My thoughts on the new ranks system

Part 1 amount of points in each area

To be able to determine a rough estimate of points needed to gain ranks, and the amount needed to maintain them, I had to make up the amount of points each part of the clan should give, which of course should not be taken as final but Id appreciate if it were duly considered. First of all, I thought a lot about what should give more points and such, thinking on what would be better for the clan as a whole. At the moment, our citadel is nearly maxed, we have over 300 clan members, with lots of active ones, and the recruitment and forums seem to be working fine. The part that is still a bit shaky is the events side of our clan, especially now that we are missing Dew, Kitten and Princess, who were all either events hosts or events team leaders for the EST time zone. This means that at present times, we are short-handed on EST events hosts, which as we know is a job that requires a lot of work and that can be frustrating when people are unwilling to attend organized events. For these reasons, I think that the events team should be allowed to give more points than any other team to those active and attending clan members, and that this should be the only team with no cap on the max amount of points given, which, as its been pointed out before, would probably make people say I have already done all my events for this week, there is no point in me going to the next one. Hopefully, this will encourage people to be more willing to go to events, allow everyone to get better acquainted, have fun together, and help each other obtain rewards from activities more easily. After this, I had to think on what should be the part that gives the least points. For obvious reasons, I think forums should be the one. First of all, bumping the recruitment thread is mostly covered with the current forums team working on it. Secondly, making a bump takes no effort, and merely 3 minutes at most on a very slow computer. The other part is offsite participation, and while it will give more points than bumping, it shouldnt give too many, since all we have to do is check is someone went online or if they made a post on the clan site and we still want to avoid having the forums full of spam posts. Then it comes the time to think about citadel and recruitment. Both of them are equally important in my opinion. The citadel is still ours and we still want people working on it, even if it is for no reason other than to meet the weekly upkeep. We should not let the citadel die out, and even when it gives other rewards for working such as xp and clan rings and fealty, I believe that if we dont encourage people to cap at it with a healthy amount of points, we will be risking our citadel, because many of the current cappers are people that dont even need the xp rewards. And on top of not wanting to risk it, I still believe we should be proud of the citadel we have and encourage clan members to use it and enjoy it. Recruiting is also important because we want the clan to grow and to stay active with fresh members. We want to find all those great people out there that are looking for Skyguardians and dont know it yet. But, and this is also important, we dont want the clan to get full of trolls, and the quality of our new recruits to decrease with a big influx of random people being invited to the clan. For this reason, Ill propose a set of rules that should be followed

by recruiters, and also that the recruitment points needs a cap, so that someone doesnt make 50 random people join us in one day just to gain faster points.

Part 2 a proposed points setting for each team

So the way to determine how many points each area should give is as follows: I started with the lowest points part and worked my way through the rest later on, so that we dont end with the smallest part being decimals of points if we were too short on making it big enough.

Forums
Lets start off with bumping. I think each bump should be two points, four bumps max per clan member in one week, three extra points for bumping four times. This means a total of eleven points each week for bumping. At the end of the month, those who received the extra three points in all weeks will receive a four points bonus, and the one that made the biggest amount of bumps will receive an additional five points bonus, making the maximum monthly total for bumping the thread go up to 48 points, or 53 for the top bumper ((2 * 3 + 3) * 4 + 4 + 5), on a four week month. The last + 5 bonus will remain vacant if the top number of bumps in the month was lower than 12. If it were to be a five week month then the max total would be of 59 and 64 points correspondingly. The other area of the forums that should be giving points is offsite participation. I still need to talk with Cookies about the best way to implement this, and if its possible to get it done with Zetaboards tools instead of manually. The idea is to check daily offsite logging. Those who log in will get two points for doing it that day, up to four days a week, with a bonus of three points for doing it four days on a given week. Additionally, reaching weekly cap all weeks of a month will add a 6 points bonus. This means that offsite participation will receive a maximum total of 50 points ((2 * 4 + 3) * 4 + 6), on a four week month, and 61 points on a five week month. On top of that, registering on the clan offsite should be a once in a life time bonus of 50 points. And to be eligible for this, players will have to send a message to my offsite pm saying their ingame name. Anyone that is already registered will receive the fifty points when the new system becomes effective, after they send me their in-game name to my offsite pm.

Forums participation
Recruitment Points per Max bumps Weekly cap Monthly Total monthly 4 bump weekly bonus cap bonus weeks (5 weeks) thread 2 4 3 4 48 (59) bumps Points per Max days Weekly cap Monthly Total monthly 4 Offsite day weekly bonus cap bonus weeks (5 weeks) participation
(logging in, daily)

Bonus for max +5

Registering on offsite

4 3 6 Total points (only once in a lifetime) 50

50 (61)

Rule to make a bump on the recruitment thread count for points: Your bump on the recruitment thread will only count as valid for the points rank system if at least a period of 30 minutes had elapsed since the previous post in the thread. Hopefully this rule will prevent our thread from getting spammed with eager bumpers. Rule to receive the points for registering on offsite: To receive your points for registering on the offsite forum, send a private message to Jomaera from your offsite account, stating your in-game name and setting Registered on offsite as the subject of the message. Everyone will have to do this to receive their points once the system is set into work.

Citadel
The amount of time and effort needed to cap at the citadel should be taken into account at the moment of setting the points it will give. At the same time, the fact that its nearly maxed and it wont be that much needed other than for the weekly upkeep should also be taken into account, as well as the fact that the citadel is rewarding in itself, i.e.: the amount of xp gained from using it. On the other hand, the fact that we have so many clan members with maxed citadel skills that mostly wont benefit from the xp gained working at it should also be taken into consideration, and also the fact that our citadel is something we should be proud of, and protected from getting forgotten, and that encouraging our clan members to benefit from it is not negative, all the contrary. For these reasons, I believe the citadel should give a good amount of points. My proposal is that capping each week should give thirty five points, and that those who cap every week should get a bonus of twenty five points. This way, capping will have a monthly total possible points gain of 165 (35 * 4 + 25) on a four week month, and 200 on a five week month.

Citadel participation
Points per cap 35 Monthly cap bonus 25 Total monthly 4 weeks (5 weeks) 165 (200)

Rule to receive the points for capping: To receive your points for capping at the citadel, get your cap checked by any admin+ and then make sure you were added to the list by checking the offsite forum thread before the next build tick happens.

Recruitment
As I said before, we need to encourage recruitment, but not turn it into an epidemic. If we did, then the quality of the new recruits might go down and also the amount of them could become overwhelming for the clan. So, we want to balance people being interested in recruiting and also not make it overly extreme. To accomplish this, I think we need a big amount of points for each new recruit but with a low cap. My proposal is ten points for each successful recruit, with a cap of four recruits per clan member each week. At the end of the month the top recruiter will receive another twenty five points. This way, on a four week month, recruitment will have a monthly maximum of 160 points, or 185 for the top recruiter (10 * 4 * 4 + 25). If it were to be a five week month, then the max total would be of 200 and 225 correspondingly. The + 25 bonus will be left vacant if the max number of recruits were to be lower than 10.

Recruitment participation
Points per recruit 10 Weekly cap 4 Total monthly 4 weeks (5 weeks) 160 (200) Bonus for max + 25

Rules to make a recruit count for points: Make sure the recruit adds your name on the field Referred by of their application. Send a private message to a recruitment team leader telling them the ingame name and the offsite forums account name of the new recruit. These two rules should make it easier for the recruitment team to hand out points and hopefully also increase forums registering. Do not cheat the application by telling them to add the secret phrase. Refer them to the recruitment thread and tell them to apply, and then leave it to them to fail or get it right. The reason for this last rule is that people will be interested in getting the points for recruiting, but this shouldnt mean that the new recruits should have it easy or that they should be told about the secret phrase. Its impossible to make sure everyone complies with it, but the point is that we should all be interested in making sure that the quality of our new recruits is good. The only way to stop the clan from getting full of all those trolls that lurk around RS is to make sure they read the rules before joining us, so the secret phrase is a very important filter. It might not stop all, but not having it would be worse. This is a rule of principle; recruiters should want to comply with it.

Events
Events, as stated before, are in need of becoming more attractive to clan members. Too few people attend events at the moment. This happens more for events based on EST than those based on UK times though, as we all know Tuna is a great events leader. Even so, having greater attendance on all events would be better, as sometimes too few people go to some of them. My proposal is setting the points for them at twenty for each event attended. There should be no cap, and for that same reason, no bonus in reaching a set number of events. But there should be a bonus to the clan member with the highest event attendance for each month. I propose to set the bonus at thirty points for the clan member with the max event attendance. There should be a minimum of at least eight events attended in a month to be eligible for it, though, and if no one reaches that number, it should be left vacant.

Events participation
Points per event 20 Weekly cap none Total monthly 4 weeks* (5 weeks) 160 (200) 190 (230) Bonus for max + 30

*This is counting an average of two events weekly (minimum needed to get the bonus). The max can be anything since there is no cap to the points for events.

Part 3 Ranks: points requirement and upkeep

First of all, only one rank will be attainable each month, even if the clan member got more than the points needed to advance two ranks. Secondly, ranks will have a monthly upkeep, i.e. at the beginning of each month every clan member should have the upkeep points subtracted from their current total points. The amount of points will depend on the rank and will be increased from lower to higher ranks. The total amount of possible points is: From bumping: 48 (59) +5 From offsite: 50 (61) From registering on offsite: 50 From citadel: 165 (200) From recruitment: 160 (200) +25 From events: 160 (200) +30 -----> Not a real maximum, but an average with 2 events weekly Monthly total: 583 (720) +60 +50 (only attainable once)

Discussing an appropriate setting

In my opinion, its best to work it out from General rank and go down to the lower ones. For that, I believe that the upkeep for a General should be of at least 250 points. This would make them have to cap weekly and attend a few events at minimum to not lose points on that month. Since they

will need to be in the clan for at least 5 months before gaining General rank, on that time they could have accumulated enough points so that losing some in one month wont make them lose their rank, so going inactive for one or two weeks probably wont make them lose it. However, its a high enough upkeep that going completely inactive for more than one month would probably mean they would go down a rank. The other thing we need to look at is the minimum rank for active players. If totally inactive players will be ranked as recruit, then Corporal rank needs to have upkeep. The thing is, what is an appropriate upkeep for calling someone active? Every clan member is already expected to cap at least once a month as per clan rules; that in itself is 35 points. I think that adding 15 points and making it 50 for maintenance isnt too much. Attending one event in the month will give them more than that. So an upkeep of 50 points for Corporal rank sounds about appropriate. It would be an active player that meets the capping requirement and attends one event each month, meaning they are more active than recruits. So now we have 50 points for lowest and 250 points for highest, and we need to set Sergeant, Lieutenant and Captain in the middle. The easiest way would be to set it at 100, 150 and 200. Following on what we said before, it would mean that a Sergeant would need to cap at least twice and attend two events, a Lieutenant would need to cap three times and attend three evens and a Captain would need to cap three times and attend five events, or cap four times and attend 2 events. Of course, they can also earn points for offsite participation, bumps and recruiting, which could be thought of as the extra they can use to move between ranks. Now its time to think about the points needed to reach a certain rank. When a clan member joins, they will be ranked as recruits. Joining offsite and meeting the capping requirement for new members would give them 105 points. Corporal maintenance is supposed to be 50 points. So I believe that the right amount of points to get to corporal should be of 50. They will remain Corporal until they reach the amount of points needed for Sergeant. Sergeant rank should be attainable after the second re-rank point during their stay in the clan, and I think it should require the amount needed for Corporal plus the upkeep for Sergeant. This means that it will be 50 + 100, totaling of 150 points to reach Sergeant. Similarly, Lieutenant should be minimum points for Sergeant plus the Lieutenant rank upkeep. This means it will be 150 + 150, making a total of 300 points for Lieutenant. The same goes for Captain. Lieutenant base points plus Captain upkeep, making a total of 300 + 200 points, or 500 points. Last, but not least, General should be Captain base points + General upkeep, making a total of 500 + 250 points, meaning 750 points. On the next table, we have all the previous setting summarized:

Ranks: points requirement

Rank Recruit Corporal Sergeant Lieutenant Captain General
Minimum points 50 150 300 500 750 Maximum points 49 149 299 499 749 Monthly upkeep 50 100 150 200 250

Ranks rules and guidelines

The way the ranks should work in my opinion is as follows: Upon joining, new members will be ranked as recruit for as long as their probation lasts at minimum. If a new member joins the offsite during their probation period, this will grant them 50 points and will mean that upon the probation being ended they will be eligible for Corporal rank. This way, if someone joins on the first week of any month, then they wont need to wait until the end of the month for the next points allocation and their first rank up. If they were to join on the third or four week, for example, they could get Corporal rank after their probation is done, but will need to wait for the following months points allocation before reaching Sergeant. On the rest of the cases, every clan member will have to wait for the monthly points revision to receive a promotion or a demotion, exceptions being disciplinary cases and joining a clan management team. Joining clan management teams should give points, to be determined by the team leader and clan administration on each case, depending on what the new crew members tasks will require. Warnings and offenses should subtract points causing a demotion if necessary, the amount depending on the severity of each case, the rank they already had, the existence or not of previous warnings, and all that were deemed appropriate by administration. Long term inactive clan members that were to be demoted to recruit for losing their points will be kicked unless they had duly informed administration, each case taking its own analysis of course. Points will be updated on a monthly basis. Each clan management team will provide the necessary information for every clan member for the area they work on, much like the citadel cap list but for each team. Weeks and months will be set the same way as Citadel weeks/months. This means that every week will start on build tick and end at the following one and that each month will be 4 or 5 weeks depending on how Citadel cap list is set. Citadel cap list is already a working system so adapting the rest to it seems not only logical but also the easiest way to make things work.

 On top of reaching the required points, to reach the rank of General clan members will need to be approved by the majority of current active Admin+. Only votes for and against will count, with Deputy+ votes counting twice. If there were strong objections for the promotion by any Admin+, they will be taken duly into consideration before approving the promotion.

Analyzing the fairness of this setting

Ranks: points requirement

Rank Recruit Corporal Sergeant Lieutenant Captain General
Minimum points 50 150 300 500 750 Maximum points 49 149 299 499 749 Monthly upkeep 50 100 150 200 250

Setting it like this doesnt seem either too easy or too hard. For example, a new member joining the clan and going for General would have to wait at least around five months from the moment of joining, as per rules and guidelines. This means that, if they gained the points for General rank upkeep each month they would get 1,250 (250 * 5) points during that time. The upkeeps they would have to endure would sum up to 500 points (50 + 100 + 150 + 200) meaning that they would have at the end of those five months exactly 750 points. This is the minimum needed for General rank, so they would be able to gain the rank at that point if they had the favorable vote. And this is receiving 250 monthly points, which is, for example, capping every week at the citadel and attending at least five events, which is not overly difficult to obtain but also not stupidly easy. Also, as we stated before, the total possible points within a month is of: Monthly total: 583 (720) +60 +50 (only attainable once)

This means that our clan members will have the chance to earn a lot more points than 250 in one month, especially since events points arent capped. A player earning 250 points monthly is fairly active within the clan, but is not too hard to obtain. And on the other hand, a player that earned their points, reached General and then went inactive would most likely lose their rank in one or two months for not meeting their upkeep. This should help maintain a high level of activity within the clan. Also, doing Citadel only is no longer enough to reach General. For this reason, the clan members that reach that rank now will have to participate in at least another area of the clan, making them well known within the clan. And on top of that, they will need the approval of active Admin+.

Thanks for reading and taking my thoughts into account! Jo.-