Ordo Meeting 30APR11

[Acheron Gloom]

~ORDO IMPERIALIS~

OFFICIAL DOCUMENT

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**********Imperator's Weekly Meeting Report**********

Name/Rank/Division: Acheron Gloom / E-7 / Astra

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DATE: 30APR11

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CHAT LOG:

Raw Chat Log
/>http://pastebin.com/Zb4YgXRS

Imperator's Opening Statements and Statistics

Meeting start. As a reminder: all questions, comments (etc) are to be held until given the opportunity to speak. When that opportunity is provided, be sure to raise your hands. Failure to do so may result in dismissal from the meeting.

Statistics

Members: 319

Cadets: 6

Applications

New: 9

Accepted: 1

Denied: 3

Review: 5

Combat

Defensive: 83

Offensive: 17

Allied Assist: 0

Diplomatic notes: bit of a slow down over the community this week. Final exam week looming ever so close... and then summer. If you have never been in the military community during summer: get ready for absolute insanity.

Unit Reports

Astra by Ethan Schuman

Thank you, Imperator. Before I give our report for the evening, I have a few words I'd like to say.

I would like to say first and foremost, in front of the entire Ordo, that I am so incredibly proud of Astra. Over the past month, we have reached out from the hole we were in, nearing our end, to pull ourselves out and rise, standing strong amongst our comrades.

Our pilots no longer sit around sadly, having traded in their helmets for rifles, betraying their love of flight in hopes that they might find an empty slot to fill in one of the many Terra raids. Now, Astra pilots lead the charge into enemy simulators, in the air or on foot, to strike the name of the Ordo into the hearts of our enemies.

Ethan Schuman: People once again feel pride to say that they are a part of Astra, and have earned the respect of those who are not. One month is an incredibly short amount of time to have accomplished such, and we would not have been able to do so without the heartful, eager participation and dedicated efforts of each and every member, from rank and file pilots all the way up to myself.

Each of us owes one another a great deal of thanks, and this is level of cooperation is something that will only continue to increase as time goes on. Thank you for your efforts during our rebirth, Astra. Let us continue our fight to lift ourselves and rise even higher.

And now for our report, which I will make very brief.

Activity in Aquila was through the roof. Drasamax and Ookami are both to be commended for their efforts as raid leaders, and the rest of Astra for grabbing rifles or boarding planes to support them. Reapers activity was also high. Sebris will be back from vacation soon to resume Palaestra duties. In his stead, Xoza has taken in upon himself to develop new training protocols and courses that are absolutely amazing and will be implented shortly.

Terra by Hollowmengitus Yifu

We are Terra. We don't do poetry; mainly because FireFox cannot read it, but...

From Afevis for Insidiae A majority of the squad used this week as a break for personal reasons, and as a small recovery from last week. Next week will see a major step-up in our activity once more. :]

From Teron for Antesig: A2 had some decent raids, fighting extremely well against superior odds (Proud of you guys). We’ve started some tryouts with a few Ordo members for our 2 open slots. So if you’re interested in A2, now’s the time to speak to the Shark, Fennec or Sergal about it. Development is underway on our new A2 Unique gear, moving away from “Tank Squad” to new official roll “Heavy Support”. Due to Keller’s HDD crash all hands are on deck pitching in to get us squared away ASAP.

From Stirn for Invictus: This week has been another in a chain of several very active weeks for Invictus. In which Invictus has deployed onto many more battle fields, descending from the skies against many more foes, claiming many more victories in the name of the Imperator. On another note: Invictus has finally gotten a brand new and more spacious station in orbit over Titan, allowing for less crowded conditions while awaiting battle. A memorial service dedicated to the retirement of the 'Ramen Bowl' was held shortly after its decommissioning. As for recruitment, open slots are quickly filling as more hopefuls move to possibly fill the gaps, if you're someone who is interested in joining Invictus, make sure you express interest to the CO: Eriksson Foxtrot, or the XO, Stirn Aurotharius. Be sure to make a move before everyone else has!

From Thatguy for Cohors B: Not too much to report this week for Cohors B, besides a small personnel-increase with the new guys coming in through Schola. A reminder to any Cohors B personnel (or anyone in general, really) Firefox's open door policy is in effect, and I encourage you to speak with any of the B CO's if you have any trouble with anything or need any help. Other than that, I'm looking to a more active week next week as schedules have been made and event planning in effect!

That concludes the report for Terra.

Tactica by Corsi Mousehold

Roses are Red. Violets are Blue. Here's the Tactica report just for you. That's about as Poetic as we get.

Going to be rather short this week. For a few days, BSM and X-Corps shifted to I-1 targets but they are back to E-8 as before. We have one new military on the board set as O-1. Grand Federation has returned and have adopted the RCU's Cairo Conventions. In other words we can go there and cause complete havok. One of the command leaders there is Kacen formerly of RCU. Other than that still no word from CS, or Catalyst but checking in they are still recruiting. Pax Imperia started rebuild number two and the Alliance Navy again started rebuilding again without having opened. That's all from Tactica this week.

Keynote Topics by the Imperator

Development

Mm... news from the world of slave laboring. Let’s see: as a recap, new minigun and rocket launcher model completed and in scripting. I have beta versions of both and have griefed various officers liberally with them. No changes to be noted on power armor unit; will kidnap animator and torture him until the deformations animations are complete (ilu).

Titan wise: lot of good news on the commercial front. Titan is making significant headway with the Leviathan line. The company is steadily picking up back to post-economic-meltdown levels. A new model was just completed—something to compliment the C-20. A C-14 Gauss Rifle! Additionally, M200 nearing completion.

Thank you to all of our hard workers in development, both Titan and Ordo. You guys (and girls) make a world of difference every day.

ART

ART sessions goin’ well. Thank you to everyone who has participated thus far. Tomorrow at 5:00 we will be holding yet another. This round will be a “qualifier” round, for anyone who has already participated in a Phase 1 course. Please come prepared and ready to spend a good hour or two on the battlefield. Highly recommended that would-be participants take the opportunity before then to brush up on lingo and practice with battle buddies during defense. If all goes as planned, it should be a blast!

Initiates / Command Shifts

Over the last week, I took the opportunity to review all existing Guard and officer staff. I will be releasing personal briefs to each of them regarding their performance and provide some quick feedback. As part of this, we have taken the opportunity to reassign individuals out of the administration bracket who may be better suited elsewhere. Let me be clear, no one is shamed and “demoted;” some folks are simply better fit or in situations that officer status is not necessary. It is necessary to make these changes from time to time, to ensure our administration and chain of command remains solid.

Additionally, I will be spending time this evening setting up the forum permissions for all of the new Initiates. I apologize for the delay on that. I need to prune all of our voting posts so you can’t see who voted for you, ha ha. That should be up and good to go by Sunday night.

Dependent upon scheduling by Mr. Tretiak and the Evocati, I may require Initiates to begin their officer seminars. I will notify you if that is the case. However, I am under the belief that Guard command has tasks for you to complete already, and will not torture you. Yet.

Visitors / Treatment of Visitors

There’s something I’d like to address that has an impact on all of you. Our interactions with outsiders—both hostile and unknown. I have noticed a bit of a trend that has both positive and negatives to it. However, we should really do away with the negative portions.

Last week, I mentioned the expectation that rule breakers be given a sort of “three step” punishment—warning, minor rebuke, major rebuke. That expectation leads into this topic: a kind of quasi-xenophobia and over sensitivity to security matters. Now, do not get me wrong: security and being guarded is extremely important in our case. We deal with a whole lot of griefers and even more folks who generally just want to do us some harm. So I definitely understand where this sensitivity to visitors comes. However, it is important to exercise discretion in all matters—to let the human touch apply, rather than cold black/white approach.

What I mean by this is twofold: for non hostile visitors, it is important that we really give them the opportunity to make their intentions clear. If someone simply walks out of the spawn and doesn’t immediately answer... let’s try not to assume they’re up to no good. Most folks are in no way used to being contacted the second they enter a sim. Even in the military community: we’re pretty exclusive in our attention to security. Now, that does not mean if they choose to ignore you repeatedly that their attention shouldn’t be “got” through a little forcible coercion. But, use your head.

For example: treat each situation individually and pay attention to potential “red flags” before acting. If a blank avatar with little history enters the sim, but has payment info... the chances they’re there for bad stuff is actually fairly low. Not everyone wants fifty groups, a profile picture, and picks describing their love for X and Y. It’s very possible that the avatar is legit and they’re just there to visit. On the flip side, if that same avatar teleports in and is 31 days old, no payment info, and starts rezzing cubes in the hub... yeah, that would warrant more aggressive observation and interaction.

In both scenarios, the core first impressions are there: blank avatars, relatively “noobish,” possibly griefer accounts . . . the difference being the actions the characters took and how they were interacted with.

I am very keen on security. I find it incredibly important. But I am also keen on ensuring the Ordo is presented well to our visitors—that random account could be our next member, a supporter abroad, etc. Their perception of the Ordo will be based off that interaction. If they get gunned down repeatedly without ever giving any indication that warranted it... well, their perception of the Ordo is going to be shitty.

In short: with visitors, exercise discretion. Watch individuals, ensure they’re not up to anything malicious... but give them the benefit of the doubt until they take an action that warrants our response (see: shotgun to face). If we treat every visitor as a friend until they demonstrate they’re not, I promise we’ll have a lot more friends. Haha.

Now. Secondly: hostile forces in the region. Two items to mention here: on a command level, and on an individual level.

On a command level, I encourage the NC/OICs to use discretion in the application of rules. Officers really have the most authority here, but, it wouldn’t hurt to express it in general. Our region rules are /definitely/ meant to be followed, but we shouldn’t be afraid of letting the little things slide if it’s beneficial to the combat experience. For example ... yeah, we do not allow for more than a certain number of rez slaves, or a certain distance on explosives. By all means, that should be enforced. But let’s say we have a few attackers who are otherwise well behaved, but their guns happen to infringe on one of those aforementioned rules by a meter or one too many rez slaves: there is no real harm in allowing the battle to continue, then addressing it after the fact.

Of course, again: use your head. Do not make huge exceptions to the rules for “fun.” That’s not permissible. But don’t force feed schematics down someone’s throat until the battle is no longer enjoyable for either side.

On an individual level: I want to remind everyone that it really is not tolerable to befuddle the communications channels or to contact enemies with accusations. For example: “X is wireframing!” “X is shooting through walls!” “X’s gun is really spammy!”

Notate incidents on public communications that are pertinent to battle. Ex: “X is moving north; heavy weapon.” Notate complaints privately to the commander. “X appears to be wire framing, he keeps shooting through a wall.” There is absolutely no reason we should have people calling out complaints on Ventrilo or on coms. It really kills the mood and inspires others to make the same complaints. Not to mention, it makes it difficult for orders to be passed out. /Definitely/ voice the complaint, but do so privately to the folks who can take care of it --- officers, estate staff, the base commander. Etc.

Additionally, remember it is not the place of an Ordo member to establish contact with foes to criticize or complain. Leave it up to the NC/OIC or an officer.

The tl;dr version of the last topic: use your head, make combat fun, don’t complain needlessly. Compliance to the aforementioned makes Aryte happy.

Question by Kaska Czarny

What would be done if an attacker was, for example, wireframing and primshooting, but there were no active EMs online sir?

Imperator's Response

If there are no estate security to take care of it and the individual is forcibly non-compliant, there's the glorious hub-camp to rely on.

Enriching Base Life

Phew. Now that I have that out of the way (damn, didn’t realize how long that was). Let’s talk about enriching base life—a topic we’ve glanced over a dozen times so far, hah. We’ve got several big ideas in the works—one of which is so badass I’ve been told I can’t talk about it or I’ll be hated forever by Munitorum. Nevertheless, as always, I really would love everyone’s feedback on ideas that would make Titan more entertaining for the Ordo members.

For example: Darkstalker mentioned arenas—as did Gen Scientist. This is something we’re going to move forward with, potentially as additions/variations to the killhouse. Eliza long ago brought up fishing: we did it for a while on the sim before transitioning the build . . . but we’ll bring that back now that things are settled.

Ethan brought up the idea of perhaps having a “game night” dependent upon weekly performance. For example, if we had . . . say, 25 raids the week before, we would spend Saturday night after the meeting just goofing off. Not entirely sure if we’ll go with that, however it was worth mentioning.

I will drop another forum post about this for folks to simply brainstorm and drop ideas. Also, feel free to comment on the ones I posted above. Thank you!
/>http://forums.ordoimperialis.com/index.php?/topic/12835-enriching-base-life/

Closer

Aryte Vesperia: That said. Promotions will be up tomorrow. Good meeting. Welcome to the new folks in the crowd. Pleasure to have you with us! I'll be around working on forum crud for the Guard. Dismissed. GO GET RAIDS PLZ.

Aryte Vesperia snaps his fist to his chest, presenting a brief salute.

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>Imperator's Weekly Meeting Report-V.2 Revision MAY2010

***END OF REPORT***