Concerns with the RA

Sure, bring up anything you have a problem with, but I would prefer it in a PM so we dont have to start these sorts of threads anymore. They have a side-effect of splitting the community into supporters, nonsupporters, and the dont-give-a-crappers, and splitting the community is not the best thing, if we want to get better. A slight catch-22, based on the above arguments, but in my mind better than the alternative.

 

Again, the main intention of the thread, from what I can gather, was not to split things up but again to inform and provide positive criticism. All that was provided was information and I'm a bit saddened it turned into argument, bias, and side-taking instead of a learning experience.

Animator said it best.
And to add to what he said, it's a game that should be fun to play. Taking it too seriously is weird and taking it too loosely and not caring about making quality RP is just as bad. Seriously it's a game, stop and think about that and go have fun instead of bleh.

 

Which means, in the words of a wise man, "take your lumps".

Be open to different interpretations of a good time, allow resources and advantages within reason, and be willing to give feedback an ear.

No doubt there will be more discussion, and I will bring issues up that I have seen and continue to see.

I'm done for now.

 

Who was the last RA character to die?

 

I believe that would be MkVenner, why do you ask?

 

Curious. I am a bit behind on the events of the server as I had taken a break.

 

http://community.playstarboundrp.co...ack-on-port-last-coincidence.7325/#post-84870

Nice to see the Armada is now resorting to OOC means to get rid of its IC enemies.

 

That was actually due to the fact those images were meta-gamed. It has been taken up in a private conversation with mods and dealt with appropriately.

 

Shall we all nitpick every single facet of the Armada, then? I'm sure we can find hundreds of instances of metagaming on a similar inconsequential level as a questionable image from a public event that is public knowledge, and we'll all rejoice if each instance results in a banned RA member.

 

Yes, I'm sure you would. Now can we please get back to IMPROVING the RA and not pointing out even more things wrong with it before any get fixed?

 

(Isn't that what this thread is for? Nitpicking what the RA has done wrong?)

 

The RA is perfect in every way. There is nothing more that can be achieved and thus no reason for it to exist anymore.
Happy endings for all.

 

I don't really care about all this pandering lol. I'm sure it's all a misunderstanding, the pictures really are of no importance to the article in question, I could replace them with other pictures that have different captions. No more drama plz lets all just roleplay.

 

I dont, and I dont know who did, but I'll take this to heart.

 

The response that I gave in that thread was incorrect, and based upon a lack of information caused by my relatively recent entrance to the Staff; I was not informed that the actions of the RA had been authorized days prior to my entrance to the team, and my criticism of the action was due to that perceived lack of authorization. The action was authorized, and so the faction was within its grounds to perform it.

 

See this is what this thread is about. Objective and unbiased info sharing, and with this new piece of info from David we've effectively cleared up an issue. This is what communication is for people!

 

hey i'm back from my self-imposed exile to say something

OOC bans are fucking dumb

no you don't get a follow-up this is common sense

okay see you in another three months

 

Alright, I didn't want to got through ten pages of bashing and counter bashing to get angry, but I'll drop my two cents here. Before anyone gets grumpy with me and writes off whatever I say, keep in mind that I left the faction, and the server, because of how incredibly stupid it was to try and be a faction leader, from pressures both inside and outside the faction. The three of us (DirtyGoblin, M-Bot, and I) intended to bring the faction back to better it from its former state, which we dubbed as "Pre-Hiatus," Which we all admit was a very dark place. I'm hoping that this stupid wall of text helps explain a little more about the faction and its intended goals, since I've noticed over the seven months or so that I've been here that it is subject very heavily to prejudice, largely based upon people having no clue what they're talking about (Which seems to be the biggest issue regarding any problems on this server).
The faction was brought back after the faction regulations update as an attempt to clearly set out what the ideal faction would be, according to the new rules. It started off quite alright; the faction heads were divided into three categories- M-Bot was the military part, DirtyGoblin was the political side, and I was the economical part of it. I ran into three or so very large issues on my part alone handling the economic side. The first issue's cause in my opinion was largely caused by the fact that factions are held to higher standards than players by a much steeper slope than is sustainable. In the beginning of the return, we made sure that we had a justifiable cause for resources, and attempted contacting business/investors/manufacturers to create a sustainable income after a point. This was difficult, since the few of such business which did exist had an inexplicable pool of resources, were owned by one person, and had no employees, which eliminated their need for a government to help supply them. The faction regulations create a requirement for the faction to be much more in-depth roleplay, which the server simply isn't interested in. That's my first reason why I jumped ship on the faction.

TL;DR up to this point: The RA originally was intended to stick to faction regulations as a model for future factions, but lots of issues showed up, the first of which was that the server simply does not want and is not suited to factions that are as in-depth as the regulations require.

At this point I am going to remind everyone that the timeframe I am speaking of is directly after the Outcast ban, and I'm trying to bare information out, since it is such a sparse resource in this community. I do not speak on behalf of DirtyGoblin and M-Bot, and the parts where I may say something like "The three of us" could be wrong on my part, despite my opinions/interpretations on the matters spoken of.

The second reason I left the faction was from the ridiculous outside pressure. The outside pressure I'm speaking off is the uninformed bias received from others, issues with other factions that simply should not have happened, and things of that nature. I remember at the beginning of the return of the faction, we recruited the ex-USCM members from the ICIA. There was upset from this, which would be reasonable IC, but the faction received no IC action on account of this; instead, we were berated with a whole lot of OOC insults, a large number of which were based upon misinformation. Most people that openly had an issue with the faction were also people that refused to talk about it with us without immediately throwing insults, or generally being uncouth or uncivil. Regarding myself, DirtyGoblin, and M-Bot, I can comfortably say that all of us were very open about the faction OOCly, and eager to answer questions or concerns with it without dishonesty. There were stumbles along the way, as every faction has, but the three of us tried very hard to make the faction the best it could be, however it currently is nowhere near the intended state, and the three of us saw a similar situation beginning before we left.
Regarding issues with factions, the chief situation in my mind is the ban on the Outcasts. This was immediately prior to my leaving, and though it wasn't the last straw, it was very close to being it. This is a sort of transition point between the external and internal issues that I had with running the Armada. The ban was pushed for by two or three people inside the faction; as far as I know, it was a handful of USCM players. DirtyGoblin was quite angry at the time with the Outcasts, of which reason I am not aware, and in a moment of anger, posted that ban. Literal minutes after he posted it, several of us inside the faction got very, very angry that such a ban was posted, and despite our OOC dislike of the Outcasts, made several rants about how that was probably the worst thing that could have happened-Note how the ban thread was removed a literal eight minutes after it was posted. I'd imagine a big incentive to post the ban thread was that a few days prior to the event, the RA had accompanied one of Blaze Winchester's gangs to attack Cass' ship, as they, along with most other factions/colonies, had intentions to fight the Outcasts. Having been involved in the event, I know that the gang and the RA had been affiliated prior, and there was a legitimate exchange of information between them IC, and the Armada members who were going to be involved had not planned this prior; the only Armada members had already been on the planet at the time of hearing about the event, and at suggestion of finding people who were currently not IG or on their Armada characters, I personally forbade it. Now, after the logistics had finally been worked out between Aiko and Skipi, and as I recall, Aiko had already told Skipi that RA members were coming (One/Preferably both Aiko and Skipi tell me whether or not this part was true), Skipi refused to continue the event unless the RA members had left. While I can understand the frustration that people have with the faction, I hardly think that it's fair to be fine with Skipi's ban on the RA while the RA receives harassment for the ban on the Outcasts which was near immediately removed. This does NOT say that I approved of the ban on the Outcasts. As said earlier, it was a terrible idea.

TL;DR for this part: There was lots of bullshit that people pulled and I put down an example for reinforcement of my point.

The third part for my leaving was, to be blunt and brutally honest, was the stress from working with people inside the faction. I'm sorry to the USCM folks out there, but you were probably the chief example of this. I think you're all good guys; I can say that without feeling like even a small part of me is just trying to patronize you. The faction was meant to be an example of what the faction regulations asked for, but many people inside the faction simply didn't seem to understand what we were trying to do, the IC mission and behavior of the faction, and the guidelines which we had set out. The person who best understood all of this OOC and IC, was Trace/Ta'Lone, and congratulations to her/him/whatever gender you are or pretend to be on the internet. Aside from her/him/whatever and a few select people who had previously been in the faction, and perhaps Cole Ombre(Though I never talked to him much), not many people were willing to accommodate the changes that we asked of them. Some of you may know that the RA's OOC communication functioned chiefly out of a skype chat, which worked well for most of us, but lots of people preferred using the forum messaging, lots preferred steam, and lots preferred skype. Despite the push from the leaders and what we called the "Old Guard"(Old RA members), a central communication simply could not be decided on. People were just too stubborn to accommodate the whole. It's because of this that a lot of silly things that shouldn't have happened, happened; be it due to miscommunication, or a lack of any communication. I can remember well over more than one time where people did stupid things simply because they refused to listen to us. I think it's fair to say that despite being the faction leaders, we were very open to suggestions from others, and tried our best to take into account what people wanted out of the faction. However, I started to feel like others had started to think we were better doormats than anything. People were simply too stubborn to remember what the faction was supposed to be; a utilitarian, soulless, true-neutral "The individual doesn't matter" type of government, which after the regulations update, was meant to be so much more than a military. Like I said earlier, the USCM people are the chief example of these behaviors. They're good guys, and I like talking to them, but as far as this faction went, they were as stressful as any other factor in my leaving.

In short, I left the faction because the server can't support the ideals that it had set out for its organizations. The RA had begun to deteriorate into something other than it intended, and as much as I don't like to say it, it actually is looking like a "USCM 2.0" from the outside. I don't think that it should be disbanded, yet, though. That could either be my honest belief, or because a part of me just invested more in the faction than was ever healthy for me. I'm hoping that people can get past being angry about some of the things I have said here and look at the more important message of my post. In regards to the current state of the RA; It's not what it was supposed to be, which is alright, but the way you guys are carrying it out is no better for the server than the edgelords or the OOC assholes who you all dislike so much. It's still a community, and shutting yourself in a little bubble of self-titled awesome power and stepping into the rest of the server when it's convenient is by far one of the worst things that can be done.


A little foot note to any doubt about the RA's records before I left; I personally kept a very large number of records regarding the RA's wealth financially, and in its resources. While I was there, I can comfortably say that every asset was gained legitimately. I know that for a good long while Trace used a system that was similar yet probably better, but I don't know what state that's in nowadays; it's admittedly difficult to uphold when you see Billy Badass V running around with a rocket launcher and an impervium-studded fedora which protects him from all things.


SECOND FOOT NOTE: If anyone has any questions about the RA before my leaving, I will gladly answer them as fully and honestly, as well as un-biased, as I possibly can. Think of this as an encouragement to inform yourself on what it was supposed to be/was at one point. Message me here, or add me on steam @jazzfunkington

 

I hereby volunteer as faction leader for the RA.

No, I'm being serious. Let me do it.