Alliance structures

Introduction

Before the structure of an Alliance can even be thought about it is very important to make sure those thinking about making the alliance have got what it takes. Making an alliance takes a lot of dedication and hard work; it takes many hours of time given up to make sure even the tiniest of details is worked out. Alliances are more than just a bunch of players deciding to join one alliance; it is a community and a place where all work towards one goal. Without the members the alliance does not exist, it is with the members in mind that every working detail of the alliance must be built.

HCs

HCs, or High Commanders, are the backbone of an alliance. An alliance can not live for long without commanders to organize and make the decisions for everything their alliance does. HC’s do everything from promoting the different officers to making sure the alliance has all the working tools and channels it needs to making the political decisions. Anything and everything that goes on within an alliance should be known by the high commanders.

Officers

There are many different kinds of Officers, all which involve different kinds of skills and different types of activity to make their part in an alliance work. In some cases the skills of one type of officer will closely resemble the skills of another type of example, in these cases officer positions can overlap or an officer can hold more than one position. In small alliances where there are not as many members to help do the work this can help to cover all positions that are needed. Officers need to have a lot of motivation and maturity to hold up their part in the alliance.

Defence Officer

Defence Officers are needed at all times in a day. In most cases the number of defence officers an alliance needs depends on the size of the alliance and the activity level of the chosen defence officers. It is good to make sure there is at least 1 defence officer in each time zone or at least 1 on at any time of day. Defence officers are the ones that handle all the fleet sending to defend the members. They are responsible for making sure a planet is covered, making sure the ships sent are not getting destroyed, and making sure they are not wasting ships that may be needed later. In some cases they will also be involved in helping to set up retaliations on the planets attacking their alliance and also getting friendly fire recalled. Whoever is chosen for this position needs to spend a lot of time active online and be ready for many sleepless nights; they also need to have good military skills.

Attack Officer

Attack Officers are a lot like Defence Officers, the only real difference is that they handle the attack organizing. They are needed during attack hours and the hours before target picking and galaxy choosing is to begin. They need to have the skills to pick good targets and to not hit friendly planets. They have to have the charisma to get the members to want to attack and to want to keep attacking no matter how hard the battles get. They need to be creative enough to know how to keep the attacks fun and to find new ways to keep interests up even when stagnation of the game seems to be happening.

Intelligence

Intelligence is probably one of the harder areas to learn to do. It in most cases takes someone who already has the skills to root out all the information and gossip they can. In most cases this also means having the charisma to get people to talk and say too much while keeping as much information that they know to themselves. They will also in most cases be in charge of organizing all known information on all planets in the universe and knowing how to use it to the best advantage for the alliance. Intelligence handling is important because it can be what makes or breaks an alliance when it is organizing its political standing in the game. An example would be: Alliance A decides to ally with Alliance B, Alliance B only wants Alliance A around to fight the war then they plan to kill of Alliance A once the other threat is out of the way. If the Intelligence officer knows this information they are able to pass it on to those handling external affairs to find a better solution that is the best for their alliance. This is also a case where the Intelligence Officer may also be the External Affairs Officer and doing both jobs.

Internal Affairs

Internal Affairs Officers deal with anything and everything that affects the inner workings of the alliance, especially anything affecting the happiness of the members or community. They act a lot like a Human Relations job would, making sure the questions, comments, disagreements, and anything else the members may need get answered or at least directed to the right place. They may also be in charge of helping the new members to settle in or to clear out the old inactive members an alliance may still have. Whoever is picked for this position needs a lot of spare time, and be readily available to listen to anyone at any time needed.

External Affairs

External Affairs deal with the public’s view of your alliance as well as how other alliances view your alliance. It also has to do with making some publicity and hype for your alliance and letting everyone know what your alliance is about. In some cases it can also involve keeping up the communication with other allies and keeping everyone happy. Whoever an HC picks for this position MUST have good communication skills and charisma. They must be able to carry the messages and view of their HC’s without getting out of line. They must also always remember where their loyalties lie.

Recruitment

Recruitment officers are one of the most important elements of an alliance. They are what builds the alliance and keeps new blood flowing into the alliance. They must be good thinkers and able to act off their own intuitions. They have to be ready at all times to listen and react just as fast. Recruitment officers will have to know how to ask all the normal questions required of them to ask but also make up questions just as quickly to acquire new or more information from those they are questioning. On top of this it helps if they know a bit on the technical side and are able to weed out the suspicious players and spies. They must also be good at getting the information that the applicant does not say for use to help the recruitment process. They will also need to be available many hours in a day as new applicants can show up at any time. And last but not least, a recruiter MUST have a very good memory, they will have to remember those that have applied in the past and watch for things like nick changes or spies, and within the alliance they will have to watch for members not holding up to what they have said in their interviews.

Techies

Techies are all your people that help run your tools, help program your tools, help set up your forums and keep them updated, and help keep your IRC and other means of communication running. A techie must have very good technical skills and know what he is doing, this can not be someone that says they know how to make an IRC channel or how to make a small script but someone who really knows their stuff. Second they must be among your most loyal of members as they will know close to 100% of what is going on within the alliance. Another important aspect of a techie is having someone that you are sure you can get in contact with 24 hours a day 7 days a week to fix whatever has gone wrong, Planetarion does not stop ticking so neither can your tools, forums, or IRC.