103 replies to this topic

[Ilithi Dragon]

Perhaps, then, we could organize a regional structure based on a collection of timezones? I don't think we'll need a region for each timezone; an hour or two difference in timezones usually is not much of a hindrance in playing together.

In fact, organizing by timezones may not necessarily be the best way to go. Sure, it's the same time for each person in a given timezone, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we'll all be on at the same time. Some of us will be working 1st Shift, or 2nd, or 3rd, or have swing shifts, or have classes at different times on different days of the week, etc. A better system may well be to break the day and/or week up into time periods and set regions based on those time periods. That way players who tend to be on at the same time can be better coordinated together, regardless of their timezone. For example, I have a friend in the UK, who is five hours ahead of me, but because of our present schedules, we very frequently play together, often on a daily basis. Because of our different timezones, if we divided regions by timezone, we would not be grouped together, even though we are very often on at the same time. However, if we organized based on general time periods of online availability, we would be grouped together and could easily group up as needed.

One of the big drawbacks to that system would be that people whose schedules change would be resorted into a different region from the people they usually play with, but that can be partially mitigated by having some overlap in regional time periods, and the counter-advantage is that it would give people whose have major changes in their schedules an existing group of players to connect with. Another region could also be created for players with highly variable and/or unpredictable schedules with organizational strategies based around providing a pool of fill-in and back-up pilots for the other regions.

[Aeneas]

Personally I feel that the more complicated we try to make this right off the bat, the less succesful we will be. Currently forums like what Justicar is doing and the roll call done by Ito seem to be the best tools at this time for getting a good idea of what we will be working with. Like I said earlier, before we have company, regimental, or even area command structure, we need LANCES! well organized, well set up lances are the backbone of whatever further organization we do later on. to further this end( I haven't been out to the Enjin sites yet so if you have this srry for the redundancy)
1. A list of all available pilots/ like Ito's roll call

2. a place for the people just looking for a lance to get into, to get easily recuited, possibly something added onto the roll call so recuiters can see who is available and wanting a lance.

3.an advertising tool for recuiters to say to everybody, "hey we need a light mech pilot to finish out a recon lance"/ kind of like a bulletin board

4. Finally, a roll call of all available lances.

I think we have a good shot at getting a very strong command structure in house Marik. The FWL, out of all the houses, was run most like a democracy, and I think we should emulate that. After we have the lances, each lance can vote to create further organization. Good leaders will gain support through this method, and instead of hundreds of people taking orders from a guy they might not want leading them everyone has a say. And if you don't like taking orders, opt out, but then you don't get a say at all.

But lances first.

Edited by Aeneas, 11 July 2012 - 08:36 PM.

[Ilithi Dragon]

Oh, of course, no final decision on organizational structure, let alone implementation of any organizational structure, can be made at this stage. However, that does not mean that we should prohibit any discussion of potential ways to organize ourselves. I'm just throwing out ideas for discussion.

As far as a democratic process, I very much like the idea. I'm not sure how well the system would work with Lances as the base voting unit, though... Eventually, if we don't already, we will have Companies with multiple lances, and then we will also have various unaffiliated FWL members, who are not associated with any formal or informal lance.

Perhaps initial voting units should be individual-based, and once more organization, and more units are established, we can add lances and/or companies as an additional voting unit, or transition the voting unit from the individual player to the lance and/or company units, depending on what kind of organizational structure we end up with.

[Aeneas]

Great point, also I agree on your time zone idea.

Eventually we will have much more complex structures for command. my point was not to stop discussion of further development, but to not get ahead of ourselves. Build the base of the pyramid before you build the top, and the base right now is VERY scattered. To keep with the architectural metaphors, Rome wasn't built in a day either, so this is going to take some time. I'm personnally glad that we are talking about this now, and not mudling about later.

In my opinion, the objective right now needs to be creating the tools and foundation for further organization. To me that means lances, but at this point I sound like a broken record. Frankly, no one has really had a bad idea so far, if an idea was cr** i'd tell you, so I'm easy, i'm a teamplayer.

[DPain]

I like Simple and Stupid...

We get a Teamspeak server or use the Marik website to hook up with players who are currently on-line and available to play. Put together a lance with everyone agreeing on rolls and Mech's. Then jump into game together (if you can...)

Is there Marik website we can all join? I would be happy to chip in on server space or Teamspeak service.

Thoughts?
Rob

Edited by DPain, 12 July 2012 - 01:44 PM.

[FutureBack]

I agree that at the start of it simplicity and flexibility are the way to go.
Players will be spread according to attributes of location, usual play hours, skill, MW gaming history, time to invest, etc. before we even get to the game's parameters.
We will quickly be required to decide on leadership, structure, and composition. We will have a dilemma of having many fairly even companies with a few "elite" companies, or a more even 3-5 internal tiers of skill and quality.

I have played MW2/3/4 since I was a kid and really look forward to dusting off the JS and having good fun.
Good hunting to all, and our House in particular

[Mark of Caine]

Unofficially, Marik members are slowly flocking to http://housemarik.enjin.com/home as our home base for now. Maybe something else will pop up down the road, but personally, I find this site is pretty good so far.

[DPain]

Caine2112, on 12 July 2012 - 05:19 PM, said:

Unofficially, Marik members are slowly flocking to http://housemarik.enjin.com/home as our home base for now. Maybe something else will pop up down the road, but personally, I find this site is pretty good so far.

I just joined there - again - I can spring for a Teamspeak server for FWL to use...

[Noaceik]

Bluey, on 01 July 2012 - 04:56 PM, said:

Guys with Pink eagle on their flag trying to organize

This comming from a house that is known more for politics then warriors, you are a shame to your German bloodlines.

[Noaceik]

Kell, on 01 July 2012 - 10:51 PM, said:

I agree, we should start to get organized.

As for myself, I am comfortable with any command/role (except High Command, although I was Minister of Defense at some point in ISWars.)

I can play any mech role well, any weight class well, and was a key member of the A-lance in Marik's ISWars contingent. I am able to lead a lance/company, or listen to orders from others as need be. I am also available over 40+ hours a week, and can re-schedule my work shifts to adjust to any time needed.

such loyalty is only made from a house of options, you can't get that loyalty from a dictatorship like the other houses.

[Noaceik]

Ilithi Dragon, on 11 July 2012 - 05:39 PM, said:

Perhaps, then, we could organize a regional structure based on a collection of timezones? I don't think we'll need a region for each timezone; an hour or two difference in timezones usually is not much of a hindrance in playing together.

In fact, organizing by timezones may not necessarily be the best way to go. Sure, it's the same time for each person in a given timezone, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we'll all be on at the same time. Some of us will be working 1st Shift, or 2nd, or 3rd, or have swing shifts, or have classes at different times on different days of the week, etc. A better system may well be to break the day and/or week up into time periods and set regions based on those time periods. That way players who tend to be on at the same time can be better coordinated together, regardless of their timezone. For example, I have a friend in the UK, who is five hours ahead of me, but because of our present schedules, we very frequently play together, often on a daily basis. Because of our different timezones, if we divided regions by timezone, we would not be grouped together, even though we are very often on at the same time. However, if we organized based on general time periods of online availability, we would be grouped together and could easily group up as needed.

One of the big drawbacks to that system would be that people whose schedules change would be resorted into a different region from the people they usually play with, but that can be partially mitigated by having some overlap in regional time periods, and the counter-advantage is that it would give people whose have major changes in their schedules an existing group of players to connect with. Another region could also be created for players with highly variable and/or unpredictable schedules with organizational strategies based around providing a pool of fill-in and back-up pilots for the other regions.

your point is a vary good one, I for one am not sure what my time of play will be I am unemployed at the moment, but when I am working I will make sure to figure out my playing times and then send them to our house members so i could be grouped with people in the same time frame.

[Noaceik]

[color="#000000"] I do not have any set time zones to play because I am jobless, but I am in the Eastern Time zone. I am willing to use any type of mech to help our cause, and have no problems leading or being lead. I have been loyal fan of battletech from 1997, and a Marik fan from 1998. I have access to most of the battletech books including novels, table top stuff, I have a great deal of knowlege of the game and of mech design concepts. For instance Marik mechs normaly focus on armor, heat disipation, and Mariks love LRM's in general. Where Davions focus on autocannons, and Steiner on srms. [/color]

[color="#000000"] [/color]

[Ilithi Dragon]

Catamount and I have been discussing potential ways of organizing a bit more (and if anyone cares for a real-time conversation, I'm hanging out in the Marik TS server the guys on our Enjin site got set up, and I can reach over and smack Catamount in the back of the head until he pops in (already done it once for Moose13)), and we have some concerns about organizing voting blocks into anything larger than a Lance.

For one, it opens up a huge opportunity for abuse - commanders of large companies can throw around the weight of all their lances without actually properly polling them, or flat-out saying that all their lances will vote a certain way or be kicked out of the company, or various other means of voter coercion. We would either have to suffer through that, or establish some sort of voter commission that lances could go to to report such abuse and fraud, which is a whole additional level of complexity, and effort, not to mention fifty new ways of adding controversy. Catamount and I both think that voting units should not be any larger than single lances, so that we can avoid that issue entirely, or almost entirely.

We also think that the voting units should not be any smaller than a single Lance (whether it is a full lance or a reduced Lance, though single players should not be able to create a one-person Lance), since the voting will be on matters and issues pertaining to those FWL affiliated players who are self-organizing. Those players who are not organizing into units, who are just lone-wolfing under the general FWL flag, are not involved in the unit organizations, and so should not have a say in how those unit organizations are operated. If they want to have a say, they can join or form a Lance and participate in the larger organization, otherwise they can just continue to lone wolf under the FWL flag (though some system should be put into place for those players who have varied schedules, or have other trouble finding a lance to join or forming their own lance, but still want to participate in the larger organization).

Regardless of any additional organization, we both agree that the core unit should be the Lance, and that everything should be built around the Lance as the base voting unit, no larger, no smaller.

[Aeneas]

I could not have said it any better. i think it is a good point of voter abuse at the higher levels, this is mechwarrior not politico. i agree on all illithis points and think that should be what the final coc should look like. that said, we will need higher offices to get things done. maybe more like a republic, where every lance is/has a representative, and there is a voted upon direct coc per match designed preemtively. but this just highlights the need for a streamlined lance forming system. i for one am not currently in a lance as i hopefully am bringing in some other people to strt my own, but others who do not currently have a lance need some way to easily see what lances there are to join/fill and perhaps the creation of some empty predefined lances would not be a bad idea. for those people who wnat a say and want organiztio but have minimal time/ work ethic

[Antonn]

<S> Ito, havent seen you since the AOL days...

Where is Keych, Amergin and Frodo ? ;-)

[Rot]

ANTONN! Lol long time no see! Babs, Hoho and Elf are around too.

[Antonn]

Hey ROT!! Good to see you again old friend!

[Hohokam]

<S> About time you show up. LOL good to see you old friend!

[Vincent J Magnum]

Lightdragon, on 01 July 2012 - 06:19 AM, said:

im in the free worlds league for the tech, nothing more nothing less, i enjoy playing a support role and free worlds league throughout the battletech timeline has created some of the best support designs for combined arms tactics (archer variants, apollo, trebuchet,orion,stalker,hammer, i think you get the idea im a missile *****)

One of the strengths of the House, it seems that Regulans have taken this idea abit further by using complete lances of Trebuchets for just that purpose.

Kenyon, on 01 July 2012 - 10:06 AM, said:

The times that people play is a pretty big factor also. Being organized is great but matters little if Your Company plays at different times.

Kenyon

I plan to base companies on what times each player can be online as this will leave no gaps (I hope) in the coverage of at least the 4th RH. Meaning there will be 12 players online at the same time to defend the House .

[Storm Fox]

So is this going to Form up as a guild in game? If so, I would love to join, I did sign up on the enjin site to follow the developements! Great work so far!

Edited by Storm Fox, 21 July 2012 - 10:25 PM.