FDG Newsletter - Winter Edition

Introduction

Hello everyone, welcome back to the third FDG seasonal newsletter of 2026!

Winter has been another incredibly busy few months across Fat Duck Gaming. We have seen entirely new criminal activities, major progression updates, job overhauls, new areas, community events and plenty of smaller changes continuing to build on the server’s rampant progression recently.

The launch of Smash & Grab, the major Trucking Overhaul, changes to Widebody progression and the quite recent introduction of Skill Rewards, there has been no shortage of development work going on behind the scenes.

Outside of development we have also seen community competitions, Cyber Bar events, further rewards for our Fat Duck Family members and following applications last season, a new intake of staff joining the team.

As always, a massive thank you goes to everyone who continues to contribute to FDG, whether that is through development, staffing, roleplay, events, content or simply being part of the community.

• Dog & Bailey

Community Stats

Development Highlights

The development team has once again been extremely busy over the past few months.

The developers noted on each update are not conclusive, a significant amount of time goes into each project and most require the ' insight of multiple members of our team and their experience to complete these massive projects. A massive thank you to all the developers for the work they do.

🚛 Trucking Overhaul - IGWolf 🚛

One of the largest job updates this season was a major expansion to the trucking system.

Trucking, now named “Quack Logistics” has now expanded well beyond just driving trucks with experienced truckers gaining access to entirely new forms of missions.

By completing regular trucking jobs, players are able to earn levels with higher levels providing these new missions:

• Maritime Freight at Level 80
• Aviation Freight at Level 100
• Cargo, gold and illegal freight contracts
• New heavy-haul trucks
• Logistics Cache lootboxes
• Expanded illegal shipment rewards
• Improved level-based loot
• A refreshed trucking tablet and mission interface

Maritime missions allow experienced players to purchase and operate the Marine Tug, while players reaching the highest levels of trucking can eventually purchase the Cargo Skylift and take freight into the air.

The update has transformed trucking into a much larger long-term progression system and gives dedicated truckers something substantial to continue working towards.

Massive shoutout to IGWolf and the development team for the work put into this.

💰 Smash & Grab 💰

One of the biggest completely new activities released this season was Smash & Grab, introduced by the development team.

Initially released as an exclusive early-access activity for Fat Duck Family members (another amazing perk for supporting the server), Smash & Grab later opened to the entire server.

The activity introduces a crew-based criminal progression system built around five different tiers of robbery:

• Convenience Stores
• General Stores
• Retail Stores
• Luxury Stores
• Fleeca Banks

Each robbery contains a variety of hands-on tasks including holding up clerks, cracking safes, hacking computers, drilling deposit boxes, looting registers and dealing with alarm systems.

Crews earn XP as they complete jobs, eventually unlocking more difficult locations with greater payouts and access to rarer loot.

There is also a strong risk to reward element. Crews can push further into a robbery and complete more tasks for greater rewards, but doing so gives law enforcement more time to respond.

Along with all other tasks Smash & Grab also has its own lootbox which can be gathered from robbing stores.

Huge shoutout to the development team for the work involved in bringing the activity into the server and continuing to improve it following release.

🏎️ Widebodies & Lootboxes - Vehicle Team 🏎️

Vehicle progression also received a substantial shake-up this season with the introduction of a completely different approach to Widebody builds and lootboxes

The previous Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3 widebody system has been removed.

Widebody upgrades now use their own recipes, meaning lower-tier vehicles are easier to build while highly desirable performance vehicles require significantly more parts and progression.

Lootboxes have also become far more integrated throughout the server and can now be obtained through activities including:

• Drug Sales
• Break & Enter
• Fishing
• Smash & Grab
• Hunting
• Trucking
• Scavenging
• Chop Shop
• Car Parts
• Racing

Different activities can provide different components required for vehicle builds, giving players a reason to participate in more than one gameplay loop rather than endlessly grinding the same activity.

An absolutely massive shoutout to the vehicle team for this one.

🎁 Skill Rewards - Martibo 🎁

An example of custom clothing^

Another major progression update came from Martibo with the introduction of Skill Rewards.

Previously, reaching the level cap of a skill effectively meant reaching the end of its progression. After this change that is no longer the case, players who continue levelling after maxing a skill can now earn Skill Points specific to that activity. Taking inspiration from a popular cozy grinder “Palia” for this one.

Each skill has its own reward dealer located around the world where these points can be redeemed. Many of these rewards are unique and cannot simply be purchased elsewhere.

Massive shoutout to Martibo for adding another layer of progression for people who wish to pursue it.

Additional Development & QOL Changes

Alongside the major updates above, there have been significant amounts of other development work and quality-of-life improvements throughout the season.

Some of the other additions include:

• Little Italy district introduced, opening another area for future businesses, clubs and purchasable properties - Marcimarc
• Flight Stick Support, allowing DirectInput flight sticks and controllers to be configured for aircraft - Teehee
• Steering Wheel & Pedal Support, replacing the previous wheel script with configurable profiles, sensitivity and axis settings - Teehee
• EMS response notifications, informing players when a paramedic has attached to their call - announced by OPstargamer
• EMS vehicle pullout map locations - announced by OPstargamer
• Stretcher brakes, automatic attachment and additional field treatment functionality - announced by OPstargamer
• EMS hospital fast travel to assist with response times - announced by OPstargamer
• Group Colours added to the phone Groups app, allowing members to be individually identified - IGWolf
• Female back holster ported from the male ped - Noah
• Smash & Grab individual lootbox rolls added for every participating crew member - Salty
• Racing Season 5 updates, including random lootbox drops, Double XP Tokens, updated tracks, calling cards and general QOL work - Martibo
• Parachute competition textures implemented into the customisation system - Tay
• Continued vehicle, clothing, activity, balancing and general server fixes - Development Team
• Four new vehicles from Kain, OPstargamer and SoCRiiSPY from the Vehicle Team (Heist DLC update)
• Five masks, two wearable vests and two wearable backpacks with custom textures from p1GB8 (Heist DLC update)

An absolutely massive shoutout to the entire Development teams for the constant amount of work being put into the server behind the scenes.

What's Been Going On?

🦆 FDG Portal & Digital Licences - Deveraux 🦆

Fat Duck Family has continued receiving new features throughout the season, with Deveraux introducing and expanding the FDG Portal.

The Portal gives players a central location to view their achievements, check outstanding support tickets and claim special FDF rewards.

New rewards have continued rotating through the Portal during the season, including claimable XP boosts and other benefits.

FDF members also received Digital Licences through the Government application on their phone.

The licence system integrates with achievements and allows players to unlock different stickers and titles based on what they have achieved in-game.

Huge shoutout to Deveraux for continuing to build out additional features and rewards for FDF supporters.

👑 Cyber Bar & King of the Hill - Golden-Eagle 👑

Golden-Eagle and Cyber Bar have also been busy this season with the introduction and continued testing of King of the Hill.

KOTH is a team-based game mode where groups compete to maintain control of a designated area for as long as possible.

Players earn points by holding the objective, with the first team reaching the target score taking the round.

The mode includes its own progression system through levels and Cyber Bux, allowing participants to gain access to weapons and vehicles as they progress.

Cyber Bar has also undergone further upgrades and launched a server-wide 3v3 tournament, giving players another competitive activity outside of ordinary roleplay.

Shoutout to Golden-Eagle and everyone involved with Cyber Bar for continuing to provide different events and activities for the community.

🏆 Community Competitions - BaileyG & Community Team 🏆

Community competitions have continued throughout Winter, giving players opportunities to get creative and have their work recognised.

One of the biggest this season was the Stunt Jump Competition, hosted by BaileyG.

Players were given almost complete freedom over their submissions, whether that meant launching themselves in a car, bike, bicycle or somehow attempting it on foot.

Following submissions and voting, the winners were:

1st Place: This Close to Greatness by midday

2nd Place: The Great Escape by amar

3rd Place: Tiel Shot by Tiel

Congratulations again to all three winners and everyone who submitted an entry.

The recent Parachute Competition has also had its winning designs implemented directly into the server, with Tay getting the textures working through parachute customisation.

Community competitions remain one of the best ways for players to get their own creativity permanently represented within FDG.

Massive shoutout to BaileyG, Tay and everyone else involved in organising, judging and implementing community competitions.

🔧 Business Executive Opportunities 🔧

The Board of Directors also opened Expressions of Interest for executive teams across all mechanic businesses.

The tenure system gives players the opportunity to submit a complete executive team and take responsibility for running one of the city's major mechanic businesses.

Executives are expected to actively manage staff, maintain customer service, develop new ideas and organise events or promotions that create further community interaction.

It gives players looking for more responsibility within the business scene an opportunity to directly influence how a business operates.

🏁 Racing Season 5 - Martibo 🏁

*photo credit to Martibo*

The racing scene has continued moving into another season under Martibo.

Season 5 development has included random lootbox drops after races, Double XP Tokens, new calling cards, updated tracks and a range of smaller quality-of-life improvements.

All Season 4 rewards have now been distributed, while Ranked Season 5 is due to begin on 28 August 2026.

More than $50,000,000 in prizes will be distributed across the Top 25, alongside unique untradeable rewards for the highest-ranking racers.

The top performers will have the opportunity to earn unique vehicles, custom plates, calling cards and cash prizes.

Massive shoutout to Martibo for continuing to support and develop the racing community heading into another season.

Featured Community

As always, we want to highlight some of the people and groups who have contributed to the community throughout Winter.

Whether it is through gangs, businesses, content creation, government roleplay or simply creating enjoyable interactions with other players, the community itself is what ultimately gives all of these systems a reason to exist.

Syndicated Gang of the Season

Santos Cartel

Registered Gang of the Season

Kimura Family

Business of the Season

Los Santos Customs

Content Creator of the Season

SebbyFerg0 - Check him out - https://www.twitch.tv/sebbyferg0

Government Department of the Season

RAPTOR

Final Thoughts

Another season has come to an end and once again there has been an enormous amount going on across FDG.

Winter has brought some substantial additions to the server. Smash & Grab has added an entirely new criminal progression system, trucking has expanded onto the water and into the air, Skill Rewards have given max-level players something new to grind towards and the widebody changes have further connected activities across the server.

At the same time, dozens of smaller additions have continued improving the experience across EMS, vehicles, racing, phones, clothing and countless other areas.

It is important to recognise just how many different people contribute towards making those updates happen. Developers and other contributors put a huge amount of their own time into projects that eventually become things players use every day without necessarily thinking about how much work went into them.

Outside of development, it has also been great to see community competitions continue, FDF receive additional features, Cyber Bar expand its events and a new group of staff join the team.

Thank you to the development team, staff team, businesses, gangs, emergency services, content creators, FDF supporters and every player who continues contributing to Fat Duck Gaming.

There is plenty more to come.

Until next season.

• Dog & Bailey