Politician Archive
Thread: Politician Round Table Discussion, Week of 7.22.2005 City Specializations
- Clone Lab: Gained at Martial Policy II, 80k per week. The cost of clone insurance in a city with the Clone Lab specialization is reduced by 20%.
- Entertainment District: Gained at Civic Policy III, 80k per week. Entertainerenhancementsreceive a10% bonus in a city with the Entertainment District specialization.
- Improved Job Market: Gained at Civic Policy IV, 80k per week. Missions taken in a city with an Improved Job Market gain a 20% increase to their rewards.
- Manufacturing Center: Gained at Fiscal Policy III, 50k per week. Crafting done in a Manufacturing Center earns a 10% bonus to prototype assembly results, reducing the chance of failure.
- Medical Center: Gained at Civic Policy III, 80k per week. Medical healing and medical enhancements (buffs)are10% more effective in a Medical Center. **This specialization is currently bugged. The skill mods that this previously applied to no longer exist post-CURB. No changes were made to update Player City specializations to the new skill mods.**
- Research Center: Gained at Fiscal Policy IV, 125k per week. Any experimentation done in a Research Center is enhanced. A 15% bonus is applied to the final result roll is added during the experimentation phase of crafting.
- Sample Rich: Gained at Civic Policy IV, 70k per week. Sampling in the city provides 20% more resources and a 10% greater chance of finding resources.
- Stronghold: Gained at Martial Policy III, 150k per week. Militia members ina Stronghold get a +50 bonus to all defense rolls against other players (PvP).
I apologize for the lateness of this week's thread. My schedule's been out of whack all week, so my posting and in-game times have been different. Things should be getting back to normal now, though.
I submitted the full report on the Mission Terminal discrepencies on Monday. I included the detailed listing of what Player Cities and terminals were having the issues, pretty much the way it is listed in our stickied thread. While I don't know what the status of the situation is, the report was acknowledged and passed on. I referenced our ongoing thread here, so please continue to add information if you have more to contribute.
I also e-mailed our complete bug list this week, updated for the latest publish. I was very glad to see the mods for Entertainment District get updated from the old Entertainer mods to the new ones with the removal of Battle Fatigue. I was kind of worried as it got close to patch day and didn't get changed, but they got it cleared up for us before it went live with the old mods. It's a small victory, particularly considering that Medical Center remains with outdated mods, but I found it encouraging that this detail didn't get overlooked.
There's a new patch on Test Center with new quests and various bug fixes. Wonderful news for many Player Cities is that the placement restrictions on many Player Event Perks have been relaxed, so we should be able to use these more effectively in our cities. I encourage everyone to head over to one of the test servers to take a look at the new additions and go bug hunting. You can view the latest patch notes in the In-Testing forum.
This week's featured links:
- In-Testing Forum -- You can find the current patch notes for Test Center here as well as the discussion and bug threads for the test servers. The links change as things are added, so this link will take you to the main forum directory for Test Center.
- Cool Non-Cobat Buff Ideas by Panthu -- A brainstorming thread about new inspiration buffs for Entertainers. There may be some ideas for us there, too, that could be suggested for new or improved specializations.
- Player Event Perk Discussion -- I've linked to the latest post from Pex regarding the removal of NPC actors.
I'd love to see a garden that was a fishing pond. 
And I want Kashyyyk gardens. The centerpiece of the Keratamba village is so pretty. But that's all off-topic. LOL
My biggest concerns with our current specializations is that the ony one guaranteed to work that's worth the maintenance is Improved Job Market. Research and Manufacturing add such a small bonus to the total crafting rolls it's almost unnoticeable. Clone insurance isn't exactly all that expensive. No one hand samples resources on a long-term basis. Entertainment District saves you a few seconds on an inspiration buff. Medical is broke, but even if it wasn't most Doctors don't hang out in cities anymore because the xp is in the field. Stronghold's only good if you do a good deal ofPvP in your city, and you have to have everyone involved on the militia for it to even take effect (which isn't always a desireable thing).
I think specializations have the potential to really set Player Cities out from NPC cities, which is what the devs at Fan Fest asked for as far as ideas for future PC development. While it's important to have all of them working (which is an issue all and of itself), what we have isn't sufficient to draw many players in and set us apart.
Message Edited by LuciousOtso on 07-24-2005 10:05 PM
I don't craft, I don't slice, and I don't really care so much about PvP to rewrite all combat equations and discover the precise number of stats I need to be technically 'uber' so all numbers posted came from a spot that the sun doesn't shine. Anything up there can and should be tweaked in order to make the pro/cost ratio even out to not be imbalancing or idiotic (like the clone center spec) I do like the idea of speeding up factory times though and that could be tacked onto some other stats to make a specialization itself. Maybe add it to manufacturing center?
As per player city bazaars, I and many other people have posted ideas of how we could get that to work without falling prey to the negatives that are preventing us from having it now. I'm sure Pappie broached the subject on the corr forums before since it was a central theme a few months back when our mantra was 'look at us!!!' around the vendor search patch as opposed to our current mantra of 'look at us d*mnit!!!' If next weeks discussion is close enough to make that subject relevant I'm sure they'll crop up again.
.We're probably not going to see factionally aligned Player Cities. Thunderheart had said as much the last time it was brought up, primarily because making PCs factional would mean making them attackable and that's just not a good thing. Factional elements can always be placed (bases, terminals, etc.), but they will be things that aren't tied to the faction of the city itself. A terminal can suggest faction affiliation, but it's not an outright declaration of faction.
Player-made quests would be awesome, but it's another thing I don't think we'll see. The dev-created quest content has to be approved by LucasArts before it is put in. From what Pex said at Fan Fest, that would be the biggest roadblock to adding player-created quest content.
Just thought of another one.
Combat - Hive ofScum and Villainy: 10% bonus to slicing and spice experimentation and slicing itself. Haven't really bothered to look into the new system too terribly much to know what can be improved. +20% payout on BH missions picked up in town as well as a +20 to droid tracking effectiveness within town. +100 damage and +100 general speedif you shoot first.
I love the title of that specialization idea! "Hive of Scum and Villany" indeed.
Slicing doesn't really have any variables anymore, though. It's pretty much based on the looted slicing component and the level of the slice now. I will go check with the Smugglers and see if there's anything they could suggest as a bonus, though.
PsychoticChipmunk wrote:
8 specializations and only 3 of them are actually usefull, and even then the cost to benefit ratio isn't exactly noticeable.
One slight change that would greatly change the usefullness of one of them is something that we really do need to get. Take /grant zoning out of the militia's hands and either make it a togglable ability the mayor can give or make a new 'city cabinet' position that has zoning and ban. If militia couldn't screw over the mayor by giving a home to your enemies before being caught and kicked, or a less malicious screwing over of the urban plan I bet stronghold would be a majorly used specialization.
But beyond the current ones since most of the might as well not exist post-CURB (ie medical and red light as well as Manufacturing Center. Aren't crit fails out of the game now?) as well as those that never should have existed in the first place(clone lab, because 2k insurance fee is way too much, and sample rich) we need to come up with something fun and useful for the city. There are basically 3 categories: combat, non-combat, and crafting. Here's a few random suggestions that my cat bootsy telepathically implanted into my cortex.
Crafting - Public Works: Give reduced maintenance and energy cost to all buildings and vendors within the city by 10% at a cost per week of 150k. (maybe higher) In the end it probably evens out but it essentially gives a reson to live in a city, lowered maintenance, without having to necessarily reimburse anything. The cost overall should come close to evening it out but this'll basically allow other taxes (when they work) to pay for part of people's living expenses. A city should have crews that go around upkeeping the homes so they don't decay quite as readily afterall.
Crafting -Bazaar:Give an extra innate +100 items or some number to vendors as well as advertise them on the overhead map and bazaar vendor search automatically. If you're in a developed city you should be more known than a random hermit tinkering in the woods.
Combat - [__] Aligned City: Give the mayor the ability to declare the town an outcropping of some faction. This means all noteworthy factions not just imp and reb. Jabba, CorSec, FedDub, RSF, Durga, Valarian, etc. Mid level NPC's of that faction would walk around town maintaining order and fighting someone with sufficient - faction just like NPC cities have. Yeah I know it isn't that great of an idea or too unique but it provides vitality and a means to have some innate protection.
Combat - Home Field Advantage: Basically stronghold ++. In fact just have this replace stronghold so it's worth the cost and maybe up the cost. +50 to both defenses, +50 to accuracy,+50 to dodge counter attack etc. if they still do anything after the CURB, +50 to terrain negotiation, +50 to combat related force powers, -10% to armor encumberance. Take off/add on to that list as you'd like.
) and maybe have something like Placement of harvestors for a fee (like trainers) that will get a boost to thier BER rating ( would be limited like trainers are by city size and yada yada yada...)
Perill/Pearly Bluee
I don't think every minor detail needs to be, but things involving major NPCs and quests and stuff it does.