Gauging interest: a case for port roleplay

[NexusExodus]

2 hours ago, Rickaroni said:

The problem with running a realistic port is that you also need to create a Federal Customs Agency and that’s a miserable job, IRL, pretending to be it would be even worse. And I know that ALL too well. 

I'm looking into getting some sort of substitute going with the Sheriff's Department. May or may not work out, depending on the interest. It'd definitely be slow and repetitive, but then again no one actually smuggles anything through the port unless it's pre-planned roleplay.

[Psychedelic]

3 hours ago, NexusExodus said:

I'm looking into getting some sort of substitute going with the Sheriff's Department. May or may not work out, depending on the interest. It'd definitely be slow and repetitive, but then again no one actually smuggles anything through the port unless it's pre-planned roleplay.

 

Perhaps the answer to customs and Port law enforcement could be for the Government to hand out private contracts to companies. This would put less strain on Staff having to create a new LEO faction, and it'd also be an incentive for GOV as they wouldn't need to be as hands-on. So long as certain KPI's were maintained and standards were regularly met, I personally don't see any issues with this. Of course, realistically, both a Customs and Port Police faction would be city/state operated, but this wouldn't be such a bad idea when you consider the whole "limitations of roleplay" argument in that it's sometimes just not feasible to have these things run by the state.

 

Not only would it take some pressure away from GOV, but it could also drive economics in creating healthy competition between companies fighting to maintain contracts. This would be especially good in the sense that it'd help stop these factions going stagnant and inactive by forcing contract terms to a length of a maximum of two months (as an arbitrary example). This would force these companies to a) remain active, and continually re-bid to retain and renew their operations contracts, and b) remain accountable for their standard of roleplay in the PoLS.

 

For example, if Company A wins a contract to handle the customs roleplay for a two month period, but (between LFM and GOV) it is decided that their management of port customs is not up to standard, GOV can refuse to extend their contracts. The role of Port Police could also be privatized in the form of private security companies (no I'm not suggesting Gruppe6 in particular, I understand this could be controversial).

 

With these points in mind though, I'm a realist and I can see two major flaws with this idea.

 

1. By privatizing Port operations, customs and security, you are relying on the drive and enthusiasm of a very limited number of roleplayers who would be willing to dedicate their time and energy into creating and maintaining these contracts. For example, if Company A wins a contract to manage Port Security, then goes inactive after a month, it's all good and well to say that GOV can revoke their contract and look for another company to fill their shoes, but that would only really work assuming there's another company suitable to replace them. If there aren't any other viable options for replacement, then Port Security operations would be left stagnant and void.
2. To help sustain the engagement of roleplayers in the PoLS, you need something that will actually provide roleplay and general activity for the area in general. Basically, there's no point creating a Customs and Security company if you're just walking around an empty port 3/4 of the day. It'll get boring, really fast. So if what @NexusExodus is saying is true, hopefully this will help add to the activity in the area and help provide some sort of broader engagement between roleplayers in the area. In addition to this, I REALLY like the suggestion laid out earlier by @Florida where it'd actually become a job that players can get where you can actually unload shipping containers from ships, help load truckers and vans (and provide a benefit to them by loading them with rapidly increased load times). This would also help in making the port busy during off-peak timezones where there's naturally less people around to roleplay in these areas. I'm Australian myself, and I have seen first hand how the port works during the off-peak periods during the daytime. It's literally just truckers buzzing back and forth between the loading point, spamming commands when people aren't around, and driving off again. It's all good and well to say that there's a division within the GOV faction that focuses on roleplaying within the ports, but you also need to accept that it's only viable when supervisors and managers are online and have pre-planned roleplay mapped out and ready to go to start their "shifts". Personally, I think a more organic and natural hustle-and-bustle is necessary to give the port that realistic feel of having full-time workers constantly loading and unloading ships, for example. This could be solved in part by creating a job for people to engage in.

 

All in all, I think that the PoLS has ALOT of potential, and I'm positive there is FAR more that can be done than what I've just suggested here. It just needs a solid group of people to put their ideas together with LFM and come up with a proposal and a bit of a plan for how to turn the Port into a busy and bustling hub of roleplay around Imports/Exports and Logistics.

[NexusExodus]

4 hours ago, Psychedelic said:

 

Perhaps the answer to customs and Port law enforcement could be for the Government to hand out private contracts to companies. This would put less strain on Staff having to create a new LEO faction, and it'd also be an incentive for GOV as they wouldn't need to be as hands-on. So long as certain KPI's were maintained and standards were regularly met, I personally don't see any issues with this. Of course, realistically, both a Customs and Port Police faction would be city/state operated, but this wouldn't be such a bad idea when you consider the whole "limitations of roleplay" argument in that it's sometimes just not feasible to have these things run by the state.

 

Not only would it take some pressure away from GOV, but it could also drive economics in creating healthy competition between companies fighting to maintain contracts. This would be especially good in the sense that it'd help stop these factions going stagnant and inactive by forcing contract terms to a length of a maximum of two months (as an arbitrary example). This would force these companies to a) remain active, and continually re-bid to retain and renew their operations contracts, and b) remain accountable for their standard of roleplay in the PoLS.

 

For example, if Company A wins a contract to handle the customs roleplay for a two month period, but (between LFM and GOV) it is decided that their management of port customs is not up to standard, GOV can refuse to extend their contracts. The role of Port Police could also be privatized in the form of private security companies (no I'm not suggesting Gruppe6 in particular, I understand this could be controversial).

 

With these points in mind though, I'm a realist and I can see two major flaws with this idea.

 

1. By privatizing Port operations, customs and security, you are relying on the drive and enthusiasm of a very limited number of roleplayers who would be willing to dedicate their time and energy into creating and maintaining these contracts. For example, if Company A wins a contract to manage Port Security, then goes inactive after a month, it's all good and well to say that GOV can revoke their contract and look for another company to fill their shoes, but that would only really work assuming there's another company suitable to replace them. If there aren't any other viable options for replacement, then Port Security operations would be left stagnant and void.
2. To help sustain the engagement of roleplayers in the PoLS, you need something that will actually provide roleplay and general activity for the area in general. Basically, there's no point creating a Customs and Security company if you're just walking around an empty port 3/4 of the day. It'll get boring, really fast. So if what @NexusExodus is saying is true, hopefully this will help add to the activity in the area and help provide some sort of broader engagement between roleplayers in the area. In addition to this, I REALLY like the suggestion laid out earlier by @Florida where it'd actually become a job that players can get where you can actually unload shipping containers from ships, help load truckers and vans (and provide a benefit to them by loading them with rapidly increased load times). This would also help in making the port busy during off-peak timezones where there's naturally less people around to roleplay in these areas. I'm Australian myself, and I have seen first hand how the port works during the off-peak periods during the daytime. It's literally just truckers buzzing back and forth between the loading point, spamming commands when people aren't around, and driving off again. It's all good and well to say that there's a division within the GOV faction that focuses on roleplaying within the ports, but you also need to accept that it's only viable when supervisors and managers are online and have pre-planned roleplay mapped out and ready to go to start their "shifts". Personally, I think a more organic and natural hustle-and-bustle is necessary to give the port that realistic feel of having full-time workers constantly loading and unloading ships, for example. This could be solved in part by creating a job for people to engage in.

 

All in all, I think that the PoLS has ALOT of potential, and I'm positive there is FAR more that can be done than what I've just suggested here. It just needs a solid group of people to put their ideas together with LFM and come up with a proposal and a bit of a plan for how to turn the Port into a busy and bustling hub of roleplay around Imports/Exports and Logistics.

We already have a contract with the Sheriff’s Department to substitute as port police, as we require LEOs to fill the role of port police and customs officials, something citizens can’t legally do as a private company. Fortunately this is the only contract that’s been given to another gov entity. As you suggested, we’re looking to hand out contracts to more private entities to incentivize that competitive roleplay.

 

As for shifts and letting workers roleplay around the port. We’ve been operating on shifts to keep track of work hours, which determines a longshoreman’s weekly pay. We don’t have scripted a pay system and all our salaries are paid manually. This is the case for the entire state government faction. So it’s true that it is currently only viable to operate during shifts rather than sporadically, we have no way to track people who come and go randomly. If you have a idea on how to improve that, I’d be totally down to implement it.

 

 

As a side note, I personally have little hope for scripted support. I don’t think the dev team wants to modify the trucking script to accommodate us. 

[Slamdance]

15 minutes ago, NexusExodus said:

As a side note, I personally have little hope for scripted support. I don’t think the dev team wants to modify the trucking script to accommodate us. 

Tangentially related but I've cobbled together a basic outline for how your work with the ports could be better integrated into the business supply chain. It would be great to have the input of you and your players.

 

 

[Psychedelic]

1 hour ago, NexusExodus said:

As for shifts and letting workers roleplay around the port. We’ve been operating on shifts to keep track of work hours, which determines a longshoreman’s weekly pay. We don’t have scripted a pay system and all our salaries are paid manually. This is the case for the entire state government faction. So it’s true that it is currently only viable to operate during shifts rather than sporadically, we have no way to track people who come and go randomly. If you have a idea on how to improve that, I’d be totally down to implement it.

Would you be open to having a logbook system whereby an authorized "supervisor" could lead a smaller team or crew within the port, conducting the same duties that you'd usually conduct on a regular larger shift but just on a much smaller and more sporadic scale? Obviously the authorized supervisor would be of appropriate authority to sign-off on timesheets and punch-cards to be paid at the end of the week. This could be at least a possible start? I understand that it's unlikely that this itself would ever be a scripted job, but at least something resembling this kind of system would help mitigate the restrictions that are in place by things like timezones and player availability to work your set "shifts".

[DeFuria]

1 hour ago, Psychedelic said:

Would you be open to having a logbook system whereby an authorized "supervisor" could lead a smaller team or crew within the port, conducting the same duties that you'd usually conduct on a regular larger shift but just on a much smaller and more sporadic scale? Obviously the authorized supervisor would be of appropriate authority to sign-off on timesheets and punch-cards to be paid at the end of the week. This could be at least a possible start? I understand that it's unlikely that this itself would ever be a scripted job, but at least something resembling this kind of system would help mitigate the restrictions that are in place by things like timezones and player availability to work your set "shifts".

I'm a supervisor down at the port and this already happens. Each supervisor will publish a roll call on the Port Disc, with time, date and the tasks at hand. Some times, the tasks have to be simplified due to the lack of people, but there have been shifts where we had 20 people approximately, all working around the port. At the end of each shift, the supervisor puts up a message on discord telling who participated in each shift.

Unfortunately, timezones and player availability will always be an issue, but @NexusExodus has been hard at work to improve on those problems and to add more RP to the Port.

[NexusExodus]

1 hour ago, Psychedelic said:

Would you be open to having a logbook system whereby an authorized "supervisor" could lead a smaller team or crew within the port, conducting the same duties that you'd usually conduct on a regular larger shift but just on a much smaller and more sporadic scale? Obviously the authorized supervisor would be of appropriate authority to sign-off on timesheets and punch-cards to be paid at the end of the week. This could be at least a possible start? I understand that it's unlikely that this itself would ever be a scripted job, but at least something resembling this kind of system would help mitigate the restrictions that are in place by things like timezones and player availability to work your set "shifts".

That’s sort of how we do things. We have a handful of supervisors who post shifts usually a day or so in advance. We’re always looking for supervisors in varying time zones especially to cover all hours of the day. They’re free to do sporadic and last minute shifts if they see truckers around, I encourage them to ‘camp’ supply points around the port so they can catch up with truckers. We’ve had workers load trucks before, it’s a great interaction.

[Wuhtah]

Going to lock and archive this thread as it has become inactive. Feel free to PM me to bring it back!