Politician Archive
Thread: Any Advice on how to attract people to a brand new city?
As a non-architect/politcian I'll say the main thing that turns me away from a city is they are gost towns or theme does not mach what I'm looking for. With that in mind I would recommend having set times for the city to be active, let people you want to attract known that. and Personally I would love a trandoshan only city on Starsider, so you may try coming up witha theme to attack players.
Good Luck
2. active playerbase in cantina healing and entertaining
3. large business area with plenty of crafters selling their wares
4. multi-guild city with people having a choice of how they want to continue their path
5. low taxes
Korrack wrote:
hints to attract people:
1. large population so new people aren't wandering around looking for someone to talk to
2. active playerbase in cantina healing and entertaining
3. large business area with plenty of crafters selling their wares
4. multi-guild city with people having a choice of how they want to continue their path
5. low taxes
6. nicely laid out city so things are asy to find
7. all of the bells and whistles such as cantina, hospital, bank, shuttle
Honestly, attracting people to a level I city is very difficult. With the city caps, people want to live in a city that will advance to city or metropolis level. Starting a city now will end in a city that only goes to level 3?
I wish you good luck. By my original suggestion stands, if you want to attract people to just make a level I city with 10 people, you are better off knowing them welland making a guild before you place city hall. It would suck to have your city of 10, made up of your friends and say 4 people you barely knew, then to have one of the people pick up their house and leave you with 9. Next week, your city is gone.
Thanks these are all good ideas, but obviously some are for larger cities.But let me be clear this city is small now but we wish to turn it into a metropolis as quickly as possible.I realize we are going to be competing again the bigger cities but i like a good challenge. So I'm looking for ideas that that will help us turn this rank 1 city into a rank 5. Using the model you suggest is probably a really good idea once we get going.
Sir_Voor wrote:
As a non-architect/politcian I'll say the main thing that turns me away from a city is they are gost towns or theme does not mach what I'm looking for. With that in mind I would recommend having set times for the city to be active, let people you want to attract known that. and Personally I would love a trandoshan only city on Starsider, so you may try coming up witha theme to attack players.
Good Luck
/agree Ghost towns suck!
I'll tell you another thing that annoys me, and I see this in large cities all the time; empty or near empty vendors. Nothings bugs me more then dragging my butt out to a big metropolis to shop the vendors and end up walking away with nothing becuase the vendors are empty or theyjust have left over junk. makes me wonder why the city even exists?
So I believe two main points I can see from both your post and korracks post is one, create times (preferably peak server hours) when the city will be occupied and two, cater to as large an audience as possible by not restricting membership to a particular faction or subgroup/race ETC.
OK, so I have another question for you guys. How do you promote?
For instance, I promoted both in game and out of game and found in game to be the most effective but I was wondering what suggestions you have on promoting a town or guild?
Korrack wrote:
Small 10 person towns are usually comprised of friends or guildmates instead of just anyone. When you are that small and depending on votes and the people to be active, it's usually a good idea to know the people in your city well, instead of trying to get people to move there just so you can have 10.
/agree good advice...
and i do have several friends/game buds helping but I wanted to know if anyone had any ideas on attracting more people.
Hey guys something that has been working for me is to go to the newbie cities and find a brand new pc... then offer them 50k per month to stay decalred in their city....
They jump all over that , and while i'm at it i see if they want to rent their unused lots for a while as well... We are having problems with faction opposition placeing houses just outside the city limit to try to gain control of the city after the update.. so we need to place "space savers" eg: harvesters in a ring around the city to protect future advancement and spots in the city.....
sauren gargoise, scylla server
sauren1 wrote:
Hey guys something that has been working for me is to go to the newbie cities and find a brand new pc... then offer them 50k per month to stay decalred in their city....
They jump all over that , and while i'm at it i see if they want to rent their unused lots for a while as well... We are having problems with faction opposition placeing houses just outside the city limit to try to gain control of the city after the update.. so we need to place "space savers" eg: harvesters in a ring around the city to protect future advancement and spots in the city.....
sauren gargoise, scylla server
"... limits are as follows (The first number is the total cap. The second is how many can be rank 3 or above. The third is how many can grow to rank 4 or above.):
Corellia: 20, 15, 10
Dantooine: 50, 30, 20
Lok: 50, 30, 20
Naboo: 20, 15, 10
Rori: 50, 30, 20
Talus: 50, 30, 20
Tatooine: 20, 15, 10"
I'll throw in a few words here since I think some of the excellent advice above is more geared toward the idea that you already have a good sized population and want to generate additional residents. It sounds more like you and about 9 or so other people are just starting out a city together, so I'll gear what I have to say towards that starting point.
1) Make sure everyone you are starting out with understands that they will need to take an active part in the growth of the city. They will need to help you find new residents, and they should know that they will be on the look out for potential residents at all times.
2) Select a starting planet with room for growth. Unless you are satisfied with the idea of ceasing to expand at a rank 3 township (that is one rank below having a shuttle port), I would suggest you strongly consider Rori, Talus, Lok, and Dantooine as potential locations for your new city. There is a maximum of ten rank four and five cities on a planet, and to the best of my knowledge all of the 'core' planets (Corellia, Naboo, and Tatooine) already have maxed out on every server.
3) Remember newbies are your friends. Help them, answer their questions, shoot some silly little creatures with them, etc. If you like that person, believe that they really enjoy playing, and would not mind having them as a neighbor, then ask them to come and join you in your city. Aside from just being a nice thing to do, you will invariably create dedicated citizens who will frequently ask you what they can do to help the city out.
4) Expect setbacks and do not dwell on them. Every city loses citizens, and that loss is accutely painful when you are small. Don't get upset. As you already said, you want people who want to be there. If someone wants to leave, gracefully wish them well.
5) Hold weekly or bi-weekly group events. To be more specific, invite your citizens out on a hunt to an adventure planet once a week, or maybe to a theme park to do quests as a group, or maybe travelling across a different planet each week to collect POI badges. Since as a mayor you are a busy person, delegate the organization and leadership of these outings to a couple of trusted residents. PvP dueling competitions heldin front ofthe city hall are also popular - just charge 5k or so to register, and have an elimination style competition, and divide the registration money between the top three duelists (or even call it a fund raiser and sock half of it away in the city treasury:smileywink
. To attract more residents during these events, post on your server's forums about it no less than a week in advance.
6) Encourage the artisan population of your town to set up vendors and stock them with popular consumables. Even if your residents are not high level crafters there are things that everyone needs and uses - keep those items stocked! Factory crates of nearly any consumable are very popular and can generate traffic to your town. A few good examples of simple yet frequently purchased consumables are Stim-Bs, ranged and melee powerups (too many folks forget the melee ones - show the Brawlers of your server some love and keep those around as well), droid batteries, basic camp kits (a *great* seller in crates!), fiberplast panels, etc. etc. etc. If you use a lot of something yourself, that is a good item to suggest your local crafters keep in stock and both loose and in crates.
7) Advertise in the forums here and at every SWG fan site about the assets your city has to offer. Are you close to a POI? Advertise your city as a great place to meet and supply up before groups head there. Do you have a crafter with an exceptional product? Let people know in the forums. Do you get great missions from the terminals you just set up? Advertise it to your server population.
That's is a place to start for you, anyway. I could go on and on but I will stop here. I wish you good luck in your endeavor to become a metropolis. And just so I can be the first, "when are we getting a shuttle port mister mayor?" 
LOL!
- Acroyear
HiroBlack wrote:
I'll throw in a few words here since I think some of the excellent advice above is more geared toward the idea that you already have a good sized population and want to generate additional residents. It sounds more like you and about 9 or so other people are just starting out a city together, so I'll gear what I have to say towards that starting point.
1) Make sure everyone you are starting out with understands that they will need to take an active part in the growth of the city. They will need to help you find new residents, and they should know that they will be on the look out for potential residents at all times.
2) Select a starting planet with room for growth. Unless you are satisfied with the idea of ceasing to expand at a rank 3 township (that is one rank below having a shuttle port), I would suggest you strongly consider Rori, Talus, Lok, and Dantooine as potential locations for your new city. There is a maximum of ten rank four and five cities on a planet, and to the best of my knowledge all of the 'core' planets (Corellia, Naboo, and Tatooine) already have maxed out on every server.
3) Remember newbies are your friends. Help them, answer their questions, shoot some silly little creatures with them, etc. If you like that person, believe that they really enjoy playing, and would not mind having them as a neighbor, then ask them to come and join you in your city. Aside from just being a nice thing to do, you will invariably create dedicated citizens who will frequently ask you what they can do to help the city out.
4) Expect setbacks and do not dwell on them. Every city loses citizens, and that loss is accutely painful when you are small. Don't get upset. As you already said, you want people who want to be there. If someone wants to leave, gracefully wish them well.
5) Hold weekly or bi-weekly group events. To be more specific, invite your citizens out on a hunt to an adventure planet once a week, or maybe to a theme park to do quests as a group, or maybe travelling across a different planet each week to collect POI badges. Since as a mayor you are a busy person, delegate the organization and leadership of these outings to a couple of trusted residents. PvP dueling competitions heldin front ofthe city hall are also popular - just charge 5k or so to register, and have an elimination style competition, and divide the registration money between the top three duelists (or even call it a fund raiser and sock half of it away in the city treasury:smileywink
6) Encourage the artisan population of your town to set up vendors and stock them with popular consumables. Even if your residents are not high level crafters there are things that everyone needs and uses - keep those items stocked! Factory crates of nearly any consumable are very popular and can generate traffic to your town. A few good examples of simple yet frequently purchased consumables are Stim-Bs, ranged and melee powerups (too many folks forget the melee ones - show the Brawlers of your server some love and keep those around as well), droid batteries, basic camp kits (a *great* seller in crates!), fiberplast panels, etc. etc. etc. If you use a lot of something yourself, that is a good item to suggest your local crafters keep in stock and both loose and in crates.
7) Advertise in the forums here and at every SWG fan site about the assets your city has to offer. Are you close to a POI? Advertise your city as a great place to meet and supply up before groups head there. Do you have a crafter with an exceptional product? Let people know in the forums. Do you get great missions from the terminals you just set up? Advertise it to your server population.
That's is a place to start for you, anyway. I could go on and on but I will stop here. I wish you good luck in your endeavor to become a metropolis. And just so I can be the first, "when are we getting a shuttle port mister mayor?"
- Acroyear
Thanks HiroBlack, these are all excellent ideas. In fact, I have and i am incorporating many of yours and korrack's ideas into my city plan. The town of Twin Lakes has a webite know at http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=12646&TabID=105179. Feel free to take a look and provide feed back or join if you like
Omos