Having seen Global Chat introduced a lot of the time drug prices are requested within this medium. Which is fair enough because the 'Tips' function is incredibly frustrating.

It will inform you that drugs are high and low in certain cities. However the parameters are set very far apart IMHO. There is a $3000 swing from the drug high and tip high. (Heroin $10500 v tips saying high at $7500)

What I am suggesting is that the tips are taken out of the 'games' hands and given to the users. Members place drugs prices into a 'Market' you can choose to buy this information for whatever price the person is willing to place it up for. You have two separate markets. One for low prices and one for high. You could possibly stipulate what drug is high is people wish for it to be more specific. You could provide all drug prices or just one. Just like the choice to choose a drug or general prices

The idea being if you supply good information over a period of time people are more likely to pay you $50,000 for good information. But you could also provide bad information. A bluff if you so wish and make monetary gain from it.

Im sure there are many ways to go with this but it's just an idea to bring things more into the users hands

This is an extremely appealing idea.

I see two immediate issues though, one is extremely easy to solve and the other is more tricky:

1. People without CA's gain their units from tipping, so there needs to be an alternative to this mechanism or make units automatic again. I would suggest linking forum activity to units gained which will probably be greeted with disdain; god forbid we retain an element of 'text based' in the confines of our text based role-playing game.

2. Previously the tips functioned as a way to remove some surplus cash from the game. Even if a percentage was skimmed by the game (as with dice profits for example) there would still be a lot more money in the game than there is now; money would swap from user to user and profitability would increase. The only immediate fixes for this would be:

i. Reduce profit margins of drug deals

ii. Increase price of tips to the extent where the % the game 'skimmed' off the top of a tip price is equal to the amount of money the game currently 'recoups' from the tip system as is.