Proposal: Revamping the chain of command

[Kassiopeia]

I took the promotion idea and ran away with it. So I now have a full fledged proposal to redesign our current system (RPing is fun!) of officers, the Junta etc.

With faction and army size growing, we need to establish ranks higher than the Colonel/Commander level.

Here are my suggestions for the General and Admiral level ranks.

Army and Airforce:

Lieutenant General
Major General
Colonel General
General.

"Colonel General" may sound a bit iffy, but it was an actual rank in the Red Army (and the German army, I believe). I also like this system because it makes it more logical, having the "first" rank go up in the same way they do on their own (Lt->Mj->Col). "General of the Army/Airforce" or "General of the Federation" would then be a special title granted to a supreme commander of the armed forces/branch of them when needed (usually in times of war). Under this system, I'm thinking Maniac's full title would be (as de facto head of state) "Lieutenant General Maniac, General of the Federation" after the redesign. The simple honorific title when addressing him would be "General".

The Admiralty would go this way, then:

Rear Admiral
Vice Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Admiral.

Again, I'm pushing the Fleet Admiral title down below "pure" Admiral. This is to make it fit better with the General system and because a navy has several fleets in it anyway, so it makes sense to have several Fleet Admirals and one Admiral. The extraordinary special title for the navy branch would be "Admiral of the Navy" or "Admiral of the Federation" - so I suppose Modo would be "Rear Admiral Modo, Admiral of the Navy" - because he is in charge of the Navy, but not a faction leader per se. (I'm keeping open the option of having a navy officer as faction leader.) If Modo were to lead the faction due to some reason, he'd then be "Rear Admiral Modo, Admiral of the Federation". And, again, in common speech he is simply "Admiral Modo".

Now. I also think we should have all new faction members and all other personnel have the minimum rank of Major. Most of us will be Lt. Colonels, I figure, with me as the only Colonel and Googlie and Maniac as the Generals.

The ballooning of our military also means we have way, way more high-ranking officers than before. I'm thinking in RP terms, this means the Junta is becoming instead of a cabinet of ministers a semi-democratic organ, a parliament of sorts, where the highest-ranking officers meet to make decisions and so on.

Therefore, the cabal that actually makes decisions, wields executive power and generally is the government and head of military itself should be renamed. Perhaps "Council of Command" or something like that. It would have the heads of different branches and departments - Modo as Admiral of the Navy, Googlie as General of the Army, Maniac as General of the Federation, me as the foreign relations representative, etc.

Alternatively, we could just keep with the Junta - we just have to "reduce" it again to cut the line below the rank of Major. I don't really have preference, and in formal lingo the Junta would be assumed the ceremonial ruling body of the Federation. I'm just thinking if we are using a more federal approach to our government, an assembly like the new Junta I'm proposing might work in the scheme of things.

What do you guys think? Am I overdoing it?

[Snoddasmannen]

Re: Proposal: Revamping the chain of command

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
I took the promotion idea and ran away with it. So I now have a full fledged proposal to redesign our current system (RPing is fun!) of officers, the Junta etc.

...

What do you guys think? Am I overdoing it?

You're certainly not overdoing it Kassi, great initiative

RPwise, it all looks great, I just have some questions as to how this would affect the actual game.

Would these branches / departments and their representatives have any actual influence or responsibility in the game? Right now the turnplayer is obviously the single executive branch, who tries to follow the general consensus of the Junta. There's no formal decision making process. An option would be to give branch representatives the option of having the final word on questions within his/her branch. Barring veto action from the General of the Federation I guess.

In general, decisions will probably be made in the same way they are now, but Modo could for instance demand the GT take a certain route home to base. If the turnplayer were to fail to comply, he'd get a right whoopin' on the noggin But Modo wouldn't have to give orders for all ships, most would probably still be at the turnplayers discretion. This would allow somebody (the turnplayer) to still maintain "the big picture" but could allow one player to be completely immersed in his branch, and act as quality assurance if nothing else.

Another idea I like is to have formal process to make decisions. Proposals on policy or other matters could be posted on a (private) website and be voted on by the Junta. Something like a poll here on Polly, but a site customized to this. You could bring up a list of all accepted policies, a list of who voted for what, a discussion around the matter etc ... It would also be nice to have some follow-up to assure that policies are followed and not simply left to rot. Anyway, that's just the php-hacker in me coming out to have a say

[Modo44]

I can live with "Admiral". This needs the proper roleplaying diected at the others. Introducing new mid-level commanders, perhaps?

As to making decisions more official and more direct, that is a double-edged sword. It is fun to feel the control, I admit. But, there could be time problems, and that we do not want. I personally would not want to have direct control of the ships, as I only see them on the screen (of the MCC ). I think the chat is good enough for critical moves. For crucial decisions, we can hold votes, as we did so far. Non-critical moves are handled well enough by informal agreement.

[Maniac]

Good discussion thread.

Some comments & ideas:

How about adding the ranks "Field Marshall" and "Generalissimo" above general? That way we can promote a litte further?

Also, just my personal opinion of course, but I must admit personally I'm not such a big fan of the ranks "Lieutenant/Major/Colonel-General". They don't sound neat IMhO, and also I think it wouldn't make much sense to have for example a Lieutenant-General as highest commander. After all, literally "Lieutenant" means "Placeholder". That made sense for Lt-Colonels while Colonel Santiago was in coma. But now officially calling the guy in charge Placeholder-General sounds rather odd.

Also roleplay-speaking the expansion of our army and increase in high-ranking offiers doesn't necessarily mean RP troubles for our Junta concept. IIRC IRL on Earth a Junta government wasn't necessarily a meeting of all the high-ranking officers. Rather a few selected officers were members of the government. For example a major could be a minister in the "civil" government , while a higher ranking colonel or admiral in the military hierarchy was not.

Nevertheless with more ranks we can of course give many more promotions. Though may I suggest as a precondition for becoming Major having to post at least once in our forum?

PS: what about the idea to call individual units companies instead of brigades?

[Kassiopeia]

Before I reply any further, I have to point out that this would affect ROLYPLAYING. I am not proposing that anyone's role in the current system change at all. If Modo doesn't really want to control the navy, he won't have to, I'm just saying we could use an Admiral RP-wise and he'd fit the bill perfectly. Seriously, the way we ACTUALLY do things does figure into this at all. In any way.

[Snoddasmannen]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
Seriously, the way we ACTUALLY do things does figure into this at all.

doesn't?

Sorry about that, go ahead

[Kassiopeia]

Not the first time I leave a "not" ouf of a sentence

RPwise, it all looks great, I just have some questions as to how this would affect the actual game.

Easy. It wouldn't.

Another idea I like is to have formal process to make decisions.

I see no need for this. IMHO the current situation is working well. We are the only faction apparently without a convoluted bureaucracy, and we are the only faction that hasn't so far used up their warning re: turn turnaround times.

How about adding the ranks "Field Marshall" and "Generalissimo" above general? That way we can promote a litte further?

I don't think they'd fit our atmosphere as a faction, RP-wise that is. "Field Marshal" is such a dusty and old rank, used since time immemorial. I don't really like it to be honest. "Generalissimo" brings to mind people who are anything BUT great military minds - the head dictators of miniscule banana republics, like Fidel Castro.

Also, just my personal opinion of course, but I must admit personally I'm not such a big fan of the ranks "Lieutenant/Major/Colonel-General". They don't sound neat IMhO, and also I think it wouldn't make much sense to have for example a Lieutenant-General as highest commander.

After all, literally "Lieutenant" means "Placeholder". That made sense for Lt-Colonels while Colonel Santiago was in coma. But now officially calling the guy in charge Placeholder-General sounds rather odd.

I have to agree with you, I was just trying to preserve the old system there. However, if we are to progress up the General tree, we really need to have lower General ranks being the ruling ranks for a while, unless we want to jump several ranks at a go so that you and Googlie will have the highest General ranks. I do agree that having the head of the faction have the rank of Brigadier General sounds a bit goofy.

Alternatively, we could make Santiago an honourary General to fix this. I'm thinking she could be a "President General", as our puppet figurehead Head of State.