My Thoughts on a Cash System

[bobbomb]

I know there was a thread already on here last year about that, but kind of want to add my two cents without reviving a dead thread. Now, I've been rping for about 8 years, at least six of those was on a site that had a cash system. Some say that it limits the rpers, and takes away from it. I think this is the opposite. It gives the rpers something to strive for, to become more active to be able to get new shiny equipment. I believe this can work for us. Here are the steps I believe that this could work:

1) What ever items the character have at this point, they keep it, free of charge.

2) New players start out with an amount of money equal to the kind of lifestyle their character leads. Crimelords would get more than a drifter, for example. Now, some may think that this will get people to make more rich characters and just pass it on to their other characters, which brings me to

3) No one is allowed to share money between their characters unless they have a valid rp reason to, if your characters do not know each other, then they are not allowed to share money. and since you cannot rp with yourself, then you can't really share money with yourself, history with the person does not count, only known through actual rps.

4) Crimelords and companies that are player own must act through active ships to transport items and materials. This gives the ship captains an income, and the ability to make money for their crew, who, based on the captains, get paid for their parts.

5) No extensive list needed, we have the basis for the prices and items all ready in place, In my last topic: watchasisoar.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=oocdiscuss&action=display&thread=3265 I've given a list of the items for purchase, from ships to armor, to weapons.

6) People can pool their money for items if they want. This means that you can have joint ownership of a ship, other stuff, etc.

7) Ship owners have to use the cash system to purchase new parts for their ships, say if they get damaged in rps, medical supplies, food, and such. I believe that food should only last a certain amount of time before expiring, like a month irl or so. This is so captains have to accept rp missions, some made by other players (crimebosses, other people,) or by admins, and get paid to do so.

8) Prices on commodities and such, so that ship captains can buy and sell from one player to another. Note, they have to rp their transfers, and transactions. I also believe that the admins are allowed to play a fair "Chaos factor" in some rps, so that there is more conflict, and the admin who does it can have some fun too ^.0, now that is only on posted RP missions and jobs, not regular rps.

9) Keep the base post adding for money at $5 per post. This may seem harsh, seeing some of these prices that the game (Serenity RPG) suggests, but it would make people more active in jobs and missions, and that would make people more active.

10) non-ship characters, (Crimebosses, businessmen, etc.) are given some "Phantom" money to use for JUST missions, not for personal use, that way they don't use their personal cash on transfers and jobs. Those would be dished out by the admins on request.

11) Personal vendettas and hits are not "phantom money" missions when the target is another pc, then they are to pay with their personal money.

12) each character would get an inventory thread, that they place their bought items. Only Admins and mods can buy the items for a person, and the person has to ask before using an item, which means buying it before use.

But wait! what about picking up an NPC's item?

13) as for picking up items, those would be temporary and will not be taken out of that thread. The exception to this would be items acquired during an admin sanctioned job. Then the character must pm the admin in charge to get permission to pick up an item.

14) any item wanting to be returned to the shops after being purchased may be returned at half the price they bought it at. The exception to this rule are the commodities that planets may want, those can vary between planets, and that is up to the admins to determine what a planet will charge for what commodity.

15) for any item auctioned off, or sold to another character, you have to make a plausible RP to show transfer of items, so that the Admins can keep records. And these have to be legitimate posts, and must comply with their captain's flight schedule.

16) However, for a shipping and handling fee of say 10-30% of the item (from sender) based on how illegal the item is, it can be sent by an npc "courier", to the other player. That must be mentioned in an rp made on a planet. The post that the drop is made is then alerted to an admin, who approved the transfer when the receiving player also states they received it a post on a planet as well. Note, this does not mean that they can make a thread like "picking up item" but must be made in a legitimate topic. An option of this, for the receivers, is that the captain picks a planet for all their crew's packages to go to, and once they are back on that planet, then the receiver can then gain use of this item.

17) While in transfer, no one can use said items.

18) non-ship people, as stated above, can also use their "Phantom" or business money, to purchase commodities. They cannot use these, and they are deleted after the trade is made, but it gives the captains some non-dangerous assignments to keep their crews paid.


Thats all I can think of now. I would like some feedback on my ideas, please. I really would like this implemented, mainly for the fact that it gives us something to strive for, a goal to obtain.

So I would like some thoughts on this, ESPECIALLY the admins.

thank you for your time, if you've read this this far, and I hope you like my idea

[Tristram Kelly]

Dude, whoa... I kinda dig it, but it seems like a decent bit of work for the staff.

[Roger Davis]

Let me start by saying yes I do like the idea of a cash system (I've worked with them before a little too) and I appreciate the time you put into this. Here comes the "but".

But I don't think you address the major concerns with a cash system. Here are a few quick points off the top of my head:
1) The system naturally favors older players. You've been around longer so you have more money and more stuff. Having a load of people get grandfathered in only makes it more uneven. Luckily this place isn't very PvP so it's not a huge issue but it's still present.

2) Issues with starting cash. One of your solutions is to have different tiers of players who would start with different levels of cash. Yes, I'm sure some people will pick the penniless dirtbag but most will go for a fairly wealthy person no matter their actual character simply to get the extra cash. Even if people don't suddenly flock to the upper income bracket then it would still disadvantage people playing as poor, making that a "hardcore mode".

3) There could be payment inequality. First of all, a job could end up paying vastly different from contractor to contractor. Simple completion aside, one job thread might last four times as long as another. Then if we do the $5 per post thing as well then you have issues with unequal posts. You might have some posters who do a bunch of rapid fire four sentence posts where others might put out consistent four paragraph posts but they are paid equally.

4) It will crash free RPing. The restrictions on finding items and even simply getting jobs prevents captains (and crew to a lesser extent) from RPing free and having fun with it. Instead the reigns are taken by admins who have to dictate plot lines as well as profitability. This leads to...

5) Needing new admins. We've already got a bit of an admin problem with some many getting RLed up on a regular basis. With an income system you need admins to run the money, work the inventories, create more jobs, and actually guide RP plots. That's a huge increase in work load and I don't think our admins have the time for it. We'd need to take on a bunch of new ones to manage just the income/items portion let alone running constant plots.

6) It's all too complex. Most people come here to write and have fun with their imagination not to crunch numbers and post grind to earn some new gun. That grind might be great for some but not for all. As much time as it drains from the admins it's also more time and work for a player to simply read, compare stats, etc. Overall it would burden everyone and alienate those who want absolutely nothing to do with the system.

[bobbomb]

Sheet, if they gave me mod status, I'd do all the work, save for the stuff the admins would be required to do, like the "chaos factor", and such, but I'd set up the boards for the inventory and shops, and even make an account to handle all the money requests for jobs.

Oh, I just remembered, another part, to request an item be bought, just post a reply in the appropriate shop place (ex: to buy a revolver, you must reply in the "weapons" topic,) Then the mod would delete the post, set the item in your inventory, and remove the plat. from the account.

Edit: I understand where you are coming from, Roger, and it may be complex, very true, and like I said, I'd be willing to take up alot of the slack, with the money system, if the admins would let me, but I believe that it would deepen the experience, and add to the relativity of the need for ships and crime bosses and the like.

My idea with the admins chaosing the missions would be that they would come in, stating that such and such just happened, then leave the people to fix the admin's mess XD.

In all actuality, the admins just have to admin the plots, just to make sure they are not farming for gold. The whole missions would be player controlled, save for those an admin may feel like complicating.

I understand that there might be an influx of new rich people, but It would all be regulated strictly, or maybe give people a choice of "packages" to start out with, not starting cash.

There will always be those who post only one paragraphs, but those people may also be only able to post that, doesn't mean they still don't try, and they would deserve the pay as well. I mean have you seen the prices on some of these items? most are in the hundreds and thousands, it would take a lot of posting to get up that money to buy stuff, while those who participate in group rps and missions gain more, just due to the fact that they are working for it more, and interacting with more people.

on the note that people putting out rapid fire posts for the gold. The missions are paying the captain, who then dishes out the money to their crew based on how they think they did. This MAY have some favoritism issues, but that is all apart of the job, sometimes you get a good haul, and sometimes your hauled out of an airlock.

yes, the contractors may set the price, but then you know who to work with, and who you don't. I hope people just enjoy the fact that they have a purpose to rp, and not just those "hey, I'm in the bar, look, another person" type things, which I personally hate.

of course it would favor older players, that is the point, the longer you have worked at it, and the more active, the more you will have. That should encourage people to be active more, and not be left in the dust.

The admins really don't have too much more work, besides just dishing out the money for jobs, and taking away for buying items. If they choose to make a plot job, that is up to them. They don't have to hold the player's hand through the jobs, or even be there at all. but they review the size, to determine if the mission is acceptable, if not, then they find something to make it last longer, wrench in the gears, or maybe a surprise reaver attack. and if the topic isn't finished, no one gets paid.

as for the stats, I say screw the stats, those lists were more for the prices, not the "damages" to the players, as far as I'm concerned, a headshot is still a headshot, no matter what is being shot. the item is just an "I have this item" thing, not an "This item does such-and-such damage," etc etc. Thing.

If I missed anything, please tell me.

[Kyla Monroe]

On a personal note I had wanted to revive the money system everytime it was brought up, which was also part of the reason it was brought up a couple times over my time here. We left it up to a poll with the members because that's who we're here for and it was voted down. I don't mind at all putting in the work to set things up and change certain board settings so only RP sections give the money credit for posts and anything else that needs to be set up.

Like Roger said though RL sucks away alot of time, even for me. On a good week I have maybe 2-3 days of free time to RP and do normal staff things, on a bad week I have 1. At least until I go on maternity leave at the end of the year, after the baby I couldn't even begin to guess how much time I'll actually have. Even now I'm getting this post up before I have to run to work in ten minutes.

I don't think we would need to hand-hold plots really, unless of course things get out of hand. Which case it will have to be put a stop to. But I think we have a good bunch of folks around here to trust that wouldn't happen.

I do actually like the idea for different starting money depending on your job and such; we would need to work on some things for that I think though. Perhaps limits on certain character types like crime bosses and such that may become over-saturated due to starting money. And specify choices on the occupations; because I'll be honest in my opinion Difter isn't your job, it's your status in a way since you're not part of a ship. Your jobs would be mechanic, gunhand...ect. But then you have to take into account where the character ends up in current time after the application history ends. Do they have a current job? Are they just wondering around using up all their money? Should those things be taken into account for starting money? Should we even look into that far for details?

Excuse me if I started rambling a bit and got confusing...it's still early. 430 is early! *grumble grumble* <3 Also honestly I haven't read everything in this thread; it's alot to read and I don't have the time atm, but I will tomorrow when I'm off work! So I just picked at a couple things I skimmed about.