Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Alliances should start acting like alliances and not x-large corporations. At that point coalitions would not be a "thing"

Basically, you have to look at it in terms of what the different groupings are used for. Corporations are the unit of personal organization. Alliances are the unit of military organization. Coalitions are the quasi-imaginary unit of political organization.

The game mechanical function of corporations are reasonably workable, which makes them suited to most personal organization tasks. Alliances are more sketchy, but that's because they're the ones that carry all the sov warfare baggage... which is why they serve as the unit of military organization. Military organization can be identical to the political level, but military groups which are friendly with each other can act as a coalition, which is what drives the political metagame. There's no real need for a separate in-game unit here, since political organization happens on the metagame level, and is represented by the in-game standings system instead.



That's an artifact of two things. One is the sov war mechanics, which incentivize large groupings (need lots of guys to grind large structures, which are held at the alliance level); the other is the corporation mechanics, which penalize large groupings (need high skills to have a lot of guys in one corporation). The result, again, is that it's most practical to organize military actions around the alliance level, which can have the 'extra-large corporation' effect you mentioned. Personally, I find that a good thing; you should be on good terms both with your corporation (your close associates) and your alliance (your comrades-in-arms).

If you don't think that's a good thing, the change needs to happen at the sov war level. If sov was primarily held at the corporate level, rather than the alliance level, then alliances could be less firm (as a split in relations could involve a civil war, rather than a simple eviction).

Yes, but only with dedicated characters. Most people have better things to do with their skillpoints... and don't care to pay extra for a dedicated CEO alt. Most corporations are small because most player groupings are small; just because you're in charge of a group doesn't mean you want to personally be responsible for a giant empire. Player groups are as large as they need to be, and they grow and shrink in response to organic pressures. That's healthy.


Of course, there's no need for any level higher than alliances; that's the realm of politics and metagaming.