[Last modified 10-16-17 / MM-DD-YY]
SECTION 0: Introduction
Within Chaos, Marauder positions and above come with some modicum of authority, but that authority typically ends where Second Life and Teamspeak end. The Marauder, for our purposes, is our one and only NCO rank; other groups have grades, but we have done away with it so it is just Marauder. Marauders have one or more duties to the group justifying their rank:
- Active and veteran Mechanicus Developer
- Raid Leader
- Trainer/Corruptor
Which gets to the crux of it. As an NCO, your primary purpose in the group is to volunteer your time to do a job. If you are a Veteran and interested in putting your time forward to actively be a raid leader or a trainer and you're willing to be available for people to do those jobs, then you're most likely suited to be a Marauder and just need to speak up. If you are not, you will never rank up in the group. We have an established precedent of demoting both officers and NCOs that do not perform any useful duties to the group; in extreme cases, these people may be removed from the group entirely if there is an established pattern of intentional inactivity. It is sometimes disciplinary to do this, but there have been many officers that have been asked to peacefully resign their rank until they are able and willing to volunteer more of their time to the group. As you know, however, being a Veteran isn't that bad.
tl;dr Rank in Chaos == Work in Chaos. If you want work, ask. If you don't, do not.
----------------------------
SECTION 1: Gear
Marauders typically have access to more gear than their enlisted counterparts, but most of this gear is not objectively better, save maybe the Powersword. That is not what this section is about. This is about things you must always have and what you must do with them.
----------------------------
1:A - Cult Tracker HUD
The cult tracker HUD is a scripted way of figuring out where the cult box is on the sim. It can be tedious to know the name of the box and area search for it and always keep tabs on it, and this HUD eliminates that requirement. It's straightforward, just keep an eye on where the cult box is relative to your cultist.
----------------------------
1:B - Command HUD
The Command HUD becomes more important as a raid leader. You must take the OIC slot by typing:
/1oic
Allowing you to be recognized as the raid's OIC, or Officer In Charge, by allowing increased HUD functionality and notifying both people in the group and outside of the group as to who the OIC is. Do not treat this as the defacto way to notify people of your OIC status, as it is only one message sent to everyone on sim.
As the OIC, you can place down objective markers A-D. Place these as you would ping, save now these are permanent markers on the HUD that everyone in the group with the Command HUD can see. You MUST be OIC to use this function- if someone has taken OIC and you are the OIC, request to have it so that they can clear the slot for you. To clear all of your waypoints, click the chaos star on the Command HUD. To input coordinates manually, click the half stars under the numbers. Otherwise, use it just like pinging- cam to an area, then click one of the numbers on the HUD instead of tapping "Y".
Note that ANYONE can take OIC, including Renegades and Veterans, but anyone that outranks them can take it away from them. Same ranks should be able to take OIC from each other. If for some reason you want to give someone OIC because you have to suddenly go or you AFK for a long period, just type:
/1clearoic
And the slot will be open again.
----------------------------
1:C - Raid Payout HUD
Arguably the most important HUD any ranking member of Chaos has. This is a HUD that allows people to raid or defend and receive Corruption. All you need to do is click on the Chaos Star in the lower right corner next to all the numbers, and hit the START button.
Make sure at the end of the raid/defense you click it again and hit the STOP. Let it output its mass of information and distribute the blank notecard to you- YOU are to copy the output of the raid report (not the ENTIRE output, only the part the NC specifies) and copy it over to the notecard and rename it appropriately. After that, submit the report to the raid report box by finding it in the spawn area, labeled "Raid Reports Drop Box" and hitting the Drop Report button. Drag the notecard into the box. If you have mod perms, do NOT accidentally drag the NC into the ban reports box. Both defenses and raid reports must be submitted to the dropbox.
Raid leaders receive a slightly higher amount of corruption. This is to both encourage raid leaders to lead raids, and to give them the option of distributing that bonus corruption at their discretion to someone who performed well during the combat. Once someone is logged into the tracker, their corruption will be distributed once the tracker is turned off; there is no need for them to worry about losing corruption or wasting time if they have to go. If YOU crash, you can come back to the sim and turn the tracker back on and it will count up again, taking the information of the previous raid and reacculumate corruption, just do not be OIC if you believe you will crash or have to leave the sim any time soon.
The Payout HUD also distributes corruption based on the ratio. More people on the enemy side, more corruption. Less payout for higher numbers. Because it is a ratio, you get less corruption in a 2:1 fight in your favor than you would a 3:2 fight in your favor.
Do not abuse the payout HUD, we pay attention to that shit and we will find you.
----------------------------
1:D - The Forums
The forums are awesome. You use them for tracking training (alongside the notecard backup system, which works just like the raid report system except it's all manual input) and keeping up to date on important information. Check them at least once a week, preferably even more often. Have people in the group subscribe to them. Have people outside the group subscribe to them. Make two forum accounts. Just follow the rules.
----------------------------
SECTION 2: Conduct
As an NCO in Chaos, other groups are people at a lower rank within the group hold you as an example of what we advocate and promote. People outside the group will judge the entire group based on your conduct alone, and people within it will emulate your behavior. Act how you expect someone with your level of authority and your duties would act.
To put it more specifically, you need to not act like a tight ass, but you also need to have enough awareness and self-control not to completely sperg out. In every situation where someone of lower rank is present, you are the rock meant to make sure everyone else is in line. You know by now we aren't the most professional people, but we're not constantly goofing off. But we sometimes go from one spectrum to the other depending on the context of the situation.
Learn to read the room. If people are fucking around, fuck around. If we're raiding, it's not a good idea to fuck around even if an officer is unless the other party has also decided not to take the fight seriously. Pay attention to what we criticize, and what we reward. Sometimes Officers and Marauders will do things they shouldn't and act in ways they should not, act better and don't justify your own actions based on what they might get away with. Be what you want to see.
Give orders and pull rank only when the situation requires it. If you got promoted, it was for a reason, and in the context of Chaos activities others should acknowledge it if you have a problem with something or are asking someone of something.
You will be yelled at and chewed out. You will do the same to others eventually.
Keep yourself honest and keep your attitude and values consistent.
Don't be gay, unless you're gay.
----------------------------
2:A - Cultists
We have specific Corruptor documentation, but this is worth stating here: think of being a corruptor as being a big sibling. You want your Cultist to succeed, but you also must challenge them and have them earn that success. You are their lifeline to the group, but you are also their obstacle to overcome. Do not set them up to fail, but do not make the path to success easy. Cult is also supposed to be fun- but having fun isn't supposed to always be easy.
Ultimately, talk to other corruptors if you don't really know how to approach training, they may have useful suggestions for you. There is no right way to train someone. You are your cultist's big boss as well- if they have a problem you think is worth addressing, you can bring it up on their behalf. If someone is stepping on your toes and training your cultist without notifying you, speak with them.
----------------------------
SECTION 3: Command
NCOs act as Raid Leaders. If you are the highest rank on, you also command defenses. That isn't always the case; if you want to lead a defense or raid and a higher rank is on, they will allow you to do so.
Being in command means you need to give people direction. You are telling specific people where to go and keeping track of both friendly and enemy movements. You need to keep in mind who needs to suddenly AFK and adjust your attack/defense accordingly. You must give people clear direction and objectives and pay attention to when they are completed. The moment you go silent when people need direction, and someone else steps up, you have effectively lost your right to be OIC. The loudest person is typically OIC, so be the loudest.
----------------------------
3:A - Your Responsibilities
As raid lead, you have a few responsibilities. First and foremost is to read the rules of the sim you're going to before the raid begins. Next to our raid gate, downstairs, is a bunch of sim rules and landmarks. They are out of date. Fuck you, go to the sim and check their rules; but don't stay there, other groups will assume we're scouting. Just pop in once a week to take the rule NC's of all the major groups, always assume that box is out of date ... but most groups don't dramatically change their rules even over long timespans.
Read those rules carefully. There is a lot of terminologies some groups or foreigners may use that may catch you off guard. For example, some groups refer to teleporters as scripted medic TPers or something, and some groups may allow teleporters but not allow medicing. Be aware of the general outline of the rules and seek to obey them for a standard raid; on that note, do not bend over backwards to double check our gear is rules compliant. Most of our gear complies with rules on sims; but if a sim allows for gas grenades, but says "they must be 7.5m!" just ignore it and use gas anyway.
You are also responsible for turning on the raid payout HUD, or raid tracker, at the beginning of the raid, and turning it off when it ends. On that note, you are also responsible for marking positions on the Command HUD.
When a raid begins, you have the ability and responsibility of moving / getting everyone to move into the proper raid channels in teamspeak and renaming them. If someone wanders into the lobby and shouts at you, you have no right to get upset, you fucked up.
Don't be stupid. If you think you are going to be leaving soon, turn off the raid tracker, type /1clearoic , and designate someone else to take command or end the raid. If you are the only one defending the sim for some reason, inform the raiding party that you need to do other things. The only excuse to leave a raid or defense in this manner is if you need to do something prescheduled or it is real life; you don't get to go do gay RP on SL or play Arma 3, Tyro.
During the raid, you also must maintain comms discipline. If someone does it for you, then no one will respect your authority as OIC, they will respect the authority of the person actually giving commands. Oh, and uh.
Giving people direction during the raid is a thing you must do.
----------------------------
3:B - The Other OIC
Most raiding and defending forces have an OIC. Most groups are courteous identifying the other OIC when you ask, but some throw you in for a loop and waste your time. We do that too sometimes, it's usually an indication that the raid is deteriorating and it will end soon. Either way, if you have a complaint you need to direct it to the OIC of the other force, and vice versa. Unless you designate someone to speak on your behalf, do NOT have people from your group messaging people from another group with their complaints; make it clear that it is your responsibility to handle it. In the same vein, have your guys inform the other party to bring up their complaints with you or their own OIC.
In the best situations, the other OIC will introduce themselves to you once your Command HUD informs them of you being the OIC. At worst, you will never figure it out. In the event that no OIC is identified and you have tons of problems during the raid, it's best to leave. If defending, make it clear the other group is no longer welcome to fight. Let them reee about their victory; we are not paying for a sim to waste our time with kids. Our Moms told us to act like grownups, so we'll pretend we are.
----------------------------
3:C - Communication
You need to keep your comms orderly in teamspeak. Most officers that are being disruptive will stop when you ask them to, but in the event they or someone below you does not, you need to have a way of dealing with it. You need to be loud. You have to say in a clear, concise voice "CLEAR COMMS!" and then proceed to relay information, be it something pertinent to the combat or chewing people out for going on about irrelevant information. If it's one or two people, you can call them out too. It doesn't matter whose rank it is; if you are unable to speak effectively and others cannot speak about the combat, you need to be able to have your line of communication open so that you can keep people informed and keep their minds in the fight. People talking about irrelevant bullshit often get us pushed to our spawn.
It's going to happen though. All the time. People will get comfortable and go on about irrelevant bullshit. As OIC, it is your call to judge whether or not the fight is in need of your direction or we've been able to effectively win the fight and we're just waiting for it to end. Typically, a defense is a more acceptable time to have people act in this manner because we usually win more on our sim due to knowing the terrain better. In most raids, unless the group is pants on head dumb, you need to not have comms devolve into this.
Sometimes shouting will not be enough. You can kick people out of your teamspeak channel, raise talk power, give people DoNotSpeak tags, etc. In a situation where a high volume of people are on in an active combat environment, consider designating a 2IC and utilizing your Channel Commander whisper list. If you don't know what that is, ask an officer to assist you in setting that up. Again, don't be stupid. If someone speaks out of line once or twice, it isn't grounds to eject them from a raid or give them the DoNotSpeak tag. These things are last resort "I've talked about this three times and you all pretended to acknowledge it" situations.
Complaints about the combat are classified under irrelevant bullshit. If someone is cheating, be it wireframing or ignoring rules, only examine the issue if it is significantly disrupting the combat in a way that multiple people stop having fun or we have no way to effectively counter it. Experience watching people break rules or cheat will allow you to have good instincts regarding it being disruptive or not. If someone with permissions to add them to a rule enforcer script is out (ie an autoreturner or the RLV wireframe thing), mention it to them if you feel you must. However, people complaining about the combat over teamspeak begins a downward spiral in morale leading to more and more complaining and dissatisfaction with the raid. Pretend you're dealing with it or tell them to shut up.
----------------------------
3:D - Gear Choice
As lead you need to have your mind on winning the fight, not necessarily on performing well. As we have proved time and time again, being good at fighting in Second Life is secondary to fighting in an organized and effective manner; so take your attention away from killing your own targets, and pay more attention to the map. But don't go fully AFK-armchair general mode, keep fighting as well.
This goes into the kinds of gear Marauders have access to as well. For instance, the Bolt Pistol is good, but it's inaccurate over long range. Same for the Heavy Bolter (in Ferrum.) Most officer and Marauder gear emphasizes suppression or are difficult to utilize in comparison to the more straightforward auto-weapons. This is intentional- the OIC is better suited to taking a support position or fighting in a manner that doesn't require you to think about the fight that hard.
The mortar, for example, is a very good choice- it allows you to direct specific kinds of firepower at specific places and (once a position is keyed in) can be utilized by just pressing one key every once in a while. More importantly, however, is the mortar's functionality requries alt-camming around like the Command HUD does, meaning you can constantly have a bird's eye view of the map (assuming no one shoots at you) without having to compromise your effectiveness. Same for the Wyvern (if the tank ever comes out.)
In the same vein, the repair tool and Mechanicus HUD are also good because they are in backline positions. You don't get to watch the entire map beyond the minimap with them, but it is fairly straightforward to use both and you are unlikely to need to dodge and weave using either one. It allows you to effectively command without dividing your attention.
At the end of the day, fight how you want when leading, but if you struggle with it keep that stuff in mind.
----------------------------
This is a living document. I'll edit it when I feel like it. Also I'll leave comments open until I feel like closing them because why not. Updates will be posted at the top and as thread comments.