back when I worked under Daz' management, I suggested that we should have attempted to make Era more of a "log in and play" type game. not log in, spend hours making money only to afford a sub par weapon, then get overpowered by players who happen to be more privileged than you.

counterstrike is a great example. you join a server and you're thrown right into the action. there's no bullshit before you get to enjoy the game, and that's where I think Era has gone terribly wrong. it's so hard to attract new players to the server when the game is too focused around people who have already been playing for years and have tons of weapons and items that give them a huge advantage.

the player count is never going to increase significantly unless something changes the basic infrastructure of the server that makes it easier to get into as a new player.

Remove those stupid explosive guns, I shouldn't be taking 90 damage when I enter a base because someone shot a nearby wall 3 times.

Also nerf nitros and other grenades, grenades have always been used but now they're so easy to obtain they're being abused and overused. It's making raiding a lot less skill oritentated and more about how lame you know how to pk.

Also I agree with previous posts, make era less of a money-making social game and more of a real action shooter

recruiting me back after ~5 years is another thing :D

Players want little/long term events. But also, PK'ing. Gang Bonuses + Killstreaks + Auctions + Holiday events
Seems like we are doing fine balancing...

NERF EVERYTHING! REMOVE EVERYTHING! Herp-de-derp

Wiggers?

Besides the fact that Era is nothing more than a "nifty chat room" for most people these days, the reason, as far as I can tell, that nobody bothers with gangs is the fact that there's just no point.

These are the things that some people see as incentives for being in a gang:
Gang guns. (not much of an incentive if you're rich, which most of Era's gang members are.)
5 ECs at the end of the week. (if you're in the top gang.)
Gang events. (Doesn't preclude you from just joining a gang an hour before they start.)
Extra money from kills. (first legitimate incentive I could think of, although the dedicated jobs earn more money.)
Fun. (lets be honest, chasing runners around a gang base isn't that fun after the first hour.)
Gang hats. (Worthless, in my opinion, although some people like hats, so it's open to debate whether or not that's worthy of being called an incentive. Either way, you don't need to participate in a gang to wear the hat, you just have to be on the roster.)
Healing crates. (I do like healing crates. Bravo. Even though the more expensive ones aren't worth it. I mean come on. 10 points = 250hp, 20 points = 350hp, 30 points = 500hp? Why would you pay three times as much to get twice the health when you could just buy three small ones and get three times the health? )
Community. (You could argue people join gangs just so they have someone to play with. I, personally, like parties better.)
Raiding. (You don't really get big gunfights like you do in raids anywhere else on Era (besides events anyway), so you could argue that's also an incentive.)
Gang buffs. (I like most of the gang buffs. Kinda wish BB's gang buff applied, at least to a less degree, to gun shots as well as melee hits.)

Personally, these things would give me incentive to join a gang and actually participate:

Any sort of system to facilitate a sense of progression as a gang member.
I really liked the idea that was floating around just before Donut Squad was introduced of an automated gang that would rank people up based on the work they did for the gang.
It could be that sort of system, a leveling system, anything really. Just something to give you the sense that you've gotten somewhere for the work you put in. (that same system could also stymie gang hopping, if it was made to reset your progress when you switched gangs.)

Structured raiding system.
I think you would see more raids if you broke down some barriers that got in the way of setting one up. Having to mass out and get people to raid is kind of an archaic way of getting it done.
It would be so much easier to just press a button and start a raid that everyone else on a gang tag could then join by pressing a button at the top right of their screen. (think of it like an event system that was repurposed for raiding).

Organized crime.
The reason gangs exist in real life is to make money, be it selling drugs, prostitution, gambling, smuggling, robberies, etc. Without that tying them together, they're just a group of guys with guns with no real purpose.

Protection contracts.
Similar idea to PPA, without the structured business, complete with an owner who gets paid for doing nothing and employees who get paid $81 for a half hour's work.
Basically, anyone who needs assistance can put a protection contract into a queue for free. Anyone on a gang tag can choose to accept the next contract in the queue, and as long as they stay within a certain radius of their charge, they'll get 1 gang point every 30 seconds. (which would equate to $50 / 30 sec, $100 / min, or $6k / hour. assuming you stay in constant contact with your charge.)
on top of that, you could give bonus points for, say, each kill you or your charge gets while you're near them. You could lose a certain amount of points each time your charge dies.

This has the potential to start gang wars on the streets as one noob gets a gang member to guard them, and then the people they kill get a gang member to guard them. Eventually, it could escalate to a full-blown war.

Obviously, this has the potential for people to abuse it by guarding a noob and just sitting in the corner of the map to get free gang points, but, you know... I'm just spitballing here lol

But, yeah, that's what would get me participating in gangs.

Also, I like the idea of the game being more pick-up-and-play vs spending years building your **** up.

Aren't the Chavs? They're the same thing, just British.

Gang guns. Benny buffed these to be on-par with high t2 guns. And just yesterday actually (doubt anyone noticed), I slightly edited them again so each gang has a uniform selection of gun types (main weapon, damage weapon, shotgun, handguns). Then I tweaked them around, the #1 guns for each gang (Famas Felin, RR12, Owen45, and BHer) might even be poking at t3. I know plenty of players, even richies, that still utilize the gang guns to fill some empty hotkey slots.
Though I think the usage has dropped since most players would rather cash-exchange. Might change the point prices sometime.

5 ECs. This is still there, but recently added: Every 5k points a gang achieves gets them a different bonus. Even the non-first place gang. (5k - 1ec, 10k - 3ec, 15k - 5ec, 20k - 10ec). So if you get first place with 20k points; 15ec per person just for doing what you're supposed to? That's cray.

Gang events. Perhaps a restriction? Since the events occur at the end of the week, if a player doesn't have at least 100 pts they can't play. You can earn that in one raid... but it would make these cute leaders yell at their best players to stop idling and get 100 points eh?

Extra money from kills. With EP buff and $50/point in exchange, I'm sure a top pker could be on-par with a NPC job, while having 'fun'. The only variable preventing this is the lack of players participating for them to fight.

Fun. F is for friends who do stuff together, U is for you and me... Anti-run links, bases designed for pking with multiple players. How much can they run.. really? I hate to pull this card but if you can't take out a runner that's locked inside one of these bases with all the crates and little doors we threw in there, then you shouldn't be PKing, you might hurt yourself.
I mostly notice it's always the same couple people yelling 'runners' (Willa, Dusk, Tk, Fiber, Smasher), Hey I'm not even in their little top 20 list and raid with 15fps yet never have a issue with runners... I find them easier to kill cause they're not fighting back.

Gang hats. I let the leaders choose any 3 hats that are relative to their gang 'theme'. Smasher even sent me some hats that didn't exist on Era to add, I see plenty of players wearing them and 'representing'. I was considering some rank restrictions on certain hats as well, but they need more uniform rankings for that to work out.

Healing crates. Now 10, 15, 20 points per. Might even lower it more since players would opt for trading their 20 points for 1k cash.

Community. Iunno.

Raiding. +1

Gang buffs. Leeching bullets might be op with 30 damage guns. Perhaps a chance to bleed with bullets (there isn't one, the last-hit bleed is a anti-run thing for the sharks/ocean). Also I need a cool buff idea for MF base, any ideas?
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Overall seems like everyone's getting to the same point I was, it's the new-age players and their attitude toward doing anything that are making this such a issue. Joining a gang and instantly receiving full rights isn't rewarding. I remember when it took me over a month to get within reach of a recruiter spot with just add rights in Ish's LC, and he was one of my best friends at the time (so it was still a little sped up). It was awesome having everyone recognize your rank and listen to what you had to say.
Now people I barely know will add me to their gangs with a full list of rights, half the members already have blue chat and no one listens to you when you /tg because they're all blue-chat and unremoveable as well. Guess we have to babysit gangs even more, or take a new approach...?

Might I suggest that the path this server is taking is a little kid friendly one?

I mean, all the popular games are rather violent and explicit, I do not know why we have to succumb to such childish play??

This game needs to be able to sell drugs, trade prostitutes and slave trading. Play Far Cry 3 for some good ideas.

These drugs can give certain effects to boost other's stats, throw out little kid caffeine cups, this game needs some hardcore thrown into it.

And if you think these ideas are immature, go ahead and quit if real life gang dealings are not a lifestyle for a game that describes ruthless gangs in the server information.

I mean, cmon, we need some gang business thrown into here...

Also an opposing force, the Era Military, a legit Era Police, Border patrol, idk, etc.

But yeah, would def. make this game what it needs to be.

We only talk about drugs on RC.

I would hold the special olympic's medal higher than being the server with top player count.

Anyway, yeah. I threw them the same sort of idea, Frankie. Their response was might as well make an Era v2. Which is my thoughts exactly. What you're doing isn't working so change it.

Not working? The playercount is pretty stable if you ask me

Push away from PvE content.
Pull PvP content to Era.