Suggestion - Local Car Upgrade Kit

[Skai97]

Assurance

I have read the README.md

Summary

This would be a random drop that would come from the life invader jobs such as trucking, or something that could be found inside of vehicles whenever they are chopped. It would be a rare drop chance. Around the same as the tuner chip. The upgrade kits could look similar to the advanced repair kit. The purpose of the upgrade kit would be as follows;

• A 1-2 time use upgrade for local vehicles only.
• It would fully upgrade a local car to EMS 4 along with other engine upgrades.
• The upgrade kit would break after 1-2 uses.
• This would only work on none personally owned vehicles

Could look something like this as an item

Reason

Adds another unique drop to chop shop or some of the possible life invader jobs. Could be a new craftable item.

This might increase exploration into more of the local vehicles which could influence purchases at PDM.

We might see the use of more local vehicles during robberies or during common crimes inside the server. Not the personal car for everything.

This wouldn't be able to be used on PDM test drives.

[coalaura]

It seems a bit weird for it not to be working on personal cars but every other car, no?

[coalaura]

Also seems VERY op ngl

[ImArteria]

Don't really see a use for it, why would people use this versus their personal cars. I can already see things such as applying it before a vin scratch to keep it on a personal car, on the other hand though maybe it would encourage people to use them during boosts to make chases a bit more fair.

I think the idea is cool but not practical as much as I dont think it'll encourage people to explore vehicles but more so just find ways to exploit this item.

[ravicant]

but i think we can make it balance like one kit only upgrade on thing which u can decide what the more upgrade you want to do the more kit you need which is expensive or i would say not make it cartable just spawn in chop shop like you are taking other chopped vehicle upgrade

[Skai97]

So the entire thought process behind this is to encourage people to use local cars for criminal activity as well as personal. This would be one of those rarer items disguised as a "toolkit" that could modify local vehicles. The reason I said not personal cars as this might discourage people from upgrading their cars whenever they could just find one of these and use it each time they get inside their car. The upgrade kit would be applied on a local vehicle from the driver seat or at the engine. It would upgrade the car fully until it blows up, disappears or gets impounded. The upgrade kit could also be used on boost vehicles since they currently come out as stock. With how good PD cars are, upgraded local vehicles might create some new competition for pd. People might also take into consideration the new impound times and fees associated with crim encouraging the use of local vehicles once again. Modified local cars or even pdm cars won't really compete with some of the better edm vehicles that are currently "meta" inside the server, pd cars have almost no issue keeping up with all stock local cars. This is just gonna be another option. This could benefit newer players who find out about this item ic who don't wanna risk their only personal car getting impounded for 6 hours when doing x crime etc.

[coalaura]

I get that but when we add a new feature it has to be balanced and work somewhat within RP

[ImArteria]

Honestly I feel like a better idea would just be make EDM car upgrades more expensive than PDM. Since the "car is imported" surely parts for it would be imported too and cost more. Would maybe encourage people to try out cheaper cars, or spend a shit ton on EDM

[vol5]

@coalaura What are the main concerns on how it would be imbalanced with how @Skai97 suggested it?

Thoughts on lowering it to 1 time use and require a mechanic to put it on the car?

[MetaHatter]

I can see this as a possibility if it was single use and max level 2 upgrades... It would give enough of a bump to make local cars more viable without discouraging using owned cars.

Personally, I would EMS2, suspension2, Armor2 only at MOST and no mech needed, just an interruptible timed progress bar.

I would also make sure the cost is equal to or greater than the Bennys cost.

Would also help low tier boosting a touch (at a cost)

[coalaura]

@coalaura What are the main concerns on how it would be imbalanced with how @Skai97 suggested it?

Thoughts on lowering it to 1 time use and require a mechanic to put it on the car?

[Skai97]

Well the idea is to encourage less use of personal vehicles during crime or even to encourage the use of fake plates. The issue with arteria said is the price of a car or its upgrades dont matter. If its good people will buy it. Look at the mustang and the embalance it caused the last 2 months. Like as crim the roleplay in terms of vehicle usage is very lazy. No harm but as a certified cop main. Pd cars are entirely overpowered atm. So level 2 upgrades would make no difference

[coalaura]

The item is OP. Either you have to nerf it a lot, making it useless, or you have to increase ita rarity, also making it useless cause people wont want to use it due to its rarity. It doesn't make sense for it to only work on local cars and not personal vehicles. Why would it work on an NPC sultan but not one i own, its the same car.

I would also make sure the cost is equal to or greater than the Bennys cost.

This is another point, if its the same price or more expensive than what the upgrades cost at bennies then why would you use it and not just bring the car to bennies yourself?

I definitely get your point and i also want people to make use of PDM cars more, however this item does not work.

A different idea could be to give cars driven by NPCs random levels of upgrades. Not upgrade everything but give them a few random upgrades. This would work in RP and be somewhat balanced too

[coalaura]

Also, no PD cars are not overpowered. They are designed to keep up with fast cars, so people can't just buy the fastest car and guarantee a getaway

[ImArteria]

Well the idea is to encourage less use of personal vehicles during crime or even to encourage the use of fake plates. The issue with arteria said is the price of a car or its upgrades dont matter. If its good people will buy it. Look at the mustang and the embalance it caused the last 2 months. Like as crim the roleplay in terms of vehicle usage is very lazy. No harm but as a certified cop main. Pd cars are entirely overpowered atm. So level 2 upgrades would make no difference

As much as I'd love to say, I want people to use Local/PDM cars more and than balance PD cars to accommodate that. Issue is we dont have an "In RP" Way to deal with people not using fake plates. Realistically DOJ could fix that part.

[Skai97]

Pd cars are most definitely very strong. The crown Vic is better than 2 of speed units. They are simple to drive and reward good drivers way to much. If I crash out I can be back on someone in seconds because my car will double clutch from 30 to 100mph+. The meta of "broken" cars has been created because of how good pd cars are. You hear so often I only use this car because nothing else is better than pd cars etc. Yes sometimes cops will lose people in any vehicle but I'm talking about skillful driving. Not jumps or sending it till locals take out pd.

I like the random vehicle upgrade idea however the kit would be a one use item to help people escape from x crime. The reason it wouldn't be used on personal vehicles is because it might discourage people upgrading those cars. I buy a sultan from pdm. Pull from my garage and pit the upgrade kit on it. At least if its a local vehicle. I'll have to look for it. Steal it or hotwire It

[MetaHatter]

• Fake plate use will be unaffected by this items existence.
• I am pretty sure we don't want local cars used for jobs. The car economy is a primary economic driver.
• There are better solutions for PDM - High cost, upgraded, time-limited (3-5 minutes) test drives for example.

I can see this item as having a use for a one-off deal vehicle or for boosting and that's about it. In which case, the portability and ability to apply a slight upgrade discreetly might be worth the cost.

Outside of this it seems largely unneeded. (the rest of the convo is off topic so I'm not going there)

[coalaura]

The meta of "broken" cars has been created because of how good pd cars are.

Not really. I can, 1000000% guarantee you that if PD would use all pantos people would still use broken cars. The meta of broken cars is created because people want to get away and get a lot of pixel money. "I'm just robbing a bank for the roleplay" no you're not. Maybe like .1% of our community but the majority wants to get away quick and get easy money. No matter how much you nerf the PD cars, people WILL use the best cars available so they can make sure they get away. It removes the risk that is designed to be there.

Again, like i said: PD cars are designed to be fast. They are meant to be fast. We have to balance them with the top end cars in mind cause thats what people WILL use. "If PD cars weren't so fast crims wouldn't use fast cars" <- this is stupid. The majority of crims WILL use the fastest car available, there is no sweet-talking it, open your eyes, please.

Getaways are supposed to be hard, no matter what car you use. Optimally they would obviously be equally hard no matter the car but that would require all cars to perform the same, which yeah doesn't work...

[Skai97]

I don't see how having a kit that max's out a local vehicle until tsunami or its gone is OP considering everybody hits banks and j-stores will fully maxed mustangs anyway. IC, we as PD have to jump through many hoops to get warrants out and what not and DOJ does nothing to punish that behaviour.

using personal vehicles without a fake plate is normalised on the server because thats how its been for so long. If people abuse broken cars. Those cars should get nerfed but instead pd cars get buffed to keep up with the new broken cars. It's a vicious cycle.

It's an item that might break the "meta" or benefit people that don't wanna use personal vehicles. Right now there is no other option. Local cars break in 1-2 crashes.

[Skai97]

Just promoting for some kind of change to happen

[coalaura]

I've implemented the random NPC vehicle upgrades, will be live with the next update. Like i said this item will not work. I've given my reasoning. In addition we are working on a better balancing system with pd cars