Ideas for the new direction for the training alliance

I figured that since the UPC war is in the capable hands of playa and the rest of the visiting HAHA team, you guys can start making plans for how you guys want this to start shaping up. The more you have 'hammered" out now, the easier this will be in the near future when those plans become inacted.

The first thing you all need to decide is whether you want a training alliance at all. There has been the idea tossed out to incorporate all the HA Jrs into the HAHA tag, and calling it a done deal. Lets see if there is a consensus on this idea.

Would it be reasonable to start with a simple yes or no vote, and maybe an explaination of why?

Question: Should HAHA have a training alliance?

I'll start with my vote, which is yes. I know how much time I spend trying to spot folks under godly protection (and there are very, very few of them) and reaching out to them repetively. Increasing the ranks of HAHA thru mergers is (and will remain) the fastest way for the alliance to move up the high score board. However, fishing for new people is a slower way to bring in people to the hammer family, but those people will be very familiar with the hammer family, and hopefully, good, loyal players for you in the future.

yes.

because everyone gets to school before going out in the real world.

there was a previous guide made by "pocketchange", a retired IK player, its somewhere in this forums. i think CA can look it up.. we can modify that based from the new patches set by ikariam developers as it may be outdated. KS, TA and SD can give proposals to make it much better.

its for our padawans....

I think I can find it... ummm space I think you still have mod powers.? dont you..

I'm going to ask the alliance as a whole for volunteers to visit with Ha Jr as a physical form of being actively connected to them and this way we can get a ground lvl assessment of things going on in HA Jr.
Also to give KS and Midnite a break

I think we need a training alliance to help us grow. While it is true that mergers can be the fastest way for an alliance to grow there is that getting to know each other period where every one was comfortable with one way and no one like the new way to do things. With a training alliance you can get quality, loyal players slowly but theres no break in period. As far as going over there and working with Jr and everything, I didn't find it to be bad at all. You can actually get away from all of the bickering and complaining of experienced players and have players wanting to know the basics from you and have people who want to grow and learn and want to be able to switch over to HAHA when they can. I think it can also help out down the road when another war breaks out because you can form bonds of players over there who are close to you and are willing to provide supplies and gold when needed.

We have good input from the last two posts. A heavier HaHa involvement in the HaHa Jr development is always good.

What I would like to do, though, is have a curriculum. Over in delta, we had one of the best training alliances, in terms of being able to train and promote new players. The two things I think it had were a.) A leader willing to take time to teach the noobs, and b.) A set curriculum. I'll post it on here, when I remember the site. A bunch of it will probably be obsolete, but it will still be a good starting point.

The "course" came complete, from tutorials in the alliance forums, to "field trips" into the towns of inactives with militaries, and volunteers from the parent alliance, to learning benchmarks to complete. I think that's what we need.

Great Post Nowhale
I like it all

Here they are. It didn't take me as long as I thought to remember.
Here's the training alliance section in the forums

Here are the requirements


Of course, we had a bumpin IRC channel, which was almost guaranteed to have a person online, at least one. I don't think that's the case for us here. The practical test is a good idea though, as well as CR and picture posting training. With the new combat system, we probably need to teach all those different phases, and see if we can get the trainees to come online simultaneously with some of our tutors.

I like the idea of a tutorial to help out the new players a lot.

Of the council members, the following have had recently been a part of HA Jr, our subject of discussion.
True_Illusion - For a little while
Redneck0025 - Long period
Timalmighty - Long period
Space - Long period
Jusu - Long period
I am not sure if PDX is a part of the council as well.
I may ave missed some of the others.

But there were a number of others (like me, before i was made a part of the council), who went to HA Jr stayed and interacted with the members. I am sure they have all some opinion in the matter and some ideas.
Whilst I understand that not all of them can be made council members and opinion sought, but I would definitely appreciate their ideas as well involvement in this.

I feel about this very strongly, because till recently i was a non-council member and always felt that I have a lot to say but not really the right place to say. So i would mail one of you.

As of now, I suggest that we appeal to the entire alliance for their opinion on their stay in HA Jr and come up with any proposal they have in mind.

Being the newest joinee, I volunteer to do the grub work of collating the details and posting it in the council. They can all PM me.

What do you guys feel?

It looks like there is a consensus to keep a training alliance. It also looks like the HA Jrs aren't going to be left "outside, over there" any more. Both of these things have me absolutly giddy with joy.

Here is my wish list. These are not by any means demands.

I'm going to need help. I can bring new people in, answer those same newbie questions over and over and over, and boot unresponsive deadweight. That pretty much takes up most of my time.

I'm going to need help with taking members in the 30K-174K point range into the "next step." I like the idea of visiting HAHA members who can bring my mid-level recruits on pillaging field trips. I also want to propose something like knighthood in the field of battle- where a HA Jr with say, 80K+ points can temporarily join HAHA during times of war, and if he conducts himself heroicly in battle, can go right up to the parent alliance.

I also need help in checking the HA Jrs to make sure they are being compliant with our rules. (I made up the rules myself, and am more than willing to change any by the will of the council.) For example, one of my rules is: No town shall have a town hall leveled higher than the town's wall of hideout. I need help with checking that- having people send out spies to HA Jr towns and report back to me when they spot a a player that is not compliant.

I want to make it a rule that all HA Jrs MUST register for this forum. I'd like to let them learn the advanced nuances of the game here. I'd like them to use that Q&A section and get their answers from HAHA members. That way, they know that when it's time to move up, they know they are going into more familiar territory.

I'd like to have somebody in HAHA I can go to every time if I have another emergency, and need to be offline for an extended period. Currently, I have Midnite. I also think I have Asmita. I'd like to have more options if at all possible. Someone who I can put on my "friends" list so I know when they are online, that I can message at the drop of a hat saying "I need you now," who can come running at the drop of a hat to take over Home Sec, Diplomat and General while I button down for a long black out, or another tree falling on my roof.

I'd like to have only me, an assistant and maybe two or three visiting HAHAs with a point score of 175K+ at any time. All HA Jrs who have hit that mark need to be "booted up, or booted out."

In return, I'd like most of the HAHA members with less than 175K points to move into HA Jr. If nothing else, this would support us on the alliance highscore board, and give our little 1000 point newbies more people to look up to.

I would like HA Jr to be given a flying pony with rainbow butterfly wings who farts strawberry scented glitter dust. I know MLP has several, and I just want one really bad.

Wow thanks for sharing you demented insights about strawberry farting ponies...

I think three actions will fit the main requests perfectly.

We should have a semi-permanent HS over there with KS to help with sifting the uber-casual players, who only log on 2x a week, with the good ones.

Also, i think visiting council members would be good too, to lend a helping hand with training, lead exercises, and answer questions.

Finally, I think having a curriculum and "learning benchmarks" will add a lot of structure, and make the job easier. It can even be tied together with sifting the dead weight, by having them have to accomplish certain requirements in set timeframes.

nowhale wrote:having a curriculum and "learning benchmarks" will add a lot of structure, and make the job easier. It can even be tied together with sifting the dead weight, by having them have to accomplish certain requirements in set timeframes.

YES! YES! YES! And someone who can DO that. I mean, someone to write up the cirriculum in the first place, then others come to HA Jr and help me with getting people to actually DO it.

I got julez, who used to run our training alliance in delta, willing to come over and help.

We can tweak that curriculum too.

I think the benchmarks by nowhale is wonderful. I guess we should implement them.

agree with all that was said.

another thing - how about getting some of the guys as HAJr somehow rewarded for their activity and will to learn.. it is not always easy and/or possible, but at times you can spot people who are active, willing to learn, and also willing to help others.
once they learn few things, they should be able to pass that along to smaller guys. why not create some "special" rank for those guys so they stand out and so they feel the need to help the lil ones before they move out to haha?

These are really GREAT ideas!

Asmita and I will get with KS and start implementing them.

Lets take these first steps and continue to fine tune HA Jr into what we want it to become.

Nowhale have you been able to get in touch your friend to enlist his help?

Another suggestion.

Have HaHa members mentor nearby Ha Jr members. I had started to do this with Spaniard and Serj Tankian. I had signed Garrison rights treaties with them so that I could station troops in their towns so that I could assist with defense in case they were attacked and so that I didn't have to use spies to look around inside their towns and see how they were developing.

I could see where they needed to improve, give them suggestions, and send over materials to jump start appropriate building strategies.

Unfortunately Spaniard deleted his account a couple of weeks ago and Serj has recently gone inactive.

Here is a thought;
Just the way we feel that we have a council that gives ideas and suggestions and the leader takes the final decision, similarly, KS is the leader of the HA Jr and he takes the final call for the alliance.

I would love to see this set up like the government here in India(without the corruption).
There would be some specific subjects that HA Jr leadership has the final call on. While there has to be some things that will remain forever with HAHA.

Diplomacy and Defence will always be a subject that will be handled by HAHA. The HA Jr leader and one more leadership member will be a part of the council, but they can only voice opinion and raise issues. The final decision will have to be binding as seen by HAHA. If HAHA is responsible for HA Jr defence, the decisions will have to lie with them.
Internal management will be HA Jr perogative. They can run it at will. No one will interfere.
However, during the time of wars, the basic internal policy of HA Jr will be stated by HAHA. viz-a-voz to turtle up or provide support and how.
Whislt the leader holds all the key positions in HA Jr, it is a suggestion that the ones who grow up needs exposure to the leadership positions too. Not all but the ones the leader deem good enough. That will also be a training excersize. We are talking especially about General and Diplomat positions. They need to shadow HAHA leaders to learn the game and the responsibility.
HAHA will help in building the right tutorials, guidelines etc to help them But how that will be implemented has to be decided by HA Jr
HAHA will also have to take responsibility for some resource help to HA JR. We can set up a system to donate resources to HA Jr which can be used to bring the Jr guys up to speed quicker. With 160 members, if we give 5000 resources each week, it will be a total of 800k resources sent. For the new guys that will be more than enough.
One senior council member of HAHA needs to be present at HA Jr all the time. This can be rotated. He will not comment or dictate how things will be done, but will just put in his perspective on the council boards. With this position being rotated we will sure be able to help the HA Jr leadership better their tutorials and weeding of inactives.
Given all the support mentioned above, HA Jr leadership will also need to come up with tangible results. The training alliance is there to train cadets and have them join HAHA. Do we remember any such players joining HAHA in the recent past. There need to be realistic targets for that too. Something like 1 member every month or two months to be passed on to join HAHA. Without this benefit, what is the point of having a training alliance. But given the attrition in Theta, maybe we can have target on the efforts and not the results. Like how many new players recruited every month. I would suggest, you have someone looking for new players all the time. I can try to help the player in charge with the tools to make this easier. With resource help from HAHA I am sure we can push the Jr TS's up sooner.
HA Jr & HAHA will together decide on the benchmark for induction to HAHA.

As of now, to make the guys in Jr feel that they can join the #3 or #2 alliance on theta, lets bring in a few members over from HA Jr as a reward. That should motivate others.

I am trying to think some more and add...till then let your thoughts be known.

Asmita