Proposed AOM/TzO Merger

This page outlines a plan for merging Alliance AOM with Alliance TzO.

The mindset for the merger is that we are creating a new alliance - that combines the strengths of AOM and TzO into a new, better, more powerful alliance. In this mindset, TzO members are not joining AOM, nor are AOM members joining TzO. The mindset is we are dissolving both alliances to create a new, better alliance. [Due to game mechanics (see "'Merge Mechanism, below), and the accumulated value of alliance technology, some members will in fact "quit" their alliance and "join" a new alliance, but the mindset remains - neither TzO nor AOM survive the merger - we are creating a new alliance.]

The merge concept is simple - combine all members of AOM with all members of TzO into an ordered list, sorted from most powerful to least powerful. The most powerful 100 members then become the new alliance. The least powerful 46 are kicked - though it make sense to form a spin-off alliance to host these 46 players. In the new merged alliance of the most powerful players, 43 came from AOM, and 57 came from TzO.

The 100 most powerful members will create an alliance with a combat power of 42M, which will make it the 7th most powerful alliance. All our kicked members should join the spinoff alliance, which would yield a combat power of 2.9M, making it the 27th most powerful alliance.

Merge Mechanism
What merge mechanism should we use to combine our alliances? Should TzO "surrender" to AOM, AOM "surrender" to TzO, or some alternative mechanism.

Using the game's "surrender" mechanism has a huge downside - it destroys the surrendering alliance. Also, in preparation for the merger, the surrender mechanism requires each side to downsize to a combined membership of only 100 - the excess members must quit or be kicked. No one should "surrender" to anyone - instead we should shift all our combined strength to one allinace, and all our other players to the other alliance.

As an alternative to "surrendering" we should pursue a "Manual Merge", where our strongest members migrate to the stronger alliance and our weaker players migrate to the weaker alliance. Both alliances survive to host all of our combined 146 members.

As an expression of alliance advancement, currently, AOM needs 21 more unlocks to access level 3 Alliance Technologies, which is believed to be sligthly more advaned than TzO. So to utilize that technology advantage, AOM should become the new alliance hosting our strongest 100 members, and TzO should become the new alliance hosting our 46 weaker members.

Merged Member List
The link below connects to a PDF file to the sorted list, by power, of all AOM and TzO members. The 100 most powerful members yields an alliance of 42M combat power, which is 7th strongest in the state. [A spinoff alliance of the least powerful 46 members yields an alliance of 2.9M combat power, which is 27th strongest in the state.]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rmemf7vp6iti00o/AOM_TzO_%20Merger.pdf?dl=0

Merge Steps

 * 1) Notify all members in both alliances of the merger plan; all member are explicitly instructed to stay where they are until instructed to "quit/join".
 * 2) Remame AOM to the agreed name for the stronger alliance, now the "Primary".
 * 3) Rename TzO to the agreed name for the spinoff alliance, now the "Spinoff".
 * 4) Set recruitment of Primary to "Open / System / Base=10 / Power=117K".
 * 5) Set recruitment of Spinoff to "Open / System / Base=6 / Power=6K".
 * 6) Before leaving the Spinoff, "Designated Leader" promotes the designated "Merge Captain1" to R5 position - the Merge Captain will remain R5, overseeing the downsize activity at Spinoff, until the merge is complete; at which time the Merge Captain will be the last member to leave Spinoff and Primary.
 * 7) Designated Leader joins Primary; Leader is promoted to R5.
 * 8) Designated R4s join Primary and are promoted to R4.  The Primary "Leadership Team" - R5 and all R4s -  is now in place.
 * 9) All Primary Leadership Team members are pointed to the Merged Member List (above), and instructed that only those members on the list, and above the Cutoff Line are to be accepted into Primary.
 * 10) At Primary, rank and file members below the cutoff threshold2 are instructed to quit and join Spinoff.  After a grace period [a few days?] the R5 kicks those members below the threshold who have not yet quit.  All members are repeatedly reminded via both PM and AC to join Spinoff.  With multiple PMs, even those members kicked will have legacy messages instructing them to join Spinoff.
 * 11) At Spinoff, rank and file members above the cutoff threshold2 are instructed to quit and join Primary.  After a grace period [a few days?]the Merge Captain [now R5] kicks those members above the threshold who have not yet quit.  All members are repeatedly reminded via both PM and AC to join Primary.  With multiple PMs, even those members kicked will have legacy messages instructing them to join Primary.
 * 12) We will lose members, due most likely to language issues.  So there will be adjustments - high-powered members in Spinoff who will be promoted into Primary.

1 The "Merge Captain" needs to be a trusted member of the alliance. Just before leaving, the the R5 will promote the Merge Captain to R5, entrusting the downsizing activity to the Merge Captain.

2 The at the time of this writing, the combat power cutoff threshold was 117K. The cutoff threshold is dynamic, rising as member power rises. At the time of the merge, the precise cutoff threshold will need to be determined.

New Identity
A new name for the New Alliance might be a good first step in unifying the members. AOM members will be reluctant ot embrace TzO as their new alliance, and likewise, TzO members will only reluctantly embrace AOM as their new home. So the name of the merged alliance should be a new name, rather than either of the old names. Perhaps a combination of both names: "(TzM) - Tech Zero Merged"; "(TzA) - Tech Zero Alpha"; "(ATz) - Alpha Tech Zero"; "(TAO) - Tech Alpha to Omega"; etc.

Likewise, and for the same reasons, the spinoff alliance should be renamed. Possible spinoff names are TA2, AT2, etc.

R5
Who will be the leader of the new alliance? Answered: NikNukem.

R4s
Combining two alliances, with 8 R4s each, into a new alliance with 8 R4 will require 8 demotions. For moral reasons, these should be carefully managed. The obvious split is to allow 4 R4s from each original alliance. A more power-sharing split is... the surviving R5 names only 3 R4s, while the down-stepping R5 names 5 R4s. How many R4s will each R5 name? 4/4? Or 3/5?

Spinoff Leadership
Who should lead the spinoff alliance?

The Spinoff Alliance
The 46 members booted from the New Alliance could fare very well by joining up in the other original alliance. At 2.9M combat power, they would be the 27th most powerful alliance.