a former bad friend of mine by the name of fivem snail told me that darkrp already comes with all you need to have a proper darkrp experience. printers, drugs, guns, civil protection, resources to make a base, prop protection, tip jars, etc. although that is true, darkrp has no fun if it is default anymore. people are gonna get bored quick. people's standards have gone way out the roof and most importantly, darkrp is bloated with ♥♥♥♥/french servers that don't deserve their playercounts and because of that, minges are often spotted.

nowadays, people join darkrp servers to minge, be pains in the asses of admins, troll, break rules, etc.
they do it because they think darkrp is ♥♥♥♥. i, myself, think that darkrp has a lot of potential, and can be a lot of fun if no one takes it seriously. basic protection at best should be put in place, like physics un-griefer[github.com]. and for spawn protection, nub's safezones is the best free option.

a hud is not required. although the default darkrp hud is not that great these days. if you do not want to pay for a darkrp hud (which i strongly recommend), you should pick up lua knowledge and make your own, or get any hud from the workshop.

servers nowadays advertise themselves as having a lot of jobs. this is a decent thing to do if your playerbase is really big, but i suggest having a smaller amount of jobs, closer to the darkrp default, and giving them multiple purposes. like allowing the thief to also hack stuff if your server has hacking related stuff, giving the civil protection chief a riot shield and a stronger weapon if you plan on adding swat related stuff, making the medic also be able to sell pharmaceutical drugs, allowing gangsters to make and sell drugs (like darkrp default), etc.
also having it so that you do not need to respawn if you change jobs. why is this the bomb nowadays?

it is possible, although not seen, to have multiple maps on a darkrp server. server owners would usually make new server with other maps. if you want to choose a map, it highly depends on the size of the playerbase, if your playerbase is big (64-128 average), any variant of rp_evocity/rp_rockford is a good choice. medium sized playerbase (32-64 average), any rp_downtown variant that is not rp_downtown_v2. using rp_downtown_tits_v* is your choice, but the darkrp server list is oversaturated with rp_downtown_tits_v2 servers, so keep that in mind.
if your playerbase size is small (0-32 average), try choosing more obscure/underused maps. my personal favorites are rp_eastcoast variants. decently sized, great police station, enough warehouses, great spawn room, low filesize, etc.
of course, there is rp_bangclaw if you are russian for some reason. and rp_rockford if you are french.

half-life 2 has decent car handling, but that only applies to singleplayer. lag will affect vehicles, and with a high ping, your car might as well go belly up. this combined with the need for vehicles is your reason to have vehicles on your server.
if you have a large map, cars are a must-have. a good free choice of a car system is simfphys. multiple vehicle seats, presence of a gta 4 car pack, default hl2 cars bundled in, etc.
of course, if you need to use engine vehicles, there is the option for vcmod.
for medium sized playerbases, there is no need for cars, as people will usually be all around the map.

most common choice is m9k. it's old, it's outdated, and some of the weapons might be lacking in animation/sound quality (usually incredibily loud fire).
the reason for using m9k would be to not use any other weapon packs that add too many features or that are larger in filesize.
another choice is tfa. there are many weapons available for the tfa weapon base.
last 5 choices:
@-arccw
+great weapon packs
+detailed customization
+many convars that customize gunplay
-base addon filesize

@-cw2.0
+satisfying weapons
+decent customization
-annoying fov decrease after continuous fire

@-lite weapons
+tiny filesize
-cs:s weapons

@-default darkrp cs:s weapons
-weird weapons

@-simple weapons
+similar to how the default darkrp cs:s weapons function, only a lot better
+e+left click to perform a weapon dependant action
+you can guide rockets, the crossbow shoots actual crossbow bolts, etc.
+relatively new as of writing this part of the guide (03:27 EEST - 2022-07-07)
-you need to aim to be able to shoot, although pressing left click/right click puts you in the aiming stance

the economy has to not be broken. the default darkrp economy is good enough, although it is hard to earn money as a salary earning citizen doing nothing but printing money. there has to be a way to earn money faster, but have it regulated by addon features or civil protection. a bank vault addon would be great for the job, since most of them prevent robberies if there are not enough cops on the server/the player is not the right job to do it.

fun addons can be added to give players a reason to laugh or generate their own fun. something like a piano, trampoline, vape, a computer, fishing system, etc.
they are not really needed, since most fun comes from the stuff you make yourself and are proud of.

if you want to make a website for your server, you really want to leave a mark, or you want to be easily found. most people usually start forums alongside the website, despite forums being much slower than live chat. this is why i do not recommend you make a forum alongside a discord server. you have to keep one of them, and it should be the latter.
and for a website, you do not need one, unless you make stuff that requires payment.

advertising is key to success. this is what you shouldn't do:
-do not advertise the addons you have. no one cares if you got billy's logs on the server or super key sex meth system
-do not advertise how the community is. people don't care, and the people you are trying to bring are the people who are also gonna sum up the community, which you cannot tell how they are in an instant.
-do not advertise it as being the most unique thing ever. it's only gonna raise more expectations if i am correct (probably not)
-do not advertise if you already have a big playercount. what's the point?
-do not advertise if the server is unfinished. and by unfinished i mean not ready for players to join. this could mean broken economy (hard to test without friends), lack of a really small playerbase (hard to have without friends), script errors, etc.
-do not even start a server if you do not have at least 4 friends to help you out. they are your lifeline, and your key to perfection.

by default, the default untouched salary is $45, which is just enough. if the job in question has a direct way of making money, the salary should be decreased. if the job doesn't get any money from important tasks that keep the server's peace (civil protection), increase the salary. simple as that

please stop doing this. please stop using a single addon for a single drug. there are drug systems that offer multiple drugs at the price of $0. also as i said in the jobs section, you could combine multiple types of drug makers into one job, with having less clutter in the f4 menu. stnarcotics is a good drug system i enjoyed using.

stop hiring devs. if you are way too lazy to learn lua yourself or ask for lua help, you either buy from gmodstore or you hire a dev. you'd waste less money if you wouldn't hire a dev or buy gmodstore addons. it's also gonna fill you with joy if you manage to make your own addon that is ready for "production use". you have no reason to hire people. admins aren't hired, they are chosen. admins aren't suddenly admins after a purchase. now, buying from gmodstore can be good. there are addons that aren't as good as their gmodstore counterparts. take mcphone for example. great addon, deserves the purchase. billy's logs. it's the best logging system, workshop ones aren't close to a fraction of the quality of blogs. sh chatbox. it's a very good locking chatbox, and cannot compare to some free chatboxes. etc.
hiring an artist. is that even a thing? making screenshots is not that hard. making a logo is not that hard.
hiring a mapper. maybe you pay a mapper to make a map exclusively for your server/make a custom map variant for your server, but that's about it.
hiring a community manager. now these are the admins of the discord/whatever community. in-game admins already take care of what is happening in-game IF there are any admins.
and as seen in the previous sections, admins are not hired, they are chosen/your friends.
there is no hiring in this scene.

well that sums it up. if you didn't take it seriously, then you do you. if you took it seriously, thanks. this is my honest opinion on all of these subjects.