Politician Archive
Thread: A Ghostly Post for an Un-Dead Forum
'Curtains rustle as the wind whistles thru the glass-less windowframes of the rotting old house. The buildinglies vacant and unused. A hollow, empty reminer of a by-gone era.
The sharp, musty smell of molding fabric, and damp, rotting carpet assult you senses as your gaze takes in the bleakness of this place....'
I don't quite share the same pessimistic outlook of player cities. maybe that's just because I have a neutral city that's doing quite well, but I don't think our profession or players cities are doomed. I agree that we need some work, but look on the bright side
Pappi wrote:
... I agree that we need some work, but look on the bright side
Player Cities need 3 things:
1Cost reduction by 50%
2 Starport
3 Pavement
The problem at the moment is the devs consider us simply a money sink. Unfortunately the prices are so high that most cities dont have lights or gardens or anything because they can't afford it and citizens dont want to pay taxes. Now if the devs reduced the prices for gardens and so on by 50% they might find many more get placed and in turn more money is drained from the game.
At the moment 90% of player cities would only have 1 garden all the trainers one of each mission terminals and less than 10 lights.
Starport is a no brainer. We need to be able to catch shuttles from our cities to where we need to be. Im sure again we are being used as a money sink because by catching more shuttles we waste more cash but I would happily pay 5k for a ticket and go straight to where I want to go instead of two trips for 1k or whatever.
Pavement is also a no brainer. Without it we will always look like we dont belong in that land area. Maybe they need some rule like you have to have kept metroplise ranking for a full 6 month or even a year to be allowed pavement but we need it badly.
On Valcyn Server since the Inactivity rule was taken away we have still had 8 player cities fall. Thats a large amount and the day the inactivity rule comes back will destroy many, many more I am sure.
Your points are all valid, and many like them have popular support. With any luck, we can all find a happy medium. Wether it's developed or not is another matter entirely. I think you hit the mark with the money sink statement. I would further put the following words into the DEVs minds and mouths: "The money sink is in place. No need to fiddle with it"
PreLaunch wrote:
Player Cities need 3 things:
1Cost reduction by 50%
2 Starport
3 Pavement
The problem at the moment is the devs consider us simply a money sink. Unfortunately the prices are so high that most cities dont have lights or gardens or anything because they can't afford it and citizens dont want to pay taxes. Now if the devs reduced the prices for gardens and so on by 50% they might find many more get placed and in turn more money is drained from the game.
This is one approach, but I disagree. I would favor an increase in the cost of cities. But along with that increase, add value to cities. Give us back the missing Master Specializatoins, for an example. Pave the streets, as you recommend. And who wouldn't want a starport? But alas, that would completly kill the NPC cities, and they serve a purpose.
Make people WANT to live in cities. Make them HAPPY to pay for the cities. That is the key.
At the moment 90% of player cities would only have 1 garden all the trainers one of each mission terminals and less than 10 lights.
Starport is a no brainer. We need to be able to catch shuttles from our cities to where we need to be. Im sure again we are being used as a money sink because by catching more shuttles we waste more cash but I would happily pay 5k for a ticket and go straight to where I want to go instead of two trips for 1k or whatever.
Charging more for PC starport tickets might keep NPC cities alive, but I would still have to vote no on this one. I would LOVE to have a starport in my city, but the realist in me does not think this would be good for the game. NPC cities mix the people around a little. This forces even the most die hard hermit to run into another person every once and a while. When the GCW heats up, exposure to other players, and the risk that will come with it, will be key to the games success.
Pavement is also a no brainer. Without it we will always look like we dont belong in that land area. Maybe they need some rule like you have to have kept metroplise ranking for a full 6 month or even a year to be allowed pavement but we need it badly.
I'll buy off on this one unconditionally. 100% agree.
On Valcyn Server since the Inactivity rule was taken away we have still had 8 player cities fall. Thats a large amount and the day the inactivity rule comes back will destroy many, many more I am sure.
The inactivity rule was an interesting experiment, but completly unneccessary. As you state, cities are quite capable of failing all on their. The inactivity rule helped cities fail, but it also fouled healthy cities with unaccountable house turds. Hooray, the rule is dead.
At the moment our city is growing up. We have a nice location that everyone likes (At the old Pod race track, 2km NW of Mos Entha, at the stone arcs), we have an upgrowing RP community who runs the cantina and many people are joining in the last time.
But apart from RP there is no need for a normal player, who is not interested in RP to join a city. For crafters maybe the boni from city specializations. And maybe the terminals for hunters etc. But to live in a city needs more then placing a house. There is a community and many players are not really interested in joining one because they don't see the advantages. They have to pay taxes, should go to meetings while they could XPing a little bit. So many people set there houses somewhere in the wilderness, without taxes.
How coult this be prevented?
Raise planetary taxes for wilderness houses?
Give citizens of a city more boni?
Its a shame that the shuttleport is for most players the most reason to join a city. In time of the vehicles its not really a problem to get fast to another port nearby (maybe on the advanced planets)
Cloning Center? No, nice to have but not really attractive. Who wants to die?
Bank? Well, this got some points for usefull
Hospital? From time to time frequented.
Cantina? Seems to be only useful when you have some RPler, who dont care dancing in front of empty seats.
Garage? Yes, useful, indeed. I would say the most frequented building
Well, thats from my side...
Have to work
Quote:
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This is one approach, but I disagree. I would favor an increase in the cost of cities. But along with that increase, add value to cities. Give us back the missing Master Specializatoins, for an example. Pave the streets, as you recommend. And who wouldn't want a starport? But alas, that would completly kill the NPC cities, and they serve a purpose.
Make people WANT to live in cities. Make them HAPPY to pay for the cities. That is the key.
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I just think that what makes a city a city is its gardens and lights at the moment. If a city cant afford those things then its just a bunch of houses with a city hall in the middle. Most cities if it wasnt for the "you have enterd/you have left" systems messages you wouldnt have had a clue you passed through them.
So dropping the cost of the eye candy like lights and gardens to a level where cities can afford a few would help. Obviously pavement would be the best solution but its not something we will be given soon. Lowering the cost of city decorations however is something they could just patch into the game in 24hours.
1 large garden can have at least 8 medium naboo houses facing it on all sides. Its easier to get citizens by saying here you can place a house infront of one of our gardens then it is to say here just drop a house and go away theres nothing to see here. Move along... Move along... 
But at 30k a week at the momentits not a very economical way to gain citizens.
As far as giving back the specializations for master goes what would help is if citizens could see them working in the first place. It would be nice to get a message like:
Reaserch Specialization message: " Few that was close you almost failed that experimentation but your cities specialization saved you. "
or " Wow that was a great success but your city specialization has given you Amazing Results"
If a citizen got that message 5 times a day he wont be leaving anytime soon.
PreLaunch wrote:
As far as giving back the specializations for master goes what would help is if citizens could see them working in the first place. It would be nice to get a message like:Reaserch Specialization message: " Few that was close you almost failed that experimentation but your cities specialization saved you. "
or " Wow that was a great success but your city specialization has given you Amazing Results"
If a citizen got that message 5 times a day he wont be leaving anytime soon.
Nice idea. And this would help us mayors to show that the money for the specializations are not blown into the wind...
PreLaunch wrote:
As far as giving back the specializations for master goes what would help is if citizens could see them working in the first place. It would be nice to get a message like:
Reaserch Specialization message: " Few that was close you almost failed that experimentation but your cities specialization saved you. "
or " Wow that was a great success but your city specialization has given you Amazing Results"
If a citizen got that message 5 times a day he wont be leaving anytime soon.
Man! What an elegant suggestions. No cookies. No checkers. No additional advantage issue. No balance issue. And just about every specilizaton could have a unique message.
There is no reason this should not be implimented immediatly!
PreLaunch wrote:
1Cost reduction by 50%
2 Starport
3 Pavement
PreLaunch wrote:
As far as giving back the specializations for master goes what would help is if citizens could see them working in the first place. It would be nice to get a message like:
Reaserch Specialization message: " Few that was close you almost failed that experimentation but your cities specialization saved you. "
or " Wow that was a great success but your city specialization has given you Amazing Results"
If a citizen got that message 5 times a day he wont be leaving anytime soon.
The ability to flatten terrain would be a huge bonus to helping cities grow. I was mayor of a level 3 city until a short while ago when it died. The main street was beautifully arranged however the further out you went the worse the visual effect due to the vaguarities of sloping ground preventing building placement. Its hard enough to create a lovely city plan without suddenly finding that some little **edit** in the ground you hadnt even seen is going to completely throw off your arrangements.
A city radius should be verydifferent from the wilderness terrain and should be able to be flattened by the mayor within reasonable limits.