Drug prices?

[Coolwhip]

10 minutes ago, shoot instant said:

I think the people in this case is the illegal roleplay community, more specifically the lower-end of crime in Los Santos. I ain't taking OCG's, talking gangs and other small orgs. By legalizing weed you're basically taking the roleplay from the illegal community to the legal community. Smaller orgs and gangs don't have regular access to the other drugs due to scarcity and price, so they kind of rely on weed as an entry-level asset. Weed is mostly used IG as a social thing, parties clubs whatever, and it's also consumed mostly by areas which sustain these gangs so there's 100% a market for weed. And imo weed only has value because it's illegal, it'll turn into a prop like cigarettes, dirt cheap, no one wants to sell, used mostly just for anims.

Fair points. I suppose another elephant in the room is how often players scam others when drug deals go down. I understand this stuff happens in real life, but I think people (specifically less pure illegal but someone just buying for recreational purposes) wouldn't be so apprehensive to buying it from an illegal source if they didn't think they'd be robbed, beaten and left for dead over purchasing recreational drugs. At the end of the day, lots of people passively metagame their past situations. Does it suck? Absolutely. But a lot of legal RP'ers aren't going to instantly return to a scene where they lose and then get told to suck it up and take it IC. It's a bad mindset, but that's what happens. We have to be honest. Then you're left with no civilians wanting to buy drugs, you know? You ease up with the players just wanting to scam and make a quick buck, turn people into repeat customers. You now expand demand for recreational drugs. More buyers. More demand. You know how it goes.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Coolwhip

[kirbyz]

On my dealer character I've made about ~80k in the last month of somewhat regular play. I've rp'd selling to a handful of random people, but most of my big transactions were with official gangs and those who have access to apply for drugs. 80k seems like a lot but the volume of drugs moved and the risk taken was disproportionate. Other jobs such as legal weekly pay, trucking, and even convenience store stuff pays more.

 

IRL, heroin addicts spend about $150-$200 USD a day. When compared to script purchasable items such as a mask ($5000), Notes ($4000 for 100), Fuel, Insurance, the current drug prices imo are too low to make any financial sense for someone entering the trade. Its all about the RP but it can be kind of boring when there's no real consumer market. 

 

Gun dealers have a crazy margin due to what a gun can be used for on the server. Just need to find a way to make the drug script interesting and necessary for players on the server.

[Coolwhip]

12 minutes ago, kirbyz said:

On my dealer character I've made about ~80k in the last month of somewhat regular play. I've rp'd selling to a handful of random people, but most of my big transactions were with official gangs and those who have access to apply for drugs. 80k seems like a lot but the volume of drugs moved and the risk taken was disproportionate. Other jobs such as legal weekly pay, trucking, and even convenience store stuff pays more.

 

IRL, heroin addicts spend about $150-$200 USD a day. When compared to script purchasable items such as a mask ($5000), Notes ($4000 for 100), Fuel, Insurance, the current drug prices imo are too low to make any financial sense for someone entering the trade. Its all about the RP but it can be kind of boring when there's no real consumer market. 

 

Gun dealers have a crazy margin due to what a gun can be used for on the server. Just need to find a way to make the drug script interesting and necessary for players on the server.

Going back to my post just above yours. I've had several characters that I used drugs on. Mostly civilians that aren't purely legal, you know.... a normal person lol. Has my character made some good contacts and had deals go down just fine? Yep definitely. There are decent ones out there, but not as many as there should be for the health of the drug market on this server. Ask me how many times my character was screwed over and scammed, robbed, beaten and lost their money and the drugs? More often than the deals that went good. It doesn't bother me because I take what happens to my characters in stride and roll with it. However, we all know that many players aren't like that. They passively remember what happened to their character and it turns them off from the drug market completely. Should they take it IC and just roll with it? I suppose, its often better that way. But one can argue that the ratio of dealers that actually deal to a normal consumer market and not try to screw over their clientele compared to those who do?

 

In my experience, there's more who'd rather just scam you and take the drugs and the money. It doesn't leave a lot of room for a consumer market to grow with that kind of approach. Scams happen in real life, totally get it. Someone walks into the hood that shouldn't be there and asks for drugs? Narc alert? Lol they're going to get in trouble. However for the health and growth of the drug market on the server, we should be working towards increasing access for more people and not driving people away from it just because your character is a hard gang member. Gangs still need customers to buy. It would just make it that much better than it is now. Just my two cents.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Coolwhip

[kirbyz]

6 minutes ago, Coolwhip said:

Going back to my post just above yours. I've had several characters that I used drugs on. Mostly civilians that aren't purely legal, you know.... a normal person lol. Has my character made some good contacts and had deals go down just fine? Yep definitely. There are decent ones out there, but not as many as there should be for the health of the drug market on this server. Ask me how many times my character was screwed over and scammed, robbed, beaten and lost their money and the drugs? More often than the deals that went good. It doesn't bother me because I take what happens to my characters in stride and roll with it. However, we all know that many players aren't like that. They passively remember what happened to their character and it turns them off from the drug market completely. Should they take it IC and just roll with it? I suppose, its often better that way. But one can argue that the ratio of dealers that actually deal to a normal consumer market and not try to screw over their clientele compared to those who do?

 

In my experience, there's more who'd rather just scam you and take the drugs and the money. It doesn't leave a lot of room for a consumer market to grow with that kind of approach. Scams happen in real life, totally get it. Someone walks into the hood that shouldn't be there and asks for drugs? Narc alert? Lol they're going to get in trouble. However for the health and growth of the drug market on the server, we should be working towards increasing access for more people and not driving people away from it just because your character is a hard gang member. Gangs still need customers to buy. It would just make it that much better than it is now. Just my two cents.

 

Scamming over deals doesn't really make sense to me, unless its for large amounts like 100 grams plus so in the area of 20k. From my experience nobody has attempted to rob or scam since we're all in the same boat trying to rp actual dealers lmao.

[Coolwhip]

3 minutes ago, kirbyz said:

Scamming over deals doesn't really make sense to me, unless its for large amounts like 100 grams plus so in the area of 20k. From my experience nobody has attempted to rob or scam since we're all in the same boat trying to rp actual dealers lmao.

It doesn't make sense at all and its usually not the ones trying to do it realistically. It's the grinders who just want a quick buck. Unfortunately, they usually outnumber those trying to do it right. Every character until this current one (still might happen we'll see lol) I've been buying drugs. Don't live in a gang area. Not in a faction. It never fails that someone does the deal, then pulls a gun and robs you for everything back. I've had ones even follow me around the block in their car and then rob me after the fact in the middle of the street. It's crazy. Granted, I'm not walking into Davis and looking for drugs which would not go over well for my character 🤣 But it does happen unfortunately. I promise you there would be more of a market if that were a much more rare occurrence.

[Mecovy]

1 hour ago, shoot instant said:

I think the people in this case is the illegal roleplay community, more specifically the lower-end of crime in Los Santos. I ain't taking OCG's, talking gangs and other small orgs. By legalizing weed you're basically taking the roleplay from the illegal community to the legal community. Smaller orgs and gangs don't have regular access to the other drugs due to scarcity and price, so they kind of rely on weed as an entry-level asset. Weed is mostly used IG as a social thing, parties clubs whatever, and it's also consumed mostly by areas which sustain these gangs so there's 100% a market for weed. And imo weed only has value because it's illegal, it'll turn into a prop like cigarettes, dirt cheap, no one wants to sell, used mostly just for anims.

False, I know quite a few legal RPers who want to either grow for themselves or want it legal so they can smoke it. As for the little guy (smaller groups) the plan has always been if we ever finally compromise on medical, that supply has to come from somewhere. Part of the supply chain was always intended to be reserved for schemes/people arrested prior on marijuana cultivation charges.

 

Also cigarettes again, false. spend 10 minutes in the port of LS and you'll realize that shit is currency there, if anything the server should capitalise on that by adding nicotine addiction levels like drugs have. 

[Bluerrey]

1 hour ago, kirbyz said:

 

Scamming over deals doesn't really make sense to me, unless its for large amounts like 100 grams plus so in the area of 20k. From my experience nobody has attempted to rob or scam since we're all in the same boat trying to rp actual dealers lmao.

I don't get why scams/robberies over drugs is so rampant when realistically there'd be more drugs in the market than bills. A drug dealer would be glad he could take the heat off but guess not on gtaw :shrug: 

[Mecovy]

16 minutes ago, Bluerrey said:

I don't get why scams/robberies over drugs is so rampant when realistically there'd be more drugs in the market than bills. A drug dealer would be glad he could take the heat off but guess not on gtaw :shrug: 

well lets put it this way. if i have 100g of top shelf meth, i could "sell" that hundred g, net a profit, then actually sell it. then ive just 2x'd the margins,

[Bluerrey]

1 minute ago, Mecovy said:

well lets put it this way. if i have 100g of top shelf meth, i could "sell" that hundred g, net a profit, then actually sell it. then ive just 2x'd the margins,

You risk getting shot in return as 95% of LS on Gtaw has a gun or at lest one trigger happy friend ready to gun you down over that scam. If we go by realism and take this into accord, I wouldn't even dare to try and rob someone, knowing full well they come guns blazing moments later. 

[Coolwhip]

6 minutes ago, Mecovy said:

well lets put it this way. if i have 100g of top shelf meth, i could "sell" that hundred g, net a profit, then actually sell it. then ive just 2x'd the margins,

Yep and that's honestly the issue. Some people too focused on profit rather than fostering a loyal customer base outside of their own gang, illegal channels for the long-term health of the market. It's all about me, myself and I.

 

Sigh.