inactive commanders shoukd be able to be demoted

leftyquit

As a creator of an alliance and commander, the rank should be allowed to kick off and demote inactive players. Good for competitiIon to allow 20 members, but my two other commanders don't participate any longer and I want to recruit new members.

Dayv

This has been suggested in various ways a number of times. Hopefully they'll roll out better alliance management features at some point.

Until then, you can open a customer support ticket to have inactive commanders demoted. I believe CS wants to see them truly inactive though, not just failing to contribute enough.

FaustianDeal

I've sent this type of CS request several times and it is a thorny issue to get resolved. We were frequently told that the commander was still active and couldn't be demoted ('active' in this sentence meant that they were doing a story-mode fight once every 1-3 days (we could tell when they played because we would get 10ISO for having them one day, but not the next - and no points in an alliance event from them).

Back when alliance roster spots had an HP cost associated with them the rationale for not demoting was that these players had made an investment in the team and it would take demonstrable negligence to render their investment void. (We had luck once asking a CS to demote every commander who hadn't bought an alliance slot - that got 2 names knocked down.)

Since alliance were switched to auto-20 and all slot purchases were refunded the argument that they "bought a slot" has been eliminated. But an every-other-day commander is still frequently considered 'active-enough' to avoid the boot.

I would love for them to change the 'promote' button to a 'demote' button - and reserve that feature for the alliance founder. This has been asked for (but I don't see it coming).

The best piece of advice I can give is the one I got when I made a similar request to this one...
get agreement from the 18 guys who play that it is in your collective best interest to pick up and move. Leave those 2 commanders behind as the 2 leaders of a 2/20 alliance. Earth 141 (my original alliance) was having the same problems you are... 17 of us picked up and moved; creating Earth 270. We picked up someone from the forum and 2 from facebook to fill the open seats and we were off to the races again. A few pointers we used that should help things along:
1 - try to get everyone into Line app or on a Facebook group chat. This will help coordinate the transition for the window of time where there are 2 teams. This process can take a week if you haven't already got this set up. In game chat is not ideal for this. (You will keep using Line after the transition because it is better than in-game; at least that was the consensus opinion on my team.)
2 - once you have everyone (or enough of everyone that the team will survive the transition) someone has to leave and start the new team. Pick an event where you can tolerate not winning the alliance prize you are accustomed to getting *just in case* the transition is slower than you need it to be. Start the move well in advance of any event closing though - it will take at least 24 hours to get everyone moved.
3 - the first person to leave should post in the game chat something to the effect of "I am leaving to form a new alliance: ##NAME## - please come join me." -
4 - if you have another commander or someone you intend to promote on the other side - have them stay behind for 1-2 days to help stragglers. The person left behind can monitor status and occasionally add messages to in-game chat like "we are all moving to a new alliance: ##NAME## - come join us"
5 - ask each other member, before they move, to add to the in-game chat something like "I am going to join the rest of our team in alliance: ##NAME## - join us"
6 - you know you have 2 seats to fill, possibly more - try to fill those seats while the transition is in progress, so that when you last teammate arrives you are ready to go.
7 - When it is time for your last, trusted person to move - they should check who is left. If its just the 2 commanders you are trying to dust, they can bounce. If there is a non-commander you who has somehow missed the memo; give them a final note about the move. We promoted that last guy as we shut out the lights. That part is optional, but can't hurt as a final show of respect.

This sounds repetitive, but we were trying to move 17 and even with all this we only got 16 of the 17 we were hoping to catch.

It will put you out the HP cost of forming a new alliance (which is both unfair and sucks), but it has been totally worth it for us.

leftyquit

I started when maximum seats was 5 I think, maybe it was 10; however they were active in the Pvp everyday. Now I see they haven't played at all. Kicked off the non commanders. It is public so it's not like one needed an invite. I did send in game support email. See where that goes.

leftyquit

I sent them a feedback email and just the other day they were demoted. Still, I think the alliance founder should have a rank higher than commander and ability to demote and kick off the rank of commanders. The other commanders should be able to kick off lower ranks, but not the general since he or she formed the alliance. This should be put under advisement.

Unknown

I joined an alliance and they had a rouge commander promoting everyone
in instances like that itd be great to have a "Supreme commander"

FaustianDeal

NooTs wrote:

I joined an alliance and they had a rouge commander promoting everyone
in instances like that itd be great to have a "Supreme commander"

sounds like the same kind of person who hits every button on the elevator before diving out on his floor. Classy.

leftyquit

Yeah, or general. I'm trying to revamp my alliance. Part one is established. Now for part two.

Unknown

Just to add that you should be able to demote or kick not only for inactivity but for not meeting requirements. Most competitive alliances have requirements...sometimes commanders no longer meet them although they still play. Hopefully cs tickets will be able to fulfill the request even if they see a person is active.

Pwuz_

EpicBeastmode wrote:

Just to add that you should be able to demote or kick not only for inactivity but for not meeting requirements. Most competitive alliances have requirements...sometimes commanders no longer meet them although they still play. Hopefully cs tickets will be able to fulfill the request even if they see a person is active.

That's a hard argument to make. You will have a better chance starting a new alliance in those cases. Especially with the change of all alliances being 20 slots, why have any more than one commander?

Honestly besides approving and kicking players, there isn't much a commander actually does. Any commander in even a semi-competitive alliance should be active every day, more than often enough to kick/approve the members they need to.

The only reason in my mind why an Alliance should ever have more than one Commander is when the existing one wants to step down from their alliance and needs to Promote a replacement.

Dayv

Pwuz_ wrote:

The only reason in my mind why an Alliance should ever have more than one Commander is when the existing one wants to step down from their alliance and needs to Promote a replacement.

Pax Romana has had 2-3 commanders most of its existence, and I find it takes a lot of the pressure off versus a single commander. We work together to make changes to alliance policy and goals, so it feels more like some discussion and consensus building went into the process. Also, we can take turns with the more labor-intensive tasks, such as recruiting.

Unknown

I asked them to demote commanders this week (except me as founder of our alliance) and I log in to find everyone, even myself was demoted so we have no commanders. Support tickets are a double edge sword. Hopefully they can reinstate me soon. Had I been able to demote commanders, it would have been much simpler.

eaise

Have to agree with FaustianDeal. Leaving that commander behind and forming a new alliance with the other memebers is the best idea. This happened to me and some friends. We made a new alliance and have been the #1 PvE alliance for several events in a row.

Unknown

I heard, but have not confirmed that the wait period has been extended from 15 mins to 24 hours when leaving an alliance. Is this true?

If so, this presents problem for commanders who want to temporarily demote themselves without leaving the alliance while on vacation or on business travel. For example, I traveled out of country recently for a week unsure if I'd have wifi access to play. I left the alliance and rejoined (after 15 mins) so that the other (second) co-commander could temporarily swap me out of the alliance for a merc if needed to secure placement in an event. As we all know, commanders gone AWOL are a real liability. so stepping down temporarily is a good idea.

My suggestion would be to add an option for commanders (if there are more than one) to demote themselves. This would allow the 24 hours wait time to remain without penalizing legitimate actions as in the above example.

Unknown

The 24 hour wait time is only if you get kicked, not if you leave voluntarily.