78 replies to this topic

[Prussian Havoc]

My Mercenary Unit is still debating from which House to take our initial contract. Further House Reception, Staging, Integration and. Onward Movement information is required for us to make an informed decision.

While your House forces are the right and proper centerpiece of the Dragon's efforts, does DCMS have a plan to attract and retain Mercenary Units? Given the parity of our Mechs and certain of our pilots, it would be foolish indeed to ignore or marginalize Mercenary Commanders.

Transparency and participation in planning efforts such as what you are discussing would be a heavy factor in weighing our options among the Houses... oddly enough it is FRR from which we have gained significant early traction in exploring contracting opportunities.


Your thoughts on Mercenary Integration?

Edited by Prussian Havoc, 08 November 2014 - 02:11 PM.

[Kyone Akashi]

Personally, I don't see why we as a community should make a distinction between regular military units and mercenaries, as opposed to treating everyone the same way.

Yes, I know, the background dictates an obvious wedge between DRF, Floating Units, and mercs, but this should only be relevant for roleplaying purposes - just like the fact that the DCMS is not run like a democracy where individual unit commanders can vote to influence House strategies but instead have their orders dictated by the High Command (which happens to be a bunch of named NPCs).


On the topic of votes, by the way, I could also imagine unit commanders picking one of their own as a Warlord who has command authority over the entire DCMS in order to minimise the time it takes to make a decision during times of war. Such a streamlined hierarchy would certainly fit to House Kurita. Ideally, if said Warlord picks a Second-in-Command from a different timezone, we might even have something approaching 24h coverage.
However, since most unit commanders did not have much contact with each other yet, I'd suggest this only being considered at a later stage once people have gotten to know their peers.

Edited by Kyone Akashi, 08 November 2014 - 04:21 PM.

[Lord Ikka]

Prussian Havoc, I don't think any unit CO right now is following the canon DCMS disdain of mercs. The topic of attracting/retaining mercs will most likely come up in any planning session- it will be an integral part of our faction.

Given that, right now, there seems to be a four stage level of joining a Faction- three contracts in 1, 2, and 3 months lengths and a permanent alignment to a Faction, I can see a couple of ways to play out merc cooperation and planning. Different levels of access dependant on your level of commitment to the Dragon maybe-
1 month contract, you get a say in tactical deployment but not much in strategic.
2 month contract, you get a minor say in strategic planning but nothing on political maneuvers.
3 month contract, you get full say on tactical/strategic and minor say on politics
Permanent alignment, you get full say on all levels of DCMS planning.

Something like that would allow some flexibility and give the mercs more reason to join us (they would have a voice in our councils) than just LPs.

Edited by Lord Ikka, 09 November 2014 - 02:50 PM.

[Arcainite]

I move that we have consensus to not attack the Free Rasalhague Republic and fight them only if they are foolish enough to attack us, and only limited to reprisal strikes, not full scale invasion. We have already fought a war over this (The Ronin War) and though not all us perhaps were on the winning side of the matter, we are all loyal to the Draconis Combine and this is in the Combine's best interest to have a healthy relationship with our buffer state neighbor.
Should a unit of the Draconis Combine attack the FRR, they shall be declared Ronin and dealt with appropriately.
We need to remain ever vigilant for attacks from the Federated Commonwealth and pirates of the periphery. Things have been quiet from the periphery recently but we have had intelligence that the Kell Hounds might be assisting a Steiner operation against them, and this can only be good for us, to have the fist of Steiner weaken these dishonorable foes FOR us.

Edited by Arcainite, 09 November 2014 - 11:30 AM.

[MastaChang10]

I like the direction Ikka is going. I do say we hold off on specific ideas until we have a meeting or we have a forum that is not public to post about it. We have not even set up a date to get together yet. It might be too early to get this stuff moving.

[MastaChang10]

Talked to Timuroslav and we will be on Comstar TS in the House Kurita section on Thursday Nov 13th at 9 EST. Wanted to extend an invitation to all Kurita unit heads or reps so that we can start to get to know each other and build relations.

[Rowin]

MastaChang10, on 09 November 2014 - 08:42 PM, said:

Talked to Timuroslav and we will be on Comstar TS in the House Kurita section on Thursday Nov 13th at 9 EST. Wanted to extend an invitation to all Kurita unit heads or reps so that we can start to get to know each other and build relations.

If you want more Kurita units to show up I would suggest dropping a post if each of their forums. I like the idea of establishing more communication between units, but I dont think this topic is reaching everyone.

[Lord Ikka]

Sent out to Buckminister, 6th Rangers, NS. Working on 3rd Takata.

Edited by Lord Ikka, 10 November 2014 - 11:33 AM.

[SgtKinCaiD]

Sadly, I don't think anynone from my unit can attend this meeting : 9 AM EST => 3 PM Paris (GMT+1).

[Arcainite]

MastaChang, was this 9am or 9pm?

[Lord Ikka]

PM I believe

[MastaChang10]

Sorry, yes PM. I am aware that this is not the best time for non-NA players, but we were trying to set up a meeting quickly to gauge interest. If it goes well, maybe we can set up one for the non-NA timezone units.

[ManaValkyrie]

I will not be able to attend at that time, its 2am on a work night for me. However, I will see if i can get a representative willing to come talk.

However, I really do suggest that the NA Zone members be more considerate of the EU Zone players, especially as there is a considerable amount of players in that time zone in at least 4 units that I know off.

[Prussian Havoc]

As a Mercenary interested in an honest evaluation of potential contracts (Who says MWO can't be an RPG!) might I suggest holding a three-part TS counsel. One portion could be conducted in each of the PGI-identified "Prime Time CW Combat Windows" My Unit is capable of attending each of these three sessions as I am sure some other Units could as well... "inclusion" of a Unit's MechWarriors is a prime tenant of ours.

You would just need one high profile DCMS Commander to attend all three TS sessions, thus serving as the Dragon's continuity.

Let's face it, PGI's three Prime Time CW Combat Windows will shape the pace and reality of the MWO CW experience.

A House that embraces the global nature of MWO CW is much less likely to see advances achieved under one time zone, squandered through unfortunate inattention during a succeeding period of combat. (Just imagine the Operational and Strategic variables possible if as stated currently there are a minimum or 48 Worlds with their attendant 528 Planetary Sectors in contention each week (IMHO given 11 sectors per planet and 2 worlds on each side of a given House/Clan boundary.)

Some worlds, just as some sectors will be more valuable (sources of income/discounts on Mech or MWO Store purchases) than others. some worlds may even be Prime Staging Grounds for continued House Offenses thus conferring a tactical advantage in their Defense (additional or high quality Turreted defenses) or be more vulnerable to Attack/granting advantage to attackers (for example, the ability of an Attacking Unit Commander to identify and eliminate 3 of 50 Defenders Turrets during the Launch Screen.

The possession of these "Linchpin" systems may be even of more importance and demand inclusive coordination across all three Prime Time windows of combat.

A House that practices in the present to structure and channel the strength and vitality of the Dragon... could reap no end of Honor and Glory for their Coordinator as CW kicks off toward the end of next month.



...at least these are just the random thoughts of a lone and potential Ronin...

Edited by Prussian Havoc, 11 November 2014 - 04:30 AM.

[Arcainite]

I will be at the ComStar meeting for the DCMS High Command meeting at 9pm EST tomorrow night (but I do agree it's not a realistic time for those in Europe and half my unit is European including my XO).
I also would challenge your ideas you mentioned to me on teamspeak, name removed by I.S.F. for security reasons, about having the FRR be on our list of targets because "they are weak" compared to Steiner and Davion. I shouldn't have to remind folks why we joined House Kurita to begin with. Sure there are some who are opportunists such as (unit name removed by I.S.F.) and the (unit name removed by the I.S.F.). But 95% of us in the Draconis Combine joined because of the skill of our warriors, the spirit of bushido, and the honor of the samurai whose mantle we take on with our mechanized machines of war. To attack the FRR just because "they are weak" would be dishonorable to not only those alive now, but to the vets who died fighting the Ronin during the mid 3030s. Yes, I was there and fought the 1st Proserpina Hussars as part of the 1st Genyosha, but this isn't about me, it's about respect for diplomacy as well as warrior steel. Thank you, vets.

[Blacke]

I don't get home form work until 10 PM EST but will be there in spirit.

[Lord Ikka]

Not a High Command meeting (we don't have a High Command), just a casual meet and greet for unit heads and diplos.

[SgtKinCaiD]

Can you post a brief sum up after ?

[MastaChang10]

No problem. We will have notes and/or a recording.

[Kreisel]

Just a heads up, this is tonight at the exact same time (6pm PST/9pm EST), Main topic COMMUNITY WARFARE

InnerSphereNews, on 13 November 2014 - 10:22 AM, said:

Greetings MechWarriors!

Russ Bullock will beonline once more on NGNG's Twitch stream to discuss Community Warfare!

You can follow and watch NGNGTv here: http://www.twitch.tv/ngngtv

The Town Hall will begin on Thursday, November 13th, 2014 at 6PM PST and will last for 2 hours.

See you there!

If you have questions to you want to get in:

Sean Lang, on 13 November 2014 - 10:29 AM, said:

Got Questions? We are collecting them here as well: http://www.nogutsnog...hp?topic=2521.0

That might effect the turn out Pilots for tonight meeting, as we really should be paying attention to what is said tonight and factor that into our planing. I would advise trying to get a few of the questions we have answered (like will we have contested planets with the FRR or not).

Edited by Kreisel, 13 November 2014 - 01:37 PM.