Due to feedback from the recent game discussion post, we will now be requiring IC department heads, Council members and the Captain to do at least one open thread or log per AC. This policy will come into place after the next activity check, which will be soon. We don't want to drop a new policy on anyone and only give them a few days to do it in.

At this time, we have also decided against the idea of creating a mod plurk, but the idea is not completely off the table. We mostly don't want to discourage people from checking the OOC comm and feel that the game and signups move slowly enough that even those who only check TransPilgrims every few days will have every chance to participate.

Ok, so, with LJ going down and everything and time and all that fun stuff. I wanted to toss an OOC post up for anyone interested in receiving either First Aid training or the more advanced among you, nursing training.

Nursing training is more along the lines for people who want to make this their entire task up on the ship or magical healers. It's not really for fighters, though some preexisting fighter/medics with an interest in learning more are more than welcome to come by.

So far the students are Kaya and Miranda.

Please take into consideration that this is a major IC commitment. This is just like having an IC job. While the OOC commitment won't be huge, the IC one will. So if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

First aid classes will be more laid back, meant for emergencies and training people to handle medicing on the fly until a properly trained medic/healer can get to the patient. This is for everyone.

Anyone interested please tag here and I'll try to get something IC up in the next week or so, work allowing.This is more for me to get an idea of a head count.

Okay, so. Because of recent drops, security leadership is a bit sparse. In fact, security leadership has been pared down to one Senior Officer who is having a few issues of his own right now.

With that in mind, I'd like to offer up Dick as Head of Security for the moment, either to drop to Senior Officer or stay on as Co-Head once Dean stops being eleven or younger. That does mean that we'll need a few more Senior Officers, too.

I'd also like to throw this post open for anybody who is interested in joining Security or who has had their character acting as Security but aren't listed here to put their name's forward. Senior officers should probably be characters who have been serving with security for a while, or who have had a lot of experience in their own world.

And, of course, if anybody has questions or anything else, you can place them here.

Just an FYI, the Squadron threads have gone up in this post.

Anyone who joined Starfighter Command here is permanently signing up, not just for the plot, right?

TROJAN HORSE

What it is: The short version is that its a massive space battle between the crew and the Ohm, with the purpose being to drive the Ohm off. It'll be very action heavy and story-lite (It's less a plot, and more an explosion filled event), and there'll be plenty of room for freedom and creativity.

Where it'll be: The whole thing will take place in the vacuum of space.

Who its for: Primarily its for Starfighter Command, and to a lesser extent, people who can Breathe In Space (though be advised that the smallest enemy you'll face is about 4x larger than a normal human). Stacy, and crew members who remain on board, won't be involved in the plot at all once the Quarter is launched. The reasons why will be explained at the start of the prologue.

When it'll be: [EDIT] The prologue will start tomorrow (4/16), and from there, the characters will have "a few days" game time (roughly a week, real-time) to prepare for the battle. The actual battle won't kick off until next weekend probably, that's expected to run for about a week.

Why: Because blowing things up in space is cool.


Hey, what about that Node thing?: That part is basically locked up, and anyone involved already knows their part. If there's a last minute opening, I'll let you guys know, but otherwise, don't worry about it. I'll listen to ideas, but I do want to keep this as simple, straight forward, and uncomplicated as possible. It's not that big of a deal.

My character has their own ship/mech/armor, is that okay?: That's fine, as long as it can operate in space. They'll just be shoved onto one of the squads.

My character is morally opposed to killing: That's all well and good. But the Ohm won't stop until they're dead, or you are.

But my character isn't a pilot: That's fine, but the whole thing takes place in space. If you have a ground based character or need an atmosphere to fly around and fight in, this plot isn't for them. There is neither ground to stand on, nor any air to breathe. You basically have three options. You can a) Have your character learn to pilot a variable fighter or mobile suit; b) have them be a support staff on the Quarter (though they won't get to do much of anything action or fight-wise); or c) remain on Stacy and do something else.

Can they learn to fly an X-Wing? Sure they can. But Rogue Squadron is already significantly larger than Blade Squadron (Mobile suits) and Skull Squadron (Variable Fighters). I'd rather try to even things out some, but its still your choice in the end.


Will there be injuries?: More than likely, especially if your character is a novice pilot. That's not mandatory, by any means, but if this is their first space battle, I do ask that you at least be open to the idea of them and their ship not coming back unscathed. Same goes for seasoned pilots, but to a lesser extent.

What about deaths?: That's up to you, though please run that by the mods before offing your character.

Uh, my character is in Melting Clock plot...: Okay... uh... we're gonna have to figure that one out. Stay tuned for updates.

I have this really cool idea for a thing I want to do during this thing!: Awesome! I'm listening.

So where do I sign up? Just comment below. Please include whether your character will be piloting a Mobile Suit, Variable Fighter, X-Wing, Other, or will be hanging out on The Quarter

Okay, first of all, sorry for the delay. Updating the Department stuff was more involved than I thought, and I needed a good quiet night to do it, and school swamped me.

That said?

BEHOLD ITS GLORIOUS GLORY!

It's in alphabetical order and everything.

Now we need to do the general Command Staff/Away team guys and we're good, but that's more Will's purview, since he plays Leon. (Or something I'll work with him on, on a rainy day).

Also, Farasha, I didn't update Starfighter Command. The sign up link is here. Problem was I didn't know what ranks/gundams/Squadrons to put in there. Either you need to update it, or I can need to work with you and get the ranks and stuff.

Anyone that missed sign ups or would like to add on, just edit yourselves into the right department in the wiki and contact the person listed to get involved ICly.

Department heads, you can now IDK, go about doing organizey stuff. Just a recc for Stuff To Do, but you could probably arrange for various projects/miniplots in your departments whenever you want, as long as they fall under the scope of what they're doing.

Okay, now that we have stuff worked out for the Departments, it's time for new volunteers!

Newbies: all characters need to be in a department are the skills listed, or in some cases, the ability to learn them. Only a few departments are actually limited in who they take in (like Strike Team), many can take anyone with a capacity to be trained. Also, keep in mind that departments don't preclude your characters from having a Command Rank--there's a lot of crossover.

Older Players: Since I'm going to use this to try to update the wiki, it would be supremely helpful if you list what departments your characters are already in, just so I can compare. Some of yours that you ICly volunteered ages ago may not have been added to the wiki.

Post with volunteers with their full names under each comment for each department.

For Engineering, do not post anything under engineering proper. There is a comment there to decide the rest of the subdivisions, other than neuropathy. The finished subdivisions will be posted underneath the comment labeled: "FINALIZED SUBDIVISIONS," where you can then volunteer when they're up. For those that don't fit into a specific subdivision, there is a general post for Engineering.

[POST! POST LIKE THE WIND. Also, guys, Shae asked me to remind people to look at the COUNCIL STUFF.]

Formally hiatusing, just because it's for the best. I'll still tag things here and there, and am backthreading like crazy when I'm back, but I need to try to power through some homework ahead of time so I'm not clinging on week by week and splitting my attention as much. Saphie sucks at multi-tasking creative things and homeworky things at the same time.

One week hiatus. Will be back for sure on 2/7. Probably way sooner than that, now that I'll just be focusing on school. Affects:

Aang - jesushasayak (not back in yet anyway, will pop him back for his re-entrance when I'm back)
Hiccup - i_saw_myself
Megamind - brainiacinblue
Superboy - so_pregnable

If you need handwaves or whatever and I haven't worked them out on AIM with you yet, post here and let me know.

Also, since my big issue is braining for playing and I'm still totally in schoolwork/organization mode, the post for Department signups will either go up tonight or tomorrow. I actually want to use this post here to finalize a few things before putting that up. Namely department heads/new departments.

DEPARTMENT STUFF (PLEASE WEIGH IN)

A. Bridge Crew
Is this getting absorbed into general Command? Y/N?

B. Medical
1) Are we all good with Dr. Samuel Henderson as Department Head? Council Players? Captain Player? No vehement objections?
2) Formation of a team of medics/medical trainees? Y/N?

C. Security
We still need a volunteer as Security head here. Who wants? It could really be anyone who could handle the job, even if they're not on security yet, as long as they'd be someone that could conceivably be trusted with it.

D. Tactical Ops
Being merged with general command for sure? Y/N?

E. Welcoming Committee
Starfire as head? Any other co-heads?

F. Education/Youth Services Department
1) Formation of? Y/N?
2) Claire Redfield as Department Head? Y/N?
3) School Curriculum:
- Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics)
- Mathematics (Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, Statistics)
- Comparative Government
- Cultural Relativism (can also be called Comparative Cultures)
- Engineering (from Simple Machines to Biotech)
- Basic Combat (self-defense, basically)
- History-as-case-study (thrown around as a possibility because of course we don't want to get Earth-centric)
- Practical Combat (Tactics, Strategy)
- Ethics

Good as is? Any additions? Subtractions? Changes?

When all these are resolved, and we have all the department heads decided, I'll put up the volunteer post.

Hey, Saphie, your local plot!mod here. So I was talking in chat, and the Department wiki info is hopelessly out of date, some Departments aren't being used and we might want to find a new use for them or phase them out or merge them with other departments, and also a few departments need new Department Heads. This will all be Department stuff. Command and Council stuff will be handled separately.

There will be two posts on the subject. This will be the Department Re-organization Post. This post will be about department structure and electing new Department Heads, since those would most likely be characters that have been around a while so that the Command Crew knows they can handle it. The second post will be the Department Volunteer Post, after we have the department structure reorganized, nailed down, and finalized, then will will call for volunteers for the departments and I will reorganize them (or grab volunteers to reorganize them) on the wiki pages.

NEWBIES

Now that I have your attention with giant font, this post, and the next would be good for you to pay attention to. Part of the purpose of departments is get people to play Department Heads that sort of organize projects and CR opportunities for everyone to play around with between plots, and to give people excuses to have CR together. Scientific projects, adding infrastructure or architecture to the ship, researching virus specimens encountered on missions to find cures, flight and combat simulations, etc. etc. Different departments are also called on during emergencies to find solutions, like working to build ray guns to take down the bad guy or find cures for crazy diseases. Please participate in these discussions if you have questions about what the departments do, and ideas on structure itself, because the point is to make these department works as vehicles for CR, which obviously concerns you guys.

If you have any ideas for stuff that could improve things or help you get CR, please feel free to contribute. Just hold on volunteering your characters until the next post because we need the departments reorganized before we know who goes where. (However, when we do the volunteer post, please keep in mind that no matter how new you are, your character can serve in a department if they have the required skills or capacity to learn them).

SO YOU'RE INTERESTED IN PLAYING A DEPARTMENT HEAD...

Department Heads, on the other hand, should probably established characters in the department or suited to the department with players familiar with the game. ICly, they are chosen by Leon the captain and approved by the Council but we can usually handle that with a quick handwave.

OOCly, the players must be prepared to sink a little time into this. If your department is called on for something, you have to OOCly organize things, and also have to have a presence in the game of your character organizing things. OOCly, also, people want department-related things to do, and might have project ideas and you have to have your character around to handle that. Department Heads are a good role to have if you have the time, and have interest in organizing activities for others to do, and we need more of that going on.

Of course, if you aren't an old player but have a new character that might be really well suited to a department head and think you could handle it OOCly, please bring it up. While it'd probably be best to have Department Heads played by players that understand how the game mechanics work enough to help create CR opportunities, there are some new characters and players that might be incredibly well-suited to it, so if you have/are one chime up, and hopefully IC arrangements can be made somehow. The older player thing is just a suggestion, not a requirement.

THE NITTY GRITTY

Okay, onto the nitty gritty. In the comments, I'm going to do one for each department, as they currently stand, and what they each do. Under the relevant comment for the department, discuss stuff.

Topics that need to be discussed:

Are you fine with the department the way it is? Should the department functions remain the same, or should stuff be added, taken away or changed? If the department has no department head, do you have a character that might suit the job and the time OOCly to do it? Should the department be merged with another department? What things can the department do that might allow new players to get their characters involved? What activities can we have the department doing to give characters stuff to do? Are you new and do you have questions about the department that you'd like answers to so that when we do the volunteer post, you know what to volunteer them for?

As a note: Final decisions on structure will be not be decided by me. I'm just organizing the discussion as a volunteer. They will be decided by a mix of consensus, asking the main mods, and asking the players who currently play department heads, or ICly handle the department organization and appointments. If I made any mistakes on stuff or left something out, comment and let me know.

[Do not post until I have all the comments up and this note says you can. POST GO GO GO GO POST LIKE THE WIND]

Hey guys, I am feeling way better about my workload. I'm going to take myself off slowatus.

I also want to ask you guys a favor. I feel like we haven't had awesome fighter pilot things in a while, and I'm very sad I seemed to have missed the simulation plot, since it hasn't been tagged in four days or so. Would anyone feel up to backtagging? I have a thread up here for Rogue Squadron and anyone else who wants to tag in.

Come on, it'll be fun!

Alright guys, I probably should have done this before I put the post up, but apparently my brain is having trouble braining.

A fleet-wide training simulation is in full swing in the Sensoriums. It's still in the launch stages, so it's not too late to jump in for the people who said they wanted to join up.

The best part of the situation for new pilots is that if your craft gets destroyed, you get ported back to the Quarter, and there are enough empty ships with all the repoddings that you could jog down to the hangar and launch again.

Of course, if you have the presence of mind to eject before you get blown up, or get your crippled ship back to the Evac team, the shuttle pilots will be towing you back to the hangar - and possibly patching up any "injuries" caused there.

I've also talked to Funk, and somewhat formulated the Ohm's battle plan. The Macross Quarter can do a very impressive amount of damage to the Leviathan - although it can't destroy it - so with the help of Stacy's sensorium technology, the Ohm are going to react very differently in this battle.

The moment things go badly for them, they're going to turn and fire on the planet.

This is the time for thrilling heroics! I know some of you pilots can't resist moments of huge badassery, and I think a couple of our characters are due for a Crowning Moment of Awesome, even if it is just a simulation. Remember, the Sensoriums make things feel very real. And when pilots pull ridiculous stunts, Medevac pilots have to pull off miracles.

With that said, here is your planning post. Who would like to pull off something magnificent?

Remember this thing?

I know we haven't done much in a while, partially because I wasn't sure what kind of IC authority Trudy had, but now that we've just had another podpop I think we need to take stock of who's still flying combat on Stacy.

Post here if you are involved in Starfighter Command, and let me know which squadron your character is in. Right now we're in an interesting limbo state because it has been so long since we've done anything that we need to take stock of who we have again.

I'll update this list as people check in:

Rogue Squadron
Wedge Antilles (Commander)
Trudy Chacon (Lieutenant)
Axl
Wes Janson
Sam Winchester
Jaime Hemeros
Danny "Phantom" Fenton

Blade Squadron
Kira Yamato (Commander)
Yzak Jule (Lieutenant)
Shinn Asuka
Cowabunga
Duo Maxwell
Setsuna F. Seiei
Tieria Erde

Skull Squadron
Michael Blanc (Commander)
Saotome Alto (Lieutenant)

General Command Staff
Tycho Celchu (Commander)
Rtas (Captain - Macross Quarter)
Hoban "Wash" Washburne (Helmsman - Macross Quarter)
Han Solo (Captain - Millennium Falcon)

Medivac and Rescue Shuttles
Angie Spica
Vislor Turlough
Ratchet (Medical crew)

I owe everyone involved with Fighter Command and Rogue Squadron an apology. I really dropped the ball on keeping things rolling, partly due to a bit of burnout, among other things. I'm hoping that we can get the ball rolling again pretty soon, once I can talk to everyone involved again. Things will be happening soon, I hope.

Alright folks I owe all the people of Rogue Squadron an apology for my complete fail this past week. I meant to have a post up for all of you, but well life decided to kick my rear so I wasn't able to. I thought I might be able to have something up by yesterday, but well my creativity took a dive. I promise though to make it up to you all this next week with something fun.

I should have linked it here as soon as it went up, but here is the Engineering department meeting, now with all subthreads up! It's going pretty well and hilariously, thanks mostly to Saphie so far, but there's still a few issues that can be talked through. If you have an interested character who hasn't hit it up yet, go ahead! There's still plenty of time.

Feel free to use the comments of this post to OOCly discuss what you want to happen, like mentorships/projects/other such things!

Zoki out. o7

For those of you still interested in Strike team

IT'S NOT TOO LATE. IT'S NEVER TOO LATE.

Proving Grounds threads are ttly still needing to be made. I KNOW YOU GUYS ARE INTERESTED, YOU SAID YOU WERE.

ilu?

Hi everyone!

In case anyone didn't catch it, I'm requesting that anyone with applicable Engineering skills (building, inventing, repairing, wiring, computers, and such) who has a character who would be willing to work in any capacity with the department, even part-time, fill out this survey. Don't worry, it's open indefinitely and even characters who haven't podpopped yet are welcome. This information will help me plan things for...

...the department meeting! It will be a gathering open to all current members and interested listeners, with some meeting, greeting, assigning projects, discussing structure, and other such stuff. It's going up on Sunday July 18th (but can be slowtagged and backtagged of course, it will be subthreaded up for that). This is because July 18th is the day I return from...

...hiatus. Don't worry, it's a small one! I'm disappearing tomorrow with absolutely no internet access until Sunday evening. Billy Cranston will be GLaDOS'd for approximately two on-ship days because it's hilarious, long overdue, and a perfect setup to get him to panic and call the meeting.

Seeya Sunday!
-Zoki

Edit: Or maybe not. You'll never guess what happened when I tried to log in this morning---internet's down, and I need some huge technical help to get back online. I couldn't finish before I leave, so now I might not be back until Monday or Tuesday since everything's closed on Sunday. :( I will take care of stuff as soon as I can.

I don't want to be spamming the OOC com, but on the other hand, I'm betting a lot of people don't want to have to wade through 100+ comments in the previous post. So I'm making a separate post with the Important Information from the last post, so that people can read/discuss it more easily.

( Read more... )

EDIT: Recruitment posts are now live. Sensorium and Omnicoms.

Re: Will's post here we have stuff to get worked on. So, to that end, this will be the first organizational/to-do post for the Stike Team initiative.

( Things to do, mission statement, people involved and near-future plans under the cut )

Questions? Comments? Want to join in on the plotting? Have a good idea? Post here or hit me up on AIM at Pearlyunicorn1

So you may have noticed that I am a COMPLETE AND TOTAL FAILURE at doing anything of merit with the Engineering department. I have a vague list of projects, but absolutely no organization at all in the whole year I've had to get organized. That is inexcuasable in my book.

So in this post I want to address three things, because three is a good number: meeting, tasks, and what we are.

1. Engineering Meeting:
I know I promised this MONTHS ago, but I am a total failure who fails so it never materialized. I just didn't know what to do. But it's become clear now that we need to start feeling like a cohesive unit. To that effect, a meeting log will definitely be posted on Sunday, July 18th. I wish it could be sooner, but I'll be away on vacation next Thursday-Saturday and I wouldn't get it done before I leave if I waited any later than today to post.

At the meeting, all members and prospective members will be invited to meet each other, discuss project ideas, compile research, and argue things out.
( Now, what we do and what to do: )
---
Finally, a skillset diversity survey:
(blatantly and lovingly copied from Gwen's player)
I'm sorry again for the failure, everyone. If you have a character in the department, please fill this survey out? I need to get a member list going, and perhaps from there we can think of things for our group to suggest at the meeting and do!

Thank you! Comments, questions, and ideas? Feel free to post them here.