Tony Gognitti · 2026-02-01 19:28:46This will be a little bit of a long suggestion and I will preface it by saying that the way I personally approach the gamemode is to maximise the amount of RP I personally create. I know that this might be different from other people, however I do believe that CityRP is at its best when people are RPing and not grinding/wealth hoarding like DarkRP.
The current implementation of Allied Express is an overwhelmingly positive thing for the server, however it is not without its flaws and I am to try and build on ways to improve the system in this suggestion. I hope to facilitate discussion so please feel free to comment on this suggestion with your feedback or ideas or feel free to send me a message on discord.
The Pros of the current Allied Express:
- Large scale storage option as opposed to storing items in the boot of vehicles and putting them back in the garage.
- Prevents people from being offline raided in a rust style way and losing all of the valuables without the chance of RP.
- Large storage option facilitates merchant style roleplay such as gun vendors or material sellers.
Cons:
1. Allied Express in its current state discourages RP, and the safe zone exemplifies this fact
Firstly, the fact that allied express lets you operate with impunity essentially hardballs police into being unable to investigate and charge/create cases on people's illegal actions. Police (in theory) can spend hours canvassing, surveling and working a case on criminals and know that they are moving weapons or drugs but simply can not act on it as it is a safe zone. Furthermore, even if it was not a safe zone police aren't able to access or open a Allied Express unit the way they would be able to raid a normal house or factory. The safe zone not only negatively effects Police --> Criminal interactions; it also impacts Criminal --> Criminal interactions.
Criminals are unable to rob each other of virtually anything, at most criminals can break into each other's homes and steal/destroy drug equipment but any non-transient items like guns/kevlar/lockpicks etc are almost always kept in Allied Express.
2. Encourages wealth hoarding.
The existence of Allied Express allows and promotes people to store items en-masse which naturally shifts players towards long term storage rather than utilisation of their items. I can say without a doubt that if people were of the knowledge that their items would disappear when they logged off (not what I will be suggesting) they'd be way more likely to use it; which gets people out of their homes grinding money and onto the streets where roleplay can happen.
How can we improve the system, and how will those improvements encourage roleplay (with examples)
Firstly, we need to identify the core gameplay system that Allied Express protects; and I think that is to prevent loss of wealth when offline (like offline raiding in rust). Because of this, I feel like Allied Express is necessary in CityRP.
However, the power of Allied Express needs to be tuned down. I'm suggesting that Allied Express becomes a rental-esque payment, and an expensive one at that. The number I've landed on is around $35,000 a day. This way Allied Express becomes an end-game criminal system rather than being accessible to every man and his dog. By being a subscription service Allied Express becomes limited to larger gangs or hardcore grinders (who realistically are the only ones who need the large scale storage). It also means that people have to make a hard decisions on where to store their items:
Storing Items in their cars
The solo player/uncoordinated criminal group go to way of storing items. Currently you can store items in the boot of your vehicle and store them in the garage. This essentially acts as a mini Allied Express limited to 50KGs. I believe that to be a perfect amount and a great way to store items such as kevlar and firearms. Storing items in your car creates RP for all types of players. First, police are able to generate reasonable suspicion and conduct a vehicle search where they may find the illegal goods, this is opposed to Allied Express where this RP is impossible. Furthermore, carjackings hold real value and have the potential to yield results from the boot of the vehicle.
Storing items inside your homes
For players who require more space but don't have the equity to purchase an Allied Express unit. Storing items in your home allows you to utilise CCU's and store larger amounts of items, this is ideal for players who are in the process of amassing wealth; whether that be through legal means such as resource gathering or illegal means such as firearm trafficking and drug production. Storing items in your home comes with an inherent risk. The first being police detection. As it stands, police warrants don't really happen and even if they did, at most you will find drug precursors and stoves. Without allied express; these same mid tier criminals will be forced to store their firearms alongside their manufacturing equipment allowing police to have better control of the gun supply. Storing items in your house also comes with the risk of being raided by other criminals. This not only creates the most obvious roleplay situation being a home invasion or a break and enter (which also has the potential to facilitate Police interaction) but it also places an emphasis on positive relationships in the underworld. These relationships could be formed naturally through continuous RP interactions or they could be forced through paying for protection.
Purchasing storage space in others Allied Express units
Players who have the need for a long term storage option and want the safety of Allied Express but can't necessarily afford it themselves can make payments to other players in exchange for being allowed to store items in their unit. This option is enabled by the fact code locks exist. The way this affects peer to peer roleplay is obvious and emphasises interactions with other players rather than secluded grinding (as the option for an Allied Express as a solo player is almost non-existent). Players can also share the cost of the unit making the daunting $35,000 price tag a little less intimidating. I can realistically foresee some businessmen taking the role of a pseudo trafficker/banker and making storage their niche (Looking at you Loodle)
Allied Express as an end-game criminal system
By increasing the price and exclusivity to Allied Express you essentially create a tiered and rewarding progression system for all non-police players. Players can see their wealth grow and reflect upon the days where they had to store their ores in their 2 seated smart cars as they stand upon their empire. Players who are established in the city have something to spend their money on rather than just the mansion or expensive warehouses. Having Allied Express exist as an end-game system works due to the aforementioned alternative ways to store items. Furthermore, the rental system mitigates the almost guaranteed hyper-inflation of the economy.
Removing the Safe-Zone
As it stands, Allied Express is THE criminal hub of the server; and at the same time all the criminals inside of it are immune to prosecution. Police should have the option to create RP and investigate criminal dealings. Criminals should also have the opportunity of mugging/robbing wealth that is in progress of being stored.
The main concerns for removing the safe zone are:
- Spam muggings.
- Spam person/vehicle searches.
Whilst these may be annoying to deal with, I don't think the solution to an RP interaction (that being a mugging or a search) is to create a gameplay system or rule to prevent it. As I am suggesting Allied Express to become an endgame criminal system, the solution to being mugged or searched constantly is to simply just surround yourself with more muscle. If police are being too pushy, put them in their place until their police response escalates or the heat dies down. If an annoying solo bandit wants to keep trying to mug you, call your gang in or hire some muscle to drop him off of the waterfall. RP solutions to RP annoyances will always trump OOC systems or rules.
Moving Allied Express to the docks/shipping yards
I believe moving allied express to the bottom end of the map is good for a few reasons.
First, I believe it makes sense thematically for the shipping/storage company to be located in/near the shipping yard.
Secondly, it discourages criminals from congregating in the middle of the city and spreads the playerbase out.
Third and most importantly, it makes it significantly harder and more inconvenient to transport goods. By moving Allied Express to the docks, criminals will have to spend a much longer time travelling whilst transporting their goods. This allows Highway Patrol/Police the opportunity to create RP and potentially find and search vehicles that are in process of trafficking illegal items. As it stands, the central location of Allied Express allows people to easily and conveniently meet at other peoples Allied Express units to perform their trades. By decentralising Allied Express it allows for more RP opportunities on the Police's front. Furthermore, it incentivises criminals to become smart with how they transport goods; whether that be through sneaky means or a large scale escort and convoy, the onus is on the player to figure out how to make it work.
Allowing Police search warrants on Allied Express units
I will preface this point with the fact that there should be an extremely high threshold for these warrants to be given. No one besides Police high command should be able to grant these warrants and only when there is an overwhelming amount of evidence of criminal activity and due to the severity of the offences being committed; is it necessary to execute a search warrant.
These warrants should not be common in the slightest and should be treated as a major planned police operation where Police and Criminals (their target) coordinate out of city to create a fun large scale roleplay event that has a significant impact on the server.
Warrants is probably the weakest point of my suggestion as I know there will be endless disputes and probably unfair/not the greatest RP situations that lead to criminals losing their empire. It is realistically something that needs to be approved and mediated by staff in my opinion.
Thank you for the time it took to read this, please feel free to leave any feedback
Very nice ideas presented here, I'm all for this :)
+1 for the daily cost of operating a storage unit.
-1 for the safezone at the moment. I think down the line this could be investigated but right now it needs to be a safe zone.
Moving facilities to docks could pose a mapping issue, Dustinobot might have to speak more on that.
I'm all for balancing this though and agree that the current setup requires work - it's simply been created like this as its early days.