Politician Archive
Thread: Skill Points for Politician
I dont know about all the other politicians out there, but I think that the politician skill points should be lowered. I love being a city mayor, but after answering 20 emails and buying things for the city, there is little reward. I'm not saying that I dont have fun, because I do, but there isn't anything special for me to do. I make 0 dollars, am baraged with emails, and have to stay in the city 75% of the time for city issues. And I get nothing out of it. There is no bonus to Politicians, we are just pawns to other players. We build things for them, and basically for free. Once i place a statue or terminal, I am done with my job, and then i just sit on all my experience, with nothing to do.
For all those who might be mad at me, I apologize. I love being a mayor, and have had to sacrafice to get to it. But even real life politicians get paid, and are brought forth from the community with pre-existing skills. Giving up Doctor for Politician... Real politicians remain both, because they are serving the community. Theoretically "temporarily." I think any person, reguardless of skill points, should be able to run for public office in cities. You are serving a community, not yourself. Why should we have to use our skill points for it? We are doing it for others, not ourselves.
I think the skill points necessary for it should be lower, or not even there. Skill points are used for individual use, yet as politician, everyone benefits. I love politician, but it limits the amount I can interact with others outside of the city because of lack of skill points.
Mayor ofA Fine City on Tatooine
what some people are doing if they are lucky enough to be able to do this is:
either with their or another persons second acount they create a dud character that is made just to master politition. They are just puppets like the royal family in europe. You make all the decisions but dont need to disband from all of your SP's
I finaly convinced my wallet to buy me a second account for christmas due to the limitations my Master Politician now has (his lots are also used to take the 5 lot expensive cantina and the theater).
Don't get me wrong, I love being Mayor and helping my citzens (most of the time, if they don't ask the same questions again and again I already posted on our internal boards time after tiem 
) and to guide the community I am part in since over a year, but no other profession is so restricts the playing character this much while at the same time not giving the player him/herself anything of value for their ingame expierience.
You could always take money out of the city treasury if you feel like you need to be compensated for your time. You could just have a deal with your citizens that you'll take out X amount of credits everyweek since you have no income.
If this doesnt work out for you, there are always bribes....8)
The utility to cost ratio is laughably low.
The gameplay to cost ratio is laughably low.
I'm sure the devs have gotten the point. Look to the end of a three month development cycle on this one, especially with no feedback but teasers from TH, in some unrelated thread: "Hey Politicians, I also wanted to say some exciting changes are in store for you!"
haha.
RbT
/agree 
77 points for this?
Ask my guildmates or clients who have to wait for backorders (master Tailor) for weeks on end becauseISpend 99.9% of my time arranging buildings, doing Meyoral paperwork, keeping up with city accounting and fund raising (werun on donations and city is almost 525k per week), in tell hell, answering emails, in diplomatic relations with other mayors, cleaning the spam of dozens of emails from placing structures and rearranging city as it expands and the citizens who place and remove and replace harvetsors constantly... I rarely get to leave the city. I haven't been on a guild hunt or off planet in over a month. Everyone else is still enjoying their game. I really believe the only way I can ever enjoy my game again is to get an alt account and pass the mayor proffession to it.
Ido enjoy the "thought" of being a mayor... the title... the city designer... the accomplishments... providing a betterenviroment for my guild members to enjoy their game...but oncewe finish placing all the decor and civic buildings? what dowe get forour stress and time involved in this proffesion?
Can't take on a second master like I wanted too... 77 SP locked up
A shame we have to pay for another copy of the game and more monthly subscription for a second account to dummy as mayor. That just seems unethical doesn't it?
*sigh*
Mayor is a unique position...just what exactly did folk think they would be doing other than spending a good deal of time hanging out in the city, dealing with requests from the citizens and the like?
Seriously...if you want to spend most of your game time taking down big game on adventture planets, Mayor isn't the job for you. It's not just another parallel job for guild leaders to take to swell the old ego.
Could we use some more skills? Sure. But keep in mind, we have the power to do some pretty amazing world shaping things already - placing trainers, terminals and other such things that do impact people and their gaming experience. There are many people who would love their profession to be as useful as ours. 
I have a city close to 70 residents. I get maybe 1 email a day and place a house 2 or 3 times a week. What else is there to do? I hear poeple saying that it takes 70% of their gameplay. I'm just wondering what they are doing?
ps.I got tierd of changing out trainers soi worked out a deal with another city to cover the trainersI don't have. This works out nice and it saves the city cash. I will place a trainer but only for a fee now.
Both Plotiko and Gribble make good points here, even though those positions appear to be at odds. The features of Politician do seem unbalanced against the rewards of being a Politician (the reward being you get to be the Politician again). However, we do get some of the most powerful game shaping features of any profession, even if many are viable only once.
That said merely stating the problem is not enough. What functions would everyone like to see in Politician? What features would provide enhanced gameplay on a more than once-per-advancement basis? What would motivate you to retain Master Politician?
- Acroyear
What else is there to do? I hear poeple saying that it takes 70% of their gameplay. I'm just wondering what they are doing?
I can only speak for myself on those questions, but the short answer is that I am being the Mayor. I have a township on Talus of about 50 citizens.
An example of a typical day would be logging in around 5:00pm and going through the 30 or so emails and juggle the 4 or 5 different /tells I get as I log in. The emails and tells are a mixed bag of questions about the city ('when are you going to put in a starport' being a favorite, with the macro'd answer of 'when you find me another 5 citizens so we qualify for one'), about my tailor business, and guild communiques. That usually is cleaned up in about an hour or so, with a steady stream of additional communications once every 10 minutes or so. If I have not already I check in with the architect and get the status on whatever project I have hired her to work on that week.Usually bythen I collect my email messages from residents with new resource waypoints and send out a citizens email with the latest waypoints. Also, I try to send out a general email to the citizens regarding whateverthe issues of the day are.As I am doing this I am usually performing harvester runs as my water sales heavily subsidize the city taxes. At some point during the day I try to swing through Dearic or Nashal (and a random Corellian city, time permitting) to look for potential residents. Finding a potential resident can be time consuming, particularly on Talus. About once a day someone needs zoning rights for a factory and I have to haul myself back to town if the militia are not in the area. Usually once a day there is a request for assistance from a neighboring town about an Imperial attack on their bases and I have to coordinate a response and aguard or twoto remain behind at our own base. I also get tells about what who to talk to about services (i.e. 'where can I buy furniture?' 'Are there any doctors on line, I'm banged up' etc.), and what I like to refer to as General SWG Trivia Games (getting a tell that says 'What kind of damage does a tower turret do, how is it different from a dish turret, and why do we have one of each?' being an example). The above usually keeps me busy until about 10pm when I log off.
So being Politician is, for a lot of folks, about a lot more than just placing a structure or granting rights from time to time. For many of us Mayor is not just an informal title of the profession, it is who we actually function as. We're the hub of the community.
- Acroyear
It would be nice to get something of personal benefit from being a politician. To me, the only thing that I have been able to use my skills for that I felt was mine was to place gardens. And even then, that is a one trick pony.
The worst part is having to keep the skills once you have placed the items. Basically, Fiscal 2 is useless once you place a bank and shuttleport. It's not like you can place a 2nd one or anything.
The worst part is Master, at Master you get 2 skills that basically combine 2 of your other skills into one, making them utterly useless. Why have Manufacturing center as a speciality when you can have Industrial Society instead?
I enjoy being Mayor for our city, and take a lot of pride in the position. I just find myself thinking "I sure wish that I could drop some Politician in order to learn these new combat skills"instead of having to sacrifice another class.