Advice for starting a faction (asking not giving)

[AtraUnam]

After seeing a lot of posts stating that a faction leader should be online as often as possible and able to coordinate potentially large groups of players I realised that I meet both of those requirements (not including mitigating circumstances) so I was wondering if anyone has some advice for starting a faction: How to tell if someone is trustworthy, the best way to allocate rescources and other things that I should know.

 

[ObiShawnKenobi]

I would say some ideas but I\'ll most likely get harassed so... here\'s just one that I had to learn the hard way: stay out of all conflicts.

 

[MrNature72]

Starting a faction is a thrilling but challenging experience. However, I will narrow it down for you. I run the sucessful Lazarus Imperium, and we have a steady track record of success and another record of staying out of conflict.

-Decide what kind of faction you want to be. In my case, I decided industrial, focusing on a strong infrastructure, with the military coming in second, instead of first. But you could be a pirate, a military superpower, anything you want.

-Make sure you cover all ends. You could make a faction of 500 pilots, but if you didn\'t have a good ship builder, things would be a lot harder. You can either get your own builders and miners, or utilize another faction. There are a few mining factions, and then a lot of factions (especially my own) will take requests to build ships in return for political favors, credits, or so on.

-Decide on your organization. Are you going to be a voted-in democracy ruled by the people? An empire ruled soley by one man? A monarcy (like mine) ruled by a single individual with control given to a core of officers? Or just a hashrag group of scavengers with a single minded goal?

-Write it out. Keep it organized, and clean. Create a good name, something that will attract people and isn\'t overrused (Halo themes, StarWars themes, and the word \"empire\" being some of the most overdone bits). Then, make the first couple paragraphs in your recruitment thread a hook, getting people you want to join interested. Decide what kind of people you want, and then aim for that demographic. Do you want to be a faction with an iron fist? A group of friendly nomads? Anything you decide.

-Decide if you\'re going to be neutral or agressive, or your general engagement policy. It may seem minor but it\'s a big deal.

-Post your thread and start recruiting. Don\'t stand idle. Find people you find interesting and that fill a role and try to bring them in.

-Be friendly to your members and get to know them. No matter how you lead, you should get to know your members. They really appreciate it.

-Don\'t be a dick in politics. You don\'t have to be everyones cuddle-buddy, but even against an adversary try to remain serious and calm. This will help greatly, and will be appreciated by the community.

-Become part of the StarMade ocmmunity. Talk in chat. Get to know everyone. We\'re a colorful bunch, but we\'re pretty friendly.

-Finally, remain constant. Solidify your faction. Some factions try radical changes too early, or try to do to much. I, for example, changed some factors of my faction, but I did it in a way to make it more organized and it left current members unneffected. Do NOT change your faction in super-drastic manners. Once you decide on a path, stick to it.


If you have any specific questions, please, feel free to message me. Helping the community is a big thing for me, at least in the forums, and I\'m always willing to lend a hand to a newcomer.

 

[ridik_ulass]

A faction is great because of its members, a leader is just someone who facilitates them playing. Keep your members happy and you will have a great faction. Remember gaming is what people do to get away from work, college, school and so on don\'t make your faction more hard work.

In a slight contradiction, don\'t change your faction to facilitate your members, let people know what they are joining and never change, a faction should be a dependable constant. If they don\'t like it they can leave and join something more suitable, but changing it will piss off established members and you could have a bout of spies on your hands, or even a coup. to this end a name is very important, it lets people have an idea what they are in for.



Politics is important, but sometimes it stops you from even playing, make sure the have a solid reliable 2nd, someone you trust entirely to run things when you aren\'t around.(I get in about 10mins gameplay a day these days, I used to log 12hrs a day)



Don\'t give ranks away too easily, let people earn their position, and feel satisfaction from that accomplishment.(players come and go very quickly last think you want is an important position filled with an inactive player)



sort out industry ASAP, you don\'t want your faction members wandering around like peasants, accommodate new members with money and assets.( Euro-corp even goes as far to accommodate all factions of merit in an effort to build a better community)



You represent your members as much as they represent you, behave in the company of other faction leaders or you could find your self in an unwinnable war, which might drive members away. Equally don\'t take disrespect from other faction leaders this will make you look weak.(Obi up there has dragged his faction into several wars and it is bearly a faction now because of it)



As for members make sure fleet issue military ships are restricted and not parked around casually, a stolen ship could start a war, the definition between causal ships and fleet issue needs to be definable.(someone stole one of our casual ships and attacked a neutral factions homeworld recently)



just make a solid foundation and build on it over time., some factions have built over time with out a plan on top of ruins, and they have many issues because of it.

 

[Beekay]

A good tip that is valid in any game is to not give rank by senority. If you give the five highest positions to the first five people to sign up you\'ll be in a lot of trouble if any of them turn out to be douchemongers. Start everyone out on the same level and promote according to who brings the most good to the faction and who matches your personality.

I don\'t have any experience running a starmade faction, but I\'ve been the leader of various clans and guilds in other games and I learned from each catistrophic failure.

 

[FlyingDebris]

No matter what happens, do not surrender. My faction has gone through hell and back. I have seen from experience that any faction where the leader says \"fuck it, I\'m resigning.\" has fallen within a week. If someone goes to war with you, keep on going, and you will surely remain standing, no matter the losses.

 

[awesome270]

on the first server i played on, a faction invited me so i accepted after i showed my worth. The faction later fell the day later because one admin guy parked a dreadnought outside of our base. I didnt even know it collasped. ANd heres a tip keep ur players up to date with things like moving to a different home base. AND a big tip if an admin is abusing his commands and deleting active factions tell the server host. NO ONE LIKES ABUSERS

 

[AtraUnam]

Thanks for all the great(non-troll) comments this advice is going to be really useful.

 

[Claru]

It helps to keep things organized. Enjin is popular and not that difficult to use. (Also free~)

Have a theme or culture for your faction. Personally I think it would be hilarious if someone made a warhammer 40k faction based on orks. It would be great fun to yell at eachother unitelligably and fly hunks of hideous (red) ships all over the place. This gives people something to rally behind and makes them want to be a part of your faction. (WAAAAAGHHH) You can get an idea of a faction\'s theme by reading the faction\'s page. Do not get discouraged if no one joins for a week or two or three. People want to know you are going to stick around and not vanish over night. Stay at it and talk to everyone on the server you play on and people will start to join up.

Look at other successful faction pages to design your own. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Use of graphics and nice formatting shows you are sincere in your desire to put in work to lead a faction. Be prepared to spend about half (or more) of your game time doing faction business and the other half actually playing the game. This can be updating your forums, setting up events for your members, checking on everyone\'s progress and thinking up missions for your people to do.

Do not have 75 different ranks for your organization. It gets cluttered and how are people going to know what these ranks actually do? Then you run into the problems tall management structures have where Tim reports to Tom who reports to Sally who reports to Sarah who reports to you. Ever played the telephone game? Imagine that with your orders, except anyone can change the orders of anyone below them. With each rank figure out WHY it is there, what does that rank mean, and how does someone qualify for it. You can always go back in and add ranks if your organization swells to have enough people to warrant it. Equally important is to talk with someone before promoting them so they know what is expected of them, and if they even WANT the promotion. A leadership position is hard work, not a pretty little name to show you are in the best friends super cool club.

Your people are your greatest asset. Ridik is dead on the money with a great faction has to do with its members. Leadership is not about what a leader can do, but instead what the leader can empower her people to do. Serve your members and they will do things you never could have asked them to do, and they will want to do them because they take pride in the organization, and in you.

Do not back down from an issued challenge. This does not mean pick fights or be baited into them, but have the guts to stand toe to toe with an opponent who has called you out. Even when you die that opponent will remember that you stood your ground and more often than not if you did not instigate the fight you can strike up a chat with the opponent and thank them for the fight, they will thank you in return and you will get better at combat. What do you have to lose? Some credits? A ship? Better to lose material things which can be replaced, then to lose the respect of your team and of the server by being seen as a cheat or a coward hiding away waiting for the boogieman to leave. (This was more so a personal decision, some will likely argue it is best to hide and live to see another day than to fight for personal \'honor\'. This is a wargame though, so you will have to fight some time unless you are on a purely peaceful server)

Lastly remember that everything you do will be watched as a faction leader. You can always afford an extra moment to think something over, but once it is said or done it has happened. Keep a cool head, even if you are panicking inside no one else needs to know that. Your people will look to you for guidance and as their rock. If you panick or get angry or react poorly then it reflects upon your entire organization and your members.

Not that I know anything about leadership or running a faction~

Very respectfully yours,

Claru Laru, Knight of the Void Templar

 

[TwoNiner]

Not much else needs to be said, all sucessful groups big or small are based on these three piliars.

 

[Dark-life]

Get together all you faction members give them titans and then crash them into eachother and planets.

 

[FlyingDebris]

Maybe bringing a titan while trading with you guys wasn\'t the best idea.