Another important Long Post... here goes:
I've been doing a lot of thinking on how to make a large, effective group, and after talking to people for countless hours and mulling over various cause and effect relationships, I think I've hit on something. It's nothing exactly new, but I've come to understand what I already knew better.
So first off, we have to "begin with the end in mind". You'll find that phrase or something similar in a number of self-improvement books. I'm finding that it's very true. Nick, you've warned me against getting ahead of myself, which I have a tendency to do, but if we don't begin with a goal in mind, we won't achieve that goal.
So let's dream a little, shall we? How about 1000 members? On the stats page? It won't happen for awhile... it may never happen. But it won't happen if we don't try, right? So let's try!
With that many members, we could easily lock down entire suburbs. I'm imagining the battle plans laid down by the commander-in-chief-- drawn on the CITY map, not the SUBURB map like we do now. Instead of being worried about single buildings, we'll fight over entire suburbs... retake two malls at the same time... turn Ridleybank from red directly to green....
Absurd? Maybe...! I mean, seriously. Take over the zombie homeland? But think about it-- challenges make the game fun. Would you want to go back to third grade? I, for one, don't get anything out of easy A's.
Keep in mind, again, that this won't happen immediately. This is long-term thinking. Our plans will most likely change as we execute them, but without a plan, we're not going to form the most uberest survivor group ever.
Furthermore, we won't stop at 1000 members. When we reach 1000, we'll set new goals... either obliterate stuff harder, or perhaps migrate to a new game and obliterate stuff there. We can discuss this in depth as we approach 1000 members, although if you would like to suggest additional goals for either before or after 1000 members, please speak up.
So how are we going to do this? Well, my plans are very sketchy, and I'm posting about this so I can get lots of feedback.
First off, in order to keep such a massive group responsive and flexible, we will absolutely need a command hierarchy. A series of parallel groups (like an alliance) is easy enough to form, but it's much too high-maintenance to fit into our schedules. I will describe the hierarchy system from the bottom up because the subdivision sizes are determined by what is effective, not what will let us reach 1000 evenly.
8-12 soldiers in a squad led by a corporal
__ 3-5 squads in a platoon led by a lieutenant (24-60 soldiers)
__ __ 6-8 platoons in a company led by a captain (132-480 soldiers)
__ __ __ all captains report directly to the marshal
If we decide to take this further, we can combine 6-8 companies into a regiment led by colonels (792-3840 soldiers), and have the colonels report directly to the marshal. Higher layers will continue with the 6-8 pattern.
...
>.> Probably not, but I like leaving our options open.
I chose the squad size based on what is effective and manageable. Less than 6 people is probably too few, and more than 10 is a real handful, but we take casualties and have inactivity, so it's good to have a few extra. Since a single squad of about 8 members can take a zombie-infested building by itself on a good day, and a single platoon can hold a minor NT by itself, that makes it a good optimal squad size.
I chose to give platoon leaders less to manage than captains and the marshal because lieutenants are likely to be less experienced leaders, or leaders who have less time on their hands.
Squads and platoons can be specialized, the same as individuals can. A platoon of 4 squads may have a squad of heavy gunners, two of light gunners, and one with combat medics who operate from behind the front line, for example.
That would make up the bulk of the RER. There would be other jobs too, though. We would need in-game units that perform reconnaissance so we aren't attacking blindly, and metagame agents who keep up with the forums of groups that interest us. We will need a diplomat to interact with other groups. A writer or two for the wiki would be nice, to keep us well advertised and to keep up with the news that our group generates. We will probably also need a number of moderators to keep the forum from becoming a tangled mass of posts, and to deal with any issues caused by large numbers of randoms coming and posting on our forum.
Large numbers of people not coordinating or cooperating can make us lose a lot of efficiency, so I think we should require everyone to join a squad (or be leading a division of our group), and make sure that we have squads that don't take much time or commitment to play.
I think that mostly sums up what we will need to make the group run smoothly. It's going to take effort from a lot of people if we're going to pull off something like this 'cause I can't do it all myself.
