Politician Archive

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Khristen wrote:

Something else to keep in mind is that the only way to add things like factional NPCs and turrets would be through faction points. They're not going to add in those kinds of features without them being attackable and in order for it to be balanced it has to be purchased through faction points.

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Turrets and faction pets are paid for with FP now, and can be destroyed - so nothing would be different there. The only use of a faction NPCI would not agree with being attackable would be a recruiter. It would be nice to see a system that went something like this:

City Factional Alignment

Cost: 1000 FP / city level / per cycle (must be donated at city hall similar to treasury donations)

Benefits:

• Display factional banners at all civic buildings


• A small factional spawn patrol relative in strength to the city level


• A non-attackable recruiter to be placed similar to skill trainers


• One additional military base in 600m cluster within city limits (total of 4 bases instead of 3)


• New base that can only be placed within a factional city (not really stronger than an HQ, just different)


• No opposite faction bases or towers may be placed within city limits
  

Perhaps an additional function could be that the Stronghold Specialization grants the same bonuses to spawns within the city that it does militia.

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Khristen wrote:

Those are some pretty good suggestions, Khoeven, for things that could be put into factional cities. They are *great* ideas for the eventual "strongholds" that we will hopefully see.

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Directed to everyone: How does a city become factional, though? If it's left solely up to the mayor, there are huge possibilities for abuse. Is it fair to say to a non-combatant citizen, "If you don't like it, move"? Is there a fair and effective way of determining a city's faction without isolating that city? There is also the issue of shifting planetary control in NPC cities to consider.

Would workingthose ideas into a new GCW faction perk--like an attackablestronghold--that could be placed in a Player City be an acceptable option to "City Name - Imperial" or "City Name - Rebel"? Or do we really want to push for the ability to add that distinction, even if there are faction bases and such in the city limits that add a factional presence?

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Moff Kaliban Jerico

Stormtrooper Detachment Omega

"Our brand of Oppression is both Starwarsy and Iconic."

"Fear and Oppression are tools of the Empire, not policy."

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LordDredd wrote:

Since they can track the number of people in each faction, the city's faction would be based on the predominant citizen's faction.

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That might just work as an option, provided there is still some way for a city to choose to stay neutral. I wonder if they could find a way to easily track that on an individual city basis...

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Khristen wrote:

Those are some pretty good suggestions, Khoeven, for things that could be put into factional cities. They are *great* ideas for the eventual "strongholds" that we will hopefully see.

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Directed to everyone: How does a city become factional, though? If it's left solely up to the mayor, there are huge possibilities for abuse. Is it fair to say to a non-combatant citizen, "If you don't like it, move"? Is there a fair and effective way of determining a city's faction without isolating that city? There is also the issue of shifting planetary control in NPC cities to consider.

Would workingthose ideas into a new GCW faction perk--like an attackablestronghold--that could be placed in a Player City be an acceptable option to "City Name - Imperial" or "City Name - Rebel"? Or do we really want to push for the ability to add that distinction, even if there are faction bases and such in the city limits that add a factional presence?

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Just give the power to the Mayors. If the system is done properly, then no power would be abused. Besides, most cities that would be neutral are already filled with non-affiliated players, and the large PvP cities tend to be one-sided in terms of population.

The system could work like this kinda...

1. Walls are not attackable, but require at least one opening. Nothing can be built within 10 meters of the walls. You could make them attackable if only SF players were able to attack them, but since SOE has just taken out turrets from SF bases....not likely.


2. Mayor declares the faction by way of the city specialization. The city then shows up on the map as factinoally aligned--i.e. shows a faction symbol by its name. From that point on, walls can be placed around the city.


3. I never have liked the idea of zerging bases galazy-wide to determine who will win, but perhaps strognhold cities can multiple the amount their bases count for by 1.5


4. When city is declared, city hall can be entered by SF forces of opposite side to "blow it up." Realistically this would not happen, but would signify that the city has fallen. In order to do this, however, it would require the same profession used to slice into/destroy a base to slice into/destroy the hall. The hall would not be destroyed, but a large amount of the treasury would be deducted as a fine/spoils of war, and the city walls would disappear.
   

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Khristen wrote:

Directed to everyone: How does a city become factional, though? If it's left solely up to the mayor, there are huge possibilities for abuse. Is it fair to say to a non-combatant citizen, "If you don't like it, move"? Is there a fair and effective way of determining a city's faction without isolating that city? There is also the issue of shifting planetary control in NPC cities to consider.

Would workingthose ideas into a new GCW faction perk--like an attackablestronghold--that could be placed in a Player City be an acceptable option to "City Name - Imperial" or "City Name - Rebel"? Or do we really want to push for the ability to add that distinction, even if there are faction bases and such in the city limits that add a factional presence?

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From my perspective, the option of creating stronger factional ties in a player city is indeed desirable. I've been playing on Valcyn since Nov-2003, and during the length of that span I have noticed that the largest and most active cities are invariably those with strong factional ties - be it rebel or imperial. I believe this is a direct result of faction being the number one element in SWG that brings a large group of people working together toward a common goal. A couple of months ago a guild from Valcyn, Alpha Company 203rd Dessert Storm Trooper Legion, was featured in several sites and blogs. The whole guild role-plays a detachment of storm troopers with such vigor and dedication that the dev's saw it fit to reward them with a full inspection by a dev-run Vader. I certainly believe that there are a number of people playing this game that would like to create as strong a factional tie in their city as is ever made possible.

Now, how does city declare to a faction? Vote. Three options would exist: Imperial, Neutral, Rebel. In order for a city to take a factional status the votes for that faction must be greater than the combinded votes of the opposing faction and those for neutral affiliation. If the vote passes, the city is declared as belonging to that faction. However, in order to receive the factional benefits described in my earlier post, the FP cost (as described) must already have been donated during the voting cycle. If not, the city remains without faction affiliation until the next cycle. The voting cycle runs parallel to that of the mayoral seat, and couldsimply run out of the same voting box. At the end of each cycle, the criteria for retaining factional status is the same as to gain it, with the same vote count and FP cost. Faction is donated to the city at any time. Any surplus of donated faction should remain in a city account and be available for use upon the next succesful vote.

I guess the best way to paraphrase what I'm asking is this: Is it necessary to have a city be declared factional in order to get all of these cool items that are GCW related? If they were GCW perks that could be placed in Player Cities like any other structure/base, wouldn't it create the same environment and do so in a way that doesn't mean that non-factioned cities get cut out of Player City content development?

Hmm... for just a few problems I've had and would like to see added/changed.

• Option on the city management screen to get exact locals of city decorations.

I can't tell you how long I've been looking for some piece of decoration laid down long in the past which is either now lost in a placed/moved house (as in placed on top of an existing streelight) or whatnot. It's several thousand in credits that we could be saving weekly. At this point every 10 weeks its enough to pay the city maintenace for a single week.

• City decorations/trainers/mission terminalnot moveable but able to be picked up even if in "a wall".

Our fair city has developed a problem where the trainers will mysteriously spawn in a wall or underneath buildings (the shuttle and the City Hall being the most popular to slide into). The same with citylamps and house signs. I could neither move nor pickup any until weeks later when there was a server update (removing the city hall not being an option of course but I could and did pick up the shuttle to get the problem dealt with quickly). When they are in that state they are unuseable.

• Option of adding trainers/terminals to the interior of "CityHousing".

Like the Medic trainers inthe MedCenters and thesame for the Theatres/Cantinas et. al in the NPC cities and think it would be awesome for us.. I do see the problem as the cantina and and med centers are technically private housing and therefore can be kept from true "public use". But maybe that's something that could be pushed back to the Politician for placement. Or make it that any trainer/terminal either count double toward the city limit, or cost twice as much. Also not be placeable (and destroyed if in) a private building. I think it would add a little ambience to the buildings as well. I'd love the Politician Trainer to be in the City Hall not just because it makes things easy for me (no more easier then having them at the front door really) but because it looks like I've got a nice assistant ready to help within easy reach and not needing to be a Artisan/Merchant to placean NPC indoors. It also allows us to decorate around them... again much like in the NPC cities... weapons around the WS trainer, specific class weapons around swordsman, pike, ect.

• Option to turn off/minimize certain city items on the overhead map (ctrl+M).

Invariably every city ends up being a huge mess of wordson the overhead. We, for instance,want our trainers easy to find so they are at the shuttle port or within relatively few steps of said (Noob fostering and all). This leaves a big white mess of names as the shuttle, cloner, bank, 13 trainers, and the city hall try to showup... and that's before any Merchant turns on planetary adverts. It would be nice if we could turn some off, as in city itemsOR if they gave us the option of turning off such things in our regular game options (much as you click on what options you want on the big planet wide map).

More to come ask I ramble my way through it.

Micky Yolef

Mayor Mos Locos, Tatooine

Flurry

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Khristen wrote:

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I guess the best way to paraphrase what I'm asking is this: Is it necessary to have a city be declared factional in order to get all of these cool items that are GCW related? If they were GCW perks that could be placed in Player Cities like any other structure/base, wouldn't it create the same environment and do so in a way that doesn't mean that non-factioned cities get cut out of Player City content development?

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Khristen wrote:

I guess the best way to paraphrase what I'm asking is this: Is it necessary to have a city be declared factional in order to get all of these cool items that are GCW related? If they were GCW perks that could be placed in Player Cities like any other structure/base, wouldn't it create the same environment and do so in a way that doesn't mean that non-factioned cities get cut out of Player City content development?

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Ah... well, for the suggestions I'm presenting I suppose the answer is - Yes, they'd have to be factionally declared cities to receive GCW city benefits. That's the whole point. I'm not trying to present something that is for every city. I'm not trying to present something that is necessarily for every person who wishes to be part of the GCW either. I'm presenting something that is for the large groups of players who choose to be active in the GCW, and to be so in part through the way they build their cities. It's not meant to be an entire city revamp, merely the GCW facet.. or better yet, oneof the GCW facets of a city revamp.

You guys come up with the rest of it