Not sure what to do with inherited SG

Several months ago, I was sent an invite to join a villain group from someone I didn’t know. I was just starting to craft enhancements with that toon, and I accepted hoping that the base would at least have a decent workshop. Turns out it was a small and not very active group, but the base did have a workshop as well as a full set of teleporters and a med bay, so I was happy. I ended up playing that toon a lot, and before long I was one of the most active and highest prestige earners in the group.

Then one day I went to the base and found mostly empty rooms—it seemed the group leader had decided to redesign the whole base from scratch. No problem, I was willing to be patient and go without certain amenities until he finished. Sadly, he only got as far as filling a few rooms with mostly decorative items and then never came back. Eventually, he was gone long enough to be auto-demoted and I logged in to find that I had been auto-promoted to group leader. By this time, nearly everyone in the group who had been even semi-active had long since bailed.

It’s now been over 2 months since the former leader last logged in. I have no idea if he’s ever coming back. I’ve paid the base upkeep and got the workshop functional again. I’d like to do more—mainly, replace all the transporters that were removed. Unfortunately, the former leader spent so much prestige on expensive decorative stuff that I think I’ll have to sell some of it to get back all the teleporters the base once had.

What are the protocols in a situation like this? Am I out of line making major changes to the base? Or is it reasonable to feel that it’s now mine to do with as I wish? The original owner may one day return intending to reclaim his base, and might be angry if it’s not the way he left it. On the other hand, he did abandon the base after stripping it of everything useful, I'm not sure how he could blame me for wanting to restore it. I wouldn’t dream of touching the base had he left it in the fully functional condition it was in when I first joined. And he is welcome to have it back anytime he should return. I’m just not sure I want to wait forever to get teleporter capacity back.

So I’d like some advice. What do you think is appropriate in a case like this? What would you do?

If you're able to send him/her an e-mail, I'd try that first, basically asking him/her what you asked us here. If you get a welcome response, like go ahead and do what you think needs to be done, then fine. If you get no response or the response isn't very welcome, you might want to look at quitting and joining a new SG. I would be hesitant to put a lot of effort into something that someone might come back and claim and completely redo all over again.

Looks like it's yours. IMO, do what you want with it. You have no idea if he's coming back or not, which is what the auto promotion and auto demotion is set up for.

I won't say that he can't come back and cause an issue.. I mean, I help run a group vil-side which we inherited in a more direct fashion.. but one of the 'original creators' came back to the game after a few years hiatus and got angry because we wouldn't give the group back to him. But really, it was all the work of those people who had been in the group and active, so IMO dude had no real claim to it. I mean geeze. I'm the one who made the base the group currently uses.

Anyhow, dude got so PO'd that we wouldn't give it back, he quit the group. Less hassle for us. Things run smooth as ever now.

I would say do what you want. *If* he comes back I would consider letting him be leader again, but it seems if left you high and dry with nothing in the base, so I wouldn't give him much claim if he does come back. Maybe if he left with you a functional base and let you know what his plans were, but it doesn't look like he did.

The official position is: You own it. You have the big, red star so it's yours and no one can gainsay that.

My position is: Sixty days sounds about right for a 'grace period'. I'd try to send him a message and see if you get a reply within a week or two. If not, have fun with YOUR SG.

Thanks for all the good advice, everyone.

I'll send a message to the former leader's global. If he doesn't respond after a while, I'll assume that I'm free to make whatever changes are needed. Of course, I'll hand control back to him should he ever return.

With reactivation this weekend you might actually hear from him/her.

Forget him. If he deleted all the transporters and then didn't fix the base for months, who really cares about his opinions?

Suggest reading some of the base buildings FAQS. A few quick things:
If you delete a crafted item, you get back all prestige but lose the salvage used to create it.
Deleting ANY other object/room gets you back FULL prestige back.

There's NO bad thing in the long run about deleting decorative items or rooms. Get the base functional again. Get friend in, invite your other characters. Shouldn't be too hard to get it how you need it for decent pve play.

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Currently listening to Squirrel Nut Zippers' Hot

I agree with the others here - I have inherited a couple of SGs myself. I kept the former leader in the SG for a relatively long time, just in case - but 60 days or so sounds about right to me.

I advise caution when kicking inactive members - just be sure to keep the 15 needed to keep the Prestige bonus the SG got from them. If you are kicking all old members (and there is nothing wrong with that), make sure you have replacements to keep the 15 member minimum.

OTOH, I have kept some inactive members in one of my inherited SGs for nearly 2 years now. But if they don't come back this weekend, they are going to be kicked - I figure they won't even be back.

No real reason to kick people, imho. They could always come back. You might stop playing yourself and they might have the opportunity to keep using the SG as well.
(assuming you don't need the space)

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Currently listening to Squirrel Nut Zippers' Hot

I've run into this a couple times, myself. A recent situation was I had a couple padding characters in an SG from when we had the SG prestige bonus two years ago. I actually played a couple of the characters for a bit, but the owner stopped playing. He eventually auto-demoted and of course I ended up the leader. I played off and on for a couple months, but when I logged in one day, all characters in that SG, except for my leader character had been kicked. He apparently logged in, removed his characters, kicked whatever padders that were on and quit. The base is a decent size and there were quite a few nice enhancements stored - Numina's, Steadfasts, etc.

For awhile I really didn't know what to do. I sent him an offline message asking what had happened but haven't heard back from him. I was hesitant to do anything, but after a month, I figure it is mine now.

As pointed out before, anything you do to the base, except for the crafted base items, is not permanent. So I would edit the base as you see fit. It can always be restored.

As for items of worth stored in the base - that is a hard call. How long SHOULD one wait before you can claim it?

I would say at least wait until this weekend is over to see if they come back. worse case maybe their computer crashed or was broken or they lost their job and havent been able to get on to play??? As a sg leader if i was gone for a set amount of time i would feel ok with my co leaders and such to get the base back into running order as long as they left me in the sg in case i come back since i created it. I would try to get ahold of this person or anybody that may know this person to see if you can talk to them in any fashion.
I would feel uneasy as well if i was in your shoes and inherited a sg without knowing if the leader was coming back or not. Hope it turns out well

Just take the lead! No need to be a wuss about it...

They'll probably just laugh at you behind your back if they return and you say: "Sorry baws I waas toooo escared to do anythin when you waas gawwn, So I keeped it jus how yous left it!"

They'll ruffle you're hair and say: "Don't worry about it kiddo! You couldn't have matched my ultra-manly base sculpting skills even if you had tried!! HAHAHAHA!"

Turn to their second in command who has returned with them and say: "Can you believe this guy? For the past God-knows-how-long this group has been run by a wimp with absolutely no initiative or drive. Kick this guy before people start to think we're weak!"

Hey you never know, this could happen:- You said it was on Vills right?

You should start your despotical reign by declaring the former leader as Base Enemy #1, to be shot on sight and then shot again. It's the only right thing to do in this situation.

Wow.

While I agree with everyone here, I'm surprised there has been so little support for the missing founder. I remember a thread where an SG leader disappeared for almost 6 months and came back to complain that . . . well just read it in his own words.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caliente_Sam I lost my job in December, and had to let my accounts lapse for a couple months. I bought a couple time cards for my kids for Easter presents and discovered that all my chars and alts had been demoted and someone I don't know is now the leader of my Supergroup Base. I hollered for help from the Support Team, but they have been uncooperative. HOW can I get my base back? I'm a casual player and the base has existed on Freedom with Spectrum as the leader since bases became available. I was a member during the original beta, and yet, this is the "Support" I get. A mistake was made, and now years of gameplay and hundreds of dollars of subscription fees for 2 accounts have been wasted. I don't farm, or powergame, so I am at a loss how to regain what took me a lot of hard work to reclaim. How do I position my character to be the new leader when the stranger who is the leader gets auto-demoted? What recourse do I have? "Support" seems unwilling to help, taking a Gee its working how it should work, sucks to be you, don't forget to keep sending us money sucker...

To see the entire thread go here

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=130792

hm, and it seems you were one of the more unsympathetic ones in that thread. You said: (post #8 on the first page)

Quote:

Wow. What a sense of entitlement. His accounts were inactive for almost 5 months and he expects NCSoft to punish the other members of the SG indefinitely on the hopes that he might one day reactivate his accounts.

So you cut that dude to ribbons and then express surprise that there isn't more sympathy for the missing leader in this thread???