Politician Archive

Hey everyone! Just had this idea this morning and immediately posted it in soon to be defunct swg discussion forums. As i was fleshing out the idea while posting i realized that this would be a good skill for active mayors only so i decided to repost here. I don't know if it's already been suggested by i have never heard the idea mentioned before. Two things to start with: 1. Yes it could be abused but i think the limitations posted below and the good intentions of most swg's mayors would limit this, and 2. Could someone PLEASE tell me the proper spelling of Crier as used in this context!

I have a merchant/master dancer/master musician as a second account (actually it's my wifes account, but she stopped playing and i started using her to open a business and have an available entertainer for mind wound/bf/mind buffs), and when i finally got to where i could put up a tent in the rivendell mall the first thing i did was set her up on the front ledge of my tent, which is located close to the shuttleport and bank, with a music macro so that she stayed at the tent playing music with several messages. *IMPORTANT* The messages were short and sweet and spaced out far enough to not create spam-i had our mayor check it out to approve it and make sure it didn't seem obnoxious.

Anyway, she periodically announce the grand opening of the shop, mixed in with an announcement of her ongoing street performances that would carry through the holidays after which she could be found in the cantina, and a third message welcoming people to Rivendell. I had alot of positive comments and i believe it helped attract people to the shop. After the holidays i moved her out, but still keep her in the cantina as much as possible ( i have 2 comp's side by side, so generally log her on whenever i'm on to manage the shop and keep her playing in the nearby cantina).

I realized yesterday that i kind of missed her street performances. The messages could be heard from the highest traffic areas and people could come by. Of course they didn't get there BF, mind wounds healed and i can't buff out there so she is better suited for the cantina. Unfortunately her messages cannot be heard from the bank, shuttleport, or the mall area, so only people walking by here her messages and i think often wont realize there is a master musician/dancer in the cantina who mind/focus/willpower buffs for free. Let's not get started on register location please .

So what am i rambling about? I realized yesterday, that while she needs to be in the cantina so she can function properly even when i'm envolved with my primary character, i would really like to have someone in our mall, bank, shuttleport ( and incidentally hospital) area "crying out" a greeting to the town and pointing out 'points of interest' in the town such as the fact that there is usually a master dancer/musician in the cantina playing for enjoyment, healing, and who gives out buffs freely. This morning I realized, this game needs the ability to place a town crier (SP?)! I think it would be great.

Obviously, it has the potential for abuse but that could be moderated by making it placeable only by mayors with skill x, and perhaps limiting to 1 in a city. The crier could be placed in a central location and welcome everyone to the city---"Welcome to Rivendell! what's your name? Everyone that comes to Rivendells got a name! What's your name?" . And give messages that could be updated periodically. ie-interesting features of the city, info about local shopping (not to get ahead of myself but the city could even sell ad space here), and other useful information.

You could have an unlimited number of messages macro'd to repeat at certain intervals, and if the need arose because of spam concerns, perhaps could make it so that the shortest interval between messages was 15-20 min, thus allowing for a maximum of 3 or 4 messages/hr. For that matter, if necessary you could limit criers to one message per hour. Maybe this is a dumb idea and i'm the only one who would like it but i thought of it this morning and on initial eval it is something i would really enjoy seeing. Obviously it has the potential to be abused but i think that could easily be limited. I'd love to hear feedback on this before this forum closes. IAnyway, that's it. let me know what you think!

Another great idea! This would go well under master politician.

It sounds similar to ResourceMan's idea on NPC-containers in Cities. Good stuff!