119 replies to this topic

[Durant Carlyle]

[Johnny5]Need MOAR input![/Johnny5]

[Grendel408]

bump

[Threat Doc]

So, here's a completely unrelated question, and honestly it's something I don't know: why is ph34r the tag for showing the Ninja emote?

[Grendel408]

https://static.mwome...fault/ph34r.png

Everyone should fear a ninja... but be deathly afraid of a nunja... they will kill you with a ruler and preach the entire time LOL!

[Grendel408]

Grendel408, on 26 October 2013 - 09:11 AM, said:

bump

[Davoke]

A mix of 4/5, mostly because being Marian Hegemony, we have lore-themed ranks and titles.

[Threat Doc]

I think I would need to read up on the Marion Hegemony, again, I'm afraid. It's been about fifteen years, I think, since I read the original Periphery sourcebook, and I've never read the second. Have to get hold of it, first.

[Durant Carlyle]

C'mon folks ... there have to be more unit leaders willing to share their wisdom. Let's keep this thing going for a while.

[Threat Doc]

Y'know, fella's, particularly Durant and Grendel, I have to say that I am absolutely pleased with how this thread has turned out. I expected, from this community, derision and disgust from folks, and what we received, instead, was good will and fantastic conversation. I did not expect this thread to go beyond two pages, and here we are double that number. Now, I feel, this thread will likely remain for some time, and people may answer from time-to-time, and they will learn and they will post what they know and/or how they operate their units, and this thread will come up, again, even if it's necro'd.

I will continue to pay attention -via email- and when something comes up I'll read and, if necessary, answer.

I will also say, again, that I have learned a great deal from commander's who do things differently and, in many cases, better than I do, and from you, Durant, who really should be a unit commander, and the only thing left tempering my desire to run Armageddon Unlimited, again, is a lack of money. I need to finish my school, I need to get back to work, get some money in the house, and then I'll be ready for running AU, again. This remains a July 2014 target, though if things continue to work against me, that will, at least, be set back even further. We'll see.

[walkingraven]

Building BnI, I found it easiest to let my officers slot themselves. We began as a solid 1. It wasn't until I was 'conscripted' into CO some weeks later that we advanced to level 2. Now nearing the two year mark, I am proud to state that it has become necessary for us to begin implementing level 4. All of my highest officers, our 'Senior Council' are in close communication and many also hold stations in the 'Command Staff', no more than people able and willing to volunteer time for a task.
We also operate a very open corp. The only information not public to all of our corp (and any guests for that matter) is that which is strictly private (exclusively between two or three members and most often dispute mediation) or information that just isn't ready to put into play, in a specific case, our still cooking level 4 organization.
And that's likely where The Browncoats will top out, as far as organization goes. We're just too laid back to get any more serious about it and we aren't large enough to force a more rigid structure into place.

[Threat Doc]

So, walkingraven, was size the sole reason you began moving your structure type from very loose to somewhat tighter and more organized, or were there other aspects that brought you and your friends to make the adjustments?

[Threat Doc]

Alright, I said several days ago I had built an Excel file for Armageddon Unlimited, and that I intended to share it with others who might be interested in using it. There is NO personal information, apart from my own -and bloody little at that- contained in here. The other five names you see are examples only. In using this, make sure you're very careful about changing or deleting any formula's, as many of them are linked across various tabs. If you decide not to use the information in certain tabs, just zero anything that doesn't already have a formula in it and leave it where it is. Read all of the notes and study the samples within, not just the fakes I put in, but the formula's especially.

I'm a relative novice at this stuff, and I've been working on getting this into the shape it's in, now, for roughly two years. In fact, I learned how to do this editing specifically for my BattleTech/ MechWarrior unit.

This is an .xlsx file 262kb in size, so you'll need Microsoft Office Excel 2010 or better. Office 365 is {Scrap}, and does not work with this, so unless you're a genius at getting things to work, there, or you start your projects there, I recommend staying away from it.

If you have any questions about anything in here, feel free to post it in this thread and I'll answer it ASAP so others can also have the answer. Otherwise, enjoy. Right-click and Save-As to grab this.

Unit Personnel Workbook

By the way, this Workbook is designed to make unit administration, especially for larger and/or more complex units, easier than normal. It is derived from 16 years of experience and development, so I hope it will be as helpful to you as it's already been to me.

Edited by Kay Wolf, 30 October 2013 - 05:39 PM.

[Durant Carlyle]

Actually, I'd appreciate a detailed explanation of each of the pages. That thing's complicated enough to need a manual.

[Threat Doc]

I was afraid someone was going to say that, hehe.

First, consider that Pre-Unit, Time-in-Service, Education, Awards, and Participation tabs are all separate aspects of tracking the careers of individual MechWarrior's, and they are totaled together on the Promotions tab to help determine individuals who are promotable and eligible for various positions within the unit.

General
There are two primary predictors of how well someone will do and/or is doing in the unit: Promotion Points and Time-in-Service. Time-in-Service is based on the time serving the unit, not prior to joining the unit, and it's by months. For my unit, I figured 60 months from E0 MechWarrior to O6 General was good enough, and those are set in a chart on the Promotions tab; we'll get to that, later. For now, we're going to deal with Promotion Points...

The Pre-Unit, Education, and Awards aspects are generalized, and though the point-scheme used for each is determined by whomever is running the unit, the intent is to have each of these aspects be roughly similar. Pre-Unit provides a more or less solid precursor of points concerning the MechWarrior's life prior to coming into the unit. Education is for those units deciding to develop educational opportunities (ED OPPS) for their MechWarrior's to complete for the sake of gaining promotion points and proving themselves capable of sharing the vision of the unit and filling various positions. Awards are just that, when someone earns an award they get a number of promotion points for that award. All points from these three tabs are added together, along with the wild card tab, Participation, which is not set like the first three tabs, but which points add in on the Promotions tab, anyway.

Hopefully, the following breakdown will help:

Pre-Unit
This is based from an application, similar to what I have here, but which should be modified for the individual unit. Said modification should be accompanied by learned changes, as necessary, to the entries and formula's of this tab.

- Real Age: This is the player's real age, not the characters. The idea is to have older, more experienced folks up-front to, hopefully, take leadership positions. Points derived are Age - 17; each year the player gains an additional promotion point.

- MechWarrior/MechCommander Games Completed: This is an outline, by points, for what MC/MW games players have completed. This list does not include the MechAssault console games, nor MPBT: 3025, EA/Solaris: 3025, or any of the League's or MMOG's developed to represent BattleTech/MechWarrior, such as MekWars, BTU, IS Wars, MechWarrior: Living Legends, AT1:BT or anything else that has come about thus far. This is because the basic games are enough to get a baseline of experience for the player. The idea is to have more experienced players, especially concerning tactics and knowledge of the 'Mechs from previous games, be up-front to develop them into leadership positions. Points derived are as listed in parenthesis at the bottom of each name. These point-values are prejudiced by me, on purpose, because I remember what the games were like in a particular way, and the priority sets I have are for the type of individual I want in positions of authority. Players completing any of these games are allowed to forward their final savegame for review, and/or a screen shot of their completion, and will gain points if points are to be gained; each game has only one set of points to be claimed.

- Prior BattleTech/MechWarrior Service: This is where the League's and MMOG's of the past and, potentially, the future, come in. If someone has retained a record of their prior service, how many years they've been playing BattleTech, how many for MechWarrior, and any rank they may have retained, they gain points and I happily put the information they provide into their MSR (MechWarrior Service Record). 90% of folks don't remember their past play, the units they were in, etc., and of those who have, their records have been too ... hmmm, I can't think of the word ... I guess straightforward would work, to be false. Again, this is about experience, especially for those who've had command experience before. Points are BattleTech play years divided by 3, plus MechWarrior play years divided by 3, plus prior rank, up to 19 points for O10 General, using a standardized rank outline of E1 - E10 and O1 - O10.\

- Real-World Military Service: I do not ask for specific information, just estimates or lengths of time of any real-world military service, as this is the greatest predictor of all, typically, of who has what types of skills. Points for this are Service Months divided by 10, plus Rank/Points as they are, plus the number of real-world combat zones participated in (4 months or longer each) multiplied by 5, with a maximum of 3 combat zones allowed.

- These are all totaled for each MechWarrior in the Section Points Total column at left, as well as a maximum possible provided for each column, to gain a total for the Promotions tab. The total number of points achievable, at this time, is 209, across four aspects.

Education
Armageddon Unlimited has an education program; right now only 9 of the chapters, out of ten for the Enlisted personnel, and all 10 chapters of the Non-Commissioned Officers are completed. Each of these are between 3.5 and 9 full-length pages in length, including between 2 and 5 questions at the end. Each chapter is worth its own set of points, and these are totaled and regarded for completion of standards within the unit, which I'll discuss when I get to the Promotions tab, further down. For the version I have made available for download, the Education tab does not hold as much import as the Pre-Unit or Awards tabs, but I am working to make it more valuable than the Pre-Unit tab, and already have a plant to knock that out. Most Commander's are not going to use this tab, at all. However, for those who do, the current iteration of the xlsx file in my previous post grants a total point value up to 130, which are totaled in the Section Points Total column at left. My intent for my file is to increase this to 210, across four aspects, which are Enlisted, NCO, Officer, and Extra Credit, such as our tactical development, Operation: Red Shift. There are almost no formula's here, just simple addition.

Awards
There are five tiers of awards, ranging from general service to excellence in service, with tier five being the lowest and tier one being the highest, including the Medal's of Honor and Valor. Tier five points are 1 per award, with some awards being able to be awarded multiple times, while Tier one are 5 per award, and all tiers in-between working their way up. Each tier of awards are further split into awards and achievements; awards can be worn on the uniform and, often, are end-points for completing multiple achievements, while achievements are simply "cased" and displayed like a completion certificate would, in a MechWarrior's home or office. You can see how my unit's awards system works, and use it as an example, by clicking here. Warning, this is a PDF file, and may take a minute or two to load completely. Again, there are almost no formula's to this tab, only the Section Points Total column to the left; again awards may be given multiple times, but each time it's given is a multiple of the points for the tier. ie - if Hawkeye is given a second time, the MechWarrior has accrued 4 points rather than two for the first awarding; so, one has to be careful, or they may erase someone's award by accident, simply by replacing a number rather than adding it. A total of 261 points across 5 aspects (5 tiers) is possible to be granted, here.

Participation
This tab is actually set to undergo the most massive change, once CW is launched and we find out precisely what we're able to track as merc commanders. However, for now, these are basically just statistics and points put in from sources external to natural tracking. Kills/Points is what, I presume, would come from either the MWO web site and/or from within the Merc Corps interface, and is lifetime in recording, whether weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc. Unit Work are points earned for doing things FOR the unit, and I grant them in 1 to 5 point lots, though an individual performing outstanding work may each quite a lot more than that; this work can be anything that benefits the unit. Forum postings from the AU forum, again recorded only periodically. These are why the Participation tab is considered to be a wild-card; MechWarrior's contributing and playing copious amounts of time can really put on the points, here, perhaps even leaving the other three tabs, listed above, in the dirt. I do not, as of now, have a formula for including Drop Hours and Contracts, as I'm not sure how they will be used, if at all. There is no upper limit to points, but as with the other three tabs, these are calculated in the Section Points Total in the column to the left. Kills/Points divided by 1000 are added to Unit Work points, as they are, and then to Forum posts divided by 100.

Stick with me, we're almost there...

Time-in-Service
This tab stands apart from Pre-Unit, Education, Awards, and Participation because I came to find out that adding it into those other four was actually allowing people with almost no time-in-service, but who were very fast at completing the ED OPPS to move up in the ranks very very quickly, to the exclusion of others who'd been in the unit longer. So, I separated it, which allowed me to build the rank cross-reference charts on the Promotions tab and allowed me to increase the workbook's efficiency and usefulness. Again, the times are set so someone who does even moderate diligence with earning Promotion Points can go from E0 MechWarrior to O6 General in exactly 60 months, or 5 years.

Since I didn't perform the diligence last night, due to the late hour, here's a better explanation of what is in the tab, itself.

- Total TiS: This is the time-in-service, as adjusted for any Special Duty Bonuses. If an individual in the unit takes on a special duty, such as Training OIC, Lance Leader, etc., they get a small percentage bonus added to their time-in-service which, eventually, opens up new ranks and/or positions at a little speedier rate. Once someone finishes one type of duty, or moves onto the next higher version of that same duty, say Lance Leader to Company Commander, the formula for Lance Leader is edited to reflect the exit date from that position, and a new formula started for Company Commander. People can hold more than one Special Duty position at a time, but it's rare and not recommended for them to do so.

- Special Duty Bonuses: Those are explained in the previous paragraph, but it bears to be said, here, that anyone editing the formula's for special duty really need to be very careful to NOT delete any former special duty, just edit the formula to reflect the loss date, and also NOT leave the date range for that duty open in the formula, or else the MechWarrior will make too much time and move up way too quickly.

- MW TiS: This is the total of the MechWarrior's Time-in-Service, based on date's of service to the right of that column, MINUS any Special Duty Bonuses. The formula from the Total TiS column adds all of the Special Duty Bonus columns PLUS the MW TiS column, minus the SDBs to come up with the adjusted total, and has the means in which the bonuses work in that column, as well. So, the MW TiS column only shows the regular, non-SDB, MechWarrior duty time.

- Unit Prior Service Dates: I have left all of Armageddon Unlimited's service dates -the dates when the unit has been active since 1997- as an example of how these can be used. Some Commander's will just make the start date of their unit a solid time, and give their MechWarrior's all of that time, whether they were with the unit the whole time or not. In iterations two and three, I had a dozen or so MechWarrior's come back each time, but they hadn't been with the unit during the off-times. If I left only the original start date for AU, there, I would have 15 years of time, which is inaccurate, considering the amount I've taken off between iterations.

- Years Service: This is only there to calculate how much time the MechWarrior really has in the unit, for the sake of assigning Service Awards. This should not go by Total TiS because that number is not always accurate, based on bonuses, for actual TiS.

Alpha RCT
I realize these are out of order, but I'm saving the most important tab for last. The reason this tab exists is for organizational purposes, so the relevant data to fill out a web page can be gleaned without having to comb through a {Scrap}-ton of tabs. On this tab, one can list the next promotion date for each individual in the Regiment, their name with an email link (you have to work all of these yourself), their promotable rank, their actual rank, and what element within the Regiment they are assigned to. Of course, if you move to a second regiment, you can make a new tab and name it after your second regiment, then copy everything from Alpha RCT -or whatever you might rename this to- into the new tab and scrub it.

Promotions
This tab is the most important, will take the most explanation, and is the most dangerous to edit, unless you know what you're doing. Starting from the left and working toward the right...

- Role: Assault, Command, Defense, or Recon, per the MWO roles. Some of these roles may be combined, such as Aslt/Def or Cmd/Rec. No formula, here.

- Leader?: This is a way of determining whether someone will want a leadership position or not. General this is No (Red), Maybe (Yellow), and Yes (Green). For my unit, I do not allow people under a certain age to even think about taking on leadership positions; again, I want the most responsible and experienced folks on top and, even though there are some fantastically intelligent and responsible young folks, out there, they continue to lack the life experience -like my last CSMAU- to effectively lead. If someone distinguishes themself enough, this can change. No formula, here.

- Promotion Points: This is the culmination of all points for a particular MechWarrior, as placed in each of the four tabs: Pre-Unit, Education, Awards, and Participation, and you'll see how they're applied, later.

- Time-in-Service: As with Promotion Points, but only from the TiS tab.

(NOTE: For the preceding two, it's extremely important to make sure you have the right Section Points Totals cell locations written down -"Education!C10" for example- and that, when you go to move people around, whether adding one, moving one to the Former Unit Members section, or moving one up the points/TiS "ladder", you don't do more than one row move per tab at a time, or your numbers will become enormously screwed up.)

- Promotable Rank: This is where your Promotion Points and Time-in-Service come in for the sake of PROMOTIONS only. These are compared to a chart, which I'll get to in a few minutes, cross-referenced, and a return is given in the Promotable Rank column. This is heavy formula territory, and though there is an Enlisted formula nominally, there is also an Officer formula that can be substituted, here. This can be referenced to the Alpha RCT tab.

- Current Rank: This is a hand-typed entry, where a decision is made whether to promote an individual or not, and then if so their new rank is entered, here. This can be referenced to the Alpha RCT tab.

- Enlisted, AU Forums, MWO Forums: I forgot to change AU to Unit for the release on this site; my apologies. These are all hand-typed entries, no formula's involved. Enlisted is whether they've filled out the enlistment application/form or not. Unit Forums is for whether they're registered on the unit forums or not, and MWO Forums is for being registered on the MWO Forums and, thus, an account made to play MWO, or not. This may seem redundant, but during the last go-round with AU, nearly 15% of people signing up to AU, because it looked cool, hadn't even heard of MWO. These three columns allow a unit commander to remain on top of communications with their folks, and completion toward entry into the unit.

- The ten (10) Command Level Columns (Basic, AIT, Cadre, BNCOC, Drop Commander, ANCOC, OCS, Contracting, Command & Staff, and Officer Complete) are all successive levels of competency and accomplishment within the unit. These are based off of Promotion Points, Time-in-Service, and ED OPPS completion, for the sake of being able to assign POSITIONS within the unit only. These formula's, and the conditional formatting that goes with them, should be handled with the absolute utmost care. The requirements of one unit commander will not be the same as another. If a cell is colored red, it means either the Promotion Points, the Time-in-Service, or the ED OPPS total required to complete that level have not been completed, as yet. If one completes all of the ED OPPS, ~OR~ they have reached either or both Time-in-Service and/or Promotion Points to make that level complete, then the square will turn green, which is the completion indicator, while yellow expresses that an individual is on their way but has not, yet, completed all requirements.

Typically, the higher level you go, the more the level relies on previous requisites for completion, time-in-service, etc. The formula for each cell in this area references what and where within the remainder of the workbook information can be found to justify the formula.

- Rank by Promotion Points and Time-in-Service: if you will scroll to the right, until the last gray column is to the left of the screen, and then scroll down, you will see the all-important cross-referencing charts. I did not take the time to expand these to the standard 10 ranks each for Enlisted and Officers, leaving them for my 6 per, instead. Scroll far enough, and you will see two charts, the top for Enlisted and NCO ranks, the bottom for Officer's. Promotion Points are accessed down the left of each chart, and Time-in-Service across the top of each. The Promotable Rank column, previously outlined, calls to these charts, based on whether you're Enlisted or Officer, and according to the MechWarrior's Promotion Points and Time-in-Service, to index what that MechWarrior's rank should be.

These are also used in the ten Command Levels to determine if an individual is ready to move up to a position within the unit or not.

______________________________

Using this Excel Workbook is not as hard as it seems. When inducting a new person, simply start with the Pre-Unit tab, copy the z-Template row and past it in any order you want, though typically inserting it above the z-Template line, or in alpha-numeric order. The left-most column on this page is wider than the other pages on purpose, to hold not only the MechWarrior name, but the real first name and first initial of the real last name of the player, for easy reference. You may also decide to turn the entire thing into a mail link, for record-keeping purposes. Next, turn z-Template from italics to normal and change it to reflect the pilot you're making the entry for. Next record all pertinent information from their application onto their row, and watch the points rack up. A housekeeping detail is to go to the black line below your current entries and, in anything that has a formula marked "=max(L#:L#), make sure your cell references (L#) include the row number of the new entry; this is to be done on all of the tabs except Alpha RCT and Promotions. Next, record the cell reference (row and column) of the Section Points Total column on a piece of paper.


Wash, rinse, and repeat that for each of the Time-in-Service, Education, Awards, and Participation tabs. For these tabs, rather than putting in the MechWarrior name and the real first and first initial of last name, these columns are not as wide, and you should simply be able to go with the MechWarrior name.

When you're ready for the Promotions tab, it basically works the same, with one notable exception, which I'll discuss in a minute. Copy and past z-Template, make it black, change the name for your new entry, record what their role type and leadership desire is, then go to the Promotion Points column. When you copied and pasted the z-Template row, you also copied all of the formula's, and they'll go where you want them to. If you've done this right, you may not have to change either of the PP or TiS formula's, but let's check them, anyway. In the Promotion Points, you should put the row numbers for the various tab names (Pre-Unit! , Education! , Awards! , and Participation! for the Promotion Points column, and Time in Service! for that column) in the appropriate columns, and then when you hit enter, the cell automatically calculates for what your new guy has. If/when they become an officer, you'll need to substitute the officer promotion line in the Promotable Rank column.

For the Command Level columns, you will want to check and make sure the appropriate row and column designator for Promotion Points and Time-in-Service is in your formula's, here. Then, as ED OPPS, Participation, gaming, etc., is completed by that MechWarrior, their points, service, time, etc. will grow, and ranks and positions will show as necessary. Again, for Command Level, a green cell means they've accomplished what is needed to attain that level in the unit.

Now, whenever a MechWarrior in your unit earns an award, contributes to the unit in someone, completes a game or an ED OPP, you simply go back and add whatever it is they've done, and everything recalculates, again.

Oh, one more thing... this is designed to encourage competition within the unit. As one person gets higher and higher in something, others fall behind unless they're doing the work to keep up.

______________________________

If there are any further questions, I'll answer them, but I didn't expect to be up this late, so it's off to bed with me.

Edited by Kay Wolf, 31 October 2013 - 07:40 AM.

[Grendel408]

bump

[Threat Doc]

Grendel408, on 03 November 2013 - 09:39 PM, said:

bump

Hehe... why not? Okay, so we talked about how we've all built up our units, talked about organization and a few other things, and I posted the monster Excel file, with an explanation; what we haven't really spoken about, at least not at length, is command style.

Whether it's because I don't, necessarily, take things seriously enough with anything not dealing with logistics, or I just feel that it's still a game and so I should attempt to relax with people rather than becoming some sort of martinet, or I know for a fact I can command and should let others do it, I don't know, but in my command style, I tend to let someone else take command on the field. I do this for several reasons, but one of them is because I'm lazy about commanding; I think people playing the game really have an idea how they want to act in the game, and they have the ability to be successful in what they do. I guess I just answered my own question, hehe.

Anyway, if you take things on the battlefield with relative seriousness, as much or more as off the battlefield, what do you view is your style of command, and how you execute things?

(2100 posts with this one; {long whistle}; that's not as much as some, but many many more than most.)

Edited by Kay Wolf, 03 November 2013 - 09:53 PM.

[Grendel408]

Command Style for MWO... Mine is more of a two-front command style for my unit, Blue Star Irregulars.

While in general command of the unit, I have one immediate executive officer who has full authority to do as seen fit for the unit as we both have the same idea in mind: expand gradually, drop with our team as much as possible, acquaint ourselves with all members in and out of game, determine member play-styles, train members to play more strategic, help train with game mechanics. We also just started to initiate our award system for the unit as well, which we hope will encourage players to be more proactive regarding their play-style and activity with the game and community.

As I've stated before, my command is rather relaxed because no one likes a dictatorship or uptight commander breathing down your kneck... which is much like I run shifts at work with subordinates: Do your job as best as you can, mistakes will be made but learn from those mistakes, don't stress over a game because it's a game, have fun while playing (win or lose) even if you get steamrolled... general approach. I don't like being called "sir" and my team knows this lol, new recruits who call me "sir" tend to get the crew laughing while I have to explain myself... which tends to work well as an ice-breaker LOL!

One thing I won't do to my unit is bust someone down in front of everyone else, be it while on the forums of our site, or voice client. It's done privately... if they let it spill over into the public for the rest of the unit despite mediation on mine or my XO's part... prepare for a public display in command.

As for in-game... that all depends really on who's online with me. I encourage my team to form strategies we can implement to increase our chances of winning a match or turning a bad situation from getting worse, or turning the tables so to speak. I do stress that in most cases; static formations do not work, movement is strategy, and warfare is not warfare without movement which requires strategy and knowing where your team is versus your enemy and how you can manipulate a situation to your favor. Situational awareness. Not easy for some... communication is key for all of this to work, be it a 4man drop w/other gamers, or a 12man, or an odd# sync drop and gamers. Every map is different, factor how you play depending on the map temp, terrain, where your other teammates are positioned, etc. All this matters... what drives me the most nutz is how everyone rushes to the center... or just starts following the lead Mech like a herd of cattle...

This is what truly matters... You may be the commander, you may have the best idea in mind, but it doesn't mean squat if you cannot instill into your sub-commanders the same ideals. Set a general attitude with a unit, get enough on board to keep that spirit alive, these tend to be your core members who in general tend to become the first officers/sub-commanders of the unit. The ability to command a unit is also allowing the freedom of sub-commanders to do their part in leadership with their unit or subordinates in general.

You cannot micro-manage a unit... don't try, you will kill the unit, or your patience, or sanity, or all of the above.

But here's the kicker... you don't need to be the best to be in charge. You need to be smart, and capable, and entrust in your team that their commanders (officers of the unit) were chosen for good reasons and are not being favored, because sometimes the best strategy can come from the lowest person on the totem pole. Good commanders listen to their team, from the highest to the lowest subordinate, each person matters as much as the next. Rank is only a title, it only denotes a certain position which should not be taken as a barrier, but an achievement anyone can earn. Equal growth... some may not want to ever take a officer position and I get that, those can sometimes be the most valued player because they can help work with "non-officer/enlisted" members.

Pretty much sums that up... I think... too early in the morning to tell LOL!

[Threat Doc]

I get what you say about micro-management but, for my part, I would like to stress that micro-management is reduced to manageable proportions if you have the appropriate tools and the right sort of people to help you. Something I've been learning in my Emergency Management classes concerns span of control; basically, this means the number of people a supervisor can interact with in a manageable fashion, and any more than that is too much and the stress of leadership becomes exponential. This span of control is generally defined as between 3 and 7 people. So, if you're in charge of five people, and that's your personal limit, then at that point you need to expand your command structure where your must trusted person/people, or those who've earned the right to be there, should be promoted and begin to develop their portion of the unit.

My feeling about having various things, such as awards, ED OPPS, participation and office bonuses, and taking into account someone's past, as they CHOOSE or desire to share it, which provide various things for people to strive for, allows folks to have a sense of accomplishment, allows them to desire, as they do for video games that provide these awards, to have more, to further develop themselves. I also feel rank is very important, more as a boundary than as a potential hammer, because most people like to have boundaries in place, whether they would ever actually admit to it, or not, so they know where they're going and what they're doing.

I also agree that the commander of the unit doesn't have to be the best on the battlefield, but they do have to know what they want for the unit, and have a plan to get there. I believe a culture formed initially by the unit commander, and then left malleable for ongoing development is extraordinarily important and, like you said, having those who believe in the goals and vision of the unit, and are willing to support it, need to be your core and your higher officers.

Yes... it's a game and, playing individually in the game, it should be regarded as a game. However, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, billiards, cards, are ONLY games, too, and look at how serious they are? Many of these are paid, and started unpaid and not that serious, and millions of people, not just the teams, take these VERY seriously. That's why there's fantasy football, etc. My thought is that, yes this is a game, but you are also working with a team of people. If you're not there, if you don't practice, if you don't drop for fights, etc., then you're not trying to be part of the team. Certain pilots, though they may be great, and work well with particular folks, don't work well with everyone and, as such, if you have to put these people together in a fight because other members of the team don't show up, that can actually turn into a self-fulfilling disaster.

My former boss at Sikorsky used to tell me personal problems and attitudes don't matter, when you come to work, you're at work, and the attitudes and problems need to stay at the door. In the work environment, you are a professional, and you will turn into a robot professional and work, or I'll get rid of you. That doesn't work in something like this game; there are disparate personalities and problems that may be brought to the game, especially if someone's had a {Scrap} day and they want to take out their frustrations on 'Mechs. Unfortunately, they may end up taking it out on one of their friends, or a guy they get saddled with whom they know they do not play well with, and then they just get pissed off all that much more.

So, it's important to have ranks, and organization, in place as guides for individuals, as places for people to come, to display their unit and sub-unit pride, a logo they have for themselves -I'm afraid this is one of the biggest parts of the game, for me, that I've been waiting for-, and that little boost in pride and knowing where they're going gives them a boon, in-game.

[Dreden Aelnir]

There is unit administration and then there is unit administration...

In my personal opinion Kay, you have really over-complicated unit administration. I guess if you were running an S-1 shop, maybe, but for an online game? Seems superfluous in the extreme. But if that system works for you then no need to upset the apple cart I suppose.

I am a firm believer in running a meritocracy. Promotion point systems are just more work for me and my command staff, and do nothing to identify those with the willingness and ability to lead others...once again, in my opinion.

CPT Dreden Aelnir
CO Ebonheart Dragoons

[Threat Doc]

In my experience, and that's 16 years worth, meritocracy gets units killed, and quickly. You put someone you think will do the job, and says they will do the job, into a position, and then not only do they not do the job, but they manage to screw up a lot of things, too, or they try to usurp what you're trying to accomplish, etc.

I want people in my unit who EARN things, and are able to prove they're not just there to have the spotlight and the cool unit name next to their cool forum name. Unfortunately, proving that someone's earned something requires an abundance of work to be done. Fortunately, I don't really have to do it by hand, anymore. The year between when I finally got my Closed Beta invite and September 9th, 2012, I was able to play more than the previous three iterations -5 years of activity- combined. So, at least I know it works, hehe.

To be honest, though, you're right in one aspect, it's too much work. I've had offers from two units, now, to come and join them, to come away from this foolishness of command, hehe, but I'm not sure I can take either of them up. One I received this morning from a relatively new friend, participating in this thread in fact, and not only is his offer gracious, but I'm seriously considering it. The other is a unit constituted from the friends and colleagues of the last iteration of AU, and I know for a fact their boss is one hell of a good man, great at organization, recruited over 50 members of AU while he was with us, etc.

All of this in mind, and despite the magnificent opportunity PGI will soon present, I may beg off altogether. The appeal of running a unit has worn off of me almost entirely, and I honestly don't think I could fall under anyone else's command without causing some modicum of strife by speaking out about things I don't think are right. The problem is, in someone else's command, it's someone else's baby, and I know how I feel whenever someone comes and tells me how I should run things. Besides, right now, running a unit is a matter of the disturbing lack of money in my life, right now, and I'm not even sure I can get MWO running, at this point, because of that Memory error quite a few folks have been receiving, but is supposed to be addressed soon.

So, I may not have to worry about over-complicating anything, again, or even worrying about the people that would cause the over-complication in the first place.