So, I am a fleet leader, and I believe very strongly that fleets can add a lot to the game for players. But it's important that players find the fleet that is right for them. Currently that's very difficult, because fleets only really have two ways to recruit - spamming zone chat, or bumping a thread on these forums every few hours and hoping it gets noticed. Not only are both of those not really very helfpul to someone who's trying to find a fleet with a specifc focus or aspect to how they play, but they kinda suck for those of us running fleets too.
I would like to propose a new component to the social interface in-game that helps make it easier for fleets to recruit, and for players to find the fleets that are ultimately right for them.
Here is how it would work:
Fleet leaders (or delegated officers) can enter recruiting information for their fleet. Information is the following:
- Time Zones that the fleet is active iin by continent/region (US Eastern, US Pacific, Western Europe, Asia, Oceanic, etc)
- Level requirements (if any) to join the fleet
- Type of fleet. This should be a list of checkboxes that can be selected. Examples might be: PvP-focused, PvE-focused, voice chat required, roleplay-encouraged, roleplay-required, and so on. For some ideas based on what people are posting on the forums, see this thread:
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=115661
- A short text blurb (limit to maybe 255 characters) about the fleet. This can include a website link if the fleet hsa one.
Fleet leaders should have the ability to turn recruiting on or off for their fleet. This would enable or disable the above information.
In the social panel, add a new tab called Fleet Recruiting. Anyone can view this tab to see a filtered list of fleets that are recruiting and pull up more information about that fleet.
Players can choose to see all fleets, or they can filter based on one or more of the items that fleet leaders can put in. So for example, they might choose to see only PvP-focused fleets that are actively recruiting.
From the filtered list, players should be able to click on the fleet name and get more info - this would show all the recruiting info and the fleet description that the fleet leader has entered.
This isn't a trivial project but I think it would be a big help to players and fleets, both now and in the future as more group-oriented content, pvp metagames or fleet-level features (like fleet starbases, etc) are added.
Also since I"m posting this, at the same time I'd like to ask for the ability to send a fleetwide mail as a fleet leader/officer. Please!
Comments
It works for boffs... and from a certain point of view our Captains are boffs too.
Actually, now that I think about it, a fleet roster that's inspired by the Assignments tab has certain... possibilities.
I attempted myself on creating a website tool for this use, but this depends heavily on the recruiters of the fleet a) finding my website, and b) fleet applicants finding my website.
The example I build can be found in my signature.
Kind regards,
Roger