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IMPORTANT READER CONTEXT: To abide by forum rules, I will attempt to condense this information as much as possible. if the Staff team is interested, I will write an informative extended version of this suggestion. If you have questions, please comment below and I can elaborate. Again, these suggestions can be combined and altered to the staff's liking. If you do not like one part, please do not - support the entire post, rather comment what you like and don't like. I've been playing Gaminglight for over 8 years, starting in 2015. Since then I've seen the PoliceRP server go on a downward spiral and it's at a very low point at the moment with an average of 32 players this month and a maximum amount of players at a single time of 58 players. There needs to be a change or else the server will fizzle out and die. The highest player count AT A SINGLE TIME for the server this year is 85 players in March 2023. Since then the highest player amount at a single time has dropped significantly over the following months. Does anybody remember the last time the server had 100 ACTIVE players on it? These suggestions are built upon players' most common problems/issues with the server. Here are some issues I've witnessed and heard from players over the years. - Low player count / Majority of players on the server are AFK. - extremely unbalanced combat - Militarized Police - ingame economy suffering from inflation. - Many unused free-to-play jobs - long download time for content - Bureaucracy and politics plaguing departments ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What you want to see? - Here are some suggestions that could bring more players back to the server and address the issues above - Remove the inventory system and replace it with a pocket. - Currently the Gun Dealer. Heavy Gun Dealer and Black Market dealer jobs are not played very much, if at all. Removing this inventory system creates a need for individuals who want weapons to go and purchase them. This will get players to become dealer jobs again, open their own stores, and create RP within the server. The pocket system will also prevent Self-supply when the player dies or switches jobs. They lose what is in their pocket. This will also prevent players from storing their weapons during a firefight to prevent losing them. - Wipe the current ban list - A little self-explanatory, but allow individuals a second chance to come and try out the server. By keeping players banned, they will never contribute to growing the player count. - Condense departments back to how the server originally started (PD, Swat, FBI) - There are many complaints about the departments. These range from the "Militarization" of the police, I.E., Overpowered officers in tactical vehicles are responding to minor crimes and there is a lack of accountability and punishment in separate departments with different SOP's and much more. By merging the 9 departments into 3 departments, we can solve many issues that plague the server. Removing the extra departments will decrease the download/load time and lag massively. This means new players can join much faster and have a smoother playing experience By having just a police, FBI, Swat, and EMS building. We can allow for businesses and bases to be near the central part of the map. Currently, government buildings take up all of the "downtown" buildings. On the current map, there are just 2 shops allowed for player use at the end of the road near the bank. This forces players to spread further on an already big map and makes it difficult for new players to find a place to put their gun store or base. By condensing the departments, we can have more accountability and control over officers' actions. Many times, Tac Units in different departments are not punished appropriately or at all as opposed to their counterparts in PD. This is because there are no "checks & balances" amongst the departments since they all operate to their own "SOP". Militarization Issue: Many citizens complain about the unrealism within the server. Yes, it's not a "serious RP server" but it's getting out of hand that the SWAT, SRT, and other tac units are conducting traffic stops on citizens. Almost every time there is a shootout, the tac units are on the scene within seconds. It's almost impossible for criminals to win unless they are a custom class. If we condense the departments, there will be enough officers on regular PD to give the "realism" back to the server. Fixing the /911 bug: Currently if you call /911 and there are less than 5 PD officers on. The user will get a message back that says "There are no Police Officers Online!" and not send in your call for help. The script doesn't take into account the other Tac Units online. Implementing this will provide more officers online, thus enabling users to call /911 and get help. Merging will make the law enforcement in the server uniform again, with everyone adhering to the same policies. - Another way to add realism and to reduce militarization is to have players only switch to SWAT when a situation calls for it, such as a Bank robbery, Hostage situation etc. This way, all the SWAT spawn together, group up and arrive together. Giving the PD ample time to set up a perimeter and RP in the scenario. (Since in real life, SWAT just doesn't appear immediately; they take a little bit to get to a scene.) Once the situation ends, they switch back to regular PD, FBI, etc. This fixes the militarization issue and the /911 bug. - As per the Merge, switching ranks will be easier said than done. However, the fairest way for everyone would be to put non-low or high-command tac unit members into the SGT role. This way, they are put into a supervisor position and can spread their knowledge and wisdom to the enlisted ranks of the PD. Low command tac units will be merged into the Lieutenant and high command will be merged into a Captain or Colonel. again, this is just a suggestion; do as you see fit - Economy Reset and or/ Remove 750K starting cash, instead make starting cash 25K. - By starting every player at 750K, the dollar's value in the game drops dramatically. Significant disparities exist between those with hundreds of millions of dollars on the server and those just starting out. Changing the starting cash to a much lower sum will reduce inflation instantly within the economy and make people value their money more. - An economy reset combined with the new starting cash will put every player on an even playing field. Thus enticing players new and old to spend more time on the server running a shop, selling drugs, printing money etc. It will boost actual engagement in the server instead of the "AFK job" populating the server. - Simply health of characters: - All non-government classes are 100 Health and 0 Armor with the exception of specific VIP jobs. For example, Pro-Thief or Hitman could spawn with a maximum armor level of 20 or 25 since they are the "Professional version" of their class, and the fact that VIP jobs always get little extra goodies over the regular job. - PD and FBI regardless of rank are 100 health and 50 armor. SWAT is 100 health and 100 armor. - This will help to balance combat by giving everyone almost an even playing field without making one class OP over the other. In real life, the majority of police officers wear flexible body armor that stops small-arms fire (9mm, .40, .357), while SWAT wears hard body armor that stops higher caliber rounds (5.56x45mm, 7.62x39mm M16 and AK-47 rounds) - This will now drive combat into the weapon you are using, which will purposely push players to seek out the different types of gun dealers, giving life to the class once again. Why should we add it? - by implementing these features, we can balance the server and get new and old players to play on the server again. What are the advantages of having this? - Better performance, less download time, overall better quality of life for players Who is it mainly for? - The entire community and those who are new to joining the server. Links to any content - Statistics and data on the server were found here. https://gmod-servers.com/server/235279/stats/ https://www.battlemetrics.com/servers/gmod/14633137?playerCount=30D&serverRank=1M&timePlayed=1M Authors Note: I couldn't add the graphs to show the data of the declining player count. I will attempt to add it or you can click the links above and see the data I'm referencing. Although some of these suggestions may rub some feathers considering they are server changing, you have to realize that if nothing is changed, there will be NO server for anyone to play on. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please leave your comments down below, I want to see this community and server prosper.

I'll edit this later if I formulate an opinion on this, however right now I mostly lean towards -support because if this were to he implemented, cops can just say "I'm being mugged at (10-20)" on radio and just ruin the entire experience of the mugging. Instead I think the mugging player should have to request the other person to give/drop their weapons and radio(if applicable) via /me. And that's their opportunity to get help is before they have to drop it. At that point it would be failrp if they already dropped their radio and then call for help. This would make mugging more entertaining and add a little spice to it instead of everyone's adverts just automatically stripping you of everything that helps. Current example: "Mug drop 30k in 10s or die! (Comms smashed/weapons stripped)" Example I'm proposing: "MUG 30K, DROP RADIO IN 10S OR DIE. REACHING FOR WEAPON IS KOS(panic jammed)" or something along those lines. I think the player being mugged needs to drop their radio/weapons via /me before they give the money. Also gives a longer opportunity for another government to see what's happening when they're driving around and possibly help their battle buddy. Adding more risk to a mug and makes the crim want to find a discreet spot to perform the mug.