Politician Archive
Thread: How interested are politicians in having a combat support role?
Some kind of faction adjustment skill would be OK but only for citizens (e.g. the mayor could distribute 100 NPC (not gcw) faction every week and each citizen would gain that many faction of that type, amount increasing with skill).
I'd like to see player cities be a PvP focus but in a non combat way, perhapse allow towns to grow dependant on a popular vote of the planetary citizens (would include anyone with a declared residence on the planet).
I see some folks saying how the Politician shouldn't have any combat support abilities and they do an ok job of supporting that. What they don't provide is gameplay alternatives. It is very easy to find gaps in suggestions but by all means, please offer an alternative.
What is the role of a politician in a time of war? Propoganda and boosting moral and Strategic planning. They give rousing speaches, make elloquent quotes to inspire people to make sacrifices for the cause and find ways to demonize their enemies. This aspect of the Political purpose is what needs to be captured by the game mechanics in a way that will give the politician purpose more than a few times a month.
They may not be in the front lines toting a rifle and shouting commands as that IS the role of the squad leader but you know what?! The Squad Leader serves more purpose than a Politician! They may not be running the factories for that IS the role of the Crafter but you know what?! Crafters can sell their product and make money from it!
A General commands an Army and a Squad Leaders lead squads. Politicians are the Generals and Admirals of the Galaxy. Strategic planners ration and assign resources to feed the war machine and Industrials turn it into arms and war materials. The Politicians are the Strategic planners of the Galaxy. Give us a day to day way that we can make our impact on the galaxy other than a drop the shuttle port then forget it existance.
We should be able to inspire our population to fight the good fight and be ready to make the supreme sacrifice for we have made them aware of just what is at stake should they fail. The Galaxy is at WAR and as prominent citizens it is our duty to serve our population. Is it too much to ask that we can do it in the way that the times demand of us?
Mayor Feliz Gizmacher, Warmaster of Dune Retreat
Note the title? Sounds kinda Militant doesn't it?
I don't really need a combat support role, especially in a support manner. I didn't become mayor tobe cheerleader for the brute squad.
I'm sure half the mayors are crafter types anyway (since beingin town is near requisite for the position).
(I still say mayor should cost few skill points with poliXP being spent similar to faction points.)
Mayor and combat don't go together in a roleplaying nor in a gameplay sense.
One idea I've had for a while that pertains to the DE's getting combat droids is at Master level we get special combat droids that only master politicans can call. They would serve has our bodyguards as a form of protection and would be higher lvl then the normal combat droids any person with no skills could use and call. It would give Master Politicans a more powerful position in the game since we actually get our own special droids. It would really help us out espeically since we have to give up so many skills points in politican and really don't get anything in return for our own benfit.
Maller Malice
Mayor of New Aldera
I'm of the opinion any addition to the profession is a good one. For myself I'm fairly active in PVP and the politician role has seriously cut into my skill set. All that aside what i'd really really love to be able to do is manage a NPC militia. That is have my citizens "release to city" all their old useless troops that are just sitting in their datapads doing diddly squat and have the politician profession control these troops, with patrol routes and stuff, in this way we can have a small army for defense of our city, thereby declaring the faction of our city to a degree, and we can play a more active role in pvp by leading these troops.
I see the point with the Padme/Leia things, but I think it's kinda off target. Ok, Leia battled a lot. But you'll notice she wasn't (to my knowledge) part of the rebel army, per se. All the fighting she does is on a more personal matter. She tries to escape various things that are after her because she's a politician, that doesn't mean she goes out to use her politician skills in battle.
Being myself a smuggler/politician/pistoleer, I have a very good place in battle already *grin*. And if I start doing speeches before each fight I'm going to get buried under trouts and chained in the city hall basement for a long time.
Maybe combat bonuses could be done for aligned mayors who want to motivate the troops defending their city (that's militia btw) but I don't see it being right for your "basic" mayor running a non aligned town.
Fidgiter wrote:
I'm sure that 3/4 of the Mayor's are pocket characters and alts who go fighting as their other selves.
According to the politician poll...
7. Is your politician character considered to be your "main" character? Alternate on another server? Alternate on same server using second account?
Main: 41
Alternate 7
Reading and skimming through....
I would like our attention to be focused on content creation. I love the idea of being able to generate NPCs and script dialog and missions. Think of it as a very specialized Dungeon Master type of role...
Sure, there is potentional for abuse, but if there are reasonable money/XP caps set (such as mission rewards for Mayor created events come from the city treasury, or the city hall itself generates an "experience pool" over time to be granted to these missions) then exploiting could be kept to a minimum.
I like the idea of the mayor of a city being given limited control over the NPC military assets within the city itself. This would not be at all coercive --- I would not go as far as ordering people to give up their faction pets to the city.
A mayor should be able to do the following, I think:
1) Personally direct turret fire (click on turret, radial pops up, choose "Shoot", click on target). This would allow the mayor to effectivelystop many of the existing exploits in the game relating to turrets. Make this a Martial skill (/turretfire [target]).
2) Organize permanent NPC squads (/assignsquad [target], /namesquad) and set waypointsfor them to patrol --- within city limits, of course. This would cut down on the existing "gaggle effect" where a bunch of NPC troopers mill about aimlessly or go wandering off. It would certainly allow for a more military-like approach to troop activity!
3) Assign individual squads to specific pre-setjobs or tactics. You could, for example, order onesquad to patrol a set of waypoints, but to "withdraw"to base if attacked. Other squads could be set to "respond" to the first squad being attacked. Yet other squads could be pre-positioned around the base with orders to "assault" nearbyenemieswith close attacks,or to"support" with long-ranged fire.
4) Assign city militia members to command one or more NPCsquads --- while within city limits, of course.
This would give the Mayor a distinctly valuable military role, while also not requiring him personally to be a combatant, and would pertain strictly to his own city. At higher levels --- if such levels are ever developed --- a planetary governor could draw on a certain percentage of a city's NPC military to form units that could roam across the face of the planet. Moffs, or Rebel Generals, could take a certain percentage of those planetary forces and dispatch them to other worlds to help in the conflict elsewhere.
"Oooohhhh... here's a thought... politicians can buff groups by making speeches, BUT only in a theatre... this would make the theatre useful for something... it would ensure that the majority of the time buffing would only occur inside of a player city, thus removing the worry of it interfering with other character types, and would make sense since you're be making a speech from a stage. =P just a thought..."
What purpose does the City Hall play apart from housing the city management terminal and voting station? It has a big platform and lobby. The City Hall should be used by the Politician for this and SOE should find a use for the Theatre that would benefit the entertainers. Great idea, wrong venue.
"I see the point with the Padme/Leia things, but I think it's kinda off target. Ok, Leia battled a lot. But you'll notice she wasn't (to my knowledge) part of the rebel army, per se."
Lando was the Baron Administrator of Cloud City (Mayor) who lead the escape when he realized he was being betrayed by Vader and then went on to be a General providing strategic advice to Admiral Ackbar and leading a fleet into battle at the battle of Endor.
Leia was often found in a Command Center actively involved in strategic decisions and had some really big and spectacular events where she bestowed honors on heros of the Republic. Seems pretty inspiring to me =>P
"Maybe combat bonuses could be done for aligned mayors who want to motivate the troops defending their city (that's militia btw) but I don't see it being right for your "basic" mayor running a non aligned town"
Then the combat bonus's would be only and exclusively associated with PvP because creatures and NPC don't spawn in town. I don't see the harm in the Mayor giving a rousing speach at the city hall, "Ra Ra Ra", then the fired up combatants dashing off eager to die for king and country. I don't see why the inspiration would suddenly vanish the moment they stepped outside the nice safe city boundry.
"7. Is your politician character considered to be your "main" character? Alternate on another server? Alternate on same server using second account?
Main: 41
Alternate 7"
Don't cloud the issue with facts! Hee hee. Um, there are only 48 mayors of all the cities in all the galaxies? I stand corrected =>P (Point taken)
"I would like our attention to be focused on content creation. I love the idea of being able to generate NPCs and script dialog and missions. Think of it as a very specialized Dungeon Master type of role..."
This is actually a pretty cool idea but I can see it being a potential nightmare. What I could see is the Mayor Mission Terminal which could generate a really HUGE mission that would require many people a long time to finish. It would create a pseudo POI near the city that would keep the population closer to home and entertained and the payment for the success of the mission would go directly into the city treasury. Having these spawns raid into the city from time to time if left unchecked would be an entertaining touch.
Folks say that cities are for noncombatants but that's just because there is nothing FOR combantants to make cities appealing. If you make cities more appealing to a more diverse audience that situation could change.
Mayor Feliz Gizmacher, Founder of Dune Retreat