In Star Trek Online, effective last night 7-22-2015, Lotus fleet joined forces with Steel Talons to form the beginnings of what will hopefully become a vast Armada. This came into fruition thanks to the time and effort of multiple tier 5 and Tier 6 officers of this fleet working in conjunction with the commanding officers of the Sleet Talons fleet.
There are multiple benefits of such a bold move. For example, this move allows Fleets to work together to share resources and speed up the construction of Fleet Holdings. Something our fleet needs in order to complete remaining projects in STO.
The following is a summation along with basic descriptions of what is involved with Armadas in STO.
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.
Steel Talons being a larger fleet with greater STO presence is the Alpha Fleet in this instance. Lotus Fleet is one of three Beta Fleets. We are also the oldest fleet in the Armada thus far. Our next step, among many, will be to help find up to three other fleets that would be interested in becoming our Gamma fleet, and thus the building of the Armada continues.
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.
Note: You can see this information in the Fleet tab in STO. It is the newest tab entitled "Armada" on the far right, past the Leaderboard tab. As of last night, we now have over 900 members in our Armada which translates to lots of members to team up with in PVEs, PVP, missions, STFs, etc...
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, and this is very important, 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. This was a big part of our discussion this week including last night... having an overall structure in place that is fair and conducive to the success of all fleets. Teamwork advantages yet maintaining overall individual fleet autonomy.
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.
So... this was an involved process that involved two major meetings among upper tier officers of both fleets over this past week. Last night while we were in our Lotus Fleet TS3 channel, we set up a new proto-type Teamspeak 3 channel that allows us to have huge meetings with members of all fleets, or divided down into individual Fleets, along with the upper tier Armada staff; which consists of the FCO and FXO from each fleet.
This may also include channels for other fleet interested games such as Star Citizen, or my interests in Diablo III and StarCraft II... among others.
There are also a slew of other projects that will be in the works that just couldn't be hammered out in this short amount of time that met... even though the discussions continued into the wee hours of the night. Nevertheless, we will continue to meet regularly and prioritize these projects.
In the meantime, get your ships out of drydocks and prepare to get back in-game. Once you log-in, you will now see lots of green text in the chat which indicates all members online within the Armada, regardless of fleet, chatting together: i.e. lots of teaming opportunities.
If you are still having technical difficulties know that there is a team available to help you brainstorm solutions, even if this take a multitude of approaches and attempts. We will figure out a way to get you back in game! However, keep those discussion going in a separate thread, as it has been.
There will be more information to follow as this process continues.
Sincerely,
Admiral Jeff T
Fleet Commanding Officer
