Senate News

[Dome]

What the Allegiance Senate is Doing:

Mass Emails
Within our forum we have discussed the content and release date of both mass emails to old forum account holders. Both of these emails have yielded some measureable success and this tactic may be implemented in the future for advertisement purposes.

Squad Game Conventions
After the 2012 Tournament settings issues, we thought it best to put these issues to rest with the inclusion of formal squad game conventions. The polls below represent the most pressing issues to be resolved. (Since the Senate has formed TheAlaskan stepped down as a Senator. He did not vote in any of the polls.)

CODESenate Polls

If a squad/team has been designated with choice of settings, is ‘friendly fire’ a setting that can be used?
Yes – 2
No – 2

If a squad/team has been designated with choice of settings, can the ‘treasures’ setting be toggled?
Yes – 4
No – 0

Can maps of more than 15 sectors be used in (normal) squad games?
Yes – 0
No – 4

Should squads without enough players for squad game be dropped from the squad roster page?
Yes – 4
No – 0

If so, how many players constitute a squad?
8 players – 1
10 players – 3
(Please note that all of these polls are in an effort to advise the admins and should not be taken as law. That said, rules of the 2013 League have been molded to reflect the Senate poll outcomes. Until otherwise directed by the admins, friendly-fire must be agreed upon by both sides and can’t be used otherwise.)

Besides these Senate votes, in the Officers Club there is a recent discussion going about what to do with squads, whether or not Allegiance can support more than 4 squads. This is a touchy subject that the Senate does not pretend to hold any authority over. I know personally that SF is having ongoing discussions about their future, specifically their alliance with BS. Talks with other squads are ongoing.

Allegiance Marketing and Advertising
The Senate is still grappling with the best course of action to take on marketing and advertising of this game. Personally, I feel that development of the game should not be hindered in any way by Senate discussions. Core and faction developers should be given free reign, and the community will decide if their efforts are viable or not. (Our current devs have proven amiable to community wishes and we must give our thanks.) In my opinion the Senate’s primary role should be in advising the admins in the best course of action for marketing and advertising.

Further, it should be the job of the Senate to empower Allegiance players to help in this regard; the distribution of Allegiance advertisement can be easily undertaken by anyone. For example, use of old postersmay be both posted on various high traffic sites (craigslist, free game sites, etc) and can be printed out and physically placed on bulletin boards at colleges, universities, markets, and places of work around the world. Such advertising opportunities represent low hanging fruit in terms of cost and effort. If you are reading this you can help.

Now, there is still much that we in the Senate as well as the rest of the community needs to address: single-player training missions; the default key mapping; how to keep new players when they see zero or very few people online, etc.

Reasons for Optimism
The Allegiance community has some great stuff in the works: Weedcore (based off DN) is becoming a competitor to CC; TheAlaskan is making significant progress with his new faction; the 2013 League is well underway and has continued the streak of no forfeited organized events since last Spring; Backtrack continues to work out kinks in ACSS; pkk continues to host his server and oversee the game as a whole; TE keeps lights on. I could go on and on listing so many people that continue to maintain and work on keeping this game going. We have good things going here.

The Senate is open to hear all questions or concerns. We need help in figuring out the best course of action. We rely on the community. Please do not hesitate to offer suggestions or advice. If you have an idea about improving the game in any way be it reference to player base numbers or game play itself, we are all ears. Please post in the Senate Forum.

We are players of this game just like you. We're all in this together.

[Cadillac]

Just out of interest, how do you break ties in the Senate?

Do you have a Chair?

[Dome]

Originally we had 5 Senators (including me) so there would be no ties. Since TheAlaskan left pkk is now the theoretical tie breaker. He did not vote in any of the polls, but his vote trumps all regardless.

People that voted:
Me
p32
Paps
Bastard

[Aviation21]

I will take TheAlaskan's place in the Senate... now that is resolved! End of ties.

[TheCorsair]

one day the chancellor will become the emperor.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y037-mNWHMQ

then there will be peace

[Raveen]

QUOTE (Dome @ Feb 1 2013, 11:41 PM) Originally we had 5 Senators (including me) so there would be no ties. Since TheAlaskan left pkk is now the theoretical tie breaker. He did not vote in any of the polls, but his vote trumps all regardless.

People that voted:
Me
p32
Paps
Bastard

The other option is to give yourself 2 votes until the extra senator is restored. That way you have more power but can still be voted down by a majority. Hopefully it's only a temporary blip and won't be used either way.

I would though just like to extend some concern that the Senate is voting on squad business which essentially disenfranchises all the squads but SysX, NI and RT. Do PK, SF, BS and MEC not have an opinion on how squad games should be played? Surely the OC is the place for these discussions and votes, certainly it's where they have always taken place in the past.

[cashto]

We're a Republic, not a Democracy.

[TurkeyXIII]

QUOTE (Raveen @ Feb 5 2013, 06:58 PM) I would though just like to extend some concern that the Senate is voting on squad business which essentially disenfranchises all the squads but SysX, NI and RT. Do PK, SF, BS and MEC not have an opinion on how squad games should be played? Surely the OC is the place for these discussions and votes, certainly it's where they have always taken place in the past.

On the other hand, it was events zone lead who had to finalize sg rules and arbitrate disputes. In that respect, it's the role of the Senate, who were elected by all of the players, to do these things.

[TheCorsair]

QUOTE (cashto @ Feb 5 2013, 07:37 PM) We're a Republic, not a Democracy.

I love democracy, I love the republic



TRUST ME

[cashto]

QUOTE (TurkeyXIII @ Feb 5 2013, 03:19 AM) In that respect, it's the role of the Senate, who were elected by all of the players, to do these things.

Correction ... it's the role of the Senate, which was elected by 164% of the players, in a vote where one of the leading candidates was summarily stricken from the ballot, and two others directly appointed without any sort of vote, to discuss issues in a secret forum and issue non-binding resolutions in accordance to a Constitution pkk wrote himself.

At this point, it's just a little absurd to start worrying about whether squads have been properly enfranchised.