Multi-Company Clans - What to do?

Discussion in 'Dev Blog' started by OP32, Nov 7, 2017.

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  1. OP32

    OP32 Community Team Team Darkorbit

    Hello pilots,

    We want to open up a discussion regarding the multi-company clans and the situation they have created in the game.

    Now, we know this has been a hot topic for quite some time for players and is something we have discussed quite a few times internally on the team and unfortunately there is no clear cut easy solution, which is why we want to create this discussion now.

    First we'll explain why we believe these clans came to be, the problems they cause and then finally the potential solution for this problem - which is where we want the discussion to be centered around.

    You can find the discussion thread here:
    http://www.bigpoint.com/darkorbit/board/threads/multi-company-clans-what-to-do.120634/


    Why do MCC exist?
    It is our understanding that MCC exist as a result of dwindling server population. Players began looking to recruit from other companies as it became harder to fill up a clan with just a single company.

    In the past the rest of the company would normally band together to fight these MCC however now that MCC are cemented within the server and very organised, they prove hard to get rid of if players do not like them.


    What issues do they cause?
    These clans are often blamed for ruining some events, in some instances they have the power to control who gets to participate and who doesn't.

    In addition to this there is of course the situation where players will utilize clan members of another company to shoot their own company without losing honor. For example, an EIC player will ask a VRU player to shoot another EIC and then help the VRU player kill him.

    From an internal standpoint these large groups of players make it very difficult to have effective balance in 'open world' events where everyone plays with each other. On some servers they have a much bigger impact than others.


    Problems with removing MCC
    These people in these clans are friends. In many cases they have been an MCC for years, splitting these players up will cause a lot of anger.
    If the ability to be an MCC is removed then there is a high chance these players would create 3 separate clans, alliance them together and act like nothing had changed.

    Removing MCC would likely just create companies that control servers, instead of clans. This might be better than the current situation but it still has many of the same problems (e.g a group of players prevent other groups from playing).

    Whilst company PvP is an important aspect of the game which we would not like to discourage, the disadvantage for one or two companies compared to the leading company could become result in the event being boring.
    For example there are cases where the same company can win spaceball 20 times in a row with no real contest, this isn't actually an exciting event when this happens and has almost no PvP involved.





    Potential solutions
    In an ideal world we would like to remove the MCC, whilst allowing people to continue to play with their friends and at the same time prevent excessively large company advantages.

    We are having a hard time coming up with a solution which would meet all these requirements, which is why we are looking to get a discussion going regarding this topic.


    It is very important that you understand the situation from the other players view point!

    If you are against MCC it is still important to understand why people join / create MCC. Likewise for people who are in MCC, understanding why people are against it and what it does for the overall quality of the game is very important.



    1. Free company swap period followed up by removing MCC.
    One of the ideas we've had is to have a period of time (e.g 1 week) where players can move company with no penalties. After this period of time is up, MCC will no longer be possible in the game and any clan members who are not the same company as the leader will be removed from the clan automatically.

    The positives of this are that players can all join the same company and be with their friends without feeling like they are being punished (e.g honor lost) for doing so.

    The negative would be that there is a large disturbance in ranking structure.


    2. Removing MCC
    If we completely removed MCC, either by disbanding the clans or removing members who were not the same company as the leader it would solve the very basic problem quite quickly.

    However it would leave a lot of players unhappy and create multi-company alliances rather than clans.

    The positive aspect is that the company numbers are likely to be more even.


    3. Allowing MCC but introducing limitations
    The third option we have considered is to continue to allow MCC, however there will be penalties and limitations when joining them.

    These limitations could be passive, e.g members gain less EP and Honor or even have a shield debuff. Or it could be something like not receiving event rewards.

    Once again though these changes are likely to push players into multi-company alliances instead.




    For all these solutions we are in need of player opinions, they all have advantages and disadvantages. Some areas such as company dominance will become less of an issue following server merges

    What do you think is the best strategy to take? Which area of this topic is the most important to you and is there something we are missing / not putting enough importance on?

    Once again here is the thread for the feedback:
    http://www.bigpoint.com/darkorbit/board/threads/multi-company-clans-what-to-do.120634/
     
    USAynos, BoringDude, sq13 and 11 others like this.
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