[OOC] Overwatch Standards

[garry :D]

As of 22/01/2013, this thread should be the only source of information that you use for flagging up/down and behaving correctly.

Changes to this thread can be made without warning.


OOC standards:

• If a member of the Overwatch faction frequently makes spelling mistakes, punctuation errors or grammatical mishaps, they will be subject to a review to correct the habit. If no improvement is seen, they are subject to removal from the faction.
• If a member of the Overwatch faction is found to be leaking information from the OTA private forums which is marked with a [CLASSIFIED] tag, they are subject to removal from the faction.
• If a member of the Overwatch faction is found to be constantly arguing and/or causing unnecessary OOC drama, they are subject to a warning. If the behaviour continues, they are subject to removal from the faction.
• If a member of the Overwatch faction is found to be flagging up without the appropriate authorization on a frequent basis, they are subject to removal from the faction.

Things that you don't need authorization to flag up for:

• If a Civil Administrator requests for protection during contact with a visitor. There is no need to keep a CCA unit in the office to supervise the contact between the CA and the citizen as they have standard directives to complete. While you are flagged up as a unit, you are bound to the following conditions: you must stay within a close proximity of the citizen and you must not stray from the Civil Administrator unless you are returning a citizen to the exterior of the Embassy or you are travelling from the Nexus to the Embassy. The first unit to assume protection duty will be eligible to keep that spot until they are dismissed by the Sectorial Commander, OVERSIGHT division members or the Civil Administrator. One unit per Civil Administrator is plenty.
• If a Civil Administrator requests an escort to the hospital outside the front entrance of the Nexus. As long as this is the only area the Civil Administrator will be located outside of the Nexus, authorisation from any unit in the OVERSIGHT division is not required. A maximum of two Overwatch units is adequate for this.
• In the event of a Judgment Waiver or Autonomous Waiver taking place. If it is a Judgment Waiver, you are to work in a team to resolve the situation at the discretion of CCA personnel in a High Command position (S0). If it is an Autonomous Waiver, you are free to work individually or as a team to contain the situation at your own discretion.
• Providing support for Nexus training exercises. So long as you have the approval of the training officer conducting the training, feel free to flag up according to his/her requirements. If they only need one unit for a target in breaching practice and a group of units flag up then the training officer will decide what units they need to stay flagged on.

Things that you do need authorization to flag up for:

• Deploying to the Outlands. Seek permission from an OVERSIGHT group member (excluding the current liason). If no OVERSIGHT division members are available, no patrol/raid will occur.
• Walking around the Nexus. Seek permission from the Sectorial Commander or the Overwatch leader. You MUST have a valid reason for walking around.
• Exiting the Nexus - the only exceptions are if a JW or AW is active. Civil Administrators cannot ask you to leave the interior of the Nexus. Ask OVERSIGHT division members for permission.
• Participating in a targeted raid/sweep with the intention of seeking out a specific target. Seek permission from the current Division Leader (DvL) of RAZOR who is online at the time. Members in RAZOR are prohibited from self-authorizing raids and then switching to an OTA unit to participate in the raid (example: RAZOR.123 say that they have IClly approved a raid and then they switch to their OTA unit to participate in the raid).

OVERSIGHT notes:

• OVERSIGHT members will organise, coordinate and lead (or delegate that duty) authorized operations.
• OVERSIGHT members can act as temporary leadership solutions on the City server in the event of no Officer, Division Leader or Sector Commander being online. While they are in this role, they coordinate Civil Protection actions. As soon as one of the previously mentioned ranks is available and online, the sociostability leadership role is handed back to the highest ranked unit.
• OVERSIGHT members will produce and distribute training documentation with the purpose of educating the members of the Overwatch faction.
• The unit tagged as OVERSIGHT.##### will maintain command over the structure of the faction whereas the units in the OVERSIGHT group marked as VANGUARD-E.##### will maintain tactical command over their individual divisions.
• Members in OVERSIGHT who are marked as VANGUARD-E.##### may remove under-performing/incompetent members in their respective divisions. A report must be made to the faction leader as soon as possible if they are not available at the time of the removal with sufficient evidence to warrant the action.
• In the event of the faction leader being deemed to be unfit for duty (OOC mutiny [60/40 majority vote by OTA faction members], demotion, resignation, leave of absence), command of the Overwatch faction will fall under the command of the Sector Commander (or delegated down to the RAZOR DvL) while a suitable replacement is found.

Accountability:

• The member tagged as OVERSIGHT.##### is accountable to the Sector Commander.
• The member tagged as VANGUARD-E.##### who is in the OVERSIGHT group is accountable to the OTA faction commander.
• Members who are not in a command position are accountable to their group leaders (IE, non-command units report to the members tagged as VANGUARD-E who are in the OVERSIGHT group).

Patrols and raids:

• A patrol is the fulfillment of an unscheduled reconnaissance between two or more points. There is not a specific target involved in this kind of action. Patrolling units should NOT become engaged in combat unless they encounter active resistance (such as a refugee firing at the patrol with a shotgun or if they encounter a refugee who refuses to comply with a move-on order). The required amount of units is a minimum of 3.
• There is currently no limit on the amount of patrols that can occur per week [previously, it was a limit of once a week but many players on Outlands have requested more]. They must not occur unless there are 10 or more players already on the server.
• A raid is the fulfillment of a scheduled strike against an objective. There is a specific target involved in this kind of action, usually a supply depot or a high-value target. Raiding units should NOT become engaged in combat with non-essential targets who are not related to the objective unless they offer resistance. The required amount of units is a minimum of 4 regular units with 1 Elite unit included.
• Passive RP should not be disrupted at any time unless there is an obstruction in your path (a refugee-built roadblock on a patrol route is an example of interference). On a related note, if you walk by a building window and you see the top of an unarmed citizen's head who poses no real threat, keep moving. You're free to hint at the fact that you OOCly see them by doing something like "*OTA.VANGUARD.12345 peeks his head to each side of the window frame. He examines what little is visible of the interior, but moves on after finding nothing of value."
• Patrolling units should be following the main roads while on patrol.
• Citizens with weapons in the City who are detained by Overwatch and are legitimately killed will incur a permanent kill regardless of whether or not they have posed a safety risk during an operation.
• Citizens with weapons who are classed as non-threatening (ie; those who don't fire shots at Overwatch but are found to have weapons holstered) in the Outlands who are detained by Overwatch and are legitimately killed will follow the NLR and keep their weapons the first time. If they are caught a second time (regardless of whether they pose a safety risk) on a separate patrol/raid, they will incur a permanent kill.

IC restrictions:

• Players of all ranks are encouraged to use 'progressive' speech when playing their unit. An example of using progressive speech would be "Take cover behind that wall and return fire." An example of conservative speech would be "DIRECTIVE: Assume cover. STATUS: Red." You won't be forced to use progressive speech, but it is a lot more detailed in most cases.
• As an offset to their highly improved combat efficiency, units are far detached from their human emotions. Units won't feel fear in most cases - the main exceptions being a grenade tossed into a small room (a total lack of fear would keep you in the room and that would be bad) or a group of armed hostiles surrounding you in the event of your squad being wiped out. Surrender is a viable option, but you are advised to use it in an appropriate situation. Going rogue or maliciously disobeying orders is not considered acceptable under 99.9% of circumstances unless you are tasked to remove elements of the Civil Authority who are deemed to be working against Union; an act which may make you appear rogue in the eyes of Civil Authority units.
• Units are not granted augmentations which match their physical strength to that of a bulldozer/tank/hulk etc. Augmentations are aids, not overdrive mechanisms.

[cookiesofamerica]

I'm not sure what would be considered "leaking". Would it be like telling new changes, plans, militaristic combat strategies and what not? Or is their something more to that?

[garry :D]

Any operations like a targeted sweep where we are moving to take down a high-value target would be tagged as [CLASSIFIED]. If it's an OOC discussion, there is no reason to distribute it or inform the person who is being targeted as that would be metagaming.

[raged]

Same classification goes for Section 2. Everything Section 2 does is classified because it can be easily used for metagaming purposes and if anybody in my squad leaks things it's an automatic ban unless I'm feeling nice. There's just certain things that have to also be kept a secret OOC'ly because regardless of how advanced of a roleplayer somebody may be they'll accidently use that OOC info to their gain.

[Airborne1st]

To be safe, I just wouldn't recommend leaking anything at all from these forums.

[garry :D]

Today, I have spoken with the units who were involved in the following situation:

* Unrostered unit taking a role in a deployment to the Outlands;
* No patrol log posted that documented the situation;
* Unauthorized raid took place despite the weekly patrol already having been done;
* Substantial OOC drama was caused on the topic of grenades.

In order to stop this from happening again, I have changed this:

Things that you do need authorization to flag up for:
Deploying to the Outlands. Seek permission from the Overwatch faction leader. If the faction leader is not available, seek permission from your division leader.

..back to this:

Things that you do need authorization to flag up for:
Deploying to the Outlands. Seek permission from the Overwatch faction leader. If the faction leader is not available, no patrol/raid will occur.

[garry :D]

After hearing about a situation involving a unit who failed to follow the standards regarding deployment, I believe it is necessary to post a reminder about the current policy:

Things that you do need authorization to flag up for:
Exiting the Nexus - the only exceptions are if a JW or AW is active or if you are travelling straight to the Embassy OOCly via the P2 vehicle tunnel.

Administrators are working within their rights to remove units who do not have authorization to exit the Nexus and decide to take a stroll.

The offending unit in this case has been removed.

[garry :D]

A couple of modifications:

• Patrolling units should be following the main roads while on patrol.
• Citizens with weapons in the City who are detained by Overwatch and are legitimately killed will incur a permanent kill regardless of whether or not they have posed a safety risk during an operation.
• Citizens with weapons who are classed as non-threatening (ie; those who don't fire shots at Overwatch but are found to have weapons holstered) in the Outlands who are detained by Overwatch and are legitimately killed will follow the NLR and keep their weapons the first time. If they are caught a second time with weapons (regardless of whether they pose a safety risk) on a separate patrol/raid, they will incur a permanent kill.

• The member tagged as OVERSIGHT.##### is accountable to Section 0.
• In the event of the member tagged as OVERSIGHT.##### being deemed to be unfit for duty (OOC mutiny [60/40 majority vote by OTA faction members], demotion, resignation, leave of absence), command of the Overwatch faction will fall under the joint command of Section 0 while a suitable replacement is found.

• Exiting the Nexus - the only exceptions are if a JW or AW is active. Civil Administrators cannot ask you to leave the interior of the Nexus. Ask Section 0 members or the OTA faction leader for permission.

[garry :D]

Updated:

-Changed Section 0 references to be named to match RAZOR:

• Participating in a targeted raid/sweep with the intention of seeking out a specific target. Seek permission from the current Division Leader (DvL) of RAZOR who is online at the time. Members in RAZOR are prohibited from self-authorizing raids and then switching to an OTA unit to participate in the raid (example: RAZOR.123 say that they have IClly approved a raid and then they switch to their OTA unit to participate in the raid).

-Removed all references to PHANTOM.


RAZOR now have more power when dealing with Overwatch and at the discretion of the DvL (or whoever they decide to delegate authorization of OTA deployment down to), they can be deployed in the city to strike targets without the consent of the OTA faction leader.

[garry :D]

OVERSIGHT members can act as temporary leadership solutions on the City server in the event of no Officer, Division Leader or Sector Commander being online. While they are in this role, they coordinate Civil Protection actions. As soon as one of the previously mentioned ranks is available and online, the sociostability leadership role is handed back to the highest ranked unit.

This is being trialed during off-peak times (2am GMT -> 12pm GMT) and will run until the 15th of March 2014.

[garry :D]

• Providing support for Nexus training exercises. So long as you have the approval of the training officer conducting the training, feel free to flag up according to his/her requirements. If they only need one unit for a target in breaching practice and a group of units flag up then the training officer will decide what units they need to stay flagged on.

If any senior units conducting training (TrO and OfC+) need targets or demonstration dummies, feel free to ask someone with an Overwatch unit to flag on to assist you.