Development Cycle Archive

My PA is already had a spot over a month now.. about 5k from any major city =) Would love to have the shuttleport right away though.. as without it, it willstifle city growth for us that are going out in the boonies.

My PA is forming a city near the center of Corellia. I don't remember the exact coordinates, however. I do know that it's 4000m+ from the nearest city (and slightly more than that for the next nearest city)... so a Shuttleport will be a definate requirement.

There is only one thing that would even make me consider a player city over the spot I have, bonuses to experimentation and for me to recieve that benefit I can put a second house in a player city. Even then I see player cities so wrought with problems it will be months before I consider one, if ever.

First why would I move to one? The proximity I currently enjoy to a major star port makes the current static city a lot more attractive from a customer traffic standpoint. Also I am already fairly close to banks, cloning center and bazaar terminals in additon to the already mention star port.

Besides my proximity to a static city has one other advantages that will become apparent soon after player cities are added. I am hoping that my proximity to a static city will protect me from getting "co-opted" into some petty dictators little pet project and be subject to the griefing that will soon follow the introduction of player cities.

Here is my concern...

I own 7 structures in close proximity to each other (they are across multiple accounts with multiple players in my household) that I have built up over several months. Over time due to attrition spots near me have opened up and I have expanded into them creating my own little business center complete with factories and shops.

With the current mandatory tax system described for player cities there is a good chance were I not so close to a static city that I would end up with a massive tax bill every day from my current comfortable 0% tax rate if I was not just strongarmed out of my location completely.

Seriously, has any dev actually considered the griefing potential with player cities? How hard would it be for a simple majority of players to collude in an oligarchy to muscle other players out of their prime areas? Does no one at SOE read any history? We are gonna have a classic farmers with fences versus free range ranchers fight.

Just think about it, there is a very good chance that some poor sap who found his dream location gets added into a player city he does not want to be in only to have the mayor and his cronies muscle him out using tried and true tactics that have worked time and again in the real world.

News flash, democracy does not work when there is no legal system in place to police it. Without strong regulations and an independent judiciary simple democracy will degrade into dictatorship because there is no control over corruption of the electoral process. Not all dictators in history siezed power, many were elected, including some of the worst. The system you have created is democracy for the strong and oligarchy for the weak. Nice...

Need an example of how the system might be used to get rid of those pesky "squatters"?
First raise the tax rate to horrendous levels and then simply "rebate" your cronies. Then combine collusion on elections with the whole city militia grief system and you can pretty much strong arm any single player from homestead.

By hiding as close as I can to a city boundary hopefully I will avoid being taxed or griefed out of my current location. I can only hope it will be enough to protect me from the new player city based griefing system soon to be added.

Of course, if we had vehicles, the issue of shuttleports popping up in remote areas because of advancement wouldn't be much of an issue...

For me personally, I do not have a house and won't likely have one any time soon. If and when I do I will still likely find some remote, attractive location for it. But this is because I'm a ranger, I like the loaner in the woods thing, and it would actually be more convenient for me to have it out where I hunt, and not near a city, I almost never go in.

As for other people moving existing houses? I thinks it's a 50/50 either way. Those who don't care about being part of a city, will likely leav their house right where it is. Same with shops, they might end up leaving them just so they don't lose customers. Those who are insterested in being part of a payer city could very well move their houses. I would think the reasons for moving would be things like: it's a cool new feature of teh game and I want to be part of it; I know/like the person starting the city; I like the idea/plan for the city; my friends/PA are moving there.

Our city is over 3k from the nearest shuttle port and was laid out with player cities in mind (I was the architect and city planner). We've been at our location since around the 3rd week of live (when we placed our PA hall).

Staff Corporal Vilkata Grazioso - Master Architect, Glorified Pet Trainer (Master Creature Handler)

My PA has been planning a city since launch basically.

When I send people to my shop Im always getting them saying '**edit**, thats a bit far our isn't it??'...but it was always planned with this sort of situation.

We are out away from Bestine, halfway between there and Wayfar (as my sig indicates!) and have been setting out houses in straight streets capped off by a PA Hall and mall. We are in the process of electing a politician and have already been collecting taxes of our own for months from our PA members.

We plan on staying right where we are!

Is there any cities being planned that aren't related to PA's?

OOC:

Currently I live in a player city - Vagabond's Rest. Currently I think our number one priorty once the PC code goes live will be a shuttleport as we are a solid 3km from Theed and Keren. The main motivation for VR - the roleplaying community!!!

I agree with others in this thread that it may be difficult to form an advanced city in a resonable time without people joining the town for the XP.

The poor mayor will be hard pressed to draw visitors for a half hour run to convince them to live there while waiting the months for XP enough to gain the Shuttle Port skill.

Few citizens will be willing to live and operate business so far from a port for long.

Most of the folks I've talked to are planning to put their cities in remote locations, to avoid claim-jumpers. It's the existing cities that are close and at risk. So I think you're ok in getting people to scatter their cities. For this to work, shuttleports need to be one of the first buildings offered to a new city.

I see a potential grief opportunity for cities. Several guilds already have cities planned. But all it takes is one jerk of the opposing faction with a city hall to come along and ruin their plan. We're going to see claim-jump griefing once this goes live.

It would be nice if say, city halls cannot be placed within a city radius of an existing guild hall without the permission of the guild hall owners within that radius. This might be tough to coordinate, but it would prevent the griefing of trying to start a city where some group has already planned one to be.

I believe you mentioned having Shuttle Ports will be an advanced player city perk? I think that it will just hurt those trying to move their cities away from the main NPC cities. In order to promote player cities being just about anywhere, why not give the players travel means to and from their cities early on, but in a progression?

Apologise if something like this has been brought up before, but what about giving architects three shuttle port schematics?

Say, a small field shuttle port like the ones used by the Borvo's camps on Naboo, the ones where the shuttle lands on a strip of lights in the grass? Make this field shuttle port avalible to small player citites and allow travel with it to only one other NPC city on the planet, chosen by the mayor. Make the cost of one way travel on it around800 credits.

Then as the city grows to the advanced level needed for the normal shuttle ports, allow the mayor to place a normal city shuttle port that goes to all the major NPC cities and make the cost of one way travel on it around300 credits.

Finally, as the player city reaches and surpasses the size of some of the largest NPC cities, allow the construction of a shuttle port hub. Allow travel to and from this hub to any NPC and PC cities on the planet and make the cost of one way travel on itaround 100 credits for NPC cities and around400 credits for PC cities.

Just my thoughts at the moment.

Rowe

Tempest

I'd really like to start a nice town in the southwest valley of Naboo on Starsider. Since its so remote there is nothing there and would be a good place to build, expand and put a shuttleport. I hate to see shuttleports wasted on towns that are just off the border of major cities.

Right now I own a Tatooine house north of Mos Entha in a small inactive player guild / city. However I'll probably move where there is more activity. Being a retired guild leader I have no desire to put a ton of effort into an almost inactive guild.