Improvements to Businesses

Hello, back again with more suggestions. Let me start by saying that the most recent patch was, quite literally, the best thing I have woken up to in a long time. This is a system that I have wanted for a while, and our staff team and devs have really delivered on. However, here I have some suggestions on ways to improve this system and provide more incentive among the community to participate. More specifically, I want to bring attention to the Business License System.

My ‘Issue’

This is a fantastic addition to FTRP and really adds more depth to our worldbuilding. However, after inspecting it, I realize that there really isn’t much of an incentive in participating in this specific system. The description reads as follows, but I want you to take note of what I have bolded: “A business licence allows the owner of a Plot Company to create an In-Game Shop within their subboard, where they are allowed to sell brand items for a small jewel profit. The maximum cost of brand items is capped at 5,000 Jewel. Should the players sell any items/armours/weapons that are Strong, Legendary and so on, then players are still required to buy the grade of these items from the armory. All items created by the plot companies will still be subject to grading by staff and may require edits if they do not comply with the Magic Rules. It is advised that Business Owners have their items graded through their character or another player to the point of approval. This is so they can base their products on the approved item.”

While I don’t have a specific issue with this (which is why I titled this delicately), I see so many opportunities to improve and create a humongous increase in incentive without making the Job System impractical or undesirable.

Simply put, a business license costs 250,000, and the maximum amount of jewels you can sell your products for is 5,000, even when you can potentially spend upwards of 350,000 on a product to sell. In other words, there isn’t much of an incentive to actually purchase and/or participate in the Business System unless you are specifically looking for site recognition, or else you could make and do more in the Black Market. In my opinion, this is a missed opportunity. However, I am here to offer my own ideas and improvements and not to bash or criticize staff and devs' amazing work if it isn’t constructive. Take a look at some of my suggestions.


Suggestion A: Adding a percentage profit

Jobs don’t have to be the only way to make money on FTRP, and I think the Business System can be a way for people who prefer to spend their time creating rather than grinding to really flourish.

In this suggestion, players don’t sell their products for the flat fee of 5,000 and instead can sell products for +25% more than what they paid for it. For example, take a look at this scenario: You just purchased your business license and you want your appeal to be that you sell customized Legendary Armors, allowing customers to buy good, auto-approve equipment without making it themselves. You start with 100,000j. Legendary Armors cost 80,000, so you could buy it, create it, have it graded and approved, and then sell it for 100,000, 25% more than what you actually paid for it. Remember that we started with 100,000, so while we had only 20,000 left after purchasing it, you can now have a total amount of 120,000 if your product sells. There was only a 20,000j profit, which doesn’t seem like much, but for people who are dedicated to their shops, their investments can pay off and they can gain jewels over time.

Because the business is unreliable (no one can guarantee your products will sell, and for how long), takes a lot of time to create your products and doesn’t offer EXP rewards, jobs will still dominate the market for making jewels. Treat businesses like an IC-and-OOC side hustle. If you also own a plot company, you can also turn business profits into wages for employees, creating a greater incentive for plot companies and encourage people to actually work for your character or NPC Owner.

Suggestion 1A: Business License Levels

I think, if Suggestion A does well, we can take it a step further. There is only one type of Business License you can have, and that costs 250,000, but if your shop is doing well and so is your company (if you have one), it doesn’t hurt to consider making it a bit more complex.

In this sub-suggestion, players can potentially own one of three business licenses: License C, License B, and License A (L-C, L-B, and L-A for short). With every level of a license, you can have a greater percentage profit. So while a C-License would cap at a +25% profit, B-licenses can have +35%, and A-licenses can have +45%. Obviously these are just examples, and should this idea be approved, the actual rates would be up to staff/devs and what they think is balanced, but the gist of it is clear.

It should be considered that players can only own one of these licenses, and upgrading a license requires a player to pay in full and not the difference between the license they own and the license they want. Additionally, players must upgrade their license (they cannot go straight from a C-L to an A-L) and prove that their business is successful between the time of gaining their license and the time they are upgrading to a better one if they want to qualify for it.

It can also be considered that different levels of business licenses can permit a player to sell different amounts and types of products. For example, C-L holders would, hypothetically, be only able to sell 5 products at a time, and should any of those products be equipment, they can only sell Strong and Strong(+) equipment. B-L holders could sell upwards of 8 products at a time, and if it’s equipment, Strong, Strong(+), Legendary, and Legendary(+) equipment. A-L holders can sell upwards of 10 products at a time, and if it’s equipment, they can sell any tier.

The point with Suggestion A is that it’s an investment. The payoff is small at first, but if you stick with it, you and the people in your company can have a fun and reliable side-hustle for jewels. You can genuinely make a business with simple and standard profits.

License Level	C-L	B-L	A-L
Profit Percentage	+25%	+35%	+45%
Inventory	5 Slots	8 Slots	10 Slots
Equipment Sales	Strong/Strong+	Str/Str+/Leg/Leg+	Str/Str+/Leg/Leg+/Art/Art+
Price	250,000j	350,000	500,000

Suggestion B: Increasing the flat fee


If Suggestion A isn’t the best way for this system to improve and become more in-depth, I think Suggestion B might be a good alternative.

In this suggestion, a way to improve business license ownership is to increase the flat profit of 5,000j to something larger. I personally believe that a 10k-20k profit is appropriate.

Suggestion C: Decreasing the Business License price

Suggestions A and B not doing the trick? Perhaps Suggestion C is the last bastion.

In this suggestion, my only improvement is decreasing the price of a license from 250,000 to 50,000. With a guaranteed profit of 5,000, it shouldn’t cost more than a plot company, or really any more than 100,000 if all you’re actually getting is site-recognition.

Conclusion

Well, that’s it. I put a lot of thought into this and I understand that staff does not want jobs to become redundant or ineffective, which is why I’ve purposely made these additions to the Business System the “path of greatest resistance.” However, I truly do think Suggestion A is at least worth a good look because it’s something I could see myself and many others really investing in.

Anyway, that’s my two cents. K bye

I appreciate the effort you put into this. This is some pretty decent stuff, however, it's a little overzealous for the intent behind this new addition.

The idea of this whole business thing is more for plot elements and the RP opportunities it will foster above all else. It allows for just a little bit of reward if you want it for a small amount of effort making a branded pre-made item that still has to function by normal equipment mechanics and thus adds no extra work for staff. This isn't meant to be a new mechanic. It's not meant to be big jewel making ventures like jobs or OOC black market shops. It is intended to require minimal staff effort, and thus it will remain something we don't have to monitor closely. We have enough on our plates mechanics-wise as it is, so we won't be implementing an even more involved system for something meant to be mainly story-based.

As it stands, this new addition is what it is and isn't intended to be anything more. Thanks for considering it so thoroughly, though! :D

Having read both the suggestion and the reply from the staff, I think that a middle ground is possible. Obviously the new system was created mainly for plot purposes and, as it is both newely implemended and serves its purposes well, we won't be seeing it change anytime soon. On the other hand businesses functioning more like real world ones doesn't only increase the incentive for one to actively participate in plot companies and the such, but it also gives rise to new roleplaying opportunities. Imagine; auctions, bidding wars, friendly, or not, competition between rival shop owners.

As I see it the goal of this suggestion is to lead to more realistic businesses being created and opperated by members of the forum. Since the established system about plot companies and business licenses is not, apparently, going to be overhauled or tweaked, then the answer to reach that goal is simple. Combine this system with another one.

Use an IC company with a business license to sell your products of creativity, while using the Black Market or the Trading Hub to have the actual monetary transaction go down. That way the two systems can separately function as both were intended to, but to anyone who feels the need to they can be used together to achive something akin to what this suggestion is proposing.

Unfortunately due to the lack of consensus amongst staff and the fact that the businesses aren't used enough to warrant this system. I'm going to go ahead and deny this suggestion and close this thread.