DarkRP - Thoughts and Ideas

hey im iraqi
i personally havent played darkRp alot. tho i know the basics of it and see how addictive it can be.
the reason why im not a DarkRp player because of the community i wouldnt be addicted to TTT if this wasnt my first server.
if i had joined a diffrent server i can easily see myself leaving the whole game mode after a few hours and never look at it again.
the point is here i am after 1.7k hours of TTT and i think the community was a huge part of me staying.

i Will defo play DarkRp for the same Reason tbh the community.
we have the players we are sure that everyone who is a part of this is a possible DarkRp player since we know for sure everyone here owns the game. unlike minecraft.
for the addons ill leave that for the experts
i dont know much of TTT addons anyway and ive played this game for a long time


in short im all In with the idea and will defo be a player of the SeriousRp. and i think its a way better idea than the minecraft server and will attract alot of players and expand the community

 

Personally, I like The Purge better, its basically DarkRP but for every 10 minutes out of an hour, there are no rules. You basically can just run around murdering everybody

 

I think this would be a great addition. I have very little DarkRP experience but I know that it needs constant updates: balancing, bug fixes, content etc.

However, I would much more like to see our existing servers (particularly TTT) to be focused on instead of opening up a high-demand server that would take away from the already limited resources we have. We would definitely need to take into consideration things outside of just staffing the server and such.

All around I support the idea but I do not support the ways that it may impact the current servers.

 

I've skimmed the thread, excuse me if someone has already made these points:

I welcome the idea of adding a DarkRP server as long as we truly have learned from the errors we made we both deathrun and minecraft, and can continue forward without dividing resources from these two, because people have paid good money to see them prosper.

The common consensus is that 'nothing has staying power in Gmod besides DarkRP and TTT', which I've just accepted at face value before without questioning. But, thinking about it now, I think it does make sense these why these two are each separately successful: their playerbases are quite different in nature.

TTT is a fast paced game by nature, usually consisting of five minute rounds of gameplay where you need to be using quick deductive reasoning while attempting to stay alive. This attracts a particular crowd who generally like action packed gameplay and shooting things.

DarkRP is a different beast. It's what the players make of it, creating an atmosphere where generally the gameplay is slowed down and interaction based, where some encounters lead to talking it out instead of shooting. Of course, you could always play the game you like and go guns blazing as some roles, but usually most people are turtled up if they have anything valuable to hide. This kind of gameplay attracts a different crowd of people, generally people who like to take it slow with their games and keep it casual but interesting.

Sure, the current playerbase may have some overlap of interest initially out of hype, but if we truly do want to use one of our best assets to keep a server alive and well over time, I think we do need to adjust the rulesets to be more tuned for our current playerbase until it gets off the ground, and then see what direction would be best to go. Purge RP may be just the solution to keep it action packed, but that's out of my hands to decide.

 

These were the rules we used to go by on the server i was staffing on:
General rules and spawn rule:

Spoiler

Spawn:

Spawn will act as a protection, no one is allowed to build or to kill/mug anyone in Spawn.



General Rules:

1. Do not RDM(Random Deathmatch): You are not allowed to kill anyone unless you have a valid RP reason.

2. Do not CDM(Car Deathmatch): Do not run over people at all, enable no-collision on your car to prevent CDM.

3. Do not break NLR(New Life Rule): When you died, you will forget everything that happened to you in your previous life. You are also not allowed to go back to the area you died for 5 minutes. If you are killed in a raid, NLR lasts for 3 minutes instead of 5.

4. Do not RDA(Random Arrest): Do not arrest anyone without legit RP reason. If you are arresting a guy who killed you previously, Rule 3 applies.

5. Do not micspam: Do not play music, or generally spam through the microphone, disrupting communications of people around you. Unless you are RPing as a hobo.

6. Do not use Voice Changers: Do not use any programs that will modify how you sound, you will be gagged if you do.

7. Do not Prop Spam: Do not spam/spawn props for no reason. The props will be deleted and if it is severe, you will be kicked.

8. Do not Prop Kill: Props aren't weapons, guns are. If you prop killed someone, you will be kicked. If the propkill is severe, you will be banned.

9. Do not Prop Block: Do not block areas with props to ensure that no one could get through.

10. Do not Prop Climb: Do not use a prop just to get over a fenced in area, to get across the barrier or to reach otherwise unreachable places.

11. Do not Prop Surf: Do not use a prop to make yourself fly.

12. Do not Prop Push: Do not use a prop to push a player.

13. Do not Bunny Hop/Bhop: Do not bhop as it gives you an unfair advantage. Bhopping will result in a harsh ban.

14. Do not build non-RP related things: Do not build things that are not related to RP-ing.

15. Respect all admins: Please respect all admins and do not talk trash to them. If they are abusing, hold your anger, take screenshots of their abusing, then post it into forums.

16. No offensive sprays allowed: Users who have sprays that are considered offensive(hentai/porn/homophobic/racism) will be banned for 2 weeks with no exception. Continued breaking of this rule will end with more than 1 month ban.

17. Do not Backseat Administrate: When you see a player Mass-RDM or Propkill, do not propkill or kill him back, Rule 1 and Rule 8 applies. Arresting the Prop Killing/Prop Spamming players is allowed to ensure that no further damage will be caused for the next 100+ seconds. This is an exception to Rule 4.

18. Do not Metagame: Metagaming means that you are using non-RP ways to get information during RP-ing. For example: Using OOC(Out of Character) chat to inform the cops that you are kidnapped and telling them where you are. Another example: Using no-collided cars to enter a base to find out how protected it is.

19. Do not FailRP: Do not do things that are impossible in real life. For example: Using physgun to get your car back from stealers, and a flying base with no support from the ground. Raiding by using drugs to fly.

20. You must follow FearRP: When someone is mugging you or point a gun at you, do not pull out your own gun or a knife to kill the mugger or anyone that poses a threat to your life, you must act frightened as in real life.

21. Do not multibind: Do not bind all your adverts into a single bind. All adverts must have a different binding if you wish to bind them.

22. Do not abuse fading doors: Do not open then close the fading door just to kill someone, and do NOT close the fading door after someone cracked it. Using buttons to avoid this rule is NOT allowed.

23. Advert Mug, Steal and Raid: So when you kill someone, admins know that it's not RDM. And do it to tell everyone you are mugging, stealing our stuff. Mugging can only go up to $10,000 and must last at least 10 seconds before killing. You must also wait at-least 1 second before killing someone when calling raid!

24. Do not health boost: Using drugs or any other way to health boost is not allowed. Anyone with HP that stays at 130 or more will be kicked with NO warnings.

25. Do not Power-game: Do not drop the weapons/items you need from a class then switching to another class just to keep it.

26. Use English in OOC: This server contains many different people from many different countries, please use english as an international language, speaking in your own language in local chat is allowed.

27. No offensive language: Keep swearing to the minimal, but absolutely no racial or homophobic words/terms allowed.

28. Do not use glitches or abuse tools: One-way fences, etc. are not allowed.

29. Kidnapping cooldown: You are not allowed to kidnap a person that had been kidnapped for the past 30 minutes.

30. Kidnapping rules: Players may have a maximum of 1 person kidnapped at a time. Players may only hold their victim for 15 minutes, if the ransom is not paid then they kill the person they kidnapped. When paying ransom, you are paying for that persons freedom, they are not your slave. Players can not change ransom request; ex. If they say it is $10,000 it stays that much. If the kidnapping fails, for instance you are apprehended by the police or you are countered, then you must wait 3 minutes before trying another kidnap.

31. Assassinate cooldown: You are not allowed to assassinate the mayor if the mayor had been assassinated for the past 30 minutes.

32. Mug cooldown: You are not allowed to mug a person that had been mugged 15 minutes or less.

33. Do not war without admin permission: You are not allowed to have wars when you do not have an admin's permission. Wars cannot be auto-accepted and MUST be accepted by both the admins and the opponent. War can only last up to 30 minutes, and the duration of it is decided by the accepting admin. If the accepting admin leaves the game during the war, the war MUST be stopped.

34. Do not modify car without permission: Car modifications MUST be verified by an admin to be used. Unverified modded cars will be deleted.

35. Do not Printer Bomb: Printer Bombs are not allowed as it is a cheap way of killing and raiding people.

36. Do not make props invisible: Do not make props invisible as it is a cheap way of cheating/fooling people into thinking that there are no props in the area.

37. Do not impersonate staff members: You are not allowed to change your name as one of the staff members in Eugecus, you will be kicked/banned if you break this rule.

38. Do not use hacks or scripts: Do not use any kind of in-game modification that requires a lua bypass, it is unfair and ruins the RP experience.

39. Do not use any exploits: Do not use any abusive exploits, it is unfair and ruins the RP experience. See rules 27 & 36.

40. Do not camera spam: Do not spam your camera, it can be harmful in some cases, and annoying.

41. No invisible physguns: Do not set your physgun beam to invisible. If we catch you using invisible beam, you will be asked to change it. If you choose not to, you will be kicked. If using an invisible beam for the wrong reasons (propkill, trolling as admin) you will be banned with no warning.

42. Police Checkpoints: A maximum of 2 checkpoints may be made, police checkpoints must be near the PD or Police owned structures. 1 way props, and props that obstruct movement but can be shot through may not be used in checkpoints. A checkpoint may not be impassable there should be a way to sneak through or get around it, without using any special tools or weapons. Checkpoints may only be made by the Mayor or with Mayor permission. There must always be a SWAT or CP to open the fading door, if ever left unattended so people cannot gain passage, it may be removed.

43. Camera Blocking: If you are caught blocking cameras with a prop for any reason, it will be treated as propblock and FailRP.

Default laws:

Spoiler

Default Laws:

These are the laws in place when there is no Mayor or Law Board so people can stop complaining about RDA.

• Raiding is AOS/KOS.
  
  
• Mugging is AOS.
  
  
• Stealing is AOS.
  
  
• Kidnapping is AOS/KOS.
  
  
• Carjacking is AOS.
  
  
• Any thief action is AOS/KOS.
  
  
• Money Printers are AOS/KOS and will be destroyed.
  
  
• Harming other people in the town is AOS/KOS.
  
  
• Weapons larger than a pistol are AOS unless gun holder has gun license.
  
  
• Any attempt to assassinate the mayor is KOS.
  
  
• Possession of drugs is AOS.
  

Beer and Cigarettes are legal.

 

While I would personally enjoy DarkRP, I feel it needs dedicated attention. Something I don't think we're equipped to give. Communities based solely around DarkRP and nothing else seem to thrive more, because there aren't other distractions. I don't it would be smart to invest the time into developing onto it, taking attention away from other gamemodes.

I would love to RP, but not with this community here. Guess Who, Hide N' Seek, and Prop Hunt are all lower-maintenance gamemodes that I'd rather see.

That being said, those comparing DarkRP to MC - I needed a good chuckle. MC is not a RP game. Sure, some people can RP if they want, but MC lacks voice chat, local chat, etc., in Vanilla. DarkRP has all of that - which adds to immersion.

 

You expanded into a DR server, it lasted for a bit then fell flat despite people giving input. It fell so hard in fact, that it's considered to be all but dead.

You expanded into a MC server and from what I seen people raged over lost items, got bored or just annoyed. That server is also all but dead.

Both of these are simple, easy to maintain and update platforms that CAN and HAVE been proven to be not only easy ways to get donations but fun for players on repeat. How? Dedicated updates, I played in another community before this that had an extremely popular deathrun server. It was fun, there was always new maps and a lot of content updates among some other custom features that other servers didn't have. Minecraft is quite possibly the single most modifiable game there is. It's literally a building block for thousands of different things, whether that be factions, mod packs or some whacky custom plugin setup thats super fun to play. There were limitless possibilites here and you couldn't even do that!

If you expand now, you will fail. Miserably. I used to love DarkRP, however the amount of upkeep it requires if far beyond your reach. You would need drastic changes to the way you've been doing things to even compete with other DarkRP servers. Regardless of you're "We are learning from past mistakes" comment, you have nothing to show for it. I don't see any content updates for any of the previous servers, not even TTT. I was unaware that there was even dev teams because I see so few content updates.

p.s. if you do, randomly demoting people is probably the best way to go about running the staff team.

 

All modles were default job models, all found within the game itself.

 

I'd only trust something new if @Carned was at the head of it tbh, so it's a -1 from me.

 

content wise, yup.
+ new staff team would be needed.

 

Darkrp is hard to get into because servers make it really hard to play. Servers make their rules so unreasonably difficult to follow that you can play the game seriously for 100 hours and still get dicked over by the rules. Even if you do learn all the rules after that time, the older players will loophole those rules and make it unfun for the new players. Imagine you join a darkrp server, you want to play a dirty cop who goes around and takes bribes. IN all darkrp servers I have ever played, this has not been allowed. They call it "Failrp" which is stupid. The only way you can failrp is if you break character. If I want to roleplay a Pacifistic crime lord who buys out the police to protect him against thieves, why am I being thrown in floating jail because I'm not playing the game the way the server wants me to.

If you do darkrp, please... don't force people to play it one specific way, all this does is create another darkrp server that is bland and uninteresting, and you wont get players to stay.

 

no please no eren

#13. no. have highwon change it to make bhopping hard, but not bannable
#20 fear rp is bullshit and really is such a W.vs.W. thing, so no thanks.
#21 i dont want to have to press numpad 9 for mugs, numpad 8 for a house raid, numpad 7 for a police station raid, and etc.
#24 no.
#25 this can just be fixed by not letting those items be able to be dropped, chai or highwon probably know how to do it.
#28 i can have a 1 way mirror in irl, i can have it in rp
#36 ^
#41 ill have my physgun the way i want.
#43 if we have no camera blocking it better be able to be shot dead. otherwise im blocking it.

onto laws
Money printers are AOS, Kidnapping is Aos, Harming others Kos, Raiding AOS, Gun liscenses are bs no thanks. Beer must be inside a privately owned house or a place selling it.


Spawn
Spawn is not to be abused, if abused, you will be personally dealt with by staff by having spawn privileges removed personally, Spawn is basically what you said.


Dark rp is an amazing gamemode, it requires discretion, something this community finds hard to accept. it will be hard if we do enter this gamemode. if we enter, we need to really find a limit to the staff. A thing like having trial mods actually having two stages. one where they learn all the commands etc. and another where they are tested on their discretion. this is the way SGM can really expand. the communities will not mix much. @Highwon would 100% need a second owner/co-owner no matter how much he thinks he can handler it.

 

I used to play on a DarkRP server that had rules that allowed the players to form their own RP scenarios while still maintaing order.

I took their MOTD image and cropped it down to just their rules, including their admin rules. Warning: large image

Spoiler: Rules

 

Unless you have a dedicated development team for DarkRP, don't bother because it's just going to get shut down within a month.

 

While DarkRP is the most popular gamemode by far, it is also a cesspool of toxicity. The way most DarkRP servers function go against SGM's very nature. Racist rp names, terrible music spammers, racist groups, trolls, minges, shit staff, politically sensitive rp names / job names, etc. rule DarkRP. Having a DarkRP server would mean SGM would either have to engage in or tolerate the aforementioned behaviors. Even on the decent DarkRP servers, blatant racism has to be tolerated. With how thin skinned some players here sometimes act, I feel like SGM's playerbase isn't ready for a DarkRP server.

Even if we had one, then what? How do we keep the server fun while enforcing the rules? How much power do the police have? Do police get voted in? (bad idea btw) Basing rules? A decent variety of jobs that are actually fun so that over half the server doesn't just become the "Thief" class? Punishments for rule violations? Would there be enough staff online to deal with late night prop spammers who want to crash the server? Which props get blacklisted, if any? Do you have to advert raid? (pls no) Do you have to advert mug? Is NLR a thing? If so, how long does NLR last? Is spawn a safe zone? That is just the tip of the iceberg.

Overall, while it would be interesting to see SGM host a DarkRP server, it would honestly just be a waste of time for everyone involved. TTT is the bread and butter of SGM. Let's not get ahead of ourselves and think that just because we successfully run several TTT servers that means we can replicate that success. I say it's better to invest more in TTT than in failed projects like DarkRP (don't even start), Deathrun (shut it down) and Minecraft (why is this still up?).

 

Woo DarkRP! Glad this is being considered as it is my favorite gamemode and I constantly suggested it. Anyways so theres a lot of negativity surrounding this, and thats okay, because the fact is
that this is a dr, mc, and ttt community, there isnt much overlap with darkrp, if we add a darkrp server, it is going to be a whole expansion. So many people are thinking of this as us taking the existing
playerbase and spreading it around even further like butter on toast, but in reality we'll be gaining a whole new stick of butter and a new piece of toast by adding darkrp.

Heres the hard hitting facts
MC was done excellentely as far as I can tell, the only thing I would have changed would be to make it a bit more PVP / raiding focused, but thats ok that its not, the fact is that minecraft has an
endgame, and when doing a vanilla server, that endgame is very early, there isnt much replayability with minecraft, and also its very hard to advertise, there is no server browser. The only solution
to keep minecraft going would have been by doing a modded server and having it refresh every couple months, but that would have been a disaster of minges due to it being very difficult to regulate
all the things. So in the end, minecraft was sort of doomed from the start, but should be kept around as a chill server and reset every 3-6 months to allow folks who like to just have fresh beginnings.

Next up are my thoughts on deathrun. deathrun as a gamemode is small, and while it is replayable, it isnt constantly playable, its sort of like csgo surfing, you do it to chill out and relax for 30-60 mins
before or after gaming, as of the time of this writing, deathrun has 226 players, ttt has 1120, and darkrp has 4610, its not serious deathrun thats failing / dying, its deathrun in general, again,
keep the server around, push the occasional update, but don't expect it to be full, make it a relax server for a few folks, thats my thoughts on that.

So now for my proper thoughts on Darkrp, I have extensive knowledge as I have played many servers and owned around 10 servers as well as doing large amounts of development and setup work for darkrp.
Darkrp is a gamemode that is fun for all ages in my opinion, just like ttt. But your main audience will be a younger generation, which is fine. But also this means that its a lot easier to get players
they dont join based on pings or player counts, the darkrp player is looking for the addons they like, for example I would rather player a 10 player server with wiremod than a 100 player server with
so little addons due to the owner fearing crashes and not being able to develop content. So if we get a small playerbase injection from SGM as a whole which shouldn't be an issue given how large we are
and then provide a PROPER darkrp server that is playable, it will most likely succeed and it will grow, adding to our community. This is also something that will be a lot more hands on by Opalium, Highwon,
and myself. You may be asking what would seperate us from the other hundreds of servers, well the biggest one would be our staffing procedures, the fact is that the majority of darkrp servers are owned
by people under age 18, and staffed by people under age 16, with no quality control. Also it is very pay to win, one of the largest servers that is active right now, allows players to buy moderator
for $20 per month, I know for a fact we wont allow that which means right off the bat, we are looking better than one the biggest darkrp servers out there. The next thing we will have, is proper content
With proper lua developers, we can code anything we want, and add all the popular addons while ensuring things are balanced and playable. It is NOT hard to make a darkrp server, all you really need
is to throw together a few addons, get a decent staff team, populate it with 5+ people at all times (afk move could be used here, I for one would afk it 24/7 myself), set a proper title with the right
tags, and boom, you're set. And darkrp is very easy to change as well, a lot of people are talking about purge, I am a bit impartial but it I know that some players enjoy it, one issue you see with
darkrp servers is that the VERY good players do nothing but hide in their base and make money all day long and never leave, allowing them to leave and go on killing sprees will ensure players are allowed
to go out and enjoy themselves, instead of just constantly being afk. Which brings me to another point, AFK. With TTT and dr, you should never go afk for long because you won't know exactly what might
happen, you might accidentally death avoid, or delay a round. with darkrp you can go afk at anytime for a minute or two at a time or even alt tab out, print some money while you are doing your homework
this makes it easier to maintain players online, which would help grow the server.

In summary:

darkrp is easy to setup
darkrp is around 4x larger than ttt
dr and mc are irrelevant
we dont expect many existing players to move to darkrp
we will gain new players, not stretch the existing

 

I like the idea tbh. I have played DarkRP a lot, even used to be a mod for an old community. It was hell to moderate, having a full server and some of the players were like super cancerous.

But it's manageable, it's an easy gamemode to get a lot of players in, especially if you already have a populated community. Getting a DarkRP server, as it is the most popular gamemode, wouldn't be hard to populate. There would need to be quite a bit of content though.

Either way I don't wanna like type out a full paragraph (TOO LAZY AND IT IS LIKE 4AM RIGHT NOW) but I definitely would like this, see how it goes. Maybe not right now, but in the future I'd love it.

 

I've put at minimum one thousand hours of playtime into DarkRP, with little to no afk time.
I've also held many staff positions in DarkRP servers, plenty of which were higher-up positions.

I can understand why DarkRP may seem like it has the potential to generate its own community, and with that bring new people to SGMOD. But I don't know if it is yet the time to be pursuing new horizons, especially after the somewhat recently 'failure' of the MC server.

Sure, a lot the pros to having a DarkRP server are obvious:
- Is a very dynamic gamemode that is always changing and providing something new.
- It's kind of a let loose gamemode, lots of freedom.
- A slew of classes to pick and choose from, each offering their own unique role in the DarkRP servers society.
- It's a very social gamemode, possibly moreso than STTT.

Neutral considerations:
- It's very hard to strike a balance when creating the rules. Rules that severely limit how you build your base or rules
that severely limit fun and creativity can kill the server pretty fast.
- It takes a fair amount of staff to run a DarkRP server. For a server of 120 players you'll need at least eight to ten staff on at all times
in order to ensure that all situations can be addressed and handled properly.
- Having a static map that doesn't change, and one that is open, complex, and has plenty of accommodation for the size of the server.

But there are cons as well that must be taken into consideration:
- You will have a hive of activity in the report section of the forums, as DarkRP tends to generate lots of RDM and rule breaking.
- DarkRP servers are prone to trolls who join, mass rdm and then leave as well as being frequent for DDoS attacks.
- Generally demands lots of server events and content updates.
- Admin abuse / Corruption. I see this less in other gamemodes ( still present nonetheless ), but, staff on DarkRP servers in many
cases will resort to abusing their powers e.g. Flying through the map while in character or giving themselves resources.

This is just some of what should be taken into consideration when deciding on whether or not a DarkRP server should be developed and released. I would definitely join in and play on the server when I don't feel like playing TTT and vice versa.

Very excited to see what the outcome of this will be.

 

Exactly what I stated, Xpro gets it 100%

 

"Simple" if you will. And we know how that worked Simples boring and never proved to work I like custom, darkrp plox