Idea for Mechanic shop/Repair Kits.

[r3v0Lt55]

So I'll start this off by saying the reasoning behind my idea is that I see a possible problem and I'm posting this to get the "brain juices" flowing to see if we can come up with a solution. So the problem that I see is with the Mechanic job in its current state and the fact that they are reliant on players either A) showing up at their shop for repairs or B) getting a tow call where they then have to pick up the vehicle and bring it to their shop for repairs. So this leaves the mechanic kinda stuck at their shop while they have an employee waiting for tow calls or if they are working alone then when they get a tow call they have to close down their shop in order to drive to the vehicle to tow it. There has to be a way to incentivize players needing vehicle work to actually use the player run car services over just going to the closest mechanic shop paying the $1500-2000 and getting the same work done.

So the question we face now is how do we get players to use player run mechanic shops for their vehicle repairs over empty mechanic shops. A) Adjust the numbers. One idea is to just balance the money of items/places that fix vehicles without the use of a player from a mechanic shop. Increase both the cost of repair kits and repairing and non player owned mechanic shops might increase the chances that other players would choose to take their cars to the actual player owned shop than doing it themselves. B) While not my favorite idea I'll put it here because it would solve the current problem (although I would lead to others). Remove repair kits all together and make player be forced into using tow trucks/mechanic shops. C) Find way to give some form of perk to players that use player owned mechanic shop. This idea is a little trickier due to balancing and such. But giving mechanics the ability to while fixing up vehicles to clean fuel injectors (leading to increased gas mileage), upgrade air intake systems (increases horsepower), replace regular tires with run flats (something to do with either flat tires or overall damage), etc. The possibilities here are endless and would be left to balancing discretion of the dev team. This I feel would indeed give players a reason to hit up player run mechanic shops instead of handling the duties themselves. D) Now the last idea I have for this would add a total new mechanic to the mechanic shop. Adding some type of road side assistance program to the mechanic  shop. Adding vehicles such as the Utility Truck or the Utility Brute (I'll put pictures at the bottom) and then having the mechanic be able to have all of his tools with him on the side the road would be awesome. You don't even have to have him be able to fully fix the vehicles on the side the road but maybe implement that if you have received road side assistance then your "insurance" would cover 80% of the repair cost at the garage of your choosing. These are possible solutions to the problem stated about and maybe an implementation of multiple is needed or would benefit the role.

I think that mechanics could foster more in depth and better RP to the community with some adjustments to the current system. Brainstorm and share your ideas!. Look forward to reading thoughts and more suggestions about this topic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[keebler_mfn_elf]

I think that players like Mike on server 1 would love this, considering that is all that he does and sometimes he sits that for a long time without any customers. And for some other players just looking to for something to kill some time with. I like the mobile repair but make it only good for like a 70% or less fix so that they would still need to get to a repair shop soon. As for the repair kits  maybe make them more of a band-aid  that mite get you to a shop; and being able to repair your own car/ truck at a shop, I think that needs to stay mainly because there sometimes are no Mechanics on and then you would not be able to repair at all.

[___]

I really enjoy the thought put into this!

I really think the idea of a mechanic being able to tune cars to improve gas mileage, get a engine boost and ideas like that! Maybe the mechanic shops could have a option to buy these "kits" from their shop and sell the services to other players. However I am sure that with an idea like that would lead to MUCH more situations in which a player is clocked in as a mechanic but not actively playing the role - just using it to upgrade their personal vehicles at an at-cost price. 

Would like to also see what others think of this too!

 

Edited November 27, 2018 by Juan Laing
Posted too early

[Flori]

So.. I haven't been too lucky in finding mechanics that RP much as actual mechanics, most of the times its like: ok mam it's fixed. I would love to see maybe some mechanic that will help this? Give them some little help with actually interacting with the client?
I love the idea of roadside assistance! maybe they can only fix the engine and not cosmetics, so we still make sure the mechanic shops are still visited.

[Josh Costello]

Some really great ideas here!  I agree that the vehicle repair kits should be more expensive to encourage the use of Tow/Taxi/Mechanic jobs.  

Edited December 6, 2018 by Josh Costello

[keebler_mfn_elf]

From working as a Tow truck driver and a mechanic with Mike. I have talked with a lot of people and another thing that would be nice for a mechanic to be able to do is wash a car at a shop. There are only 4 car washes in the city, and they are sometimes just out of the way to go to. This would be add another insensitive for people to want to go the the mechanic.