Longevity

[Broccoli]

I love that Pollux says that anyone can work on anything or that he's not the owner who makes all the decisions but I've watched this guy go from contributor to super admin and spend the whole time trying to get all the power for himself but now he has all the power he denies any responsibility that he is the owner when in fact we have all known this for years that it's "PolluxRP".

I wanted to just keep the server up even on an older version whilst a new FL is in the works but was always told no, and regardless of who told me no it always ended up leading to Pollux having the final say because he doesn't like it when things aren't done his way.

Fearless is well and truly dead now and I can confidently say that, if a server would have been started within a few months of it going down it may have survived but people have moved on and those who have stayed, will move on shortly after it comes back again... IF it comes back.

It upsets me seeing this dying man of a community being forced to stay alive when in reality it should just have a good send off so that we can close this chapter of our lives which most of us had our childhoods on.

Even if the server comes back, there are more fundamental flaws with FL than just the gamemode. The last few years the gameplay quality has decreased dramatically from the admins being too harsh, some players posting PRs on everyone for the tiniest mistakes (roleplay over ruleplay haha), the blatant nepotism and friendship groups that make some players able to do what most cannot as well as general mismanagement and distrust in the staff team. It's just not worth it anymore.

[Boonan]

I fully agree with the nepotism statement, as much as I enjoyed becoming close with people on the team and running around in huge groups getting up to x,z,y on the server, I feel like the friendships formed got in the way to an extent and is a reason for the decline in players. People wouldn't aggressive RP because of how one sided it was if a certain group got on, people in said group (cough cough Frost [ily tho]) got away with way too much in relation to an unnecessary PR that would result in a player being over-punished for a thing that could've easily been resolved with a conversation in-game. I wouldn't change any of it because of the memories and friendships I formed but I genuinely believe, looking back on it, despite being close friends with many in the team, things should've been kept more professional and I hope this can be implemented IF the server ever comes back.

Despite only joining FL in 2019, I'm rather saddened to see it in this state, I'm not going to go fully into the dev side of it because I couldn't see it anyway but there has been a real lack of direction, discussion seemed to be frowned upon because whenever a valid point would be brought up, it would never be considered as an alternative or for a compromise to be made. This played right into the issue of having four management members as opposed to the original five with Joe Joe. Stalemates became more common and things didn't really move along and would ultimately result in an 'executive decision' being made if you will. Originally I thought this issue was going to be resolved quite soon but a split/argument externally put a halt on this issue being resolved unfortunately so the wheels have remained stationary.   

This lack of drive and lack of fifth management I think was the final nail in the coffin. Mine and Broccoli's resignation was chalked up to 'unnecessary drama' despite it being completely peaceful and done out of our own will. I don't like speaking for others but I'm sure Broccoli felt the same way as me (pissed off and bewildered) when we found out us leaving wasn't really a big deal as we 'weren't crucial in the servers reopening' despite the two of us consistently trying to do something without any prompt or direction. Granted I wasn't doing any coding or stuff like that unlike Broccoli was, but finding out your efforts have been disrespected like that and your genuine resignation being dismissed (our reasons were because we were fed up with essentially fake promises and lies so we left fyi) so effortlessly like that definitely didn't sit right with me and to be honest it still doesn't. 

Obviously I want to see the server back up and running again, but you guys need to seriously think this through properly and in great detail, no more false promises and lies, actually get into gear and do something instead of putting it off. You guys tried to hard to get the server into your possession and look what's happened to it under your ownership. I know the server was dire when you took over but literally nothing has happened since we shut almost 2 years ago now, it is just like a bottle of milk that has been left in the fridge for too long. Involve the entire team rather than just management, don't instantly shoot down an idea because one person doesn't like it but the majority do, its a team for a reason, time to start acting like one and not a loosely stringed together friendship group, where everything is full of 'if, buts or maybes'.

That was a rant but freedom of expression

[Haarek]

I don't see the point in trying to find something to blame, especially since it's not really any one big factor. It's easy to blame change, but you're ignoring that any change we did was a correction in response to any noticeable decline. FL hasn't really ever had proactive development, everything done was mostly always a reaction to a drop in players, and our corrections were usually quite successful considering how long we managed to keep it going for, even if a little short sighted.

I have constantly tried to warn of unwanted economy issues Etc. but it has obviously fallen on deaf ears. And I wouldn't say your corrections were "quite successful", I think that is a ridiculous statement worthy only of an American presidential election.

One of the things FL did well was catering for a wide range of players. While there were many players like you who enjoyed aggressiveRP many years ago, there were just as many like me who didn't really touch it until much later, and some who have never gotten involved.

Agressive RP has always been a major driving force on FL and a larger percentage if not almost all would play and benefit from aggressiveRP. Gundealers, BMD, contraband, Cop Raids, Pursuits Etc. etc. Saying that there were "just as many like you who didn't touch aggressiveRP" is just not true.

FL has always had a somewhat fragile balance between these very different groups of players, and I don't think we did a good job at maintaining that.

I don't agree, even when I was admin aggressiveRP was constantly shot down and people were banned for the most ridiculous things. It's a shame there is no fucking server anymore or we could at least test out this and see if different approaches would benefit the player retention and player count. Damn, you have really scorched shit up - we don't even have a server anymore.

I know what we're doing is a shot in the dark, and you've definitely made your opinion on some parts known. While feedback is important, I don't see a situation where you're ever going to be happy with our direction, at least given the discussion so far.

I don't think there has been a more important time to let your opinions be known, because FL is heading towards the ridge and into the abyss. At this point I might as well air my opinion, because it might be the last time I ever get the chance to judging by how things are going.

I suggest you open up an old version of the gamemode on a server and not worry too much about playercount.

[Rossi]

I don't see the point in trying to find something to blame, especially since it's not really any one big factor. It's easy to blame change, but you're ignoring that any change we did was a correction in response to any noticeable decline. FL hasn't really ever had proactive development, everything done was mostly always a reaction to a drop in players, and our corrections were usually quite successful considering how long we managed to keep it going for, even if a little short sighted.

I have constantly tried to warn of unwanted economy issues Etc. but it has obviously fallen on deaf ears. And I wouldn't say your corrections were "quite successful", I think that is a ridiculous statement worthy only of an American presidential election.

One of the things FL did well was catering for a wide range of players. While there were many players like you who enjoyed aggressiveRP many years ago, there were just as many like me who didn't really touch it until much later, and some who have never gotten involved.

Agressive RP has always been a major driving force on FL and a larger percentage if not almost all would play and benefit from aggressiveRP. Gundealers, BMD, contraband, Cop Raids, Pursuits Etc. etc. Saying that there were "just as many like you who didn't touch aggressiveRP" is just not true.

FL has always had a somewhat fragile balance between these very different groups of players, and I don't think we did a good job at maintaining that.

I don't agree, even when I was admin aggressiveRP was constantly shot down and people were banned for the most ridiculous things. It's a shame there is no fucking server anymore or we could at least test out this and see if different approaches would benefit the player retention and player count. Damn, you have really scorched shit up - we don't even have a server anymore.

I know what we're doing is a shot in the dark, and you've definitely made your opinion on some parts known. While feedback is important, I don't see a situation where you're ever going to be happy with our direction, at least given the discussion so far.

I don't think there has been a more important time to let your opinions be known, because FL is heading towards the ridge and into the abyss. At this point I might as well air my opinion, because it might be the last time I ever get the chance to judging by how things are going.

I suggest you open up an old version of the gamemode on a server and not worry too much about playercount.

Well said. AggresiveRP has always been important as the most fun and interesting parts of playing any government job were the police raids, crime, etc.

I wish there was a server to hop on even if the real development was happening behind closed doors on another server/gamemode. No harm in opening something just to let a couple of players hop and have a good time

[Zeigon]

I just downloaded Garry's Mod for the first time in ages to check out what FL had become since I "left" so many many years ago. Adulthood hit hard, as many of you know, so I wanted to reconnect with a place (and maybe some of the people) that made my gaming years so memorable. Reading this post and finding out that the servers have shut down feels very... sad. I know it probably wouldn't have been the same place it was all those years ago, but still—it would have been amazing to check out.

I've spent an hour or so reminiscing, scrolling through posts on the forum, and recognizing a lot of names. It's a strange feeling. I really miss the feeling of truly disconnecting from the real world for a few hours—something that seems harder and harder to do with every year that passes. Seeing this heated debate about FL back in the days, and what it could/should become, actually makes me happy. I’m glad to see that people still care enough to write their opinions and responses on the forum. And yes, seeing an «old FL»-server would be cool.

Best regards,
Zeigon/Zoltar/SweetDr3ams (had a few different names over the years haha)