Better script support for registered alcohol suppliers / breweries

[DigitalSausage]

Detailed Description

So I have spent the last few weeks setting up a brewery in game seeing as alcohol suppliers have dwindled and I wanted to give back to the community, provide jobs and generate some better RP in the process. Once everything was set up I was extremely disheartened to find out that the base operation of the breweries was still using the Mixing bucket, Iron pot and Blue barrel respectively. The only real benefit of starting up a brewery was the ability to have access to use the bar script to rename the alcohol. Althought this still gives me the ability to produce, label and sell my own alcohol I was a little annoyed about sinking around 200k into setting up a fully working brewery with mixing vats, distillers, stills and a bottling plant and still having to use the relatively time-consuming and occasionally tedious brewing script items. I love the brewing script as a whole but when you're trying to brew alcohol on a larger scale it puts in hard limits and make roleplay a bit limited.
The brewing process is outlined here: 

 

Relevant Commands/Items

/createitem Alcohol (Value) (Quanity) [Name]
(the currentl types are: Recipe, goods or singleuse)

 

How will it benefit the server?
It will allow for breweries to utilize the fact they kitted out a large warehouse with various industrial / business level brewing equipment to be able to produce an acceptable amount of alcohol to keep up with the massive demand on the server right now, set up contracts with local businesses similar to how the trucking companies do and overall  it means that bars and clubs dont have to resort to buying from liquor stores WHILE also promoting a healthy business supply chain thats ran by players rather than scripted shops to acquire drinks.
 

Edited November 9, 2022 by DigitalSausage

[Ink]

I really hate the brewing script as it stands right now. I think it's fair for me to say that, too, as the brewery I've run for 3 years is the longest surviving brewery on all of GTA:W's history, and we've done more business than nearly every single other brewery that's ever existed on the server put together. At my last count, we've produced over 35,000 units of liquor. That's roughly 250 hours of me and our employees grinding the mindless brewing script job instead of actually doing something like, I don't know, RPing.

 

The brewing script as it stands is a silly script with little bearing on the reality of making liquor. In the case of our brewery, for instance, it is almost a fully OOC script because we roleplay making our beer through the entire process, and most of our liquor is supplied in the style of a real world liquor distribution company. 

 

For a long time I've felt that breweries should have an advantage to producing liquor. Right now, my average sales order takes me about two hours to fill just in terms of grinding an OOC script job. Sure, I can watch things in another tab while I do it, but it's a massive drain on my limited time to RP, and I really am only doing it at this point because I like supporting the businesses that have stuck with us through the years.

 

At the end of the day, when you do the math, the current brewing system means that the amount of time it takes to sell any respectable amount of booze means your profit margins are razor thin and you'd make 2-3x more just working /startshift at a gas station or 24/7.  This is why breweries historically on GTA:W are just 1-or-2-man shows, because staffing a brewery is virtually impossible. Just think, breweries get the bar script which means they have no government support for paying their employees for work by default. That means for every sale that we do, there's about 8k in labor hours that comes right out of the profit margins, and we're already responsible for paying $25-40 a unit of liquor in material cost and $25 a unit in /createdrink cost.  

 

My other gripe with the current brewing system is that it's open to everyone. While I appreciate that it's primarily supposed to allow people to RP moonshiners or hobby brewers, the problem right now is there is no application process or moderator oversight. After 3 years of running the liquor scene on this server, I can say with confidence that almost half of all the businesses on the server just brew their own beer/liquor, or buy their beer/liquor from a random "hobby brewer" in their faction/friends group. Of course, none of these clubs/bars/restaurants RP that they're selling home-made swill that can cause enormous amounts of harm to people's health. None of them RP that the whiskey tastes funky and like it's full of artificial coloring. None of them RP that their beer is really extra earthy and hoppy and has a sour taste to it because it's made by a dude using the equivalent of $100 in basic brewing supplies.  Most of them still RP themselves as serving Grey Goose and other top shelf liquor. I've brought this up to the administration a lot but there's only so much ability a player has to investigate this, most clubs/bars/restaurants doing this are keeping very tight-lipped about it for obvious reasons. I really think that this server would be better off if people had to apply to have access to the current brewing script--you just need to demonstrate realistically to the admins that you are going to actually RP good liquor creation and that you understand the limitations of hobby brewing and that you must RP a distinct homemade product and that it can't magically transform into bottled and bonded mass-market stuff. 

 

If we were to have a special Brewery Script that allowed us to make liquor items, then the existing brewing script can be updated to create items with a [Homemade] tag or something of the sort, so that way clubs/bars can't dodge the RP that what they're selling is homemade. 

[DigitalSausage]

bump

 

[K0range4]

I had no idea some of these issues existed within the brewing script. Whatever makes it better for you avid hopsmiths out there, +1 from me

[FatCatTuxedo]

@Selena

 

In regards to this suggestion since businesses are a PM thing, I propose the following:

 

Brewing businesses can put all the ingredients in their /pinv linked to the business and then /createalcohol this will not be craft beer that can be sold to liquor stores but ones that can be renamed and sold to bars, clubs etc.

[DigitalSausage]

On 1/9/2023 at 2:23 AM, FatCatTuxedo said:

@Selena

 

In regards to this suggestion since businesses are a PM thing, I propose the following:

 

Brewing businesses can put all the ingredients in their /pinv linked to the business and then /createalcohol this will not be craft beer that can be sold to liquor stores but ones that can be renamed and sold to bars, clubs etc.

Yes please!

[DigitalSausage]

@Selena 
Do we have any potential developments / decision on this?

[Selena]

3 hours ago, DigitalSausage said:

@Selena 
Do we have any potential developments / decision on this?

This is now moving to development.

[FatCatTuxedo]

done