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Fleet Armada System short-changes smaller fleets
calidhris
Member Posts: 35 Arc User
The fleet Armada system as it has been announced in the patch notes short-changes smaller fleets because of how the bonuses inside an armada are applied.
If one fleet is the leader and others are subordinate to the main fleet that helps with organisation purposes so I can definitely see why that was implemented.
However, if the so-called beta and gamma fleets get less of a bonus from being in the alliance all that will do is make players want to leave the beta and gamma fleets and join the alpha fleet, not necessarily because it is larger or has had more progress with its projects (sometimes being in a smaller fleet which actually gives you something to contribute to is beneficial) but simply because the bonuses they are receiving are larger by the design of the system.
All fleets in a given alliance should benefit equally from what that alliance has to offer. That would encourage a better distribution of players amongst the different fleets because they would all be keen to level up the different fleets to increase the overall benefits, benefits which everyone would be able to share equally depending on how much effort an individual has put into the projects (as measured by lifetime fleet credit).
The way I understand it as having been set up just now will practically be a death sentence to smaller fleets and it will make it nearly impossible for newly created fleets to even get off the ground, as players will have little to no incentive being in a smaller fleet.
Is the intention to have only huge fleets with all holdings maxed out and only expensive provisioning projects running plus a set of ghost-fleets in the alliance which have all but been abandoned except for their presense to help accumulating bonus points for the one leader fleet that was able to claim alpha? If so, well done. If not, please rework this.
If one fleet is the leader and others are subordinate to the main fleet that helps with organisation purposes so I can definitely see why that was implemented.
However, if the so-called beta and gamma fleets get less of a bonus from being in the alliance all that will do is make players want to leave the beta and gamma fleets and join the alpha fleet, not necessarily because it is larger or has had more progress with its projects (sometimes being in a smaller fleet which actually gives you something to contribute to is beneficial) but simply because the bonuses they are receiving are larger by the design of the system.
All fleets in a given alliance should benefit equally from what that alliance has to offer. That would encourage a better distribution of players amongst the different fleets because they would all be keen to level up the different fleets to increase the overall benefits, benefits which everyone would be able to share equally depending on how much effort an individual has put into the projects (as measured by lifetime fleet credit).
The way I understand it as having been set up just now will practically be a death sentence to smaller fleets and it will make it nearly impossible for newly created fleets to even get off the ground, as players will have little to no incentive being in a smaller fleet.
Is the intention to have only huge fleets with all holdings maxed out and only expensive provisioning projects running plus a set of ghost-fleets in the alliance which have all but been abandoned except for their presense to help accumulating bonus points for the one leader fleet that was able to claim alpha? If so, well done. If not, please rework this.
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i think op has it sussed out perfectly.
the dil bonus is awarded to the fleet, while the xp bonus is awarded to the player. thus there is little incentive to remain in the gamma fleet when one can instead move to the alpha, get the xp bonus, and continue donating to the gamma from there while also enjoying the dil bonus.
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My conclusion is that it would be better for everybody concerned (except maybe for those who find a way to exploit the system, as is inevitably the case) if all fleets in an alliance got the same bonuses.
I do like the fact that it is possible to donate to other fleets in the alliance. That way, if one fleet is short of one thing and has another in abundance it will help.
However, it's always the dilithium it comes down to. There is never enough of it.
Now, it's extremely easy to earn dilithium ore these days, as compared to how much work you had to in order to obtain it before the reputation system came out (and was expanded by so many subsets with so many daily mark bonuses awarded etc.). However, more dilithium sinks were added to the game as well and fleets are suffering most from that.
This system benefits players with dozens of character because they can achieve the daily refinement limits on several with the same amount of effort it took them before to have just one or two characters per day hit it. It makes it even harder than before on what you'd term 'casual players'.
I don't know whether it's the casual players or the powergamers that earn the developers more money, since that's going to be the group which will be primarily catered to. Some balance, as the Deferi might say, would be nice to see, however.
If the aim of the fleet armada system is to build a community and to make it easier for players to cooperate in larger groups there needs to be a means of keeping it fair so that every player will have the same incentive to participate fully in their given role (i.e. as a member of an alpha, beta or gamma fleet).
A better description would be 'open to abuse'. Not every big fleet will want to lord it over the newer/smaller guys. My fleet certainly doesn't. The way we look at it they're helping us get extra XP and we're helping them get to our level. I expect there'll be a lot of movement in and out of Armadas to begin with, as fleets discover who can be trusted and who can't. It's an agreement to help each other out, not to surrender your fleet's identity to the whims of others.
Fleet Staff Officer - Sigma Task Group
I will agree with you a bit, but the fleet has the ability to decide or not to join a armada. Cryptic put in the option to auto-decline armada invites. As the sole fleet leader of my fleet, I still asked my fleetmates if they wanted to join an armada, the answer I got was, "meh, we don't care". I based the value of joining an armada more so on the access of projects to donate to higher than any type of bonuses we would receive. It has now been 4 days since we have been in a armada that is completely full, no drama, no fuss, no BS.
The expectations from the alpha fleet were clear before we joined, they wanted max holding T5 fleets as Betas (which my fleet is), my fleetmates had the option to participate in STFs, other fleet events, no requirements to do so. They offered member slots for my fleetmates alts to take advantage of the XP bonus in the Alpha fleet. Their isn't a requirement to talk in the armada channel!
Now I will say this, I have seen lots of recruiting messages for armadas in zone. Some armadas have rules, some don't. I saw one person argue that only T5 max holding fleets can be alphas, no where in the information provided by Cryptic does it breakdown where which size fleets go where. My fleet has 8 members, but we donate at a higher rate than most 500 person fleets, but that does not stop armadas looking for gamma fleets with active fleets with members in the 200 or more.
The power to join an armada rest solely with the fleet leaders, it is as simple as that.
For the leadership who's gonna "sink or swim" with the fleet in question, yeah, your statement(s) are 100% true. I, for example, leader of my tiny little "family" fleet, am 100% content to be a "gamma" fleet. I'm also not going to join an armada with a "petty dictator" that wants to "command" my fleet, I'll join one that's content to keep me around as a donation option with the beneficial fleet levels to boost the entire operation with...
For the rank and file, what the gang above says is true. Outside of having the same fleet tag as me and thusly being able to interact with me via the fleet chat channel, what "real benefit" does my son have for sticking with me in the family's gamma fleet if he gets an invite to the Alpha? I mean, his contributions to "my" fleet count the same (dil bonus and all) whether he's "paying" from a gamma or an alpha, but the XP bonus is a lot better in Alpha than Gamma...
Perhaps a stunt like "gamma fleet players earn "fleet dilithium vouchers" for all their dilithium earning activities at the same rate of the fleet's dilithium discount" (so if I earn 1k dil and my gamma's got a 5% armada dil discount, I earn 50 FDVs to sink into the fleet system) is in order, to give the rank and file players "options" as what level of fleet to be in.
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