When thinking about criminal activity in Hathian, we need to consider the backdrop. The city is subjected to climactic disasters because of it's coastal location in Louisiana. Underfunded municipal departments are constantly cutting corners, corruption is rampant, and the streets are as hard as it gets. Even deviants from surrounding cities, like New Orleans, know they can find refuge in the cesspool that is Hathian. Life generally sucks. Everyone is just trying to make ends meet and survive.

You'll see some interesting stories evolving as we move to the new build in the coming weeks. The rise of industry will enable some story arcs around workers, new business fronts, and various new organizations. Overall, the city will really feel cultured and hopefully set the appropriate tone in immersion.

With all this in mind, we need to redefine our policies around gangs and I'm considering the following:

1) Gangs allowed to 13 -active- members. Smaller groups - more variety.
2) Gangs are defined as packs of thugs and criminals. Each will have distinct characteristics (physical appearance, culture, backstory, purpose).
3) Gangs will -have- to maintain their claim on a block/territory of the city.
4) Total number of active gangs will be limited to the number of "available" blocks.

Gangs which are around long enough, with experienced players and leaders, will evolve into more organized crime w/ official groups and business fronts. Traditionally, we've focused gangs into mainstream businesses. However, the new build will have properly segmented blocks in more discrete locations (building fronts and alleys) allowing gang occupation. Leaving mainstream businesses open to -everyone- is necessary so both good citizens and criminals alike can enjoy the new CD features that will be associated w/ them.

What will happen to current gangs? Likely scenario is disbanding them into CD history and make way for fresh concepts. We have some great leaders who have taken over older gangs. I'm sure they'd appreciate the opportunity to start something of their own from scratch.

When the time comes, we'll have an epic story that will introduce all of this IC. New features to players and management in CD will help maintain all of this OOC.

For now, please provide your thoughts on the above proposal. I'm open to feedback and will address any concerns.