As players come and go leagues will surge and wane. Often we'll see players leaving one dying (or dead) league to find home in another which they hope is more active. In other instances we might see a small league disband to join with another, sometimes that smaller league is just the remnants of what was once a large, robust league. What I seek to address is that latter instance. With league halls, Prestige, statuary and furniture donations (sometimes those items can be rare or impossible to get any longer, like the SOE Live base items) it makes leaving those things behind a potentially ridiculous cost (well, except for the statuary, those are a monthly turnover). It also sets up a scenario where a returning player might log in to only to believe none of their old league-mates play any longer because the active players moved to another league. This player then logs back out to not return to the game due to a false perception. What I propose is a way to merge/absorb leagues. **NOTE: Please keep in mind that in most instances both parties would have discussed things like leadership, league names, etc. well ahead of beginning the process. Those which didn't, well... it would server to teach them a valuable lesson about carts and horses. Absorption: -This would be one league's roster joining another league. Their league base items, Prestige and roster would transfer over at the next server reboot. Merger: -This would be two leagues coming together to create a new league. Their league base items, Prestige and rosters would transfer over at the next server reboot. Possible Mechanics (or "What Could This Look Like"): -A new Officer ability would be created. A league officer would have to target an officer of another league then activate the ability in the UI (it would be like trying to make a trade). This would initiate the offer of potential merger or absorption (in the latter case, which would be being absorbed). -If the absorption/merger would end up creating a roster larger than the 500-member limit, the two officers will be shown a roster list (both leagues in case of merger, of just the league to be absorbed in the case of absorption) to choose which characters will be omitted in order to get below the limit. -If accepted it would generate an ingame email to all active officers in both leagues (active = has played at least 3 hours in the last 6 months) and showing any members being excluded. This would require a simple yes/no vote. The vote does not pass unless 2/3 (or maybe 3/4?) is reached. Potential issues: -Should the vote be opened to all members? Should the decision on whether that is delegated to all members be an Officer ability? -What happens if there are no active officers in a League? Perhaps there should be an inactivity timer that allows for someone to be auto-promoted to Officer (or even Leader) if there hasn't been an Officer (or Leader) active as defined above? -If someone becomes a Leader due to the inactivity as defined above, does that automatically demote the previous Leader (dev question - can there be more than one league creator, or whatever the nomenclature is)? -In the case of a Merger, Officership could be brought over normally but Leadership would have to be decided somewhere in the process ahead of time (unless there can be two, see dev question above). Maybe in the initial UI? I know it probably has a lot of holes but thought it might be something others would be interested in as well (or at least spark some interesting ideas for discussion).
I have been playing for over six years and in that time not one single change or quality of life improvement has been made to how leagues work.
