An Alternative to Throwing Little Guys Under a Bus

[ifireallymust]

First: Don't delay the start for everyone except tribes of 5+. This is too easy to abuse. Tribes can form and reform until at least one member has a tribal totem on every decent spot in the game. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but if a tribe drops to below 5, that totem doesn't go away, or at least doesn't go away right away, leaving ample time for a tribe member's alt to change it to a homestead if that is ever necessary at all, and still blocking a legitimate claim).

Do let large tribes (15+ or maybe 20+) choose a location and place their totem, with guide oversight. But only if the large tribes can agree amongst themselves on who is placing where. If they can't come to an agreement, they fail at politics and certainly shouldn't have any advantage over solo players and small tribes (that last part was aimed directly at those who claim solo players and small tribes need to 'play more politics' by the way).

Then all the members of the large tribes who have placed their totems must log immediately out of the game and not log back into the game until after the rest of us have had three hours or so to place our totems.

This way, no one can abuse an extra early start by forming and reforming tribes for alts and friends or by splitting into a bunch of 5+ or 10+ tribes for launch day to take as much of the map as possible.

Yet the truly big tribes don't have to worry about losing those areas most suited to large settlements.

It might also help with any possible lag issues.

It will put a stop to the big tribes pointing fingers at each other and going back and forth over totem placement on the 18th. With the advantage of a head start for tribes large enough to truly need it and with negotiation beforehand, every one of them will be able to find a suitable location.

This solution will completely eliminate complaints of special treatment based on beta seniority or any other special treatment, since the only consideration is the difficulty a truly large tribe would have in placing their totem properly on suitable land in the midst of a general land rush.

[Jadzia]

This wouldn't be a bad solution but I'm afraid its not possible to make it. How could tribes prove their member count ? How can the devs force the big tribes' members to log out after they placed the totem and not to log back in after a short while ? Even if they could, what if a tribe has 30 members, they declare 20 as their member count. So 10 of their members will be able to log in during the solo-small tribe session and drop totems everywhere.

[Caffy]

I think that as a totem can hold larger capacity you should lose something to accomodate large numbers. smaller spots should be better than the big spots.

[mrcalhou]

I think that as a totem can hold larger capacity you should lose something to accomodate large numbers. smaller spots should be better than the big spots.

While not exactly pertinent to this topic, I'd certainly favor upkeep on totems.

[mrcalhou]

The employees and "guides" should stay out of it. Period. Wipe the slate clean and let everyone have at it. It's bad enough that tribes can place safe zones over resource nodes; I don't want any developer favoritism. That never does a game good.

[Caffy]

I agree with you mrcalhou but it seems that the whole launch deal on Feb 18 has people so uptight. I feel like the current state of the game isn't near finished and we should look to good solutions to this issue but probably after the real launch is closer to hand.

[mrcalhou]

It's not really surprising that it has people so uptight. Totem placement represents a significant advantage for tribes. The way many of the game systems are set up, as of right now, is very imbalanced. You set up a totem near a good bunch of junk piles and you are set. So what we're most likely going to see is the rise of the power tribes that were able to set their totems by all the resources and then all the have-nots are going to be clamoring around with little but their pre-order weapon, relatively speaking of course.

[Caffy]

I would just like to see people looking for solutions instead of worrying about wether they will get screwed or not. The game hasn't launched (it has been pushed back) yet so it will still be an issue to look at as we get closer to launch (which could still get pushed back more).