Allegiances Survey
With a flood of active high ranks and rosters in use for all the Clans, the staff has been looking into reintroducing the allegiances. There is a method that might work with Google Spreadsheets, but before we go too far into it we'd like your feedback!
Reducing the Allegiances
Ideally, we would like to reduce the allegiances to only include cats active in the Clan to provide an accurate Clan count for leader reference and to help make decisions when it comes to plots (including who wins battles!)
The issue comes into play when users have a bunch of characters in every Clan-- most to the point where they are largely inactive or unused. It's hard to keep up with characters when you have a lot of them, and it throws Clan counts off when these characters sit on the Clan lists and do nothing to provide for their Clan. Some of these characters even get assigned to patrols and still aren't roleplayed.
So, to counter this we would like to reduce the number of characters a roleplayer can have to
five cats total per Clan, meaning you could still have up to twenty Clan cats throughout all the Clans and an unlimited amount of outsiders.
Characters over this would not be included on the allegiances or be considered part of the Clan. Additionally, characters not used within two weeks will likely be removed from the allegiances (though this is dependent on the leader!) and be considered missing or deceased until they resumed being roleplayed or are confirmed dead.
How the Allegiances Will Work
CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLE!
If you've clicked the link above, you'll see we've embedded a spreadsheet onto the site.
Each 'tab' switches to a list for each Clan, then a Patrol Posting for all the Clans, and finally a Missing section for characters who've gone inactive.
Leaders and deputies will primarily be responsible for keeping their parts of the list updated, as well as approving new characters coming into the Clan. Patrol postings will be updated after deputies send out patrols for that week. We plan on including leaderboards to help keep track of how active the Clans are with patrols and what characters frequently do them.
The Missing tab is where characters removed from the main list go. These characters will still be considered a part of the Clan, but since they're missing you can fill their slot with a new character if you wish. Of course, if you wanted a 'missing' cat to return, you'd need to remove one of your current characters if your fifth slot is already in use.
Pros of this update:
- An accurate Clan count! While the rosters try to keep tabs on their Clan-mates, they are solely for people interested in being placed on patrols or being assigned mentors/apprentices. Many users opt to not include their characters on this, throwing off the number of how many cats are actually in each Clan.
- Provides a more realistic roleplay! In the books, the Clans were tight-knitted in the sense if you lived in the Clan, you know your Clan-mates fairly well. WCO lacks that with a surge of dozens of hardly used characters that come and go in waves. By reducing that number, you gain a bustling community of Clan-mates who don't need to introduce themselves to cats within their own Clan.
- Characters will be active and have a better chance to make meaningful relationships with other cats!
- Detecting intruders will be more feasible, as cats outside of the allegiances will not be considered part of the Clan.
- Assist in plot decisions, as larger Clans will have a better chance of winning battles over smaller Clans. Clan activity is a crucial part in determining the results of battles. This will also help leaders keep track of who should be participating in plots and act accordingly if characters don't show up.
- Leaders and their deputies will be given access to the document, so they are able to maintain their own Clan's list. Staff will also have access and be able to lend a hand if some high ranks are unable to maintain their allegiances.
- This would replace Clan Rosters, meaning all characters on this list are fair game to be placed on patrols. Patrol postings will also be included on this for easy reference.
Cons of this update:
- Characters will have to be accepted into Clans to ensure users aren't going over their character limit. Leaders would be responsible for accepting cats.
- Semi-active users may have some issues being active enough with their cats to avoid them 'going missing.'
- Less characters, meaning roleplayers exceeding 5 cats per Clan will have to make some decisions on who they want to keep and develop.
Warrior Cats Online wouldn't be itself if we forced this on you guys! Before we do anything, we'd like your feedback on the poll provided. If you feel like voicing your thoughts below, you're free to! Comments are always open.