Changes To Jobs

[Anonymous Monkey]

Brief Summary:

I suggest that we bring more traction to non-whitelisted jobs such as Taxi Drivers + Mechanics.

Detailed Suggestion:

POLICE

Currently, the main way for police to get money is to impound vehicles to get their £500 and then move on. They do get their pay check, but is definitely not enough to live off of. The police job is not to impound vehicles and that job should be up to the mechanics on the server to do so. Police should have to contact a mechanic to impound the vehicle AFTER the police officer marks it for impound, as they would do IRL. This creates more roleplay for the servers mechanics rather than them just doing NPC jobs. Mechanics should get paid ~ 3,000 - 5,000 per a non-NPC callout. Paying extra for callouts that are not NPC's brings the initiative to actually go there to roleplay instead of continuing with their NPC jobs.

But then how are police going to make money?

Bring back payments for tickets. Police have no initiative to conduct traffic stops, to end up in a huge pursuit just for someone running a red light. Giving officers £500 for each ticket they give out would stop police not even giving a ticket or any punishment for quite serious offences. On my CIV character, I stole a G6 vehicle and when I pulled over for the police they said I was going to get a £2,500 fixed fine. I said "I was too poor" and without any more negotiation, I was let off on a caution? That should certainly not be a thing. I stole a frigging motor vehicle for heavens sake. Police could also get £500 for imprisoning people. All of this together brings back the reason to stop someone for running a red light, speeding etc.

TAXI

Currently, if you are a taxi driver, you likely get 1 or 2 callouts every hour. Which imo is really sad. You get paid very little for 7+ mile drives with NPC's and even then, get no roleplay AT ALL. This is mainly because, new players can just kick someone out of their car and take it. No questions asked. You don't even have to fight the NPC if you're quick enough. By simply removing the ability to kick an NPC car and them getting out would certainly bring more traction to TAXI jobs and may increase the amount of taxi drivers we have on the server. I used to really enjoy driving around in a taxi, but it gets really, really boring.

The Pros:

- Gives Mechanics more roleplay.

- Gives Taxi Drivers more roleplay.

- Gives Police more roleplay

- Gives Police for initiative to pull someone over for a smaller offence such as a red light as they can give a ticket. 

The Cons:

- Sometimes there might not be any taxi drivers on, my counter to this is just use a boris bike or buy a car. Cars go as low as 5k, cmon you can get 5k.

- Mechanics might not be on meaning cars get left in the road.

Does this suggestion change balance on the server ?

Yes. It gives all jobs more to do and more to get money from in roleplay scenarios rather than NPCs.

 

[JimmyTheGinger]

As a mechanic, this isn't going to bring me more roleplay.

 

[Anonymous Monkey]

As a mechanic, this isn't going to bring me more roleplay.

Any reason as to why, or would you just "not" go to police callouts?

 

[JimmyTheGinger]

I've followed police around as a mechanic, they're too busy with other things to make it worthwhile. Even then, there's no RP. And if we implemented your system, there would be a similar amount of RP. I would receive a phonecall, and by the time I arrive police are gone and the only RP I might get is some angry person who just so happened to park their car in the wrong spot.

In terms of $$$, this is never worth it. It's all about the RP, and the changes proposed are so subtle it won't move the dial in my world.

Also, as a side note, I think corrupt cops earn more than most civs & gangsters xD A pistol is free for them. Confiscated evidence is free for them. Off-duty cops go trucking, fishing and I've even seen them at the mine.

 

[Jason]

The difference between the vehicle being flagged by police (or NHS, G6) for recovery (which Mechanics of Level 4 can complete) and the method police also have to recover cars by seizing them for indictable offences means that they have to be sure the vehicle does get securely placed into impound. You don't want a vehicle being used in crime as part of a case sitting at the side of the road waiting for a recovery truck that may never turn up to collect it, as it can just be driven off by a friend of the owner. Sometimes these vehicles are held or never returned under the direction of a judge. I wouldn't expect police to wait next to it, so it's important that vehicle is recovered and secured straight away. The other 'Non-NPC' jobs that are flagged DO pay good money. £5k a car if I recall. But it does rely on vehicles being flagged. On one shift I made £100k as G6, NHS and Police were filling the impound list up of cars. Other times it isn't. I usually put a message in to their phone number or put on Tweedle to remind them and that can help.

I was originally unsure on the money received for tickets. If it was a fixed amount then it would probably make sense. I know there is an element of allowing corruption with the police but as with anything making the incentive for overpriced tickets could get out of hand - no harm in trying it. I would be interested to know why it was removed in the first place? I know it would have been before the server rules were relaxed in regards to police corruption/misconduct. I also don't see it being too much of an issue for paying an officer who has conveyed someone to prison.

The true question is, do the police feel they are underpaid? When I was police for a short while the only thing was different was that I didn't have to pay for repair kits which you do have to now. I didn't think my pay was too bad, but then I wasn't robbed of my equipment so I never lost it. Probably because I didn't hold any firearm or taser as a probie. I can imagine losing your equipment can get frustrating. I never made huge money but then I never did anything in that character that would mean I need money outside of the job - there was never a civ storyline to it, where as if you did want that (ie personal car, house) then yeah police pay would probably hold you back.

Regarding taxi's and the kicking cars to get AI out. It's all well and good saying disable the option to kick AI out of cars, however what do you if you're stranded and there is no taxi about or available? No one wants to pick you up? Sometimes you can hit things that are invisible, have local cars your using disappear instantly when you get out sometimes. I just feel there are too many occasions where not necessarily at your own fault can you get caught up and the options to then get somewhere are very limited. More so when you're brand new and have no car of your own.

I've done taxi driving quite a bit in the past and sometimes you can get 0 calls in an hour, sometimes you can get 10. I don't think you can predict that other than the time of day and how busy the server is. Of course, like you know being in the NHS, you can only do one call at a time so some people might not wait long before moving off if you delay getting to them (and the problem is they have working legs so can move the moment they call you).

The main issue for taxi's is that they've not been available to purchase for 3 months, and although recently fixed I think they're broken again from what I've seen on Discord ( @Archieis this a quick fix? I've seen your name mentioned lol). The NPC's pay could improve to put in a bigger incentive, and I would love to see a meter that you can start/end with a rate for when you have players to see. I feel the taxi job is one that you cannot want to do for money in mind. Players will not pay you £2-3k for a short journey so often I charge £100 - £500. I don't make money but then most of the RP jobs I've looked to do see me at a loss or no gain. Eg the real estate job was days of work and I would ask for a few £k for the time where as I could have made more doing something elsewhere. One way of making the taxi job more popular is allow for other vehicles to be used.

Overall people are too financially motivated on this server. For many it's all about making the money as much as possible and as quickly as possible. In my view this is clearly contrary to G5.7. Shark fishing is a good example of this. It was nerfed and now players are moaning it takes them longer to make money. When trucking could see you with £20k+ a job often (or you could cancel until you got it), that was also extremely busy. Now you cannot confirm the amount you get from it, the money balances out to less per hour so not as popular.