Hyperlane To Success: The Three-Month Road Map

[Ayden Cater]

So while we continue to garner feedback in the check-in thread, found here if you have not already dropped by and give your two credits, I wanted to go ahead and take the time to outline my rough plan for what to do for the next three months. While the Galactic Alliance will continue to be a faction that encourages and rewards member-driven developments, it would be neglectful of me to not step up to create a sort of grand outline for the faction's threads. One of the more common complaints I picked up on was a lack of unity in recent dominions and apparent invasion-fever.

Well to start with, for at least the next month, the Galactic Alliance will not be initiating any invasions. I've already spoken with the One Sith admin team and they've agreed to a little breather for a while as far as skirmishes and invasions go. This might not stop any skirmishes from taking place, but I imagine we'll see a pretty drastic reduction in them while the One Sith play out their own storylines.

Next, dominions; Jacen Voidstalker has started the first in a series of dominions which will tie together the First Order and the Galactic Alliance as well as our respective NPC groups, the Vanguard and Liberation Front respectively. There will be a lot of build-up with these dominions, both GA dominions and First Order dominions, that I think will satisfy the itch for more story-driven dominions that some people crave. These dominions will go a long way towards ending this tentacular fever that seems to have gripped our territory on the map on our western side.

On the eastern front, I would like to see a few dominions laid down, again to help bulk up the faction territory and make it a little less spindly, that we can use as opportunities to explore other avenues of the faction. We seem to have a fair number of folks of the more non-violent persuasion. I'm sure they'd like a chance to shine in threads whose entire point is not "Stab the other guy in the face". Not every character wields a weapon, and I want to make sure that the faction caters to folks from all corners of the galaxy.

The Galactic Alliance was founded on this idea of many groups of people coming together. No Senate to hold it back, no PC leaders in any of the top positions to ensure continuity and to prevent important people from disappearing. I will admit, I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this. I see the pros and cons to this system, and invite the rest of the members of the faction to voice their thoughts on it. A restructuring of the faction dynamic, with PCs taking those "top" positions, could be a breath of fresh air and could incentivize more activity. On the other, I've seen PCs be awarded these top positions and then do nothing with them, and such stagnation tends to breed dissatisfaction. No one likes to see the name of someone whose not active in the faction. So please, let me know what you think and want there.

So in this first month, we'll see a break from invasions and skirmishes. People should use this opportunity to find others that they haven't written with or have an interest in writing with and make a storyline. It could benefit the faction or just you. I also encourage folks to dwell on these questions.

What is the Galactic Alliance? What is our purpose? Are we simple the Not-Republic faction? What makes us different? What is our identity exactly?

The second month will see us begin to shift gears as we begin to work on fixing the problems within our faction to ensure things flow in a manner consistent with what we all view to be our faction's image ( Fewer out-of-nowhere Pew-Pew skirmishes and invasions, or dominions that don't seem to further the faction's identity, etc ). We can start to push for threads that highlight the groups that make up the Galactic Alliance ( Starfighter aces, healers, scientists and diplomats, etc )

As we round the corner into our third month, I hope to have things cleaned up here in the back area. I'd like to have a list of companies that have on-going contracts with the Alliance, and who we can go to for new developments and technological innovations. I'd like to make sure that folks have a clear understanding of the resources they have available, in terms of things like equipment and weapons to wield, to important locations that inspire new ideas and character development, to trainers from all fields to help people explore the depths of their character and find exactly where it is that they feel their character belongs in the Galactic Alliance.

More than anything, I want people to know that they can come and talk to me about anything. I try to maintain an open door policy and I'll be working with the other faction owners to ensure that as we move forward into this next chapter in the Galactic Alliance's story that things continue to be drama-free and that we can each find a story that makes us glad to come on to the board every day to write with the people with call our friends.

So this has been the first dramatic speech from your new Goat Overlord. I like grass and fresh breads.

Never be afraid to voice your thoughts and let's work to make things the best that they can be around here.

 

[Julius Sedaire]

[member="Ayden Cater"] - Seems solid enough.. I don't have any fresh grass (Michigan in winter) but I have a father who farms alf-alfa, and his goats love it. That suffice?

To me, what you're doing here is key to getting this back on track. Having a solid plan for going forth, but allowing flex enough that member feedback can alter and change it as much or little as the Faction decides.

Personally, I'd say avoid having the key roles PC controlled. I like the NPC bit, as it can cut down on some people taking their IC command to mean a little too much OOC, and vice-versa. However, it might help, in that regard, to have sort of OOC points of contact?

Like for Fighters looking to get started here, maybe we sort of toss someone a Coordinator Hat? Same could go for Jedi Enclaves/NJO, Military Units, Fleets, etc.. They wouldn't per se make strict rules (as I like the fluidity we have) but they could do things like develop a generic/general sub-unit template specific to Fighter Wings/Enclaves or whatever for people to start with. Like the fighter template might ask/'require' you to state the common types of craft (or if its exclusive to a certain type of craft) or an Enclave might focus on a certain Force ability or set of them (ala Circle of Healers) etc..

These unit types are all very unique and dynamic, so the same template to follow for each is a bit silly. They can be spoilered in a topic in the Info Forum, sort of like the Tech templates in the Factory are. This might help other writers who want their own unique flavor on the GA to make something solely them, but still sorta tieing into the faction arc overall. They could also link/list common tools or equipment that such an organization might be given by the GA (Incom stuff for fighter pilots, etc..).

The Coordinators might also be responsible/go to person for helping drive subfaction and member group story arcs (like @Jacen Voidtatlker is for the NJO with his Dom Arc right now). And responsible for pre-fabbing arcs or submitting dominions. The dominion bit especially might help still allow the doms be member driven, but would give a single point of contact to help mold the intial idea into coherency with the overall arc, and provide someone for the FA team to turn to when they need/want an idea. These could be as specific as an exact planet location (like we did with Lothal) for story, or something as vague as 'The Green Jedi wish to set up an Enclave on as a rally point for the Corellian Disapora', which the FA team could then massage to fit a non-specific dom for a certain planet. Would help take pressure off the FA's and FO for constantly driving content, and might help stave off burn out?

And say if a newbie shows up wanting to acclimate their ace pilot or whatever to the faction OOCly and find IC stories or training, we'd have a point of contact who would be responsible for keeping track of threads active for those types, and equipment available (able to be monitored by them in their sub-unit submission?) and other sundries IC and OOC like training or such.

I'll muse some more, if I find the time between studying. But that's a quick idea that might help with flow and identity coherency.

EDIT: Some addendum's made about 2:44am, expanding on original posting

 

[Harmon Taldan]

I am in total agreement with Master Sedaire, we should keep the top positions as NPCs. We have the Commander/Marshal positions for top tier people to take up, and I think that works really well as a system.

Overall, I like the plan. I am at work now, so I only did a quick skim, if I have any grievances with it I'll post again, but having done my research on the Grumpy Goat, I have confidence that the plan is as good as it seems at first blush.

That's all for now, I can have my wife and mother-in-law bake you fresh bread, it's one of their things. (Seriously, I haven't eaten store bought bread in three years!)

[member="Julius Sedaire"] [member="Ayden Cater"]