Politician Archive
Thread: AFK POLITICIAN should the future bot profession of choice require skillpoints?
[Note: This is reposted from the TC Forum.]
I've seen a lot of groups with grand plans for building cities, but dramatically fewer people willing to invest valuable skillpoints inpicking up thePolitician profession.
I'm afraid that the vast majority of Politicians in SWG will quickly become extra mule accounts that people buy so they don't have to change their main characters. What will be the point then? The more I think about it, I expect that the characters who are Politicians will be secondary Master Dancer/Master Musician bots who are called out of AFK status every so often to make a mayoral decision before being mothballed again to dance in the town cantina.
That thought saddens me, really, because I'm 99% sure that it's going to happen on a widespread level. Similar things already happen with Architects and other crafting professions, and the initial 500 Aprentice XP will prevent the rawest newbie characterfrom doing this, but I'm still concerned.
Should we try to stop it before it happens? Does it even matter?
Personally, I'd like to see Politicians advance in skill usingnothing more than large amounts of Apprentice XP combined with the existing vote-related XP. No skillpoints required. Just count the votes of the people and large amounts of Apprentice XP, which will require that a successful Politician communicates with large numbers of people and generally stays social in SWG.
What do the people testing this profession think of all this? Does a Politician need to be online for more than, say,more than a few minutes every day? What exactly does a Politician do that requires a lot of time? Isn'tit a bit like a Squad Leader for cities, in that people teamed up with you enjoy a lot of passive benefits?
Thanks for your input!
I don't think it's going to matter.
Let's assume the worst, and assume that the character is exactly as you are describing. Here's a few things that are going to happen:
1) Eventually he's going to start receiving less votes because people just don't see him in-game or (worse yet) in-town that much.
2) If the Mayor just logs in to do town-commerce, vote for himself, and place structures then he's not going to be involved very much in the LIFE of the town (its battles, its role-play, its events, etc.) Perhaps somebody ELSE will do that, somebody that doesn't want to "waste" their skill points on Politician, but I think that person (if they truly excel at those things) will soon discover that they may enjoy "politicking" more than they do soloing Dark Jedi with their 15 Frenzied Grauls and will be interested in surrendering for Polit skills.
Vryce Ganvi
I plan on being a Master Politician on Eclipse and I have no issue giving up the 77 skillpoints I need for it.
So what if I can't camp? I'll build a house and use it for a camp 
So what if I'm not the greatest fighter? I can do that on a different server if I wanted to.
I stink at PvP? I'll get a Faction Pet and I'll be happy.
Would I be happy if they abolished the skill points for politician or lessened them? Yes, but it really doesn't matter. I'd also rather not see hundreds of politicians running around either.
also, being an effective politician for a small town doesn't require a heck of a lot of a skill point investment. something like 30 skill points, and you get access to a no frills city services package that will be fine for any small or medium sized city.
obviously a larger city would want a dedicated politician, to benefit from the extra city enhancements.
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.
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.
So...absolutely...politician should require skill points.
I've had skill points set aside since Day-1.
Yes, some people will create these 'mule-characters', but the city residents will still know the guys primary account and will communicate with the 'mule' through the primary.
CptCox wrote:
I've had skill points set aside since Day-1.
Yes, some people will create these 'mule-characters', but the city residents will still know the guys primary account and will communicate with the 'mule' through the primary.
Right, but why bother splitting the roles up? Why not just consolidate everything and channel Apprentice XP into this as the sole way to gain new skills? Would that be objectionable to any future Politicians out there?
I also agree that the bot Politician would definitely be a PA City's bread and butter more than a general city, but I still think there would be more of these mule characters than many people imagine. Most people who have replied here have been optimistic that 'flesh and blood' politicians will be successful and that it doesn't matter, but how long will it be before bot envy kicks in? I'd feel awfully envious if I found out I was one of maybe 5% of the 'real' Politicians out there that actually expended skillpoints on my main character when everybody else managed their cities with mule accounts. Maybe that's just me, though...
Anyway, any other input on this?
Shai-Tan wrote:
Actually... the wayI look at it the Politician is the ultimate social profession. True I suppose it would be possible to just make a mule character to be your politician, but I'm planning on becoming a politician to lead my PA's town. It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun to me.
Politican could indeed be the ulitimate social profession but that comes at the expense of 77 skill points and a great deal of basically thankless dedication to the job.
In effect entertainers are already doing this and get a tangible advantage for their skill point investment that allows for the character do other things in other cities. Also the skill point investment is still useful even if you don't own your own cantina.
So while some people will find it fun tobe totaly social politican only charcaters,I don't think describes the vast majority of people who are going to become politicians. I think most people will be making serious sacrifices and will want tangible benfits from the class.
VryceGanvi wrote:
I don't think it's going to matter.
Let's assume the worst, and assume that the character is exactly as you are describing. Here's a few things that are going to happen:
1) Eventually he's going to start receiving less votes because people just don't see him in-game or (worse yet) in-town that much.
- Why would a players in a city replace a master AFK mayor with a novice roleplayed mayor? That's a huge loss for a gain of what?
- If the players in the town realised that the mayor wasanother playersmule character would that be a MOREattractive option then a played character? There is less chance of your mayor selling off politican skils for some other skill set. There is also less chance of your mayor wandering off and choosing a new group to pay with. In sort an AFK mayor would be more reliable.
- Should a mayor be forced to stay in his town so that he can be seen all the time? Does being a mayor mean no hunting, no missions, no faction play, no visits?
- The real question is will anyone care as long as the town is run well?
2) If the Mayor just logs in to do town-commerce, vote for himself, and place structures then he's not going to be involved very much in the LIFE of the town (its battles, its role-play, its events, etc.) Perhaps somebody ELSE will do that, somebody that doesn't want to "waste" their skill points on Politician, but I think that person (if they truly excel at those things) will soon discover that they may enjoy "politicking" more than they do soloing Dark Jedi with their 15 Frenzied Grauls and will be interested in surrendering for Polit skills.
- Maybe this is true but will that player still enjoy spending the 70+ skill points on an unusable profession when they get voted out of office?
- How long will they hold those skill points? Why would they hold them?
- How much politicking is really needed? Once a mayor proves that he can perform what is the real likelyhood that he would get voted out of office? Espically when trading him for an unknown commodity possible with alot less abilty which may have a seriously negative impact on your town?
Vryce Ganvi
Most likely their will be a few mulitple canidate elections when cities first come out and then month later each city will have it's mayor which will be seldom to change except on a fewoccasions of real incompetance, the player is leaving or a city takeover.
ANY city takeover will require either alot of stupid players OR a truely dedicated effort. Again i point out why would anyone trade thier master politcian for a novice politican when the cost to themselves would be so great?
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.