How do you encourage alliance donations?

[Lord Wayne]

So...In the very beginning of my alliance the leader had a rule which required alliance members to maintain a minimum troop donation to received ratio of 1:2. Failure to maintain this ratio would result in a player being demoted. If the player could not be demoted any lower (ally) then they were kicked from the alliance. This rule worked WONDERFULLY! Anytime a troop request was made it was filled most often in under 10 minutes if not instantly. Donations were NEVER a problem. They came fast and often!

A problem however arose when Nexon introduced World War. In order to give the team the best chance of winning we required only the top players to donate when a war request was made. Due to this and our alliance warring back to back to back this made it very hard for the middle to lower level players to maintain the minimum ratio of 1:2.

So I ask the forum if you have suggestions on how to encourage alliance members to donate?

I was considering breaking the minimum requirement down by age

Atomic & Global age players 1:2 ratio
Industrial Age Players 1:3
Enlightenment Age Players 1:4

However I question how practical that would be.
Any thoughts? I would love to hear your ideas.

 

[obsidi]

we are similar: if the request has text "ww" only atomic age contributes; if the request is "any" than anyone can contribute....
our leader says he doesn't really care about the donation ratio for lower ages; it seems an artificial burden just to prove they aren't greedy.
in practice we haven't had any greedy people to call out; so maybe i shouldn't comment.
do people not request enough "any" requests such that it distorts the system? perhaps encourage everyone to request more?

seems like a good heuristic, as a clear statement of what the council wants.

ultimately the goal is not to pay attention to it at all, with all players enjoying contributing to each other ...
the only criticism i have is that excess focus on such a rigorous metric might discourage that.

 

[Wendy]

In I17 we take it easy. everybody contributes as he can. We just ask to fill requests before doing yours, even just with 6 footies or shooters.
This way requests are always filled, simple and without being too strict

 

[nikki bella]

hey Wayne!!

How goes it?

In the early pre-war days the game was new, the player base was new and everyone was at that time trying to get used to the game mechanics . Strict rules were needed I guess just to establish barameters. You're right, world war changed everything.

Higher level players will always be net contributors and lower level will be net benefitters. Such is the way it should be.. you want your lower levels advancing quickly.

if I were you I'd drop the rule entirely. If someone is being an ass or completely failing to make any effort a quiet word in their ear should be enough. But Adventures is well established and you guys have been playing together long enough. My motto would be the fewer rules, consistently applied, the better.

Best of luck Wayne,

 

[Blacknife686]

Our group are fairly laid back with donations. For WW people request age specific troops (Ind,glo, ato) ect. For regular request any player can fill with whatever they've got. As for maintaining ratios, for the most part we don't mind. If a Gunpowder requests 600 troops a week and donates at least SOMETHING we see it as a progressive investment. If an Industrial does the same however, they have high age troops and therefore don't have an excuse not to donate. Last week we had 2 players request 1,000+ troops each and not donated a single troop, despite being Industrial, so that was an instant boot.

We don't mind donating any amount of troops to players, but all we ask for is co-operation in return. If someone wants to WW and is fairly active and chatty, we don't mind donating whatever they need. If a player joins and doesn't WW, EVER talk and constantly requests, that's a very quick boot.

 

[FroggyKilla]

Ditch the rule, you'd go bonkers trying to enforce it. But if you really want to encourage everyone else to donate, donate yourself. People might see you as a role model.

 

[Festivus]

I've never understood why some alliances worry about donation requirements. The only issue I have with them is people not reading requests and donating crappy low-level troops for war requests. I just boot people who do that, and it's usually never a problem.

In our alliance the higher level players handle 90% of the donations. No one wants classical age infantry or whatever, and we don't mind donating. Easiest solution is to do away with requirements, they serve no real purpose.

 

[King Barbs]

In our alliance we have a desired 1 to 1 ratio for donations & receives. We are flexible with those at GP or less but they are encouraged to donate as much as they can. Requests other than for war are listed as "any" which gives the lower guys the opportunity to get their donations up. Anybody who doesn't comply with this is warned by Council members to start donating and if they don't improve they are booted.
We have very few rules but that one is important to all of us, apart from anything else it shows commitment to building a strong alliance.
It works for us.

 

[Manifesto]

I think it's a generally accepted rule that if someone is expected or made to do something they will, invariably, through some perverted sense of importance, do the opposite.
However, if people are encouraged, especially by ''example'', you'll see much better reactions from them.
Just do your thing Lord Wayne , and trust your people to follow your example.

 

[Woody82]

We don't enforce any rule either and we hardly ever have long pending troop requests open. In our Alliance description we do request that everyone donates, but without any rule.
Notorious non-donators become apparent pretty easily and usually will be called out by the core-group of my team. ("Dude, you always ask but never give. What gives?") Usually that doesnt lead to any improvement so that guy gets a boot.

 

[Tsamu]

I agree with all those saying it is not worth sweating ratios. We are more concerned about non-participation in war, chat, etc. What's the point of being in an Alliance if you don't interact with the other players?

 

[LordJestix]

I think the ratio thing is a bit of a crap rule. The main reason why is its not 1:1 troop ratio. If i donate 6 rifflemen because thats what was requested, then i only get credit for 6 troops. But if i were to give that guy an artillery and a tank and 4 rifflemen then id be credited for 23 troops.

Before i understood the game i thought i was doing great donating the max 6 players for Riffle type troops, since thats what i wanted back then. I was kicked from an alliance because my donation ratio was too low even though i was donating the max 6 unique troops.

I also think this rule causes lower players to give bad troops. I looked at my war base awhile back to see what was donated to me, classical/gp raiders and calvery. thats a losing combination.

Honestly i think Industrial age troops are too low for war so I would disagree with those that say Industrial should be contributing.

When it comes to raiding troops though, anything goes. I have never complained about any troops i get when i ask for anything. Hell even when i ask for single space troops for the timed quest and get cannons i dont complain.