Ikariam.com

The Home Secretary (aka Interior Minister in the help files)

This position/post is merely just a gaggle of abilities.

And from what I can tell, most leaders just keep home secretary, since most of the abilities of this post are abilities that a leader should be able to perform on at least a semi-regular basis.

So it would seem that it would make more sense to have the game follow common practice, and make things easier.

And therefore, we should remove/eliminate the home secretary/interior minister post, and re-assign the abilities.

As follows (copied from the help page):

1a.) Responsible for the admission of new members
1b.) and the dismissal of old members from the alliance.
2.) Can see the resources of all alliance members.
3.) Can determine and assign the ranks within the alliance.
4.) Can edit the internal alliance site. This is only viewable to alliance members.

1a.) to the leader and to the diplomat
1b.) already currently assignable - but shouldn't be. Instead, to all three posts (the leader, the general, and the diplomat).
2.) make assignable
3.) to the leader and to the general
4.) To all three posts (the leader, the general, and the diplomat).

for 1a, the leader should always have the ability to recruit members to their own alliance. And as the diplomat typically has the most contact outside the alliance, it would make sense for them to have this ability as well. And besides, I think we all have encountered how many times a potential recruit sent a message to the diplomat rather than applying to the alliance.

1b is already assignable, but it shouldn't be. Is there any time that any member should be able to boot someone out of an alliance? This should just be for the main three posts: the leader, the general, and the diplomat.

for 2, it's nice to be able to see all the resources for trading purposes. And if an alliance wanted to create a "Master Trader", a "Treasurer", or some other rank, that might be useful to be able to assign. (And incidentally, it might be nice if everyone could have just the line of information about their own towns.)

for 3, the leader should always be able to make the ranks in the alliance. and while it may be nice to have 1 or more assistant diplomats, the general would seem to be more likely to create subdivided "ranks" within their purview.

for 4, this would allow any of the posts (leader, diplomat, general) to edit the internal site, such as for messages that may need posting concerning each's sphere of influence. And honestly, the leaders of each ministry/department should be able to edit the internal site.

I think that this makes more sense than having a secretary with disparate abilities, which sort of maybe go together. And instead empower the other three posts to greater usefulness.

In the time since I've proposed this, I've had a more lengthy first hand look at all three positions.

Based upon that, I have a couple modifications, as follows:

1a.) Responsible for the admission of new members
1b.) and the dismissal of old members from the alliance.
2.) Can see the resources of all alliance members.
3.) Can determine and assign the ranks within the alliance.
4.) Can edit the internal alliance site. This is only viewable to alliance members.

1a.) To the leader
1b.) already currently assignable - but shouldn't be. Instead, to all three posts (the leader, the general, and the diplomat).
2.) To the leader ("maybe" make assignable)
3.) To all three posts (the leader, the general, and the diplomat).
4.) To all three posts (the leader, the general, and the diplomat).

The change to 1a - because the diplomat already receives alliance messages. Someone else should receive the application messages. And this obviously should be the leader's responsibility.

The change to 2 - This is security-level information. Knowing how much people have of resources sets them up for a potential to be pillaged (if whoever had the ability was less than honourable). I still think it would be "nice" if this was assignable for the creation of a Master Trader, or the like, but in any case, the leader should probably have this info. Generals have also found this information useful, in that it's important to note how many goods the player may be protecting, and so suggestions as to what their defenses should be. But the leader could just as easily share this info with the general.

The change to 3 - Goes hand-in-hand with being able to edit the internal alliance page. And is also can be an alliance security measure (and goes hand in hand with the ability to dismiss members).

Also, (and this is slightly off topic, since this suggestion thread concerns the abilities of the home secretary) - But I would also suggest that the ability to edit the external alliance page be given to all three posts as well.

So to summarise:

The leader picks up approving new members, and seeing all resources.

All three gain the ability to edit the internal alliance page, the external alliance page, and the ranks.

The ability to dismiss members is made no longer assignable, but is instead given to all three posts.

It occurs to me that it may be an issue for the developers to program to allow more than one person to edit something (such as ranks, or alliance pages).

(They may not wish to due to possible complexity.)

And that makes a fair amount of this proposal moot.

Moderators, please feel free to close this thread : )