RIAs and MIAs are a core component to our game, but I feel that they don't fit into RP. I would like to change how they work, and perhaps provide a new way for players and crews to compete with one another, instead of racing for IAs. Rather than focus on "getting lucky" and winning the race, we would instead reward competitiveness, strategy, and organization.

I suggest creating 3-5 "spots" in each district, which can be controlled by any crew in that city. Buying an HQ in a district automatically claims one spot, and additional spots can be claimed by building "stations" on vacant spots. Spots can only be vacated by being attacked by another crew. These stations serve as hubs for civilian, non-mafia traffic. As they sell drugs and offer loans to civilians, they generate income passively which increases with each day claimed. This money is automatically placed in the city bank account of the crewleader who owns the spot.  They also generate "Civilian Targets", who are a mix of:

• Junkies who haven't paid for their drugs.
• People who took out loans but can't pay them back.

If certain conditions are met, these civilian targets (CTs) will arrive in the hub and stay there for an hour. Made Men and above are the only ones who can see if there's a CT in the spot, but anyone in the crew can shoot it (if they are told the name of the target) if they are in the same district.

CTs will be generated at a constant rate at every station. So over the course of the day, your station sells drugs to poor junkies, and loans money to people who can't pay it back. However, as these CTs are generated in the hub, they are not killable yet. Throughout the day, your CTs will check the Business District in your city. If they see a lot of activity, they come to your part of town. At this point, the CT enters your station, and stays there for an hour. The rate at which generated CTs become killable is based on Business District activity (which is now being monitored by CLs/staff, so there shouldn't be any abuse). If a CT does not see much activity in the BD, it will skip town 24 hours after being generated (unless they are called in, see below).

CTs can also be "called in" at the cost of one credit. However, if you exhaust your CT count, the only way to acquire more is by claiming other "spots". This is done by building a "station" or HQ in a vacant spot. Stations and HQs can both be fortified, but stations cost less to fortify.

Now I'm going to provide an example, to describe my thoughts. These numbers are purely for the example, as I don't have a good estimate for MIA/RIA spawns.

Philadelphia

• Old City District
  • Spot A - HQ owned by Player1
  • Spot B - Vacant
  • Spot C - Claimed by Player3
• Bella Vista 
  • Spot D - HQ owned by Player2
  • Spot E - Claimed by Player2
  • Spot F - Vacant
• South Philly
  • Spot G - HQ owned by Player3
  • Spot H - Claimed by Player3
  • Spot I - Claimed by player3

Each owned spot generates 10 CTs per day. Philly has a mediocre Business District, so about 5 CTs show up in each spot over the course of the day. This rewards Player3's crew with a potential 20 kills (4 spots * 5), Player2's with 10, and Player1's with 5. However, Player3's crew wasn't online all the time, so 5 of their CTs skipped town. Luckily, Player3 had some credits, and his men used 10 credits to call in some of their CTs. Player2's crew killed all theirs, but didn't use any credits. Player1's crew killed their 5, but also used 5 credits to call in the remaining CTs. All the CTs that weren't called in or killed have skipped town, and are nowhere to be found.

Kill Count

Player1: 10 (5 credits spent) (0 expired)
Player2: 10 (0 credits spent) (0 expired)
Player3: 25 (10 credits spent) (5 expired)  

Conclusion

I feel that the racing mechanic on RIAs and the "spawning" mechanic on MIAs are severely OOC, and don't fit into the RP of being a mobster. With this system, we would accomplish the following:

• All kills are RP-based
• Kills are a competitive limited resources
• Territory contributes to power-gains, and these power-gains favor the more bold
• Business District offers real benefits to cities
• Passive money generation allows for additional investment mechanics
• Eliminates the need for IA lists and IA racing
• Limits on kills are crew-based rather than player-based, allowing for faster building
• Requires organization on part of crewleader/HSL to decide who gets the CT kills
• Kill centralization

Problems

• The primary problem I foresee is that attacking/claiming a spot will essentially be a declaration of war, and so people will refrain from taking them as long as it could cause tension.
• People who tend to win IA races may be against this, but I think they'd be the ones granted CTs from their boss anyways, so I doubt their average numbers would change.
• There would be no witness statements for CTs, as the kill takes place in a crew-owned station. This means you can't track gun progress in other crews as easily. This makes it more of a guessing game about where a crew is focusing their kills.

Suggestions

• I was back and forth on whether or not HQs should automatically grant a station. I think in my mind, the idea was that when you purchase an HQ, a station is also simultaneously purchased (if a spot in that district is available). HQs themselves are not stations, and a station purchased with an HQ can be destroyed without destroying the HQ itself.
• I don't have any exact numbers on how many should spawn in each CT, but it could be a number based on site activity or active users. My only request is that the number of CTs remain constant between stations.
• I recommend putting a cap on CT kills via BD. Basically, regardless of how active your BD is, you still have to call in 25 or 50% of your available CTs.
• I recommend making certain CT information public.

My only serious concern is the feasibility of coding these features. I wouldn't mind being a part of that process, though.