So far the main ideas/points seem to be:

+ Smaller houses (members>=4?) allowing themselves to count (possibly with a lessened weight) toward larger ones
+ Adoption being done by a single partner CONSIDERING, giving the other partner and child some time (~1 IG year?) to REJECT
+ No council seat, but instead some other perk; possibly a slightly heavier vote weight.
+ The ability for a single sibling to be able to BLOODBOND into a family if they are progenitors (similar to the above idea for adoption)
+ The ability for already established siblings to BLOODBOND into a family founded by their siblings.
+ Thresholds for Banner house/Lesser house/Great House being lowered slightly
+ Allow for members outside of a given organization to increase family honour through leadership positions, &c.
+ Resetting Honour {once|annually|biannually|{once|twice} a decade}
+ Decreasing the cultural impact Most honourable house confers on the score. (500 to {100-200})
* Children choosing which parent to go with in the case of divorces
* Marrying types being able to elect not to leave their family when marrying

Let me know if I missed any, and/or continue discussion here?

you missed kids and spouses choosing their family, i.e the important part

Nope, you just got here before my edit.

EDIT TO CLARIFY: I posted this thread before I saw those suggestions, then came back in and added them once I did.

Bugs being fixed/addressed in a timely fashion when found.

Great Houses being given a "family House" on Prime in neutral territory. Preferably off a road/highway, instead of in an actual 'area'

You missed "being able to merge small, almost completely inactive families."

I'd love to be able to do SOMETHING with An'Ryshe. We've 6 "active" members, but I'm the only one who plays any more.

That was the first little not-a-bullet. Guess I worded it awkward...

Sounds good all around. I like it.

Yes, indeed!

My $0.02:

Let founders bloodbond for free if they're the only one, or let them beseech their Patrons for each bloodbond, or something. Wolfsong's all but dead unless I can bloodbond, and I can't.

Ruling council seat? That doesn't seem fair at all... Yeah, give them some other perk; a neutral family house seems like a fair idea if you get so super-huge.

Let you stay with both families, give kids the choice of family (either one, or both inherently)... it'd also let family trees make more sense.

Definitely give the kids the option of choosing their family after marriage.

Also, I like Astraea's idea about perks for non-Houses that you can buy with golds or credits. I really, really think that all families greater than 5 people should be able to have a family aether and news board.

I am firmly against being ctive in both families when you marry. Family lines continue and stop based on marriages and have for as long as history. You are already listed on both family trees, you only need to be ctive in the family you marry into.

Children should be able to choose which family they recognise though after a divorce.

Or if not both, then at least give you the option to stay with your old one, and then the kids can choose on adoption (or let the parents decide if you don't want to put the burden of deciding on the children.)

And I wish you could adopt kids even if your spouse is too young to be their biological parent (ie. one is, one isn't old enough). There's so much talk of adoption and not actual birth, not to mention the whole Portal thing where you can apparently get flung in time too, I don't see why that isn't possible.

OOh would be cool. Though, some families would probably want their house IN their org for obvious reasons.

I think the resetting family honor is, far and away, the best suggestion. If not, Talnara will always be the top house.

Oh and remove the "you lost honor because you killed someone" and losing honor when you kick out someone. If a family is in Magnagora, and one of them moves to Celest, it doesn't make sense that kicking them out makes you lose honor.

QFT

Or vice versa. *cough cough*

I don't want to sound like a bully, but if your family has only a few members that actively play, maybe the family should die. Isn't it authentic that way? If your family fails, marry out of it into a family that doesn't fail or figure out a way to keep the family going. There are already ways to do that: divorce the spouse and marry a new one, bloodbond with a new sibling, etc.

It's virtually impossible to expect every upstart family to suddenly gain its footing in the world. That's why some aspire to greatness and others latch on to the big'uns for dear life.

While I tend to agree with you, I do see the other side. Given that families are a role-play device, it seems harsh to exclude people who are attempting to be true to their characters (by not breaking ties to people who have gone inactive, as just one example) from greater use of the family system. It's basically saying, "Look, you know how to game the system, it's your own fault for not doing it." I can see this sentiment applying in other aspects of competition, but some people do look at families for more than just their numbers.

Families should give some kind of boost to Forging... for aparent reasons, of course.
Also, yes, the honour thingiething could use some work and if anything, you should gain honour for killing an enemy, not loosing it...

I think inactive spouses shouldn't be able to adopt. >_> Even if you can start considering and they just have to be there to accept and finalize it would be fine. Otherwise you might as well just make it so people can adopt without a spouse at all, which is terrible to think the sort of families that would make >_>