There is a lot of stuff in this thread I disagree with. There is a handful of things I vaguely agree with.
THINGS
NOT TO DO TO IMPROVE STORE RP (DESPITE SOME PEOPLE IN HERE SUGGESTING OTHERWISE, KNOWINGLY & NOT):
- Make running a store more gamey. More inherent game mechanics that make the experience a simulator rather than just another avenue for RP. I'm here to roleplay. I want to roleplay. Please roleplay.
- Make running a store more prohibitive. When I ran the Pint it was fun because the only expectation upon me as a player was to be active. Later down the line rent was introduced and running a rp hub was suddenly a laborious chore that sucked all the fun out of it. Rent, taxes, all these things are not particularly fun. Even if they're 'realistic', who cares. The economy is a complete lie anyways. Just charge people a one-time flat fee at the maximum, with the only expectation that they be active and abide by whatever set of rules.
Rent is not fun. It was never fun.
- Make the process of running a store itself prohibitive. Needing a hundred different approvals from this this and that to do that that and this. Forced to hang a portrait of Breen and every Tom Dick and Harry loyalist on the wall. Exhaustive game mechanics that waste my time and take me away from actually roleplaying.
THINGS
I PERSONALLY BELIEVE IMPROVE STORE RP
- Dedicated business/commerce faction which incorporates storeowners into it. DOB were fun. I liked how as a storeowner (At the time of the Pint, I imagine it changed throughout its lifespan), was by default a member of this faction and got to be involved in its doings. It took the dynamic of just having your circle of employees and expanded it to a wider group/community.
- Streamline everything. No exhaustive menus you need to scroll through. No elaborate UIs. Preferably as few UIs as physically possible. I don't like the gears of industry terminal stuff. Not crazy for all the scripting involved. Everything should be super straightforward and non-exhaustive. I need product in my store, I get product for my store. I sell that product. Leaves me with more time to actually roleplay rather than worry over micromanaging my store.
- Involvement in city operations. Very vague and general suggestion but in city 24 sometimes the Administration would reach out to businesses to host different things. The Pint hosted parties for different loyalist functions or just a special dinner between Ministry heads. It's fun as a player to get a glimpse into the world of these people that you might not otherwise interact with. Encourage these sorts of things. Incorporate businesses into different things and involve them.
- working bathrooms like poop hahahaha
Other stuff I can't think of off the top of my head. I'm gay.
- - -
To address some of the things mentioned in this thread:
Somewhat of a real suggestion that I personally have is that I think the more stores we have on a map, the more quality will take a hit. Think of it as a simple supply/demand equation. The more the quantity of stores are, the less quality will be. Of course there will be tiny spaces of high quality, but the amount of people that will flock to the easy '1-2-3 I got my order' stores is also higher.
I think this is kind of a silly way of thinking about it. Shit stores are shit because they're shit. Removing the quantity of stores does not eliminate shit stores it just shrinks the number of possible stores that could be shit. But it doesn't stop the say six available stores from all being shit. Nor does having nine stores mean all of them will just be shit. Good stores are good because they're good. Because there's a good idea behind them accompanied by good execution and presumably good roleplayers at the helm willing and able to facilitate good and fun interaction, and that by itself is not influenced by the number or lack there of of stores.
While I am generally of the opinion that YES, we don't want the amount being too exorbitantly high for the simple reason that Willard has all things considered a relatively small playerbase that will be stretched very thin between a lot of stores, but the logic applied here I don't really think tracks at all.
I am the biggest fan of needing to bulk buy stock and hold it in stores. Now the system we have in place REQUIRES player to player contact which makes the process slow and annoying. I'm unsure as to why we don't just have a drop off point script near the CWU where we can collect stock and then haul it back to stores and store it.
I generally am in favor of this kind of idea. Ideally as simple as the old system where you can just order things from a UI and it gets delivered, but perhaps include something that makes it where unlike the old system it doesn't just get shot across the city via imaginary pneumatic tube that instantly delivers it to your nearest dropoff terminal. I do fear that it would be perhaps a bit of tedium, but also kind of a happy medium between making the experience a touch more realistic without going too crazy.
Think my big fear is just storage space. I loathe the inventory tetris that Willard has going for it, even though that's practically industry standard for any RP server on gmod. Storage space is prohibitive and I feel like I as a store owner would want a comfortable amount of space to store my stuff that doesn't involve spending thousands of credits on large lockers that occupy a ton of space and look ugly.
