Grievances with the Reserves Change

[Kurtle 298]

Introduction:
    As many of you know, recently a change was made with the reserves system. I would like to today highlight the flaws of which, and point out prior examples and community testimony that can support my claim. While I wanted to wait for someone else who holds a position in MRP to voice their opinion on it, I felt as if it was finally time to have my voice be heard after the system had set in. While I have been renewing my activity on MRP on Tali as an enlisted, I feel my opinion is important as someone who the reserves change affects. I would like to encourage civil discussion about the system, as well as everyone to remain unbiased in their discourse

Reserves System Change:
    For those uninformed, here was the message received by Staff Members and Faction Leaders when the system was changed:
    New Reserves System
Faction Leaders can only authorise reserves for Officers that served under them during their current term. The only exception is authorising the reserves of their predecessor.
Staff no longer vote on Reserves.
Reserves are automatically revoked if the player is in, or joins, another Faction on the same side. (e.g. lose GB Reserves if you join Rangers)
Faction Leaders must notify Executives of new Reserves, and no Reserves are considered to be granted if Executives have not been notified by the Faction Leader
As Staff don't vote, Executives will take action regarding the behaviour of players who hold reserves, regardless of what whitelists they are using
Also Reserves are a one-time deal. If they get removed for any reason, they are gone unless re-earned again
The current Reserves will be reviewed, and Reserves will be removed if players are main-life on the side of their Reserves.
    I would like to point out some issues with this announcement, and the specifics of it.

Nature of the announcement:
Before cracking on with the beef of the argument, I want to discuss the way in which this change was introduced to the community. While it was told to staff and faction leaders, the wider community in general was not informed. I see one issue with this, as it isn’t passed to people it actually affects. Theos used the rationale here: 
"It was told to the people who are responsible for enforcing it"
    This does make sense, as the people responsible for its enforcement can pass the knowledge to the people with reserves. However, this misses the mark in terms of transparency, as removing someone’s reserves without having a publicly accessible area to discuss it, is strange. Almost every single past reserves change has been supported by a forum post, and I see no reason to break this precedent(Forums Posts of this nature will be presented below).
    I was not made aware of any significant circumstance that warranted this change. I believe that the reason for the change should be transparent as well, so that the decision can be critically reviewed and deliberated on. This relates to my previous point about the nature of the decision in staff chat.

 

Historical Context:
    The purpose of this context is not to equate Theos’ decision with past decisions, it is only to provide support and evidence for a good discussion.
    This was the post that wiped reserves in 2020.
https://garnetgaming.net/forums/index.php?/topic/9457-mrp-reserves-removal/&tab=comments#comment-89451
This post was immediately met with criticism from the community, some of these discussions and suggestions following will be listed below.
https://garnetgaming.net/forums/index.php?/topic/10925-reserves-post-to-end-all-reserves-posts/&tab=comments#comment-101317
https://garnetgaming.net/forums/index.php?/topic/10546-the-return-of-reserves-for-real/&tab=comments#comment-98425
https://garnetgaming.net/forums/index.php?/topic/10417-i-humbly-ask-that-you-reconsider-the-reserves-stance/&tab=comments#comment-97411
    
Discussion:
    “Faction Leaders can only authorise reserves for Officers that served under them during their current term. The only exception is authorising the reserves of their predecessor.”
    This to me is troubling when you consider the people who dedicated their time to another faction many years ago. If they did the work, they should get the reserves.

    “Staff no longer vote on Reserves.”
    I believe this may invite bias, as leaving a decision like this to an individual is worse than a group. Having a balanced group of staff from each side voting on the person’s impact is a great way to do things, and I believe this sentiment is shared by other people who have participated in a reserves vote.

    “Reserves are automatically revoked if the player is in, or joins, another Faction on the same side. (e.g. lose GB Reserves if you join Rangers)”
    This to me is probably the most contentious part of the reserves. Imagine a new player joining the server. He puts in many long hours to a base faction before deciding that he wants to go to a SOC. Should the hard work that he put in on that faction be erased? That is for you to decide. One of the big factors of discussion when the reserves was changed last time was the status and history that reserves hold. While it might seem like silly bragging rights, it is still actually an important thing to strive for, and is a consistent target of achievement for many people. 

My Personal Grievance:
    I saw the first version of VVS/AAF, and eventually became COL. After my leadership, I received reserves in AAF. Today, AAF reserves are useless, and I would naturally want to return to my 2GA(Tali) reserves. With these rules, I would not be able to. Does my time in AAF(that was completely erased) replace the time during the summer when I would consistently play the server for 14 hours a day with minimal breaks? I believe that the negatives of me(and others in the same situation) receiving our reserves is virtually nonexistent, and I will believe that until proven otherwise.
Wrapping up:
    I have listed my grievances for the change, and I believe that they were clearly laid out. I encourage all of you to discuss in a civil manner. I had received several testimonies from community members but decided to leave them out( I wanted these members to speak on their own behalves). 

(Also not sure if this was the correct place to post this sorry)

Edited March 6, 2022 by Kurtle

[Dillan 750]

I was one of the reasons reserves were revised initially back then. I possed reserves in multiple factions as either a ltcol, or col reserves, due to leading factions. The problem people had with it, is they didn't like to be ordered by retired, or people swapping to their other leadership to meta or power game. 

    Personally I enjoyed having 5 reserves, but I know that time is gone.

[NDB_ 61]

The old reserve system was just fine as it was and there was really no reason to change it. I understand in past system there was a main problem that the reserve system had and that is why it was changed yet for this change I saw no problem with the system and from my knowledge neither did the community. This new system just feels like a punch in the face for people that put work into a faction and are still on the side of that faction and they have just moved on. Why should a player who has put a lot of time and effort into one faction have to give up on reserves for that faction just so they can go to another. This discourages people helping out factions that are on their current side because they will just lose the reserves that they had originally.

[PappaEric 90]

I am also going to add on here, no one was informed about this before it became official. This new reserves systems came out of the blue and no one was able to give feedback before hand or even told that it was going to be implemented. My biggest issue with this new system is the fact that you lose your reserves if you join another faction in that country. This is a real problem, once I resign from 313, I don't exactly know where I'm going to go, but I do know that if this is still here, I am very much less likely to go to any faction on Afghan because I don't want to lose my reserves in 313, a faction that I have put almost a year of time in. This really discourages soc officers switching to either a different soc faction or going to the base faction to help whatever faction needs help. 

[Ting 368]

2 minutes ago, PappaEric said:

no one was informed about this before it became official

2 minutes ago, PappaEric said:

no one was able to give feedback before hand or even told that it was going to be implemented

I think that, at least in my eyes, this was the worst part of the reserves change. Not only was it pretty unnecessary (yet it didn't effect me), it also did not get discussed at all. There seems to be a common trend recently of very major decisions not being discussed period. The fact that the current MRP staff team has SO MANY staff members right now, and yet barely any of them are being used, is slightly odd to me. I think that had this decision been discussed with the staff team, the many flaws and odd parts of the new system would have been ironed out.

[PrisonNightmare 741]

I do have some concerns on the recent additions to the reserve system, mainly due to the fact there was no public announcement on these changes on the forums or the discord (to my knowledge). Has Theos given any reasoning on why these changes were made? It seemed like the original way they were done before worked perfectly fine, only having one or two people vote on if someone should get reserves or not really doesn't make any sense to me. There's obviously always going to be some bias no matter how unbias someone thinks they are, it's just the way people are. Theos really needs to start explaining his reasonings on why he does things or doesn't do things, this guessing game is getting pretty old.

 

“Faction Leaders can only authorize reserves for Officers that served under them during their current term. The only exception is authorising the reserves of their predecessor.”

 

This change I can kind of understand, if no one knows what that officer/leader did back then or how they acted then you don't know for sure if they earned the reserves. It sucks, but it personally makes sense to me. Kind of annoying that reserves have been wiped over the years, I've lost my army reserves completely because of it even though I've sank a degenerate amount of time into the faction. However literally no one knows how I was back in 2018 or 2016, so people wouldn't be able to accurately judge if I am a good candidate to have 11A reserves or not.

 

“Staff no longer vote on Reserves.”

 

Genuinely don't understand the logic on this one. Like stated earlier, only letting 1-2 people vote on if someone should get reserves is BOUND to have some bias in the answer. It is insanely difficult for someone to keep an unbiased opinion, and no offense but I don't have enough trust in Theos' judgement to know he isn't going to be bias in the future. Honestly staff votes are also going to be biased probably, but at least there are more than just 2 people making the decision so it's less likely to affect the outcome. I honestly want this change to be reverted the most.

 

“Reserves are automatically revoked if the player is in, or joins, another Faction on the same side. (e.g. lose GB Reserves if you join Rangers)”

 

I have mixed feelings on this one, honestly. I think they changed it to be this way so it prevents people from dual factioning on a faction they have reserves on and their current main faction, which makes sense. However, this is the only reward players really get for dedicating so much time into a faction. To me it seems kind of fucked up to take it away if someone has sank so much time into a faction and they can't even enjoy playing on it once and a while if they decide to join another faction on the same side. If there were more "rewards" for resigning faction officers/leaders then I wouldn't really mind this change as much, but it really is the only thing people have to look forward too when they resign as thanks for them helping the faction so much.

 

Overall I'm kind of hesitant to side with anyone because we haven't heard anything from Theos or why he made these changes, these are just my first opinions looking at the changes. I'd love to hear why Theos made these changes though.

[PappaEric 90]

19 minutes ago, PrisonNightmare said:

Has Theos given any reasoning on why these changes were made?

To my understanding, it was changed mainly due to players getting their reserves back from a long time ago (a year+) and possibly to combat faction hopping somewhat, but not sure about that.

Edited March 6, 2022 by PappaEric

[Theos 423]

I've responded to this where it's been brought up to me, either in DMs or in the Staff Discord, every time it's been raised but I guess I'll respond to it again.

On only authorising 'modern' Reserves

The entire Reserves system didn't work for old players returning, and actually at this time on the server there's been very few situations of an old player returning, asking for Reserves, and making use of those Reserves. More often than not players will either get Reserves and never be seen again, or get them and come off them for 2 weeks before leaving the server again. Also, just being an Officer years ago shouldn't entitle someone to an Officer rank now, the server and they have changed in this time.

Also with many players its not going to be clear why they lost those Reserves in the first place. Yes there's been Reserves wipes but that isn't necessarily how they lost them, and there's pretty much no way to verify any of that unless one Staff member can remember specifics.

On no more Staff vote

The Staff vote has been criticised by everyone, except Staff. Now there's a thousand reasons people would ask for Reserves, and Staff voting has historically been bizarre. People considered bad Officers by large portions of the community getting reserves, people with valid reasons to leave the server not getting Reserves. At the end of the day the Staff vote has always been incredibly uninformed, and even when a Faction Leader has said their piece to Staff to try and explain why they approved of the vote in the first place, Staff have ignored it.

Revoked if on the same side

There's no logic behind someone being, for example, a Ranger Enlisted and a GB Reserves Officer at the same time. Not going into the whole 'reality' debate but players frequently swapped from their main life to their Reserves in order to take advantage of those Officer permissions, which is such a stupid thing. Also Reserves are essentially a position in a Faction, if you're actively in another Faction on the same side, why do you also need another position on that same side? People have used Reserves as simply a backup 'well if I dont like X faction I've got reserves' which effectively discourages committing in future, and if people aren't going to try and commit to a faction then that faction loses out.

Your situation (Kurtle)

You gave up your Tali reserves in November, your situation is effectively the same as old players asking for Reserves.

 

Why the change

The old system had its issues, but for the most part they were overlooked because players enjoyed being able to play even more whitelists. The Reserves system had basically become dual factioning, which is not the point of the Reserves system, and not the way I feel the system should go. In my opinion Reserves should be a rank held, for whatever reason, for players who have the intention to return to the Faction. It splits with the sides because, as I mentioned, being able to outrank yourself is an incredibly bizarre scenario and players do take advantage of the Officer perms despite also being an Enlisted on that side.

 

On the lack of discussion with Staff before the decision

Underlined before because I do want to make it clear I did discuss this with Staff when it was announced, as obviously there were concerns and questions.

When it was announced, the majority of the responses were things I already knew were going to be said. So in a scenario where I bring this up for discussion with Staff, they show disagreement, except for those on the team who agreed/wanted further change, and it would more than likely be expected nothing changed with the system. I was going to make a change to the system anyway, because a large part of this is how I, and some others to even more extreme, feel the Reserves system should be applied to the server. There's always going to be disagreements when it comes down to the principle of Reserves, and I'd have made the change after some Staff would have already assumed it was put to bed, which would have angered them even more.

Also someone at the time mentioned 'Reserves can come back and help a struggling faction', but as I've made clear to Factions that have needed help, in extreme cases, they can get 1 or 2 handpicks to help them start improving, which negates requiring Reserves to help a struggling faction.

 

At the end of the day, the old system was mostly a free pass for extra whitelists, and Officer permissions. That's not how MRP should be played in my opinion.

[Kurtle 298]

7 hours ago, Theos said:

I've responded to this where it's been brought up to me, either in DMs or in the Staff Discord, every time it's been raised but I guess I'll respond to it again.

I thought it was necessary to discuss the change in a public forum accessible to more people, since arguing in DM's or Staff Discord doesn't really get that much done. Discord chats aren't good places to make genuine solutions.

7 hours ago, Theos said:

More often than not players will either get Reserves and never be seen again,

The thing is, these players likely would never join the server anyway, and the only reason they would is to use their reserves.

7 hours ago, Theos said:

Also with many players its not going to be clear why they lost those Reserves in the first place. Yes there's been Reserves wipes but that isn't necessarily how they lost them, and there's pretty much no way to verify any of that unless one Staff member can remember specifics.

This is a very valid point, however its on the staff team to remember the reason people got their reserves removed, not on the players themselves. A failure to record and log reserves changes should be no reason to punish players who did nothing wrong. Furthermore, what is the worst possible thing someone can do with reserve powers?

7 hours ago, Theos said:

The Staff vote has been criticised by everyone, except Staff. Now there's a thousand reasons people would ask for Reserves, and Staff voting has historically been bizarre. People considered bad Officers by large portions of the community getting reserves, people with valid reasons to leave the server not getting Reserves. At the end of the day the Staff vote has always been incredibly uninformed, and even when a Faction Leader has said their piece to Staff to try and explain why they approved of the vote in the first place, Staff have ignored it.

Perhaps I am out of touch, but I simply don't remember any examples of this happening when I participated in the vote. I will agree on the fact that a Faction Leader has plead their case for it to be ignored, but I don't think this is the staff's fault, because as far as I'm concerned, the staff don't have any way to easily access this case. Perhaps a dedicated plead channel in the staff discord?

7 hours ago, Theos said:

There's no logic behind someone being, for example, a Ranger Enlisted and a GB Reserves Officer at the same time. Not going into the whole 'reality' debate but players frequently swapped from their main life to their Reserves in order to take advantage of those Officer permissions, which is such a stupid thing.

An enlisted having officer permissions from their reserves gives them an opportunity to participate in scenarios that require O-1 perms(EX: Kidnapping, Spawning Vehicles, Raiding to name a few) If enlisted have no officers online, I don't believe they should ignore their reserves and go AFK due to lack of activities.

7 hours ago, Theos said:

People have used Reserves as simply a backup 'well if I dont like X faction I've got reserves' which effectively discourages committing in future, and if people aren't going to try and commit to a faction then that faction loses out.

Since I have joined MRP, there is a tier progression that is generally recommended for new players. You join base faction, mess around with enlisted and once you are ready, maybe move on to a SOC faction and, by the time that you do, hopefully your game knowledge and combat skill is up to par with the rest of that SOC. There is an indelible fact we must face here; Switching factions can be hard. To go from base faction to SOC is a change that, in some cases, have completely turned people off from the server. While I do think reserves can and have been used as "a backup plan," I really don't see the harm in that, as if they weren't going to commit to the faction they joined anyway, they would not have stayed. Don't punish them for trying something new and not liking it. Adding on to this further, some people main one country, they only stick to US or Tali for one reason or another, I don't think these players should be punished for wanting to stay on one side.

7 hours ago, Theos said:

You gave up your Tali reserves in November, your situation is effectively the same as old players asking for Reserves.

I am aware that it is the same, but current staff can remember the time I spent on Tali, plus for the reasons listed above, I don't see why the entire faction being removed discounts that work. While giving me reserves back would not be fair to the old players, I believe that the entire reserves change itself is in a similar predicament. 

7 hours ago, Theos said:

The old system had its issues, but for the most part they were overlooked because players enjoyed being able to play even more whitelists. The Reserves system had basically become dual factioning, which is not the point of the Reserves system, and not the way I feel the system should go. In my opinion Reserves should be a rank held, for whatever reason, for players who have the intention to return to the Faction.

I honestly don't see the point in trying to ruin people's fun. If a faction leader sees their enlisted playing on their reserves half of the time, it is in their rights alone to punish that player for not dedicating their time to the faction they are in. Furthermore, it is an ironic situation, as currently you have been on 2LTR on 11A for the past couple of weeks(from what I have been told) and have decided not to join any faction. I don't know what your reasoning for this is, but I'd assume it's manager stuff..

7 hours ago, Theos said:

Also someone at the time mentioned 'Reserves can come back and help a struggling faction', but as I've made clear to Factions that have needed help, in extreme cases, they can get 1 or 2 handpicks to help them start improving, which negates requiring Reserves to help a struggling faction.

Handpicks are nothing new on MRP, but you really don't want to be going around saying handpicks are the important thing. Why should someone who just joined have to contend with a random PVT instantly getting SGM and then officer? It makes much more sense to have someone go from 2LTR to 2LT to help their faction rather than going all the way up. As of right now, I am a SFC in Tali. I have been given opportunities to instantly go to SGM or even officer, but I have denied them. Keep in mind, I have done many things as an enlisted, some of which being warleading. 

7 hours ago, Theos said:

At the end of the day, the old system was mostly a free pass for extra whitelists, and Officer permissions. That's not how MRP should be played in my opinion.

This sentence probably defeats the purpose of my entire argument, as your opinion as the manager outweighs mine and others as simple players of the game. However, I implore you to take a minute to read through these responses and stew upon it with the staff team, and rethink it. There are always two sides to an argument, and I believe this is no exception. Enlisted having reserves is not a bad thing by any means, and enlisted abusing extra whitelists should be punished by faction leaders, not staff. 

 

I appreciate the long response and I think you addressed all of my points well. While we may not agree on the discussion, I still think the dialogue is important to constantly check ourselves and decisions. Cheers.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Kurtle

[Theos 423]

1 hour ago, Kurtle said:

The thing is, these players likely would never join the server anyway, and the only reason they would is to use their reserves.

The players who hop on once in a blue moon to see how the server develops are doing just that, they aren't hopping on to use reserves

1 hour ago, Kurtle said:

however its on the staff team to remember the reason people got their reserves removed

That relies on them being in the necessary loop at the time, and being able to remember what happened accurately from years ago, which is a bit much to ask over one person's reserves years before.

1 hour ago, Kurtle said:

Perhaps I am out of touch, but I simply don't remember any examples of this happening when I participated in the vote.

Faction Leaders rarely make cases for their requests anymore, when they have it's largely been ignored. When Staff make the decision now it is almost entirely dependent on the player's activity in the week or two prior to their leaving, with only a few exceptions. Also with the current system only permitting 'current' Reserves, it heavily reduces the need for the vote anyway. That part, when it came to reviewing the system, felt like a formality as a result of the other changes.

1 hour ago, Kurtle said:

While I do think reserves can and have been used as "a backup plan," I really don't see the harm in that, as if they weren't going to commit to the faction they joined anyway

Typically people leave factions for reasons, it is incredibly rare for someone to leave a faction and return back to it shortly. Usually when players feel they have made a mistake in their faction choice they find a third faction to try instead of coming off their Reserves.

1 hour ago, Kurtle said:

I don't see why the entire faction being removed discounts that work. While giving me reserves back would not be fair to the old players, I believe that the entire reserves change itself is in a similar predicament.

At the end of the day you gave up those Reserves, if Reserves are like a Tag system where you put one on hold whilst you have another set active. You then lost the ones you had from a separate change on the server, the removal of AAF/AFSOC. You weren't able to get them back because 1. You weren't the previous Marshal, and 2. Reserves are now a one-time deal. The one-time situation is because players would frequently request, after coming off one Reserves, to immediately get back a previous Reserve they held. In that situation, which was happening relatively frequently in the weeks prior to the change, Reserves were genuinely just an ask for whitelist or extra power

1 hour ago, Kurtle said:

I honestly don't see the point in trying to ruin people's fun. If a faction leader sees their enlisted playing on their reserves half of the time, it is in their rights alone to punish that player

If players fun requires whitelists, then the issue is not the changed Reserve system but more the (in)actions during Peacetime. On punishment, the change is not so much been about preventing neglect, but more about 'you're now this rank and this faction, if you want Officer permissions you should be willing to push for them'.

1 hour ago, Kurtle said:

it is an ironic situation, as currently you have been on 2LTR on 11A for the past couple of weeks(from what I have been told) and have decided not to join any faction

Actually it's not ironic and is an example of what I feel Reserves should be. At the moment I know I won't be able to commit fully to any Faction, and I don't want to sit in a Faction and not try and push forward in that Faction. So I'm using my Reserves because that's one reason that they are there for, players who can't commit to actively working for a Faction.

1 hour ago, Kurtle said:

Why should someone who just joined have to contend with a random PVT instantly getting SGM and then officer?

The handpicks granted so far, unless I've forgotten one, have been directly to Officer, making the competition effectively the same as returning from Reserves. Whilst Reserves were always able to come off their Reserves to aid the faction, these handpicks were used because Faction Leaders had asked and their Reserves did not want to return to the Faction. Handpicks are far from the first action to be taken, but sometimes they are necessary. Reserves returning, since as far as I can remember, have rarely aided a struggling faction. When most players leave a faction, they are done with the faction seemingly.

 

On my opinion on what Reserves should be on the server, I feel that is the biggest misconception from the change. I get the impression that players and Staff have not grasped that this was meant to be the changes to effect a different way Reserves should be used, and so when people have raised their issues it's done assuming Reserves would be held in the same regard, despite the changes preventing that. Of course seeing that is an issue, when originally announcing I should have clarified then, but I was under the impression I did at least to Staff.

[Kurtle 298]

5 minutes ago, Theos said:

That relies on them being in the necessary loop at the time, and being able to remember what happened accurately from years ago, which is a bit much to ask over one person's reserves years before.

I meant this more to mean that they should keep a written log of reserves and their changes, not remember them individually. It is the staff's job to keep a log, and if they can't do it by memory, they should write it down.

8 minutes ago, Theos said:

If players fun requires whitelists, then the issue is not the changed Reserve system but more the (in)actions during Peacetime. On punishment, the change is not so much been about preventing neglect, but more about 'you're now this rank and this faction, if you want Officer permissions you should be willing to push for them'.

My argument is that faction leaders should have agency over whether their enlisted are doing a good job as enlisted. If a player uses whitelists as a way to spawn vehicles or create scenarios which require O-1 Perms, I would say that is an amazing use of the reserves system. I think this is where our disagreement lies, in the use of the system itself.

11 minutes ago, Theos said:

Faction Leaders rarely make cases for their requests anymore,

I would think that this is because the requests usually speak for themselves. If not, then I think faction leaders should be urged to plead their case.

 

This post was mostly meant for clarification on my points. I don't want to argue each point again because I think most of these are just personal disagreements instead of evidence based ones. I encourage other people to chime in on these points as well.

[Ziggy 1,353]

Yo lit take but what if anyone was just allowed to get reserves in any faction (from the leader) they want to, given they reach the deserving rank. Then, if a faction leader doesn't want said person in their faction/reserves, they can just remove them. At the end of the day, if you're removed for being a fossil or being a reserves main, oh well later man that's your fault. Either play again and earn it back or keep being inactive, but leaders should have complete say over who holds reserves in their faction because its their faction and players should be able to have free reign over earning reserve ranks anywhere/anytime because they invest the time into earning it. 

 

The server doesn't owe you anything for playing it, especially not an officer rank. You play it to help lead factions and have fun in war, so why regulate reserves at all past faction leader has final say? This is an argument as old as time on GG and I really think the secret to making everyone happy is just not restricting how many reserves players can have and letting faction leaders keep who they want to. Nobody will be kept on their roster forever. If you want to hold your reserves, however many it might be, then you can hold the smallest relationship with the current faction leader or risk losing them. 

 

P.S. the only people that will have a problem with this are people that think they are owed a permanent and staff protected 2LT rank for playing the server like everybody else which is dumb

Edited March 7, 2022 by Ziggy

[Smity_ 257]

On 3/6/2022 at 12:32 AM, Kurtle said:

Discussion:
    “Faction Leaders can only authorise reserves for Officers that served under them during their current term. The only exception is authorising the reserves of their predecessor.”
    This to me is troubling when you consider the people who dedicated their time to another faction many years ago. If they did the work, they should get the reserves.

I don't believe someone should get reserves from lets say 2016. But I think if someone didn't have a chance of getting reserves from 2020 or 2021 they definitely should have a chance if they plan on coming back. But at the same time the state of the reserves, If a faction needs help that's up to the faction leader to ask the executives to allow them to "handpick" that old player into an officer spot. 

On 3/6/2022 at 12:32 AM, Kurtle said:

“Reserves are automatically revoked if the player is in, or joins, another Faction on the same side. (e.g. lose GB Reserves if you join Rangers)”
    This to me is probably the most contentious part of the reserves. Imagine a new player joining the server. He puts in many long hours to a base faction before deciding that he wants to go to a SOC. Should the hard work that he put in on that faction be erased? That is for you to decide. One of the big factors of discussion when the reserves was changed last time was the status and history that reserves hold. While it might seem like silly bragging rights, it is still actually an important thing to strive for, and is a consistent target of achievement for many people. 

Yes I completely agree with this statement. Maybe there could be a change on if they can get Base Faction reserves but not SOC Faction reserves if they are on the same side. I'm in this exact same spot rn as GA, If my predecessor gives me reserves that means I would have to go to Tali. Which isn't something that I want to be forced to do. Obviously people would say that "its not fair that you have reserves and I don't cause I went to Rangers after GB. "Yes But thats a SOC Faction and also the executives have every right to remove some reserves from some people. Like if they can deem that I'm not going to provide to Army anymore they should be able to do that after discussion with Higher staff. Cause after all, the 9 months that I have spent in Base Faction Army feels like it would go to waste. But I do believe there should be some limit on how long you have reserves for unless theres some issue like Medical or military leave that you can't play the server anymore that can push that longer. This can be enforced by the staff if they see you on a lot and proof sent to the executives to see that he or she is back and off the Leave. Then If they comeback they have to come off of it or play on the other side. I know this prolly will get a lot of hate saying this but at Theos stand point people would just use the officer permissions cause they have reserves as they didn't provide the faction anything and wanted to remove that which is totally true. But thing against that is they have earned reserves from spending their time in the faction and contributed back when they weren't on reserves. And overall is that this is forcing players to do things and thats not what makes the server fun. When you lose fun you lose the good player base and just lose pop in general. Just overall, People work hard in factions and reserves is what they are possibly given after their hard work. As the state right now of the reserves it feels like players are forced to do things cause they don't want to lose their reserves on their respective side. Which theres ways to counter people and how long they can have them. Like maybe only a year or something and they go poof. Just some Ideas. I hope you all like this input. thank you!