Admin Notice: Factions

[Blodo]

I view the problem from a bit of a different direction. In a time long past when the server pop was still relatively low compared to today, factions were made to simplify a group of friends flying together, as well as to gain notoriety faster. The "official faction" system came later, and the "one official per npc faction" even later than that, but the reason that people joined officials back in the day was that they were the only organised group of players playing as an npc faction.

What ultimately killed this notion and spelled the end for many officials was organised groups of indies arriving on the server. Suddenly it was clear that it was far more beneficial to run an indie faction than an official one because... lets count the pros and cons:
Pros:
- own forum section
- faction rights (usefulness of most of those questionable)
- the off chance of maybe having a dev approve a proposal of yours
Cons:
- ruthless activity requirements
- it takes months upon months to get approval from admins to become official (people do not realise how big this problem is, but IMO it is huge as unofficials are reluctant to apply because of the cost and timescale)
- large money cost both for clerical stuff (500 mil approval money... possibly more than once if the community/admin team is particularly hostile to your proposal) and faction stuff (because in general you need something to lure people in, as well as you need capitals/shareds/transports to start yourself off... so those kind of costs usually run well into the billions)
- paperwork requirements (no official ones... and yet you do need them to even start the faction up)
- juggling skype diplomacy when you become part of the "big leagues" <- there is no escaping from this one for anyone, neither the leadership nor the membership of official factions
and worst of all:
- constant community scrutiny as to "what your RP is"

All this scrutiny for no immediate benefit (other maybe than the ever controversial FR5s), and it truly does sound like its better to just run an indie faction because "oh they are just indies, who cares about their RP" = they can do what they want, shoot who they want, say what they want and the admins wont just come and tell them to get lost unless they are literally blowing the server apart or something of the sort. I hope you guys see where the issue lies.

Now I honestly have no idea how to let official factions get back onto the proverbial pedestal with the tools that we have at our disposal at the moment. But maybe we are asking the wrong question? Maybe instead we should be asking: what is the point of official factions altogether, and maybe the official faction system should be overhauled completely instead to put less strain on the faction leadership/membership, since they clearly do not receive any benefits from the scrutiny anyway?

Or... maybe we should just repeal the official faction system altogether and get back to the way it was in 4.82? I dunno, but I am just throwing that out there.

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From a less revolutionary standpoint: official faction creation must be overhauled. The 500 mil cost must be removed, the faction proposal must be guaranteed approval or denial in less than 2 weeks time. This is what I view as essential to promoting creation of new officials, and I hope the admins see it the same way.