Influence Spheres

[Kinaed]

We're looking at ways to make influence points more valuable, and in that vein are considering making various spheres that people can buy into for special commands, and try to dominate for still more commands.

We're not sure what the 'game' to dominate them might look like, or how spheres would be built/maintained, but we're kinda looking at something maybe like the below, with the idea that the higher the level of your character's influence, the more commands they can use, with the 4th level of influence being locked away only for the 'leader' of the sphere.

Possible Influence Spheres:

Law
1st --> bar a room from people entering/leaving
2nd --> set a patrol (makes a room report crimes to the Reeve channel and Magic to Knights)
3rd --> summon Reeve mobs to whip someone
4th --> summon Reeve mobs to detain someone

Underworld
1st --> make illicit money, a small boost per OOC week
2nd --> strike a bounty in the system
3rd --> gang acceptance (thief NPCs ignore a flagged player)
4th --> gang attacks (thief NPCs attack a targetted player & mug them)

Economic
1st --> receive a stipend, a small boost per OOC week
2nd --> increase or decrease the cost of items of a given material
3rd --> look at a player's recent bank transaction history
4th --> blacklist a player from shops

Political
1st --> Investigate someone's supporters
2nd --> quash or spread an existing rumor
3rd --> uncover a rumor's code source
4th --> Drain another player's IP
5th --> Drain someone's influence in a sphere

[Onyxsoulle]

This seems interesting, though there are some things I personally don't agree with or have other ideas about:

Law

1) Anyone can do this right now, you just have to use the Guard (think that's it) command.
3) I personally think this one should be left to players, either through rpecho or (preferably) doing it themselves.

Underworld

Um, I like these, though with enough ip maybe getting a notification of stuff done similar to Reeves/Knights channel. "Bob the Gentry tried to enter southside, and was stopped by Martina the npc, he said mercy and she got his money(thieves get x amount of confiscated money?)


Economic

3) I don't really know if I agree with this one or not, seems a bit much.


Political

2 & 3) These seem more of a Bardic kind of thing, given their propensity for rumors.

Added suggestion for Political: See who the last person(people) person x mailed(ip cost is increased per subject you want to see, I.E.- 1ip- last person mailed, 2ip - last two people mailed, etc etc.)




Just my opinion on things, Have fun :D

[Applesauce]

Added suggestion for Political: See who the last person(people) person x mailed(ip cost is increased per subject you want to see, I.E.- 1ip- last person mailed, 2ip - last two people mailed, etc etc.)

You say the bank thing is a bit much, but the equivalent mail thing would be a LOT more powerful. The transaction info is sort of an extension of something that already exists - guildleaders can see a limited amount of guild transaction history. So I don't think that's game-breaking or anything. If you want to get around it, keep your stuff in containers / hand it to folks instead of using the pay command.

Mail history, on the other hand, would be powerful to the point that certain folk would stop using the courier altogether. The same workarounds exist - you can hand letters to people, or leave letters at drop points.

Either way, it would be pretty interesting to see a PC courier system pop up to handle physical banking or mail transactions to get around influence points ;) Since it's PC it's not like it would be escaping code, as PCs can certainly be influenced as well.

[Onyxsoulle]

Yeah, after I read it I realized "hey that's kind of the same thing". I meant rather than being a bit much it was more pointless, all you'd see is " person x withdrew 200 silver" over and over and over, with varying amounts, maybe something interesting every once in a while but over all the same stuff.

[Geras]

I'd hope the person mailed would exclude the Rubeus and Tenebrae aliases.

I've a couple other ideas:

-Getting a cut of the sales of a specific commodity.
-Getting a discount on purchasing a specific commodity.

Also, it'd be nice for the ability to hire a flunky that spies/tails/watches someone's comings and goings be available in the more commercial sphere of influence too.