No replies to this topic

[Jarl Dane]

Here we stand on a precipice, a chance encounter of great import; your indoctrination introduction to the FRR.


(Tarogato told me this intro is boring, so skip to the Joining and Training topics if you just want cold hard info fast, you monster.)

Who are you?
A hero that will help turn a thousand battles in our favor?
A hard working pilot that will be integral in a hundred victories?
A horn-drinking companion that'll keep the lights on and the hearts up in battles won and lost?
A quiet soldier doing their job to keep the FRR afloat in turbulent seas?

I don't know. I can't know.
But what I do know is that you are here, and that is good enough for me.
So welcome. Stay awhile and listen, and perhaps you'll decide to stay.


Who are we?

Spoiler

It is, and isn't complicated. MechWarrior Online allows anyone to join any faction at will. This makes factions highly fluid and utterly inclusive. Therefore to say any one community represents an entire faction is a difficult assertion, furthermore, to say any one community has any sort of claim to leadership of that faction is even more spurious.

You'd think these shifting conditions would result in chaos, and in many other factions they have. But the FRR has prevailed where others have faltered. While we cannot represent everybody, and we cannot claim authoritative leadership over anybody, our community has, through the years, coalesced into a whole.

Humans are, by nature, social animals and we have, despite the impediments, built our society. And so I say, we are the Free Rasalhague Republic. We are the leaders, the pilots, the warriors and heroes, the toilers, saviors, attackers and defenders of our little realm.

Technically speaking though, I'm this guy:

(I regret nothing.)


The Teamspeak:
We have achieved our unity primarily through a single means, a unified Faction teamspeak, known as the 'FRR Hub'. Other factions have their teamspeaks, but ours has been more universally adopted by more loyalist units then any of the others. Too often units would rather maintain their own TS in isolation then contribute to a faction TS. This has been less a problem for the FRR.

So, in a sense, who we really are is the inhabitants and users of that teamspeak. FRR units who do not use it are more marginal and isolated. The Teamspeak is the center of organized FRR power.

The Royal Kungsarme:
The Royal Kungsarme, or RKA is a coalition of loyalist units on the our Teamspeak. They lead the FRR hub, and thus by extension, the FRR. The Units maintain their independence but strive to work as one to the advantage of the FRR. They endeavor to release; advice, guidelines, dropdecks and other training material to the FRR in general - as part of the responsibilities of leadership.

But enough about us, lets talk about you.

Joining the FRR and RKA:

Spoiler

As I said earlier, joining the FRR in MWO is an utterly inclusive and isolated endeavor. You need neither our bombastic permission or our guidance in that minor quest. But, like I also said earlier, we are more then just an in-game designation, we are a community. And I want to help you join that community.

1. Get to the Hub.

(Do it now!)

The first step towards getting involved with the FRR is to come to our Teamspeak. It's a quite active, and the heart of all FRR activities. If you want to fight alongside other FRR pilots who are not total stangers - then this is where you need to be. You'll often see drops going on in the Mixed Warband section - just hop into one of those and get picked up or wait in the looking for a group channel. The warriors of the FRR hub are a friendly lot and you'll find yourself easily dropping with them.

2. Get into a Unit
The next step would be joining a unit. As of writing this, there is no inherent reason why you need to join a unit right away, you can freely drop with mixed warbands in CW matches while tag-less and it'll impact nothing. So, if you want to shop around for a while before committing then by all means, do so. If, however, you want a unit right away - the Sons of Odin or -SO- is the entry level unit to the RKA and FRR hub. Ask their pilots (they are numerous so you'll not be at a loss to find one!) about getting into their unit and they'll send you an invite.

Later on, when you are more comfortable, you can perhaps leave the SO for one of the more specialized units in the RKA.

3. Get into the RKA
If you choose to remain unit-less for the time being, that is more than fine, and we'll give you the 'RKA' tag. It means you are part of 'us', a resident of the hub, but not currently in a unit (having this tag is important as it gives you permissions required to edit the 1/2/3/4k tag & stormtrooper channels).

If, you're the leader of a unit that wishes to join the RKA coalition as an independent unit, then just read up the exceptions here and get in contact with me.

FRR/RKA Training and Events:

Spoiler

After numerous trials and errors, it has been decided that the first level of RKA training needs to be done by the individual on their own. Let me explain. The first part of any real training starts at the dropship. A pilot will perform sub-optimally in sub-optimal mechs and builds. That should go without saying. Therefore we would take a look at a pilot's dropdeck and try to help them build a better one. This is a daunting and time consuming process, made only worse by many pilots refusal to actually embrace the endorsed wisdom of the RKA. So instead of that, we have drawn up and provided the FRR with a standardized dropdeck, the 'Stormtrooper Drop'.

(The Stormtrooper motto is, 'Nades & Spades'.)

So, if you are looking for training, consider that your first assignment. Build the Stromtrooper dropdeck. That gives you a powerful dropdeck that'll be an asset to us in our future training sessions, it saves us time from having to work with everyone's deck on an individual level, and it also give us a chance to see how willing you actually are towards being trained. If you want training, but are unwilling to do the first step - then, clearly, you don't really want it and it saves everyone time not continuing with the facade.


I'm currently working on the 2nd step of training after the deck is built, hopefully it'll be ready in a week or two after I post this topic. I'll edit the topic with it once it is ready.


Events:
The RKA periodically tries to rouse the community. Every couple of months we have a town-hall styled 'Jarlsmoot' led by me in order to keep the community informed and give them an opportunity for to discuss important topics openly.

Drop commanding training, comp training and CW nights are also mixed in for good measure, but as of writing this, there isn't a regular schedule for any of those activities. We're doing the best we can with what we got and could always use more help.

Conclusion:
So that is who we are, that is us. That is how you begin on this adventure, should you chose. I hope you do, though. We're good folk and, as you might be able to divine from this post, we're an ambitious people too.

We still don't know who you are, but we'd like to. So come, drop with us, and together we'll make the FRR great and define for ourselves what it means to be part of a faction.

Thank you,
Dane Jarl of the Isengrim,
Patriot of the FRR and Founder of the RKA.

Edited by Mech The Dane, 21 March 2016 - 01:45 PM.