Sealdude
22-12-03, 06:41
Here are my ideas on runner owned shops and real estate. I know it is rife (sp?) with spelling errors but I dont have MS word on this comp and the online spell checkers take too long.
One major problem with Neocron is that no trade skillers or anyone for that matter, bothers to sell anything except rare chips and tech parts. Even if you do try to make a few bucks of a rare it is a long, boring, and tedious process to yell "WTS Rare Parts" every few minutes. This is where runner owned shops come in. You would be able to open a shop and have NPCs sell things when your not around. My ideas here extend way past the idea of simple shops though.
Where to Put Them
One major question about runner owned shops is where to put them. There is plenty of existing space that needs only to be slightly tweeked to acomodate runner owned shops. Also neocron can always be built up to the sky to allow room for shops or we could have underground shops. There is also plenty of room in MB, TH, and TG. One other idea is to have a large mall of all different shops where you can have a lot of virtual space for them.
How Much They Should Cost
Another issue with the creation of runner made shops is how much they should cost. I think that they should cost enough that not everyone but not too much that only big name people have them and no one makes noobie weapons. First off you have to buy or rent the floor space that you will use. The price of this should depend on location and Amman of space. A one room piece of junk in the outskirts of the the outzone should cost way less than a multistory complex in the heart of Plaza 1. Shops in the mall should cost less because they are plain and hidden with a lot of other shops (more on the mall later) Where you can buy shops should also be limited by content and owner of the shop. A TS member shouldn't be able to set up a strip club in ViaRossa but if he gets a TT buddy to open up a weapon store in ViaRossa for him it could work. The other costs should be for NPCs to run the shops, cabinets and such inside the shop, and general upkeep. More on these later. It shouldn't be too hard for someone to open up a small little shop with barely and room and one NPC but how many people would go to it? Also small shops should always be safe zones unless they are in the outzone or PP but very large places should be anarchy zones like they are now. Shops should be purchasable from Diamond real estate runners if they are in the city, TS or BD depending on the PP sector, Crahn for outzone and CM, FA, or TG depending on their respective HQs. Once you buy the key to the shop you have access to the shop and the control terminal so that you can begin building your shop up from the ground floor to suit your needs. The following are what factors into the price of shop space:
Location: As mentioned before location is key. The floor space should break down like this going from most expensive to least: ViaRossa, Plaza, MB/TH/TG, Mall, PP, Outzone.
Architecture: A nice multistory building with archs, bridges, and other good looking things will be more expensive than a square room. I dont have ideas for each and every price level but the most expensive should look the best and the cheapest should be a box
Floor Space: Somewhat related to architecture, floor space is the measure of how much room your store has and therefore how much you can put in it. Items should have to be a certain distance apart so that it is easy to navigate and people dont pack things in cheap places.
Restrictions: Certain areas have restrictions that factor into the price of the space you are buying. For example you can only own strip clubs in PP and you can only operate clean medicare facilitys in ViaRossa (but you can do so ileaglly in PP or outzone.)
The Main Shop Control Center
The main shop control center or MSCC for short is where everything in your shop is controlled from. It allows architects to make floor plans, lets you hire and fire workers, manage your expensies and serves as the virtual moneybox. The money box is where all the proftits from the shop go and where money for wages and items the shop has bought comes from. After a certain amount of money is put into it it becomes full and needs to be emptied before the shop can operate again. This is to prevent people from opening up a shop and then simpily logging off for a month and coming back rich. It also leads to such RP elements as robbing of a store. Say you are a criminal and you know that a certain store owner always collects his money at a certain time. You stake out his store and wait till he opens it and then you pounce and steal his money. The money box is also able to accept a password so that your business partner can add or remove money.
NPC Shopkeepers
The most important part of a runner owned shop is the NPC vendor. Sure you can buy a space and furnish it with the best of everything but if you dident have any vendors you would still have to stand there spamming the trade channel. Vendors can be purchased from certain "Human Resource Directors" who are a subdivions of Diamond realestate. Once you purchase the "Vendor DNA" you take it back to your shop where it is inputted in the MSCC and once that is done you can spawn your vendor. If your vendor is killed you must buy another unless you buy an expensive back up module that respawns the vendor 1,2,or 3 times after he has been killed depending on the module. Even though the DNA for the vendor may not be too expensive you still have to pay the vendors there salaries. DNA costs and salaries depend on the following:
Barter Level: When a runner goes to buy something from a vendor the barter of the runner is compared to that of the NPC. If the runners level is higher they get a dicount depending on how high above it is. If the levels are the same then the runner pays the ammount you had set for the item. If the level is lower then the vendor tacks on a slight increase to the price (not enought to exploit).
Item Specality: Every vendor that you hire has a limit on what they can sell wether it be based off of what the item is or what the TL of the item is. Based off of this you would have to hire different or better workers to sell high TL rifles then someone who wanted to sell low TL rifles. It makes sense because the guy who you hired who just got fired from working at YOs isent going to understand when someone asks him for a Plasma Rifle.
Selling Speed: This skill reflects how fast a vendor can move items and it does this by limiting how many spaces he has to sell items from. It works like this, all items that are being sold are stored in cabanites. The higher the selling speed the more items he can grab from the cabs and display to the people. So if the vendors selling speed was one he would only list one type of pistol. If he ran out of this then he would start selling pistol B and so on and so forth. If his speed had been two then he could have listed and sold pistol A and Pistol B at the same time.
Weapon Type and TL: Seeing as somepeople would want to harm vendors they can carry weapons as indicated in their profiles. If their profile says Pistol/50 Then they can use pistols up to TL 50. If it says Rifle/80 they can use up to TL80 rifles and so on. You must buy the weapons for your shop keepers.
NPC Model: Even though it does not affect the price of the vendor you are able to pick from various models for the NPC so you can change their look.
All of these stats are shown in the DNA cube when you buy it and in the MSCC when you bring the vendors back to your shop. The stats are also reflected in the overall rank of the vendor. Your workers wages are also based off of these skills. Wages are payed to the workers every real life week. If you miss one payment the worker stops doing anything until it get payed again. If this happens twice in a row or very often then they disappear and so does their DNA cube which represents them getting a new job.
Specailty NPCs: Some situations require the use of specailized NPCs. These NPCs cost more than normal NPCs but do much more important jobs. They are:
Rare Seller, Part: Due to the high technical nature of rare parts and also the fact that you dont want a person that would steal from you, you must hire special NPCs to handle your rare parts. They cost more than normal NPC vendors and can only sell rare parts, but all above stats apply.
Rare Seller, Weapon: Same as the above vendor except they cost even more because they are intrusted with the whole weapon. The reason these two vendors would cost so much is to keep rares rare.
Talking NPC: These NPCs have the ability to inteact with runners by using the dialogue screen. Their dialogue is set in the MSCC by the owner of the shop and they can further be customized by using the Vendor Scripting Language (more on that later) The only stats they share with normal vendors are weapon type and tl and model. Their new skill is:
Number of Lines: This dictates how many lines of dialogue they can have. The higher the skill the more lines.
Smuggler Vendors: One thing that this game needs more of is a clean line between criminals and the law. There should be certain drugs/imps/weapons that are considered ilegal and are not able to be sold in the city at all. Also CA runners should have faction missions to visit shops and make sure that they dont have any ilegal items and if so to confiscate them and arrest the owner. This is wehre smugglers would come in. They would look like any other vendor but would have a way to secretly tell them a password that would let you look at their ilegal items. They would also have a new skill called:
Smuggling Ability: The ability for vendors to hide ilegal items to hide items from CA runners. The skill of the vendor would be compared to either the skill of the runner (new skill) or the level of the scanner tool they have. The higher level they are the less likely they are to be found out.
Hookers: Good looking women with not a lot on. Perfect for stip clubs.
Guard: These are the muscle of your property. They can only be placed within shop boundaries and cannot shoot at anyone outside, only people who pass the line into your shop. They keep your vendors safe and keep out the riff raf. Their stats are:
Weapon Type and TL: Same as above
Strength: Dictates what type of armor they can use
Reaction Rate: How fast they react to a deal with intruders
Guards have varying levels of who they will target and kill with runners. These levels are:
Kill All: Kills everyone not listed in the "Do Not kill List" on the MSCC. Shop owners are always on that list
Kill Selected: Kills everyone on the "Kill List" The shop owner can never be on this list.
Kill Faction Enemy: Kills all faction enemies
Kill Clan Enemies: Kills anyone the owners clan has on their war list. The owning clan can never be on this list
Kill No One: Dosent Kill anyone
They also have a reaction rate setting. They are:
Kill Imediatly: Kills anyone on the selected setting as soon as they see them.
Give X Warnings then Kill: Gives whoever applies to the selected setting X number of warnings (set by owner) and then kills them. Depending on the guard it can either be one of a few preset voice commands (made by KK) or a chat warning.
Kill if Weapon is Visible: If whoever is effected by the current setting has a weapon drawn the guards will open fire. This can be combined with the warning command to give them a warning if they have a gun out.
Guards will always open fire if they themselves or a vendor or shop owner is fired at by anyone.
The Vendor Scripting System
Used mostly in conjuction with the talking NPCs or by Shop Owners who want to have complete control the Vendor Scripting System is an easy to learn language that is editied at the MSCC. The commands are very basic. Some of them would be:
Buy X for Y: Selected vendor buys X item for Y money.
Sell X for Y: Sells X item for Y money.
Trade X for Z: Trades X item for Z item
(Those three would already be able to be setup with out scripting)
And: Combines two things such as "Buy X AND Y"
If/Then: Says that IF one thing happens THEN do something else. "IF runner sets price of X item as Y THEN buy"
Less then / Greater than: Analyzes something to see if something else is less then or greater than. "If Runner A offers MORE THAN 2000 CR for X item then Sell
Send Email E: Sends an email to E name. "If X item is brought then SEND EMAIL BOB saying We got the gun!"
Kill: Tells selected NPC to kill a certain runner if something happens "If Runner A pays less than 2000 NC then KILL him.
Set Message M : Sets message M as what the talking NPC will say
Repeat Message M: Tells the NPC to repeat the previously set message "If runner uses NPC then REPEAT MESSAGE HI!"
List Messages: Lists message is the interface window that a runner can click on to further conversation
Ask: Brings up input window where a runner can input info. "ASK (Whats you name?)
Repeat: Repeats what ever was filled in on the ask forum. "REPEAT (Hi, X)
Where X would be whatever the runner filled in as their name.
(Programming freaks feel free to add commands/fix mine if I have made any mistakes. Also sorry if this dosent make sense but I am sure a coder could understand it/ explain it a lot better than I can)
A good example for this system would say a Runner wants to set up a hacking business. He wants a talking NPC to talk to runners when they click on him, tell them about the runners services, and contact the runner if they need a belt hacked. He sets is NPC as "IF Runner Uses NPC then REPEAT MESSAGE "Hi my prices are 10k per belt" IF runner clicks of message "I want a belt hacker" THEN ask "Whos belt and where" When runner Fills in location and name SEND EMAIL HACKER saying "Runners belt in PP needs hacking"
One major problem with Neocron is that no trade skillers or anyone for that matter, bothers to sell anything except rare chips and tech parts. Even if you do try to make a few bucks of a rare it is a long, boring, and tedious process to yell "WTS Rare Parts" every few minutes. This is where runner owned shops come in. You would be able to open a shop and have NPCs sell things when your not around. My ideas here extend way past the idea of simple shops though.
Where to Put Them
One major question about runner owned shops is where to put them. There is plenty of existing space that needs only to be slightly tweeked to acomodate runner owned shops. Also neocron can always be built up to the sky to allow room for shops or we could have underground shops. There is also plenty of room in MB, TH, and TG. One other idea is to have a large mall of all different shops where you can have a lot of virtual space for them.
How Much They Should Cost
Another issue with the creation of runner made shops is how much they should cost. I think that they should cost enough that not everyone but not too much that only big name people have them and no one makes noobie weapons. First off you have to buy or rent the floor space that you will use. The price of this should depend on location and Amman of space. A one room piece of junk in the outskirts of the the outzone should cost way less than a multistory complex in the heart of Plaza 1. Shops in the mall should cost less because they are plain and hidden with a lot of other shops (more on the mall later) Where you can buy shops should also be limited by content and owner of the shop. A TS member shouldn't be able to set up a strip club in ViaRossa but if he gets a TT buddy to open up a weapon store in ViaRossa for him it could work. The other costs should be for NPCs to run the shops, cabinets and such inside the shop, and general upkeep. More on these later. It shouldn't be too hard for someone to open up a small little shop with barely and room and one NPC but how many people would go to it? Also small shops should always be safe zones unless they are in the outzone or PP but very large places should be anarchy zones like they are now. Shops should be purchasable from Diamond real estate runners if they are in the city, TS or BD depending on the PP sector, Crahn for outzone and CM, FA, or TG depending on their respective HQs. Once you buy the key to the shop you have access to the shop and the control terminal so that you can begin building your shop up from the ground floor to suit your needs. The following are what factors into the price of shop space:
Location: As mentioned before location is key. The floor space should break down like this going from most expensive to least: ViaRossa, Plaza, MB/TH/TG, Mall, PP, Outzone.
Architecture: A nice multistory building with archs, bridges, and other good looking things will be more expensive than a square room. I dont have ideas for each and every price level but the most expensive should look the best and the cheapest should be a box
Floor Space: Somewhat related to architecture, floor space is the measure of how much room your store has and therefore how much you can put in it. Items should have to be a certain distance apart so that it is easy to navigate and people dont pack things in cheap places.
Restrictions: Certain areas have restrictions that factor into the price of the space you are buying. For example you can only own strip clubs in PP and you can only operate clean medicare facilitys in ViaRossa (but you can do so ileaglly in PP or outzone.)
The Main Shop Control Center
The main shop control center or MSCC for short is where everything in your shop is controlled from. It allows architects to make floor plans, lets you hire and fire workers, manage your expensies and serves as the virtual moneybox. The money box is where all the proftits from the shop go and where money for wages and items the shop has bought comes from. After a certain amount of money is put into it it becomes full and needs to be emptied before the shop can operate again. This is to prevent people from opening up a shop and then simpily logging off for a month and coming back rich. It also leads to such RP elements as robbing of a store. Say you are a criminal and you know that a certain store owner always collects his money at a certain time. You stake out his store and wait till he opens it and then you pounce and steal his money. The money box is also able to accept a password so that your business partner can add or remove money.
NPC Shopkeepers
The most important part of a runner owned shop is the NPC vendor. Sure you can buy a space and furnish it with the best of everything but if you dident have any vendors you would still have to stand there spamming the trade channel. Vendors can be purchased from certain "Human Resource Directors" who are a subdivions of Diamond realestate. Once you purchase the "Vendor DNA" you take it back to your shop where it is inputted in the MSCC and once that is done you can spawn your vendor. If your vendor is killed you must buy another unless you buy an expensive back up module that respawns the vendor 1,2,or 3 times after he has been killed depending on the module. Even though the DNA for the vendor may not be too expensive you still have to pay the vendors there salaries. DNA costs and salaries depend on the following:
Barter Level: When a runner goes to buy something from a vendor the barter of the runner is compared to that of the NPC. If the runners level is higher they get a dicount depending on how high above it is. If the levels are the same then the runner pays the ammount you had set for the item. If the level is lower then the vendor tacks on a slight increase to the price (not enought to exploit).
Item Specality: Every vendor that you hire has a limit on what they can sell wether it be based off of what the item is or what the TL of the item is. Based off of this you would have to hire different or better workers to sell high TL rifles then someone who wanted to sell low TL rifles. It makes sense because the guy who you hired who just got fired from working at YOs isent going to understand when someone asks him for a Plasma Rifle.
Selling Speed: This skill reflects how fast a vendor can move items and it does this by limiting how many spaces he has to sell items from. It works like this, all items that are being sold are stored in cabanites. The higher the selling speed the more items he can grab from the cabs and display to the people. So if the vendors selling speed was one he would only list one type of pistol. If he ran out of this then he would start selling pistol B and so on and so forth. If his speed had been two then he could have listed and sold pistol A and Pistol B at the same time.
Weapon Type and TL: Seeing as somepeople would want to harm vendors they can carry weapons as indicated in their profiles. If their profile says Pistol/50 Then they can use pistols up to TL 50. If it says Rifle/80 they can use up to TL80 rifles and so on. You must buy the weapons for your shop keepers.
NPC Model: Even though it does not affect the price of the vendor you are able to pick from various models for the NPC so you can change their look.
All of these stats are shown in the DNA cube when you buy it and in the MSCC when you bring the vendors back to your shop. The stats are also reflected in the overall rank of the vendor. Your workers wages are also based off of these skills. Wages are payed to the workers every real life week. If you miss one payment the worker stops doing anything until it get payed again. If this happens twice in a row or very often then they disappear and so does their DNA cube which represents them getting a new job.
Specailty NPCs: Some situations require the use of specailized NPCs. These NPCs cost more than normal NPCs but do much more important jobs. They are:
Rare Seller, Part: Due to the high technical nature of rare parts and also the fact that you dont want a person that would steal from you, you must hire special NPCs to handle your rare parts. They cost more than normal NPC vendors and can only sell rare parts, but all above stats apply.
Rare Seller, Weapon: Same as the above vendor except they cost even more because they are intrusted with the whole weapon. The reason these two vendors would cost so much is to keep rares rare.
Talking NPC: These NPCs have the ability to inteact with runners by using the dialogue screen. Their dialogue is set in the MSCC by the owner of the shop and they can further be customized by using the Vendor Scripting Language (more on that later) The only stats they share with normal vendors are weapon type and tl and model. Their new skill is:
Number of Lines: This dictates how many lines of dialogue they can have. The higher the skill the more lines.
Smuggler Vendors: One thing that this game needs more of is a clean line between criminals and the law. There should be certain drugs/imps/weapons that are considered ilegal and are not able to be sold in the city at all. Also CA runners should have faction missions to visit shops and make sure that they dont have any ilegal items and if so to confiscate them and arrest the owner. This is wehre smugglers would come in. They would look like any other vendor but would have a way to secretly tell them a password that would let you look at their ilegal items. They would also have a new skill called:
Smuggling Ability: The ability for vendors to hide ilegal items to hide items from CA runners. The skill of the vendor would be compared to either the skill of the runner (new skill) or the level of the scanner tool they have. The higher level they are the less likely they are to be found out.
Hookers: Good looking women with not a lot on. Perfect for stip clubs.
Guard: These are the muscle of your property. They can only be placed within shop boundaries and cannot shoot at anyone outside, only people who pass the line into your shop. They keep your vendors safe and keep out the riff raf. Their stats are:
Weapon Type and TL: Same as above
Strength: Dictates what type of armor they can use
Reaction Rate: How fast they react to a deal with intruders
Guards have varying levels of who they will target and kill with runners. These levels are:
Kill All: Kills everyone not listed in the "Do Not kill List" on the MSCC. Shop owners are always on that list
Kill Selected: Kills everyone on the "Kill List" The shop owner can never be on this list.
Kill Faction Enemy: Kills all faction enemies
Kill Clan Enemies: Kills anyone the owners clan has on their war list. The owning clan can never be on this list
Kill No One: Dosent Kill anyone
They also have a reaction rate setting. They are:
Kill Imediatly: Kills anyone on the selected setting as soon as they see them.
Give X Warnings then Kill: Gives whoever applies to the selected setting X number of warnings (set by owner) and then kills them. Depending on the guard it can either be one of a few preset voice commands (made by KK) or a chat warning.
Kill if Weapon is Visible: If whoever is effected by the current setting has a weapon drawn the guards will open fire. This can be combined with the warning command to give them a warning if they have a gun out.
Guards will always open fire if they themselves or a vendor or shop owner is fired at by anyone.
The Vendor Scripting System
Used mostly in conjuction with the talking NPCs or by Shop Owners who want to have complete control the Vendor Scripting System is an easy to learn language that is editied at the MSCC. The commands are very basic. Some of them would be:
Buy X for Y: Selected vendor buys X item for Y money.
Sell X for Y: Sells X item for Y money.
Trade X for Z: Trades X item for Z item
(Those three would already be able to be setup with out scripting)
And: Combines two things such as "Buy X AND Y"
If/Then: Says that IF one thing happens THEN do something else. "IF runner sets price of X item as Y THEN buy"
Less then / Greater than: Analyzes something to see if something else is less then or greater than. "If Runner A offers MORE THAN 2000 CR for X item then Sell
Send Email E: Sends an email to E name. "If X item is brought then SEND EMAIL BOB saying We got the gun!"
Kill: Tells selected NPC to kill a certain runner if something happens "If Runner A pays less than 2000 NC then KILL him.
Set Message M : Sets message M as what the talking NPC will say
Repeat Message M: Tells the NPC to repeat the previously set message "If runner uses NPC then REPEAT MESSAGE HI!"
List Messages: Lists message is the interface window that a runner can click on to further conversation
Ask: Brings up input window where a runner can input info. "ASK (Whats you name?)
Repeat: Repeats what ever was filled in on the ask forum. "REPEAT (Hi, X)
Where X would be whatever the runner filled in as their name.
(Programming freaks feel free to add commands/fix mine if I have made any mistakes. Also sorry if this dosent make sense but I am sure a coder could understand it/ explain it a lot better than I can)
A good example for this system would say a Runner wants to set up a hacking business. He wants a talking NPC to talk to runners when they click on him, tell them about the runners services, and contact the runner if they need a belt hacked. He sets is NPC as "IF Runner Uses NPC then REPEAT MESSAGE "Hi my prices are 10k per belt" IF runner clicks of message "I want a belt hacker" THEN ask "Whos belt and where" When runner Fills in location and name SEND EMAIL HACKER saying "Runners belt in PP needs hacking"