Politician Archive
Thread: CITY COST TOO HIGH, HAS TO BE LOWERED
Don't expect this to happen. Money is actually *easier* to make now if you are actually playing in a group. Every member of the group (whether they fought a single creature during the course of the mission or not) receives the full payout of the mission as long as they are in range at the time the lair blows. You can't make millions solo-grouping anymore, but you could easily pay a week's worth of city maintenance--even for a well-decorated metropolis--by gathering a group of your citizens and running missions. The question of lowering maintenance costs was brought up during one of the city panels, and it was pretty clear to me, at least, that it isn't even being considered. To which I (personally) honestly have to agree.
If there are enough solid arguments brought forward to support this, I will certainly pass it on. Saying money is harder to make after the CURB, though, just doesn't seem to be a universal problem. I am more than willing to be corrected on this, though.
Rather than lower the city maintenance costs, or make a push in that direction, I'd much rather see us make the Player Cities well worth the cost. The devs have expressed a desire to do so as well. How does everyone else feel about this?
Message Edited by Perill on 06-05-2005 09:39 AM
Message Edited by Fuzzbutt78 on 06-08-2005 09:09 AM
Fuzzbutt78 wrote:
We just started our city 3 weeks ago, and I started at Novice Politician as mayor. So with all of the updates I'll be making to our city this week I have implemented the taxing system. I did a lot of math and found that our citizens will be our main support for our city. We do have some wealthier citizens are willing to donate, but I didn't want for something to happen and for the city not to run on its own.
The cost of living in RSC is very reasonable. I even had our citizens vote on a small raise in taxes to support a cloning facility. I think that the taxing system is in place for a reason, so why aren't all cities using it?
I mentioned the idea of having terminals and trainers give a kick back to the city at one of the Fan Fest panels. They said they'd take the idea back, although it could be a long time before we see something like that.
I'll be taking a look at our Top 5 issues in the next week or so. I know that income generation is one of the big ones. Pappi and I both took the Fan Fest opportunity to bring up Sales Tax several times, as well. Having that fixed would certainly relieve some of the pressure, but it's not an easy fix.
I'd like to see us come up with some unique ideas that could be implimented via game systems to help cities support themselves and generate interest. The devs want Player Cities to be unique from NPC cities, which I think is a wonderful idea. We need to start thinking beyond the perks of NPC cities and find our purpose....but that's for another thread you should see soon.
I'm a bit dry on ideas for this - outside of those already posted.
My city, of which my other character is Mayor, costs roughly 750k a week to run. It has a full compliment of statues, and a large number of gardens. The city is Fel-Shadow on Lok (Tempest). Most of the decoration is tied up in a large plaza area in front of city hall. Most of the citizens, all members of a single guild, would agree that it's an impressive layout - if not entirely money well spent.... /cough =D
Since extravagance of the city layout is my own, I don't feel entirely inclined to hold the guild responsible for paying for it, which leaves me with a weekly bill of 350k to cover. Not much of a hardship if I could find the time, lol.
-I think we all agree that fixing taxes would help out alot. And as said a few times already, city specializations need to be looked at again. Kick backs from trainers would be nice.
-Also, it'd be nice if mayors could place mission givers and "program them" (maybe). I.e. - allow mayors to pick the type of missions (deliver, destroy, escort, etc), the number of missions in the series, and the final reward (some credits from the city or items donated from the players. If it was coming from the city treasury, it'd keep down on the 1 mil credit delivery missions.) That wouldn't generate funding for the city, but it may help to bring people in.
-Also, allow theatre's to be used to heal battle fatigue. (Dunno if it currently does, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't do anything for anyone.)
-Allow the "promotions" to hang around a bit longer. That'd just be nice.
-Maybe some "landscaping" items craftable by politicians. (I.e. small gardens or even trees for the city.)
-Relaxed restrictions on building placement. It's hard to keep a city "pretty" when there are gaps between buildings due to un-level ground or a small puddle. (There's a puddle about 1m wide in our city on Rori that prevents us from placing a building within 1 block from it. WTH?)
"-Relaxed restrictions on building placement. It's hard to keep a city "pretty" when there are gaps between buildings due to un-level ground or a small puddle. (There's a puddle about 1m wide in our city on Rori that prevents us from placing a building within 1 block from it. WTH?)"
must agree with this 100% aswell, we are on dantooine in a rather hilly part and it leaves the city in tatters at some spot due to a tiny lil bump about 1m wide taking up sometimes upto 2 blocks and i wish i was kidding :/
Yeah, I kinda agree that two things would make the high cost a lot less problematic:
1) Make cities more WORTH the cost... Fixing or adding new specializations would go a LONG way towards this I think.
2) Fix that damn Sales Tax! Thanks for pestering the Devs, maybe they'll get the hint. ![]()
I totally agree with Jaspor. Especially the part about the Sales Tax. It has the most potential for city revenue, and has never completely worked. If I remember correctly, when it did (kinda sorta)work, it only worked when you set it at 10%. How long does it take a team of SOE devs to fix this bug?
I know they've been busy with expansions and updates, but they should have been busy fixing what's broke before breaking what's not...broke.
(that's just me saying in a not so pretty way, "SOE, please fix these bugs that have been around for months and months".)