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*cleans dust all around*

Wow… been a while.

I definitely need to add some more in this, but I’m at this point where going on developping a char without being actually in game gets hard for me… What can I add for the moment?

I’ll probably rewrite her backstory in something more fashionable… post it on the boards rather than here… Just need to gather time and wits first, and clearly see how I can organize stuff. It’s been a bit too long to my liking, but well. Maybe I can get some time in the upcoming days to at least read all the stuff I’ve missed on the boards 😐

By the way, I like the screenshots so far. Keth looks cool this way ^_^

A beginning on finding names…

Been browsing through my old Mage books in search of inspiration; can’t say I found interesting names, but Technocracy Asembled is still a damn good book to put people back in the setting (New World Order… yumm!).

Some suggestions thrown in by Merry this morning. Adding them to the crackpot as further reference, no decision being taken yet anyway:

– Omni-Com Investigation Bureau
– The Jen Network (and NO, I won’t accept this, let’s get serious, dammit! Why not Jennifer Government while we’re at it, ROFL!)
– Rome Covenant [idea beind that one is the guild is named after the secret pact between old friends that creates the guild in the first place] – Arcanum Rubika (I have no idea about this one, or maybe I had but was too sleepy at 6:30 am to hit the mark? Oh well *notes down too*)

And I should stop goofing around with stuff like “The Cypherpunks” *LOL*

Discussed with N. too. We can’t have too an “official” name, especially if we go the “mercenary” way, but we still need to keep some serious name. Ie no “Legion of Doom” stuff, it’s not sounding serious enough. Ah, the pain, the pain!

I’m gonna try the Digital Web for more info, one never knows, some names may ring a bell and such. Damn. I so lack imagination sometimes, it’s really a shame.

As an answer to a question asked to me yesterday… I guess it needs a few precisions. Just some nitpicking, I know, but still…

Extraction jobs: Nothing to do with mining! I have to admit my dull ignorance concerning the right word for this (in French we would say ‘extraction’, all that simply, hence my mistake if there is one…). And this comes from my former RP-days in CyberPunk 2020, where it happened to our group of ‘punks to perform this kind of jobs.

Basically, you can consider that an “extraction” consists in ‘retrieving’ a person (or an item, but it’s funnier with a person), while giving it the look of an abduction. Example: A scientist working for Corporation A wishes to stop his job there and work for Corporation B. Unfortunately, if he does this using the regular way, Corporation A will have his hide before he gets the chance to ‘escape’. Thus, he hires the services of a group of people who will set his ‘abduction’, and then help him transfer into Corporation B’s territory. This way, appearances are so to say ‘intact’, and the man has a better chance of surviving once having found shelter on the other side of the fence. (Note that a person can be ‘extracted’ against her will too!)

May raise many problems, and I don’t really know if it could be done in circumstances specific to OT (Engy wanted to be transferred to nano-research department?… Nuh-huh… lame); but for instance, it’d be a lot funnier to ‘help’ a Clanner switch to OT this way than simply have the player click on a stupid form, isn’t it? I’m not sure if people tend to do this a lot when wanting to switch? Yet throwing the idea in could then be a funny thing… And following the example above – a Clanner engy/scientist/useful person could *also* been forced to ‘work’ for someone else this way…

Okay, now I highly doubt we’ll get to do this very often, but it can still be fun to play.

Notes of the day…

Availability:
Having to work for school some more again this week, thus I won’t be *very* often in game. I’ll however do my best to be on AORC (chat client) every evening (that makes around 5-8 pm GMT during weekdays), which will allow me to take care of certain matters if there’s need, or at least, if it switches me to auto-AFK, to *log* /tells. Any questions, suggestions or whatever – you can address them to me this way for the moment. I’m so sorry for the lack of availability, but it’s only gonna last for one month, and after this – I’m free of exams, school, and all the chores linked to this state of being.

Name:
We’d really need a name. Really. I realize that it’s a bit hard to choose as long as the org’s settings aren’t completely defined – or at least, defined enough for us to find a name that’d suit – but on the other hand, it’d already make things more present too. So, if any of you has ideas about this, even if not really pondered or simply thrown in, it’s already a good way to start (the way I’m forced to keep focused on my Russian beer project for my exam, I don’t trust myself at the moment to really find good names… *coughs*). As long as we don’t end up with some cheesy gothic stuff such as “Dark Harbingers of Terrifying Death”, I’m, as usual, open to suggestions. I can bring some former RP-groups names that we had come up with when playing table-top (yesh, I keep a very fond memory of this “Nephilim Agency” we had created in Mutant Chronicles, and I have to admit that our little mavericks’ agency was really interesting to conceive…), but it’s not necessarily fitting the (future) mood, so well. I’ll try to think more, and more seriously, also, about this too!

Recap on role:
Trying to focus back more on WHAT our goals will be. Short-styled list here, for I tend to blabber too much when trying to explain things…
– Intel gathering to help the Corporation
– Support to other (RP mostly) orgs. This can include: blitzing, exchange of item/services…
– Security: help in tower battles for those who want to do some PvP; other, more RP-bent stuff such as hiring our services for grid-security, maybe bodyguards, etc etc
– Extraction (that’s something I’ve never played in AO, but damn, for once it’d be fun)

Basically, I guess we can put all of this into the “support/security” category. Depends also on our official stance (see next paragraph)…

IMPORTANT NOTE:
We have to decide whether we want to “work” directly for OT and sort of “give” our services, or do it in a more “mercenary way” and stop doing stuff for free! And I think it’s a decision that should be taken quite quickly – and not only by me, that is.

OT department:

Pros:
– Official stance. Can use the former SPARTA background as a reference of quality and link to other orgs we had ties with, too
– Official authority. Gives us the right to clear the way to operate the way WE want to do it, and this while being backed by the Corp itself. Avoids “you have no orders to give us” stuff

Cons:
– Not much profit credits-wise (but do we really need lots of creds just for the sake of creds?)
– WE AIN’T OMNI-POL, DAMMIT! Stop wanting us to arrest criminals, and don’t treat us as “military people”! 😉

Rogue org:

Pros:
– We do money
– We don’t need to wait for “approbation” or “authorizations”
– We can choose the jobs
– If we fuck up, it’s not directly OT’s fault

Cons:
– Depending on the contracts, we’ll need to be powerful enough to bring the other orgs what they want. 10 people won’t do –> need to recruit fast –> may become a “quality personnel” problem. (I.e. I really don’t see an org like MR or Chimera ‘paying’ us to help in pvP *lol*)
– Need to be extremely careful in choosing our ‘contracts’, in order to avoid ending up doing the wrong stuff (i.e. people hiring us to do a dirty job that, in the end, will cripple the Corporation)
NOTE: ‘Payment’ doesn’t need to be in *money*. We can pretty well exchange services, info, protection, items, etc etc…

OR, as an intermediary solution, we can do both, although I’m not sure how we could fit this in. I mean, making people pay for certain services and not for others will be… odd. Unfair, too. Seems that adopting a direct stance is the best bet in our case.

Okay… I suppose I’ve forgotten some more stuff, but my mind is blank at the moment, so I’ll check this again later…

A few precisions, notes, stuff I forgot to add, etc…

And thanks to Iragael for reminding me of that in the e-mail! 😉

Recruitment: I’m a bit short on time to re-check it all, but did I forget to mention the *interview* process? If I did, my mistake! So yes, there will be an interview. maybe not left to my only care, but at least with the [insert 1st ranks of org]. Probably the Director/Board members/Executives-etc stuff, by the way. Sounds better than the Democracy titles… I think.

Another thing that came back to mind, too – “guild hoppers”. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t accept them; after all, our former org disbanded, that doesn’t make us people not fit for an org. I’d rather be wary, though, of people who:
a) were in 10 different guilds in the past 6 months (that looks more than shady then… why did they leave so often, were they expelled for wrong behavior, etc etc). Especially if they’re known for having spit crap about their former orgs, because, well, then they can do the same again with us, can’t they?
b) were in more “shady” orgs. I.e. a sudden new applicant who, how surprising, was in KFM not two weeks ago. May sound wary, but it’s not the first nor the last time someone tries to infiltrate an org (*coughs* OP *coughs*). We can’t keep track of alts that people may use to ‘spy’ (although using alts in that case isn’t very… “RP-ish”), but if it’s their main chars, better stay wary. (I’m paranoid, I know!) Probation period can be used for watching them more closely, also, yet once the worm’s in the apple, it adds a risk. Should we take it? Can also be a pay-off at times, in spite of all, if the person really left out of sincerity.

Level limit: Maybe up it a little later? Don’t know. Some Rpers I know can take a long time to level, and I wouldn’t want to spoil people of their chances due to a level limit. oh well. As long as we don’t set a minimum of level 75+, to be discussed too.

Taxes: Discussed it again. Damn, I can’t decide, really. Group discussion on this once the boards are up.

As for the rest, well…

Some more political stances:

We’ll sooner or later come to this too, and things certainly need to be clarified on this point.

As I said somewhere else in here (or discussed it in private chat session? Damn, already memory leaks… I’m getting old!), I won’t require people to be the complete ‘hardcore OT employee’. If they want to play their char this way, fine with me. If they want to play in a more shady way, and adopt a more ‘tolerating’ stance (whether the char feels this way or not… acting up can help in gathering info, I know what I’m talking about), that’s fine with me too.

Stance on OT: As we’re gonna be loyal to the Corporation, I think it’s pretty clear on this point. Either you try to convert Clanners & such to join us or simply consider that as long as OT has the lease on RK, it’s our right to stay, act and lead, or take on any other ‘loyal’ stance. All of these look fine to me, and diversity never killed people. As long as ‘the heart of the char’ stays loyal… attitude is, well, just an attitude. Depends on how you wish to gather info and have contacts on RK ^_^

Stance on Neutrals: the way I’ve been playing this char, ‘despising neutrals’ wasn’t part of my RP. They could prove not only kind people, but also very useful when it came to more intelligence-oriented jobs, or simply keeping informed on some more specific stuff. Better have them as ‘friends’ than enemies, in any case. No open despising would seem a good policy, whether we consider them ‘OT employees that don’t want to admit it’, ‘posible new recruits’, or whatever else. I personnally think that a certain open-mindedness can be a pay-off. THis being on a general point of view, because some ‘Neutrals’ do really seem to only have that name, and not really be it at heart, huh. Let’s put it this way: if they claim themselves Neurals AND act as such, then let them breathe. If they are listed as neutral BUT perform dangerous stuff (Neo-Luddites, NLF, etc), then it can end up meaning war.

Clans: Is there really need to define a very specific stance about them? Hmm. I’d say no open hostilities as long as it’s not required. I.e. if ‘warrior’ Clanners decide to look for a fight and plan on acting against OT, then we strike back. If they are calm people, better not push them to change their minds, so to say. Preventing problems is always a better way than fighting them once they’re here, in a way. But once they’re here, well, shoot on sight.

We may need to rund a few angles, but just no sickening tree-hugging, it’s getting old very quickly :p

Just another reminder for me to discuss later on. We had uniforms in SPARTA. Do people want uniforms in the new org? To tell the truth, IC speaking, Jen doesn’t really care, although sometimes, a more official clothing can prove useful (yeah, I know she’s damn hot in her InternOps suit ^_^). But we won’t be that official either, or at the least it’s not planned at the moment. So maybe something a litle more… casual? I don’t know. Would be nice to have a general clothing for the org members, something that would ‘mark us all’ as part of it, but… I have to check what’s available. Any idea welcome on this too.

Some more thoughts pondered yesterday in the train. Still not very organized, but well…

Recruitment

Now that’s something to be set quickly, because I DON’T want any random recruiting of newbies. Not only because it can lead to very nasty surprises, but also because it doesn’t show the org under a good light, so to say.

I guess we could already go with a 100% IC policy. That’s not that hard to achieve, and even if /org is kept IC, people can still use /tells and the famous (()) or brackets or whatever to talk OOCly when there’s need.

Probation period: would 2 months sound good? It allows to see how a person behaves, even if said person isn’t online too often. Or so I think. Seems not too long, although I know of some peps who’d think it is. To be pondered too. It’s the same length as ‘probation period’ in a true company IRL, after all (or at least mine was!).

Restrictions: I don’t really plan on a restriction on breeds. However, a restriction on level could help in sorting things. Let’s say… minimum level 20? It’s not hard/long to achieve, ‘even for roleplayers’, and it’s already a good start to see if the player will play her char a little seriously at least.

Alts: Hard to tell whether leaving alts outside would be a good idea or not; however, a few of us already planning on playing ‘alts’, it’d be kinda hypocrit to state a ‘main char policy’. I won’t require the char to be the ‘main’, although it’d be good to state clearly that if it’s an alt, the person is expected to play a bit more than once in a blue moon. However, having one’s main AND one or several alts is something I’d like to avoid. Lots of us/future members surely have more than one char, but putting them all in the org just for the sake of it is… bleh. “No alt policy” then.

Taxes: errm… well, dunno. I don’t even know how the tax system works in this game. On the one hand, it’d give a few funds to the org to start with; on the other hand, well, the average RPer isn’t known for being very rich, and I’m not feeling really at ease with the tax idea. To be discussed too.

First shoot of the day… something about the THEME. Gonna use the chars’ names directly, so that it’s easier to know who will be part.

First discussion: with Merryman from SPARTA.

Trying to focus on a theme around which to build the org. Giving it a feling of Shadowrun, maybe. Something less official than our former guild had been – not OTSEC and open stance like we previously had. This will still include OT loyalty; we’re NOT turning criminals, or approving criminal orgs in any way, and our ‘past’ can’t be forgotten given our reputation, but I guess we can allow us a bit more freedom on this. Jen wouldn’t be the kind of leader to enforce military ways, especially considering that she’s always been acting pretty rogue herself, working on the fringe rather than in the hardline spotlight. So if people want to be a little more shady and use shadier means to get to their goals, well, that’s fine with me. As long as they don’t actually *turn* traitors.

Second discussion with Leera on ICQ, then in game with Merry too.

Tried to get a clearer definition of our goals, although it’s far from being done yet. Threw in the idea of mavericks from Mutant Chronicles (not the pseudo tabletop Warhammer 40k too many people tend to see in this game, but the way *I* played it with my former group): detectives, emrcenaries, support team, not overpowerful, but doing their job professionnally. People must be able to trust us, and like our services (whatever the services may be!). Security work too, maybe – Grid security (even if this has no incidence in the game system as it is now, but RP wise it’s still very fun to play), recce ops in enemy territory… let’s see what it can become.

Not knowing yet with what OT service we’ll be affiliated. polcie… not really. InternOps… maybe, if we go on, at least partially, on the road we used to tread before, ie gathering intel and sing it to help the Corporation and prevent damages to be done against it. Omni-Trans… unless we turn into an OT version of the Mockers, I’m really not convinced. Omni-Admin… nope. Unless someone gives me a frigging good reason to. To be decided later on.

Stance on PvP: we can ad a ‘help fellow OT orgs to defend their towers’. I’m pretty sure I could work out something with Draco Legionis and a few other orgs abou this point. We may be crap at PvP, but providing buff or moving targets (LOL) to keep the enemy busy can always be useful. Besides,some of us seem to be willing to give PvP more than a single look, so let’s go. No uber org, Tarasque raids and uber phat lewt, but if people want to go have fun this way, I’m NOT gonna prevent it!

Working for someone: Merry talked about his friend, the ‘spoiled OT brat’. To be see what can be done, for I don’t really want the group to be ‘used’ by someone to do the dirty job for him, so to say. But any ‘coworker’ is welcome. May turn to interesting leadership contestation RP later on, though I don’t want such stuff for the moment, when the org is still in the process of being born!

Stance on other orgs: Some of us will have a strong past with certain more ‘criminal’ orgs, or at least not as ‘loyal’ as we were. My advice on this: no provocation, at least for the moment, no open war. We’re not looking for more enemies, and if we need to pay/befriend people inside an org to get info or whatever, we have to be able to do it. This is a fresh start of some sorts, so to say. I’m not gonna a jump at DA’s or KFM’s throats, and we don’t have any more to do with our former org, so let’s try to put this behind, and not get it out of the drawer too much. However, we won’t encourage crime either. Our methods can be shady, but if something proves to be able of endanger the Corp… then we need to act.

Third discussion with Iragael and Relane, then adding Moradus.

Ira’s and Rel’s experience in other MMORPGS and big guilds will certainly prove very useful, that is. Some discussions about the org system of leadership. Can’t prevent the AO system to give ‘one’ director/chief to an org, but I’m really not against a board of advisors/whatever. Most of us already know each other, and if it can help the org, well, I’m not a dictator, and I don’t want to become one. Whether we’ll be a ‘faction’ or any other type of org will be decided later on. ‘Faction’ still seems the better though. Anachy is NOT envisioned, military type is bof-bof, and monarchy/feudalism does sound very very weird (‘Queen Jen’… errm no. Definitively NO!). Not sure about what’s left after this. The Director/Board member.Executives etc seem to work the best. Unless we choose the other one, the one which name I don’t rememebr, but that has the ‘Advisor’ rank in it? Anyway – the ‘founders’ will certainly act as a Board, unless they don’t want to. I’ve never led a guild before, and I sure as hell definitely need to take some more advice 😉

From Ira (after having explained that having had no Docs or Enfs in SPARTA had sometimes be a real bother): “Let’s say you put through a request to Omni-Pol, or Omni-Tek, to have an Enforcer and a Doctor assigned for your new organization, since you didn’t have any.” Works with me folks. Just don’t write any org name or whatever yet if we haven’t decided on one yet when you add this to your story 😉

ORG CREATION: Not yet, people. Only once the THEME is completely defined, or at least defined enough for us to be able to answer questions from people ouside of the org. NO wandering with the [brand new org]above our heads, and not knowing what to answer if someone aks us “what are you guys doing in your org”.