Republican Shipping Convoy Guide

[Walligig]

Greetings folks, Convoys are the main staple of any trading organization including Republican Shipping. They are a fun way of making money and arguably safer then trading by yourself. We have been doing several of these lately and while we do not have a Convoy schedule set in stone, on days we do run convoys it is usually around 5:00 server time. As I said there is no predetermined schedule at this time. Someone will make an announcement on Skype several hours before a convoy starts. Anybody in RS is welcome to join these convoys. There are just a few things I would like to go over when in one of these convoys. Think of some of these as regulations and others as.... suggestions. Ok here we go.


Please do not join a convoy unless you intend to finish it.
Now I completely understand if we are in the middle of a convoy and something IRL comes up and you have to leave. That happens to me sometimes too and that is not what we are talking about here. I am talking about people who either know they won't have time to finish the convoy before hand or just right in the middle of it decide that they want to play another character. Please don't do this.

Please stick together
This applies mainly to transports. Usually escorts should be a tradelane ahead to be scouting for pirates. Transports should stick together as much as possible. Please do not go racing off to your sell point once you receive your cargo and leave the others behind. Remember, safety in numbers.

Do not use the formation maneuver (f4) in tradelanes
On my last point I said Transports should stick together.... well.... Not this close. One lag spike from a player in a tradelane can take out half the convoy if they are formed with said player. You may think I am exaggerating but I have seen it happen. Also if a playing in a tradelane is right infront or behind you DO NOT Alt - Tab out. Same thing will happen.

Please feel free to contribute to miners and escort
This is more of a suggestion to our transports especially when we are hauling ore. lets share it to the people giving us the ore and the people that help us make sure we keep that ore safe. Even if they don't ask, a donation is always nice.

Pirate Encounters
These will be handled differently depending on the situation, but one thing will remain the same. We will always attempt to engage them in role play first. That does not mean we will always pay the demand, but generally we will try to seek best possible outcome. Usually the convoy leader will do most of the talking. DO NOT open fire on pirates unless ordered too by the convoy leader or you are fired upon first. If we get stopped by a pirate DO NOT make a break for the nearest station with the intent of logging on a combat ship to dispatch him. This is known as metagaming. DO follow the instructions of the Convoy leader and trust said person to get you through the encounter. Most importantly don't take any pirate's actions personally. This is just a game after all. If worst comes to worst, dying is not the end of the world.

Jumpholes
This one is more of a suggestion. RS is an official faction which means RP comes first. As such sticking too the trade lanes fits our RP a lot better then taking jumpholes for shortcuts. This mainly refers to the Honshu-Hokkaido jumphole that we have been accustom to taking. This of course is up too whoever is leading the convoy at the time, but on convoys that I lead we will be going through New Tokyo. Honestly, I have timed both routes and we hardly lose any time going through New Tokyo anyways.

In Group Roleplay
This is not something that we have done in the past, but it is not a bad practice either. I bring this up because we have a few members who like doing this. This is not going to be a requirement, at least not by me. However if someone in the convoy wants to RP in group chat we should feel inclined to join in. It gives us an opportunity to breath life in our characters other then the usual "Guten Tag" as we pass by a trader. It could also make a long trade route much less boring. If someone really does not want too while this is going on then they may feel free to stay silent. Just remember to use "//" if you need to communicate something OORP.


Now I know that this list is by no means complete and there are other practices we should consider down the road, but I would say this is a good starting point. I hope you all agree. If you guys have any suggestions on things that could be added or tweaked please let me know on here or Skype. Thank you.