well put Drac.

most of us, hell all of us, are overdue for promotion.  Some of us got ours today, does that mean we have 'enoungh' now and stop...no.

it means we are on our way to getting us where we SHOULD be.

Ibram, we get it, you don't like to promote. fine, that's you...the rest of us do. the horse is dead, leave him be.

Don't underestimate the "carrot on the stick" factor. Haphazrd example: If people will PAY to play MMORPGs for months and months on end just to unlock a few achievement points and a few pieces of better gear, don't you think VE members would be more inclined to write stories and participate in VE activities if they know there is a legitimate chance for promotion?

I'll be the first to admit that I never should've obtained this rank as quickly as I did, but back then there were a LOT of active members, and the best of us were being promoted every couple of months. I probably wouldn't have been as active - nor productive - as I was if I'd been "stuck" as a Senior Crewman for month after month.

And for those of you who HAVE had the same rank for several months, please don't take any offense to that; no offense is intended for anyone in charge, either. And I know it's kind of a dick move to jump in on this conversation because I'm not really a part of the Navy ... but after reading through this thread, I just couldn't help but throw my two cents onto the pile.

Definitely. And don't hesitate to come back to the Navy Darkhawk. We need all the people we can get. By the way, awesome banner Driver.

Your banner is pimp.

Stop it! You're making me blush

I like you thoughts there Will.  Realism does have its perks...

I had already planned on personally failing somewhat largely in the current story, myself.

I'd actually love to do the Insurgency thing. Maybe we can get Reaper back up and running? Just under new leadership this time.

Let me see if I can't quickly review, since some of the other topics have been re-routed, what's been discussed as far as promotions go and then ask if there's any additional comments before they're further discussed by the Naval Commander's Committee/subcommittees.

General consensus on promotions thus far seems to rest on the fact that they have not been occurring often enough.  Proposals to correct the situation have been offered in these ways:

- A points system
- A descriptive outline
- A bi-weekly assessment

I agree with Drac that it may be wise to start off with the bi-weekly assessment first, just to get the ball rolling and see what can't be corrected simply through conscious effort.  This continues to rely, however, on a loose basis of promotion requirements: a kind of gut feeling involving the passage of time since someone's last promotion, additional medaling/position changes, and as Ibram has hinted (I think, lol), individual occasions of phenomenal activity/innovation.  So- do we maybe want to take a second glance, simply, at what we have on the books regarding the qualifications for certain ranks and then, if areas appear to lack elaboration, amend them as needed?  And does Ibram want to elaborate on his reservations further?  Or are there any other general comments about what's been said about promotions?

I agree with Ibram about the quotas, though I pointed that out already.

I think it's an excellent idea to take another look at the requirements for each rank...it gives better guidelines for promotion without intruding in day-to-day life in the VEN.

-Drac

I've created a new topic for promotion discussion Here


I will also try my best to reintroduce all the smaller ideas that might've been over looked earlier with all the other big ideas.

Quote:While we're on the topic of ship crews, I just got another idea. In the game Republic Commandos, (assuming everyone has at least heard of the name) aside from the squad of commandos, there's always an unseen 5th member of the squad. This person is called "Adviser" and serves as a spotter sort of person for the squad from the safety of the base ship or command center.

The main purpose of this person is real time contact with the squad/squadron in the field with the higher ups. at the same time able to access secure information through the command center and provide the field units with up-to-minute intel as they come in.

For starters, this could be an NPC, and later on filled in by someone not in the deployed squadron, possibly in the officer ranks in order to access classified intel. This would, I believe, open up a whole new venue for story development, char/squadron development, etc.

Quote:My ideal for the Task Force, or possibly just for Task Force competitions or maybe just a related side-game, would be to allow members to use ships purchased at the ICS. Up to this point the only recourse we've had to use those ships is solo CD stories and the rare idea like the Ykntola Order or my Mon Calamari Knights story...and even those tend to be extremely awkward and unsuccessful.

Letting members use their ships in direct service to the VE would be awesome. We could also incorporate limits through set maximums of # of ships & ship size for each rank.

Otherwise we're still where we are right now in regard to those ships...I can say I've got an eight ship fleet, but it doesn't do a thing for me. Ships are just bragging rights, and hollow ones at that.

-Drac

Quote:Meanwhile, I have another idea, in regards to storyline. Some of these ideas have been played with in the past, but as far as i know (which doesn't include recent history) none of these has ever been implemented. And some of them, frankly doesn't even cross our minds.

1. Complete mission failure - I know what you guys are thinking, what's the point of going on a mission if we're going to fail it on purpose. The truth is, frankly, we never lose, aside from occasionally losing squadron members due to AWOL, we never fail to complete any objective thrown at us, and realistically, that's just plain impossible. A good side to losing once in a while is that it allows for further story development, you get to perhaps meet previous enemies a second time. returning characters allows for more in depth character development as well. Feeling such as hate, anger, shame, frustration are hardly comparable in situations of victory and defeat.

2. Mission Objective failure - same concept as #1, except this is just one objective. it creates a twist in the story, a roadblock that the squadron will have to overcome. which in turn allows for more story and character development. and this may be just me, but 99% of the time, we don't fail our objectives, which is possible, but last i checked, we're not the 501st, and so that statistic is unrealistic.

3. Stationary/Guard/Patrol - I don't think we've ever had such a mission where the squadron just guards a place, and then have it come under attack. As far as I remember, all of the story are aggressive missions taken place away from "base". Just a thought

4. Insurgency - I understand this is what we already do most time as a squad. But this idea is for a 4-man commandos unit skilled in not only fighter but also in ground attacks as well. The Army has such a unit, but as far as i know, those jocks don't fly like we can. This idea has been developed before, but I don't think it was ever implemented. Of course we don't have the man power to have such an operation right now. So, just an idea as well.

Lol, looking back shows how much unique new ideas new really had, no more than 5. IRC has already been acted on, so is gaming. Everything else pertains to the three major ideas.

if you go back a few months, i threw that into Nazgul.
we did a little thing called, "The Ties That Bind" and the only fighter use was in transportation ,and a final, one sided dogfight.
the rest was ground pounding wet work...and it was EPIC.

Shazam wrote:*There it is*

Lawrence Fishburn in 'Searching for Bobby Fischer'
Classic...one of my personal favorites

This board is about writing stories. IRC and lounge nights are all well and good for those that are able to get on-line frequently enough with others but the VE is a role-playing, fan fiction hub.

Coordination is a key issue, which is why its good to see such a healthy debate taking place, but we need to coordinate on more of a day-to-day basis. By this I mean coordination on a squadron level in terms of planning the story and monitoring its progression. During my short time in Viper I have participated in two very enjoyable missions that put a twist on the standard fighter pilot arc. The standard formulae I'm referring to is the mission briefing, flight sim, cantina, skirmish dogfight - rinse and repeat structure. Operation Indigo was an objective failure but an engaging story to read and participate in. The current story, Shades of Grey, is equally intriguing requiring our characters to face moral decisions and ambiguous situations bringing into question our own sense of integrity.

We have suffered an AWOL issue but the reason for this was down to a lack of coordination and communication. For example, Tinker, Ibram and myself had a good conversation about what direction we wanted to take the current story in and discussed how it would progress but we failed to coordinate with the rest of the squadron and in particular new recruits which has lead to many one story posters disappearing. Tinker took a leaf out of Nazgul's book and did several mini-stories in attempt to orientate new recruits but we still had them leave. This was not down to her effort but because they hadn't been assessed and placed correctly to a squadron where they'd flourish.

Right now I don't think we have squadrons to facilitate the integration of all level of writers. Both Nazgul and Viper operate, in theory, a word count minimum which as several of us have said can be daunting and pressurising. Why not make Venom squadron a fully implemented unit for those who want to write shorter posts or of a less invested nature. I'm sure several of Viper's recent AWOL's would have flourished in such an environment.

This does not mean that such a squadron would be simpler in comparison to the rest. All squadrons would need to coordinate their stories and encourage a debate to ensure that the pilots in them where involved in the kind of stories they wanted to participate in. Shades of Grey was a step in the right direction for Viper and I have tried to provide clear information to new and returning pilots as to what is going on and how they can get involved. More importantly we have discussed these things and opened it up in a framework which provides something to write towards but is at the same time flexible enough to accommodate changes.

Regardless of the issues of the academy those that assign pilots\writers need to be confident in their assessment of a new recruit's ability. This should be primarily concerned with their writing. For example if a new recruit presents a brief bio, weak sample text but shows keenness then they need to be nurtured not cut loose to find a footing in a six month on-going story of 1500+ word-count posts. Their squadron should not be a training squadron to see if they're going to stick around to be included with the big boys as all squadrons are equal and valid. It would be down the existing staff to present short, sharp stories to these 200-500'ers that would be more likely to get them engaged. Get their opinion of what type of story the want to be involved in and then try and get those things implemented at a fast pace.

Both of our existing squadrons would benefit openly discussing where they want to go and what kind of identity they want to represent. Nazgul (green stuff et al) seems to have a stronger brand than Viper at the moment but both need to talk openly about what stories they want to coordinate in general. It should not just be the SC that is in charge of planning and monitoring a story, every pilot should have an opinion on the matter. Otherwise we have pilots who think a 300 word post about drinking corellian whiskey is an acceptable form of participation. (Of course there is nothing wrong with such a post but they need a reason and not just use it as a standard cop-out)

We have to ask ourselves why do people feel compelled to write such posts? It's because they haven't been asked what they want to write merely given a brief cryptic instruction to do CD between mission briefing and deployment.

Promotions, rewards are all fine as a bonus but we should all be here to write. Competitions in the past have shown that the Navy can coordinate and discuss what the nature of the story will be and how it will progress through out the competition. This, however, should be the norm for all stories if only operating at a squadron level. The squadrons need to be addressed not the academy or career path.

The capital ship idea is good for those of us that have been around and want to move on from starfighter skirmishes but our squadron stories should be so much more than that and they can only be more if we talk more and coordinate our stories. What is a squadron story?  We're in the driving seat, we can have squadron's get lost in space, wrecked on a planet, escort a diplomat, massacre a bunch of bantha farmers just because they looked at us funny. We should feel confident enough in ourselves to call the shots.

We have alot of diverse characters in the navy and we should be able to discuss what stories we're going to have. We don't need graphics and maps (those they're a nice bonus) in order to have clear objectives of a story. The current SC of both squadrons are capable enough of marshaling a story through their pilots but they shouldn't feel it's their responsibility alone.

For example in Shades of Grey, Ibram left it to me and Tinker to organize the second progression of our story and although it has been slow due to AWOL issues and suffering a blow with Tinker's unfortunate retirement, it was a good chance for us to discuss the movement of the story and open it up to the squadron as to how we should continue.

I know some might say, how can rely on new pilots to be trusted with a responsibility as monumental as effecting the flow of a current or planned story. The reality is they already do as the nature of this board means we have people leaving, joining and returning as our stories are in full flow so we're forever writing people in and out of stories. Those occurrences in themselves should be used as opportunities to consult squadron and the new recruit:

"We got a new guy coming in what should we do?"

"How about we come across him marooned on a drifting transport?"

"Ok but he'll have to tweak his back story what does he think?"

"He likes the idea but suggested how about have the transport be the one that was taking him from the academy to us."

"Yeah that could work as our story is dealing with raiders operating in our assigned system anyway."

"Sounds sweet we could have two us go aboard in full space suits and pry him out of the wreckage..."

etc

We need to be dynamic and as writers we should enjoy such a challenge. We need to stay open to coming and going of each other but maintain communication and coordination and embrace a flexibility to adjust stories to suit.

We need honesty from the ranks when it comes deciding where best to place somebody and have a squadron set up for the purposes of leading by the hand  those who are less familiar or new to writing but in a non-"this is training squadron" way. That way we would avoid needlessly AWOLing people by dropping them in the deep end or in an environment they are not suited to.

TLDR;

We here to write, we need a way of quickly assessing a new recruits ability and willingness to write, we need to correspondingly assign that new recruit to a squadron they are best suited i.e 500'er or more invested writing and we need to coordinate stories and not be afraid to take them where we want to go. Everyone in that particular squadron should want to be there and have a valued opinion.

For the record, less than a year ago I proposed overhauling our ranks structure into a Navy stream and Starfighter Corps stream that would have helped with multiple career paths, amongst other things.  It was shot down but you may want to revisit it.  I throw this out there based on what I read on the first page.  To be honest I will confess I do not have time to read all four pages of this before posting but I wanted to indicate that alternative rank structures do exist and I at least think they are worth revisiting.

Is there another Commander's Committee Meeting up and coming?  Just curious...