Shattered Kingdoms

I think a lot of player groups suffer from low leader activity. This is true for cabals, tribunals, and religions, but I'd like to focus just on cabals and tribunals for now. As I see it, there are a few possibilities for why people don't play their leader characters.

(a) Just not enough time to play SK (not much to be done about this, IRL > SK)
(b) Burnout/ lack of interest in leader character because of the drudgery involved in leadership and no real benefits
(c) Increasing interest in alts

While (b) and (c) are related, I wanted to keep them separate because the solutions diverge a bit. Below are a few ideas for incenting players to put more hours into their leader chars by addressing these two issues. I've not thought in-depth about the balance issues around these changes, but think it would be interesting to disucuss some possible solutions.

The Carrot [ideas]
1) Create new NPCs that can only be controlled by faction leaders [largely applicable only to tribunals, but could be tweaked for cabals]
2) Leaders can wear their relic for a limited time. Relic death/stun rots. [cabals only - I know cabal leaders can do this but it's currently very high risk as you can lose your relic if killed]
3) Leaders receive a monthly paycheck for their services
4) Leaders receive discounts on all purchases in their home country
5) Leaders have access to a locked item, similar to a hero amulet (but much weaker) that grants some kind of benefit
6) Others?

The Stick [ideas]
1) Require a minimum number of hours per month (already in place)
2) Require leaders to log more hours on their "leader" character than on all alts combined (would require leaders to "register" their alts and some form of stiff punishment for people who failed to do this)

Comments? Suggestions?

Mostly a good post, but the idea of penalizing leaders for playing alts is misguided. A guy who plays his main 100h/month and his alts 101h/ month is far better than a guy who plays his leader 40h/month.

While I like the idea at first glance I fear that all this will lead to is twinks fighting over who gets the leader flag that month.

I like the paycheck idea a lot, but why not make it for all of the members? Arn't they sort of hired by the kingdom anyhow? It can be based on the economy of the kingdom obviously.

I think the hero amulet sort of idea isn't good at all though...whats to stop people from logging on just enough so they can keep it?

You would have to try very, very hard in order for me to take up leadership of a cabal or tribunal.

So very hard.

I think that's what we should be aiming for here, people fighting over leadership. If it's somewhat disproportionatly twinks, I don't think that's a big deal because everyone would want it a little more with the right enticements. I would much rather have more people seeking leadership for the "wrong" reasons and being active than having no active leaders.



My sentiments exactly. Leadership is all downside currently IMO.



I'm not so sure this is true given the inherent conflict-of-interest risk involved in playing alts, but I'm willing to concede that the exact hour comparisions suggested may need to be tweaked or this portion of the "stick" portion thrown out entirely.

I disagree. I'd rather not have people seeking leadership for the wrong reasons. People already complain (validly or not) that leadership is cycled through the same players over and over. I'd hate to see it come down to the elite players continually getting leadership flags to enhance their PK abilities. Any incentive that doesn't boost their abilities in the battlefield I'd be more open towards.

As far as the paycheck idea: I'm not sure if it would work with the way tribunals and cabals bank accounts work. From what I've seen, members have to farm for coin every so often in order to keep the coffers full to ensure their guards are paid and they can war with other countries. So, they would be farming for their own paychecks as well? Seems rather pointless. If you meant for it to have nothing to do with their bank accounts, then I'd be interested in how it would affect the economy.

Just like 90% of the problems of sk this is another problem that its root cause is the small player base. If you want to see problems like this disappear, introduce the game to a couple more of your friends. The solutions proposed here are painkillers that could even harm the game. Who wants to see cabal leaders running with their relic for no good enough rp reason, just because they get a tonne more of hp?

I agree. The combination of too few players and too many player groups means fewer players per group.

I also agree that we should try to increase SK membership. There's no reason why other measures cannot be taken in parallel, however.

Why? Dulrik spent half a day and went to the comic book convention and left those flyers. I so much prefer that, than spending the same time to code things we will cry about again after a week.

And second, I don't disagree that leadership positions have disadvantages but there are many advantages there already that most people seem to forget them. For example a tribunal leader gets more rp (from routine things to global rps), the ability to banish anyone who kills them before they have the chance to go to jail, equipment from the kingdom's citizens, more rp (yes I know I said this), etc, etc. Maybe they should get something extra but it should be minimal and not the ability to carry amulets, relics or anything similar. Something like the fee you mentioned. It's not going to change people's mind but it could make the life of leaders easier when they have to deal with routine stuff (farming for the tribunal/buying stuff for newbie members etc). Eventually they won't get tired so easily and delete.