The Locke'n Lounge *Alliance Chat*

Unknown

Well, I screwed up the PVE. I didn't realize it was one of those ones with a bar to fill like that. So I didn't hop in right away cuz I'm focusing on season one. So...I completely missed the first subevent. Didn't even see it or realize it existed till I read it had ended in chat.

favabear

So I had been in the process of writing out a long message about the state of the alliance and how to move forward last night, but I was running on about 2 hours of sleep and I passed out before I could finish it. This was a pretty telling moment for me.

Before Sweenz left, I had been talking to him about potentially becoming a co-commander. I chose him specifically because he had clearly put a lot of effort into alliance stat tracking, and I had been planning to consult the alliance before the decision was finalized, but I hadn't gotten back to him in a few days which could be part of the reason why he left.

The bottom line, though, is that managing this alliance, though it may not seem like it, has been a ton of work for me. Not just because of the recruitment and activity management, but because of the high expectations that comes with the title of leader. Quite frankly, I was not anticipating the consistently and extraordinarily high numbers that some of you guys have been putting up, nor was I expecting the explosion of the alliance system or our great successes that set the bar high. On top of that, I have a lot more going on in my life than I did when we formed this alliance, and I simply don't have the kind of time necessary to play at the level of the alliance. As is, I've been playing everyday (with some exceptions), most days over an hour, and it hasn't been enough. I've felt extremely guilty about this, but I simply cannot allow this game to interfere with the more important RL things I have going on.

I don't want to disband the alliance. It pains me to even have to change the status of it, and, though I don't really like to bring this up, I made a substantial cash investment in it. But as far as I'm aware, there's no way to transfer leadership. So anyone who wishes to continue calling this alliance home is welcome to do so. If you choose to stay, here are your options for how things will go.

Option 1 One or more Commanders will be chosen by the alliance. This commander(s) will be the true leader(s) of the alliance and will have the freedom to make any alliance related decisions as well as the responsibilities that come with it. Anyone who's interested in the position should say so. I will still be around, participating as much as I can (I should be able to meet the 300 point expectation, but I can't guarantee I won't miss an event every now and then), and I'll be here to accept invites and provide input. However, if we go this route, you should consider me a patron rather than a leader. I'm not planning to be dead weight, but I'm also not expecting to be a top performer. Nevertheless, reattaining the top 100 status should be a definite possibility. I certainly don't like the idea of being "the guy who paid for the alliance" and nothing more, but I want to give you all the option if you want to try to make things happen.

Option 2 The alliance will officially be a casual one. Only players who are completely inactive for long stretches of time will be kicked. I'm sure that this will be unappealing to our top performers, and I certainly won't blame anyone for leaving, but those who wish to remain and have the community along with some halfway decent rewards will be welcome.

I want to finish off by saying that I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished and I've really enjoyed being in your company. Whatever happens, I have only the most positive of feelings towards you all, and I'm sorry to those who will be disappointed. I wish I could do more, but I have to accept the fact that at the end of the day, this is a game. I'd like to continue to enjoy it.

MasterBoRaiCho

I like the idea of a multiple commander setup. It does seem like running an alliance is a bit of a burden, so why not share the burden between 2 or 3 people?

As I said before, I'm in for the long haul either way, whether we go casual or regain our competitive status (seems doable, once we get recruiting out of the way).

Unknown

Well, like I said, I was considering leaving or becoming much more casual because of my classes starting up. So if we do decide to become more casual, ie less than top 100, I'll have to accept that because it will partly be due to myself anyway. Besides, I've gotten used to your names and I'm too lazy to learn new ones. If you do decide to buckle down and start trying to be more competitive again, ie back above top 100, I'll probably stick it out for a while to see how difficult it is for me with my new schedule. I won't of course be able to be a subcommander, but my hat's off to anybody who's brave enough to take on that role. We all understand that it's stressful and a lot of work to maintain an alliance/guild, with all the demands of individual expectations, recruiting, etc. It's why I never do it...

EDIT: I just remembered that my forum name is different from my game name. So I just realized that some of you might not even know who the hell I am... Adding a sig now...

Unknown

Oh, you're pandemonium! I hadnt put the two names together, thought you were different people

Im down for option 1 for sure. I have not been a top performer, but I have been consistently middle of the pack. I used to run a 100 member alliance in another online game. Ran it as a top 15 alliance (there were 150 alliances in the game) for over 5 years, and I dont mind taking part of the responsibility of being one of the commanders, if you will have me. I would certainly like to have at least 2 or 3 people run it as a group.

I think we can get to the top 100 again without having everyone break their back - just by setting certain minimum standards and focusing on particular events. For example, since we are not looking like season 1 will gain us a nick fury cover, I would highly suggest we move as an alliance to tank our MMR (if it is still possible - discussions are still ongoing as to whether that is still effective with the new bracketing system. The lack of communication from the devs has been very **** frustrating.) and focus on PVE. Depending on what the awards are for certain events we can focus our collective time and efforts on those events to get the covers that most of us need/are the better rewards. Even if we place in the top 200 for a couple events, as long as we are getting top 100 in the events that pay out the best, I think we can all be pretty happy

Unknown

We should at least make an attempt to become competitive. If not, our more active members will probably get burned out and leave, and our alliance rewards will be reduced to a standard token. We have a max capacity alliance, we shouldn't waste it.

I think there should definitely be a minimum score requirement for new members (lower for existing members) as far as PvP performance goes.

I'm thinking in the range of top 50 or 500-600+ but really dependent on roster strength. I don't think that's asking too much, especially given the new bracket structure. I finished 39th in my bracket with 797 points. Took me about an hour of gameplay max to achieve. If you have a decent roster and understand rubber banding, placing top 100 in PvE doesn't require that much time either. In my experience, the only thing that takes a huge amount of time to do is to place top 5 in the week long PvE events. Personally, I'm going to be drastically cutting back on the amount of time I spend playing, but my output should double in PvP and only suffer slightly in PvE. I'm going to aim for the two cover tier in PvE events and stop chasing first. I'm also going to stop tanking to farm iso during the PvP and just focus on placing high.

Communication is a problem. Ideally, we should be able to relay information, discuss, and make decisions on alliance matters within 24-48 hours whether via alliance chat or here on the forums. Once we get the ball rolling again, this should be less of an issue, but it's a bit of a problem as we rebuild. We really need to be careful with who we recruit. I'd like us to recruit people that understand our goals and are planning to stay with us long term. I want us all to be in the loop and on the same page so we don't have half the team jumping ship again.

Also, I'm all for kermitk50 becoming a commander.

Unknown

I finally got my 10 pack reward. Here are my pulls:

mHawkeye -Red
Bullseye -Black
Moonstone - Black
OBW - Blue (YA!!)
mnThor - Yellow
mHawkeye - Red
mCapt - Blue
daDaken - Purple
GSBW - Purple
mCapt - Yellow

overall, 2 out of 10 covers will be used. **** pull!

Unknown

menious wrote:

I finally got my 10 pack reward. Here are my pulls:

mHawkeye -Red
Bullseye -Black
Moonstone - Black
OBW - Blue (YA!!)
mnThor - Yellow
mHawkeye - Red
mCapt - Blue
daDaken - Purple
GSBW - Purple
mCapt - Yellow

overall, 2 out of 10 covers will be used. **** pull!

Damn, that kinda sucks man, sorry

On the positive side, though, if you needed that blue OBW then getting it is HUGE! Her blue skill is basically the only reason I can play this game for long periods of time. In fact, I have over 20 health packs till just because I can use her to heal up in the prologue. I only ever have to use health packs when someone actually goes down and I dont have a replacement, and I seem to be gaining health packs at a rate about even with that naturally

So grats on OBW blue! What is her build now?

Unknown

Oh yeah, and on topic to Umbrus/Fava's comments. Are there any other people with opinions/desire to be a commander and get things back on track? I think we can start with a small requirement (300 in pvp) and move on from there. I still dont think we should kick people who go on vacation and such, just let us know beforehand. Also, it would be nice if we could get an update to the listing of everyone's in-game account names on the first post - fava, that will have to be you since I cant edit your post .

I would also like it if our members could regularly check these forums for updates and info - at least a couple times a week. You dont have to read the whole forum, just this thread. You can bookmark it and just remember to check it every once in a while to see current strategies and if we are doing a focus-fire on an event. For that same reason, might be nice to get email addresses of our members in case they aren't checking the forum. They can be shared with just the commanders and when bulk emailing can be all put in the BCC line as to not make your email addresses public to the whole world

All these things sound like a lot, but they really arent. Its not a ton of extra work or anything - its just organizational things that will help us get to where we need to be

MasterBoRaiCho

I'd definitely vote for kermit as commander if we are looking to go with Option 1. If we need a second (or third) and nobody else wanted the job, I could give it a shot.

And if we go competitive-ish again, 300ish points seems reasonable. Don't wanna go full bore tryhard or anything though.

Unknown

MasterBoRaiCho wrote:

I'd definitely vote for kermit as commander if we are looking to go with Option 1. If we need a second (or third) and nobody else wanted the job, I could give it a shot.

And if we go competitive-ish again, 300ish points seems reasonable. Don't wanna go full bore tryhard or anything though.

I certainly would prefer 2 or 3 commanders over just a single commander. If I do become commander, my first point of order would be to appoint other commanders to help/advise

Seasons certainly changed the landscape of PVP. Because of that, it made it easier to get to 300 since there are higher value targets out there, but also made the competition more fierce. I still want to try the whole "300 minimum" thing for a PVP and see if we all get at LEAST 300 what we place at. From there we can tweak our minimum standards up if it doesnt place us in the top 100.

Basically we are going to have to do a little guess and check, but Im sure we can crack that top 100 consistently again

Unknown

I vote Kermit (and appointees) and 300 minimum.

favabear

I can definitely get behind kermit as a commander. Since everyone who's chimed in so far has voiced their assent, I've gone ahead and made the promotion. Kermit, I officially hand you the key to the command room. Glory to our bright new future!

My **** day from a few days prior has evolved into a marvellously **** week, so I haven't been able to get much done transition wise or participation wise yet. I'm extremely grateful that you all have been so understanding. I was half expecting to be stoned to death after making that post. I'll update the first post member-list at least, but all of the in-game names should be accurate already. All of our recruits after the initial 20 have been in-game applicants.

Unknown

favabear wrote:

I can definitely get behind kermit as a commander. Since everyone who's chimed in so far has voiced their assent, I've gone ahead and made the promotion. Kermit, I officially hand you the key to the command room. Glory to our bright new future!

My **** day from a few days prior has evolved into a marvellously **** week, so I haven't been able to get much done transition wise or participation wise yet. I'm extremely grateful that you all have been so understanding. I was half expecting to be stoned to death after making that post. I'll update the first post member-list at least, but all of the in-game names should be accurate already. All of our recruits after the initial 20 have been in-game applicants.

Muahahaha, now to begin my evil plan by kicking all of you!

Just kidding of course . In all serious, thank you Fava and everybody else for your voices of support! I have faith that we will be able to overcome our recent setbacks and come out even strong on the other side - and above all else we need to work as a team to accomplish this! As I said before, my first goals as commander are as follows...

a) Add 1-2 more commanders.
b) Set the minimum for all PVPs to 300 points.
b) Find and recruit 7 more people to fill out our roster.

Please bear with me during the next few days as I dont want to simply invite the first 7 people I see. I would rather focus on getting high quality people who are here to help the alliance - not just for personal gain. Preferably I want forum members in our alliance, that way they know and understand how the game works and can regularly visit this alliance chat. Of course with dedicated people like that, we all will have quite a bit to gain personally


Fava - the fact that the reaction to your post was so positive and forward, selfless thinking means that the base crew we have right now are the right people to have in the alliance. The people we have are the foundation that we will build upon.

Well enough pomp and presidential speaking from me . I will start with the recruitment process today, and begin messaging people. Please speak up if you are interested in joining me in commander-dom. I know MasterBo is interested, and I have faith in his playing abilities to understand the strategies we should undertake in order to place where we need to place. Is there anyone else interested in the job as of right now. Just so you know, it isnt all glory - there will be quite a bit of work (as fava knows I am sure!).

favabear

I'm sure you'll do a great job and I completely support everything you've said so far. I'd recommend your first order of business be to check out SpacedAtom and see if he meets your criteria. I approved his application last night to make sure he didn't feel like we were jerking him around, and he seems like he's got good intentions, but the decision of whether or not to have him around is pending your approval.

Also, worth asking if you want to keep this thread or have a new one? I'd be happy to manage the first post and update it with policy stuff and whatnot, especially now that I have a lot less of a load to carry. If you'd like to have more direct control over the first post, though, starting a new thread wouldn't be unreasonable.

Also also, for anyone who ends up with the commander title: please be aware that it is a "for life" position. Once promoted, you can't be demoted or kicked. If you become a commander and end up quitting the game down the line, it would be great if you could do us the courtesy of removing yourself from the alliance. This is also something you may want to keep in mind, kermit, when choosing co-commanders.

Unknown

Hey there everyone -
I'm Daiteach and I've just joined the alliance (pending kermitk50 doing the accept in-game.) Lemme know if there's anything useful I can be doing.

Unknown

Ah, thanks for the heads up fava. I was not aware of that regarding the status. I will be weary with my promotions. Im sure it will be something they add at some point, but could certainly hurt us in the short term if we have commanders go inactive or become asshats . And this thread should be fine for the time being. If there are any things I need done to the first post, Ill let you know

I will check out Spaced Atom tonight when I sign back into the game. Generally I am active on the forums during the day while at work, and in the game at night after work.


Also, you guys will be seeing some more people introduce themselves on the boards over the next few days - people like Daiteach above. Everybody please welcome our new additions as they are the new blood who will help project us into the top 100 yet again! No pressure or anything


Welcome to the alliance daiteach, hope to have you around for a good long while

Unknown

Daiteach still isn't actually accepted into the alliance in-game. Something go wrong?

favabear

Kermit, could you take a quick look at your roster options and see if you're able to promote, kick, approve, etc? I've heard that only the founder can do this, but I'm hoping that's wrong. The alliance system was not very well thought out by the devs. . .

Either way, Daitech is now in the alliance for real. Welcome!

Unknown

I just came on to check right now - I have no options to do anything. I cant kick, I cant promote, and I cant even see a list of people who have applied. Nothing seems to have changed except I have the option to make the alliance public.

Is that all an appointed commander can do? Thats ridiculous!