Altis Life Discussion - Rules and Staff

[Greedy 28]

Hey Everyone,

tl;dr - Some things bug me about Altis Life, is there anything that bugs you?

Before I start, I just want to state quickly, I'm not calling anyone out, questioning staff decisions or trying to cause conflict. I want an honest discussion about Altis Life and the way it seems to be heading.

I also want to state, (I was severely bored at work) so I read the draft rules and current rules from top to bottom and I am trying to follow as required.

 

I'll start off with my experience tonight, I was hanging around in Sydney and trying to think of something to do, and then it was declared, the sydney bank was being robbed. I snuck over, hid in a building and peaked over the window, hoping to watch a firefight. Instead the robbery was halted.. without any warning, the player was banned for 1 day for robbing before cooldown had finished. Of course, I do not know about the history prior or anything like that, maybe he was warned in-game directly and didn't stop, I'll never know. but it had me thinking, It seemed harsh to ban someone, for breaking a rule based on the passing of time when we have no way of knowing if cooldown is finished, unless we go annoy a staff member. 

A little while after, SRT was called. I figured this way due to the two strider's I'd seen driving through Sydney, so I was going on my way finishing off raiding this players house, when I heard a series of explosions. I drove towards them out of curiosity, and I saw the tracers. Looking up, I saw a blackfoot in the sky, and then the tracers started moving towards me.. I hit the ground and went prone. A police officer went to run up to me, but he was hit by a round from the blackfoot. My tires were popped on my sports hatchback so I went to run and try to repair and leave the area. but a police officer approached from behind me. I stopped, assuming he would speak to me.. instead, more rounds rained down, hitting the police officer. I figured some scrub jumped in the gunner of the heli and was waiting for a ban message in chat, I looked up and scroll wheeled.. surprised to see it was a high ranking staff member flying, I saw another officer approaching me so I turned and looked at him, again.. rounds coming down on another police officer.. and a lot of rounds were hitting close to me. I decided to run and try to seek cover, but I managed to run in to a squad of three officers. They requested me to put my hands up, I did.. then they stood in a line and said 'Ready up firing squad'.. Luckily the server had restarted before they killed me, I was a fresh spawn with nothing on me.. so I wasn't even a threat. The part that I find the worst.. Is realizing that police have access to extremely powerful, armed vehicles. Which are only meant to be used to apprehend armored rebel vehicles, unless I'm mistaking the rules here. 

I have also seen, extreme decisions being made without any investigation or, in my opinion.. decent review. It appears to be ban first, watch them appeal after. Where I can see a ban as being a way to protect other players.. it almost seems like bans are being handed out more then kicks. Let alone no-one speaking to the player before the ban is issued. (I'm speaking from direct experience, not on myself, but others I play with.) When I look at the decisions, if they seem excessive, I can usually assume and see 'Oh, He's a moderator, probably took the initiative to control the situation before someone else was affected, But when I see it come from a high ranking staff member. I'm left slightly surprised..  again, I'm not questioning decisions as a staff members decision is final.

I'm speaking from experience though, I used to be a staff member of Takistan Life: Uprising/TLU. They ran two 70 slot life servers at one point and it was chaotic... Imagine Altis life, but every civilian online as a terrorist with an AK74, Lee Enfield or Suicide Vest.. and you can imagine the issues you will need to siphon through, and when I look at Altis Life.. There isn't that much chaos. Of course, In TLU there was a similar rule for unarmed protection, except it was enforced to a great deal. You straight out couldn't kill someone unarmed, unless there was a legit reason (Trying to drive away). I see a fair bit of abuse on this server.. All it takes is a declaration, and you can kill.. Doesn't matter if the person actually complies, as long as you send that e-mail it's free reign. I see this way too much playing as civilian, and it's honestly frustrating, I swear I'm one of the very few who actually avoids having to kill someone, the moment you start actively enforcing the unarmed protection rule.. and not so much the intense investigation that goes into a police officer being killed, You will honestly siphon out the people who are there to kill players, not RDM. 

Now I'm going to continue onto the police force for patrols etc, I've been playing for about a month now.. and in this entire time, I have not once seen a police officer go past police checkpoint 1, exit more then 2km from Melbourne except for Federal Reserve.. and The only time I saw police at Brisbane, was the server event.. and I think I've seen police checkpoint 1 manned.. once. Some people like it, because it's honestly easy to run drugs.. but I don't like it, Police just seem to sit in main towns unless SRT is called.. then it's like it's spotlighting civilians.. There was another time, I was in melbourne and I heard gunfire and an explosion at diamond processing.. I ran over and saw a mohawk in flames, and a police strider unlocked with money and cases everywhere. I thought nothing of it, looted it all, took the strider away and lockpicked it, to find it full of uncut diamonds. I'm not going to say who.. but this belonged to a staff member.. Is that even allowed as an officer? Seems like extortion gone wrong to me. 

Anyway, I just wanted to speak of my opinions and see if anyone would be willing to share. 

[Tiggati 1067]

First off, it is chaos.. 

Second. The cop force is so low with whitelisted and high ranking officers it's hard to control a city full of rebels with 7.62mm+ guns, with highly armoured vehicles.

Rebels over run the whole map, while the cops can't even drive out to checkpoint one without a group of rebels standing there waiting to kill them all. 
I hear on a daily basis "Lets go fuck the cops up" 

Yeah, fuck the cops up that have tazers and 6.5mm MXM's while shooting at them with a navid. 
The cops try and use force to get rid of rebels, and then the rebels complain it's "unfair" 

The amount of cops that get RDM'd on a daily basis is ridiculous. I lose more money as a cop due to dying because rebels are all trigger happy. And this makes everyone not want to go cop and everyone just goes civs/rebels. 

I have access to every single high powered weapon as a police officer, that includes a Navid and an SPMG, even a lynx and the .408 sniper.
But I choose to run around with an MXM with knockdown rounds so I can role play better. But as soon as a cop tries to take down or taze a rebel, all the rebels complain and say it's unfair that the whole cop force can team together, but the gang can't team up against them. 

The rebels go around wanting to kill people and will use stupid role play reasons like "You killed my mum, the whole police force is going to die" that's not a role play declaration..
It's not a wasteland server, it's a role play server, the bans we give out are there to teach people a lesson and to make the server strict. 
Kicking people doesn't get them into TS or give them a lesson, it just makes them annoyed and they just join back in then ask for comp for what they lost. And then we're the bad ones for kicking them.
Ban them and they jump straight on TS and wonder what the hell happened. From there we can unban them after sorting out the issue, if they deserve to be unban that is.

I understand you've been a staff member on other games, but dealing with everything that goes on inside of Altis Life is getting worse and worse. We try and enforce rules harder and people  whinge about being banned because they don't even bother to read the rules.

The whole cop force is getting a re-work, and we're going to start taking out some of the gangs, because there's too many. 

[Blighty 21]

And as @Tiggati was saying, cops get RDMed everyday, I lose about 1-1.5mill a day having to regear and rearm it gets annoying after awhile, I can't even impound a car with out getting shot or Attempted kidnaped, All these gangs take over the city and we can't even leave the base without gettin shot, it's starting to become annoying so it's a bit fair what the admins are doing because in the long run it'll help everyone not just certain people and it'll make the community much more enjoyable 

[Greedy 28]

I see where you're coming from, and I really do mean that, Not going to name any names but I see certain players that straight out want to just kill police and they use the banks as an excuse. It's like a force wide declaration for a gang, One problem I've seen is that 10 minute rule. I can see the role play side of it, you've had a conflict with an officer, whether you killed or opened fire.. logically you would flee, (Though I don't think many follow that value your life rule).

The 10 minute declaration allows a gang to assist a member in that situation, which I would think would be, You pick up your member and start fleeing, if the police follow, and you're evading a combat situation, so logically you can fire shots off until they give up or swarm on you. Similar for a gang vs gang declaration. 

But, What I see is, groups are taking that 10 minute declaration as 'Oh, That officer tried to taze one of our members for wearing rebel gear, Let's go slaughter the police force in Sydney for the next 10 minutes, and since they keep returning, it's an active declaration that doesn't end until one of us gets banned.' 

Which in a way, isn't an issue of rules not being enforced, but there's just some player's that don't take the role play seriously, which is why I just stick with robbing homes, It's just easier, Just in tonight, I stole two MK200's, a Zafir, 2 Mk18's, a Lynx and another ASP-1. That's roughly 4.4mil purchase price, even selling at half the price, that's roughly 2-2.2mil I made in one robbery, and I didn't even need to fire a bullet.

My point is, in my opinion, You're right, it is out of control and I understand as well, within AMC, you, Tiggati, have personally started to fix that issue. 

I'll admit, I like the occasional heart pumping shootout, but I don't seek it all the time, except, somehow I end up falling into it by naturally wanting to help a fellow member.. only to find out he's the one that initiated first. 

I really do enjoy this community, and I'm interested to see what will happen in the future. 

Edited January 6, 2016 by Greedy

[Greedy 28]

In regards to the kicking not achieving anything, I actually recall something exactly like that with you. The player said something disrespectful, so you gave him a quick kick, He then came back in asking you for comp. 

I can see what you mean by that.

[Cpt. Sills [160th SOAR] 34]

Well Greedy. I agree with all you have said. I personally agree with the NEVER KILL A UNARMED PERSON RULE. That needs to be in place. I agree with it 100% I fucking hate running down the street and getting shot as a civ just trying to get to the car garage less than a km away. I also believe that rebels should be removed of anything above 7.62. I am a courplal in the police force and it doesnt matter that i can get hunters. a 9.3 millimeter bullet will go through my windows. the game is litterally cops armed with low powered weapons that can barely exceed passed 500m vs 60 rebels with 7.62 + guns that rips us aparts. Personally i want them removed. 2nd id like that spawn at Rebel outpost removed. Being a rebel shoud NOT be a spawn in proceedure at all. It should be that HARDEST thing in the world for anyone cop or Civ to get a 50 cal. You have to understand the biggest gun a cop can get is a MXM for 30k up untill they are a seargent. The rebels can SPAWN at REBEL HQ and buy 9.3 heavy machine guns and them respawn at sydney and use them. Id like it better if every civ asked a moderator or admin if they can rob the bank. It takes me 10 min to get geared up with a 9.3 navid and at the bank from when i START MY PC. 

[Delta 2-5 54]

"qutoe" I figured some scrub jumped in the gunner of the heli and was waiting for a ban message in chat, I looked up and scroll wheeled.. surprised to see it was a high ranking staff member flying

What u didn't see was the 2 armed rebels around 5-7 meters behind you. that were killing police all night.

 

"qutoe"They requested me to put my hands up, I did.. then they stood in a line and said 'Ready up firing squad'..  this it didn't no about please shed some light on the officers involved.

[Greedy 28]

My Apologies Delta, I knew there would be an explanation for it, I'll admit.. Seeing those rounds bounce around were actually scary, it felt like how Marshall Law should be. And Sills, I can completely agree, the 9.3's need to go. I'm more then happy to rock out with a Mk14 or Mk-1 EMR, They are more then powerful to get the 'job' done. and imo, As the M320 and Lynx are military weaponry, Those high end weapons are unrealistic for role play, same as the ifrit and strider. We roleplay rebels', we shouldn't be able to get our hands on military equipment. Rebels are rebelling against the police force for freedom and liberation, that is what I believe it should be, but instead being a rebel is just paying $75k, grabbing some gear and causing some chaos against civilians and looking for every reason to kill police. There is no roleplay, ever. 

There was one time, I was with someone in AMC, I believe it may of been Jack Fire, I was in a SUV and saw a civilian on a quad bike drive past in Sydney, I decided to follow him and thought 'Should be an easy kidney'. But, He pulled into Apple Field and saw he was unarmed, so I took a chance and approached him with my Katiba lowered, He asked if Apple is a good way to start off, I told him to grab a firearm licence, Grab a vehicle, grab a rook. and drive around and rob some gas stations for an easy $20k-30k per hit. Low risk and low cost. I then also told him in future, Never stop unless you receive an e-mail demanding you to - My point is, Not all rebels are ruining the server

But, There are a few issues I see that cause chaos in Kavala/Sydney, I'd like to mention them.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the 'outside protection of safe zone is 50m', That means between Sydney market to Garage to Air Garage is protected, No crimes should be committed, but between Garage and Air Garage is where I see vehicles shot up to pieces.. and if the safe zone is extended, maybe I'll stop being RDM'd by twelvies trying to rob me in Air Garage as the safe zone is only around the interactions stand, not the heli pad. 

This may be an arguable rule to implement, but I believe 'Kidney Stealing' should be against rules in the main towns, It is such an inconvenience when someone sprints up behind you, knocks you down, rips your kidney out and runs off, when you were just walking to the Garage. 

I agree with the spawning, If you don't have a rebel license, you obviously can't spawn at rebel, so if you want to get a rebel license, you should be restricted from spawning at main towns.. (Might also make federal reserve a bit more difficult)  Though, I would like to see another rebel outpost added to Northern territory, I think it needs some love. 

As I mentioned TLU previously, a feature they had was, When a bank was robbed, all players would lose a bit from their bank account, unless they had 'bank insurance' on them. More just looking for opinions on that, It could be an inconvenience for those who are innocent though instead of third parties coming through to RDM police, It actually made some groups work on assisting police to wipe out the robbers, I understand there is a few rules in place for third parties, but if the roleplay is cracked down on, It could be interesting, as the money stolen works as a buffer on maintaining the money between civilians.

 

 

[sirgeneralj 378]

I'm not completely sure if this is correct but from memory on the map there is an actual rule staying an unarmed person should not be killed unless the pose a danger to your life. I think there were 4 conditions, and an unarmed civi must meet atleast one before you are allowed to kill them. I'm pretty sure running wasn't one of them, I may be incorrect though

Here's the rule on the map (So the rule believe it or not)

http://postimg.org/image/vw2uv2cvz/6a7e244a/

Edited January 7, 2016 by sirgeneralj
Added photo

[Tiggati 1067]

6 hours ago, Greedy said:

As I mentioned TLU previously, a feature they had was, When a bank was robbed, all players would lose a bit from their bank account, unless they had 'bank insurance' on them. More just looking for opinions on that, It could be an inconvenience for those who are innocent though instead of third parties coming through to RDM police, It actually made some groups work on assisting police to wipe out the robbers, I understand there is a few rules in place for third parties, but if the roleplay is cracked down on, It could be interesting, as the money stolen works as a buffer on maintaining the money between civilians.

 

 

That could work, and maybe the money should get ripped out only if you have a rebel license. 

This is actually very nice feedback. Thank you guys. It helps us with ideas of what needs changing in the server.