Here’s an update on the server for those interested.
Scripts
Since posting this, I have added a couple new scripts from the community; the latest two being Badger Voting and Police Panic Resource. We’re aiming to use Badger Voting on event nights for players to vote on which type of event and/or location they would like to see. Police Panic Resource was added to make it a little easier for those roleplaying as police or EMS and has been added to our list of permissions granted to trusted players (To prevent trolls from having too much power, we have limited functionality of most vMenu options regarding vehicle/player customization until we add them to a ‘trusted’ ACE permissions list)
Player businesses has also seen some updating with 13 new businesses added from $25-million and up. We were finding that players were selling smaller businesses and opting for fewer, but more expensive businesses. We even added in a $1-billion business to buy the Military Base to give players an end-game of sorts to shoot for! Once this business EVENTUALLY sells since its just for the prestige of owning it, we plan to lower the payout to that of a $50-million business (our cap we have set) and create another uniquely prestigious business for players to “own”… who knows, maybe we’ll ‘sell’ the town of Grapeseed or Los Santos International.
Points-of-Interest & Player Housing
I have re-purposed the Doomsday Bunker as a hidden, yet still open to the public, location for moderators to access a discount gunshop and market where they can purchase weapons/items at a discount. All-too-often our moderators will figuratively give the shirt off their back; this is meant to help offset all they give and allow them to give even more if they choose.
The Executive Offices at LOM Bank, Arcadius Business Center, Maze Bank, and Maze Bank West have been added as player housing. These locations are EXPENSIVE, but will offer a prime location of real-estate. In time, I plan for these locations to feature a semi-private garage players can park their car in and direct access to the roof. As the server develops and more players are in reach of these top-tier locations, we may re-purpose one or two to be given out as a server reward similar to an Employee-of-the-month parking spot… A player who contributes on the server may be recognized and awarded the house for the next month.
Server Bugs/Fixes
I have found a temporary fix to bypass the annoying issue where players could not connect via the server browser; direct-connect would work, but any attempt to join by searching for the server would fail.
In an attempt to keep the server running as smoothly as possible, I have temporarily disabled a few scripts to ensure our players not running on the latest/greatest hardware can still enjoy a smooth experience on our server.
Companion Website Updates
To help provide information to our players, I have added some more content to our website. Players who wish to roleplay as a firefighter can now find a map of potential fire locations and the street address callouts our Fire script uses. Initially, new players would roam the map looking for the fire since the street callout from the script is rather vague. As new fire locations are added, this map will be updated as well with the ultimate goal of creating two separate fire jobs, one for city and one for rural, with separate fire locations for each.
The Google Docs based CAD system and Player Business database has been a hit! We’ve been able to keep both updated rather frequently and have had to make only a few slight changes.
I have also created a page to showcase current/past players who stream. We figure it would be cool for players to be able to see how others on the server play, especially those entrusted as moderators. Wondering if the cop who seemingly pulls you over from out of nowhere is taking a peak at player locations via blips? Tune into his/her stream and make sure they’re playing like everyone else!
We’re trying to grow this server, so if you have any suggestions or anything please feel free to do so. We’ve added a lot from user feedback and requests… from vehicles to whole new locations!.. Want to run as a mechanic or similar and own your own ‘business’? Hop in and play! We’ve handed out 2 business locations already to regular players for use in their own little RP-shenanigans.
Once the New Year is here and our regulars are back from their family vacations, we will start up the events with some rather large in-game cash payouts, so give us a try!