Cities And Housing Archive

Message Edited by Glzmo on 01-22-2005 03:05 AM

---

player2005 wrote:

In a recent article in PCGamer magazine there were several bad reviews about swg & jtl. One was about player cities, where it basically said,

Galaxies player cities have turned out to be a very bad idea.

Just one of many bad ideas, courtesy of management.

---

Once upon a time SOE had a choice to make. They could allow merchants to set up shops and players to setup residents in the Major (NPC) cities or they could force them away from the Major Cities into Player Houses. They chose to move them away from the cities. Then they had another choice on whether to allow merchants to set up shops and players to setup residents in the Major (NPC) cities or they could create order from the chaos in clusters of Player Houses. They chose to make the earlier bad choice not as bad.

They did make bad choices on it but it is really short sighted but to suggest that this was the root cause for all the woes in the game is just plain out wrong and frankly I know more about the game than some PC Magazine critic AND without actually having more than a paraphrased hindsight opinion the reference has no weight or bearing. There are a HUGE number of factors that have contributed to the game state and while I'll admit the decision by SOE to develop Player Cities rather than Major Cities is a factor it is one of many.

I agreed and disagree.

I understand the point regarding Player cities across the map being clutter, especially if they have little or no life in them. This is a MMORPG and where is the MM and RPG in many of these locations? I have visited many cities on every planet except Talus (I haven't visited there because I haven't received any Ranger Contracts for that planet). I have seen a lot of cities that were dead and lifeless and have seen some with players in them. I have read post in these forums of someone visiting a place like a theatre in a Player city assuming it to be empty, only to find it jam-packed with players. Hat's off and a big kotow bow on that one. That took good planning but they did it. They probably had a lot of City Residents that cared about playing the game MMORPG. On the whole though, the main NPC cities are really where most people congrugate. Many empty player cities basically don't have any depth--not enough planning.

I know our city, Shadow Gate on Rori (Gorath) -- just outside of Narmle, has been growing. We have tried to get other guilds to join in our quest to make it a better and more fun place to hang out. No takers yet. Many people are attached to their own cities and I know they want to go the solo route (not so good an idea when you read the many posts about the more successful cities being multi-guilded). Although our city is beautiful to look at, we too are challenged with outward migration because of WOW, etc. I know that will always be the axe ever so hanging about our heads and there will always be another game that comes along (the grass is always greener...) but if we remain true to the game (SWG) that we all have come to love (regardless of its faults--what game doesn't have them?) we can put to good use our player cities.

Shadow Gate has only recently had new life and new hope for the future breathed into it. This is because of new players having come on board who care. With that kind of blood pumping through the veins of the good player cities, those Player Cities could really add to the game (not take away from it). The key would be to somehow get the Devs to work collaboratively with these primary (surviving--after the new city rule changes) cities on each planet to create some GCW and game-related excitement in them. Immerse thes cities into the game. "You will be assimilate...hehe. This could be as simple as better SWG representation at player events at these cities. I know a lot has to be done by players and mayors of these cities to make these events happen and they do need planning, but an occasional Imperial Raid on a city with high Rebel Faction Points and vice versa a Rebel Raid on a city with high Imp Faction points wouldn't hurt the excitement of that city would it?

Or maybe a requirement that cities need to have a minimum of two guilds in them to go from City Level 2 to 3-4 Guilds in them to grow larger as it climbs upward and outward. Multi-player buildings like apartment buildings need to be developed for larger player cities and NPC cities to add depth to them and to conserve space.

These things can be done with a little creativity and good communication between the Devs and the SWG public (us). In don't think Player Cities are bad if they are managed right and not abused by players who plant characters from other players with account on other servers. That's playing "a game" not playing "the game." Maybe that's another reason why we don't see our resident players around.

Nonetheless, there is alot we can do with these cities as long as resident of them we remember, SWG is MMORPG. Let's play it that way.

---

Shadow-Walker wrote:

A good sugguestion was made about player cities. What should exist is a 5 huts (city halls) spread out over the planets. within the radius of the hut are zoning rights. As more houses are placed the hut is upgraded to a larger building. This would get the voting for mayor put to better use as no one group would own the city just the mayor who could be replaced by another. As the city gets bigger so does the zoneing area around the city hall.

This would get rid of any mayor who is about to loose there position and destroying the city hall.

Then as ppl leave the city shirinks, if any buildings outside the zone are moved into the new zone automaticaly.

This way it stops all houses just being placed anywhere on a planet and make it look cluttered.

Also I like the option to add storage units to houses to allow more items to be placed. I am more than happy to have 1 medium house and put the remainging slots into storage units for me house.

Message Edited by Shadow-Walker on 01-20-2005 11:34 AM

---

I like your idea because it would also encourage open elections where people really work to get elected.

The winner would be able to grow the city more. Also, the "Huts" would be a base template that the city would start with. It would then be the people's city, not the original guild or player that started it.

Message Edited by Amsaran on 01-23-2005 11:37 AM

---

Ani_cul wrote:

the only thought I have on any of it

We created our own communities

We created our own server economies

We craft, sell, buy, react, combat, all ourselves

By our choice

It is and will always continue to be

(at least in my mind)

The players themselves that make or break how a game is

---

So very true.!!!