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Simulations with 'Development' status are those Simulations which are commissioned/created within the group as approved by the appropriate Fleet Commander. Development Simulations are usually created as a result of increased demand for Simming in a particular time-slot or to give aspiring new Commanding Officers and/or officers with Command ability the opportunity to command their own Simulation. All questions and comments should be directed to the Commander in Chief. |
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A Commission is one of the two different terms we give to an official development Simulation. Like a Subsim a Commissioned simulation is formed along side an already existing Simulation. For example a Starbase may be assigned a new Starship however the ship has its own crew and can engage missions independently of the primary sim. The reason that the commission is formed up along side an already existing simulation is to offer the new fledgling simulation support and resources of all kinds. Typically Commisions are used as a 'training ground' for new Command level officers to test their skills under the supervision/guidance of the already existing Sim. A Commissioned Sim is considered as an independent UCIP Simulation. Unlike the Subsim it has an independent crew and chain of command, with mission reports being submitted to the CO of the existing Sim, which are then included in the weekly Subfleet report. Commissioned simulations should be displayed on the UCIP Application however they are not yet entitled to voting rights until such time as they pass their 4 weeks formal trial period. The creation of an commissioned simulation is at the discretion of the Fleet Commander and Commander in Chief of UCIP. Due to the fact that the commissioned simulation works with an already existing sim, it is expected that the CO of that Sim also approves of the creation of the commissioned simulation first. This is the second type of official development Simulation. A Standard Development simulation is one which enters UCIP as an in-tact simulation which meets the requirements to be a full member simulation of UCIP in either of the fleets. A transfer simulation will be reviewed very closely to ensure that UCIP quality is present in the simulation. The Commander in Chief with input from the Fleet Commanders will have the final say on it's movement into development status. Once in development status the simulation is supervised by the Fleet Commander or his or her designe. Simulations transfering into the organization must hold a 80% single ship simmer ratio as opposed to the 60% which is required for internally commissioned simulations. Prosperous, intact, transfer simulations can be accepted outside of the closure policies as long as their quality is above average and the crew is composed of at least 80% new UCIP members.
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Specifications approved by Research and Development Single ship player ratio of 60% of the active roster. Step 6.
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If a rejection is made the necessary corrections will be made to the simulation and re-submitted for review to the Commander in Chief. Periodically, UCIP is forced to close development of new IRC or e-mail sims. The reason for this is simple: UCIP prefers to be in a state where the majority of our existing sims are full. This encourages a steady flow of new memberships -- the group, from an external observer's perspective, is perceived to be healthy since most of its sims are full. Put too many open positions out there, and potential new members can either become overwhelmed by the choices, or gain the perception that the group is not doing well. Ideally, there should be enough open positions that any given simmer can find something worth joining, but not so many that the simmer faces being overwhelmed or draws the conclusion that "UCIP is dying." In addition, having too many open positions available dilutes the flow of new members joining any given sim. If the group has 100 open positions and a given ship has four of them, that ship has only a 4% chance of receiving a new member, disregarding other factors. If there are 20 open positions and a given ship has four of them, the chance rises to 20% per new simmer signing up that he or she will join that sim, again disregarding other factors. This dilution has another effect: since the flow of new simmers to any given sim slows to a trickle, the more desperate COs have a tendency to do their recruiting from other sims. If one CO's Chief Engineer drops out, for instance, that CO will be much more likely to ask an Assistant Engineer on another ship to transfer than to wait for a new simmer. Without a new Assistant Engineer to replace the experienced simmer, that person's current CO may be loath to give that person up. Competition and acrimony among the sim COs becomes more common, something that is bad for UCIP overall. As a result, when too many sims are looking for simmers, the development of new sims is halted to protect the existing sims and allow them to become healthy again. In the future, UCIP will be using a set of easily understood guidelines to determine when development will be closed or open. While these guidelines are not hard and fast rules, they will serve as a general indicator of what the state of development is at any given time. As always, do not assume that just because one of these rules applies, that development will be reopened -- always wait for the official announcement from the Commander in Chief before proceeding with development plans. Additionally, in the past, development has been a single state, open/closed affair. In the future, UCIP will be a little more selective about what kind of development is open when, and for what reason. In particular, development will be split into three categories: IRC sims, e-mail sims, and non-Starfleet sims. At any given time, development of IRC sims might be partially open, development of non-Starfleet sims completely open, and development of e-mail sims completely closed. This reflects the different states that the sims of UCIP might be in with regard to these three categories. Here are the recommended guidelines for each of the three categories. In each case, the guidelines are based on the number of full simulations. A full simulation for IRC consists of ten or more crew members. A full e-mail simulation consists of twelve or more crew members. As sims fill up, more and more development will open. As sims struggle for simmers, potential for development will become more and more limited. IRC development is dependent on the day of the IRC sim being developed. I think it's fair to say, for instance, that we have enough Saturday night/Sunday morning sims. A simmer, in fact, could start simming at 5:15pm ET Saturday evenings and sim almost continuously on UCIP IRC sims for twelve hours straight, were he or she so inclined. ;) On the other hand, to my knowledge, UCIP Internet has never had a Friday night sim. With that said:
Once 67% of IRC sims are listed on the Join page as full, a new IRC sim can be developed on any day, but at a time which UCIP does not have an IRC sim and which will not interfere with other UCIP sims on the same day (Monday or Thursday at 7:00pm ET, for instance, right now). Interfering will be defined as "the time of your sim overlaps any part of an existing UCIP sim." For the purposes of this definition, an IRC sim will be considered 90 minutes long. In other words, if there's a sim at 5:00pm ET on the day/night you want, you can develop a sim at 3:30pm ET or 6:30pm ET, but not at 4:00pm ET or 6:00pm ET. The purpose to considering a sim 90 minutes long is that some simmers have only one available day/night to IRC sim, and like to join several IRC sims over the course of the day/night. Keeping the sims 90 minutes apart encourages that practice and maximizes recruiting potential for any given IRC sim. The Commander in Chief can close off certain days such as Sunday which currently has six simulations in order to encourage selection of a less filled day. Once 80% of IRC sims are listed on the Join page as full, development of new IRC sims is unrestricted. You can develop a new IRC sim at any time or on any day you like, even if it is at the same time as another UCIP sim. However, the 90-minute-rule will still be strongly encouraged for the reasons above: by placing your sim at the same time as another UCIP sim, you are only reducing the number of potential simmers that might wish to join your sim. E-mail sims are a more difficult case. While IRC sims in general compete only with IRC sims that happen on the same night, in general, every e-mail sim competes for simmers with every other e-mail sim. Rare indeed is the simmer who will multi-sim e-mail, and even the most avid multi-e-mail-simmer cannot join every e-mail sim. ;) Therefore, e-mail sim development will be open far less than IRC sim development. In order to classify and e-mail simulation as being full the simulation has all department head positions and one assistant position filled in each main department (Security, Medical, Engineering, Science). With that said:
Once 67% of e-mail sims are listed on the Join page as full, a non-Starfleet starship e-mail sim may be developed. This is defined as any sim that does not take place on a Starfleet *vessel*. Sims based on Starfleet starbases, facilities, colonies, or branches of infrastructure (Starfleet Security, Starfleet JAG) may be developed. Once 80% of e-mail sims are listed on the Join page as full, development of new e-mail sims is unrestricted. Any type of e-mail sim may be started, including Starfleet vessels. Finally, non-Starfleet sims are in and of themselves a special case. Much less common than Starfleet sims, they are also much less likely to be developed. To encourage more development in this area, development of non-Starfleet sims will be the least restricted, to wit: If a sim has not been developed for a specific race/culture (Cardassians, for instance), development of sims of any type for that race is unrestricted for the first sim: an IRC, e-mail, or other type of sim may be developed. Once the first sim for that race culture is developed, the sim falls into the rules below. If a sim has been developed for a specific race culture (Klingons and Romulans, right now), then the following guidelines go into effect:
To develop a third IRC sim for a specific race/culture, one of the first two IRC sims must be listed on the Join page as full OR at least one of the three sims must be a non-starship sim using the same rules as stated above for Starfleet *e-mail* sims (not a typo). To develop a third e-mail sim for a specific race/culture, one of the first two e-mail sims must be listed on the Join page as full OR at least one of the three sims must be a non-starship sim using the same rules as stated above for Starfleet e-mail sims. To develop a fourth IRC sim, one of the first three IRC sims must be listed on the Join page as full, AND no more than three of the four IRC sims total may be starships. At least one sim must be developed in a unique area specific to that race: a Romulan Starbase or Tal'Shiar vessel, for instance, or a Klingon diplomat's sim. The fourth sim may not be a starship unless one of the first three sims meets these criteria. To develop a fourth e-mail sim, one of the first three e-mail sims must be listed on the Join page as full, AND no more than three of the four e-mail sims total may be starships. At least one sim must be developed in a unique area specific to that race: a Romulan starbase or Tal'Shiar vessel, for instance, or a Klingon starbase or diplomatic sim, for instance. The fourth sim may not be a starship unless one of the first three sims meets these criteria. Once a given race/culture has six total sims, IRC or e-mail, they fall into the guidelines above for IRC and e-mail sims, and further development will proceed along the same lines as for Starfleet sims. Back |
        
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