Outer-Empires.com

Introduction
Those of you who have listened to the PodCast on iTunes will have some insight in to what will be happening in the elections over the next few weeks and what the new Government will be able to do once they are elected.


The election process
There are three distinct parts to the election process...

The first is registering to be put on the ballot - doing so will cost 1.25 million credits in game, payable to OESupport Bill or OEDev Brandon - they will be accepting registrations on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of April.

The second phase is the campaigning, every registrant will be able to purchase GNN news time - i.e. seen when people load into the game in the news window. This will cost 500k credits for each advert you want posted - a maximum of two adverts will be posted per day, but slots can be prebooked.

Lastly we have the voting which will happen on the 16th/17th/18th of April. Every character in game will get a vote to cast (so premium account holders will, essentially, get two votes as they have two characters).


The Results
The votes will be counted, checked and recounted - then the results will be released on Monday 19th, the new Government council will be "sworn in" and they can begin their sixty day term in office.


The President
The new council will vote on a new president amongst their number (i.e. they all get to vote on who will be the president). That president will be able to set the votes for each week - up to two votes can be held in any one week on new developments/laws/etc. Votes will be passed on a majority vote.


What the new council will do
The council will have a budget - all the credits that are generated from the space stations, taxes and industry within the gvmt territory.

With that comes a list of things that the budget can be spent on (and the associated costs). These include Jump Gates additions, New Ship Designs (from existing hulls and brand new hulls), Worker Pay Subsidies, Space Station Improvements, New ship Technologies (cloaking devices, scanners, salvage cranes), Improved existing ship technologoes, Improved Colony flatpacks and new Colony Building flatpacks...

Needless to say, the budget won't stretch to everything and I'm sure that all of the council won't have the same priorities as to which should be developed first.


So, there we have it - the GVMT will control all developments within the Nyridion Galaxy, they can change taxes (i.e. add extra tax to fuel, or mechanics, or markets) to raise more credits to spend on the improvements listed above...

Will you step up to the challenge? How will you exercise your right to vote?

How many council seats will be up for election?

Five seats this time - which may grow in the future depending on how the elected council feel after this first term.

Whilst a great idea, I think the bar has been set too high for the entrance fee, it is the equivalent of a space station every two months which for a smaller faction is too much.

I feel a more realistic figure should have been set at 0.5M as this would be enough to deter the casual.

Whilst the Merivian Commonwealth will be getting around this somewhat by all the factions contributing to the campaign of a single pre-agreed candidate, please vote for unfrozen jon, if the N.U.M stood alone I could see no benefit to my faction of being in Government that would outweigh the benefit of the purchase of 6 space stations in a single year.

In the UK it costs the equivalent of $1,000 to stand for election meaning that democracy is not just the playground of the rich and goes a small way to ensuring a more vibrant and relevant democracy.

Perhaps the new Government could vote in this change as part of their term?

My contribution to the campaign to vote for unfrozen jon will be based on the assurance that he will propose this change as part of his campaign to change the galaxy in a way which benefits all.

And I also will be voting for Unfrozen Jon on the assumption that he will lower these costs and also subsidize worker payment.

I agree that running for government is less accessible with these high fees. Considering it will cost 1.25M for the entrance fee, 500K per GNN ad it will cost at least 3M to run a decent campaign.

Any independent or small faction has no chance of mounting a successful campaign. I will fight to ensure by time my term is up that being part of the government is much more accessible.

The government should also subsidize worker pay to stimulate the economy and to allow less rich players easier entrance to the manufacturing industry. Cheaper worker fees means colonization, research and manufacturing will be more accessible to players which will increase the economy and put more credits into the gov to work towards other goals.

I still don't have enough people Sign up for the round table on the 31st. If I have talked with you before or want to sign up please let me know. I would like to start the discussion as early as possible in order to allow players from Different timezones to participate. This will be transformed into a podcast and posted to iTunes on the the 1st. I would like to start no later than 6pm EDT. Email me on forum or in Game if you want to attend. I would like 4 members minimum. The group will be Discussing the election, the process, views, and game improvements overall.

Thanks,
OEDev Brandon

On reflection why would the rich vote themselves from the top table, you are in danger of changing a corrupt oligarchy with just another with this high entrance fee.

Think again in the interests of democracy in the Nyridian Galaxy