So after seeing some posts, including "What does council space really need" I thought about how we can improve roleplay on the server, and add justifiable business. I suggest the creation of Council quests and job offers. Types: Job offers would be posted online, and could range from the delivery of objects to bounties on monsters or criminals, to raids on criminal buildings. Perhaps even job offers for exploring planets to find hidden/lost objects. Payment: After completing a job offer, players could radio in photos of proof of their job to the council. Then, they could be paid in pixels, ranging from 100 to 10,000 pixels. Short-term Goals: Give players something to do IC, even when there's no one else online. Create RP events, like raids, more often. Long-term Goals: Encourage trade RP. Give new player characters a place to start to gain money. Once characters have more money, we can justify investment, and the creation of businesses. It would not be unreasonable to say that 10 players who have completed many jobs as bounty hunters and trade-runners create a corporation. Businesses could host new jobs, and build infrastructure/industry on planets, as well as may be space stations. Encourage crime RP. Where there are valuable items to transport, there will also be bandits to exploit transport routes. After jobs are more common, bandits can try to ambush people doing them, adding another level of RP, and allowing more reason for bounties on real players.
I like the idea, but as discussed in the chat room, it would probably need an experienced hand to work fine. I don't like, however, the idea of doing stuff when no one else is around. I mean, the whole idea of RP is interaction, I guess. My main annoyance is people who don't have any occupation nor are looking for one. I mean, come on, bring something to the economy, don't be just laying around on bars and stuff.
Why not actually elect a Council with representatives of each race ? Their purpose would be politic specific.
I don't think it would work well, Darkwhip. And there is already an elected Council IC, as far as I know.
I like the idea, but I can see a few things going wrong... What's to stop someone from pulling the lost object out of this air, or their way through an experts job? Other than that, how long can you keep coming up with new jobs?
Well, the lost object will in most cases not be stated explicitly, but the player will be asked to find some kind of container. This way, there will be some random item in the container to be delivered, and the player can't cheat. Also, most jobs should not require too much of an expert, applicants could be evaluated for more difficult jobs.
When I say expert I mean... Say a merc takes on a bounty, and their hiding is a bunker behind a hefty safe door, you know, like a combination lock. There's no way to bust in, and they have no experience with safe cracking. They'd need an expert to help them finish the job, but that means splitting the reward, well fuck that, I'm just gonna get a nuke and blow the door in. In other words, godmodding/asspulling.
Well, any mission that is more complex than a fetch-quest involving puzzles/information would need at least a little bit of DMing. In those cases, the missions would only be doable in certain time frames, when a DM can teleport to the location of a fight.