Woah... cool idea that came as I replied about Capital ship requirements.

It would be really cool for nations (UIT, Serco and Itains) to be able to elect a nation-specific "president".

Every once in a while, upon resignation of former president or when presidency came to turn, an election for every members of that nation (except anyone hated I suppose) to submit candidature for the post of presidency.

A number of approval "signatures" would be required to filter out loner clowns for the submission to be accepted. This to avoid lunatics on the ballot list and make the process a bit more streamlined.

After a given "pre-electoral" period, votes would be casted.

Anyone with a majority (except Florida of course) would get elected. Runner-up would be vice-president.

So, what does a presidency gives you? The right to perceive a tax for the government (perhaps automatic) and the EXCLUSIVE right to spawn capital ships!

(Oh boy am I going to get flamed for this!)

It just Makes Sense(tm) for the President (and vice-) to be the only one(s) able to spawn a nation ship (the CAPITAL ship). At a cost for the government (hence the tax)

Perhaps the President (and Vice-) could also offer "pardons" for hated itanis (thus restoring to neutral their faction rating).

Ohh! At last. Meaning for an economy! Governing bodies! Nation-wide sense of community!

Imagine these:

/presidency resign
/presidency appoint [another player name]
/presidency accept [short electoral pitch] // see bellow
/presidency decline
/presidency ballot [list]
/presidency vote [player name]

To get elected, one would have to convince anyone to appoint them by the above command. The first one to appoint a candidate would cause said candidate to be warned of his candidature and that he should accept or decline (kind of like a buddy invite). Anyone else that appoints said candidate would simply add his name to the list of signatures required for candidacy to be valid for the ballot list.

A requirement of 10 signature would be needed for a submitted candidate to be accepted as part of the ballot list.

A minimum of 3 candidates would be required on the ballot list for the election to take place.

A minimum of 30% of a nation's total population would be required for the elections to be valid.

Pre-electoral period should last about 30 days.

The ballot list would include candidate names, their guild (if any) and their short electoral pitch (perhaps a link to a web site).

Electoral period should last 15 days.

Then the new TPG ship would make sense for guilds to own, and Trident for players (rich players) to own.

Disagreement. Governments should be far, far more complex than that. I am in fact rather opposed to players occupying the highest echelons of government. Not yet, at least.

Bare with me. We can add to this. But even just this is cool enough:

- sense of participation -within a nation-
- pardons
- A reason for the Capital ship for being a Capital ship
- IMPEACHMENTs! ("/presidency impeach" w/ 100 counts or so)

Governments dont need to be complicated in VO. But it does bring some kind of new angle to the universe.

I'm not sure the game is quite ready for governments yet.

Also something I'd like to point out is that the pardons could be abused... some people (like me :P) like being able to fight our own nation without dueling, etc. and the "president" could "pardon" that player without wanting to be pardoned. I would suggest that if a player were to be "pardoned" that a message be sent to the pardonee, so he could accept/decline.

Note: Even though the "pardon" brings you up to only neutral status, it's still high enough to reactivate friendly-fire. You have to be hated or worse for the friendly-fire rule to not take effect. (At least that's how I think it works, anyone care to test it?)

Sorry, but I don't like the idea either.

[rejected]

Any such pardons would be announced in station news.

This is also why an impeachment mechanism is required, to fend off abusive presidents (or anyone with a cigar).

It's also the reason why a number of submission is needed for anyone's candidature to be official. No one in their right mind would appoint genka (!), but I would see anyone high-profile players to be president.

As long as they have no power whatsoever.
This could amuse me for a few seconds.

It's up to this thread to decide wich kind of powers a president would have.

I see Capital ship spawning, some sort of pardon system, a role in a nation's economy.

What power would you give a nation's president?

Hrm. Strangely, I agree completely with Roguelazer. When governments DO become implemented, they should be full of intrigue, political maneuvering, promises of support, spying, scandal, etc.

I'd like to see the economy and crafting implemented and mature first before we think about an official political process.

Plus, it should be DIFFERENT for each nation. Serco should have a strong triumvirate of a central government, Itani should have kind of a hippie commune government, UIT should have a decentralized corporate feudal system thing, Corvus should have a "government" that's more like Al-Qaeda, etc...

And Presidents (and higher-ups) should be able to control some of the nationbots, and do some other stuff, like order nation's NPC's around. Kinda like Homeworld. However I don't see any way to do this and remain true to the spirit of V-O.

Serco: Military Dictator
Itani: uhh, highest religious guy
UIT: Senate members

If something like this came about. I'd like to see an automatic bounty on the heads of state.

Will, this is a nice idea.

The price to pay for being president is automatic bounty from other nation.

CtP: Capture the President!

but it'ed be nice for a few players from each nation to do "pardons" and spawn frigates :)

Serco: Meritorial Triumvirate
Itani: Religious Dictatorship (You KNOW its not democratic, nobody votes this years "most enlightened monk")
UIT: Senate, but seeing as only large corporations have representives, Oligarchy is a better way to describe this one.

Not sure I see any room for presidents...

Yeah, I have to go with most, I dont like a govenment body idea, although I do like the idea of a few people (maybe guides) being able to restore faction standing, at a price (500k would be a good figure, if not for the uhum, bp thing.) Maybe a bot (a marshal) could deal with this though. Meh im going off topic, and its been discussed before :P

How 'bout myself as Most Excellent Dictator of the Known Universe, up To and Including Terra and the Whole Solar System?

Otherwise, player-led government is A BAAAAD idea. As for quick faction RESTORATION, a mission could be offered in greyspace from each nation that would restore that nation's faction to neutral if successful. The mission should be really really hard, though, and require some amount of cash to take it.

I like jex's idea, except that I would be the one in charge

*bump*

NO WAY!
Any player elected for president gets shot immediately!

Actually.... i might have a suitable candidate for the position of "The Gerneral manager of The Known Universe":

vote for Teh Ninny!