Building a Small Fleet Up

lomax6996

As someone who is working with some friends to build up a couple of new, currently small, fleets I'd like to know how some of you successful BIG girls and guys did it? I know of a couple of Fleets that have hit Tier 5 in just one to two years. Those Fleets grew FAST and so have some others while still others languish.

What are some tips you're willing to offer a noob on how to recruit, how to grow?

Thanks, in advance, for any advice you can offer

starkaos

Can't help with how to make your fleet grow, but I can offer some advice for helping your Fleet Holdings. Focus on the Dilithium Mine for the discounts. Dilithium Mine gives some of the best Engineering Consoles out there, has methods to increase Dilithium production, grants purple Warp Cores, Dilithium Store discounts, and most importantly has Fleet discounts that can give between 4 to 15% reduction in costs. One problem with the Dilithium Mine is that you have to complete the Tier 1 Dilithium Mine project to get access to the Mine. Completing the Tier 1 Trade or Development upgrade doesn't grant access so you can have Warp Cores and Engineering Consoles available, but no one to access them without getting a map invite to another fleet.

The next bit of advice is get every Fleet Holding to Tier 1 and run provision projects so that you can utilize the services of certain Public Service channels to get access to Fleet equipment that is currently unavailable. With a map invite to a completely upgraded Fleet, you can purchase Fleet (Fleet Uniform, Senator Robes, Miner Outfit, and Dyson Sphere Researcher Uniform) and equipment that might take years for your Fleet to get access to for just the cost of provisions, dilithium, and fleet credits as soon as your Fleet finishes your first provision project. Fleet Ships require leaving your fleet and temporarily joining a new fleet.

mimey2

Click on the picture in my signature, don't worry it is just a link to another post here on the forums, and one of the links in the post that pops up will be to my Starbase Guide.

lomax6996

Thanks, guys, especially for the link to the guides! All excellent advice and much appreciated.

However what I really need is tips on recruiting. I have recruitment threads in the forums and try to keep them bumped. Unfortunately I can't seem to get our Fleets to populate, reliably, under the Fleet tab of the social menu in-game (but I understand this is a known issue with no fix, currently).

It seems to me there was talk, one time, of a channel for Fleet recruiting... possibly more than one. Does anyone know what that channel(s) name(s) might be? Any other suggestions? The Fleet owner is a bit opposed to blind invites (as am I) but from some others I've talked to it's starting to look like I may need to "bite the bullet" there. :rolleyes:

jamesstjames

I'm not the best at recruiting - but check Facebook for various groups. I've added a few from there and it seems more valuable a resource than the forum recruitment.

doffingcomrade

lomax6996 wrote: »

As someone who is working with some friends to build up a couple of new, currently small, fleets I'd like to know how some of you successful BIG girls and guys did it?

How do the BIG guys do it? Well, they have hundreds of Zergs and claw and fight each other to fill projects. This is not particularly instructive or useful for you, since they've already depleted the pool of players, and the race is over. You already lost, by virtue of other people being allowed to start before you. If you want to know how the SMALL guys do it, people like me, who built an entire freaking base solo, well, you'd have to be crazy to attempt that. The fact that you're even asking indicates you're not crazy enough.

So let's focus on what's important. What is a fleet? What is a base? A fleet ix 8x48 bank slots for you to store all your TRIBBLE in. A fleet is a little personal rep project that allows you to acquire goodies via the NoP Public Service Channels.

For this, you don't need to recruit anyone. You're fine the way you are, with just you, your close friends, and your alts, with a bank space just for you.

If you feel you have what it takes to really build a base, try your hand at the next holding that comes out. If you can even place, you might be crazy enough to try it. Otherwise, forget it, and focus on what's important: Storage. Stuff. Don't fill your fleet with filthy strangers. Remember: They're weird and they smell funny.

bluegeek

There are only two reasons to join a fleet.

One: Perks

All of us in the small fleet category have all but lost that battle. Your only hope is to stick with Fleet Advancement and hope to get big enough to attract members someday.

Two: Community

This is arguably the most important part of building a fleet. If you're building an Empire, you're not building a community. Community -- common interest -- is what will keep a fleet together and help it to grow. Empires don't hold together quite that well.

Our fleet (Federation Reborn) is built around our core values: Friendship, Freedom, Fun, and Fair-Play (The 4 F's). It was originally intended to serve as a fleet for members of a certain online community. We still maintain that connection, but the fleet is its' own (small) community at this point. We're a fleet for people who don't let the game get in the way of real life, and people play the way they want to play.

Once your inner circle has decided what your community will be like -- what your common interests are and what leadership model you're using -- you need to attract attention to your fleet. There are a lot of ways to do that, the least effective of which is spamming fleet adverts in zone chat.

Some kind of fleet portal or forum helps, but any means of keeping in touch outside of the game will work.

If you have artistically talented members, design logos and banners that will stick in people's minds. Participate in STO Community events. Post here on the official forums. Join PUG's and impress people. Word-of-mouth.

Above all, don't chase after new members without taking care of the ones you've got.

lomax6996

bluegeek wrote: »

There are only two reasons to join a fleet.

One: Perks

All of us in the small fleet category have all but lost that battle. Your only hope is to stick with Fleet Advancement and hope to get big enough to attract members someday.

Two: Community

This is arguably the most important part of building a fleet. If you're building an Empire, you're not building a community. Community -- common interest -- is what will keep a fleet together and help it to grow. Empires don't hold together quite that well.

Our fleet (Federation Reborn) is built around our core values: Friendship, Freedom, Fun, and Fair-Play (The 4 F's). It was originally intended to serve as a fleet for members of a certain online community. We still maintain that connection, but the fleet is its' own (small) community at this point. We're a fleet for people who don't let the game get in the way of real life, and people play the way they want to play.

Once your inner circle has decided what your community will be like -- what your common interests are and what leadership model you're using -- you need to attract attention to your fleet. There are a lot of ways to do that, the least effective of which is spamming fleet adverts in zone chat.

Some kind of fleet portal or forum helps, but any means of keeping in touch outside of the game will work.

If you have artistically talented members, design logos and banners that will stick in people's minds. Participate in STO Community events. Post here on the official forums. Join PUG's and impress people. Word-of-mouth.

Above all, don't chase after new members without taking care of the ones you've got.

All excellent ideas and suggestions... thanks. Does anyone know of a chat channel devoted solely to Fleet recruiting?

doffingcomrade

Fleet recruiting channels are fundamentally a failure. This is because no one knows about them except the recruiters, and you can't have a fleet recruitment channel without any recruitees.

Just forget about recruiting. Why do you want a bunch of random clowns in your fleet anyway? Go, play the game, do your own damn work, and maybe you'll meet a few people from crappy, dying fleets you'll get to know and like.

starkaos

I find that only about 10% of Fleet Members actually contribute over the minimum to get Fleet equipment. The percentage can change in various fleets so you can have 500 players that only have 10 people contributing over the minimum while another fleet can have 20 players and all 20 are contributing. The point is that Quality is always better than Quantity.

margus3

We did tier 5 bit over 1 year.
But dont forget esd or good zone spamming of recruit messages
dont forget your credit card.
dont forget your alien artifact crafting to get EC dont foget fill doffs ec all stuff.
dont forget to buy lockbox keys and sell box ships.

for alien artifact its ok if 1 guy in fleet doing that but you still need 3-4 traits doffs witch 1 doff 30-100mil ec. Do that in team witch supply for free artifacts and traces.

Make gear rank 200-300k fc or you face problems ppl stop contributing if they get rank.
1 of 10th recruits are good some maybe leave fleet but its ok who leave that is not long standing member.

Fill projects everyday but first try get to tier 1 and grinding dilmine for discounts.

You can ask details also in game if i online.

harlequinn13

I ran a big fleet (500 members) once. We started small then grew around the time STO went F2P. We recruited anyway we could as we had to battle it out with every other big Fleet. We tried forums, chat channels and talking to new players. It worked, within a few week of F2P we went from 200 to 500 members.

But, a big Fleet has its flaws... as Star base Holdings came into play, hardly anyone contributed. This meant that we didn't get past tier 1 of the Star base. People left or found other Fleets that gave members instant access to Fleet Stores or High-end bank items. Some just stopped playing or made a new Toon and never came back. Romulans came and we lost more members. People went AFK for months even years.

I cam back to the game about 2 weeks ago. The Fleet still stood, but I was the only member. Our Star base remains small and our projects have piled up, waiting to be completed. We are now a small fleet of 30, surviving anyway we can, we're growing slowly.

I run it alone and always have, even when we had 500 members. I just couldn't find the staff, those few dedicated players who would help. How do big Fleets do it? They started very early and have Big communities, huge guild websites, lots of Alts, lots of time and money to burn. In this stage of the game, after the battle of the big Fleets is over (for the most part, it still rages on in some parts of STO), be thankful you have a Fleet and try to make it a place people want to be.

skymagus00

As a member of a large fleet, I can tell you large fleets have a problem of their own which might help you: generating fleet credit. In short, there is not enough room in projects for most people to donate to, particularly for fleet marks (which can fill within about 5 seconds or less of the project being available). This means that players cannot generate fleet credit to buy shiny fleet gear.

This is of use to you because small fleets have trouble filling projects. That means you have space for people to donate. What would help you is to get some contacts in big fleets, so when they or their friends have a backlog of resources building up that they want to donate to a project to get fleet credit, have them come over to your fleet, fill your projects and go back to their big fleet. They get their fleet credit, you get help filling projects: good all ways round! :cool:

lomax6996

skymagus00 wrote: »

As a member of a large fleet, I can tell you large fleets have a problem of their own which might help you: generating fleet credit. In short, there is not enough room in projects for most people to donate to, particularly for fleet marks (which can fill within about 5 seconds or less of the project being available). This means that players cannot generate fleet credit to buy shiny fleet gear.

This is of use to you because small fleets have trouble filling projects. That means you have space for people to donate. What would help you is to get some contacts in big fleets, so when they or their friends have a backlog of resources building up that they want to donate to a project to get fleet credit, have them come over to your fleet, fill your projects and go back to their big fleet. They get their fleet credit, you get help filling projects: good all ways round! :cool:

I actually had thought of this before but didn't have a good grasp of how it would work. You just nailed it down for me... THANKS!

landshark666

It's actually a good idea to advertise your fleets availability for people to convert marks to credit, anywhere you would normally be recruiting, as well as in the public service channel. I always get a response when I throw it there in chat.

url1k

As so done who joined a fleet with 3 friends, star base almost at tier II, and then watch them basically stop playing.....building your star base is like eating a whale, one bit at a time. After almost 2 years I'm a month away from doing shipyard tier IV.

I only did dilithium mine tier I because mathematically the payback isn't good above that.

lordvalecortez

For building up a SB with a small fleet you need a few things:

1: Dedication
2: Patience
3: Love
4: Insanity
5: A Sugar Daddy

I'd lead my fleet since launch through the ups and downs ranging from the Year of Hell Content Drought, F2P, and the Holding system coming into play. Max size was near 400 members though today we exist as 49 names on the roster. 1/3 of that I know is made up of me and 3 other friends and all our alts.

Dedication because you are small. You aren't going to to blitz to a T5 SB. You just won't have the means to with a small fleet. So YOU have to drag your fleet kicking and screaming towards T5 a tiny bit at a time.

Patience ties in with Dedication. Again, this will take a long, long, long time. Years most likely. This is will be the poster child for a labor of love.

Love. You really need to love the game and enjoy it in its entirety. Even then you still need a break now and again. And if you only love a small specific part of the game you will burn out and thus by proxy end your SB ambitions. So if you don't love the game to have Patience and Dedication, then you are better off just joining a larger fleet for the goodies.

Insanity because you are trying to build something that takes 400+ member fleets a year or more to do and they are swimming in resources. Truly, no one in their right mind should be making new fleets yet they are being made every minute of every day on ESD. So embrace that Insanity. It will keep you company.

A Sugar Daddy. Well this is optional but it helps a lot. SB are expensive. If someone in the fleet can and is willing to pay for the EC costs then it helps out immensely. I'm the Sugar Daddy in my fleet. I cover the costs of just about everything but Marks so other members can get the best bang for their buck to get credits. Even then, I leave EC in the fleet bank so people can get the commodities for projects if I'm not around. I've even contracted out for large sums of marks and dil as needed. And 18 months since the latest restart of the fleet we are only T3 SB, T2 Emb, T2 Mine and T0 Spire.

But hey, we painted my name on the side of the SB so I'm okay with that.

weirdtrekie30

I'm the leader of a small fleet. My fleet is a little over 18 months old, we're fairly small. 2 very dedicated members (Including me), 3 or so fairly dedicated members and maybe another 7 or 8 occasional members, also several who've come and gone. But what matters is all of us are very dedicated to keeping the fleet alive because we all share common values on what a fleet should be.

We've managed a Tier 3 starbase, Tier 2 mine, Tier 2 embassy and Tier 1 spire. It does take time and it means as fleet leader, you're going to cough up a lot of dilithium and EC, unless as stated before you have a "Sugar Daddy".

But what a feeling of achievement! Most small fleets fold and we've beaten the odds and have a solid fleet.

So the biggest piece of advice I can give to you, is be as dedicated as you can, it's not easy but it's like restoring a classic car, it's a huge job, but if you plug away bit by bit, you'll get there in the end and feel great achievement.

captinwh0

Fantastic reading, good advice