General Administration

[Natasi Fortan]

[member="Ludolf Vaas"] and [member="Aram Kalast"], I hope you don't mind my convening this little discussion. There's a couple reasons why I did; first, since Aram and I have been off the reservation for awhile, so if we could get a catch-up on what's been going on that would be helpful. I'm not sure where the new faces like Marzena Choi and Valessia Brentioch (although I think she might be leaving/gone) fit into our structure (if at all) and how we (or I) can facilitate their aims and goals.

Second, since I'm all about that First Order, I'm wondering if we have an expansion/growth plan in place and what we need to do to execute it. If you'd like, I can put my recruit posters in the factions forum, but I'm not sure that will be successful in terms of getting new blood. We need something exciting, flashy! I'm not sure what that is. We don't want to antagonize the GA or anyone else into attacking us, but perhaps we could use each other to drive up activity? Open to suggestions on this.

Third, there are some people looking for training. We might want to put a policy in place to address training needs until we get more active trainers.

I think that's all I wanted to put on the agenda. Did you guys have anything to bring in?

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

We've obtained a few "miscellaneous" characters who don't neatly fit anywhere into our heirarchy, but they are tied to our faction via storylines. For our purposes, characters like Marzena Choi are civilians. She's more of a cultural figure than anything, just like any country would have its own famous artists/pop stars/whatever.

I think it would be great if you were in charge of putting together a couple little advertising threads in the Factions forum using all the great new images we have. I don't know how many new members we'll get - but it can't hurt. It lets the board know that we're still here.

Now, as for our future, in the immediate future I'm leaning two ways. We can either do another dominion (preferably Thakwaa if so), or we can just screw dominions altogether right now and simply do a fun, story-driven faction thread just to get everyone's gears going. Right now I'm kind of leaning towards the latter, because while dominions can be fun they can also be tiring and they require a lot of activity.

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

[member="Natasi Fortan"] forgot to tag you

 

[Natasi Fortan]

We've obtained a few "miscellaneous" characters who don't neatly fit anywhere into our heirarchy, but they are tied to our faction via storylines. For our purposes, characters like Marzena Choi are civilians. She's more of a cultural figure than anything, just like any country would have its own famous artists/pop stars/whatever.

I think it would be great if you were in charge of putting together a couple little advertising threads in the Factions forum using all the great new images we have. I don't know how many new members we'll get - but it can't hurt. It lets the board know that we're still here.

Now, as for our future, in the immediate future I'm leaning two ways. We can either do another dominion (preferably Thakwaa if so), or we can just screw dominions altogether right now and simply do a fun, story-driven faction thread just to get everyone's gears going. Right now I'm kind of leaning towards the latter, because while dominions can be fun they can also be tiring and they require a lot of activity.

Thanks, [member="Ludolf Vaas"]. I'm going to put together some advertising (as soon as I'm done stabbing Dunames for stealing my images and posting them as her own... wtf is wrong with that dude), and hopefully get it all set up now.

If we aren't going to dominion Hoth, I may just ask some of our people to coordinate with me on a rescue thread for Natasi on Hoth. It doesn't look like we will be domininiong it and I sort of feel like I shouldn't be doing half the stuff I'm doing without resolving that plot, so I'll just do it on my own and with volunteers instead of asking the faction to get involved.

One other thing - did we ever name our capital city? I've been RPing as if Natasi is working on its construction and that it's nearing completion, so I'd like to submit it as a location when I can complete the sub (hopefully this week ). If we haven't named the capital, should we do that? Perhaps we can come up with a few options and open it up as a poll for the general membership? What do you guys think?

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

[member="Natasi Fortan"] our capital is Dosuun.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

[member="Natasi Fortan"] our capital is Dosuun.

I know the capital planet is Dosuun. Sorry I didn't make that clearer. You know me and my verbal skills

I meant the capital city?

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Thanks, [member="Ludolf Vaas"]. I'm going to put together some advertising (as soon as I'm done stabbing Dunames for stealing my images and posting them as her own... wtf is wrong with that dude), and hopefully get it all set up now.

If we aren't going to dominion Hoth, I may just ask some of our people to coordinate with me on a rescue thread for Natasi on Hoth. It doesn't look like we will be domininiong it and I sort of feel like I shouldn't be doing half the stuff I'm doing without resolving that plot, so I'll just do it on my own and with volunteers instead of asking the faction to get involved.

One other thing - did we ever name our capital city? I've been RPing as if Natasi is working on its construction and that it's nearing completion, so I'd like to submit it as a location when I can complete the sub (hopefully this week ). If we haven't named the capital, should we do that? Perhaps we can come up with a few options and open it up as a poll for the general membership? What do you guys think?

[member="Ludolf Vaas"] - shall we say Thakwaa? I can start looking into Dominion goals are get our people going on it if we're decided. There are some people looking for ways to contribute and I think a Dominion would be a good way to get them involved...

Potential Dominion Objectives:

1. Establish a forward operating base on Thakwaa; clear out any Thakwaash in the area. Military types plus government might be useful.

2. Collect DNA samples from Thakwaash in different regions of the planet, in order that First Order scientists may develop an aerosol-based sedative that would make the locals more docile, and allow us to herd them into labor camps.

3. ???

4. Profit!

 

[Aram Kalast]

Seems legit.
I am wondering if we need to do a sit down and re-establish the base faction premise in order to be a bit more in line with what is expected these days.

With the inevitable collapse of the One Sith (it will happen, I have seen the whispers and I want to put my bets on now) we may be able to consolidate a nice membership looking for a faction.

The question is do we look into the actual faction as a whole and do some proper resifting and re-organising on a base level?

 

[Aram Kalast]

Bare with me on this one, I need to talk to you all before this concept goes any further in reality...but what if we try and take the Imperial mantle completely.

Remove the Supreme Leader from power, reorganise as an Empire and ride the Galactic Empire mantle?

Might be the Cider talking right now, but I was giving it a real big thought and it doesn't seem like the worst idea ever. I will write something up of a more heavy proposal tomorrow and present it to this forum.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Seems legit.
I am wondering if we need to do a sit down and re-establish the base faction premise in order to be a bit more in line with what is expected these days.

With the inevitable collapse of the One Sith (it will happen, I have seen the whispers and I want to put my bets on now) we may be able to consolidate a nice membership looking for a faction.

The question is do we look into the actual faction as a whole and do some proper resifting and re-organising on a base level?

The way I see the faction, at least my character's interpretation, is that we are for the ruthless application of order for the benefit of those who are willing to subjugate themselves to our will. In my mind we aren't destructive for the sake of destruction, genocidal for the sake of genocide, etc. Sure, we can commit the most awful of deeds, but it's for the best. In the words of Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher: "Yes, the medicine is harsh, but the patient requires it in order to live. Should we withhold the medicine? No. We are not wrong." This is partially what I am trying to achieve in terms of the Bespin Economic Summit. Our methods may be harsh, but we are trying to establish a society worth living in. Eggs : omelettes :: weeds : gardens :: dissidents : society. However you want to put it.

That doesn't mean we can't still be the bad guys. I know that's how we were established. But we should be channeling this into something.

As to how to attract One Sith refugees, I don't really know. The Sith don't directly translate into our concept of Ren, but I'd love to see if there's a way to entice people in. Perhaps someone can talk to the OS OOCly and discuss if there is a way to bring people (not just actual Sith - I assume they have soldiers, etc.) into our fold if they're interested? I would volunteer for this, but I'm pretty sure they all despise me

One thing I'd like to do is establish an over-arching storyline for the faction. It can be shortish (a month?), medium length (a few months?), or indefinite -- or, could encompass short/medium and be extended. I want people to feel invested in the faction, to feel like they have an opportunity to drive our story forward, to take some ownership in it. At the same time, we need to expand ourselves as a presence. I don't think this map has been updated, but here are some avenues for expansion once we shore up our current holdings:

In conjunction with this, I'd like to discuss how we can create a membership and activity drive. At ... the other place ... I created a storyline for my faction, the Galactic Empire, called the Imperial Civil War, and each month (for 2-3 months as I recall) there was a faction thread that was directly related to the plot (while, of course, having people free to do their own plots as well). We also had an accelerated promotion timeline for this period, to incentivise both new members and old to jump into our faction and get started (or restarted).

Any thoughts on this? [member="Ludolf Vaas"] | [member="Aram Kalast"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Bare with me on this one, I need to talk to you all before this concept goes any further in reality...but what if we try and take the Imperial mantle completely.

Remove the Supreme Leader from power, reorganise as an Empire and ride the Galactic Empire mantle?

Might be the Cider talking right now, but I was giving it a real big thought and it doesn't seem like the worst idea ever. I will write something up of a more heavy proposal tomorrow and present it to this forum.

This is interesting.

Recently, I was asked to stand for nomination to be Faction Owner of the Sith Triumvirate. I withdrew my name because of my commitment to the First Order, but as I was discussing it, there was some interest in merging the First Order and the Sith Triumvirate into some sort of greater Galactic Empire faction. I didn't think the faction would go for it, and since I wasn't going to be in a position to impact the the Sith Triumvirates actions going forward, I didn't mention it. But if that's something that people would be interested in, perhaps it's something we can discuss with their faction leadership?

 

[Aram Kalast]

As a faction goal what we are looking for is indeed galactic stability, or at least that is the way i’ve always looked at it which was why I was in the short term looking at perhaps a slight rebranding in terms of what we are trying to achieve as to be honest the whole First Order banner did turn more from prodigal Imperial replacement to Evil people in similar clothes.

I like the role of bad guy, but more in an open sort of belief way. Most of the population under us believe in what we are doing, many outside believe in it to but of course there will always be those who question the methods used by ourselves to insure such safety. We can manage to add more of a sinister side by introducing elements common within Imperial themes such as Force-Users, intelligence and re-education systems very similar to the original empire over what we have seen from the First Order.

Naturally any ‘refugees’ from the One Sith could be brought over as long as we have a running force using element that perhaps falls in less with the Ren concept and more as an element like the Inquisitors and Dark Jedi, something to consider as at the moment the Ren are slowly disappearing faster then we can keep them going. Part in line to the fact I feel we did indeed put to much restriction on them and not enough material.

As for an over-arching storyline.
I am all for this and always have been. Connection to a goal is a great provider of interest that can be moved into people joining the faction. Currently looking at the expansion you have mentioned the path towards Bakura seems comfortable and also thematic, the question being what would the story element be. The Resistance was a solid one, but I do feel we need something more grand scale.
Personally I am liking perhaps a split within our own ranks, perhaps having the side of Ren, being the Supreme Leader (Who at the moment is either dead or alive with no real evidence for both) having declared for themselves while the purist Imperial hearted forces (PC element) moves to force them out of our territory. Civil war, broken combats against friends that isn’t in EVERY dominion.

The idea of speedy promotions during ‘storyline’ events would be great, especially if we can also push it forward for every aspect of the faction. It will also depend on creating interest in people starting their own topics for the faction, creating their own stories and not solely relying on the leadership.

It might be worth opening channels to those who could be interested in a merger…of course it would involve hefty negotiation and a concept change for ourselves, which at this point, I'm not heavily against if it goes the right way.

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

I'll make my thoughts short and sweet. I wouldn't be opposed to transitioning into what is basically the Galactic Empire 2.0. I think this is basically the First Order's goal canonically speaking anyway. However, whatever happens, I would like that change to happen organically. If we are going to embrace the Sith, have an Emperor, and become the reincarnated Galactic Empire, I would like this to be as a result of us absorbing their members first rather than changing our ways up front in a desperate attempt to attract former One Sith members.

In my opinion, what we should focus on right now is not changing immediately, but pointing people towards a future that could be if we united. We need to let the One Sith know that they are welcome at the First Order and that there will be a place for the Sith in our faction. We need to instill the idea that if we combined our powers, we could form something great - a real Galactic Empire that unites all the Sith and Imperial forces once and for all. It needs to be a process of us both meeting halfway.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

What would you guys think about doing a mass-mail to the Faction in conjunction with my advertisement, the announcement of our summer campaign, and reorganization of the faction (also could include the Capital City thing - looks like Imperial is going to win [yay!] but we could use other parts to represent other parts of the city).

I don't like the idea of doing a mass-mail very often, but it could give us just the thing to jumpstart our activity drive/summer campaign?

Also, is member of the month going to be a monthly thing, or was that just something special for Marzena? We are coming up on mid-month. Do we have any candidates in mind?

[member="Ludolf Vaas"] | [member="Aram Kalast"]

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

I would like to do a mass mail, but the last time I tried it it was all fvcked up. There's something wrong with the feature but I can try again.

Member of the month sort of turned into a "whenever I feel like it" thing, haha. Marzena wasn't the only one, OK-3103 was actually the first one to receive it. But yeah, I wanted to do that again.

We should discuss this in a PM.

[member="Natasi Fortan"] [member="Aram Kalast"]

 

[Aram Kalast]

Yeah Mass mail is horrible, but it might be the easiest way to send through a message.
So basically we need to work out what to have in there, what our faction storyline needs to move to etc.

I like MotM, it makes people feel special.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Draft Mass Message for your thoughts. I wasn't sure how wordy/detailed we wanted it. I can expand/revise as needed. But would like to get the ball rolling. Thoughts?

ISN'T IT TIME YOU GAVE THE FIRST ORDER ANOTHER LOOK?
There has never been a more interesting time to be a member of the First Order! Come by and take a look today, and learn all about the exciting things the Faction has to offer, and learn how you can:

• Take part in a dynamic faction-wide story arc where every character plays an important role!
• Have your voice heard and help name and design the faction's capital city on Dosuun!
• Kick-start your career with free NFU rank upgrades for the months of July and August!
• Harness the power of the Dark Side during the Ren Revival!
• Take ownership in a major faction that is growing and evolving every day!

As we begin a summer activity drive, if you've been away from the First Order, now is the time to check back in and see what you've been missing. The Faction is currently undergoing evolution and growth with the participation of members like you. If you want to help shape the future of the First Order -- if you want to be part of an emerging Imperial faction with a unique bent -- if you want to find your niche in a thoughtful, responsive, member-based faction, then now is the time to check out the First Order.

We hope to see you here soon!

 

[Aram Kalast]

^ Looks great to me!

 

[Natasi Fortan]

I just went to do this and it says permission has been revoked to do so :/ hmm.

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

[member="Natasi Fortan"] Looks awesome, but yes... it seems that mass messages are no longer working. I'm not sure if the admins of the site have done this purposely or if it's just an error.

What can be done, in the meantime, is to simply update the Current Faction Roleplays thread with all of these roleplays.