PlaneShift

Gameplay => Wish list => Topic started by: Axioma on May 18, 2003, 10:02:47 am

Title: Politics
Post by: Axioma on May 18, 2003, 10:02:47 am
I took this from Wormtail_\'s post in the cultures topic. I think it was getting a little off-topic in cultures, but it had some realy good ideas.
             
quote:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, it would be interesting to have player mayors in-game, but there are some problems. For one, if the game has this idea implemented into it, then when it starts, who will serve as the mayor? I would say NPC mayors would run for a time until a player wants to take over, but there are some problems with that. Namely, abuse of power and unworthiness. Also, I don\'t think that administrators should reward mayors. I think that the better mayors can have more abilities than \'bad\' ones as the people of the place like the mayor. As for really bad mayors, we can overthrow them. Rebellion! Oh yeah, and another problem would be how long a mayor is a mayor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

I think it would be real cool to start the game with the NPC mayors, and when the game is runing for let\'s say 2 months, we could have elections.

Then every 2 months a new mayor would be elected. And would there have to be a restriction on how many times you could become a mayor ?

It would be great. Like in real life, huge boards would be build, showing slogans of the persons who are running for mayor. There could be some real propaganda.

This would mean that in every town where there is an election there has to be someone that checks the propaganda slogans before they can be put on those boards, so that no unwanted messages or texts get on things the entire PS world can see.

Well, that\'s it for now. PS promised real-life economics and politics. Well i think we should make that come true, because it\'s a very interesting thin to deal with in a game.

Oh, I don\'t know if this has been discussed already, if anyone has any comments, or ideas, post here ^_^
Title:
Post by: hook on May 18, 2003, 12:17:24 pm
yea, i think that at some point it would be needed to have a mayor and guards ...the mayor would have to be elected. the simplest way would be an online poll, but i\'m for something INSIDE PS ...but that\'d be harder to implement (and even think of!) ...the guards would probably be set up by the devs/gods and by the mayor - they would have to have a consensus on every soon-to-be-guard

the guards would need to be paid and have superior items and \"experience\" to be able to make peace
about what the mayor could do i\'ve no idea yet ...but it would HAVE to be said

...just my 2 rubies
Title:
Post by: beza1e1 on May 18, 2003, 02:48:30 pm
I think there should be a citizen mechanism, like the guild system now. You can become citizen of a city, otherwise you can\'t take part in elections. (you can only elect the US president if you are a US citizen)
The mayors tasks?
- Employ guards (chance to get money and items for doing a mostly boring job)
- Employ a librarian (http://www.planeshift3d.com/wbboard/thread.php?threadid=3791&boardid=11)
- Manage the PK problem and create a peaceful place
- Peace means also between the guilds
- Projects to make his city famous (a newbie help program, olympic games competition, ...)

The thing with the world admins, who reward good mayors is just their way to make the world like they want ;)
If a mayor acts like the chiefs like it, they reward him and others will copy it. Ok this could prevent evil citys for the bad boys...
Title:
Post by: LordSpyder on May 18, 2003, 04:04:55 pm
i think that is a great idea, i would love to see that!!!!!!
Title:
Post by: Axioma on May 18, 2003, 04:05:38 pm
If you are a citizen and/or you have ahouse in a certain town, would you have to pay taxes ? And what would be the requirements for becoming a citizen of a certain town ? Would there be profits connected to that in the entire PS world, only in that town, or no profits at all ?
Title:
Post by: beza1e1 on May 18, 2003, 05:08:15 pm
It should be up to the mayor, if he wants taxes or gets money from other sources ... (dark, illegal business with the guilds, mafia-like?)
Requirements? hm ... having a bank account and a steady income? Having a house? Or do you have to be a citizen to get/build a house? Becoming citizen through relationships and payments should be possible, too.
Profits could be additional support (welfare system perhaps), security (guards for you, if you become enemy of a local guild), community (hello neighbor), power (manpower multiplicates)
Title:
Post by: Axioma on May 19, 2003, 05:56:01 pm
Could a mayor do these dark illegal stuff your talking about beza1e1 ? or would that be seen as corruption. Or is corruption ok in some cases , i think it should be in this specific one, because were talking about politics ;) lol and it would greatly add to the atmosphere of the world we are creating. a lot more realistic.
Title:
Post by: Badakai on May 19, 2003, 06:50:48 pm
Well, corruption would solve itself, eventually. If the citizens don\'t like it, they either rebel or wait until the next election.

If the citizens however like a pirate-city, they would re-elect the person. If the mayor then gets too much power: rebellion!

Of course the news of the good or evil city would spread, and good people go to the good city and evil people to the evil city. Would be really great to see those cities develop. (evil cities could get darker textures?)
Where the good cities create peace by throwing the evil people in jail, the evil cities enforce peace by hiring an evil guild to do something to the annoying good-doing paladin who came to restore peace and found out too much. Banishment from the city perhaps (for a certain amount of time)?

Now about the election, i think the best way would be to create a NPC-clerk in an office or so who says something like: \"Who do you choose? Smith or Johnson?\"
Then you could just reply with the name you like. Almost like IRL.
Title:
Post by: Axioma on May 19, 2003, 09:34:35 pm
Yep yep. I like the election idea. Like say, two days before the elections all names of the participants have to be known, and then two wicked days of propganda start. Like the way you handle election system with the npc.

Maybe for the darker textures, in evil cities, i think i might have an idea. (But as always i have no clue whatsoever if it is doable, because ofm y lack of programming skills ^_^) Let\'s say you could mesure how evil a certain city is, by using some sort of counter on everything that happens there. Somehow you could distinguish good from evil acts right ? well then, as a city gets past a certain value in that counter, the amount of light that enters the city from the crystal is a little less, thus making it a lot darker there. Cna this be implemented easily, or not ?
Title:
Post by: beza1e1 on May 19, 2003, 11:36:49 pm
I like Badakais election system. As a everything-should-be-done-by-the-players person, i even have to say a NPC vote collector is good here. There would be too much discussion about it, if this would be handled by a player. And NPC don\'t lie ... hehe i think cheating (in role play!) is still possible somehow ... why not.

The measurement of evilness is hard i think, but the idea is not bad Axioma. Perhaps they could somehow alter the textures. Make the wood a little darker, the walls not that white, ...
Perhaps just the gods should rate the evilness from their subjective point of view. No discussion.
Title:
Post by: Thynett on May 19, 2003, 11:49:05 pm
I agree that local government ruled by players themselves would be something greats, and that each town deserves some people to rule it.

Each town would have then a definite number of employees :
- 1 mayor/duke/count/lord
- a council (don\'t know what for yet, maybe for organising events in the city)
- 1 librarian if there is a library
- Guards (the bigger the town, the more the guards)
- Priests...

And those employees must be players, and they would get paid, be given a uniform, maybe some items... but items and uniforms would be removed when they are no more employees...

However I totally disagree with an election. Why ?
1/ A democratic system is totally anachronistic and doesn\'t fit a medieval-fantastic universe
2/ Elections are too easy to manipulate when there are so few people who would vote... You would only need to find couples of friends (easy to do with guilds, and by giving them money) that would vote for you, and the one with the more money/biggest guild is elected.


Then I have an alternative solution... Instead of choosing the ruling team by electing them, why not organise a tournament ? Every 2 months, a tournament for a town would take place. Every guild would be allowed to struggle, and the winner takes control over the town for the next 2 months.

The tournament could be different between 2 towns : 30 vs 30, 5 vs 5 or 1 vs 1 (the bigger the town the more fighters), or why not athletic competition : relay races, treasure hunt... Or  more original ideas : guilds have 30 minutes top bring back a mod to town. The one that brings back the bigger mob gets the town. Or poetry competitions... the possibilities are almost infinite, and can make realy interresting competitions where everyone could find one that would fit him.

Thus guids would play a REAL role in game, by controlling town. To avoid abuses, maybe there could be a limit : max 2 towns per guild.

That\'s it for the main lines...
Title:
Post by: beza1e1 on May 20, 2003, 12:10:30 am
Thynett i think your idea is as good as democracy.
1) the free cities in the medieval ages were democratic, but most parts of te land were owned by lords
2) Competitions wouldn\'t be fair, too. A arena fight between a barbarian and a thief guild? A treasure hunt wizards (scientists) vs adventurers? Even in a fight between to warrior guilds just the one who could hire the better mercenary would win.

But why should we want ideal democracy? It would just be boring as a competitor. If i take part in an election i want to manipulate, to pay for votes, to threaten my competitor or even let him killed by the assassin guild. This would give the impression of a real win, if i become the mayor.

The problems you mentioned: Its not a bug, its a feature! To say it the microsoft way ...
Title:
Post by: Thynett on May 20, 2003, 10:08:47 am
Quote
1) the free cities in the medieval ages were democratic, but most parts of te land were owned by lords

I\'m probably wrong, but I never knew that. Some cities/periods/countries to name, so that I ca have a look in an encyclopediae ? (who knows, this game can mke us learn our own history ^^)

Quote
2) Competitions wouldn\'t be fair, too. A arena fight between a barbarian and a thief guild? A treasure hunt wizards (scientists) vs adventurers? Even in a fight between to warrior guilds just the one who could hire the better mercenary would win.


I didn\'t mean everyone would be able to win every competition. It is even the opposite. There would be so many different competitions that one would not be able to win all of them, but everyone would find one in which he will have his chance.
You have a powerful alliance ? Try the 30 vs 30 fight !
You always play with 4 or 5 friends ? Try the 5 vs 5 fight !
You are a weak hunter, but you know all the land ? Try  relay race !
You are a wizard ? Try the magic competition !
You are lvl1 but you know very well how to talk ? Try the poetry competition !
For some tournaments you will need to be rich and powerful, but there must also be many where intelligence, speed, or other qualities will be required.

Whereas for your elections as you desribe them, it will always be the same : the one with the more money/friends will win the elections.

To finish with, I se everywhere talking about guilds, but I still don\'t see any real goal for a guild; And this would give them one.
Title:
Post by: beza1e1 on May 20, 2003, 03:05:42 pm
Just a link for democracy in the middle ages in short:
http://www.dadalos.org/int/Demokratie/Demokratie/Grundkurs2/Mittelalter/mittelalter.htm

Germanys free cities in the middle ages: K?ln, L?beck, Hamburg, Bremen, Magdeburg, Braunschweig
Title:
Post by: Axioma on May 20, 2003, 06:38:59 pm
I like the elections, and i like the competitions. Why not have both ? Depending on the city you\'re talking about.

And about the matches being unfair: if 2 guilds where to face eachother, and they weren\'t both guilds of the same type (e.g. barbarian, thief) they would both have to compete in a territory that isn\'t their own, thus giving them both fair chances.

And i still think that the corruption is part of the elections, it would make the game so realistic. (hoping that things don\'t get out of hand here...)
Title:
Post by: paxx on May 23, 2003, 09:44:03 am
For politics there will be some different progression called something like influence, in game terms it influences the stance of the NPCs. It can be traded and manipulated and it might refresh a bit?but this is truly a game within a game. Influence peddlers are politicians,  merchants, priests?how they gain influence is different for each and some might be more then one.

Also less influence is needed in a small town as opposed to a city, but this is largely in the idea stage?we need combat done first, later the really fun stuff gets added in.
Title: Political Etiquette
Post by: Havena on May 23, 2003, 10:46:30 am
I expect that when the developers are deciding on a political system for the game, they\'re going to be looking for a system which is simple and foolproof, while allowing for maximum possibility and interest value within this criteria.

I wonder if there will be any kind of mayor figure in the game. If there will, I wouldn\'t be suprised if it\'s an NPC, able to be influenced in such a way that the developers speak of. If it is a player, it can be extremely unstable. What if the player in rl has a death in the family or a career change and can no longer play? Player governments would have to be limited to nonessential management aspects and therefore would be extremely limited.

A few ideas I\'d like to put up in the air:
In regards to mayors. There could be 2-3 potential NPC rulers per city/town. Each represents a certain politcal status for the town (eg. Good, Anarchy, Evil). Upon talking to them they could reveal to players more about their particular leanings and style. Players could register their following with 1 such NPC per city, or in their city of citizenship if the such applies. The more influence points each player has, the more weight they will carry towards the total likelyhood of that NPC coming to power. The NPC with the most total influence points in their support would be the ruler for that city/town. The political category of the town\'s ruler could effect such elements as PK rules, financial dealings and definition of crime. All this could be tuned by the developers.
Title:
Post by: cmhitman on May 23, 2003, 04:56:31 pm
*hopes the team trys to make all parts of the game compeling...including the combat parts, witch for some reason paxx doesn\'t consider to be real fun.*
Title:
Post by: Axioma on May 23, 2003, 06:37:04 pm
maybe it is true that we have been hasty here: player-mayors could be a big problem.I\'m not saying they will be, but they COULD BE.

I like the idea of influence, with the npc mayors.