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Aug-11-2007 22:08

Hello
I am wanting to open an agency and I have a few questions:

1.is it possible to rent the smallest office and then expand on space as the agency grows?

2. how is an agency working?Is the owner assigning cases to its detectives?

3. is it possible for agency detectives to help pay the office rent if I am the only owner?

Thanks

Aug-12-2007 00:33

1. Yes. You may change the size of your agency at any time provided you have the cash to do so.

2. Top spots at an agency are called Directors and I guess if you had agents willing to do that, you could assign their cases, but I have never heard of that happening. As a general rule, no. Everyone has their own 12 cases per day. That said, in many agencies, members will put out cases in the case files that they don't want and members will share those cases depending on skills, contacts and interest in doing more/less cases per day.

3. Many agencies charge rent. How much and when depends on the directors and I guess what the other members are willing to pay. I was in an agency where rookies did not pay rent until they were promoted to agent. Rent then went on a scale with rank. The higher the rank, the higher the rent since more experienced detectives usually have more spending cash. If you split the rent among many players, it is not generally burdensome on anyone.

I do have to say I'm not sure that I would be trying to start my own agency at 4 days old. We just had that question on the boards fairly recently. I put the link below. You might want to check it out. I would recommend that you join an agency and learn how they operate, what you like and don't like, etc. while building up skills, gear and exp. Then you can start your own agency with a much better chance of success.

http://noir.playsleuth.com/map/cityhall/post.spy?id=23099

Aug-12-2007 08:13

Thanks
Also, is the agency also paying its agents? or are the agents making money only from the cases

Aug-12-2007 10:21

No. Agents earn their own money from cases and favors. There are a few exceptions when agencies might give their members some cash:
1. Sometimes agencies will give a signing bonus to new recruits. That varies widely from agency to agency and depends on the agency philosophy of the individual directors.
2. Some agencies will help pay Shady to clear false accusations for their members. Again, that's up to individual directors and varies widely.
3. Miscellaneous kind-heartedness to a detective down on his/her luck. It's been known to happen, but usually that kind of transaction is more player to player rather than from the agency itself.

Aug-12-2007 13:02

While Agents and Officers do contribute to an Agency's coffers and workload, the vast majority of the Agency's responsibilities, in terms of finances, work, personnel, etc., fall directly on the Directors' shoulders, however many of them there are. Like Treschaude said, most Agencies do charge rent to their members to help even out the financial burden somewhat, but again, Directors usually end up with the bulk of the responsibility. Agencies that charge their Rookies don't tend to stay in business very long.

As for 'assigning' people cases, I s'ppose if you wanted to work that into your Agency's policies, you could do that. I'm not sure how well that will go over though. The two fairly standard things Agencies do is to have Agents work their own cases, with people getting help from others as needed, and having an 'open' case policy, with basically any case being free to anybody, except under unusual circumstances.

Aug-12-2007 14:04

Thanks
I will follow the advice and see to join one first.
I posted a thread with my stats and what I am looking for
Hopefully many agencies will respond