Unlike other FB games (but more complicated than them) there is this idea,
That alliances (called legions on this post) are given a tree shaped membership:

The leader (called Admiral) starts the alliance, and recruits 5 people as his/her Commanders.
Those commanders can recruit up to 5 people each as their captians.
Those captians can then recruit up to 5 soldiers each.

That means by way of control: 1 Admiral = 5 commanders = 25 captians =125 soldiers
A strange total of 156 members, but allows a closer net of responsibility. Even captians can recruit, but might even be kicked for not following their commander. When a higher member is kicked, their own oldest recruit gets their spot, just like an oldest son getting the throne of his father.

In a ship's screen, right below the player's name would be the legion name and position.
For Example: Disciples of the Orion (Captian)

If a legion score is used, more points could be stollen for disabling higher-position legion members.
For example: 50 Admiral, 25 Commander, 5 Captian, 1 Soldier

For the players who want to play "small strike team" have a tighter control, and those who play "great army" have a millitary-inspired grand system.

I like the idea of higher number legions but.......

I vote any legion over 100 pays 5 gp per week and make it so any player can pay these out. With the likelihood of people getting them from the daily award it does mean that there should be no problem as long as someone forks it over.

Maybe give a month allowance to be late so legions are not disbanded. If you want to keep it free, maybe giving up some research points to the legion in exchange as a tariff. Something to encourage people to form their own legions in the beginning instead of having 1 legion with 200 and 15 legions of 20.

I know a lot of people are not going to think this is fair but 200 ships ganging up on someone for making a planetary invasion is a bit ridiculous when missions require it. If people want that kind of protection and access to assist with the big npcs they should pay for it.
Any legion 100 or under is free.

Also it would help if you had to be over level 125 to start a legion or some other level cap.

This I think is a good idea.
Edit: not as that high a level, but that there will be a minimum level requirement, perhaps lv 20. (even to join one)

As for the "pay GP for bigger than 100", I disagree about the cost but agree about the implentation. As I have seen in another game, there is a cost to the leader to increase the max size of the alliance. Using my "alliance starbase" idea:
Base size is 50 members. Using credits and minerals, you can upgrade the starbase with a larger "register module", allowing more members to join. After 150 members, the cost to increase requires Galaxy Points, to a max of 200.

well if it's the only way to have a ship log and higher levels wont want to team up with lower levels, you can expect lower levels to be singled out without any support.

This could work, especially if it was time based and it took considerable time no matter what a leaders personal resources look like.

This game will be better with at least 10 equal sized large legions. I do think anyone should be able to pay instead of having leaders pay in points however. I would be happy with one large shared payment from the legion.

The problem with this though is that youll start to have legion wars in which if you dont pay, you cant win. Which is essentially I giant F.U. to the people who dont pay, and last time I checked one of the reasons people dont like Mafia Wars.

While Im still for much much smaller legions, if this idea of legions going up in size could be used to keep the playing field fair against larger legions (i.e. the max amount of people involved in legion vs legion combat is determined by the smaller legion) id be ok with having this and thusly larger legions as well as paying GP for extra large legions.

I think even if no one get GPs for free.....$3-$3.75 a month for the right to maintain an alliance is pretty cheap and a good way to financially support the game. 100 just seems to fit well for the size of an alliance. I would prefer 200 because our group is over 200 but with the 100% cap on bonus for planet numbers, a full strength alliance would would perfectly match it. can those who want lower the 100 explain how then 100% bonus would work in there system. i come from the point of view that in the new system friends and legion will no longer be the same, i mean if all 380 of my legion are going to get my alerts anyway, whats the point of all this anyway? seems clear the alliance system is for game growth and a further refinement of the alert system.

I think there would have to be a 2 day furlow between switching alliances to prevent circumvention of the alliance system's intent. That or leaving an alliance would clear your ship log of shares once you leave one. The alliance system seems like it is intended to prevent massive sharing. I think it will help prevent however planet sharing might be screwing up game balances as well as the negative features of super-groups. I have a feeling alliances are going to be rather small for it to make any difference in how the game works.

i dont think the links matter all that much. as soon as your out of the alliance, your out. all those people are no longer in your legion cannot send further links. the planet shares are only valid for 12 hours so i don't see an issue.

ideally if you leave a group you should be prevented from submitting a request for the same group for 2 days, but you can be given an invite which would be immediate. if you are KICKED, maybe place that player on a sort of BAN list so the player cannot come back under a different alias etc. the ban would only be lifted if an officer removed it, or sent an invite by an officer.

I agree that there should be a timer between alliance switch to prevent alliance hoppings in no-time flat..

First, I have to say I realy realy realy hope that we have some form of in game communication.

Second a starbase should act like a planet. Granted you have guns hulls sheilds and stuff like a ship, but basically the same effect. Also it should have a "guard" option just like a planet does so legion members can defend it. The real question is how will you be able to target it? Will you have to scan for it? If so, how long will it remain in your log?

Also it would help if you had to be over level 125 to start a legion or some other level cap.

Well it's not a hard "cap" based on level, but it requires 250 energy to form the legion, so basically it means the person forming the legion is going to have to be somewhere in their 50's-60s to form it. Of course someone could research the energy tree quick and hard just for the purpose of forming a legion, but this is unlikely a noob will understand this that soon in the game and not very feasible game play wise.

I've read a lot about the starbase idea has Dan confirmed it as part of the plan? I''m hoping so it would be a great addition to the game.

What would it actually do besides stand around and look cool? does anything bad happen if its disabled? Is it just some point of pride or would it actually serve a function that isn't already part of the game?

Id think it would serve as the center of trade for the alliance, provide benefitsa to gaurds, and if it was disabled, all alliance members wouldnt be able to trade for 48 hours except to freinds outside their alliance.

This is just a thought for the alliance scan sharing i think it should stay on planet lest untill change of ownership occurs unless that is a alliance member cause having it only last 12 hrs is kinda annoying cause we tryed to share our planet locations just to find that out and had our dreams crushed

In-Game Legion system came out!! I just posted my first Legion thread at viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1700 .. covering my new DOO structure to support 250 members even with 50 legion limit..