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To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
My thoughts exactly.
I really don't see anyone ever doing this.
Al nodes are election based from t3 to T5 after which 5 nodes can be one of 5 types where 1 is election based, this means players have a say and if they vote for a shitty mayor well just like real politics who fault is that just suck it up and vote them out next time atleast thats short than RL elections usualy :P
the other 4 though it possible one person runs the city for eternity but thats fine if they suck at it just move and the node will die on it own or if your realy malecious move to a neighbouring node and work on war decing it to destroy it out of spite what ever floats ur boat.
1 month elections i think are absolutly fine, long enough to have an impact on node development and diplomacy with neighbouring nodes. Also allows for people to war dec leading into an election to throw a spanner in the works cause swapping mayor right before a war might be rather bad or good who knows
on topic of mayors flying mounts though i would liketo see these leashed to city so they can only be used in the node itself/vassaled node and the immediate nodes surrounding those so they can be used in boarder skermishes but not so much a war on the other side of the map. Might be the case already but thats my though on mayor flying mounts (same with castles aswell)
Its like fighting Nazgul without the Eagles.
should be fighting ur neighbours not people across the map though
Suffice to say, the chance of some Level 1 dude who just stumbled out of the divine gateway becoming mayor of a Tier 3 or higher Node are basically zero.
Point 1: A month is A LOT
Yeah, that is a considerable amount of time, but that's what it takes to make the effort worth it. Like others pointed out correctly, voting every week for a new mayor seems like a political daily (or "weekly") quest that would quickly tire out people.
Point 2: One person getting basically free reign
Quick run through the list of mayoral powers:
- declare someone an enemy of state: Abuse will put the relationship with other Nodes at odds, threatening ones own possessions in the Node
- declare war on another Node: An arbitrary declaration of war would probably cause people to leave the Node in droves as they do not stand behind the mayor, risking the loss of all resources spent to become mayor in the first place, plus the assets in the node.
- Entering trade agreements with other Nodes: The worst case I can imagine is that people use this as a conspiracy to drain a Node of its resources which imo seems like a very elaborate roleplay thing to do that should not be discouraged. But that would indeed be a threat to the Node.
- Mayors can choose the tax rate: Set them too high and people will start to leave, which in turn hurts the Node progression and maintenance long term. Not exactly the kind of thing a sound minded mayor would do given their skin in the game.
- Direct the tax money: towards building projects (can be used to give advantage to ones associates; which would tarnish the reputation of the mayor and the group they helped), to defense of the Node (worst case: Money is wasted on unnecessary defense in preparation of an actual siege after the treasury is emptied = high level RP politics that I think Intrepid would want to see), general Node development. Tax money cannot be directly be funneled into anyone's pocket.
- mayoral quests: At worst this drains the Nodes resources, leading to dissatisfaction. However this is not instant and requires external participation for people to accept these pointless quests.
- Propose policy changes: Ultimately these will be voted on by the citizens, so the mayor cannot arbitrarily change anything without clearly threatening to abuse their power ("Vote yes or taxes will increase"). Which would signal political weakness to competing Nodes in the area.
I conclude that there is a lot, but anything but "free reign".
Point 3: completely at the mercy of 1 (one) person
Yes, if a cunning person from a neighboring node sneaks into office they could significantly weaken a Nodes ability to thrive and defend against its neighbors. But having a random psychopath ascend into office imo is fairly unlikely for most solid established Nodes beyond level 3.
I might also add that Steven explicitly emphasized that bigger gaming studios have taken the fun out of their games by adhering to the corporate mantra of "any dissatisfaction is a risk of losing a customer and there has to be eliminated." Intrepid is aware that some events in the world can cause great dissatisfaction to a player, but they are accepting that this is necessary for success to feel meaningful and motivation to form to do anything at all.
Point 4: for a month ONE person will have all the fun
This part puzzles me a bit. With all that is at stake and with the things a mayor can actually do, I don't really see this as too much "fun". To me being a mayor sounds primarily like a heap of chores and responsibilities with the constant risk of pissing off all fellow citizens and in the worst case being blamed (rightfully or not) for the downfall of the Node.
Point 5: Simply reduce mayoral term to 1 or 2 weeks. Better to 1
For a citizen this sounds like the ultimate weekly quest of boredom to analyze, evaluate a bunch of people and vote for them. To me personally doing that every month already sounds a bit annoying.
Point 6: great RMT option
This has already been addressed by someone so I'll make it short and refer to my opening statement about the investments one has to make beforehand to become a mayor. Plus the security systems of Intrepid are programmed to detect behavior anomalies that will probably not only mean bot detection but also someone taking over an account.
Point 7: people leave game
No, people will first leave the city where people don't care about who the mayor is and vote in some incompetent slob.
Thinking trough all of this led me to one question: What happens if the votes are tied or nobody wants to be the mayor in the first place?
- no longer sell their house/apartment in the Node
- move gear stored in the Node
- more than 50% of the locally stored crafting material out off the Node.
This "investment lock" remains active at least until the mayor steps down from the position, but I would extend it for 5 more weeks for selling of the house/apartment or gear, while resources should become freely tradeable again as soon as the mayor leaves office.
This might also add an interesting opportunity to the investigative side of the Bounty Hunter who, if a majority of votes are in favor of it, is allowed to inspect the mayors storage in the Node. The notion for such an "investigation" can be put forward by any citizen and can be voted for by any citizen of the Node. If successful a quest for Bounty Hunters of a different Node (or with no citizenship) in the area will become available to conduct the investigation, where they deliver the result to the black board of the city. The report lists not the gear in detail, but type, rarity and quantity of items in storage as well as recent in and outflows of crafting material (again only type and quantity). If no Bounty Hunter can be found to do it, maybe the local Bishop (or religious leader) can be asked to conduct that investigation.
That's a smart move to be made, selling a mayoral account haha
Hey NiKr can I use this post to test something in the 'AI' part of my parsers (asking openly so... people know that I ask in advance, I guess?)
You're technically ESL right?
If yes, please PM me your 'native language' version of the same post. I don't really need anything else and this doesn't involve any real 'time investment' from you beyond that.