I've had an idea, which isn't too far away from Tallien's Drug "Front" Property suggestion but which I think may be a little easier to code. However I can't be sure given that I know nothing of the mechanics of php coding.

It goes a little like this..

I just want to base it in the business district forum, taking into consideration that the legitimate businesses there are not in fact legitimate because they are run by the Mafia. So I got to thinking that if you were to post a couple of times in any of the threads in the business district, you could receive a "Business District Perk". This perk would entitle you to receive an couple of extra units of drugs at a discounted price to their current City rate and the owner of the thread you posted in would receive a percentage of your profits in addition to your crew and yourself.

To simplify, here it is in point form:

You post in a thread in the district forum.
You randomly receive a Perk for posting.
You have an option to buy a drug at discounted price from the current City rate.
The range of units you can buy could be anything between 1-5 units of drugs (could be rank-dependent?)
The units you got from this perk would stack on top of the units that you are already allowed to hold.
The money that you make from selling the discounted drugs would be split between you, the business owner and your crew tax whereas the remaining profit is treated normally.

In terms of coding (again, bearing in mind I know absolutely nothing about it), it may be easier to apply the business owner's cut upon the purchase of the discounted drugs as the coding for a two way split between crew tax and personal profit is already in place. Again, this is where the idea becomes a little vague...it would probably be best to set this cut at a static rate if being applied at this point, as obviously profits are variable.

Posting in the Business District already has its advantages, but something like this would add another, thus encouraging more participation in the BDs and allowing everyone to benefit. This could of course be city-exclusive, meaning that the Perk is only achievable when posting within your own city's BD.

There you have it...I'm throwing myself to the lions now :)

I like things that make the business district more realistic and may improve contribution levels.

However, this is going to give people more money/perks to do so, rather than recirculate existing perks. I don't think that increasing wealth/units of any individual, even if splitting them with the owner, is the right way to go.

While I am all for boosting role play, as I have stated in several other threads, coming up with perks for posting is going to be hard. There is already a system in place that gives us experience for posting in the streets AND in the business districts, we just can't physically see all the benefits of it, therefore we view it as an out of sight out of mind type of thing. If we could come up with ideas to boost the role playing aspect, without it being, "because you posted you get rewarded," I would totally be in support of it. I just don't think it's fair to do it by posting because then some sort of minimum would have to be required, but what do you set it at? How do we gauge what is a meaningful post vs what is spam via code? Take Grin and I's responses. Mine is well over a paragraph long, while his is just a few short sentences, however both are very meaningful posts related to the topic. But, should someone's post be discounted because they are meaningfully responding, yet they don't have a lot to say for every single post they make? Should someone be rewarded for doing just the bare minimum to get the perk, even if it's not as meaningful as another guys? I can appreciate the idea you're going for, I just don't know that basing rewards on how/what you post is the way to go.

One thing I would love to see more in the game are mystery, and a bit of randomness.

In the real world, nothing is certain, especially in the criminal world. The way I see Mafia Returns, most things have been 'figured out', most statistics, through trial and error or just close observation. Anything that can be thrown in as a 1-off or random event, is something that I would see as entertaining, and would increase the entertainment and longevity of the game as a whole.

At the moment, the business district in my honest opinion is slightly dead... I would think that random 'perks' or 'events' would be something that would be beneficial, as stated above.

If you think about it, 'random drug deals' would be the most roleplay related, as these are bars - people that indulge in drug use, or the sale of drugs  - tend to hang out in bars. 

Having said all that, I believe adding random events for when you post in bars would be a great idea. In fact, ANYTHING that could be hard-coded to offer a little bit more adventure or fun to the business districts, I would welcome with open arms. I know in the past I've read, and been told, that this being a roleplaying game - that hard-coding roleplaying features. BUT, the streets are one thing - you can access them everywhere, they're highly visible (even new threads posted in IRC) where the business district is sortof hidden (it's even last on the list of forums in the dropdown menu) and you have to be in the same city as the forum. These  all make the BD somewhat inconvenient and undesirable. If you want to breathe life into the forum - you have got to add or change something and I think that this something, is one of the best ideas I've read about. Not discounting the other suggestions, but this one offers the most incentive and has a solid ground when it comes to a roleplay perspective.

Actually, I see Grin and Cassi's points completely. I also understand, in retrospect, how difficult it would be to gauge eligibility for a perk based on qualitative input rather than quantitative...back to the drawing board :)

RP used to be something much bigger on here, but has kinda fallen into the... back alley...  I'm not sure if these perks are a way to do things though. The main reason for people's positing is to try to get points. However, Perhaps in the different forums where you can actually accumulate points, you can also get some cash, or even spend some cash when going in attendance. 

Like say, a person who owns the thread in the business district, usually has a bar, maybe he can get a miniscule amount of cash put into an account that he can withdrawl from whenever he would fly to such and such city. This would encourage more threads to be written. As for actually posters, the incentive for them is simply to post for points, but with more things going out on in the business district this might help make them move a bit better rather than droning on in one single thread.  The posters in the thread should be charged an amount equivalent to a petty which can go to the thread owner. 

As for thinking about perks in threads, perhaps there should be some sort of achievement built around posting. At this point, it seems that most posting has been made legitimate and regulated heavily so, it would make some sense if this was added in. People always need an incentive to do things, and I really think RP needs to be brought back to the streets. 

It is terribly complicated figuring out how though...

See, I think that charging users for participation in BD threads would cause even more reluctance to participate. I wouldn't personally have any problem with it, but then I enjoy posting in all the forums including the BD. The few who do pay the BDs a visit could be put right off if the shops involved a charge. I do agree that this would allow for greater realism, but it would definitely be at the expense of how interactive the BD is.

While we may agree or disagree on the random gifts that could be bestowed on people who post in businesses, why not make this a vehicle to bring back the MRSE? If I'm not mistaken, the code simply wasn't fine-tuned.

While it doesn't necessarily encourage posting by patrons, per se, it was a very reasonable incentive for business owners to build and maintain a business, while making a small profit out of it. Users would purchase a "piece" of the business, and, as activity grew or stagnated, prices rose or fell accordingly. Mind you, it was never a source of massive income, but it was a nice bonus for the owners who put the time and effort into building the business, and it was able to net a small profit for the more shrewd users.


As a side note, I'd be on board with giving a very small incentive with the drug idea every once in a while as a nice surprise, as I don't think the incentive of a random drug or two will lead to too much money being injected into the game.

I frequently hear "too much money" as a blanket-reasoning for rejecting a good portion of suggestions that are pitched around - some quite good, others not so much. Even in the event that all of the benefits of the suggestion were enacted, why couldn't you just balance the new influx of cash by reducing the payout on the other avenues for income?

Because then these "perks" for posting in business district wouldn't be perks but a requirement if you want to keep your income at the same rate.

I don't really think that in game cash inflation would be a huge concern here...

Original post says 1-5 drug units for a 'perk', I don't think every post should get a perk.. so say 1 in 10 (about) got a perk that said you got a few cheap drug units...

The drug units could be anything, they don't really have to be cocaine, let's say it is cocaine though, you're allowed to buy 2 units at 5k each.. if you're LUCKY you're gonna make 4k a piece, but most likely 2k a piece... so this random event could give you between 5-10,000, and there's no certainty as to how much/how often you get it... saying that this would create some sort of inflation in game makes no sense to me, especially when you look at post counts for the majority of the player base being less than 100 posts... if it's 1 in 10 posts, then an active poster, over a lifetime of posting, could accumulate maybe 50 grand extra? I don't see that as inflation I see that as a tangible motivator to actually post in the business district, a very small price to pay for a revival of roleplaying in the BD

That being said, if this were to go into effect I think the player base should have to self police it's business districts for spamming, either that or some other control (unbeknownst to us) should be enforced possibly a character minimum.. but I believe strongly that whatever that requirement/eligibility marker is, it should be kept away from public eye entirely (so it wouldn't be abused). 

We need to do something to put some sort of life into the buisness district. I like this suggestion

I don't see much of an issue with diversifying, if even by the smallest margin, how the site makes its income. If Lola's suggestion was implemented at face value, I highly doubt it would inject a large amount of money into the game. I would like to see the MRSE re-implemented at some point though, and combined with this suggestion, it'd be a modest incentive for people to revitalize a business district that is increasingly treated like an annoying, necessary evil to raise your info skill.

One thing instead of drugs I've always been a fan of the business owner receiving money per post. Say $100 per user post in their business district?

I don't really think that in game cash inflation would be a huge concern here...

 

 

 

Original post says 1-5 drug units for a 'perk', I don't think every post should get a perk.. so say 1 in 10 (about) got a perk that said you got a few cheap drug units...

 

 

 

The drug units could be anything, they don't really have to be cocaine, let's say it is cocaine though, you're allowed to buy 2 units at 5k each.. if you're LUCKY you're gonna make 4k a piece, but most likely 2k a piece... so this random event could give you between 5-10,000, and there's no certainty as to how much/how often you get it... saying that this would create some sort of inflation in game makes no sense to me, especially when you look at post counts for the majority of the player base being less than 100 posts... if it's 1 in 10 posts, then an active poster, over a lifetime of posting, could accumulate maybe 50 grand extra? I don't see that as inflation I see that as a tangible motivator to actually post in the business district, a very small price to pay for a revival of roleplaying in the BD

 

That being said, if this were to go into effect I think the player base should have to self police it's business districts for spamming, either that or some other control (unbeknownst to us) should be enforced possibly a character minimum.. but I believe strongly that whatever that requirement/eligibility marker is, it should be kept away from public eye entirely (so it wouldn't be abused). 

Normally I'm against stimulis spending, but the Business district needs a revival. 

Yeah, I don't like the idea of drugs... But I do think some sort of randomized income from the business district might help bring people back to using them more. Originally the site was intended to be an RP site, with clicking. Now it's just clicking and BSing on IRC. So, I'm all for anything that'll try to bring back RP.