Gameplay: Faction Marshal

[Thoreaux]

Exactly what it sounds like. To improve faction coordination and teamwork, each faction should have an official leader with (in theory) final authority, and an accompanying ability to hand out faction boons (xp/resources/territory/facilities) to outfits/squads/individuals who cooperate with his or her directives. These rewards could be done through the mission system, or just at the commander's discretion.

• The Marshal would have to be somebody high in command rank/skills.
• It would be best if they were elected. Preferably by their fellow commanders.
• Marshals must be electable and impeachable via petitions. Petitions would need to be active for a while (say, a few days) to allow most people time to log on and vote.
• The inter-outfit politics would be nasty. To prevent big outfits from having too much pull, votes on the petitions would need to be secret to allow for defectors.
• It might also help to weight votes away from big outfits.
• Preferably, use an instant-runoff voting algorithm to find the best commander.
• The Marshal's ability to hand out boons would need some check/oversight to prevent one big outfit from installing a leader and looting the faction treasury. Again, fellow commanders would be the best choice.
• It would have to be clear to all players that the marshal was in charge. They would need a special chat color/font, and the ability to temporarily mute other commanders who were contradicting them in global chat.

One thing I'm not sure about is if the Marshal position should have a stick to accompany the carrots? I'm not even sure what form it could take, especially when considering possible abuses.

I personally think this would add a great deal to the experience and really pull the empires together in a more cohesive way. What do you all think?

[Lartnev]

I think it's too open to abuse unless it was something like EVE's CSM where people are voted into the position outside of the game. But that only helps while they're online.

I'm hoping command will focus more around outfits cooperating than one overall commander.

[Krowe]

"Commander" chat is already awful atm, filled with anybody who farmed CR. I'd hate to see how disappointing a "leader" could be, especially if it was voted for by people who just start All Welcome groups.

[Crazyduckling]

Every outfit would vote for someone in their own outfit.

How would you know who the other people are and then be expected to vote?

[Thoreaux]

Originally Posted by Crazyduckling

Every outfit would vote for someone in their own outfit.

How would you know who the other people are and then be expected to vote?

I'd still propose having a command chat. Commanders know each other through arguing over primary and such; it becomes clear who knows what the hell they're talking about (and who doesn't). People who wanted the job would nominate themselves. Ideally, one per outfit.

Weighing voting against big outfit commanders and using runoff voting would be key. That would insure no one outfit could mass-vote their candidate to the top. Once people cast their BS vote for who the outfit leader told them to, they'd get to put their second vote for someone they actually thought would do the job well. The result is the person most broadly acceptable.