New Recruits, Training and true Officers of the TSN (OOC)

The RP community is beginning to thrive and grow as I hoped it would. Applications to join continue to come in regularly, and attendance during RP sessions is growing. The rank system is also starting to come into play more as officers gain experience and improve their skills. There are now seven full officers participating in the RP, all of which are regular and dedicated players. To move up the ranks is not easily achieved, with the officers having to fulfil strict criteria. This ensures that those promoted are dedicated and experienced individuals with an excellent knowledge of their chosen areas of expertise. 

As more new recruits join, there is an increasing need to provide a clear induction for those recruits, bringing them up to speed on the basics of operating consoles, as well as acting as an officer of the TSN. As a result, development has begun on official training courses which can be run on a regular basis. The intention is to run a Basic Training course once a month for all new recruits. The course will be split into two modules; Basic Ops will cover how to operate each console on the most basic level; Basic Officer training will introduce the cadets to combat orders, how the session works and other aspects that apply directly to the RP element. All cadets would have to take the Basic Officer training, however those with previous experience of the game would have the option of skipping Basic Ops should their knowledge already be up to scratch. Overall, the course aims to give all new recruits the same basic level of knowledge and skill that will enable them to fully participate in the RP sessions.

After these courses have been developed, the next stage will be developing courses for specific areas of expertise, such as Helm, Weapons and Science. Courses such as advanced courses in Piloting or Engineering, Command courses for senior officer, instructor training for those wishing to lead courses and so on have also been considered and will potentially be created in the future. An outline of the content has already been drafted for future courses, however they are yet to be fully developed.

I started this RP Community because I wanted to play and train with the best. I wanted to command and be part of crews of experienced and professional officers. Officers who knew their role and could execute orders seamlessly. Officers who develop a knowledge of tactics and strategy, and who follow standards and procedures that allow TSN vessels to operate at peak effectiveness. Such officers now exist in this community, and I am proud to serve alongside them. They are true officers of the Terran Stellar Navy.

Updating the TSN RP Community (OOC)

I have started work on updating all the information available for the TSN RP Community. So far, I have reorganised the Artemis Wiki pages relating to the RP Community and have started combining and updating the information in to one book. The intention is to bring the information together in one reference to make it easier for all members, new and old. Everything in the book will be up-to-date and officially part of the RP.

Why am I doing this? Over the past few months the RP Community has grown and changed. There have been many additions to how the community is organised and how the sessions run. A lot of documents have been created and they need combining together to make a central source of information. Some of the older and original information has been superseded by newer documents, so this one reference document will make it clear what is official and what is not.

 

The new reference document will contain all the information about the community for people who wish to join and play as a member. Much of the information is already available, however there are a few new ideas and changes that I will be making.

 

The first major change will be to do with membership. There are those out there who want to help with the community, but are not necessarily play in role duing RP sessions. Instead they want to help with developing mission scripts and campaigns. Previously, the idea was to have such individuals join as "civilian" members, however that kind of membership created a grey area about the role of civilian members and how they took part in the RP session. To address this issue, I am going to create two main membership types; Non-RP contributors and RP players. The non-RP contributors are exactly that, individuals who want to contribute mission scripts, campaigns, GM missions and take part, but not play during the RP sessions, or play in role. The RP players will be as they are now though, having to apply and playing in role during RP sessions.

 

As a reult of this change, the application form will be altered for RP members, and a process put in place for those wanting to become non-RP members. All this will be detailed in the new reference document.

 

There will be a lot of other information within the document too, including new session guidelines that were created recently, promotional structures, communications protocol, pointers to other official documentation  such as the Officer Handbook, application forms etc. I am not sure when it will be ready for release, and it will be updated periodically as the community continues to grow. I am sure that it will provide an invaluable source of information for anyone wanting to be involved in the RP community though and will make things much clearer to understand and easier to find.

Oh and one last thing, this whole post is in italics for a reason - because it is written "out of character". It is another idea that is going to be incorporated as part of the RP community to help differentiate between "in chararcter" and "out of character" chat.

Rank Structure & Expectations

As part of the on going process of creating the most professional and highly trained TSN division, I have been formulating criteria for officers. These criteria outline what an officer should be capable of, and the level of experience they must have, at each rank. It was something that I have considered for some time, and when my first officer suggested something similar, I decided to begin work on developing the criteria.

Originally, I had developed a set of questions to test an officer's knowledge as they progressed from one rank to the next. These questions were to form a basic "criteria"; if an officer could provide acceptable answers (or demonstrations) then they would progress to the next rank. The main issue with them however, was that they did not form a complete and clear "image" of what that officer should actually be capable of, the questions instead just provided a means of testing an officer. There was nothing that could be shared with officers beforehand, detailing what they should have done and be able to do, and there was nothing outlining the experience that an officer should have.

The new criteria gives a series of bullet points, clearly outlining what an officer must be able to do and must have already done to obtain the next rank. So far, only the criteria for junior officer has been completed; the criteria for the senior officers is still being developed. The main focus for junior officers is the development of skills and experience operating the main consoles. Command experience isn't required to advance up to the ranks of Lieutenant and Lieutenant-Commander (at the rank of Lieutenant-Commander an officer is expected to begin gaining command experience).

The criteria can be found in this document.

Looking ahead to Multi-ship tactics

The number of officers in the light division continues to grow and it recently occurred to me that it will soon be possible to have multiple ships operating together more frequently. With the introduction of new bridge communications training and the newly formulated combat orders, I have started considering how the ideas can be extended to situations in which multiple ships are operating together. I have looked into this area before and had a few different ideas that I think, with a little development, will work well. I also have several fresh ideas that I would like to try out. Overall, my aim will be to make communication and coordination between ships much more effective and efficient.

As a starting point, I intend to focus on how two ships could communicate with one-another, particularly during a combat situation. I envision two ships working together to engage the same enemy fleet, coordinating fire and manoeuvring to quickly overcome the larger enemy formations. My first idea is to use a simple hierarchy to aid in coordination; before a combat, one ship would be designated the lead vessel, the second the supporting vessel.

My next idea is to develop something similar to the combat orders. The combat orders allow a captain to give the helm officer more autonomy; the order outlines the general tactics and types of manoeuvres that the captain wants without having to detail specifics about what to do. The multi-ship orders would do a similar job, but between ships. Only captains need know them, and they would give a general outline of the tactics that will be used. For example, an order may be a simple "Fleet Order 2" issued by the senior officer. The captain of the lead vessel would translate this as "you can use the following combat orders - delta 1, echo 1, etc. Overall the idea is to close in with the enemy". The captain on the support vessel would translate them as "the other ship is going to close in, you have to support them with long range fire from homing torpedoes e.g. Evasive pattern Gamma 2." It would add to the knowledge a captain requires, but it would also become part of a senior officers training as they progress into command ranks.

Of course, these are only ideas at the moment, but I doubt it will be long until I can begin experimenting and improving them. For now, my main focus is still on standardising bridge communications protocol and developing the skill and experience of the officers in the division.

Creating an example to follow

Over the past few weeks and months, recruitment of officers to the Light Division has been steady and the numbers of officers now under my command have grown substantially. There are currently a high proportion of officer cadets that have trained under different instructors and in different USFP systems. It is becoming apparent in training and combat patrols that there are no set ways of communicating with one-another on the bridge. I have therefore been working with my first officer to develop training courses that will be used to standardise communication and improve the effectiveness of bridge communications.

The first focus was combat orders and a way to quickly and effectively communicate tactics and manoeuvres to the crew, without being misunderstood or having to micromanage officers. The new combat orders are a refinement of the Attack Patterns from the first release of the Tactical Handbook. Through trialing them in simulations with senior officers, extremely effective orders have been created that communicate whether to take aggressive or defensive action, how aggressive or defensive to be and the types of manoeuvres or firing patterns to employ in one quick and clear order. Of course, they only work if the crew are clear on the meaning of the order (which is where the training is going to come in of course!)

The next focus was to look at how officers select and relay information to the captain, from simple confirmation when they receive a new order, to providing key information at vital moments. At the moment, there are no set ways of presenting information verbally, or confirming orders or responding and acknowledgeing the contribution of information by an officer. What is currently being considered is the use of simple words and phrases that can be used. With my own crew, I have simply acknowledged I have heard information by saying "Confirmed." This quickly tells an officer, "I have heard what you've said and have taken it on board."

The whole purpose of developing training is to standardise the way in which the crews of the Light Division work, with the overall aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of operational crews. Being able to communicate effectively in any situation is the first step to achieving this aim. The next will most likely be improving the skills of the officers, and then finally refining tactics. In the end, I hope to have a Division made up of professional and experienced officers who can stand as an example to all other crews of the TSN.

Patrolling Cronus Sector

The first patrol of the Cronus sector since establishing a presence in the area met with heavy enemy forces. Multiple enemy fleets were detected entering the sector. Those fleets took immediate aggressive action, setting course for the automated command post that has been deployed in the area with the intention of destroying it and therefore denying access to the Gateway between Promethean and Cronus. It took several hours and many hard fought engagements before the sector was once again secure. By the end, almost all the supply of ordnance weapons had been exhausted and  the ship has sustained damage to multiple systems. Throughout the patrol, there were also a number of technical glitches with the ship's tactical interface systems.

It was evident from the patrol that the Cronus sector is going to be an area of continual hostile incursions and vessels sent to patrol the area will need to be equipped for long range patrols. The stockpiles of ordnance are also to be increased at the automated command post to allow patrol vessels to deal with multiple incursions.

Promethean System; A New Frontier

I have been assigned to the Promethean System; a system on the frontier of USFP space. My mission is to secure and protect the system, as well as explore neighbouring systems. Along with my own vessel the TSN Falcon and a number of support vessels, I have been given command of several academy vessels and a number of cadets.

The Promethean system is relatively small and is made up of four main sectors. The colony in the central sector was only established a decade or so ago. They are relatively self reliant in terms of their governance, however they do appreciate the presence of our division and the added security it provides. There have been only a few reported raids from hegemony ships, but they have been enough to cause damage and disrupt the colony's way of life. The tithes that the colony pays to the TSN are obvious worth something; well enough to assign a division to protect the area.

On arriving, my first order of business has been to explore our neighbouring systems; Cronus and Volantis. I have already taken the opportunity to explore a sector in the Cronus system. A support vessel accompanied us to provide refuel and resupply, as well as carrying a gate device for our return journey. The sector we entered was relatively quiet. We encountered small enemy patrols in the sector, nothing that wasn't manageable. It gave the cadets some combat experience, although not as much as some seemed to want. It is good that they are eager. The enemy know that we are here now and are expanding our borders, so I'm not sure how quiet things are going to remain.

The Cronus sector we explored seems like a sector worth securing. On the patrol, I was able to identify at least two other potential gate points. The band of asteroids stretching across the sector could also prove an asset. I am sure that Promethean's governor will be wanting to send survey teams to assess mining opportunities.

The cadets that I have been assigned are proving able, although there is still training to be done. There are some things still to go over, such as operational guidelines and standard procedures. TSN Command have also provided me with a training simulator program, and although still in its testing phase, it is proving a useful piece of software. From what I have seen of the cadets, on the patrols and in the simulator, there is great potential in several of them. I am hopeful that some will soon be ready to be promoted to full officers.