Politician Archive
Thread: AFK POLITICIAN should the future bot profession of choice require skillpoints?
Iheavily disagree with the high skill point cost of politican. I think that the politican tree should cost skill points but the skill points should be greatly reducedcompared to otherprofessions that offer all the time functionality. I would say maybe half the cost of an elite profession.
Marcalus wrote:
Perhaps a "mule mayor" would work for a closed-off PA only town.
But for a truly dynamic bustling city, the mayor will need to be getting his or her hands/paws/fins/whatevers dirty.
Why? I mean that seriously. What could a constantly playered character accomplish that a character that was played for 20mins(administation) everyday not do? The politican class does not seem to really do anything that has anything to do with player motivation. With a mule a mayor could the play not let everyone know what thier main character's name was? Then they could run the city from thier main character and just switch over to the mule for the few small acts that a politican has to do.
I think that the roleplay reason of having an active mayor will take a backseat to the skill points invested, and the RL compentance of the mayor player.The possible loss of a the cities ability to have a shuttleport or a specialization or faction terminals is an awfully big risk.
The pre-planning and management of our player city is taking up a good chunk of my game time already and I'm loving it.
Thats you. How many others are willing to make this sacrifice? More importantly to have a dynamic system with rival politicans how many players are going to be willingfight for a city if the looser is left holding 30+ skill points that have no benefit to them what so ever? How long would they be willing to keep trying to win and keep those skill points thus invested.
While its very nice that youwould that means absolutly nothing if the at least 5-10% of players per server aren't willing to make the investment.
So...absolutely...politician should require skill points.
ToranTT wrote:
Personally I'm one of those people that want to be a Politician, I'm happy it takes skill points (and expensive ones at that) because it does limit the number of people that are willing to be Politicians to those that are serious about it.
Those that want to have mule accounts can pay for it, that's fine by me, andI believe that there will be a good chance that people who aren't dedicated to the profession will lose votes to the more dedicated, more personable people.
It's all good.
Those complaining about skill points or the fact that the profession is even needed, should not even be thinking about having or running a city. Leave it to the people that care.
What happens when those people that have dedicted the skill points to being a mayor quit? or change their character? What happens to the city and the players in it?
Where is the new mayor going to come from? How hard will it be to find someone to fill the role? Should 100 players get punished because one player got bored?
There are much larger issue at stake here then if any one sigle player is will to make the skill point investment. If there are not 5-10% of the players on a server willing to make the investment at any giving moment they some very serious issues could arise.
Furthermore mayor could quickly become a static position again I pointout how many people are going to make and keep aninvestmentinpolitican when they are not mayor?
Again these number have to be greater then a handful per server.
Sure, the politician class may look a bit limited to start with, but you have to remember that the politician is there just to get player cities in the door.
Once the politician is in there is any amount of scope for things like senators or planetary governors or what have you. This is where the politicians are really going to come in, especially if the Devs ever mix them into the GCW, which I think will be necessary in the future.
There is a lot of potential and the class hasn't even made it in the door yet, I don't think you can jump to huge conclusions about the future of the class before its entered the live servers.
P.S. Not meaning to say this in a derogatory way, but it is kinda like saying all the creature mounts are going to be useless when the vehicles go on the test center.We just won't know the truth untilwe see it in action, and the results may surprise us. Of course we may also go "Coulda toldya THAT!" when it all fails.
P.P.S. Maybe they should allow people to run for mayor of the NPC cities, so that people can gain experience. Maybe you can't win them, maybe you can control the city but not build anything or something like that. Might increase the number of experienced players in the class if they can get access to remote cities and enter the running for XP.
Considering that the Politician is only one third of the master classes I can have, I can still fit a weaponsmith, or a commando or just about any other class except for bounty hunter (and I don't think we'll see too many of them wanting to be a politician anyway).
In fact,a coupleof the best classes I can see that goes with politician are entertainer or doctor, you get to constantly canvus your electorate every time they run in for healing.
The only time at which Politician is going to be deadly boring is when it is a guild run city, because there is no politics there. Any of the crafter cities/non-aligned cities willhave much more fluid politics.
I think we should mimic real life and have the Entertainer be the same as Politician, right?
Think how many Reagans and Schwarzeneggers there are on your server! 
ToranTT wrote:
Considering that the Politician is only one third of the master classes I can have, I can still fit a weaponsmith, or a commando or just about any other class except for bounty hunter (and I don't think we'll see too many of them wanting to be a politician anyway).
In fact,a coupleof the best classes I can see that goes with politician are entertainer or doctor, you get to constantly canvus your electorate every time they run in for healing.
The only time at which Politician is going to be deadly boring is when it is a guild run city, because there is no politics there. Any of the crafter cities/non-aligned cities willhave much more fluid politics.
I guess this is what I'm getting at. I seriously don't think there is going to much if any politicing after the first few weeks of cities goinglive. Here isa few of the reason why.
- Why would someonekeep the skill points investedin politican for an extended period when they are not mayor themselves and thus the points do nothing for them?
- How long would someone be willing to keep points in politican when they are not mayor. Two weeks, three then what?Why would or should they?
- Why would any player vote out an accomplished mayor to replace them with an unknown one or worse yet an underskilled one?
- Tyranny of the minority. In real life very few people vote why? Because they don't care about politics as long as the systemdosen't get in their way. Following that logic everyone in the city will vote for the current mayor unless things in the city aren't going well.
- In a very real way themayor represents an investment by all theplayers in the city. Electing a new mayor is like selling off skill points and then having to earn the exp all over again.
I don't think hopes and well wishes are enough to keep the political system afloat in any sort of meaningful manner. Do I think that in certain key cities in heavy roleplay zones there will be a battle for mayor, yes I do. Do I think that there will be widespread or even moderatly common battles for mayor, no I don't.
Besides, who's going to burn 500 APP xp to purchase a profession that will give them nothing if not elected? I doubt we'll see many elections with more than one candidate.
Some interesting points. However, and correct me if I'm wrong...what I THINK I may be hearing is:
"Politician sounds like it may be interesting. However, I like my character the way he is and I don't want to give up skills. Maybe EVERYONE should be able to be a politician since the class seems like it doesn't do much..."
One could make that argument about many classes in the game. Merchant, for one. Except that I've spent my skills in it...I'm a Master...I SHOULD get the advantages of more vendors and reduced fees and the ad campaigns. This gives me a competitive edge over the person who has "only" gone to Business III.
Politician is the same way. Folk will need to decide how much of the 77 point tree that they can afford. This will be a selling point for them in an election. And yes, I think that there's a good chance that we'll get some good political battles...the regular churn should see to that (both people leaving the game and changing their class or game play)
I think that the mayor seat should only be available to players willing to commit. In SWG, commitment is expressed mostly through skill points. Credits, XP, gear...all this stuff really has no cap. Skill points are "precious" due to their limited nature. If folk want to do politician, make them put their money where their mouth is.
I plan on becoming my guild's politician.
I am glad that politician takes up skill points. This way only dedicated people will end up being mayor. Yes, there will be mule characters out there but not as many and it can't be helped.
KingBanjo, I DO THINK that people will kick out a AFK Master Politician for an under experienced politican. Once the city is built it doesn't matter if there is there is a Novice or Master because all of buildings that only a Master could put up have already been put up. Also,I am sure that MOST people would rather ahve a Mayor that roleplays.
Well..I have two accounts. One is slated for polition, but I would hardly call him a mule. I spend about equal time on both my accounts. One is a Ranger/Rifleman who is my group hunt/PvP guy the other is my Polition/Armorsmith guy. My mood swings on a daily basis and sometimes I like to fight and sometimes I like to craft, but my two characters combine to be my alter ego. I will play the part as a mayor, getting around to know new people, lobbing for votes and such. It will be fun
On the APP XP part, not a good idea. Its very easy to grind APP XP. I got mypolitions 500 in an evening, only about a week after he was born. Didn't even have to leave my house as I was grinding that evening. So unless you want people to be able to 'Grind' up to Master Pol in a week, than the APP XP idea is not good.