OK, I've got a couple ideas of things that could be done fairly easily (maybe), that would add a some very new elements of game play.
First - At the bank a loan option could be instituted. This could potentially be abused - who's lending the money? Why pay it back? Well, abuse can be mitigated in a couple ways. First, tie the loan to the players property. You can't borrow more than 75% or your current property value. Second, a mandatory payment needs to be made, minimum of 5% the total value of the loan, every 168 hours. The loan's interest is compounded every 24 hours. Institute a credit score system here as well. Miss one payment, your credit score drops. If you miss two payments your credit score drops some more, and the bank reduces the amount of happiness your getting from your property. This keeps going until you miss enough payments (5 or 6 maybe?) and the bank forecloses on your property and takes whatever you have in your savings account - up to the current value of the loan. Now, you can't buy another property until whatever is left on the value of the loan paid off.
Now, for those of you about to ask - What about taking a loan out to buy a new property? A special loan type could be used for this. Borrow up to 100% of your current property value, but no more than 50% of the proposed value of the future property. This could be handled through the estate agency.
It should be also be designed so that you can only have one loan going at a time, and since the property is being used as collateral you can't sell or trade it in while there is a loan against it.
Making the payments on time means you get a better credit score (aka real life). Better credit score means better interest. Worse credit score means higher interest.
I know lending systems have been discussed before, but I don't feel many people have put much thought into how protect this kind of system. Obviously it's a debated topic, but I feel it could be done well enough to be workable.
This system could also be used in a way to provide player to player loans in a moderated environment. Is the potential player a good risk? A friend or gang mate? Go through the bank to give them a loan at a better - or 0% - interest rate.
Are they a high risk player? Have they defaulted on a loan or two already? Or do they have no property, and therefore don't qualify for a bank loan? Set a higher interest for them. You make money, and the bank get a loan-management fee.
If they default on the loan? We, did you take out lenders insurance when making the loan? File a claim, affect the persons credit score, and while you might not get all your capital investment back, at least you didn't loose your shirt. What about insurance fraud then? Well, that does become possible. Just don't get caught by the insurance company, you could be doing jail time (72 hours no bail?) and loose your own property.
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Second - Variable interest rates. This is largely driven off of the first suggestion. The median credit score is used to determine the interest rates the lender could potentially use. The mean interest rate is then used as the base prime rate. Bank savings account accrue interest at say prime-1.1% where average loan accounts are at prime+2% interest. This of course would then need to be further shaped periodically, to reduce inflation. Crime rates could also be used to drive the interest rate. Other events could also be used to adjust interest rates and lending/buying power (Jack Mort's gang robbing the bank?)
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Third - Gang specific armor. A gang would be able to buy an armor manufacturing plant, then spend time and money into armor R&D - I.e research better resistance with an accuracy booster on it - once the R&D process was done, the individual gang members could visit the gangs armory, and pay to have a piece or armor from the gang blueprint made - maybe it would $300,000 + 17 days to create the armor? Have it vary depending on they type of R&D done on the armor.
This could possibly even be done for weapons too, and possible have it so that individuals could also purchase a manufacturing plant. The R&D process may have a time benefit from how many engineers a gang has, and the manufacturing process might benefit from how many Manufacturers the gang has - and have benefits that trigger by level. I.e you've got to have a level 5 engineer on hand to research a level 1 accuracy booster on the armor.
This could have some interesting impact on gang wars, and the gangs may be able to research bonuses for their armor that would apply in gang wars. The system could also be limited to how many blue prints a gang can have active in their armory - and could create an economy to sell blue prints to other gangs.
This should also be considered with or after some ideas to consolidate gangs or gang "families".
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Fourth - This is some-what dependent on the third suggestion and if a market takes off in buying and selling weapon and armor blueprints. Have gangs be able to launch corporate fronts. Stock from gangs could then be traded, and this could influence how well that gang could develop and research blueprints. Gang members would qualify for stock-options, while outsiders would pay a premium for that gangs stock. This could also be used to drive variable interest rates for loans and savings.
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Fifth - And I'll admit I haven't put as much thought into this one as the others. The gang crimes could stand to be changed a bit. We have gang hideouts, so lets tie them to a bit more "physical" location. Instead of letting the crime just do it's thing autonomously, give it a window ( say 8 hours ) of the time to complete deadline. Once it's time to complete comes up, the gang members have to, in a fairly organized way, meet at the hide out to commence the crime. You'd need the minimum number of gang members required to complete the crime, but the more included the better the outcome. This would be done by them being notified that it's time, and then within 10 minutes of the first gang member to "commit the crime", all members would go to the hideout and choose to "commit the crime". This would take 100% of their energy to do.
This could be further tied to a specific district. Lets say the gang hideout is located in the rural district, then the members would all need to be in the rural district to visit the gang hide out. Now, the physical location could be used in other ways as well. Gang A based in Downtown Decatur declares war on Gang B based in Rural District - Gang A's members would have to go to the Rural District to attack and be in Downtown Decatur to defend, and visa-versa.
Anyway, as I said, I haven't put as much thought into the finer details of this suggestion.
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Anyway, I know it's allot of food for thought crammed into one post, but should hopefully spark some other ideas and suggestions. |
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So many ideas, my head is going to explode
) but I don't know about the gang crime idea, time zones and hectic schedules make it hard to get that coordinated.