PSA: Call more cabs!!!

[Numark]

You can do anything you want, but the taxi service is not going to be as useful as it "should" be in your eyes. You have to really go out of the way and think of ways to make your own taxi service useful to the population.

 

Just by removing certain commands and creating new scripts doesn't mean people will start calling taxis LOL. They can still call their friend or just Alt + F4 and spawn at their home, simple. The first character I made in this server was a full time taxi driver (this was 3 years ago). I RP'd as a taxi driver for like around 2-3 months and made more than a million dollars. At that time, there was no fare script even and everything was word of mouth. And there was max 150-200 people on the server at peak times, around 50 otherwise. It was much harder being a taxi driver and making money at that time.

 

From what I have seen from most taxi drivers in the server currently, very few make an effort to do things to progress as a taxi driver and make their business more attractive for customers. They are just depending on the script more or less without any extra effort from their side. All that most do is pick up, drop, collect money, leave. On top of that they charge ridiculous amounts of money charging $500 - $700 for a 1-2 minute ride in the city. How many people will be actually comfortable in doing that on a regular basis?

[Allantrist]

On 1/27/2022 at 4:09 AM, redis said:

just cause we have ubers mean that we've to put taxis out of business, irl you have both ubers and taxis aswell. plus irl private car services are mainly used by the younger generation, the older generation/millennials still mainly use taxis. so for example, if you're rping a 35 years old char, it'd make more sense calling a cab than an uber.

 

Er... what? 35 is not that old and do use Uber a lot more than taxi's.

[Trupiano]

To be honest, I’d use taxi’s more if I didn’t feel like there was a 95% chance I’m gonna be apart of Eastern European taxi adventures episode 256 each time I use the script.

 

Now, everyone is entitled to RP whatever they want but It feels like almost every time I have to use the thing I end up at the mercy of some stereotypically bad immigrant taxi driver who 1. Barely understand the English language, probably will use said language barrier to insult you. 2. Doesn’t know where anything is, will purposely go to wrong destinations “for the RP” and finally 3. Will undoubtedly either drive recklessly until they get pulled over OR will have some kind of random engine issues.

 

While I get there’s probably a lack of riders and these players are just trying to create the best RP (in their eyes) that they can for the few riders they do get. The result is an experience that makes me actively avoid using the taxi script in the future. I’ve got no problem engaging with the RP, but when that RP is being forced down my throat and takes me on a 30 minute detour because I’m stuck in the back of your car? I’ve only got so

much patients both IC and OOC.

 

Im really not trying to say this type of character is bad, nor am I trying to say cabbies shouldn’t be like that. Realistically, a lot of immigrants do drive cabs/Ubers in the United States and it can be a fun RP experience, the problem is the stereotypes and the dramatic level they are played up too.  My suggestion? Tone it down. Your character should AT LEAST know where things are in town and be able to drive around correctly. It’s a legitimate requirement for most cab companies.

[Power]

On 1/27/2022 at 3:54 PM, Florida said:

I have never in my adult life ever used a taxi in NYC, LA, Boston, Chicago, Tampa, or any major city. 

 

Rideshare like Uber or Lyft should be added.

 

Whether it takes the form of a yellow cab or a guy in a Toyota Camry I believe is just semantics here. Nothing changes if you turn /taxi or /uber and allow people to ride share doesn't fix the issue of demand. I've used Taxis in NYC plenty of time. As an adult yes Taxis are archaic I either rent cars or uber

[Edwardz]

Noted to myself, that's could be really fun to RP!
A little tip - you can wait out of clubs / bars for client if you can't find via the script, I am quite certain ppl will love to RP taking a cab after partying if it's that accessible.
Its super common IRL 🙂 

[Cypher99]

Honestly I think some has to do with what people mentioned. It’s the quality of characters who drive the taxis that play a big part. We are here to RP after all. Consistency is a huge issue. I’m guilty of it. I tried a car service and gave up after a couple days. You’re not going to get people to try something by doing it that way. Relying on the script is a big barrier. Have to get out there and work it from different angles. Word of mouth. Friends. Hell even flyers / posters / some sort of effort outside of /taxistart. 
 

End of the day though, it’s very easy to get to your own transportation. Minors drive their “parents” vehicles. You get $5000 an hour for the first 20 hours. Jobs pay a good amount. Starter car at the airport for $450. You have to convince people to use your service instead. Trying it for a day with a low effort character and then abandoning it, doesn’t cut it. Easy accessibility to your own personal transportation doesn’t help though. 

Edited February 1, 2022 by Cypher99

[Mahitto]

8 hours ago, Cypher99 said:

End of the day though, it’s very easy to get to your own transportation. Minors drive their “parents” vehicles. You get $5000 an hour for the first 20 hours. Jobs pay a good amount. Starter car at the airport for $450. You have to convince people to use your service instead. Trying it for a day with a low effort character and then abandoning it, doesn’t cut it. Easy accessibility to your own personal transportation doesn’t help though. 

 

Exactly. People use taxis in real life because they have to, not because they want to; because it's the most convenient option. If everyone was able to afford a car, if gas prices were negligible, if the streets were empty, if parking was free - trust me, absolutely no one would use taxis in real life.

 

Our current situation? You can buy a car within your first one-two hours, but until then, you literally get a free car. After that, you have your own car. You can fill it up for basically nothing and you only do so once a week or more, insurance is basically nothing too, you can park everywhere for free and there's no traffic, at all. Why would anyone not buy a car? You can literally go anywhere, at any time, basically for free.

 

Sure, it's nice to role-play with some taxi drivers, and I've had my fair share of amazing and meaningful encounters, but most aren't that. Most are players who're trying to sap you out of every single cent, people charging $50/5s and then taking the longest route, driving the slowest possible, and/or not even interacting with you. Two two-way trips can end up costing you the price of a car. And unfortunately, the few good ones are massively overshadowed by the many bad apples. 

 

Unless something changes with either taxi drivers or our vehicle system, we won't really see any improvements.

[Epic]

I went through a period of using taxis for every trip for a short while, even had a regular taxi driver by the name of Cesar. I took his number and we eventually ended up talking about other stuff and building a good friendship. Only reason it stopped was he went inactive for a short while and I didn’t get the same response with my rides. I’ll probably go back to this at some point however because I did enjoy the conversations, there are really good taxi drivers out there, and then some not so good ones, but isn’t that the case with every type of rp?  
 

I’d like to see more cab and general public transport including bus use all round. 

[waterwings]

Call taxi from Paleto Bay.
Picked up instantly.
Messaged: "ur too far away"
they cancel my ride
call another taxi
same thing

[bricksbricksbricks]

I wish there were more taxi's though, some more modern looking. 
All businesses should have a land line and be in the phone book.. I might use a taxi more if I knew what the flip I was ordering and who ,, too. Not wait until RANDOM arrives with a random fare price.

I'd think it be better if /taxi allowed for a message argument too.

/taxi We need a ride for 5 people at banana street

/taxi I need a cab for myself from Paleto to Sandyshores.

/taxi I need a taxi at Legion Square to del perro banana club FAST PAYING EXTRA