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Tony
New Poster
Joined: 14 Apr 2010
Status: Offline
Points: 24
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Posted: 09 Jul 2010 at 11:28 |
Everything you say seems to illustrate the point perfectly Mule. We have thousands of registered players. Only a very few can be leaders of large alliances. Im talking about a game change that will benefit the masses, not just the few string pullers at the top. I could obviously not persuade people like you to give up your influence, that would be too selfless of you. Hoping that GMs will put the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few - or the one. :)
If you are planning on making armies transferrable between cities then this would be a good time to limit their range as players would be able to adjust their forces accordingly.
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HonoredMule
Postmaster General
Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 1650
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Posted: 09 Jul 2010 at 15:42 |
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I hate to break it to you, but leadership is a bitch of a job. It's hard work and its the members that benefit way more than the heads. I have to take time away from developing my own account to even do a half-assed job at maintaining diplomatic relations, assisting/training members, establishing policies, tracking the activities of spies (90% accounting) and running counterintelligence operations, administrating forums and other alliance resources, smoothing over conflicts that shouldn't have happened and then coaching the member players that start them, and the list continues. If I had a normal 9-5 job I couldn't possibly manage both leadership and a large/active account--as it is I wouldn't dream of running a second one. And for the record, I'd happily step down if others were willing to take my place. An alliance that isn't understaffed is a lucky alliance, because it doesn't take too long to find out how cool it isn't to be the man in charge. At least in real life we get paid lots.
For the most part, the benefits I'm extolling are about the experience people have by joining an alliance, not leading one. You interact (in a friendly way) with players chosen from a larger pool, based on common interests and goals rather than proximity. You commiserate each others' losses, and plot together against common enemies. You exchange advice, tips, and training with each other; participate in coordinated joint operations that tax skills not needed for a one-man operation; trade more; get economic assistance when you need it, and then pay it forward; discuss policies and self-governance; elect leaders (if you can actually get more than one candidate for a position) and--depending on the form of government chosen--vote on key issues like whether to go to war with certain alliances. Everyone builds and runs a society, not just its leaders. That might be less true in real life, but in a game like this, dictatorship survives only so long as it produces results that please its members. After all, anyone can dissent or jump ship any time, and often even their accounts are safe from effective reprisal due to alternative support options. And revolts or mass-exodus are way more doable than in real life.
Bottom line is this: join an alliance, and even as an entry-level recruit, you will find greater opportunity to do way more and have more fun doing it. Playing this game alone is like running your own empty IRC channel. The chatbots really won't get you far.
Edited by HonoredMule - 09 Jul 2010 at 15:47
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Akita
New Poster
Chief Economist
Joined: 23 Jun 2010
Location: Romania
Status: Offline
Points: 133
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Posted: 09 Jul 2010 at 16:11 |
Building up on what HonoredMule just said, a small clarification : GOOD leadership is a whole lot of work, and then some more work too afterwards, followed by a bit more work again, all of it on a regular basis.
It doesn't take much effort to do a lousy job as any kind of leader though, if leadership duties do seem easy and are completed fast, it might just be they are doing it pretty badly... ...or they learned to delegate properly and are lucky beyond measure to have enough loyal and qualified underlings working to do the job properly in their stead. 
Edited by Akita - 09 Jul 2010 at 16:13
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Tony
New Poster
Joined: 14 Apr 2010
Status: Offline
Points: 24
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Posted: 10 Jul 2010 at 14:43 |
You prove the point again. You say yourself that the only real option is to be consumed by a big alliance to be dictated to by a few like you. My suggestion gives a good way to allow more freedom to choose whether they want alliance play or not.
Some people dont want to be "loyal underlings".
Unless you have something new to say can we leave it now. GMs please keep thinking on it. Big alliance power needs reduction. This would be good change, especially in conjunction with your plan to make army units transferrable. Thanks
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Torn Sky
Forum Warrior
Joined: 28 Apr 2010
Location: Texas
Status: Offline
Points: 402
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Posted: 10 Jul 2010 at 16:11 |
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Limiting the range on movement would stop people from being "consumed" by large alliances and replace it with large players, as the biggest players in an area would have control. Who could stop them with no other large players in range to do anything and those in range would probably join together. Take for example my cities in a limited range i would control my area and the only players even close enough to my size to be a pain are in my alliance, and if that was the case i would get bored and quit. Limiting range on a map as large as Illyriad would imo ruin the game since you have to build cities to expand your range and there is a limit to how many cities you can build in population and time especially if you are not a prestige account getting 10k-20k pop for 5-6th cities would take a long time and still not get you close to anyone if you as far out as people like me. Anyway if you dont like large alliances dont join one there are many smaller groups of players or start your own alliance recruit some people around and play a limited range style see how long you enjoy it before you want to expand further into the gameplay and social aspects
sorry for rambling its early i may look over this post after i eat and make my thoughts a lil clearer
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waylander69
Forum Warrior
Joined: 07 Mar 2010
Location: spain
Status: Offline
Points: 316
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Posted: 10 Jul 2010 at 16:14 |
Tony, start your own alliance, then your not a 'loyal underling' The fact is people have their cities in clusters already, to then put the rules in place your asking for would ruin the game overnight, limited movement, stop and think how that would work, oh i can attack 10 squares from me but no further so if your next town is a major player you would not stand a chance as a new player as he would have no other targets to go for. Or would you like all people to start the same, new players starting next to a town with a population of 2000 gets that so he does not feel left out. 
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HonoredMule
Postmaster General
Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 1650
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Posted: 11 Jul 2010 at 05:42 |
You can always spot a non-conformist because he always looks exactly like every other non-conformist.
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Wuzzel
Postmaster
Joined: 26 Feb 2010
Status: Offline
Points: 605
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Posted: 11 Jul 2010 at 15:45 |
I got a normal job IRL. Managing multiple alliances / multiple forums / multiple IRC channels / multiple big accounts / etc etc. Its hard work people! Takes alot of time to do all of this. Lucky i can play Illyriad at work too
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