People never learn, in politics or in games, they keep voting for same trolls forever. Trolls rebrand their guild/party and run again, and win. That is why democracy fails, people are just too stupid for it.
PS.
Stop whining about vanarch, I am giving it max 2 more rounds before nobody serious will bother. Is is just not worth 3000g, then all that farming for points, all that for basically nothing.
I honestly do it for the extra level of entertainment it brings for me personally. Gives a reason to go hunt for world bosses and, when you actually do your job and people like you for it, you get some respect and it shows. There will always be those that will find SOMETHING to complain about, but that is a very tiny minority in the game.
I will continue going for Vanarch as long as I have the continued support of both my guild and the server. I haven't received any complaints so far from people that travel through Lorcada; my taxes are 2% across the board, and all services are open through June 22 (the end of this current cycle).
I honestly do it for the extra level of entertainment it brings for me personally.
Which is exactly the best reason why you should run for vanarch.
I'm quite sure there'll never be a shortage of people running for vanarch. As time goes on, more guilds are created, more people get to 50+, more people will understand that when you reach the endgame 3k are a pittance (especially if split across a whole guild), and will do it for the fun of it and for the actual advantages they get.
I'll sure be much happier to give my vote to someone that does it because it's a source of fun, because they understand that getting the money back shouldn't be a priority and because it's good for their guild, than for someone that groans because he doesn't make an immediately visible profit and considers it a job that gives him "nothing".
I found out last night why it isn't worth 3k gold. I went to a pvp server last night just to see what the ruleset is like since we don't have factions, and popped their vanarch listing up out of curiosity. I think I saw one province under 5.0 taxes. Average was about 7.0. A couple were even at 15 with closed trainers and brokers. The vanarchs were making a killing.
I asked about it in lfg and people really didn't seem to care. A couple of them even said they didn't notice the prices because they never had to look to see if they could afford the services they bought because they always had so much gold (15.0 were the higher level areas mind you, like where Arenthas is running now). And the services being shut down didn't bother them either because they were mostly 60, so who needs skill trainers, and they hardly ever used the broker when they were in the field, they always used it back in town.
With the exception of a very few, we have 1.0 - 3.0 taxes across the board, and I think it's why so many feel vanarchy just isn't worth it. I would suggest the vanarchs take a poll, and consider what level range their province is. Obviously Island of Dawn is going to need trainers, but does it -really- need a specialty vendor? o.O The Northern Shara provinces are going to need specialty vendors, but maybe someone should take a poll to see if people really use the broker and trainers out there.
Taxes might be able to be hiked a bit to make the vanarchy even more worth it. Once the guild has made their 3k back, the rest is profit. Split the profits so part would go to the guild bank and the other part could be an award or prize for some kind of competition, a raffle, tournament, trivia quiz, etc.
It's true the political positions aren't useful for much more right now than an RP pedestal, but maybe that's because the vanarchs are doing it to themselves. From what I gathered, the vanarch speech event last night was a broken record. Low taxes and open shops. How about slightly higher taxes and events sponsored by those higher taxes? Just a thought...
Unfortunately I don't think that will ever happen on this server. Too many guilds started the campaign for lower taxes (which was a shot in our foot since we didn't even know how taxes worked in the first place) as well as making grandiose promises like bringing a new golden age of prosperity to the lands, patrolling the countryside and saving villages, or keeping caravan lines open.... obviously all RP-related but having NOTHING to do with what a Vanarch actually does. You can RP what you want to do all you desire, but the truth is a Vanarch has specific things they should be able to handle... keeping services open and managing tax rates.
I fear that too many guilds are focusing on the RP-related aspect of what they want to do... and not knowing/realizing the work that goes in to it as well. You can have the most well laid-out campaign with the most in-depth discussions and speeches and promises.. people will swoon to have you elected. But if you cannot do the actual job of being Vanarch... opening services and managing taxes at a reasonable rate.... then you have failed.
As far as taxes go.... 10% honestly isn't that much. We did a test in Lorcada late one night to see. 1% taxes on flight path was ~10 silver. 15% tax was around 11s 75c. Yes, on things that cost more the difference will be higher by a small margin.... if something costs 1g then the tax on it would be 10s if you have 10% taxes. Higher taxes are NOT as evil as they sound, but people have become entitled to it on CH and thus we are made to keep them low. It's fine with me since I am not in this for the money and I can grind out 3k gold every couple of weeks for registration. It is, however, deterring a lot of people from running that are afraid they will lose and that's 3k down the drain.
It is, however, deterring a lot of people from running that are afraid they will lose and that's 3k down the drain.
if losing 3k (or better, paying less than 3k for prestige and a giant billboard real estate space for their guild, which isn't exactly a small advantage) is enough to deter someone from running for vanarch, Maybe it's a good thing that he's being deterred. Someone in for the money wouldn't get my vote anyway, that's for sure.
Personally, I definitely feel it's a good thing for people focusing on the RP-related aspects of what they want to do.That's what an RP server is for.
Besides, higher taxes don't necessarily bring in money. Even if almost everyone would raise taxes to over 10%, with how easy and cheap travel is, and the fact that the items for sale are the same everywhere, it only takes one (smarter) Vanarch to set taxes to 1% to divert all the heavy spenders to his province and ensure his re-election in the process.
Small items aren't and will never be a sizable source of income. When something costs 1 gold, you'll get a pittance out of it no matter the percentage of taxes you apply.
The real source of income are refined alkahest, spellbinds and those costly items that endgame players burn a LOT.
The more the game will progress, the more level 60 there will be, and (given that the RNG isn't influenced by total attempts) the more of those items will be burned.
When you have to spend 240 to 260 gold (without taxes) for every simple enchantment attempt, where are you gonna go? To the province governed by the vanarch that set his taxes to 1 or 2% (spending 2.4 to 5.2 gold in taxes per attempt) or to the one that set them to 10%, throwing 24 to 52 gold in taxes? Being mocked by the random number generator over and over burns enough without having to spend even more per attempt.
The more people will lose money over it, the more they'll check who has the most convenient tax rate before doing their enchants, and the more gratitude for lower taxes will influence their votes.
Hell, in the last week alone I wasted in alkahest way more than any vanarch spends to be in the seat for three weeks. You can be sure that those that make me spend less will earn at least a bit of my gratitude. Will it be the only factor that makes me decide on someone? No. Will it be *a* factor? You bet.
Given that there are no "luxury" unique products in the taxed market, a Vanarch is basically handling a supermarket or a similar mass-market retail chain. How do those draw clients primarily? Low prices and promotions.
Considering that this is an RP server, being a vanarch is somewhat of a desired role for the prestige. There is the usual perk of gold as well, but it seems to be of lesser importance due to the nature of the server and that is reflected by the current tax rates.
Other servers that are not RP-centric will need to have higher taxes inherently to make the role appealing, as prestige is less valuable elsewhere. Without profit, why else would someone want to run as a vanarch and spend their own time and gold on it? Aside of course the few out there that just want to be nice and provide help and service to others, which seems uncommon.
As it is right now I see the Vanarch system as fairly limited and subsequently not as interesting as it could be, RP aside. The potential to be built upon is there though and I'd be interested to see what sort of implementations they come up with in the future. I imagine they can add a lot of complexity with interesting perks and management responsibilities for us to drool over. I guess we'll have to wait and see though.
Of course, people will usually look for the cheapest deal. However, if what people are telling Corren on the other server (and I want to check it out too) is true, then if the taxes had been set higher in the start people may not have noticed nor cared. Regardless, our server economy and mindset right now is that taxes should be below default and most Vanarchs will keep it that way. I'll be keeping mine at 2% no matter what.... I see the difference when people spend more and buy the end game items. One night I had 62g and the next I had 94g. That was obviously from people buying more expensive items. If I make back half what I spent on registration I am super happy... if not then hey... no big deal.
On the RP stuff... I think you took that wrong. I am not against people wanting to RP being Vanarch and their campaigns. I do it too... I mean this IS a RP server lol. However, I am worried about small guilds that are strictly focusing on heavy RP promises and speeches without really giving much thought on the realities of being a Vanarch. I just don't want to see them fail at doing their actual duties in the position and have to deal with more backlash due to closed services and defaulted taxes... and more griping on the forums about Vanarchs and why people hate them.
