Politician Archive
Thread: Question about Taxes.
Wouldn't you like to place your shop in a Non-Player City right now?
And why would you want to do that?
That's why you would put up with taxes in a Player City. Although remember, unless you are lowering your prices to adjust forSales Tax, that's one tax you're not paying. Your customers are.
That question you asked has the same answer you would find in reality. You build in cities because they attract business. Unless you are the best at your craft you may find that customers will go to a player made city way point and buy from a collection of shops at one location.
Some game functions that may encourage merchants from building in a city:
No spawns inside the city zone, safer for the merchant & customers.
Large cities are capable of activating a crafting bonus,the 'best' items will be city crafted.
Large cities may deploy ashuttle portto draw more customers.
Final note on living in a city:
Part of the game that many of us enjoy most is the ability to build relationships and forge viable communities. If your a lone wolf maybe you should skip a city anyway. They will only work well if people agree on certain rules or prices. As they draw many merchants together you may find neighbors undercutting your sales, so a successful city will be the one where neighbors work together.
BaneShee wrote:The point of my post is to say that there needs to be another reason for me to place my vendor in a player city. Doing it just because its "cool" is not a good enough reason especially when my competitors can place near a non-player city and not pay any tax. If you want your city to prosper it must be merchant friendly ...
Some reasons for a Merchant to declare residence in a player city (not a complete list)
1) To place a storefront RIGHT NEXT TO SHUTTLEPORTS, assuming you don't have a zone unfriendly mayor. I'm also not sure how merchant tent's work yet.
2) To have a voice in who is mayor. If one mayor wants to increase the militia and remove the name from the map, and the other one wants to encourage tourism...who would *you* vote for. Being on the outskirts of a player city that decides to shun outsiders could ruin your business.
3) To be around a higher concentration of people. I moved from Anchorhead to New Hope, and lemme tell you... I noticed an increase in sales just by being inside a city limit instead of 500m away from one.
- Malikor [Dragon Pearl Enclave]
I don't know about you but I get tired of running 1km just to find a merchant that may not even have what I want. I'm sure many players will stop running off to the middle of nowhere when they can visit shops near a shuttleport.
If that's not good enough reason for you, then I don't know what is.
Actually thats a good idea... Place a building and vendors just outside the range of a large player city that gets lot of business.. You'll still get people to come to your vendor but you won't have to pay the property and sales taxes.
I could see this catching on.
Well placing outside of a city range is just a great idea..
With mounts and vehicles coming in, having to travel that 450meters(Maximum, becuase a metropolis radius is 450) won't take very long at all.
You won't have to pay city taxes and you'll get the benefit of being close to the city. If they get the city gangs on you, just don't go in the city or use the shuttle. Piece of cake again because of mounts and vehicles.. Just ride to the nearest town. All the goodness of being close to a big player run city that gets lots of business and you don't have to pay taxes or deal with the hassle of being inside the city.
Yep, i really see this happening.. Around large player cities you'll have a nice ring of houses just outside city range. Just watch..
Tiaga wrote:
I don't know about you but I get tired of running 1km just to find a merchant that may not even have what I want. I'm sure many players will stop running off to the middle of nowhere when they can visit shops near a shuttleport.
If that's not good enough reason for you, then I don't know what is.
One problem with that... it is a heck of a lot faster to run 1km (2km + round trip) than to wait 2 times for a shuttle 
And with mounts, you will be much better off just going to the shop near the existing non-player city..... Player cities will be really popular at first, but I suspect (as they plan on being implemented) that most of them will die off within a couple months...
The benefits do not outweigh the expense...
TroThorns wrote:
The benefits do not outweigh the expense...
Words of wisdom i hope the devs think about..
There's a lot of love coming down the pike for merchants in the same patch as player cities: as a merchant, it is a very confusing time. In addition to the player city issue, they are also introducing tents ... these are going to have a lot more flexibility in where they can be placed (including in places you couldn't put a house.) Couple that with the fixes to the merchant tree, and it is actually a good time to be a merchant.
I have shops on three planets and am getting ready to add a fourth. On several of those worlds, the questions about player cities are one of confederation: there aren't that many people living on Dantooine or Lok, cooperating with your neighbors becomes more important. In another of those worlds, I might just get involved in helping to start a player city. In the new world I'm adding (Corellia) I have absolutely no interest in being part of a player city (so am watching to see if tents provide the answer -- I might be able to deal with a sales tax without a property tax, for example, on merchant tent stalls.)
The bigger issue for me is how to stay a part of so many forming communities, and deciding where I want my citizenship to lay. But at least for merchants on adventure worlds (what few of us there are), there are tremendous advantages to having your shop be a part of a player city (from knowing who your neighbor/customers are to nests no longer spawning on your doorstep to the specialities they provide.