Add IAC under the PMCG as another subcontractor choice

[wowzewow]

Lore Impact (Small/Medium/Large): Small

Species: (Skrell, Tajara, Human, Vaurca, Dionae, Unathi, Synth, General) : Human/General

Short Description: Same as the title. IAC wouldn't really change, you can just choose to play as one when you're PMCG.

How will this be reflected on-station?: People will be able to wear the IAC uniform again.

Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: Not that I know of.

Do you understand that the project may change over time in ways you may not foresee once it is handed over to the Lore Team? Yes.

Long Description:

If I were to come up with a quick reason, I guess the PMCG is just a convenient way to extend the IAC's reach without expending too much of their own resources.

However, the IAC is still a very much independent organisation - they still can have their own ships and stuff to interact with the Horizon.

 

Honestly, this is purely from a Developer's point of view. I'm fine with any loredevs coming up with their own reason for the IAC to work with the PMCG.

After the big uniform update and the implementation of Megacorporations, which got rid of "generic sec and medical", there wasn't really any room for people to wear "alternative" uniforms, especially such as the TCFL and IAC.

Where the TCFL has found new life on ships and whatnot, the IAC has remained largely ignored and vestigial.

With this change it'll safely stay tucked under a big megacorporation instead of having to fend for it's own relevancy in it's own page.

 

In-game, this basically moves the IAC uniform in the loadout from a standalone selection to a medical selection, akin to the PMCG subcontractors for Sec, which are pretty popular.

So this could breathe new life into the IAC. Conveniently, I've made it so it's the same color pallete as the PMCG, so they wouldn't need to change at all.

 

[La Villa Strangiato]

You can already wear the IAC uniform in game as a Horizon character. Also, the IAC isn't Trauma Team, it's the Red Cross. Why would they be "employed" under a mercenary group?

The IAC is already kind of a vestigial lore footnote, yes, but this completely recontextualizes what they are in lore and it doesn't really fit with "not changing what they are".

[Zelmana]

4 minutes ago, La Villa Strangiato said:

Also, the IAC isn't Trauma Team, it's the Red Cross. 

For ref: Nexus has trauma team, for any readers curious.

[wowzewow]

4 hours ago, La Villa Strangiato said:

You can already wear the IAC uniform in game as a Horizon character. Also, the IAC isn't Trauma Team, it's the Red Cross. Why would they be "employed" under a mercenary group?

The IAC is already kind of a vestigial lore footnote, yes, but this completely recontextualizes what they are in lore and it doesn't really fit with "not changing what they are".

Well, technically you still can wear the IAC uniform, but usually corporation affiliation takes precedence here.

My intention isn't really to make the IAC mercenaries under the PMCG, it's really just a convenience thing. The IAC still can fulfill it's role as a Red Cross-esque entity, it just means that the PMCG has taken it under it's wing as a sponsor, or co-operative - just in general, another decent reason why your character is working for the IAC in a mainly corporate ship.

If I were to put it in real life terms, it's something like the US Army helping the Red Cross get set up somewhere. The Red Cross isn't really under the US Army, but the US Army and Red Cross find it mutually beneficial to work together.

It's just that here, the PMCG is largely responsible for handling the bureaucracy and logistics for IAC personnel on the ship, however they are largely still humanitarian - they aren't working for the PMCG literally, it's just that they're responsible for them.

It can make some interesting decision making, like say, giving treatment more equitably to away site patients rather than prioritizing Corporate assets or whatever.

I'm not really a lore writer, so apologies if I'm not very clear.

I guess "Affiliate" or "Sponsor" would work better, but I mostly used "Subcontractor" just for the affiliation with the Security alternate outfits to make it more intuitive.

Edited September 11, 2023 by wowzewow

[GeneralCamo]

I paused this a while ago, however I did plan a full rework of the IAC as an organization. One of the ideas I had was that the IAC is extremely decentralized, with each member state basically organizating their own affiliate. Biesel's IAC affiliate in particular would have had a fair bit of controversy from ties to NanoTrasen, and later the SCC.

If this were to go through, it should be clear that this is just Biesel's IAC affiliate. Not Xanu's, not Sol's, just Biesel. It would still do what you want while emphasizing their connection to the SCC.

[GeneralCamo]

I ended up digging up my old proposal in response to this:

If you want an IAC represented directly on the Horizon, make it the Tau Ceti Aid Corps. I wrote them to have corporate ties anyway. I'd keep the IAC off-ships honestly. 

[FearTheBlackout]

I explored a similar concept in the past on both the Aurora and Horizon with a character who was both Security and a volunteer with the IAC. Although she wasn't one of my longest-existing characters, she's been one of my most thought-provoking ones in terms of being at the intersection of two employers (PMCG and the IAC, or NT and the IAC back on the Aurora) that don't often interact with each other in such a way. I also think that this would revitalize interest in the IAC on the whole. Therefore, I support this application!

[Star Dust]

The IAC going into the corporate business, specially PMC work would make them look HORRIFICALLY bad, like super bad. They're not guns for hire, their security teams do not work for contract of companies, or nations. Their security teams are there to protect medical assets and personal and nothing more, having them suddenly become guns for hire would just make them look like jackasses, and worst yet, taking sides, which could very much get IAC workers targeted and killed in retaliations by hostile powers or groups. They're meant to be purely a humanitarian force, nothing more, them trying to suddenly go into the money making business would make them universally loathed and have most nations tell them to fuck off because those same IAC security forces could easily be flipped right back around and used against you and your nations interests.

-1

Edited September 13, 2023 by Star Dust

[wowzewow]

1 hour ago, Star Dust said:

The IAC going into the corporate business, specially PMC work would make them look HORRIFICALLY bad, like super bad. They're not guns for hire, their security teams do not work for contract of companies, or nations. Their security teams are there to protect medical assets and personal and nothing more, having them suddenly become guns for hire would just make them look like jackasses, and worst yet, taking sides, which could very much get IAC workers targeted and killed in retaliations by hostile powers or groups. They're meant to be purely a humanitarian force, nothing more, them trying to suddenly go into the money making business would make them universally loathed and have most nations tell them to fuck off because those same IAC security forces could easily be flipped right back around and used against you and your nations interests.

-1

I'm not making them mercenaries.

This, ideally, would be a return to form mechanically in how the IAC used to function pre-Horizon,

which is basically just being able to reasonably pick an IAC uniform without any raised eyebrows on why the IAC is working for Nanotrasen

(now, really, it's the SCC, it's just that PMCG is just the most convenient to tack on new subcontractors and what-not.)

[La Villa Strangiato]

After consideration by the lore team, we have decided to deny this app on the basis that we do not want a volunteer disaster/medical relief organization being placed under the subcontractor division of a private military conglomerate.