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Section 4 - Contracts and Patents:
For a fee, players will be able to organize contracts and file them through a Judge. The judge will either approve or deny the contract. If approved, the contract will be stored in a folder for reference (provided all parties have expressed agreement to the Judge first) under a contract # as it's filename. All parties involved will be given the contract #.
In a dispute, Judges will have access to contracts and can enforce contracts. Players may wish to hire lawyers to help dispute ambiguous contracts (giving the possible existance of law firms for those good at arguing/logic) in court. Because of contracts, banks will be able to exist by giving players loans because players will be forced to sign contracts. If a player does not return X amount of money specified by the contract in the time specified, the courts will be able to simply reference the contract and enforce it immediately.
When players submit npc's, a Judge will approve/deny the script (often a judge will likely seek the aid of a trusted engineering firm for exactly everything the script does) and if approved, tweak the script for server-use. When an npc is approved, the Judge will award a patent (usually with a time-frame before the machine becomes any machine that any firm/player can purchase). That patent, while active, gives only the firm/player holding the patent the exclusive right to purchase the machine that produces such good. Patents are transferable, but can not be multiplied (ie a firm can't sell a patent and still hold on to it).
Section 5 - Economics and Politics
There will be a limited/set amount of money in the world. Anybody caught modifying the money supply without my explicit authorization will be automatically permanently IP and Computer banned without exception.
Money will be very important. In theory, if a person had enough money, they could buy a bunch of land, pay architects (level makers) to make a palace, then submit the palace to a judge for review (with a review fee). If approved, the judge would give a resource (lumber, minerals, etc) requirement to building the house, which said rich player could pay people to harvest. So, in theory, a person could have a huge palace built. Infact, the economy would improve if rich people spent a lot, as the money would be spread to (likely otherwise low-paid) labourers.
Each city will have it's own elected mayor and councillors. The councillors will advise the mayor and hold votes on the mayor's proposals. In a vote, the mayor may break ties.
The proposals a mayor can make may include but are not limited to: city bylaws, spending, taxation, and city staff management.
The city officials (mayor and councillors) have control over the cities funds and property (land, buildings, etc). Only in extreme cases will there be intervention by Judges/the Manager in city management issues.
Elections will be held periodically (looking at once every 3 months) and are open to any registered citizens of the particular city. To register as a citizen takes processing time and the city has a right to deny citizenship to any player (especially for not paying taxes).
How cities will make/spend money will be entire open-ended. Good luck.
Cities will have bylaws that will likely be enforced by a local police force of some kind. Cities will likely have to pay police officers and will have to pay upload-fees to the courts to have things such as police station and jails uploaded. In addition, cities will have to apply for machines to produce police items (such as nets to drag unruly players to jail) and pay any fees that a firm would need to pay.
To add a sense of reality, nets to catch players will be destroyable (so players could resist and potentially escape) and prison cells are explodable from the outside (so other players could organize a break-out).
Police, like all non-on-duty-server-staff, will be quite mortal. There will be no AP system.
Like police, cities will likely have to hire their own events team city staff. How this is organized is, again, up to the cities. They may charge players, they have may have it free to citizens, or it may be completely free. There are many ways to organize this.
Section 6 - Resources and the Environment:
There will be resources all over the world. Their main purpose has been explained in the explanation of machines. Although it hasn't been said specifically, machines will in addition be able to produce foods. Eating food will not be required to live, but will be the only way to regain lost health and cure ailments (random sunstroke from wandering in the desert, etc). While some resources will exist in limited amounts (like minerals and oil), some resources will be able to be regrown (trees and vegetables). Trees will be predictable in growth, and vegetables will follow a Harvest-Moon based model for growing. Those who particularly enjoy Harvest Moon for the SNES will likely look forward to the farming system.
Resources, as all npcs, can either be carried by a player or stored in a box.
Section 7 - Challenges and Concerns:
- Keeping the balance between leader and follower populations. Too many leaders and there will be a labour shortage. Too many followers and there will be a labour surplus.
- Too much responsibility for city leaders? Will they have any concept of economics or fiscal management?
- How do I know I can trust Judges?
- A large player population will be needed to make this work.
- I'm afraid of being the only one who knows what's going on.
Section 8 - Notes:
- Trial accounts will not be able to hold money or participate in anything. I'm considering having them transform into random wildlife (butterfly, etc) not capable of interfering in the game itself, only fluttering around and pm'ing a single player every 60 seconds.
- Keep lots of extra money in the server's hands for just-in-case. Let the initial cities have a lot of money for the same reason, so they can get on their feet.
- Run for mayor personally at first to show everybody how it's done.
- Furniture will be like Animal Crossing. Players can place furniture in homes and move it around to customize house. Same with office buildings, etc.
Section 9 - Final Words:
Thank-you for reading my brief explanation of what's going on. I realize it's more reading that you may be used to and I appreciate it. I would appreciate any input (questions, comments, concerns) you may have. Please use this topic to address such things. I may have missed many things I have shooting around in my mind, so some things may be unclear.
Thanks.
- Shaun (Manager/Owner of Dolphonia) |