In my honest opinion, I believe CAs should have the ability to command units and the units should be more expendable then the CAs. Units are just citizens who chose to be a part of the combine primarily for material gain, and then secondly to gratify their will to power. Its rare that a unit would join the combine out of a feeling of ideological self-identification. In the combine social hiearchy, the CA should be the one everyone in the city knows, and loyal citizens should build a cult of personality around him or her that is second only to Dr. Wallace Breen.
The in-game duty of the CA should be to promote propaganda or "combine ideological views" , manage the city's resources, manage the city's combine affliated organizations (CWU, etc.), and commiserate with the CCA command. Again, they should have the ability to command units, but not be expected to interfere much with the daily menial tasks of units, like detaining an anti-citizen. They should ICly be too important and too busy to deal with those "trivial" tasks. Instead the CA turns his attention to the greater concerns of the city, like ensuring the CCA is dealing with high anti-civil threats, rewarding loyal behavior and punishing disloyal behavior in the city (e.g. reducing the amount of ration distributions for a given time, rewarding extra rations or furniture to loyal districts). Another area of focus for the CA should be the great mission of the combine, converting humanity into transhuman synths. To do this, he might employ loyalist scientists and conduct experiments to try and create the next combine super soldier.
In total their should be one "CA" and then "Civil Executives". The CA commands the highest power in the social hierarchy whereas the civil executives are his subordinates. There might be a civil executive of labor for example, who is responsible for conducting labor events throughout the city and ensuring the city remains productive, or a civil executive of public relations (propaganda) who makes sure the CA's image is well respected, and even a Civil Executive of law who is the direct representative of the CA to CCA commanding officers.
The Hierarchy would be like this:
Civil Administrator (equivalent to the governor of a region or mayor of a city)/ SeC
Civil Executive(s)/ OfC
This of course means the bar must be raised on who is CA. They should have a lot of previous roleplaying experience as a CA, and also probably as a unit or high commander. They should be familiar with CP standard procedures as to not annoy units. They should both Icly and oocly have an interest in subjects like political science, history, psychology, biology, and military strategy. They must also have high verbal intelligence.
The backstory of the CA or CE should not be vague or unimpressive. They must be paragons of the former society. Former politicians, intellectuals, and generals are good candidates. Think of the type of people Dr. Breen would admire and choice to manage regions of his puppet government. It would especially make sense if the character has a history of holding fascist beliefs, or was involved in an authoritarian government (e.g. prime minister of China, Minster of Propaganda in NK, former Soviet Union politician). Scientists would also make sense, since Dr. Breen was himself selected as the instrument of combine oppression and Dr. Breen himself admires science.
The selected CA would have to go through a vigorous background check and neurological examination. Any part of him or her that is potentially a threat to the combine must be expunged. Subsequently, unless hes a really fucked up and compulsively submissive individual, he should be brainwashed.
The idea of a CA is really great for HL2 rp, it really has the potential to make the 1984 themes of HL2 come to life. It is too bad it is often abandoned or regarded as unimportant by communities.
From the former Head CA of TnB, Will~
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