Airborne's Civilized Rant About The History of the CCA and Its Current Standing

[Airborne1st]

This post is mostly about the nearly constant accusations from many people that the CCA is "Broken." Those of you who have been around since 2011 or earlier have seen countless CCA reforms with the reason that the CCA is broken in some way, and the only way to fix it is to wipe everything and everyone and restart over and rename everything and get rid of/move around a few ranks here and there. Let me just put it out early in this post that yes, large scale demotions are necessary every once in awhile, because not everyone moves on at the same time. Eventually you wind up with nothing but 02+ units in the CCA. I understand the occasional need for mass demotions, but what pisses me off about it, is that no one ever comes out and just says, "Hey everyone, we're going to do a rank wipe due to everyone being an 01 pretty much and no one is moving on, we're sorry for the inconvenience." They always come out saying, "OH LAWDY THE GOOD CHRISTIAN CCA IS BROKEN! WE GOTS TO WIPE Y'ALL."

So with that, I'm yet to ever see anyone say just what is broken about the CCA that a wipe will fix, other than the fact that the problem lies with the players, not the system or organization of the CCA, and even still few people ever seem to realize that fact. It doesn't matter if we run the CCA with the current system, or the system we had back in November of 2011, the CCA will function as it always has. Let's look back at the 5+ "Reforms" and wipes of the CCA and see what has really changed. Nothing has really changed at all, other than a rank or two being added or removed and things being renamed. I will give a bit of credit to the latest reform, as it actually changed the way UU worked, which appears to be working well.

I'm sure I'm not the only one getting tired of hearing the CCA isn't functioning or is broken completely just because someone saw a recruit do a shitty /me. I think what happens too often is the entirety of the CCA is judged by half a handful of units that aren't that good, and thus the result is an all out, and sometimes unnecessary wipe of everyone. This leads to pissing off people and causing them to leave the community, decreasing HL2RP population semi-permanently.

I'm not making this post because I feel the CCA needs to be changed, nor has anyone said much about another reform. Its just an issue that was on my mind after reading through a few posts, mostly the recent "How can we improve this?" threads (of which I actually made one myself not too long ago). People's responses blow my mind with things along the lines of, "Nothing has really changed in the CCA, its still shit." No one actually said that, but in so many words, a fair number of people view the CCA this way, which seems completely illogical because the CCA hasn't essentially changed at all since its formation, yet a few of the people who don't approve of the CCA's layout seemed to enjoy it back before the latest reform.

The CCA can't function any other way than it does now or always has. There have to be ranks of some kind, there have to be divisions of some kind, and everyone has to have some kind of IC training. There are just certain things in the CCA that can't ever be changed, yet people scream about reforming it. When everyone says, "Okay, go ahead and reform it then since you know what's best", nothing ever changes with the core of things.

One point I'm trying to make is, you can't logically think the CCA was shitty at one point and not think it is now, and vice versa because of the fact that essentially, nothing but names and a rank or two have really changed. So stop saying "Oh, the CCA is shit these days", and before someone says, "But Section 4 is basically HELIX and OP." Section 4's sub-sections act almost as their own sections as it is. Support units don't do Logistics unit's jobs and vice versa, so S4 isn't HELIX reborn.

Just venting my aggravation with people who keep wanting to reform the CCA when its not necessary and nothing will actually change.

[ReDrUm?´´?´°]

This is pretty much what I've been trying to say for the past month or so. The reform wasn't really a reform. It was a mass demotion with name changes. I honestly never understood what was wrong with the CCA in the first place that called for the reform, other than "High Command is retarded", and even at that, the High Command of the CCA before the reform is either HC or UU now. I think the CCA is fine as it is, and fine as it was before the "reform".

[Dallas]

imo, shit like mass-demotions don't solve a damn thing and just end up making everyone kinda' not want to play on their units

[Reimer]

I think most of it is nostalgia. I remember back before we were last on c18, when the CCA were ADRENALINE or GEAR, and even though I was a citizen, I remember things being nicer because we as gamers usually forget what made things shit over that long ago and remember the good times. Then they want the good times to come back and believe the way the CCA works now is what is wrong, because, nothing else really changed. Maybe X or Y aren't DvLs or S0 anymore, maybe there's this rule they don't like, it just ends up being vented anger towards times gone by and their perceived notion that things will never be the same, even though they have been all along. We just have to keep fighting on and try to improve the system in any way we can. For example, we could have set squads and set roles within them to prevent everyone from gradually drifting towards the higher ranks, denying us the grunts we need to do the footwork. Or maybe we could just realize that what we have is the best we can get and keep buggering on.

[Anzu]

i remember i tried to fix the CCA when i was in high command before the "reforms"

nobody ever listenened to me when i said it would in the end cause some serious shit, nor did anyone deal with it or listen to me in the first place and now look where we're at

Reforms could've been avoided if people would listen but noooooo. We didnt NEED reforms for any of the stuff. Yet that is what it came to.

[smt]

Just because the structure of the CCA is the same doesn't mean the CCA as a whole has to be the same too. There was a time when recruits were trained quickly and swiftly and a time where the equivalent of S3 would never be sort staffed and were always active enough to patrol, leaving the equivalents of S4 to do their thing with the right number of staff and units.

The CCA may never have been multitudes better at any point than another but for a player in the CCA, the people running your division, may that be two OfCs and a DvL or a bunch of OfCs and an S0 unit, will always be the ones calling the shots and affecting how their division runs, just because we've had wipes doesn't mean that certain divisions haven't been better or worse than they are now, and in the end that effects everyone in side it. If the leadership of S3 (this is an example, nothing personal at all and isn't an attack, it's just because S3 = the backbone of the CCA) is totally inactive and doesn't care then that trickles down through into every single S3 unit and their moral as a roleplayer is effected and they just don't feel motivated to be a good unit in general, why should they if their leadership doesn't care?

The same applies for the team running the CCA (again, not an attack and nothing is real, just examples) whether that's 2 SeCs and a couple CmDs or a bunch of S0 units, if they don't care, don't have any fresh idea and simply don't contribute, then as a player you CAN feel this and it lowers your motivation to roleplay and be a good unit no matter your rank - once again, if the dudes running the CCA haven't done a single thing to try and improve things then why should you care?

No, wiping people isn't effective, but getting the right people in the right ranks is the most effective way to making the CCA better - and I know that's a contradiction but I can't really explain it in any other way, the CCA has had up and down points in how well it's worked together but that's never ever solved by bringing everyone down to a low rank and saying "here go worm your self back up to your ranks".


just woke up from a nap so there's probably grammar mistakes, I'm just typing what's in my head about the CCA and it's just an opinion blah blahhh

[Sexy Frog]

Just because the structure of the CCA is the same doesn't mean the CCA as a whole has to be the same too. There was a time when recruits were trained quickly and swiftly and a time where the equivalent of S3 would never be sort staffed and were always active enough to patrol, leaving the equivalents of S4 to do their thing with the right number of staff and units.

The CCA may never have been multitudes better at any point than another but for a player in the CCA, the people running your division, may that be two OfCs and a DvL or a bunch of OfCs and an S0 unit, will always be the ones calling the shots and affecting how their division runs, just because we've had wipes doesn't mean that certain divisions haven't been better or worse than they are now, and in the end that effects everyone in side it. If the leadership of S3 (this is an example, nothing personal at all and isn't an attack, it's just because S3 = the backbone of the CCA) is totally inactive and doesn't care then that trickles down through into every single S3 unit and their moral as a roleplayer is effected and they just don't feel motivated to be a good unit in general, why should they if their leadership doesn't care?

The same applies for the team running the CCA (again, not an attack and nothing is real, just examples) whether that's 2 SeCs and a couple CmDs or a bunch of S0 units, if they don't care, don't have any fresh idea and simply don't contribute, then as a player you CAN feel this and it lowers your motivation to roleplay and be a good unit no matter your rank - once again, if the dudes running the CCA haven't done a single thing to try and improve things then why should you care?

No, wiping people isn't effective, but getting the right people in the right ranks is the most effective way to making the CCA better - and I know that's a contradiction but I can't really explain it in any other way, the CCA has had up and down points in how well it's worked together but that's never ever solved by bringing everyone down to a low rank and saying "here go worm your self back up to your ranks".


just woke up from a nap so there's probably grammar mistakes, I'm just typing what's in my head about the CCA and it's just an opinion blah blahhh

To be honest, this.

I get what you're saying Air, but on some points I have to disagree. While the CCA as an overall whole may be essentially the same, you can say that it has been better or worse at times. For instance, the reform when everyone was named: JURY, SHIELD and GEAR was god aweful. I don't know about SHIELD and GEAR, but the concept of JURY, mixing APEX and UNIFORM like that was the worst thing that has every happened to my division. I tried my best to make the most of it, but it left me hating my rank and what I did as an OfC at the time.

However, if you look back to City 18 when HELIX was around, if you look at APEX/LEGION back then, that was the pinnacle of our activity and skill. We were literally the apex of the CCA. Albeit, elitist cunts but still we were kinda the shit. Looking back on then, or even when General Trivium ran APEX and comparing it to now, its a damned shame and almost disgraceful.

Don't get the wrong idea, I am as active as the next guy and I do try my best to make S3 at least a fraction of how good it was back then, but its kinda hard to do with the sparse trickle of units and other divisions taking the ones I do have.

[Statua]

Jonco said if the new CCA doesn't work out, we go back to the old one we had in Spring 2011. I think that's the best solution right now. It was by far the most efficient system to date.

[Reimer]

Jonco said if the new CCA doesn't work out, we go back to the old one we had in Spring 2011. I think that's the best solution right now. It was by far the most efficient system to date.

So pretty much the old divisions and everyone gets their old positions back? I'm all for getting 01 back but there isn't really anything that different.

[smt]

I'd really prefer if we didn't all suddenly get complete random rank and position switches, that'd be silly, It's fine how it is now, to be fair I think most people are still getting used to it

[YankeeSamurai]

I actually quite like the CCA in its current state. In the past, we had a lot of problems with leaders who were didn't care, were lazy, bullheaded, etc, but I think the current leadership is a nice collection of the all-star pillars of the HL2RP community. They have the best balance of activity, experience, dedication, and reasonableness that I've ever seen in a group of online leaders for a game.

The key to having a well-running CCA (any organization actually) is to only promote people with
a) roleplay sense, obviously, but also
b) good OOC leadership skills

Promoting people simply because they've been around for X weeks only results in the important ranks, 02-01-OfC being dominated with bad/mediocre players. Ideally, as you go up the pyramid the quality of the people in an OOC sense will steadily get better. In that same vein, if you have an outstanding player who's stuck at 01 and can't move up because there aren't any OfC spots open, feel free to replace one of your OfCs if the 01 is a significantly better leader. A competitive atmosphere in the organization will help a lot to ensure that only the best people get to the top.

So basically, just make sure the best possible OOC personalities are in control of the CCA and they'll handle it just fine. The current CCA leadership fits the bill pretty decently so far as I can tell.

[Khub]

I actually quite like the CCA in its current state. In the past, we had a lot of problems with leaders who were didn't care, were lazy, bullheaded, etc, but I think the current leadership is a nice collection of the all-star pillars of the HL2RP community. They have the best balance of activity, experience, dedication, and reasonableness that I've ever seen in a group of online leaders for a game.

The key to having a well-running CCA (any organization actually) is to only promote people with
a) roleplay sense, obviously, but also
b) good OOC leadership skills

Promoting people simply because they've been around for X weeks only results in the important ranks, 02-01-OfC being dominated with bad/mediocre players. Ideally, as you go up the pyramid the quality of the people in an OOC sense will steadily get better. In that same vein, if you have an outstanding player who's stuck at 01 and can't move up because there aren't any OfC spots open, feel free to replace one of your OfCs if the 01 is a significantly better leader. A competitive atmosphere in the organization will help a lot to ensure that only the best people get to the top.

So basically, just make sure the best possible OOC personalities are in control of the CCA and they'll handle it just fine. The current CCA leadership fits the bill pretty decently so far as I can tell.

I am sure I'm not the only one who appreciates the first post in a CCA rant thread thats nothing but a compliment on the Civil Authority's state. First one in the few past weeks.
Thank you.

[Sexy Frog]

I actually quite like the CCA in its current state. In the past, we had a lot of problems with leaders who were didn't care, were lazy, bullheaded, etc, but I think the current leadership is a nice collection of the all-star pillars of the HL2RP community. They have the best balance of activity, experience, dedication, and reasonableness that I've ever seen in a group of online leaders for a game.

The key to having a well-running CCA (any organization actually) is to only promote people with
a) roleplay sense, obviously, but also
b) good OOC leadership skills

Promoting people simply because they've been around for X weeks only results in the important ranks, 02-01-OfC being dominated with bad/mediocre players. Ideally, as you go up the pyramid the quality of the people in an OOC sense will steadily get better. In that same vein, if you have an outstanding player who's stuck at 01 and can't move up because there aren't any OfC spots open, feel free to replace one of your OfCs if the 01 is a significantly better leader. A competitive atmosphere in the organization will help a lot to ensure that only the best people get to the top.

So basically, just make sure the best possible OOC personalities are in control of the CCA and they'll handle it just fine. The current CCA leadership fits the bill pretty decently so far as I can tell.

I am sure I'm not the only one who appreciates the first post in a CCA rant thread thats nothing but a compliment on the Civil Authority's state. First one in the few past weeks.
Thank you.

Makes me all bubbly inside.

[kmp]

Back when I first got Commander, I was excited and said to myself "I'll do this, fix this, make this, this, this and this". Around about 3 weeks after that I tried to do the first thing on my list which was met with much denial. Once you get your first denial, you slowly begin to stop wanting to do things for the CCA. After around about being a CmD for 2 months, I was just sitting there doing nothing. You get a new SeC, you feel it's time for change, you repeat the process, eventually you're just sitting there again not feeling like you want to do anything. Happened 7 times for me. Once you reach the highest ranks, you feel like you must do more but then do nothing because you end up not caring anymore after some time has past.

Pure boredom is mainly the cause for UU laziness, at least in my experience. Avoid boredom, you get less lazy leaders.

[smt]

My post wasn't a rant, it was just general things I've noticed~ I don't think the CCA is bad in any way right now