Politician Archive

Imperialist Party Paper #1: Incentive for Players to join Player Cities:
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This is part 1 in a series of posts where I would like to throw out some ideas to improve the situation for Player Cities in SWG. [My goal is to post, at a minimum, every Saturday until my core platform has been explained]. I would like very much to get feedback and ideas from the Politician Community--not only on whether they like my ideas or not, but also any ideas you all have and how any changes might be accomplished.

The home post of this series can be found HERE.

In this post, I'd like to discuss some ideas on what to do about the "emptiness" of player cities. What I mean by that is the odd paradox of possession of/citizenship within a player city as a sought-after thing, while at the same time, cities just aren't the typical places for players to congregate.

There have been many suggestions already, but I'd like to offer mine and then comment on existing ideas as they affect mine.

As new and undoubtedly better-than-my ideas are brought up, I'll update.



1. Lowered Maintenance Costs on Player Buildings and Vendors Within City Limits:
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Obviously, the more people within a city, the less empty it is likely to be. The solution is to offer a "carrot" in the form of reduced maintenance costs within a city. While the game has a built-in mechanic to reduce maintenance costs based in a building's proximity to other buildings, this can often be negligible.

The idea to reduce city maintenance has arisen before. When it has, it is usually coupled with a suggested NERF. Namely, that while city maintenance costs should be reduced to encourage people to settle within a city, maintenance costs outside a city should be NERFED with an increase to deter laying buildings outside of a city's limits.

Aside from hating NERFS in general, I think such a NERF here would be both unfair and stupid. Unfair in that it's a penalty on those who can currently/should still be able to live wherever they want without coercion. Stupid in that it fails to address the key issue in maintenance costs: PROPERTY TAXES.

PROPERTY TAXES increase the maintenance of a building beyond the norms. While I 100% believe this is a good, useful, fair, and proper mechanism for generating city monies, it increases the maintenance cost. However, by reducing maintenance costs within city limits, this PROPERTY TAX can not only be offset, but made a null point if the maintenance is reduced enough to make it CHEAPER EVEN WITH THE TAX.

Decreasing maintenance costs within cities will be fair to everyone. Current non-city dwellers would not grossly and unfairly be penalized as they would with a NERF, City-dwellers would get an ACTUAL bonus for being in a city, and Mayors would collect more monies than ever before.

I also advise in favor of reducing vendor fees for CITIZENS with vendors in city limits under the same reasoning. By reducing the cost of vendor upkeep, cities can charge more sales tax, existing non-city vendors are not penalized, and city-merchants pay less.



2. Cantinas and Medical Centers must be able to advertise when an entertainer/healer is inside:
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One of the key reasons for NPC cities to be so full and Player Cities to be so empty is buffs. As it stands, players need buffs. While I do not support an arbitrary or capricious NERF to buffs, the need for them drives people away from player cities. Either players do not wish to travel thousands of kilometers to see if, POSSIBLY, one or another buffer is there to help them; or, Entertainer and Medical buffers do not wish to wait around for hours to see if someone will check to see if they are there. As such, everyone congregates to the NPC cities.

Obviously, traveling is not the BIG issue. MANY (if not most) players get buffed in Theed/Corellia and then go to Lok, Dantooine, Endor, Dathomir, etc. to hunt. I believe a core issue to be the fact that there is no mechanism for people to know whether there are buffers in a town.

There must be an EASIER mechanism for travelers to see information about a city [see # 6 below], particularly the presence of buffers. Until this is done, it will ALWAYS be a crap shoot as to whether BOTH buffs can be attained in a city. I believe that once this can be adequately advertised, cities will have designated buffers (as many do now for guild mates, etc.). | While I recognize that the planetary map gives details as to the presence of a medic or entertainer, I think there is a betetr place to put this than the planetary map [see # 6 below].



3. Player City Buff "buffs":
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Continuing on the theme of buffs, cities should have a bonus to buffs to encourage both the presence of buffers and the prefer-ability of city vs. non-city buffs. I envision such bonuses to either be:

a) an increase in the stats of the buff,
b) an increase in the duration of the buff, or
c) both.

I do not know whether there should be a standard city increase to buffs (small), a specialization (big), or both (stack). Or, perhaps the buff increase should come from the city-only buildings of the Medical Center and Cantina. This would be done by furniture that's bonus would ONLY work in a Cantina or Medical Center. Much like crafting stations increase the likelihood of success, so too would a "BOOM BOX" or "BACTA TANK" [or whatever] affect the buffs within the Cantina/Medical Center they reside.



4. Player City-specific Services:
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Presently, many people go to NPC cities due to the simple fact that they offer something no Player City ever could: A Starport. While I agree that Player Cities should never host starports (particularly since JTL, where ships are hangared in starports) the fact is, right, wrong, or indifferent, that NPC cities thus have a leg up.

The only real way to counteract this is to create services specific to cities--specifically travel ones, but others as well.

While I do not know the extent to which the SWG engine could accommodate many ideas people have, I have one idea that I seriously believe could work:

Shuttle-taxis.

Shuttle-taxis, unlike starports or shuttle ports, would take individuals to a WAYPOINT on a map instead of just another city.

Now, yes, this would have to be limited--
-----a) with no fly zones: A Shuttle-taxi driver would understand it to be suicide to fly near Imp or Rebel bases or many other POIs (too dangerous!),
-----b) to the same planet/planets that allow player cities (so no taxiing on Endor, Dathomir, you get the idea), and
-----c) by a "This is as close as I can get" mechanism--thereby setting down at a "quiet" spot as near to the inputted waypoint as possible when a waypoint has a spawn or enemies nearby [so a player isn't jacked while loading].

This would not only make cities more effective in traveling, it would make cities desirable to use for travel needs.



5. City Bonuses to Experience:
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This is an idea that has been thrown around so I would like to address it. I think that if members of a city are given a bonus to experience while they grind out and about the SWG galaxy, it should not be as much as the faction bonus BUT IT SHOULD STACK WITH IT. I also think it should only apply to the ground game [in essense, to every profession except pilots and politician--sorry guys, but having that apply to us politicians is just silly if you think about it].

Obviously, the experience bonus should depend on the city size. However, to stop Curascant syndrome [One mega-city] with everyone wanting the end-all, be-all bonus, I think the experience bonus should be a secondary specialization--by which I mean a

mayor should choose one of three experience bonus categories:

1. Melee (Combat),
2. Ranged (Combat), or
3. Commercial (Crafting and Services),

to encourage diversity and augment existing specializations.

FINALLY, I think this bonus SHOULD BE LINKED TO VOTING. I.E. if you haven't voted in a given cycle, you don't get the bonus for THAT cycle. Once you vote, you get the bonus until the next election. [What can I say? Us Politicians just don't care about the needs of non-voters (people who, by definition, don't care). heh heh.]

[NOTE: *YES*, I realize a JEDI wanting the bonus may be forced to go vote, but IMHO 1. This is a leg-up for them anyway--so it's worth the risk, and 2. BH's may find them easier by waiting for them to vote, but if you look at the original post HERE, you can guess what my solution to zealous NON-CITZEN BH's in city limits would be.].



6. Tourism Board:
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Save for #1, ALL OF THE PRIOR IMROVEMENTS *HINGE* on whether players are able to tell whether they can get them in one city or another--WITHOUT the travel time of going there and checking each one EVERY TIME THEY NEED SOMETHING. As travel time in shuttle and starports have been reduced, so to must the time be cut from these tedious searches.

Like my old man always says, I suggest that players be allowed to "let their fingers do the walking."

I propose that, whenever a city is registered to appear on the planetary map, that an information tab be placed next to the name on the planetary/shuttle/starport map.

Overall, I think THE NUMBER and THE RANK of the cities should appear in the maps.

As for individual city information, the mayor should have total control over:

a) whether ANY info is put in the city tab at all, and
b) EACH ITEM ON THE TAB--so a mayor can include info or leave it blank.

I think this would also help people decide what cities they wish to be a part of without the hassle of traveling and inspecting the towns. IMHO, picking a city to live in IN-GAME should NOT be as hard as picking a house IRL.

Finally, I think the tab should include the following info [again, with the mayoral option of leaving any of them blank]:

1. City Size (# of citizens),
2. City Rank,
3. Improvements [LIST WITH CHECKS NEXT TO THEM--EACH ITEM MAY BE LEFT BLANK:: Cantina, Medical Center, etc.],
4. Present status of buffers in improvements [see # 2],
5. Trainers [Number, not type--sorry but that's too much in one little tab],
6. Vendors [Number of REGISTERED vendors, and not type--sorry but that's too much in one little tab], and
7. Affiliation [When I post my ideas on city faction affiliation, I'll put a link here].



7. New CITY-ONLY Player Buildings:
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This is probably the easiest [after #1] for the developers to do. We already have Cantinas, Med Centers, and decorations that have the "only in a city" restriction for laying out on a planet. The difference here is that these would be buildings useful to/placeable by any player.

I think, however, that one should only be allowed to lay such a building if one is a citizen of that city. That is just my opinion though. Some mayors may WELCOME the extra tax monies.

Offhand, I can think of a couple of examples of such buildings:

One would be a 1-lot storage depot. Sure, the Devs have upped storage limits, but seriously: IRL we have places like Uncle Bob's Self Storage. Why not have a 1-lot building that can hold double the space?

I mean, the devs, as I said, just got done over doubling the space provided per lot. The only limit is that a city would be needed to maintain and provide the energy/infrastructure/whatever to support it.

Another would be advanced factories--NOT TO NERF EXISTING ONES. Making even better, faster, more energy efficient factories that can operate only by being in a player city would be a big incentive for crafters to go to a city.

One more may be a recycler factory--YES, the core would still be the looted craftables, but those would be fed into a deed ala the 'NO DECAY KITS' from the veteran rewards.

Any other/better ideas?



8. New Craftables and bonuses with a "city rank requirement":
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While I understand city specializations can reduce the chance of failure, I suggest taking this a step further. Why not add new--NOT NERF EXISTING--craftables that depend on the rank of a city?

For example, how about an alternate formula to Stim B's--Stim Beta, that, instead of interplanetary ingredients, required a rank 3 city instead? Or maybe a special armor component to increase existing armor that can only be made in a rank 5 town?

Just a thought.

[NOTE: In another post, I will address faction affiliation. This is ESPECIALLY important given the new GCW CHANGES. IMHO, a ranked, faction aligned city should be able to produce a "secondary" type of faction armor. For example, an Imperial Rank 5 city could make Curascant Police armor (that red armor from Shadows of the Empire). It's Imperial-esque without being overt--so maybe only Imps can craft and wear it, but no need to be overt?]



9. New City Tax Benefits in the "Galaxy-Wide" Vendor System:
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Like *4 DAYS* after I go and make this post, the Devs announce a GALAXY WIDE VENDOR SEARCH. However, in his POST, CoretDevin, Cosno, and MDEUK came up with a good idea to make what could be a negative into a positive:

a) Charge money to deliver things automatically: a fee ranging from 5% to 20%, i.e. the cost of transporting it--just like shuttles move people, a Galactic FEDEX would deliver your items directly to you!

b) City Delivery Service: Just like with shuttleports, (money to Galactic Travel Comission and city) the money cost from the move can go to the generic planetary delivery service and the city delivery service center [i.e. into the city coffers]!

Now this is a win-win! Peeps don't need to travel as much if they're willing to pay, and cities make more money than ever (even if sales taxes are never fixed)!

Following the rule that if your idea is better than mine I steal it, I'm stealing this one! [LOL] Seriously, this is an excellent idea. CoretDevin, Cosno, and MDEUK are to be commended.

* * *

Ah well. That's about it. Any other thoughts? Feel free to suggest something more/better, but PLEASE--SERIOUSLY--if you honestly think the devs won't go for an idea, try to think of an alternative. The goal of these posts is to offer solutions, not just present problems.

Again, the home post of this series can be found HERE.

Message Edited by VirindiStalker on 02-18-2005 08:35 AM

Before I start, awesome input.

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DaQuilla wrote:
#1: For me it doesn't really make sense to have lesser maintenance in cities ... especially since cities already give citizens a bonus (specialisation) they should pay for it in some way. I would like to see other bonuses though. Somebody already proposed an increase in the item limit for houses in a city. This would be something that players would really want and would pay for too.

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I dunno about changing items in houses by their presence in a city [good idea, but like I said a coupla times, I have no clue on the limits of the SWG engine]. That's why I suggest a special "storage"-city only building. But you're right, there's obviously other things that can be done on top of/besides reduced maintenance if that won't work, and storage is a big deal for many peeps.

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DaQuilla wrote:
#2: There already is a /register skill in the game that you can use as entertainer/medic - you can see if a cantina or med center is occupied in the planetary map - just don't know if anybody uses this function.

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Yeah, but as your comment in #6 indicates, this information IS NOT available from shuttleport or starport screens. I dunno about you, but trying to flip from screen-to-screen is a LOAD of extra work, vs. highlight the city on the travel screen and see "Oh, med and ents there!"

I mean, I see what you're saying that it's there in "a" form, but I think it'd be easier on the travel screen--and the fact it's on the planetary map only tells me it wouldn't be a big deal to do it in the travel screen as well. Like you hint in #6 there is WAY MORE USEFUL INFORMATION that should be available to us and it SHOULD be available in a more user-friendly and less time-consuming way.

I mean, let's be honest: the average person, upon learning how to "check" for buffers in player cities, would rather run around Coronet and Theed for HOURS than scour the player cities. Ergo why I feel we need a more ready source of information.

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DaQuilla wrote:
#3: I'm not sure if it really wors that way, but I've read a thread that states the Entertainment District Specialisation enhances buffs...

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I dunno if it works that way either, but I think there should actually be a small little something in addition to that, that would stack with any such specialization. If that unbalances that too much, then obviously it'd be a no-no.

Also, I think this applies the principle of public craftign stations. Sure, NPC city crafting stations let you do things, but personal stations give you a big oompf. I think the same could apply with buffs.

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DaQuilla wrote:
#5: Don't really understand where you would get the XP bonus? Would you only get it in the city with this specialisation? Because it's hard to find MOBs in a city that give you combat XP.

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Just like members in the winning faction in the GCW get a bonus to their experience, so too would members of a city get a bonus to experience under my plan. This bonus, like the GCW bonus, would apply no matter where you were.

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DaQuilla wrote:
#6: A Board with informations on cities would really be helpfull. This could also give information about how many rank 4 cities the planet can still hold or if the city limit on the planet is already reached.

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Yeah, hadn't thought of that. That should be on a "planetary" overall tab or something so people don't need to get a pencil and paper to figure out how many cities of what rank there are. That would obviously help. Great idea.

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DaQuilla wrote:
#8: I like the aspect of different rank cities having different bonuses that aren't simply better than those of lesser ranks but that all give their own advantage to a player so you don't just want to visit rank 5 cities but also stop by in a village to do special things (like craft certain items - get certain XP - special missions etc) ... Diversity is the key

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EXACTLY! A Rock, paper, scissors thing, where there is no end-all, be-all city! The idea would be to have different bonuses and encourage different specialization. That'd avoid "Curascant syndrome" nicely.

I like your idea of a rank-specific bonuses though. Just like IRL, big and large cities have plusses and drawbacks. I honestly have no clue what bonuses different city ranks could offer though, especially since you put in doubt some of my other bonuses [LOL].

This is great though: Anyone, seriously, feel free to chime in.