I have the same mindset of most people in the replies, but I would like to give my viewpoint on why.
I would say the time period of the most respected Naval was during Max’s admiral days (in my experience). This was because they never minged, at least on their naval, their RP was outstanding and they took it seriously. And they were damn good at their jobs.
I’ve been back and playing for about a month, and have seen some weird shit from naval such as: 1) Ruining events by not denying clearance codes. Obviously you should RP the situation and not let enemies into the ship, but i’ve seen at least 10 events completely cancelled because the Naval just said “Nah you can’t come in”. That pisses off everyone on the ship.
2) During events i’ve seen naval act like children. One went up to a trandoshan and “rubbed his neck” until the CG had to be called to get him to stop. One stormed into a briefing and yelled at the regimental gamemaster.
3) Just general continued mistakes or breaking RP. It has now become common to see a Naval running around the battlefield on defcon 4-3 with pistols instead of being at their station. I’ve even had a naval run in front of me when I was shooting my mini gun down atc hall, died, then started screaming about it. I’ve seen naval call Defcon 6 when there’s droids all over the ship, and third floor is overrun.
If youre too too lazy to read all that, the summary is: Train the naval more/better, Have them be more involved in the RP, and you will all earn respect. Having a rule instated that says you must be respected will only cause more hate towards naval.
A lot of naval do a great job, but you’re only as strong as your weakest links.