Age of the Underworld Townhall - 12/9/21
Tef:
Age of the Underworld, that’s what we’re talking about. This is all very alpha, very early access. This month we introduced Underworld Credits, it’s my answer to the requests for a map wipe. I’ve had this argument 1000 times and this is my answer, my takeaway is people want to change up the game, add to it. A Map Wipe won’t give people what they want, but I’m down for the change so Underworld Credits, an economy is my suggestion. Not a full on IC economy, so execs characters stay rich and rp rich, but one based in the Underworld which is an underused part of the site.
The Factory will be the launch point of the Age of the Underworld. Bringing back Company Tiers.
I’m thinking of bringing in a new map, going to lean into my biases, like Darkwire. I liked their concept and what they did/are doing, so one of the first things I want to do is make an Underworld map and I’m looking at Denon. Gang warfare, drug warfare, corporate interests and influence, etc. We want companies to represent a tangible part of the community, something that gives a sense of progression. You can get Underworld Credits through activity IC, by posting in RP threads public and private, and submitting to the Factory and the Codex. I hope this will increase the interaction between the submitter and the RPers who use their subs, and I hope it’ll increase the interactivity from submitters relinquishing their grubby hands off their submissions to sell them. I want you in the Factory, but I want you to interact with others, too.
That’s what I want to focus on, The Company Tiers I don’t have a roadmap for, but I want them to be purchasable through the underworld economy. But we have to be careful of gatekeeping, which is something I always argue with the Factory Judges, RPJs and Admins. We don’t want to make things that a new member can’t use, too many rules that intimidate and push new members off. The standard I draw is a new writer should be able to get into it immediately.
Opens up to questions and suggestions.
Commodore Burtch:
What can you buy?
Tef:
Right now we have the Vault which falls under the factory. The Age of the Underworld is going to start as a massive Factory expansion. The Vault is going to be a marketplace. It appears that we can create a section where player-generated forms/subs can be sold to others for Underworld Credits.
CB:
Are you selling IC assets or the subs themselves?
Tef:
The IC assets. If a company makes something they hold the trademark. I can see that this has potential to be a massive flood, and I don’t want that at the start. Staff and I need our t’s crossed, i’s dotted before we introduce player-created items like that.But yeah, it’s something we’re working towards.
Samuel Excel:
Can I break someone’s kneecaps?
Tef:
Yes, absolutely. I want to support the bounty hunter system. The Underworld economy is a great place to incentivize, providing tangible rewards to the bounty hunter IC world.
OOC: We’re all aware the bounties are basically useless, with IC credits. Using UC is a much preferable method, in this case. It won’t be in all cases, but in this case, it is.
CB:
What’s going to be the bottleneck, how are you going to prevent things from coming out so quickly.
Tef:
Roll things out slowly. I have several ideas, multiple economies, selling tiers, do it slow and walk on eggshells. I have several ideas but we need to be slow and careful.
Carlyle:
Can I pump and dump Currencies?
Tef:
I want a cryptocurrency that’s always changing. You can invest in it, pump credits into it, buy low sell high. Mostly for the meme, but that’s way too far down the road to seriously talk about at this time.
Carlyle:
Will gangland warfare be a thing? Will criminal organizations work as a codex sub, or do they need to be factions?
Tef:
The faction system is robust so we’ll just use that. There is a category system for factions, there can be tech and criminal ones, so I plan to use that. I don’t want to create a new ruleset for criminal gangs. A lot of the system you’re talking about exist, staff just don’t provide the oversight that brings everyone onto the same page.
Samuel Excel:
I’m pretty new to this, haven’t even interacted once. I’m just curious about the map aspect you mentioned.
Tef:
We’re still early access, we’ll be filtering it through EA. If you donate 10 discord boosts and 10underworld credits then you get… seriously though, I plan to start out with a Underworld planetary map and see how it works from there. I want to start with a planet and expand from there. Other planets will be a thing, Coruscant for example is on the table. I just want to help expand the underworld scene and that’s what the age of the underworld is going to look to do. Between now and mid-Jan, timetables are loose around here. I also want to create an area for the companies. There are very few companies that are worked on by multiple writers, and the problem there is we’re not catering to a few major factions but a large number of companies which we’d have to do manually, so a logistical nightmare.
SE:
Legal Bounties and Police Enforcement?
Tef:
I will not be introducing a staff police force, we get enough flak. The Factions might do this though. We have to be very careful on what staff does, the situations we foster have to be organic. It would be cool if the Major Faction’s actions create a criminal increase, and vice versa. I want to give you as many toys as I can so you can make the decisions and jump into this It’s very important this doesn’t feel Staff-mandated, but just a new toy that creates chaos and new decisions for players to make without Staff helicoptering. I want new writers to see this is streamlined and to be confused about the decisions you make because it’s your decision, but for it to be easy to execute.
Kitter Bitters:
Can I sell legal goods?
Tef:
Yes. The underworlds are vast, like when Qui Gon went to Tatooine and Watto was like “I don’t accept republic credits.” I’d love it if major factions could make their own credits.
Quartz_Soldier:
Stock Market crashes, will they happen
Tef:
Maybe, that’s a little further down the line than I expect though. Right now we’re looking at more simple marketplace exchanges.
JSC:
Is everyone gonna be able to see how much underworld credits I have, will I be able to flex it.
Tef:
Yes. There is a leader board. It was one of the first things people asked for, and now they keep asking me for money so they can be at the top of it
JSC:
Will I be able to get UC for private threads and Articles?
Tef:
Private threads, yes but at a reduced rate cause they're faster. Articles, no.
Kitter Bitters:
Can I make a brothel?
Tef:
Umm…oooook. Yes…I don’t want anything off the table y’all dirty motherfuckers.
OOC: Probably not. There’s so many ways this goes south. Same with slave markets, even though the prequel trilogy’s main character exists as a slave. There’s a lot of things that would be immersive in Star Wars, but we need to walk carefully at first with these volatile social issues, as people in this environment can get outta pocket and caught up in their emotions too quickly rather than it being like, a Stellaris game.
CB:
Is there talk of Dev threads coming back to help bottleneck the sellable products?
Tef:
Yes, but it can’t be in the same way and they can’t be mandatory. I hate Dev threads cause people spend all day working on a sub and then a FJ says go write a 4k word thread and you just cry. I do want to create a sense of progression and accomplishment for writers. [explains dev threads] We had a lot of factory admins in the past, one of them introduced it, it might have been me but I refuse to admit that.
Kitter Bitters:
Can we gamble with our underworld credits
Tef:
Yes, there’s already a lottery. Also, you’re gonna get taxed. All the money goes to Definitely Not Tefka and he appreciates it.
Seto:
What’s the point of the tax?
Tef:
So I stop injecting money and staff has it’s own holdings so that further down the road we can use that for events or prizes. I want RPJs to be able to dip into that pools to gift players currency if they do something well. Showing respect for solid roleplay, sending out rewards for cool events and ideas.
I hate the suggestion forum more than any man alive, because ya’ll play too much, but we’re doing this for you all so speak up.
Fyre:
How do we transfer credits
Tef:
Right now you can transfer credits via donating but there will be many quality of life changes down the road that make these mechanics easier to operate rather than going in submenus.
John:
Can we track the purchases
Tef:
There is a purchase log which anyone can see, under the Vault tab. Searchable for admins right now, not everyone else.
Seto:
Player operated banks?
Tef:
I hadn’t considered that. Yes, or maybe a major faction bank. I like how sketchy it seems on the surface. I like the idea that someone just makes a sketch bank and takes your money and runs. I can’t wait to see the rage threads and reports that someone just took their bad investments and ran off with it. However, we’re not going to allow people to mechanically steal, that’s weak. I think it’d be really cool though if you go steal from a Vault and then they respect your story, your roleplay, because you put in good effort so they just send you the money and the respect stays between roleplayers. I think it’s important to foster this type of environment, rather than relying on mechanics, because it further institutes respect between roleplayers for good writers and takes ya’lls soft feelings out of the equation.
The community is consistently giving me the impression they want a big change, but again, I’m not going to wipe the map. This town hall hopefully crushed any hopes of that. It’s not happening. Like I told the Major Faction Owners, recently, all it serves is to just piss them off. Ya’ll wouldn’t get hyped for more hexes, and to recirculate more of the same. No, I think we need something completely brand new, so in comes the Age of the Underworld.
Also, I’m updating reacts these next couple of weeks, and I want you all to know yes I use anime as a weapon to upset you. And I’ll do it again if you come at me sideways.
For the haters, if you hate these ideas, if you absolutely dislike the discussion at hand and want to be a downer then I want to validate your feelings. You’re allowed to have these opinions. You’re allowed to feel this way, negatively about these proposals and these moves by myself and Staff. But… if you could shut the fuck up with the negativity, that’d be great. I want your critique, bring on the critique, you can do so without being an nerf herder - “Hey Tef I don’t like this because X”. We welcome that and it does help shape our decisions, because ultimately, we do this for you.
I hope you have a good holiday season, I hope ya’ll stay safe, stay tuned to the announcements channel and keep those suggestions coming. Between everything Star Wars has going for it these coming months, it's going to be difficult to miss the hype.
