Mainly speaking for MRP:
One thing that I noticed that changed mrp and not for the better was the constant changes in the rules. Back when you used to be able to crouch spam, it made pvp challenging for other players. They had to actually adapt and learn how to the server played and it added that extra commitment to really improve yourself as a pvp main within the server. As of late, most of crouch jumping is extinct due to the constant change within the rules making it so you can only crouch jump over obstacles. What if someone has their crouch button as their C key? I feel as if the staff team constantly trying to change things because players dont want to spend the time to learn certain aspects of the server is part of the reason it's slowly bleeding out today.
The second thing I would like to add was the removal of marines. Although some may say marines and army being seperated was a bad thing and caused a massive divide between the two. It was something you could hop on for and make attempts at besting the other faction in regards to pvp, match time, oc time and other sorts of aspects like that. You dont find that anymore. US is almost filled with players that are playing US to balance out the server. A mass majority of players that now play US have been RU mains in the past and want to go back to RU. It's just because of how dead US is and how incompetent the leaders are (not all but you know who you are) it just makes it so demotivating to just get on and play.
The third thing that imo is killing the server would be the dono's and the dono meta's. ill say this for the players who either dont want to throw money at a garry's mod server and the players who cant afford to buy things from the store. I feel as if within the server based classes, There isnt much diversity when it comes to the certain weapons that are given to the players that grind their asses off to get into a certain faction that upholds a high standard. For starters, allow me to use rangers as an example. When I joined almost two weeks ago, I was excited to use ghost because of the sniper. That was it, I saw the rifleman weapon and said "wow, this is literally the same weapon that army gets" And sat there for a second and was quite upset to see that one of the best factions on the US sides to have a copy and pasted weapon from army. From my eyes, I feel as if there was little commitment to make the certain factions unique besides their counter parts that live on the other side of the war. This showed me that there was little care of the factions when they we're created because of the weapon choices. Now, some of the weapons are good when they come with as of an example: PDSS and Vega arguably have the best base weapons garnet has to offer. Now, I can't speak for the vega PKM which gamma has come to suggest a change due to the inconstistancy the weapon provides. This was quickly shut down and it was a real eyebrow raiser. What doesnt make sense to me is that someone could grind for weeks to get into a SOC factions, use the base weapon that they use and always be at a disadvantage to someone using donation weapons. When it comes to the dono weapons, let's be real here.. There are mainly 3-5 weapons that are mainly used within MRP. Them being the Orsis, The AEK, both mp5a5 and the mp5a4 and sometimes the super 90. These weapons get used so often that the other weapons that could be used are left behind and never get the chance to really shine. Now, this may not be true as a whole due to alot of players going out and using other weapons in the shop but mainly speaking if you ask someone what the best weapons on the server are, you are either going to be told the AK-105, the AS VAL and the 5 donation weapons I listed. This is sad because players that play on a daily basis deserve the chance to have a fair chance to fight against the other players that have bought donation weapons and still feel the cripple of not throwing money at a gmod server.
Cont of donations: So, when it comes to donations, you can pay 25$ to get T1, Understandable. But, what doesnt make sense to me is that, when you buy T1, you have to pay 50 dollars to get T2.. Even after you bought T1. That just makes zero sense, in that matter it makes it seem as a massive cash grab which sucks to see. Along with that, Some of the weapons given to the donation classes arent even that good. I was hyped to see more donation classes because I thought garnet would have reached into the bag of CW and other weapon packs and utilized the variety that there is to offer. But I was wrong. That fucking sucks. It really hurts to see that players have to pay a certain amount of money to use a class that has weapons that you can earn. Donation classes are meant to be unique and it all just seems stale.
I used to love the server but after what the server has come to, the players that are constantly stabbing at each others necks and just the overall downbeat vibe and repetitive hour clock. It just aint fun no more...