FL Survey 2022

[Pollux]

What has changed since all the devs saying the current gamemode is too old and shit to be able to improve to now not making a new gamemode at all?

There's been like six attempts at remaking the gamemode since FLs creation, we're not gonna do attempt number 7 as it ends up being a waste of time for everyone involved.

[Rossi]

The updates already seem to be going very serious RP type. Now the survey seems like you’re simply asking “Do you want us to be serious rp?” It confused me to see all of that as FL has always been semi serious, and still is, so I thought.

I understand if majority of the community wants to change up everything FL has ever been about, but perhaps it may be easier simply stating “Do you want seriousrp or semi serious” then if more people selected serious, you can go off asking about all the different serious rp features.

I like to join now and then and see the massive potential it has, such as smaller maps (V2D) or similar. And focusing more on semi serious elements and making it a fun, relaxed environment just like it use to be in the early 2014 stages. Maybe I’m old school and don’t like adapting to change, or maybe I saw how FL use to be back then and how many people loved to play, and now they don’t. I think too much change in the wrong direction is severely crippling FL’s growth.

[Bulldogg]

The updates already seem to be going very serious RP type. Now the survey seems like you’re simply asking “Do you want us to be serious rp?” It confused me to see all of that as FL has always been semi serious, and still is, so I thought.

I understand if majority of the community wants to change up everything FL has ever been about, but perhaps it may be easier simply stating “Do you want seriousrp or semi serious” then if more people selected serious, you can go off asking about all the different serious rp features.

I like to join now and then and see the massive potential it has, such as smaller maps (V2D) or similar. And focusing more on semi serious elements and making it a fun, relaxed environment just like it use to be in the early 2014 stages. Maybe I’m old school and don’t like adapting to change, or maybe I saw how FL use to be back then and how many people loved to play, and now they don’t. I think too much change in the wrong direction is severely crippling FL’s growth.

I completely agree, but because many people did not join prior to 2016, most people have no idea what fearless was like back then. Active clan wars, up to ten people in queue, and so forth.
Fearless is in an identity crisis, and must choose between returning to their roots or reforming even more.
I'm hoping for the first option.

[Nadrickk]

Will we see the results of this survey?

[L Y N C H Y]

Realistically if i wanted SeriousRP CityRPFL would be the last place id look at there is so many big and good ones, FL seems to one of the small amounts of Semi-Serious so lets try keep FL unique. Like it always was, stop trying to be a server your not. FL was made up from very little it doesn't take all this content n all this over complicating shite to make it active just look at how it was before

[Pollux]

The updates already seem to be going very serious RP type. Now the survey seems like you’re simply asking “Do you want us to be serious rp?” It confused me to see all of that as FL has always been semi serious, and still is, so I thought.

I understand if majority of the community wants to change up everything FL has ever been about, but perhaps it may be easier simply stating “Do you want seriousrp or semi serious” then if more people selected serious, you can go off asking about all the different serious rp features.

I like to join now and then and see the massive potential it has, such as smaller maps (V2D) or similar. And focusing more on semi serious elements and making it a fun, relaxed environment just like it use to be in the early 2014 stages. Maybe I’m old school and don’t like adapting to change, or maybe I saw how FL use to be back then and how many people loved to play, and now they don’t. I think too much change in the wrong direction is severely crippling FL’s growth.

I completely agree, but because many people did not join prior to 2016, most people have no idea what fearless was like back then. Active clan wars, up to ten people in queue, and so forth.
Fearless is in an identity crisis, and must choose between returning to their roots or reforming even more.
I'm hoping for the first option.

The biggest change between FL now and FL years ago is its players, which is something we can't really do anything about. The playerbase of gmod has shifted and we've had to adapt to survive as long as we have. I wish it was as simple as reverting back to 2013 but it really isn't, nostalgia simply isn't sustainable for more than about a week. An event or something to go back might be cool, but it isn't an option for long term growth. We saw this the last time we swapped to V2D, where we had to swap from it only a week into it due to no players as nostalgia wore off. That's why it was removed from the map vote entirely.

We're obviously looking at this survey to figure out the general direction we need to go in and we're really appreciate the almost 80 responses we have now. We'll likely have another community update when the survey closes to summarise things and just confirm the direction we're going to go in.

[Bulldogg]

The updates already seem to be going very serious RP type. Now the survey seems like you’re simply asking “Do you want us to be serious rp?” It confused me to see all of that as FL has always been semi serious, and still is, so I thought.

I understand if majority of the community wants to change up everything FL has ever been about, but perhaps it may be easier simply stating “Do you want seriousrp or semi serious” then if more people selected serious, you can go off asking about all the different serious rp features.

I like to join now and then and see the massive potential it has, such as smaller maps (V2D) or similar. And focusing more on semi serious elements and making it a fun, relaxed environment just like it use to be in the early 2014 stages. Maybe I’m old school and don’t like adapting to change, or maybe I saw how FL use to be back then and how many people loved to play, and now they don’t. I think too much change in the wrong direction is severely crippling FL’s growth.

I completely agree, but because many people did not join prior to 2016, most people have no idea what fearless was like back then. Active clan wars, up to ten people in queue, and so forth.
Fearless is in an identity crisis, and must choose between returning to their roots or reforming even more.
I'm hoping for the first option.

The biggest change between FL now and FL years ago is its players, which is something we can't really do anything about. The playerbase of gmod has shifted and we've had to adapt to survive as long as we have. I wish it was as simple as reverting back to 2013 but it really isn't, nostalgia simply isn't sustainable for more than about a week. An event or something to go back might be cool, but it isn't an option for long term growth. We saw this the last time we swapped to V2D, where we had to swap from it only a week into it due to no players as nostalgia wore off. That's why it was removed from the map vote entirely.

We're obviously looking at this survey to figure out the general direction we need to go in and we're really appreciate the almost 80 responses we have now. We'll likely have another community update when the survey closes to summarise things and just confirm the direction we're going to go in.

I'm not sure when this "week" was, but when I returned in 2020, it was v2d and the server was practically full, then people got banned due to the moneyprinting issue, and you suffered a drop.
My point is that v2d is not to blame, and by returning to the roots, I don't mean reverting back to the ancient gamemode in 2013, but rather progressively rebuilding backwards. As an example, I made a good point about why printers should be reverted.

[Boonan]

I mean sure everyone loves to go back to a fan favourite and that clearly seems to be V2D but realistically how many of the OG players would actually come back to FL and play on V2D for more than one week, sure it would be a good initial boost for players but that's it, it would die off almost instantly as its old, quite old - people would get bored of the map and complain about wanting another map change which doesn't solve any issues it just complicated things especially if people are trying to do events etc. Then we'd be back to the same issue we have now, where people are tired and don't want to play as RP isn't really a thing anymore as their is lack of motivation to partake / create it on a grand scale which involves everyone apart from team joint events with weeks of prior planning etc.

This is why there has been an increase in RPG elements to the gamemode and it allows players to stay on and complete challenges / tasks whilst there isn't any RP going on, or the server is at off-peak hours and there is perhaps only 20 or so players on. Slowly progressing backwards to older elements of the gamemode would completely undo all of the work which has been done so far and it was positively received for the most part with the exception of the amount of money you get for contra for the amount of time it takes and how it takes away from interaction more than before. Things like MESKA is the right way forward. Although this wasn't typically FL's strongest point its something that has had to be done recently to revive the server and that's updates. Sure if this was pre 2019 you could get away with minimal updates (which is why many seem to consider FL as unique) / changes to an RP server but that clearly isn't the case anymore, especially in the CityRP gamemode. DarkRP servers get away with it because its just pvp essentially and that's all people care about on it, point and shoot - people don't get bored of that compared to a gamemode which requires actual RP to work properly due to its nature, yet here there is no incentive. So, FL has no choice but to move onwards, people can't keep clinging to the 'OG days' as a way to fix the issues the server has, it's impractical and simply won't work. It's clear that the uniqueness of FL was the players / community and not it's simplicity. That was years ago, people move on, there is zero point in clinging onto the false hope that it can go back to the 'OG days' sure we could get close to it but it won't ever be the same. So for those who are actually coming back it's great but it is again impractical to completely revert back to the 2017 gamemode or to undo the progress which has been made so far, so sure remember the OG days but don't let it blind you as the key to fixing the server, unfortunately it isn't, as we'd be faced with the same issue we had before EvoSide was released and the issues we also had a few weeks after EvoSide, which is far far worse than it is currently.

[Fultz]

I mean sure everyone loves to go back to a fan favourite and that clearly seems to be V2D but realistically how many of the OG players would actually come back to FL and play on V2D for more than one week, sure it would be a good initial boost for players but that's it, it would die off almost instantly as its old, quite old - people would get bored of the map and complain about wanting another map change which doesn't solve any issues it just complicated things especially if people are trying to do events etc. Then we'd be back to the same issue we have now, where people are tired and don't want to play as RP isn't really a thing anymore as their is lack of motivation to partake / create it on a grand scale which involves everyone apart from team joint events with weeks of prior planning etc.

This is why there has been an increase in RPG elements to the gamemode and it allows players to stay on and complete challenges / tasks whilst there isn't any RP going on, or the server is at off-peak hours and there is perhaps only 20 or so players on. Slowly progressing backwards to older elements of the gamemode would completely undo all of the work which has been done so far and it was positively received for the most part with the exception of the amount of money you get for contra for the amount of time it takes and how it takes away from interaction more than before. Things like MESKA is the right way forward. Although this wasn't typically FL's strongest point its something that has had to be done recently to revive the server and that's updates. Sure if this was pre 2019 you could get away with minimal updates (which is why many seem to consider FL as unique) / changes to an RP server but that clearly isn't the case anymore, especially in the CityRP gamemode. DarkRP servers get away with it because its just pvp essentially and that's all people care about on it, point and shoot - people don't get bored of that compared to a gamemode which requires actual RP to work properly due to its nature, yet here there is no incentive. So, FL has no choice but to move onwards, people can't keep clinging to the 'OG days' as a way to fix the issues the server has, it's impractical and simply won't work. It's clear that the uniqueness of FL was the players / community and not it's simplicity. That was years ago, people move on, there is zero point in clinging onto the false hope that it can go back to the 'OG days' sure we could get close to it but it won't ever be the same. So for those who are actually coming back it's great but it is again impractical to completely revert back to the 2017 gamemode or to undo the progress which has been made so far, so sure remember the OG days but don't let it blind you as the key to fixing the server, unfortunately it isn't, as we'd be faced with the same issue we had before EvoSide was released and the issues we also had a few weeks after EvoSide, which is far far worse than it is currently.

wow. That sounds like a whole lot of caring for the old player base and not the issue at hand. Bringing in and retaining new players. For someone who just joined last year I would expect you to know that. Clearly not. 

Use your head. As a new player (think like the masses who play FL not like yourself) what are the pros and cons?

pros: unique rp experience

cons: awful frames, abandoned city, whole playerbase grouped away from everyone, monetary gap between old players and the new one, I can keep going. 

Fix those negatives and you have a start. Instead you are blabbering about making fl a rpg. Sounds almost as engaging as mining. Keep up the good ideas.

Edit: also great to see another survey. Always productive as ever. Sad to see you are out of ideas and need to lean on the community after only 2 months

[Rossi]

The updates already seem to be going very serious RP type. Now the survey seems like you’re simply asking “Do you want us to be serious rp?” It confused me to see all of that as FL has always been semi serious, and still is, so I thought.

I understand if majority of the community wants to change up everything FL has ever been about, but perhaps it may be easier simply stating “Do you want seriousrp or semi serious” then if more people selected serious, you can go off asking about all the different serious rp features.

I like to join now and then and see the massive potential it has, such as smaller maps (V2D) or similar. And focusing more on semi serious elements and making it a fun, relaxed environment just like it use to be in the early 2014 stages. Maybe I’m old school and don’t like adapting to change, or maybe I saw how FL use to be back then and how many people loved to play, and now they don’t. I think too much change in the wrong direction is severely crippling FL’s growth.

I completely agree, but because many people did not join prior to 2016, most people have no idea what fearless was like back then. Active clan wars, up to ten people in queue, and so forth.
Fearless is in an identity crisis, and must choose between returning to their roots or reforming even more.
I'm hoping for the first option.

The biggest change between FL now and FL years ago is its players, which is something we can't really do anything about. The playerbase of gmod has shifted and we've had to adapt to survive as long as we have. I wish it was as simple as reverting back to 2013 but it really isn't, nostalgia simply isn't sustainable for more than about a week. An event or something to go back might be cool, but it isn't an option for long term growth. We saw this the last time we swapped to V2D, where we had to swap from it only a week into it due to no players as nostalgia wore off. That's why it was removed from the map vote entirely.

We're obviously looking at this survey to figure out the general direction we need to go in and we're really appreciate the almost 80 responses we have now. We'll likely have another community update when the survey closes to summarise things and just confirm the direction we're going to go in.

I 100% understand that nostalgic would be gone quickly. However, I wasn't really talking about returning to nostalgic 2013-2014 game play. I was more so stating that I strongly believe there needs to be a smaller map due to the population on the servers not averaging above 15 normally. 

Wether you use V2D, littletown, or any other map, that's up to whichever the community or management decide. I said V2D because it was the only small map on the list to vote for. It's why large maps always work better for large communities. Having 75 players on V33 back then made it a ton of fun. But if you placed the server back on v33 (v4b1) at the moment with 15 people, it would be entirely boring like how it is now on San Ranevo.

As far as the Semi-Serious and SeriousRP aspect go, it just needs to be decided upon quickly with a simple poll asking for Semi Serious, or for SeriousRP. Placing SeriousRP features all over the server, slowly isn't the best way to go in my opinion. As a new player, I would be confused when joining to see all of these addons/features and for it to be still considered a Semi-Serious community. It's best to release a large update for serious features if that's what was agreed upon on a poll, followed by changing the title to display SeriousRP

Player Interaction is heavily needed and I did see it was addressed slightly in the survey. Perhaps playtime hours for government jobs will level you up to the next rank and you'll get more benefits. Example: 50 hours of police play time gets you to corporal which also unlocks a special vehicle, different weapon, and an item. Something of the sort for every job to encourage them to become that job for a while. 

Players who create passiveRP buildings should also be rewarded with more than just a point to encourage people to build and actually have passive shops to go into. RP points have worked back in the day to get people to RP more on that side, but now it's like they're becoming obsolete to players.

Finally, the category change. I know this is a circumstantial topic, but it needs to be put in the DarkRP folder. Yes, you will get players who will come on and think this is darkrp and treat it as such, but there's a reason why we have admins. Imagine having 20 players on the server as we're trying to grow back the community, and have a lot others join because they see people on the server and it's inside a category that a lot of people open. It's worked for communities like Monolith, I think it's about time FL gives it a try.