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+---- Thread: Ship Consolidation and Changes (/showthread.php?tid=259)
Ship Consolidation and Changes - Autumn - 03-09-2024
Hello everyone,
We have some upcoming changes to the FedSpace fleet. As Paul mentioned in his State of the Site post, membership levels continue to slowly drop. As older players leave, we've not had an equal number of new players join the site to fill their place. Forum-based RPG games just aren't as popular as they were 20 years ago. Unfortunately, that's left us in a situation where we have two ships that have reached critically low crew levels, the Charon and the Titania. We also face a critical shortage of GMs. As Paul also mentioned, there aren't enough GMs to go around, and many are doing double duty to handle the current load of five ships. Due to both issues, we've made the difficult decision to consolidate the fleet and drop one ship.
In the past, when we've closed a ship it was due to the loss of its command crew or problems with its command staff. In those cases, it made the decision easier on which ship to drop. The task wasn't so easy this time however. The Charon's and the Titania's issues are not due to problems with their command team. The problem lies in low membership numbers, and there's no magical solution to suddenly increase membership levels. Paul and I discussed this matter thoroughly and talked to others involved in the process before coming to a decision. That decision is to close the Geronimo and merge its crew into both the Titania and the Charon. And the Charon crew itself will be transferring to the new Aquila. The Geronimo was chosen as the sacrificial lamb simply because Sothrick and Keir are the least senior command team on the site, and for no other reason. Trust me, it was a hard decision to make, as the Geronimo was my ship, but it was the most fair decision in our minds.
This will give all four ships on FedSpace ten players each and fill several empty departments. This should hopefully make the site more fun for everyone in the long run and perhaps make it more attractive to new players. It's easier to keep new players engaged when they have a full and active crew to post with. We lose new players quickly when they're assigned to ships with small crews and low activity.
I hope you all understand the reasoning behind this move. It was not done lightly. We'd like to see FedSpace continue onward for as long as players want it to be here. We've put off consolidation for over a year, and now it's time to finally face reality and do it.