Dear all, 

 

As many of you will have noticed, my activity in the LSPDFR scene has decreased significantly over the past few months. There are many reasons for this, the details of which I won't bore you with. It mostly comes down to being busy with other things in my life, as well as LSPDFR becoming less interesting for me having played it for so long and the introduction of frameworks allowing modded GTA5 multiplayer environments.

 

How times have changed since when I joined the community in 2015, from me taking an interest in learning to code in C# to having multiple plugins released on the site. It's been one heck of a journey here. I recall well the first 'mod' I uploaded for the LSPDFR community, which was called 'More Jail Points' at the time. This was first published for RAGEPluginHook 0.20. This later evolved into 'More Jail Points & Prisoner Transporter' and is now known as the all-so-familiar Arrest Manager. When I was contacted by @dbock1989, who was so enthusiastic about my More Jail Points & Prisoner Transporter plugin at the time, I couldn't quite believe it. He had been so kind as to create a variety of images related to the plugin (see below)! It frankly couldn't have been a more exciting moment at the time and, alongside other overwhelmingly positive and welcoming feedback, served as a major motivation factor for me to continue learning to code and create plugins.

 

Following this, I was looking to give more purpose to the LSPDFR traffic stop system. And so, Traffic Policer was born - a plugin originally intended to add a few ambient events related to traffic offences. This has now grown into one of my most feature-packed plugins to date. By this time, some YouTubers started using my plugins in their videos. Not only was this a great way for me to obtain feedback on my mods' user experience, I also watched @Zachary Houseknecht with great pleasure while my ANPR Hit AI lit many of his police vehicles on fire... An absolute howler: https://youtu.be/4D8HshZzWMQ?t=606

 

Some weeks on and Assorted Callouts was next in line. This was originally created out of a callout idea by  @CaptainSugarFree  and turned into what is now known as the Pacific Bank Heist. This took about 4 weeks of intensive development to fully complete (and am I shocked at the code quality looking back at it now... works though). As the first of its kind, the callout featured voice-overs and an intense, detailed SWAT based LSPDFR callout. I was incredibly proud for this to be featured on @Jeff Favignano's channel and I see now that the video in question has amassed over 1.9 million views... breathtaking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIXKvUyzylA

 

Moving on again. At this point, @FinKone had managed to get me into YouTube. After having released British Policing Script, longing for an LSPDFR experience closer to home for me, many longed a version of the plugin for international and American users to incorporate the traffic stop improvements and a court system. With that, I released LSPDFR+ by doing my first ever YouTube live stream, which was quite the experience. After this, I released Siren Mastery, PoliceSmartRadio and a variety of other tools and smaller plugins. Many hours of coding, effort, stress, giving support and obtaining feedback had been put in by this point. I was absolutely chuffed to then achieve one million downloads on my published files...

This figure has since risen to over five million.

 

Following some negative coverage of LSPDFR in some of the Australian media, I'm also very happy that Wired UK decided to publish an overwhelmingly positive article on the whole GTA5 police modding scene: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/gta-5-mods-lsdpfr-british-police?utm_content=buffer9ca53

 

After PoliceSmartRadio's release - with the infamous April FoolsRadio download giving four thousand people a perhaps frustratingly good laugh - I placed the whole modding scene lower in my priority list. As mentioned previously, this has since been pushed far further down.

 

Some thoughts on the community's development over time

I would describe the LSPDFR community as healthy. @Sam @LMS and all the other contributors have created something very special for all the right reasons and this is largely reflected in the attitudes of the staff & moderation team and community members. With publishing mods on a popular website like this, unfortunately, comes some drama and negativity - and while I have not always agreed with the way and speed the moderation team dealt with my reports relating to me and my work, they have done a good job overall. The few issues that I experienced were all resolved. From my experience in the plugin side of the modding scene, this continues to be the case now.

 

One thing I noted during the months that passed is that both experienced but particularly newer modders are now frequently treated with disdain in the scene. The modding scene has grown massively since when I first started and unfortunately, in this area, it shows. Everyone starts somewhere and the fact someone is spending their free time creating something for all of you to download, for free, has become massively underappreciated and taken for granted. Sure, a new modders' release may be full of bugs and be nowhere near as feature-rich as more developed plugins, but this takes time to solve. Had I received the negative feedback I've seen on many a new modder's release page back in 2015, you can rest assured I wouldn't have continued my development here. When providing feedback, by all means, point out the issues, but do so in a friendly, constructive manner, not in an entitled, toxic one. Have a look at the first few comments on my Arrest Manager download page to see what that is like - this was a major factor for me to consider continuing development! It is essential for the development of the LSPDFR modding community that this attitude is changed back to what it was in the 'good old days'.

 

With all that said, I also hope the release of LSPDFR 0.4 kicks a breath of fresh air into the now somewhat stale core LSPDFR modification. With over 2 years having passed since the latest update of the core modification, I'm sure we all agree that an update would be a very welcome step. From the various preview posts released by the development team, it looks that we all have something great to look forward to there.

 

'Retirement'? So does that mean you're permanently done with the LSPDFR modding scene?

No, but I won't be actively developing plugins for LSPDFR any more. To be fair, nothing's really changing much now compared to the past few months. I intend to remain as a member of the LSPDFR Testing Team and I'm sure I'll be drawn back in at some point to explore some of the new development options in the 0.4 API. I'll also stay around on my discord and occasionally the forums and I intend to continue publishing occasional videos on my Youtube channel. If my time and motivation levels allow, I may publish some minor updates to my current mods before 0.4 is released. The fact remains, however, that I would currently classify myself as 'inactive' in the scene. With so much other stuff going on, I simply don't have the time to commit that I used to. It would be a pity to say the least to let all my work slowly deteriorate and waste away. Therefore, I've decided to publish the source code to some of my plugins to https://github.com/Albo1125/. At the very least, I would like it to be a learning resource for other ambitious plugin developers in the scene. At best, I hope other developers will take it upon themselves to improve the code where necessary (yes it is very necessary!) and create pull requests to share those improvements. These can then be merged and released, with credits obviously included for contributors.

 

Back when I started developing for LSPDFR, very few learning resources were available bar the great example project by @LukeD . This hasn't really changed since, despite the creation of the LSPDFR API repository by LMS (https://github.com/LMSDev/LSPDFR-API) and some posts aiming to document the LSPDFR functions by myself in the API development subforum. A noteable step was the creation of the LSPDFR Developers Discord server thanks to  @Stealth22 A full post with current development resources can be found here: 

I'm planning to publish the source code to a number of my plugins one-by-one to improve this and give something to the community:

• Arrest Manager: https://github.com/Albo1125/Arrest-Manager 
• Assorted Callouts: https://github.com/Albo1125/Assorted-Callouts
• Albo1125.Common: https://github.com/Albo1125/Albo1125-Common
• Traffic Policer: https://github.com/Albo1125/Traffic-Policer
• LSPDFR+: https://github.com/Albo1125/LSPDFRPlus
• British Policing Script: https://github.com/Albo1125/British-Policing-Script

 

By no means do I claim that any of the code I post is perfect or amazing - on the contrary, far from it. With the experience I have now gained, reading through some of my old code makes me want to tear my hair out. This is only to be expected, though - most of my plugins were created as part of my learning experience of C#. Prior to this, I had no coding experience or knowledge. It's fascinating to see how the quality of my code has evolved over time by looking at my various different plugins in order of initial release date.

 

Wrapping up. I hope this post provides some clarification and closure for those of you wondering where on earth I've been over the past few months. It's been an absolute blast and a pleasure. To all of you who were a part of my journey here, thank you.

 

Edited December 23, 20214 yr by Albo1125

Your plugins have filed a lot of the void left in the core LSPDFR modification, and I am very glad that you are choosing to open source so these plugins can be improved upon further. Thank you.

Edited November 24, 20187 yr by liverlande

Albooooooo !

Thank you for your invaluable, priceless work.

 

I'm using your plugins since the beginning, and I remember reporting bugs in your PM on Discord like if it was yesterday. You always answered and try to help. Again, thank you.

 

I 100% agree with @liverlande point. You filled the huge void in LSPDFR core and to be honnest, no one, or only some will be still playing lspdfr if your plugins never released. For the third time, thank you.

 

Have a great day, and please, come back... Soon ?

LSPDFR is Albo1125 and Albo1125 is LSPDFR mic drop...

Glad to see you will be opensourcing these for improvement so that they can carry on while you deal with real life stuff. It has been a joy using your plugins, and I thank you for being a major part of this community

Best of Luck!

Without your mods I doubt I'd have stayed interested at all in LSPDFR. I really hope you dont really ride off into the sunset just yet. will will need the next gen of mods for .4

@Pumpk1in is 100% correct. This game wouldn't be the same for me without your plugins. I only started messing around with LSPDFR about two years ago. So I have only seen a world with Albo. 

 

While I am excited for 0.4, it definitly won't be the same without Mr. 1125. God speed.

what a shame and a huge loss to the community. you'll be sadly missed. thanks for everything you've done though.

 

if one was wanting to get into modding for lspdfr what would your advice be where to start?

Albo, I'm sure I'll occasionally see you around but just wanted to say thank you for the massive amount of time and resources you have poured into this community. Your plugins have made LSPDFR so much more immersive. I know you will have success wherever life takes you.

 

Cheers,

Carson

man, heartbreaking to hear but I definitely understand. Thank you so much for everything you've done! LSPDFR wouldn't be the same without your work!

"Albo1125 I hate goodbye no matter how small they are or temporary. I can honestly say I came into the mod info zone late. However, that being said Your mod have made my game time worth wile and fun. I can never get bored with it I guess cause I pace myself with it. Play then don't play for a day or two. But when I do I laugh i get mad when some one make me wreck my cruiser or impede on a pursuit. I guess what it boils down to is I would not have had those memories without the mods you and others made. However, only a few of you went into details with the videos on how to make and simplify them which have helped greatly. Funny you mention retirement In your post I was just thinking to pose a question to you about an idea lol. all good things must end right!? I do not have patrol in rl tonight so I'm up here reading theses post. You have made my time great and i thank you for that.. Hope to see ya down the road. I know how RL can change  a-lot of things one set out to do! Until then take care Sir!!!!"

I just wanna say a very big THANK YOU! Your plugins made LSPDFR a lot better to play in matter of fact they made LSPDFR playable in my opinion. Having proper arrest backup units, Fixing the AI  to not ram you from behind every time a pursuit happens, adding callouts with many Variations many outcomes that every callout that can have, Perfecting the PoliceRadio, Adding a more immersive Traffic stop question system and so many more things that you did were not just simple additions they made LSPDFR playable because without those plugins LSPDFR would not have been the same. Also making tutorials and helping people with addon vehicles how to properly change the vehicle.meta and carvariation.meta is something not just simple users appreciate but vehicle modelers and i am sure other Developers out there and i can just keep going. Your retirement from the LSPDFR community is definatly gonna be a very big loss.

 

Thank you for everything you offered to this community! 

Albo1125 is a legend on lspdfr.Not only of his MUST have mods to lspdfr BUT for his unbelievable YT videos that helped me and many others to understand modding step by step.Even today when i want to make a fresh lspdfr installation the first thing that i do is to open a browser to "Learn GTA5 Modding Albo's Way | Tutorials, Guides, Installation Help & Tricks" playlist!

THANK YOU Albo 🙂

Thank you for all your hard work Albo. You are without a doubt a key member for LSPDFR. Without your mods LSPDFR would not be successful.

I wish you the best of luck in life and hope you achieve all your goals. 

As someone who has been playing LCPDFR/LSPDFR since 2013 and someone who wanted more immersion i just cant thank you enough but this is at least something.

 

Thank you albo... for everything! here is to the future of LSPDFR and a healthy modding scene for 0.4!

@Albo1125Thank you for the arrest manager  siren Mastery lspdfr+ traffic policer and Thank you for All you have Done for LSPDFR over the years Much Respect Man you are 10-42 sir 

 @Albo1125 You can be sure that your work has been happy to thousands of people, who have seen expanded the functions of LPDFR in an incredible way. I only have words of thanks for you. I beg you not to abandon everything please, so that in LSPDFR 0.4 we can have your mods working as well.

Thank you!

Source code for Assorted Callouts is now available.

 

Also, thank you for all the kind comments. I've read them all - truly humbling.

Like the previous comments stated, you are truly a legend within the LSPDFR modding community, whether it be you helping out members of the community, or releasing highly-detailed plugins, you are truly an inspiration. I hope that you have the best in future, because you truly deserve it. Thank you.

You’re a legend in time. Been using your stuff since day one of me starting LSPDFR!