FL Survey 2022

[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.

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

People are making out that the old player base is the issue but it clearly isn't, its all well and good typing this and that on threads saying what 'needs to be done' as they believe they're correct purely out of experience, yet that always isn't the case as they are out of the loop and most likely have other more important things in their life over FL, which is just life, a Garry's Mod RP server shouldn't take precedence over real life, and even if the changes are made which they insist will fix the server they only join for a few days then disappear into the abys again, this isn't a one off thing either its a occurring pattern. So reverting back to the old gamemode or undoing recent changes is just an insult to those who worked effortlessly on them.

You mention about bringing in new players well, adding RPG elements will do it (as a knew player I know), a new player would easily take another server due over FL (seen by our player count compared to literally every other 'RP server') as they already have RPG elements as their foundation to their gamemode, we don't, which is why the changes are necessary and surprise surprise they've received a huge amount of support. This is because it allows a user to do stuff when there is no RP going on, and what do you know, RP isn't as popular as it used to be, sure we are trying to encourage RP by any means and it can work with a joint effort but in the mean time, features need to be established that are welcoming to new players and give both old and new players something to do when their is no events / large server wide scale RP's going on.

Lets talk about the 'cons':
1) the monetary gap was decreased significantly with the recent economy update - millions were taken out and only a slim few still retained some money to purchase 1 'high-end' vehicle upon the reset. 

2) Optimisation, Gmod's largely at fault, not much FL can do - the steps we've taken have improved FPS yet we can only do so much

3) Updates like MESKA have tried to remove large groupings and make players interact with each other as they unlock new skills and rewards through completing challenges - again RPG elements, the first of many which will solve the issue of lack of player interaction ie sitting in discord not talking to others. This links into the 'pros' bit too - I've heard and even a year ago unique RP was still a thing in FL and again that's what made it different from other servers, the community who made FL different and unique however, it's unfortunate that recently it has decreased rapidly but as I said previously its being worked on and hopefully there will be a huge increase in RP soon but only collectively can anything be achieved.