State of FL

[Generation]

I don't want to be that guy - positivity can go a long way - but I just want to quickly share some thoughts off the top of my head.

1. We had a great start with the economy rescale and accompanying updates, such as the new vehicles. Super good way of getting old players on. (Which was needed to boost our server score, and player count)
2. But descaling the economy and resetting vehicles won't get people to stay for the long haul, neither will updates such as changing the chat box.
3. However, giving players ways to invest in the game mode, such as updates to clans, perhaps passive income systems; rewarding things to manage over a long time; would provide the best opportunity to elongate that initial momentum, and give people something new to play for. However, the impact of introducing these systems is lessened once people have stopped checking in from the initial hype.
4. The main focus of FL should be getting new people in and retaining them. They're the future of the community, and they don't have the problem of burnout from 1000s of hours of playing. But, if the server's empty from a lack of engaged veterans, there's no social proof that FL's worth playing on, and, obviously, there's no one to play with.

A bit less of a structured answer than usual, but I think if we have any chance of reviving this thing now, it'll have to be a community effort.

FL was never designed for features to keep people into it. Updates like what we did recently have always been aimed at giving a kickstart on initial players as with servers like ours It's basically just players bring players. Very few people will join if they know the server won't get many on later or if there's not many on when they check. FL has always been made around players giving eachother stuff to do and features more supplementing that. We've sometimes seen random boosts even when we change nothing which sorta proves that.

There's a ton of stuff that can be attributed to our recent "death", but one thing that's clear to us is the core identity of the gamemode is no longer sustainable. We have some idea of what we can change which will be making FL more RPG like with progression, skills and quests. It's will be a massive change to FL but it's very clear it's neccesary. We essentially have the choice of sticking to FLs core identity and dying or adapting to how gmod has changed over the years.

Just to drop here a few ideas for you guys in case (if you want to put something for RPG like):

-> This could look like indeed something with levels and time played/or with conditions



Policeman
[5] = GetTranslation("Trainee peacekeeper"), -- Service weapon (Around 1h of game time before reaching this rank)
[20] = GetTranslation("Titular Peacekeeper"), -- Unlock Police car
[40] = GetTranslation("Lead Peacekeeper"), -- Opportunity to become Police Sergeant
[50] = GetTranslation("Anti-Crime Squad"), -- Unlock SRU (Why not ?? Ideas )
[70] = GetTranslation("Brigadier"), -- Access to database
[120] = GetTranslation("Brigadier Chief"), -- Unlocks Tazer
[200] = GetTranslation("Brigadier Chief Major") -- Heavy weaponry access (yeahh)
[400] = GetTranslation("Brigadier Chief Major") -- LEVEL MAX (more suggestion opens)


Doctor
[5] = GetTranslation("Doctor"), -- Unlock defibrillator
[15] = GetTranslation("Paramedic"), -- Unlock Ambulance
[30] = GetTranslation("Primary doctor"), -- Salary + 10
[50] = GetTranslation("Chief Medical Officer"), -- Receive distress signals
[70] = GetTranslation("Chief Medical Officer Major"), -- Better healing and higher chance of revival
[120] = GetTranslation("General Physician") -- Salary + 30


Taxi
[10] = GetTranslation("Trainee driver"), -- Race price ++
[50] = GetTranslation("Professional Driver"), -- Faster vehicle
[100] = GetTranslation("Uber Driver") -- Ability to order a taxi with a mobile phone (priority requests)


Firefighter
[10] = GetTranslation("Volunteer firefighter"), -- Access to the firetruck
[30] = GetTranslation("Firefighter"), -- Salary ++
[50] = GetTranslation("Corporal Firefighter"), -- Ability to provide basic healing
[100] = GetTranslation("Corporal-Chief Firefighter"), -- Receive distress signals
[200] = GetTranslation("Fire Sergeant"), -- Salary + 30


Chef
[10] = GetTranslation("Kitchen clerk"), -- Unlock basic/cheap food to produce in the game (i don't know, you can decide)
[30] = GetTranslation("Apprentice cook"), -- Unlocks medium quality food to produce in the game (to be decided)
[50] = GetTranslation("Cook"), -- Higher quality and therefore healthier cooking
[100] = GetTranslation("Head Chef"), -- I don't know
[200] = GetTranslation("Starred Chef"), -- I don't know

Mechanic

[10] = GetTranslation("Mechanic Apprentice"), -- Reduced repair costs
[50] = GetTranslation("Mechanic"), -- Quick repair
[100] = GetTranslation("Professional Mechanic"), -- No repair cost