Village Policies

[harflimon]

Re: Chief
I'm not really espousing any methodology, I'm just curious what systems various settlements use and how it is working out for them. Community property for all is certainly the simplest, but don't some people feel abused by others logging in, using stuff stored around the settlement w/o contributing anything and then logging back out? Or people using up resources collected by others as part of a larger project? Do you have individual members use small locked chests for project materials? Or are these problems you just haven't encountered?

Well I have no knowledge of the inner workings of the Tribe, but I doubt you'll get a completely straight answer from them either so I'm going to go into full-on speculation mode and answer how I imagine it to be:

The Tribe probably works more like a loose fraternity or a high-school clique than pure communism. There is no specific hierarchy of those in charge, but there is likely an inner core of the most active and popular(read as:1337) who collectively make decisions. The Chief being the most of both of those might be seen as a defacto ruler, but I doubt he wants or has any standardized position.

They undoubtedly share most everything amongst each other, but if someone is seen to not be pulling their weight or "making dem pies" they will get together and kill him/her. I think there has been at least one forum drama thread when a Brave got his ass killed for being a leech. He flipped out and posted about how much backstabbers they were, but they all just laughed at him like the ***** he was. Everyone had a good troll-fest and moved on.


Honestly if you can get this type of group dynamic going it's probably the best there is. Unless there is a falling-out between members, then it might turn ugly, but that's basically true for any style of village you run anyways.

[colesie]

>He says while sitting in California

Jordan Coles
Squirrel Eating Pizza Tribe

You Jelly?

Chief PeePooKaka
MM Tribe

Also Killing Squirrels who steal Pizza Tribe

It's much harder to find pictures of live squirrels than dead ones. And it's even harder to find them eating pizza. So no, I'm not jelly. Internet a little harder plz

Jordan Coles
Squirrel Eating Pizza Tribe

[Shizen]

That can only go so far, though, it seems, Chief. Even with everyone involved having the best of intentions, minimally, at least, some form of communication would seem to be required to avoid accidental use of resources earmarked for other activities. I sort of imagine the MM Tribe hanging out on some skype/vent/irc channel and just sort of asking around. Similarly in the event of needed community contribution, you'd all put out an ad hoc call over the same mechanism. I could see that working for a small group of relatively tight knit players.

Re: harflimon
I tend to agree that a small group of tight knit, motivated players is a great group dynamic. Perhaps that is the only dynamic in effective use on Salem. A larger settlement probably couldn't maintain that sort of community, I would think. I am curious what other settlement charters (as it were) are seeing effective use in Salem. I'm also interested in what settlement policies various players think would make for a successful, or at least a desirable place to live.

In the individual pclaims on a larger vclaim model (I think that was what Schaden was talking about?), who pays the vclaim support?

[harflimon]

That can only go so far, though, it seems, Chief. Even with everyone involved having the best of intentions, minimally, at least, some form of communication would seem to be required to avoid accidental use of resources earmarked for other activities. I sort of imagine the MM Tribe hanging out on some skype/vent/irc channel and just sort of asking around. Similarly in the event of needed community contribution, you'd all put out an ad hoc call over the same mechanism. I could see that working for a small group of relatively tight knit players.

Re: harflimon
I tend to agree that a small group of tight knit, motivated players is a great group dynamic. Perhaps that is the only dynamic in effective use on Salem. A larger settlement probably couldn't maintain that sort of community, I would think. I am curious what other settlement charters (as it were) are seeing effective use in Salem. I'm also interested in what settlement policies various players think would make for a successful, or at least a desirable place to live.

In the individual pclaims on a larger vclaim model (I think that was what Schaden was talking about?), who pays the vclaim support?

Well I'd be surprised if there was a village out there with more than 20 members, or at least more than 20 active members. Again I'm only guessing here, but I'd say there's probably only 10-15 highly active members of the Tribe at max, with perhaps that many active or semi-active underlings. And I'm probably well overestimating it.

When you think about it there's probably only about 300-500 active players on any given server. Perhaps when the game is released or goes into open beta we will see much larger populations and there will be a need for large group dynamics to emerge, but right now I just don't see it happening.


As for paying, I would assume most villages pay for it out of things they sell, either from raiding or producing iron/crops. Most of the stalls in boston are likely owned by a village or group of some sort, I doubt there are many individuals who could pay that type of money or keep a stall stocked by themselves. Edit: I misread, you were asking about that in an individualistic village, which I have no idea how they'd work that. For a small village it's not exactly an exorbitant amount so it might just be a non-issue for some of the wealthier members to pay it.

[jwhitehorn]

Well I have no knowledge of the inner workings of the Tribe, but I doubt you'll get a completely straight answer from them either so I'm going to go into full-on speculation mode and answer how I imagine it to be:

The Tribe probably works more like a loose fraternity or a high-school clique than pure communism. There is no specific hierarchy of those in charge, but there is likely an inner core of the most active and popular(read as:1337) who collectively make decisions. The Chief being the most of both of those might be seen as a defacto ruler, but I doubt he wants or has any standardized position.

They undoubtedly share most everything amongst each other, but if someone is seen to not be pulling their weight or "making dem pies" they will get together and kill him/her. I think there has been at least one forum drama thread when a Brave got his ass killed for being a leech. He flipped out and posted about how much backstabbers they were, but they all just laughed at him like the ***** he was. Everyone had a good troll-fest and moved on.


Honestly if you can get this type of group dynamic going it's probably the best there is. Unless there is a falling-out between members, then it might turn ugly, but that's basically true for any style of village you run anyways.

..... This guy is pretty good. I R a bit scurred now.

Chief PeePooKaKa
MM Tribe

[MagicManICT]

I met more than a few groups (all pretty large) that ran the same way as jwhitehorn describes in EVE. The small alliance I helped run ran that way. Everything was more or less community. Everyone pulled their weight, be it mining, running missions, gate camping, whatever. When it came time for fights, everything was replaced by the group unless you wanted something extra. Even then, there might be supplies floating around on occasion.

I'd like to speak of my experiences in HnH or Salem, but I've always stayed a solo player. I enjoy the game, but I'm the lazy sort when it comes to faction warfare. I want my action quick and dirty and be able to easily pick up afterward and try something different. That's hard to do in games like EVE (lots of prep work into changing strategies) or HnH/Salem (potentially lots of rebuild time after losing a character and/or settlement).

[Shiala]

The last time I tried to run a village it was me, my husband, and several people I've gamed with for years. In theory, it should have been a well coordinated group but I underestimated how much slacking there would be without strict enforcement. I'm pretty damn productive with my gaming time and I expected others to be the same way. It ended up being me and two other people who were doing almost all of the building, foraging, and food prep. The other 5 or so considered hauling a handful of logs over to be a serious contribution to building. They never helped gather food, cook, or round up things to study but always ate tons of food and used the study items. I eventually got sick of the whole thing and the fact that no one ever listened to me so I struck out to set up a hermitage with my husband and handed over leadership to someone else. The new leader took a vastly different approach. He wanted to charge taxes and force people to contribute or they would be told to gtfo. He never got the chance to boot anyone because everyone else told him to shove it and went their separate ways.

With the right mix of people, any method can work. I had the total wrong mix and haven't bothered with a village ever since. It's less annoying and more efficient for me and my husband to just do it ourselves. We have total control over everything. I do know a couple of people who can keep pace with us and I would invite them to join us in a heartbeat but they're not interested in playing right now.