A New Era for Cloud 9

December 24, 2024

Our beginnings as a Star Citizen organization date back to 2016. It was the wild west. A time of chaos. Full to the brim with futuristic gunslingers every which way we turned. We didn't know if the people we were going to encounter were friend or foe until they either fired their weapon or didn't.

We made friends among those who didn't fire. We even occasionally made friends among those who did. The 'verse is still the wild west to some degree today, even if in different ways, and uniquely so with the addition of the Pyro system, but it was a different breed in the days of 2.x.

Amidst all the chaos of the past, there we were, a ragtag bunch set out to have fun, immerse ourselves into the 'verse, see what we could do, then do it and see what would happen next.

It was also a very different universe. A much smaller universe. Fewer and smaller ships. Quick respawns. Incredibly easy to get back in on the action if someone or a bug managed to off our characters.

It was truly the wild west, in the sci-fi sense, as the legal aspects of Star Citizen were still in their infancy. We've always been a law-abiding group, but there was the occasional... shenanigan... of yesteryear. That resulted in the creation of our second org, so that we could use alts for unlawful activities and remain lawful in Cloud 9. Granted, that org was immediately placed on hold as activities picked up in Cloud 9.

We have always been explorers. We have always been interested in all professions in the 'verse. We have been there when possible to help people out. And we have had fun. We also used a very loose approach.

Enter: structure. Fairly soon after the org's creation, we introduced the idea of having structured fun.

Some OG veterans of C9 were more inclined to lean a bit heavy on the chaos side, and so we introduced an additional aspect of activities to accommodate that, and both types eventually evolved into what we have today with our Anybody Anytime Activities, Open Activities, Hybrid Activities, and Crew Activities.

Cloud 9 may have been a small ragtag group of friendly and fun fans of the genre, ripe with excitement for the potential of what Star Citizen could be—it was far from it at the time—but that excitement was enough to get many of us by, for a while, with the limited features and content that we had at the time.

In some ways, Star Citizen may have seemed to some people to have been more of a social environment or even experiment. In other ways, there were always people interested in making it into something more. We began to explore how the group could operate with structure in the 'verse.

It was a bit of a balancing act, considering we still didn't have org features in the 'verse, with the challenge of people not confusing what we were doing with roleplay. Although we are not an RP group, members interested in that are welcome to participate in it in their own RP section of C9. But what we were doing with Cloud 9 was adding structure that utilized the existing features of the 'verse. At the end of the day—that day in the past, in any case—we were still limited by the limited features. We still need more features today, but we certainly have more now than we had back then.

We gradually grew in size during our first year, from 2016 to 2017. We had welcomed 100 explorers into our organization by early 2018. Our membership had grown to 150, still a humble number, by late 2019. Membership and group activity levels ebbed and flowed over the years that followed while we witnessed and experienced, first hand, the highs and lows of Star Citizen development, as well as had our own ups and down as is often the case with many organizations. Some members understandably took a break, ready to return when the universe sim would be in better shape, or they opted to fly solo until the implementation of org features in the 'verse. Other members stuck around and participated in Cloud 9 developments like our experimental crews. Some continued to help CIG by testing new features and content and reporting bugs in the Issue Council web app on the RSI site.

And then came the announcement in 2024, during CitizenCon 2954, that the addition of organization features in the 'verse was on the horizon. Many backers have learned to not hold their breath whenever a specific or even approximate release date has been announced or hinted at by CIG. When it comes to org features, however, the presentation at that CitizenCon was pretty convincing that they're not too far off. Then again, being ready for release doesn't mean it will be, and anything could be a blocker for it. Regardless, with that announcement, accompanied by the introduction of NPC guilds, came the need for what was already going to be an upcoming revamp of Cloud 9, only now it was just going to take on a slightly different shape. And so the restructure became the restructure and expansion.

One of the main motivating points for the expansion: the decision from CIG to enforce restrictions on orgs by limiting them to only align with one NPC guild at a time and lose that rep if opting to change alignments. That decision was not like when they introduced reputation and said we would only be able to build lawful or unlawful rep, not both. That makes perfect sense. With the guilds, most of them are lawful, only one is unlawful. It only makes sense to do the same with org alignment between unlawful and lawful guilds. Now, even if CIG plan on implementing that restriction, but then change their minds later and open it up, we will still exist as expanded networks. We'll keep the expansions, and if there's a viable need to restructure again, that's fine, we can do that. There's no telling what might happen next with Star Citizen, but we're ready to adjust as needed.

On that point, I am delighted to introduce to Cloud 9 members our new organization networks!

We now have multiple organizations that combine into groups of organizations. There's Cloud 9, Inc. ("parent company" and "inc." in name only), which has Cloud Nexus, Cloud 9 Games, Inc., and Ennead Union, Inc. (those are also "inc." in name only). Each of those then branches out into groups. Cloud 9 is now part of Cloud Nexus, while Cloud 9 has its own network of organizations.

Many aspects of these networks have already existed, some for several years, such as Cloud 9 Games and the group that was originally called The Collaborative and is now Ennead Union. Both of those groups started out external to Star Citizen, and each has since evolved into something more, even while remaining on hold and in wait for progress to be made with the other groups.

Our second oldest org has also been one of our longest held secrets. Nebula 9, for outlaws, has been around as a Star Citizen organization for 5 years. Its secrecy was only a result of choosing to not reveal it to the world. Similar to C9G and Ennead, N9 is also on hold, pending progress with the Cloud 9 orgs.

And that brings us to the next and very exciting point: the Cloud 9 Network.

The Cloud 9 Network is the first among our networks to be developed.

After org and guild features are added, we will be able to fully utilize them through the Cloud 9 Network.

Through the Cloud 9 Network, our citizens who join the first fleet will be able to receive greater benefits to some activities by participating in the ones that focus on different sets of professions required through the contracts provided by different NPC factions that associate with different NPC guilds.

That's a lot to process and it is, admittedly, a bit of a chain of events that are easy to get mixed up.

Here's another way to look at it, including the steps from joining us to benefiting from NPC guilds:

1. A civilian applies for membership in the C9 orgs via RSI pages and Cloud 9 Application.

2. After a few weeks of group activities, they become a citizen and are onboarded to the first fleet.

3. Each C9 org that they're in opens up guild/faction contract options due to each org's guild alignment.

Let's say you'd like to produce higher profits hauling cargo or perhaps there's a contract that you'd like but it is only available to those with high enough reputation, being individuals representing an org that aligns with a guild, both of which have earned their way up to that point. You'd represent QC&L—Quantum Commerce & Logistics, aka Cloud 9 Quantum, our org that aligns with the Interstellar Transport Guild—find a contract that is provided through a faction that is associated with that guild, accept and complete it, then receive better benefits from that contract than you would have otherwise. You'd also increase both your reputation and the org's reputation with that guild. The higher the rep, the better the contracts; thus, the better the contracts, the better the rewards.

According to the presenters at CitizenCon 2954 on this topic, changing representation from one org to the next will have limitations. So, while we will all still be part of the same larger group of people in the Cloud 9 Network, we won't be able to change representation among all of our orgs indefinitely. Until that has been made more clear by CIG, we can take that to mean that we can change which C9 org we represent early on, then eventually settle with one of them. We'll still be part of the larger network, so we can participate in activities that focus on each area and still reap the benefits, and they will still be greater benefits, as each org in our network will continue to build rep and, thus, increase the payouts and rewards.

With all of this talk about organizations and networks, the Cloud 9 Network is by no means an attempt to work some sort of magic trick so that our crews could find a workaround to CIG restrictions in order to have better experiences as a result of being able to accept better contracts. If it works, great! If it doesn't, that's okay. Each of our orgs serves a greater purpose than the payout of a contract. It is an expansion of opportunities. We can establish leaders in each org to help out. We can form crews in each org and really showcase that drive to advance in our professions, make Cloud 9 a more versatile and even profitable experience, and above all else, immerse ourselves into an ecosystem of group activities that are shaped by its citizens and have fun doing it!

Multiple Orgs → One Founder → Multiple Leaders → One Framework

A different name is listed as the creator of each of our orgs. Each one of those names is an alt that I created and then, with each alt, I created each respective org. After seeing my alts' names, it will be incredibly easy to figure out they are my alts. They may not be as easy to remember, but stylistically there's a theme. It has even extended into Cloud 9 Lore.

Part of the restructure and expansion includes recruiting leadership for each of our orgs.

My alts will take a back seat with regard to org leadership for the most part. They'll help with the initial setup and occasional adjustments to each org. They may also step in to ensure everything is okay, but that should only be necessary in more extreme cases like if a bad apple in the bunch manages to become an org leader and decides to go rogue.

Essentially, I am the insurance policy. However, I can only go so far with that, so it will be important that the ways in which we set up the organizations beyond that follow a security-conscious mindset. People put thousands or tens of thousands of dollars (or more) and hours into Star Citizen—speaking as someone who has a lot of ships, I would like to know that when I hand the keys to my ships over to our orgs that they will be in good hands—so it's safe to say that trust is central to this process, coming from all angles: trust in me, trust in those who serve as leadership and management in our orgs, and trust in every crewmate regardless of rank or position.

My hands are pretty full, so I will not lead any of the orgs, although our leadership will have a hierarchy, in some cases (by context, as with fleets) a chain of command, and ultimately everything will find its way back to me, even if it's through leadership meetings. I just hope that our leadership and management will be good for the orgs and do well when coordinating with each other on activities. The same goes for everyone, with emphasis on our crews. Our captains and their crewmates are going to be the driving force that makes the Cloud 9 First Fleet a reality in the 'verse.

Life in the 'verse would be boring for our leaders if they did nothing but sit around having meetings. Of course, if that's what floats someone's boat, that's perfectly fine. Either way, our leadership and management, while functioning in those capacities on larger structural levels, will also get to have the crew experience.

Everyone, myself included, will go through onboarding, orientation, the same first few crews, and we will all start out as Cadets, move up to Ensign, and so on. Granted, the first people to go through the various programs, the first time that they're implemented, will also help to initially shape those programs. We will also have crew captains who are not of the Captain rank yet. Regardless, it is important that we are clear on the lead roles or crew positions that we have, that each type of rank in our rankings system—more on that at a later date, potentially before Star Citizen 1.0—has its own place within the larger structure, and that there is no overlap. For example, if someone is an Operating Unit Director (aka "org leader") of one of our orgs and they are also a Cadet in a crew, then someone who is an Ensign in that crew outranks that individual on crew matters. This may not always be the case, although will be at least for a while.

After establishing Operating Unit Directors in each org, they will be the leaders of those orgs. They will initially be selected or appointed, although some will eventually elected, and none of them are permanent roles. For example, the leader of Cloud 9 (the organization), with that being the lead org in that network and central hub for fleets, will have a Senior Operating Unit Director role, will be selected by me based on recommendations, will have a 1-year term with the possibility of extensions, and the first 6 months (2 quarters) will be provisional, during which they may be replaced if things go awry. The leaders of the other organizations in that network will start out as Operating Unit Directors, will be elected by our citizens (eventually elected, they will initially be selected by me based on recommendations from others), will have a 1-year term with the possibility of reelection, and the first 3 months (1 quarter) will be provisional.

That's just a glance into that. More later. Anyone interested in those roles, please reach out to me.

Getting back to the alts, if you'd like to know a little bit about them in the context of Cloud 9 Lore, I've included a link to the page below. The character bio on that page for my main character presents the character as a figure on par with the likes of some of the wealthy tech entrepreneurs of the real world. Take that with a pinch of salt. It's lore. Be that as it may, thanks for reading!

And thank you for being a part of the Cloud 9 experience!

See you in voice & the 'verse!

Here are their bios:

One Founder

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