do something yall

[Cozmicraft]

I have an idea. Taxes. Maybe everything you buy/sell at the shop would be taxed. Now, nothing excessive obviously, as none of us want a blocky version of the Boston tea party. A 10-15% tax on the shop would encourage more player to player trade, while still permitting economic growth.

Another idea for a tax (and I will no doubt get some hate for this), is a property tax. There are two ways to administer a property tax. The first is to tax, every real-life week, a percentage of the value that the property was bought for/is worth. It would certainly discourage people to own 20 plots and would give the rich, with their 20 mansions and private islands, something that would actually make a dent in their wallet. I am not a millionaire, so I cannot speak for the wealthy, so please do tell me what you think.

But nobody wants to pay rent on a plot they have already bought, so I have a slightly more reasonable proposal. A tax when you buy/sell a property. If it is taxed 10%, and half the property on the server is resold, then we may already get 20-40 million dollars out of the system. It would keep property value and sales in check.

 

[Turkey]

I have an idea. Taxes. Maybe everything you buy/sell at the shop would be taxed. Now, nothing excessive obviously, as none of us want a blocky version of the Boston tea party. A 10-15% tax on the shop would encourage more player to player trade, while still permitting economic growth.

Another idea for a tax (and I will no doubt get some hate for this), is a property tax. There are two ways to administer a property tax. The first is to tax, every real-life week, a percentage of the value that the property was bought for/is worth. It would certainly discourage people to own 20 plots and would give the rich, with their 20 mansions and private islands, something that would actually make a dent in their wallet. I am not a millionaire, so I cannot speak for the wealthy, so please do tell me what you think.

But nobody wants to pay rent on a plot they have already bought, so I have a slightly more reasonable proposal. A tax when you buy/sell a property. If it is taxed 10%, and half the property on the server is resold, then we may already get 20-40 million dollars out of the system. It would keep property value and sales in check.

Idea 1: doesn’t make much sense at all, it’s pretty much like lowering an itens value at shop anyways.
Idea 2: the majority of the comments on this thread talk about property tax, so there are a few ideas there
Idea 3: actually a good idea, probably one of the best produced from this thread

 

[Turkey]

I have an idea. Taxes. Maybe everything you buy/sell at the shop would be taxed. Now, nothing excessive obviously, as none of us want a blocky version of the Boston tea party. A 10-15% tax on the shop would encourage more player to player trade, while still permitting economic growth.

Another idea for a tax (and I will no doubt get some hate for this), is a property tax. There are two ways to administer a property tax. The first is to tax, every real-life week, a percentage of the value that the property was bought for/is worth. It would certainly discourage people to own 20 plots and would give the rich, with their 20 mansions and private islands, something that would actually make a dent in their wallet. I am not a millionaire, so I cannot speak for the wealthy, so please do tell me what you think.

But nobody wants to pay rent on a plot they have already bought, so I have a slightly more reasonable proposal. A tax when you buy/sell a property. If it is taxed 10%, and half the property on the server is resold, then we may already get 20-40 million dollars out of the system. It would keep property value and sales in check.

Idea 1: doesn’t make much sense at all, it’s pretty much like lowering an itens value at shop anyways.
Idea 2: the majority of the comments on this thread talk about property tax, so there are a few ideas there
Idea 3: actually a good idea, probably one of the best produced from this thread

 

[Cozmicraft]

Idea 1: doesn’t make much sense at all, it’s pretty much like lowering an items value at shop anyways.
Idea 2: the majority of the comments on this thread talk about property tax, so there are a few ideas there
Idea 3: actually a good idea, probably one of the best produced from this thread

Actually, idea 1 does make sense. If people get less for the items at the shop and choose to sell to players, then more money is not pumped into the system. See, when you sell to the shop, then money is just created. It's free cash, and nobody actually has to pay up. If we decrease the amount one can sell for, one of two things will happen.

Either the person will

1: Sell anyway, but put 10-20% less extra money in the system, or

2: Sell to other players instead, leaving the total amount of money in the economic system the same.


I didn't take the time to read 100 really long posts, so I didn't know property tax was so commonly suggested

 

[Turkey]

Actually, idea 1 does make sense. If people get less for the items at the shop and choose to sell to players, then more money is not pumped into the system. See, when you sell to the shop, then money is just created. It's free cash, and nobody actually has to pay up. If we decrease the amount one can sell for, one of two things will happen.

Either the person will

1: Sell anyway, but put 10-20% less extra money in the system, or

2: Sell to other players instead, leaving the total amount of money in the economic system the same.


I didn't take the time to read 100 really long posts, so I didn't know property tax was so commonly suggested

What I meant was, why would it be a tax?? It just makes more sense to lower the items sell value

 

[Death]

Im just saying i think im the only actual player or me and someone i know of who reached 20 mansions and islands combined. i bought it for relatively cheap so not much property tax can do. As well as people will end up finding loop holes like selling it for 0 to each other and just paying the other the full amount through /pay. People will end up always doing it. Even sometiems like if a newbie spnds all his money on a house its gonna be kinda hard for him to earn up. But if something like a 5-10% property tax were made, Im pretty much saying Im eventually gonna be ‘renting’ my plot for like 10-20 months in a sense but paying twice as much?

 

[Cozmicraft]

What I meant was, why would it be a tax?? It just makes more sense to lower the items sell value

Yeah, true. But the thing is, it would fit in with the city more. I have a few ideas that could be done with tax money.

1: Police are paid with tax money, in addition to the bails. Their current pay is NOT enough for the work that they do.
2: We have a democratic election for people, who have choices as to what do do with minor issues (No perms or real privileges, but just have influential officials in the city capable of making change happen). They would be paid with tax money.
3: A new job for trusted people, the city builders. They are different from architects in that their job is specifically to renovate and maintain structures in the city. Again they could be paid with tax money.
4: Public Broadcasting. We could have a kind of official McCities news, with city-backed employees who would be paid with tax money.

I kind of prefer a tax to just a price drop as it adds a lot more depth and roleplay potential to the server. (I'm a Dungeons and Dragons nerd, okay? I like my roleplaying.)

 

[TheDiamondTiger]

The housing market has slowed considerably throughout the past year and prices have multiplied. Adding more properties would not be beneficial, because there's no need for this many plots. If plots were taken away, however, there'd actually be a demand for them. Right now, there's pretty much no demand for houses because Citizens own like 10. There's not exactly a good way to implement the reduction of houses though.

Idea 1: Players could sell the plot back to the server for a fair price.
Pros - players would get what they paid for the house and wouldn't lose any money in the investment. The server would own the home, so there would be more of a demand for houses owned by players, and the housing market may start up again when there's a demand.
Cons - the house would sit empty and vacant. There would be less of a sense of community.

Idea 2: Reduce the plot limit to 15 houses for normal players, 20 for realtors. There's no need for that many houses.
Pros - players would sell some plots, either to players to help the housing market thrive or to the server to create even more of a demand.
Cons - players may lose money on their investment because no one wants to buy their properties.

Idea 3: Remove as many regions as possible - apartments, houses, buildings, just anything to get rid of properties. Enforce a temporary "NO REGIONING" rule, even on islands, until there's clear, strict apartment guidelines. This includes regioning plots on islands - sorry island owners.
Pros - less regions = less lag from all these regions. There's over a thousand unrented apartments, there's just no need. I personally had 26 bunnyears plots regioned, thinking that this will help the housing market! I was wrong! The price inflated from 235k per plot to over 475k and real estate has stalled.
Cons - probably the least popular idea. Island owners wouldn't be able to make money, players wouldn't be able to make more apartments (less money for them). There's *very little demand* for plots, so players are just keeping them until they get an extremely high, overpriced offer from a desperate player just wanting their first house while people are bored with their 30 plots. Bad!

Idea 4: Make money pits. Add cool things for rich players to waste money on. My "Stuff for the Rich" ideas have been shot down in the past, but if you take a look at the "Inactivity" section on the forums you'll see that rich players are leaving because it. is. boring. once. you. have. a. lot. of. money. Yeah I'm greedy, I want access to buying cool things as a reward for earning an excess of cash. Mansions just aren't fun anymore when you can buy twenty (20) multimillion-dollar homes.
Pros - take less money out of the economy. Give richer players something to actually do and enjoy the time on the server, instead of logging on to save their plots.
Cons - "It's not fair for them to get to buy cool things!!!!! Greedy fools!!!!!!!!"

Overall, there needs to be less concentration on real estate on the server. Almost everyone tries to make money by buying, fixing up, and selling houses, and this just doesn't work if everyone does it.

I know these ideas suck, but something has to be done. I'm not speaking as a staff member here, or as an economy expert (I have no knowledge of anything related to finance, economics, whatever it's called, I just don't know anything about it, don't speak to me condescendingly because *I know these potential options are not ideal*). I'm speaking as a bored, rich player that has seen the real estate market die, player count literally halving since last summer, etc. etc.

TL;DR - There's something called supply & demand, and when there's too much of a supply there's no demand. If there's not enough supply, there's a demand. Do the math!! Get rid of some houses & some money, try to get a want for houses again. And I'm tired right now so don't mind the stupidness in this post.

1: You can easily sell the regions back to the server for the amount you paid for them, but I would suggest a 10-15% decrease.
2: No, 20 is an acceptable amount and going lower will harm island and skyscraper owners.
3: Um... world guard regions don't cause lag (Well much anyways), lag is caused by improper programming practices and the lack of maintenance done. Also java is a big no no when it comes to memory usage. Also, no, just no. The issue is that land is a consumable, sadly that's just how it is. People buy it and horde it, like anything else. Maybe have an expanding urban sector and players have their properties bought out as the districts expand. Then old buildings get redone as well as provide a removal and redistribution of properties. It would also give architects something to work on, instead of focusing on player builds. This would also mean that rural sectors will eventually become suburban then urban sprawl, but it creates an ever changing city which is a lot more realistic. I would probably go with an unconventional manner of expansion by inverting the center while urbanizing the outer areas. This would mean urban areas would turn into rural and rural turn into urban, essentially reversing themselves infinitely without a need for a new amount of properties. This sadly will mean large portions of Cayman will be under construction, oh wait that will create new and exciting things to look forward to for rich players. Now don't worry, no plugin is actually needed for this, just a ton of manpower and admins who can do w/e (we can address staffing issues later). Oh and I forgot to mention you will also need to employ terrain and natural builders like @Turkey to recreate the rural sectors. So quick summary, a changing city creates progression and new innovations while keeping a realistic rp feel. An inversion of a city semiyearly would give a whole host of new activities and things for players to look forward to. Now I doubt any of this will get considered, but hey, I thought of this on the spot while replying so why not share it.
4: Won't help the econ much, but it will stop player hemorrhage. I would recommend adding cosmetic and shop items purchasable from a shop restricted to millionaires. This also gives a larger incentive for ranking up which there hasn't been.

Now to address your little blurb at the bottom about supply and demand; removing the supply increases the demand, skyrocketing the already inflated economic bubble real estate is in. Removing the supply and the demand doesn't help anything, its a net gain of 0. So maybe not.