Build that wall.

[Aquila]

Here is the issue: people talk a lot about how other parts of the map are crucial for their roleplay, however in practice we simply don't see much roleplay being developed in these areas.

 

When you consider the fact that nearly 3/4 of Los Santos is barely ever utilised, you realise that expanding north is absolutely pointless. While some argue that their characters don't seem to fit into Los Santos city life, they don't seem to consider that places like Paleto Bay, while still considered rural, is still pretty urbanised given the county that it's in. Plus, it is usually empty unless there's some IC event happening there. Sandy Shores is also pretty empty, and only really used for kidnappings due to the non-existent population and lack of police patrols. Even when it was scripted, it was pretty empty except for the bar that was occasionally opened. 

 

Places like Del Perro and surrounding areas are often extremely quiet unless a business opens up. Davis and surrounding areas aren't thriving as they used to, but they still have some activity. Rockford Hills is completely barren and not used at all. Why should we expand north when the entire Los Santos county isn't being used at all? Only a small portion is ever populated.  It seems to me that people want to keep opportunities open, but they don't want to take advantage of opportunities. It's a waste of scripting, a waste of time, and it's killing the feeling of being on a server that's alive. At this point, you really can't tell if the server has 30 players or 180 players. I'm not in support of building a wall or whatever to prevent people from going up north, but I am in support of removing any need to go up there, by descripting everything or leaving floating warning signs. It's time to think realistically instead of sitting around, thinking about what-if's. We have mountains, hills, and dams available in Los Santos (literally right next to Mirror Park). Wildlife is clearly not an issue. We have industrial areas in Los Santos. We even have low-income areas and shacks literally south of Mirror Park. Blaine County has very little to offer, and while some would argue that rural lifestyle is nice, it's not feasible in the long-term. The map is simply too big, and even with ~150 players we can't populate half of Los Santos county. Again, with all these points taken into consideration, why should we expand north?

[Notbond]

Currently, we incentives RP to take place in certain locations by having those locations be scripted in or not, as the server grows so will the number of locations. I don't think "building a wall" is the best way to go about it because I don't believe it would actually solve your problem unless we inclosed mirror park into a dome and then you might see loads of people driving around and a very active area (before the server died). 

[Brenko]

I mean, on SAMP if you RPed in Los Santos (as in, the server was based there) SF and LV were pretty much just desolate not because you were banned from going there but because no one was there. I think that's the best route to take.

 

Saying that, it's a shame to descript areas like Sandy Shores and Paleto. Not because there's activity there right now that warrants it taking precedent over LS, but because they are legitimately good areas to RP in for the atmosphere and environment. I don't think the problem is those areas themselves, but the huge distances between them and LS.

 

It's a shame we can't somehow remove everything inbetween LS and the other populated areas. Basically make the map smaller by removing the desolate highway areas.

[Yabbu]

I already see some ideological development of though on this matter from the last 3 posters. Yes the main point is that we either make some region of the LS more attractive and thus more populated or we move the entire thing to areas where people being scattered would be more realistic.

 

And as I stated at my OP  "the wall can be either physically(with a OOC wall) or mentally(removing script stuff from rural parts of SA)".

 

I hope I have put some new thoughts on your minds and something will brainstorm out of this over time.

[Aquila]

9 hours ago, Notbond said:

Currently, we incentives RP to take place in certain locations by having those locations be scripted in or not, as the server grows so will the number of locations. I don't think "building a wall" is the best way to go about it because I don't believe it would actually solve your problem unless we inclosed mirror park into a dome and then you might see loads of people driving around and a very active area (before the server died). 

Back when we wanted centralisation in Los Santos, we had Mirror Park being the only scripted area, which caused a lot more issues as it was the extreme of what the majority of the community wanted.

 

Much like pitting rival ethnic groups into one country, it caused a lot more drama than it should've. Mirror Park is a tiny, enclosed neighbourhood. Having that place as a hotspot is the worst thing ever, but now it's past the point of no return where people will simply refuse to move away from Mirror Park.

2 hours ago, Brenko said:

I mean, on SAMP if you RPed in Los Santos (as in, the server was based there) SF and LV were pretty much just desolate not because you were banned from going there but because no one was there. I think that's the best route to take.

 

Saying that, it's a shame to descript areas like Sandy Shores and Paleto. Not because there's activity there right now that warrants it taking precedent over LS, but because they are legitimately good areas to RP in for the atmosphere and environment. I don't think the problem is those areas themselves, but the huge distances between them and LS.

 

It's a shame we can't somehow remove everything inbetween LS and the other populated areas. Basically make the map smaller by removing the desolate highway areas.

On SAMP we had an issue on the server I was on, where only east and central Los Santos was populated, and some small areas of San Fierro and two settlements in Tierra Robada were occupied. It was stupid to expand to San Fierro, but Tierra Robada and east/central Los Santos were sparsely populated. The issue was that the rest of Los Santos was a barren wasteland where you'd find absolutely nobody except for maybe one mafia gang. It seems to be a similar issue here, except Paleto Bay seems to be popular during events only.

 

Another issue is that a lot of people seem to be indoors, so Los Santos just feels completely empty. Regardless, a lot of areas of the county is just empty.

 

I think the reason why people feel that the atmosphere in other areas is better than in Los Santos is because they're much smaller and farther away from each other, i.e. Blaine County, where there are small settlements and towns with a fair distance from one another, while Los Santos County is just a large number of neighbourhoods and several cities within relatively close proximity to one another. If the server was based in Blaine County, it'd be a lot nicer for sure, but it started in Los Santos so there's not much that can be done.

2 hours ago, Yabbu said:

I already see some ideological development of though on this matter from the last 3 posters. Yes the main point is that we either make some region of the LS more attractive and thus more populated or we move the entire thing to areas where people being scattered would be more realistic.

 

And as I stated at my OP  "the wall can be either physically(with a OOC wall) or mentally(removing script stuff from rural parts of SA)".

 

I hope I have put some new thoughts on your minds and something will brainstorm out of this over time.

The only reason why anyone would travel to areas outside of the Los Santos county would be to evade cops because they can lose them easier. If people really felt passionate about Blaine County being great environments for roleplay, then they'd constantly be there instead of going into Los Santos.

[Brenko]

^ At least some people feel passionately that the areas are good for RP tbf. As while they aren't as active as say Mirror Park, they do have activity and RP beyond the events. But I generally get your point.

---

Edited July 4, 2018 by Brenko

[Topinambour]

8 hours ago, Aquila said:

If people really felt passionate about Blaine County being great environments for roleplay, then they'd constantly be there instead of going into Los Santos.

I think Marseille is a great place for a vacation and a great environment for outdoors enjoyment, but I am not there constantly IRL. Because my job and my friends are around Paris. Just like my char spends most of her time in central LS (because work & friends are there), but still regularly goes out in Blaine County for various RP reasons (none of which involve escaping the cops, btw). 

 

This "all or nothing" stuff feels a bit odd. Either you spend your entire life there or we should remove it? Oo What kind of reasoning is that?

 

They aren't active often. So fuckin' what? :p I mean, I fail to see what kind of problem it actually causes. Before fixing an issue, maybe we should make sure there's an issue in the first place =/