Tow trucks need work.

[Merr Khan]

So this topic is to discuss the possibility of opening up local vehicle for tow with out police needing to be involved. (cops still would be needed for player vehicle) So basically the tow truck drivers needs more freedom to do their job, there should be no issue with a tow truck driver cleaning up the streets.

Reasons:  

1: Police are not always on duty, and even when they are, they're not always available for 311 calls.

2: There are 100's of illegally parked and abandoned local cars at any given time around the map. Not including the ones player's have smashed into, and have dead people in them. 

3: On avg right now I can make $700-1500 per hr (1 tow in 1 hr). That's if there are cops on, $0/hr if no cops are on......Players have 0 reason to call for a tow. I personally would like to have called for a tow many times when there are annoying local cars in an area were i'm trying to do RP, but if cops are busy or if its an area i don't wont the cops to come to, i then need to lock-pick all the cars and drive them around the block to get ride of them, That's fail RP. I would much rather call a tow truck to have these "abandoned" local cars moved off my property <--- that's RP 

4: I know you will say "but it will be abused". Really though unless it's someone picking up cars and dropping them in legion type abuse, it's not a problem, they can get banned. But as far as abusing it to make money..... you really can't, Cause even if i pick up a local car anywhere, every time i can and bring it to the yard it will still pay less per hour then doing an AFK job (peaches).

Ex: A tow from paleto may pay a couple G's 2-3, but it take 20 min round trip with tow truck driving at max speed. Still less then peaches. And if i just grab cars near the lot it pays a couple hundred, still less per hr then peaches, and also not AFK. - My point to this is player won't flock to towing to make money cause it will still make less then peaches. It will be more for something to do.   

5: If a tow truck operator is seen by police, or a report by a civ is made about someone stealing cars (IE: taking cars that shouldn't be tow'd) they can get charged with GTA, and lose their tow lic. Not only creating RP for criminal tow truck operators, but RP for cops to do real police work.  

6: I have only had a Civ call for a tow 1 time, cause there were no taxi's on and he needed a ride. #Sadface

7: Creating a valuable job. We need to do something about the repair kits. Everybody RP'ing as a master mechanic and fixing their own car to 100% is getting old. Let's make repair kits more expensive but make tow truck drivers able to tow the vehicle to a auto repair shop were it cost less - like $100 - to "fix car", then they can charge the owner of the car a reasonable tow and fix amount based on car damage and value. Repair kits would still be available for those terrible drivers, or when a tow just isn't available, but there should be incentive to drive right and use tow trucks.

 

This is my post on tow trucking, please remember that this is all IMO, Any add on suggestions welcome.

[Bob Johnson]

I would love to see something more done with towing. It has so much potential but as is, it can be very boring and you certainly don't do it for the money. But if you have cops that are RPing with the drivers, or other tow drivers on, it can be very fun.

[NEONDEAGLE]

3 hours ago, Merr Khan said:

So this topic is to discuss the possibility of opening up local vehicle for tow with out police needing to be involved. (cops still would be needed for player vehicle) So basically the tow truck drivers needs more freedom to do their job, there should be no issue with a tow truck driver cleaning up the streets.

Reasons:  

1: Police are not always on duty, and even when they are, they're not always available for 311 calls.

2: There are 100's of illegally parked and abandoned local cars at any given time around the map. Not including the ones player's have smashed into, and have dead people in them. 

3: On avg right now I can make $700-1500 per hr (1 tow in 1 hr). That's if there are cops on, $0/hr if no cops are on......Players have 0 reason to call for a tow. I personally would like to have called for a tow many times when there are annoying local cars in an area were i'm trying to do RP, but if cops are busy or if its an area i don't wont the cops to come to, i then need to lock-pick all the cars and drive them around the block to get ride of them, That's fail RP. I would much rather call a tow truck to have these "abandoned" local cars moved off my property <--- that's RP 

4: I know you will say "but it will be abused". Really though unless it's someone picking up cars and dropping them in legion type abuse, it's not a problem, they can get banned. But as far as abusing it to make money..... you really can't, Cause even if i pick up a local car anywhere, every time i can and bring it to the yard it will still pay less per hour then doing an AFK job (peaches).

Ex: A tow from paleto may pay a couple G's 2-3, but it take 20 min round trip with tow truck driving at max speed. Still less then peaches. And if i just grab cars near the lot it pays a couple hundred, still less per hr then peaches, and also not AFK. - My point to this is player won't flock to towing to make money cause it will still make less then peaches. It will be more for something to do.   

5: If a tow truck operator is seen by police, or a report by a civ is made about someone stealing cars (IE: taking cars that shouldn't be tow'd) they can get charged with GTA, and lose their tow lic. Not only creating RP for criminal tow truck operators, but RP for cops to do real police work.  

6: I have only had a Civ call for a tow 1 time, cause there were no taxi's on and he needed a ride. #Sadface

7: Creating a valuable job. We need to do something about the repair kits. Everybody RP'ing as a master mechanic and fixing their own car to 100% is getting old. Let's make repair kits more expensive but make tow truck drivers able to tow the vehicle to a auto repair shop were it cost less - like $100 - to "fix car", then they can charge the owner of the car a reasonable tow and fix amount based on car damage and value. Repair kits would still be available for those terrible drivers, or when a tow just isn't available, but there should be incentive to drive right and use tow trucks.

 

This is my post on tow trucking, please remember that this is all IMO, Any add on suggestions welcome.

I completely agree, maybe instead of the "Repair Kit" fixing a car to 100%, it could make it only last a couple mins. This way after the car is out again, they are forced to take the car to a repair shop by calling a Tow truck if they haven't made it to one yet. The second option would be removing the Kits completely and only offer them to someone who is currently a tow driver. Except they can't repair a vehicle on the side of the road unless its minor like a busted tire or low on fuel(You'd need a gas can at this point). This will increase the amount of realism and increase the amount of RP required to do this job. Later the Tow Worker can charge the appropriate amount for his/her time and effort in the RP. 

[Merr Khan]

The repair kit needs to stay in for when there are no tow trucks available, However increasing the price to make it more affordable to use a tow truck would be nice.

As far as the Tow truck driver and repair kits, to avoid the inevitable abuse of players buying kits cheap on duty and then using them off duty, I am proposing a none inventory item system of repair. An area were a vehicle can be towed to and fixed at a low cost. 

Edited April 19, 2018 by Merr Khan

[Bob Johnson]

Not having repair kits would sure mess with my off-road adventures.

[dK_]

Wonder if it would be possible to “whitelist” certain trusted players to tag local vehicles at anytime.

[Bob Johnson]

I would lean toward allowing EMS to tag before civilians.

[NEONDEAGLE]

1 hour ago, Bob Johnson said:

I would lean toward allowing EMS to tag before civilians.

I was just thinking this while I was in the City.

[Bob Johnson]

1 minute ago, NEONDEAGLE said:

I was just thinking this while I was in the City.

It's been discussed previously and the answer right now is no. I understand why they may not want to but I do think it would help clean up the city and create work for tow drivers.

[NEONDEAGLE]

There needs to be a better way to allow the tow drivers do more. I'm sure the development team is already discussing a better way to make this happen. Whether it's by making locals call them once their vehicles are totaled or by having another way for those to be tagged. 

[AdventureBob]

I think Tow truckers should pay more attention to noticing calls that are already taken as well. Some nights we have far too many tow truckers on and race to the call. Even if the person DIDN'T take the call they steal calls from you. Is there a way to make it so the call only effects the one who accepts it or no? 

I gave up on doing the tow trucking because we have too many on at times and they just race to a claimed call and steal the tag.

I guess a limit to the amount of tow truckers allowed per session IE: 3 max per session. If you want to still be a tow trucker during the session and you're the fourth one just keep trying. 

[BrandonM]

Here's an idea:

City Services. Another white-listed department of our city's infrastructure.  Garbage men, Tow Trucks, and Traffic Light Repairmen.  Same hierarchy as PD or FD, with a "Head of City Maintenance" and then a corps of engineers. It'll be a small department in charge of taking care of maintenance and waste disposal around the city, along with towing. The tow drivers can tow any vehicle they need, but must input the LP, area it is in, and reason to tow it.

[Thorgs]

3 hours ago, AdventureBob said:

I think Tow truckers should pay more attention to noticing calls

I couldn't agree more to the first part of your statement I personally when on duty request first and when there are some on at times no response request again and no response so I do it myself. Lost income is lost income 

[Merr Khan]

I totally agree if the calls are being ignored that's on the driver. But i got 3 hrs of video were even with police helping by marking vehicles, I net lost $350, sad but after expenses..... fuel, pulling truck out, driving to calls were there was nothing. This included tweeting out about tow services too.  

Thing is during this time I counted 43 local cars that could have been legal tow'd (smashed, abandoned, parked in red zone). Were as the driver I could have been engaged in tow truck RP, instead i was sitting for 20-30 min between calls. 

Either tow truck rate needs to be increased by 500% or the ability to tow illegal parked local cars needs to be implemented. I'm partial to the 2nd option since this will create more RP for tow truck drivers and cops too.    

Edited April 20, 2018 by Merr Khan

[MrUnknown]

An expansion of the Mechanic job could solve all of these problems, Mechanic's having the ability to choose a home garage out of the shops around the state (Of which there are more than plenty) where you have to take your shop to repair them 100%, a repair kit only getting you so far, and a tow truck needed to bring you to a garage if you're out of kits, gas, or just to completely repair it. it seems logical that not every single person has the same set of skills as each other, I.E Obvious stuff, i don't have to list it out to you, a taxi driver isn't a source of Police SoP info for reference. how many people who are active daily who in real life, know how to run a proper bead on a welder? fix a timing chain/belt or pull the frame back into place so the radiator isn't hitting the serpentine belt? If we really want to establish Badlands as more than a "light to moderate RP" server, i believe that this, before any weapons, business's  or other possible enterprises be addressed. Car's aren't tanks as we know, but taking away the option for an ordinary citizen to repair a technical mechanism without them having such knowledge seem's like a win-win when it comes down to an RP/realism aspect    

[trycomb]

this post is very true. i bought a tow truck once . sat for an hour . no calls. sold my truck .

[Dashfere]

Hello Wolfe Tow, Rescue and Repair here,  I bought and maintain a couple of drivers in the tow trucking business. I've made money with it. But it all comes down to marketing and creating a name for yourself. The rp is essential or you're just going to look like a prick for turning up and stealing other tags. Generate a few regular customers, put out adverts etc. Also if there are other tow drivers on then talk to them! Communicate and work around each other!  

I think that whitelisting a few trusted people to tag the abandoned or illegally parked vehicles would help create more of a purpose for sitting on duty. At the moment I do truck driving in the down times, if a tow  call comes in from anyone I'll make sure to be there for the rp value, whether its lspd or civs. Minding also to make sure no other towies are sitting idle. 

I'd love to see an actual mechanic side of the job! More steps required to fix and prepare the vehicle for the road again. 

Great post by the way! 

Edited May 8, 2018 by Dashfere

[Denver]

Alright so as of right now you have the option to drive arround and wait for a call to repair/flip or tow and inpound.

I would like to see a fueture where cars that are left behind by players for a certain amount of time should get tagged for tow automatically. this will give the tow truckers some more work and rp.

Keep it up Serpico and Speed

[Thorgs]

2 hours ago, Blueman_Gaming said:

cars that are left behind by players for a certain amount of time should get tagged for tow automatically

Problem is this can be abused and most likely would without some kind of measures in place and how do you decide what is too long?

[Denver]

Okay lets say we edit it too 

"Cars that are from players that are not in the server anymore get tagged for tow"

 

Is that better?

[Merr Khan]

So kind of an AFK car tagger. 

 

[Grimmfang13]

That base majority of calls would then be either legion or the bank behind legion as that's where people normally met up and then travel together if your talking about some kind of owner not in range timer.. you also have to remember that divers go out for an hour + sometimes to go diving.

 

[Chase McCane (Fludiddy)]

I know EMS was dismissed earlier as an option for right now.  But it sure would give an RP incentive for some us that like to roam the city.  I like patrolling as EMS and it would be cool to tag some blatantly obvious vehicles for towing. We're  Much like I'm sure IRL EMS would call the police if a vehicle was in the roadway or something.  As far as a abusing game mechanics, I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to implement a cap on a payout system so a tow truck driver doesn't get paid x amount in x amount of minutes OR a whitelisted EMS/PD player can't tag x amount of vehicles in x amount of minutes -- so people wouldn't purposefully line up cars to be tagged to help out their buddy(ies).

[James Johnson]

On 4/20/2018 at 10:17 AM, BrandonM said:

Here's an idea:

City Services. Another white-listed department of our city's infrastructure.  Garbage men, Tow Trucks, and Traffic Light Repairmen.  Same hierarchy as PD or FD, with a "Head of City Maintenance" and then a corps of engineers. It'll be a small department in charge of taking care of maintenance and waste disposal around the city, along with towing. The tow drivers can tow any vehicle they need, but must input the LP, area it is in, and reason to tow it.

I like that idea alot, it would open plenty of trustworthy, high RP positions to serious Citizens.

[fearce]

As time went on on the server ive been in multiple crashes, some making my car explode , some making it seem impossible to drive. But this is never a problem because I have a 150$ repair kit that can fix anything at any point no matter what. Usually before I went and tried repairing it I would try call a tow truck, usually never on duty but why would their be.. Have to invest around 60k in total (50k for the tow truck and 10k for the licence), and most people would only call if they had no repair kits or if their car was flipped. Anyway there is no real need in people having tow trucks as you can buy an on the go tow truck for 150$, 

MY SUGGESTION:

Make repair kits more expensive first of all, around 350$ - 500$. They wouldnt fix your car, all they would do is make the engine able to run not even 100% maybe like 70% so you'd have to go to a Los Santos Customs or any other customs. Then Lower the cost of tow trucks by a big margin, and lower the licence down a bit too (possibly whitelisted tow truck drivers). This would allow people to call tow trucks and them being able  to repair their vehicle 100% by having to bring it to a LSC but for a much cheaper price. This would actually increase tow truck drivers and increase players having to actually call them rather than tweeting for someone to bring a repair kit, also would stop police just making cars disappear completely just ruining the immersion. 

Obviously some things that can be changed with my idea but this is just what I think about it!