Merchant Archive

It would only make sense to spawn the Politician off the Master Merchant the bonus to maintenance and advertising so we'll see what happens the closer this gets.

I can't think of ANY profession that it would fit above better.... Anything else would be a bad move in development...

I don't think it fits well on merchant, but at the same time, it doesn't really fit well on top of any existing profession.

I'd agree. It could start off but could be it's own starter profession. who knows.

Urban planner was described as an "elite-elite" politician was not. For this reason I doubt it will come off merchant.

I think it will either:

1. Come off artisan.

2. Come off entertainer (not nearly as likely).

3. Be a "basic" profession, although it may have nonconventional entry requirements (more than just 100 cr.)

mt guess is it will come off of the business branch of artisan, for two reasons.

1. It was not described as an "elite elite" (as others stated)

2. Many poloticians IRL are also business leader, oil moguls, etc. or were at some time. And running a city is, in effect, a business...much more complicated, but you still have economics and such to consider, advertising for tourists, and they always want to bring money into their city. Taxes is another good example...kinda like access fees...kinda, maybe?

ok, thats my thoughts

I'll let you guys in on a little secret... Although things change and it's possible this has or will too, the politician profession was already designed as an ELITE profession before they announced they couldn't get player cities in for release.

So I fully expect that it will be ELITE from artisan or they will make it ELITE ELITE...

With Ronny Regan, Mr. Ventura and now Arnold in polotics, I wouldn't count out entertainer as a requesite

I feel politician should be open to all starting professions. So even, as in real life, that brawler can become 'guvnah. The true limiting factor would be who want to gimp their character by giving up skill points to pursue politician... but if they choose to, they should be allowed to from any starting profession.

I really would hate to see it just branch off business. While the skill does seem to 'fit' that tree best, I don't think that forcing people to become an artisan is the way to go to let them be a politician.

They could also do something unique with it, like requiring mastery in one profession already before even being considered for politican which also seems to fit. You've paid your 'dues'. You are 'respected' by the community (or at least known). You have then earned the chance to become a leader.

I just hope it's not limited to one particular branch.

One thing that Shadowbane did was to allow more than one base class to become an elite class. I'd like to hope they do that in SWG. It lent a nice variety to things.

On the other hand, I'm dubious about the concept of politician as a class. I think too many things that are properly activities are becoming classes. (I suspected merchant fit here and as time goes on I think that more and more.) You create two issues when you do this.

First, people who are good players in the senseof actually doing the activity in gamebut don't have the game mechanic skillsets feel aggravated that they're told to get a skill to do something they're already doing fairly effectively. (There are a lot of people fitting into this category who wantvendors taken out of skillsets and simply made available to everyone.)

And second, people who are used to possession of a skill guaranteeing success. I have seen people powergaming their way to master merchant the game mechanic out of some insane concept it will guarantee them success in the sense of actually selling things. When that doesn't happen because the real skill is player not character, then they get all aggro on the devs.

I'd rather see the political abilities of a mayor determined by population and economic output of a city than by a skill based game mechanic.