Join the new world

Well it's been almost one month since the beginning of the implementation of the "Master Plan". If you had the benefit of reading the "leaked" version thanks to the underhand work of some of Ireland's finest, you'll know what it is. What this article is about is how we've got on, what we've been up to, where we stand now, where we went wrong, and where we can go in the future. When you're dealing with major change, and the human element, everything isn't going to be smooth. We've travelled a far way since the start of December, and it's been a learning curve for all of us.

Public relations:

War games releases were on time, but big improvement is needed in this area next term for whoever is in the Ministry for Defence. There have been no recruitment articles, and no university classes, and no code system established, to my knowledge. Presidential and Ministerial articles also havent carried the recruitment link as was planned. As for CoS updates, time spent writing articles is time taken away from doing the organisational work, and thus I feel military articles should primarily be the responsibility of the MoD.

Billeting and forums and IRC

Sign-ins have been far more successful on the google doc than on the forums. Consecutive sign-ins of 151 and 109 over the Christmas period, I feel is exceptional. The forums have been opened up to the public and re-worked, reducing work on the forum administrators. Each division now has their own thread, and their own battle damage report sheet, and comaraderie has been visible. What I'd like to see more of is rivalry between the divisions, more ribbons, more competition. This is a battle after all 😉 We also now have our own password protected IRC channel. 🙂

Deployments and co-ordinated assaults

Mixed results here. By and large our deployments were quite successfully managed, but we were left in a pickle when one CO went MIA when his division were deployed, resulting in them not receiving weapons or tickets. This has lead to a standing order to be issued to CO's, to be in daily contact with their CoS/MoD whilst abroad to ensure the same does not happen again. Also, this was a time when the position of Commander General could have been utilised, but for the lack of communication. Deployments were put on hold for the Christmas period, and I imagine they will pick up again in the New Year.

The Sol games, though frequent, have not always been on the button, so only one co-ordinated assault took place. 20 soldiers took part in the exercise over 15 minutes. Hopefully future co-ordinated assaults will be more successful.

Administration

This was probably the most difficult area to implement, but we're getting there. Our old API roster was bug-filled, wouldnt update properly and also had an issue with people with an apostrophe in their name, meaning they couldnt be assigned to a division. Also, in mid-December, I received a report that it may be subject to some form of cyber attack. So a priority was to find a new and improved API programme. In the last few days, with the aid of Michael Collins and the ingenious web skills and patience of Kavrocks (to whom I am eternally grateful), this has been accomplished. The program is simply stunning.

The CoS/MoD can now assess the location, wellness, strength, damage and max hit of any division at a glance, rank the entire nations soldiers in terms of strength, rank and damage output in an instant, all in real time, updated every few hours, not to mention giving accurate numbers of soldiers, active, inactive or abroad.

Most importantly though, the programme comes with the capability of of issuing battle orders through a battle order script. This means, with Greasemonkey installed, all of your orders, from signing in to fighting in training wars and deployments, will appear right on your homepage on eRepublik. Not bad eh? 😉 This will be rolled out in the next few days.

Spreadsheets have been a contentious issue with CO's, haha. With this new API programme, the need for them is now gone, although CO's can still use them if they want. As for damage reports, two external sites now hold battle records for each soldier, so we will now be able to track our soldiers damage from one war to the next, from one day to the next, one week to the next, whatever we wish. A new spreadsheet taking this reality into account will be designed and distributed to CO's in the coming days.

The War Council also assembled, but was not needed this term.

Companies and orgs

All CO's have an org, depending on which type of division (Regulars, Reserves, Fusiliers or Rangers) they are in. There was some confusion over this at the beginning, but all seems well now. CO's should only read the messages from their own soldiers, and leave the others. It is also a way for accountability, to ensure that each CO is fulfilling their responsibility. Each org also has it's own weapons company, which currently operate as the stae companies. CO's were initially required to manage these companies, but it was recently decided that the workload could be managed more easily by the Minister for Industry (currently Sweet Drinker) so CO's no longer have this added responsibility. Where this can improve in the future is in terms of volunteer work, building up our weapons reserves to over 4000 for emergency measures. With the completion of the hospital, I feel priority should not be given to volunteering in our weapons companies (only Q1) and particulary Moving Tickets. I hope that whoever holds the military reins next month can begin this volunteer drive.

Ranking up strategy and progression

To be honest, this hasnt gone particularly well, due the sheer amount of re-organisation work done this month. CO's have been getting used to their roles, there was a lot of once-off work, and a hell of a lot of messaging, not to mention a lot of resignations, moving around of divisions and soldiers and a whole bunch of new recruits (to be outlined below). There was generally a sense of flux surrounding the IDF during the final re-organisation, so I guess it wasnt to be unexpected. Hopefully this is an issue which can be addressed next month. I think the progression model of how one progresses up through the ranks and the subsequent divisions is working well and will continue to work well. For those unsure of it it goes like this:

* When you sign-up for the IDF as a noob, you are assigned to the 3rd Reserves. This division just teaches you and gives you a moving ticket to move to a region with a Q5 Hospital.
* You then progress to the 2nd Reserves, which is where you learn to fight. Your CO will guide you to the rank of Corporal.
*When you reach the rank of Corporal, and are in a region with a Q5 Hospital, you progress to the 1st Reserves. Here, your CO will guide you in how to use fighting to keep your wellness at 100, and will look after you until you have reached 5 Strength and achieved your 1st Super Soldier Medal. Then you are considered a strong enough soldier to fight for Ireland both home and abroad if necessary.
* Then you progress to one of our Regular divisions, where your Commanding Officer will guide you to increase your rank to Colonel and your strength to 10, whereafter you will progress to the Fusiliers Division.
* You remain a Fusilier until such time as you reach the rank of General, were you progress to becoming a Ranger.
* Once you reach the rank of Field Marshall, you are placed in the tank division, Na Fianna, which means you have ranked up as much as possible.

Communications and Guidelines

Now that we have moved to the new API, things will change slightly. We will still continue to use the old API for people registering for the IDF, as the new API does not accomodate that. Names have to be put in manually in the new one, so people will register on the old one, put in an "Assigned" section and then manually inputed on the new one. As a result of the changeover, several things must be note😛

* CO's can still be mass messaged by the CoS from the old API Mass Mailer.
* CO's can now be part of their own ranked division (ie If a CO is a General, he should in the Rangers Division in order to receive the adequate training aid) as well as commanding their own division. They will have a superior officer, and also be a superior officer to their own division. They follow training and deployment orders from their own Commanding Officer.

Guidelines were drawn up and issued to all CO's through google docs. With new realities and learned experiences, these will now need to be updated, which I will hopefully complete in the next few days. All CO's also have access to the sign-in spreadsheets to analyse which of their soldiers are signing in regularly, and a Working Document, which has pre-written messages (with hyperlinks) on it to reduce the workload on CO's.

Numbers

Total numbers stand at 208, actual active soldiers, no dead ones there. On top of that we have 32 inactives and 37 abroad. Our total number of Regular and high ranking soldiers stands at 158. This is a big big increase from before, where active numbers were quite low.

Commanding Officers

I'll be honest, with the amount of work I tried to get these lads and lassies to do this term, I'm surprised there's any left at all. We had some resignations, and some moving around, with new divisions being created and others merged. Some positions remain to be filled, and some are temporarily away, but here's the look of the land at the moment.

Commander General - Nithraldur
Na Fianna - Patton
Leinster Rangers - conor Forde (currently inactive and due to be replaced)
Munster Rangers - pdiddy
Dublin Fusiliers - Sean Power
Cork Fusiliers - Kit Fisto
Belfast Fusiliers - Dan Murchadh
Dundalk Fusiliers - Kavrocks
1st Regulars - Darragh O Faolain
2nd Regulars - Ian Arbuckle
3rd Regulars - Nephworks
4th Regulars - Semprini (on RL hols)
5th Regulars - (Waiting to be filled)
6th Regulars - (Waiting to be filled)
7th Regulars - Micktrim
8th Regulars - Memphis Raines III
1st Reserves - Navy II
2nd Reserves - Gleb 2006
3rd Reserves - Buddysilver
Foreign Legion - JJ

The Human Element

A lot has been done for the IDF this month. We have so much potential, but as always in situations like this, success comes down to the human element. If you have a situation where everyone is active, pulling their weight and rowing together, you will find success, and vice versa. What's more this is a game. It shouldnt be work. In dealing with his CO's, and MoD, the Chief of Staff has to remember this, and try and get the balance right, not overload his colleagues and make sure the CO's dont feel pressured. On the other side of the coin, he has to make sure his CO's are actually doing their job, otherwise the whole system falls apart. As such, people shouldnt have too high expectations for the IDF. It's a tough balancing act, but one that is crucial to fulfilling the IDF's potential. Applicants with acrobat skills are welcome 🙂

Forum Access and future CoS

Delightfully, one the last events occuring in my time here in Ireland, as Chief of Staff, is the restriction of forum rights from the Private Dáil for the Chief of Staff. I am currently locked out of private dail, without being informed or consulted, bu Kolshire, where TDs are currently discussing the role of the CoS without any input from the actual CoS. As I'm not being given the chance to make my argument there, I'll make it here instead. Considering the Private Dáil is the only place where all military matters are discussed, such as alliances, potential deployments, mpps, the IDF, wars, potential security threats, intelligence and foreign affairs, surely the Chief of Staff should have an input into that? The CoS is also a valuable source of information for the Dáil, in terms of the nations military capability, explaining how mpps work, knowledge of alliances and other nations militaries, etc. The argument of the CoS only having access when necessary is not practical. Situations can arise within a few hours, and the forum administrator may be away for days, meaning the CoS won't have access, and won't actually be able to address TDs anywhere privately.

Of course, there is another argument that there should be more than one forum administrator. Militaries around the world call that the single point of failure, to be avoided at all costs. What if Kolshire suddenly has a RL issue and has to leave the game? Left with no forum administrator and possibly no forum. The dangers of having a single forum administrator, even though he does a fabulous job, have been evident before, in Bryan O'Shea's "Patriots" issue, the TG "Hacking" scandal, and PP's eIRP mess. Ireland should strive to avoid the single points of failure that have afflicted her in the past.

Also, comes the question of where does the CoS fit in? Is it a cabinet role, or is he/she subservient to the MoD?

If I had anywhere to lodge it, I would lodge an official complaint at the lack of courtesy shown by the forum administrator in not even informing me of this issue, and actually assuming I had no meaningful input to make, as he told me on IRC.

It might have come to your attention that I am due to retire from government after 7 successive cabinet appointments. In eRepublik terms, I'm old and gray, and past my sell-by date. Time for the next generation to take over. Over the course of the week,a new Chief of Staff will be appointed, hopefully by consensus of the Presidential Candidates. I look forward to transferring over the ropes to a new young gun 🙂

Final words

Over the next week I'll be updating guidelines and damage report sheets, filling the empty CO positions, rolling out the battle order script and training in the new Chief of Staff. For now, I'd like to sincerely thank all of those that have been involved in the IDF this month. That includes our former Chiefs of Staff Conor Larkin and Nithraldur, all of our current COs and CO's who had to resign, Kolshire for helping with the forums, Kavrocks and Michael Collins for their assistance with the API and battle orders, JJ the MoD, Appleman the President, Dubhthaigh for financing the madness, and all of those who helped put together the master plan.

I've really enjoyed the challenge, and really enjoyed my time as Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces, and it has been an honour to serve.

At ease, soldiers.

Digits,
Chief of Staff of the IDF.