Frequently Asked Questions / Tips & Tricks

[dr. snortthisperc]

FAQ

What's the best money making job?
This is probably the most frequent question asked by a new player, and the simple answer is all of them! Just at different times, the way Aether works is we circulate different types of job boosts to motivate players to do different things throughout the weeks! One week, Meth Heads might have a significant boost making them better than all the rest, and then the next it might be Bitcoin. This keeps players involved with all jobs on the server, and maybe even your favorite job will be boosted next!
 

What is a Aether Shard?
An Aether Shard can be considered as a "pity currency", meaning if you buy enough crates and receive enough Aether Shards you will eventually be able to outright buy a Limited from the Aether Shard Vendor instead of taking your chances with unboxing it.
There is many crates that Aether Shards have a way higher chance than anything else, so how long it takes to save up enough shards is dependent on how often you try to unbox items!

 

What are Aether Bucks (AB)?
Aether Bucks are a passively earned currency that changes depending on your prestige level. This currency can be traded from player-to-player, spent on !unbox and/or !shop.
The rate that you earn Aether Bucks are constantly changing depending on what kind of boosts are active, you can check which type of boosts are turned on in-game, or via the Discord Announcements channel.

What is a casino reset?
Naturally a Casino Reset will revert your gambling limit so that you may continue to gamble. These are very common in !unbox or easily purchased from other players. After you equip it from !unbox menu, it'll be sent to your 'Inventory' swep found in slot 1 of your hotbar which you can then drop and push E to pickup.
Once you're level 400+, a casino reset will always reset your daily wheelspin but will not increase your 10 spin limit per day. So you can only use casino resets to spin again 10 times.

What is a Aether orb?
An Aether Orb is an entity you'll eventually come across in !unbox. After you equip it from !unbox menu, it'll be sent to your 'Inventory' swep found in slot 1 of your hotbar which you can then drop and push E to pickup.
Each Aether Orb gives the player who 'eats' it +750AB.

Where do I find a free, legal base?
Whether you're new, or just not that interested into building bases, we've got the solution for you. Thanks to @Donnie for creating this completely safe and moderated Google Drive full of bases. If you're not Premium or Builder, don't worry there is still plenty of dupes for you to use, you just have to look for them!
Get free dupes here!

What is prestiging?
Once you reach level 99+, you've got the opportunity to prestige. Once you do prestige, you're set back to level 1 and have lost all of your current perks. However, you now claim more passive AB each time it is given out; all the way up until prestige 10 and then the limit for passive ab is maxxed out.
The higher and higher you go, you'll eventually start to unlock 'Prestige only jobs' that have some pretty neat benefits; all the way up until prestige 15.

What are perks, and how do I see/use them?
Depending on your level, you've got some skill points to spend on !levels menu. Each time you level up, you're given 1 skill point to spend on the skill tree. These upgrades range from Damage Amplification, Damage Mitigation, Visual Enhancements and more to checkout in-game!

How to disable sitting
If you are getting annoyed by random people always trying to sit on your head in-game, you can easily disable this for yourself. All you have to do is go to the GMod Console using '~' key and enter;

Disable Sitting

sitting_disallow_on_me 0

Enable Sitting

sitting_disallow_on_me 1

[dr. snortthisperc]

Tips & Tricks

Using 1 way walls
There's 2 common methods used on Aether, from very simple to a bit more complicated;
Method 1 --> A prop that should be familiar to any regular Garry's Mod player can be used as a 1 way very easily. Simply place the prop down in front of you and use nearly any of the materials available. You'll notice that one side should be fairly see through while the other is not at all.

( models/props_building_details/storefront_template001a_bars.mdl is the prop in images )

Method 2 --> This method is a bit more complex but adds for a really nice defense for your base. I'm going to use blocks in this demonstration, but naturally you would want to use the plastic plates or some sort of wall-like prop.

Step 1: Start by using the stacker tool to duplicate the prop so that there is 2 side-by-side. If it's hard to notice the difference between the 2 props, try holding toolgun or holding down C on your keyboard and hovering over the prop with your cursor to outline it.
Step 2: Now that you have your 2 props side-by-side, you'll want to switch over to the material toolgun and search the letters "VGUI"  and the one you need will be the only one available with that name.
You want to use this material on the prop that will be INSIDE of your base (the side you want to be transparent)

Step 3: After you've completed step 2 you should be left with something like this. Next we're going to remove that nasty grid from the material. This is super simple yet so easily missed; switch over to your color toolgun and make sure that Render Mode = Normal, and Render FX = None.
You will see 4 boxes while in the color tool menu, and in the very last box enter the number '1'. 
 

Then all you've got to do is use the color tool on that nasty grid material to make it 100% transparent. Remember you can hold C on your keyboard or use toolgun to see this prop

Step 4: Now that you've got your regular prop beside your invisible prop, it's time to do the magic with the color tool. This time, you'll want to make sure that Render Mode = Glow, and Render FX = None.
Make sure to change that '1' you had previously changed back to 255 to make sure nobody can see through on the other side. Select a nice color for the theme of your base and use it on the prop that we haven't touched yet. Bam! You've made yourself a great 1 way!

How to record my gameplay/install Medal
Medal is a clipping software used by many different styles of gamers. Here in Garry's Mod, we typically use it to record evidence incase of a staff related sit; whether you're the one making the report or need to show your side when being reported. The installation and first time use was demonstrated by @NotYourMomsPancakes in an earlier guide. Available here.

How to find items you've been looking for
There's a few ways you can go about this, and I suggest doing them all depending on how bad you want what you're looking for.

Discord --> The Discord server offers a trading forums that is probably more active than you think! Assuming you're cool and are already in the discord server, click the trading channel and this is what you'll see.

All you've got to do is add a title, a message and a tag showing whether you're buying or selling!

/advert in-game --> I'm not saying to go around annoying everyone with spam messages, but an advert every 10-15 minutes mentioning that you're selling or looking to buy an item may help you out. It's worth a shot, right?

How to setup keybinds
Setting up binds is relatively simple, first you'll need to start off by figuring out which key is what for console commands. Thankfully for me, there's a steam guide on this here.
After you figure out which key is what, head over to your in-game Garry's Mod console.
For keybinds that you want to run as console commands, type them like this (stopsound, kill)

For keybinds that you want to run as chat commands, type them like this (job cmds, adverts, purchases)

If you are unsure what command you need, then you can back out of your console, and press F1. From here you'll see a long list of green and red commands, the green commands are all of the commands that your job has access to. For example, if you're looking to bind meth refills then your command is;

 

Trading in-game for IRL

Trading in-game items or money for real-life money is perfectly fine as long as you are keeping yourself safe. Before making an IRL trade, I suggest that you let whichever staff you're closest to know that you are going to be doing this deal. Make sure it's a clear message showing;
1) The value of in-game trade
2) How much money
3) Other party accepting this deal in clear wording
I also suggest that you make sure this player is somewhat trusted or known on the server. You don't want someone you can't trust with your email or payment details.

None of this is enforced, this is just my own personal suggestion.

How much is my item worth / How rare is my item?
Finding out what the worth or rarity of your item is can be a pretty stressful task. Thankfully when it comes to limited items, there is a spreadsheet available made by @havoc that will tell you exactly how many there are in circulation. You can find this spreadsheet here.
Limited > Only available for a set amount of time. Has no chances of coming back after leaving.
Legendary > A common type of permanent item, usually used as a filler in 'Normal' crates.
Store-Blessed > Items purchased in packages from !store with real-life money.
Contraband > Actual permanent weapons found in contraband crates.
Relic > Usually funny/meme items found in 'Relic' crates.
Seasonal > Items that are released yearly depending on the season/event. i.e, Halloween Event, Christmas Event.
Seasonal-Contraband > Same as Seasonal rarity except these are real weapons like Contraband.
Luxury > A low chance item found in Luxury crates.
Exotic > A low chance item found in Exotic crates.
Warped > A low chance lightsaber found in Warped crates.
If your item is not a limited you should try to reach out to a well known collector for a price estimate, if you cannot find anyone with a price then I suggest listing the item on market for more than what you feel is fair and work your way down as the time goes on. Having the item on market will give other players a chance to see that you are selling this item and someone may even come to you with an offer. 

Making Garry's Mod run better on Aether
If you plan on mainly playing Aether, then it's probably a pretty good idea to uninstall from all the unnecessary addons you've accumulated on your time playing. This is super simple, just head to Garry's Mod main menu and click on "Addons".

Hardly any of the addons I have installed currently are from Aether, and are likely slowing my game down a ton. To uninstall/unsubscribe from all of these, click the little wrench in the bottom right.

Click 'Uninstall All' and then 'Confirm'. Before loading back into Aether, be sure to install Aethers content available here!


How to toggle !bodyperms permanently 
If you suffer from poor internet or just general lag on the server, disabling bodyperms can go a long way. I don't mean the classic !bodyperm command, I mean permanently show NO ONE'S bodyperms. This is possible by entering the following command into console

cl_weapon_holsters 0
You can reactive bodyperms permanently using the same command except changing the '0' to a '1';

cl_weapon_holsters 1

[Monika]

@ How do I do any of these things listed on this guide? Please help!

[Enzo]

Instructions unclear.

Sent to Brazil

[Tani Xmas]

this is good and all but how do i install hacks