The concept of fleets being "owned" by someone is a problem in and of itself.
And that's why many players are reluctant to invest in holdings.
I have heard this before and never really understood it.
People act like you donate your resources to a fleet and get nothing in return. You get fleet credit that you use to buy gear, and fleets have some good stuff that's worth buying. In the event that your leadership pulls a 'd*&k move' and kicks you, you keep any gear you acquired and you keep your fleet credits that you can spend in your next fleet.
Honestly, the problems people have mostly only exist from making the mistake of joining a random fleet because someone sent an invite out of the blue. Personally, I put a little more effort into the decision of which fleet to join and I have absolutely no hesitation in making contributions. Doing so builds up holdings and gives me access to better items, plus it's nice to work with others toward an actual goal.
The system only fails when you join garbage fleets that spam random people with invites. Only trash fleets do that and you kind of get what you deserve when you just join random spam fleets.
I joined, and eventually left a number of Fleets by accepting random invites. In 2 cases only do I have still have toons in a Fleet I joined due to a random invite. One, just because I've been too lazy to bother changing Fleets on a toon I don't play very often anymore, the other because it is a good and active Fleet. In the case of the second, it wasn't exactly random, I teamed with someone so we could both speed through the wasteland, afterwards she invited me to join her Fleet, I did and I haven't regretted it. that's two cases out of at least 25 In my experience, all of the others were exactly as Sea stated, random Fleet invites generally come from garbage fleets.
Back on topic, one fleet I joined because someone asked for help starting a Fleet. I used one of my box opening toons and just to stop all the random Fleet invites every time I was on that toon, I stuck around. Just to help out, I threw a few million into the Fleet bank and every now and then I would toss some semi-good stuff in there for others to have. I quit doing that when I saw that every good item I put in was promptly moved to the Fleet Admiral only bank tab, along with anything else half way decent that anyone donated. People came and went with the Fleet leaders being at the bottom of the list of contributions in all holdings and never promoting anyone even though some had made very large contributions. Holdings were growing, bank tabs were filling with good stuff and no one other than me and the Fleet leaders having access to anything. then it happened, the Fleet leaders quit logging in...at all. I popped in one day and here;s a pop up about Fleet leaders being MIA and asking me if I wanted to promote myself to Fleet leader. So, I did. I promptly promoted everyone based on thier contributions, opened up Fleet stores and bank tabs, promoted two people who had also been there for a long, long time to Fleet leaders, sent a Fleet message to everyone about their promotions and now having access to stores and banks, and then left the Fleet because I had no wish to run a Fleet and no longer needed to be in someone's Fleet to stop random invites as I now had my own solo Fleet for storage.
I could have kicked the old Fleet leaders to prevent them from coming back and taking over again but that would have been petty and served no purpose other than being petty. The system worked. Instead of the Fleet being stagnated and dead due to absent Fleet leaders, someone else, me, was allowed to take over and save the Fleet. The fact that I didn't stick around makes no difference. While that Fleet might or might not be alive and thriving now it most certainly would have been dead without the current system in place.
Punishing someone for not logging in for X amount of time would serve no purpose whatsoever. They got "punished" by losing control of the Fleet to begin with. The remaining Fleet members, specifically the new fleet leaders can make the decision as to whether or not to give them back control is/when they return. As it is something that affects only the members of that Fleet, it is a decision that is, and should be, left to the members of that Fleet, not the devs and definitely not other players that are not in that Fleet.
^This, sometimes real life prevents you from logging in, and also some fleet leaders have donated more than the entire fleet combined even when they have been gone for long periods. Leaders are able to demote leaders, so what is the point of automatic demotion? Seems like a feature of people who didn't make plans for people leaving for long periods.
A full month though? If this is a planned absence, then appoint a new leader while gone.
^This, sometimes real life prevents you from logging in, and also some fleet leaders have donated more than the entire fleet combined even when they have been gone for long periods. Leaders are able to demote leaders, so what is the point of automatic demotion? Seems like a feature of people who didn't make plans for people leaving for long periods.
A full month though? If this is a planned absence, then appoint a new leader while gone.
This is something I have always done in any game, however I never wait for a "planned absence". As soon as I find someone I think I can trust, that is agreeable to it, I promote co-leaders, at least one, usually 2-3. RL matters that can prevent someone from playing aren't always planned and can happen with absolutely no warning, having a trust worthy co-leader insures continuity of functions that require a leaders input.
STOs Fleet setup makes it even easier to insure continuity as any Fleet rank can be authorized to do pretty much anything. If you can't find someone trustworthy enough to be a co-leader, you can still give one, or more, people the authority to do everything but not give them the ability to promote/demote Fleet leadership or disband the fleet.
However, that doesn't always hapeen. Fleet leaders, for whatever eason, don't always promote a co-leader, they don't always have one or more others who can do all Fleet functions in thier absence, and then it happens. For whatever reason they don't log on and play, the Fleet stagnates as projects don't get slotted etc, then the Fleet starts dying. Eventually, the only ones left are the Fleet leader and the other Fleet members who never log on and play because the active players have all left and found an active Fleet.
This is STO, the Fleet does not have to stagnate and die because of this great game mechanic that allows for someone who is still active to take over and keep the Fleet going.
To me, this is one of those cases of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
Comments
I joined, and eventually left a number of Fleets by accepting random invites. In 2 cases only do I have still have toons in a Fleet I joined due to a random invite. One, just because I've been too lazy to bother changing Fleets on a toon I don't play very often anymore, the other because it is a good and active Fleet. In the case of the second, it wasn't exactly random, I teamed with someone so we could both speed through the wasteland, afterwards she invited me to join her Fleet, I did and I haven't regretted it. that's two cases out of at least 25 In my experience, all of the others were exactly as Sea stated, random Fleet invites generally come from garbage fleets.
Back on topic, one fleet I joined because someone asked for help starting a Fleet. I used one of my box opening toons and just to stop all the random Fleet invites every time I was on that toon, I stuck around. Just to help out, I threw a few million into the Fleet bank and every now and then I would toss some semi-good stuff in there for others to have. I quit doing that when I saw that every good item I put in was promptly moved to the Fleet Admiral only bank tab, along with anything else half way decent that anyone donated. People came and went with the Fleet leaders being at the bottom of the list of contributions in all holdings and never promoting anyone even though some had made very large contributions. Holdings were growing, bank tabs were filling with good stuff and no one other than me and the Fleet leaders having access to anything. then it happened, the Fleet leaders quit logging in...at all. I popped in one day and here;s a pop up about Fleet leaders being MIA and asking me if I wanted to promote myself to Fleet leader. So, I did. I promptly promoted everyone based on thier contributions, opened up Fleet stores and bank tabs, promoted two people who had also been there for a long, long time to Fleet leaders, sent a Fleet message to everyone about their promotions and now having access to stores and banks, and then left the Fleet because I had no wish to run a Fleet and no longer needed to be in someone's Fleet to stop random invites as I now had my own solo Fleet for storage.
I could have kicked the old Fleet leaders to prevent them from coming back and taking over again but that would have been petty and served no purpose other than being petty. The system worked. Instead of the Fleet being stagnated and dead due to absent Fleet leaders, someone else, me, was allowed to take over and save the Fleet. The fact that I didn't stick around makes no difference. While that Fleet might or might not be alive and thriving now it most certainly would have been dead without the current system in place.
Punishing someone for not logging in for X amount of time would serve no purpose whatsoever. They got "punished" by losing control of the Fleet to begin with. The remaining Fleet members, specifically the new fleet leaders can make the decision as to whether or not to give them back control is/when they return. As it is something that affects only the members of that Fleet, it is a decision that is, and should be, left to the members of that Fleet, not the devs and definitely not other players that are not in that Fleet.
My character Tsin'xing
This is something I have always done in any game, however I never wait for a "planned absence". As soon as I find someone I think I can trust, that is agreeable to it, I promote co-leaders, at least one, usually 2-3. RL matters that can prevent someone from playing aren't always planned and can happen with absolutely no warning, having a trust worthy co-leader insures continuity of functions that require a leaders input.
STOs Fleet setup makes it even easier to insure continuity as any Fleet rank can be authorized to do pretty much anything. If you can't find someone trustworthy enough to be a co-leader, you can still give one, or more, people the authority to do everything but not give them the ability to promote/demote Fleet leadership or disband the fleet.
However, that doesn't always hapeen. Fleet leaders, for whatever eason, don't always promote a co-leader, they don't always have one or more others who can do all Fleet functions in thier absence, and then it happens. For whatever reason they don't log on and play, the Fleet stagnates as projects don't get slotted etc, then the Fleet starts dying. Eventually, the only ones left are the Fleet leader and the other Fleet members who never log on and play because the active players have all left and found an active Fleet.
This is STO, the Fleet does not have to stagnate and die because of this great game mechanic that allows for someone who is still active to take over and keep the Fleet going.
To me, this is one of those cases of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"