From the Office of High Command [10/22]

[Marvel]

From the Office of High Command
[10/22/2022]

Structural Changes
Today High Command have made some structural changes to the Bounty Hunter Guild and the Senate. We have decided to move the Senate underneath the supervision of Guild Leadership. Mas Amedda will no longer be an applicable position and will be under the direct supervision of the Guild Leader giving the Senate a High Command representative which is something they have been lacking for a while now.

Obviously nothing changes in roleplay between the two groups. All this is is a behind the scenes structural change. You can view it as the Guild as a battalion and the Senate as a sub-unit if that makes sense.

Tldr;
The Senate is no longer considered a faction
Guild Leadership oversees the Senate OOC
Mas Amedda is equivalent to XO (Similar to Mace Windu)
People will tryout for the Senate on their BH (Won't take away from their BH life)
Mas Amedda still runs the Senate as they see fit. Any rank equivalencies between the Guild and the Senate is up to their respective leaders.

End Goal

We do have some pretty big plans for the faction as a whole in the future that this change will help move us towards. This shouldn't change much at the end of the day however it will help with any future changes we are planning to implement.

 

If you have any questions or concerns let us know! Either submit them below or message myself, Claw, or Keegan. I might of missed something idk.

[Bacta]

@JayarrGet fucked

[Cubby]

He said a small change

[Mystic]

what was the motive behind this? it just seems odd to me.

I read the entire thing, I know its OOC. I just want to hear an explanation on the reasoning? Is it just because currently Guild has a RCMD equiv?

Edited October 23, 2022 by Mystic

[Xylops]

ok

[Sixta]

having BH Leadership oversee senate makes zero sense to me.

[Glory22]

Very excited to see these changes occur 

[Stump]

As the Head of Senate Guard

This makes 0 sense... Cmon bruh

WHY ARE BOUNTYHUNTERS OVERSEEING A LEGISLATIVE BRANCH (WHAT IS THIS ZIMBABWE???)

Edited October 23, 2022 by Stump

[Glory22]

1 minute ago, Stump said:

WHAT IS THIS ZIMBABWE???

Synergy is becoming ZimbabweRP confirmed.

[TessaKitty]

This change is to be seen and treated exclusively in an out of character way. This does not affect IC relations or RP at all.

[Brooklyn]

51 minutes ago, Marvel said:

End Goal

We do have some pretty big plans for the faction as a whole in the future that this change will help move us towards. This shouldn't change much at the end of the day however it will help with any future changes we are planning to implement.

 

Obviously this needs to be quoted cause it’s very clear no one read this far

[A-a-ron]

Wait, 

The leader of the bounty hunters, is in control of the senate??

Even if the change is "OOC" shit still makes zero sense

Why isn't the chancellor in control of the senate?? I know there isn't one currently but this change is GOOFY

[Marvel]

1 hour ago, Mystic said:

what was the motive behind this? it just seems odd to me.

I read the entire thing, I know its OOC. I just want to hear an explanation on the reasoning? Is it just because currently Guild has a RCMD equiv?

Yeah so all this really is is like giving the Senate a representative in High Command which before this was Palpatine which is a massive gap in rank. Palpatine oversees all the factions and lately I've been dealing with all that due to the lack of a Palpy and let me tell you something if I were in that position legitimately the last thing I would care about is 8 dudes tryna pass some bill and they need me to make a tie breaker on their argument.

Also like the disclaimer at the end I said we are planning some pretty large changes for both the Guild and the Senate so rn kinda putting them in a position that allows them to grow closer will make the transition smoother in the future. 

[Mystic]

14 minutes ago, Marvel said:

Yeah so all this really is is like giving the Senate a representative in High Command which before this was Palpatine which is a massive gap in rank. Palpatine oversees all the factions and lately I've been dealing with all that due to the lack of a Palpy and let me tell you something if I were in that position legitimately the last thing I would care about is 8 dudes tryna pass some bill and they need me to make a tie breaker on their argument.

Also like the disclaimer at the end I said we are planning some pretty large changes for both the Guild and the Senate so rn kinda putting them in a position that allows them to grow closer will make the transition smoother in the future. 

Ah i get it. Thank you for the response! I hope it all works out in the end

[Gears]

The senate actually made big progress and performed pretty well and this is their reward, becoming a subunit. The whole thing about giving senate a representative is honestly bullshit excuse, cause that's what a big reason palpatine was demoted, that's what I was told as mas amedda, that palpatine was our representative. So making them under guild lead makes no sense and only hurts the permissions they have in rank, does this mean neither mas amedda or senior senators get in command discord, could this means mas has no bcmd authority and potentially neither position could vote on commander related votes.

Now I do acknowledge theres "big changes", trust me I've seen them, but personally I don't think prep i needed or rather this is the wrong type of prep, these changes could be months away and potentially means senate will be stuck under a LORE CIVILIAN JOB for a long time. Senate has once again been crippled for nothing of it's own doing. What would been better would have been communicating with the parties with the changes you want to go ahead with and instead prepare to change them when it's all ready, achieving what you want without beating senate down a level once again. How about High command and directors now be transparent and reveal what your working on. So that people don't get the wrong idea. Secretive actions are only going to damage the senate more.

6 hours ago, Marvel said:

Palpatine oversees all the factions and lately I've been dealing with all that due to the lack of a Palpy and let me tell you something if I were in that position legitimately the last thing I would care about is 8 dudes tryna pass some bill and they need me to make a tie breaker on their argument.

Shows you know nothing about the inner working of the senate, mas amedda breaks all tie breaks. This argument is invalid.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Gears

[Xylops]

29 minutes ago, Gears said:

The senate actually made big progress and performed pretty well and this is their reward, becoming a subunit. The whole thing about giving senate a representative is honestly bullshit excuse

Personally from what I had seen I am inclined to agree with this, Senate had good numbers and now they have been reduced and it feels/looks pointless.

[Dubz]

When I had two Hunters hunt a Commando Droid for the Mon Calamari Senator, I didn't know it would work this well lol

[TessaKitty]

15 minutes ago, Gears said:

Now I do acknowledge theres "big changes", trust me I've seen them, but personally I don't think prep i needed or rather this is the wrong type of prep

If we put someone into the position of Mas Amedda right now and then alter their ranking equivalency and their place in the hierarchy, it will cause more problems than necessary. Putting this in place ahead of time will avoid further confusion upon the implementation of the mentioned "big changes" in the future. The timeline for this big change is very slightly unpredictable. It could be sooner, it could be later. But whichever it is, it makes more sense to make changes to the position itself before we have someone apply for it.

[Gears]

5 minutes ago, TessaKitty said:

we put someone into the position of Mas Amedda right now and then alter their ranking equivalency and their place in the hierarchy, it will cause more problems than necessary. Putting this in place ahead of time will avoid further confusion upon the implementation of the mentioned "big changes" in the future. The timeline for this big change is very slightly unpredictable. It could be sooner, it could be later. But whichever it is, it makes more sense to make changes to the position itself before we have someone apply for it.

What problems, please explain. There didn't seem to be any problems when I was mas amedda. Don't take this the wrong way but you have been in high command for so little time, I can't exactly say you know anything about the senate.

Let's also mention senate have 2 senior senators running it fine  so having apps closed isn't a big deal if you want to move it later.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Gears

[TessaKitty]

Just now, Gears said:

What problems, please explain. There didn't seem to be any problems when I was mas amedda. Don't take this the wrong way but you have been in high command for so little time, I can't exactly say you know anything about the senate. 

Having your rank equivalency reduced by 2 ranks can be seen as a fairly big deal. Some might see it as a demotion. This change was going to happen some time down the line. So rather than "demoting" someone who is already in the position, the position itself has received the adjustment before hand. 

[Gears]

3 minutes ago, TessaKitty said:

Having your rank equivalency reduced by 2 ranks can be seen as a fairly big deal. Some might see it as a demotion. This change was going to happen some time down the line. So rather than "demoting" someone who is already in the position, the position itself has received the adjustment before hand. 

And this is where high command communication (usually weak) comes into play. You go full transparent on the changes you would like to make, without keeping everyone in the dark (which could be done now) to gather community opinion and go with 1 of 2 options.

 

1. Keep mas amedda closed for the time, let the 2 current senior senators continue to the steer the steady ship that is senate. This would mean there's no disruptions to keep senate healthy for your eventual changes.

 

2. Open Mas Amedda and be fully transparent to the applicants on future plans, so they may be prepared for the future. This was already done with regimental commanders before the switch to numbered regiments and I don't see why it can't be done now.

 

With either of these 2 decisions, Senate would be able to continue to operate without a temporary change that potentially damages the senate. 

Option 2 would be my choice unless one of the senior senators would want to be mas, but right before this change, both senior senators were doing good job. Now there power and rank equivalency is in question.

[Conrad]

I’m confused by this one. Most things I can at least kinda get. But BH and Senate being merged is uh, wacky. Senate is not like anything else on the server. Guild is nothing like senate. So someone going up in the senate is out of place if they apply for guild lead, and guild lead is gonna know nothing of how senate works. Mas is kinda just a lore character now. This is one wacky subunit. 

[Gears]

15 minutes ago, Conrad said:

So someone going up in the senate is out of place if they apply for guild lead

Thats actually something I didnt take into count with this. I dont see a Senator fully understanding the Guild Leads Job and same with a Guild Member not understanding the Senate. Mostly its the Senator not understanding the guild, so really unless they work on the side within the guild, they wouldnt be able to make much a case for guild lead, therefore making Senate stuck in one place, When they were under palpatine, they could of atleast understood what Palpatine was for.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Gears

[KillJoy]

So my question why the guild why not another Republic faction. You had Naval or Jedi that could at least rp with senate other brewing a structural thing. Senate was over naval and worked closely with the Jedi. Honestly you could put Senate over or with naval still would make more sense than the guild. 

[Metro]

3 minutes ago, KillJoy said:

So my question why the guild why not another Republic faction. You had Naval or Jedi that could at least rp with senate other brewing a structural thing. Senate was over naval and worked closely with the Jedi. Honestly you could put Senate over or with naval still would make more sense than the guild. 

I can answer this. It has a lot to do with the future plans. While I am not at a point I can disclose anything, I can say it will make more sense in the future. This is a very temporary fix to the chain of command and a step in this new direction.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Metro

[Conrad]

1 minute ago, Metro said:

I can answer this. It has a lot to do with the future plans. While I am not at a point I can disclose anything, I can say it will make more sense in the future. This is a very temporary fix to the chain of command.

This isn't an answer. Alluding to future plans provides no answer to the player base.

[Dono]

Making temporary changes and promising it’s for the benefit of a future plan is stupid. Especially when you don’t announce what your planning for the future. This isn’t US Government foreign affairs. I can promise that it’s really not that deep. Your better off being transparent as possible and letting ppl know what’s actually being cooked up / worked on. 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Dono

[Metro]

1 minute ago, Conrad said:

This isn't an answer. Alluding to future plans provides no answer to the player base.

It is an answer to the question posed by Killjoy on why BH Guild vs Naval/Jedi which is why I responded to his question. Future plans is that reason, not really much more I can say. Sure it's vague but it's not at my liberty to disclose.

[Sixta]

2 minutes ago, Metro said:

It is an answer to the question posed by Killjoy on why BH Guild vs Naval/Jedi which is why I responded to his question. Future plans is that reason, not really much more I can say. Sure it's vague but it's not at my liberty to disclose.

This is cwrp on gmod bro 

[Jayarr]

I don't get why no one is saying anything when there's obvious outcry against the decision.
I'm not one to care, this was something I was going to do when I was palpatine, but wasn't around to see it through.

The fundamental concept was not to force the senate to respond to the guild, but to line themselves for a concept that I was going to oversee in the future; a civilian approach to bounty hunter. 
I have no clue if that's what they're eluding to now with this post whenever those above keep saying "future plans", but I thought you all would appreciate the knowledge that resides within that concept.

Senate would work as it's own as it always has, and civilians would have three paths to pursue:

• Sticking to basic civilian RP, no need to move in any directon
• Moving to a senate/government focus, working to promote more passive RP, just like the senate has already established as their strong point
• Moving to a more hostile side, which is bounty hunting and such

As stated, no clue if that's their plans now, but that is what I wanted to do when I was palpatine, which makes it all the more funny to see this happening now. I'm glad it is happening now, don't get me wrong, but to shove something like this out when you plan on fully releasing it likely weeks or months down the line is just kinda silly. I was gonna deal with the demotion when the changes were put into effect, not a large sum of time earlier.

Feel free to shit on me if I'm wrong, but saying something to people who are mad is better then just letting them guess at what you're doing for the future to come.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Jayarr

[Dono]

It’s no secret that high command is on defcon 2 and just throwing anyone who asks into leadership positions. Putting senate under guild lead is just you way of condensing leadership down so you don’t need to worry about finding another leader. This honestly makes no sense even from an OOC side because senate and the guild are structurally entirely different from each other. Someone in senate would not know how to do guild work. Someone in the guild would not know anything about senate. Senate just has no place with the guild. Any future plan you have at this point, quite frankly just looks like ass. 
 

Right now this just looks like you guys are desperate and just want to condense as much as possible in hopes you can rebound the server. If that’s your  reasoning, let it be known. No one would really fight that if you are clear on its reasoning. Stating the reasoning on a future plan undermines the legitimacy and public opinion of whatever that future plan may be. 

[Comics]

9 hours ago, Marvel said:

Yeah so all this really is is like giving the Senate a representative in High Command which before this was Palpatine

Ahhh so instead of 1 unrepresentative leader we have a different one who doesn't even oversee us at all!!! I guess directors making bad choices is a curse of the position 

If you're banking it all off future plans maybe tell us rhem? Because this happens every time a unpopular thing goes through we get a classic case of 1 step in a process. But we never learn that process and suddenly the process stops without anyone knowing and we're stuck with the dogshit transitional stage 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Comics

[Aegis]

Transparency will increase trust. Just be honest, ask for feedback, and maybe some there will be genuine things that have been overlooked. I understand surprises can be nice, and I'm sure a reveal would be cool, or maybe the idea isn't fully ready to be revealed yet. A simple "Hey we're planning to restructure the Senate under the Bounty Hunter Guild. This will happen to lay the groundwork for new things, and will take effect in tandem with the announcement of our plans." or something like that, can go a long way to easing minds or generating some hype.

[Guac]

3 minutes ago, Dono said:

It’s no secret that high command is on defcon 2 and just throwing anyone who asks into leadership positions.

 

[Dono]

2 minutes ago, Guac said:

 

Yeah now post the public stuff I posted as yuularen. I held no secret that we were desperate 

[Maddoxx]

Sorry for how cryptic this has all been, this is not the way the community wants things done nor is it a way that leadership sees as acceptable. A post with more clarification on these changes will be issued later. Unfortunately I don't have all the details right now as to be honest I wasn't super involved in this project I was focusing on some other stuff.

But from what I understand BH faction is getting a rework to be more civi rp accessible so I guess they wanted to put the senate with them for this, I'll have a more clarified post on what the hell is going on put out sorry for any confusion this has created. 

[Comics]

6 minutes ago, Maddoxx said:

nor is it a way that leadership sees as acceptable.

but you still did it anyway? What's the point of thinking it's unacceptable in the first place?

 

[Gears]

15 minutes ago, Maddoxx said:

Sorry for how cryptic this has all been, this is not the way the community wants things done nor is it a way that leadership sees as acceptable. A post with more clarification on these changes will be issued later. Unfortunately I don't have all the details right now as to be honest I wasn't super involved in this project I was focusing on some other stuff.

But from what I understand BH faction is getting a rework to be more civi rp accessible so I guess they wanted to put the senate with them for this, I'll have a more clarified post on what the hell is going on put out sorry for any confusion this has created. 

Maybe its time they reveal all their plans going forward for the community to discuss on. Big decisions made by High Command for the past 10 Months have just been dropped on the community and majority have resulted in negativity. I personally believe the High Commands outlook on the server does not mirror the community. You have a handfull of people making these decisions while the communnity waits for it. Im personally sick of this "No peeking Tee Hee" attitude High Command have,

Edited October 23, 2022 by Gears

[Brooklyn]

16 minutes ago, Gears said:

Maybe its time they reveal all their plans going forward for the community to discuss on. Big decisions made by High Command for the past 10 Months have just been dropped on the community and majority have resulted in negativity. I personally believe the High Commands outlook on the server does not mirror the community. You have a handfull of people making these decisions while the communnity waits for it. Im personally sick of this "No peeking Tee Hee" attitude High Command have,

I think if Maddoxx doesn't even know everything, then High Command doesn't either.

[Brooklyn]

Can we get the initial "future plan" for this? Even if it doesn't happen, it would probably answer a lot of questions and stop the back and forth.

[Finn]

7 minutes ago, Gears said:

Maybe its time they reveal all their plans going forward for the community to discuss on. Big decisions made by High Command for the past 10 Months have just been dropped on the community and majority have resulted in negativity. I personally believe the High Commands outlook on the server does not mirror the community. You have a handfull of people making these decisions while the communnity waits for it. Im personally sick of this "No peeking Tee Hee" attitude High Command have,

Look, I understand that the lack of information is frustrating, and this post probably could have been worded better, but please don't try and frame this likes this is an institutional thing for HC. DU and GM were Founder decisions, and the Regiment restructure was a very open process with all of the battalion command teams. The only thing I can think of is moving Mas down from RCMD to BCMD, which could have been handled better. Throughout the past year (at least since I've been in HC), we've made a lot of effort into getting community feedback and making sure the people directly involved with changes are made aware. Xaze as Marshal, and Conrad as Palpatine, would poll the community every time they made a Office of HC thread, and we would use those polls in our discussions in what we wanted to push. 

[Conrad]

1 minute ago, Finn said:

Xaze as Marshal, and Conrad as Palpatine, would poll the community every time they made a Office of HC thread, and we would use those polls in our discussions in what we wanted to push. 

I've already brought this up to @Metro as something that I thought really helped transparency. Office of high command used to be more about discussion and communication, and less about "Hey here's just another announcement". I'd really like to see it get change back to talking about future plans, what you've been working on, and getting feedback from the community vs the current state. Would be a good step for communication.

[KillJoy]

So basically BH would get named something else I.E Galactic Citizens, guild lead will turn into Mayor and people who are loyal to the republic can take jobs as doctors, farmers, and senates. The others can still be bounty hunters but it’ll be a Sub Unit basically of the faction. Also why don’t y’all make a road map, plus everything will probably change once people’s terms are over anyway 

 

Calling it now that this will be a just dark rp faction with a Star Wars paint job 

Edited October 23, 2022 by KillJoy

[Sixta]

2 hours ago, KillJoy said:

So basically BH would get named something else I.E Galactic Citizens, guild lead will turn into Mayor and people who are loyal to the republic can take jobs as doctors, farmers, and senates. The others can still be bounty hunters but it’ll be a Sub Unit basically of the faction. Also why don’t y’all make a road map, plus everything will probably change once people’s terms are over anyway 

 

Calling it now that this will be a just dark rp faction with a Star Wars paint job 

close lol

[Glory22]

Going to drop this here as there is quite some confusion or statements that are outright unfair to those they are being directed towards. As the current highest-ranking Senator, I see great potential for these changes, even if it doesn't quite make sense for Guild Leader to be in charge of the Vice Chancellor in lore.

 

I don't expect anyone to understand Senate rules or how it runs (including Senators) when there are ~50 documents in the Senate either pinned in channels or linked on other documents, many of which are outdated, had things amended via other bills (and not mentioned on the original document), or so forth. That's like saying someone doesn't understand all of the US law when the US Code is like a billion pages long. I'm actually having to go through our convoluted system now to fix this and spending too much time reading each one and sorting it on a spreadsheet in order to make any sense of it in my head. I don't think it is fair to assume ANYONE should have to do this to understand the basic rules of a GMOD faction that has less than twenty people actively in it across both its branches. A lot of the currently in place rules are things that make no sense with the current layout of the server, or make it impossible for Senate to ever recover, e.g., if we fall beneath 3 non-Senior Senators we cannot authorize Senior Senators to do ANYTHING (including host tryouts). 

 

I was spoken to before this change was announced and I was actually able to achieve several things due to how willing High Command and High Staff were to work with me to avoid major issues (I don't think Mas Amedda being demoted is a massive deal when his BCMD authority was something that never really needed to be used, in fact I didn't even argue against it). This announcement could've had more detail, but it would be very difficult to lay out in full detail the description for how this is going to work when Claw and I haven't fully fleshed it out yet (not the fault of the other HC or High Staff).

I've known about Jayarr's original plan for quite some time and always liked it, and this is seeming to stick close to that, so I think everyone needs to just take a step back and see how this plays out for the current people in Senate and Guild (yes it affects them too, which I don't see many people saying).

I have had to push (by myself at times) for massive changes to Senate Guard, increasing activity of the Senators and filling our positions, and to just clear the cruft of this faction that was handed to me in a broken state with little preparation. I see people who have no business in our affairs and are not Senators/Senate Guard, High Command, High Staff, or Diplomatic Service creating divide; in actuality I see great relations between these groups. I understand when people care for something, but please take some time to look at how things actually are and remember this is a game and should be treated as such. 

[SquishyFishyy]

damn bruh they really just killed senate huh

[GregRocks]

One step closer to the official removal of Senate