Gangs

A gang is simply what is sounds like: a group who are band together under a single name, a single flag, against all enemies. While Hobowars probably lacks the dynamics of true-to-life gangs, a Hobowars gang is quite like an extended family within our twisted network.

Gangs: A Brief Historical Time Line

Gangs in the Old Days

Gangs, as far back as anyone cares to remember, used to cost 200 points. This was their sole cost at the time. One must remember, these are the days when points cost $3,000 each, Dude was level 40 and packing your own AK was a rare treat. Gangs were non-transferable entities and the war chamber had not yet been created. The sole form of battle between gangs was the Fight Club, which had a large user-run ladder for itself. The deletion, inactivity or dissatisfaction of a gang's leader would result in the death of the gang itself, as there was no method in place of selling the gang. Also, in this era, the Co-Leader had the ability to transfer funds from the gang to its members, which would result in many "hackings".

Gangs in the Middle Ages

At this point in history, gangs now have war chambers, a level-30 leader requirement, the downgrade of the Co-Leader position and armories. These golden days were simple times, with very little changes to the dynamics of the system, beyond an expansion of actual recognition. With the rise of the war chamber came the downfall of the Fight Club.

Gangs, the Modern Age

At this point, a massive economic bust drove point prices to an all-time low. With points so commonplace, the number of gangs exploded from 30 odd gangs to around 90. At this point, the Audit took place, which is a dark period in our history. Shortly after the audit finally subsided, the price of gangs rose to 500 points and the secretary ranks were introduced.

Post-Modernism and Its Effect on Gang Dynamics

In today's cold, concrete world, gangs can no longer be created. The hospital coverage, gang tokens and begging levels were all introduced in this period were currently live in. The next step in gang evolution can only be dreamt of.

The Statistics of a Gang

Gangs have various numbers and stats assigned to them. These include their ID number, their gang level and their begging level.

Gang ID Number

This indicates the order in which the gang was originally purchased. In today's age, this means little as no gangs can be made. There are numbers missing from the count, as gangs have been deleted in the past.

Gang Level

Representing little (or a lot) in the actual power of the gang, this number indicates the number of times the upgrade has been purchased. Each level upgrade increases the War Chamber health and speed by a minute percentage, as well as allowing the Begging Level to be increased further.

Begging Level

A recent update, the begging level grants the gang a cut of their beggars' income from empty space. For each level, they receive 0.4% of each beg from the system and each beggar receives an additional 0.4% to their beg from the system.

The begging level can never exceed the Gang Level and stops at level 15.

The Benefits of a Gang

A gang provides a support structure, consisting of information, allegiances by association and member support in terms of weapons, token pools et cetera.

Information

Gangs often instruct their members on how to act and how to train, as well as what they have the potential to become. More importantly, gangs are allowed to trade between their members information about the Arena Pass, which is used in fighting the Old Man and his friends.

The Armory

Each gang can establish an armory for a reasonable fee of 25 points and 50000 experience. The armory allows the gang to physically own and lend out weapons to their members. These weapons are branded and cannot leave gang control unless "unbranded" by the gangs owner.

Gangs will tend to collect a large amount of top level weapons (at this time, +700 and -700) for use by their war chamber, while collecting other weapons as an incentive to join.

Token Pools

A token pool is a simple concept: everyone pays in their tokens, allowing them to upgrade their members to top level carts at a faster speed. There are various philosophies for token pools, all of which have the same general goal behind it: increase the rate of gathering.

Gang Boards

Each gang gets a message board for their members, on which the members can do pretty much whatever they please. This may include gang lotteries, gang hitlists, gang help threads, gang counting threads or various other trivial or nontrivial discussions. Each gang tends to have their own flavor, but the basic concept is always there: the gang board is a primary location for internal gang issues, such as tokens and discussions on where the money goes.

Begging

Each gang begging level is worth 0.4% additional cash generated for the gang and for the beggar. This additional cash is purely an addition over what the beggar would have made if they were not in the gang at the time of their beg.

Gang Leadership

Currently The Gang Leader(owner) can assign individual gang admin functions and custom titles as they see fit. The Following is a list of the functions that may be assinged:

Delete Posts in the gang message Board

Upgrade Gang Level/Begging Level/Change Leader

Hospital Coverage

Kick Members

Invite new Members

Rename Gang

Armory Control

Transfer Funds

War Chamber Control

Fight WC Battles

Change Announcments

In each gang, previously there were 4 official leadership positions. The positions were the Leader, the Co-Leader, Secretary I, and Secretary II. Secretary I and II have the same capabilities and differed in name only.

	Leader	Co-Leader	Secretary I / II
Transfer Gang Ownership	Yes	No	No
Appoint / Change Co and Secs	Yes	No	No
Loan Equipment from the Armory	Yes	Yes	No
Unbrand Equipment from the Armory	Yes	No	No
Delete Posts in the Gang Board	Yes	Yes	Yes
Change Hospital Coverage	Yes	Yes	No
Invite New Gang Members	Yes	Yes	Yes
Review Gang Applications	Yes	Yes	Yes
Manage the WC	Yes	Yes	No
Initiate WC Battles	Yes	Yes	No
View Members Stats	Yes	Yes	No
Change The Gang Application Message	Yes	Yes	Yes
Change the Gang Announcement	Yes	Yes	No
Transfer Money, Tokens, or DPs from the Gang	Yes	No	No
View Gang Archives	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kick Gang Members	Yes	Yes	No

Starting a Gang

At the current time, starting a gang is no longer an option. With the updates of late '06, gang production was halted. There is now a finite number of possible gangs.

Brief Gang Types Listing

The Dead Gang

These gangs may have deleted or inactive leaders. Very few have any active players in them. They are the sunken treasure ships of the gang ladder, existing at the very bottom, as 10% of the gangs.

The Noob Gang

These gangs typically appeal to new players, offering large amounts of relatively weak weapons as well as the social dynamic and support structure required by fledgling players. They typically exist in the lower end of the ladder and represent approximately 30% of current gangs. The vast majority are named after pop culture references in an attempt to gather instant recognition, a strategy that usually succeeds as these gangs balloon in size of upwards of 100 players. Purging of these gangs is not uncommon, as new players frequently go inactive and aging players tend to advance their standings.

Climbers

Typically consisting of a legion of middleweight players, rallied by several old players, these gangs represent the middle of the ladder. They do not excel in any particular field, but they do not fall. These gangs are rather well established, but cannot draw away other large players for the simple reason that they cannot offer the upper level support.

Elite Gangs

A now extinct breed of gang, elite gangs were groups of between 10 and 20 old players, usually dedicated to preserving the old ways of life. The vast majority have met their end or adapted to another form, while some are still going strong. The prime historical example is Genesis, who met their end during the Audit.

The Old Ones

Any gang that has survived since our early history has garnered a certain level of fanatic loyalty by their members. Because their members are now the upper echelon of Hobo society, these gangs dominate the top of the ladder with an iron fist. Fighting between them becomes fierce and many of the gangs operate several different war chamber rotations. Their member volume is usually between 40 and 50 members, of which a significant portion are below 100,000 IDs. Their armories are old and filled and their levels bloated by years of healthy growth.

Proud flag bearers of these gangs are: Freaks, Pieman, TBHL, OMT (formerly EWO), the Planet, CrAzY and CP, amongst others.

The Syndicate

The Syndicate is the enigma of all gangs. It is host to the admin, as well as several of their old friends. They remain at the bottom of the ladder out of fairness, as Malord is known for tweaking his stats "slightly".