Clan Management and Award system

one suggestion and question

I am not sure how it works but when i look at the global server and clan rankings, it seems that information was updated even before i joined CF Now more than 8 months ago....

even the listing on swat portal shows very old information, so it's not nice to see that , work your ass off to upgrade the stats, and then still see old stuff ...

even on http://www.crossfire.swat-portal.com/ the clan rakings seems to consist of old data from about 1 year ago

Better or more accurate stats would also inspire people to do things ....

kind regards

EDIT

Statistics from Global Ranking - Look at the last update date below

Server Name: 24-7Crossfire
IP Address: connect87.106.211.192
Official Title: 24/7 SWAT Crossfire
Server Mods: none
Client Mods: Crossfire

Num Players: Total 2,629 | Indexed 944 | Active 155

FLstat Status: stale (FLstats not up-to-date)
FLstat Version: v1.4
FLstat Options: -pos -active 48
Last Updated: Sun Oct 31 2010

As Riebens mentioned stats are really old (most of my characters do not appear), even though on the clan global ranking it says
updated (daily lol) on 16th April 2011? (data is much older than this however).

I recall there was once a discussion about awarding "medals" or special "status" for top players in a wide range of categories
(so everyone would be able to find a personal challenge to his taste)?

Personally, seeing the list of players with 2 billions credits, presented as top players, does not excite me much nor incite me to
compete for this... Although I have blast trying to compete for NPC kills ranks, and some days when numbers are tied, oddly I find
more people in Outer Dyson Sphere
(by the way, CF stats currently under work? it has changed and I can't see those filters anymore)

somebody has a weird sense of humour ( colours)

http://www.bg.swat-portal.de/flstatc.php

I agree.... money and pvp kills are not the only norms for rankings ....

Systems / bases visited / time online , etc ....

Kind Regards

While the global clan rankings are out of date and such....I was under the impression that mainly npc kill counts lead to most of the ranking system? Not sure if I missed something there....but whats the point of just killing a bazillion npcs?....I thought playing MP was to play with other (human?) pilots.

Edit, Perhaps LP exists "only to exist".....I'm not really sure about that.....although I guess there are simple remedies if that is the case. Personally, I try and control ALL systems that I'm involved in gameplay....respecting of course other clans home systems

What would be nice ... but I know it's impossible at this late stage in cf1.9 ...

Have a HUGE cargo transport that can only dock at 1 - 3 places in each sector ... and then the cargo has to be transferred from a station to the ship with smaller ships ... and also unloaded the same way - Forces clan cooperation

Have a method of communication between pilots in the game and members ourside the game ... ( I am sure something can be done with flhook) so that clans can communicate with their members while they are on missions and we do not have to alt-tab out of the game to go to the website to interact.

Have a special base for each clan's homebase. This base can receive cargo from a ship and RETAIN the cargo unloaded so that the same player or another player can pick up the cargo again ... This will also help with the 'reputation trading' ... as well as allow single players to transfer cargo between ships when switching .....

Kind Regards

EDIT

Getting back to the freelancer server stats

http://www.flserver.de/topservers.htm Cf == 4'th

da.......I don't have a claaaan!!!!!!!! HA HA HAAAAA

Ok guys, i personally would care less about the stats. Thats what we were for here. I does say what about you, your RP, your time on the server? Probably that you spend a lot of time playing a game, getting known to the physics of each ship, know to kill npcs. What does this reflect to? Whatever its just stats - and i would care less about that. It achieves nothing than useless competition thats not worth the effort. IMO.

As what could clans do. I am not really sure. Clans are imo just there to exsist and to actually try to keep the RP running on this server. However there was less we have payed them back - besides all the financial aspects to keep the server running and their part in this what else could they do? Having them here on the forum isnt really what is attractive for them - for what? To have more flames and quarrels? That didnt worked quite well in the past. Clans have their own databases, their own awards - what would drive them to visit the forum or CF page? Dunno i dont see any motivatives for them. So yes this needs a change. Maybe we could have this by giving out own awards that are comparable with each clan or freelancer - because they are SWAT driven and not each clan for its own. That would attract those who do something for the stats.

We need to have valuable benefits for the clans for their effort on the server - financial (in game) money as well as we have to take away a lot if there are failures. Such that doing well is more attractive than to do bad ;O
Maybe special items for clans if they have reached a specific aim. Maybe that would attract newbies to join clans to also get advantage of this.

Currently i think you have no benefits joining a clan or not doing so. The ASF/CSF roleplay is not held open and with the proper forum attention. And if - it ends up in quarrels and accusations. Nearly every clan tries to get as many alliances - i do think that helps not to enforce RP properly. If every clan is in friendship with each other what could drive them crazy to break an alliance? Nothing. The minority is interested to cause trouble to others.

(clan) stats in FL (or CF for that matter) are as interesting as a fight between two sloths

Quote from Huor

Ok guys, i personally would care less about the stats. Thats what we were for here. I does say what about you, your RP, your time on the server? Probably that you spend a lot of time playing a game, getting known to the physics of each ship, know to kill npcs. What does this reflect to? Whatever its just stats - and i would care less about that. It achieves nothing than useless competition thats not worth the effort. IMO.

As what could clans do. I am not really sure. Clans are imo just there to exsist and to actually try to keep the RP running on this server. However there was less we have payed them back - besides all the financial aspects to keep the server running and their part in this what else could they do? Having them here on the forum isnt really what is attractive for them - for what? To have more flames and quarrels? That didnt worked quite well in the past. Clans have their own databases, their own awards - what would drive them to visit the forum or CF page? Dunno i dont see any motivatives for them. So yes this needs a change. Maybe we could have this by giving out own awards that are comparable with each clan or freelancer - because they are SWAT driven and not each clan for its own. That would attract those who do something for the stats.

We need to have valuable benefits for the clans for their effort on the server - financial (in game) money as well as we have to take away a lot if there are failures. Such that doing well is more attractive than to do bad ;O
Maybe special items for clans if they have reached a specific aim. Maybe that would attract newbies to join clans to also get advantage of this.

Currently i think you have no benefits joining a clan or not doing so. The ASF/CSF roleplay is not held open and with the proper forum attention. And if - it ends up in quarrels and accusations. Nearly every clan tries to get as many alliances - i do think that helps not to enforce RP properly. If every clan is in friendship with each other what could drive them crazy to break an alliance? Nothing. The minority is interested to cause trouble to others.

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I kinda agree with you huor.

Quote from Huor

If every clan is in friendship with each other what could drive them crazy to break an alliance? Nothing.

On the other hand, if everytime something is initiated it ends up in flames and brings down smaller or new clans, it does not help much either...

Last clan squirmishes ended up with threats from OP to disband clan, and that's the heart of the problem... Every clan is scared to start action
versus another clan, because it jeopardizes the survival of the clan itself... As long as general behavior does not change into less serious drama anyway...
Meaning in-game RP remains in-game RP (which I am not sure it is always understood).

My opinion anyway.

P-S: Yes, ASF/CSF needs to be revived.

+1 @ Huor, Raven and Faaby

At times it does seem things get "outta hand".....even from the experienced players /clans. Personally, I just avoid that whole mess and continue trying to be a player on server that people don't hate ( even with my RP choice ). Sometimes it seems that I accomplish that goal...other times not. When those times are "not"....then I try to come up with other ideas. It's another intersting idea that you guys are working on...that's for sure.

Amost forgot...+1 Spiky....my view as well.

Cya in space fellow CF community members

Well probably if inter clan actions are ending up in chaos then it might be a good idea to quarrel about goods and territories instead of players. Thats what the contest system would be based upon. The questions would be how could that be used so we have rp from several clans about same sectors and not having clans each care for his own sector and with that separated from each other. I think that could only work if the financial benefits rises with each new system. And the benefits might get lower if the clan does not support a section and the sector will be lost if the clans support for one sector gets negative. So clans needs to think about how they can arrange to have a static support of a sector - so they might can get control of it. And what additional supplies would be necessary to gain control of another system... And conquering a new and eventual already owned system by another clan should have a short benefit for the attacker.

We definitely need some CF Awards and benefits, trophies or such kind. E.g. players who have visited all inner core system get an foreign system award, if the killed some seteks they get a key to buy a special weapon what just one time can be bought. We need several awards for all different kinds - so explorers might benefit in the same way like pvpers do. And the ones who want to have all must do more ;O)
The question that comes up and needs further ideas is what awards could that be? Here your help (all who want to help with that) would be appreciated. I would take care of the hooking that is necessary for that eventual... I once had something in mind for TRF and the medals page is still intact Just so you can imagine of what i am talking here: http://trf.mc-sig.de/medals.php.

I also thought it would be a good idea for clans to have own paintings for specific ships, although we often denied that we would do that. But it probably would attract clans. So first if they have gained a specific number of game hours, game money or whatnot they would have access to such features. If we really want to keep the game interesting we should consider that too. Also here - if we have talented players who could overtake texturing or building ships - you are welcome. Its better to prepare stuff so its easier than to integrate (imo).

How can we bring the players to the forum. Thats really a good question and as i already stated currently there is no need for them really. Freelancers more than clan members. Firstly we need to give out those awards to the players for sure. But it would be good to link that to the forum users. Hard to accomplish but its just an idea and for a first trial this could be made manually by someone with proper rights. We also could link the forum activity with giving some credits to the users in game - so the other direction as well.

WOOOOW ... it sounds absolutely awesome!

i can make custom clan ship textures anytime... cloning ships and applying different texture is rather simple but the only headache would be for OP to edit the clan HQ station to sell these versions of the custom ship... also if we let clans decide what ships they want customized it's gonna be though. But perhaps we could motivate OP to agree by putting a cost to this customization business : 5 EUR additionnal to the monthly rent for each customized ship sold in the clan system. Since it's not a real bonus (the only bonus is to have the ship in your home base instead of a distant system) but more of a visual bonus, i have no trouble making people pay for it since it is not essential to your success (i hate game who make you pay to reach the top levels...). For those who want to be flashy, they gotta support the server a little bit more and there is nothing wrong with it don't you think ???

The idea to make the systems support go down when left alone is brilliant ! WARNING CRAZY STUFF COMING.... we could set a count of supplies with 2 threshold to determine the attitude of a system plus a consommation rate (10%) of the supplies. To make it clear : the live count of the supplies crates you brought to a system will determine the ownership : you bring 75% of the supplies required and the system becomes yours but has no benefit yet, then when you reach 100% of the supplies required you gain a benefit and the good rep. As long has you keep the count above 100% you make a benefit. If the count goes lower than 100% the benefits dissapear but system remaisn in your control and if it goes lower than 75%, the system rebels and you lose it. Of course supplies will be consumed by the population and you'll need to keep bringing in even more everyday... I am also thinking about a ratio for the thresholds because two systems don't have the same population count and don't require/consume an equal number of supplies. We could make a calculation such as :

• A fully colonized planet requires 25'000 supplies to get benefit / consumes 10% (2500 supplies) a day.
• A small planetary outpost (pittsburg, cali minor) requires 5'000 supplies to get benefit / consumes 500 supplies a day.
• A large station (newark, ft. bush, rappongi, bonn, waterloo, shipyards, freeports) requires 4'000 supplies to get benefit / consumes 400 supplies a day.
• A small station station/battleship (missouri, trenton, rochester, west point) requires 2'000 supplies to get benefit / consumes 200 supplies a day.
• So for New York it would mean : 25'000 x 1 (Planet Manhattan) + 5'000 x 1 (Planet Pittsburg) + 4'000 x 4 (Ft. Bush, Baltimore, Newark, Norfolk) + 2'000 x 5 (Rochester, Detroit, West Point, LNS_Missouri, Buffalo) = 42'000 supplies count to conquer (80%), 56'000 supplies to get a benefit (100%) and a daily consumption of 5600 supplies (10%) meaning two train shipment per day is more than necessary to keep it beneficial.
• So for Omega-3 it would mean : 25'000 x 0 (-) + 5000 x 0 (-) + 4'000 x 1 (Freeport 1) + 3'000 x 2 (Rugen, Douglas) = 7'500 supplies to conquer (80%), 10'000 to get a benefit (100%) and a daily consumption rate of 1000 supplies (10%). with a train you're good for 5 days...
• Benefits should be proportionnal also. Something like a 100$ x supplies required would give a benefit of 4'2M daily for a system like NY and 1M for Omega-3. which looks reasonable now but we'll need to see...
• Rate are approximative and require balancing with simulations and live tryouts. Globally, you take 2 train shipments per day to a huge system such as NY and you are good. If we consider that 2 runs to nearby systems (you wont logically expand further than your neighboring systems to start with) is quickly made. Then it's your choice to get 2 large system that require high daily maintenance and less defensive assets (no need to spread a fleet) or 5 smaller systems that require a lower maintenance but needs you to have ships all over the place to respond quickly...
• additionnal details/suggestions: when a clan conquers a system, all other clans count for this system is set back to 0. If another clan gets its count higher than yours on a system under your control, the benefits stop and the consumption rate is mutiplied by 2 due to the occupation (enemy taxation, supplies destruction, civil war, idk). If the enemy makes a successful blockade by forbidding your supplies to reach your system and that your count for this system drops below 75% and the other remains high, the control goes to your opponent and all clan counts go back to 0 for this system. In the web portal that will allow clan leaders to manage their campaigns, there would be possible to exchange owned systems or amount of supplies on a selected system. There would also be a 5% chance every day that a catastrophy happens somewhere in the disputable systems destroying supplies or an increase in population making your system requires more supplies to keep the people happy with you, adding some dynamic to all this... Yes i played Star Wars : Rebellion in the past

Considering that the SA DB is fully completed, there is no problem for me to fill in the DB with all this info (requires just a few hours to manually decide the value of each base depending on size).

NOTE TO ALL EXCEPT HUOR : don't bother it's programming details, you don't need to understand everything behind the system algorithms, we'll write a nice end-user manual for you to understand the rules later!

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And to get ppl on the forum, i don't want to break you fun but, the forum is way less important than the game. Many people have limited time and prefer to spend it in game instead of the forum which is totally understandable. And some like me who got duties in the forum (clan leader, dev team) have 90 new unread posts every 2 days when you dont have time to follwo the threads. Guess what, i'm reading the forum since sunday and i havent finished yet, not even thinking about launching to space tonight.

Ok, coming from someone new to the game, a lot of clan specific things would be awesome, but the more you make it clan oriented, the less accessible it can become to new players. Also, a lot of people are inclined, for various reasons, to remain clanless, and having a reward system that only rewards clan members would almost be punishing people outside of clans. Considering this is a mod of the game "Freelancer", the irony would be ridiculous.

I know the thread is "clan management and award system", and I don't mean to go off topic. You guys have put forth some amazing ideas here. If a quarter of them were realized, it would be awesome. Just, don't forget us lil guys.

hmmm,

join a clan, so you can assess both positions proper. BG asked you lately and would not be a bad choice.