[Pfeiffer] National Priorities - Military Cohesion
Pfeiffer.
Theme music
All former Presidents have a library on the forum. The historical archives are here.
My library is here.
As I currently hold no official position in the government, I'm taking this opportunity to publish a policy piece, using my 'library' much like RL former Presidents have been known to do.
Now, to the actual content...
Cohesion
As the game increasingly turns towards singular achievement and discourages cooperative gameplay, the wigs have decided to add mechanics which can be used to encourage players to work together.
Combat Orders allow the Commander of a military unit to allocate funding directly to a specific battle, rewarding those players who help to meet the goal set. If the Commander wants to see the wall stay above 52%, he simply sets a Combat Order which pays for damage done when the wall is below 52%. Some argue that this mechanic diminishes what it means to fight for your country, and that is a valid position. My response would be that this mechanic allows for military commanders to supplement the income of those soldiers who fight where it is most needed, when it is most needed, as the Combat Order suggests both importance and urgency.
Learn it, live it, love it.
With the growing costs of running a successful account, and the increasing limits on ways players can profit and grow, Combat Orders can supplement the income of soldiers without doing any damage to meta structures or operations.
Battle Boosters are relatively new, and are only activated about one week per month, but they can drastically shift momentum in a battle. The ability to increase the damage output of everyone in your division within your military unit, or to disable the weapons of your opponent (or both), allows for massive wall shifts in short periods of time. I have personally been one of a handful of tanks in EZC to help flip walls using a combination of weapon debuff and damage booster.
So why am I talking about this?
I feel that it's time for us to act on the discussions that have been ongoing regarding the creation of a single national military unit.
As the founder of the Ultramarines, I understand the desire to keep units as they are. It really is nice to see something you built rolling along and doing well even after leaving the nest. I left the Ultramarines because, so long as I was a member, I'd be in the leadership role. People need the opportunity to grow, and setting the ceiling at 'just below Pfeiffer' isn't fair to them, and requires a fair bit of work from me.
All that being said, I would be content to retire the unit as a standalone in game MU. We didn't have an in game badge at our founding, and we don't need one to still be the Ultramarines. Even now I've joined EZC for a time, I still wear our badge and am in every way an Ultramarine. Joining a national unit would not change this either. What it would change is our efficiency as a country.
In a national unit, Congress can allocate a budget line for Combat Orders which will be used strictly for those who allow their damage to be directed as our national priorities require. When boosters are active, we could have hundreds of Americans benefit from them instead of a dozen or two.
Walls could be built or torn down in moments.
Battles flipped with the issuance of a single Daily Order change or MU wall shout (which would increasingly become the 'USA' wall feed, introducing new players to the larger community without needing 300 new friends).
Units as they exist now would simply be integrated into the new unit as Regiments. Three or Four dedicated regiments would be enough for pretty much any unit.
Fill the first regiment with the tanks. The top 1% of the eUS. That would be fun, if only for the lulzy shouts we'd get to make.
Leave the second and third regiments as the newb catching regiments. That way you won't see them jumping into meta unit regiments down the list. Training Officers would assist with their integration from day one, as we'd literally have a constantly updated list of who is joining (this presumes we're going to advertise the unit in the NCM).
The only downside is a bit of a few bruised egos among the current MU Commanders. Deal with it. This is the best move mechanically, and you're doing the community a disservice if you oppose it.
USWP Update
Wild Owl is Party President again. I'm taking a rest for a bit, but I'm sure I'll be back at some point in that job.
picture time:
Meredith time.
Seriously, the best.
Still the best.
Now vote it up.
As always, if needed, I remain
Yours,
~Pfeiffer
Forty Second President of the United States
hnggggg
Comments
yay Taylor
“They've let the cancer back in.”
― Josh Frost
NEEDS MORE GREELING!!!
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also this is an idea I want to see us do.
Votes for good sense. Making this happen would require a huge buy in from the eUSA community, but the benefits would be enormous both on and off of the battlefield. I truly hope we move in this direction and will do anything I can to assist in that effort. And of course, also voted for Taylor.
Needs more explosions and plot twists.
I'll work on that.
Boated.
"The only downside is a bit of a few bruised egos among the current MU Commanders."
Bruise 'em all.
Are there game mechanic caps of either number of members of a regiment, or number of regiments per MU?
50 members per regiment, no known limit to members of a military unit. I expect there is not one hard coded into the game, or if their is it is extremely large.
Come to think of it, there is a reason to have three MUs -- the last Plato competition had three MU awards. That said, no one would really want to be silver or bronze if they could be gold. Could there be a good reason to set up sacrificial MUs that are not the primary country MU, but that will be worlds above an MU just set up by an individual and his/her multis?
That defeats much of the purpose of this.
It would be the logical way to go, but the logistic of it would be a nightmare.
voted for logic and Taylor.
Voted from Egypt.
Not the worst idea you have ever had, that means I like it. 😛 I have similar thoughts on the National MU front. It makes sense. I think it would be hell to implement, but is a more valid system.
I'm going to agree with you on this one. I have said our military structure isn't that great for a long time. But to say MU commanders are just going to hand over their power is dumb. They are going to cling to that shit unless the government comes in with our newly acquired wealth from conquest and buys these MU commanders out.
Totally right idea.
And I'm already working on it. We've secured the MU.
You just made my day.
"As I currently hold no official position in the government", wink wink......
I'm on something called the President's Council.
But as far as I can tell that's just a sinecure.
I'll take that to mean King of America
That's a given.
Looking forward to see it happen!
Nice graphic
vote
I like it when history and current events collide.
v
voted
FIST
"People need the opportunity to grow, and setting the ceiling at 'just below Pfeiffer' isn't fair to them"
Isn't that why you're not in politics anymore?
It's why I try not to take point on many things, yes. I've even allowed things I disagreed with to go forward when I could have stopped them for exactly this reason.
By the way, your suggestion on a national MU makes a lot of sense. That's something we kicked around doing as soon as Loland did it (which I'm sure you remember). Could still be done, though the loss of individuality would suck (which I know you addressed, but still it would happen).
Gnilraps tried it, but the USAF refused. We at least need the national military on board if this is going to work.
There was pushback, recent developments have made many of their counterpoints moot.
Voted and commented because Taylor. I was beginning to worry, then I saw a bunch at the end. :3
Maybe this is a good idea, but honestly your fixation with Taylor Swift is quite frankly a little much. Are you really that lonely?
Maybe try meeting a RL woman instead of worshipping at the feet of basically a, well for lack of a better term: Hack.
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I agree completely with the logic. However I don't play a game for logical exercise. If I did I'd be playing chess or go. Since I started playing, Plato has been trying his best to make things "fair" and doing a crappy job at it. So far everyone is "equal" that doesn't buy gold. They are equally insignificant on the war mod. The only interesting part is that they can RP a bit in a MU. Now we're going to shove everyone into one MU (per country) so that the tanks can have the advantage of everyone else's damage too.
I suppose on some base level this will work. As for me I would just quit or go tank by myself somewhere as a paid assassin moving from small country to small country. They buy me gold and I do their heavy lifting.
You aren't the best investment for mercing. Not bad, but there are plenty stronger out there.
That being said, national MUs benefit everyone, and give the equivalent of a 'national' shout feed...something that I think would benefit the community greatly.
Besides, the meta responsibility of running a unit is still there. Supplies, order setting, organizing activities and competitions, etc. None of that changes.
Like I said, agree with the logic, just sucks the fun out of it for me. Of course I don't run my MU like a MU. People work in communes that are self supplied with WRM farms, they get 10+ Q7's per day worked. No special orders or check in. Just friends poking the fight button when MoD (or SoD) says go. Pretty lazy actually.
And on a very small scale, things like that are possible. Once you get beyond a handful of members, a single gold buying beneficiary becomes insufficient.
Pfeiffer has a good idea
then ruins it by making himself the CO.
go figure
The President would be the Commander, and I have no intention of running for President at the moment.
Without country limits on MU membership, maybe we strive for an Alliance wide MU?
Alliances come and go.
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