shrimp

Hello everyone. I’ll spare the introduction because you all know who I am. Just to quickly address the opposing argument of my opinion being uninformed, it takes me about twenty minutes to get briefed on the state of everything, and not much has changed in the past months. That being said, I’ve been spending a lot of time in my absence taking a tour of other places in our little neck of the woods we call Garry’s Mod and certainly been doing my homework. It’s my understanding that Gildarts wants to get a, while imperfect, grasp of the player demographics here in our own backyard. While this is something that should’ve been done a long time ago, it’s not something worth doing any longer. When it comes to the playerbase (not quality, simply quantity), you have to be able to look at it from three perspectives. The goal of server development should always be to appeal to the playerbase, but that term is always looked at through the lens of the current player population. The current players are always going to be the most vocal and responsive to attention from the server themselves, but two other populations exist and have always existed; Potential players, and past players. Past players include everyone who has participated in the server, and subsequently exhausted their interest, while potential players include all the people who have yet to join the server or commit time. The method Gildarts used to acquire player demographics is not really ideal because it only draws data from the current population. However, the data does give us some really important statistical information. The trend in the data shows a prominent bell curve peaking at the ages of 16-18. This makes sense because many players typically drop off around this age due to life circumstances, mirroring the drop off in the data. This decay factor is the most important concept in maintaining the overall population. In my experience, Gildarts is of the belief that the current population is all we’ve got, because gMod is a dying game. Fact of the matter is, gMod is still one of the most populated games on Steam, and in the last few months I’ve had brief conversations with Garnet about certain to-remain-nameless communities springing up virtually overnight and consistently hitting max player counts despite all the crashes and bugs that come with a new server. I’ve seen several cases of this simply in the past few months, where previously non-existent communities reach an absurd level of interest simply by doing something different. By tapping into the massive population of potential players by appealing to those interests rather than that of a finite, aging community. The reality is that the current population of MRP is just that; finite and aging. Going back to Gildarts’ poll, the proof is right in front of you. If new players aren’t being brought in to counter and overcome the natural rate of decay of the server, the population is going to diminish in quantity, which means less of a sample size to scour for officers and competent players. The new players are out there, they just have reason not to be here, and that reason stems from the longevity of the server. There was once a time when MRP was the hot new thing, but the concept that attracted the past population has seldom changed since. Statistically, the total number of people that are going to join and continue to play the server based on the long-term model (Timer-based, 3-OBJ, 2 Faction Wars) is limited, because only so many people that fit the criteria of having gMod, being interested by that concept, and having time to commit exist, and eventually less and less of those people will fall between the ideal age margin of 16-18 and the population for that model of server will cease to be seen. Thus, here we are at a crossroads where the server is constantly questioning the viability of its own existence, and the players within are questioning the cost of continuing their time investment into said server. The crossroads the server has arrived at gives three options, to continue straight ahead, turn left, or turn right. The straight head path forwards the path the server has almost always lied upon, the awkward limbo state between a meandering FPS with mild RP and progression characteristics, failing at neither, but succeeding at neither. A path which has proven to not be sustainable over the years. The left hand path details the elimination of roleplay elements, and refocusing the game entirely as a shooter and attempting to optimize the game for combat. While we have never truly taken this route, it can be said with near certainty that it will not succeed. gMod is a game built upon an ancient engine, not built with mass player to player engagement in mind, and an attempt to compete directly with other high-performance shooters will offer nothing to the potential player population that cannot be found in much higher quality elsewhere. It would be physically impossible, and quite foolish, to try and go up against the CS:GO’s and Battlefield’s of the world on a platform like this when the other titles are already out there, and much more efficient. To understand the right hand path, you must understand the overall appeal of the platform that is gMod, and that is the unique opportunities for gameplay that it presents. This is the appeal that brought many, if not all of us to MRP in the first place. The fact that it isn’t just a shooter, but something else entirely. Where progression isn’t judged by a level system with coded experience values, but by human operators and interactions. There is a depth to it that cannot be found in your typical Call of Duty, but only in an open-ended platform like gMod that can be improved and expanded upon. I won’t delve into the specifics of what the right hand path entails, but the point here is to identify the factors that contribute to why it’s not only the correct option, but the only option to succeed in the current climate. Moral of the story, find something to do, and make sure that this server is the best one at it, in and outside of gMod. Here’s a tl;dr diagram for the illiterate and/or lazy.

going to drop absolute bombs on this thread ttyl

u are a smart guy. don't let other people's opinion of u impact your decision making process too much. tbh there were some people once upon a time who did a lot more fuckery with their position than you even came close to (e.g what's-his-face putting every single post on the forums into a single thread). don't let it haunt u king

the screenshot was from the foxtrot samples location models, do i gotta DECLASSIFY all my materials or something

u know where to find me dawg, just hit me up if u need something

sorry to barge in here, but u don't still need all of this shit do u?

This is the suggestion I kinda put forward on Garnet's "What should I do?" post, except in its own thread because pencil is UP MY ASS, and much more detailed. Step I - Burn It. For all you stubborn skids who are so attached to some ideal form of the server than any change in any direction other than what your own personal vision is that you’d rather push down any other attempt to change and take steps directly backwards, stop. Take a second look at the situation the server is currently, and it might eventually occur to some of you that this is an opportunity to break free of all the old ways of the community and turn it into something way better, to learn from the mistakes we made in the past and finally put together something good, something that will persist on an uphill slope, as opposed to the long-running downward spiral that’s been prevalent over that past few years. The natural (natural as in ‘without intervention’) state of the server has always been a shitshow. It needs constant maintenance and oversight to run properly and stay healthy, regardless of the core server mechanics being entirely automated. The openness of the server leaves much to be desired, when it’s the responsibility of the user to come up with the content, or lack of content therein. Point is; the server isn’t sustainable, and never really was. Things naturally just go to shit, and they go to shit a lot faster as of late due to the general subconscious of the community being a lot more resistant to change. That being said, it’s time to burn it all down and start fresh. The benefits of doing so are as follows: The arguments in favor of donor advantages will be a lot harder to back due to it being a different server, which presents an opportunity to get rid of a lot of unfavorable donor perks with minimal backlash. The server can be rebuilt without preconceived notions or god-forsaken nostalgia. The community will benefit from this because they won’t be able to argue for reimplementing silly old features that typically aren’t as good as they remember them. No more running in circles and not really getting anywhere. We can really and truly learn from our mistakes and have an opportunity to abandon systems that don’t or didn’t work in the past with little to no repercussions. I’d like to reiterate that it’s a new server, where none of the shit from “MRP” as we know it applies. Step II - Foundations. If we even get this far, as in if Garnet decides he even wants to reopen a server after taking down MRP, let’s talk codebases. As of now, GG MRP runs on a modified DarkRP codebase, with D3A running as the administrative plug-in. Tally up the workshop content, sprinkle on the custom lua for good luck, and that’s effectively the server. In my opinion (Garnet will hate this), there’s not enough content on the server for it to be successful today. There’s (including the war system) not really much that makes GG special that the most basic of players can see at the surface level. I made this a huge point in the other massive document I made (was making) a while back, and the fact of the matter is the server has no depth. Once you log onto the server for the first time, it isn’t long before you’ve seen all the is to see, and it’s kind of always been like that, except once upon a time it was a bit more difficult to get to the top, but once you’ve been to the top, the server loses all its charm and you end up a forum lurker like me. The server’s depth now is in its politics, not its content. This is both bad and good for business. Drama keeps users engaged in the discussion, but it also is hyper non-conducive to the new player experience, hampering growth like you wouldn’t believe. Blame managers, blame staff, blame whoever, but that trend alone is single-handedly responsible for the situation we’re in now. Nobody wants to join a community where they’re immediately expected to pick a side, both literally and figuratively. This raises the question; how are we supposed to detract from the pointless bickering about the state of the server? Well, it’s actually quite easy in my experience. Improve the state of said server. Convolute and absolutely maximize the server itself so that 90% of players feel engaged enough to play and enjoy and be passionate about the server, but overwhelmed enough by it to not have the confidence to openly speak on it without looking like an idiot. Okay, so where do we start? Easy. Nutscript (or Helix, which is way less janky). NS allows for a much more medium-high RP oriented framework that will allow for just that; RP. As it stands, the server peaks at low RP, and is otherwise entirely without it. Going from the ground up would really allow for roleplay in the server to be totally fleshed out and structured into an experience that is enjoyable for new and old players alike, one that is always rewarding players for their time and effort with quality roleplay. This is the kind of RP server that is able to sustain itself, as the players are always experiencing a unique scenario that isn’t carefully pieced together by a staff team. Right now, we’ve got TDM with extra steps, and, while automated, each war is not much unlike the one before or the one after. There are zero dynamics. The only changing element is the people, which is entirely OOC and the rapidly depleting playerbase really shouldn’t be a core “feature” of the server. Step III - Building Blocks. So we have nutscript, a very versatile framework that opens up a lot of options for how the server operates at a core level. The second step is to throw the idea of “war” out the window. It’s really, really bad to have an RP server that isn’t oriented around RP, but rather combat, especially if it’s on a shitty platform (ergo gMod). You’re not going to place very well in trying to recreate a high performance shooter in an engine less stable than Kendal’s mental state when you’re going up against literally any other game. Seriously, just pick one, and it’s probably better. That being said, the reason people play these types of shitty outdated games (gMod, SS13, , GTAIV, etc) is for the unique experiences that can be had on these niche ass servers. Finding a niche to stand out in is how any gMod server becomes successful nowadays. In my time away from GG, I was able to take a look at a lot of smaller communities that had experienced rapid growth and were operating servers pushing 100 players on average over the course of a day. These servers were able to draw in crowds in gMod in the year 2020 not by doing anything better (fuck no), but by doing something different. The common argument that I see (and one that I’ve even made) is that the timed war system is the thing that makes us unique, but at the end of the day, it’s really not that much of a difference from any of our direct competitors. In fact, it actually hampers us quite a bit. We really have to ask the question, how different is GG from, let’s say for the sake of argument, Icefuse? The answer; not much. Similar structure, similar faction operation, similar meandering gameplay, and identical circlejerking. With that, there’s no way we could just change the war system and expect to compete with another behemoth like IFN on their own turf. It’s just not viable, and we’ll probably just end up attracting a player base composed of (get this) Icefuse rejects. So fuck all that, let’s actually do something different. Something that will really set us apart. “Okay shrimp dick, where do we start?” We start with the core features. The systems that are going to launch the server into the stratosphere. The things that are proven to work elsewhere, and keep players coming back, while creating an authentic and borderline addictive experience. Here’s what I have in mind, based on my experience and analysis of popular trends: Economy WIth Nutscript, items and inventories and kind of a focus, where anything from weapons to armor to 7” dildos are traded amongst players for money or other items, and economies are typically established based on certain standards. With an economy, players are given a seemingly endless amount of options to pursue and avenues of gameplay to explore, as well as enjoy increased interactivity and (y’all ain’t gonna believe it) RP. For instance, taking full advantage of the CW system and creating weapons with retextured variants with different stats, attachments and rarity and using bodygroups to create armor types and so on. Players can be rewarded with a chance at rare loot for successfully completing an RP event (not fucking hide and seek or some shit), encouraging them to participate, and actually giving value to money. Donator perks would then be reoriented around the economy and items therein to make it more conducive to the system in play. With the below logistics systems, players could be rewarded for doing their chores on base, acting as medical staff, cooks, guards, etc. Passive RP roles that allow players to earn money for use in the economy Logistics Part of any good military RP is the logistics at play during an operation, or just in general gameplay. A way to dramatically slow down the pace of gameplay and make it much, much more satisfying is by introducing mechanics that not only tell the player to value their life, but actually make the player suffer for acting recklessly. Systems we currently have in place that wouldn’t properly transfer to nutscript anyways, like medics spawning with medkits that they usually just use on themselves, or ammo crates that just sit in the base that are a source of infinite ammo, or the lives of the very troops that are fighting the battle. All of it, really, should be limited in a sense, so that players are more cognizant of what they’re doing, and more afraid to stand on top of a sand dune flailing around a .338 while twitching like a crack addict. A more complicated player experience is often more rewarding in the RP context, in fact, only in the RP context, which is what we’re trying to do here. Factions Factions would really and truly need to be entirely restructured to be more complimentary to playing at the squad level (similar to how SWRP is done, but less gay and built for PvP). I’m not going to get into the specifics of even what countries would be on a server like this (another opportunity to get freaky) because we’re not there yet, so don’t even try to ask what factions would constitute factions here, but let me outline the basic premise. The core of the faction is the base or FOB. Each base, 2 or more, should be the primary hub for RP for a faction (on the country level). The way whitelists work in nutscript is a little bit different than DarkRP. In DarkRP, one player can play multiple jobs by opening the F4 menu and selecting one they have access to. In nutscript, there is no F4 menu. Each character (players can have multiple characters) can only have one whitelist. The whitelists themselves work differently, in that a faction doesn’t necessarily have multiple whitelists to give out (typically a member and officer whitelist). There aren’t classes, and any player can effectively have any loadout available to them so long as they are able to acquire what they need to fulfill a certain role. That being said, there’s actually a point to have a ton of different factions, that might have access to different things between them. For instance, a special forces group’s quartermaster will be able to distribute a higher grade of basic weapons and armor than the average infantry unit, and different special forces group’s may have “equipment” entirely unique to them that gives them a tactical advantage in certain situations, allowing for strategy and more RP. With our current system, it’s better to have less factions, and more people in each faction so that each faction is seen as active. In nutscript, it’s actually better to have more factions, so that when a rarely seen faction flags up, it intrigues even a regular player. This is called depth, and it’s something we need to maintain the longevity of a server. With nutscript, only Superadmins (typically) can even find a list of flags to indicate all the factions on the server, as there isn’t an F4 menu to scroll through. With that, nobody can really point fingers on activity, because everyone would be talking out of their ass. Having all these small factions popping in every now and then to compliment the larger bulk of the server allows for some really interesting cooperation, engagement, and RP. These factions have their quartermasters, which are vendor NPCs that distribute basic items in exchange for money (ammo, first aid kits, etc). Combat Combat is last on this list for a reason. It should be there, of course, to compliment the economy and make a use for all the shiny toys players work for, but it shouldn’t be the primary focus, for reasons stated above. Combat should be regulated, and made to happen in scenarios that make sense, and should mostly be centered around the acquisition and control of supplies that bases would need to function properly (See: Logistics). Combat should not be frequent enough that players are able to get frustrated at all the flaws inherent to gMod, but enough to satisfy that bloodlust that landed most people on a military server. Let the RP happen, and let the GMs push it in a direction that makes it fun for everyone. Trust me when I say, the amount of effort that goes into making RP happen is proportional to the enjoyment everyone gets out. Step IV - Bureaucracy. The chain of command in a present GG MRP is actually a joke. The O-11, the de facto leader of each country, is legitimately never treated like it. Most of the players on the server hardly acknowledge rank outside of their own subfaction, which really just promotes minging at the end of the day, but let's not go there. The O-11 position has been historically undesirable because it’s a lot of work, an entry faction, and pretty much a worthless position for anybody competent enough to do it. If the desirability of holding a position like “Leader of Half the Server”, players will strive for it, and that is accomplished by giving the position more power, jurisdiction, and responsibility. A faction’s (country level) leader in the nutscript mockup would have full control over the issuing and assignment of mission, handling of the budget where money actually matters (no need for that budget system I suggested with G4S in nutscript, by the way), and the highest paycheck. From there, the chain of command just goes downward. Subfaction commanders submit their requests and receive a portion of the budget to carry out their duties and are free to manage it as such (squandering it will obviously have consequences, stealing it will have more consequences). It’s important. Step V - Factions, but like, specifics. I mentioned briefly in part three, and how they should work on the server, but I know the questions will automatically come up as to what factions could appear in a server like this. The answer: Anything, really. With nutscript servers like this, there is really no minimum standard to be met by a faction outside of the core (the core being factions directly run and overseen by server management, not regular players). With that, every faction that doesn't fill an essential role basically becomes an event faction, and factions that are rarely seen often have their own reappearances treated like events, and it works really well for sustainable RP. That aside, in the context of a server featuring the above logistics, economics, and combat systems, the core departments would look like this: Command The Command element of a base would include the Base Commander (CO), Executive Officer (If any, XO), Staff Officers (SO), and whatever else executive or administrative roles deemed necessary to have on station. Command should do what the title says, oversee the general operations of the rest of their base and ensure everything is running up to code, a code that is specified by server management and put forward to the Base Commander. Security Security personnel, or in this context, Military Police, are responsible for ensuring the safety of the Base Staff, as well as insuring that all personnel are following the law. Without MP on a server like this, there would be nobody to investigate and prosecute unruly privates for pilfering a few bottles of prescription-strength painkillers from an inbound shipment of medical supplies. MP keep order, and without them, it's never pretty. Support Support elements are the people who keep the gears of the base running smoothly. These are the cooks, the medical doctors, and the on-site psychiatrist to help with that recurring PTSD you have from csdesert. Support is not the flashiest or most important department, but it allows players to take up a civilian job in order to make money to spend, which employs a cyclic factor in inducing RP. Supply Requisitions personnel are the dedicated merchants of a base. Players can sign on to become Requisitions Officers (RO), or Quartermasters (QM) to handle to acquisition and distribution of supplies within the base. Supply department works with command to organize infantry squads to make supply runs, and also handles the back end of supplying those squads with weapons, armor, ammo, and anything else they might need to complete a mission. The Supply department is also where players can spend their hard earned money to upgrade their gear above the standard, or buy new toys entirely. Operational Operations is everyone else. These are the SOF elements and basic infantry attached to the base. Players might have a character in supply or support or even security to grind out a job and make money, but they'll likely be spending it on their operations character so they can arm up and get down and dirty in the field. Now, I know most of you are like "What the fuck does this mean?", well, these are basically the factions. For example, say US is a country available on the server, and it's based around the US Army. The factions for it would look like this. Command - Army Officers - 11A [1-4 Players at any given time, typically.] Security - US Military Police - 31B/A [2-6 Players at any given time, typically.] Support - Army Medical Corps - 60A [2-4 Players at any given time, typically.] Supply - Army Logistics Corps - 90A [1-4 Players at any given time, typically.] Operational - Army Infantry - 11B [Any number of players at any given time.] This is effectively the standard mockup for either or any of the primary countries. The numbers shown alongside each department reflect that average amount of players that you'd typically see and want to see in those respective roles. It allows for there to be enough hands on to make sure shit is always happening, but not so many people that there's nobody out doing the field work. Going to reiterate that above are the core subfactions, and those are basically to be run as a function of the server, as they fill vital roles that go into the gameplay. From there, pretty much any amount of smaller subfactions run entirely by players may be added on to fill more niche roles. For instance, with an Army mockup, adding ISA as a tightly knit intelligence gathering squad, DF as the heavy hitting counterpart to ISA, and throwing 152H into the mix just to spice things up. Because factions in NS are literally just a whitelist (no fiddling around with weapons and models and shit), they can be set up much quicker than usually, and the majority of the work can be done by senior staff. It may even be a good idea to have faction applications, so the game is always evolving. Taking unused or exhausted ideas out and putting fresh content in.

A lot of the things suggested in my post are default features of nutscript that just need to be properly configured, which is a lot less work than actually creating it. For instance, the item, vendor, whitelist, and inventory systems are all default components of NS. Fortunately an experimental framework like Helix has a lot of free plug-ins available for use that would be very useful for building a server like I've described, they can be found here. As far as I can tell from my amateur dev perspective, most of the work would be editing the UI's on all the fancy nutscript menus to be a theme more complimentary to the server. Once that fresh coat of paint it on, it's all down to porting and configuring the necessary addons, and deciding what needs to be on the server to make gameplay good. Lots of creative work on that end.

1,000,000 IQ sentence.

Unfortunately, I’ve been getting the play-by-play of the server since I left because some of you just don’t know how to leave me alone. That being said, fuck you, I am up to date. Here’s what I would do to fix the server, now that I’ve been name-dropped and requested to comment: Step I - Burn It. For all you stubborn skids who are so attached to some ideal form of the server than any change in any direction other than what your own personal vision is that you’d rather push down any other attempt to change and take steps directly backwards, stop. Take a second look at the situation the server is currently, and it might eventually occur to some of you that this is an opportunity to break free of all the old ways of the community and turn it into something way better, to learn from the mistakes we made in the past and finally put together something good, something that will persist on an uphill slope, as opposed to the long-running downward spiral that’s been prevalent over that past few years. The natural (natural as in ‘without intervention’) state of the server has always been a shitshow. It needs constant maintenance and oversight to run properly and stay healthy, regardless of the core server mechanics being entirely automated. The openness of the server leaves much to be desired, when it’s the responsibility of the user to come up with the content, or lack of content therein. Point is; the server isn’t sustainable, and never really was. Things naturally just go to shit, and they go to shit a lot faster as of late due to the general subconscious of the community being a lot more resistant to change. That being said, it’s time to burn it all down and start fresh. The benefits of doing so are as follows: The arguments in favor of donor advantages will be a lot harder to back due to it being a different server, which presents an opportunity to get rid of a lot of unfavorable donor perks with minimal backlash. The server can be rebuilt without preconceived notions or god-forsaken nostalgia. The community will benefit from this because they won’t be able to argue for reimplementing silly old features that typically aren’t as good as they remember them. No more running in circles and not really getting anywhere. We can really and truly learn from our mistakes and have an opportunity to abandon systems that don’t or didn’t work in the past with little to no repercussions. I’d like to reiterate that it’s a new server, where none of the shit from “MRP” as we know it applies. Step II - Foundations. If we even get this far, as in if Garnet decides he even wants to reopen a server after taking down MRP, let’s talk codebases. As of now, GG MRP runs on a modified DarkRP codebase, with D3A running as the administrative plug-in. Tally up the workshop content, sprinkle on the custom lua for good luck, and that’s effectively the server. In my opinion (Garnet will hate this), there’s not enough content on the server for it to be successful today. There’s (including the war system) not really much that makes GG special that the most basic of players can see at the surface level. I made this a huge point in the other massive document I made (was making) a while back, and the fact of the matter is the server has no depth. Once you log onto the server for the first time, it isn’t long before you’ve seen all the is to see, and it’s kind of always been like that, except once upon a time it was a bit more difficult to get to the top, but once you’ve been to the top, the server loses all its charm and you end up a forum lurker like me. The server’s depth now is in its politics, not its content. This is both bad and good for business. Drama keeps users engaged in the discussion, but it also is hyper non-conducive to the new player experience, hampering growth like you wouldn’t believe. Blame managers, blame staff, blame whoever, but that trend alone is single-handedly responsible for the situation we’re in now. Nobody wants to join a community where they’re immediately expected to pick a side, both literally and figuratively. This raises the question; how are we supposed to detract from the pointless bickering about the state of the server? Well, it’s actually quite easy in my experience. Improve the state of said server. Convolute and absolutely maximize the server itself so that 90% of players feel engaged enough to play and enjoy and be passionate about the server, but overwhelmed enough by it to not have the confidence to openly speak on it without looking like an idiot. Okay, so where do we start? Easy. Nutscript (or Helix, which is way less janky). NS allows for a much more medium-high RP oriented framework that will allow for just that; RP. As it stands, the server peaks at low RP, and is otherwise entirely without it. Going from the ground up would really allow for roleplay in the server to be totally fleshed out and structured into an experience that is enjoyable for new and old players alike, one that is always rewarding players for their time and effort with quality roleplay. This is the kind of RP server that is able to sustain itself, as the players are always experiencing a unique scenario that isn’t carefully pieced together by a staff team. Right now, we’ve got TDM with extra steps, and, while automated, each war is not much unlike the one before or the one after. There are zero dynamics. The only changing element is the people, which is entirely OOC and the rapidly depleting playerbase really shouldn’t be a core “feature” of the server. Step III - Building Blocks. So we have nutscript, a very versatile framework that opens up a lot of options for how the server operates at a core level. The second step is to throw the idea of “war” out the window. It’s really, really bad to have an RP server that isn’t oriented around RP, but rather combat, especially if it’s on a shitty platform (ergo gMod). You’re not going to place very well in trying to recreate a high performance shooter in an engine less stable than Kendal’s mental state when you’re going up against literally any other game. Seriously, just pick one, and it’s probably better. That being said, the reason people play these types of shitty outdated games (gMod, SS13, , GTAIV, etc) is for the unique experiences that can be had on these niche ass servers. Finding a niche to stand out in is how any gMod server becomes successful nowadays. In my time away from GG, I was able to take a look at a lot of smaller communities that had experienced rapid growth and were operating servers pushing 100 players on average over the course of a day. These servers were able to draw in crowds in gMod in the year 2020 not by doing anything better (fuck no), but by doing something different. The common argument that I see (and one that I’ve even made) is that the timed war system is the thing that makes us unique, but at the end of the day, it’s really not that much of a difference from any of our direct competitors. In fact, it actually hampers us quite a bit. We really have to ask the question, how different is GG from, let’s say for the sake of argument, Icefuse? The answer; not much. Similar structure, similar faction operation, similar meandering gameplay, and identical circlejerking. With that, there’s no way we could just change the war system and expect to compete with another behemoth like IFN on their own turf. It’s just not viable, and we’ll probably just end up attracting a player base composed of (get this) Icefuse rejects. So fuck all that, let’s actually do something different. Something that will really set us apart. “Okay shrimp dick, where do we start?” We start with the core features. The systems that are going to launch the server into the stratosphere. The things that are proven to work elsewhere, and keep players coming back, while creating an authentic and borderline addictive experience. Here’s what I have in mind, based on my experience and analysis of popular trends: Economy WIth Nutscript, items and inventories and kind of a focus, where anything from weapons to armor to 7” dildos are traded among players for money or other items, and economies are typically established based on certain standards. With an economy, players are given a seemingly endless amount of options to pursue and avenues of gameplay to explore, as well as enjoy increased interactivity and (y’all ain’t gonna believe it) RP. For instance, taking full advantage of the CW system and creating weapons with retextured variants with different stats, attachments and rarity and using bodygroups to create armor types and so on. Players can be rewarded with a chance at rare loot for successfully completing an RP event (not fucking hide and seek or some shit), encouraging them to participate, and actually giving value to money. Donator perks would then be reoriented around the economy and items therein to make it more conducive to the system in play. With the below logistics systems, players could be rewarded for doing their chores on base, acting as medical staff, cooks, guards, etc. Passive RP roles that allow players to earn money for use in the economy Logistics Part of any good military RP is the logistics at play during an operation, or just in general gameplay. A way to dramatically slow down the pace of gameplay and make it much, much more satisfying is by introducing mechanics that not only tell the player to value their life, but actually make the player suffer for acting recklessly. Systems we currently have in place that wouldn’t properly transfer to nutscript anyways, like medics spawning with medkits that they usually just use on themselves, or ammo crates that just sit in the base that are a source of infinite ammo, or the lives of the very troops that are fighting the battle. All of it, really, should be limited in a sense, so that players are more cognizant of what they’re doing, and more afraid to stand on top of a sand dune flailing around a .338 while twitching like a crack addict. A more complicated player experience is often more rewarding in the RP context, in fact, only in the RP context, which is what we’re trying to do here. Factions Factions would really and truly need to be entirely restructured to be more complimentary to playing at the squad level (similar to how SWRP is done, but less gay and built for PvP). I’m not going to get into the specifics of even what countries would be on a server like this (another opportunity to get freaky) because we’re not there yet, so don’t even try to ask what factions would constitute factions here, but let me outline the basic premise. The core of the faction is the base or FOB. Each base, 2 or more, should be the primary hub for RP for a faction (on the country level). The way whitelists work in nutscript is a little bit different than DarkRP. In DarkRP, one player can play multiple jobs by opening the F4 menu and selecting one they have access to. In nutscript, there is no F4 menu. Each character (players can have multiple characters) can only have one whitelist. The whitelists themselves work differently, in that a faction doesn’t necessarily have multiple whitelists to give out (typically a member and officer whitelist). There aren’t classes, and any player can effectively have any loadout available to them so long as they are able to acquire what they need to fulfill a certain role. That being said, there’s actually a point to have a ton of different factions, that might have access to different things between them. For instance, a special forces group’s quartermaster will be able to distribute a higher grade of basic weapons and armor than the average infantry unit, and different special forces group’s may have “equipment” entirely unique to them that gives them a tactical advantage in certain situations, allowing for strategy and more RP. With our current system, it’s better to have less factions, and more people in each faction so that each faction is seen as active. In nutscript, it’s actually better to have more factions, so that when a rarely seen faction flags up, it intrigues even a regular player. This is called depth, and it’s something we need to maintain the longevity of a server. With nutscript, only Superadmins (typically) can even find a list of flags to indicate all the factions on the server, as there isn’t an F4 menu to scroll through. With that, nobody can really point fingers on activity, because everyone would be talking out of their ass. Having all these small factions popping in every now and then to compliment the larger bulk of the server allows for some really interesting cooperation, engagement, and RP. These factions have their quartermasters, which are vendor NPCs that distribute basic items in exchange for money (ammo, first aid kits, etc). Combat Combat is last on this list for a reason. It should be there, of course, to compliment the economy and make a use for all the shiny toys players work for, but it shouldn’t be the primary focus, for reasons stated above. Combat should be regulated, and made to happen in scenarios that make sense, and should mostly be centered around the acquisition and control of supplies that bases would need to function properly (See: Logistics). Combat should not be frequent enough that players are able to get frustrated at all the flaws inherent to gMod, but enough to satisfy that bloodlust that landed most people on a military server. Let the RP happen, and let the GMs push it in a direction that makes it fun for everyone. Trust me when I say, the amount of effort that goes into making RP happen is proportional to the enjoyment everyone gets out. Step IV - Bureaucracy. The chain of command in a present GG MRP is actually a joke. The O-11, the de facto leader of each country, is legitimately never treated like it. Most of the players on the server hardly acknowledge rank outside of their own subfaction, which really just promotes minging at the end of the day, but let's not go there. The O-11 position has been historically undesirable because it’s a lot of work, an entry faction, and pretty much a worthless position for anybody competent enough to do it. If the desirability of holding a position like “Leader of Half the Server”, players will strive for it, and that is accomplished by giving the position more power, jurisdiction, and responsibility. A faction’s (country level) leader in the nutscript mockup would have full control over the issuing and assignment of mission, handling of the budget where money actually matters (no need for that budget system I suggested with G4S in nutscript, by the way), and the highest paycheck. From there, the chain of command just goes downward. Subfaction commanders submit their requests and receive a portion of the budget to carry out their duties and are free to manage it as such (squandering it will obviously have consequences, stealing it will have more consequences). It’s important. Now that I’m looking at this, I think this is a lot more similar to GG back when it was USvRUvAFGvUK than it is now. lol

Yup.

Simone got on and tested the anti-cheat for a bit, which hasn't seen much use. Pencil went out of his way to gather evidence and build cases against multiple cheaters that have been plaguing the community, thereby helping everyone and rightfully earning his unban after being offered the opportunity to do so. Don't compare the two.

Unless you weren't hacking, take a walk buddy.

like herpes

I don't have the time or energy to type out why I'm not gonna support this, but basically everything is pretty good where it is when it comes to T3 weapons, which will allow us room to extrapolate with the new donor classes. Also, Army is not getting the M249 fuck you.

We had this idea a long time ago for SWRP, based on /tg/'s medical system. It's possible, however running all those calculations to determine body parts and constantly update the values would absolutely tank the server.

Somethings I really don't get sometimes. To preface this, community opinion doesn't matter on reports, that being said, this is about Buddha's status as a manager and a respected member of the community. First things first; what the fuck, dude? I don't know what the fuck got into your head, but ever since the exact moment that you acquitted from the hacking report you've been going around the community joking about it like you're bulletproof. I don't think you understand that you got away from that by the hair of your fucking chin. In fact, the only reason you walked away from it is because there was a legitimate concern from us that everyone involved in the case was going to have a suicide on our hands, and frankly we can do without that. Seriously, we went out of our way to do fucking damage control so you would keep your position and hopefully cool off and help the community and you go around doing shit like this, posting screenshots with ESP type shit all over them, making shitposts about your ban like, really dude. You are not above it all. We took your emotional appeal to heart, truly believed that there was something else going on after several puked breakfasts, and went out of our way to find an answer to give the rest of the community. I still get PMs from players (got two more since I've been awake) asking whether or not you should've been banned, and then I see this shit. You really betrayed my trust man, and it fucking pisses me off when I stuck my neck out for you. Get the fuck out of here bro.

This community has always been garnetgaming.net, and the new Tier system was only introduced recently as a way to further fund development of our servers.

To me, this doesn't make sense that someone's word alone was used as the reason for a community ban, regardless of who said it. That being said, anybody could come into the community, try to dox someone, and then say someone else asked them to and drag someone else into their situation whether they were involved or not. Guilty by association is not something that flies in this community, otherwise a large majority of the player base would be looking at a community ban right now. It seems unlikely to me that Garnet would support a community ban if that were the only evidence presented, leading me to believe that there is something else going on here, or proggy was acting on his own volition. Anyways, evidence in any case is rarely withheld from the community permitting it isn't of a sensitive nature (e.g Hacking cases where evidence was acquired through means Administration wishes to keeps wraps on), so unless Garnet has something to say, or Proggy wishes to provide the evidence, I don't think a ban was warranted based on interpersonal differences.

Just out of curiosity, why did you wait until now to appeal this ban if you feel that the ban was unfounded.

"i'Ve cHaNgEd"

give me 10 minutes