The spine of every city, in order: inventory (everything touches it, items, trunks, crafting), phone (the social layer), garage/keys (vehicle ownership loop), police + EMS job packs (RP gravity), then one or two civilian jobs people do between scenes. These six decisions constrain every later purchase, which is why they come first and get the research time.
Quick answer
Buy in dependency order, not excitement order: framework core → inventory → phone → garage/vehicles → jobs (police/EMS first) → economy fillers → housing. One system per slot (one inventory, one phone), every purchase checked against your framework version, and a hard rule: no new script until the last one is configured and live.
What to buy first
What to delay
Housing (rent systems carry edge cases; let the city stabilize first), crafting trees (balance nightmares before you know your economy), advanced gangs/turf systems (need population to matter), and custom HUDs (cosmetic; defaults are fine for launch). All good month-two purchases, terrible day-one ones.
What to skip
'All-in-one' mega-bundles from no-name stores (you inherit fifty scripts of unknown quality and one license risk), leaked/cracked scripts (malware vectors and ban risk, auditing a 'free' leak costs more than the license), duplicate systems ('we have two inventories for compatibility' is how item dupes are born), and anything whose store page cannot say which framework versions it supports.
Dependency order and conflicts
Scripts assume an environment: framework version, ox_lib presence, inventory API, target system (ox_target vs qb-target). The classic breakage is not 'script is bad' but 'script expected a different neighbor'. Before buying, check: does it support your inventory? Which target does it bind? Does it bundle its own outdated copy of a shared library? In server.cfg, ensure shared libraries first, framework second, systems third, content last.
A sane budget shape
A focused starter stack lands around $150–350: inventory ($30–60), phone ($30–50), garage ($15–30), police MDT + job pack ($40–80), a civilian job or two ($20–40), plus the framework's free core. The uncurated path, impulse buys, replacements for impulse buys, 'just one more MLO', routinely passes $1,000 with a worse city. The difference is a list and the discipline to follow it.
The checklist
- Stack list written before any purchase, in dependency order
- Every candidate checked: framework + version, inventory API, target system
- One system per slot, no duplicate inventories/phones/garages
- Store pages verified for update cadence and support channel
- server.cfg ensure order: libraries → framework → systems → content
- Each script configured and live before the next is bought
- Licenses + invoices stored (you will need them for support)
| Slot | Buy when | Typical spend | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory | First | $30–60 | Everything depends on it |
| Phone | First week | $30–50 | Social spine |
| Garage/keys | First week | $15–30 | Ownership loop |
| Police/EMS pack | Week 1–2 | $40–80 | RP gravity |
| Civilian jobs | Week 2+ | $20–40 | Between-scene loops |
| Housing | Month 2 | $25–50 | After stability |
| Custom HUD | Whenever | $0–30 | Cosmetic, optional |
Common mistakes
Buying scripts before the framework decision. Two inventories 'for compatibility'. Leaked scripts as a trial. MLO shopping sprees before the core loop works. Ignoring the target-system question until nothing is interactable. No record of licenses when support is needed.
The Quasar recommendation
Treat the stack like architecture, not shopping: the boring spine (inventory, phone, garage, jobs) earns the money first, and every later purchase must name the slot it fills. We maintain compatibility notes across the major stores, when in doubt, ask before you buy, not after it breaks.
Latest in this cluster
Are free scripts good enough to launch with?
For several slots, yes, the ox ecosystem and framework defaults are genuinely production-grade. Spend money where free options are weakest: phone, MDT, and polished job content.
How many resources is too many?
There is no magic number, but under ~80 at launch is a healthy discipline. Past ~150, boot order, conflicts, and tick budget all get meaningfully harder to manage.
Should I commission custom scripts instead of buying?
Custom work shines for your differentiator, the one system that makes your city yours. For commodity slots (inventory, phone), buying maintained scripts beats paying a freelancer to reinvent them.
Want this handled with you, not alone?
Get a concrete plan for your server, or have us look at what you have built so far.