On the matter of soft closing certain elf tribes in favor of others.

[Lotion]

So... app for one of the closed tribes and wait until it re-opens. They're going to base what is open and closed on where the interest seems to be.

Complaining about lack of options won't mean anything unless you vote!

So I can app a bahak now and then when sun runners opens do I take up the bahak slot even if I wait for my character who was alive when sun runners opened to die before spawning the elf toon? this feel bad

[Pariah]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding but soft closed means that people who are already in can live their lives like nothing happened.

But people who are creating new can't do those tribes.

I don't think it's about winning a writing reward, it's just a we went from six tribes you could choose to three.

Pick A B or C.  Don't like those, have a nice day.

[BadSkeelz]

Soft closed means they're not taking any new applicants, which means those clans will wither and die. What Staff are messaging to the players in those clans is "you and your clanmates aren't interesting enough for us to support you." It's incredibly discouraging.

[BadSkeelz]

Also, the three clans left open are all kind of the same from an outsider perspective. Hopefully they'll become more antagonistic towards each other instead of being an unassailable wastelands power bloc to dunk on all six people in the cities.

[Pariah]

Soft closed means they're not taking any new applicants, which means those clans will wither and die. What Staff are messaging to the players in those clans is "you and your clanmates aren't interesting enough for us to support you." It's incredibly discouraging.

Again not staff and don't even know if there are people in half those clans that are active.

I would assume they are open to speaking with them and such from the post of adoptions and such.

But, let's go dark and truthful here...

What if they "aren't" interesting enough? There are no participation trophies in muds, sometimes you lose or you're bad, it's part of life.

[xonn]

I'm gonna share a few insights here, as I'm on the Indy Team and directly overseeing delf tribes.

- First of all, we've kept all the tribes open for nearly a year now. As is the case with all things Armageddon, clan population and popularity is cyclic.

- Some clans are currently seeing a lot more interest than others. However, that is not to say that the other clans aren't interesting enough or are less attractive in any way. It just depends on the mood of players at any given time.

- Each of the six clans that aren't currently virtualised, have extensive documentation with deep-rooted traditions and philosophies, and unique characteristics that have survived on Arm for years. That should speak for itself.

- The idea to soft-close and rotate tribes, is more an effort (after a year of keeping them all open), to consolidate players into fewer divisions (tribes).

- We have observed cases where a solo player has been carrying their clan on their own shoulders for a long time. In such cases, both the player and Staff have to struggle to get plots going.

- None of the soft-closed clans are in danger of withering and dying. Like Usiku said, and some others have clarified in this thread - the choice is based on which clans are popular right now with the players. But players are welcome to send in requests to play in the soft-closed tribes. If there's enough interest in one (or more) of them, we are certainly amenable to re-opening them for active play.

- A comparative example would be something like the Atrium/House Terash. While it is currently closed for play, the clan isn't in any danger of dying or disappearing from the game. If we notice requests from players to re-open it, it'll definitely be looked into. Or even like the AraSeik tribes. While they're currently closed for play, we have opened up an alternative option with the Vru'Rihali.

- Also noteworthy, before the opening of all the tribes in 2022, for quite a few years, only two tribes were open to play (Sun Runners and Two Moons).

- Lastly, whether the selection of the current tribes is skewed (as in if they're all allied with each other) or not, entirely depends on the players. Yes, there are pre-set dynamics within the delf tribes, but they're always open to change which stems from IC actions by players. Which is why most of the delf tribes have a thread which details "current relations with outsiders".  If the current players of Tribe X feel that they're pissed off with Tribe Y, that's totally realistic and will change the "relationships" accordingly.

- If the concern is that all the three open tribes are going to join up into one collective - that's not gong to happen. Alliances between delf tribes are relative. Tribe X could be on better terms with Tribe Y, as compared to Tribe Z. But that doesn't mean that Tribe X and Tribe Y are permanently and absolutely joined at the hip. Each tribe's documentation has been delicately and minutely formulated in such a way that there will always be some scope for conflict and disagreement between each other.

In a nutshell - this isn't something that's being "removed" from the game. It's just a temporary change, to see if consolidation and rotation can bring more fun, conflict and interaction for the players. There's really nothing to be alarmed about here