Lower Major Faction Minimum Player Requirement

[Zef Halo]

Hey, Tef. [member="Gray Raxis"] was suggesting we lower the major faction minimum player requirement.

I am just helping him out find the suggestion subforum.

My opinion? Yeah. Smaller, tight knit groups are capable of doing more than a larger group where most are actually filling.

#DropTheNumber

#BringBackTheFive

 

[thegreatbeyonder]

Concur. Bring it back to five!

 

[Jorus Merrill]

I dream of a map full of twenty squabbling little major factions all up in each other's business. I too support this idea.

 

[Darth Metus]

Five is the magic number.

It'll encourage diverse ideas, rather than "what can I do to attract enough members to get to/stay major?"

And can you imagine all the legit majors that would crop up from successful Rebellions?

All my yes.

 

[Tanomas Graf]

You know...Instead of giving some biased opinion and reason why we should keep it at the current number, I'm going to give a truthful and friendly response.

Chaos needs more major factions, that is a fact. Think of it in ecological terms, the 'death rate' of Major Factions is higher than the 'birth rate', therefore I believe it would be apt for us to loosen restrictions. Tefka is right, Chaos takes too much time, too much time worrying about 'what do I need to morph my creative idea into to attract members', or 'how do I keep members', we just want to have fun.

I say we do it.

 

[Kenrath]

I am good either way.

Lower it to 5 or keep it whatever it is.

 

[John Ash]

[member="Vitor Avendahl"]

Thanks Zef. I was interested in this because having to have 8 writers seemed like too many to me to just get a major faction going. It is easy to get those numbers at first but you quickly lose several people after going major. You can lose 3 people and be left with 5 and still keep a faction active. A dominion only requires 5 writers to be completed and it is still a respectable number of people. With 5 instead of 8 you can keep a major faction going with activity so it is silly to penalize them for not having 8 active ones.

Another thing is that this would also promote more, smaller major factions to all spring up around each other on the map. This would foster more interactions between major factions that goes beyond just invasions/skirmishes/raids. You will be more likely to see alliances begin to foster amongst the new factions as they attempt to find new ways to survive with less territory available. It would also encourage more invasions as well which is not bad either. With less open territory they will have to invade to expand after all.

It would also allow for more niche factions to arise. Factions such as criminal organizations, large scale companies, orders and organizations dedicated to things other than combat, and even coalitions/confederacies/federation/etc of local sectors seeking to finally legitimize themselves instead of being forced to be played hot potato with by the larger more militaristic factions. This could allow for a wider diversity of factions as well as a wider diversity of faction interactions as a result.

Anyways that is just my opinion on the matter being the owner of a minor faction aiming for major that is looking to fill more of a niche role. It would really help groups like mine out in getting started.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Why stop at lowering the count?

Major Faction tiers. Nothing crazy of course, but on the world map there are major players (usa, russia, china) and the lesser known countries (there's a list). Make it so minor factions can be part of the map, defend their territories, but never really expand. If a big bad major comes knocking, they can fight back, perhaps with the assistance of another major faction. It would be a neat dynamic.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

I think it's fine as is.

 

[NightSister]

I mean, seven is hardly very many, but five is good too. I'm down.

 

[Soeht]

It used to be 5.

It was raised to 8 since the Major Faction system was introduced.

The only reason for this, I believe, was to limit the workload for editing the Map.

Unless it's changed, the map is a massive .PSD file that eats up a lot of memory and thus is sluggish. If this is still true, I suggest doing this:

• Convert the background - the base image and planet layers - into one Smart Object (.psb). The Smart Object will be automatically imported into the .PSD as a flat layer, yet it's still editable in the .PSB if new planets need to added.
• Due to how little they're edited, even the Faction legends could be converted into its own Smart Object as well.
• The .PSD is then used just to color new map territory. The .PSD could even be reduced to the size the site uses while the .PSB Smart Objects retain the original, super-hi-res galaxy image.

The memory usage and sluggishness of the map in Photoshop should be significantly reduced at this point.

 

[Lief]

Yes. Please.

 

[Soeht]

[member="Cira"], I have a gift for you! Granted, I haven't seen the Map.psd in 3 years, so yall may already do this. But ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://a.pomf.cat/pjxenz.rar

Should download a .RAR titled pjxenz and contain 5 files.

On my computer, it reduced the memory usage of the Map.psd from 3,500 MB to 350 MB. It demonstrates what I was talking about in my above post in addition to hex brushes. There's a read-me that explains more.

Combine this with someone who's job is just to edit the map, and Map updates could be faster and easily contain sweeping changes each time. You're already pulling double duty at the least, it seems, with the Factory and Map. An Admin is only necessary to add a new Map Article. Plus, it further specializes Staff positions - which is something that benefits organizations if managed properly.

 

[Relina Zhan]

I'm agreeable to this. 5 is attainable for most serious factions. Sounds good to me.

 

[John Ash]

[member="Relina Zhan"]

Honestly it is groups such as Hapes that would benefit most from this change. Many canon systems that have a lot of lore behind them have groups of roughly 5 people in them here on chaos. They are active as well and have an investment in keeping their systems in their own hands. So with that in mind it seems silly to block them, especially since many have influence, from going major just because they are more niche. Another prime example of this would be Commenor. They are very active and have at the very least 5 active writers with a dedicated faction owner in [member="Lady Kay"] and do not want to have some outside major faction coming in and just handwaving all they have built up away. They would be able to go major and maintain it if the limit was dropped down to 5 easily.

There are plenty more examples of this around the board as well. The Firemanes are another off the top of my head. So I could easily mention 3 groups that could easily go major if the number was only 5 instead of 8 and stay active after. There is nothing but benefits for the community by doing this.

 

[Kamon Vondiranach]

I always thought five was a good number back in the day.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Thanks for the endorsement [member="John Ash"] . It's appreciated

Whichever number is required, we'll make it work when the time comes.

 

[TB-705]

I would like to see 5 too.

 

[Tefka]

We're listening intently.

But Soeht raises a good point, I will focus on making the map much easier to maintain before any changes are discussed by Staff.

 

[Relina Zhan]

[member="John Ash"]

You pretty much described my own feelings on the matter. Thing is, the activity of our members, while we technically have accrued many, is questionable. I, personally, encourage people to actively play members of the Hapes Consortium in the interests of keeping the iconic faction relevant. While there are those who have reservation against going major, it would be in our best interests at the end of the day. It isn't my call to make it major, but the ability to do so in an attainable and maintainable manner should certainly be allowed for niche factions like Hapes, the Tapani, Commenor, and what have you.

Come on... who doesn't like a good intrigue story or good ol' Naval combat?