FDG Newsletter - Autumn Edition

Introduction

Hello Everyone, welcome back to our second FDG seasonal Newsletter of 2026.

Over the past few months FDG has continued to grow and has been absolutely packed with development progress, gameplay overhauls, community events and staffing changes designed to build immersion and player-driven roleplay.

We’ve had large scale job reworks,chop shop expansions and the major launch of FDG DayZ, FDG has continued to evolve to suit more people.

A huge thank you should be noted to the entire community, development team, staff team and everyone behind the scenes who keeps pushing FDG forward to greater lengths.

• Dog & Bailey

Note from Leadership

The last few months has been a busy one for FDG, and the amount of effort being put in behind the scenes has been clear through the sheer volume of updates, fixes, reworks and new systems being released across the community.

A huge amount of credit needs to go to the development team. The pace of work over the past few months has been massive, with major updates landing across core gameplay systems, quality of life improvements, server performance, FDG DayZ and ongoing infrastructure work. Not every change is always visible in the same way, but the amount of time being invested into improving FDG has been significant.

We also want to acknowledge the impact of the recent outages and instability. We know interruptions are frustrating, especially when people are trying to enjoy their time on the server, create roleplay, run events or just relax after work. Thank you to everyone who has been patient while the team worked through those issues.

A significant amount of time has been spent migrating services, improving infrastructure and making changes aimed at providing a more stable platform for the community. Some of that work is not exciting or flashy, but it is important. Next time you run into kn0pee, make sure you say “Thank you!”.

As always, FDG only works because of the people who continue to show up, contribute, create roleplay, report issues, provide feedback and support the community. Thank you to the players, staff, developers and everyone behind the scenes who keeps pushing FDG forward

-– sutto

Stats

Development Highlights

To say the developers have gone absolutely ham over the last three months would be an understatement. So much so that there is no way I can note every single change in detail; but below are some of the major changes to our server recently!

Hunting and Fishing Overhaul - IGWolf

By far one of the largest updates released this season was the complete overhaul of the hunting and fishing system. Wolf, alongside other developers put a huge amount of work into the system and completely rebuilt it introducing or refreshing:

• A 10 stage, 100 level progression system
• Campsites where you can hunt and fish with your friends and benefit from working and grinding together.
• Camp upgrades when you reach the right level to apply them!
• The integration of fishing and hunting into one unified system.
• Rangers being able to boost lawful hunters progression as a reward for following having a license to hunt.
• Weapon Progression for hunting.
• Skill-based fish catching inspired by Stardew Valley
• Cosmetic campsite customisation to make the camps feel more at home

This update completely transformed and boosted two separate activities into a long term progression system rather than being left to their own devices even though they share many concepts. It has also hugely encouraged and boosted group gameplay when making money.

An absolutely massive amount of work went into the project and it has certainly been well taken by the community, with fishers and hunters seen all around Roxwood.

Chopshop DLC Expansion - IGWolf

The chopshop system has been continuing to grow as well throughout the last season with the introduction of a DLC expansion to it.

The expansion introduced:

• Hundreds of new vehicle locations
• Sandy, Paleto and Roxwood expansion
• New drop off area in Roxwood
• Additional Bikes
• Mechanic integrations
• Further changes to balancing and progression

The update has created more interest in the chop shop and is assisting in spreading people more across the map.

Armour Rework - Salty

In the last month or so Salty has also released a complete overhaul of the armour system and how it works.

Armour now:

• Works as an equipable item
• Has persistent durability
• Has tons of options for customisation
• Integrates with outfits seamlessly

The update has massively improved the armour system, allowing slightly damaged armour to still be used and not thrown away to nothingness after every shootout.

Fire System - Teehee

Teehee introduced a huge and entirely new fire system in this season bringing structure fires and bush fires into FDG. The system gives EMS more to do and includes:

• Firebombing mechanics.
• New land and air vehicles aimed at taking out fires
• Civilians being able to assist when needed
• And much much more.

The update has provided EMS and civilians with new opportunities to roleplay.

K9 & Pet Improvements - Teehee (Scripting) & Tay (Design)

A huge amount of work has also gone into improving K9 and pet systems throughout the season.

The updates have given more of a use to K9s with carryable pets and the upgrade of PD K9s. Improved movement in interiors, the ability to pick them up, additional animations to pet the dog and much greater usability during roleplay on the police side and the civilians.

These changes have significantly increased the value and usefulness of pets and K9s throughout the server making them feel more polished then previously.

Additional development & QOL Changes

Alongside the updates above there have been significant amounts of other changes and quality of life improvements included below:

• Purchasable headsets removing radio animations - Salty
• Outfit stealing mechanics - Salty
• Bank UI improvements - Salty
• Phone UI updates - Ops
• Used car inspection improvements - Teehee
• Utility throwing overhaul - IGWolf
• Parachute improvements - Salty
• Fleeca Bank reworks (in progress) - Kn0pee (& co)
• Clothing and override fixes - Salty
• Racing UI improvements - Martibo
• Ongoing performance and stability fixes - Development Team

An absolutely major shoutout to the development team for the constant work being done behind the scenes.

What's been going on?

Mayor Changes to Mechanics and introduction of Dashcams.

The mayor of FDG this season announced the release of dashcams alongside broader economic reform changes in mechanics.

Players are now able to install dashcams directly into their vehicles at mechanics, allowing for recorded footage during vehicle use and creating entirely new possibilities for investigations, evidence and civilian accountability in the court system.

Alongside this came major changes to repair costs and vehicle maintenance. Players who invest into maintaining and upgrading their vehicles will now save significantly more money long-term with increased repair costs.

Racing Updates

The racing scene also has continued expanding throughout the season.

Season 4 of Ranked racing officially launched on May 1st with:

• Over $50,000,000 in rewards
• Rewards for top 25 placement
• Unique untradeable rewards
• Increased payouts

The racing community continues to grow on FDG with consistent support for its growth.

Character & Realism

Over the last 3 months, the leadership team and staffing team alike have taken a stronger stance on increasing immersion in the server.

As the server continues to grow, maintaining strong roleplay standards is essential to everyone enjoying their time on the server. A community wide announcement was made regarding players making realistic decisions and remaining in character during roleplay.

The aim of this was to ensure players would feel immersed while playing and to make people aware that breaches of staying in character may see staff intervention.

The response has been positive with less use of OOC terms whilst roleplaying creating more high quality roleplay around the server.

**☣️ Operation Severed Signal - Registered Gang Event - Goltaw ☣️ **

One of the most ambitious events in the last season has been seen through Operation Severed Signal. An extremely in depth and large scale event ran for registered gangs by Goltaw.

Serving as a continuation to a previous storyline, Operation Severed Signal put participating gangs into a roleplay mystery around OMNIA, a rogue IAA AI group operating from the shadows. Throughout the storyline gangs had to complete puzzles, investigations and make decisions that influenced how the story progressed.

Goltaw put an extreme amount of work into this, creating a huge amount of roleplay and activities for registered gangs in his own free time. It was extremely impressive to see the lengths the event went to and the roleplay created. An absolutely massive shoutout to Gol for this event.

Staff Applications

Near the end of this season in the last few weeks we have also seen the reopening of staff applications in FDG, allowing people to apply to assist the team in responding to support tickets, running events and helping the community run smoothly. Applications close on the 31st which will probably unfortunately be before this is published.

To all applicants, good luck and we hope to see you in the team soon.

FDG DayZ

One of the biggest milestones for the wider Fat Duck Gaming community this season was the launch of FDG DayZ Open Beta.

After a significant amount of development and a successful closed beta period with FDF supporters, the server officially opened its doors to the broader community allowing players to experience an entirely new survival-focussed environment under the same FDG name.

The launch allows players who might be moving away from FiveM to have an opportunity to stay under the same trusted FDG name but in a different game and view overall.

A massive shoutout to the development team including LastOnEarth for putting a huge amount of time into the server to prepare it for launch, the release would not have been possible without the developers.

Featured Community

Syndicated Gang of the Season

Los Santos Triads

Registered Gang of the Season

Cyprus

Business of the Season

Kings Pawn Shop

Content Creator of the Season

Bigchicki - Check Him Out

Government department of the Season

Federal Police
Special mention to Jonathan Chang for his groundbreaking investigative abilities, successfully using the ancient forbidden art of “seeing someone once and instantly knowing their full government name, blood type, occupation, gang affiliation and shoe size” within 0.3 seconds

Final Thoughts

As another season comes to a close, we'd like to thank everyone who helps make FDG what it is today. From developers and staff to businesses, gangs, emergency services, content creators and everyday players, your contributions continue to shape the community and create great roleplay experiences.

The last few months have been packed with growth, updates and new opportunities, and there's plenty more to come. Thank you for being part of FDG, and we'll see you next season.

• Dog and Bailey