Help My Linkshell SE

[Biggs]

First let me start by saying, I have stayed loyal to this game since beta, and I believe it is heading in the right direction. That being said: You have killed my linkshell SE, and I gotta say, I am pretty salty about it.

When this game first started I created a linkshell I was (and still am) very proud of. I loved the name, I loved the people that joined, it was everything out of a linkshell one could want. We quickly grew to max capacity. Then, sometime in Dec, a bug forced us to have to dump that linkshell and create another. (it had to do with certain people having a giant red x through their linkshell logo, but whatever).

Shortly after the announcment that the new team was taking over, and it became very appearent that changes would take a while, well over 80% of my linkshells members (and many other linkshells members as well) quit playing. Sad, but what could I do? I still chose to carry on. Problem now is, in order to gather new members, I need more room, and guess what?! I cant boot any of these people that don't play anymore.

Now I know that the dev team is hard at work getting ready to (hopefully) rock our faces off, but truth be told, this seems like something that could easily be fixed. I just feel like those of us that have been the most loyal to you all while you straiten all this out are getting the shortest end of the stick. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, its just, My linkshell is part of who I am, and after being forced to dump it once, I refuse to give it up again. Will I have to wait until sometime at the end of the year before I can manage my own ls? If so, please let me know so I can put a pot of coffee on and break out War and Peace, cause its gonna be a lonely year for your ol pal Biggs.

Cheers from the Altepan Warriors! -Kashuan

[Vahzl]

A removal of pearls while offline function would be nice. Linkshells need to be more solid than the text line they are in their current state. The game doesn't seem to encourage loyalty to one shell, which is a shame. Hopefully the LS leader will gain more control soon.

[Biggs]

The lack of ls loyalty in this game really bothers me as well. There is no incentive to just stay on one shell. I really feel like this is one of the major ways SE is not supporting the current community. If it was any other issue I feel like it would be ok to wait on, but this seems like a simple fix and the lack of attention to it by SE shows me they aren't supporting the last few people that have been supporting them.

[Zacko]

The lack of ls loyalty in this game really bothers me as well. There is no incentive to just stay on one shell. I really feel like this is one of the major ways SE is not supporting the current community.

While i strongly agree Linkshell leaders and officers need a lot more options to manage shells...i really do not understand the loyalty thing you're talking about.

Do you want SE to force us to be loyal to one LS? Hell not even in XI did that happen lol
In my opinion, a system like it is now, where you can be in multiple linkshells and chat between them (see chat from LS you don't have equipped...i just wish we could switch them faster lol) is great, an improvement over XI and damn, even improves and supports community/socializing in my opinion.
I've met some nice people from various linkshells and it's always nice to switch LS and chat with them.

I'm always for freedom of choice, player is either going to be loyal...or not, I do not see any reason for SE to "force" players to be loyal to single LS.

If things like endgame (one day lol) bothers you, where you don't want people who do not have pearl on to see the chat, SE could simply add option to temp. hide LS chat from players who do not have a pearl on.

If i misunderstood what you were trying to say, then i apologize
Again, I'm all for better LS management options.

[Biggs]

Oh I did't mean to imply the loyalty thing was SE's fault exactly (I should have phrased that paragraph better). Only that their halfassed attempt at a linkshell system combined with the lack of content in the game has many needlessly bouncing from linkshell to linkshell in search of more active groups. If they just tweeked the current system so that multiple shells could talk with each other without having to equip and de-equip linkshells to do so (like a /l (2) (3) text..... command), maybe the shells that still have members could collaborate more instead of the way it is now. Seems like I hear plenty of people talk to me that don't want to get caught wearing another shell to talk to friends for fear of reprisal from their main ls. The current state of the ls system seems to be forcing compitition for numbers instead of generating attempts at alliances and friendship.

Also, trying to invite new people to an ls thats full of people that no longer log on to play doesn't help me to keep new people for long.

[Shai]

I'm also pretty sure you can break & recreate an LS with the same name.

Make a dummy LS and try it. The LS I'm in (not leader) has broken & reformed at least 2x since Retail Launch. Each time I've simply logged on and been told my LS no longer exists and then I go pick up a new one. It left an annoying empty spot in my LS list (which was later annoyingly filled by another LS) but other than that it was no big deal. ^^

[CrystalObsidian]

While i strongly agree Linkshell leaders and officers need a lot more options to manage shells...i really do not understand the loyalty thing you're talking about.

Do you want SE to force us to be loyal to one LS? Hell not even in XI did that happen lol
In my opinion, a system like it is now, where you can be in multiple linkshells and chat between them (see chat from LS you don't have equipped...i just wish we could switch them faster lol) is great, an improvement over XI and damn, even improves and supports community/socializing in my opinion.
I've met some nice people from various linkshells and it's always nice to switch LS and chat with them.

I wouldn't want SE to force anyone to stay with one group either, but I have to agree with Biggs in that people who just bounce from one ls to another is kind of bothersome.. Me and my partner, who founded our ls, have been working hard lately to try and recruit people to our ls (not for numbers of course, but to have friends to help out, call upon, or just talk to..). The good news is we got a lot of people on it lately, and were excited to play with them. But the past week, despite logging on A LOT, none of our new members seem to be on, or if they are then our LS isn't even equipped on them >.>

I even saw one of our new members standing around in a camp..without any LS equipped at all. Me, and the few other active members have been hunting NMs lately, but without any of our new members to call to help out, we just ended up having other LS's help us instead, as usual >.<

Sorry for the long text, but my point is, it really is heartbreaking knowing that you worked so hard to get people to join you one minute, and the next they're not even going to bother to stay with you

[Biggs]

I wouldn't want SE to force anyone to stay with one group either, but I have to agree with Biggs in that people who just bounce from one ls to another is kind of bothersome.. Me and my partner, who founded our ls, have been working hard lately to try and recruit people to our ls (not for numbers of course, but to have friends to help out, call upon, or just talk to..). The good news is we got a lot of people on it lately, and were excited to play with them. But the past week, despite logging on A LOT, none of our new members seem to be on, or if they are then our LS isn't even equipped on them >.>

I even saw one of our new members standing around in a camp..without any LS equipped at all. Me, and the few other active members have been hunting NMs lately, but without any of our new members to call to help out, we just ended up having other LS's help us instead, as usual >.<

Sorry for the long text, but my point is, it really is heartbreaking knowing that you worked so hard to get people to join you one minute, and the next they're not even going to bother to stay with you

Part of it is because of the anonimity (sp?) that comes from the system itself. It still shows those people as logged on, and you can't tell when they are on another shell unless you physically see them, which makes people less fearful of how jumping around may or may not look.

That being said let me just say to the player base, even though it is hard to find people to play with right now since many have left, instead of abandoning you linkshell, show a little support and help work to make it better. I know they may not say anything, but I can promise you that 95% of linkshell leaders really hate what your doing if your jumping from shell to shell.

How about some commradery in a time when we all need it the most? If all the people that jumped around just stayed put in one shell, I really feel like this lull in game content wouldn't be hurting us all so bad.

Just my perspective though.

[Zacko]

I wouldn't want SE to force anyone to stay with one group either, but I have to agree with Biggs in that people who just bounce from one ls to another is kind of bothersome.. Me and my partner, who founded our ls, have been working hard lately to try and recruit people to our ls (not for numbers of course, but to have friends to help out, call upon, or just talk to..). The good news is we got a lot of people on it lately, and were excited to play with them. But the past week, despite logging on A LOT, none of our new members seem to be on, or if they are then our LS isn't even equipped on them >.>

I even saw one of our new members standing around in a camp..without any LS equipped at all. Me, and the few other active members have been hunting NMs lately, but without any of our new members to call to help out, we just ended up having other LS's help us instead, as usual >.<

Sorry for the long text, but my point is, it really is heartbreaking knowing that you worked so hard to get people to join you one minute, and the next they're not even going to bother to stay with you

Oh I understand you completely, but unfortunately that's how people are :/

You are seeing this from LS leader position, but if you look at it from members point of view, it's much more beneficial for player to be a member of multiple linkshells. One reason is that not many people play the game atm, sometimes it even hard to find leve/grinding/NM group even withing multiple linkshells...be it rank difference, willingness do to do certain thing you need or something third.

Right now people are often "forced" to look further than just one linkshell to achieve their goals. It happened just yesterday when a guy in LS was asking for help/links with his leves, and there was nobody of his rank who could help him...across 2 quite big linkshells, at least 40/50 (probably more) people online...either people were busy, not online or not of his rank...so obviously he has to get help somewhere else at that time.

You have to understand one thing, loyalty is born of interest (at least in MMOs lol).
XI endgame linkshells are example...i was in one that did everything...when I joined I knew maybe 1-2 people...and I didn't join because of friends and chatter, I joined because i wanted to get things done. All of us in that LS shared the same goal, same interest and so the loyalty to that LS was born...sure after a while you become friends with members, but as long as your interest/goal is same as rest of the members, you're fine...when that is gone...you pretty much move on (either leave or kicked).
Another example from XI is different interest groups....sky ls, dynamis ls, sea ls...salvage ls, etc...linkshells formed for people of same interest, from various different people who are already members of other linkshells.

This is just one example, of course there are linkshells formed from friends (social linkshells if you want to call them like that), but those people also share same goal, have fun with friends or meet new people...potential friends, do something together, have fun, even do endgame...etc.

Right now, it's really hard for low member linkshells to recruit more members simply because there's not many people playing, and chances are bigger that you will loose members to big and already (lets say) established linkshells than you will recruit people from them. Just because people in large linkshells have more options.
It's hard for you to keep members, if they often don't have anything to do with rest of the members.

I'm sorry if this sounded rude at some point, but that is my opinion based on what I experienced in XI and XIV so far.

I guess we can only hope things will go better when there's more people playing

[Yisi]

The lack of ls loyalty in this game really bothers me as well. There is no incentive to just stay on one shell.

I personally love the way people join multiple LS's. When I am on later at night I know one shell has active members, as well as when I am on earlier in the day. When it comes to taking out NM's for top line gear (dodore doublet, tricorne hat, etc) I may help multiple LS's, but I will only take rewards from one LS, as well as making them the priority if multiple shells are doing the same thing. Personally I think not taking care of the hand that feeds you is rather douchy.