Updated scripted jobs ideas

[Heyste]

Short description:

DISCLAIMER: Nothing I suggest in this post is to be taken as an end-all final idea.  I encourage as many opinions here, so long as you give constructive feedback.  My goal here is to have a thread laying the groundwork of what the community might want out of a job, that way those who are responsible might see what we want and combine it with their desired outcome for said scripts.  These ideas aren’t going to be perfect, and like most of us, I’m only human.  My suggestions won’t get rid of grinding, nor will it remove scripted jobs being filled with no roleplay.  My ideas just narrow the area that scripted jobs work from, and provide the opportunity to have roleplay.

 

Detailed description:

Long post, prepare for waffling.  I’ll try to be as detailed and explain my ideas in an understandable way. 

 

My idea is to change the way the scripted jobs currently work.  I know there has been a lot of talk on here lately about completely removing scripted jobs, discourage grinding, etc.  I know a few people agree with me on this when I say grinding will never stop.  Yes, there are some people that just want to completely grind money for the sake of grinding money.  I’m not sure why, but there are people that do it.  There are also people like me, who grind because it’s almost a necessity to achieve what we want our characters to be portrayed as.  The goal for this is suggestion, instead of saying to remove or de-incentivize grinding, is to change how grinding works in general.  That way, both the people already happy with their characters standard of living, and those who need to continue grinding for money, will have more interaction throughout the day, instead of after the grinding has been done.

 

I’ll start with mining, since it’s the most commonly talked about.  I think the idea of mining should be removed.  The job itself isn’t even a job, it’s part of a larger job called metallurgy.  My suggestion for this is to remove the mining part, and change the job to make it more centered around Los Santos.

 

Example 1:  Changing the job to be more like what it’s title suggests.

 

Metallurgist uses already refined metals (copper, iron, aluminum) to create certain objects in the game.

 

   a.       Objects already makeable by metallurgists, and assets players would be interested in buying directly from metallurgist.

   b.      Objects possibly bought by businesses to keep their stocks up (bats, tools etc.)

   c.       Making objects directly for the factory, making a scripted wage per item sold (This would be used as a scripted method to make money)

Now, my idea for this job is to, instead of focusing the job around mining, it focuses more on providing a service.  Of course, the server NEEDS scripted jobs that provides players with a set amount of income, that’s a given.  But, removing the mining portion of the job would stop people traveling half way across San Andreas to AFK, and instead stay localized around a factory. 

 

Considering I’m not a programmer, and when I tried to HTML a ‘Hello World’ I somehow spawned a demonic portal to the 5th layer of hell, I couldn’t begin to have any idea on how it should be scripted.  My thoughts were to :

 

a.       Command to collect ingredients (takes a set amount of time)

b.      Command to smelt ingredients/make objects (Takes a set amount of time per object)

c.       Collect the object to either store in their own vehicle, or give it to the factory for a scripted payout.

 

Now, I know that mining also adds to the construction firms, but I haven’t forgotten about that either.  In my own personal opinion, I believe that the ores required should either be completely removed and just roleplayed, or be bought by the firms at the factory for a set price, to be later charged on the requested construction’s bill.  I’m aware that the idea to use the ores as a currency for other jobs and allow it to be traded among players instead of sold to the server at 50% time was the big idea for a while, but I really do think just removing mining in general would help lower the amount of complaints about people leaving to mine.  The entire process of construction is roleplayed out, and doesn’t have any scripts to require it to be done, and I believe that as long as the price sent to PM is represented as appropriate for the roleplayed amount of ores required, the change wouldn’t impact the construction firms.

 

I realize that removing mining would lower the amount of money people are able to get, and I don’t think that’s a good thing at all, either (since I’m also one of those people who grind jobs because I’m a broke MFer).  So the prices would have to reflect some sort of profitability, otherwise we would just go to the next most profitable scripted job and do that instead.  So there would be a lot of discussions needed on that idea.

 

Now then, who supplies the factories with their metals?  Truck drivers/couriers.

 

Example 2:

                Courier goes to the job spot.  Instead of the current options, they are presented with this: Business or Industrial.  Business couriers would do a combined job, that I think is a decent idea;

            

    Business: Courier selects the job and is sent to pick up the load, same as now.  The dropoff points would be moved to actual businesses around Los Santos, prioritizing the player-owned businesses over the scripted spots we have now.  The courier would have the same essential job they do now, but with the drop-offs being based around player-owned businesses.  The part I want to change is adding the component delivery to the courier job.  Say that I need some supplies delivered to my local 24/7.  I would call, or message via a /call command and that would alert the courier system.  The courier system would the move my business to the top of the queue, and send the next available courier to my business.  It would then notify me that a courier is on their way.

 

Not only would this condense down two jobs into one, it would also add a tad bit more player interaction into the base courier job.  Of course, it would essentially remove the component deliveries job, however, it is essentially the same idea.  A business needs components, the components are delivered and a set amount of money is removed from the business.  Businesses that are full of components, or are out of money, would be removed from the queue, and in their place would be a few of the scripted spots we already have now (or spots that are added to businesses for immersion, but do not give components or take money, just purely for interaction purposes)

 

                Industrial: Industrial truckers are, in my opinion, my favorite brain child.  The driver picks up a large delivery truck (18 wheelers implemented, perhaps? ? ) and drives to one of the scripted refineries across the map. They would pick up a load at a refinery, and drop it off at one of the two factories (Or, if the factories are server owned instead of player owned, perhaps a joined inventory for convenience sake?). 

 

This would add a trucking job that I feel would be entertaining, and also perhaps be the start of more trucking implementation in the future.  The routes would be set up as follows:

Aluminum would be the closest, but pay more than iron due to the IRL price per pound is above iron (perhaps offset the proximity of the factories with a longer loading and unloading time?)

Iron would be the middle distant, pay less than aluminum, but require less loading and unloading time (Note: I’m basing this off of the IRL economy to fit my example, I’m not saying any of these are set in stone.)

 

Copper would be the furthest traveling time, and pay higher than both of the two materials giving the price of copper in California is nearly 2 dollars per pound, while the other materials are less than .50 cents.

 

Again, this is just an idea to balance it.  The going rates for any of the materials are obviously up for discussion since this isn’t the real world, and the economy can be set up how they wish it to be. The main point of this is that it would allow us to practically keep all of the scripted areas mining and metallurgy gives us, give us a new job and update  a current one, all-the-while removing a practically AFK scripted job that requires no player interaction except the few minutes it takes to drive from point a to point b and go AFK again.

 

There are already some people taking the initiative for improving the fishing job, and they’ve also mentioned adding a food system that involves player-trading the fish instead of selling it to the imaginary fish monger in the back alley.

 

Brewing, even though it is my favorite, I can’t seem to think of anyway of improving the player interaction on that.  Perhaps making the breweries around Los Santos viable for working there with others? Not sure, feel free to add to the suggestion in the comments.

 

Taxi, as well, has already been discussed numerous times, and I feel has some great suggestions already.

 

Commands to add:A lot? Or not, I don’t know.  I don’t code.

 

Items to add:No items added unless desired, some items rearranged to fit the suggestion, such as making aluminum bats or tools to sell to players/businesses.

 

How would your suggestion improve the server?I feel that this suggestion would add some more player interaction into what is essentially an AFK money maker with practically no involvement with roleplay.  I don’t suggest we punish people who grind for money, because that’s no way to go about it.  I feel like updating the jobs to require more player interaction, or at least more attentiveness, would reduce the amount of people who decide to go AFK mine when the bonus ticks around to metallurgy.

 

Additional information:

on mobile, forgive grammar/formating please. Thanks for reading

[Fernando]

Hey man I'll read your suggestion in a bit, but check this out ;)

 

[Heyste]

26 minutes ago, Fernando said:

Hey man I'll read your suggestion in a bit, but check this out ?

 

Yeah, I saw that.  I'm excited for it.  Just been sitting on these ideas for a while and figured I'd share them.

 

Edit: having the time to read nervous' mining reform post makes this point moot.  Still worth sharing, might give someone else ideas for a new job one day.

Edited October 31, 2018 by MChavera

[Guest]

I think the mining should stay. It will keep people on the road with their trucks. But the refining part of it should be separated to be a job on itself. So the miners can sell their un refined ores to the refinery and then a refiner(chemist) comes, buys it and starts to refine it. This will allow to the miners to be even more active on the roads and takes the AFK part from the refinery away. Instead it creates an AFK part to the refiner who eventually needs to deliver the ores to some factory.Both  raw ore refineries and factories should have a limit on how much ore they can store. Construction companies should be able to buy ores straight from the factories warehouse.

 

Fish should be sold into a fishing refinery from where a courier can get a mission to deliver it into 24/7's. Fish refinery should have a warehouse storing limit as well.

 

Brewers shouldn't be able to sell their product straight to the store with the script. It should go hand to hand with the store owner to make people interact more and reach out for contacts. The trading spot where you can get whiskey, beer, cider and all that exchange for moonshine should be just converted into something else. Maybe an extra commands with the brewing equipment to brew certain alcohol from the moonshine or brew those alcohols straight from the mash.

[Heyste]

18 hours ago, Tr1bal said:

 

Brewers shouldn't be able to sell their product straight to the store with the script. It should go hand to hand with the store owner to make people interact more and reach out for contacts. The trading spot where you can get whiskey, beer, cider and all that exchange for moonshine should be just converted into something else. Maybe an extra commands with the brewing equipment to brew certain alcohol from the moonshine or brew those alcohols straight from the mash.

Removing the import/export system would lead to a rise in alcohol prices, unless they increase the yield while brewing beer/hard liquor.  I agree with the store though, I haven't used a liquor store since I started.

[Nervous]

The jobs will be completely revamped. A lot will be removed if the economy system is successful. No more drilling into mountains or making 20 types of alcohol in a basement. 

 

RPG jobs can die off with outdated clients. We don't need to alter things in order to keep them alive.