Active Roleplay Timer for Jobs

[jcat]

6 hours ago, mj2002 said:

If you want to entertain yourself, go out and roleplay.

 

 

And therein lies the rub.

 

You have revealed something very important:  the player has two choices: 

 

1) going out and roleplaying to entertain oneself 

 

OR

 

2) doing a tedious rp job shift and not roleplaying and entertaining oneself.

 

You're right, it's not entertaining and it's barely roleplaying, so people want something to make it worthwhile, and that something is the money.  Roleplaying takes at least two to tango.  It's social interaction, and if there's no one there, it's pointless.  I started out doing unique job /me statements and walking around, just like a retail irl, it got numbingly tedious very quickly.  Still, I persevered.  Finally I came to the previous poster's conclusion:  it was meaningless.

 

The server has an economy, so characters need money.  What's important is developing ways characters can earn money that are at least somewhat engaging or interesting, or impact the players' time and enjoyment as little as possible.

 

 

 

[Zayyy]

On 6/29/2020 at 8:52 PM, BinaryRun said:

I highly support this as well, the timer for taxi drivers is currently about 30 seconds to 1 minutes and it's ridiculous. Around 3 minutes would be much better.

3 minutes or 5 minutes should be okay. We cannot drive/type the same time.

(LSPD members need to use TS because they cannot drive/type during the job/rp. It's the same for taxi drivers. They cannot drive and TYPE the same time)

[Aellerix]

Reworking the timer in order to increase as more roleplay happens, rather than stop when roleplay stops, would be a massive improvement. Maybe even make it such that the pay is based on how much you typed (both /me and IC) rather than time. $1,000 every 100 lines of text (for example).  Write 10000 lines, make $100,000. 

[Engelbert]

35 minutes ago, Aellerix said:

Reworking the timer in order to increase as more roleplay happens, rather than stop when roleplay stops, would be a massive improvement. Maybe even make it such that the pay is based on how much you typed (both /me and IC) rather than time. $1,000 every 100 lines of text (for example).  Write 10000 lines, make $100,000. 

You know that doesn't really sound roleplay-ish at all. What timer will actually add to the game is grind, which is already present there. You don't roleplay a store clerk, cause you want to. You roleplay it cause of that  timer and money you will get, sadly that's how it is. Timer will only make you constantly check on it, also many people simply rp out of the necessity of it, 1-3 hours cause you cannot stay there more and log out or go doing something else.

That's not roleplay to me. That's grind.

[Aellerix]

33 minutes ago, Engelbert said:

You know that doesn't really sound roleplay-ish at all. What timer will actually add to the game is grind, which is already present there. You don't roleplay a store clerk, cause you want to. You roleplay it cause of that  timer and money you will get, sadly that's how it is. Timer will only make you constantly check on it, also many people simply rp out of the necessity of it, 1-3 hours cause you cannot stay there more and log out or go doing something else.

That's not roleplay to me. That's grind.

Exactly, so by replacing the timer with a counter, you combat that. If you need make your money based on how much role-play you make, that's not grinding anymore. Really easy to implement a way to check that people are not spamming the same message and you're good to go. With or without people - arrange stuff in the store, count the money in the counter, sell items, just passive RP, interact with people, so on and so forth. The more you role-play, the more money you make. And to make it clear, I'm not talking about becoming a millionaire by having detailed role-play, but rather base the income on that instead of just waiting around and making sure to send a new line every few minutes.

[Law]

Even though I’ve only skimmed through, I’ve seen some good examples and do agree with the changes that could be done to timing of this script. I’ve also seen examples brought up on behalf of a tattoo artist. I don’t think it’s as challenging as the store clerks because from personal experience, if you put in the work and research, it’s manageable to receive a handsome income of money and roleplay. If you’re not getting paid by your employer on top of the interactions and government bonus, you’re missing out on the actual career branch and development of character. It’s a bit odd to say you worked for x,y,z tattoo parlour with no contact or payslips from your boss.

I don’t feel as if the Government bonus should be viewed as a mandatory payment for every time you start a shift. It’s a reward system of the time you spend actively roleplaying, which if I’m not wrong, carries over to your next shift if you’ve only actively roleplayed for 30 minutes and decided to end the shift. Having said that, I still believe this could be improved with the timing of how activity is considered in the script.
 

Majority of the time I don’t /startshift for the pure reason of having to handle multiple clients on my own or with one other person. I‘d love to have the bonus money from roleplaying with these people but in fear of being swarmed to the only active business of that category, I don’t /startshift.
 

I think this could even be sorted by reducing the radius of not being able to use a shop menu just because another shop menu of the same kind is already open. Especially if it’s a 24/7 in the hood and I have to drive out of the city into Chumash to purchase something. 
 

As for the suggestion mentioned above regarding $ per line of roleplay, it’s just going to influence people to use unnecessary words, and since quantity doesn’t match the quality of roleplay, I don’t want to see my local shop clerk typing a paragraph of scanning a can of cola.

 

A tattoo artist’s roleplay is 75% social roleplay, based on that system, they’d easily get $2,000-$2,500 per customer as a bonus yet alone the labour fee and script purchase.

[Engelbert]

Just now, Law said:

Even though I’ve only skimmed through, I’ve seen some good examples and do agree with the changes that could be done to timing of this script. I’ve also seen examples brought up on behalf of a tattoo artist. I don’t think it’s as challenging as the store clerks because from personal experience, if you put in the work and research, it’s manageable to receive a handsome income of money and roleplay. If you’re not getting paid by your employer on top of the interactions and government bonus, you’re missing out on the actual career branch and development of character. It’s a bit odd to say you worked for x,y,z tattoo parlour with no contact or payslips from your boss.

I don’t feel as if the Government bonus should be viewed as a mandatory payment for every time you start a shift. It’s a reward system of the time you spend actively roleplaying, which if I’m not wrong, carries over to your next shift if you’ve only actively roleplayed for 30 minutes and decided to end the shift. Having said that, I still believe this could be improved with the timing of how activity is considered in the script.
 

Majority of the time I don’t /startshift for the pure reason of having to handle multiple clients on my own or with one other person. I‘d love to have the bonus money from roleplaying with these people but in fear of being swarmed to the only active business of that category, I don’t /startshift.
 

I think this could even be sorted by reducing the radius of not being able to use a shop menu just because another shop menu of the same kind is already open. Especially if it’s a 24/7 in the hood and I have to drive out of the city into Chumash to purchase something. 
 

As for the suggestion mentioned above regarding $ per line of roleplay, it’s just going to influence people to use unnecessary words, and since quantity doesn’t match the quality of roleplay, I don’t want to see my local shop clerk typing a paragraph of scanning a can of cola.

 

A tattoo artist’s roleplay is 75% social roleplay, based on that system, they’d easily get $2,000-$2,500 per customer as a bonus yet alone the labour fee and script purchase.

I roleplay a tattoo artist yes, but people should know, that even if the icon on the map is green, that doesn't mean they will get served. You need to get an appointment at the parlor for a session, which makes it lot more complicated on OOC level as we actually keep records of people who got inked and who want to get inked. But IG it's lot less messy and chaotic. Now I am not sure if we are allowed to lock the business once in session or even when not in session, given it is a scripted business, but truth is, it isn't a bar or 24/7 shop, so people shouldn't socialize there much. Simply because a single session may take a long time to roleplay and it all depends on client's preferences aka we always ask how long they want to spend there, my suggestion is anywhere from 30 mins up to several hours. I simply won't pack entire sleeve tattoo into few minutes. No that just doesn't happen. So logically speaking, current 3 hours long shift I can easily spend on a single client.

[Law]

38 minutes ago, Engelbert said:

I roleplay a tattoo artist yes, but people should know, that even if the icon on the map is green, that doesn't mean they will get served. You need to get an appointment at the parlor for a session, which makes it lot more complicated on OOC level as we actually keep records of people who got inked and who want to get inked. But IG it's lot less messy and chaotic. Now I am not sure if we are allowed to lock the business once in session or even when not in session, given it is a scripted business, but truth is, it isn't a bar or 24/7 shop, so people shouldn't socialize there much. Simply because a single session may take a long time to roleplay and it all depends on client's preferences aka we always ask how long they want to spend there, my suggestion is anywhere from 30 mins up to several hours. I simply won't pack entire sleeve tattoo into few minutes. No that just doesn't happen. So logically speaking, current 3 hours long shift I can easily spend on a single client.

I agree with you and that’s also part of why I don’t /startshift sometimes, because it can be appointment based and I don’t want random people coming in like a restaurant order of 3 different ink pieces. 

 

I tend to lock the business when I’m not on shift and am tattooing, allowing other players to go to other tattoo parlours and allowing me to roleplay with the client without interruptions most of the time. I think you misunderstood me when I said majority of the tattoo roleplay is social but it’s my preference to give players a reason to come back rather than have them spectate my godly walls of detailed /me’s. I simply don’t expect people to sit 3 hours for a tattoo considering that none of us have the 24 hours of time like we have in real life.
 

Railing back onto the topic at hand, I mainly posted that feedback to let others know that not every business is affected by the disadvantages of government bonus timer because they find a way to establish income of players and money.
 

Unlike gas stations, mask, phone and convenience stores, which to me, seem to be owned by unknown or nonexistent owners, tattoo parlour owners actively seek out roleplaying members to be part of the team rather than allowing anyone to join. I think that if these other businesses were privately owned, a wage from the owner would show that the government bonus is just that, a bonus. But I would like to see the government bonus activity timer being much longer after a line of roleplay, giving me confidence that even if I do /startshift and get flooded with people, I’ll at least be paid 12k for the trouble of juggling the roleplay. Whereas currently, like many have stated, I get paid $4,000 for multiple hours of roleplay because the timer is very short. 

[Engelbert]

Oh you can end up alone for hours in tattoo parlor, that's only in the case you decide to "open" away from peak hours. But still should you decide to roleplay such, you can. I usually simply roleplay cleaning the parlor or doing paperwork, sometimes even playing video-games in the back office.

Compared to 24/7 or gas station? Hmm guess the main difference is the influx of customers, as there is nothing much to buy or see in a tattoo parlor, but people will go to 24/7 just to buy a coke or a taco, it is, that easy, unlike buying a tattoo. Even then...I mostly roleplayed cleaning and washing windows in Morningwood shop. But yes, if these scripted businesses were properly owned, people would start treating them differently. Which is why the rule of roleplaying everything once the icon is greenlit, is in place.

[Engelbert]

3 hours ago, Law said:

I agree with you and that’s also part of why I don’t /startshift sometimes, because it can be appointment based and I don’t want random people coming in like a restaurant order of 3 different ink pieces. 

 

I tend to lock the business when I’m not on shift and am tattooing, allowing other players to go to other tattoo parlours and allowing me to roleplay with the client without interruptions most of the time. I think you misunderstood me when I said majority of the tattoo roleplay is social but it’s my preference to give players a reason to come back rather than have them spectate my godly walls of detailed /me’s. I simply don’t expect people to sit 3 hours for a tattoo considering that none of us have the 24 hours of time like we have in real life.
 

Railing back onto the topic at hand, I mainly posted that feedback to let others know that not every business is affected by the disadvantages of government bonus timer because they find a way to establish income of players and money.
 

Unlike gas stations, mask, phone and convenience stores, which to me, seem to be owned by unknown or nonexistent owners, tattoo parlour owners actively seek out roleplaying members to be part of the team rather than allowing anyone to join. I think that if these other businesses were privately owned, a wage from the owner would show that the government bonus is just that, a bonus. But I would like to see the government bonus activity timer being much longer after a line of roleplay, giving me confidence that even if I do /startshift and get flooded with people, I’ll at least be paid 12k for the trouble of juggling the roleplay. Whereas currently, like many have stated, I get paid $4,000 for multiple hours of roleplay because the timer is very short. 

Okay I take back what I said about tattoo parlors, while I am not fond of it. There are people and many people hanging out.