Ali Hadrix
Bad Boss
There was a lot wrong with the Ord Mirit invasion from an OOC perspective that led to our failure to take the planet from the One Sith. I wanted to conduct a hot wash (a sort of after action review) that would bring those inadequacies to light so that Republic leadership and writers could improve our chances of victory in future invasions.
Anyone is free to discuss this list, though I will be quick to silence conversation that strays too far off topic, or proves unproductive for the purposes of this thread. Observers and participants alike are free to engage in the discussion, though the list I have drawn up is intended to be taken as a preliminary outline for improvement.
None of this is intended as a personal criticism to anyone involved, and I expect us to be able to take suggestions humbly as well as continue the practice of respect for one another throughout the discussion.
1) Participation: We had many writers sign up for the invasion that ended up backing out well after it started. While it's perfectly acceptable for any writer to withdraw from an Invasion for any reason, signing up without a certainty of your own participation does us nothing but harm. Initial battle plans are formed on the basis of many factors, one of the biggest being the number of people we are expecting to be involved, and who those individuals are, as they bring different strengths and weaknesses to the battlefield.
2) Allies: We need to vette our allies before accepting their participation. I understand that the goal of RP is to have fun, but the goal of an Invasion is victory, and we must align with individuals who will best suit the purpose of our objectives. Two of the allies I worked with at Objective C backed out of the invasion at its most crucial time. While I do not hold such a decision against them, I will avoid relying on them in future endeavors for that very reason. Allies must be friends of the Republic, yes, but just as importantly they must have insight into our enemies, expertise that augments our own, and experience and knowledge that will benefit us on the battlefield.
3) Allocation of Writers: This one is for the Republic leadership, and I say it not to scold them but because it needs to be remembered: I was left as the only GR writer for Objective C, working with five allies. I understand that the Sith focus on PVP for victory, but it does us no good to engage them on that front only to lose to them on another.
4) Jedi Masters: We clearly need more of them. Perhaps the thought of writing a Jedi isn't as appealing as writing a Dark Sider that can excuse any atrocity against life as being the fault of someone killing their parents when they were five, but it is an important role to the GR as well as being a character type that offers a multitude of opportunities for story and character develeopment. It doesn't hurt that Jedi Masters are allocated more forces in NPC battles, and can get away with using more and better abilities in combat.
5) OOC Negotiation: This one is mostly for myself. I worked well with the Sith writers, avoiding any unnecessary RPJ complaints, but did so at the expense of making concessions that resulted in an eventual advantage for the Sth when the OOC judging came down. Be rest assured that will not happen again.
6) Recce threads: Reconnaissance is crucial to success on the battlefield, and we cannot be so lazy that we give up such a brutal advantage. Recce threads allow us to write small stories ahead of an invasion starting and determine/glean certain details about the coming battle. For instance, the Sith did not provide a terrain description for Ord Mirit until the day before the invasion was scheduled to start, and a map only once it had begun. Had we conducted a Recce thread we could have dictated the terrain layout for the invasion. That alone is a massive advantage that allows us to better plan our battles.
If you're unable to participate in an invasion, but you have time before it starts, help out with a Recce thread!
7) Specialized Technology: The GR initiated an invasion against a force that is known for employing Yuuzhan Vongtech, yet there was little effort to compose a force capable of neutralizing their defense and offense technology. That was a crucial error that prevented us from succeeding in many attacks against their forces.
8) Involvement: Many writers who signed on showed up but lacked any serious involvement. I understand this happened with Objective A, though the Sith were the ones dragging ass the entire time. That's understandable, but we must commit to the 24 hour rule from now on, or else apply those forces elsewhere.
9) Adherence to an over all Battle Plan and to the Chain of Command: This is not a real military force, and I only had this problem wth allies, but I may as we'll share it here.
On several occasions I had writers defy the battle plan and attempt to take matters into their own hands, IC and OOC. While I understand there are frustrations during Invasions, it does no one any good except our enemies to get angry and strike out on our own to play hero. We can do this together, but we can only do this together.
Once the battle starts, we stick to the plan unless our circumstances force us to adapt. Likewise, once the battle begins, there is no longer any democracy. The writers running each objective are the authority figures for that objective, and their word is law, IC AND OOC. Anyone who disagrees is free to leave the invasion, but will likely not be invited back by people like myself.
Unit cohesion is very important, especially in scenarios when third party judgment is needed to determine victory. Sometimes the decisions between us winning or the enemy fall on a knife's edge, and the difference could be something callous or sarcastic being said. If our adversaries want to make that mistake, let them, but we cannot behave the same way. OOCly, we must be as professional as we can manage.
All discussion between sides must take place between a specified medium, and for that I recommend the following:
No fewer than three writers should be chosen to lead EACH invasion objective. The first will exist as the battle master, forming the tactical plan with the group and guiding the IC and OOC actions of the fight. The other two will exist to facilitate OOC discussion between the two sides of the battle, and augment the battle master's efforts and plans.
10) Coordinated attacks: No one fights alone. If we have two writers on every one of theirs, we secure damage and victory itself much easier. This does not require we outnumber them, only that we remain fluid through each battle.
11) Coordinating damage acceptance: This was a boon for the Ord Mirit invasion, and prevented issues between ourselves and the OS. We must continue this trend, rather than leave it to the individual writer to sort out their damages alone.
12) Adherence to the 24 hour rule: I said it already but wanted to address it here. We should not be making concessions to other factions that are unnecessary, though exceptions should be made based on the situation at the time.
13) Maintain Lines of Communication: Important OOC and IC, we must always communicate with one another what we are doing, where we are going, etc, so that we all have a good idea of what's going on, when we need to post, etc.
If we're communicating IC, we can coordinate attacks, bombing runs, artillery strikes, etc. it makes our posts so much more effective to actually do this than for us to simply say we're doing it.
14) Posting Rhythm: We should always be posting in waves, setting a 1-1 ration between our posts and our adversaries. This ensures no one falls behind, with exceptions of course, and helps us maintain the integrity of our rhythm. This is crucial to maintaining a clear and easily read battle space. We let all of our enemies post, and then we all post ourselves, together. This also ensures we are on the same timeline throughout the entirety of the battle.
(This is of course less applicable to PvP)
Anyone is free to discuss this list, though I will be quick to silence conversation that strays too far off topic, or proves unproductive for the purposes of this thread. Observers and participants alike are free to engage in the discussion, though the list I have drawn up is intended to be taken as a preliminary outline for improvement.
None of this is intended as a personal criticism to anyone involved, and I expect us to be able to take suggestions humbly as well as continue the practice of respect for one another throughout the discussion.
1) Participation: We had many writers sign up for the invasion that ended up backing out well after it started. While it's perfectly acceptable for any writer to withdraw from an Invasion for any reason, signing up without a certainty of your own participation does us nothing but harm. Initial battle plans are formed on the basis of many factors, one of the biggest being the number of people we are expecting to be involved, and who those individuals are, as they bring different strengths and weaknesses to the battlefield.
2) Allies: We need to vette our allies before accepting their participation. I understand that the goal of RP is to have fun, but the goal of an Invasion is victory, and we must align with individuals who will best suit the purpose of our objectives. Two of the allies I worked with at Objective C backed out of the invasion at its most crucial time. While I do not hold such a decision against them, I will avoid relying on them in future endeavors for that very reason. Allies must be friends of the Republic, yes, but just as importantly they must have insight into our enemies, expertise that augments our own, and experience and knowledge that will benefit us on the battlefield.
3) Allocation of Writers: This one is for the Republic leadership, and I say it not to scold them but because it needs to be remembered: I was left as the only GR writer for Objective C, working with five allies. I understand that the Sith focus on PVP for victory, but it does us no good to engage them on that front only to lose to them on another.
4) Jedi Masters: We clearly need more of them. Perhaps the thought of writing a Jedi isn't as appealing as writing a Dark Sider that can excuse any atrocity against life as being the fault of someone killing their parents when they were five, but it is an important role to the GR as well as being a character type that offers a multitude of opportunities for story and character develeopment. It doesn't hurt that Jedi Masters are allocated more forces in NPC battles, and can get away with using more and better abilities in combat.
5) OOC Negotiation: This one is mostly for myself. I worked well with the Sith writers, avoiding any unnecessary RPJ complaints, but did so at the expense of making concessions that resulted in an eventual advantage for the Sth when the OOC judging came down. Be rest assured that will not happen again.
6) Recce threads: Reconnaissance is crucial to success on the battlefield, and we cannot be so lazy that we give up such a brutal advantage. Recce threads allow us to write small stories ahead of an invasion starting and determine/glean certain details about the coming battle. For instance, the Sith did not provide a terrain description for Ord Mirit until the day before the invasion was scheduled to start, and a map only once it had begun. Had we conducted a Recce thread we could have dictated the terrain layout for the invasion. That alone is a massive advantage that allows us to better plan our battles.
If you're unable to participate in an invasion, but you have time before it starts, help out with a Recce thread!
7) Specialized Technology: The GR initiated an invasion against a force that is known for employing Yuuzhan Vongtech, yet there was little effort to compose a force capable of neutralizing their defense and offense technology. That was a crucial error that prevented us from succeeding in many attacks against their forces.
8) Involvement: Many writers who signed on showed up but lacked any serious involvement. I understand this happened with Objective A, though the Sith were the ones dragging ass the entire time. That's understandable, but we must commit to the 24 hour rule from now on, or else apply those forces elsewhere.
9) Adherence to an over all Battle Plan and to the Chain of Command: This is not a real military force, and I only had this problem wth allies, but I may as we'll share it here.
On several occasions I had writers defy the battle plan and attempt to take matters into their own hands, IC and OOC. While I understand there are frustrations during Invasions, it does no one any good except our enemies to get angry and strike out on our own to play hero. We can do this together, but we can only do this together.
Once the battle starts, we stick to the plan unless our circumstances force us to adapt. Likewise, once the battle begins, there is no longer any democracy. The writers running each objective are the authority figures for that objective, and their word is law, IC AND OOC. Anyone who disagrees is free to leave the invasion, but will likely not be invited back by people like myself.
Unit cohesion is very important, especially in scenarios when third party judgment is needed to determine victory. Sometimes the decisions between us winning or the enemy fall on a knife's edge, and the difference could be something callous or sarcastic being said. If our adversaries want to make that mistake, let them, but we cannot behave the same way. OOCly, we must be as professional as we can manage.
All discussion between sides must take place between a specified medium, and for that I recommend the following:
No fewer than three writers should be chosen to lead EACH invasion objective. The first will exist as the battle master, forming the tactical plan with the group and guiding the IC and OOC actions of the fight. The other two will exist to facilitate OOC discussion between the two sides of the battle, and augment the battle master's efforts and plans.
10) Coordinated attacks: No one fights alone. If we have two writers on every one of theirs, we secure damage and victory itself much easier. This does not require we outnumber them, only that we remain fluid through each battle.
11) Coordinating damage acceptance: This was a boon for the Ord Mirit invasion, and prevented issues between ourselves and the OS. We must continue this trend, rather than leave it to the individual writer to sort out their damages alone.
12) Adherence to the 24 hour rule: I said it already but wanted to address it here. We should not be making concessions to other factions that are unnecessary, though exceptions should be made based on the situation at the time.
13) Maintain Lines of Communication: Important OOC and IC, we must always communicate with one another what we are doing, where we are going, etc, so that we all have a good idea of what's going on, when we need to post, etc.
If we're communicating IC, we can coordinate attacks, bombing runs, artillery strikes, etc. it makes our posts so much more effective to actually do this than for us to simply say we're doing it.
14) Posting Rhythm: We should always be posting in waves, setting a 1-1 ration between our posts and our adversaries. This ensures no one falls behind, with exceptions of course, and helps us maintain the integrity of our rhythm. This is crucial to maintaining a clear and easily read battle space. We let all of our enemies post, and then we all post ourselves, together. This also ensures we are on the same timeline throughout the entirety of the battle.
(This is of course less applicable to PvP)
why not? 
