A roleplay city with great cops and nothing for them to chase gets boring fast. The criminal side of a server is what gives police, EMS, lawyers and even mechanics something to do, so it deserves the same planning as the legal jobs. The buildings you give gangs and dealers shape how that side plays out.
This post is about picking those buildings: hideouts, gang houses and drug locations, and how to place them so they create stories instead of just loot spots.
Gangs need a home, not just a turf
Painting a few blocks in gang colours on the map is a start, but players need somewhere to actually gather. A dedicated house or clubhouse gives a crew a reason to log on together, plan, argue, and stash things. It also gives police a target for warrants and raids, which is where a lot of the best RP comes from.
When you look through gang MLOs for your server, keep these questions in mind:
- Does the location fit the gang’s lore? A Grove Street crew in a Vinewood mansion is going to feel off to everyone.
- How many entrances are there? One door is easy to defend and easy for police to stack up on. Several entrances make raids messier and more interesting.
- Is there a separate back room or basement for stash scripts and meetings, away from the front door?
- Can you lock it with your door script so only members get in?
The Ballas are a good example because nearly every server has them. A furnished gang house with a hidden basement gives that kind of crew a fixed base in the south of the city, so rival gangs and cops always know where to find trouble, and the basement keeps meetings and stash scenes away from the front door.
Spread illegal work across the map
A classic mistake is putting every drug lab, weapons deal and money wash inside the city. Then the whole criminal economy happens within two minutes of Mission Row, and officers can respond to anything instantly.
Push some of it out. A lab up in the hills or out in Sandy Shores means a long, nervous drive back with product in the trunk. That drive is where traffic stops, chases and ambushes happen. It also gives county deputies real work.
A rough split that works for a lot of cities:
- City: gang houses, a stash or two, small street-level deals.
- Edge of town: warehouses and processing, places that feel hidden but aren’t too far out.
- County: farms, labs and anything that should take effort to reach.
For the processing side, it helps to browse drug lab and farm maps with your own map open, so you can picture where each one would sit and how long the drive back to the city is.
Make the building match the script
Drug and crafting scripts usually work with interaction points: a table to cook at, a bench to package, a door that only opens with a key item. Before you buy an interior, check that it has obvious spots for those points. A lab with one tiny room and no workbench looks strange once three players are standing in it trying to use the same table.
Also check whether the script expects a teleport entrance or a walk-in building. Some older scripts were written for shells you teleport into. If you swap to a walk-in MLO, remove the teleport markers or players will end up inside a wall.
Give police a fair shot
Crime only works if the other side can win sometimes. Pick hideouts with windows, fences or yards where police can set up a perimeter. Avoid places that are basically fortresses with one choke point, because raids there turn into a shooting gallery and both sides stop enjoying it.
Talk to your police leadership before you place anything, and think about which station responds to which hideout. If you’re still deciding that, our notes on where to put police stations cover the city and county split.
Keep an eye on performance
Criminal spots attract crowds. A gang house on a Friday night can easily have a dozen players inside, plus cars parked outside. If the interior is heavy, that’s when the frame drops show up. Stand inside with the F8 console’s resmon view open after installing, and check again with a few friends present.
Don’t stack too many big interiors in the same neighbourhood either. Several detailed MLOs within one block can push lower-end PCs into texture loss even if each one is fine on its own. Our MLO performance guide explains why that happens and what to measure.
Start small and let gangs earn more
You don’t need ten gang houses on day one. Start with one or two for the crews that already exist, and add more as new groups prove they’re active. Some servers make a new hideout a reward for a gang that has roleplayed consistently for a month. That keeps the map from filling with empty buildings and gives crews a goal.
When you’re ready to fill out the rest of the city, the FiveM MLOs store has legal businesses and emergency buildings too, so the criminal side and the side chasing it can be planned together.