BTM Staff Reorganization Announcement
Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 7:01 pm
Hello Battletech-Mercenaries community,
I’ve been asked to brief you all on some changes that are happening to our game, specifically how the staff operates. Some of this is more staff-internal but some will have ramifications for you all.
Due to the smaller size of our staff and our community we are trying to make our operations more efficient. With that in mind, you’ll start to see the following:
1. The Deputy will be the master architect of this living, breathing universe. Master directives “such as the Lyran Alliance takes worlds X, Y and Z from the FWL in August 3095” will go to other staffers (tentatively called storyline writers for now) who will flesh out the details of those directives.
2. The Ambassador role (by any name) is being phased out. We don’t have enough staff to provide 1 staffer per Great House. We will instead try to develop storyline writers who can shift to wherever they are needed.
3. We will no longer be creating very detailed faction updates. We will continue to focus on factional leaders/heirs/politics, as well as strategic/societal/economic goings-on of the universe.
4. In place of detailed faction updates which try to describe everything down to where a particular battlemech regiment is, its strength, experience level, CO, etc..instead of all that we will simply be maintaining simple lists of each faction’s battlemech regiments (or equivalent, e.g. Clan Clusters/Galaxies) and lists of warships (by number and class only, unless they’ve already been named). Other details like their strength/garrison/CO will not be maintained.
5. Within the staff we will cultivate the role of “asset tracker.” This person will monitor units/warships when they are in use. This will save us the time and energy of constantly trying to track all units all across the Inner Sphere and periphery in real time. So for instance, if the 1st Atrean Dragoons are part of a contract, either as an enemy unit or an allied unit, then that unit goes on the asset tracker’s sheet. For a little while we will know where that unit is, what it’s doing, its status and so forth. Sometime after the contract(s) is completed, the 1st Atrean Dragoons will go off the asset tracker’s sheets and simply back to the master list. This will help to prevent continuity problems, like the same unit being in 2 places at the same time. Or a unit being destroyed in combat in February, only to appear somewhere else at full strength in April.
6. When a factional unit is actively involved in something, like a contract, the staff will work to flesh it out and update it, unless the MU taking the contract wishes to do it themselves.
7. The staff are going to refocus on the Active Plotline Model of doing things. By which we will create the framework for pivotal events or storylines in our universe. But when a unit takes them on, that unit is effectively pursuing and writing what happens (within reason). This, in addition to major decisions by the Deputy and staff, will be how our universe moves forward. Each active plotline will be assigned a staffer to oversee things (answer questions, etc).
8. We will continue to offer some random contracts, but the “made-to-order” contract idea is our primary means of providing mercenary units with work. We will also be nudging units toward the Active Plotlines as they are made available.
Most of these changes are internal to the staff. But we want to make sure you all know what is going on. There may be some confusion as we retool the staff to fit the structural changes we are making. You may see staff job titles change. Pre-existing notions over who to contact about a particular contract or faction may change suddenly.
These changes are designed to benefit you all. With a smaller community and a smaller staff, we’ve been assessing how best to make use of our time. By streamlining the staff decision-making process, and by not spending countless hours on super-detailed faction updates, we hope to spend more time on real improvements to our game, and more time investing in the production of good, quality stories and more content generation that doesn’t tell you where a regiment is stationed and who its CO is, but rather, who’s scheming to do what, and why. The real narratives of our universe.
This is an announcement but also a discussion thread. Feel free to post any questions about this here and the staff will do our best to answer them. Please note that this is a work in progress. So the details are subject to change.
I’ve been asked to brief you all on some changes that are happening to our game, specifically how the staff operates. Some of this is more staff-internal but some will have ramifications for you all.
Due to the smaller size of our staff and our community we are trying to make our operations more efficient. With that in mind, you’ll start to see the following:
1. The Deputy will be the master architect of this living, breathing universe. Master directives “such as the Lyran Alliance takes worlds X, Y and Z from the FWL in August 3095” will go to other staffers (tentatively called storyline writers for now) who will flesh out the details of those directives.
2. The Ambassador role (by any name) is being phased out. We don’t have enough staff to provide 1 staffer per Great House. We will instead try to develop storyline writers who can shift to wherever they are needed.
3. We will no longer be creating very detailed faction updates. We will continue to focus on factional leaders/heirs/politics, as well as strategic/societal/economic goings-on of the universe.
4. In place of detailed faction updates which try to describe everything down to where a particular battlemech regiment is, its strength, experience level, CO, etc..instead of all that we will simply be maintaining simple lists of each faction’s battlemech regiments (or equivalent, e.g. Clan Clusters/Galaxies) and lists of warships (by number and class only, unless they’ve already been named). Other details like their strength/garrison/CO will not be maintained.
5. Within the staff we will cultivate the role of “asset tracker.” This person will monitor units/warships when they are in use. This will save us the time and energy of constantly trying to track all units all across the Inner Sphere and periphery in real time. So for instance, if the 1st Atrean Dragoons are part of a contract, either as an enemy unit or an allied unit, then that unit goes on the asset tracker’s sheet. For a little while we will know where that unit is, what it’s doing, its status and so forth. Sometime after the contract(s) is completed, the 1st Atrean Dragoons will go off the asset tracker’s sheets and simply back to the master list. This will help to prevent continuity problems, like the same unit being in 2 places at the same time. Or a unit being destroyed in combat in February, only to appear somewhere else at full strength in April.
6. When a factional unit is actively involved in something, like a contract, the staff will work to flesh it out and update it, unless the MU taking the contract wishes to do it themselves.
7. The staff are going to refocus on the Active Plotline Model of doing things. By which we will create the framework for pivotal events or storylines in our universe. But when a unit takes them on, that unit is effectively pursuing and writing what happens (within reason). This, in addition to major decisions by the Deputy and staff, will be how our universe moves forward. Each active plotline will be assigned a staffer to oversee things (answer questions, etc).
8. We will continue to offer some random contracts, but the “made-to-order” contract idea is our primary means of providing mercenary units with work. We will also be nudging units toward the Active Plotlines as they are made available.
Most of these changes are internal to the staff. But we want to make sure you all know what is going on. There may be some confusion as we retool the staff to fit the structural changes we are making. You may see staff job titles change. Pre-existing notions over who to contact about a particular contract or faction may change suddenly.
These changes are designed to benefit you all. With a smaller community and a smaller staff, we’ve been assessing how best to make use of our time. By streamlining the staff decision-making process, and by not spending countless hours on super-detailed faction updates, we hope to spend more time on real improvements to our game, and more time investing in the production of good, quality stories and more content generation that doesn’t tell you where a regiment is stationed and who its CO is, but rather, who’s scheming to do what, and why. The real narratives of our universe.
This is an announcement but also a discussion thread. Feel free to post any questions about this here and the staff will do our best to answer them. Please note that this is a work in progress. So the details are subject to change.