So I just a clip today of a cop chasing a suspect, and the cop was getting paid $500 every 30 seconds. That made me come up with a suggestion.
It would be much better if the payout was scalable. What I mean is let the amount of money paid increase every 30 seconds or 1 minute of a chase.
For example, the first 30 seconds into the chase you are paid $100, in next 30 secs you are paid $200, then $300 and so on until it caps at around $1000 when you are 10 minutes into the chase or so. Or you could decrease it to $50 every 30 seconds. And you can tie it to the multiplier of the rank this cop has. This is the formula you can use to pay them, where R is the cop's rank and A is 30 seconds spree (like 1st 30 seconds, 2nd, 3rd, etc):
$100 + $10 * R * A = Payout
Examples:
1) The cop of 2nd rank follows a suspect. In the first 30 seconds the payout is $120 because R=2 and A=1. If they are following the suspect for 10 minutes, on the 10th minute they will get $500 because R=2 and A=20.
2) The cop of 10th rank follows a suspect. In the third 30 seconds the payout is $400 because R=10 and A=3. If they are following the suspect for 600 seconds, on the 10th minute they will get $2100 because R=10 and A=20.
Of course you can tweak the formula and add/replace/remove paramaters in it to get the desired results. Also, if some of them will be getting paid more, you could let them lose money if they die during the chase, but that probably deserves another suggestion.
Why this suggestion is a good idea:
1) Increased session times since the returns keep on giving and give you that dopamine boost every 30 seconds, unlike now when there are diminishing returns of $500 and the cop has to waste ammo shooting and/or lose their vehicle (more on that later);
2) More motivation to come to the server to play again;
3) This could could be intertwined with other suggestions (more on that later);
4) Probably easier to make it work than other suggestions, but it's up to developers' assessment.
What suggestions and features could this suggestion be intertwined with?
1) Police officers finally losing money by dying while chasing suspects and having to buy all of the equipment again with their money making them more accountable, making the cops acquire that gambling mindset of winning vs losing, risk assessment, teaches them responsibility. AFAIK cops aren't charged anything after dying, which is a huge mistake imo.
2) Making acquire a police rank more difficult (again more motivation with the new payout system).
3) Increase the amount of money that can be stolen with /rob
4) Charging high-ranked police officers every time they decide to use a Seasparrow and/or Rustler.
I'd like to have other players engage in the conversation here under this post. What do you think? Is it a good or bad suggestion and why? What could be changed? What else could be applied to it? What other features and suggestions can supplement each other with this suggestion?