DarkRP - Thoughts and Ideas

Serious DarkRP?​

Hello, people of SGM! Thank you for stopping by.

The upper administration of SGM has recently been discussing some plans for the future of the community. One of the discussions was about potentially expanding further into new games, which is something we are considering.
Learning from our past decisions, we figured it'd be better this time to put the cards on the table and listen to what you, our players, have to say about the topic.

So, let's get into this:
One of the ideas we're considering is to launch a DarkRP server - SeriousRP. For those who don't know, DarkRP is a very popular Garry's Mod game mode, taking its place as one of the most (if not THE most) popular game mode. Essentially it is a simulation of life in a crime-infested city, where you can take the side of either the criminals, the law enforcers, or the citizens of the city. There are countless guides and tutorials about this game mode around the internet, so I suggest looking them up if you're new to the whole thing.

Our question to you is simple:
As potential players of SeriousRP, what would be your expectations from such a server? What kind of things would you like to see? Content, rules, unique features - anything you can think of.

Edit: further expanding this question
Do you think DarkRP is something we need? Or is it not the right time/right game to look towards?

​

Go ahead then! Let's hear your thoughts. Please remember to be mature when discussing, we don't want this thread to become a clusterfuck.

Remember: This is only a discussion! Nothing is decided yet, and a DarkRP server is only an idea. It may or may not happen.


Have fun!
~Opalium

 

Number one thing would be to keep up the quality of staff we have now, and have a simple yet effective way to manage many players on the server at once

 

It makes sense why we'd want to expand into DarkRP, considering it is within the top 3 most consistently popular gamemodes on Garry's Mod. While I personally am not the biggest fan of the gamemode, I do see it as a smart and logical business move. Even if it might not appeal to our TTT players a whole lot, with the community we already have and the quality of staff we can offer with this expansion, I again see this as a logical reason to why we'd want to expand into DarkRP.

I'm not sure how well it'd work though, considering with our other expansions into Deathrun and Minecraft(both are also regarded as fairly popular) they sort of saw a hype spike and then consequently a swift decline into a very low player count. It's just iffy to me.

None-the-less and all in all, always looking to grow is a great thing.

 

We're struggling to add content to TTT on a regular basis.

DR has barely any players and lacks and incentive to stand around.

Minecraft has less players than DR and judging by the forums they haven't got the features they want either.

I really don't see the logic in expanding again when we clearly can't ever keep up with what we've got, even with dedicated developers on MC side, and the content team for Gmod side.

I'd much rather see the EU side of TTT get another server.

Also I can guarantee that if DarkRP is set up it'll be missing features, DR was and even with two dedicated devs and a new owner Minecraft was fucked up as well.

Not a chance I'm willing to support this idea when there's so much work to be done already.

 

Indeed, our previous expansion attempts were not very successful, and this is why we're being careful with this one. This thread is a result of what we learned from our past attempts: should we decide to go with it, we need to carefully plan our moves - and more importantly, let you guys be a part of those plans.
DarkRP seems like a more ideal pick for a few reasons:

• Very popular.
• Doesn't get boring quickly (which is something DR and MC struggle with) - this is because the game is focused around where the players lead it.
• Very flexible and has a lot of expansion options (something I personally think we could've utilized better in MC, for instance).

Again, these all seem good on the paper, but as we saw, it doesn't always work like this. This is why we're sharing this process with you guys. We want to make this into a shared project, where you can help us shape the server you want to play, and not just go "well, here's what we decided. Deal with it."

 

I'm actually a bit conflicted when it comes to the idea of DarkRP. On one hand, I understand the interest due to the popular demand of the game type, but would we be able to sufficiently keep it staffed? How would we manage to maintain a consistent player base and what would be done? Would we be able to maintain a sufficient amount of updates in order to maintain a consistent level of interest in the game type?

 

These don't have to clash with each other, though. We have a dedicated team for each server, after all. Working on one server doesn't have to effect the other.

DR and MC taught us a lot about the dangers in careless expansion, and also in picking the right games to maintain. In my eyes, the main issue in both these game modes is the lack of replayability (not sure if that's the exact term but you get the idea). Putting it simple - these games get boring really quick, without anything to keep you from leaving. MC usually solves this with mods that gives many more options and things to do, but our server is vanilla so it doesn't have that option.

DarkRP, on the other hand, follows the same concept as TTT, in that it puts the focus on replayabilitiy, not on the content. We keep playing TTT because every round is something new, dynamic. You can see the same concept in other genres like MOBAs and FPSes. The focus of those is on letting players create the interest, not the game and its content. This is why in my eyes DarkRP can be a better option than these two.

 

nonononononononononoNONONONONONONONONONONONO

 

From what little I've played of DarkRP does it not follow the same sandbox idea as Minecraft where you can pick a role and build a place to carry out that role and then carry out raids etc on other players to get money and then expand you money making business?

Jeez that actually sounds exactly like our Minecraft server.

 

darkrp is one of, if not, the most popular gamemode on gmod, having it part of sgm would bring in a lot of players, but imo im quite uncertain about it

firstly, as stated above by many others, minecraft was popular too, and we saw how that turned out when sgm went into minecraft, the minecraft server was bringing in quite a good number of players during the first few weeks of opening, but its practically fucking dead at this point, its very likely the same would happen if sgm went into darkrp, the server might die, but since darkrp is as popular as ttt and much more than deathrun, it might have a chance since its still a gmod gamemode unlike minecraft, perhaps we could implement the same things in said darkrp server that made the ttt server popular ; something that makes the server unique and different from other servers. there are already many other servers that call themselves "serious", so we can't use the same "serious" name standout as we did for ttt, we'll have to use the "harpoon" technique, which is giving the server something unique in its gameplay, like how the ttt servers were unique for having the harpoon, that way we can keep the darkrp server as lively as the ttt ones

secondly, which is my personal concern, is trolls, ttt do have trolls, but theyre nothing compared to darkrp trolls, if you have heard of the youtuber "zuthar13", you'll see the extent of trolls on darkrp, much more staff and dedication in enforcement will have to be put into the server to keep it from going to shit, i don't mind a trolling youtuber coming onto the darkrp server, since it gives more exposure to the server, but with more exposure means much more trolling, especially with darkrp in general

thirdly, why the fuck is darkrp so popular its just real-life economy simulator in gmod for gods sake

 

Guess I'll go ahead and talk about this before I start my day.

I think having a successful big community is great, more people and more than just one thing people can connect through. However, I think after Minecraft we shouldn't even be considering another new game mode. Don't get me wrong, I love MC and even though it's not super popular I still play it and still have fun with it. As you previously mentioned, Opa, MC/DR are completely different from Dark RP. They have replayability. I don't think we should be doing this even though there's the "replayability" factor to it.

Yes, we have teams for each but where do those teams typically come from? our already existing player base or mod teams. (from what I've seen.)

And as far as a new game mode in general, there will always be something missing that players want. No matter how hard you work and try to make everyone happy, it is impossible to make everyone happy. I've heard countless times that dark rp is a game mode with a bunch of trolls and I think it would be a lot harder to handle given we weren't able to keep MC as popular as it was at first.

Even though I stated it's impossible to make everyone happy, we can still do things to keep people interested in the games and have fun. We need to work on what we already have. Adding new modes until we make people happy isn't going to work.

I love SGM. It's a wonderful community to be part of and I've gotten to know a lot of wonderful people, But I do not think we need to keep rushing so quickly into our expansions. We should be working with what we have and making it more enjoyable for players. Not constantly adding new game modes to attempt to draw more people in.

It makes sense that we want to expand, especially considering the popularity of games we expand to. Like the others, I can see and understand the thought behind it.

Now is not the time.

 

This is great in writing but lets look at our current servers

• TTT - Content Team has to get everything put through Highwon, meaning its impossible to do stuff frequently etc
• DR - Again has to go through Highwon.
• MC - I know little about but they have two developers who dont see to be making change, or if they are its not working and probably requires Highwons input.

They key bit here is Highwon, servers cannot stay maintain and content rich if we rely on one person to finalize updates, the only way something like this will work is if access to adding content is given to you @Opalium because you have more time to do this kind of stuff.

Furthermore, does anyone here actually know what DarkRP needs? Our current team know exactly what DR & TTT need (even if we're struggling to add it). I think the MC Devs know what they need (although based on the feedback maybe not).

DR should have been note enough, within my suggestion I listed the features DR needed within 2 hours of launch I had 4 suggestions of content the server NEEDED, but still half of those suggestions remain in limbo.

MC had, like i said, a dedicated team of two developers and an owner and its still gone to the dogs because it wasn't advertised or maintained properly.

SGMOD has an absolutely appalling track record when it comes to new servers, its a miracle TTT has survived and it has survived on its community alone, something DR and MC have failed to create so why would DarkRP be any different. As many have pointed out, its a game mode made up of 50% trolls.

As said above, I feel this a little naive to suggest, DarkRP is identical to Minecraft in terms of being a sandbox. Both still require content, Minecraft itself relies less on content that DarkRP imo because of player creations. However expecting DarkRP to survive without content is a little optimistic if i do say so.

If the expansion is due to lack of money then we are sat on a goldmine with TTT as you know from my input within the content team discussions and with help we can make that for everyone but again that is massively reliant on Highwon giving more freedoms to yourself.

Everyone knows that this community is something I care about a lot and seeing it overexpand and become even worse before it gets better disappoints me because we're stretching our resources too far apart especially when TTT alone needs more work than ever, that doesn't even include Minecraft and DR.

Honestly I cannot support this in the slightest when we haven't even touched the surface in fixing TTT.

 

Toxicity at the highest because that's the only thing that happens on a dark rp server.

fix minecraft and deathrun before you expand again
Prop hunt would go better with our current community while darkrp would bring in new players

 

I play a lot of DarkRP.

First of all, we should work on building our MC and DR servers first. I feel we are only just breaking the ice on these, especially MC. But if it does get added there are some things I'd liek to see.

Content:
-Mayor. Obviously he runs the place says what is legal and illegal.
-Market roles. E.G. gun dealer, black market, drug dealer.
-A big map. The one most DarkRP servers use is bullshit in my opinion. I want more doors, space to build.
-Homeless roles. I dunno, these aren't very needed unless there is a rule where only hobo's can build outside of a door. I have seen this rule before.

Rules:
-Basic rules. No RDM, no RDA, etc.
-You can only do something if your role allows it. For example, only criminals can break into people's doors and police can'y break any laws.
-Mayor can only create laws that do not go against the server rules. He cannot create laws allowing RDM.

Unique ideas:
As I said, I'd like a different map to what most DarkRP servers have. That's unique, I guess?

Now is NOT the time to add a new server.

 

this is my answer


I just do not like Darkrp

 

I feel like if we are going to bother expanding again into another pointless game mode, lets not start with the ultimate breeding ground for trolls.

I agree with Carned, pointless, but if you and Highwon think you need to expand to get more money ayy lmao, go prophunt.

 

Problems: Personally as a Roleplay fanatic, I enjoy most of roleplay, but the problem with darkRP is that its not serious enough, you don't have to go around /me on things and its not a serious gamemode and is difficult to find something unique about it. Say we got the unique part through now you need to make sure that the server economy does not inflate. I used to staff on Darkrp where the owner would give himself a load of money and it would cause huge inflation in the price of things making it much more difficult to buy things after hours of printing. Now say we have fixed that issue too, the inflation is not existent. Now you need to find a suitable map, maybe the bigger map is better to employ the use of cars, but then now that you have cars you have to deal with the problem of CDM - Car Death Match - where random people just run over others.

Let's make it work:

Honestly, I think I can provide a professional opinion on the production of this server, and since personally I love roleplay I will try my best to provide with the extent of my knowledge to make the server great.

First thing's first, make sure that you have a large variety of jobs to chose from, but you must also make sure that one job somehow overlays the other one rendering it useless. Restricting some core jobs to donator only is a very bad decision since it does not allow the players to properly use the core mechanics found on any other server. So things like Heavy Gun Dealer's shouldn't be restricted to donators only since you won't always have them around. However the server must survive on a financial back bone which is the community, so some jobs that won't affect the core mechanics of the game but still provide the donator with some sort of better equipment is good for the server.

Second, make sure that the server has a big staff team before the server's launch. This is important for the survival and upbringing of the server, the staff team would be the second pillar needed to keep the server up and thriving. The reason behind this is DarkRP is indeed a huge gamemode, and at any moment a large group of malicious intended players can join and ruin the fun for everyone else. Also since the server might have a lot of addons or bugs, it would be good to have a large active staff team to be able to identify and report to the developers before it is largely noticed, exploited, and causes big problems.

Third, the server should not have the same slots as TTT or DarkRP, as from experience I never liked the servers that had a small number of people and thus unplayable for roleplayers. Thus a suggestion for the starting of the server is to have 64 slots, this allows more people to join the server and if everything is played out smoothly and nicely the slots can be upgraded to an even higher count to allow even a more greater playerbase.

Fourth, of course before the server is launched an important thing to have are the addons, standard DarkRP is dull and unenjoyable, so there must be a load of addons to follow it. As well as some donator only uses, but something I notice that always causes the servers to go disarray is when the donators have too much power on things like printers and jobs and will cause a hyperinflation and the server will quickly stagnate and die. So it is vital to make sure that the donators and vip class aren't superiority out ranking the standard users.

Fifth, do not make custom jobs for donators without restrictions, I personally don't know who came up with this insane idea that if you donate a certain amount of money you can make a custom job with whatever you want. This is absolutely insane and causes the servers to lack of fun. It also makes the donators stop playing since they already have everything and the roleplay value of gaining these things are gone. However, if they had restrictions that allowed donators to make a custom job that is truly logical and will not give the donators an insane advantage over everyone else, then it would be a fine and successful idea.

Sixth, this is very important, the key to any successful roleplay server is to convince the playerbase that the way to play is not for gaining money and guns and other stuff, but the development of your character, that is essentially the basis of great roleplay servers - Roleplay is not the gaining of scripts, but the development of the character you decide to be and to later tell that story, that is true roleplay, and that is what players want.

Seventh, try not to make the prices to expensive, this does not mean do not make it expensive for people that just joined, they shouldn't be able to just join and can buy a large gun and go around killing people, this just opens gateways for RDMers and so on. Make sure they work for it, but they don't have to waste more than an hour to gain it. This is how you can separate the good players from the bad. The bad players just want to get guns quickly and spread toxic gameplay, the good players are willing to dedecate time making money so they can get weapons to raid/defend/roleplay.

Eighth, make sure there are rules developed to combat toxic gameplay since it is wild spread in DarkRP and Garry's Mod in general. Make sure that you are not allowed to target players and go around mugging them more than once an hour. This will prevent toxic behavior and allow the players targeted to prepare them selfies if they are targetted and also allow them time to recover from the tragedy.

Ninth, for roleplay there needs to be some sort of structure to keep it going, as a player that had staffed on many roleplaying server, I know that once the element of roleplay is gone, it is no longer fun that is why I am proposing to make the admins or lead admins of the DarkRP servers have specific tasks to mange events - event management. Events are vital for keeping the servers alive and the element of roleplay going, there should be major events every month and mini events every week. This will allow the element of roleplay to continue on for a really long time, and when I say long I mean years.

This is just some rules that are vital for the success of a DarkRP server and I personally hope it becomes a reality and if it does I will provide and help with all I got to make sure that this server is kept alive and well. I hope that Highwon and Opalium will take my advice to heart since I am not saying this as a casual player but a person that has years of experience of roleplay and I really hope that I can help develop this community towards that goal aswell. Also if you wish to hear some more ideas you can pm on the forums or through steam.

Thanks.

 

RIP any chance of people wanting to have fun then.

 

What do you mean, if you enjoy DarkRP then that is what is fun, the fact that you are not playing as your self, but as another person aiming to develop your character. An example is when your playing as a hobo, your not making any money, your just developing your character which is fun to you.

Also this does not mean that you can't do all of that, but if you honestly love roleplay, like I do, then making money is not the goal, since it just allows players to become toxic and go around mugging everyone in the server. And since going to jail is only for like a few minutes they just go out and do the same thing again, this is only fun for the person doing it not the players, that is why a lot of roleplay servers have died, because this reason, when money and guns outrank the value of roleplay then why call it Dark RP when the RP is not existent.

I understand why you would think that it would not be fun, that is because people that love TTT and did not try some serious roleplay will not fancy the idea of developing your character, since there is no value to it. That is another reason why I made those suggestions, they do not depend on TTT players, they depend on making its own playerbase and being able to have players that like roleplay for what it is.