Introduction
Rule Breaking is a prominent thing in DarkRP. It's gonna happen, and as staff, you will probably have to deal with it everyday. I know how it is, I've owned / managed DarkRP servers a lot, and it can get frustrating. Following these guidelines will help you out with some of that frustration.
Starting Out
If you've staffed previous servers, you know it can be a tough thing to staff DarkRP. It can be very demanding, even when first starting out. You may find yourself very slow at handling situations compared to older members. That's alright though, this guide will help with that!
Everything is going swell. How do I help?!
If there is nothing going on, helping players is a great way of gaining their trust. Ask anyone if they need help with anything, even if it doesn't involve rules. When players know that you are willing to help, they will be more likely to come to you for help and build a trust for you. Bonding with the players ensures that they come back. Teaching noobs how to play DarkRP is another thing. Garrysmod gains new players everyday, and you're bound to run into someone who doesn't know what they are doing. Teach them the ropes, help them out, thats why you are staff!
Preparation
Always make sure you have Developer Console Enabled. It is a useful tool for staff, and you will find it to be your best friend soon enough. DarkRP dumps a lot of valuable information in there that you can look far back into, think of it as logs. You can do this by going to Options -> Keyboard -> Advanced -> Ticking Enable Developer Console. Make sure after you've binded "Toggle Console" to a key, the default should be the tilde key, or "~", it can also be "`".
Another thing to be wary of is your game sound, you should always be able to hear it, even when alt-tabbed out. Head over to Options -> Audio and ensure your game volume is up, sound quality is on high, and check "silence the audio while the game window is in the background". This should help you out in the audio department.
FPS is a big thing too. If you're lagging, you can miss out on important info. Ensure you are at least on 30 FPS. You can check your video settings by going to Options -> Video -> Advanced. I have a GTX 970 paired with a i5-4660, if your specs are close to mine, these video settings should be fine
If you have lower specs, you could just test it out by using my settings and lower them accordingly.
Binds can save you time as a staff member. Typing in commands can take enough time to allow the player to break another rule quickly. Some must needed binds are these
Normally I do v for noclip, since thats the default garrysmod noclip, and I use b for menu, since its quickly accessible.
Staff on Duty
While Staff on Duty you are expected to:
Admin Sits
Before delving deep into this, you should ghost older staff members, and see how they handle admin sits. Reading this will help also, but it's always a good idea to look at older staff and see how they handle situations.
Find the Problem. Normally, it will be one player accusing the other. Sometimes you'll have other things like glitches. Despite anything, always treat the problem with high priority. If there's no other staff member on, you are expected to drop what you are doing and go help them.
Is this a common problem? Is the player reporting always reporting other players? If so, maybe it's just the person wanting to get others in trouble. Is the person being accused always being accused by various players? If so, maybe that player is a toxic player. Don't be scared to ask other staff what they have experienced with that player either, you can use staff chat by putting a "@" before your message.
How has this effected other players? Staff are here to make the player experience better. If someone is getting reported over something small and its not really hurting others, tell them you will look into it once it becomes a bigger problem. If it has effected players negatively, don't be afraid to ban the offender, especially if it's multiple offences, even for a minor rule break.
My problem with Roof-Top Sits.
I'm not new in the DarkRP game. I've been playing gmod since 2009, and have probably been running DarkRP servers since 2013. I've been through various Roof-Top sittings, if you don't know what that is, it's where you bring the player(s) to a rooftop and talk to them. I used to use this method back in 2013-14, but after a while I realized that it just doesn't work most of the time. People lie to cover their tracks, and people lie to make it seem like the person thats breaking the rule was doing it much more than they actually were.
Instead of bringing them, and listening to both sides of the story, just watch the player reported. Spectate the person, and watch for them rule breaking, if you catch them, then you can go ahead and bring them and explain to them why you are warning them. It makes it easier on you, and removes the who-who part o the sit. If it is a serious offence though and you feel that a Roof-Top sit is needed, go ahead and do it.
Obnoxious Admin Sits
Admin sits are frustrating. In DarkRP, you'll always have that one sit where there are 4+ people screaming at each other with wild accusations. A sit normally consists of two players, the one being accused, and the one that is accusing. It is hard to listen to both sides of the story when they are yelling, and even harder when there are 4+ also trying to butt in. Heres some tips to help.
Finding the correct punishments for players can be hard. Always take in mind that your bans, kicks, slaps, and jailings, all affect everyone on the server, even if they aren't part of the problem. It's okay to take your time and think of one, because every offense is always different. There are some offenses that come with obvious punishment, like MassRDM, crashing the server, or threatening players, those should always lead to a perma-ban. If they want to appeal, they can do so on the forums. If it's something else, just remember that a perma-ban is a drastic measure, unless that player is someone who continuously break rules, you should use other punishments.
Kicks, Temp-Mutes, Mutes, and Temp-Bans are always options. When using the temp options though, always make sure its reasonable. If you're gonna ban a player for more than a week, they will most likely not come back at all. Less than a day is usually a nice time for first time offenders, even if its a repeated thing over time. This shows that you aren't some overseeing staff that is ban happy, but you don't tolerate rule breakers.
Please DO NOT use repeated jailings, rocket-slays, slays, or just in general torture rule breakers. This gives players the feeling that you are a bad staff member. Be professional about it, it isn't a joke to punish someone. It's okay to have fun, but do not overdo it. Players will start to actively avoid you if you do so.
Do not let anger factor into your ban. If a player is making you upset, tell another staff member to deal with it. If someone has been angering you, don't take it personally and ban them., either cool down, or have someone else deal with it. You can notify the other staff in the DarkRP Staff Discord.
Be prepared to ban / punish a friend. I cannot stress this enough. If you see a friend breaking rules, take action. Do not let them sit there and break rules, this degrades the server, and the community as a whole. It might hurt you a little but, but always remember we want the best for the community, not for your friend, which seems blunt, I know, but it's always the best route to worry about people as a whole, and not singular. It's a problem I've had to deal with many times, and I understand that it is hard, but you have to draw a line with some things, and that should 100% come to when its keeping the community nice and managed.
Closing Statement
Staff should always be bettering the community. Even if it comes to serious things, like banning a friend. Working hard, being smart, and taking your time is always the way you should handle things. Think about you being a user, and how you would feel if you were watching admins. A good example would be people abusing ignite and slay, what would your impressions be if you joined a server where everyone was just spamming commands like that? Not so good. Be considerate of others, even if you are staff, act as another player. You set an example, and you should always act like so. Thank you for reading this guide, and I hope it helps!
Rule Breaking is a prominent thing in DarkRP. It's gonna happen, and as staff, you will probably have to deal with it everyday. I know how it is, I've owned / managed DarkRP servers a lot, and it can get frustrating. Following these guidelines will help you out with some of that frustration.
Starting Out
If you've staffed previous servers, you know it can be a tough thing to staff DarkRP. It can be very demanding, even when first starting out. You may find yourself very slow at handling situations compared to older members. That's alright though, this guide will help with that!
Everything is going swell. How do I help?!
If there is nothing going on, helping players is a great way of gaining their trust. Ask anyone if they need help with anything, even if it doesn't involve rules. When players know that you are willing to help, they will be more likely to come to you for help and build a trust for you. Bonding with the players ensures that they come back. Teaching noobs how to play DarkRP is another thing. Garrysmod gains new players everyday, and you're bound to run into someone who doesn't know what they are doing. Teach them the ropes, help them out, thats why you are staff!
Preparation
Always make sure you have Developer Console Enabled. It is a useful tool for staff, and you will find it to be your best friend soon enough. DarkRP dumps a lot of valuable information in there that you can look far back into, think of it as logs. You can do this by going to Options -> Keyboard -> Advanced -> Ticking Enable Developer Console. Make sure after you've binded "Toggle Console" to a key, the default should be the tilde key, or "~", it can also be "`".
Another thing to be wary of is your game sound, you should always be able to hear it, even when alt-tabbed out. Head over to Options -> Audio and ensure your game volume is up, sound quality is on high, and check "silence the audio while the game window is in the background". This should help you out in the audio department.
FPS is a big thing too. If you're lagging, you can miss out on important info. Ensure you are at least on 30 FPS. You can check your video settings by going to Options -> Video -> Advanced. I have a GTX 970 paired with a i5-4660, if your specs are close to mine, these video settings should be fine
Binds can save you time as a staff member. Typing in commands can take enough time to allow the player to break another rule quickly. Some must needed binds are these
- "ulx menu" - This will open up the ulx menu, giving access to all the commands you can use at the time.
- "ulx freeze @" - This will freeze the player you're looking at. This helps with people trying to run away, or MassDM'ers.
- "ulx unfreeze @" - Undos the above action.
- "ulx noclip" - Silently toggles noclip.
Normally I do v for noclip, since thats the default garrysmod noclip, and I use b for menu, since its quickly accessible.
Staff on Duty
While Staff on Duty you are expected to:
- Go to players that need assistance.
- Give reasonable and legitimate punishments.
- Don't be biased.
- No AFK'ing. Switch off of job if you are.
- Show respect to everyone.
- Keep bad language to minimums.
- Follow ALL server rules.
- Go to players that need assistance no matter what situation. (Unless someone else is SoD)
- Follow ALL server rules.
- Respect all players.
- Not use admin commands unless 100% needed.
Admin Sits
Before delving deep into this, you should ghost older staff members, and see how they handle admin sits. Reading this will help also, but it's always a good idea to look at older staff and see how they handle situations.
Find the Problem. Normally, it will be one player accusing the other. Sometimes you'll have other things like glitches. Despite anything, always treat the problem with high priority. If there's no other staff member on, you are expected to drop what you are doing and go help them.
Is this a common problem? Is the player reporting always reporting other players? If so, maybe it's just the person wanting to get others in trouble. Is the person being accused always being accused by various players? If so, maybe that player is a toxic player. Don't be scared to ask other staff what they have experienced with that player either, you can use staff chat by putting a "@" before your message.
How has this effected other players? Staff are here to make the player experience better. If someone is getting reported over something small and its not really hurting others, tell them you will look into it once it becomes a bigger problem. If it has effected players negatively, don't be afraid to ban the offender, especially if it's multiple offences, even for a minor rule break.
My problem with Roof-Top Sits.
I'm not new in the DarkRP game. I've been playing gmod since 2009, and have probably been running DarkRP servers since 2013. I've been through various Roof-Top sittings, if you don't know what that is, it's where you bring the player(s) to a rooftop and talk to them. I used to use this method back in 2013-14, but after a while I realized that it just doesn't work most of the time. People lie to cover their tracks, and people lie to make it seem like the person thats breaking the rule was doing it much more than they actually were.
Instead of bringing them, and listening to both sides of the story, just watch the player reported. Spectate the person, and watch for them rule breaking, if you catch them, then you can go ahead and bring them and explain to them why you are warning them. It makes it easier on you, and removes the who-who part o the sit. If it is a serious offence though and you feel that a Roof-Top sit is needed, go ahead and do it.
Obnoxious Admin Sits
Admin sits are frustrating. In DarkRP, you'll always have that one sit where there are 4+ people screaming at each other with wild accusations. A sit normally consists of two players, the one being accused, and the one that is accusing. It is hard to listen to both sides of the story when they are yelling, and even harder when there are 4+ also trying to butt in. Heres some tips to help.
- Gag and Listen. Gag both players at first, and calmly explain that you want them to type the explanation. Tell them what you want to know, ask what they want to happen, and remind them to be polite. You could un-gag one and let them talk, but that can still lead to disorientation and yelling. It is better to just let each party type it out, it also helps because it is in logs now and higher ups can review it later if needed.
- Freeze. People try and runaway like you won't notice and bring them back. Even though you can bring them back, it is a slight annoyance to stop the story and bring that person back. A good command for people who runaway is !jailtp, which brings them to you and jails them. If they run away, don't be afraid to add that into their punishment, as that is breaking another rule.
- Take your time. Don't jump to conclusions. If you need a breather, take a break, put the names into the DarkRP staff chat with matching SteamID's, and allow another staff member to handle it in the future. You could also just give yourself a couple of minutes to decide, and catch up with the players.
Finding the correct punishments for players can be hard. Always take in mind that your bans, kicks, slaps, and jailings, all affect everyone on the server, even if they aren't part of the problem. It's okay to take your time and think of one, because every offense is always different. There are some offenses that come with obvious punishment, like MassRDM, crashing the server, or threatening players, those should always lead to a perma-ban. If they want to appeal, they can do so on the forums. If it's something else, just remember that a perma-ban is a drastic measure, unless that player is someone who continuously break rules, you should use other punishments.
Kicks, Temp-Mutes, Mutes, and Temp-Bans are always options. When using the temp options though, always make sure its reasonable. If you're gonna ban a player for more than a week, they will most likely not come back at all. Less than a day is usually a nice time for first time offenders, even if its a repeated thing over time. This shows that you aren't some overseeing staff that is ban happy, but you don't tolerate rule breakers.
Please DO NOT use repeated jailings, rocket-slays, slays, or just in general torture rule breakers. This gives players the feeling that you are a bad staff member. Be professional about it, it isn't a joke to punish someone. It's okay to have fun, but do not overdo it. Players will start to actively avoid you if you do so.
Do not let anger factor into your ban. If a player is making you upset, tell another staff member to deal with it. If someone has been angering you, don't take it personally and ban them., either cool down, or have someone else deal with it. You can notify the other staff in the DarkRP Staff Discord.
Be prepared to ban / punish a friend. I cannot stress this enough. If you see a friend breaking rules, take action. Do not let them sit there and break rules, this degrades the server, and the community as a whole. It might hurt you a little but, but always remember we want the best for the community, not for your friend, which seems blunt, I know, but it's always the best route to worry about people as a whole, and not singular. It's a problem I've had to deal with many times, and I understand that it is hard, but you have to draw a line with some things, and that should 100% come to when its keeping the community nice and managed.
Closing Statement
Staff should always be bettering the community. Even if it comes to serious things, like banning a friend. Working hard, being smart, and taking your time is always the way you should handle things. Think about you being a user, and how you would feel if you were watching admins. A good example would be people abusing ignite and slay, what would your impressions be if you joined a server where everyone was just spamming commands like that? Not so good. Be considerate of others, even if you are staff, act as another player. You set an example, and you should always act like so. Thank you for reading this guide, and I hope it helps!
