so what exactly is the minimum budget?

[Lord Weiner]

just wondering because im 90% sure 1k is the minimum

 

[DoomedKnight01]

no exact minimum but i've been told that 1k is a general rule of thumb for most staff that have answered my question on this

 

[JucaMais]

from what i remember you can send a minimum of 500$ budget to a department

 

[Sokolov]

Community Management is failing here and need to define this, it is stupid that staff and players have been in conflict about this for many weeks now.

IMO no minimum exists, the dev team implemented the threshold of $500 or less to allow for the use of personal money to purchase equipment, staff should not be intervening and making stuff up at their discretion, word gets around and players start complaining to other staff who are not saying the same things as other staff have told them previously.

As a word of advise to everyone, if the Mayor sets a max budget for PD at $1,000... Just purchase a firearm worth more than $500 which will draw from the mayors provided fund and then use your own money to get the gun you want when you see the budget fall below $500, if you can afford it yourself of course...
Or just suck it up and don't complain.

There is no defined rule about budget minimums, staff can't enforce what doesn't exist...

 

[heyitskev]

Community Management is failing here and need to define this, it is stupid that staff and players have been in conflict about this for many weeks now.

IMO no minimum exists, the dev team implemented the threshold of $500 or less to allow for the use of personal money to purchase equipment, staff should not be intervening and making stuff up at their discretion, word gets around and players start complaining to other staff who are not saying the same things as other staff have told them previously.

As a word of advise to everyone, if the Mayor sets a max budget for PD at $1,000... Just purchase a firearm worth more than $500 which will draw from the mayors provided fund and then use your own money to get the gun you want when you see the budget fall below $500, if you can afford it yourself of course...
Or just suck it up and don't complain.

There is no defined rule about budget minimums, staff can't enforce what doesn't exist...

While I do agree with most of what it is in your post, I must point out that failing to provide budget can be considered corruption, and thus can be enforced. While the rules do not clearly define what a minimum budget is, it is important to note that the majority of mayors who put $500 into the budget do not keep it consistent, resulting in half the PD force waiting in the locker room for 15+ minutes, which is effectively ruining their roleplay and hurting the Law Enforcement V.S criminal balance on the server. With this being said, here are some criteria I personally use to determine if enough budget is being given:

1. How constant is the budget? Is the mayor putting $500 in there and not adding any more for 15+ minutes after it was drained? If so, the mayor may be corrupt and enough budget might not be being dispersed.

2. Does the budget consider the current situation of the city? If the police are in an active shootout, a raid is occurring or anything of the like, it should be expected that the mayor increase the budget so that the PD can keep the city stable. It is not reasonable for the police to counter 5 bank raiders that all have MP7's when all they have is Glocks. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it is incredibly unlikely. In addition, $500 can not pay for the SWAT deployment that would likely be needed to counter the situation.

3. Does the budget consider the size of the PD? It is incredibly unreasonable to assume that a 12-15 member PD can function on $500. In doing so, the mayor would be harming the wellbeing of the city and ruining other's RP.

I am not saying that the budget should be 30k+ at all times or anything of that nature. However, it is the Mayor's job to be aware of the needs of the city, communicating with the Police Department in the process, and issue budget appropriately. Giving the Police Department next to 0 budget when they need more and you have the capability of providing more is just a jerk move and in some cases can be considered corruption and will be punished accordingly.

 

[toohightogame]

I think @heyitskev summed this up very well!

 

[Sokolov]

I am not saying that the budget should be 30k+ at all times or anything of that nature. However, it is the Mayor's job to be aware of the needs of the city, communicating with the Police Department in the process, and issue budget appropriately. Giving the Police Department next to 0 budget when they need more and you have the capability of providing more is just a jerk move and in some cases can be considered corruption and will be punished accordingly.

I mean this is great an all kev, appreciate your input but we need community management to step in and actually define this officially... Because like what is happening right now we have reasonable arguments for both sides.

I hate it when I'm a cop and mayors got budget restricted to 1000 but it can be seen as reasonable if the city is struggling with money, the mayor can usually justify it, I've done it myself as mayor and other staff members who play mayor do it now as well.

failing to provide budget can be considered corruption, and thus can be enforced.

There is no defined rule regarding this which is my entire point.

The mayor can legitimately establish a temporary law during their time stating that PD budget is to be restricted to 1k and justify it in the name of saving money or reducing the amount of heavily armed police and can be accurately argued as such if staff intervene to say its fail RP... The mayor role is just politics, like irl politicians have their own agenda and can impose policy.

But do understand that I know staff have the ability to influence these situations and cannot really be questioned... But as I've said CM needs to step in to define this officially, not a bunch of different ranking staff giving their input, it confuses the masses and still leaves room for conflict.

I hate rule play but I'll be damned if I have to get on everyday and hear the same shit from PD complaining or staff wrongly intervening in RP ima flip tables... please just introduce a rule or something.

 

[Doom Guy]

I hate it when I'm a cop and mayors got budget restricted to 1000

Ummm I never do this

 

[Sokolov]

Ummm I never do this

Didn't ask if you did tbh...

 

[heyitskev]

Like I've said CM needs to step in to define this officially, not a bunch of different ranking staff giving their input, it confuses the masses and still leaves room for conflict.

Truthfully I'm kind of stuck here. There are so many things that people say "we need to add a rule for this," and while they are all good natured, I think CM should stay away from overpopulation of the rules.

There are lots of things that to me seem like common sense, but based on how other community members perceive things, it's not.

I want to say that there should be clearly defined rules in regards to budget, but what exactly would they look like? If you put my criteria in the rules, it still very open to interpretation. If you put hard limits in the rules then you run into real trouble because you have to account for any possible size of the PD, any ongoing situations, and the city's current total budget. When you do that you are going to end up having 5 paragraphs of rules, which are a headache to write, but also a headache to read and practice.

However, if nothing is changed, the same problems will continue to persist. Different staff with diffent interpretations, confused players, and bad RP.

Each option has it's ups and downs to it that need to be considered.

 

[Gentoromus]

Truthfully I'm kind of stuck here. There are so many things that people say "we need to add a rule for this," and while they are all good natured, I think CM should stay away from overpopulation of the rules.

There are lots of things that to me seem like common sense, but based on how other community members perceive things, it's not.

I want to say that there should be clearly defined rules in regards to budget, but what exactly would they look like? If you put my criteria in the rules, it still very open to interpretation. If you put hard limits in the rules then you run into real trouble because you have to account for any possible size of the PD, any ongoing situations, and the city's current total budget. When you do that you are going to end up having 5 paragraphs of rules, which are a headache to write, but also a headache to read and practice.

However, if nothing is changed, the same problems will continue to persist. Different staff with diffent interpretations, confused players, and bad RP.

Each option has it's ups and downs to it that need to be considered.

If that's the case then like @DystopianRaven said. Staff shouldn't get involved at all. Unless the mayor is simply not giving budget without corruption perms. There are many things that sit in the gray area and a lot of them are actual written rules.