As a regular browser of the FiveM forums, I constantly see the same patterns, over and over and over again. And honestly, it saddens me. The number of almost-identical servers is tantamount to spam, and anyone trying anything unique (roleplay or non-roleplay) just gets buried.
So, to anyone making a server, here are things to avoid:
DOJ-like or NoPixel-like
Let’s face it, there’s more servers that claim to be DOJ-like, or have DOJ in the name, or claim to be NoPixel-like, than there are stars in the sky. Seriously, it’s not an original idea in the slightest. And what’s more, it’s always going to be a clone - you automatically limit yourself.
Anything based on Florida
A popular trend, not one that I’m really a fan of, but hey, each to their own. Either way, half the servers you see now seem to be based on Florida. If not more.
Do more than “X State Roleplay” or "X County Roleplay"
You can probably reskin the vehicles of one community, and have it be identical to another community. Good roleplay is what people will join for, not vehicles based on any specific state/county. Pick a good design, then pair it with a good idea.
Anything that’s generic
There are people out there, who are making servers with unique concepts, new ideas. If your server isn’t unique, then it just looks like a blatant power grab. “Custom” stuff doesn’t count as unique, since in reality they are slight variations on existing vehicles/scripts/mods. Research your server, because 99% of the time your idea has been done, by a server with more people. Hell, there’s probably a server that’s done all of your ideas in the exact way you was thinking.
Now, here are some things to note:
If you can’t do basic development work yourself, you probably shouldn’t be running a server.
If you can’t code, that’s fine.
But if installing resources is a struggle and you have to get someone else to do it, that severely slows down server development. It’s probably worth partnering with someone who does know how to develop, particularly if you have an actual original idea.
If your server relies on some magical custom script you cannot code yourself, you can probably say goodbye to that idea.
Devs aren’t magicians. If you don’t know how to code, then you probably don’t understand the limitations of code. Furthermore, it’s hard to find developers willing to work on small servers, no matter how amazing the idea behind it is.
Showcase what’s unique, not what’s not.
If you have something unique about the server, put it in the title. Don’t put “Drugs | Housing | LEO/FIRE/EMS”, because those aren’t unique things. Put the things that make your server stand out, like “Lore Friendly Vehicles”, as well as important information, like “Menu Based” or “ESX”.
I’m hoping to aleviate some of the clone syndrome that the server bazaar suffers from, and hopefully make this community better, and more innovative. And hopefully lessen the number of small servers that die a quick death because of overcompetition.
If you disagree with anything I’ve said, then please take it up with me. This is all based on experience around large and small servers on FiveM and in RP in general.
I totally agree with you on this as I hate seeing DOJ or NOPixel like servers. The server bazaar is full of them and it has made it pretty hard to find the actual good servers. The good servers are missing out on members. I don’t think this will help as the people that want to create a server probably don’t know what we mean by this. I would love to see some servers with a unique concept that actually have potential .
I think people have lost what the word custom means too. I can join a server with custom (scripts, vehicles, peds) and they will all be from either gtamods, lcpdfr, or here on the forums just drag and dropped. Kinda sad tbh.
Yeah. And servers that do put the effort into having custom stuff get lost, because they cannot showcase their unique stuff.
And while I’m talking about false advertising (which is basically what that is), people claiming they have 100 members when really they have 100 people in their Discord. They’re not members if they haven’t applied for anything.
Maybe something like the new boost system will work on the forums that people with element club subscriptions can boost their topic to stay at the top so its easier to find the good servers as the servers that are false advertising are further down the list. I’m sure someone would say its unfair but I’m done with these servers that say they have custom scripts and cars. Or maybe a auto moderation system where the forums will not let you put phrases in the topic title like “Custom scripts, cars, peds, maps” so people actually come up with some good topic names. Or a auto delete topic when there has been no activity on the topic for like 2 months. But so the creator can reopen the topic at any time. Just to clean up the server bazaar. You get the deal. This is some ideas that might help this server bazaar chaos.
Thing is, many of the servers which falsely advertise can probably afford element club, and so they’d probably advertise their server more often, meaning more people will see the false advertising. The best thing would be an automoderation system to block out overused phrases, or require moderator approval (a blanket blacklist might not be the best thing).
Honestly there are a lot of RP servers that took vehicle mods from 5mods, LCPDFR, and other sites without any consent from the authors, especially the ones with disclaimers that say everyone cannot use them without permission. The term “Custom cars” may be misinterpreted as edited real life vehicle mods because there is currently a high amount of real vehicle mods in many servers. The term “Lore friendly” is also being misinterpreted as “Putting any places in San Andreas on Non-California liveries for real life vehicle mods”, there should be no real life vehicles involved if a server wants to be lore friendly, because having real life vehicles beats the purpose for being lore friendly.
This right here. My server has ~380 custom cars, but they’re all lore friendly, and I’ve had people come up and go “you have no custom cars”. It’s a real pain in the ass.
As for the lore friendly, yeah, it does lead to a lot of confusion through misinterpretation.