Current Order Status

[Rodent]

As far as your arrangments with the RM, from what I know, you havent really gone far enough with them. It's pretty hard to convince a kraut that the mission of the Order is just as important as the Rheinland-Liberty war, but the diplomacy part is much harder than firing a few guns.

I know we've been slow on the uptake, but as I have pointed out, the main problem is lack of motivation and initiative generally.Hence things are happening slowly.

Here's a checklist of diplomatic things I'd like to see done with the houses (not including Liberty):

- Negotiate for the Order to gain patrol and confiscation rights of particular goods. Nomad materials mostly, but in order to gain this permission, you may have to make some compromises, such as also confiscating house contraband to which you may not be directly linked (normal cardamine, for example). Houses don't give free rides, even for humanitarian missions.

- If the government in question seems good willed enough, you can push for a base ship (Geb or Reseph, not Osiris) to use their facilities and be based within the house. If they like the idea, you should push for a base to use in their guard system or out-of-the-way base (Schatten, Newgate and Kansai Research Station come to mind). This is because in SP, the Order was a completely covert force, and while this is just not possible without cloaking devices in disco, seeing any Order vessel undocking from New London (for example) is pushing it just a bit too far.

Interesting idea.

- If the government aren't good willed enough (and don't expect them to just grant you stuff like that off the bat), just ask to base a few fighters somewhere, perhaps not so out of the way (Schatten is a secret Rheinland R&D shipyard for example). If they're still resistant, politely point out that there's no way you can stop the spread of the nomads if you're not given any means to do your job.

This is already in progress.

- Stop focussing on the unlawful side of Sirius. Yes, I mean folks like the Corsairs, SCRA and NLH, all of which you've had tighter relations with than any house authority. Sure, the Order in SP worked closely with Outcasts (Kress) and Blood Dragons (Hakera), but remember also that Hakera was the Lord of Kyushu, and that those times were different in that the houses had not been alerted to the presence of nomads due to their advanced state of contamination by them. Now they're alert, and have been cracking down on them. 20 years is a long time to forget the lessons of a war that was mostly averted, so it's your job to constantly remind them.

The main motive behind allying with the unlawfuls was the tarnished image of Order in the houses. Given that the Order'll pretty much do anything, ethical or no, to get rid of the nomad threat annoys the houses, who see us as an unknown variable. It was thought that unlawfuls would have fewer qualms allying with us, given they dont give a poop about reputation, but I guess that logic fails.

- Don't offer to do all the work yourself. 1. this creates a daunting task for your members that seems insurmountable and tends to drive people away or into inactivity. 2. this also means that the Order will be, inRP, footing the bill for all actions within a house, which isn't feasible given the amount of money that military actions consume. Raise awareness of the nomads in the house factions by for example, conducting seminars (in space) about their anatomy, method of infiltration and signs to look for. Position the 'nomad scanner', that seems to me to be a bit like an airport scanner, as the first line of defense, rather than a one-size-fits-all solution. I know the point about the seminars seems very pointless given that everyone ooRP knows about nomads anyway, but it's all about expanding the things you -can- do, rather than the things you -must- do.

Spreading propaganda of any kind is the most thankless RP there is, in most cases. See other factions that live off propaganda, like the Volksfront, among others. Still, it's always a possibility.

- Related to the point above, get the military and police of wherever to spread the word to the populace of their houses. It's very easy to associate the word 'Nomad' with trying to scare people, so advise the police (being the primary civilian force in a house) to insert the warnings urging folks to keep vigil and not let down their guard into some of the more personal conversations they have with civilians. It gives the police something to do, and it strengthens your position. If they're reluctant to do this, ask why. It's quite hard to argue against measures, especially ones that have no direct cost, that protect humanity.

- Negotiate with the government. This may sound like a no-brainer, but the more connections to Sirius you have, the more easily those connections can be infiltrated. This is especially true if you negotiate with that police, this navy and that intelligence force. Why do this, when you can negotiate with the Kanzler, the Queen or the Emperor? Those heads of state can tell their armed forces what to do without you needing to get involved, so you only have to have one point of contact, rather than three per house. Yes, this is hard with Rheinland and Bretonia, as neither house has someone playing their head of state.

The movements of a head of state are generally publicized and recorded. Especially true in case of the Queen. even if someone agrees to roleplay figureheads, they wouldn't want to meet with us directly, rather preferring to send their lieutenants and military heads, and then talking to their heads, creating second-hand communication..

- To prevent any of the negotiators being nomad-infested (as a line to deepen roleplay value rather than of any pragmatic importance), have discussions with whoever the point of contact is be preceded by both you and them stepping through a series of nomad detection tests. These tests can be written, but shouldn't be over-elaborated, as they may precede all face-to-face negotiations. I can't imagine the Queen of Bretonia would be all that happy if you demanded she step through a nomad scanner while your guys sat there, confident in their nomadlessness, so join in.



- Indies. I don't mind their silliness, happens everywhere. Best thing to do here is approach the leaders of factions that get the most problems from your indies out of roleplay (say, if they start polluting Rheinland as an example) and say 'look, we can't control them, so if they're a problem, just kill them ok?'. I can't imagine many people objecting to that, as long as they feel you've tried hard to control them and they're just not reacting.

Not everyone holds your opinion.

- Faction players. There's a lot of this rankwhoring stuff, but mostly because some lower ranking Order| think that the secondary fleet are full of idiots and want to put them through their paces (or perhaps just feel powerful). At this point, I can't really provide proof so take it with a grain of salt, but simply reminding newer members that their conduct reflects on the faction they represent, and that they are responsible for the image of the Order| might go a long way. Yes, it's obvious, but people need to be told obvious things sometimes.

As I've mentioned before, this is sad and needs to be corrected.

This would have been a PM, but I want to see if other people agree with me. All of the above is up for debate after all.