[/align]Chapter IV: Clans.
IV 1. What are clans ?
Soon after you have joined the Void, you will be confronted with clans one way or another.
Clans are groups of players, joined together by shared interests under one mutual clan name, playing by the principles of their clan. Some clans follow a certain RP, other clans prefer to fly under the same clan tag because they all like to explore. However, the majority of the clans on the Void Server are born out of a Roleplay point of view. A lot of clans here therefore have a specific RP. Be it playing the role of Navy, being plain Evil or claiming to be Nomads.
As you can see all clans have their own specific behavior. Some clans will play friendly to you, as others will shoot and kill you before you can blink.
In any case, it is always important to remember that each member of any clan is just a player performing a certain role. So even though his role instructs him to attack and mercilessly kill you, you might notice that if you talk to him, he might actually be a very nice person.
Please do not judge players by their clan tags, but by how they really are.
You will recognize clan members by their names. All clans have a clear designation, followed by the name of the player. Each clan tag has to be put in between brackets or punctuations, like [Clan_Name], -=Clan_Name=-, =|Clan_Name|= and {Clan_Name}. These are mere examples however, more options and variations to this is possible.
Example: You see a player called -=REAVERS=-FireFly.
The ‘-=REAVERS=-‘ part in this name indicates that this player is a member of the -=REAVERS=- clan. The ‘FireFly’ part tells you the name of this player.
One player can have more than one clan chars. But most clans do not allow their members to be in another clan at the same time, a practice commonly referred to as ‘Multi-Clanning’. This is not forbidden by the server rules, but it is by most clan rules, and violation will in those cases make for the ejection of the violating clan member from his clan.
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IV 2. How do I join a clan?
Once you have familiarized yourself with all the different kinds of clans and their RP’s, you might feel drawn to one specific clan for one reason or another. At this point you will probably be thinking about joining this clan of your choice. There is a good chance that one of the members of this clan has already asked you to join, or at least told you how to go about it, but in case this hasn’t happened yet, I will give a general description here.
It all starts with talking to one of the members. Once you have made it clear that you would like to join his clan, this member will probably forward you to the clan leader, or any other clan members in charge of recruiting new members. In some clans any member has this responsibility. It all depends on the structure of the clan, but no doubt that the members of the clan can tell you all about that.
The leader or the one responsible for recruiting new members, will probably tell you to pay a visit to the clan site. Clan sites is a requirement for clans to be recognized as an official clan on Void, which we will address after this. He will probably ask you to register on their site, and leave a message there, telling a little something about yourself and your motivation to join their particular clan.
After that, your application will probably be judged by the clan members in charge, and you will be notified about the outcome. If this outcome is a positive one, you will be asked to create a new char marked with the clan tag of the clan you are joining.
Some clans will offer you financial and practical help with setting up your new clan char. Others might not, as they count on you being fully self-sufficient.
A lot of clans have a recruitment or application section posted on their clan section on the Void forum. Posting your application here is another way to get in contact with the clan of your choice.
Please note:
Please do not make a clan tagged char any sooner than you have received permission to do so from the clan member in charge. Impersonating other players and with that, wearing false (read: not approved) clan tags is a punishable violation and if another player reports you for this, you will get in trouble.
Also note:
Some clans may try to draw your interest in them by promising you all sorts of good stuff: the best weapons, a good ship, all the good trade routes on Void, some will even make you level 90 the moment you join. All of this just to get their numbers up.
Even though a lot of these promises may sound pretty good at first glance, they can be deceiving and may eventually bite you in the rear. A lot of players joining clans for these reason, often leave again shortly after joining, because they are disappointed with the fact that the clan isn’t as great as looked at first. Let this be a warning to you.
A piece of advice many seasoned Voidian would give you:
Take your time to have a good look around and give yourself the opportunity to make up your own mind about the clans on the server. Get to know the RP’s of the clans, and also the people in the clans. Fly with them sometime, or hang out with them and have a good chat, try to get to know them a bit. Pay a visit to their site and see how they receive you.
Remember that a clan can look great in everything else, it will not work out if you can’t have fun with the other members.
Once you have a clear enough picture, and decide to join a certain clan, join for the right reasons. Join because you are attracted to the clan’s RP, and you feel comfortable with the members of that clan.
In short: Join that clan, in which you feel you can have fun. Because that’s what it’s all about on the Void Server. And it’s really all that counts.
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IV 3. How do I create my own clan?
Every player is allowed to create his own clan and get other players to join. Of course you could just make up a name for your clan and have some oher player use the same tag, and in principle, you would now have a clan. But not really.
Getting your clan officially recognized is a different story.
In order to get your clan recognized, you need more than just a name for your clan and a bunch of other players to fly with you. There are a set of ruequirments your clan will have meet up to. You can find them explained elaborately on this thread, posted by Fracture, one of the server Admins.
I will summarise these regulations here.
Initial requiremets to start a clan:
- You need at least 5 separate clan members – not chars
- The name of your clan has to put in between brackets or punctuations ie [clan_name], -=clan_name=-, =|clan_name|=, {clan_name} etc.
- You must post an announcement regarding the clan’s background, its RP and its ingame intentions on the Void forum, ‘news for clans’- section
- Your clan has to show up on the FL Stat roster
- Your clan members have to have a combined total of 100 or more hours logged in their clan-tagged chars
If your clan has met these requirements, it will be officially recognized and you are free to request a forum section on the Void forum, especially for your clan.
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