Politician Archive

sigh...I AM logged in Stop telling me I am not!

Message Edited by Merakesh on 04-20-2004 11:08 AM

well I am the offical unofficial Governor of Lok.

It started out as a role play move, but has turned into 5 cities on lok combining efforts and emails a day from other imperial cities needing help or setting up trade agreements. seems i got into a role to big for me, but it is a lot of fun. The rebel hate it.

some interesting reads.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Flurry&message.id=76103

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Flurry&message.id=76573

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Flurry&message.id=81654

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Flurry&message.id=94875

With Mayors being re-elected by default, would the provincial representative really be representative of the citizenry of any province or planet? Now that people have learned how much work being a mayor is, few are choosing to take it up asa profession. We are left with professional politicians/mayors that are not so much elected, but defaulted into a leadership position.

I for one, would like to see more talking between the mayors on each planet and in the galaxy. Even though I would likely be tossing spit balls at the imerial mayors across from me at the table <smile>. I dont think I would like to see any more elected officials pulled out of the player-base, as I seriously doubt that those persons would be failry elected every time. Apathy towards the political process definately exists in the city's. I can only imagine how apathetic people would be towards a planetery elected body such as that offered by a Senate. A simple conferance of mayors would suffice for my current needs, though I suppose that there may be a future need for some kind of political body that encompasses a planet.

Also, I REALLY dont like the the idea of a planetary govenor dictating policy to the cities of any particular planet. I didnt elect one and seriously think that such a position would cause a lot of problems. I know there are some great roleplaying possibilities for Govenors and the like, but I dont easily see how it would enhance the gaming environment for the total player base of any one planet.

Cheers!

Fair enough... participation shouldn't be mandatory then?

Besides potentially sharing city specializations, and maybe getting another for theProvince as a whole, what other in-game abilities would a governor have, and would there be provincial taxes to the cities involved? How would those two be off-set and balanced?

The intent of this is to be simple and easy for implementation. This idea is a boiled down version of the planetary idea that I have read on these boards, you know the massive and in-depth post that will most likely never be implemented due to the complex issues involved with it? We aren't going to get a massive overhaul or anything coming close to planetary senates/governors, etc. any time in the near future. This idea is simple...you have cities whose mayors use a terminal to request an "alliance" of sorts. The mayor of the city getting the request must accept and then do the same in the other mayor's city. This in turn creates a "province" or a layer over the cities current boundaries. In order not to have problems inside that provincial area with players who do not wish to be in either city's control, the city boundaries still define effects that are granted by the provincial role. If the player chooses to be in the province, he can gain access to it by requesting that from the governor, in a similar fashion that mayors grant residence in the city. Bonuses are implemented within each city's boundaries. Bases may have similar options to join the province with acceptance from the mayors/governor to gain defensive bonuses. I can see an exploit there when it comes to neutral cities banding with aligned cities, so that is what I am working on here.

As for player apathy toward the profession, I would think if there were more things for us to do, the profession itself would be a bit more enticing. Lets say governors had to have master politician. Anyone with that is someone that actually plays the profession more likely. Maybe governors can place provincial structures - something along the lines of larger statues, more detailed fountains and lighting, etc. outside city limits to show the province's strengths and range of control over the lands.

I wasn't going to go the route of taxes in this plan. For argument's sake, lets leave those out for now and allow taxing to be a city thing. Or develop a provincial tax on players outside the city limits who wish to join the province and gain bonuses of some sort. Ideas on this?

Merakesh

Leaving taxes out entirely would be ideal, and would make the whole concept easier to swallow.

As far as involving players who are not a member of the cities involved, or not involving players who are a part of one of the provincial cities that could get dicey, I imagine. Not that I am saying this isn't a good idea, just that it may be difficult and less likely to be implemented... of course, we don't know for sure.

Ideally, a correspondent on these boards could ask questions relating to which concepts are more or less realistic and then inform the players of the profession accordingly in order to assist getting more requests fulfilled in a timely manner.

Also, balance seems to be something the devs are usually concerned with, and would want to address in an addition like this. What would be the draw-backs of this addition if not taxation, and how to limit and control the placement of provincial structures if not to the city limits of the cities involved? Also, would these structures bear a city-style maintenance burden on the province itself, and if so how would that be distributed to the persons taking advantage of these additions if not by taxes...

I just want to be clear on where you're coming from on this in order to further be able to discuss it more meaningfully.

Pay based upon city numbers. If you are in the city, you are automatically involved in the province. Placing structures in the province would be no more unwieldy than placing factories. You drive into a province, you get a message stating "you have entered Wielders Province (Fortress)." If you happen to have a house in the province, you may elect to become a part of the province and pay the provincial taxes, upon governor's approval (just as city does with mayor's approval). In the province, you receive only the provincial bonuses - whatever we come up with. This gives citizen's the incentive to stay in cities, or to move to them to gain the additional bonuses there. It is a very simple addition, basically overlaying our current cities with a boiled down city layer offering an additional bonus, and linking bonuses within cities in the province.

Merakesh