Where is the development?

[Falcon]

I'll quote my resignation;

"The Developers are a blessing to this community and the root of their demotivation is totally understandable...The work of a Developer is by far the fundamental building block of a community and sometimes it seems that they are underappreciated...by the playerbase"

The Developers can make updates as much as they want and I agree the pay is a nice new incentive; however, any time there is a new update a large section of the community go up in arms over it; and surprisingly that's not going to motivate them much is it?

Motivation itself is a hard thing to come by, especially in a community where no incentive is given to those who spent their free time working on updates. In my opinion, a developer for a community such as this should not rely on monetary incentive, only interest. Developers are of course a hard thing to come by, and because of this, we've seen many come and go. One thing that really bothers me about this situation is the lack of transparency and initiative. Other Garry's Mod communities are flourishing in this department, such as Limelight. Limelight, although not as popular as it once was, had a steady and interesting scheme when it came to development and updates. Take the meth update for example. Although it was released almost immediately after the FL-LL split, it kept players hooked for weeks, myself included. I recall I would dedicate hours in finding ways to make the best batch of meth with the lowest input of effort and hours. Things like this, which give players incentive to become better and hone their skills are what we need. Not new models and new props. These are useless except for the occasional build, which I doubt is even commonplace, at least to the extent at which it was in the past. Many people say that success is made by looking to the future, but in this instance, I think success can be learned from the past. Major updates that allow players to dedicate their time in creating something that carries personal and possibly monetary incentive is what updates should be striving for. Developers don't have to make it from scratch, there is a script store there for a reason. Hundreds of Garry's Mod servers use these scripts and show promise when it comes to updates, while FL is left in the dark ages with developers who don't know what the community wants or needs. It's not a problem with developers specifically, it is a problem with what is being developed and how it impacts player activity and interest. The main point is that updates should gravitate towards community interests and progression, rather than material and monetary wastes.