Server Rules, Marine Law, and Ranks permanently updated!

[Rahlzel]

After 2 weeks of testing and gathering feedback, the Server Rules, Marine Law, and Ranks have been updated.

Server Rules have been moved from the forum to the Wiki for ease of use, nicer formatting, and most importantly - a history of changes.

I recommend registering on our wiki and adding the above 3 pages to your Watchlist so you are notified when things change.

I feel like the Server Rules are fairly solid and may only change slightly over the next few months. Marine Law, though, will probably see more change as we discover loop holes and special cases. Since the goal is to allow players to govern themselves more, Marine Law will likely need to be tweaked often.

Thanks to everyone who helped with feedback, and to Sir Lordington for championing the rewrite of Marine Law.

[TheMaskedMan2]

All looks good! Here's to hoping it all turns out well, eh? I don't see any major problems with anything and let's just hope the server continues to grow and improve.

Good work to everyone involved.

[Aceluke123]

I like these new updates. Though hopefully any concerns come up quickly so they can be addressed if there are any.

[Imperator_Titan]

Loving it from a staff point of view. Seems pretty simple in all honesty

[Cactos]

I like the simplicity of it all, and how condensed it all is. The extra freedom is a nice change of pace as well. Hoping for nothing but improvements in the future.

[Steelpoint]

I've got a minor question relating to the MP law (Military Police - All Military Police jobs can never break Marine Law themselves, but they are not required to enforce Marine Law 100% of the time unless ordered by a superior.)

So, as an example, if a CMP chooses not to prosecute a marine for a specific offense, but the Commander orders the CMP to carry out the arrest irrespective. Would either the CMP have to prosecute and arrest the marine, or would the CMP's status allow them to disregard the Commanders order since its related to Marine law?

[Retrokinesis]

It looks good! The rank clarifications and the updated chain of command are especially welcome.

I do have a nitpicky question though: server rule 13 says "Whitelisted Commanders are allowed to instantly kill any marine at any time". Is that meant to be specifically limited to marines, placing civilian roles and survivors/hostile human forces beyond the reach of BEs? They could presumably still be executed normally, of course, but it seems to read that way.

[Lumdor]

Good job Rahl. This should make it easy for everyone to remember the rules.

[Davidchan]

Question: Why are Commissioned officer ranks using Navy ranks while Enlisted and NCO ranks are proper marine ranks?

[awan]

Question: Why are Commissioned officer ranks using Navy ranks while Enlisted and NCO ranks are proper marine ranks?

Because it is based upon the star trek system.
https://gyazo.com/9100698d6e8dd4557a1a9ba8ee63e983

[Davidchan]

That's not a very good excuse, and even that system has Marine Officer ranks for ground forces. If you're going by that excuse, MPs, Cargo and Engineering should be Crewmen, not Sergeants (why are the support grunts NCOs anyways), it just doesn't make sense for a Marine Vessel to operate like its full of swabbies.

[Lumdor]

That's not a very good excuse, and even that system has Marine Officer ranks for ground forces. If you're going by that excuse, MPs, Cargo and Engineering should be Crewmen, not Sergeants (why are the support grunts NCOs anyways), it just doesn't make sense for a Marine Vessel to operate like its full of swabbies.

Apop was the person who made the ranks. They've never really made sense, but then again this is a fictional universe.

[davidofmk771]

I'm very interested to see how non-judicial punishments work out. Hopefully we'll see less 'resisting arrest' charges for minor pre-deployment crimes since it's no longer a guarantee at missing deployment.

[kroack]

Question: Why are Commissioned officer ranks using Navy ranks while Enlisted and NCO ranks are proper marine ranks?

Because the United States Colonial Marine Corps is a fictional military organization that flies from planet to planet in literal spaceships.

[Davidchan]

Because the United States Colonial Marine Corps is a fictional military organization that flies from planet to planet in literal spaceships.

Literally no. They are intended to be the successor of the United States Marine Corp, who despite being a subsect of the Navy were given different ranks than their naval counterparts to ensure there was no confusion of who was in what service when both were aboard a ship.

And as I stated before, if the reason that 'they run the ship, they get naval ranks' was even a remotely valid excuse, MTs and Supply would be Petty Officers or Crewman, not Sergeants.

[Blade2000Br]

Literally no. They are intended to be the successor of the United States Marine Corp, who despite being a subsect of the Navy were given different ranks than their naval counterparts to ensure there was no confusion of who was in what service when both were aboard a ship.

And as I stated before, if the reason that 'they run the ship, they get naval ranks' was even a remotely valid excuse, MTs and Supply would be Petty Officers or Crewman, not Sergeants.

Actually, It was Apop that made the ranks like they were. He didn't followed any original branch from the real counter part military, only based off of it.

This is just a weird command structure that he made so people would understand who's in charge of what and who's higher ranked than who. Nothing besides that.

[solidfury7]

The rank structure works fine as it is.

No point rehashing it yet again for the sake of a few people who are bothered that a fictional Sci fi military doesn't follow current ranking structures.

[RobBrown4PM]

Nothing is wrong with the ranking system. It's never caused a problem, and IC it works fine.

[RobBrown4PM]

On further inspection, I propose the following changes to the ranking system.

Front Line Marines

► Show Spoiler

Standard Marines: Private First Class
Smart Gunner: Lance Corporal
Medics: Corporal
Engineers: Corporal
Specialist: Sergeant
Squad Leader: Staff Sergeant

Military Police

► Show Spoiler

Military Police: Corporal
Chief Military Police: Chief Warrant Officer

Requisitions

► Show Spoiler

Requisition Tech: Sergeant
Requisition Officer: 2nd Lt.

Engineering

► Show Spoiler

Engineering Tech: Sergeant
Chief Engineer: Captain

Pilot Officers:

► Show Spoiler

Pilot Officer: 2nd Lt.

Tank Crew:

► Show Spoiler

Tank Crew: 2nd Lt.

Command Staff:

► Show Spoiler

Staff Officer: 1st Lt.
Executive Officer: Lt. Colonel
Commanding Officer: Colonel

[Davidchan]

Why would you promote MPs to E-8? If CoC is being followed, Corporal is a far more realistic rank for MPs.

[RobBrown4PM]

Why would you promote MPs to E-8? If CoC is being followed, Corporal is a far more realistic rank for MPs.

Wouldn't be a terrible idea. I personally would love to see SL's and specs being arrested by Corporals. The salt would be amazing.

Edit: Alright, I took your suggestion and edited the ranks.

[Davidchan]

It's what happens in Real life. When UCMJ is involved, a private can arrest a General. Unlikely, but it can happen. I could see a CMP as a Master Sergeant or First Sergeant, but rank and file MPs? That'd be like having the Board of Directors running the cashiers at McDonalds.

As well, it takes away any insubordination baiting by MPs if they are similar rank to those they are arresting.

Personally, I'd rather see ranking (per job) be based on hours played per account/job. Basic Marine: 0 hour baldie? Private. 20-50 hours? PFC. 50+? LCPL. Leave an option in character creator that would allow players to default to a lower rank if they want, but otherwise it would make it much easier for a SO to pick an aSL instead of accidentally picking a baldie. As long as each step in the CoC's min rank was equal to or above the job below it, everything would work out fairly easy (Max Marine/Gunner/Medic/Engineer=Min Spec/SL and so on)

[Kerek]

Why change the ranks and make it more complicated than it needs go be. Its fine as is.

[Blade2000Br]

On further inspection, I propose the following changes to the ranking system.

Front Line Marines

► Show Spoiler

Standard Marines: Private First Class
Smart Gunner: Lance Corporal
Medics: Corporal
Engineers: Corporal
Specialist: Sergeant
Squad Leader: Staff Sergeant

Military Police

► Show Spoiler

Military Police: Corporal
Chief Military Police: Chief Warrant Officer

Requisitions

► Show Spoiler

Requisition Tech: Sergeant
Requisition Officer: 2nd Lt.

Engineering

► Show Spoiler

Engineering Tech: Sergeant
Chief Engineer: Captain

Pilot Officers:

► Show Spoiler

Pilot Officer: 2nd Lt.

Tank Crew:

► Show Spoiler

Tank Crew: 2nd Lt.

Command Staff:

► Show Spoiler

Staff Officer: 1st Lt.
Executive Officer: Lt. Colonel
Commanding Officer: Colonel

This only serves to complicate stuff. We are a fictional Marine corps on spaceships fighting 20 foot tall acid spitting bugs with the ocassional 8 foot tall high tech aliens with plasma weapons.

The rank structure we have works at is. We won't change it to appease some people. We never did on the past and have no reason to do now.

[WinterClould]

YO IF WE'RE DOING RADICAL THINGS LIKE CHANGING RANKS LET'S GO BIG OR GO HOME KIDDOS.

Lets end the silly nonsense of "squads" and us being a "platoon" and let's make shit real. All our current squads are platoons and our entire "platoon" is a whole nother company! Fire teams are squads and could likely be auto assigned to PFC's. So we get 3 squads of pfc and a command squad of the SL, engis, medics, spec for each platoon. 4 platoons (alpha, bravo, charlie, delta) plus all our command groups being their own support groups inside our big ol Company. The company is a really natural size group of marines for a ship of our size and with a mission like ours. It just makes sense.