If you think it's easy to recruit strong & active players now, you got another thing coming.
Take a leaf from the books of multiple young factions like Relentless, MnC2...even 39thX and turn your mice into dragons. Already made dragons are hard to come by.
Dude first of all I enjoy your site you outdid yourself with it.
When people don't agree with leadership they have two choices to leave or voice their opinion on what needs to change. This isn't an island where you were stuck with us.
And all this talk about wolverines report being the basis for the kicking is incorrect.
I assure you as someone who joined Calculated while well below the minimum stat requirement, I have pushed for better recruitment of young players with potential for quite a while now.
I think that's the main thing younger factions aim for, isn't it? Ultimately building a faction to compete with DA, MnC, JFK and SA from scratch just isn't a reason expectation anymore. Newer factions like FLUX seem to be doing a good job at aiming for young talent and helping them develop, it seemed like factions like 39thx and the others you've mentioned are a hybrid of new young talent and players who have proven that they're good players (1year+ playing).
I think that they are an important type of faction and ultimately help the future of the game.
Being one of the members that was kicked was a bit personally disheartening for me.
Understandably, I was probably one of the lowest members that was in Calculated and I understand that there was a major cut needed within the faction. However, I contributed as much as I could for my first war, and also used about 50 morphines to try to stay on the wall for the faction when I could. I was hesitant to even join since my last faction ended up just being a punching bag, but Rifty convinced me that Calculated was a lot different and that I would be able to grow to a higher contributing member as I leveled.
With that being said, was swiftly booted after the territory war. I quickly responded to the message and action explaining that I was an active player with donations, wars, and that I wanted to continue to work as well as stay dedicated I was met with a quick "Sorry no exceptions on this one."
I understand the reasoning and I understand that I'm a lower level than 90% of the faction, however I felt that I have done everything within reason to be an asset to the faction. Of course there is no bad blood but just wanted to give some insight into this as I saw it pop up on the forum.
I wish I would've been able to grow and contribute more with the faction but I guess it wasn't in the cards on this one. Thank you Rifty for the opportunity as well.
@DarkTinman You could have grown here, but you contributed 5 total actions (joins + clears) over the course of both territory wars we lost to 39X. It's tough being a newer player in this game and should you reach a point where you're ready to train hard and be more active in all warring, I hope you'll continue to not hold any ill will. Good luck and keep pushing!
If you only joined 5 times during the war I can only say that that isn't really a good amount, hell you can join a total of 6 times based on the e you log in.
Factions don't want your money donations, not the serious ones, they want your contribution. Lower levels can contribute as much as strong player in terms of joins, it costs 25e and for you to be taken of it sucks up 25 e from the other side. You gain score and suck up their e at the same time, it's a system that allows everyone to contribute.
There really isn't much of an excuse, if you can't afford mess in sure the faction would have helped you or likely you already had access to meds from your faction.
When in BC they were as strong as they were (we hit top 10 hof) with so many noobs because they'd fill the chain hitting fillers, imo more important than heavy hitters like me just hitting onliers and landing bonuses.
Isn't really anything to do with me, similar excuses have been made at BC and is give then the same.
Before I post this next part, I want to re-emphasis I'm not here to argue, and I'm not here to grovel but rather to give my personal thoughts.
I understand how bad the 5 total action stats from Drionis may seem however keep in mind a couple things. This was a territory war, meaning it's 25E to sit on the wall, and to get murdered almost immediately. Typically with wars you are able to fight back, but with territories you are a sitting duck on a wall with hospitalizations from higher levels ranging into 5-6 hour hospital times. Admittedly, I understand that me being on this wall takes away from higher level's attack options however when I'm the only one attempting to sit on the wall it's hard to see a point in being sacrificed for nothing. I also never used or asked for faction meds, always using my own out of pocket which I never complained about since I'm a lower level I would need to expect this.
The previous Calculated war I was above 25% percent of the faction, sure it's not great but I was active within chaining and would contribute when targets when I could. I'm sure if I was given another go I would easily be in the middle of the faction for engagement.
Not trying to frustrate anyone, or make excuses however I feel that it was more of knee jerk reaction to losing a territory war rather than a thought out cleansing.
Can't see it getting any better for calc when they kick loyal and active members without trying to understand their positions. Good luck recruiting people who will do over 200 attacks a week anyway.
Honestly you cannot expect to be in a HOF faction if you are not even renting a private island. There's no reason you should be donating anything tbh with your networth. Join a good training fac and train your ass off for a while, become self sufficient and a lot of big facs just might give you a shot
I had been with calc for a very long time like many of my old faction mates. I hold no grudge at being kicked as I was planning on leaving of my own accord just a few hours after the kick happened (I was waiting for a train robbery OC to be initiated) I had informed a couple of people I was leaving including Sam that sets up the OCs for us but I'm sure I would have been given the chance to go on my own if I had told killa and rifty.
I had said earlier that day that calc has no chance in territory like it had in the past. No matter how its members contribute there's too many much stronger and more coordinated factions constantly beating calc back. I've seen it gofrom really quick, fast respect earning wars. To, like many people have pointed out, slow and sluggish wars that are an effort to get people to contribute too.
Like I said there's no malice at all. I simply don't have the time to play torn as much as calc needed anymore and that is why I was part of the group that was kicked. There are great people still there holding calc where it is. But I honestly feel with the way it is almost always being hit from all sides by factions clearly far stronger and more active it is most likely to get very worn down, be it sooner or later.
The activity that is required for a (serious) territory war is too much for most players. Which eventually will lead this warfare type to fail as it only will meet the needs of hardcore gamers. Which is maybe 5% of our population. Those are the ones that are joining every major territory war even if it doesn't concern their own faction. Most people however simply don't have the time for a proper war like that and wars can be over before you even logged in. You want to kick people that are sleeping or working because they live in a different timezone and therefore did not meet the requirements?
I would like to see warreports of all those factions that have a minimum hits a day quotum. I would be surprised if there would be even one (50+) faction where all members meet those requrements. I don't believe it, but please show me otherwise. If anyone seriously think they can have a faction where 100 members makes at least 15 hits a day they're living in a dreamworld. People go on vacation, get sick, have children to take care of etc etc. For most of us that has more value then warring in a game.
So factions have the choice to hold on to their own rigid rules which means people will be constantly kicked regardless of their previous efforts or other value that they have for the faction or you have to compromize and look at the circumstances of every individual. Each to his own and as much as i value activity i know i would never join a faction with a culture of fear. It's a game. Not a job.
Ow...20k+ respect in a little over 600 days, so i've made my share of hits so far, but in my humble opinion being in a faction is way more then just making hits. Those that only narrow it down to that miss a huge part of the fun and joy of being in a faction.
For everyone interested, I will shed light on a few things people should see before forming an opinion about the mass kick and whether it was a good idea or not?
Firstly, I understand where the decision came from as many of those kicked did not meet the requirements consistently which can be seen from the war scores above. As a HOF faction, I understand the need to weed these people out as they are dead weight in the sense that they do not contribute and are usually easy fodder when there are proper wars. In the case of Darktinman and Oldmighty, just seeing their previous contributions to war already demonstrate the need to kick out members as they respectively contributed 21 and 12 hits each which is clearly sub par by most HOF standards.
However, it is clear to see that the move to kick everyone who did not participate to what was required with the territorial war was rather brash based on the movements of members who have been kicked.
USER
LAST WAR SCORE
Current faction
Oldmighty
12
NA
Krisc
112
NA
Edusk8
90
Desert Heart
Wolverine
140
39th Street Killers
Harpush
112
PT-Bravehearts
Darktinman
21
NA
Shuu
104
PT-Bravehearts
Parias666
128
Macaroni and cheese
Hoongzai
96
Desert Heat
Many of the members who show value during wars for respect have quickly been snapped up by other factions with some even moving to more promising factions. This clearly indicates that there is still a lot of value in these members which have been disregarded by Calc. Based on the decision for a mass kick, I personally believe that the current leadership team want to create an extremely strong faction ruled by an iron fist with no tolerance for errors. While this is good in theory, I believe it is an unreasonable expectation as both Kingstown and Oldmighty have explained how it requires strong players to compete and extreme levels of coordination. Sending out faction messages over three days doesn't really do much to establish anything especially when strategies are not properly implemented when you live in different time zones. That being said, it is sad to see Ghosty's legacy come to this as I know how hard it was for him to establish proper protocols within the faction that made it successful. It took a lot of trial and error to even establish a proper warring procedure. The current leadership team should also take this into account as you can not build a proper procedure for territorial warfare in a day.
Sorry if this appears bias but I will admit that I am very salty after being kicked.
Good to see your contribution runekill. In my defence as I stated I've been slowly losing the time for torn for a while now and did decide it was my time to go anyway so I fully agree with my kick. Though in past wars before time started becoming a big factor for me I regularly used to sit online for up to 5 hours holding and leading morning chains while there were very few of us awake at that time usually.
Shame the emphasis on gameplay geared towards faction warfare has turned factions into something that NEED to be ran like business machines for them to survive. Much less fun and more of a daily uphill struggle.
I was there when 39thx went through something similar as Calculated . It took years to build back to where it is day it takes a few hard-core members making hard decision, hoping for the best for the faction and kicks are never easy and recruiting the rite people that fit. I feel sorry for Calculated how it ends up in the forums for everyone having an opinion
tbh, It's not like calculated has done a whole lot of warring these last few years either... he kept to the minimum requirements, as is expected of him. Whereas people who were below the minimum were allowed to stay... so I don't think that's the reason for the kicking.
from all the info in this thread both by calc members (newsy screenie) and ex members it just seems like a rash, stupid, poorly thought of decision.
Kicking members for not obeying to a mail that was sent during a war that had already started during a weekend against a far superior opponent, which ended in two days. With it being pretty well known in torn that weekends are always times where people have plans with family, take time away from Torn, unless explicitly planned ahead....
Agree with Harley, I am a fan of kicking slackers but when you give them short notice with shit timing and then kick some and not others the whole thing seems like a knee jerk reaction. But they are the leaders so they will have to deal with it none of us will...