All Things SC Division

First off I have got to say that those Star Citizen Division Recruitment threads look really exciting, well thought out and well put together. Props to everyone who took the time and put their creative minds to coming up with the messages, background stories and flashy pictures. Not only do they look good to those of us already a part of NNG but they will be very attractive to future possible NNG recruits and members.

I know that the official release of Star Citizen is still a pretty decent ways out, but as our recruitment threads show we are eager to get a start on things. As some have said it's far better to start being prepared now and refine everything the more we know and come closer to official release, so that's why I don't feel so bad jumping the gun with this post.

I felt the need to create this post initially because as I read the recruitment threads for the different divisions I had multiple questions popping up in my head, and browsing through each thread it is no doubt others do as well. While it is more ideal to post questions and ideas pertaining to specific divisions in the appropriate division thread; just as some of the divisions appear to overlap to me, so do some of the questions.

For that, I have created this thread for questions, thoughts and ideas like mine.

Who are these Divisions for? There have been a few people who have declared a near obsessive nature toward specific activities in previous games. They no doubt fit into a very definitive role. There are certainly going to be those who like to do a little bit of everything. I know personally I may go on a binge of enjoying to do one particular thing for a period of time and then my interests change. I guess for people like that, they just declare themselves to a particular Division while they hold interest in doing that activity?

I understand that just because you are in, say, the Exploration Division ISIS that you have to spend every single moment exploring. However, you don't want several ISIS members who are just sitting around doing trades most of the time. Someone who originally declared Exploration as their forte, and now for a week they want to play the market while ignoring ISIS.

Another thing I have noticed mentioned in EVERY Division is that they will need escort and protection. "Just because you don't like to do X activity does not mean you do not fit. We also will need protection." Is that for people who are like, "well I like to fight first and foremost, but I like to do some mercantile, too. So I'll just join The Cartel as an escort and then trade when I feel like it." Then you have the Military Division, The Legion, "we offer escort and protection to other Divisions."

I know I bought two ships to cover multiple activities. I bought a Hornet for fighting/escort, and I bought a Freelancer for exploration/mercantile, and possibly also for fighting depending on how well you can equip a Freelancer as specifically a gun ship.

 

the divisions are made to help facilitate everything that we will need in the game and what you want to play as. Sotet has said before that you will be able to switch back and forth between divisons but until we know more about how its going to work it will be some time before we set anything into stone

 

Ok, so the basic run down (for right now, because I don't have every bit of info I need, due to release date and all) is this.

When you join our Star Citizen division on the forums, you become a part of Nova Natio Galactic (NNG) in game.

Immediately following your entrance, you then choose between 4 branches, they are:

I.S.I.S. (Exploration)

The Legion (Military)

The Cartel (Finance)
and...
B.A.R.D. (Bounty Hunting)

So at this point you have joined NNG and picked your branch, lets use ISIS as the example for now.

You now are a member of the ISIS exploration branch of the NNG division, as such you will be able to play your game as you will, UNTIL ISIS has need to call on you for official matters.
EX: We need to find a new base of operations.

When this happens you essentially go into OPS mode (kind of like PS2 does) where you will be brought into a section of TS specifically for your group and the mission will be commenced. Once the mission is done, you will go back to casual channel and will be able to continue doing whatever you want to do until called on again.

Now for those of you who are thinking "Oh dang, did I just lock myself into something?" The answer is no, once every two weeks or so (haven't worked out an exact time yet) you will be able to put in a change of request form to the branch of your choosing, giving you the opportunity to move between the branches so things wont get stale for you.

 

Give me more questions, I will be happy to answer to the best of my ability at this point.

 

So were not allowed to multi branch?

 

No, like I said, during your downtime you can do whatever.

 

From my understanding, not in the sense that you can be declared to more than one branch at a time. So long as your branch has something important going on it is expected that you participate. Otherwise you would be free to help other branches IF your branch has nothing of importance happening at the moment.

Also, until we reach a decent size we may have to borrow people from other divisions to get things accomplished until we reach a size where we can have efficient numbers per division at a given time. This game is seemingly going to be far more massive than anything I've played before, in both depth and breadth

Thanks for some clarification Sotet. I hope the divisions are able to become more defined over time. I understand we don't want a separate division for every single little aspect, but like I said, every division mentions they need fighter escorts, then the military division offers escorting. I understand it's going to be impossible not to overlap in some instances but this one just seems blunt.

 

I think it is good to have clear defined roles and break points where some activities & responsibilities that are held by a particular division. I haven't been around for the first meetings or privy to the officers intentions so let me spell out what I personally feel would be a good model.

Obviously we start with the umbrella of the Nova Natio Galatic Organization. The leadership and staff at that level will need to function a bit as HR, Command and Control and the final say on diplomacy, policy, alliances, disciplinary issues that arise from the individual branches.

Overall there has to be a personal motivator, the fact that we plan on having a finance division is huge as this game isn't going to have character levels, its you and whatever the coolest ship and form of profit you can find. Profit will be a driving motivator (bigger better ships, better weapons and upgrades etc.). The personal gain in equipment would benefit the organization as a whole as we become more capable of prosecuting the will of the leadership.

I think participation could be guaranteed by making Organization (clan) based activities profitable. Have the military arm fly the escorts for all the other divisions, the more escorts you personally fly, the more you get paid. It would incentivize the whole process. Same with bounties, if someone within the organization has a bounty to be filled, offer it first within the organization to the bounty division. If you get no takers that would be the bounty divisions loss. Im sure we could add rewards to exploration beyond the obvious bragging rights.

All of this creates available employment within the group, so I have choices. I can profit and benefit my fellow clan mates at the same time or go off and do the lone wolf thing with the stipulation that I need to be available if the need arises.

If the groups needs us for an operation or defense of an asset we would need all hands on deck to rally manpower. And probably a defined go team for smaller actions. There should be reward or penalty (within reason) for activity or lack thereof on the organization level. Again this is just me thinking out loud, which can be quite dangerous. Dont get me started on false flag operations and my feelings about controlling trade and markets through use of deniable assets.

 

Haha, so much fun just thinking about it =P I can definitely see instances where groups are going to carry out operations co-dependent of one another. ISIS discovers a fuel cloud floating off somewhere, and the The Cartel comes in and collects it. The Cartel finds themselves in dealings that are a tad too risque' so they have to involve BARD. Both The Cartel and BARD get caught up in a hot mess and have to call on The Legion for support. LOL!

 

The nice thing is the persistent universe will allow for things such as players dropping into friendly npc crew on a allied ship. So maybe the answer is as simple as a few guys dropping in a multi crewed ship vs plotting jumps. Sounds like you could hibernate in your current mission and log into somebody's battle bus for action. When things settle down, resume the side task. It presents some questions about immersion and story fidelity but it would be an awesome game play mechanic.