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 Some of the older and original information has been superseded by newer documents, so this one reference document will make it clear what is official and what is not.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.