I keep reading about how people are mad about how long it's taking for the devs to release some kind of info about SWAT after almost a year, and I don't see these people talking about some key info which has existed since Identity went on Steam. Identity's Steam store page has the "Early Access Game" section, which has a "Read More" button. This area talks about the approximate release schedule for all modules, and the overall beta of Identity. There are a couple of paragraphs with the title "Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?". The second paragraph basically says this: "With our current pace, we estimate: SWAT: late 2019 Racing: 2020 Feature-complete Identity beta: 2021 ...these are not to be taken as release dates but as our current best estimates." Now obviously, SWAT is past it's estimated release, but given the wording, I think they're "technically" still on the schedule they mentioned in that Early Access info bit. What do you think? Do you think SWAT WILL be released in the first half of 2020? Or will it be much later? Maybe never? Comment what you think.

I live just South of Asheville, NC. This is where Identity is taking place (Ash Hill). I kind of wondered if anyone was curious about what Asheville looks like, or what the vibe is, or what the people are like. So as a favor, I will go on request to places and landmarks around Asheville (to do things like take pictures and whatnot). Simply reply to this topic with your request. For example, "Go to Main Street and take some pictures", is acceptable and not too detailed. I can even do things like go to a specific street that you looked up. Maybe you want pictures of landmarks and such. I might also take videos on my iPhone :> I will do my best to get to all requests so please be patient. For now I have some stock images of downtown Asheville attached to this post... P.S. The devs on stream mentioned a radio station that plays in-game in Identity (somewhere I can't remember). The way they briefly described the station, it sounds like it will be "B93.7" https://b937.radio.com/ Ryan Seacrest from American Idol is on there.

What were you writing about then? Were you requesting that someone do this?

Wow. Are you from Asheville?

The Asylum team has mentioned on stream about a "Steam Verification Process". This is when Steam looks to make sure the game being published isn't harmful. I wondered how long this would take... I took a look at what steamgames.com says and they say it takes anywhere from 1-5 days. So there you have it for anyone who wanted to know. EDIT: Wow, I'm really surprised by all the votes! Considering the facts, the fans still think otherwise about the time it will take. I also feel the same about the situation, considering the time it's taken to develop the game. At the time of this edit, the current percentage out of 69 votes was: Less than one week - 38.03% More than one week - 61.97%

I know stock markets won't exist in Identity. However I thought about investments in a different way, in a method that only players (citizens, business owners, investors) would need to manage, rather than the devs or server management. So you want to start a business in Identity, but you don't yet have the cash to get started. There's no public investing (stock market), so what about private investing? I'll give an example so no one is confused. A private investor who has a high net-worth that invests in a startup company can be called an Angel investor. These Angel investors make money through the success of the startup company, or they could lose money if the business fails, pretty much like the stock market. What is so great about private investing in Identity is the fact that there may not have to be any real dev-made systems to make this work. I'll give an example of exactly how I would imagine a private investment goes down in Identity... Two players can make an in-game legal document that states the terms and agreements of the investment, and both parties receive a copy of this document in their inventories. It is optional to get the documents notarized (legalized) either from a government organization or a law firm... That's pretty much it. The rest is up to the players to decide, such as the terms and agreements, which by the way could be conjured up by a lawyer that knows the ins and outs of the "laws" (server rules). The legal document system doesn't need much development because from what I understand, people can write or type on paper in Identity. Also surely there will be printers to make copies of paper, so really the system is already there for that. The only thing that isn't for sure is if documents will be able to get notarized in Identity. I think notarization would be a welcome feature, as it can give the police a job if the agreement is broken. Notarization would increase the chance of players spending their money in the server, growing the economy. But this post isn't about notarization mainly, but about the ability to invest your money in a company regardless of the existence of a public stock market. Certainly in my opinion this would satisfy the requests of players hoping for a stock market. TL;DR You can put your money in a business through a legal agreement between players and profit from its success, without the need of a stock market. What do you think of this idea? Please tell me the pros and cons that you see?

I would like to answer to #3. I think on a dev live stream they said stock markets won’t exist, but I can’t confirm that. I however think that if they chose not to add that, that there could be a mutual system of trust or a legal in-game document stating the terms of an investment agreement. I’ll post a new topic about this soon as I feel that there would be great business opportunities this way, legal or not.

If they bought fish from your storefronts then they probably wouldn't be able to sell it for a profit at their store lol. I'm not really sure what the benefit of this would be.

I think you're saying that in order to get a high level job like being a doctor or politician, you must first have experience in other similar fields. Maybe you need a sales job for charisma to be a politician. I know those jobs aren't similar at all lol but you get it I think.

In certain areas, especially a place with a lot of businesses or venues, I think that paid parking would be a great way to allow players to make money. So paid parking could be run in a select number of ways. The default way would be to have the parking service be owned by the town's government on an automated system, with a fixed price. The money earned would go to fund the local government. However I think that paid parking could be privatized. If a player with enough money wanted to buy the parking lot/parking garage, they could do so and profit from it. And of course if the owner chose to, they could allow player employment, just like any other business. A customer would drive up to a ticket dispenser, pay a price, and receive a parking ticket/receipt in their inventory (maybe you put the receipt in your window). This would allow people to break the law and illegally park if they chose to. Just by driving past the ticket dispenser, you could still park. Allowing illegal parking would also give the police another task they could carry out, and earn bonuses for. Please tell me what you think of this idea, and if you agree that there should be paid parking. EDIT: Thanks for all the replies, I'm glad I see my ideas are not totally idiotic

I pretty much agree with this. I just wanted to see what people thought really.