How to be a better tribe leader

[DarkFrost]

Hi,
Need help being a better tribe leader. Have had many people leave saying that I am the most solo tribe leader they have ever seen.
I would like to ask help for arranging activities for the tribe and how to make the tribe interesting for the tribe mates so they do not switch tribes.
I am not much of a social person so I do not know how NOT to be solo as I have only played ARK solo and only now have started recruiting people.

P.S:
Would be great if you could tell me how to recruit active players.

 

[Lickimus]

when I had a medium sized tribe I realized most people mixes the meaning of the word tribe and believes it means family or something and want to have everything for free and want to do everyhing together etc. lol.

[OttoGrunf]

well being ark tribe leader its same as being leader in any other thing. involve with your tribe mates on personal level, share tasks, know what they like and dont like. you need to know your tribe mates well to be good leader. and lead by example. i mean, not that i can give you leadership course in few sentences

[Paroxyde]

As the tribe owner, you have 3 main duties:

-Set tribe goal and tug people towards it. 

-Set the rules and settle disputes. 

-Set an example and represent the tribe. 

A tribe cannot hold on without long term AND short term goals. You have to show your enthusiasm and bring people together towards it.

Rules must be set as soon as possible. Tribe owned or Personal ownership? What is shared, what is not? What happens if someone loses someone else's dino? If you got your first 190 egg, who raise it? The spotter? The picker? The breeder? The leader? Or do you roll for it? 

You have to be present in chat. Show them you are here, even doing small talk in global with other tribes. You set the tone of your tribe. If you play solo all the time, then people in your tribe will play solo too. You don't chat? They will and then leave you for those who chat. You will end up in a tribe in name with just a bunch of solo players that sometimes borrow stuff from each other but has to give it back. 

 

About activities:

You need to balance tribe time and solo time. Some people prefer to be guided all the time, some people prefer to just do it by themselves. But you need to bring people toward that common goal. They, and you also, need to know that they work for the tribe first, for themselves second. The tribe nursery in under construction, you need more metal, well, you requisition personal metal from tribe member and it should not shock them, however, you must not do that for a private nursery. 

[Cymas]

If you are a solo-inclined player trying to lead a tribe, you have to remember to not play, well solo all of the time.

I led a small tribe for awhile, and here is what I did:

First, delegate. I gave everyone different tasks based on their personal preferences/playstyles. So one person managed our tribe farm/utility animals, one person did the building in the next area we were expanding to, etc. Some tasks we all shared and did basically as needed, like oil runs, keeping the preserving bins/crops producing and make sure we're always stocked on tranqs, etc. I pretty much just asked everyone to do one thing to contribute to the tribe every time they logged in to play and most things sorted themselves out over time, I just made sure I was prepared to do anything that wasn't done. I also spent a lot of time organizing common storage/crafting areas. You're not just leading, you're supporting your tribemates as they work toward their own goals. So whenever I was alone on server I was cleaning or farming, basically.

Manage your information, too. I had a tribe spreadsheet to keep track of everything, including the voting system we used to decide on issues due to time zone differences. Basically anyone could write down anything they wanted the tribe to make a decision on and we would all vote yes, no, abstain in the case of an issue an individual didn't care about or discuss at the next tribe meeting. Anything that got a tie vote or majority abstained I would make the final decision on. How frequent tribe meetings were depending on how many issues we had on board to discuss and their general priority.

Setting and enforcing rules is a difficult but necessary phase, even if just playing with friends as I was. I decided ahead of time on certain hard rules that everyone abided by, including: no outposts, everyone had to build within the main tribe territory. I put a hard cap on the number of tribe owned animals to prevent people from impulse taming and then claiming it was "for the tribe" so we didn't end up taking care of a billion animals no one cares about (no limit on personal tames but the tribe was not responsible for caring for them long term). And no using other people's personal tames without explicit permission by the owner. That was basically it, everything else was tribe managed and voted on. It was a pretty good system; we did end up adding one small outpost later on, but I built that myself so if there was a dispute with other tribes on the server I was solely responsible.

Activities is where I have the most trouble with as well, but keeping your tribe engaged is a huge key to success. Make sure you have some overall goals you want to work towards on top of whatever your tribemates are doing. I found asking for input isn't necessarily helpful here, because people don't always know what they want to do, and they often feel like they don't want to impose on the whole tribe either. At least that's what happened in my tribe. So I picked things I wanted us to do and organized it, and everyone was happy to throw in. The big one for me was boss runs, which ended up requiring lots of prep and took everyone into parts of the game they hadn't explored much of before, which had everyone super excited. I also made sure I had some silly things planned like a fishing derby or whatever else I could think of just as a way for us to spend time playing together.

Some responsibilities I actively took on as a tribe leader included trading--if someone needed something we didn't have, I would see if I could get it for them via trade or farming it up myself. I also did a little buying and selling of things like fertilized quetz eggs. I would have mediated if we had any inter-tribe issues but we were all friends already so that was never really an issue.

General guidelines: as someone else said, lead by example. If you want your tribe to be friendly and helpful to other people, it starts with you. You're not just a tribe leader; depending on the server you'll also be a leader in the server community, too. Toxic tribes make for a toxic server, after all.

Ask questions and actually talk to your tribemates, don't talk about them behind their backs, especially to your other tribemates. If there's a problem no one is going to handle it except you. This part was admittedly uncomfortable for me when it came up, but I did have to speak to people about things and that usually brought to light deeper communication issues. That was what originally led to my voting system in fact, because no one had any idea how to bring up things, myself included. So make sure you talk to people, and more importantly listen, too.

If you're running your tribe as a solo player and not actively working with your tribemates, I can see why they would be unhappy. My tribe was small and actually made up entirely of formerly solo players--we were all friends by that point and banded together after a server wipe. The biggest challenge we had collectively was learning to work as a team. As a tribe leader, I found keeping everyone engaged with activities was by far the most important part of being in a tribe in the long term. Of course people are going to get bored if the tribe is just farming, taming, breeding all the time. Even (or maybe especially) on a PVE server people need high level goals, to the point where I even came up with a "mission statement" for our tribe to remind people why we were even tribing in the first place. 

[DarthaNyan]

Communicate with your tribe members. Thats about it.

[FraggleRock]

I have same problem as far as leadership goes. People I play with, when I do, know far more than I do and I usually end up just doing my own thing. I'm good at solo, but just a solo guy in a big tribe. 

So I guess my perspective would be the opposite - how to follow in Ark rather than lead. 

[SmokeyB]

Make sure there is always a metal run going . Rule number 1. 

Make sure people grind bullets and grind them your self. The two best things a tribe leader can do. 

And make sure there is always a project on grind for. Keep people busy, 

 

[ForzaProiettile]

I've lead many a successful tribe over the years. Mostly small to medium size ones. The one thing that always works for me is fear. When a new player joins my tribe I make sure they know they are the lowest of the low. Worthless crap that could be kicked from the tribe at any moment. I delegate them the worst and most boring jobs because in my experience more then half of my recruits stop playing within the week. In my view its better to use em up and get the most out of them before they leave. If they are still around in the second week then I know I've got someone that can handle a bit of pressure and is prepared to work to keep their position. This someone I can use in my tribe.

 

In my experience it's important to install fear and discipline into recruits otherwise they won't respect you or the tribe. If they know they will be kicked from the tribe for the slightest error then they will try doubly hard to not make that error. Leaders that are soft and meek tend to lead disjointed tribes where everyone goes off and does their own thing. As a tribe leader you need to set the agenda and constantly make sure everyone is working towards the same goal. If they aren't coerce and threaten them, imply that they are letting the tribe down. Any number of tricks can ensure a wayward sheep returns to his flock.

[Thorium]

1 hour ago, ForzaProiettile said:

In my experience it's important to install fear and discipline into recruits otherwise they won't respect you or the tribe. If they know they will be kicked from the tribe for the slightest error then they will try doubly hard to not make that error.

If they fear you, they don't respect you. Fear and respect are two different things. If you just want a working force, that's a fine tactic. I would assume only sheep will stay at your tribe and there will never be any kind of respect.

I rather go with a small group in which everyone can pull his own weight and knows what to do. As a leader you just have to set goals and give advice how to reach them. If you have to put them to work, they are just slaves.

[Ranger1]

I could be very wrong, but from the wording of your original post I think part of the issue you are having is not fully grasping what leading a tribe will do to your play style.  The larger your tribe grows, the less time you will have to pursue your own private goals and to play the game as you have in the past.

More and more often you will find that while you'd love to go tame that level 150 Rex you've had your eye on, or build that neat extension of your base you've had floating around as a design in the back of your head, you don't actually have the time to go do it.  Instead you need to sort out the inevitable issues that arise both within the tribe and in their interactions with others.

Grinding materials for a base can end up being a fond memory compared to the reality of listening to some other tribe accuse you of being a bully simply because your tribe has become larger than theirs, or explaining to that 14 year old "really nice kid" that they can't spend all day riding the tribes neat dinos around when they had promised to restock the feeding troughs of your (now deceased) juvenile Thylas instead.

Just take the time to consider that if you are successful as a tribe leader your actual gaming experience will not be remotely the same as it was when you were a loner.  To be perfectly honest, it's not for everyone... and there is no shame in deciding not to go down that road... but it's best to think these things through in advance (or at the very least before you get in over your head) as it can save you a lot of frustration down the road.  Then if you decide you'd be fine spending the majority of your game time negotiating, settling disputes, setting goals, and at least occasionally upsetting a wide variety of strangers AND friends, you'll be much better prepared to enjoy the role you've chosen... and so will your tribe members.

[Logan96]

Ok I myself was a solo player before becoming a tribe leader as well, so i know exactly where you are coming from Frost. Here is a list of some tribes I've played over the years and how they handled tribe governance:

1.  Official Server 7-raptorers (I know bad tribe name lol): This tribe was based off of nothing but a group of SOLO players who teamed up to help each other but ultimately did their own thing. Everyone and their own base and own dinosaurs, but if someone wanted to tame say a giga then others would jump to the occasion to help out in hopes of gaining tribe ranking or simply banking on the favor for when they need help. If somebody attacked a person within the tribe then raptorers would band together in a predetermined location and do  a mass raid on them.  

The outcome of this tribe:  Eventually they went to war with a tribe called Ingen and they lacked the coordination, numbers and efficiency of a organized group. They held their own for a while, but one by one their bases fell and without a centralized base or leader they failed to rebuild and simply faded away. 

2.  Official Server 7-Ingen: I don't know much about this tribe except they liked to PvP and they had a bunch of unchecked tribe members. I think that the leader of the tribe didnt really care about being the "good guy" so they focused mainly on recruiting pretty much any players who showed strength and skill. When you aren't worried about tribe appearances then you dont need to worry so much when you get complaints that your tribe members destroyed somebodys base. 

The Outcome: I didnt stick around on the server long enough to see this tribe end, but they always had ALOT of enemies and i'd guess that they probably pissed off the wrong people one day.      

3. Official Server 5-Rice Squad: This tribe was one of the most balanced i've seen in a long time. They had a large amount of players that they wisely let in over time, they retained good relations with the entire server without weakening themselves and they stayed on top of obelisk activity. For the most part people withing their tribe could do as they wish so long as it "strengthened the server" and every weekand they had their own personal tribe goals that everybody took part in. This kept resources high and prevented players from feeling overburdened by chores, because the rest of the week they could do whatever they wished. 

The Outcome: You can only get so big before a megatribe takes notice and comes in...thankfully this tribe is both united and organized so the one time ive seen them get hit hard only stalled them for a bit, before they managed to rebuild. 

4. Every Server-The Generic Tribes: Most tribes usually starts up with a group of close friends or family even if its just two people and they go from there. Some people will eventually start taking on strangers and others will be content staying within their inner circle. While playing with your close circle never seems to result in a tribe becoming alpha I can say from personal experience that it is way more fun than playing with just strangers.

The Outcome: Lots of getting raided, lots of rebuilding, but a lot more laughing, adventuring around and having fun

 

The Take Away: If you really want to have a strong tribe then by looking at these examples I would say you need the following things in your governance:

1. Player Independence-As a solo player you probably understand this the the most. Everybody will need time to enjoy the game by themselves, be it breeding, taming, raiding or caving. This helps keep the moral high and keeps tribe members from feeling bound to you. As the leader you will have a hard time explaining this, so you should simply tell people that time x to z and/or time a to b is your personal time and you will only enter a chat if its urgent. They should understand. in the same manner of time, everybody should have at least a personal chest that they know will not be touched by anyone in the tribe. The more things that may have that are only theirs, the more incentive they will have to work, but bear in mind that too much personal independance creates complications such as players claiming theft, or not pulling their own weight. You will need to manage these things and settle disputes within your own tribe. 

2. Roles: Independance is important during down time, but when it's time to stock up supplies the tribe should come together. In my own tribe we would set a target goal of a specific resource and organize a group to gather it. The gathered materials would be focused on tribe goals, so if somebody wanted to make lets say a gun, for personal enjoyment they would have to gather the materials for it themselves. As tribe leader you should be keeping track of what is getting low and making sure it gets refilled. If somebody in the tribe fails to do their part then the responsibility is on you to get it in.

3. Tribe Goals: Getting metal and such is a goal yes, but there should always be a small goals and a grand goal for your tribe. Do the need the metal for base expansion, weapons for a raid, ammunition for turrets etc...The goals need to also be something everybody cares about and not just you, although you shouldn't be recruiting people who do not have the same goals for the tribe as you do. Tribe goals can be anything from making plans to go bossing, raiding, or even helping lower tribes, to strengthen the server overall.

4. Allies: I dont care  if you're a ruthless raiding tribe or a PvE only, if you are on a server that has PvP enabled then you will want to make sure you have at least some allies. This is one of my favorite aspects of ark, because it can be as shallow or in depth as you want it to be. My advice is until you get to know other tribes better choose one main alliance first and make sure it is the strongest that you can get. After that then try to find another but make make sure that they are on good terms with the first tribe you allied with with. Now that you have some friends make sure that they stay strong and take care of them as you grow. The rest of the server can go to poop and hate you, but as long as you have some friend backing you up and at least one of them avoids pissing off the world then you're golden. 

5. Unity: This one is a bit tricky and it takes some time to form but this is my own personal belief on why some tribes thrive so well. When forming a tribe you need to think about how you want to the social element to be. Do you want a silent tribe that only talks when it needs to? maybe you want a tribe that is super friendly and supportive. I Like tribes that tend to be relaxed with an open chat, but does not required you to join, but the reason for this is that everyone in the tribe  is relaxed and comfortable with each other. Occasionally you will recruit somebody and things might seem tense, but they should relax after a bit. If they don't get along at first with the tribe, try to give it some time, then eventually accept the fact that you will need to kick people out of the tribe simply because they don't fit in. Situations like these can be a little awkward but that's why  it''s important to recruit people only after you get to know them. When im forced to kick somebody out for this reason I handle it by telling them that I feel (always try to avoid putting your tribe in the crossfire) as though they are simply not a good fit for the tribe. I would then usually give them a spare ptera and help them build a starter base someplace else and assist them overtime. This is possible the most important aspect for a tribe because when you are inevitably wiped by a stronger tribe the only thing you will have left is your members. If nobody gets along then that's it, people will disband and you are back to square one. If your tribe is united and close then raids only create a stronger sense of unity as everyone helps to rebuild with a common enemy.   

 

Well three beers later and my little bit on this forum is done for the night lol. Hope it helped, I spent a long time as a solo player too, so i completely understand where you are coming from. Some people would say its a disadvantage but I disagree. You understand the limitations of a single player, as well as what can be achieved and now you're taking it to that next level which is great.  Remember that if leadership is  overwhelming at first  you can always join a tribe with the intention of leaving later. As long as you dont screw them over/inside most will understand when you are ready to move on and in rare instances you may find a small group willing to leave with you if the leader turns out to be bad. Stick with it and I'm sure you and your tribe will rise to greatness one day.