CM Rank Structure (Lore)

[apophis775]

Unless anyone has suggestions, I was thinking this would be the "Official" rank/position list. ***UPDATED BASED OFF FEEDBACK**


Rank/Position:

Command:
Captain/Commander
Commander/Executive Officer
Lieutenant/Bridge Officer
Sergeant/Squad Leader
Corporal/Squad Medic
Specialist/Squad Specialist
Private First Class/Squad Engineer
Private/Squad Marine
Staff Sergeant/Military Police
Sergeant First Class/Platoon Sergeant (Future job?)
Lieutenant/Platoon Leader (Future Job?)



Engineering:
Ensign/Requisitons Officer
Lieutenant Commander/Chief Engineer
Tech Sergeant/Maintence Techs
Sergeant/Cargo Techs



Medical:
CIVILIAN/Chief Medical Officer
CIVILIAN/Doctor


List of ALL ranks (from top-down):

Officers:

Skymarshall of the USSF (United States Space Forces) (Admin only in charge of ALL space branches, in case we decide to expand)
Fleet Admiral (Admin only)
Admiral (Admin Only)
Rear Admiral (Admin Only)
Captain
Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant
Ensign


Enlisted:
Sergeant Major (Admin only)
Master Sergeant/First Sergeant (Admin Only)
Sergeant First Class
Staff Sergeant
Sergeant
Corporal
Private First Class
Private

[Dea Tacita]

needs more WOs Also, skymarshal is a bit too European for USCMC


And it's Marines, so shouldn't it be generals?

[1138]

What about MPs?

[apophis775]

Skymarshall, is a rank i stole from SST because it's the coolest sounding rank I've heard ever.

[apophis775]

MPs Fixed

[Allan1234]

We should add in a major rank over Lieutenant.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

I've always thought of the ranks as the following:

CO = Captain
XO = First Lieutenant
BOs = Second Lietenants
SL = Staff Sergeant
Medic = Corporal
Specialist = SPC
Engineer = Private First class
Standard = Private

In my mind, it makes a lot of sense this way. The Sulaco (in the major films/game lore) is owned and staffed by the USCM directly. The Navy either doesn't exist or isn't relevant. Additionally, the Sulaco makes a fairly even company (60-110 marines).

The film Aliens draws a lot of inspiration from Vietnam films. The entire movie is essentially the story about a Lieutenant (Lt. Gorman) and his platoon. I've always viewed CM as the story of a single company being dispatched on a rescue mission.



Frankly, I don't really like this new structure at all. It really takes away from everything in my opinion by having people from different branches. It just feels wrong to me, and it no longer makes the Colonial Marines feel like a united team. Not to mention it scrubs away any traces of the Vietnam aspect that I think the original movie captured really well.

(this is basically the reason I joined CM in the first place, because I have a childish obsession with Vietnam platoon movies)

I'm usually not one to complain, but I'm very much disillusioned by this.

[apophis775]

Firstly, everyone is "from" the same branch. I just changed up the ranks, to more fit our situation and be more "traditional" because there really isn't a defined rank structure for the USCM. From what I gather, it follows similar to NASA where you have a "sort of" rank, that's your position (Like how the "Commander" of a ISS isn't really a ranked officer, or the "captain" of the Sephora being just a captain, despite having several hundred people under his command).

The thing is,

We have all this extra stuff that's "not" marines, and that a "company/squad/platoon" would NEVER IN A BILLION YEARS have access to. Such as, a ship with a carrying cargo capacity of 20,000 tons.

In the movie, it was the single squad on a top secret mission, which was why it was an exception, but in the entire rest of the canon lore, they have HUGE crews.

Normally, they carry around 2000 marines (brigade level) in hypersleep, and 90 crew.


Not to mention, we had to expand the rank structure to fit more properly to all the extra stuff we have, like medical, engineering, etc.


If you want me to "convert" the ranks to standard Marine/Army, which (both historically, and realistically) wouldn't fit with the rank structure used in space by our current spaces forces, I can. It would boil down to about this:


Colonel/Commander
Lieutenant Colonel/Executive Officer
Major or captain/Bridge Officer

But, I'm not opposed to "reworking" the rank structure, but to "fit" with the plan i have for the lore, and the overall plan I have for CM, being a "company" level asset, doesn't really feet, and feels like it takes the game down to a "smaller" level. It removes a LOT of feeling of strength and independence that I want to give the feeling of. A company level asset, would do just about NOTHING without checking with command, and would NEVER be far from it's Batallion (which would be around ~400, and would be more likely to have access to things like doctors).

The thing is that, it's BEYOND unrealistic to believe that a "Company level asset" would have 3 doctors assigned to just it, or that it would have a research department/team.

For me, it's WAY too much of a break to have a simple captain (who honestly, has maybe 8 years in server) in charge of a ship worth BILLIONS, and have doctors/researchers working for him, as well as the ability to contract central command DIRECTLY, going around their specific command.

[Allan1234]

Nah, I like the current stuff.

[apophis775]

This is the current stuff...

[Kyrac]

I think this deserves some revision. I'd love to help.
These are my suggestions.
For example, from Lowest to Highest:

Combat Roles
Standard - Private(PVT) or Private First Class(PFC), since we all know about that fine 11B.
Engineer / Medic (Special MOS' things, if you're enlisted your more than likely trained hands-on.) - Private(PVT) or Private First Class(PFC). On terms of medic, probably Hospitalman ranks like Recruit(HR) and Apprentice(HA).
Specialist - More than likely Lance Corporal(LCP) in my opinion. Certain sub-MOS like specific weapons handling require a bit more training.
Squad Leader - Varying from Corporal(CPL) to Staff Sergeant(SSG).

Non-Combat Roles
Cargo Technician - Private(PVT) or Private First Class(PFC). //Anyone can pick an MOS, but I felt like this wasn't deserving of something like Corporal.
Maintenance Technician - Lance Corporal(LCP) at least.
Chief Engineer - Sergeant(SGT), Staff Sergeant(SSG), or Gunnery Sergeant(GSG).
Requisitions Officer - 2nd Lieutenant(2LT).

Medical Doctor - Ensign(ENS) I can agree with.
CMO - 2nd Lieutenant(2LT).

Command Roles
Bridge Officer - 2nd Lieutenant(2LT).
Executive Officer - 1st Lieutenant(1LT), normally in a Company, the XO would be a 1LT.
Commanding Officer - Captain(CPT).

Provost Roles
Military Police - At least Corporal(CPL), at most Staff Sergeant(SSG) for a Provost Marshal if that ever comes up.

[apophis775]

ENS and 2LT are from to seperate rank structures, but are the same rank.

[apophis775]

Here's an "updated" listed based on feedback/talking with people. I've "adjusted it" a little bit and "made up" some ranks. It was inspired a bit by "Star Trek" and their rank structure, along with borrowing from the Army and Marines.

Instead of being a "company" sized element, they are more of "custom" sized element, of around 80-140 people.



Rank/Position:

Command:
Captain/Commander
Commander/Executive Officer
Lieutenant/Bridge Officer
Sergeant/Squad Leader
Corporal/Squad Medic
Specialist/Squad Specialist
Private First Class/Squad Engineer
Private/Squad Marine
Staff Sergeant/Military Police
Sergeant First Class/Platoon Sergeant (Future job?)
Lieutenant/Platoon Leader (Future Job?)



Engineering:
Ensign/Requisitons Officer
Lieutenant Commander/Chief Engineer
Tech Sergeant/Maintence Techs
Sergeant/Cargo Techs



Medical:
CIVILIAN/Chief Medical Officer
CIVILIAN/Doctor


List of ALL ranks (from top-down):

Officers:

Skymarshall of the USSF (United States Space Forces) (Admin only in charge of ALL space branches, in case we decide to expand)
Fleet Admiral (Admin only)
Admiral (Admin Only)
Rear Admiral (Admin Only)
Captain
Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant
Ensign


Enlisted:
Sergeant Major (Admin only)
Master Sergeant/First Sergeant (Admin Only)
Sergeant First Class
Staff Sergeant
Sergeant
Corporal
Private First Class
Private

[Ordukai]

Platoons? Isn't that, like, 4 squads? I thought the CO and XO already covered the job of leading them. Seems a bit redundant, or am I just confused?

[apophis775]

Typically, a Platoon sergeant, would be the highest ranking NCO. And the Platoon Leader, would be more of a "ground commander" Since the XO typically jacks off on the station instead of going down to the planet.

[Kyrac]

Platoon Leader and Platoon Sergeant sound like they'd be a bit productive. CO and XO of the ground, C:

[Ordukai]

So would the platoon leader and sergeant replace the XO/CO, then?

[apophis775]

No. The CO/XO are commanders on the ship. The Platoon Leader/Sergeant are leaders of the marines, but under command of the CO/XO

[apophis775]

I'll maybe transfer this to the Wiki...

[monkeysfist101]

Apop, how do you feel about a fluff rank range? Like squad leads could pick a range from Sgt. through MSgt, medics and engineers could pick from a range of PFC through Cpl., standards could choose between Pvt. and PFC, and so on. It would default you to the lowest rank in your range and reward players who actually fill out the fluff for their character.

[apophis775]

No, for a few reasons:

1. Rank in real life for leadership positions is typically "locked". If you get promoted to a rank higher than your current position, you'll typically get transferred "eventually" (not always a fast process) or placed into a new position relevent to your rank.

2. If we give people a "range" to choose from, we are going to run into the issue which required the rank creation as it is "Oh, I'm actually this, but a mistake made me this". Rand and Position are locked together.