Ranking system

Discussions concerning the ranking system, such as what specification the knight must meet and what they must do to achieve said rank

The current situation with the general ranking system is that you would still like some form of testing, though agree Exalt should not be a skill orientated guild, considering we're more of a community. The only problem is that we still want some form of testing for rankings as it's the best way for a knight to show their abilities

Based on the comments you have made, this is what I say we could try

Members: I saw some say that we could simply have members being knights who have been in the guild after a certain time become Members by standard, I'm not sure this is the best idea as becoming member does bring a couple of large features to their membership, such as the alchemy room with the energy wells and the storage access, so to be a member, we should have some trust in them. Though I do say the members testing should not be massively difficult as it's the standard rank in a guild, but of course they should earn it
As for how we test them I am really not sure what we could have so I would be up for suggestions to that, though I believe we should have a 4 star arsenal requirement as that is a good show that the player is taking initiative in the game to rise in ranks and such

Veterans: There isn't that massive a difference between being Member and Veteran in Exalt, the only ones I can think of is the storage accesses and being able to go into design mode. Again I don't know what we could have as a test though I think like with Members, a 5 star arsenal should be a specification as it shows they are definitely interested in still playing the game considering moving from 4 to 5 is quite tedious now (As I'm learning from playing as my Alt)

Officers: I think I might have come across wrong with the two officer type suggestion, but it did bring up a crucial point, an Officer has to be capable of dealing with situations an Officer should be able to, their capabilities in the clockworks and such though are not really huge crucial points considering if anyone was having difficulty in the depths then most anyone in the guild would jump in and assist. This in mind, perhaps simply the judgement of the current Officers and GMs would be enough of a judgement to tell if they were Officer material no? There were also a couple of suggestions to test the Officer in questions "mind" as such, giving them practice or "training" in fulfilling an Officers duties

Alright, so I've spent a lot of time thinking about this. I'm very much against time based promotions. There is too much opportunity for abuse, and really. They just feel silly to me. Why not just move everyone to member if they're going to get it for little else but logging in now and then anyway? I feel like strictly skill-based advancements however give a sort of elitist feel, as we are not a primarily skill-based guild but far more of a social group. I saw the idea of a Choose Your Own Test (CYOT) sort of program being floated around, and I feel if we could flesh this idea out (get some basic guidelines, it would be at officer's discretion ultimately to decide if the test proposed presented enough challenge), i think another idea would to be to post some of the tests proposed over time to give people an idea of what has been done before for those particular tests. that way those who aren't as creative don't have to stress too much about it.

I would also carry this sort of testing over to veterans, as these definitely want to be folks we can trust (particularly if we are going to open up the guildhall editing restrictions, which i am in favour of). I'd probably be okay with gear requirements. maybe.

I am in favour of this CYOT system because it removes a flat basis of skill for promotion, and allows players who may not be able to pass the current tests a chance for advancement, because they can customise the test to better fit their playstyle and strengths, rather than just a bland and generic display of skill. I feel it fits the more social nature while giving some sort of skill measure. I feel there is also a benefit to players thinking about what their limits are.

I feel that officer promotion should happen through an agreement between officer and gm types. I don't feel a skills test is necessary at all. I think something that could be done is to take a prospective officer, go over some of the officer duties with them, see if they believe they could fulfill these duties, and then possibly assign some sort of assignment to them that can be done without the actual officer rank, and then if handled fine a promotion to officer. probably with some sort of trial period to see how they adapt to it.