm the alarm box if they want it to work, but in doing so must remember their passcode. This alarm wouldn't activate if someone broke through a window, it only activates if a door opens. An intruder can enter the house and move around without worry.

 

Basic Alarm Upgrades - Alarm Motion Sensor and Vibration Sensor (bundled)

Basically, a more technically advanced version of the basic alarm. This activates if any movement is detected in the house (with a 30 second grace period) or IMMEDIATELY if glass has broken. A jammer can be used to stifle an alarm once activated, but the initial signal was still sent.

 

 

An envisioned contract (per paycheck) IF WE DO NOT USE ZAXER'S SYSTEM

 

Basic Alarm Upgraded (Security Company Response Only) - 700 per paycheck

Basic Alarm Upgraded (Police Response) - 1300 per paycheck

Basic Alarm Upgraded (All Respond) - 1800 per paycheck

 

Advanced Alarm Boxes

Technical alarms are for high-end apartments and houses in expensive parts of the city. You will buy one of these if you're protecting more than just run of the mill goods or you care about your personal security. @zaXer. envisions this as still being able to be jammed, but it would emit a "no signal" status every 60 seconds until the jammer is removed, alerting police or security about the status of the alarm.

 

An envisioned contract (per paycheck) IF WE DO NOT USE ZAXER'S SYSTEM

 

Advanced Alarm (Security Company Response Only) - 1000 per paycheck

Advanced Alarm (Police Response) - 2000 per paycheck

Advanced Alarm (All Respond) - 3000 per paycheck

 

On entry into a house with a technical alarm, a player receives the following notice.

 

"There is an alarm panel on the wall. The status is unknown, the alarm appears to be advanced. Any burglar would do well to be cautious in this house, as there are signs the windows are shatter-proof from most blunt weapons and the locks are advanced. There may be cameras in the house recording your movement (if mapped in.)"

 

 

High Security Alarms and Hard Security

 

Property management should be able to equip certain buildings, such as businesses, with alarms that activate immediately and solely inform police if they're broken into. This would apply for government buildings, high-end businesses, and other areas.

 

Alarm Jammers (work in progress)

 

Alarm jammers are electronic items that will catch the signal emitted by an alarm. Some alarms, such as advanced alarms, will emit a "NO SIGNAL" alert. An alarm jammer can be used prior to the alarm's activation to delay the alarm's activation. An alarm jammer can be used DURING an alarm's activation to remove the alarm's signal from GPS on the map and it will stop the actual blaring inside and outside, although in a police officer or security guard's message box they will still have a message saying "Property alarm detected at X address." If it's an advanced alarm, they will instead receive a "NO SIGNAL DETECTED from X ADDRESS" with a GPS notification.

 

The jammer will stop the alarm's siren at all times. More advanced jammers will trigger alarms at several houses (idk how this functionality could be scripted in).

 

Improvised Jammers ($20,000) - jams a basic alarm completely if done before the alarm goes off, jams any other alarm for 2 minutes

Basic Jammers ($50,000) - same as before r.e. basic alarms, jams any other alarm for 5 minutes

Industrial Jammer ($100,000) - same, jams an alarm for 10 minutes

 

SEE ABOVE FOR UPDATED VERSION OF PROPOSAL

 

One issue that has plagued the server for a long time is the house alarm system which dissuades any serious burglaries or burglary roleplayers. In real life, house alarms are not nearly as effective or efficient as we depict them on GTAW. Therefore, much to the same way we have recommended changes for drug scripting, I am suggesting changes to the alarm script.

 

First and foremost - new alarms will be reliant on a property of reliability. There should be a chance for an alarm to trigger any time someone breaks into a house, not a guaranteed alarm. When an admin accepts an alarm request and approves it, the admin will be alerted to whether or not the alarm has successfully triggered. If the alarm successfully triggers, then the current system kicks on - a big loud blaring alarm with a spot on the map.

 

House alarms will also now be expensive and prohibitively so. High-end alarms will only be for major companies and businesses.

 

 

In addition, the level of the alarm will determine an alert that a player gets upon entering a house. Hard security measures are also part of the alarm package. These will pop up in an alert that a player gets when entering the house. For instance, someone entering a house with a basic alarm will get an alert that says "You see an alarm panel on the side of the wall with a status of ACTIVE and ALERT. The house has basic security measures, such as bars on the window."

 

So now to brass tacks.

 

Disabled Alarm

 

With special IFM permissions, certain alarms can be disabled during a planned robbery. An admin can use the command /disablealarm to disable any police response.

 

False Positives

 

Occasionally, IFM may trigger false positives. In real life, alarm systems are not 100% reliable - much the same way that current fires work, we will trip alarms to keep law enforcement on their feet and react realistically to alarm systems. At the moment, any house alarm brings an entire combat force. If we trip many false positives, a more realistic number of officers will respond. Usually, only one officer is sent to a house alarm in real life.

 

The command to trip a false-positive alarm shall be /falsepositivealarm.

 

Houses With No Alarms

Houses with no alarms will be commonplace, but probably less so than usual.

 

On entry into a house with no alarms, a player receives the following notice.

"There is no alarm panel. The occupants of the house have taken minimal effort to reinforce the house's security. However, neighbors may note the presence of intruders dependent upon the proximity of the house to other buildings, so caution is always advised."

 

What happens when an alarm doesn't trip?

 

The reliability will be a scripted function. It will inform the admin whether or not the alarm has tripped. So for an alarm with a 40% reliability, upon /approvebreakin, there's a 40% chance the alarm will trip. If it doesn't trip, the admin will receive an alert saying "This alarm has failed to trip!" The admin should leave a note indicating this after the burglars leave.

 

Basic Alarms

Basic alarms are for cheap houses and apartments. You will buy one of these if you're protecting goods inside of your apartment. Most alarms at the moment will be converted to these. I'll make a table of "basic alarms."

 

On entry into a house with a basic alarm, a player receives the following notice.

 

(The alarm will appear ACTIVE if it has been tripped.)

"There is an alarm panel on the wall. The current status of the alarm is [ACTIVE/INACTIVE]. The house's windows have hard security measures making it slightly harder to break in to, such as bars. The locks to the external doors are also harder to lockpick. One to two rooms in the house require a key or must be lockpicked."

 

Level 1 Alarm ($40,000) - 40% reliability, if tripped does not inform police until after 5 minutes have elapsed, alarm goes off at same time as police are informed.

Level 2 Alarm ($80,000) - 50% reliability, if tripped does not inform police until after 4 minutes have elapsed, alarm goes off at same time as police are informed.

Level 3 Alarm ($160,000) - 60% reliability, if tripped does not inform police until after 3 minutes has elapsed, alarm goes off at same time as police are informed.

 

Technical Alarms and Security

Technical alarms are for high-end apartments and houses in expensive parts of the city. You will buy one of these if you're protecting more than just run of the mill goods or you care about your personal security.

 

On entry into a house with a technical alarm, a player receives the following notice.

 

"There is an alarm panel on the wall. The status is unknown, the alarm appears to be advanced. Any burglar would do well to be cautious in this house, as there are signs the windows are shatter-proof from most blunt weapons and the locks are advanced. There may be cameras in the house recording your movement (if mapped in.)"

 

Level 4 Alarm ($320,000) - 75% reliability, if tripped silent alarm alerting police kicks in after 3 minutes, loud alarm begins at 4 minutes informing occupants.

Level 5 Alarm ($750,000) - 85% reliability, if tripped silent alarm alerting police kicks in after 2 minutes, loud alarm begins at 5 minutes informing occupants.

 

High Security Alarms and Hard Security

 

People paying contracts to companies like Gruppe Six can also roleplay having 360 degree camera coverage in their house and highly advanced technical security measures. These are prohibitively expensive and protective. To reliably break into a house covered by these kinds of alarms, you should probably plan a heist with IFM.

 

On entry into a house with a technical alarm, a player receives the following notice.

 

"There is no alarm panel. However, the house appears to be protected by some sort of advanced security system. The windows are shatter-proof and bulllet-proof. The locks on all doors are double-bolted. There are 360 degree cameras in orbitals, preventing anyone from seeing what direction they're facing. This house is certainly well guarded, and any successful burglary will be by chance or future professional preparation."

 

Level 6 Alarm ($1,250,000) - 95% reliability, if tripped police are informed within 1 minute via silent alarm, burglars are given 3 minutes until loud alarm goes off.

Level 7 Alarm ($2,000,000) - 100% reliability, when tripped police are informed immediately with a silent alarm, burglars are given 5 minutes until loud alarm goes off.

 

Professional Burglar Tools

 

These "burglary tools" can be used prior to breaking into a property (aka at the front door) to roleplay slipping past an alarm's trip, but basically they just reduce the reliability of alarms. For high security alarms, another set of tools may exist, but these are incredibly expensive.

 

Only ONE item may be used during each burglary. So someone who has used a basic burglary tool cannot also used an advanced set at the same burglary.

 

Basic Burglary Tools (20,000 per set, max of 10 per shipment) - reduces reliability of an alarm by 10%

Advanced Burglary Tools (60,000 per set, max of 5 per shipment) - reduces reliability of an alarm by 25%

Technical Burglary Tools (150,000 per set) - reduces reliability of an alarm by 40% (guaranteed negation of a level 1 alarm)

 

A single item called High-Tech Burglary Tools shall exist, but these will be prohibitively rare and incredibly expensive to order. A single item will cost 1 million dollars to order. These are guaranteed to ensure that the alarm is never tripped.

Edited December 21, 2021 by Bospy

[Bospy]

12 minutes ago, Bospy said:

Professional Burglar

 

The "Professional Burglar" role will be a new role that acts as a supplier and an antagonist role. The Professional Burglar cannot be in a faction, but can supply new equipment to individuals who are committing burglaries. They can also be contracted to commit burglaries. They have access to three tiers of "burglary tools" and one set of "guaranteed tools."

 

These "burglary tools" can be used prior to breaking into a property (aka at the front door) to roleplay slipping past an alarm's trip, but basically they just reduce the reliability of alarms. For high security alarms, another set of tools may exist, but these are incredibly expensive.

 

Only ONE item may be used during each burglary. So someone who has used a basic burglary tool cannot also used an advanced set at the same burglary.

 

Basic Burglary Tools (20,000 per set, max of 10 per shipment) - reduces reliability of an alarm by 10%

Advanced Burglary Tools (60,000 per set, max of 5 per shipment) - reduces reliability of an alarm by 25%

Technical Burglary Tools (150,000 per set) - reduces reliability of an alarm by 40% (guaranteed negation of a level 1 alarm)

 

A single item called High-Tech Burglary Tools shall exist, but these will be prohibitively rare and incredibly expensive to order. A single item will cost 1 million dollars to order. These are guaranteed to ensure that the alarm is never tripped. However, unless a professional burglar is the one using the item on a high-tech security system, an admin may /forcetrip the alarm at a certain point during the burglary.

Key issue here might be this part, I'm just trying to think of a better way to distribute burglary tools. I've removed the "role" from the main post for now, but distribution of burglary tools should be done with caution.

Edited December 18, 2021 by Bospy

[Ketamine Kowboy]

Alarm rework... much needed

[Hendrixx20]

Supported, last time I saw a house alarm go off, seconds later two bearcats were on scene without even investigating if it's false or positive.

[khadijeh.]

It doesn’t need to be a supplier role, unnecessary. We should substitute it with something else.

[Robyn]

some of this seems way too kinda RPG. Mostly the prices of the alarms and the stuff related to the new role

[Bospy]

Some of the systems suggested are RPGish but I personally think it's a better system than the one we have right now. As of right now, any time you break into ANY property with an alarm there's a 100% guarantee the alarm will go off.

[slump]

Big no from me, alarms are very effective in reality and costs are cheap for the average American family. Monthly payments less than a car note for alarms that are highly reliable. I agree that it needs a re work but this proposition is fairly ridiculous in the costs and role you want to create. 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2021 by slump

[KinnyWynny]

2 minutes ago, Robyn said:

some of this seems way too kinda RPG. Mostly the prices of the alarms and the stuff related to the new role

well we do play a role playing game with fixed prices and script jobs so i don't really get this as a point.

 

otherwise this looks much cooler than the downright unfun system we currently have.

Edited December 18, 2021 by KinnyWynny

[i dont wanna od in LA]

It seems RPG but it fixes a lot of issue and actually makes flocking a good source of income.