Community Questions
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It's just a question for everyone, What is your favorite thing to do in the server?
Dumpster Diving!
Shutting down the chop shop. It’s always great RP when I do catch people and get to do that stuff.
Diving with orcas and etc.
Growing Weed
Driving through Lago Zancudo and the hills when it’s snowing.
Crimes outside of mechanics that involve others. Stealing animals from Rangers, Graffitting the Governor’s house, doing silly things like trying to turn my car into a boat then having to call PW.
Sitting down with characters (and a good view!) and learning people’s backstories and how things have impacted their character’s development. Some of the best RP I’ve had are these small conversations with people.
Facilitating prison RP and making it part of your story, and not a pause in it.
Walking the city on foot. The alleys, housing areas, etc. My crim loves doing parkour and the most enjoyable chases for me are foot pursuits.
FTOing for PD and seeing the effort you put into training someone takes effect when that person becomes a great officer.
Long term medical RP, especially when it involves gender related storylines. Taking someone through an entire medical process and watching their character develop during that time is my favorite thing.
Being able to bring my ideas to life, from creating films to holding improv inspired plays!
Running from PD after a big heist. The adrenaline still hits just right and the nerves my character has to combat due to his story development, to me having that getaway attempt is the best part of having a high tier criminal character.
Driving the different cars and drifting. Our handling is absolutely unmatched on any server I’ve played on. The server rewards learning the handling of individual cars and really practicing your skill ceiling.
Running forensics on everything, and finding out how the little things build the big crime picture.
Have you looked at perhaps rethinking the way you go about the LEO hiring process, how strict and difficult it is and so on, to grow PD numbers? I have enjoyed thoroughly RPing as an LEO on literally every other server i have been WL on, some huge ones with communities similar to size and scope as Newday, but never here. I think there are some systemic issues that should be addressed and you wouldn't have this problem.
LEOC already has plans to discuss a hiring process restructuring once this current cadet class is done. It’s a difficult balance to simply bring in more people as they have to ensure their FTO load doesn’t get too high and they do want to make sure that the quality of police officers doesn’t dip with their new process. They are not sure how much the application process versus the training process itself will change; but they are planning on seeing how to make things less time consuming.
Growing PD numbers is not necessarily about the applications - we have the same acceptance rate but lower overall applications, and are taking in the maximum amount of cadets that the FTOs can handle. Most PD number issues are from current culture issues we are working with PD on.
I know this was brought up in the May 2026 Newsletter however I and others still feel it is a relevant topic. Have any new plans been made to help address the LEO numbers issues? I know its not something that is easy to fix however there has to be some reason behind everything to why numbers have dipped to a point to where you have to wait until a weekend to do a heist unless you do it just before or after 2PM restart. Sometimes even on weekends you can't do anything crime related (robbery wise).
I know rangers have seen new vehicles implemented recently, can PD expect the same to hopefully bring a boost back for a while? Or are they any other ways management/LEOC are looking to either bring more people in or help boost the numbers of already hired people with PD? This issue can have an effect on the server as a whole. Crims obviously can't do crime so they start not getting on server, DOC/DOJ/PDO/JUDICIARY/OTHER GOV DEPTS are also effected by this kind of thing.
Yes, all Government fleets will be updated to the new vehicle platform… as stated in the part 1 of ??? government fleet upgrade. Rangers were used as a test bed for a lot of the code and functional implementation before it's rolled out to other departments. We are working on the vehicles in waves, with smaller departments being worked on in batches. LEO has the most cars and complexity (like Rangers but with way more cars) because of personal vehicles and will be worked on in their own group.
We’ve been in internal talks with Command about culture issues, we’ve put out feedback forms that gave us great insight into the issues facing PD culture, and have put plans into place along with Command to improve morale there. Multiple groups of people have given us many reasons for why they’re not clocking in - it’d be too great to list here - but know we’re working on what we can and pushing changes out when we get them finished.
It will most likely always be a relevant topic, and has always been one of the biggest issues on Management’s plate.
In the last newsletter there was a response about the local problems. And I find part of the response given quite ignorant if I may be so honest and here is why.
Telling Criminals running away from LEO, Street racers trying to win a race and any other person driving their car at fast speeds for any good reason to just ""slow down"" is not at all a viable option. It would be viable if the locals were all visible on the road the entire time and it was just crowded. However the problem arises with the ghost locals that don't appear for everyone constantly and only appear at the last second when impossible to avoid. The local cars flying 20 feet above the road before appearing on the road right in front of you or inside of you. Locals appearing out of buildings and flying straight through the street at a 90* angle before disappearing into another building like its Platform 9 ¾. These are just a few examples of what happens quite daily. You could say go to different places with less people. But truth of the matter is, if there is 1 person stationary somewhere and you speed past? A big chance ghost locals are teleporting everywhere. It doesn't even take a big group of people for it to be a possible problem. Its a potential problem anywhere another player is.
I do like the increase in locals without all the scuff we have to deal with. But you can't act like its solved or easier to deal with by just slowing down because it simply doesn't and that luxury of just slowing down does not exist in A LOT of activities for criminals. I understand the increase in locals was done to add to the realism and immersion in the server. However I truly think if you want to increase realism and QOL/QORP and immersion there are A LOT of other points that need to be focused on first. Making this change and just letting it ride definitely wasn't a great choice.
I hope and assume the dev team has already looked at entity culling and adding server config code in an attempt to force better ped and vehicle synchronization. As well as possible culling scripts that despawn locals and peds in a certain radius. If anything, I think a good middle ground for now could be to just make all vehicles stronger. Allowing all vehicles to handle more damage before they are out of service allows people to deal with locals without it instantly killing their car after 1 ghost local appears in front of them. Maybe that's something to look into..
Anyways that's it I guess for me
Curious what your guy's opinion on all of it is."
Local spawn rates have already been addressed in previous newsletters. Culling has always been in place, and devs are always looking for ways to improve things. Much of the core issue comes from the game engine trying to sync local spawns across multiple players who have varying latencies and different client-side settings. We recommend everyone turn population density to max. Different clients running different settings forces the server to fight over who ‘owns’ the local spawn, resulting in ghost locals.
Regarding increasing vehicle health: this isn’t something we’re going to implement. There are already complaints that vehicles are too tanky, and we’re happy with how vehicle damage is balanced at the moment.
To briefly touch on criminals not having the luxury of slowing down: we increased the local population to increase immersion, which means that the skill ceiling for driving at high speeds has increased. Treating heavily populated city streets like an empty race track will undoubtedly result in crashes. Navigating this new dynamic will require changes to a player’s situational awareness, anticipating, knowing when to slow down, and when to go fast.
Ohiyo, will there ever be a change to the damage system for cars? I know multiple servers that have some kind of "2-3 stalls = the car will be smoking/sputtering and then the next major hit will put the car out" mechanic. On Newday it feels really really random and most of the times it's just frustrating to have a long awaited chase ended because of one minor hit that usually ends up in a stall but now it ended in a smoking/sputtering car without a stall, even tho the car was fully repaired at 100%. I wish there was more leniency in the damage to the car, on both sides obviously criminals and cops have these problems..
We already have this in place to an extent. 2-4 stalls will not necessarily kill the car, a lot of it depends on what you hit, how hard you hit it, where on the vehicle you hit it, and how you hit it. Unfortunately, desync is also a thing to contend with but that's not something we can really factor in as some people don't get it, some people do. Unless there is another factor at play (such as desync) a fully repaired car won't just die from a minor hit, that's not how the damage system works.
Without naming any drugs is there any future plans for new drugs and do any of you have a favorate one planned?
Yes. Our new robbery mechanic was actually the first step in the process. My favorite one is the one where you take the things and make the drugs! Unfortunately, we've been throwing out quests IC to introduce more drugs into the economy as well and there hasn't been much response on the roleplay hooks.
"We have several amazing suggestions here with the New Day community, so I have a few questions for our lovely volunteer devs regarding some of them. What is a suggestion that was implemented that you absolutely loved and thought was a great idea? Also was there a specific suggestion that was denied that you thought was a good idea, however due to one reason or another was denied?
The last question I have is in regards to suggestions the accepted section in the forum. There are several suggestions that have been sitting there for multiple years now, some are not implemented for obvious reasons (dev time needed for more complex suggestions), or have been implemented into the server but not moved into completed status. Are there any plans to clean up that specific section of the forum by either moving the completed suggestions to the proper forum and completing some of the suggestions that have been there for awhile? Maybe start with the easier, less complex ideas and move on to the harder ones."
We do need to clean up that forum, and both Wyatt and I (tenforce) have been sifting through them as we find time. I want to be clear though, Accepted does not mean a dev has claimed it or we are forcing devs to do it - any of those are available for devs to grab if they want to do them. They just aren’t being picked up for one reason or another.
We already have developers that focus on their skillset small and large. There are devs who only work on bugs or QOL changes. There are devs who do small community mechanics while they learn to work on bigger or more demanding code. I put out accepted suggestions with the skillset/size of the project so devs know what they’re getting into already.
What are the current development priorities, and can any ETAs be offered as far as when they will be reached? Speaking candidly, I am disappointed with the pace of development from a server that, on the surface, looks like it has over a dozen developers. Features said to be a work in progress take over a year often enough that it feels more like empty promises than things to actually look forward to.
I stopped giving ETAs after our developers mentioned the hate they received when IRL interfered/health issues came up, etc, and the community complained that ‘deadlines’ weren’t being met. I’ll go ahead and be candid about our development team and process, since many of these questions are related to that. I would love to be able to push more stuff out - it is incredibly frustrating to see stuff sit, and then also handle and defend why projects aren’t coming out as an owner.
People request that maybe we can just buy scripts - we do! We have a monthly developer budget for any of our devs to request us to buy scripts. We also just buy scripts that look like something cool we'd want for the server. That does mean we have a LOT of paid scripts that are pending implementation. In general, developers do not want community members buying scripts for two reasons: Now we have to transfer ownership of the assets, and now there’s an expectation that things YOU bought must be put in and they will get hounded for it. For those who don’t keep up, TMC and NDRP have diverged quite a bit and our framework is not suited for plug and play. Even simple scripts need to be woven in with things like our cooldowns, how they interact with other mechanics, etc.
We only have a dozen developers in total actually. Of those active developers, we have 3-4 that do coding for the entire mechanic part of the server, from crim to civ to govt development. We have 3-5 clothing developers, and those are subdivided further into govt and civ departments. So you have 2 devs working on government clothing for thirteen government factions... assume each dept only takes a month means that depts get a rotation of clothes about once a year. We have 2 vehicles devs for every vehicle related issue from handling setup, bugs, and testing across the entire server. Four of those developers are also Admin+ and do dev work in addition to their staff duties.
Speaking candidly, I wish we could have more of a roadmap for the community, but due to the way things work with an all volunteer group and the culture surrounding the expectations of the devs, I understand why we do not. I posted all the questions about development to our team, and have gotten some quotes in response.
“Unfortunately, there’s a culture on the server that individuals and businesses feel they NEED imports. Plushies, etc, to prosper, there are some businesses who build their entire business dependent on mechanics and then get angry when it doesn’t come together immediately, or get upset when we tell them it is not feasible.”
“I do still like hearing creative suggestions and don’t want them to stop, because if I see something that I think is cool and piques my interest I’ll probably pick it up and commit to it more because I know it’ll be appreciated in the long term.”
“I really don’t think people understand how much time it takes to create a model/collectible that is quality enough for the server. If we aren’t creating it from scratch, we have to basically redo it to fit the standards of the server. Most times we are doing it from scratch.”
“I like taking people’s ideas and running with it, however the current expectation of us seems to be just put out exactly what they want, how they want it, and if I deviate from someone’s idea of what a mechanic is supposed to look like, it’s dragged through the mud as not what people wanted. Then I just don’t make anything.”
“I started devving because I loved doing community events and creating stuff for people. I wanted to create fun things and when it was appreciated it felt great to do something different. Now it feels like an extra shift outside of my own irl job with people just being negative.”
"I want to work on stuff that looks cool for our community and not just something someone saw on another server, so unique ideas attract my attention more than just another FiveM thing."
“A prime example is the OC big clothing update. We had 1-2 devs work for six months preparing all of that for a handful of thank yous and ‘cool stuff!’ but most of what we received instead was the call for the undoing of a lot of work and to bring back lower quality models than what we envision for the server.”
“I received some lovely appreciation for a mechanic I did and it really motivated me to get back into things to see people doing the thing I spent my time working on. Just knowing the community is enjoying my stuff means a lot.”
“Certain groups [gangs/factions/etc] are so entitled it makes us not want to work on anything for that group, because of how it’s expected and then received. We’d rather work on stuff that people appreciate. There are others that sit quietly for their turn, and I'd rather focus on them.”
“Sometimes shoutouts are good but what I found is when I got shoutouts for doing something for the server, more often than not I found myself being DMed and tagged as to why this or that was the way it was, can I make more stuff like it, and there was an expectation set that because I did one thing I needed to be ‘the guy’ to do more things just like that. I prefer my name not be released on new things I develop because it means the community will reach out directly with these types of comments.”
"I've completely changed how I approach dev work. Instead of worrying about min-maxers trying to game the system, I just focus on the people who use the mechanics for how it was intended/RP. Building for the parts of the community that actually enjoy the experience beats designing defensively any day. It’s still a big part of it to ensure that there’s nothing economy-breaking, but if 2 people who just do it for the RP enjoy it, I’d take that over 30 people who complain that it doesn’t make enough money."
It seems most of the frustrations people have with the server stem from a perceived lack of updates and the slow pace of them especially when compared to other servers. While I understand NewDay operate on an entirely volunteer basis my query is are there simply not enough volunteers or is there some other bottleneck that hinders development? Is there anything more ordinary members of the community can do to help? I still really enjoy playing on NewDay but there is no doubt that the general health and population of the server does seem to be struggling at the moment. What can we do to get things back on track?
Development applications are always open - however we are not in a good position to dedicate a lot of time to teaching people the requisite knowledge and need developers with a certain level of experience.
I do know if you are interested in dipping your toes into certain aspects of development, getting with the business IC and helping them out as employees take the load off them, and they usually do help people grow skills to be more helpful. OC Clothing takes this path, where developers make sure the clothing is acceptable for the server assets, and then the OC employees have fun making cool designs!
Hi hi, I know the Dev team is hard at work, but from a civ / business owner POV it feels like many things have been bottlenecked. For example, I know a bunch of new businesses who are excited to create new collectibles / plushies, but are unable to since Arcane has been closed for so long. Same with Backside skateboards, and to a certain extent even Zimports / Laika takes a long time. Are there any plans in place to address this, and what does the time line look like?
Addressed above in the previous two questions. We will be looking at certain aspects of this, such as looking at who all can place shells and things of that nature in game, but with the import businesses that is up to the developers. We check in with each dev business but cannot force them.
I love Newday a lot I have met such wonderful people but the player count is consistently going down as time goes on. The highest I have seen these last few weeks was 120. But it has been on average 60-80 people. What is going to be done in effort to help the player count? What is going to be implemented to bring in new players and back old players? What are the efforts being put forward to keep the players engaging with the server?
It’s tricky, because as mentioned above and below we’ve been doing more in game staff events, which are always designed to bring different parts of the server together. People ask us in tickets about drugs, and staff supplied things, but when we put out roleplay hooks that would trigger us providing those things, they are ignored or rejected. So we are doing all that we can.
As far as bringing back old players, the same answer applies to the new players - look at all we are doing in changelogs for the whole server, working with getting ALL government factions updates and feedback for how they can improve, and working with dev businesses to streamline some processes and make things easier on the community. Ultimately we can only do our best and can't force people to log in. We've polled a few areas of players around the server, and we get half reasons we can control and respond to, and half reasons like... burned out in general on FiveM, not NDRP, playing Palworld (real honestly), and the UK heatwave. So we focus on the things we can control.
It’s no secret that active player numbers have been progressively dwindling for a variety of reasons. Are there any proactive steps being taken to entice former members to return, and if so what are they? What assurances can you give to a former member looking back to NewDay that positive, long-lasting change is either already here or on the horizon? Personally my biggest complaint has always been that changes have always come to the server at a glacier pace, whether it’s development, rules/moderation, or IC/OOC policies.
We have several things we’ve been working on and releasing - that’s pretty much been a slow constant. If the pace and what you’ve seen with our changelog publishing etc. are not enough for you, then I probably don’t have an acceptable answer for you personally. Our manpower isn’t getting leaps and bounds bigger, so while we’re always pushing to do new stuff with the community (look at our media team! They’re kicking ass). We are looking to reduce wait times on little things like getting your business shells, etc.
Our biggest success I think has and will be our event team, which has put out a few successful in game events the last few months and we’ll be focusing on that. Ultimately though, you’ll have to come around and find out what we’ve been doing with stuff like that, as it’s all in game.
What has been your biggest challenge as Community Management in the past 6 months and what are some ways that we as a player base (and non-Staff) can support you?
Definitely the steady drumbeat of negativity and hostility towards staff has been the hardest thing on a personal level. I love managing communities because it is very fulfilling to see communities run, and hear appreciation from the community… but the latter half has been harder to find. Hell, look at some of these questions and how they’re phrased directly at us - there’s a reason I don’t reword them. Our staff face hostility daily in their tickets and it sucks to see. I’m not saying that you can’t have your concerns and complaints and questions as there are some very valid complaints here, but also I’ve spent time and effort trying to bring transparency to our vision of the server just to get called names in questions that have been answered multiple times.
As far as workload, it would be working with the various government factions to make sure everything is running smoothly. We have more government departments than we do our entire development team, and every single one of them deserves developer time. Management has to ensure that ALL departments get some love, and that all departments are working well internally and with others. Individual departments' Command teams jobs are to make sure their departments are spoken for and taken care of, while Management's job is making sure that each of those departments is generally satisfied with not only their internal issues but also how they interact with each other. It's a delicate balancing act and very difficult to describe.
What community members can do to help support us is to just enjoy yourself on the server, and voice concerns in a constructive manner. Everyone can contribute to the community in some way - if you are interested in graphics, wikis, events, etc we can find a place you can help! You also don't have to put in any extra effort or time into the server either - knowing we have players that do enjoy the server and seeing people doing what they enjoy in Los Santos is the reason we do these things.
Being quest givers in roleplay for others, saying yes to trying something new... all of our players who play consistent characters in the server are what really give the server life at the end of the day. We need government command characters to be reliable mentors for their rank and file, those government characters with weird quirks who bring variety to the shift, those odd hobo characters who you know you can hit up for information, the heist crew that everyone knows to lock in for, and villain characters that people love to hate.