Alright so before I start, I think we can all agree that Firestone is in the shit in terms of exploiters and FRP. How can we go about fixing this then? A solution may be much simpler than most think, especially when you look at other ro-states for inspiration.
The problem
Firstly, there is no filter for joining the group at all. I mean, I could easily join the group with a one day old bacon hair account with the name “fjhnsgfdh”. It’s pretty pathetic nothing has been done about this either. And don’t say “fed’s already tried group locking the game but it didnt work!1!”. I don’t think fed realises that solely group locking the game won’t fix the problem. Yes, group locking the game is part of the solution but will not work without the conjunction of the other pieces of the puzzle.
Next up is exploiters. If you’ve played Firestone for a maximum of ten minutes you’ve definitely encountered an exploiter, whether that’d be someone cloning tools and throwing teargas and smoke grenades around the map, going mach 10 with their invisible torso flinging everything within a 100 stud radius or straight up crashing the server. Exploiters are everywhere, even with paid access being a thing. Don’t ask me why they buy access to the game to exploit, they just do. The problem here still exists because again, of a lack of a decent filtering system/whitelist system being put in place. V2 being placed under paid access is just another show and tell of how fed thinks that enforcing one piece of the solution will fix the entire problem. You can have the game group locked and tucked behind a paywall as long as you want but exploiters and frpers will still exist if no system to filter out alts and noobs is put in place correctly.
Here I can already see a lot of backlash coming up but the next issue that must be addressed is the game moderation system (not particularly the team). Before you even reply saying “omg the game moderators work their asses off they don’t deserve disrespect!”. Let me just stop you. I completely respect how much time the game moderators put into dealing with exploiters and enforcing the clumsy mess of an FRP guide we, for some reason, have. The game moderation team, in my opinion, hasn’t nearly enough tools to do their job to the fullest of potential. Sure they get the basics but they need more ways to view different logs, one example being chatlogs for filter bypassers. Locallogs isn’t reliable either to view exploits as more and more exploits nowadays are becoming undetectable which just leaves the track and view command to be able to spot them if they are flying around the map. Bear in mind as well that not all exploiters fly around the map, some are there to crash the server, some others are there to clone tools into their backpack, others are there to do god knows what else. Also, what happened to game mods being able to ban and kick people in V2 from discord? That was honestly one of the best things ever as if a game mod was lying in bed or wasn’t near their computer they didn’t have to log onto roblox to join the game and ban them, they could just quickly hop onto discord and perform the command from there. I don’t know the reasoning behind as to why this amazing feature was removed but from my viewpoint it was completely unnecessary as it greatly benefited everyone.
The solution
Right so, so far I’ve just been listing the problems that Firestone has. So now that we’re all caught up with the reality of the community, this is where we, as a community will push for a lot of positive change to happen. Unlikely any changes will be made after this topic is published as I can already see people just bitching about stuff in the posts below instead of writing up any constructive criticism about my ideas or Firestone but you don’t get anywhere by doing nothing, I might as well try to make some half decent suggestions that clearly haven’t been put in place yet.
First things first. Let’s get a solid filter going for newcomers to the group. This will be done by combining multiple aspects together to make Firestone much more difficult to enter, ultimately getting rid of exploiters and inexperienced roleplayers.
The game must be grouplocked.
All accounts with free catalog items (bacon hairs, noobs) must be instantly declined from entering the group as they are the most likely to be exploiters and frpers.
Accounts must be at least 365 days old, this will weed out brand new accounts that are there to just exploit and frp. Right now the age limit is 30 days I’m pretty sure. That’s absolutely nothing and must be changed
Tourists should not be allowed to join V2. Alongside this, really amp up the citizenship test to make it much more difficult. Currently it’s just questions anyone can answer like “What side of the road do you drive on”. If this point is implemented there will also be no need to remove all tourists from the group to get rid of the noobs and alts as they can’t join the game until they pass the beefed up citizenship test.
V2 and V3 staying in paid access is debatable if the above requirements are put in place, leave suggestions about this one down below.
I also understand that ROBLOX is a kids game but this community is designed for people 14+, not for 6 year old kids that rarely type in chat and the only thing they can say is “noob” and “how b cop” and then proceed to drive in their crown vic at gear 1 down redwood boulevard because they don’t know the controls.
Another thing that could be implemented is an immigration office which will remove a lot of the load off of the founders for performing the rigorous checklist for every account that sends a join request to the group. If you couldn’t figure it out already, the immigration office will be in charge of working through all the accounts that send a join request to the group. This department would be a huge team which, I can assume, will be overseen by the founders to ensure no scandalous acts are being performed behind their backs. Again leave any suggestions for a possible immigration office down below and how it could function as this will be a big deal if implemented.
For dealing with exploiters, there’s a lot that can be worked on. I know V2 won’t be updated to accommodate new game mechanics hence why I haven’t left any major game development suggestions here but game moderators should be given more commands and the ability to ban and kick over discord. Hiring more game moderators from different timezones would definitely help as well since there’ll be more people able to do their jobs across a multitude of different timezones. I know env also said something about being worried that game moderators will abuse their powers if given more commands but surely you trust your own handpicked team of game mods right? You shouldn’t have this concern if you really trust your own guys.
Lastly, I would also like to point out that just because this problem exists in V2, doesn’t mean it will just go away when V3 is released, just saying this since I have seen a few people think this is the case. The community is still the same, it’s just a different game with the same people with the same intentions. I do hope that V3 will have far better game mechanics as well since the FRP guide is one of the most stupid things to ever exist. It honestly shouldn’t be a thing if the game was made well. It’s caused so many unfair bans and been the crux of a lot of toxicity and I cannot wait for it to be removed from Firestone if V3 delivers.
Thanks for reading this post, please leave your suggestions down below on what we can do to fix Firestone if you have any. Also don’t start bitching about stuff, if you’re gonna do that just get out, I only wanna see constructive criticism here as that is the only way we can fix this state.
