Bit of a shower thought, but I was recently thinking about driving and how, unless you leave the city, there isn't really anywhere to drive to. Driving in sector saves you a couple of minutes walking (yes, I fully understand that IC, the distance is larger realistically) and driving to other sectors saves you... Well, however long the lev happens to take. And safety, but I don't think buying a car for safety is good for healthy RP and conflict.
I first had thoughts like this a long while ago when I first drove between sectors with someone, and... Kind of wanted to enjoy the ride, chat and RP, read the tube descriptions, etc. But the whole thing was over in less than a minute (and driving is pretty spammy which makes it hard to RP during).
So... What if we could visit locations in other sectors? Obviously, we can't map other sectors as the playerbase is not large enough to support it, but we could have specific locales that you HAVE to drive to, to get there. Here's how it would work:
-New exits on the tubes, leading to South Red, East Red, etc.
-Once you enter this exit, you go into a special 'travel' room, where instead of getting ads, you'll occasionally various travel messages similar to some of the ones on the tubes, but you're not actually moving so there's no spam (hooray car RP!)
-From there, there'll be multiple exits to specific locations within East Red or West Gold or whatever.
-You pick one, and then simply wait. I'd like these destinations to take a decent amount of time, depending on how fast you're going, and the driving checks to possibly be a little harder than regular driving. I'm thinking 5 to 15 minutes, maybe even up to 30 minutes if you're going at a leisurely pace to a far place.
-Then you arrive at the location. Probably the area outside and inside, with nothing else. To return to Central, you have to 'travel' back.
The WHY:
-Driving RP and chatter.
-More reasons to own a vehicle/get a better one/ upgrade it.
-Makes the city feel as massive as it actually is.
-More niche, unique locations that the builders can make without worrying too much about it fitting in with everything else, being balanced, etc.
Negatives:
-It would take a fair amount of time and work to get a number of locations ready to be visited.
Some final notes and examples:
-Maybe one could also allow people to get to most of these places by foot, through the same 'travel' tile. It just takes much longer and exhausts your character. Mostly so people don't get stranded without ethicol, but maybe getting stranded is fine?
-I also like the idea of businesses and stores outside Central being cheaper to lease/build. So that up and coming tailor that doesn't quite have a ton of money for a place on Central Red or Gold or whatever, could get one in one of the other sectors, with the drawback that it'll obviously be much harder to attract business for obvious reasons.
Examples
-Topside 'market' that doesn't have some of the stuff mix markets do, like drugs, but also has stuff that the mix doesn't have. Encourages the two sides interacting. Fluff wise, it probably wouldn't be a flea market, but maybe a mega-mall the size of a neighborhood, and haggling is just hunting for sales/niche shops ("You browse a few stores to try and find a Trucolorz dildo at a better price. Dejected, you return to the last store you found it in.") Could also be a corpie refurb warehouse, or a grid service where you haggle online (perhaps with mechanics that deckers can illegally exploit?) and the 'market' is just where you come to pick up the item from a random corp-cit, hence you needing to 'travel' to their house, with semi-randomized distances.
-A busted, old-style drive-in that plays old NLM stuff.
-Niche restaurants, clubs, basically any sort of 'social outing' places.
-Shitty, hidden away cube hotels for when you need to lay REAL low.
-Junkyards, crack dens and alleys, abandoned warehouses and other places where you might score something but will likely be dangerous.
Sounds like a lot of work, but am I the only one who wants more driving around, traveling and places to go to rather than the same few bars and clubs?
