Ways to accumulate funds for the construction of Athica

[Faldeney]

As the construction of Athica moves forward the generation of the funds necessary for these improvements is a point of constant debate. Tonight the Bearers of Truth discussed various ways to raise funds and I would like to post them here. Please vote on the option that you feel will be most effective in raising these funds and put your own ideas in this thread. Thank you, we look forward to hearing from you.



Your Humble Servant,

Faldeney

 

[kineldar]

I voted other because I feel everyone should be forced to pay HEAVY taxes to fund the new city growth. And those taxes should go to your wealthy nobles who will give as they see fit to the restructuring of the city.

Also, you can take peasants children and sell them to other wealthy nobles from other cities.

Mayor Jayelle should turn a blind eye to all these goings on since she will get hefty cuts of all the profits.

 

[Ykari07]

I put my vote in for the Guild Donation system, not because I like it (I really don't) but because I think it would be the most effective. Still, it isn't like we can only do one at a time. I think the farming for tradeskill items still holds merit.

 

[JayelleNephilim]

Just to clarify (and not that this represents what I think would work best), I think the 3 tier reward system was mentioned by someone (Waldrof -- *sp*) with reference to the guild donations. It was suggested that when someone/a Guild donates that they are listed as such by a "welcomer" at the city gates for a tier 1 donator, a little further in the city for tier 2 etc.

 

[Allielyn]

Personally, I do think it would be a bad idea to reward individuals/groups for donations in really tangible ways. It makes the city less of a Bearers city and more dependent on those individuals/groups. Leadership could become compromised.

However, I do think that we should look for something that is unique: pottery merchants/blacksmithing merchants/etc don't really add anything that other cities don't have. We need something unique that would draw traffik to Felwithe, as out of the way as it may seem to be.

For this reason, the idea of having purchased guild halls seems appealing to me. Not as a reward or anything for donations, but you could say "We'd like to build a guild hall for Anima" and the price is XXXX plat etc. And upon approval from Jaylle and Wiz, the guilds could go ahead and come up with the cash to build that project. Then, within the guild hall the guild can look to making specific enhancements, like a traveling healer to remove soul debts, a guild banker who keeps the guild wares or whatnot. (This is all speculative, of course). In this way, I think we really could help stimulate growth and traffic by offering something that other cities don't, without compromising the integrity of the city planning/building.

All the other suggestions I have seen regarding what to build have been things that other cities have. While some of these might be almost necessary (healer, banker, etc.) I would be really interested in something different: Athika is a little bit out of the way, and there needs to be something really different and compelling to get people to come visit it.

So: any other suggestions that wouldn't be terribly unbalancing that would help make this city unique to the Bearers, foster donations, and stimulate growth?

 

[Manluas]

I voted for "Others" and am now going to try to explain (to all who hates Tradeskills, this will contain some ideas of completely different used Tradeskills like Tailoring or Blacksmithing):

Of course donations from both, Bearers and Non-Bearers are necessary to carry on with the idea of rebuilding Felwhite but it should become something special and unique.
First of all you should be able to see and feel the process of rebuilding a whole town, merchants and buildings from now to then because we got a fixed amount of money/supplies would not fit that good to the storyline and roleplaying aspect of the game. Why can't we just take what we have - for example the tradeskillers:
Instead of building a new town we could start out with just building something like a camp:
We take the money we got by now, hire some craftsman, collect several items (will explain later) and build something like a tent village at first.
Handmade Backpacks where mentioned earlier as Mastercrafted Weapons have been. Why not adding some special recipes to build huts from smithed metal rods, lootet pelts/tailored walls and wood (foraged, lootet by treants for example?) with the hired craftsmen? Just let us gather a set of items you give to the craftsmen and they will build you a hut.
After some more money was collected we could reset the buildings one by one with stone buildings.

In my opinion this would implement a greater roleplaying aspect than just collecting money and that stuff and would make the city that unique it needs to be to be a symbol (I should use other words than "be").
If you have something to add, to change or just flame me feel free to do so, was just an idea


Furthermore I like the idea of a guildhall.
But why just a guildhall? If I got it right Felwhite should become a symbol for the freedom of all races of Dalaya, I would prefer to build the "Place of Knowledge" I just mentioned in the other thread...a place where travellers can rest, chat or just learn about the history and Lore of Dalaya.
It should surely be dedicated to the bearers but not be a Bearers-only-place, this would make us as decadent as all despots are.

Merchants, Healer, Postmaster - all that is necessary but besides that don't forget we have war.
Felwhite needs to be a fortress as it needs to be a symbol of freedom so lets do things step by step and start out small with just a few safe huts in North Felwhite and then expand to the former place of the city.


EDIT:
I just read about the pottery revamp, why not create some pottery-items you can use in building up the town like stones or something else.
Just another thought

OT: I don't know if all the ideas I had are possible or even wanted, I just through out what came to my mind, feel free to discuss, change or flame everything I've written down

 

[Faldeney]

Why this option was written the way it was.

Just to clarify (and not that this represents what I think would work best), I think the 3 tier reward system was mentioned by someone (Waldrof -- *sp*) with reference to the guild donations. It was suggested that when someone/a Guild donates that they are listed as such by a "welcomer" at the city gates for a tier 1 donator, a little further in the city for tier 2 etc.

It was also mentioned that the individuals could choose to donate under this system. That was one of the reasons I worded as I did. True, most of the discussion was revolving around the guild idea but it is not unheard of for individuals to have several 1000pp saved up, so it was mentioned that they might become the lowest tiered donators. I personally believe this system will be very hard to implement and spend valuable plat on "greeter" NPCs that could have been used toward other more "beneficial" projects. That being said some sort of reward for outside donations is almost a must, but let's just try to keep it simple.


Faldeney

 

[Allielyn]

Re: Why this option was written the way it was.

That being said some sort of reward for outside donations is almost a must, but let's just try to keep it simple.

I'm not sure I agree to this. I mean, the upgrades themselves should be enough of a reward, if they're not worth the pp then don't look for donaters/don't buy it. People should really want to participate in this just because they can: this is the first player made/run/organized city and I think that's worth a lot. I am just concerned that giving valuable rewards to donators will compromise the integrity of the city.

 

[Zarimus]

I was thinking the reward would be to have your name on a plaque somewhere, same as in real life when you donate to a building. Just a simple click to read thing that lists the characters who donated to the city fund, no matter how much or how little. Your character is forever immortalized in the game lore.

I mean, what's cooler than that for a true roleplayer?

 

[Darian Maliken]

I have to agree with that as being the only real reward outside of getting another project completed. I mean c'mon, it makes sense and its just something really there just to make you smile and point to a particular building and say 'I helped pay for that' or 'i helped build that.'. Gives a certaitn sense of satasfaction ya know?

 

[Faldeney]

Thanks for your feedback.

I'm not sure I agree to this. I mean, the upgrades themselves should be enough of a reward, if they're not worth the pp then don't look for donaters/don't buy it.

Well that's the question here to me there looks to be a lot of duplication when you have Underhill just around the corner. None of the suggestions are necessarily "upgrades" except to the city itself. We were told that the city will grow based on the player participation in the reconstruction. I'm afraid that if we continue down a strictly altrusitc path ((ooc: Guilds=Corporations=Bad) Athica will ever be a Bearers Outpost instead of a thriving city.

I was thinking the reward would be to have your name on a plaque somewhere, same as in real life when you donate to a building. Just a simple click to read thing that lists the characters who donated to the city fund, no matter how much or how little. Your character is forever immortalized in the game lore. I mean, what's cooler than that for a true roleplayer?

As you have probably noticed from the participation at these RP events and in the cult channel, we RPers are somewhat in the minority. A strong and dedicated minority, but a minority nonetheless. What I am suggesting is ways to hopefully draw those more casual players to our city, guild houses/storage and a possible port neck would be very valuable and fit within well from an RP standpoint. It would also give people a reason to come to Athica, more than just novelty and beautiful architecture. I know that we want to make this a fun and unique city, but I sincerely believe we also need to draw crowds.

I have to agree with that as being the only real reward outside of getting another project completed. I mean c'mon, it makes sense and its just something really there just to make you smile and point to a particular building and say 'I helped pay for that' or 'i helped build that.'. Gives a certaitn sense of satasfaction ya know?

((ooc: I worked in the non-profit industry for many years and yes the satisfaction for doing the job is why many people give their time and money to these organizations, but on the really big projects we had to solicit funds from those not quite as die-hard as we were. Sometimes they were satisfied with their name on a plaque or building. Sometimes they needed to be rewarded. Example: an auction where people got good stuff which had been donated, for cheap prices. Many only came because they got something in return. Either way we were grateful to receive the necessary funds to continue operating...))

That being said I get the same satisfaction you are talking about as we work on this project, but I've also seen how hard it was to raise just 2k for the intial plan of 2 guards and a merchant from our limited resources. I have the feeling many of our more ambitious projects are going to cost much more. ie: Temple for Healing.

I welcome your feedback and look forward to working with you on this and other projects.


Your Humble Servant,

Faldeney

 

[zodium]

If you encounter problems in a task as simple as raising the pathetic sum of two thousand platinum, I suggest you make more liberal use of my previous offer of funding.

 

[moghedancarns]

One time only deal...

Middle of the walkway before the first bridge in South Felwithe.

Build a Stand with the PoK book model. When you click it, it opens a book on your client.

Sell names in the book.




I doubt that Wiz is likely to want to update the book, so collecting names and donations for about 2 or 3 weeks should be minimum. Find out from Wiz how much it costs. You could probably sell immortality etched in stone for 500-1000pp to individuals, goal would probably be 200 names. If the cost is reasonable to build, you could probably sell individual books to line the side of the bridge for 10k-50k or such.

Yeah, it eats up several projects along the way, but you have to finance the projects before you can use them, anyway.

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Are you guys going to be getting a percentage of the cut of what the NPC merchants sell in the city? Even at a 10% tax, do you really care if you buy your rations at (3s) or (3s 3c)?

Would it be possible to spend one task to build one building with 4 or 5 old school PC vendors? Payment for renting going to the city, and a 10% tax on all goods sold. With the other vendors going away, you could almost print :10bux: with these.

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Your most profitable merchant would be one right outside the gate in Greater Feydark. This is far more vital in the future if you make Athica a starting city.

 

[sk3l3ton]

City Donations...

What about an auction to raise money for Athica... the buyers get their reward on the spot and the city doesnt have to be bogged down with tons of plaques or greeters...

 

[aarielly]

Here is a half thought out idea...

For some reason Josiah has decided it would be fun to organize a raid to kill Aarielly (max engage level 31).

Although I have not figured out what sort of "drops" to offer when they win (like any raid mob, Aarielly will remain in place for multiple attempts), we could use somethign like this to raise plat.

We could charge an entrance fee to be part of the "raid" and sell tickets to those who wish to watch. We could have various matches scheduled, as well as a main event (in this case Aarielly's eventual demise at the hands of some level 30s).

Besides, a regular PVP event would be fun.

 

[weeman0000]

How about a bank system? say i donated 10,000pp then when the zone was built we could get out cash back but with intrest?

If not go with guild donations, my ideas always suck

 

[JayelleNephilim]

How about a bank system? say i donated 10,000pp then when the zone was built we could get out cash back but with intrest?



If not go with guild donations, my ideas always suck

We've finished almost everything there is to do with the rebuilding of Athica and still have quite a bit of surplus plat in the "bank." Those that donated were given a faction boost (helping with not only the Lifeward quest, but the Amulet of Athica Quest as well) as a thank you for helping out.



In any event, you probably missed that this thread was last posted in 5 months before your post.