By LaughingTrendy Fri 03 Jul 2015 09:00:00 AM PDT
Fleet leaders have been asking for improvements to Star Trek Online's Fleet system. We've listened, and the new Armada system that will go live in a future update is intended to help larger Fleets organize as well as giving an option for smaller Fleets who want to band together and help one another out. Here's how it works:
Fleets will soon be able join together to form vast Armadas to share resources and speed up the construction of Fleet Holdings. Armadas are composed of a top level Fleet, called the Alpha Fleet, which can invite up to three other Fleets to become subordinate Beta Fleets. These Beta Fleets can additionally each invite up to three other Fleets to become their subordinate Gamma Fleets, allowing for a maximum Armada size of thirteen Fleets.
All Fleets in an Armada share a new Armada chat channel, and can contribute resources to the Fleet Projects of any other Fleet in the Armada. Fleets will be able to control which projects other Fleets are allowed to donate to, and will be able to control both what resources their Fleet members can donate to other Fleets and what resources other Fleets can donate to them.
All Fleets in an Armada will receive bonuses that increase based on the total Fleet level of all Fleets in the Armada. These bonuses may include Dilithium discounts for Fleet projects or bonus Skill Points. These rewards will also vary based on a Fleet’s position in the Armada, with Alpha Fleets receiving a higher Skill Point bonus than Beta and Gamma Fleets, and Gamma Fleets receiving a higher Dilithium discount than Alpha and Beta Fleets.
However, the Alpha Fleet of an Armada does not have complete control over all of the Fleets in its Armada. The Alpha Fleet can only invite or kick the Beta Fleets directly under it. Beta Fleets in turn are the only Fleets that can invite or kick the three Gamma Fleets under them. Additionally, if a Beta Fleet leaves or is kicked out of an Armada, the Beta Fleet will take all of its Gamma Fleets with them, and will become the Alpha Fleet of a newly-formed Armada, with its Gamma Fleets becoming Beta Fleets.
While any Fleet can leave an Armada at any time, joining an Armada is a big commitment. Any Fleet that joins an Armada will not be able to participate in any of the bonuses or Armada contributions until a probationary period has passed. During this probationary period, any leader of the Fleet above it can kick them out of the Armada with no waiting period necessary. Or, if during the probationary period any one of your Fleet leaders decides the Armada is not the right environment for your Fleet, they can leave the Armada, once again with no waiting period.
The waiting period for leaving/kicking only applies for Fleets with multiple Fleet leaders. During this waiting period, the Fleet cannot participate in any of the bonuses or Armada contributions. The waiting period can be bypassed if all Fleet leaders agree to the leave or kick action. Alternatively, if any of the Fleet leaders disagrees with the kick or leave vote, they can undo the kick or leave any time before the waiting period is up. Hopefully this will help reduce instances of abuse in case a Fleet leader decides to take action without the consent of the other Fleet leaders.
Management Improvements
Additionally, we’ve added a few new features that should make managing a Fleet a little bit easier. In the Fleet Roster window, the Status Column now has two new options: Join Date and Rank Changed Date. This will make it easier to see how long someone has been in the Fleet, and when they were last promoted or demoted. There is also a new slash command, /ExportGuildMemberList, that can be used to generate an Excel CSV file with all of the current information about the Fleet and its members. We hope that features like these prove useful to Fleet Leaders and Officers alike, especially those that are managing larger Fleets.
Daniel "FlyingTarg" Razza
Lead Programmer
Star Trek Online
