Argonath RPG - A World of its own
GTA:SA => San Andreas - Capital Building => SA:MP - Business & Government => SA Capital Building Archive => Topic started by: Matt_Hewie on June 27, 2013, 06:35:23 pm
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Argonath Bus Lines will still be in operation during the RS5 beta, and will be operating free services until further notice.
Hi everyone, I'm currently in talks to Gandalf about starting an official government bus company for Argonath, so I was seeking public opinion on it, to see how much support the idea would have if implemented.
I'll go through the 'nitty-gritty' of it all. If you're going to leave feedback, be it positive or negative, please at least be constructive. I want this to be an idea that will work, despite many other failed attempts by previous people.
The main aim of the company is:
To provide a cheap, effective bus service to all areas of Argonath, providing easier access to roleplay for all players, more opportunities for RP outside of the main Los Santos area aswell as increasing interaction between new and experienced players. To have all operations based on what would most benefit the community.
Buses will be situated in a bus depot alongside the company headquarters, and all services will be operated by the company's members. Routes will be arranged by the company and the government together with input from the community to find the most effective routes to run, to cover the most area and covering popular destinations.
Routes currently in operation (effective as of the RS5 beta) are:
Route 1: Los Santos < > San Fierro (via Angel Pine and Mt. Chilliad)
Route 2: Los Santos < > San Fierro (Direct)
Route 3: Los Santos < > Las Venturas (Direct)
Route 4: Las Venturas < > San Fierro (via Las Payasadas, El Quebrados and Bayside)
Route 5: Red County
Occasional roleplay Tours and Event specials will also be provided! (not currently)
An option that the possibility of scripting in (perhaps with RS5) would be for bus drivers to be able to set a route so that when players are near they will get a message of which route the bus is running on (eg. Matt_Hewie(2) is driving on Route 5: Red County).
More information will come in later posts. Thanks for reading and I look forward to feedback!
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You have my full support. Would be nice to see the busses. Scripts aren't necessary but having em will be cool :)
Good luck man
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Many have failed, but I hope you keep strong! Because I know people want this! Good luck!
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How about the bus driver ? It'll bot and driving around with Bus and stop every station ?
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It sounds great, the thing is that the locations where you should stop should be well planned out. Maybe do some statistics on places where people often wants to go and makes routes depending on the statistics?
The price is also a factor, as buses are not the fastest, so people want lower price like a compensation for the speed.
But from that, it sounds good.
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How about the bus driver ? It'll bot and driving around with Bus and stop every station ?
No bots at all. This will be completly player operated.
It sounds great, the thing is that the locations where you should stop should be well planned out. Maybe do some statistics on places where people often wants to go and makes routes depending on the statistics?
That is one of the reasons why i'm seeking public opinion on the whole thing. Where do you guys want stops? I have a few routes in mind (see original post) which cover (and could cover) almost every destination to a walking distance maximum. (edit:) The routes are completly flexible at the moment, and even after implementation, you guys will have the option to suggest changes.
The price is also a factor, as buses are not the fastest, so people want lower price like a compensation for the speed.
As mentioned in the original post, this will be a cheap service. Obviously the government will have control over the fares, but i'm looking at $4 for local services, $8 for inter-city services, as this will cover fuel for the current trip as well as fuel for trips where people are not utilising as much. This figure may (and hopefully can be) reduced dependant on passenger numbers, aswell as if we can gain funding to cover fuel costs. The whole company will be a not-for-profit service.
I'm happy to answer any other questions! :)
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Good luck!
First off, many have failed on this, in my opinion, because of the state cars. Bunny-jumping solves the problem of finding a car, unlocked. Me and my cousin was thinking of opening a company like this, but due to lack of participants ( we thought we wouldn't have much clients ) we decided to think of something else. Then we bought Argonath Sport Betting, which needs some effort and patience, still due to lack of participants we're thinking of improving our services, hiring a few people and things we need.
People are money-hungry, therefore they won't waste money for a tour, however that doesn't include experienced, rich, players. So, you might wanna invite some people, good at RP, to help you. They might encourage other people, new players as well to come, when you gather up. To these people, if they can't afford paying that ticket every time they gather there to RP and help you, you might give the ticket-money back.
You need a good driver, a patient and law-abiding driver. Someone who doesn't do the work only for the money, however he needs to get payed.
Find some rare visiting spots, a tour all over SA with a jetpack will give you the opportunity to.
Organize a few activities for the clients, after all it's a tour.
Example: Mountain climbing(chilliad) with BMX/Mountain Bikes ( can be found at the chilliad's bottom )
Find something they can RP with, like Honigsenf Hotdogs, Rostijl Boys, and other food vendors to come and sell their food. People who RP with them might want to take a tour-guide too.
There are many visited spots like LSCH, RP there to get a few clients, but don't make tours to LSCH, it's the most visited spot, who would want to go there ?
That's a few tips I thought of my own, when I wanted to open this, so I'm sharing them to you, again, good luck with this.
I'll be happy to pop-by sometimes and RP, if you need any help, feel free to PM me.
;)
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*snipped to save space, read above post!*
Thanks for the tips, I'll definatly be considering them!
I'm especially excited by the Mt Chilliad BMX tour, I think that would be good. Have a number of bikes at the base, special bus to the base of Mt Chilliad, and could even be the food vendors taking in the opportunity for roleplay, and that's one of the main things i'm hoping for if I can get this going. I would love to be able to be part of a 'large' roleplay like that. Get people involved, old and new!
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I agree with what Stivi said. It will be hard to cope the whole server attention with it, as most are money hungry and won't spend time and 10$ when they can go do heroin. Your only chance is that some veterans who understood the meaning of Argonath will join these busses and have some RP.
I support you, you will need a lot of luck.
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Thanks for the tips, I'll definatly be considering them!
I'm especially excited by the Mt Chilliad BMX tour, I think that would be good. Have a number of bikes at the base, special bus to the base of Mt Chilliad, and could even be the food vendors taking in the opportunity for roleplay, and that's one of the main things i'm hoping for if I can get this going. I would love to be able to be part of a 'large' roleplay like that. Get people involved, old and new!
New players, in order to get along with the server, they seek for places with a lot of people, they'll definetly come and see. Old players, they need to be a bit generous, not broke/poor and they'll do fine. Food vendors will come, I can talk to Honigsenf, as I am his worker, and I'll tell him to reply in this thread. About the bikes, they're at Mt.Chilliad's base, but you need to wait until server comes up and see 'em. Also, you might want to recruit some driver, like 3-4 of them, not everyone can be present every time.
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I agree with what Stivi said. It will be hard to cope the whole server attention with it, as most are money hungry and won't spend time and 10$ when they can go do heroin. Your only chance is that some veterans who understood the meaning of Argonath will join these busses and have some RP.
I support you, you will need a lot of luck.
That I know quite well, but with enough support, I think it could work quite well. I'm not holding my breath to get the entire server on board with the service, that's wishful thinking for sure... but one can hope. I think with at least a fair percentage of players backing the idea, we can keep up enough activity within the buses to keep people interested. Once it's implemented, it'll probably shoot-off a bit more simply because it's actually there, and not just an idea on paper, well, forum.
New players, in order to get along with the server, they seek for places with a lot of people, they'll definetly come and see. Old players, they need to be a bit generous, not broke/poor and they'll do fine. Food vendors will come, I can talk to Honigsenf, as I am his worker, and I'll tell him to reply in this thread. About the bikes, they're at Mt.Chilliad's base, but you need to wait until server comes up and see 'em. Also, you might want to recruit some driver, like 3-4 of them, not everyone can be present every time.
Thanks again! As mentioned a few times, this is just in the planning stages right now, as I haven't got a reply from Gandalf beyond that the possibility is there and it may be granted. Which of course given current events I don't blame him, so I'm just sitting tight, getting the word and working on the plans as much as I can to show Gandalf that it is something I'm dedicated to and something that (hopefully!) the server will enjoy.
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hey matt,
good luck with a route based bus shuttle service. as mentioned before, u would need employees with a long breathe and not leaving job after 10 minutes nobody used that shuttle.
sadly the BSF funding service is temporarly inactive. regarding the Occasional roleplay Tours and Event specials i am open minded and can imagine a lot of scenarios,
with food vendor services and also with the forest group http://www.argonathrpg.eu/index.php?topic=94246.0 (http://www.argonathrpg.eu/index.php?topic=94246.0)
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*snip, see above*
Hi Honigsenf,
Thanks for your support, it's really great! I'm aware the BSF is currently inactive, but that's where goverment funding comes in. Once i get the go ahead from Gandalf, then I'll put a message out looking for people. I think I may already have one employee in mind, who is happy to do a job for the roleplay. I'm not sure if he reads the forums or not, but Matthew_Wong is him.
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Bus routes on a roleplay server, especially on Argonath are a great, great idea. Actually, I've ran a bus company of my own back in 2007 ~ 2009 here in Argonath, called Skolines (http://www.argonathrpg.eu/index.php?topic=5824.0). We had couple of great drivers, including (but not limited to) Andre, Janek, Tinderman and even xcasio. Shame that the route maps are gone with my old webhost, though. Would've been nostalgic to take a look at them. Some veterans might also still have a distant memory about it. :) Later on, when RS3 was out, I got contacted by Gimli and was asked to plan official bus routes to Argonath. I did, but the project kind of froze back then, for whatever reason.
It's great that finally we have potential for an actual, successful and frequently operating bus service - supported by the government and maybe even scripts. Although script support is not essential on this, it really boosts and encourages operation and makes it easier to run. It also affects positively on the amount of people using the bus service as they would get somewhat realtime information where the bus is heading. (You can only imagine how difficult it was to announce where the bus currently is and where it's about to head in real time, with limited funds to /ads and if we weren't using /ads, people complained about it.) :P
So, yeah. If it matters or not, you got my support on this. And if needed, this old bus company CEO would love to give his helping hand on this project with anything from route planning/drawing and other graphical designing to actual, but limited to occasional bus driver vacancy.
Thanks, and good luck with it!
Signed,
(http://i44.tinypic.com/10qauqs.png)
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Good luck
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You have my full support. Would be nice to see the busses. Scripts aren't necessary but having em will be cool :)
Good luck man
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Shame that the route maps are gone with my old webhost, though.
Bugger! It would have been great to see what was working back then, and as you said, for the nostalgia too!
Later on, when RS3 was out, I got contacted by Gimli and was asked to plan official bus routes to Argonath. I did, but the project kind of froze back then, for whatever reason.
Well, I'm still in planning stage, especially with routes, so if you would like to help with routes given your experience with the server, that'd be great!
Although script support is not essential on this, it really boosts and encourages operation and makes it easier to run. It also affects positively on the amount of people using the bus service as they would get somewhat realtime information where the bus is heading.
That's one of the main reasons why the script assistance would be helpful, but as many have said, NOT essential!
If it matters or not, you got my support on this. And if needed, this old bus company CEO would love to give his helping hand on this project with anything from route planning/drawing and other graphical designing to actual, but limited to occasional bus driver vacancy.
Any assistance you would like to offer would be great, I'm hoping to get as much of the server involved into this as I can, even if people who would like to drive can only do it an hour a week or whatever, any help is great!
Also thanks to everyone for the amazing amount of support and well wishes, it's truely appreciated. :D
Post Merge: June 28, 2013, 04:52:11 pm
Good evening everyone, just an update into the setup progress...
At the moment, I have decided on 4 "main" bus stops. From these stops, all services for that area will depart / terminate.
Stop 1: Bus stop at Pershing Square, Los Santos, opposite City Hall and LSPD.
Routes from this stop: 1A. Los Santos to Disneyland, 2A. Los Santos to San Fierro, 5. Red County, 11. East Los Santos. (in planning: 3A. Los Santos to Las Venturas)
Stop 2: Cranberry Station, San Fierro.
Routes from this stop: (in planning: 2B. San Fierro to Los Santos, 4A. San Fierro to Disneyland, 6A. San Fierro to Las Venturas via Fort Carson, 7B. San Fierro to Las Venturas via El Quebrados, 21. East San Fierro, 22. West San Fierro)
Stop 3: Las Venturas Airport, LV.
Routes from this stop: (in planning: 3B. Las Venturas to Los Santos, 6B. Las Venturas to San Fierro via Fort Carson, 7A. Las Venturas to San Fierro via El Quebrados, 31. Las Venturas.)
Stop 4: Disneyland / Angel Pine, Whetstone, San Fierro.
Routes from this stop: 1B. Disneyland to Los Santos, (in planning: 4B. Disneyland to San Fierro.)
The reason there is no West Los Santos is because all of the routes coming in to LS cover most of it, and it is (from what i've seen so far) not as popular as the East. This is completly open for change should there be desire for it.
The East San Fierro bus line will follow the tram tracks, I have just yet to get into the server to map it.
Las Venturas at this present time has been determined to only need one bus line. As with all other routes, this is completly flexible and can change if demand calls for another one.
I will upload a route map once I have completed all 4 sets of routes.
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You have a very good idea here, stay strong for this it might help alot to the people IG as on RP. if you need any help in the future i'll be glad to help you with this, supported :D.
GOOD LUCK
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At the moment, I have decided on 4 "main" bus stops. From these stops, all services for that area will depart / terminate.
Stop 1: Bus stop at Pershing Square, Los Santos, opposite City Hall and LSPD.
Routes from this stop: 1A. Los Santos to Disneyland, 2A. Los Santos to San Fierro, 5. Red County, 11. East Los Santos. (in planning: 3A. Los Santos to Las Venturas)
Stop 2: Cranberry Station, San Fierro.
Routes from this stop: (in planning: 2B. San Fierro to Los Santos, 4A. San Fierro to Disneyland, 6A. San Fierro to Las Venturas via Fort Carson, 7B. San Fierro to Las Venturas via El Quebrados, 21. East San Fierro, 22. West San Fierro)
Stop 3: Las Venturas Airport, LV.
Routes from this stop: (in planning: 3B. Las Venturas to Los Santos, 6B. Las Venturas to San Fierro via Fort Carson, 7A. Las Venturas to San Fierro via El Quebrados, 31. Las Venturas.)
Stop 4: Disneyland / Angel Pine, Whetstone, San Fierro.
Routes from this stop: 1B. Disneyland to Los Santos, (in planning: 4B. Disneyland to San Fierro.)
At this point, I highly suggest you to keep things as simple and on as easy-to-understand basis as just possible. There is no way that people are going to remember all those lines and main stops, etcetera.. I suggest you to do as we did back in the days - make Pershing Square the center of all routes. (This can show up bit tricky due to weird city infrastructure of central Los Santos, but I still believe it would be the most efficient solution.)
- all three (maximum of four) routes arrive to and departure from Pershing Sq, the unquestionable center of the state of Argonath (SA) (This doesn't actually encourage people on visiting new places such as Disneyland, etc, which might disappoint some, but people don't want to be told where they need to go; most of them clearly have made a decision to spend their time in major cities' centrals and in between them.)
- bus stops should be placed besides the most visited and attractive spots, (ie. Ganton, LV Strip, SFFD..) but also near less commonly visited, interesting locations. (ie. Disneyland, Dillimore, Montogmery, etc.) Also, places where people usually tend to get stuck without vehicle should be somewhat covered. (This might be bit tricky to actually get done properly without wasting too much resources from other principles.)
- if people want to go from LV to SF, they will have to switch line in Pershing Sq, LS (Not the most efficient nor the fastest solution, but it keeps the system simple.) Casual people who choose to add little RP to their journey want it to be as fluent and easy as possible, they don't care if i takes four or nine minutes to get from LV to SF - as they would already have been there with a car anyway)
- what I mean here; you should not spend your resources on planning route 8Y from Disneyland to SF, (as an example) but instead spend it on keeping the system and routes as easy-to-understand & remember and as attractive to casual citizens as possible.
- for example: LS (non-stop local line), LS <> SF, LS <> LV. That's it. Departures approx. hourly from each city. Pretty easy to remember and reach; from Pershing Sq. you can travel to both major cities, and vice versa. Of course, there can also be special lines dedicated to events and for example Disneyland, scheduled to run only on fridays, or so.
- fixed fee of example $5 per ride (kilometer based usually scares people off and yet again, complicates things - point here is not to make profit)
Hopefully my points of advice come in handy. I'm not saying that the list above would be the absolute and only right way - it's just my honest opinion mixed with bit of experience. You should always think as the customer would, emphasize them and most importantly respect them. After all, they decide if it's gonna be succesful or not. ;)
Thanks, and I'll try to contribute this in more practical way some day when I'll get on my PC.
Keep up the good work,
(http://i44.tinypic.com/10qauqs.png)
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I understand your points completly, and I do realise they may be confusing right now, but once some proper planning and topic design is done (when i start the actual company's topic when Gandalf gives the go ahead) I feel it will be a lot less confusing than it is now.
Idealistically, someone looking to travel from LS > LV would look at the routes that run from LS. There will be a post in the 'official' topic dedicated purely to the system / routes in LS, including a map. When someone looks at that, they will only see the routes that operate from LS, 1, 2, 3 and 11.
The letters are not part of the "official" route number, they are purely just direction notes (possibly for use with the /route script I had in planning. This is just behind the scenes and will not be publicly visible.
/route 2a - shows as Route 2: Los Santos to San Fierro
/route 2b - shows as Route 2: San Fierro to Los Santos
If you don't understand my point (i'm not the greatest at explaining things) then let me know. This is because both directions use the exact same route.
Whilst you do make good points, I think a "web" setup would work better than a central hub. Trying to convince people to use the bus SF-LV wont work if they need to go SF > LS > LV. It's very uneconomical.
Fixed fees have been set up, $4 for local services and $8 for inter-city services. Again, this can (and hopefully will be) reduced with increased passenger numbers or funding, to cover fuel / wages.
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I fully agree with that idea, and I am ready to invest around 20k
The price is also a factor, as buses are not the fastest, so people want lower price like a compensation for the speed.
The Coach (new-style bus) is actually the fastest public driver's vehicle, even if it looks slower due to it's handling.
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I fully agree with that idea, and I am ready to invest around 20k
Great! Just still waiting on Gandalf for the go-ahead, then the whole system will go into full swing. :D
The Coach (new-style bus) is actually the fastest public driver's vehicle, even if it looks slower due to it's handling.
If you can get a driver who knows his Coach well enough, it performs really well. Granted speed limits were followed, the only time buses or coaches are slower than any car is the highways.
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supported and good luck with it bro . :)
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Count me in! If you'd ever need financal suport, just contact me.
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Too bad that for the moment the staff is busy handling the servers situation in the meantime lets see if you get more help from other members as i said if you need any help you can count me on this ;), Good Luck and hope to see this working very soon :D
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Hi all, another night's update, the first draft of Los Santos routes is complete!
(http://i.imgur.com/SVr0JGY.jpg)
Questions, comments, suggestions are welcome, I will make a larger post later tonight, but just uploading the map right now. Enjoy!
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Good luck
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Seems Intresting,Good Luck. (Y)
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This is awesome! I would certainly roleplay a bus driver, if admin duties allow me to RP (calm time and/or enough other admin team folks online) :)
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Supported :D
Love this idea. :)
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Supported would RP a bus driver ,:D where do i sign :p :D
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This is an excellent idea, very well planned out. However I'd suggest you create necessary training and licensing process only for the bus drivers so they know how to operate heavy passenger vehicles. Anyways supported and good luck.
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no1 uses buses.
It'd be better just to have bots driving buses.
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no1 uses buses.
It'd be better just to have bots driving buses.
I do use Busses now and then. Even owened one a while ago
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If you want my personal opinion I would not bother using your time up. This is not the first time someone has had the idea and this kind of service never takes off the ground. You will be driving around aimlessly, with nothing to do. The only way I can see it being successful is when people get to know that you have reliable services running regularly, because they will not wait 30 minutes IRL when they can just grab a state car direct to their location. Even still with that you have to employ someone to drive around aimlessly for hours and I'm not sure anyone would be willing to do that.
On a server where a free state car is accessible to all, there's no point in this. Sorry.
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Good evening everyone,
I must apologise for my absence, as work and school caught up to my life outside of reality. :P Anywho, I have returned and will be a lot more active now. To catch up on posts I've missed, thankyou all for the good lucks, I'm hanging on this as long as possible, I want to see it work.
@Darnell, I've made a mandatory training session prior to beginning work with the bus lines. It's not -quite- a license, but it's the same kind of thing.
@Monte, I suggest you use the term "no1" loosely, as I have had quite a few passengers since beginning, even if I'm not officialised yet.
@Jacob, I see your point, but driving buses is something I enjoy, even if it is seemingly a boring job. I'm hoping to get a few people employed to regular services so that we can gain the reputation with the server of "hey, I want to get to here, I could take the bus!" rather than "What bus?". As I'm sure you understand, trying to handle bus services for a server of easily 3-400 people, the majority of who can't think outside the box of taking the nearest state car, isn't an easy task. But with determination of myself and those who work alongside me and those who support the project, I truely think we can pull this off nicely. I won't rest until it does!
That is partly why I am hoping to gain the support of the Govt. and people of Argonath, as the former gives us legs and the latter help us walk, if that makes sense to anyone. :lol:
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Argonath government bus services, on the be-half of my Mayoral campaign I would like to state that with me in office, I will proudly support your services, and would be funding you if I was elected Mayor. I will soon post my Manifesto, giving you further details.
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Argonath government bus services, on the be-half of my Mayoral campaign I would like to state that with me in office, I will proudly support your services, and would be funding you if I was elected Mayor. I will soon post my Manifesto, giving you further details.
I hope you got elected and start...little dictatorship so I can feel happy living in the state :P