Farewell

[TacPaddy]

I have been in this fleet since March 7th, 2012. Accounting for a hiatus of 71 days from May to July that year, it has been 1644 days. In that time, I had the honor and privilege to serve as a then-Field Admiral (12/3/12 - 2/3/13), as the Legion Admiral (2/4/13 - 5/28/14), then a short stint as a then called Sub-Admiral (9/16/14-10/22/14) and ultimately needed to be "convinced" to serve as Chief of Operations (2/16-15 - 2/16/16). Summing up, I served 57,27% of my time in STOA in Leadership positions.
I cherish that time, but sadly today is the day I have to say farewell.

For quite some time now, I am frustrated with a lack of leadership and much worse, the most obvious lack of care. Over the passed year, I have seen dedicated players (i call them MVPs from now on) of this fleet removing their main toons from the fleet or leaving the fleet altogether. The problem is, that this fleet is not appreciating its MVPs (who helped tremendously to get STOA where it is today), but instead does everything to "appease" the casual player (those who usually play once every two weeks or less).

Remember the vote for what weekly boost from the Research Lab we should use permanently ? Well, a relatively small amount of Fleet members answered the call and voted. While always claiming, that STOA is a casual fleet (in which no one is forced to do anything), the vote was suddenly declared to be not representative (http://forum.stoacademy.com/showthread.php?tid=3347).
That is the true reason why I resigned from my post as COO back then. Fact is, one (just one) Admiral threw a tantrum and defied the result of the vote by stating "I'm queuing the Dilithium one anyway!". That defiance wasn't challenged at all. The other Admirals just caved in. Therefore I could no longer stand with the indecisiveness and nonsense decisions (if made at all) of the Leadership. That vote became the trigger of all the carelessness and negligence that followed ever since.

The immediate result was that more and more MVPs left, because wasting Fleet credits and Dilithium on a useless AND also broken boost was an absolute no-go for them. But that was not all. Ever since the Admiralty decided that all Admirals manage all Fleets, you could notice an increasing disregard for our KDF fleets as apparently no one felt responsible anymore.

Then K-13 was introduced and having the experience of leveling an Embassy, a Dilithium Mine, a Spire and a Research Lab, the Leadership deliberately decided to sabotage their progress. Deliberately? Yes, deliberately! When I asked for the logic in that (http://forum.stoacademy.com/showthread.php?tid=4032), I was told "There is no logic" and "Lol sabotage sounds a bit extreme. It's not like they won't get completed if we don't queue them a certain way". What an obvious way to say "We do not care!".
And they don't. When the Xenotech upgrade in the Fed fleets was completed, all of them immediately received two new Xenotech projects at once. And the Legion? None! When asked about that in chat, it became apparent that the plan for the Legion was to go for the Retrofit Engineering path first. However, the Legion upgraded Xenotech first, so Retrofit Engineering needed to be upgraded next. Since the upgrade would take 5 days to complete, the Legion graciously got one (!) Xenotech project at a time, because the second one was wrongly queued after the first one.
Knowing how the management of Fleet Holdings works, that incident became the breaking point of my patience. I did not ask why in the hell, they wouldn't click on the second slot and queue another one. The message was clear: "Thank you for being stupid enough to contribute your precious ressources. Unfortunately we care so less about that, so even we won't know if and when you can reap the benefits to which you sowed your stuff!".

I had a lot of clashes with the Admiralty in the past four and a half years. In what feels like 85% of those, at least they were productive to a more or lesser degree. But this? There is simply no arguing about this BS. Addressing important subjects is of no use, as my inquiry has shown. It could even became dangerous, as shown by the Dilithium Boost issue, which is already officially forbidden. You can't help but wonder "Why bother?"

I am a patient man, to a point where I am willing to endure a lot of suffering. Unfortunately, nowadays I have little free time, so I am no longer willing to waste it in order to permanently get pissed.

There is only one option left. Many MVPs have seen it as a last resort in the past, while I refused to see the light. Finally, I did too. PWE refused to cut the "_stoa" suffix from my handle. Therefore I will honor it as a reminder of where I learned the ropes of this game and that I once was a "proud" member of this once fine fleet.

Live long and prosper, Qapla' and Jolan Tru!

P'Triq Marqus
aka TacPaddy aka TP

Field Admiral, Legion Admiral, Sub-Admiral, Chief of Operations, Commodore

P.S.: I am well aware, that this thread is likely to be deleted soon as well as having my account being temporarily or even permanently banned. Well, it did happen before. However, with 3,500+ posts being marked as "Banned" or "Unregistered" my leave will not go  unnoticed. For those of you, who will ask me for my reasons (and I know some will), I'll save a screenshot of this post. It will be much easier for me to show you than explaining it over and over again in countless PMs.

[Attilio]

Well TP its been a long road and I'm sorry you have to leave. I really don't appreciate your bashing of the Admiralty though, and always believed you were above that. I am disappointed.

The fact of the matter is that we do care. I care. You say that only 85% of the time our discussions were productive. Is that not an indication? Surely you cannot expect us to do exactly what you suggest 100% of the time. I do recall a number of suggestions that were a bit extreme.

As for the boost, I'm sorry you cannot see it our way. I'm sorry you cannot understand our duty to all our members, not just a handful. I refuse to let this fleet turn into a place where older more experienced members have every advantage and newer less experienced do not. Balance is needed in all things.

As for K13 and the Legion, why did you not reach out to me directly? Academy is faced with the same situation but I've been queuing Xanotech projects in the meantime. Unfortunately I do not have the time to check the projects of all 8 fleets all the time, so I really appreciate when members reach out. Just this week I queued a provision project in Infinity's Starbase because a member notified me that they were out of provisions.

You're right, as I said there was no logic, at that time. A member of our Admiralty was kind enough to queue all the projects in all the fleets as soon as the patch was over and we continued with it. It wasn't until some time after your thread and just before Tier 1 was ready that I notified the Admiralty of our plan. Complete Tier 1 in all fleets since it is easier to get, then split the two tracks among the 8 fleets for Tier 2 and up. A delay? Maybe. Surely not a significant one. Does a few days, even a week, really make such a large difference in the grand scheme of things?

What I see here is no trust in our leadership. This is a prime example of different perspectives on the same topic. All I can say is that I'm sorry that 85% is not enough to keep you and make you realize that we do care. I'm also sorry you don't consider all our members MVP, because to me they are all equally valuable.

I'll always consider you a friend and you're always welcome to return. Good luck.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[eaglescoutdjb]

I'm sorry to see you go and hope you find a fleet that's a better fit for you.  I wish my frustration with the game could be fixed by finding another fleet but my frustration with Cryptic a topic for another time.

[aaaict]

*finishes popcorn* sigh

Speaking as one of those "MVPs", as much as I disagree with many of the admiralty's decisions, they make their decisions with the authority and belief of what is right for the fleet. Bashing them in public is not the right way to deal with that under any circumstances I'm afraid. 

This is a social group, and thus there are always going to be differences, it is how we deal with that when it arises is what matters. STOA will always be the first fleet that I felt at home in, and despite the critical problems that I and others like you TP I see, that doesn't mean that we disrespect the contributions of others who have made the fleet the place that it is.

[TacPaddy]

The fact of the matter is that we do care. I care. You say that only 85% of the time our discussions were productive. Is that not an indication? Surely you cannot expect us to do exactly what you suggest 100% of the time. I do recall a number of suggestions that were a bit extreme.

That was before the Dilithium Boost disaster. Some issues were not discussed at all, hence the felt 85%.

As for the boost, I'm sorry you cannot see it our way. I'm sorry you cannot understand our duty to all our members, not just a handful.

As many tried to explain to you, the Combat Boost would have been to everyones benefit. To be honest, I wouldn't mind the Dilithium boost, if it would do as advertised. Since it doesn't, many failed to see the point.

As for K13 and the Legion (...)
A delay? Maybe. Surely not a significant one. Does a few days, even a week, really make such a large difference in the grand scheme of things?

You should ask those, who eagerly give their ressources to get the Fleet holdings done. Or those, who couldn't get a sneak peek of K-13 on Tribble. Or maybe the less experienced members, who can't get into K-13 and therefore can't play the Officer of the Watch missions to earn some precious Fleet marks.

What I see here is no trust in our leadership. This is a prime example of different perspectives on the same topic. All I can say is that I'm sorry that 85% is not enough to keep you and make you realize that we do care.

Again, the 85% was refering to times before the infamous vote. What happened after that was not encouraging either, yet I had faith. But that faith is gone now.

I'm also sorry you don't consider all our members MVP, because to me they are all equally valuable.

All Fleet members are valuable. I simply shortened dedicated players to MVPs. If you think about it, there has been a lot of fleet members who gave their all to this fleet. But they are long gone now. Did you ever wonder why that is?

I'll always consider you a friend and you're always welcome to return. Good luck.

Attilio, you are a great guy. I will always think that. Thank you for the offer to return, but I don't see that happening. Therefore, I'd appreciate it to have my forum permissions adjusted accordingly. Thank you.

[sf911]

Having left STOA a few months ago, unfortunately, I must agree with many of TP’s assessments.

Sadly most of the players I frequently played with in STOA reached similar conclusions and left too.

Having declined an admiralty position, I felt it best to go quietly...however, for all TP has done in STOA I think he certainly earned the right to voice his opinion. It is valuable feedback and I hope the remaining admiralty will take note of it.

Slotting the dil buff vs. the combat buff or slotting projects without any logic (thus needlessly lengthening holding completion times) are signs of lack of interest in the game in my personal view. Neither choice benefits anyone.

The dil buff is effectively pretty useless (due to the fact that it does not buff any big dil cash-ins) whilst the combat buff is one of the better services a fleet can offer its members (which is even better for newer/less experienced players due to their lower cat1/resist saturation). I hope that for the sake of those that remain and care, that the admiralty will reconsider some of their previous positions.

In any case, these are my two cents (nothing I haven't said before). Best of luck to STOA and to you TP. It was a fun journey.

Cheers,
Florian

[Rev]

I also left STOA a few months ago for similar reasons as TP.  The decision was not an easy one, rather one in which I spent many days contemplating.  While I made the decision to leave I view my time in STOA as well-spent and have nothing but rerespect for its members and its Admiralty.  I will always remember my time in STOA as a positive experience.  That being said, here are certainly some legitimate criticisms of policy issues, as TP and Florian so eloquently stated.

Ultimately, I must agree with the aforementioned comments on the T3 Research Lab Boost.  it is apparent when viewing the three Buffs (Dilithium, XP, and Combat) that the Combat Boost is the superior choice for all its fleet members.  The dilithium boost has no effect on big Dilithium acquisition methods, namely the Klingon Tour-of-Duty 10/10 reward and Dilithium Mining Claims.  The Combat Boost has a noticeable buff for both inexperienced players and experienced players, as the Cat1 and +40 Damage Resistance buffs are a noticable improvement.  IMVHO, considering the hard-earned FC and Dilithium it takes to queue a boost, the best solution for all players is to only queue the Combat Performance Boost.

At any rate, I support TP's decision and wish him and STOA the best of luck.  TP and I did not talk much as he and I live in drastically different time zones, but I'll always remember he took time out of his day to help a n00b (me) with questions whenever I asked.  STOA definitely lost one of its most valued resources with TP's departure, and I hope the Admiralty reconsiders its position on certain policies that led to said loss.  


Rev

[Attilio]

The facts are these:

• STOA never has and never will be a DPS oriented fleet. We're here for fun. Everyone who has ever joined this fleet knew what it was about beforehand.
  
• The game is playable whether or not the combat/dilithium boosts are active. If they never existed, no one would even care.
  
• The reason the Dilithium boost doesn't affect things like the Mining Claims is because those are already boosted.
  
• Most members are not privileged enough to have Mining Claims, or even to be playing many hours. Some only play a few hours and do a couple PvE missions. If they can earn even a tiny bit extra, it goes a long way. A Combat boost won't help them earn those extra Dilithium.
  
• I've always led this fleet through compromise and I always will. If some people don't agree, that's fine. I've said to everyone who has ever left this fleet for various reasons, you need to do what is best for yourself. I will always stand by that.
  
• I'm always available for any fleet member. Everyone is more than welcome to talk to me about any topic. We can each voice our opinions, but at the end of the day myself and the Admiralty will make decisions based on what we feel is best. Not everyone is going to agree with those decisions, nor do I expect them to. Otherwise we'd be Borg and that's no fun.
  

With that said, I'm going to close this thread before anything gets out of hand. If anyone wants to chat about anything that was said in this thread, send me a message here or in game.