Level requirement to create clans

[Arturo Sanchez]

Since time immemorial (3 or so years ago) this game has not had a system of automatically dissolving inactive clans. In fact I don't even think there is a function to disband one either.

Most common of these are new players who bought the 4 pack and just created a clan amongst there friends. Play for awhile and then eventually quit the game. Some return. Majority find other games. Most often returnees aren't clan leaders or officers.

Let's just go with the assumption here, that if a player has made it to x lvl. They are far more likely to stick around long term. As such they are able ro create a clan that might actually last more than a week.


There are 4 characters in a clan tag. And many combinations are taken by dead clans. We will never see [NaCl] on active players ever again because of this fundamental problem.

[Jamini]

Doing this will only chase off more new players that want to play with friends.

There are literally thousands of possible tags with only four potential characters (331,776 combinations, not including numbers or special characters, just using four letters alone). Running out of tags is completely a non-issue.

If there is a particular tag you want that is held by a dead clan, perhaps putting in a support ticket is a better option?

[FranckM]

Should we not do a big cleaning of the clans and remove the records of all the clans (I meant disband the clans sorry too much programming today.) where no one connected in a year.

[Richard LeMoon]

I think perhaps a change to the rules might be in order. Change the rules to:

"A clan name/tag hold will expire after three months if the clan contains less than four active members. This means your clan will remain in effect until someone else applies for that name/tag. After that, your clan will retain it's members, but will no longer have a name and will be unsearchable and unlisted on the leader boards."

That would solve a lot of problems.

[Hoja Lateralus]

I suggest level requirement for playing matches. You have to earn lvl3 in tutorial and practice mode to play ;]

[sparklerfish]

I can get behind clans that have been completely inactive for a long period of time being dissolved, but level requirement for creating a clan?  Seriously?  What's next, not allowing new people to have a friends list?  Automatically muting new players in lobbies?  Clans are not exclusive for veterans or serious players or even people who plan to stick around a long time.  There's no reason to restrict who can create them.

[DJ Logicalia]

Add level requirements to chat pls

[Schwalbe]

Ceresbane, I actually hoped you quit all of your bullshit. Apparently you did not.

Oh and it's not like the community has recently much more SERIOUS problems than playing with your elitist, fucking stupid ideas.

All we need in this case is regular clearing of the bloody register to auto disband clans after prolonged periods of inactivity of all members...

[Arturo Sanchez]

I can get behind clans that have been completely inactive for a long period of time being dissolved, but level requirement for creating a clan?  Seriously?  What's next, not allowing new people to have a friends list?  Automatically muting new players in lobbies?  Clans are not exclusive for veterans or serious players or even people who plan to stick around a long time.  There's no reason to restrict who can create them.

The majority of these dead clans stems from new players that create these clans and then leave the game.

Besides, if people are actually forced to INTERACT by joining established clans as opposed to creating these tiny noob cliques that often go off into obscurity. Wouldn't you think the community would have a higher retention?

A noob will rarely listen to a vet. But a recruit is very likely to listen to a senpai (or so the theory goes). That being said, nano tried to do the teacher clan thing and the guy got depressed and went crazy. Which does reflect why major clans don't exactly pull a grox.

also @ swal

dumb as ever I see.

[Jamini]

Should we not do a big cleaning of the clans and remove the records of all the clans (I meant disband the clans sorry too much programming today.) where no one connected in a year.

Clearing the register of really old, inactive, clans wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea if done right.
Prohibiting new players from playing with their friends absolutely is terrible.

I've brought back about a dozen people from my own clan within the last few weeks, a clan which was inactive for a good year and a half. We formed the group when we were novices because our clan exists outside of GoI. None of us would have bothered joining at all if we didn't have a reliable way to play together. Period. The end.

There is no logical reason to prohibit new players from making clans. Even removing inactive clans is sketchy at best, since it may very well kill off the potential for returning players. There are other problems to look at, this is absolutely not one of them.

[Jamini]

A noob will rarely listen to a vet.

That depends on the vet. Not only WHAT they say, but HOW they say it and how WELL they explain it.

People do not react well to negative criticism. People do not react well to insults. From what I have seen of your demeanor on the forums, it does not surprise me at all that some new players do not want to listen to what you have to say. To the other person it doesn't matter what you say. What matters is how you say it.

Will you get people that won't listen no matter what? Of course. Some people are genuinely contrary and will always beat to their own drum, others might genuinely be unable to understand you (language barriers, or voice turned off). However most reasonable people can and will listen if approached in a manner that is professional and respectful, even people that you might not think would do so. (Spammers, meme shouters, voice-box users etc)

It's fine if you are tired of explaining how and why and just want to play with your friends, but saying things like that is outright disingenuous.

[nanoduckling]

I think this is a pretty terrible idea, but some features to clean up clans wouldn't hurt. A merge tool to combine clans, the ability to make clans direct subclans of other clans (I suspect this one would help the Skyborn and their novice training efforts). If less than 4 members have been online in say 3 months a clan gets deleted doesn't seem too harsh. If folks aren't on board with that a longer timeframe / smaller number of necessary online members works for me too. Something to clear the cruft would help make it clear to players what clans are actually available to join at a given time.

As far as my attempts to train novices driving me nuts, I can assure you I was crazy well before any attempts to teach novices. And plenty of novices listened to my advice, especially when I engaged in a bit of lobby hopping. The problem was that most who did listen didn't want or need my novice clan for various reasons, and there were far too many who didn't listen for it not to suck the fun out of the game for me (you only need 10% of new players to be asshats, and 60% of games to have one or more of those asshats in them for it start feeling like a grind).

In short, as is often the case with Ceres feature requests, I support doing something to fix the problem he has identified, so long as it isn't the thing he suggests .

[Solidusbucket]

Honorable mention of the child clan of The Skyborne, The Fledglings, requires an honorable mention of Dr. King  and Veeus. Congratulations on participating in last week's SCS and becomming proud members of [SkBo].

For all those who navigate the lands of the Skyborne Mumble, I invite you to our celebration (playing GOIO): happening this friday at 2100 UTC. More information available on the forum.

Also, a shout out to The Lightning Theifs for partnering up with SkBo thus allowing the former Fledglings to participate. Finally, thank you to the Grims, Ryders, Highwinds, casters, refs, and organizers for making last week's SCS happen.

Oh, on topic: The idea of a level requirement is too restrictive. It takes no consideration of those clans coming from other games. I will agree with the inactive clan name / tag being an issue, however, how crummy would it be if this game blows up and an old clan signs on only to see their clan has been deleted?

[Richard LeMoon]

That is why I would not delete their clan, or even take their name/tag away until someone else claimed it. That way their clan list would still be there when they got back, even if it did not have a name anymore.

Maybe there could be some consideration added for large clans that go inactive.

[Arturo Sanchez]

A noob will rarely listen to a vet.

That depends on the vet. Not only WHAT they say, but HOW they say it and how WELL they explain it.

People do not react well to negative criticism. People do not react well to insults. From what I have seen of your demeanor on the forums, it does not surprise me at all that some new players do not want to listen to what you have to say. To the other person it doesn't matter what you say. What matters is how you say it.

Will you get people that won't listen no matter what? Of course. Some people are genuinely contrary and will always beat to their own drum, others might genuinely be unable to understand you (language barriers, or voice turned off). However most reasonable people can and will listen if approached in a manner that is professional and respectful, even people that you might not think would do so. (Spammers, meme shouters, voice-box users etc)

It's fine if you are tired of explaining how and why and just want to play with your friends, but saying things like that is outright disingenuous.

Funny how you suggest to treat others in a certain way and yet say people react in different ways. Its really shooting down your own point of you being more genuine than me when you yourself suggests that it pretty much makes little difference.

And are you actually fuff-talking me? You are actually suggesting your conduct on a match is superior to me? Are you suggesting that if you and I pubbed at any given time your results would be better than mine? Because if it is, consider me amused.

And your point about communication falls apart when signals are introduced. None of your points about miscommunication and mannerisms matter. A signal has a clear icon and a voice cue which cannot be blocked out, no barrier matters here. It can however be voluntarily ignored. If a crew can't do the basic functions required within a signal command. Thats not even playing the game is it.

Thats a person standing around waiting for the ship to die.

Here's a amusing clip for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yzPKBjcvOY&feature=youtu.be&t=5m47s





That being said. A person in your clan is usually a person who has demonstrated to your clan officer or leader that they can actually function amongst you as a crew member. Hence why most clans don't grox up their own numbers with dead weight.

You can't act like the elitism is there because vets are being meanies when you, ALL OF YOU, are part of the problem that you imply to be against. Otherwise you'd have your ranks full of every kind of player.