First off, I have been looking for a way to reduce the ungodly amount of gold that ends up in my inventory after dungeon diving in Morrowind or after playing a mod that adds too much overpriced loot. So, after a quick look around on ES search I only came up with http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=2659 which wasn't quite to my tastes as I already use an economy adjuster/merchant mercantile tweak and Economy: Merchants and Taxes affects the dialogue of every NPC, tries to fix the unarmoured bug which is already covered by the MCP and it turns every member of the Imperial Legion into a tax collector.

I am not looking for an economy adjuster mod, although I would be interested in knowing which ones are popularly used, but a mod which adds 'living' tax collectors to the towns of Vvardenfell to whom you must pay taxes calculated by a simple script.

If this does not exist then this will become the basis of a WIP, by me, that may *possibly* see a BETA by the end of tonight, the aim of which will be to create a mod which works alongside whichever economy adjuster you already use ( if you use one at all ) and adds a touch more realism to Morrowind through tax collector NPCs and another means of relieving you of your ( not so ) hard earned cash.

Any comments, ideas, suggestions, encouragement or a direct link to the mod that already does this would be much appreciated. :foodndrink:

I like the idea of tax collectors! I'll follow your topic for sure.

-Idea-

There's a secret cabal in Morrowind, filled with powerful people. They control the guards and the laws. And they hate adventurers! No one knows who they are, but they force their rules on the people. If one wishes to leave a city, a guard stops them and records all of their possessions, gold, etc... and forwards it to the HQ of the cabal. There that info is sent to the guards of other towns. When a lucky adventurer returns to town laded with stolen/looted/found treasures, the guards descend upon him swiftly. Then the poor sap has a choice of either given up a set amount of his loot, or be beaten to death.

-Idea end-

Perhaps it could be a scripted event that starts at some level or some other milestone. And there's an underground resistance the player can join, where he quests to take down the cabal, only to find out the person behind it all is...Fargoth?

Thanks for the input guys/girls!

I probably won't incorporate some kind of loot depriver at this stage as that would probably require MWSE which I won't be making this dependant upon but I do like the idea of guards at town/city/village gates/entrances as that might give the player an incentive to sneak over the walls of Balmora or levitate out of Vivec which wouldn't make the game much more difficult but it would give the player something else to think about if they don't have enough gold or don't want to pay the fine. Especially if they are roleplaying a thief or some kind of outlaw.

My ideas so far are that taxes increase each day, dependant on the players level and maybe another factor that I haven't yet determined, but are only required to be paid once per month although the player will have the option to pay off there taxes anytime they like. If a player only has part of the gold due then they can discuss/ask/beg for extra time leading to the tax collector giving the player up to a week to come up with the rest of the money. If the player lets their debts rise too high then their payment could be transferred to the Imperial Guard ( crime rating ) for more severe debt collection. That is, if they let the tax collector catch up with them...

I think it would be cool if you were able to choose your "home town" by, after joining a faction, going to the main hall or who ever is in charge and applying for a citizenship. Then every month you would pay tax, but you would get store discounts and maybe guard companions within a cell or two of the city. At a certain tax revenue, perhaps, you would get some perks, like fast travel between towns of that faction or funding a festival for "merchants festival" and you have the chance to buy weapons and armor and enchanted items.
now that I look at it, it isn't all that related, but just putting the idea out there.

as for that other factor you want, you could make it increased tax for rival faction members.

edit: what is your avatar?
it looks horribly familiar.

Interesting idea -- I'll be curious to see how this goes!

Would the tax collectors track down the player if they don't pay taxes every so often, or would it be something more passive, like denying services in towns?



That would be a "General Dark Fiend" =)

Actually, you might be on to something there with the 'home town' thing. The tax would accumulate once per day and I guess that part of the tax calculation could be dependant upon which cell the player is in, or lives in, at the time of that calculation. If the player registers their home town in the census office ( for a small fee of course ) then their tax calculations will be affected in a certain way dependant upon the town in which they live or don't live if they are unregistered. Hmm, that would possibly just be counteracted if the player decides to lie though... I'll have to put some more thought into that...

OH!
I remember that now, bought two decks of those cards, but when I failed to find the instruction had a great time making up my own rules never lost a game.



and yea, I'm more of an idea guy

If the player's taxes go unpaid for long enough then the tax collectors would track down the player within the city that they work in but not out into the wilderness ( unless they are somehow deliberately lured into the wilderness for some reason ) There would be one tax collector in each city. If the player's taxes go unpaid even longer then there is a chance that they may find a darker member of the Imperial legion waking them up in their sleep asking for immediate payment. These would be sorts of 'debt-collectors' and would come dressed in armour and weapons but only in severe cases.

So I guess that the drawback would go something in the order of asked politely->asked not so politely->service refusal->go to jail->get a rough wake up call if jail is avoided

so when you pick your home town they will handle all of your monthly tax and the only tax you get when visiting other towns is an entrance/service tax?

No, your tax will always accumulate, wherever you are, I was just contemplating different variables of the amount of tax such as if you live in Vivec or Balmora, which are more affluent areas then your tax would be higher... but I'm still trying to figure out some way to balance that out as anyone could lie and just apply for citizenship in seyda neen and get cheap tax. I dont just want the tax to be, for example 10 x ( your level ) x ( days passed since tax last payed ), I want a little variety.

Idea: After paying for a citizenship application, there is some kind of requirement for it to be approved, eg. spending so much time in that town. I cant really think of a way of determining where a player's house is that wouldn't be able to be cheated around by lying though...

What do you think?

Edit: I'm not just dismissing some of the ideas that have been posted so far, it's just that even though I would like them, they aren't really viable.. such as an entrance fee. There is no way of knowing whether a player is entering or leaving a city, plus some cities can be approached from many directions and entry wouldn't be able to be controlled without building a giant wall around the city.

how about you get some sort of "home recall" amulet, so you don't want to recall to seyda neen every time...
or a citizen disposition bonus, but that really won't matter much with good personality...
this is a tough one, trying to think of something that stays within reason of this mod

There won't be any recall amulets as this mod doesn't actually have anything to do with houses, it just may need to know where you live. I could include some sort of 'house marker' in the form of a deed that would let the census office know which vanilla city the player lived in and the player would be able to place this deed in their house but that would be just a minor benefit as house mods that don't have a city name in their cell name wouldn't be affected... and again there is nothing stopping the player from placing that deed in Fargoth's house...

I'm going to put the 'where you live' section of this mod on hold for now and concentrate more on;

1) other factors that affect your tax

2) how much tax you should pay

..thats all for now.

Maybe 1000 per month average? At level 10? Raising by an average of 1000 per every ten levels ( excluding other factors )

Opinions?

I think it should raise at a higher rate
because at level 50, 5000 is nothing
maybe an exponential raise, (10(character's level))^2, just because income rises exponentially

oh and maybe a thieves guild option for paying off tax debt...

There need to be some kind of bonus (or a good lie detector xD) to avoid people purposefully lying about their ht.
Perhaps adding 'guards' who are really kind of supervisors, patrolling the streets. If the player has not paid, they will come up to him and offer various options (like guards do) except these options would be like 'Pay Tax' transports you to the office in that town, 'Refuse to pay tax' which would perhaps make it harder to get services, at the same time the guards give you x amount of time to leave the premises. Perhaps other options too...

On the other hand, if you 'live' on that town, they would be more forgiving, but the prices would be higher.

I really really like this idea.. it always seemed odd that you get off the boat, hear a tax collector is dead and never hear of one again.

On that note, you may have to tie the dead collector into this mod. Like, I dunno, you get a tax break in the area if you helped solve his death. Or maybe solving his death leads you to being a factor in the choice of the new one? hmm..

As for the cheating, maybe force the player to have to come back to where they are "registered" for X amount of time every so often. If they do not, they are marked as "vacated" and must register (or reregister) at a town if they spend a lot of time in towns as opposed to the wilds? Something along those lines would at least encourage people to register in the right towns, because they won't want to always go back to the middle of nowhere.

The only thing with that is... if you have a house mod out of the way some place, or even a modded town.. heck if you live in a cave, you'd be more like a hermit. Would you still need to pay taxes?

A bonus sounds good, any ideas what it could be?

The guards will give options something like that but only after the player hasn't paid their taxes in a while.

Initially it will be up to the player to find one of the tax collectors wandering around one of the towns and pay their taxes.

Some time after the tax is due the collector will come looking for the player and offer choices something along the lines of 'pay tax', 'refuse to pay tax', 'ask for more time' including sub-options of paying only part of your tax now and pursading the TC for an extention, going to jail or being beaten to death.

Thirdly, the TC will actively pursue the player around town, possibly with guards, giving only the 'pay now or go to jail/die' option

Lastly you will be hunted as a criminal for tax evasion by guards and even debt collectors, sometimes they will appear when you sleep.

A perfect bonus would be more lenience in payment if you live in that city xD.
But I mentioned that already.

A question though. Would the tax amount increase every day? Or every x period of time? If is the latter, it would be best to request payment as soon as the player is in the vicinity of the collector. That way it makes sense the player might ask for leniency, since he 'lives' there.

On the other hand, if its everyday, I suppose it would be better to go along your plan, since it would make no sense for the tax collector to stop you everyday.

Oh well, ill be eagerly awaiting this mod. If only to murder the collector xD

so there are going to be tax collectors wandering around everywhere working for the same boss?
and as for asking for a time extension, success or amount of time should be determined by your speechcraft

also make all the collectors bosmers, male bosmers.

My thoughts exactly.



I may add a little dialogue or bonus about that if you have finished the quest. Tax collector is probably the most dangerous job in Vvardenfell, especially with all of these adventurers around



This may be the answer that I was looking for. Thank you, sir.



Then I guess that you would be excluded from the regional tax... and you would have to pay the unregistered tax... If you were born and raised out in the wild then maybe you wouldn't need to pay taxes... like the ashlanders... but you were recorded when you got off the boat remember? No tax evasion for you... I could include a check the last time that a player went into a city at all... and then taxes would stop after a certain period... but that wouldn't affect modded towns...

Edit: Damn you guys are replying quicker than I can post my responses I'm glad of the support and that you like the ideas though

maybe there could be a bounty gained for going unregistered for a certain amount of time.

A bounty for going unregistered would be fine if they know your alive, but MW is dangerous and people get killed by blight, bandits, and creatures. (darn cliff racers!)

If a bounty was added for going unregistered, I think it would be if you spend X amount of time in a city, or got caught stealing or something. If you spend a lot of time "off the grid" how are they to know?

yea, lol maybe after 2k bounty you are pronounced dead and all charges are dropped XD

@undreamt: Ok, I'll try to clarify , Your tax will be due every thirty days, you don't need to pay a penny beforehand and it will use the same formula for calculation each time. If you choose to pay your tax, say, 15 days after you paid your last tax then that option is available too, it won't be any cheaper though, it will be proportional to the thirty day amount as the formula will calculate daily. Cheaper in your home town is probably a good idea combined with Malholix's idea of returning once every so often to your registered town. I think that I will use that.

@IGSC: Exactly, one collector will wander around each town, if he is killed then after a month or so another will respawn. I would suggest a good crime rate adjuster mod to make murder cost more than 50 gold. I might include one in the download. I will be sure to make it so that none of the tax collectors look the same, even the respawned ones

Most of the tax collectors will be Imperials I'm afraid



I'll think about the unregistered bounty, but would that mean all ashlanders were outlaws, or would it be explained by the fact that the player 'registered' when they got off the boat and the native dunmer have exceptions? There will be an increase in tax for unregistered citizens anyway, but the T.C. will know that you are not dead anyway when they see you... since the player is never 'dead' when (s)he is playing... other citizens who are 'off the grid' ( in theory, although this mod won't affect other citizens ) wouldn't be asked if they are missing or their bodies would have been found etc

lol, well it would have to be well over 2k to get dropped, because a lot of time would have to factor in, and 2k isn't a bounty worth out running in MW. Personally, I dunno if it would even get dropped really, just go unresolved until it was known you were alive. Imperials like their money.. alot. I can just see them hitting up a family member.

"Sorry, your husband was pronounced dead. He died with considerable debt, so we may have to seize your house to pay it off." :nono: