Cloud 9 / CLOUD9

The Cloud 9 Star Citizen organization was founded in 2016 with a simple purpose: to bring nice and fun people together for adventures in the ‘verse. We have since evolved into a multifaceted international community to incorporate an additional organization for our members with alt accounts, Cloud 9 Games for our clans and guilds in various online games, and a collaborative that, after establishing Cloud 9 fleets in the ‘verse, will bring multiple groups together for a common purpose. Through these opportunities, we allow for an expansive approach for future growth, while we maintain a small group environment for our members.

Our organization has all of the ships, covers all of the professions, and our main rule is to be nice and fun. Members may continue to do their thing and go solo, while also doing our thing by joining a crew. Our crew activities, detailed below, include exploration, resources, and survival. Our crewmates have structure and discipline, build camaraderie as a cohesive unit, and go on adventures and complete missions. We advance by learning and teaching how we run ops and gaining experience together in the field.

Our Motives and Priorities

• Cloud 9 First Initiative
        ○ Our members and customers are our highest priority.
                ▪ Member priority is focused on enjoying what we do and getting it done.
                ▪ It’s a cold ‘verse out there, our members help each other survive and thrive.
                ▪ Customer priority is focused on taking care of them to fulfill our tasks.
                ▪ By paying for our services and products, they help us advance.
        ○ Our future members and customers are next in line.
                ▪ We aim to continue to expand our membership and customer base.
                ▪ Our emphasis on membership is to increase the number of crews.
                ▪ Growth will help meet both our evolving needs and those of our customers.
                ▪ Given the opportunities, aliens will join us in our Cloud 9 First Initiative.

• Cloud 9 Activities
        ○ Primary: Exploration
        ○ Secondary: Resources
        ○ Tertiary: Survival

We implement the completion of tasks in reverse activity order: Survival, Resources, then Exploration.

Each activity must also be able to rely upon the others for us to excel in each.

• Survival
        ○ To ensure the sustainability of our lives in the ‘verse.
        ○ To ensure the safety of our citizens and civilians in multiple environments and conditions.
        ○ Survival Activity Examples
                ▪ Medical
                ▪ Security
                ▪ Engineering

Survival is the essential starting point, covering topics such as shelter, sustenance, medical, rescue, security, navigation, all-things on our person for first-person needs, and all-things vehicles, for refueling, repairing, rearming, and other maintenance needs. It is important that our citizens and civilians understand various areas like how to heal themselves and each other, how to safely approach and extract each other via search and rescue, and to be aware of defensive and offensive combat strategies and tactics.

• Resources
        ○ To provide our services and produce profits for future growth.
        ○ To advance our presence within the economy and industries.
        ○ Resources Activity Examples
                ▪ Towing
                ▪ Salvage
                ▪ Mining
                ▪ Transport
                ▪ Refueling
                ▪ Racing
                ▪ Tourism
                ▪ News

Resources expand upon and overlap with areas introduced through Survival, ensuring that items and services are available and provided so that needs may be met. From refueling and repair to salvage, mining, hauling, racing, tours, news reporting and media, additional topics include awareness of laws and processes of different governing bodies, understanding the flows of commodities and related materials, and utilizing first-person and vehicle items and features that make it possible to complete tasks.

• Exploration
        ○ To explore the universe to experience first encounters and to return to known scenarios.
        ○ To discover ways to enhance experiences such that they present with new scenarios.
        ○ To create opportunities for all relevant parties and to support Cloud 9 expansions.
        ○ Exploration Activity Examples
                ▪ Navigation
                ▪ Extended Living in Deep Space
                ▪ Alien Languages and Cultures

Exploration further expands upon Cloud 9 by way of complementing both Resources and Survival through embarking on adventures aspiring to make discoveries that create opportunities for our citizens and civilians that are participating in our other activities, and relaying our findings pertaining to locations, events, and exchanges that may be of benefit to us. It is important that our citizens and civilians are aware of methods of exploration using existing mechanics, have knowledge of triangulation and navigation processes for charting unmarked locations, have knowledge of methods of extended living in deep space, and understand alien languages, cultures, and histories when applicable.

Matters of Law

We abide by the law at Cloud 9, our own above all else. We ally ourselves with NPC governing bodies and NPC guilds with contracts, by how we interact with them in the ‘verse, to the extent that they align with our interests.

We accept certain aspects of other laws that originate from sources such as the following.

• The UEE
• Corporations
• Independent Entities
• Xi’an Empire (SaoXy’an)
• Banu Protectorate (Souli factions)

Allied status remains under the conditions that they do not become overly corrupt and that they remain cooperative and peaceful with us without conflicting with our own law.

While the Banu and Xi’an are not in the ‘verse, our alliance is only a working theory, and we may adjust it in the future depending on the alignment of interests between us and them.

We may include the Kr’Thak in the future, although they may need to first find peace with the Xi’an.

Squadron 42 is reason enough for us to not recognize any Vanduul laws. Until we defeat them in war and they attain peace with us, that status will not change.

We remain cautious with our involvement with the Banu and Xi’an, for the varying degrees of diplomatic relations that they share with the Vanduul.

While integrated into the UEE, we respect the aligning principles of the Tevarin for historical purposes.

Should we meet any other races, including those from the past thought to be extinct, such as the Hadesians, or any in the future, and if they are not in opposition to us, then we may also ally ourselves with them.

We neither recognize nor adhere to any laws or authorities that fail to align with our own law. However, we have an alt org for outlaw opportunities.

Outlaw Opportunities

We abide by the law in Cloud 9. However, we have an additional opportunity for our members interested in also living the life of an outlaw. We have an additional org that exists for the purpose of participating in illegal and extralegal activities. It does the dirty work while we continue to abide by the law in Cloud 9. We support them our way, while they support us their way.

Our outlaw org is an alt org, in that membership in it requires having an alt account. There is no need to spend any more money on the alt character than the base SC package. They obtain credits, ships, and items through what we can call alternative revenue streams.

Cloud 9 members are not required to join the alt org, so it is okay to have only one character.

Our members that do join our alt org with their alts are able to maximize the benefits received from the reputation system in the ‘verse and, thus, potential for greater profits, in a different direction for each character, without sacrificing one reputation for the other.

We have restrictions on who can join the alt org. In addition to having two characters, each with the SC package (not reliant upon free fly events), one must be a main member of Cloud 9, join the crew, and become a Cloud 9 Citizen, while the other character must be a main member in our alt org. We’re also limiting membership in the alt org, as our priority resides with Cloud 9.

While focusing on small group activities, we are also open to designating leaders of both orgs. We would like one member to help run Cloud 9 and another to help run our outlaw org. We will only fill the roles when we have a different member for each at the same time. Both leaders coordinate with the Founder, Zylek. If interested, please ask for more info.

Our main Cloud 9 headquarters is in Stanton, with our alt org’s main headquarters in Pyro. Locations may change in the future. With the addition of the Pyro system and more in the future, along with new features, we’ll continue to have opportunities to effectively double the amount of fun that we have together in the ‘verse.

Summarizing Our Main Purpose

Our ultimate motivation, our number one priority, is to have memorable experiences.

We aim to achieve that by having structured fun through our crew activities.

It’ll be a bonus if we also expand active membership and form Cloud 9 fleets.

Overview

The decisions and actions of each member determine the outcomes of their association with other people in the ‘verse and among fellow members of Cloud 9. With regard to our organization, we can narrow down those attributes to take shape as a path for members to follow to aid in the process of being a part of our community – internally and as we interact with the ‘verse – such that the time that we share and effort that we put into our activities can be fulfilling and with purpose.

The following can assist with becoming a valued member of our organization.

• Alignment
        ○ Be a good person.
        ○ Follow the rules.
        ○ Help us grow.
• Immersion
        ○ Connect with members.
        ○ Collaborate in crews.
        ○ Cooperate as one.
• Initiative
        ○ Be highly active.
        ○ Follow our leaders.
        ○ Know when to lead.

Organization

We are an organization and, as such, we organize our activities. We may have all of the ships and have a collectively shared interest in covering all of the professions, although we also need people that align with us, immerse themselves into our crew activities, and that are highly active and take the initiative to help make it happen.

We are here to have structured fun, help each other and others, and enjoy the recreational use of our time at its best. To add structure to our fun, we join a crew. By running ops with the crew, we help each other and other people. To enjoy recreation at its best, we take breaks, sit back, relax, and enjoy the beauty of the ‘verse.

Recreation allows for time to step back before diving back in for the next adventure. Sometimes that means finding a balance between earning credits and taking it easy all within the same session. At other times, when not having fun, that means taking a break to prevent disruption to activities, then returning when ready to have fun again.

Our crew missions expand upon our objectives in the areas of Survival, Resources, and Exploration. Our emphasis on having structured fun through our missions allows for enjoyable experiences as a unified organization. We help each other sustain our lives, remain safe, produce profits, and explore. We help others for profit.

Association

The degree of association that anybody may share with Cloud 9 will vary depending on the nature and extent of their involvement with us, and their level of association may change. Higher levels of association generally correlate with higher levels of access and, thus, our defined Levels of Access are determined, in part, by our defined Levels of Association. Access will become increasingly important, as with cases like when we start building bases with our Pioneer, Galaxy, and other vehicles.

Levels of Association range from strangers to customers and members to executives. Anybody can join our chat server and interact with us in the ‘verse, while their Levels of Access will remain limited until they gain enough of our trust and increase their association. This is part of our security initiative that is at the very core of Cloud 9, designed to achieve and maintain a safe and fun environment.

Within this context, “members” refers to main members, while affiliates are in a different category. By choosing to not be main members, our affiliates have also chosen to be excluded from opportunities like our crews and structured activities. However, they do receive other benefits within their association category. We welcome affiliates to become main members and anybody else to apply for membership with Cloud 9.

Anybody that is a law-abiding individual and not currently one of our citizens is a “civilian”. Unassociated civilians are the good people of the ‘verse that we have yet to meet, while Cloud 9 Civilians are individuals that share association with us and that we’d potentially like to become citizens.

Mention of “citizens” refers to Cloud 9 Citizens, our main members that have taken the oath of citizenship, which essentially involves agreeing to be nice and fun. Citizenship requires no commitment other than applying, being accepted, and attending a naturalization ceremony. Our main members and citizens may join a crew, which will require some degree of commitment.

Citizens, in general, may exercise elevated rights, such as the abilities to nominate and vote on leaders, propose and vote on changes, and, as crewmates, receive additional benefits with the potential for higher percentage pay in credits where applicable.

Here is a condensed look at our Levels of Association:

• Denizens of the ‘Verse
        ○ Group 1, Dwellers – No Level and Level 0: Strangers, Unassociated Civilians
        ○ Group 2, Customers – Levels 1-4: Customers, Clients, Friends of Cloud 9, Affiliates
• Cloud 9 Members
        ○ Group 3, Members – Levels 5-8: Members, Citizens, Crewmates, Management & Leadership
        ○ Group 4, Executives – Level 9: Executive Leadership

It should be noted that these levels are not ranks, but simply levels of association.

Cloud 9 Crew

Crew designations, categorized as crew positions and lead roles, apply to our main members and citizens that become crewmates, to aid in the process of implementing our crew handbook and giving direction to different aspects of crew activities.

Crew positions are simplified down to essentials such as pilot, medic, security, and will include engineer when we have resource management. Professions apply across the board for all crewmates, extending upon positions to focus on areas such as hauling cargo, mining, salvaging, refueling, racing, exploration, and more.

Lead roles are delegated at any time, including when a crew has only a few crewmates, with each focusing on a different area, while one becomes captain with additional crewmates. If not of the captain rank, a crewmate may still serve as interim or acting captain for the crew. Additional lead roles exist, report to the captain, and assist in areas such as providing guidance with professions, helping to organize crew meetings and plan missions, and serving in a second in command type capacity.

Crewmates that attain lead roles and advance through the ranks may qualify to manage and lead one or more aspects of Cloud 9. The Founder remains at the foundation of Cloud 9 and has final say in matters as needed to ensure we remain on track with our goals and objectives, although also climbs the ranks just as everybody else, with everybody starting out, upon entry into the first crew, as cadets.

We have an internal ranking system that is separate from and takes precedence over the ranking system on this site. Our ranks apply only to our main members and citizens that join a crew, with members having tier 1 ranks and citizens defaulting to higher ranks in tiers 2 and 3. Our civilian crewmates (main members in a crew) may outrank our citizen crewmates for a time, although reach a cap and will again be outranked. They may always attain citizen ranks after gaining their citizenship. Feel free to ask if interested in knowing more about this.

Crewmates:

• Learn and teach how we run ops, make adjustments and improvements along the way
• Have structured, well-disciplined fun while building camaraderie as a cohesive unit
• Go on adventures, complete missions, and gain experience together in the field
• May have multiple responsibilities and can prioritize them with more crewmates
• Rotate crew positions using our support strategy to provide balance and variety

Open crew positions:

• 1 Pilot/Medical Officer
• 1 Driver/Security Officer

Crewmates may have a primary focus on a specific area, such as Pilot or Medical Officer.

We have 3 ways to determine when we meet:

• Main time: Recurring scheduled weekend time
• Optional times: Each weekly, to be scheduled
• Additional times: Any time we’re in, not scheduled

The Cloud 9 Chat server and Cloud 9 web pages have information, including our rules (also available when applying here), a crew preview that offers an inside look at the crew section of the chat server, crew orientation, joining the crew, and becoming a Cloud 9 Citizen. All of those are ways to get involved, they are also optional, although being more involved comes with more benefits.

Getting Started

1. Apply via “Join Us Now!” for membership (up top)
2. Go to the Cloud 9 Chat info page and join chat
3. Find out more and hop in voice and ‘verse with us

JoinCloud9.com