Hello, Governor of Skara Brae - Europa here! And I want to get this out of my head because it has been in it for sometime.. I am going to share my ideas on improvements that could be made for each town in UO that has a citizenry/town loyalty..
Currently, the only interaction between governors and their citizens is through the trade deals which costs a governor a good 24 million or so each election, on smaller shards the trade deal is literally only used by a couple people and it is hard on less-populated shards to get people to donate and when you try and get citizens to donate they will complain about it, yet they are the ones getting the free-trade deal cause you as a governor are using your own gold and that's not right.. So, the system is broken.. Trade deals need to be cut WAY DOWN, they're a good idea, but the system is broken and it doesn't cater towards everyone when it should.. I will explain that in a moment.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is something that should be done with each town, Governors should be able to get together and forge alliances, or start wars (which I will get to) or remain neutral. The township should consist of THREE different aspects.. The citizenry and militia.. Militia would be a heavy PVP similar to factions, in fact, every aspect about it would be just like factions for those who go the militia route, essentially making each town into its own faction, the only difference is there would be no sigils to capture.. Instead we would have our own Chaos/Order system back into play, a Governor could either go Order or Chaos. Order and Chaos mean war: raid an enemy's treasury and steal their town's gold, get access to rewarding dungeons or by conquering the town itself.
City Stone
Tax Rate:
Guard level:
Active Citizens:
Active Militia:
Exiles(Reds):
Town Bonus/Trade Deal:
Yes, to be a citizen of a town you should HAVE to pay taxes, governors should be able to set tax rates, this means you would have to keep your loyalty up and to do that you would have to pay a little bit of gold which would go straight to the treasury, everything we do from buying banners to utilizing the trade deal should cost gold, gold that goes straight back into the treasury. And we and everyone else should be able to know how many active citizens and militia there, who are the citizens of my town? I have no idea, but I would like to find out..
Felucca
Yes, this system would take place in Fel and replace factions entirely.. As governor of Skara Brae in Tram though I should also be governor of Skara Brae in Felucca, there should be no separate governor as I fear there is a lack of players on most shards to be able to cover all those seats.. The militia aspect could very well work in both Trammel and Felucca however.
Treasury
Treasuries of each city would accumulate money based on the tax rate set by the Governor, and the amount of goods purchased in that city by players. Money could not be added to the treasury manually, only by purchasing goods. This way there is more involvement from the players and interaction between the Governors and their citizens and militia..
Treasuries should be able to get broken into by a town that conquers it.. the Stones could be defended by say walls and in rather very well hidden spots and protect by guards. Make it so a tinker would have to blow up the walls to get into the treasury, and militia would have to move in and kill the guards, etc.. A guard level would take place similar to factions, a governor could hire specific guards and control them in certain ways.. And once a treasury is broken into perhaps you would need a certain key that only the governor of that town has. (A treasury key) It would exist under my idea, but a treasury would be very, very difficult to break into and steal from..
Dungeons
How great would it be if every town had its own dungeon where citizens & militia could get extra skill gain in said dungeon we could also have town specific "artifacts" and crafted items that ONLY a citizen of said town could wear from that dungeon and if a town was conquered then the citizens of said town that conquered it would get the benefits from that dungeon.. (Extra skill gain and so forth..)
Towns
Under this system towns would have to have some kind of a boarder limit.. I believe citizens should be able to somehow tie their houses to the city stone and get crafting bonuses when crafting inside their homes and extra skill gains (again, this would make citizens more involved in their towns..) Each town's crafting areas such as forges should feature extra skill gain for its citizens & militia and towns that conquer it..
The Governor of a town can set its towns allegiance. The options are Order, Chaos, or Balance.
Order, Chaos, and Balance militia are flagged as enemies to one another (orange).
Since we wouldn't need sigils anymore I haven't worked out the kinks of how capturing a town would work but I would like to see some kind of "nods" that the militia would need to capture and hold for an X amount of time.. Or something like capture the flag almost.. Something along the lines of capturing something and holding it..
Vendors
An interesting idea.. A benefit for being a citizen? Paying a little bit of gold (that would go to the treasury as it should) to have your own vendor in your town somewhere, essentially creating a town market.
Silver
If the devs did a system like I am suggesting, they could take the opportunity (and they should) to turn silver into a real in game currency.. Similar to how you can gain silver off certain Fel creatures when in a faction, with factions retired under this system, silver has a new purpose and is the only currency accepted for the city treasuries (silver could become the official currency of Felucca, and that is that silver becomes the drop instead of gold and is the only place where you could get it..) and allow players to use it for purchasing good from vendors (Fel Vendors) Either way, silver is a PVP currency, but should still be a real currency in the game.. For example
Let's say you want to change your hair from a hair stylist, usually it costs 500k instead of 500k, it could also cost 12k in silver.. (that's just an example..)
Guards
As with factions, official town guards should be controlled by governors and paid for by the treasury as above, they would protect the treasury along with nods or certain points that could be captured by other towns.. All guards in Felucca should be this way though, fought off by players who come after them.. I am also in favor of a prison system if a guard kills you, taking your character to a jail that you could break out of it, bribe the guards or have your friends bust you out, or serve your time.. Even though this part doesn't have much to do with the governor system I am proposing, it would help change the landscape, I am also in favor of bounties or at least a bounty for every crime one commits in UO and as your commit more crimes, the bounty goes up..
Off Topic: This isn't entirely done yet but I will finish it soon, feel free to add ideas or comments.. I highly believe in order for the governor system to work more functional that there needs to be risk vs reward involved and that interaction between the governors and the citizens MUST happen in order for it to succeed in the future and these are ideas I have come up with.. Also, the devs have always wanted to replace factions with an order/chaos system, it has been discussed and I think this would be the best approach..
Currently, the only interaction between governors and their citizens is through the trade deals which costs a governor a good 24 million or so each election, on smaller shards the trade deal is literally only used by a couple people and it is hard on less-populated shards to get people to donate and when you try and get citizens to donate they will complain about it, yet they are the ones getting the free-trade deal cause you as a governor are using your own gold and that's not right.. So, the system is broken.. Trade deals need to be cut WAY DOWN, they're a good idea, but the system is broken and it doesn't cater towards everyone when it should.. I will explain that in a moment.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is something that should be done with each town, Governors should be able to get together and forge alliances, or start wars (which I will get to) or remain neutral. The township should consist of THREE different aspects.. The citizenry and militia.. Militia would be a heavy PVP similar to factions, in fact, every aspect about it would be just like factions for those who go the militia route, essentially making each town into its own faction, the only difference is there would be no sigils to capture.. Instead we would have our own Chaos/Order system back into play, a Governor could either go Order or Chaos. Order and Chaos mean war: raid an enemy's treasury and steal their town's gold, get access to rewarding dungeons or by conquering the town itself.
City Stone
Tax Rate:
Guard level:
Active Citizens:
Active Militia:
Exiles(Reds):
Town Bonus/Trade Deal:
Yes, to be a citizen of a town you should HAVE to pay taxes, governors should be able to set tax rates, this means you would have to keep your loyalty up and to do that you would have to pay a little bit of gold which would go straight to the treasury, everything we do from buying banners to utilizing the trade deal should cost gold, gold that goes straight back into the treasury. And we and everyone else should be able to know how many active citizens and militia there, who are the citizens of my town? I have no idea, but I would like to find out..
Felucca
Yes, this system would take place in Fel and replace factions entirely.. As governor of Skara Brae in Tram though I should also be governor of Skara Brae in Felucca, there should be no separate governor as I fear there is a lack of players on most shards to be able to cover all those seats.. The militia aspect could very well work in both Trammel and Felucca however.
Treasury
Treasuries of each city would accumulate money based on the tax rate set by the Governor, and the amount of goods purchased in that city by players. Money could not be added to the treasury manually, only by purchasing goods. This way there is more involvement from the players and interaction between the Governors and their citizens and militia..
Treasuries should be able to get broken into by a town that conquers it.. the Stones could be defended by say walls and in rather very well hidden spots and protect by guards. Make it so a tinker would have to blow up the walls to get into the treasury, and militia would have to move in and kill the guards, etc.. A guard level would take place similar to factions, a governor could hire specific guards and control them in certain ways.. And once a treasury is broken into perhaps you would need a certain key that only the governor of that town has. (A treasury key) It would exist under my idea, but a treasury would be very, very difficult to break into and steal from..
Dungeons
How great would it be if every town had its own dungeon where citizens & militia could get extra skill gain in said dungeon we could also have town specific "artifacts" and crafted items that ONLY a citizen of said town could wear from that dungeon and if a town was conquered then the citizens of said town that conquered it would get the benefits from that dungeon.. (Extra skill gain and so forth..)
Towns
Under this system towns would have to have some kind of a boarder limit.. I believe citizens should be able to somehow tie their houses to the city stone and get crafting bonuses when crafting inside their homes and extra skill gains (again, this would make citizens more involved in their towns..) Each town's crafting areas such as forges should feature extra skill gain for its citizens & militia and towns that conquer it..
The Governor of a town can set its towns allegiance. The options are Order, Chaos, or Balance.
Order, Chaos, and Balance militia are flagged as enemies to one another (orange).
Since we wouldn't need sigils anymore I haven't worked out the kinks of how capturing a town would work but I would like to see some kind of "nods" that the militia would need to capture and hold for an X amount of time.. Or something like capture the flag almost.. Something along the lines of capturing something and holding it..
Vendors
An interesting idea.. A benefit for being a citizen? Paying a little bit of gold (that would go to the treasury as it should) to have your own vendor in your town somewhere, essentially creating a town market.
Silver
If the devs did a system like I am suggesting, they could take the opportunity (and they should) to turn silver into a real in game currency.. Similar to how you can gain silver off certain Fel creatures when in a faction, with factions retired under this system, silver has a new purpose and is the only currency accepted for the city treasuries (silver could become the official currency of Felucca, and that is that silver becomes the drop instead of gold and is the only place where you could get it..) and allow players to use it for purchasing good from vendors (Fel Vendors) Either way, silver is a PVP currency, but should still be a real currency in the game.. For example
Let's say you want to change your hair from a hair stylist, usually it costs 500k instead of 500k, it could also cost 12k in silver.. (that's just an example..)
Guards
As with factions, official town guards should be controlled by governors and paid for by the treasury as above, they would protect the treasury along with nods or certain points that could be captured by other towns.. All guards in Felucca should be this way though, fought off by players who come after them.. I am also in favor of a prison system if a guard kills you, taking your character to a jail that you could break out of it, bribe the guards or have your friends bust you out, or serve your time.. Even though this part doesn't have much to do with the governor system I am proposing, it would help change the landscape, I am also in favor of bounties or at least a bounty for every crime one commits in UO and as your commit more crimes, the bounty goes up..
Off Topic: This isn't entirely done yet but I will finish it soon, feel free to add ideas or comments.. I highly believe in order for the governor system to work more functional that there needs to be risk vs reward involved and that interaction between the governors and the citizens MUST happen in order for it to succeed in the future and these are ideas I have come up with.. Also, the devs have always wanted to replace factions with an order/chaos system, it has been discussed and I think this would be the best approach..
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