Happy Holidays & State of Play
Category: Community Broadcasted on 20.Dec.2018 - 11:22hrs Author Zayth Kadrim Comments: 0
Hello everyone!
We celebrate the holiday season a bit differently every year as a group, though some things tend to remain the same. Whatever your plans for the next few weeks though, I do hope you’ll have the time to relax with your family and friends without having to worry too much about what’s going on in the game. For my part, I’m also intending to get away from this all for a moment, to get to enjoy the Christmas spirit and new year’s celebrations for good measure, even if we do have big things in the pipeline to look forward to. But more of that in a moment, and I hope you’re up for a longer read about the state of play.
Holiday bonuses return as an extra round of wages to be paid out imminently, and the Christmas prize hunt on the site will commence later today as well. The hunt lasts for roughly two weeks, where you can stumble upon hidden cash prizes when browsing our main site. (Members only, logging in required, personal winnings are capped at 40m, RC members are not eligible for winnings, winnings will be paid out in January.)
As to what’s up ahead, the teasing about the new site and everything has been going on for a while of course, and though I would’ve loved to have been able to showcase it all to you for Christmas already, there’s just enough work still to be done that it wasn’t feasible or even desirable to rush to release everything this week.
Just the same, expect the new site to go live in January – work on php updates and development of internal tools will continue beyond that of course, and the forums are set to be replaced before the summer. Alongside the site release, we are looking to resume normal recruitment advertising with all new recruitment materials. After the site release we also intend to review and update the post-acceptance processes from admissions till branch placement, to ensure a smoother experience for our recruits, which also involves assimilating the Robin Hood’s School (of Social Education and Culture) – so called after a wookiee admiral of ours from a previous decade – formally into the Star Home Academy.
Another thing for you in the pipeline is the reveal and activation of the Archais Initiative, the member loyalty benefits program, which has now progressed to the point where the physical infrastructure is being laid down for it. I won’t go into too much detail still, but essentially, we want to offer our members access to customized housing and hunting options on our resort planet of Archais, as well as access to exchange for ships and such things as added member benefits. The currency of sorts used for those things will be tied to service and productivity, so whenever we will unveil the program itself, be it February or not, expect your merit point accumulation for the coming year being taken into account towards earning the exchange options.
We’re not shooting for the moon with the program, but I think it’s something we’ve been missing, and it’s definitely a thing I hope people will be able to enjoy and appreciate, with the opportunities available to foster more communal darkness activities as well that don’t involve our active duties.
On the game front, thanks to the Clarr and Mikel getting invigorated on game development topics, the SW Combine itself is poised to have big things happen over the course of the coming months. The biggest which is the promise of limited if global release of space combat focusing on fighter squadrons and economic warfare, with the features apparently coded and ready to go once people have had some time to prepare.
We’ve had limited space combat alpha to test in asteroid fields before, but this promises to potentially entirely upend the era of peace and prosperity enjoyed by the majority of the Combine groups ever since the closure of the Red Scenarios, outside the limited build/control wars for planets that have taken place.
In response, while we’ve kept away from fortifying our systems needlessly before, we’re now digging into our raw material reserves to lay down hundreds of Golan IIs and Araturks stations across the Cluster, as well as pumping out untold thousands of new fighters of various types to be garrisoned in them. I recommend checking out the new garrison rules while we wait for the rest to be released, if you haven’t already, and missed on the early NPC trader rules drafts. As a result of the added demands on our logistics in particular, other new or scheduled industrial projects may be reviewed and re-prioritized as necessary, although we have no plans to slow down our income growth for the coming year, and you’ll likely see us go forward with our planned shipyard hub expansions as well.
As you can imagine, while the industrial chain is already sweating with the preparations well under-way, a whole paradigm shift awaits the RHAF; While in the past we’ve been able to mobilize to bigger deployments outside the Cluster in a reasonable timeframe, we now need to turn back to look at how to be able to detect and respond much faster to small incursions on our systems, without forgetting about the threat of larger assaults. The threat detection and deterrence begin with diplomacy and intelligence of course, and our responsiveness to incursions will benefit from our information tools, defence infrastructure and available technologies, but at its heart, it’s about people controlling ships, ready to fight intruders and engage in skirmishes all around.
As such, while we continue to look towards and prepare for the moment when ground combat testing concludes and is ready to be turned on everywhere, for now our available focus is being shifted towards space, and everything that is at stake there. Combat is finally coming, and I hope you will be able to embrace it accordingly. For our guys and gals in the navy blues or marine greens, or for all those in the reserves, this is as good time as any to ensure your skills have been updated into the skill database, to keep an eye out on how the Cluster defence is going to be arranged, and to keep your CO in the loop about your availability in the coming months and for 2019 altogether.
The military’s operational preparations are expected to begin in earnest early next year, and we will need to work hard on that too to ensure that we’re in the best possible position to not only deter aggression through our preparations, but to be able and willing to take on any comers, withstand the attrition, and escalate further by going after them and their backers as appropriate. The Hapes Cluster might be renown as a highly defensible area, and Hapes as a group that takes its defence and naval pedigree seriously, but it’s a reputation that should be expected to be put to the test next year. If anything, we’re going to have to earn it.
So interesting times for the Combine too up ahead. Hapes is on its third decade, and we’re finally facing a time when it looks more probable than not that we will soon be defending our sovereignty and prosperity in earnest – alongside the whole Galactic Civil War having a chance to become suddenly very lively indeed. As much work, or uncertainties and frustrations as might be attached to all of that, it’s also an exciting time, and I am very much looking forward to seeing how the Combine will implement the planned features and how the community deals with the upheavals ahead.
So thank you everyone, it’s been a pleasure working with you all on Hapes through the year, and I do wish you all a splendid holiday season! Likewise I look forward to tackling with you anything and everything 2019 has in store for us.
Take it easy, and take care!
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