From the Office of High Command 2/20/2022

[Jovanovic]

From the Office of High Command

2/20/2022

Hello everyone! Conrad is on LOA this weekend, so I’m on update duty. Please feel free to ask any questions below if you’d like to know more about something on the list. 

This is a general update document, detailing the things done by the Chancellor and the Marshal Commander. This document will be posted Bi-Weekly with updates on what they both have done. Please leave any feedback you have in the comment below.

 

From the Office of the Chancellor - Conrad

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General Updates
Currently BCMD Gree, BCMD Bacara, Master Yoda, and Admiral Yularen applications are open. In the next two weeks, we’ll have Mas Amedda and BCMD Rex applications opening. Best of luck to the current and future applicants.

In addition to the changes from the command meeting below, there’s been a change to the entrance requirements for multiple places across base which you can find here.

Also, @Donowanted to ask everyone to please use your CT jobs for the event in this upcoming weekend, where we'll have a lot of lore deployments and events including the battle of Geonosis and Kamino. High command will be on our CT jobs, and I highly encourage you all too as well. You can find more about that here.

Roleplayer of the Week
Congrats to LeBron in the Navy for getting Roleplayer of the week! He was nominated by @Freck for showing some excellent examples of engineering RP throughout this week. Please find me in game or teamspeak for your credits. 

Question for the Community
What do you think about merits? There have been a lot of battalions changing them up recently, and even some factions go back and forth between removing them and adding them back. Usually, people either think it’s a necessity or that they’re the worst thing ever. Obviously it’s situational, but I’m curious to hear everyone’s thoughts. 

Navy Updates
Navy has had a few smaller changes in the last month. Firstly there are two new rear admirals — Omalic and Dennis — so congrats to both of the new commanders. Second, there’s been a revamp to the base pass system and permissions for who can check it. The information on that is in your announcement channels if you didn’t catch it. Lastly, aMed has been removed completely from the server as a training. It was not wiped, and you will not need to be retrained. If you want to know what this means for the medical branch in your battalion, reach out to @Omalic or @Freck

Jedi Updates
Jedi has been mostly stable & steady, the only major changes recently being some promotions to the branch overseer and some new masters.

Guild Updates
In a changelog which is far too long to be able to post here, the guild is working on changing up some permissions for their leaders recently which will involve more powerful clan heads and more in-depth systems for clans. Keep an eye out for those changes in the coming days. 

Senate
Not much to report from the Senate this week, but they’re looking into putting out some permanent bounties for propaganda- I mean news posts. Keep an eye out for those. 

From the Desk of Marshal Commander Jovanovic
 

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SOBDE Public Outlook
In the past few weeks @Lyonaxis has been focusing on making sure that SOBDE is interacting with the community at large in a positive manner and to try and address some complaints they've received. If you have any concerns or negative interactions with a member of the SOBDE, please fill out the form here to give them your feedback, or you can approach one of their officers about the issue. 

Training Database
The Database is finally done! In the last few weeks we’ve completely finished the database. All public trainings are here, and the ID lookup is working. By plugging in the SteamID you can get the info on all server trainings for any player.
     
Intel Automation
Recently I’ve been working with the 104th & 21st BCMDs and their intel members, and the automated roster systems for them are completed. Cannon is hosting the 21st’s as their ITD, and the 104th is still in the testing phase with theirs. All units that have requested it (almost all of our battalions) now have the automated intel system. If you’d like this system implemented for your faction or battalion, just shoot me a DM. 

Public Battalion Channels
I’ve been working with the RCMDs and BCMDs recently to encourage more open comms in battalion teamspeak channels. This is to move away from the current culture of keeping channels closed. This only encourages battalions to isolate themselves, and keeping channels unlocked when the players in the channel wouldn’t mind other people joining can significantly help relations between battalions. We’ve seen a lot of progress in this recently, and most battalions have been keeping their channels open for visitors. Huge thanks to those who gave it a shot. 

CG & SPEC RCMD Oversight
As you may know a few weeks ago CG was moved to the operations regiment with Naval, directly below the Marshal Commander. I took a more direct oversight role for the first couple weeks to establish the difference, however as planned the Spec Reg, @Guac, has been placed to oversee them as a regimental commander. This is because as MCMD I’m not able to interact with and keep an eye on a battalion as much as I’d expect from one of my regimental commanders. And so to make sure that every battalion remains consistent in receiving oversight, Guac will be helping me out by keeping an eye on CG and helping them out as he does his own battalions.

The Attack Regiment
There’ve been a couple of updates with the Attack Regiment recently. Firstly, congrats to @Finn our new Attack Regimental Commander. He’s now getting into the groove with attack and familiarizing himself with his new battalions. Luckily I’m in a good position to help him get settled in, having just left overseeing them for some time myself. And on a more minor note, as there’s been a lack of HC presence in ATK compared to how it has been we recently revisited and made sure that the vehicle trainings are organized and being held on a consistent basis by all battalions. 

The 41st is currently without a Gree, so both Finn and I have taken a more active presence, Finn more than I’m able to. I want to thank everyone who’s stepped up in the battalion recently, and encourage those who are considering running for Gree to speak to Mexico, Finn, or myself if you have any questions or reservations. 
 

February Command Meeting Updates
There are a few important updates from the command meeting for February which was held last week on Friday on the 11th. Before getting into those, you can find a quick summary of the meeting here, or a more complete & detailed public agenda here.

 Firstly the major change is that PTL rules have been changed. The minimum rank to leave without requesting permission to leave has been moved from WO+ to CPT+. Everyone below captain will once again have to request PTL to leave. The minimum number of people to leave without a CPT+, however, has been lowered from 4 to 2. Remember you do still need to request PTL in that case. The text signs at gate and the hyperspace transport have both been updated to reflect the new rule, so just follow those and you’ll be fine. 

Secondly in a more minor change, the rule “You may not shoot a frigate with a standard blaster rifle, you may only shoot a frigate with a rocket, placeable turret, or vehicle” has been removed, so feel free to blast those munificents out of the air with your Z-6s.

For any other updates, make sure to check out the command meeting summary!
 

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Jovanovic

[Gadget]

No update on Siege? I feel left out.... 

[Stockings]

32 minutes ago, Gadget said:

No update on Siege? I feel left out.... 

I wasn't able to meet with Jovanovic during the weekend, I've been in and out dealing with my ROA

[justuscloud5]

1 hour ago, Gadget said:

No update on Siege? I feel left out.... 

 

 

[Jovanovic]

4 hours ago, Gadget said:

No update on Siege? I feel left out.... 

To be honest the main reason is that ya'll are squared away. The post isn't necessarily to go over problems, but it is to address things that high command has been actively doing/changing since the last update. With siege that's... not much. Anything that I previously spoke to Stockings about looking into had been dealt with before the last one was posted and/or hasnt risen to the point that I've even noticed Stockings has had to address it. 

 

Tldr you guys are locked & loaded, shoutout to Stockings and you guys for getting to that point :)

[Glory22]

10 hours ago, Jovanovic said:

What do you think about merits? There have been a lot of battalions changing them up recently, and even some factions go back and forth between removing them and adding them back. Usually, people either think it’s a necessity or that they’re the worst thing ever. Obviously it’s situational, but I’m curious to hear everyone’s thoughts. 

 

I (as an SNCO in 501st) think merits are alright. One can point out a few pros and cons:

Pros

• Ensures people have to put in work to get promoted
  • People have to put in lots of work to get promoted, making promoting via bias or just doing it because someone did good in a single event after not doing any of the responsibilities of an NCO difficult to happen. 
• Establishes a progression to make achieving higher NCO ranks harder to get (takes more merits as you go)
• Gives Officers an easy metric to look at to see if you are active and deserve promotion regardless of how long you have been active/inactive

Cons

• Can be gamified and can lead to decreased quality of trainings as people try to spam them out
  • Officers keeping an eye on what work is done, and intel denying logs that are of little to no value can solve this issue.
• Need to find a perfect balance of what is worth how many points e.g., a recruitment should be worth a lot more than being an event lead
  • This can be solved through trial and error, and viewing what things are done the most and adjusting points accordingly.
• People may feel entitled to promotion when they get all their merits
  • While this is obviously an issue that some hold. Once someone completes all their merits for a rank, they may feel deserving of promotion and be in waiting to get promoted.
  • Thankfully, this issue is addressed often to NCOs. For 501st, for example, for SNCO training it is explicitly stated that completing merits is not going to mean you'll get promoted immediately but is just a prerequisite for promotion.

 

Overall, as stated, merits are definitely situational, and for me only having been in 501st (to a meaningful capacity), I think they are helpful there to the least. They can be done right, and they can be done wrong. I think NCOs just need to be aware that they don't automatically get you promoted, and Officers/Intel teams need to ensure people don't game the system too much. As factions/battalions try out getting rid of or adding merits system they will find what works for them.