The disparity on what a large fleet can pull off compared to a small fleet.. bla de bla de bla..
UHG!
How about this..
Each member of the fleet is expected/required to make a contribution towards a fleets growth.
When you look at fleet projects what you see is not the TOTAL requirements, but your expected contribution. Requirements and rewards can be tuned so that you can get everything you want from the fleet vendors..
Players accruing around with 2 or 3 million fleet credits is just silly. They'll spend them all, because there is nothing to spend them on! And never will be!
Fleet leader get to see who is and who isn't contributing.. and have the option of of course removing non contributors.
But what If I need more fleet credits you say? Well thats what special projects (cosmetic projects) can be fore, but any one player would have a maximum contribution toward any one project.
Suddenly.. it doesn't matter if a fleet has 5 members, or 200 members... small or large, the amount of time it takes to get things done is totally dependent on your memberships contributing their share to projects.
What about player alts. Sorry, if ya wanna have an alt in the fleet your alt has to make their contribution to the fleets projects or they don't get done.
If you have fleet members that are not contributing.. then either have an option to move them to "inactive" status where they no longer have access to fleet services and vendors untill they start contributing their share or boot em.
Inactive fleet members get no utillity or benifit, and their lack of contribution no longer effects the resources and time needed to complete fleet projects and holdings.
Pretty simple eh? This would work... and it would close up the gap between mega fleets and little fleets. It might even swing things a bit in favor of smaller fleets with active members..
Total number of players in a fleet no longer matters. What matters is players contribute their share toward completing projects.. Requirements are automatically scaled with no big bother or concern. Change a few little things though.. there must be a fleet minimum of active members. Takes 5 players to form a fleet, there's your minimum. if you drop below 5 active players for any reason all progress on fleet projects etc freeze in place, and NO purchases are possible from fleet vendors. And one other requirement. That 5 player minimum MUST 5 separate accounts. Not that it can't be gotten around, but it'll be a bit more difficult. Fleet leaders that want to be snarky and greedy and game the system can still do so, but they'll still have to keep 5 players pleased and happy with them. A fleet "rating" system can even be implemented.. Vote your opinion of a fleet when you exit or get kicked out. Now, the numbers are going to be subject to interpretation.. and MIS-interpretation (just like Cryptics numerics) but it better then nothing. And if you have a fleet leader or core group going around and playing turn 'em and burn 'em to players entering a fleet.. it'll at least be obvious from the polling numbers that something stinks in Kishnev after a short amount of time. Fleets playing that sort of game with players with find them selves hitting a point of diminishing returns fairly quickly, which will tend to regulate, and minimize abuse. It wouldn't be perfect, but rarely is perfect an achievable goal anyway. At least this way it would be in the ball park.
Bear in mind. Fleets are a play perk for the game. They are not needed to make sto work, but I see a lot of discontent and unhappiness over the gap between haves and have nots, and it does bother me.
My own fleet has 5-7 active contributors... some way more so then others... and a whole bunch of inactive members who haven't played STO in years.. We'll get to where the base and holding get finished eventually.. sooner would be better, but that's not the way the current system is set up. The current system benefits a large fleet more then a small one just because of the raw total amount of stuff required to get everything done. A large fleet can "spread the load" a small fleet, not so much. In small fleets you run into players literally burning out on the amount of grind needed to get stuff done.. some players are good with it, and when things do get done in a small fleet there is an intense feeling of satisfaction. But it's still taken the poor sods in the small fleet a long time to get there... and some small fleets never will get there..
SO.. lets fix this... its not total contribution that matters...it each players contribution that matters..
So, hey, we talked, we shmoozed, we did did lunch, we fooled around a little, everyone goes home happy! Whaddaya say?
Forcing every member to contribute to every project is the same as telling them how to play the game. I cannot speak for others, but I know I do not want to be told to do something if I do not want to do it. If someone does not want to contribute, that is their choice. Their lack of fleet credits prevents them from using the fleet provisions the rest of us worked hard to earn.
Comments
But it might reduce it over all to more manageable (ie ignorable) proportions...
I'd just like to see it get a little more fair if at all possible..
Nothing is going to make humans form community 'cept them selves...
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