I tend to disagree. I hear people say OOC that their characters will not follow orders and I hear people complain about not having their orders followed but I have never actually noticed it myself in game.
Liana always gave orders and I never had any problems with other characters not following them. Sure, she always had to specify to Interfector that it was an /Order/ and to Gish and Biscuit that it was 'just a suggestion' but the party held together.
Hel, equally, any time she has given orders has always, as far as I could tell IC and OOC, been listened to and had people do as she said. Of course, Hel doesn't always follow other people's orders but whenever this has happened it has been due to her awareness that they are bad orders.
I have never found IC command difficult (though I do note that, evidently, neither character is a Guard, although Hel is military) nor that people are unwilling to listen.
I do agree, however, with your comment on skirmishing. Guards, I think, may often fail because most parties have more skirmishers (or even soft under belly) than they do front-line fighters and it seems that many people have played Guards who don't seem to know any more tactics than 'shields to the front - form a line' - a tactic that fails in most parties.
The solution there is simply to ensure that, as a Guard, your character has the common sense, and even training, to recognise which tactics are best for a situation and a party and adopt them whether that involves disciplined line fighting or skirmishing. A sensible commander can still apply tactics to skirmish fighting - it doesn't need to devolve to 'party - scatter to the wind.'
Lastly, fourmyle and I were discussing a further solution, which would be to better delineate (IC or OOC) what the roles of the military were. In a party lacking in military structure a lone Defender may fill any position, however, with multiple branches represented and even more so with a chain of command what is the specific function of the Guards, Wardens, Pathfinders?
This is becoming a long post, and I apologise, but as someone who has played a non-military party commander and still has some respect for the military because ultimately she's order-aligned (and gives all the benefit of the doubt anyway) and also someone who has played a non-Guard Defender who has wound up in charge of patrols on multiple occasions I feel the need to provide specific examples and not generalise, since generalisations are a waste of time.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2007-04-03 02:58 pm (UTC)Liana always gave orders and I never had any problems with other characters not following them. Sure, she always had to specify to Interfector that it was an /Order/ and to Gish and Biscuit that it was 'just a suggestion' but the party held together.
Hel, equally, any time she has given orders has always, as far as I could tell IC and OOC, been listened to and had people do as she said. Of course, Hel doesn't always follow other people's orders but whenever this has happened it has been due to her awareness that they are bad orders.
I have never found IC command difficult (though I do note that, evidently, neither character is a Guard, although Hel is military) nor that people are unwilling to listen.
I do agree, however, with your comment on skirmishing. Guards, I think, may often fail because most parties have more skirmishers (or even soft under belly) than they do front-line fighters and it seems that many people have played Guards who don't seem to know any more tactics than 'shields to the front - form a line' - a tactic that fails in most parties.
The solution there is simply to ensure that, as a Guard, your character has the common sense, and even training, to recognise which tactics are best for a situation and a party and adopt them whether that involves disciplined line fighting or skirmishing. A sensible commander can still apply tactics to skirmish fighting - it doesn't need to devolve to 'party - scatter to the wind.'
Lastly,
This is becoming a long post, and I apologise, but as someone who has played a non-military party commander and still has some respect for the military because ultimately she's order-aligned (and gives all the benefit of the doubt anyway) and also someone who has played a non-Guard Defender who has wound up in charge of patrols on multiple occasions I feel the need to provide specific examples and not generalise, since generalisations are a waste of time.