[WATERSON] Hi-Fi Hitchhikers - Experimental comms outfit

[VinLAURiA]

VinLAURiA's Hi-Fi Hitchhikers - Mercenary Intelligence Network
Vanu Sovereignty - Waterson

The Hi-Fi Hitchhikers outfit is made for what I call "mercenaries" - people who wouldn't normally join outfits and would rather just find a squad or platoon out on the field to hook up with for a battle or two. People not interested in a static playgroup with the same people each time. People like me. Rather than any sort of cohesion and organized operations, VLHH is an outfit whose purpose is designed to be as spread-out as possible with each member off doing their own thing as usual.

The purpose? Information.

This playstyle can be... isolated. When you're off on your own or in a small group, there are times when you stumble across a good piece of intel, whether it be a large enemy movement or a vulnerable position or something else; if there are no allies in even yell radius, you literally can get the word out to no one. Or even if you are with a sizable group, something in your area may be vital info for allies in a completely different region and you have no means to relay it, like alerting those at a nearby large outpost to prepare for an incoming assault if your local forces are being pushed back.

Even in a squad or platoon, leader chat is limited to just that: leaders. With high numbers, the amount of leaders in a squad or platoon gets as low as one-twelfth of the whole unit, and leaders have enough on their plates without relaying all intel from their units into command chat and hoping that other leaders get the info to the right people, if even possible. Two of the most important and overlooked pieces of warfare are communication and logistics, and the latter is severly crippled without the former, which can be very lacking in PlanetSide 2. The game simply doesn't have any sort of general channel for an empire.

The Sovereignty's eyes and ears?

The idea is rather than any sort of group, VLHH is more of a network - a way of routing information quickly and effectively throughout the VS on Waterson by making use of all those lone-wolf players out there. Each member in essence acts as a node of the network, reporting any potentially valuable information to the outfit's comms and checking often to see if there's anything relevant that they can either relay to nearby players or act upon themselves.

Our hope is to make a VLHH member a valuable addition to any squad or even loose group by allowing it to tap into this network - a comms officer, if you will - but to have enough members that there are plenty to go around or even have several in the same location. If the other outfits are bricks that gives the wall of Vanu strength, our purpose is to be the mortar that binds them together and maintain the structure. Hence the name: our members hitchhike onto other groups and act as an antenna to the rest of our forces. Plus it's catchy and alliterative and damn it, I spent a whole day getting that thumb sign just right in Inkscape so I can't turn back now.

Can't stop the signal!

Even if you don't intend on relaying much info or having much of an active role, your presence in VLHH would still be a net gain for the VS as a whole than if you were to go solo as that's one more soldier tuned into what will hopefully become a vast network with its finger on the pulse of the empire. That's why even if outfits aren't your thing, I encourage you to join VLHH instead of going solo if you're at all interested in receiving more intel. From the ground up, VLHH is truly intended to be an outfit for those who wouldn't otherwise bother.

Unlike the command chat, anyone in VLHH can tune in or contribute at any time even if they're not even in a squad. While it wouldn't be as curated as the command intel or focus on such high-level strategy, the much wider potential reach and higher density of information means VLHH is aimed at being a complement to the game's built-in command and orders system rather than in opposition. A public network throughout the empire - one that the game lacks naturally - in contrast to the private channels within squads and platoons or between their leaders.

What little structure there is...

VLHH doesn't have a website or forums (aside from this thread, I guess) but we will be making use of the game's built-in command hierarchy for outfits. The plan is to have the outfit largely self-moderate itself with higher-ranked members promoting those they deem trustworthy and valuable sources to the middle ranks and rely on them in turn to manage and moderate the comms of the majority. The aim isn't to censor or make anyone's voice overrule anyone else's, but to make sure trolling and misinformation don't drown out legitimate intel. Thus, the five ranks the game allows me are as follows, from bottom to top:

Listeners
This is where most of the members are gonna fall. You'll have access to the chat and you'll be able to hear voice from those above you, but for the purposes of not overloading our voice comms channel you guys won't be able to actually speak into the channel yourselves. You can still chat, though, and like everyone above you, you'll be able to invite other players into the outfit and I encourage you to do so. The network only grows stronger the more people use it, so the more the merrier.

Street Crew
One step above Listeners, these members have speaking capability for the voice comms. It should be noted again that just because they're a higher rank doesn't mean they're better than Listeners or their messages have more priority, just that they're trusted enough to use the voice channel. In general, though, Street Crew should try to keep voice comms to a minimum except for the important info, so things like idle chit-chat are encouraged. Some people don't appreciate folks yacking over the comms while they're trying to hear their surroundings.

Correspondents
Essentially moderators or power members. Correspondents are those proven to be valuable sources of intel and can be trusted to keep an eye on things to weed out the nuts, so they've been given access to the kicking function of the outfit, but are otherwise just Street Crew. As with before, Correspondents should try not to use voice frivilously due to how expansive the network could become, but generally have a little more leeway with it than normal Street Crew due to their status. Still, to anyone of this rank: if you've gotta deal with someone causing a ruckus, do it in the chat. Don't scold someone in voice for the whole network to hear.

Divine Jaywalkers
See what I did there? Yeah, the DJs are the admins, they'll be the ones managing ranks of those below along with all the Correspondent functions. I don't have exactly have anyone lined up for these positions, but if you want to help VLHH succeed and think you've got what it takes, fire off a reply to this thread saying as much. In general there probably won't be more than five, and I'll probably be picking in order to spread out time zones and play habits to make sure there's often at least one DJ on aside from possibly Waterson's off-hours. The higher your BR, the better. Not trying to be elite or anything, but this kind of position is one I'd really like to have experienced players in so I can trust they know what they're doing.

The AdVinistration
In short, me. I don't intend to do much managing as much as use the network as anyone else would, but since I created the outfit, I'm the one in control and will be the one tweaking any little knobs in the concept to try to make this a success. Pretty much the most bossing around I'll do is making sure the DJs are fit for their jobs and aren't power-tripping twits. I'm pretty humble and I won't let anyone else's ego impede us, either.

Yes, this could crash and burn.

At the end of the day, VLHH is still just an experiment as of this writing. I myself am currently just a BR38 who joined at the game's public release, playing recreationally without having spent a dime on the game or any experience in the original PlanetSide aside from the very little I've played in the recent free six-month anniversary promotion, and the computer I play on was built in 2010 on a budget of $1,000 as a high-school graduation present and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't starting to show its age. I'm not that qualified to lead a cohesive force, I'll admit. But VLHH isn't supposed to be one.

What this outfit is above all else is an idea; an attempt fulfill a need to improve comms and logistics across our whole empire on the server - an empire my fellow Waterson VS should already know has to compensate for its lacking numbers with superior tactics - and it only takes a modest amount of support to turn this crazy scheme into a legit concept. That's why if you are at all interested in what I've proposed here and don't have any plans to join any other outfit, I encourage you to join VLHH and turbocharge the intelligence communications within our empire. For Vanu.

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