[DoD] General Defense Update

Day 3,251, 14:02 • Published in USA USA • by AlTounsi.

Hey there, I'm Senry. I'm one of the co-SecDefs this term, along with Kody and Yui. I've been primarily focused on infrastructure, in terms of programs that incentivise fighting, allow for better communication, and improving the home front.


I first reworked the Arm America program many months ago to be something that runs around the clock, without relying on IRC quartermasters to distribute supplies actively, as there weren't many candidates capable of being online at all times, the logistics seemed to work out in favour of the form system, where players filled out a form with basic information and provided a screenshot of their damage. This did seem to be working, initially. and over the past year or so of that running I have counted at least 1000 submissions to the form in documentation, not including different versions of the form that were used. It wasn't extremely successful, but it worked.

Part of the reason why it was unsuccessful, which I've come to realize, is because of how much people actually despise taking screenshots of their damage. Needing to find the necessary tools that they might not have, needing to upload the image, the entire process could take the average player up past a minute, which was, up until yesterday, a huge barrier to entry. This is the first part of AA that is being changed, and it's thanks to the new game mechanics that allow us to see many more people than ever before, giving us the ability to see who did how much damage out of the top 5. Screenshot requirements on the form are being removed. Instead, you will only need to provide the link to the battlefield and the round you fought in. We'll cross reference the battle with our priority history to see if you fought in the right place, then use the power of TECHNOLOGY to check your damage, and more importantly, record that it was done.

In the month of Resource Wars 2.0, Arm America saw a huge boost in submissions because of the changes I implemented in that particular month for that particular system. We had many people stationed on IRC actively at the time who were being asked to fight in priority battles. Simply stated, we went back to the old way of doing Arm America, and it was very effective in that scenario. I think this showed that such a system is not at all dead, and definitely has its uses. This leads to the second change being implemente😛 That Arm America will also be run on IRC (in the #defense channel) and on the Defense Discord. This allows online QMs to be more easily notified for the people who want a faster response, and allows for the infrastructure to already be there when/if there is another month in which rapid response teams are required, rather than having to push something together haphazardly. Versatility is the key.

Finally, we're introducing a mobile segment to Arm America to encourage people to fight for our allies in priority resistance wars. We're doing this by handing our the moving tickets and a bonus of 100cc to people who fight in these priority battles.

And now, a tl;dr version:

- Arm America exists again
- No more bullshit screenshot requirements, while maintaining accountability
- Discord/IRC QMing available for rapid response situations.
- Just go read the last paragraph. It's short and says something about free money.


Communication

Along with the above Arm America changes, we're going to be introducing a PM-based orders subscription service. Why? Well, it's quite obvious that a majority of people don't inherently pay attention to news articles anymore, and are content 2-clicking and hitting in their DOs. The goal of this is to directly insert the DoD Orders into every willing individual's inbox, giving them that annoying red icon that they just want to check, and while they're doing it, they might be interested in the free weapons, or in the 100cc bonus.

Effectively, this is an outreach to the sedentary players to, while not dragging them out of the comfort of their existing lifestyles, to add to it in a form that would be mutually beneficial with minimal extra effort on their part. It will be rolled out in a day or two; PMs will be sent to many, many people asking if they would be interested. If YOU are interested, feel free to PM me and I'll hook you up.

And for now, that's really the best I've got.

And no, it's not a very hilarious article. Sue me, you bastards.

Signed,
Senry
Co-Secretary of Defense