Server Suggestion Disallow criminal activity while owning a Bazaar shop

[Mobaius]

Suggestion Title: Disallow criminal activity while owning a Bazaar shop
Suggestion Description: Introduce a rule that restricts players from participating in criminal activities (e.g., raiding, growing, mugging, craft/distribution of illegal goods) while actively renting/owning a Bazaar shop.

Why should this be added?:
Under the current system, when player counts drop below ~110, players do not get automatically unrented for being inactive. This leads to a meta where players set up large shops during peak hours and simply leave their PC running overnight to hold onto prime shop locations indefinitely, often for days at a time.

While maintaining stock availability is fine, monopolizing shop lots for 4+ consecutive days deprives the rest of the community from ever getting a chance to run a business.

Restricting criminal activity creates a necessary trade-off: if you want to keep a permanent commercial storefront, you must commit to legal gameplay or passive roleplay. If you want to engage in the criminal side of the server, you must give up your shop, creating natural turnover and giving other players a fair opportunity to rent.

What negatives could this have?:
- Inconvenience for dominant shop owners:
High-tier store owners will no longer be able to hold a single lot indefinitely and will have to re-setup or redecorate if they choose to conduct criminal ops.

- Roleplay restriction:
Players will have to actively choose between legal commerce and criminal activity rather than freely enjoying both simultaneously.

What problem would this suggestion solve?:
- Eliminates long-term monopolization of Bazaar shops by AFK/overnight shop holders.

- Creates healthy lot turnover, giving newer or less-established players a fair chance to open shop.

- Balances the risk/reward ratio of holding valuable real estate. (

 

[Clarky]

literally 1984

 

[Mobaius]

literally 1984

What do you mean by that?

 

[Foga]

Due to the lack of demand and the large supply, having a bazaar shop for days is necessary to sell large supplies it is also not just individual players selling at these shops.

"Creates healthy lot turnover, giving newer or less-established players a fair chance to open shop." I could agree with this if I didn't see bazaar shops on sale consistently and the fact that you can negotiate with the owner to buy it or to sell there.

"Players will have to actively choose between legal commerce and criminal activity rather than freely enjoying both simultaneously." This negative is far more detrimental than the positives. What if I want to set up my shop and go play crim and not afk in bazaar?

"Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull." Me when my bazzar shop gets sold because I decided to have fun

 

[Mobaius]

Due to the lack of demand and the large supply, having a bazaar shop for days is necessary to sell large supplies it is also not just individual players selling at these shops.

"Creates healthy lot turnover, giving newer or less-established players a fair chance to open shop." I could agree with this if I didn't see bazaar shops on sale consistently and the fact that you can negotiate with the owner to buy it or to sell there.

"Players will have to actively choose between legal commerce and criminal activity rather than freely enjoying both simultaneously." This negative is far more detrimental than the positives. What if I want to set up my shop and go play crim and not afk in bazaar?

"Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull." Me when my bazzar shop gets sold because I decided to have fun

You're treating this like a player-run free market, but right now 8 out of the 9 Bazaar shops have been locked down by the exact same group/players for nearly 4 days straight. That isn't "large supply meeting demand" that's a complete monopoly on public server infrastructure.

Addressing your points directly:

"Bazaar shops are consistently on sale / Negotiate with owners":
Having only the worst location (Bazaar 9) pop up occasionally or forcing players to pay player-inflated markup/beg existing owners for shelf space isn't a healthy system. Every player should have a direct shot at renting server real estate without going through a middleman who has held the lot AFK overnight.

"What if I want to set up shop and go play crim?":
That's precisely the trade-off this suggestion aims to fix. Why should one player get to hog a permanent passive income/sales hub and run around doing high-tier criminal activity, while everyone else is locked out of commerce entirely? If you want to engage in active combat and raids, you shouldn't also be hogging a stationary commercial lot that someone else could actually be actively using.

If you want the perks of prime commercial real estate, there should be a commitment to legal/commercial gameplay. Allowing players to "eat their cake and keep it complete" is what created the 4-day lockdown in the first place.
And I'm refering to a 4-day lockdown because for the past 3-4 days The same stores are rented by the same people. It's just a fact.
Only Bazaar 9 was up for sale and even that is rare.

 

[Tamaninja]

Or just increase the rent on those store, potentially overtime? could figure something out I'm sure

 

[Mobaius]

Or just increase the rent on those store, potentially overtime? could figure something out I'm sure

That's a nice idea. I like how it sounds.
However it won't solve the issue.
The owners of those stores are rich they could afford even an extreme rent cost for years...

 

[Tamaninja]

That's a nice idea. I like how it sounds.
However it won't solve the issue.
The owners of those stores are rich they could afford even an extreme rent cost for years...

AFK penalties could help I guess... maybe introduce some shoplifting mechanic? could be interesting

 

[Foga]

"8 out of the 9 Bazaar shops have been locked down by the exact same group/players for nearly 4 days" false i have seen for sale and owned bazzar shops that are not 9
"that someone else could actually be actively using." Bazaar is not an active place you set up and wait

 

[Arkvolin]

"8 out of the 9 Bazaar shops have been locked down by the exact same group/players for nearly 4 days" false i have seen for sale and owned bazzar shops that are not 9
"that someone else could actually be actively using." Bazaar is not an active place you set up and wait

still doesnt deny his point there should be a change

 

[Foga]

still doesnt deny his point there should be a change

Can you tell me which of his points i didn't address?

 

[Mobaius]

Can you tell me which of his points i didn't address?

You addressed all of them.
It's just you simply disagree with me.
Your answers are basically "It is what it is and its ok the way it is."

Which is fine, you can disagree.
The other person just agrees that there should be a change
If you think what's happening now is healthy then that's yours.

 

[exrobite]

Under the current system, when player counts drop below ~110, players do not get automatically unrented for being inactive. This leads to a meta where players set up large shops during peak hours and simply leave their PC running overnight to hold onto prime shop locations indefinitely, often for days at a time.

This is a valid criticism of how bazaar currently operates. Much of the time, shops are left unattended, or with people AFK in the back. This leads to bazaar feeling pretty dead.

However, this suggestion does at address this problem at all.

- Eliminates long-term monopolization of Bazaar shops by AFK/overnight shop holders.

If they're AFK, they're not doing crime. They are more than likely AFK in the back of their bazaar shop.

The suggestion is incredibly restrictive without addressing the issues that you have identified.

 

[Mobaius]

This is a valid criticism of how bazaar currently operates. Much of the time, shops are left unattended, or with people AFK in the back. This leads to bazaar feeling pretty dead.

However, this suggestion does at address this problem at all.



If they're AFK, they're not doing crime. They are more than likely AFK in the back of their bazaar shop.

You're looking at the AFK period in isolation, but the AFK holding only happens because there is zero penalty during peak active hours.

Right now, players leave their PCs running overnight purely to guarantee they retain prime property for peak hours. Where they then go run criminal ops while passively benefiting from the shop.

If a rule forces you to forfeit your Bazaar shop to do criminal activity, holding a store overnight loses its primary value. Players won't bother staying AFK for 10 hours just to keep a shop they have to give up the moment peak hours hit and they want to go raid, grow, or do crime.
And if they will, that's actually helpful to "keep the stocks up".

That’s exactly how this fixes the problem.

At peak hours players who want to do crime will sell/unrent their stores before heading out, immediately freeing up lots for players who actually want to active-merchant or at the very least try it out or even just to get their weapon crafting skill a bit higher.

Low-Pop Hours: If someone does choose to stay legal and hold a shop overnight to keep server stock up, that's fine. It serves a purpose. But they can no longer transition back into full criminal gameplay without surrendering the lot first.

It breaks the cycle of holding property 24/7 without sacrifice.

Also, you said "This is a valid criticism of how bazaar currently operates" and you think it doesnt solve the problem at all.
So you agree that there is a problem that should be addressed.
If you think my solution does not address the issue, I'm open to other suggestions that will.

 

[Ashur]

Forcing people to not do crime because they own a bazaar shop is probably the most excessive counter there is to people holding bazaar shops, most bazaar shops are oftenly stocked up and re stocked, selling stuff sometimes takes time, and you can not force people to stay there the entire duration they are there, if people are not actively using a bazaar shop, Staff are allowed to force sell it

 

[Mobaius]

Forcing people to not do crime because they own a bazaar shop is probably the most excessive counter there is to people holding bazaar shops, most bazaar shops are oftenly stocked up and re stocked, selling stuff sometimes takes time, and you can not force people to stay there the entire duration they are there, if people are not actively using a bazaar shop, Staff are allowed to force sell it

Nobody is asking shop owners to stand behind the counter for 8 hours straight. The issue isn't passive selling. It's that holding a shop indefinitely while engaging in heavy criminal activity leaves zero room for anyone else to ever cycle into the economy.

If you want to do legal activities, government jobs, or passive RP while your stock sells, you still can. What you shouldn't be able to do is hold prime public real estate while actively running around doing raids, drug ops, and heavy crime.

Relying on staff to force-sell "inactive" shops is subjective, creates unnecessary admin work, and clearly isn't solving the current days-long monopoly problem. A functional server system shouldn't require staff micromanagement to create basic turnover.

Moreover, many players, especially new or returning ones, refrain from opening tickets for stuff like this because it feels too subjective, so they just forfeit the opportunity entirely. Expecting staff to constantly judge whether someone is "using their shop enough" only leads to arguments and bias. Setting a clear rule (Owning a Shop = Legal Playstyle Only) gives players total control over their choice: keep the shop and play legal, or drop the shop, do crime, and let the next player take a turn.

Stocking up doesn't justify locking out the rest of the server. Selling large stock takes time, sure, but right now a handful of players are hoarding almost every lot on the map so only their stock moves. Other players have inventory to sell too, but they can't even enter the market because the barrier to entry is completely blocked.

 

[Ava Fox]

AFK penalties could help I guess... maybe introduce some shoplifting mechanic? could be interesting

good idea

 

[money]

What is the difference between a player playing roadcrew for 5 hours and hogging the shop, not being there vs a criminal stealing cars or raiding for 5 hours, hogging the shop, not being there? Do you draw the line on the contribution to RP or income? Cause raiding, for example, is high risk high reward so they could be losing a lot of money, in that activity.
I understand you can't AFK on government job, but the shop would still get hogged all the same. I can only imagine a reduction, maybe, on those few people who commit crime and buy a shop, but also more people turning to AFKing (bad) or jobs instead.

Also, enforcing this would require that staff knows player owns a bazaar shop, check properties owned, OR the reporter would need to find out (in raids, this may be difficult) if the person is doing crime. Rules are often broken.