Alarich [Empire]

le_souriceau: Greetings, thank you for joining us today, Alarich.

Maeve: Hello! Nice to meet you!

Alarich: Pleasure to be speaking with you both.

le_souriceau: For sake of new players, who may not yet acquainted themselves with organizational landscape, can you give us quick introduction of Empire in 100 sharpshooter words?

Alarich: The Empire is autocratic, offering strong values and culture designed to be the most enjoyable and streamlined experience a player can get. We cater to all interests, from mining and building up to fighting and planning, there is a position for everyone. The Empire also fosters growth and development for corporation by encouraging and facilitating for growth.

Maeve: Sorry for beating broken drone here, but… even name itself, Empire, bring seriously familiar vibes! For SW fans, how much “at home” they will feel with your organization? And what is different with your DU interpretation of galactic mega-state?

Alarich: That is a questions and reference that gets us a lot of attention. Originally, we were very loosely structured like the Empire from Star Wars, but as we moved through time the structure evolved into our own thing completely. The word 'Empire' means (in a simple definition) a large group that is run by a single ruler - we stick true to this definition. Unfortunately, our Emperor is not a sith lord, nor am I his dark apprentice. Emperor Kytheum is very different from Emperor Palpatine thankfully. I think Star Wars fans will feel quite at home in our Empire, more so than they would in most other organizations because of our disciplined hierarchy and clean aesthetic.

Nowadays, we only take some extremely small influence from Imperial/First Order constructs in our own and we have come to adopt a unique design philosophy that suits our needs. The biggest difference I would say is that we have no intentions of tearing everything down to build it back up in our name - we have a more diplomatic approach that favours mutual prosperity for ourselves and our associates.

Maeve: I see! And you can you describe your role in organization? Lots of paperwork? Or you occasionally lighten your day by some fun “on the ground”? ;)

Alarich: My role... well we'll start of with my rank: Administrator, it is the highest rank within the Civil Sector (the Empire is made up of 3 main components: the Civil, Military and Ordinance). Using Star Wars references, I'm a bit like a Moff. When the game is launched in all its glory, I will have control over a system and will be enforcing its laws. It will be up to myself and anyone I appoint beneath me to make sure the functions within my system are prosperous and profitable. This will include appointing a Governors to manage planets, and ensuring that their planets are meeting requirements etc... It will be a very big and important role once the game is launched. There's a lot more information to cram in, but the explanation I've provided should give you a good idea.

As for right now, I am also the Head of the Civil Sector. I run assignments and programs in the background mostly. Yes there is quite a lot of paperwork, one example I can give you is creating Laws - a fun yet long process :D. I used to be a lot more involved "on the ground" back in Alpha 1 and 2, but there are now other people who fulfil those responsibilities. My day is lightened by satisfying the citizens of the Empire.

Maeve: Very interesting!

le_souriceau: Empire not only largest, but one of oldest active organization around. Such staying power often tells about ability to adapt – which you already mentioned in terms of lore/inspiration, but this is also ability to make hard decisions. By your perception, what was most painful compromise or sacrifice Empire found itself needed to make for sake of progress?

Alarich: That's a very difficult question because a lot has happened since 2016. I'm actually not sure how to answer this. Each big decision we make as an organization involves conversation and debate with the relevant officers.

One decision that comes to the top of my head is the direction we took in the Alpha's so far: Many of the larger organizations have been focusing on PVP, making cool battleships and having them showcased by Novaquark... The direction we took was to serve ourselves rather than to show off - we created the biggest and most detailed functional cities, with plots comprising of land/buildings that were owned and developed by our citizens and partners. We spent a lot of resources on testing materials and creating products to be used in our cities instead of being used for individual projects such as the space-station competition. We often get asked about why we don't have many community spotlights, the answer is because we chose not to sacrifice stability for glory. (I'm not saying our builds aren't impressive either... I've seen some absolutely jaw dropping things, but we didn't go out of our way to make sure other people could see it.)

There are other scenarios that I'm sure have been more difficult to decide, but as I said - that's what came in my head first.

le_souriceau: Yet, this “low visibility mode”, can cost you much more then glory points – healthy flow of potential recruits, something very important for organization of such size. How you dealing with this?

Alarich: Recruitment is always steady, being at the top draws attention regardless of whether we try to get in the spotlight or not.

le_souriceau: Speaking of historical decisions and people. Now, when a lot of dust settled, how can you summarize outcome of Terran Union absorption into Empire? TU members were integrated as planned.

Maeve: And it was lot of them, like 500?

Alarich: For the most part, it went better then we could have expected while doubling the Empire’s size. Most of the TU's active members have remained in the Empire and are contributing just as much as anyone else. I can't really fault the integration to be honest. The Imperial Officers had set up guides and even a video to help the TU members get used to the Empire, and it seemed to work. I remember hearing of the news that they had decided to join us and I had the biggest smile on my face throughout the entire process.

Maeve: Someone of former TU members made it to highest ranks of Empire?

Alarich: They did initially; Glasrevin (or UniG as some may know him) was the leader of the TU at the time of the merge, when it happened he was given the rank of Imperator (highest in the military branch) to help with the transfer of military members. There were some other factors as well but it's not within my knowledge to disclose because I don't have much involvement with the military side of things. So there was UniG and I believe Agecom was made a captain for similar reasons. There have been some others too, but they only served temporary roles. UniG stepped down from that position a while ago on his own accord (I think because he didn't have enough time to dedicate to Dual Universe) and Agecom did the same only recently.

The opposite has happened in Ordinance though - a lot of former TU members have worked their ways into very important positions within the RnD program and are making excellent progress.

Positions are always open, not many have chosen to grasp at them though.

le_souriceau: I temped with question: in imperial leadership what is balance point between subordination to superior and effectiveness in role? Because talented people are sometimes… hard to deal with in hierarchal structure.

Alarich: I think that's why you'll find very few of us :D We're finding it quite difficult to select good leaders. As you mentioned, there is a balance between effectiveness and subordination, and we have found that many only possess one trait or the other. You'll find very few Officers in the Empire compared to the amount of members we have. That being said, with the team of leaders we currently have, they are more than capable of doing what's required and I'd say quite confidently that we are doing quite well. We're not in a position where we NEED more leaders, but the opportunity is there for the right people.

Maeve: Returning to city development projects you told us about. It seems you were (before wipe at least) quite ahead of others -- with major powers still mostly in planning stages. If we summarize your acquired practical experience, what is your advices to future city builders?

Alarich: You will never have enough concrete :D

In all seriousness, the most important thing is communication. The people in charge need to know who is going where, how much they have got to work with... And the people who move and build in the city need to know what is required from them & what their boundaries are. It is a symbiotic relationship between the designers, builders & managers... everyone needs to be kept in the loop to a certain degree.

It is also important to let people have a lot of freedom, to let them create what they desire and if they are unable to, it is important help them get something they're proud of because that builds a sense of belonging. Not everyone can build a beautiful building or landscape, not everyone has their own resource stockpile. It is important to remember that the city is for the people as well, so they need to be a priority alongside planning and development.

Maeve: I will remember one about concrete, thank you! :)

le_souriceau: And from cities to wider territory issues. You mentioned some serious bureaucracy with sectors and governers. I bet its not about couple of tiles – Empire aiming big. Main imperial seat of power planned to be based on Alioth or carved from PvP zone on one of planets?

Alarich: That is actually something we're still deciding. We have found that we can't plan for things like that when the game is still changing so much. The main seat of power, The Capital, will be heavily guarded if it is not in a safe zone. I think it's unlikely that we'll place The Capital on Alioth upon release of DU. We will likely have a starter city or hub there for new players and to start up, but at this stage I don't really see the Empire staying there. But again, I should really emphasize the point that we are constantly monitoring the game changes and discussing our best options, we want The Capital to be in the perfect location.

le_souriceau: Sure, this is reasonable. Speaking of “heavily guarded”… PvP ships are expensive and can be lost. How you plan to pay for them? Some sort of taxes for every citizen or military personnel also expected to do mining/crafting for fleet maintenance?

Alarich: You use the term "pay for" - Quanta (the DU currency) has had little value to the Empire so far. We've made most of our progression by creating factories and mining ourselves. The Ordinance program has been very effective so far in setting up factories and making sure we have had the resources needed.

Of course, we make the odd market stop to purchase things we can't be bothered creating/mining, but the bulk is done without using the markets. We don't need to use payment traditionally, we recognize that money has no value if you don't give it value, so we've been exchanging favours for favours & work for reward. - that has been our experience in the Alphas so far, but we expect that to change.

The Empire will avoid taxes as much as possible and are planning to make most of our revenue from real estate. The idea is that we will create a hub in a protected environment, what the people are really paying for is safety and protection in an area where many other people will be conducting their business. That will all be supplemented by the work of the Ordinance program, who will be able to build entire fleets themselves if required.

le_souriceau: Well, I used “pay” in wider sense of how it will be sustained, but I get your point about concept.

Maeve: So, it means you absolutely ready to work with individuals or small orgs purely on business side, giving safe base of operations for payment, without any political obligations?

Alarich: Exactly right, Maeve. Ultimately, if the people (citizens, smaller organizations and businesses...) are all working happily, it means we can too.

le_souriceau: In your very rough estimate, how many of 1000 listed Empire members regularly logged in and played DU during Apha-3?

Alarich: That's hard to say. I would say at least 20-50. Many people will be away form the main settlements completing tasks or doing their own thing as well... so the cities don't show the full population either. At any given time, Ordinance and the Military might have teams all across the system on different planet mining, testing and whatever else is asked of them.

le_souriceau: Considering everything we discussed, what is key feature and power of Empire, making it viable to join and stay? Because in every single category of DU activity you have serious competition – talented building teams, effective industrial and trading corporations, experienced (already) PvP organizations. Smaller groups also specialize quite well in their niche activities. So, where Empire “beats” them all?

Alarich: Well, the Empire isn't designed to be a specialized or independent ultimate power, it's the framework to support what is currently the best. Yes the Empire does have it's own Military and R&D Teams but in terms of everything else we are a support structure.

There are many wonderful specialized corporations in Dual Universe and a lot of them are registered with the Empire, we offer support to them and in return, they normally will base within the Empire’s territory, a lot of them sign agreements and pair with the Empires government for state-run projects and some just find the benefit in being in close proximity to each other without much bureaucracy in the way.

You will find the Empire has over 60 registered corporations and many of them are the best in their specialized areas, we simply are here to help them be the best they can be, the best any citizen of the Empire can be.

Unlike focusing on one main thing, we will focus on the logistics and communication between our corporations and members… To expand on that, it is what we have become good at as we continue to build cities and gain more experience with statecraft and business, more than any other organization in DU.

It is also worth mentioning that the Empire is such a strong collection of smaller groups, saying that they beat the Empire does not apply (vice versa) because they are a part of the Empire. Most of our time and effort goes into ensuring that they can be the best in their fields, so we can too.

Maeve: And last one, connected to previous! Beta is near and I think (call this reporter intuition!) Empire preparing something special, big surprise for possible competition. Your secrecy is very well know, but can you treat of just with slightest, sublime hint what is it? Please!

Alarich: You're correct, we do have some big and bold plans in store. I'm afraid I am unable to share our plans with you, you'll have to wait and see!

Maeve: Oh… And I lied. Super-last one. What is minimal rank in Empire to get this epic custom avatar for Discord?

Alarich: Are you hinting at something, Maeve? ;) At the moment, the minimum rank is Overseer. But we will be rolling out civilian templates shortly.

Maeve: Just… professional interest in uniforms. Nano-recorder full on 95,5%!

le_souriceau: Time to free Administrator from webs of our insatiable curiosity :) Thank you very much! It was immensely interesting and informative conversation.

Maeve: Thanks a lot! I wish you personally and Empire all possible luck in events to come. Until our next time!

Alarich: Thank you for having me, it's been an enjoyable experience to share my passion with you both.