[POLL] Would you pay "utilities"?

[shareef2]

I wouldn't want it forced onto people - some just aren't interested in roleplaying the mundane tasks of getting their electrics redone. That being said, I'd be one that would engage with this on both my characters, I'm very interested. 

[Blöp]

Support. We talked about this here tho: 

 

[Fergie]

No. I pay my utilities IRL. I come here to GTAW to play a game. I don’t want to complain about paying my utilities IRL to then log into a game to complain about paying my utilities ICly. 

[Busch]

Absolutely, but I would say for there to be privte companies. And people who actually know how these things work to handle them. That way money circulates way much more. And it owuld create so much more roleplay than the common "go out for a drive/hike with friends".

 

Also creates much more funds which means distributes more money into different entities not just the government (which ism't realistic at all)

Edited May 28, 2020 by Chuck Lee

[Shaderz]

Mixed feelings.

 

I think this is an interesting concept and definitely something I would love to see implemented but I personally am not sure exactly how to go about that and the way you described it in my opinion isn't quite the best option. I believe one of the big downsides to this is how it literally forces roleplay on others in the sense that it doesn't give them the option to voluntarily take initiative to call your company and create passive roleplay themselves, it's red tape roleplay if it's forced upon them by a script which in reality doesn't really change anything in the grand scheme of things if you dig deep down into the roots of this.

 

When players log in, it is usually assumed that their characters have taken care of their daily basic banal stuff unless specified otherwise in their roleplay. Say they didn't call maintenance, so their utilities are shut off and stop working according to what tends to happen in real life if that is the case. How are the consequences of this going to be enforced? Certainly you can't expect admins to check on every house or business all the time to make sure owners and their residents are roleplaying things properly? That's unpractical, which means this will have to rely on the players - which often is dangerous when not properly regulated. Imagine someone finds their way around this system and thus powergames and is caught days or weeks later, is all of this player's roleplay going to be voided because he roleplayed something he shouldn't of in the first place and his rule breaking changed the way others interacted with him? Now imagine not only one, but a bunch of people doing the same thing. Can you see the issue here?

 

The risk of the above happening on a server which peaks at 400-500 players during week days and 600-700 during weekends if not more, is enormous. It's one of those things that it's inevitably going to happen because not everyone can be arsed to roleplay such mundane tasks and I personally don't really blame them, especially those who barely even make use of their properties - which of course is their fault but it's their house and I personally think it's unfair to force them to roleplay in there if they don't want to, this is a game after all, business wise it's different though. Not just that, though, but unless you make things interesting somehow, I can see this being one of those scenarios where the technician goes to a house or business, roleplays fixing or changing whatever is needed to ensure the proper maintenance of house utilities and the owner just stands there still the whole time or just answers a few /do's.

 

You also should put yourself in the player's shoes and ask the following:

1. What do I get out of this?
2. How does this help developing my character?
3. What difference does this make to me?

Don't take my reply as me discouraging or demotivating you from going ahead with this project but rather me bringing up some concerns which I see unequivocally being a thing if this gets added. I still believe this is an overall good idea but the way you described it should happen is in my opinion the wrong approach to this. I think a lot of script support will be heavily needed but again not in a way that feels forced. Either way, I genuinely wish you good luck with this.

[r0yal]

If I got something back for it? (Engineer visits, visibly being able to see utility companies roleplaying around infrastructure) then 100% it'd be something I'd support.

 

I'm all for niche types of roleplay and the possibilities are extremely varied with public utility roleplay.

[TakeTwo]

If it was based on actual usage and the money went to a public works faction then sure. 

 

If it's just for "realism" and serves no reason to create new rp, then no. 

 

There is a line where realism starts to limit rp instead of enhance it and this server already treads the line Imo. 

 

In addition, having cool ideas and more options is great in theory but when you start to create too many you dilute other rp and that makes it harder for players to find each other or burn out others. This in turn can create frustration and possibly lead to people quitting. 

 

If there is a niche group that wants to do this, cool, as long as it's not to the detriment of the rest and we don't lose any more clothing customizing options for sake of a few factions "uniforms." 

Edited May 28, 2020 by TakeTwo

[Five-oh]

I just never enjoyed the process of paying for imaginary items. Like, I'll be fine with paying actual money for a mechanic for working on my car, but only because the vehicle ends up (actually) being modified. I however don't find thorough mechanical rp interesting in the slightest, similarly to how I wouldn't be intrigued by someone pumping out /mes about working on my house's electricity or plumbing. If the party's willing to engage in conversation with my character throughout, it's a bit less stale for me personally. But I understand, that managing the manual labor, along with holding a conversation can be a bit taxing - which is why I suspect laborers usually wanna get it over with asap.  

 

I actually find it interesting, that people would be willing to spend real currency, on imaginary things of value, as opposed to offering imaginary currency and suggesting not actually paying script-wise.

 

With that said, roleplaying the really (imo) mundane parts of life doesn't really interest me as a player. Let's say I wouldn't pay the bills, and the lights would be cut, I couldn't care less. I don't spend my time on having my character cook at home or vacuuming. And I've always had the theory that, while lots of players like to applaud other players dedicating themselves to roleplaying the more mundane things of life, there usually isn't much of an audience actually participating in the long run. 

 

tl;dr

I think this concept would die out really quickly, besides the mandatory bits players would be forced to engage in (say, you lose your house if you don't pay bill x). So it's a strong no, from me.

 

I would suggest offering repair or manual labor services in game. I presume you'll find little to no actual interest in the topic. 

[Timzii]

Yes, if you own a property it should consist of paying for utilities, same as for the vehicle which has maintenance and insurance. BIG support.

[Bycarbon]

3 hours ago, Shaderz said:

Mixed feelings.

 

I think this is an interesting concept and definitely something I would love to see implemented but I personally am not sure exactly how to go about that and the way you described it in my opinion isn't quite the best option. I believe one of the big downsides to this is how it literally forces roleplay on others in the sense that it doesn't give them the option to voluntarily take initiative to call your company and create passive roleplay themselves, it's red tape roleplay if it's forced upon them by a script which in reality doesn't really change anything in the grand scheme of things if you dig deep down into the roots of this.

 

When players log in, it is usually assumed that their characters have taken care of their daily basic banal stuff unless specified otherwise in their roleplay. Say they didn't call maintenance, so their utilities are shut off and stop working according to what tends to happen in real life if that is the case. How are the consequences of this going to be enforced? Certainly you can't expect admins to check on every house or business all the time to make sure owners and their residents are roleplaying things properly? That's unpractical, which means this will have to rely on the players - which often is dangerous when not properly regulated. Imagine someone finds their way around this system and thus powergames and is caught days or weeks later, is all of this player's roleplay going to be voided because he roleplayed something he shouldn't of in the first place and his rule breaking changed the way others interacted with him? Now imagine not only one, but a bunch of people doing the same thing. Can you see the issue here?

 

The risk of the above happening on a server which peaks at 400-500 players during week days and 600-700 during weekends if not more, is enormous. It's one of those things that it's inevitably going to happen because not everyone can be arsed to roleplay such mundane tasks and I personally don't really blame them, especially those who barely even make use of their properties - which of course is their fault but it's their house and I personally think it's unfair to force them to roleplay in there if they don't want to, this is a game after all, business wise it's different though. Not just that, though, but unless you make things interesting somehow, I can see this being one of those scenarios where the technician goes to a house or business, roleplays fixing or changing whatever is needed to ensure the proper maintenance of house utilities and the owner just stands there still the whole time or just answers a few /do's.

 

You also should put yourself in the player's shoes and ask the following:

1. What do I get out of this?
2. How does this help developing my character?
3. What difference does this make to me?

Don't take my reply as me discouraging or demotivating you from going ahead with this project but rather me bringing up some concerns which I see unequivocally being a thing if this gets added. I still believe this is an overall good idea but the way you described it should happen is in my opinion the wrong approach to this. I think a lot of script support will be heavily needed but again not in a way that feels forced. Either way, I genuinely wish you good luck with this.

I can see the concern for forcing the roleplay as well as where it come be a big mistake, used and abused. It can work in the way of the Construction/Furniture system, where only certain businesses are whitelisted to access the hookup and disconnect commands. It would rely heavily on a technical backend that myself, or other utility services, would have access to in order to monitor the hookups and disconnects. This would avoid players powergaming that they'd be hooked back up. They could RPly pull hillbilly and RP Stealing their neighbours power. A math algorithm could be put into the script as well, that adds kWh (kilowatt hours) x the amount of time spent in the interior, or the amount of time the interior has /lightson or /lightsoff. An average household consumed 27kWh a day, so they'd base the math off of that number or similar, especially when it comes to payments.

You are right to say it comes down to the player and their interaction of it. It may seem forced. Where, this may seem true, it is always the option of the player whether or not they want to pay and do the RP, they simply would not have access to power/water RPly. The payment can also work like /rent. If you dont confirm to pay utilities, you dont get charged. You confirm your utilities, you get charged, easy right?

In MTA, a Multiplayer Mod for San Andreas, on a server I played there was a Insurance script. Certain Faction IDs were added to the script and given permission to sell insurance. They'd get select people with insurance. Note: It was not a requirement to have insurance like it is here, but it worked the concept that if they didn't have insurance, they had to pay their own repairs. If they had insurance, repairs were paid.

 

 

2 hours ago, Five-oh said:

I just never enjoyed the process of paying for imaginary items. Like, I'll be fine with paying actual money for a mechanic for working on my car, but only because the vehicle ends up (actually) being modified. I however don't find thorough mechanical rp interesting in the slightest, similarly to how I wouldn't be intrigued by someone pumping out /mes about working on my house's electricity or plumbing. If the party's willing to engage in conversation with my character throughout, it's a bit less stale for me personally. But I understand, that managing the manual labor, along with holding a conversation can be a bit taxing - which is why I suspect laborers usually wanna get it over with asap.  

 

I actually find it interesting, that people would be willing to spend real currency, on imaginary things of value, as opposed to offering imaginary currency and suggesting not actually paying script-wise.

 

With that said, roleplaying the really (imo) mundane parts of life doesn't really interest me as a player. Let's say I wouldn't pay the bills, and the lights would be cut, I couldn't care less. I don't spend my time on having my character cook at home or vacuuming. And I've always had the theory that, while lots of players like to applaud other players dedicating themselves to roleplaying the more mundane things of life, there usually isn't much of an audience actually participating in the long run. 

 

tl;dr

I think this concept would die out really quickly, besides the mandatory bits players would be forced to engage in (say, you lose your house if you don't pay bill x). So it's a strong no, from me.

 

I would suggest offering repair or manual labor services in game. I presume you'll find little to no actual interest in the topic. 

I can see your concern and your points, and each person on the server roleplays differently. As much as it's an "imaginary" thing, it could advance into a script-wise requirement for property owners like Bars, houses, Government facilities, offices etc etc. It may be mundane, but you forget, this server is meant to be a hyper-realistic, hardcore, elite roleplay server. A lot of people do RP passively,  and a lot of people do use their interiors.

It will make a lot more sense in a future update that I will make to this thread.