My thoughts are if you weren't paying attention well enough to notice what went wrong, then you probably screwed up because you weren't paying attention.
Though I do want to get some opinions on something I've been thinking about the past couple of days, but I think I'll wait a day or two on asking about that.
Yeah, and I think I yelled at you guys about that one too. We didn't have that problem for the obvious reason of being less than great with guns and needing to fire as much as possible to hit and kill, but even then we tried to limit it as much as we could.
Our main problem (up until that fiasco that was the last part of the fight) was not getting to the different areas inside the ship where sentinels were...
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Anyway, thing I want opinions on.
I'll just state that this disaster with the Percy has pretty much killed my confidence in leading as first officer as there were things that I could have done to avoid stuff screwing up so badly...and then just managing to completely miss what Cloud had said he was going to do in the end and not accounting for it also did not help at all. Yeah, no one's perfect, but these were obvious things.
It's also been pointed out to me that me being in this position stresses me out a lot and it at times seems like I'm not enjoying the game. Which I will concede is a fair point. I was frustrated to the point of considering quitting the game entirely during the disaster at the Monastery - and considering that this is my favorite game, that's really saying something. I've been doubting my ability to really do this well since the end of the first assignment, when Melis fought that Agent. And frankly, I just don't have any sort of leadership skills myself (among other things, I'm not used to actually being listened to).
But. Despite all this, despite the fact that I've been wondering if I even want to stay first officer...I really don't want to step down. There's several reasons for this and I'm not going to go into it but if you know me fairly well you should be able to figure it out.
So mainly I want to know two things. How people think I've been doing in charge, and what things I need to work at being better on. Because I want to work out how to best make it so that this DOESN'T stress me out so much so I can actually have fun with the game, and also want to make sure that as a group we can do the best we can.
So, um, yeah. That got a bit rambly. But it's been bothering me for a while and I've been thinking on it a lot the last few days.
The Monastery Massacre (okay, it wasn't really, but sounds intriguing) wasn't entirely your fault at all, so I wouldn't even worry about that. Everyone was in panic mode and going "Oh God, why us?!" instead of listening. It probably would have helped if I wasn't such a failure myself, because then with two First Officers going "HEY GUYS, THIS WAY OR DIE!" they might have listened a little better. Everything got scrambled, which was in no way San's doing.
As for Melis fighting the Agent, she chose to do that, as far as I know. 😛
So, first thing- you've been kicking loads of ass as First Officer, more than I do.
Second thing- what you need to improve on is building a mind control device so that everybody actually listens. The serious answer is that you can't do much to make everyone pay attention to your plans, but it would help if everyone decided to go "Oh, hey, San with the plan, a Slan, let's do it."
Third thing- San's hotter than everyone else aboard the Percy, except maybe Melis. Even then, San beat Melis in combat, so San wins. ermm
Lana, I WANTED to fight that Agent. 😛
The way I see it, I'm more responsible for Melis than San is anyways. Everyone should be more responsible for their character, instead of going "Hey, San, how the hell do I escape the Agent?" It's helpful to have San's advice there, but it's only detrimental to expect her to strap together a plan for you.
A mind control device would be awesome...
Okay, explanation on why the Monastery mess bothered me so much. It wasn't because of me screwing things up (though I did at times), it was more because everything completely went to hell, and it was pretty much like everyone simultaneously went "Lana, help..." and dumped the entire mess in my lap to try and straighten out. And while yes, I'm apparently pretty good at that, it shouldn't be my job to try and fix everyone else's ****ups. THAT is what got me overly stressed and thus had me panicking and unable to figure out what were ultimately fairly simple solutions to my OWN problems.
And then with the Agent fight thing...yeah, I do feel somewhat responsible even though it ultimately was your choice. But I could - and should - have made a better effort as to how long you should have held out in the fight, since I was in a position to get that information.
Originally posted by LanaI didn't ask for your help I managed to get out of my problem by myself 😛
A mind control device would be awesome...Okay, explanation on why the Monastery mess bothered me so much. It wasn't because of me screwing things up (though I did at times), it was more because everything completely went to hell, and it was pretty much like everyone simultaneously went "Lana, help..." and dumped the entire mess in my lap to try and straighten out. And while yes, I'm apparently pretty good at that, it shouldn't be my job to try and fix everyone else's ****ups. THAT is what got me overly stressed and thus had me panicking and unable to figure out what were ultimately fairly simple solutions to my OWN problems.
And then with the Agent fight thing...yeah, I do feel somewhat responsible even though it ultimately was your choice. But I could - and should - have made a better effort as to how long you should have held out in the fight, since I was in a position to get that information.
I'll give my input, I don't know if you'll like it cause I can be harsh about these kinda things. (at least that's what my mates in real life RPGs tell me) Then again you're American you might be used to ppl being harsh.
Originally posted by Lana
So mainly I want to know two things. How people think I've been doing in charge?
B) It seems to me your leadership generally comes down to yelling at people. There's more to it than that, kinda fits together with point A. If people aren't seeing you as their leader you need a lot more to convince them to do something. Question here for you: How much do you know of the people on the Percy, both about their character and their real life?
C) As is proven often, in tons of different situations, Every plan only works until contact with the enemy is established. Planning is good to a degree but you can plan as long as you want, in the end things will always turn out differently. As everyone knows when the plan goes to hell communication is Key. Tip here could be to PM people their actions, or use IM as well as posting orders in the thread.
Originally posted by Lana
What things I need to work at being better on? Because I want to work out how to best make it so that this DOESN'T stress me out so much so I can actually have fun with the game, and also want to make sure that as a group we can do the best we can.
Kinda fits in with my first answer
A) Make sure the others see you as their leader. This means get involved in the lives of their characters and becoming friends with them in real life.
B) Linked to A, do more than Yell. Good leaders also build confidence and make sure there is a team spirit.
C) Don't beat yourself up about people's mistakes. It isn't because you're the leader that their mistakes are your fault. It's only your fault if you told em to do that. And as always remember a plan can go to hell fast, again not your fault just the 'nature of the beast'.
Hope it helped
That really wasn't that harsh at all, Fire 😛
And if we were doing this offline there is no question that I would NOT be able to be in charge in anyway. I'm just plain scared of people and I'm far too shy, passive and non-confrontational to try and do something like that. It would terrify me. That stuff shows through a bit on here but not nearly as much.
So no, I am not in any way a natural leader and doing this is very hard for me and quite a struggle. I don't know if I'm doing things right or not. I wouldn't know.
And yes, I do yell a lot, but I do so because 1) it's the only real thing I know to do that I know will get people to listen and 2) it works. When something's gone wrong and I'm trying to do emergency planning and people aren't listening (which has been a long-standing issue and is the fastest way to get on my nerves), what else can I do?
I would like to think that I know most of the players in the game fairly well, as I do talk to most everyone outside of the game on MSN 😛 Some people I talk to more than others, but that's just the nature of being friends with people. Though that's probably partially because you guys in this game were the first people I met when I joined KMC. As for how well I know the other characters - well, that's just dependent on the other players. Some people have come up with a lot of details about their characters, some haven't.
As for doing things via PM - it's an idea I like in theory, and one I considered doing for putting together our final sentinel fight plan, but didn't because I didn't think there'd be time enough. I also get a lot of PMs (because people are dumb and can't figure out anything themselves...ahem) and thus with that there's always the risk of me missing something because it's lost in the shuffle of everything else. I do some planning with people over MSN, and even gave my contact info for that publically for everyone in this game (something I simply do not do), but not everyone uses it, and it's the only messenger I use. Frankly I wish everyone would use it, as then we could get everyone (or as many are online at the moment) into group chats and work things out that way - much quicker and easier than PMs or posting on here.
As for blaming myself for other people's mistakes...that's just a personal issue that's not going to be going away anytime soon. I just simply tend to feel responsible for everyone else.
Originally posted by SpikeSpiegel
Well that last mission was going to be harder to lead through anyway, none of us had any experience with fighting in the real world, and the Percy was lacking in the guns department.
That's true, and while that did contribute to problems, I tried my best to work around that issue to make it so that it wasn't as much of a problem as it could be and we can't really blame everything that went badly on that. There were things I just simply could have done better, now that I look back at it, that would have (possibly) prevented it being the disaster it turned into.