Rather than having just leaders, officers and members maybe implement an "authority level".

When you join you have an authority level of 1.
Whoever founded the legion has an authority level of 10.
An authority level of 10 is needed to change base rules initially but later on someone can set it so you only need an authority of e.g. 8.
Then the current base rules we have, such as "build new modules", can be restricted to those who meet a minimum authority level.
A new rule to implement could be: "Change authority" where, for example, members need a minimum authority level of 5 to alter the authority of any other member and nobody can change the authority of someone of an equal or higher rank than themselves. This stops anybody from "over-throwing" leadership and also prevents a level 5 from promoting someone else to level 10.

I believe that something like this will give legions a much more flexible hierarchy system. They may choose to stick to three authority levels, just promoting someone straight from level 1 to level 5 as an officer and straight to level 10 as a leader (Or whichever values they deem appropriate).

A whole manner of new rules could also come into play as well if Dan sees fit to add them. Such as a minimum authority level needed to view alerted planets which may stop visitors (Level 1) from stealing planets whilst allowing loyal members (Who could all be level 2+) to see these planets and take them.

With the legion comms something like writing



Would display a message to all people of authority level 5 and above.

maybe not 10 levels but i could see 5 as being reasonable

+1!!! I really like this idea! It could really add some different game mechanics that would make things more interesting

It would have to be more than 5 to get the flexibility that the OP mentions. If you have 5 levels, then you're only really gaining one extra "loyal" level, by having something like:

1: Not loyal member
2: Loyal member
3: Some new rank
4: Officer
5: Leader

7 levels, maybe, but then 10 is a nice round number!

But what would be the tangible difference between the ranks? Unless there is some actual difference between a 5 and a 6, there's no point whatsoever in even having a 5 and a 6. Leader, Officer and Member is just fine as is.

3: Probationary Officer
4: Officer
5: Probationary Leader
6: Leader
7: Head Leader- limit of one

7 is a perfect number imo

You can set certain rules to only allow people of a minimum authority level to do certain things. Only people 3 and above can lock bases. Only people 7 and above can destroy base modules. Only people 2 and above can accept base invites. Only people 9 and above can allocate resource points. Only people 5 and above can increase authority level. Only people 7 and above can kick people from the legion. So on so forth.

Plucking random numbers for each of these.