Author Topic: [DISCUSSION] Society  (Read 3635 times)

Preface: This is merely an idea I have long thought about and would love to see come to Blockland.

Society: CityRPG Revisited

I am not a big fan of any of the current servers in development with CityRPG themes so I wrote up this post. If you are interested in helping, please contact me, I am willing to make it worth your time.

Features
Here is essentially what makes the server, the server!

Jobs
Jobs have been completely redone. Paychecks have been removed from half of the jobs, instead you get money for what you do. Doing your job rewards you with different things depending on what you're doing, in most cases it will be money. A simple list of jobs is provided below.

Labor Branch
Work hard, get paid.
Judicial Branch
Jail suckers, make money. This job branch offers paychecks.
Business Branch
Sell your tools and firearms to citizens.
Medical Branch
Heal terrified citizens. This job branch offers paychecks.
Free-will
Do what you want! These jobs are freelance and give players more freedom.
Worker
A lumberjack like job, you are given axe.
Police Recruit
The first step in becoming a man of the law! You have a baton.
Shopkeeper
An honorable job where you sell firearms to civilians, pure gold!
Nurse
A medical assistant, you can heal people and get money for it.
Bounty Hunter
A legendary job thats been around for years, you jail people and kill wanted players.
Laborer
A step-up for the worker tier, you are given a pickaxe in addition to your axe.
Police Officer
The next rank in your police career. Your speed is slightly increased.
Entrepreneur
Following shopkeeper is the entrepreneur, your persuasive sales skills allow you to sell a larger variety of items.
Doctor
A follow up to the nurse, the doctor. You can perform full heals and issue pills to players.
Criminal
You scum! Your speed is increased and you can pickpocket players.
Foreman
The final tier in the labor branch. You efficiently collect resources at a double rate.
Federal Agent
The top of the judicial branch. You are given body armor. Your speed is also slightly increased.
CEO
The most important tier of the marketing branch; the CEO. You can sell all items in the inventory.
Surgeon
You are the biggest money-grabber. You can perform max heals and issue pills to players.

To get a job you must visit a specific bot that will take you down the career path you choose. For example, there will be a police bot in the police station that will allow you to become an officer. There is also a labor bot and a medical bot, the business and criminal branches do not have bots.

Experience
Experience is a simple system added that will help you level in your job branch. You gain experience for doing your job.

In summary:
  • Police officers get experience for jailing players.
  • Laborers get experience for working over long periods of time.
  • Players in the business branch will get experience for making sales.
  • Doctors will get experience for healing players and making sales.
  • Free-will does not earn experience.

Miscellaneous
There are also a number of special tweaks that are included. These are:
  • When you exceed your health, you are downed. Once downed you cannot move and can only spectate your body, you can only be helped up by a doctor. Other players can carry you to the hospital as well. If you take too much damage or wait too long, you will die.
  • You can only be arrested if you are downed.
  • Killing wanted players will lose your job as a police officer. However, if the player exceeds a certain level of demerits, they can be killed without penalty.
  • If you get killed, you will spawn at the hospital.
  • Guns do not despawn unless a member of the judicial branch chooses to destroy them.
  • Banks can be robbed if a third of the active players are in the judicial branch. Banks have bots that serve as tellers, you can use them like normal banks.
  • There is no demerit limit. This means you can get jailed for a very long time. You must do a lot of bad things to get jailed for a long time, for example if you killed 20 people you would be jailed for two hours.

Lots
Lots will function a little bit differently than how they previously did. Lots can be purchased prebuilt or you can hire a player with a building permit to build a lot for you.

The process for obtaining a lot:
  • Property will be up for sale all over the town. At the beginning, they are owned by the bank, beyond that, they are player owned. There will be empty spaces and spaces that are filled with prebuilt buildings.
  • Property that is being rented in or owned cannot be destroyed or built in. Special bricks can be placed, but that is all.
  • Why are you doing this? Quality control is one, and the other is to make hiding harder for criminals.

The process for hiring an player with a building permit is simple and goes as such:
  • A client contacts a player with a building permit, they agree to a set value for the completion of the job.
  • The builder is given trust to the client's lot, and the client's money is taken but is not yet sent to the builder.
  • Once both players are happy with the completed build, the builder will get his or her money and will lose the client's trust on the lot.
  • If the client is attempting to scam the builder, the builder can cancel the job at any time. If the builder is up to no good, the client can also cancel the job. Cancelling the job will clear the lot and refund the client and revoke any changes made after the job request.
  • However, once both parties have agreed to the completed build, there are no refunds.

Other small things:
  • You cannot edit your build unless it is undergoing an builder contract. If it is, police officers can baton and fake kill any brick they choose.
  • Events will be limited, and custom bricks will fulfill most roles. I want to keep it straight forward for players.

Training
Training works as a second job, it allows you to perform multiple tasks but you only get to choose two. They also cost a lot!

Firefighting
You're trained in putting out fires. You have the items to put out fires now.
Grapple Mastery
You have become the grapple master -- you now spawn with grapple ropes.
Item Builder
With resources you gather, you can construct your very own tools and firearms.
Narcotics
By acquiring drugs materials, you can create drugs.
Political-Influence
You're permitted to bail people from prison for a fee.
Building Permit
You can build and be hired to build on other people's property.

Before anybody begins complaining about drugs, drugs will only be sellable from player to player. They will have special features of their own, and getting caught with them will have big penalties. Being a drug kingpin should be fun and scary at the same time.

Fires
Fires can happen as a result of flamethrowers and molotovs. Players caught performing arson will be charged by a hefty amount of demerits. Fires will not permanently destroy bricks, but will force players to make fixes to their damaged property. If a property is too torched, you cannot make sales out of it.

Weapons and Tools
I want to include a custom weapons and tools. Tools all pertain to jobs and are made to help players. Weapons are for killing and disabling players.

Planned weapons:
  • Pistol
  • Submachine Gun
  • Sniper Rifle
  • Shotgun
  • Assault Rifle

Planned tools:
  • Chainsaw
  • Drill
  • Sledgehammer
  • Bat
  • Taser

Q&A
For all your questions, I will have them answered and placed here for future reference.

Q: Can I help?
A: Read the the closing message at the bottom. If you want to help build, I will reach you personally. Don't ask.

Q: Will there be premium features?
A: Maybe, just visuals. I am not a big fan of giving other players an edge because they have more money in real life.

Q: Will you finish this?
A: I don't know, hopefully.

Q: Do you need resources to build?
A: No.

Q: Will there be vehicles?
A: I do not want vehicles at this time and have no plans for them.

Q: What weapons will you be using?
A: I have nothing in mind for weapons, this is the least of my concern.

Q: Will there be hunger?
A: No.

Q: Can you come up with a better name?
A: Sure, it can be called Society. Name isn't much of a focus right now.

Closing Message
I am in great need of a programmer and potentially someone who can model. If you are interested, please contact me. This project will be very professional and I am only interested in people who act professionally.

Do not criticize this for being a CityRPG, instead provide constructive criticism in relation to what I wrote up. I have no interest in drama or stupid behavior.

These are not all the features, simply what I remember off the top of my head. Any specifics do not need to be included, I am more interested in the core idea.

Ask questions, I will answer them and include them in the original post.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2017, 04:56:58 PM by Derroith »

isn't this just metropolisrp reimagined

isn't this just metropolisrp reimagined
Surprised you caught that! I worked with Diggy before he disappeared. It is heavily inspired and he had some really good ideas so I had to put this together. I hope he is doing well wherever he is.

I think this is a really cool idea, like supremely detailed and immersive. But I think the CityRPG has been done way too much. Like, way too much. I've seen a trend in CityRPGs where the builds are expansive and stunning and they're so well scripted, except for there's a new one every month that's just like the last one. It could be just me, but the CityRPG is just a really overdone, but really good thing. 

wowe i havent seen OP in forever

Looks cool.

Architect job description in OP is the same as surgeon at the moment.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2017, 10:06:43 AM by Tendon »

I think this is a really cool idea, like supremely detailed and immersive. But I think the CityRPG has been done way too much. Like, way too much. I've seen a trend in CityRPGs where the builds are expansive and stunning and they're so well scripted, except for there's a new one every month that's just like the last one. It could be just me, but the CityRPG is just a really overdone, but really good thing. 
I believe CityRPG is definitely overdone, but never done correctly. Everyone seems to enjoy them, unfortunately they are often poorly run and use the old mods. This will change things hopefully.

wowe i havent seen OP in forever
I am here. I do not post, but I am here... watching. Still one of my favorite games too.

I like these ideas. My main problem with City RPGs has always been how little there is to do. A lot of your time is just spent sitting around an waiting for your next paycheck.

How is selling services going to work (surgeons, shopkeepers, CEOs, etc.)? You should try to flesh out the user interface, i.e. what the server commands are going to be used and what they are going to do. A bad user intergace can ruin a game. I would be good to put the UI up for criticism sooner than later to avoid loosing users due to frustration or confusion. As well, doing so would also help give your programmers some direction.

Actually, related to that, are you planning on using server commands, or are you planning on creating a GUI? I would personally recommend the latter.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2017, 01:22:54 AM by Platypi »

please have a nice build

please have a nice build
I think that's secondary, assuming he is releasing this mod for others to use.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2017, 01:25:43 AM by Platypi »

How is selling services going to work (surgeons, shopkeepers, CEOs, etc.)?
Doctors get a bonus for lives saved and people they heal. I want them kept on a paycheck because it isn't exactly a job that is in work every second and I think that is easy to understand.

As for services, players can put down a 2x2f that can spawn items. If you click on the item, you can choose to purchase it by typing a command. Stores will need to keep items in stock. There will be a special item stock brick that you can dump items into and then sell these items off your 2x2f if you want to.

I was thinking about being able to rob player stores but that kind of sucks.

The labor branch can run their own shops and sell resources at a discounted price to the business branch. Producing items is illegal if you are not in the business branch as well. I'd like to see people breaking laws and making deals for their own economic benefit.
Actually, related to that, are you planning on using server commands, or are you planning on creating a GUI? I would personally recommend the latter.
I don't really want to enforce players to download something before joining my server. It should be an option, but not enforced. Commands should not be complicated either and information should be provided as you go.

please have a nice build
There will be a nice build. I am not even slightly concerned about the build because I can definitely put together a kick ass lay out.

I think that's secondary, assuming he is releasing this mod for others to use.
This is all conceptual at this phase. I need someone who can code. I can provide a good build, administration, and ideas, but I cannot code this entire project as my skills only go so far.

Here's a little tip from a suburbia dev: if it doesn't end it doesn't work

making a game that goes on forever with no end goal or win condition is essentially cookie clicker- you keep clicking until you get bored. even with all these fancy occupations and fields, the core mechanism has to have a win condition otherwise people will just play, spam and kill until they get bored and leave

there are people that find the fruitless grind 'fun' but its the type of hollow fun you get from playing an iphone game or bejeweled. for the sake of the master list, add a win condition

« Last Edit: May 10, 2017, 02:04:01 AM by PhantOS »

Here's a little tip from a suburbia dev: if it doesn't end it doesn't work

making a game that goes on forever with no end goal or win condition is essentially cookie clicker- you keep clicking until you get bored. even with all these fancy occupations and fields, the core mechanism has to have a win condition otherwise people will just play, spam and kill until they get bored and leave

there are people that find the fruitless grind 'fun' but its the type of hollow fun you get from playing an iphone game or bejeweled. for the sake of the master list, add a win condition
A game doesn't need and ending to be good (e.g. Minecraft). Although I think some sort of prestige system would be neat. For instance, the higher someone's level and the more money they have, the more prestige points they get. This could provide some benefit for the next life ( like Cookie Clicker), or just be used as a status symbol.

It does beg another question, though: what happens to someone's property when they reset their account? Does it go back onto the market?

Sorry, but I'm going to rip into this for a sec:
Paychecks have been removed from half of the jobs, instead you get money for what you do.
Honestly I feel you should either design all jobs around no paycheck or give everyone a stable $10 paycheck that doesn't change or something. Otherwise you have people who just do nothing but sit and wait for a steady dripfeed of money without doing anything fun or interesting.
Police Officer
The next rank in your police career, you are given a taser for your work. Your speed is slightly increased.
Oh, nice, now you can actually catch up to criminals and break the benny hi-
Criminal
You scum! Your speed is increased and you can pickpocket players.
Welp! Nevermind.
Marketing Branch
Sell your firearms to citizens.
Seems a bit shallow that the only thing you can really sell is firearms imo. Though I'm also highly against hunger, I really would love to see a server that actually encourages creative services using events, like teleportation subways or arcades/casinos.
Medical Branch
Heal terrified citizens. This job branch offers paychecks.
This job branch offers paychecks simply because there's not much demand for medics in the first place in a gamemode like this. Honestly I'd say that if one of the jobs requires a paycheck to work you should scrap and redesign it in the first place. Perhaps medics would also be responsible for drug delivery or something of the like?
in fact add a forgetin pizza delivery job holy stuff
Foreman
The final tier in the labor branch. You are rewarded with a chainsaw, a drill and you efficiently collect resources at a double rate.
hoo boy this will be a hell to balance compared to everything else.
Manual labor has always been the highest paying job on CityRPG's no matter what you do, simply because mining/chopping trees is an infinite resource that never goes away. This leads to a very obvious blow to the ecomony with an easily bottable system in place like that.
There is no demerit limit. This means you can get jailed for a very long time.
Jesus Christ this is a bad solution to a longstanding mass RDM problem. You're just effectively banning people for doing crime, so how's it different from simply banning people for that?
And, before you say "well you get a dirty record", that only makes the crime problem worse, as you will NEVER be able to switch your job to a police officer once you get bored of doing crime and want to do some crime-fighting unless you want to completely wipe your character or spend a lot of money just to get a chance to play as an easily-losable job with very bogus pay.
why not just ban the guy who blew up an airport and got jailed for 5 hours
The process for hiring an architect is simple and goes as such:

    A client contacts an architect, they agree to a set value for the completion of the job.
    The architect is given trust to the client's lot, and the client's money is taken but is not yet sent to the architect.
    Once both players are happy with the completed build, the architect will get his or her money and will lose the client's trust on the lot.
    If the client is attempting to scam the architect, the architect can cancel the job at any time. If the architect is up to no good, the client can also cancel the job. Cancelling the job will clear the lot and refund the client and revoke any changes made after the job request.
    However, once both parties have agreed to the completed build, there are no refunds.
Why create a whole system for a job that can take much longer than an hour to complete to warrant a "contract" relationship anyway?
Instead, a proper real estate system would let architects to put up their lots for sale and let people purchase them without waiting for the architect to get online.
Other small things:

    You cannot edit your build unless it is undergoing an architect contract. If it is, police officers can baton and fake kill any brick they choose.
    Events will be limited, and custom bricks will fulfill most roles. I want to keep it straight forward for players.
See, why is there even such a limit in the first place? If you can hide forgettons of easily exploitable drugs in your lot, well its obvious what the majority of players will use lots for anyway. I've never seen the need for drugs in the first place - why not make lots act as your safehouse and possibly a money-maker via clever eventing (which will also be limited to hell)?
A better balance to strike, in my opinion, would be to allow people to purchase empty lots or lots built by architects. Don't completely cripple people who want to be CEO's of a big shop without having to cash out on some architect to do the build for them, maybe the CEO is a good builder himself.
On the other hand, if people really /suck/ at building, a smart choice would be to purchase a building from a respectable architect so they don't have to worry about their lot being flagged and deleted. Either way, bad builds will remain a problem, even with architects.
Firefighting
You're trained in putting out fires. You have the items to put out fires now.
But... you haven't even explained how fires would affect your build in the first place? Would it just be a "health hazard" so to speak? Would it occur randomly or would there be arsonists? Will it fake kill or completely destroy bricks?
Grapple Mastery
You have become the grapple master -- you now spawn with grapple ropes.
oh yeah great idea lets give our 10-star schoolshooter jihad bomber with a sniper rifle unlimited ability as well that will go well
Item Builder
With resources you gather, you can construct your very own firearms.
By resources, do you mean labor? But that would mean you'd have to be a laborer for this job to be even remotely useful, as labor branch won't have any reason to sell resources to anyone but the "global market" (aka infinite cash dispencer)
Narcotics
With those false prescriptions, make your own methamphetamine!
Again, needs to be elaborated. The current way drugs are handled in CityRPG are a loving mess for multitude of reasons.

Also, back to my previous point,
Being a drug kingpin should be fun and scary at the same time.
It's not fun if you get jailed for 5 IRL hours.

Honestly, all of this just sounds like a very barebones mod for CityRPG as opposed to a new gamemode. I can already see a lot of design problems with the way jobs are layed out and how the economy of CityRPG is not even considered. Please don't take this as a personal attack as I've also been frustrated about CRPG's and how most of them seem like a giant wasted potential for something that might've been fun.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2017, 06:27:22 AM by Crystalwarrior »

My favorite type of post!

Oh, nice, now you can actually catch up to criminals and break the benny hi-
You can play as a criminal in any job. If you want to be a completely devoted criminal and essentially not contribute what so ever to the GameMode, you can play as the criminal role/job which gives you bonuses.

Seems a bit shallow that the only thing you can really sell is firearms imo. Though I'm also highly against hunger, I really would love to see a server that actually encourages creative services using events, like teleportation subways or arcades/casinos.
Truthfully, people are not interested in anything else other than firearms. People do not really care about how they look and nobody has really given a stuff about hunger either. People could easily set up those services, but it is up to them. That is beyond my control but I could try to introduce other services if people give me good recommendations.

This job branch offers paychecks simply because there's not much demand for medics in the first place in a gamemode like this. Honestly I'd say that if one of the jobs requires a paycheck to work you should scrap and redesign it in the first place. Perhaps medics would also be responsible for drug delivery or something of the like?
I see your point. I forgot to mention that they are the only people who have access to pharmaceuticals. They can sell pharmaceuticals to people, and get a bonus for sales made. I don't have much in mind for drugs right now aside from healing, but it is something I want to include and balance without it having an emphasis on money.

Manual labor has always been the highest paying job on CityRPG's no matter what you do, simply because mining/chopping trees is an infinite resource that never goes away. This leads to a very obvious blow to the ecomony with an easily bottable system in place like that.
It is an infinite resource however in the beginning you can only sell it for cheap, and buy it for high from a the default resource trader. The point is that people will sell it cheaper than the buying pricing at the default resource trader. It is only there for starters and to help build a form of an economy.

Instead, a proper real estate system would let architects to put up their lots for sale and let people purchase them without waiting for the architect to get online.See, why is there even such a limit in the first place? If you can hide forgettons of easily exploitable drugs in your lot, well its obvious what the majority of players will use lots for anyway. I've never seen the need for drugs in the first place - why not make lots act as your safehouse and possibly a money-maker via clever eventing (which will also be limited to hell)?
Property can be a safe house. Just because I mentioned drugs does not mean that is the entire intent of them. Houses being prebuilt and unchangeable at almost all times will stop players from barricading themselves inside. There will be a real estate system, but I'd rather have players focus on building and collaborating. Player interaction is important.

A better balance to strike, in my opinion, would be to allow people to purchase empty lots or lots built by architects. Don't completely cripple people who want to be CEO's of a big shop without having to cash out on some architect to do the build for them, maybe the CEO is a good builder himself. On the other hand, if people really /suck/ at building, a smart choice would be to purchase a building from a respectable architect so they don't have to worry about their lot being flagged and deleted. Either way, bad builds will remain a problem, even with architects.But... you haven't even explained how fires would affect your build in the first place? Would it just be a "health hazard" so to speak? Would it occur randomly or would there be arsonists? Will it fake kill or completely destroy bricks?
There will be prebuilt buildings like I said that a CEO can purchase and turn into a shop. Once they have enough money they can erect their own building by hiring an architect. People can hop job to job as well if they like.

Fires can be caused by anyone if they have the right items. If caught you can be incarcerated for a long time especially if you are attempting to destroy another business as a member of the business branch. Fires will fakekill bricks then disable rendering, making the structure look destroyed. I don't have much in mind for this either right now, but it is a planned feature. Not a big emphasis though.

Buying lots built by architects is definitely in mind.

By resources, do you mean labor? But that would mean you'd have to be a laborer for this job to be even remotely useful, as labor branch won't have any reason to sell resources to anyone but the "global market" (aka infinite cash dispencer)
You don't have to be a laborer for this training to be useful. If you learn this training, you can go to a store, buy some resources from a player, then go and construct whatever item you want.

Again, needs to be elaborated. The current way drugs are handled in CityRPG are a loving mess for multitude of reasons.
I don't have a lot in mind for drugs right now. They will not be easily profitable and they can only be sold player to player. They are there for healing and for special powers such as making you temporarily invincible or making you run faster temporarily.

Thank you for the input. I will be editing the original post. Anything I did not respond to I do not want to talk about because I am comfortable with the idea. I like the way jailing works, killing will simply have a higher penalty. Jail breaking will be possible, along with that if you jail break you have the opportunity to clear your record and start fresh with nothing.