I was shocked to learn that there are no protections for fleets. Our fleet leader/creator had his house burn down. Lost everything. Because he could not log in or reach anyone the game took his leadership away and gave it to a random ensign who then stole the fleet from us. Why Cryptic? Why? Most MMO's pass leadership to the next LEADER in line.
I ask for the community to put pressure on Cryptic to fix this for us all. How many people here care for their fleets? This random leadership reassignment needs to be fixed for the entire communities sake.
Am I right or wrong? Tell me what you think below.
P.S. We want our fleet back, what do you think Cryptic should do for us and our stolen fleet? How should they handle this?
I was asked to include the offenders handle. Is this allowed on this forum? After all, fixing this problem is far more important than doxing this individual, right?
First, i am saddened by your fleets leaders lost and i hope they quickly find their feet again after that sort of tragedy. Now, with that out of the way, im going to be blunt here.
The leadership system in STO only triggers after 30 days of inactivity by a rank 7 (Admiral) rank in the fleet. After these time period, a "claim leadership" button will show for rank 6 (Vice Admiral) ranks. Now it has been a extremely long time but i vaguely remember that the "claim leadership" will only show for rank 6's. After another set period of time the "claim" button will then show for lower ranks etc etc.
The leadership is never assigned, but is offered to those ranks. Whoever utilizes it is recognised by the system as the fleet leader.
The game never took leadership away, a set period passed and another member took up the mantle of leadership. The system was designed to prevent where possible and to a certain degree fleets being abandoned by leadership. To allow other members if they want to continue fleets to exist.
The system has been designed in a way to attempt to balance continued fleet participation, but to also try to encourage continued particpation by leaders, but also offer members a way forward if leadership is unable or unwilling to continue. The system is not perfect and Cryptic could never really design one that everyone would be happy with.
Again, the game never assigned leadership to a random player. Leadership was offered to the group and someone decided to utilize it, the fleet was never stolen. The game cannot understand or know of each individual players circumstances or real world issues/events.
Also, naming and shaming is against the TOS of the forums.
There is no problem to fix. A series of circumstances occured that has now changed the leadership of your fleet. Additionally, we only have your word, or your side of the story of what occurred.
This is the problem Cryptic has and why they stay out of internal fleet matters. Unless there is a bug in the system (There isnt one in this case) they cannot interfere with internal fleet politics. They would never be able to tell who (is anyone) is in the right or telling the truth.
I am a "CnC"of a STO Fleet myself. I have been for 9 years. I do not see any issues with the Fleet leadership system. I have a responsibility to my fleet that they graciously gave and offered me. So it is my duty to ensure my fleet continues and if I wish to leave STO, it is also my duty to ensure continued leadership for the fleet once i leave.
If I am unwilling to do that, or unable, Cryptic has ensured that it can offer my fleet a way to continue in my absence.
I was asked to include the offenders handle. Is this allowed on this forum? After all, fixing this problem is far more important than doxing this individual, right?
No.
Naming, shaming isn't allowed.
Try contacting support. Most of us here cannot help you. Pressuring isn't likely to help, and may not be necessary either if you contact them.
At best, the moderators might be able to communicate the issue to Cryptic.
Clearly we totally disagree. Our fleet has been stolen and the individual is TRIBBLE with us all. This is a very old fleet and we are extremely disappointed this could happen. You claim it was one of our admirals yet no one knows who this is. I.E A STRANGER stole our fleet. I guess what I am saying is I don't believe you when you say it had to be a fleet admiral to take control. Or are you saying this individual TRIBBLE your system?!? Either way, you do not have a line of succession like other MMO's and that is a big part of what I am saying.
P.S. You came off as if you were defending this mess. That shocks and sickens me.
You do realize loosing the computer and phone took our fleet leaders ability to tell anyone about it. No one knew. Besides the leadership position should have passed to one of the actual leaders "Fleet admiral".
The more I think about your response, the more it feels like your shaming the victim in this disaster; and thereby shaming all us us who have had no choices in this.
I probably would not be so pissed if this individual wasn't taunting us, holding control hostage, and constantly demoting individuals prevents us from running the fleet! You can't tell me this is in the best interests of the game's community.
I was asked to include the offenders handle. Is this allowed on this forum? After all, fixing this problem is far more important than doxing this individual, right?
No.
Naming, shaming isn't allowed.
Try contacting support. Most of us here cannot help you. Pressuring isn't likely to help, and may not be necessary either if you contact them.
At best, the moderators might be able to communicate the issue to Cryptic.
I already did, this is about informing the community of this horror. Had this been fixed, I would not be here.
I was asked to include the offenders handle. Is this allowed on this forum? After all, fixing this problem is far more important than doxing this individual, right?
No.
Naming, shaming isn't allowed.
Try contacting support. Most of us here cannot help you. Pressuring isn't likely to help, and may not be necessary either if you contact them.
At best, the moderators might be able to communicate the issue to Cryptic.
I already did, this is about informing the community of this horror. Had this been fixed, I would not be here.
How long ago did you contact them? What was their response?
How long ago did you contact them? What was their response?[/quote]
This is a reply to me. Others did this a month or more ago, so this is an old issue at this point. Note: I am just a fleet member and friend of the real fleet leader. I have had it with the harassment. I am sick and tired of every day hearing about this !@#$%^&* of a human. Logging into STO has turned into stress hell for me. I want the hell to end.
[Request Received]: 702524: Stole fleet
*e-mails redacted in this copy*
##- Please type your reply above this line -##
Hello gaming1ogre,
Your request (702524) has been received and is being reviewed by our support staff.
To add additional comments, reply to this email or login to the support site and update it there.
Nobody was defending anything, just saying how it is.
For all we know you were measuring up the curtains yourself and somebody got the job ahead of you.
Be prepared for the worst case, where you'll have to bolt and start over with another fleet.
Excrement happens I'm afraid. Nothing Cryptic can do as it'll be word against word.
Most of the story could be checked though.
It shouldn't be too difficult for Cryptic to verify whether it's true that their original leader hadn't logged on for the amount of time specified - and to reinstate that person as the leader, while undoing any recent promotions. Even if that person is still not able to log on right now. That alone would probably fix the whole issue for the time being, without any serious side effects.
If said person isn't able to log on, it may mean that the fleet is without effective leadership for a while - but that shouldn't be a serious problem. At least they don't risk losing their fleet itself that way.
Why not start over from scratch, your fleet knows who this person is, so convince everyone in the fleet to ditch them, take everything from the bank and rebuild from there, once the Original leader joins the New Fleet, promote him back to his position.
Hm, sounds like the typical response. I've had those from them.
I have no idea how many support staff they have, but a month seems like a long time. Especially if you haven't received any additional feedback after they sent that message.
It could be they're still working on it, but I have my doubts. Honestly, the only things I can think of that might work is trying to contact them again, ask a moderator to pass on your messages or contact @ambassadorkael#6946 directly yourself.
And if all of that doesn't work, then I'm afraid you'll have to negotiate with the person who stole your fleet. I don't know what his intentions are, but a fleet needs constant resupplying to be useful. The extra bank space can also be obtained by creating a new, empty fleet as well so I'm not sure what he's trying to achieve here.
Why not start over from scratch, your fleet knows who this person is, so convince everyone in the fleet to ditch them, take everything from the bank and rebuild from there, once the Original leader joins the New Fleet, promote him back to his position.
It took years to get to the point I could get fleet ships and gear. Either this is fixed or I move to another built up fleet. The things fleet gives you is necessary. Basically this means my social group is over.
Note: I am only expressing my personal opinions and do not represent others. I suspect some of them will fight to the death and never give up. Hence all the R/W stress in chat and coms.
Also, suggesting one just gives up rewards criminal activity. Are you even serious or are you trolling me?
Hm, sounds like the typical response. I've had those from them.
I have no idea how many support staff they have, but a month seems like a long time. Especially if you haven't received any additional feedback after they sent that message.
It could be they're still working on it, but I have my doubts. Honestly, the only things I can think of that might work is trying to contact them again, ask a moderator to pass on your messages or contact @ambassadorkael#6946 directly yourself.
And if all of that doesn't work, then I'm afraid you'll have to negotiate with the person who stole your fleet. I don't know what his intentions are, but a fleet needs constant resupplying to be useful. The extra bank space can also be obtained by creating a new, empty fleet as well so I'm not sure what he's trying to achieve here.[/quote]
Reply:
He seems to want to maximize the hate. If he really wanted the fleet, he would have just kicked everyone. Instead he leaves the promotion option available and just undoes everything every day. The misery is intentional and he has told several the reason is because he enjoys pissing off other people. I think his exact words were "I love messing with you people".
Hm, sounds like the typical response. I've had those from them.
I have no idea how many support staff they have, but a month seems like a long time. Especially if you haven't received any additional feedback after they sent that message.
It could be they're still working on it, but I have my doubts. Honestly, the only things I can think of that might work is trying to contact them again, ask a moderator to pass on your messages or contact @ambassadorkael#6946 directly yourself.
And if all of that doesn't work, then I'm afraid you'll have to negotiate with the person who stole your fleet. I don't know what his intentions are, but a fleet needs constant resupplying to be useful. The extra bank space can also be obtained by creating a new, empty fleet as well so I'm not sure what he's trying to achieve here.
Reply:
He seems to want to maximize the hate. If he really wanted the fleet, he would have just kicked everyone. Instead he leaves the promotion option available and just undoes everything every day. The misery is intentional and he has told several the reason is because he enjoys pissing off other people. I think his exact words were "I love messing with you people".[/quote]
Well at least you have plenty of evidence that he's trolling then. Save it, document everything.
After that, report him for every bit of trolling. They have to do something with it if they receive enough reports.
The original post should be edited since it is inflammatory and 90% incorrect.
The fleet was abandoned by the rank 7 and 6 leadership for more than 30 days, only then did another fleet member "steal" it.
Moral: if you care about the fleet you run, log in once a month or pass leadership to someone you trust who does log in more often.
That said, even though it is the leadership's mistake I hope Cryptic will choose to intervene if what OP says about the "thief" is correct. Cryptic normally stays out of fleet disputes because members run their own fleets and set all of the policies except what happens when leadership doesn't show up for a month.
Where do I look for this alleged "claim leadership" button?
It's not alleged but will appear under certain circumstances per what's being talked about above - fleet leader(s) rank 7 is absent for >30 days. It should appear on the fleet roster page if available.
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,577Community Moderator
Just a heads up, both naming and shaming, as well as posting private correspondence, is not allowed on the forums.
As mentioned several times, the system was working as intended, and is designed to keep fleets from being locked up by leadership that is no longer there.
The fact you got a troll who eventually took over is unfortunate, but not the fault of Cryptic or anyone else. Just unfortunate timing on who saw the button first, and took advantage of it.
Also as mentioned above, internal fleet politics is generally a hands off thing for Cryptic. It would take something significant for Cryptic to actually get involved, such as mounting evidence of organized harassment against other players. I can only think of one instance Cryptic stepped in on a fleet. And that is accounting for... bout 10-11 years of me playing this game. And that was a CERTAIN fleet most of us veterans remember.
Unfortunately there may be little Cryptic can do without evidence. Fleets can try to protect against this by having more than one top rank member who is active, and multiple members just below them who are active. Essentially setting up a form of chain of command. That being said... unless the subject in question leaves on their own, or is banned for harassment, the only options may be to just rally the remaining fleet members and leave, forming a successor fleet without the guy or joining an existing one. And I hate to say it but... the subject may also be plundering the fleet bank as well, which would be something Cryptic cannot undo whatsoever.
So as mentioned above... either gather evidence of this guy's conduct and hope its enough to punish the guy, or ditch him and start over with the people you trust.
I'm sorry about what happened to your Fleet Leader. Real Life can pretty much break things quite effectively when it comes to gaming.
IIRC A gaming company could get into serious legal trouble if they tried to police things like what happened here without evidence and even if that's true it could be a major blow to their reliability should they make a ruling in such case and it came to light they in fact ruled in favor of the bully.
In 99% of the cases there simply isn't enough reliable information for a company to the risk of make a ruling either way, now I'm not accusing anyone of lying here but I'm pointing out that Cryptic (or any other company on the planet) has no way of knowing who is in the right and if the arguments put out are being truthful so it's more beneficial for them to stay out.
Especially since Cryptic (or Blizzard or Square-Enix or any other company running MMOs) has at most access to the chat logs from the in-game chat (and considering that even STO has thousands of players that a lot of lines to shift thru to find out things even if the company was willing to do so) and thus could be missing context due not having access to the "guild" forums, discord or what ever else they use to communicate outside of in-game chat.
By "ensign", are you referring to in-game rank, or positioning in your fleet? Because if some "random (fleet) ensign" were offered the leadership role, this would indicate that every single officer superior to this person had failed to assumed the leadership for months. Did *all* of them lose their computers in a fire?
By "ensign", are you referring to in-game rank, or positioning in your fleet? Because if some "random (fleet) ensign" were offered the leadership role, this would indicate that every single officer superior to this person had failed to assumed the leadership for months. Did *all* of them lose their computers in a fire?
We have in-fleet ranks. I didn't make the system, i only play in it. All I can say for sure is no one knows who this jerk is or how he even got into the fleet. No one remembers inviting them and no one has a clue how they got top rank and stole the fleet. No point in making another if we can just loose that as well.
I am wondering if this is the best cryptic has to offer, if I should just quit the game and move on. Seems like if this happens, it can happen again; so best to move on. Enough do that, game dies and room is made for a newer/better game. I am thinking if it were not for the name, this game would have been long dead otherwise.
IIRC A gaming company could get into serious legal trouble if they tried to police things like what happened here without evidence and even if that's true it could be a major blow to their reliability should they make a ruling in such case and it came to light they in fact ruled in favor of the bully.
In 99% of the cases there simply isn't enough reliable information for a company to the risk of make a ruling either way, now I'm not accusing anyone of lying here but I'm pointing out that Cryptic (or any other company on the planet) has no way of knowing who is in the right and if the arguments put out are being truthful so it's more beneficial for them to stay out.
Especially since Cryptic (or Blizzard or Square-Enix or any other company running MMOs) has at most access to the chat logs from the in-game chat (and considering that even STO has thousands of players that a lot of lines to shift thru to find out things even if the company was willing to do so) and thus could be missing context due not having access to the "guild" forums, discord or what ever else they use to communicate outside of in-game chat.
If they have access to the chat logs and still did nothing for us, then they deserve to loose players and go out of business. Your words help me see I am wasting time with this game, so if this is not fixed soon, i am leaving. Otherwise my compliance would show I approve of this nightmare. In other words, I feel I must quit over principle. Is there a third option?
All I can say for sure is no one knows who this jerk is or how he even got into the fleet. No one remembers inviting them and no one has a clue how they got top rank
Is it possible that the original fleet leader's account was compromised while their computer was down, and was used to add and promote the current leader?
As someone who has started fleets, guilds, and so forth in other games I certainly wouldn't want the game's developers getting involved in the fleet's internal issues. If the game is set up to allow senior officers to take over in a leader's absence then so be it. We had a similar situation in another game and we just removed the items in the warehouses that were important, sent emails out to everyone, and left starting a new fleet.
I am sorry for the OP's leader's financial loss however. Hopefully he has good homeowner's insurance.
RIP (2022) : Officer Wilbert Mota, Corporal Charles Galloway, Detective Jason Rivera, Officer Fernando
Arroyos, Officer John Painter, K9 Jedi, K9 Maya, Deputy Constable Neil Adams, Officer Jorge
David Alvarado, Sergeant Joshua Cordell, Trooper Martin Mack, Trooper Branden Sisca,
Lieutenant William Lebo
All I can say for sure is no one knows who this jerk is or how he even got into the fleet. No one remembers inviting them and no one has a clue how they got top rank
Is it possible that the original fleet leader's account was compromised while their computer was down, and was used to add and promote the current leader?
Either that or there were no other active top ranks (6 or 7) so it went directly to "first come, first served"
Neither of those is Cryptic's fault.
I've never heard of an in-game exploit that allowed truly "stealing" an active fleet, it hasn't been reported here since I joined the forums in 2014. 99% chance this was a user account ha (space) ck based on something like sharing the same user name and password with some other site, or there were no actively playing co-leaders or rank 6's.
By "ensign", are you referring to in-game rank, or positioning in your fleet? Because if some "random (fleet) ensign" were offered the leadership role, this would indicate that every single officer superior to this person had failed to assumed the leadership for months. Did *all* of them lose their computers in a fire?
We have in-fleet ranks. I didn't make the system, i only play in it. All I can say for sure is no one knows who this jerk is or how he even got into the fleet. No one remembers inviting them and no one has a clue how they got top rank and stole the fleet. No point in making another if we can just loose that as well.
I am wondering if this is the best cryptic has to offer, if I should just quit the game and move on. Seems like if this happens, it can happen again; so best to move on. Enough do that, game dies and room is made for a newer/better game. I am thinking if it were not for the name, this game would have been long dead otherwise.
Did your Fleet Leader not have any Vice Admirals sitting at Rank 6? Or none active? Because as was stated there is a tiered system in place to largely prevent just this sort of thing. This does not become possible until a lot of Fleet Officers have ignored it for a substantial period of time. I'm gonna guess no Tier 6 officer or none still playing. Everybody in the Fleet has invite privileges and the ability to promote up to full member? It sucks, but your fleets failure to utilize the tools available to secure itself does not make this a failing or a problem of Cryptic's. As you point out they have no way of determining anything about you vs the player that claimed the fleet when it went up for grabs. Everybody ignored the problem until the Fleet went free for all. They likely aren't communicating back with you because they've investigated or are investigating. Are communicating or have attempted communications with the Fleet officers, And you really aren't in a position of standing to be a party to any of this. Cryptic, and any MMO company will view what you are doing here as an attempt at a Fleet Theft far more than how they will view a Fleet transfer that happened via structured in game mechanics. It sucks to have Fleet Leadership change in this way. It sucks that the guy who clicked to take it over is apparently a jackass and a troll. But I kind of doubt there is a remedy for it.
Comments
The leadership system in STO only triggers after 30 days of inactivity by a rank 7 (Admiral) rank in the fleet. After these time period, a "claim leadership" button will show for rank 6 (Vice Admiral) ranks. Now it has been a extremely long time but i vaguely remember that the "claim leadership" will only show for rank 6's. After another set period of time the "claim" button will then show for lower ranks etc etc.
The leadership is never assigned, but is offered to those ranks. Whoever utilizes it is recognised by the system as the fleet leader.
The game never took leadership away, a set period passed and another member took up the mantle of leadership. The system was designed to prevent where possible and to a certain degree fleets being abandoned by leadership. To allow other members if they want to continue fleets to exist.
The system has been designed in a way to attempt to balance continued fleet participation, but to also try to encourage continued particpation by leaders, but also offer members a way forward if leadership is unable or unwilling to continue. The system is not perfect and Cryptic could never really design one that everyone would be happy with.
Again, the game never assigned leadership to a random player. Leadership was offered to the group and someone decided to utilize it, the fleet was never stolen. The game cannot understand or know of each individual players circumstances or real world issues/events.
Also, naming and shaming is against the TOS of the forums.
There is no problem to fix. A series of circumstances occured that has now changed the leadership of your fleet. Additionally, we only have your word, or your side of the story of what occurred.
This is the problem Cryptic has and why they stay out of internal fleet matters. Unless there is a bug in the system (There isnt one in this case) they cannot interfere with internal fleet politics. They would never be able to tell who (is anyone) is in the right or telling the truth.
I am a "CnC"of a STO Fleet myself. I have been for 9 years. I do not see any issues with the Fleet leadership system. I have a responsibility to my fleet that they graciously gave and offered me. So it is my duty to ensure my fleet continues and if I wish to leave STO, it is also my duty to ensure continued leadership for the fleet once i leave.
If I am unwilling to do that, or unable, Cryptic has ensured that it can offer my fleet a way to continue in my absence.
No.
Naming, shaming isn't allowed.
Try contacting support. Most of us here cannot help you. Pressuring isn't likely to help, and may not be necessary either if you contact them.
At best, the moderators might be able to communicate the issue to Cryptic.
P.S. You came off as if you were defending this mess. That shocks and sickens me.
The more I think about your response, the more it feels like your shaming the victim in this disaster; and thereby shaming all us us who have had no choices in this.
I probably would not be so pissed if this individual wasn't taunting us, holding control hostage, and constantly demoting individuals prevents us from running the fleet! You can't tell me this is in the best interests of the game's community.
I already did, this is about informing the community of this horror. Had this been fixed, I would not be here.
How long ago did you contact them? What was their response?
For all we know you were measuring up the curtains yourself and somebody got the job ahead of you.
Be prepared for the worst case, where you'll have to bolt and start over with another fleet.
Excrement happens I'm afraid. Nothing Cryptic can do as it'll be word against word.
This is a reply to me. Others did this a month or more ago, so this is an old issue at this point. Note: I am just a fleet member and friend of the real fleet leader. I have had it with the harassment. I am sick and tired of every day hearing about this !@#$%^&* of a human. Logging into STO has turned into stress hell for me. I want the hell to end.
[Request Received]: 702524: Stole fleet
*e-mails redacted in this copy*
##- Please type your reply above this line -##
Hello gaming1ogre,
Your request (702524) has been received and is being reviewed by our support staff.
To add additional comments, reply to this email or login to the support site and update it there.
Most of the story could be checked though.
It shouldn't be too difficult for Cryptic to verify whether it's true that their original leader hadn't logged on for the amount of time specified - and to reinstate that person as the leader, while undoing any recent promotions. Even if that person is still not able to log on right now. That alone would probably fix the whole issue for the time being, without any serious side effects.
If said person isn't able to log on, it may mean that the fleet is without effective leadership for a while - but that shouldn't be a serious problem. At least they don't risk losing their fleet itself that way.
This is a reply. Others did this a month or more ago, so this is an old issue at this point.
[Request Received]: 702524: Stole fleet
*e-mails redacted in this copy*
##- Please type your reply above this line -##
Hello gaming1ogre,
Your request (702524) has been received and is being reviewed by our support staff.
To add additional comments, reply to this email or login to the support site and update it there.[/quote]
______________________________________________________________
Hm, sounds like the typical response. I've had those from them.
I have no idea how many support staff they have, but a month seems like a long time. Especially if you haven't received any additional feedback after they sent that message.
It could be they're still working on it, but I have my doubts. Honestly, the only things I can think of that might work is trying to contact them again, ask a moderator to pass on your messages or contact @ambassadorkael#6946 directly yourself.
And if all of that doesn't work, then I'm afraid you'll have to negotiate with the person who stole your fleet. I don't know what his intentions are, but a fleet needs constant resupplying to be useful. The extra bank space can also be obtained by creating a new, empty fleet as well so I'm not sure what he's trying to achieve here.
It took years to get to the point I could get fleet ships and gear. Either this is fixed or I move to another built up fleet. The things fleet gives you is necessary. Basically this means my social group is over.
Note: I am only expressing my personal opinions and do not represent others. I suspect some of them will fight to the death and never give up. Hence all the R/W stress in chat and coms.
Also, suggesting one just gives up rewards criminal activity. Are you even serious or are you trolling me?
______________________________________________________________
Hm, sounds like the typical response. I've had those from them.
I have no idea how many support staff they have, but a month seems like a long time. Especially if you haven't received any additional feedback after they sent that message.
It could be they're still working on it, but I have my doubts. Honestly, the only things I can think of that might work is trying to contact them again, ask a moderator to pass on your messages or contact @ambassadorkael#6946 directly yourself.
And if all of that doesn't work, then I'm afraid you'll have to negotiate with the person who stole your fleet. I don't know what his intentions are, but a fleet needs constant resupplying to be useful. The extra bank space can also be obtained by creating a new, empty fleet as well so I'm not sure what he's trying to achieve here.[/quote]
Reply:
He seems to want to maximize the hate. If he really wanted the fleet, he would have just kicked everyone. Instead he leaves the promotion option available and just undoes everything every day. The misery is intentional and he has told several the reason is because he enjoys pissing off other people. I think his exact words were "I love messing with you people".
Reply:
He seems to want to maximize the hate. If he really wanted the fleet, he would have just kicked everyone. Instead he leaves the promotion option available and just undoes everything every day. The misery is intentional and he has told several the reason is because he enjoys pissing off other people. I think his exact words were "I love messing with you people".[/quote]
Well at least you have plenty of evidence that he's trolling then. Save it, document everything.
After that, report him for every bit of trolling. They have to do something with it if they receive enough reports.
The original post should be edited since it is inflammatory and 90% incorrect.
The fleet was abandoned by the rank 7 and 6 leadership for more than 30 days, only then did another fleet member "steal" it.
Moral: if you care about the fleet you run, log in once a month or pass leadership to someone you trust who does log in more often.
That said, even though it is the leadership's mistake I hope Cryptic will choose to intervene if what OP says about the "thief" is correct. Cryptic normally stays out of fleet disputes because members run their own fleets and set all of the policies except what happens when leadership doesn't show up for a month.
As mentioned several times, the system was working as intended, and is designed to keep fleets from being locked up by leadership that is no longer there.
The fact you got a troll who eventually took over is unfortunate, but not the fault of Cryptic or anyone else. Just unfortunate timing on who saw the button first, and took advantage of it.
Also as mentioned above, internal fleet politics is generally a hands off thing for Cryptic. It would take something significant for Cryptic to actually get involved, such as mounting evidence of organized harassment against other players. I can only think of one instance Cryptic stepped in on a fleet. And that is accounting for... bout 10-11 years of me playing this game. And that was a CERTAIN fleet most of us veterans remember.
Unfortunately there may be little Cryptic can do without evidence. Fleets can try to protect against this by having more than one top rank member who is active, and multiple members just below them who are active. Essentially setting up a form of chain of command. That being said... unless the subject in question leaves on their own, or is banned for harassment, the only options may be to just rally the remaining fleet members and leave, forming a successor fleet without the guy or joining an existing one. And I hate to say it but... the subject may also be plundering the fleet bank as well, which would be something Cryptic cannot undo whatsoever.
So as mentioned above... either gather evidence of this guy's conduct and hope its enough to punish the guy, or ditch him and start over with the people you trust.
I'm sorry about what happened to your Fleet Leader. Real Life can pretty much break things quite effectively when it comes to gaming.
In 99% of the cases there simply isn't enough reliable information for a company to the risk of make a ruling either way, now I'm not accusing anyone of lying here but I'm pointing out that Cryptic (or any other company on the planet) has no way of knowing who is in the right and if the arguments put out are being truthful so it's more beneficial for them to stay out.
Especially since Cryptic (or Blizzard or Square-Enix or any other company running MMOs) has at most access to the chat logs from the in-game chat (and considering that even STO has thousands of players that a lot of lines to shift thru to find out things even if the company was willing to do so) and thus could be missing context due not having access to the "guild" forums, discord or what ever else they use to communicate outside of in-game chat.
We have in-fleet ranks. I didn't make the system, i only play in it. All I can say for sure is no one knows who this jerk is or how he even got into the fleet. No one remembers inviting them and no one has a clue how they got top rank and stole the fleet. No point in making another if we can just loose that as well.
I am wondering if this is the best cryptic has to offer, if I should just quit the game and move on. Seems like if this happens, it can happen again; so best to move on. Enough do that, game dies and room is made for a newer/better game. I am thinking if it were not for the name, this game would have been long dead otherwise.
If they have access to the chat logs and still did nothing for us, then they deserve to loose players and go out of business. Your words help me see I am wasting time with this game, so if this is not fixed soon, i am leaving. Otherwise my compliance would show I approve of this nightmare. In other words, I feel I must quit over principle. Is there a third option?
Is it possible that the original fleet leader's account was compromised while their computer was down, and was used to add and promote the current leader?
I am sorry for the OP's leader's financial loss however. Hopefully he has good homeowner's insurance.
Arroyos, Officer John Painter, K9 Jedi, K9 Maya, Deputy Constable Neil Adams, Officer Jorge
David Alvarado, Sergeant Joshua Cordell, Trooper Martin Mack, Trooper Branden Sisca,
Lieutenant William Lebo
Either that or there were no other active top ranks (6 or 7) so it went directly to "first come, first served"
Neither of those is Cryptic's fault.
I've never heard of an in-game exploit that allowed truly "stealing" an active fleet, it hasn't been reported here since I joined the forums in 2014. 99% chance this was a user account ha (space) ck based on something like sharing the same user name and password with some other site, or there were no actively playing co-leaders or rank 6's.