(01-03-2020, 01:47 AM)Edge Wrote: As an example, say that I run an official faction--lets call it Ultimate Awesome Dudes. or UAD. Now, myself and my people are only able to log 40 hours in one period. Currently, by the rules of an official faction (going by the metrics put forward by St.Denis), means that we are 5 hours short from maintaining official status or getting a warning that we're below the metric required for maintaining our status. There are a multitude of reasons for falling short of this. Holiday seasons, work related things, personal emergencies, you name it. If we fall short again, that's it, we're done and out of official status until we can get it back by showing that we're active.
So, here's where my idea comes in. Let's use the same situation as above. We've only been able to log 40 hours in a given quarter and are in danger of being removed or being given a warning. At this point, the administration could look to the RP forum to see if our faction has had a RP post going over that same period or has done any RP on the forums whatsoever. Let's say that I can't login very much as of late because I've recently had a new addition to my family. Taking care of a small human being is a lot of work and I may not always have time to login to do trading, get in spats when other factions, or what-have-you. However, when I get a spare moment, I throw up a few RP posts with my buds, do a few communication posts, and stay active where I can on the community representing my faction. That should count along with how much time I login to the server representing my faction in a live setting.
The old System used to require 24 hours activity per month. Therefore, you could lose Officialdom if you had a bad 2 months. There were complaints, which were deemed valid at the time, that holiday periods, RL etc got in the way and it could lead to OFs losing their Officialdom too easily.
It was decided, to try and mitigate this problem, to extend the period to 72 hours in a 3 month period. This was deemed a better way to overcome the fluctuations in availability. This allows an OF to have a 'bad' 3 months and make up for it in the next 6 months.
It was, initially, that if you failed one quarter and passed the next quarter, your Faction retained Officialdom. There was a problem with this that some Factions started playing a Game of 'ping pong'. Fail, 1 check, pass the next, fail the third, pass the fourth etc.
It was decided to try and 'nip this in the bud' early on and instigate that if you failed 1 check, you had to pass the next 2. If you care to look back through the quarterly checks, there are some Factions still playing the game of ping pong.
The requirement of the activity check of 72 hours, in a 3 month period, is also with the caveat that there are at least 3 active Members (this used to be 5).
If we say that an OF needs 72 hours, 3 active Members to pass a quarterly check (call it 90 days), this equates to 16 minutes per day per person (1 hour 52 minutes per week per person).
This system requirements can't really be reduced much more.
If OFs want people to join their Factions, they need to 'fly the flag' and be seen in the Game. People complain that they can't find 'in-game' interactions. OFs should be the 'creme de la creme' of the Factions in Disco, but are they really?
There are a lot of Players out there that are not Members of an Official Faction and have set up their own Unofficial Faction and are surpassing the activity times of most of the OFs (most of them do not show up on the Activity Tracker). Maybe it is time to ask yourselves why?
There are a few factors, in my opinion, that are the cause of OFs losing Officialdom.
1) Reduced Player Base.
2) OFs using 3rd party programs to alert them when certain other Factions log. If all sides are sitting awaiting the alerts, then it becomes rather self-defeating.
3) Because OFs aren't really flying the flag, the newer Players aren't applying in their droves.
4) Too many OFs for the Player Base.
We now need to ask why there is a reduced Player Base.
1) Too much 'backstabbing' going on in the Forums, in game and from what I hear, on Discord. People decide that there are better places to be.
2) An old game.
3) Lots of new games out there (a big increase since this was conceived), therefore they take up people's time.
How many Players are in actual OFs?
How many Players are in only 1 or 2
I am sure that there are plenty who are in 5 or more (hence their time is split quite drastically)
I know of at least one person who is more than 10 and I am sure there are a few more.
We are 2 days in to a new quarter, look how many Players have more than 4 hours activity, already. At least 90% (probably more) don't belong to an OF.
'I would like to be half as clever as some people like to believe they are' Life is full of disappointments, it is how we handle them that helps to define us, as a person
