That's certainly very true what you said, but I'd argue so is the opposite. If the Mandos or Sith or High Republic came to my little corner of Imperial space and decided to conquer every planet around me, there's not a thing I could do about it, Sure, I could maybe offer some opposition in RP if they allowed it, but again there's no way I could prevent them from taking over, unless I'm misunderstanding how dominions or populates work. At least this way, people would have an option to properly defend their territory, even if they'd probably end of losing.
But that's just my two cents on the matter, and like I said, I'm myself working on going major. I've got 16 players in my faction atm, and I'm still having activity trouble. At least, in regards for major levels of activity I suppose. But I'll get there
From my understanding, even if a major faction does take over the planet you can still write on that planet. But don't be surprised if the major faction joins in because it is in their territory or they can choose to ignore what's going on that planet if things are being handled poorly. Such as failure to communicate or being negative/toxic.
I'm sure everyone on the site knows this, but it's always a good reminder: Chaos is all about collaboration, cooperation, and story telling.
If it were me, and there were these set planets that I would want when going major, then I'd reach out to the other major faction and be like "hey, we're interested in going major and would like these planets. Is it possible we can work something out?" and that in itself can be a fun political or build up of a battle story to lean into. Mind you, there's other ways too: such as how the GE decided to pop up in the middle of the GA space cause they wanted those specific hexes. (There is a mandate for that, "The Rebellion" ) So there are options if you are dead set on those hexs.
I believe you pointed out what needs to be worked on your end for going major, and its like you said, the next step is figuring out how to solve it. Keep in mind, sometimes quantity doesn't = quality. From my memory, I do believe one of the big things for submitting threads to be judged, be it in major factions or apply is: "Is there a completed story?" and does the number of those who checked in are participating. Life happens and so you're not going to have consistently 16 active writers, hence the 5 active writers for major applications.
My anecdotal considerations that might help you are:
- Can you and your four friends make 60 - 80 posts in a month?
- Can you do it without being propped up by another community?
- Can you do it without one person spamming alts to make a thread look more active than it is?
Aether put it in the best simplest terms.
I suggest reaching out to your writers and see what stories they'd like to explore and would be more active to write in. To me, story plays a huge part of the community as a whole. Be it a singular character's story or the direction of the major faction story. With that in mind, I do believe you're headed in the right direction. Keep your head up and there's no rush. Remember its a marathon, not a race!
~additionally~
Also on the minor hex's, that's just a lot more maintenance work for staff and that minor faction. Because what if those writers took an loa or just stopped writing. There would have to be constant activity checks to make sure they just aren't cluttering the map game. And the constant checking/regulating to see the writers just don't make a bunch of IC characters and put into minor factions for hexes. That's too many added rules tbh
