Fun With Running a Linkshell! :)

[WishMaster3K]

How do you leaders do it?
How can I start one?
What members should I look for?
How to keep it active?

I've joined a handful of "pickup" linkshells that never went on for more than a week or so due to lack of involvement, low membership, etc.

And I've also seen older linkshells have a high curve of difficulty for newcomers. I've been playing the game for almost 5 years, so I could give a shit about the latter; I know enough people on Gilgamesh to have my own niche.

I've been considering starting my own linkshell, honestly. From my own obervations, I can see that running a linkshell is a precarious balance of business, personal relationships with members, "fair" rules and some degree of accomplishment.

I was approached about being a sackholder for a LS I've been in forever, cause the leader thinks I help out way more than normal, but we already have a shit load of sackholders. >_>

I'm about to drop the 8k and make my own pearl.

Right now, I'm contemplating making a LS for my "Assault Static," if just for the fact that the other 5 people can sign onto it and see the weekly message. I know how much the players LOVE the Linkshell Community and how EVERYONE uses it.

[Callisto]

Re: Fun With Running a Linkshell!

The best place to start is with the 6 best members you can pull away from whatever they're doing.

If it wasn't for our main core of our top 3-6 members we couldn't get shit done, but we know that even if noone shows up we can go to Sky with 6 and bring back a full set of triggers, or clear most Limbus zones, etc.

Aside from this, although like I said in other threads I have a difficult time recruiting, honestly don't shout for members. For lack of a better way to say this, if you shout for members, you get the type of members who join the type of shells who shout for members. Try to meet new people through meritting or Assault, the ones who you like/show that they possess some skill ask if they're interested in joining your LS.

For rules, every LS does it somewhat differently, and honestly it's impossible to make one that everyone deems is fair, because fair to most people is whatever gets them everything they want as fast as possible regardless of what it gets others.

For keeping it active, especially when you first start, try tossing in some bullshit events just for fun. I highly recommend 20 cap Garrison for that, it's fun, relatively easy when you know what to do, and somewhat profiable.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Fun With Running a Linkshell!

I often wonder if I should just break down and lead more stuff or start an LS. It seems for every major goal I've accomplished in FFXI, I've been the leader or an officer at some point and the times I'm not I get very little done. I usually don't need to ask what to come as since my characters are pretty streamlined where jobs are concerned, but I hate being told what to come as at any rate.

Maybe its just the last time I made a big effort to lead something, I also happened to find the stress limit of my previous psychological treatment plan. I haven't attempted to lead much since three months ago, but my new treatments have been pretty kickass.

Fact of the matter is, to work toward the relic I want, I must take leadership for both Nyzul Isle and Assault because I've never met anyone else I could trust to do so. Everything else in regards to that goal requires a lot more organization and I'll probably just have to accept that joining an HNMLS is probably the only way of really meeting that goal, amoung others.

Thing is, I've been told I'm a real slavedriver. I pretty much apply the CoP mission standards to everything I do. You take care of your own ass, you bring oils/powders/reraise/items and the job I need or I'll bust your balls over it. And there are no "retired" jobs if you're wanting to meet your goals in things I lead. I'm not going to tell your endgame LS you have a PLD or WHM you don't like to play, but if we need it, you'd better invest in it a bit.

I mean, I can try to hide my BRD, but the fact remains that if one melee sees it, a dozen other drooling melee have as well and will eagerly point it out to any LS in which I apply to. I've found the solution to thwarting having to be a BRD - its called levelling other mage jobs people need. SCH and RDM rival BRD rather nicely in need and I happen to love SCH. So I'm no longer hiding the BRD, I'll probably even regear it - I'll just point out aside from the BRD category itself, there are no merits going in its favor. Ha.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Fun With Running a Linkshell!

I've never led a linkshell, but when I was a sack in my old social, I organized and led weekly AF events for all our members. All of us were leveling different jobs (some of us our 1st, some our 8th, etc.) and not all AF quests can be soloed, so every week I'd get an idea of who needed what (coffers, NMs, etc.) and also who hadn't gotten anything in a while, and plan our night. Then every Sunday night we'd gather together and either farm our coffer keys and look for the chest, or go kill the AF3 NMs. We actually did this a few months before the LS leader took off. After that, everyone kind of just went their own separate ways, which was a shame because of how much fun we had. It was usually no more than 8 of us at a time, though, and people would respect my order for doing things because I tried to be fair, and I tried to do things the easiest way possible. (Someone needs a coffer key and coffer in Kuftal, and someone else has an NM fight there? Both of them tonight.) My only requirement was that people had to do all their CS on their own time, and people who were willing to look for coffers on their own with sneak/invis of some kind were appreciated. (I never made the ls look for my coffers, it was very easy for me to run around myself /RDM or /WHM.)

If I were to ever attempt anything like that again, I'd make my own LS. I would never try to lead anything much harder, though, because it's just too hard to get people you trust and people who will listen to instruction.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Fun With Running a Linkshell!

I somewhat can discern your method of LS management from your various rants.

Since all I'm doing is a static, I don't really need to worry about points right now (LAWLLAWL).

One method a Dynamis-Shell I was in implememented was what they called the "Red Zone". There were still points for every run, but people were able to pick one job and get the gear they wanted for that job only (I liked this part), then make a hierarchy for the slots.

The hierarchy was in place to reduce bid wars, and the cap was at 50 points anyway. If people were at the cap, they all had a lot off, and the losers didn't lose points. The purpose of Red Zoning was that if you had more points than the people lotting against you and you choose to Red Zone, you were locked in for that piece of gear for the run.

Written out, it seems like a good system. I didn't stick around the LS long enough to see how it played out, but the whole "Lotting for one job only" thing works well, but not if you have 4 jobs and some worthless piece hasn't dropped and you're locked out of lotting for another job. But as to why someone wouldn't want all 5 pieces of Relic is beyond me anyway.

There are probably aspects I'm missing, but I think it was a decent system, for what it was worth.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Fun With Running a Linkshell!

There are plenty of different and valid ways to do points for Dynamis. I've seen many that work, and a few that really kind of don't. You could really devise any sort of system you wanted out of thin air as long as it's relatively fair.

If I ever started a Dynamis Linkshell (sometime after I make my first 20 mil ... yeah right ... ) I've already got a point system that I'd use in mind. However, let's be real that's not going to happen. In a perfect world everything would be my way and then nothing would be wrong. Unfortunately 50 bazillion other people feel the same way.

[Callisto]

Re: Fun With Running a Linkshell!

If my current shell were to end up failing, I would be faced with the options of either trying to start my own shell or jumping servers to an established one somewhere else. Neither is especially appealing, since I'm almost to the point where I'd rather just be a worker bee, one of the people who shows up to every event, does theei job, and collects their drops, while jumping servers would involve dragging my g/f with and paying $75 for transfers just so I could continue in endgame.

Leading an endgame is especially tiring for multiple reasons. Not only do you have to try to make it work and appease multiple people at once, to be blunt noone is grateful for shit. When the shell first got going, us officers were spending non-event nights putting in 6 hour nights in sky 3-5-manning triggers to pop gods for drops that none of us stood to get, while normal members got to farm/XP/whatever.

Almost every moment that I'm online goes towards LS events in one way or another, be it actually doing the event or doing something to make the LS able to do a future event. In terms of what I take back for the work, so far in 9 months I've gotten the following from LS events:

W.Legs(nice)
Merciful Cape(nice)
Nashira Turban(nice)
Nashira Manteel(nice)
Bard's Justacorps(crap)
Seiryu's Kote(free lot)
Suzaku's Sune-Ate(free lot)
Genbu's Kabuto(free lot)

Everything else I either entered the LS yet, or hasn't dropped for me. I made all of our dynamis strategies myself and have missed 1 run every due to Mother's Day, I came to the LS 4/5 on RDM AF2 and 3/5 on BRD with nothing to gain from city Dynamis, yet still put forwards a shitload of effort to organize our runs and lead us through the cities...and then at least 3 people flipped out when the shellholder announced that the first hat that dropped would be mine.

I've had the cape from Ix'DRK wishlisted for about 4 months, but we need the deed from Ix'DRG so most times in Sea I skip the DRK and do DRG, we've gotten 2 members Astute Capes despite only 1 attempt ever at my Altruistic...and I have people accusing me of playing favorites.

I sat with Nashira Turban and Manteel wishlisted for 4 months before we even attempted an Ultima, which was after our 8th Omega, I dropped those items off my list for a bit, then relisted them later, then waited another 3 months for our next Ultima. When both dropped in the same run and I walked with 2 items, people complained about me whoring loot.

In terms of our big-ticket items: 6 of the 9 Byakko's Haidate we've gotten are no longer in the shell. Our first Xarc AF left a week after getting it, they also took our 2nd Merciful Cape with them, this same play complained about 'putting in too much work and never getting anything in return'. A week and a half after getting our first ever Homam body, a member who had no complaints about our LS system previously all of a sudden changed to 'OMFG THESE RULES ARE BULLSHIT' when we bumped him 1 spot for 1 item, and he left the shell. 2 of our first 5 Kirin's Osodes are gone, another barely shows up to anything.

Our LS bank is currently in the red and officers are lending it money so that we can do events, since we pay for Ultima/Omega/Einherjar/Dynamis...and then we have members bitching that we don't also pay for normal runs. These same people complain when we have to do Sky, even though that's the bank's main source of income.

So yeah, no matter how much work you put in or how hard you try, someone is always going to have something to say about it. The key is to find a solid core of people who agree as closely as possible on what is 'fair', get what you can done with them, and don't worry about the people who come along and don't agree, they'll either fall in line or go somewhere else eventually.
______________________________

If I ever started a Dynamis Linkshell (sometime after I make my first 20 mil ... yeah right ... ) I've already got a point system that I'd use in mind. However, let's be real that's not going to happen. In a perfect world everything would be my way and then nothing would be wrong. Unfortunately 50 bazillion other people feel the same way.

Honestly if I were to start my own shell, it would only be 12-15 of the best players I can find, and no more than that. I could clear all cities/glacier with that and farm Xarc, kill anything I needed to in Sky, take most of Limbus except maybe Ultima, and drops wouldn't be totally diluted.

[Ziero]

Re: Fun With Running a Linkshell!

What does it take to run a Linkshell?

Patience. Lots of it.

A thick skin, cause no matter what you do, you'll be wrong, and they'll let you know.

A bit of stubbornness, because everyone wants it their way despite whether it's best or not.

Time, because those people will demand demand demand.

A clear head, because rash decisions are bad decisions.

A spine, because you will have to make tough choices, and stick to them.

Diplomacy, because when a problem arrises you'll be the one talking everyone through it.

And above all else, the most important thing you'll ever need to run a Linkshell, is good, honest, trust worthy friends. Because the only way you'll be able to survive all the slings and arrows, dealing with the drama queens, the loot whores, the idiots, retards and whiners and cryers is if you have your good friends there able to slap some sense into them for you. Because you sure as hell aren't allowed do it yourself.