Shop/Guild Systems WIP

Starting Your Business

Characters can make shops to sell their own wares and trade to customers. Either they can start with one or buy a space for your business for 5,000 VC. However, they will need to pay a (in-real life) monthly fee of rent/operation costs to continue running the shop.  Thankfully, the first three months rent are free to allow new businesses to invest into 'advertising and other such preparations'.
If you end up missing more than three mandatory payments, the shop is closed and if your business is upon stock, the bank seizes it for collateral.

You will need some kind of crafting strength/soul skill in order to make something for some specializations. But on other times, you may not need to. The world is your oyster. However, the quality of wares you make or services you offer maybe limited by your Shop Rank. These ranks are just general guidelines of what to expect for each rank and some exceptions can be made depending on the nature of your business.

Players may also run a business together with other players to divvy up the tasks/roles needed to run their venture together. Businesses can now also be the same kind of business, but you will need to compete with them for the profits. Be smart on how you run your ship.

Shop Rank

Rank 1: The Highest Rank of a shop. The items you can sell at this level rivals items with the same potency of Soma - Megidolaon Gem - Balm of Life - Etc. Can hold x20 of each item. Nine separate type of products can be made. 20,000 VC per month for rent.

Rank 2: The Second Highest rank of a shop. The items you can sell at this level rivals items with the same potency of a Bead - Precious Egg - Dekaja Gem - etc. Can hold x15 of each item. Seven separate type of products can be made. 15,000 VC per month for rent.

Rank 3: The Third rank of a shop. The items you can sell at this level rivals items with the same potency as Revival Bead - Chewing Soul - Medical Power - Fierce Sutra - Agilao Gem - etc. Can hold x10 of each item. Five separate type of products can be made. 10,000 VC per month for rent.

Rank 4: The lowest level of shop where everyone starts. The items you can sell at this level rivals items with the same potency as Medicine - Snuff Soul - Dis-Poison - etc. Can hold x5 of each item. Three separate type of products can be made. 3000 VC per month for rent.

To upgrade your shop, you will need to donate a percentage of your profit to the Government.

Rank 4 to Rank 3 - Government needs 25,000 VC made from your shop's services.

Rank 3 - Rank 2 - Government needs an additional 75,000 VC made from your shop's services.

Rank 2 - Rank 1 - Government needs an additional 150,000 VC made from your shop's services.


Maintenance

Even the smallest of business requires some maintenance. Whether it be a restaurant or even some manufacturing firm, something has to prop it up. By paying for maintenance, you refresh the number of wares you have to sell. Rent can also be treated as your maintenance cost. However, you can reduce it by gathering the necessities you need to produce your wares. This could include obtaining crafting materials for your products. You are allowed to use your personal income to pay for the cost of rent/maintenance.

Maintenance take up 50% of the cost of rent. Meaning, there can be a reduction of 50% rent cost should you choose to manually get your wares together. However, some wares' components maybe too rare to put together or for whatever reasons to simply just pay off the rent/maintenance price. So some of these wares may not be refreshed until components for them have been gathered. These shall be called Rare Commodities.

However, if you simply deal with Maintenance for paying with the cost, it will take up a week to do so and business will be suspended until then. If you are not paying the cost, it will suspend until you receive enough materials.


Expanding Your Empire

Sometimes there are Partnerships to be had for whatever reasons. A more affluent and well-established business may actually come to the support of smaller and lesser known businesses in the form of Partnerships. The down payment for the lesser party's start to their business can be reduced based on their agreements with the other party. However, a minimum of 30% monthly profits must go to them in return.

What Are You Selling?

Wares do not just come out of nowhere. You need to tap into reliable resources in order to have a good business. As more of the Elysium Dungeons are being explored, the more resources that can be uncovered for the creation of items. You may make your necessary wares based on what resources that have been discovered by yours truly by adventuring Hunters. There will be a list of resources in another thread to peruse.

You may also pay an extra 15k VC to add in extra kind of ware to sell past the maximum for your shop rank. Flavor-wise, this is paying government agencies to perform additional testing for safety for sale of extra goods.

Use this template when making your wares for approval.

Code:

[b]Product Name:[/b]
[b]Product Rank:[/b] (Based on what you'd see in a given Shop Rank)
[b]Materials Needed:[/b] (2 + The Number of Shop Ranks)
[b]Effect:[/b]

Specialty Businesses

There are some businesses who don't manufacture goods to sell as a service. Instead, they may perform a specific service instead. This may range from information-gathering, goods transport, or other such services that do not center on creating goods. These services have the possibility of not being able to reduce their monthly expenses through gathering raw materials. But at the same time they are not necessarily limited by the number of goods to sell since their entire model is on performing a service.

Hiring Help

As businesses are run by their managers, the employees they hire are the lifeblood of every venture. You may be able to hire other players as hired hands for your business to help stock up on your business or perform services. NPCs can be hired instead, both unawakened and awakened. Of course, there is a cost to this as well. NPCs will have their own skill-based system which may be conducive to better work efficiency.

There will be a hiring board with each listed NPCs with their descriptions, skills, and rates ahead of time. While some of these NPCs can be used in combat, you may only bring along two of them at a time. You are also responsible for their death insurance (2,000 VC/level for noncombatants and 4,000 VC/level for combantants, doubles per death) should they die in combat on top of their monthly rates they charge (Minimum of 2,000 VC per level).

There also may be non-combatants you may bring along in dungeons for certain functions outside of combat only and will not take part in actual combat. But should your party be wiped out, your non-combatants may have a 50% chance to flee. Should any fail, you are responsible for their death insurance as well. Be also warned that while they can level up, it also means the more people you take along, the less experience you receive as usual.

Assembling A Guild

Where most companies make their business with the wider public outside of Elysium, guilds make the majority of their business with Elysium and Tears/Domains at large. They are naturally Hunter-heavy in terms of membership. Guilds began as a system when there was a need to oversee and regulate a large swathe of Hunters swarming the Elysium. Now, they have become thriving conglomerates with significant wealth and power.

To assemble a Guild, you must pay a 20,000 VC fee to the Guild Association, be a Rank D Hunter (approx. Level 11), and have at least five people at joined up including the applicant. There are no limits to the number of guild members joined up in a single guild.

Nor do you need to pay for any rank ups in your guild, it will rely on a Reputation System based on its accomplishments and actions instead. A Guild, in itself, may also have its own stash of loot and cash at the control of their Leader and their trusted members. It is your choice to pay your Guild members a salary or offer some benefits to retain them in the Guild. You may also hire NPC members like any normal business, but you must pay them their rates if you wish to retain their services. The basic rules for NPC members for normal businesses apply to them here. However, there may be some NPC members who wish to join because of your reputation and their rates maybe more relaxed as a result, but you would be wise to not test their patience.

You may later on have business partnerships with normal businesses, especially some NPC businesses, to guarantee a steady flow of revenue into your Guild for further activities. It must also be noted that as a Guild, you are required to come to the defense of Shangri-La should a matter of the entire city's safety is at stake.

Also as a reminder, you will have to pay separately for a Guild Base and pay for rent. The costs for these bases are dependent on the local costs in each District.

You are also free to make your own Guild Insignia to symbolize and identify your Guild.

Components

Guild Rank: The ranking of a Guild that is a general determiner of a guild's overall notoriety and power. The Guild's reputation and the average rank of their main members will determine the Guild Rank. They are generally divided into 4 categories.

• Platinum: Feared and respected, this Guild may as well be a mythical Pantheon of its own. They normally have severe restrictions on who may join their halls. Many of the first Guilds established are of this rank. S-Rank Hunters are numerous in these Guilds and many are the stuff of legends. Guild must reach the reputation of Historic to qualify.
  
  
• Gold: Everyone has at least heard of them once. You will have seen them reported through mainstream media. Nearly every Hunter dreams to join their Guild or reach their own to such heights. This is the level of the start of a business empire. B-Rank Hunters are the norm with some A-Rank dotting here and there. You may almost never see a S-Rank here, like finding an unicorn in real life before the Cataclysm. Guild must reach the reputation of Noteworthy to qualify.
  
  
• Silver: A guild of some distinction. Creditable, but still lacking compared to some big-time legends. C-Rank hunters are the norm here. But you may see some very rare A and B Rank Hunters. Guild must reach the reputation of Citizen to qualify.
  
  
• Copper: A no-name Guild that no one even knows about and lacks any credentials. It is usually expected that they only have untested and weak members, mostly D and E ranks. Every Guild starts with this.
  

Guild Coffers: A communal place where Guild Members can withdraw or deposit funds with the approval of the Guild Leader or the people they approve to grant approval. This isn't limited to just cash, but also equipment and crafting materials. How the Guild Leader and their approved few manages it is up to them.

Guild Skill: An unique skill shared by all Guild Members and created by the Guild Leader. This may be gained once the Guild rank reaches Silver. Every Guild Skill starts as a Tier 2 skill. Another one at Tier 3 may be gained at Platinum.

Guild Headquarters: Land property owned by a Guild. It must be bought and maintained. Guild Leaders can make their own map of the Guild as its own dungeon functionally. There can be rooms populated with each NPC.

Reputation: The Guild has its own reputation bar from the moment it is created. It can either be increased or decreased depending on the actions of its members. Completed missions can also increase a Guild's reputation. A failed disastrous mission may decrease it too. Performance in the Gladiator arena against other Guilds  may also help to increase reputation, but likewise may decrease it accordingly.