[APPROVED] Make public gyms public

[jjsquirrel]

Suggestion: Public gyms

Suggestions Description: The public gym situation has been complained about since I started playing. There was something added a while back as an incentive to run them (cannot remember the details). I think that could be changed into a mechanism where you can actually make a profit from running them by having simulated people train there as hobbyists, similar to this idea. It would probably also go well together with franchises. Let gyms get a hype rating. That together with values for cleanliness, equipment is baked into a formula that provides an extra weekly income for public gyms only. Also add some investments that be purchased and increase this income but add some small extra maintenance cost, could even split up what is just purchasing new equipment into specific equipments.

Base value for available income from hobbyists should be some value based on total game economy (per city).  That creates a market per city that gyms have to compete for, you can only have so many public gyms per city making a profit purely on simulated hobbyists. But you do still have the pro fighters paying their fees as before on top of that. Market share should have some inertia so it is also based of the previous weeks value. Public gyms would compete with each other for the hobbyist market.

So how to gain hype for gyms? Having high hype fighters train there is a given, add some for ever week they train there. Having coaches with high experience, extensive records or similar could also add hype up to some point, could create some competition for retired fighters. Sponsorships, could maybe be a thing. Sponsor events. If sponsoring individual fighters it could be cool if it can be done in some form involving him giving a seminar at the gym. Seminars is also something that could be a mechanic on its own.

When fighters win fights a small bit of hype could be added to the gym they train at (scaled for the fight hype level). Typing that I'm starting to see in my head how dojo stormings could become a thing when two competing gyms have an org set up an event for them to fight it out.. that would be a totally cool thing if it happened

Pros:

• Make public gyms a viable company option
• Expand the tycoon aspect of the game
• Provides natural incentive to open public gyms where needed

 
Cons:

• A lot of balancing (that is the hard part here, I'm just throwing out ideas, but it has to be done anyway to eventually achieve a working economy)
• Could be tough to get into the public gym market, but that also depends on how saturated it is so could hopefully be self-regulated once you find the right balance

[Vlad]

Gyms have for the longest time been a bit of a sinkhole which has made the day-to-day running of public gyms quite challenging, especially for new and aspiring managers. As we are taking a similar direction of allowing NPC interaction with other businesses then it make sense that the gyms system paves the way as it's without a doubt contributes to the highest monetary burn of an average player.

 

While we won't be implementing all aspects of the suggestion, I will be approving the core of it having NPCs attend gyms based on their popularity. Once that's redeveloped and we improve the sustainability of public gyms, we can revisit your other ideas