Rheinland Taxation Feedback and Discussion

[Jinx]

here is constructive critizism from a traders point of view.

- when a pirate taxes you - it is actually a trade. - you pay for your life. - that sounds a bit silly, but thats actually the point. - you pay, you live, you refuse to pay, you die. - simple.

- when a police / military taxes you - it "ought" not to be this kind of trade. - when you pay the goverment, you expect something in return. - and the thing you expect in return is NOT that they spare your life. ( if that was it.... the goverment would be nothing but pirates )

so when you pay the military and police - you expect to be protected by pirates. - if the police FAILS for whatever reason to pay "their" side of the deal, the trader starts to feel "extorted". - and the police becomes nothing but petty pirates.

why would i point that out now?

often - for a trader, there is little difference between a military or a pirate. - someone asks him to stop, - if they don t comply, they get a CD blown into their engines. - both sides ( lawfuls and unlawfuls ) are equally impatient. - and both have a very happy trigger finger.

so - what exactly is the difference from a traders point of view?

sometimes - the difference is that you can talk to pirates and actually haggle, but when you try to haggle or inRP bribe or do anything with a police - you often get a countdown ( not always - but in my experience more often than you get it from pirates )


how can the police / navy be different to pirates? - they can - well..... work their backside off to get rid of pirates ( meaning they won t have any manpower left to tax players ) or they tax players and escort them to their destination ( very time consuming ) or they can be a lot nicer and hint them which places to avoid etc. ( if they have recon information that the lone trader might not have )




the argument that "goods come and go anyway and others are dependent" doesn t work. - many are dependent on zoner goods, too - yet, no one would roleplay an embargo. - cause it doesn t work. if zoners completely stopped delivering food to crete ( a th ing they don t do much anyway ) - the corsairs wouldn t crumble and starve - and the most important part.... NO one would actually roleplay starvation anyway!

everything is situational, everything is based on ther here and now. - a trader that got taxed by the police and feels unfairly treated will change the route. - sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. - players gravitate towards places that they are not "harrassed" as much ( harrassment is how it feels ). - that is for example one of the reasons that the edgeworld trade booms, while the core trade ceased.

even being stopped and asked for a fine of 10 credits is harrassment. - every such situation is a situation that the trader is put into the position of someone doing someone elses bidding, while the police / military is acting "from above".


the easiest way to achive appreciation by a trader is also a very simple one..... :

be kind, be nice. - don t patronize, don t boss them around. - not even the silent trader or the "powertrader". - that is what sets the police apart form the common pirate.

if the police is as harsh or even HARSHER than pirates........ one must not be surprised when traders actually prefer running into pirates before running into the police. - and that has nothing to do with "our roleplay suggests we are a bunch of hardened soldiers." - its about setting oneself apart.

many pirates are a lot nicer than they probably "ought" to be. - funny enough - many police officers / military officers are a lot LESS friendly than they "ought" to be.

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