Coalition Expansion votes

[sweetidealism]

It's nearly tally time, so I took the liberty of checking which type of expansion was winning out for each coalition.

Turns out? Coalition flag, every one of them.

I cannot help but feel that this is because Coalition flag is the first option on the list. Therefore, when the majority of people are just mashing the Enter key to blitz through the text, they end up voting for it without really knowing or caring what it does. This severely damages the chances of any other sort of expansion being possible. Indeed, despite a large-scale concerted effort to push for improving the Peacekeepers' coalition's signboard (really, those head and body pieces are beautiful!) the flag still won.

My suggestion for a solution is that an "Abstain." option be added to the top of the list. That way, those that don't care can continue to mash enter without adversely affecting those that DO care. Thoughts?

[Demon6324236]

Agreed, its annoying that people are just picking the top options without looking to see what things even do, there are some real reasons to pick one of the three, and people who care are outweighed by people who do not.

[Sapphire]

I already hit like, and just wanted to say this is one of the most sensible, well thought out posts I've seen in ages. A real issue, with a sensible solution posted.

And yes, this morning's results across several servers have proven this is exactly what happened.

[Concerned4FFxi]

I think a rank should be given based upon one's total completion of SOA, and based upon that rank people get to vote. this way, people who take the time to do the content can be heard over those who do not care nor take time to educate themselves on the different affects an option has.

[Louispv]

Hopefully once we get the Flag, there will only be the other 2 options remaining, and we'll just go down the list. Assuming everyone doesn't just stop and move to a different coalition and we lose the flag the next week.

[Luvbunny]

This reminds me of Campaign all over again. And we all know how successful that event is... Same goes to Walk of Echoes, which is dead even during Japan prime time. A complete ghost town, a total failure. I sure do hope they actually read this forum and take our suggestions and feedbacks. And they really need to work on giving us FULL explanation on what everything means on their update list. Even if it ends up becoming a wall of text of 15 pages. At least it is there for people who do look for information.

[sweetidealism]

I think a rank should be given based upon one's total completion of SOA, and based upon that rank people get to vote. this way, people who take the time to do the content can be heard over those who do not care nor take time to educate themselves on the different affects an option has.

That could be helpful, but I don't think that would work as a solution on its own because if people are completing coalition tasks, then that would imply that those people are actively completing other SoA content, too.

On a side note, it seems as though such a system may already be in place. When you speak to a Civil Registrar, you can ask for "Your current standing" which will give you a measure of how much you've contributed to that coalition so far. It's possible that, as you increase in rank, your vote will count for more; similar to Campaign's optional voting system, except your rank is exclusive to that coalition.

Hopefully once we get the Flag, there will only be the other 2 options remaining, and we'll just go down the list. Assuming everyone doesn't just stop and move to a different coalition and we lose the flag the next week.

Checking again today, it appears that is indeed the case. Still, it would be preferable to have been able to prioritize. So long as this sampling bias remains, they may as well have simply given us the bonuses in that order and done away with the vote entirely.

[Luvbunny]

Checking again today, it appears that is indeed the case. Still, it would be preferable to have been able to prioritize. So long as this sampling bias remains, they may as well have simply given us the bonuses in that order and done away with the vote entirely.

Totally agree, they really need to SIMPLIFY a lot of things and make it less cumbersome. A lot of these bonuses are similar to the moogle bonus anyway. Why not just make it each coalition will grant you this bonus, at level 1, you get this, and so on and so forth. So this way it lets people spam different coalition task if they want to rank up the bonus, without having us to do vote....

[sweetidealism]

Totally agree, they really need to SIMPLIFY a lot of things and make it less cumbersome. A lot of these bonuses are similar to the moogle bonus anyway. Why not just make it each coalition will grant you this bonus, at level 1, you get this, and so on and so forth. So this way it lets people spam different coalition task if they want to rank up the bonus, without having us to do vote....

It sounds like we're actually not quite in complete agreement. I agree that some things could stand to be simplified, but I feel a voting system is hardly complex. I enjoy that the players' decisions cause real changes in the game. However, I feel the voting system could be executed more effectively. Listing the Coalition flag as the first option is blatant, if unintended, sampling bias. I suggested adding an "Abstain" option to the top of the list because then the first and therefore most likely chosen option would be one that has no effect on the outcome; that outcome would then no longer be confounded by the unintended bias. In other words, my suggestion was to FIX the voting system, NOT to do away with it.

[detlef]

If I'm not mistaken, once you complete a coalition quest, talk to the npc, and are prompted to cast your vote, you can't exit the conversation unless you vote or abstain. There's no option to come back later. So unless you've already researched what the choices do, you're stuck.