Feature Guide

How oxide-newspaperjob plays — the shift menu, the Oxide Phone Gigs app, routes, throwing, cancelling a route, paper supply, timers, levels, pay, complaints, the bike, and tutorials.

How oxide-newspaperjob plays, from clock-in to payday.

The Job in One Paragraph

Players talk to the depot worker, clock in, and get a company BMX plus a bag of newspapers. The script builds them a route of houses to hit. They ride from house to house and throw a newspaper at each marked porch — an actual throw, aimed by hand, not a button press. Each hit earns money on the spot sheet, and the full shift pay lands in their bank when they clock out. Doing the job regularly levels them up: longer routes, better pay, bigger tips.

Everything starts at the depot worker. Interacting with them opens the shift menu, which comes in two styles, picked by Config.menuStyle:

'nui' (the default): a polished menu with a slow camera pan over the depot and a progression card showing the player's level, stats, and what the next level unlocks
'menu': a plain context menu, for servers that prefer something lighter

Both styles let players:

clock in and out
see their level, deliveries, streak, and complaint count
request a new route
cancel the route they're on (only shown while a route is running — see Cancelling a route)
put on or take off the carrier uniform (only if uniforms are enabled)

The clock-out summary

When a player clocks out, Config.shiftSummary decides how their pay is presented:

'nui': a pop-up summary window
'text': a simple notification

On top of that, if Config.usePhone = true, the depot also sends a full itemized pay stub to the player's phone. It arrives as a text message on phones that support texts, and as mail on the others — see Shift messages on the phone for which phones get which.

Oxide Phone's Gigs app

If your server runs Oxide Phone, players can follow this job in its Gigs app: it shows the depots and whether each one has room, the route they're on (the current house, how far along they are, the pay earned so far, and tips), and their level.

While a player carries an Oxide Phone and the Gigs app is switched on (it is by default), the job's shift updates show up as Gigs notifications instead of texts. The pay stub is the exception: it always arrives as a text or mail. There's nothing to set up — run Oxide Phone and this job, and it works.

Depot slots

Each depot only takes a limited number of carriers at once — Config.MaxSlotsPerLocation, 3 by default. If a depot is full, players need to wait or use the other depot.

Routes

When a player requests a route, the server:

looks at all the houses that depot serves and keeps the ones the player's level has unlocked
picks a random batch, up to the player's level cap (5 houses at level 1, up to 16 at level 5)
orders the stops so each house leads naturally to the next, instead of bouncing across the map

The first route starts automatically right after clocking in. After finishing a route, the player returns to the depot worker for the next one.

Following the route

The current house is always marked three ways: a map blip with a GPS line, an on-screen overlay showing the route timer, houses done, and papers left, and a floating marker the player can bring up by holding H, which shows the house name and how far away it is.

With Oxide HUD

On a server running Oxide HUD (free, needs o-link 1.12.1 or newer), players can move the route card and the tutorial cards in the /hud editor, or switch them off. Both hide with the HUD (pause menu, character select, death) and use the server's accent colour (see Config.UseHudAccent in Main Settings). Without Oxide HUD everything stays where it is.

Houses must be done in order

The route is a fixed sequence. The server only accepts the house the player is supposed to be at — skipping ahead doesn't count.

Cancelling a route

Sometimes a player picks up a route and then can't finish it — a house is on the far side of a traffic jam, a friend needs a ride, or they simply want a different area. They can drop the route without ending their shift. There are two ways to do it:

From the shift menu: a Cancel Current Task option appears in the depot worker's menu, but only while a route is actually running.
From the bike: aim the third-eye (interaction) at the delivery bike and pick Cancel Current Task.

Either way, a short confirmation menu appears first, so nobody cancels by accident.

When the route is cancelled:

the remaining houses on it are dropped, and the leftover newspapers are taken back
the player stays clocked in and keeps the bike — no need to walk back to the depot
houses already delivered still count, and their earnings are still paid out at clock-out
no complaint is filed and no fine is charged — cancelling is not a punishment

The only cost is a short wait before the next route. By default the player must wait 60 seconds; asking the depot worker sooner tells them how many seconds are left. The wait is tied to the character, so disconnecting and coming back doesn't skip it. You can shorten it, lengthen it, or turn it off entirely with Config.Cancel.cooldownSeconds — see Cancelling a Route.

Throwing Newspapers

The player throws the newspaper like any throwable weapon. A hit counts when the paper lands close enough to the marked spot — the allowed distance starts at 8 meters and tightens as the player levels up, so experienced carriers need to be more accurate.

Behind the scenes, the server double-checks every hit before paying: the player must be on an active route, at the right house, close enough to it, still have papers left, and have taken a realistic amount of time getting there. This keeps cheaters from faking deliveries.

Papers Are Limited

Each route comes with enough newspapers for every house plus some spares for missed throws:

5 spare papers at level 1
2 extra spares for each level above 1

If a player runs out of papers before finishing the route:

the route is cancelled
a complaint goes on their record
they return to the depot for a fresh route

The Route Timer

Every route has a time limit: 300 seconds base, plus 30 seconds per house (both adjustable).

Finish under time: a flat speed bonus is added to the shift.
Run over time: the route can still be finished, but the route's earnings (not tips) are reduced — by default to 85% of what they would have been.

Levels

Progress is permanent and saved per character. Five levels ship by default, from Paper Carrier to Route Legend. Each level up brings:

more houses per route
better odds of a tip, and bigger tips
a higher pay multiplier
a slightly smaller landing zone for throws

Pay

Each delivered house earns:

base pay
a distance bonus (farther houses pay more)
multiplied by the player's level
plus a streak bonus and, sometimes, a tip

Tips are handed over in cash on the spot. Everything else accumulates during the shift and is paid out (minus tax) when the player clocks out — by default into their bank account. Which accounts are used for the payout, tips, and fines is configurable.

A house reached faster than any bike could get there (Config.Payment.maxTravelSpeed, 50 meters per second in a straight line from the depot, timed from the start of the route) pays no distance bonus, and that route gets no speed bonus. Riding there never triggers it.

A player who disconnects, logs out or switches character on shift isn't paid at that moment, because their character may already be gone. What the shift earned is worked out as a clock-out would, kept in the database, and paid a few seconds after that character next loads in, with a notification saying how much. It is paid once, even if the server restarts in between. If the framework refuses a payment (at clock-out or at the payout after a hospital stay), it is kept the same way and tried again at the next login.

Shifts that end without a clock-out are still paid: restarting the job pays every running shift as a clock-out would and sends the usual pay stub, and so does deleting a depot in /newspaper settings for the shifts there. Going down on shift pays the shift when the player respawns.

Daily streaks

Delivering on consecutive real-world days builds a streak, and each streak day adds a flat bonus to every house (capped at 7 days by default). Missing a day resets the streak.

Complaints and Suspension

The depot files a complaint against the player when they:

lose the bike
die on shift
run out of newspapers mid-route

Each completed delivery removes a complaint, so steady work keeps a record clean. Hitting the limit (3 by default) gets the player suspended from the job for 30 minutes, and their complaint count resets.

The Delivery Bike

Clocking in spawns a company BMX — black with yellow accents, plate PAPERS — and the player gets the keys through your server's key system.

The bike counts as lost if it gets destroyed or the player wanders off and leaves it more than 300 meters behind. Losing it:

charges a fine on the spot ($75 by default, taken in cash)
adds a complaint
cancels the current route and takes back the remaining papers

Uniforms

An optional carrier uniform can be offered in the shift menu (Config.uniformsEnabled, off by default). When a player puts it on, the script remembers their own clothes and puts them back exactly as they were when the uniform comes off or the shift ends.

Tutorials

First-time players get short pop-up tips at each new moment — first clock-in, first route, first hit, first miss, running out of papers, finishing a route, losing the bike, running out of time, and leveling up. Nine tips in total, each shown only once per player.

Players control these themselves:

/newspaper tutorials — turn the tips on or off
/newspaper tutorialreset — see them all again from the start

The older /newspapertutorials and /newspapertutorialreset commands still work too.

Live Settings

Nearly every part of the job — pay, levels, timers, throwing, the bike, depots and houses, uniforms, tutorials — is edited in-game with /newspaper settings and applies instantly, with no restart. See The Settings Editor.

Building Your Own Depots

Admins can add and edit depots and delivery houses in-game in /newspaper settings (Locations → Depots), picking each spot in the game world with Place in world; changes apply live. The /newspaperbuilder tool also captures depots in-game, menu camera included, and exports them to a file that takes effect after a restart and Reset to default on Depots. See Admin Tools and Depots and Houses.