How do I rebuild a Free Company

I was just recently given the Master Rank of the FC I'm in and I need advice on how to rebuild it.

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Originally Posted by AdamuKun322

I was just recently given the Master Rank of the FC I'm in and I need advice on how to rebuild it.

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Maybe the question flew right over my head because I've only been in the second spot but what do you mean rebuild?

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Originally Posted by Shougun

Maybe the question flew right over my head because I've only been in the second spot but what do you mean rebuild?

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The former and original master purge a lot of inactives. So, I'm trying to figure out how to rebuild our member numbers.

Seriously? That's like asking the question "How do I make friends?" The answers are so myriad that the question is a weird thing to ask.

Post on forums
Shout in high-population areas
Perform sexual favors
Make friends and add them
Scout out newbies
etc

You want people to know that your FC exists. /Shout to let them know. And what is the FC goal? Is it Casual friendly or Hardcore? Add that in your /Shout.
Take inspiration from other FC /shouts. I bet you've seen atleast one or two of them. But dont Copy+Paste. Never Copy+Paste another FC's /Shout. It makes you look unserious.

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Originally Posted by AdamuKun322

The former and original master purge a lot of inactives. So, I'm trying to figure out how to rebuild our member numbers.

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Ah, well Raldo and Evergrey have got you coverd :P

Except maybe don't do Raldo's third recommended task - I'm not sure how the GMs would appreciate those cases lol.

While rebuilding check your permissions on inviting/promoting and the free company chest, you don't want anyone to be able to promote you don't trust (I've heard an exploit is possible through that). Also same for chests, you don't want people you don't trust to have access to the most expensive items in your FC chest. Consider other things like gardening and housing arrangements as well, who can move stuff - more particularly REMOVE? Like Gardening, someone could gather another person's plants. You should think ahead on these issues if you are looking to get a group larger than few close friends.

IMO, getting an FC started is the hardest part.

For starters, you need a goal, something to offer and a reason why people should/would want to join your FC over others. Casual/hardcore is a good start, but there's plenty of FCs with those tags already- you want a bit more. For example, my FC is 'casual' but we expand that as 'we're a casual fc that accepts anyone but focuses on newer players, or players who are shy or anxious about getting into endgame, and we progress at our own pace'


Once you know your goal, the hard part happens- getting people and keeping them. Recruiting people isn't really hard, but unless you have a few good, active people already in the FC at various times of day, its likely people will join, see how quiet it is, and leave. If you have a few people around that can be sure to talk to new members and make them want to stay, thats a big hurdle out of the way.

You should also come up with rules early on, to avoid drama later, and enforce them. If someone's doing something 'wrong' it's much easier to tell them to stop or leave if you already have a rule in place, rather than making it up as things happen and potentially have people accuse you or others of picking on them.

It's also pretty handy to make a LS and invite friends from different FCs into it to help get events going. My own FC uses an LS to chat all the time, because we allied ourselves with another FC (and have other friends from various other FCs in there as well) and never use FC chat. In the early days when we didn't have enough people to form our own regular events, having that LS really helped, and it's continued to make both of our FCs active and fun places.

Take a moment to figure out WHY people should join your FC. With nothing unique to offer, why should anyone choose you over all the others that honestly have nothing unique to offer either? There are many FCs that provide skilled raiders, but the ones that are top generally get the majority of players. There are plenty of FCs that provide a great PVP environment, but again, the ones at the top get the most publicity. Casual FCs are everywhere, and being unique takes a whole lot of ingenuity. My FC was quite easy to promote, since the alternative life style bit is almost never played up enough. Sure, plenty of FCs are friendly, but the rarity comes in finding one that is almost solely driven by making not just an accepting environment, but one that celebrates those of the LGBT.

So take a moment to really consider what you can offer, what edge you can promote with, what skills you can provide, what knowledge you can impart, and what is special about you and your company. Otherwise, you'll be looking at the same thing that can be found anywhere else.

Looking through the ranks. There is one Rank I can't remove for some reason. It's grayed out.

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Originally Posted by AdamuKun322

Looking through the ranks. There is one Rank I can't remove for some reason. It's grayed out.

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You can't remove the default Member rank. It may have been renamed, but that's a default that you can only edit or rename, never remove. It's the rank that a new member gets assigned to as soon as he joins the FC.

Make sure Rank permissions are all set safe:

- No chest Gil withdrawal access to newcomers (yes to donations, of course);
- Rank shift rights only to your trusted members (it is odd, but you can give a member a rank higher than your one.. bug (overlook?) still not fixed...);