Clan plays a huge role in the game. When you start out, if you're really lucky you'll be invited by a current player and the link will work. But many times it doesn't and you find yourself alone, besides the ever present and doesn't do a thing Vampire Valerie. So, it's up to you to start recruiting! Your goal is 500 members, as you can battle with 501 Clan (you being the 501). Once you work your way up to Level 70, if you don't have 501 Clan showing on the Combat page, you are a BIG target, especially if your SR is either very low (meaning you're an Energy Vamp who mostly leveled by doing missions) or very high (meaning you're a battle monster and the bigger Vamps are gonna feed on you for your SR points). So it all works together. There are various ways to add members to your Clan. One way, if you are a member of The Camarilla or lamia's lair on FB which is an open group, is to take advantage of the Add Me topics. Post your FB profile and your VW invite links in your Add Me post. Also have your invite link on your Profile. Do NOT spam everyone's page with your invite link. For MS there are also Groups and individuals who have friends who play. Again, you will want to post your own MS profile link. Another way to add and be added to Clan is by going to the Combat page once you are of Level to battle. You will be battling other players who are the same Level as you. Not the same SR necessarily. This happens until the infamous Level 125. So, you're a lower level Vamp, you're on the Combat page and you see another Vamp who has very few Clan. Either battle them once to see what they've got or pass that by and click on that Vampire's name. You'll be taken to their Stats page and from there click Comments. Why? Well, because you really don't want to invite someone into your Clan or be in a Clan if you see a ton of negative comments or that the person seems to be spending their life either Hit Listing everyone or being Hit Listed constantly. Those are flags usually. What you are going to look for is either just a few comments (normally invites or other positive comments) or no comments. Now you can write on their Wall (cost 1,000 Blood) nicely asking if they'd like to join clans. In the comment put something like "Hi, I was on the Combat page and saw your name. I see that you also have a small Clan. Would you like to add/be added? Thanks. Submit FR and see what happens. If, by reading comments on a Vamp's wall, you click on people who have commented, you might just find even more people to invite - even higher levels. Don't be afraid to politely approach a higher level Vamp. You may end up with a great alliance and someone who can help you if you run into a situation you can't handle, help guide you if you have questions, is usually a more active player and may be able to help you recruit more members. When you FR and it is confirmed, be sure to invite that new friend. On your FB Confirm page, you'll see this:  Click "Enter the Night", you'll be taken to your Clan page and you'll see the people who have sent Invitation Requests. I tend to Accept one at a time, going back to the Confirm page each time. I also ask for the person's VW name. That way I can add their Vamp name, real name and once I hit Accept, their ID# and put it on my VW clan Notepad. Once you click Accept, you'll see this:  Yes, you get a gift for adding someone to your Clan! At least right now you do. Purge Blood is 27A/9D, so it is a nice Offensive Ability and this is the main way to get them. Again, you can trade for them, but if you're getting people to use the Invite and not sneak in the "back door", you should accumulate a decent amount of them. If you're playing via MS, you'll see pictures and names of people wanting to be added to your clan and there's an Invite button. Just to clear something that confuses many people (and did me at first) is: when you add and are added to each other's Clan it is only YOU and the other person. You're NOT adding their entire Clan, nor are they adding your entire Clan. It's 1 on 1. You may be able to get the other Clan to add/be added, especially if it's a small Clan. The more alliances with good, active, honest players, the better off you'll be. It is very important to NOT de-friend someone after clanning. You cannot help each other with missions or other events, you cannot collect a wheel spin, a mission chest, level up exp or even send one of the free gifts from the gifting page. This can be a big problem and many players, especially those with larger clans? are beginning to de-clan "unknowns". Besides, you never know when someone you've added as clan can turn out to be a great friend! The only time to de-friend is if: on FB you've reached or are approaching the 5,000 friend limit. No one wants anyone to get banned or warned for having too many friends! That can be taken care of, albeit slowly, by going through and seeing who is inactive or who has de-friended you; the other time I personally will de-friend is if I'm de-clanning and that would happen in the case of finding out a clan member was or was trying to harrass (against Zynga's ToS!) or scam other members of clan, especially the younger, less experienced clan members. That's something I just can't tolerate. There is a small statement on the Clan page that's a bit misleading. It says that the limit is 500 members. That's true for Combat - you can only battle with 500 other Clan. But that doesn't mean you're limited to 500 members and that's it. IF you can handle it - and it can be tough - you can have thousands of people in your Clan! If you do end up with a big Clan, chances are you've also made some great alliances! The positive to having a full, active Clan is a (hopefully) much higher chance of having active members spinning the Wheel, which can be a huge help when doing Missions and getting the Rare Abilities from them. More information on that is on The Wheel and Abilities Pages. It also can help increase your exp. points and Blood by "helping" other Clan with missions or battle. The "downside" to having a really large clan (more than the needed 500) is it's easy to lose track of people - even if you've been keeping a (FB) Notepad of Clan names and ID#s. Especially when you log in and find a ton of people have sent you Abilities for Santa Pong. It's close to impossible once you start hitting higher levels (70+) to have the time to sit and write down who sent what and get everything back to them. Also, with a large Clan and all the "helping" you're doing, you can end up Leveling up TOO fast - meaning you're not getting the opportunity to get your Missions in and getting caught short on the important ones. Remember: You NEED 501 each of the good abilities on hand for Combat. Start trying to accumulate them as soon as possible. You can have more on hand than you have Clan. It's up to each Clan member to make sure they're doing the same. Whether or not they are won't directly affect you in Combat, but it may become an irritation if they haven't and start hitting Clan Comments with "I need X Ability, please send me some" - to me that's begging and it's kind of annoying. There is one other thing that may get somewhat annoying, depending on which server you're on and you're in Combat. That is, you cannot attack another Clan member. If you click on their name in the Combat list, you will see this:  You CAN, however, claim Bounty on a Clan member if they are on the Hit List. In fact, some Clan prefer to "keep it in the family" rather than a Bounty Hunter claiming and getting all the Blood from killing said Hit Listed person. Clan Comments: Make a habit of going to Clan Comments regularly and posting. Be seen and read! It's important to read what others are saying, though sometimes it won't make sense. The reason for that is you're in your own Clan and you're in other Clans - but you can't see those other Clans. Only the people you have made alliance with who are in those other Clans. I know it's confusing and it's kind of hard to explain until you've read the Comments for awhile. Then you'll know what I'm talking about. Anything you post can be seen by the person you have alliance with, but not their entire Clan. Also, this is where you'll read most of the begging "I'm almost at 70 and only have 10 Iron Skins, please give me some". I pretend I don't see those because there's no reason, I won't beg and really dislike begging, and once you've read through the Level 70 page here you should know what's coming and try to be more prepared. At least post that you're TRADING Abilities, not just asking others for their time and energy to be given to you. Also make sure you check your own Wall for messages. People may write that they are looking for Clan, especially after a battle and you've won. Follow up on those people, again check their Wall Comments and have a look at their Stats. You want to make good alliances, and serial attackers, Hit Listers, being HL'ed constantly or seeming to be in the middle of arguments? probably not someone you want an alliance with. You'll at some point end up having to mediate or play middle man and being stuck there is NOT fun or easy. Or you'll end up having to de-Clan (yes you can remove someone for 1,000 Blood). That is last resort imho. Clan is also good for Santa Pong (actually the only way as you can only gift people in your Clan), especially when you're still small. You can look at your Clan members, see who's online and contact them to see if they'd like to do a Santa Pong for Pyros. Please ask first, don't just start sending 20 Fangs. The other person may not be able to reciprocate and they may not appreciate it. When you can, and as you get to higher Levels this can be a time crunch issue - from time to time go through your Clan list you've (hopefully) saved on Notepad. Have a * or something next to special peoples' names. Go to their Wall and post - just a "Hi, how are you today, I haven't talked to you in forever!"; if you read someone's in distress offer help - "do you need anything"; encourage and support - "you're almost at Level 70! good job. Let me know if I can help", things like that. Higher Level vamps you should definitely take a few moments and pay your respects. You never know when you'll need help or they'll need help. It does work both ways. Finally, you only have 300 characters to leave a comment on clan feed, so keep it short and sweet. |