[jw] Game Mechanics and Military Units
Day 2,080, 05:26
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Published in United Kingdom 
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by
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by Hell The Great
Before I delve into this inevitablely controversial piece, let me first explain exactly what I mean by game 'mechanics'. This is a phrase which is used all to often by people, without actually truly defining what it means; how are newer generations or players who have only just started to think about how the game works supposed to keep track of all this?
When talking about Game Mechanics the above picture is basically the best representation. When talking about this topic, we're basically talking about what makes eRepublik tick. That is, how it works, what is required, and what we think the best way to try and utilise the rules that eRepublik operates within to gain advantages for the UK.
Mechanics govern every part of eRepublik; because it is a game with predefined outcomes based on actions. The mechanics of war require you to;
- Have an open war with the enemy (started via Air Strike [AS], Declare War [DW] or Natural Enemy [NE] laws through Congress)
- Have a border with any region of the enemy
The latter rule overrules the former; so the moment you no longer have a region with an enemy, your war is closed. The only exception to this rule is the first battle of an Air Strike, where borders are not required. After the first battle, a border is required, because an Air Strike only covers one battle: afterwards the normal rules of War apply.
This is just a basic demonstration of what I'm talking about here: there can be no politisation of these things: these are the facts and rules that we operate under. It is not decided by any one group or party; it is set by Admin. This is why discussions about Game Mechanics should, necessarily and obviously, be nonpartisan - parties and individual players have little baring on the current game mechanics. eRepublik also has an awful record about improving or changing game mechanics based on player feedback, so in truth, Game Mechanics is the one thing in eRepublik that all players, regardless of the party they are in, can agree on; they are objective facts above and beyond argument.
The big but in all of this, is of course, about the variations of taking advantage of game mechanics. This, the how, is always a contentious issue. The game sets out the destination: we have to change based on new rules, events and things introduced into eRepublik. However, how we do this, when we do this, and who is responsible is something we as a country have to agree upon and decide. Normally this means Government, however as we have seen with Military Units like Legion, BA, Navy, DC et al, things are not necessarily the responsibility of government(s) these days.
I bring up the subjects of MUs because we have a recent game mechanic update. A quick trip to your local MU homepage will show a huge amount of screen space dedicated towards units performance in competitions. If you are not interpreting this as a game mechanic update, then goodness, we will disagree on many things about eRepublik. The pictures are there, the space is there; eRep never introduces something it doesn't have to.
Thus, take it as a given, MU Competitions are here to stay. Not only did they invest time and effort, its another way to make people buy Gold. Trust me, I've played this game a long, long time, any and every thing which increases the amount of Gold bought, will not be removed.
So, with this new MU Competition, we have a new destination. We need a simpler, less fractured and much more structured and concentrated system of Military Units. The only way we could have a Military Unit in the top 50, is for the top 3 to merge; Legion, DC and British Army. Even then, its not a certain that we'd get in; we'd probably need to look at including other big hitters such as TUP Family, Royal Navy; essentially, any MU which isn't a one man show, is damage which could and should be concentrated to ensure in the future we have a chance in these competitions.
This is hardly a new thing; we had a centralised Military for years; the only difference was it was Government owned and run. I am not proposing a return to this, nor am I going to tar this proposal with the name 'Government' or 'National' Military. Such a name brings back memories of some good times, but mostly, headaches and problems.
What I'm proposing is incredibly simple. Its time for the commanders of our big Military Units to face the facts. We are a long, long way, from being the military power of Serbia, Poland, USA, et al, who manage to get into the top 50 without centralising their power. Lithuania, France, Albania and Taiwan, countries who consistently do less damage than us, and Finland, normally below us but above us recently, were all comfortably in the top 50 MUs. Why? Because they centralise.
It may not sound like a lot to players who buy gold, who have no need to worry about money or fighting because they've played for a long time like me, or others who don't really care one way or another, but the rewards of this MU competition are no longer just financial. Its not just about money, Energy Bars, etc. There are bigger, better rewards. The ability to set orders for ANY campaign. This is an extra 5 gold thats possible every once in a while; MUs can help people get Mercenary Medals. But more importantly than that, it means we can help our allies ANYWHERE in the world. Surely that is the most important thing?
There is absolutely no need for Government to try and meddle in the affairs of private units. Every unit which supplies obviously involves some form of competency and capability; this is something which can be discussed, evaluated and hopefully actioned by Military Units themselves. Private citizens, doing the right thing for our country. Wouldn't that be great? Of course!
So pull your fingers out Commanders, and soldiers, make sure you're pressuring your commander to get some investigating done. There are preliminary talks between a few MUs, and I'm more than happy to help any and everyone in discussing this; lets do the right thing and put the UK, and UK players above any petty squabbles or history.
~jw
PS: For those who are wondering what Government should do about utilising the 'Battle Orders' tool, its pretty simple. Get everyone who owns an MU and is willing to co-operate into a group PM with Cabinet, give everyone in Cabinet access to an org with a bit of GBP in. As and when the need arises, send GBP to the first MU Commander who responds to the group message, who can then set the Battle Order. Simples!
PPS: If you want to share it;
Military Units and Game Mechanics: time to merge?
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/2299273
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PS: For the 'but what if people dont want to join' brigade. That is something Commanders will be able to respond to much better than I: everyone knows the reason why they haven't already joined Legion or British Army. So respond to their issues, propose alternatives and solutions. Tell us what the issues are, then we can try to help to resolve them.
May as well let MUs keep their names and command/supply structures within the new single MU.
Otherwise you have to fund all supply and make names and avatars to keep everyone happy, which won't happen.
Obviously. I thought it was so obvious I didn't even mention it - theres obviously no way that all MUs will want to merge supplying, nor is it really workable to have one huge command responsible for hundreds of people. But at the same time, I don't see having various 'teams' responsible for supplying getting in the way with a single streamlined MU identity.
still reckon a new MU run by the eMoD is the way. The current Minister, and a junior Minister, is set as the Commander & 2-i-C when the CP changes and when the MUT occurs, all eUK fighters switch to the national MU. Anyone not wishing to participate can assume the role of Commander for their current MU, if that Commander actually wants to switch too. The MUs continue to supply their former members as usual. Orders are set centrally, as captains won't be appointed as the MUT currently occurs mid-term.
The flip-side is that the usual MUs will likely not have captains when the MUT finishes, but the Admins surely could tweak the Captain elections to be on the 1st of the month .. Seems silly to have it the same day as PP elections anyway.
We very rarely get enough notice to ensure everyone is moved and sorted in time for the beginning of competitions. It would also be much easier to control the UKs damage and ensure everyone fights where they are needed the most if we're in the same place.
Not to mention the possible benefits (an MU with the power to set orders ANYWHERE)...
If there was to be a reinvented national MU - and there has been a lot of cross-party talk about this recently - then I think it should be independent of government like the old Navy. It should choose its own commanders, its own C-in-C, its own generals and it should decide how it is run - not the Government. If there is a "MoD" he/she should simply be a liaison between the Gov and the independent national MU. The MoD should have no power over what is going on the national MU imo
I agree with this partially, I think the commander of the MU should be in Cabinet essentially fulfilling the role of the MoD but being a more permanent position rather than new MoD's each month.
Or we could also have a MoD who handles the orders and supplies
The problem with it being ran by whoever the MoD is that month is that you are hoping that that particular individual is competent at the role. There has been a few commanders of whatever the national army was at the time who directed damage badly etc... OK, so with the competition the "where" is less important, but I think any national unit would would better served with a fixed member in place free of political interference (no chance)
v.
Nothing stopping everyone from shuffling into the top national MUs for the duration of the tournament, leaving babysitters to secure the original units. Dropping of the CS requirements for unit membership, and being able to lockdown the unit are interesting changes, too.
if you win the ability to set any battle as DO no matter country is that for the life of the MU or just until the next competition?
as long as your still in the top 50
i guess theres no point suggesting that we get legion, DC and BA in over 3 competitions then
In the first MU Competition, practically all of the DC did move into the Legion as they were the biggest existing MU at that point and it made sense. However, the leaders of the British Army refused to advise their members to move as they wanted to challenge as the eUK's number one unit. You only need to read the comments of the likes of Commander Dapper in this article:
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/team-gb-all-together-now-2261503/1/20
As we saw in the second MU Competition, the British Army didn't do much as they saw the sort of damage that the DC did to finish 2nd as a waste of money and gold.
Quite simply, for as long as the British Army is playing politics, the eUK will never get itself together to finish in the top 50...
Voted.
You can't fight faith.
It's a shame as MUs are cool. But the way eRep is going lead to only one direction and... only one MU.
I think Goku's option described on the forum http://forums.erepublik.co.uk/index.php?topic=87311.0 is a better one
Having separate identities in an MU that size is going to be impossible. The Legion Feed alone is impossible to follow - every 24 hours its pages and pages and pages long. You will then have every other soldier posting about different things; meaning 'individual' units won't be able to really discuss amongst themselves and that form of communication and identity is lost.
Why try to hold onto something that is just going to hold things back? If Commanders truly want to put the country first, there is nothing wrong with just uniting under one common banner with some boring standardised name. Different regiments can be organised however people want to allow for competitions and stuff, but everyone should just be a member of 'New Name Here', not a member of 'Legion aka Regiments 1-6 of New Name Here', etc etc.
The counter point might be;
People like their MU's. It's called an MU "Tournament", not an MU "lets all join together week". Some people don't consider that some MU's might actually like the competition and want to see how much damage they can do in comparison to other MU's. Many people would take greater pride in seeing their MU come a good place nationally than in the top 50 internationally
it's also my opinion that if there was more competition domestically, eUK would do more damage. Would the dentists spend as much gold as they have done for Legion? Would SSG do as much for Legion? Doubtful. And it's good for supplies, with MU's maybe offering more supplies to get more members. All together in one MU doesn't add much incentive to give out competitive supplies.
But never mind all that, maybe if Legion just insult everyone else a little bit more next month their plan might work
There is no real plan to 'merge' into Legion. Everything I've seen so far is to create a completely new unit. Of course, assuming these things reflects purely on you.
In answer to your question of "Would the dentists spend as much gold as they have done for Legion?" then yes we would have.
As per the first competition, we saw it as an opportunity to put the eUK on the map more and try to win prizes for everyone - especially the newer smaller players of whom the rewards are worth a hell of a lot more relatively speaking. We might have been in The Legion MU in appearance but we were really fighting for the eUK. Although the members of DC are proud of what we can do on the battlefield, we don't have so much pride that we cannot fight with others for the common good.
The DC fought under it's own banner this time as the British Army had indicated again a lack of will to co-operate and we were curious as to how much damage we could lay down.
This is a very good response and renews my faith in the DC members. A lot of the stuff that has been thrown about recently has been insult-ridden and illogical. The point is that what we do is for the UK, not for our units. Everything should be subservient to how we can help the UK and how we can help our younger, less-developed citizens who may or may not be very active
tl;dr but it looks promising
Voted, I do hope pigs will fly soon in eUK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg8Rd8pgSbo
Voted. This appears to be the best way forward.
Personally - I see no need for the eUK to have a national unit other than a single man MoD unit with money in for combat orders.
The whole point of a unit would be to ensure orders are followed and damage spent in the correct places. This can be achieved with a combat order, as was discussed on eUK radio last night. The system would also be completely fair and transparent; you put the work in and get the damage = you get the reward. Everyone in the eUK MU scheme would be able to see the order and see our expenditure. The MoD can supply at good rates to get everyone to fight without the need for IRC direct supplying, engaging with more people. The MoD has direct control over spending and orders. The order prevents people from overkilling simply to get the money and promotes smart fighting.
All this can be achieved by a single MoD using a single feature. No egos, no merges, no clashes, no supplies, no tiers, no pain.
Just a more unified damage output where the MoD needs it to be.
p.s.
And if allowing people to enjoy the game in their own units is a sacrifice of a bit of gold/cc/"ePeen" because we're not competing in the MU tournament - fine, thats there prerogative. The bottom line still remains:
The eUK gets structured, controlled and affordable damage with minimal bawwww for maximum output. That gets a big tick from me.
And how would you pay for that?
I sent a bunch of messages to the regular big hitters trying to get them to help get a Top 50 unit...got laughed at or ignored.
i dont like large MUs, for a lot of players the MU feed is their central social hub of the game... DONT TAKE THAT AWAY FROM EM!
eUK would have been 26th internationally if all our damage had been conducted in 1 MU, as it turned out we didn't have a single unit in the top 50.
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/my-first-impression-2299506/1/20
Legion would have been the obvious unit, since it consistently hits the hardest in the eUK and is totally non-political, but I realise it is not that simple for most people, also the fact that certain players would not have tanked so hard for Legion is true, but I still think we'd have gotten into the top 50 easily.
Voted, hope it happens.
I think the fundamental point people are missing is this: We are not aiming to get Legion, or British Army or RADC or Royal Navy into the top 50.
We are aiming to unite and get the eUK into the top top 50. This ain't about the govt controlling anything, this ain't about Legion getting bigger. It's about making sure we get a MU with most of our damage into the top 50 with all the advantages that come with being an elite MU. We could cut around 5 MPPs had we successfully made an MU with 90% of our damage in it inside the top 50.
Voted.