SG Base Griefing? Proper SG recruiting? Care and Feeding?

Have any of you had problems with someone in your SG looting the
place? I've been lucky so far...

I have a pretty liberal policy. I only have two requirements for
joining up, and that is:

A: You must write up a description. Anyone who won't spend a minimum
of time to write out even the simplest backstory is missing out on the
best way to conceptualize your character and maybe come up with a
flavor for your character to roleplay. I've seen level 40+ characters
with no description and it leaves me scratching my head. A
description means you put a LITTLE thought, at least, into the
character.

B: You have to play in SG mode. Well, duh. For lowbie chars, its not
a big deal, and even IF there is less influence earned, my next step
compensates for that.

Once you have agreed to these requirements and signed up, I give the
new recruit a 20,000 influence signing bonus. Why? Well, that buys a
LOT of good will and enhancements, and can pretty much set up a
starting character to succeed up to where he/she is seriously
considering which movement powers he wants.

It also culls the cheats and thieves. I have had 3 recuits bail on
me. 1 claimed ignorance and that they never got the funds, then
logged off laughing, another apologised and said that his best friend
wanted him in their SG, (he kept the money though...thanks!) and
another accepted, then logged out and never relogged.

Most everyone else, has stayed on. Once I see them earn about 1000
prestige, I promote them to lieutenant, and then they have access to
the inspires/enhancements/etc.

This seems like a reasonable trade, since I don't know how much it
would cost me to BUY prestige, (isn't it like 1 mil inf to get a
thousand prestige?) and once they are on, I figure they will stay on
barring some friend pulling them away or the user wanting to try their
own hand at base building. Plus I'm the one giving them something up
front.

I regularly refill the inspire storage so there is plenty on hand at
all times, and I even bought 20-30 assorted enhancements of multiple
DO type and generics, and I dump any non-mutant big drops off my level
48 to the table too. (I suggest to any teammates online that they can
take 1 or 2 of the big ones to finance a purchase, otherwise its "take
only what you need" kinda thing. So far, I have had no RJ Raccoons in
the team. My level 15 martial artist / regen scrapper, who has all
IO, dumps her enhancements on the table regularly too.

I have encouraged teammates to use the SG channel for roleplaying, and
while we have yet to have a formal SG online team meeting, I am
thinking about planning one, maybe in october.

Once I had a full SG, I implemented a 60 day aging rule, so all you
had to do was log in once every 60 days to avoid the boot. A few
people signed on, never logging back on, and so 0 prestige new lowbies
were dumped after 30 days. I had a couple players that obviously had
leveled more than once without earning any prestige, and a politely
worded email reminded them to engage SG mode. For most, that was
enough to bring them in line. The remaining couple players that
ignored that, got dumped. But no great loss, I was out 20k, but
people that were in SG mode stay in SG mode usually, and as long as I
make the base a useful place to be they won't want to lose being in
the SG.

I assume that having the Invention Storage Vault in the base will be a
great member hook. Once you are used to storing your stuff there you
won't want to quit. Otherwise they'd have to make the jump to pocket
D every time they need to unload, and at the base there is an
invention station right next to the storage for convenience.

So, I have made the base attractive, I have installed all the user
gizmos that I think they can use, I have placed items in different
rooms so they can quickly get to what they want but will probably
linger a minute or two longer (so maybe they will bump into each other
at the base). And I have picked beacons that would be the most useful
for new recuits. What else can you suggest?

Recruiting tip! Do your recruiting in Atlas next to the sewer
entrance. That is where serious players head when they want to get
their characters going quickly, and that is the same 'target market'
that would appreciate a 20k influence boost to start things off right.
Also, if you can recruit 2-4 at once, you have an instant team that
will level together, go to the base together, and have some longevity
with each other over time. If you can lurk, you can watch the
prestige counters go up and praise them publically when they hit the
1000 prestige mark, promote them in front of their teammates, and then
when they take the death express to get out of the sewers they can
choose to restock for free at the base or swing to the hospital and
train up with Miss Liberty en route.

Catch me anytime on Freedom Server West Coast Defenders, with
Spectrum as Leader.

Suggestions?

"Amigoid" <lbrown-amigoid DeleteThis @comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1186791584.298276.139720@57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com...
| Have any of you had problems with someone in your SG looting the
| place? I've been lucky so far...
|
| I have a pretty liberal policy. I only have two requirements for
| joining up, and that is:
|
| A: You must write up a description. Anyone who won't spend a minimum
| of time to write out even the simplest backstory is missing out on the
| best way to conceptualize your character and maybe come up with a
| flavor for your character to roleplay. I've seen level 40+ characters
| with no description and it leaves me scratching my head. A
| description means you put a LITTLE thought, at least, into the
| character.
|
| B: You have to play in SG mode. Well, duh. For lowbie chars, its not
| a big deal, and even IF there is less influence earned, my next step
| compensates for that.
|
| Once you have agreed to these requirements and signed up, I give the
| new recruit a 20,000 influence signing bonus. Why? Well, that buys a
| LOT of good will and enhancements, and can pretty much set up a
| starting character to succeed up to where he/she is seriously
| considering which movement powers he wants.
|
| It also culls the cheats and thieves. I have had 3 recuits bail on
| me. 1 claimed ignorance and that they never got the funds, then
| logged off laughing, another apologised and said that his best friend
| wanted him in their SG, (he kept the money though...thanks!) and
| another accepted, then logged out and never relogged.
|
| Most everyone else, has stayed on. Once I see them earn about 1000
| prestige, I promote them to lieutenant, and then they have access to
| the inspires/enhancements/etc.
|
| This seems like a reasonable trade, since I don't know how much it
| would cost me to BUY prestige, (isn't it like 1 mil inf to get a
| thousand prestige?) and once they are on, I figure they will stay on
| barring some friend pulling them away or the user wanting to try their
| own hand at base building. Plus I'm the one giving them something up
| front.
|
| I regularly refill the inspire storage so there is plenty on hand at
| all times, and I even bought 20-30 assorted enhancements of multiple
| DO type and generics, and I dump any non-mutant big drops off my level
| 48 to the table too. (I suggest to any teammates online that they can
| take 1 or 2 of the big ones to finance a purchase, otherwise its "take
| only what you need" kinda thing. So far, I have had no RJ Raccoons in
| the team. My level 15 martial artist / regen scrapper, who has all
| IO, dumps her enhancements on the table regularly too.
|
| I have encouraged teammates to use the SG channel for roleplaying, and
| while we have yet to have a formal SG online team meeting, I am
| thinking about planning one, maybe in october.
|
| Once I had a full SG, I implemented a 60 day aging rule, so all you
| had to do was log in once every 60 days to avoid the boot. A few
| people signed on, never logging back on, and so 0 prestige new lowbies
| were dumped after 30 days. I had a couple players that obviously had
| leveled more than once without earning any prestige, and a politely
| worded email reminded them to engage SG mode. For most, that was
| enough to bring them in line. The remaining couple players that
| ignored that, got dumped. But no great loss, I was out 20k, but
| people that were in SG mode stay in SG mode usually, and as long as I
| make the base a useful place to be they won't want to lose being in
| the SG.
|
| I assume that having the Invention Storage Vault in the base will be a
| great member hook. Once you are used to storing your stuff there you
| won't want to quit. Otherwise they'd have to make the jump to pocket
| D every time they need to unload, and at the base there is an
| invention station right next to the storage for convenience.
|
| So, I have made the base attractive, I have installed all the user
| gizmos that I think they can use, I have placed items in different
| rooms so they can quickly get to what they want but will probably
| linger a minute or two longer (so maybe they will bump into each other
| at the base). And I have picked beacons that would be the most useful
| for new recuits. What else can you suggest?
|
| Recruiting tip! Do your recruiting in Atlas next to the sewer
| entrance. That is where serious players head when they want to get
| their characters going quickly, and that is the same 'target market'
| that would appreciate a 20k influence boost to start things off right.
| Also, if you can recruit 2-4 at once, you have an instant team that
| will level together, go to the base together, and have some longevity
| with each other over time. If you can lurk, you can watch the
| prestige counters go up and praise them publically when they hit the
| 1000 prestige mark, promote them in front of their teammates, and then
| when they take the death express to get out of the sewers they can
| choose to restock for free at the base or swing to the hospital and
| train up with Miss Liberty en route.
|
| Catch me anytime on Freedom Server West Coast Defenders, with
| Spectrum as Leader.
|
| Suggestions?

You're doing the basic stuff right.
The real shame is we cannot tag gifts "I would guess in a Holiday Gift
Box" for SG members exclusively.
Just create an exclusive present for a member and leave it somewhere in
the base (to not clutter the zones).

Right now I can drop some goodies for the other base members in a
storage item, but cannot deny that item to others to make it an exclusive
reward. With a "Supergroup Gift Box", certain members can be rewarded with
items for their efforts even if the gift giver isn't online at this moment.
The gift could have a player typed "Message Tag" (which could be used for
abuse statements, but that all evens out given that this could be done with
snide /tells if both are online) or a generic tag from a premade Development
Team created list.

I would assume that this could be extended into an in-base Easter Egg
hunt later if desired (click an item, if an "egged" gift is in there an egg
pops out which then can be clicked for whatever exclusive-gift for another
player is inside = salvage or enhancements or purchasable temp powers or
influence) pretty easy. Getting the "game explaination" for how this works
and deciding how to limit "spoilage" after the event is over would be
tricky, but not impossible.

Any way, back to the point. Bases are for creating a "family" of
strangers with similar interests in the best concept or cheap level
enhancement gifting at worst. The thing to remember with any base is that
if none of the team can tweak it aside from the boss, the concept of "shared
ownership" kind of fades. That is why I suggested the "Personal Room" doors
in bases. That way each player could create a private "bedroom" or whatever
but the cost would be in Influence and not Prestige. That would give the
illusion of tweaking the dollhouse a bit and allow folks to fritter away a
bit of time without making the base non-functional for the rest of the
Supergroup. Players need to be encouraged to earn Supergroup Prestige with
a carrot rather than guilt.

Getting new members remains a tricky thing as one cannot demand a person
with free will to submit to the whims of a mostly absent (people have to
work & sleep so that's usually 2/3 of a day not online) leadership.