Don't have all NPC cars locked, only some

[Namron]

Brief Summary:   Don't have all NPC cars locked / unstealable. Only have a % of them locked

Detailed Suggestion:    While lots of people were in-favour of the original suggestion from June, the conclusion I thought had been reached in the suggestion from Stealthee's comments was that only a certain percentage of the vehicles (e.g 50-70%) would be locked. 

By adjusting it to this, we support the user experience for new players, and also experienced players who had forgotten lockpicks / gotten stranded to still get a vehicle. 

The Pros:

- Continue to provide an option for new players until they have the money to get their own vehicle

- Caters for players who might get stranded (especially when there's no taxi men about)

- Caters for people that occasionally forget lock-picks

- Still provides an opportunity for police to catch people stealing cars, without stealing cars being the primary thing as it was before

 

[Alesia]

+1

it is annoying enough to run from sandy to impound without any cars on the road, having a bunch of locked cars pass by only annoys more.

 

[Shepherd Kingston]

Parked cars - locked, cars with civs that are driving - unlocked

 

[M]

Maybe implement it that locked cars are always the faster, higher powered cars. The ones that people can steal are the rust buckets and the family cars

 

[Anonymous Eagle]

keep as is, introduce hot wiring with a high chance to fail and lock picking/jimmying with a lock pick that has a mini game and allows you to start the engine/unlock doors

i for one im quite fond of not having every bald newbie just run me over because they have an abundance of missile cars to choose from

 

[Antollyme]

- Continue to provide an option for new players until they have the money to get their own vehicle

You have lockpicks available to you for a reason. New players have ample means to get around the city via this method. 

- Caters for players who might get stranded (especially when there's no taxi men about)

If you are a criminal chances of you carrying lockpicks are high to use to steal a car.

- Caters for people that occasionally forget lock-picks

I personally don't agree that that will benefit the server. If you don't carry the tools for crime, doesn't mean it should be made easier.

- Still provides an opportunity for police to catch people stealing cars, without stealing cars being the primary thing as it was before

People can still steal cars, with lockpicks.

Could probably look into the idea if you i.e. point a weapon at an NPC driving a car they stop and get out leaving it unlocked.  But I honestly don't agree with any of the "pros" made.

 

[Namron]

I honestly don't agree with any of the "pros" made.

And that's completely fine, I'm not going to have a big debate about it since In under 24 hours we have 30+ people that agree.  All we are asking is that the original suggestion can be implemented as per the fairly reasonable conditions Stealthee stated (a % of cars are unlocked)

People in this thread have made other fantastic suggestions that I think could also work. 

I'd suggest we take a minute to remember new players. As many people have recognised, there's areas in the new-joiner-experience that could definitely be improved. I think this change has made it significantly harder for new people... By having a % you still encourage people to buy lockpicks as you mentioned - while also giving them that possible lifeline that they can steal a car if they really need to. They don't really have "ample" means when you consider the lack of knowledge around how our systems work and the lack of money to buy lockpicks when you join.

I also think it's unreasonable to expect any player, new or seasoned, to walk or run for ages to get lockpicks, when they may have simply run out or respawned and forgotten. 

Player retention is really important, there's plenty of opportunities created by the dev team for players to figure things out or acquire 'the tools for the crime' further down the line.. however getting temporary transport until they can afford their own car shouldn't be too expensive or challenging. 

 

[Yello]

But I honestly don't agree with any of the "pros" made.

Continue to provide an option for new players until they have the money to get their own vehicle

Surley this is the most obvious one out there, when you started out on the server. I am sure you remember running around searching for one of those unlocked cars because only some are unlocked. By having 100% of the cars be locked until you spend £650 (I think it is) on a lockpick that might break, creates a bit of a shit situation for a new player. Who the fuck wants to run everywhere. 

Parked cars - locked, cars with civs that are driving - unlocked

To me, this seems like the most logical solution

 

[Hawaii]

 

[Hawaii]

Like other suggestions this one is trying to fix something the wrong way - again.

The solution here isn't to allow cars to be stolen, and the issue is our garage system. I say we change it making people able to spawn vehicles in any garage. If civs cant afford a basic car with the starting cash it's also a big red flag. We have those rental bikes so you dont spend hours getting to the dealership.

We didnt have this issue on altis life, we shouldnt have it here either. And I'm not the first to dislike this garage system.

 

[ufff]

Like other suggestions this one is trying to fix something the wrong way - again.

The solution here isn't to allow cars to be stolen, and the issue is our garage system. I say we change it making people able to spawn vehicles in any garage.

If civs cant afford a basic car with the starting cash it's also a big red flag. We have those rental bikes so you dont spend hours getting to the dealership.

We didnt have this issue on altis life and we shouldnt have these issues here either. And I'm not the first to dislike this garage system.

I see what you mean about the garage i absolutely hated it at first but as a player that is around quite a lot it's not that bad it's nice to have garages scattered around and it means if you're using certain vehicles for certain things you don't want people to know about then you can stash it away somewhere low pop and use it without many of the risks of leigon, i think if you allow all cars to be in all garages it just kind of makes everything a bit more stale and more like Altis Life. 

Detailed Suggestion:    While lots of people were in-favour of the original suggestion from June, the conclusion I thought had been reached in the suggestion from Stealthee's comments was that only a certain percentage of the vehicles (e.g 50-70%) would be locked. 

As for cars, i like how it is currently it's not that hard to find a car in the long run most of the time with the new local population finding parked cars isn't too hard as there seems to be tonnes of cars around now, all parked are open I believe and all cars driving are locked. It's nice to see people not being dragged out of moving cars all over the place. When i first started all cars were locked i think it was something like a 0.5% chance of finding a car that wasn't locked that was infuriating. 

I do see where you're coming from here though Norman, if it was switched to be 50-70% of moving vehicles locked with parked cars being left alone that'd be more than enough cars for new players to chance finding/stealing. 

 

[Namron]

Like other suggestions this one is trying to fix something the wrong way - again.

No it isn't.

This suggestion is us trying to plead for a reconsideration of the original suggestion, (which you told me yesterday you didn't read!!)

We didnt have this issue on altis life, we shouldnt have it here either. 

Well the fact that there isn't NPC cars on Altis is probably a big factor...

all parked are open I believe and all cars driving are locked.

I do see where you're coming from here though Norman, if it was switched to be 50-70% of moving vehicles locked with parked cars being left alone that'd be more than enough cars for new players to chance finding/stealing. 

As far as a few of us have testing, all NPC cars are locked. The ones you've found parked might have been lockpicked already.  However this would be a good suggestion as @Shepherd Kingston said above. (I also completely agree that changing the garages would be an awful idea)

The solution here isn't to allow cars to be stolen, and the issue is our garage system. I say we change it making people able to spawn vehicles in any garage.

I don't think this is the solution. Changing the current garage system doesn't solve the problem if new people can't afford a car.

As I've said, the entire new-joiner-experience needs improvement, but that's a different suggestion, this one mechanic affects people's level of enjoyment massively and I'd argue affects player-retention, and the 36 upvotes would suggest people agree!

Getting temporary transport when you're new/stranded shouldn't be a big challenge for people as it is currently. 

 

[ufff]

As far as a few of us have testing, all NPC cars are locked. The ones you've found parked might have been lockpicked already.  However this would be a good suggestion as @Shepherd Kingston said above. (I also completely agree that changing the garages would be an awful idea)

Next time your by Grove Street head into the mega mall carpark and try some doors, ive never gone to a car parked in there and it been locked. I get a civ car from there with 100% success

 

[Archie]

Added to backlog.