Blacksky Company

Overview

The Blacksky Company is a World of Warcraft guild founded for, and run by, members of the RPG.net forums, founded by a character of the RPG.net member, IceShadow, named Blackbraid. Its intent is to give the members of the forum, who have often discussed the game, given advice, and generally helped each other as much as possible through the medium of an internet message board, a place to play with each other on one server, and in one guild.

It is a horde-side guild, based on the North-American Kirin Tor Roleplaying server. The RPGnet channel (joined by typing /join RPGnet) is a good place for people to meet who haven't yet been introduced into the guild. Any guild officer, listed below, will be able to invite you into the guild.

Members are expected to assist each other, and to be civil to each other out of character. Normal speech is to be used (no leet-speak!), and all efforts to correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization will be appreciated.

The purpose of this guild is to allow the characters in the guild to have fun. There are absolutely no restrictions on the number of alts a player may have in the guild, nor will there ever be, barring the guild reaching its maximum member limit. No character will be pressured to play with any given class, talent spec, equipment, mentality about alts, raiding, and level advancement, profession, or even the choice of whether or not to group with other members. Advice may be given, but pressure to conform to another player's idea of what is "fun" for them will not be tolerated, and should be reported immediately to the guild master or an officer either in-game or by PM on the forum.

News and discussion about the guild will take place in the Video Games Open forum on RPG.net. Relevant topics will begin with the [Blacksky Company] tag.

The guild tabard looks as it does to the right.

Also, be advised that there is a page dedicated to World of Warcraft:Tips. Please contribute to this as you feel confident and able.

If you're curious about who everyone is once you're in the guild, look at the Public Notes in the Guild panel of the Social window! Everyone's RPG.net handles are listed there.

At present time, there is a Teamspeak server running from IceShadow's computer. The server address and password can be found in the guild notes page (open the Social window by hitting O, then click on the Guild tab on the bottom of the window, and then the "Guild Information" button). If Ventrillo is more popular, it might be possible to have a server for that instead. It is not required to use TeamSpeak yet, but it perhaps could be once end-game raids are being done.

Group Activities

To schedule events, Blacksky Company uses an addon called Guild Event Manager 2 (GEM). It uses the hidden guild channel to schedule events and allow people to sign up for them, with a somewhat robust system of alternatives and substitutes based on class and options at signup. Be advised that GEM is not always the most bug-free of addons (although it does not normally cause any gameplay issues), and its peer-to-peer nature means that updates for events you've created or signed up for may take some time to move from client to client. The latest version of GEM can be found at the following website: Guild Event Manager - Home Page

Also, there is a forum for people interested in raiding. Several other guilds on Kirin Tor will be involved, since we simply don't have enough people to endgame raid alone.

The Blacksky Raiding page holds the rules, schedule, and organization of the raiding members of the Blacksky Company.

A wiki page has been set up to try and keep track of what members have what keys/are attuned to what instances in the Burning Crusade expansion. That can be found at the Blacksky Instance Keys page.

In-Game Background

The Blacksky Company was founded by Baelor Blacksky, a Tauren of little renown, when the Orcs first breached the shores of Kalimdor. Baelor was one of the first Tauren to urge acceptance of the new arrivals, although he had little political clout in the Taruen society. He had already been versed well in the art of combat, being a low-ranking officer in the standing militia gathered to fight against the threat of the Centaurs, but also understood that a wealthy man was more often an influential man than a wise one. Finding an old Orc who had been recently freed from the internment camps who agreed with his monetarily-motivated lifestyle, the Blacksky Company was formed after Baelor felt his obvious leadership qualities were being ignored by the standing forces of the Tauren.

He quickly gathered others who were either eager for monetary gain or the acclaim of battle, and with a war already brewing, the regular commission of the Company by both individuals and fledgling nations was all but assured. The Company quickly grew to acclaim with the ferocity of its warriors, tempered as it was with honor and success. By the end of the war, it was one of the most prestigous mercenary companies available for general hire, and its membership had swelled to several hundred of the Horde's strongest soldiers-for-hire.

Peacetime, however, is never kind to a mercenary company; the uneasy truce between the Horde and Alliance following the Battle of Mount Hyjal was horrible for the financial health of the Company. They began to take any job that paid, lowering their wartime standard of ethics in order to try and maintain the now-bloated roster that had come to expect a regular, and hefty, paycheck. Foolishly, and against the advice of his closest confidants, he accepted a campaign that would doom his Company, and himself.

Several soldiers in the Company refused to go out with Baelor on his ill-advised campaign, including his son, Blackbraid. They knew there would be no pay for the duration of the campaign, but they felt that the meager wage offered by their employer was not worth the risk involved. Baelor was furious, but knew it would be in the best interest of the Company to allow the dissidents to remain behind in the fledgling city of Orgrimmar, where the Company based. Leaving Blackbraid in charge of the small remainder of soldiers, he left to fight. Not a man returned alive.

The Company was shattered, and only a handful of soldiers remained. They went their separate ways for a short while, with no leader to bind them. Once he had overcome the grief and guilt stemming from the loss of his father, Blackbraid took the mantle of Captain of a defunct Company upon his own shoulders, and set out to reform the Company in the memory of his father, and once again raise it to the honor and glory it once knew.

Guild Rules

The following rules are meant to help with the enjoyment of all. Please read them, and respect them. If any of them are issues for you, contact your guild officer, or Blackbraid directly.

Roleplaying

This is a guild of roleplayers, for the most part, and the server we play on is a Roleplaying server. All names of characters are expected to be within reasonable bounds for that race, per the rules of the server. Roleplaying is strictly optional, but encouraged.

It is suggested that players use the flagRSP addon, although it is not by any means required. It will allow you to add a surname and an outer description that other users of the addon will be able to see. Also, a backstory for your character is not required, but recommended to aid in your roleplaying style. As of the 1.9 update, flagRSP is an "outdated" add-on but still perfectly functional.

All /says and /yells are to be completely in character (IC), with no exceptions. Also, /guild chat is expected to be IC.

/party speak is typically a mix of out-of-character (OOC) speak and IC speak. This may change in the future as the guild's partying becomes more and more specific.

OOC speech is best kept in private tells, and in the RPGnet channel.

Officer speech will also be a mix of IC and OOC, as appropriate by the situation.

Looting Rules

All Bind on Pickup (BoP) items are to be passed on, and discussed afterward. Any roll on a Bind on Pickup item, or any taking of one without discussion and agreement from all party members, is considered EXTREMELY rude etiquette in World of Warcraft, almost to a punishable level.

All Bind on Equip (BoE) items can be rolled on as normal. Only roll Need if you are going to wear that item immediately. Roll Greed if you want it for some other purpose, including selling, disenchanting, sending to alts, saving for later use, or sending to the guild bank. Hit Pass if you don't want to bother with the item at all. If, after the roll is done, someone determines they can use it right away, the item should be given to the person; not doing so is considered quite rude.

If there are any disputes, the highest-ranking officer present, or the Group Leader if no/multiple officers are present, will make all decisions. If there is a grievance in looting etiquette, it should be brought to an Officer, or an officer of a higher rank, if an Officer is the infracting party.

Further discussion and explanation of these rules can be found in the World of Warcraft:Tips article.

RPGnet channel etiquette

The RPGnet channel is meant as a way for people to communicate with each other to enhance the fun the game has to offer. Officers of the guild are charged with keeping the channel fulfilling that purpose. There aren't any "banned" topics, per se, but if an issue becomes heated or causes discomfort, whether about in-game events or real-world concerns, officers may ask people to refrain from discussing that issue. Such things are best moved to a forum topic, where other people playing the game can avoid seeing the argument/discomfort if they so choose, or moved to private tells or a separate channel. You can't avoid clicking on a topic to to avoid reading it in /RPGnet.

There will be, and can be, no enforcement of this policy, since Blizzard doesn't allow registration of private chat channels (there's always a moderator, but no way to secure that officers are the moderators). Therefore, this should be considered a guideline instead of a rule. The only alternative if it is not adhered to is to ask people to stop using the RPGnet channel and only use guild chat, which can be more tightly moderated; this is a less than ideal situation, however as there are people in the RPGnet channel who are from different guilds or choose to remain unguilded.

Raiding

Blacksky Company is currently allied with other guilds under the name of the Kirin Tor Raiding Alliance (KTRA). They have their own rules and requirements for raiding. Currently, the only required addons are CT_RaidAssist (CT_RA) and CT_RABoss Mods (CT_BM) or an equivalent addon that uses the same protocols to communicate (examples include oRA2 for CT_RA, and BigWigs for CT_RABossMods). CT_RA and CT_BM can be found at CT_Mod's website, and oRA2 and BigWigs can be found at WoWAce's website.

We also highly recommend that every raider has Ventrilo installed and able to receive transmissions. Broadcasting (via microphone) is not required, and even if one can only listen, it will help immensely. Ventrilo's homepage is here.

Officers

Each class has a guild officer that represents their class. Officers will have invitational powers, as well as access to the officers' notes and players' notes (to add new RPGnet handles if they invite). Officers will be responsible for organizing trips into instances that the players in their respective classes need, keeping discipline in the ranks, and, if the guild gets too big for the Guild Master (or Captain) to handle minor issues and grievances himself, they will represent the general needs of players in their class.

Of those eight officers, two of them are selected as Senior Officers. They will have almost all the control over the guild of the Captain, including demotion, promotion, and removal from the guild.

All officers' alts will be promoted to Squad Leaders, which will be, in effect, identical to the Officer rank. The only distinction is for roleplay, and to keep track of which class each officer represents.

At present time, all officers are selected by the Captain. At some future time, a more democratic process may take place, especially as more and more power is divested into the positions as the guild grows and becomes more influential.

The current officers are as follows:

Player Name	Character Name	Rank	Class
IceShadow	Blackbraid	Captain	Warrior
IceShadow	Waan	Quartermaster	N/A
IceShadow	Xaan	Quartermaster	N/A
IceShadow	Yaama	Quartermaster	N/A
IceShadow	Zaann	Quartermaster	N/A
Barinthus	Snowmoon	Senior Officer	Druid
Aerayn	Michayla	Officer	Paladin
Arawaen	Chaasii	Officer	Hunter
Craptastic	Windshear	Officer	Shaman
jigglypuff	Hutch	Officer	Warrior
MrHorrible	Theomund	Officer	Priest
Psicorp	Audamin	Officer	Mage
Rosencrantz	Jhest	Officer	Rogue
Tear44	Tomb	Officer	Warlock

Members

The guild roster page was created by Sixten, who worked on it with no reward but unending praise. It is fully automated and will update automatically, and is sortable by column, along with character profiles for those who wish to use the CharacterProfiler addon and upload the information. This program will include a bank as well that will allow us to search by character range, as well as other item parameters.

The roster can be found here:

http://www.iceshadow.com/wow/

The bank is here:

http://www.iceshadow.com/wow/addon.php?roster_addon_name=guildbank

There is also a page that will show the skills of every member who's updated their profile. Click on the recipes, and it will show you all the members who can make that recipe.

http://www.iceshadow.com/wow/addon.php?roster_addon_name=recipe

In order to contribute to the tradeskills page and put your character's profile on the webpage, first get the UI from this location:

http://www.rpgoutfitter.com/downloads/rpgo-CharacterProfiler-latest.zip

Unzip it into your World of Warcraft directory, and it will install the addon automatically, after a restart of the game.

Type /cp on, and it will start scanning your character. Make sure to open your bank, your spellbook (you have to click on the icon for that, not just hit "p"), and all your other windows, and the UI will capture the information. You can type "/cp show" and it will show you what you still need to open for the program to scan everything. Also, you have to logout (not close the program entirely, but logout from your character) in order for the data to be saved, so do that if you're the kind of person who wants to alt-tab and send in information while WoW is still running.

To upload it to the website, go to the following URL:

http://www.iceshadow.com/wow/update.php

and click on the Browse button. Point it to your World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\(youraccountnamehere)\SavedVariables\ directory, and then click on the CharacterProfiler.lua file. Don't worry about the password; it can be left blank. Then hit submit query.

The page supports a program called UniUploader. UniUploader is a program that runs in the background on your computer, and keeps an eye on the file your character information is saved in. When the file changed, UniUploader uploads it automatically.

Use of UniUploader is not required, but if you install it, you won't have to remember to manually upload the save file every time you log out. UniUploader requires Microsoft .NET to be installed and only works on Windows systems.

You can get it here:

http://www.rpgoutfitter.com/downloads/utilities/Uni-Uploader-latest.zip

To set it up, install it, and then when it opens, hit the "Show SVs" button. Then, make sure it looks like the following image:

Your account name should be in where that black box is, and the list of your Saved Variables will be different...just make sure that CharacterProfile is checked. The program should run fine after this.

Quartermaster Corps

The guild quartermaster is Vaanst, a grizzled old veteran who has helped the Company since its creation shortly after the Orcs' arrival in Kalimdor. He now permanently resides in Orgrimmar, the better to tend to the stores of the guild and, when work is to be had, distribute guild wages. His supply clerks, Xaan, Waan, Yaama, and Zaann, help him with his chores.

Vaanst, Waan, Xaan, Yaama, and Zaann are characters that act as the guild bank. They are characters held under the accounts of several members of Blacksky, who valiantly offer their free time and sanity to maintain them. The players who run the guild bank characters are as follows:

Clerk Name	Player's Main	RPGnet Handle	Materials Held
Vaanst	Blackbraid	IceShadow	Raid Materials
Waan	Kaghash	kvargo	All recipes
Xaan	Dorahan	brooksd01	Armor, Weapons, various sundries
Yaama	Theomund	MrHorrible	Odd trade goods (not ones held by Zaann)
Zaann	Kaylyn	rwfloydjr	Stone, Bars/Ore, Plain Cloth, Leather, Dusts/Essenses, Herbs

A listing of all items in their posession may be found here; anything in their inventory is free for any player in the guild. Do not hesitate to claim anything in the bank! It will simply fill up, otherwise. Simply contact the player controlling the bank character on the message boards via PM, and/or send an in-game mail to the character, and they will mail it out or otherwise arrange delivery.

All trade skill recipies go to Waan (please do not send him ones you can buy at a vendor; just recipes that only can be obtained as a drop from an enemy kill). All raw stone (not grinding stones or powder), raw cloth (not bolts of cloth), leather (just plain leather, not hides or scales), metal bars and ore (ones used in recipes, not quests), enchanting dusts and essenses (but not crystals), and herbs that alchemists use go to Zaann. All other raw trade goods, and other things that are only useful as bits for recipes, should go to Yaama (please do not send raw food unless it is used in a quest). Other things (such as green drops, bags, finished potions, and buffing food) should go to Xaan.

If a green item is better than yours, claim it! If you do not have a recipe that Waan has in store, take it! Do not feel guilty. If the only reason you want some trade materials is to level your profession, that is fine! Zaann will send you his entire stock, and you can return the leftovers.

A few limitations, however. Please do not do anything but orange leveling using bank mats...yellow and green skills are better saved for other recipes. (The exception to this is first aid, where you have no choice sometimes but to grind on yellow and green recipies.) Please be able to immediately learn any recipes Waan would send to you. Yaama's materials are in general not for grinding, and are for making things for immediate use. Please contact IceShadow or Theomund (or their alts) in-game or on RPGnet to discuss taking items from Yaama, and please state what their use will be for. Vaanst is meant to hold raid materials; please ask IceShadow/Blackbraid if you need anything from him first.

The quartermasters will rotate through their items as they gets more and more in, first attempting to sell them to the auction hall to raise the money in the Company coffers. If they do not sell, they will send them to an Enchanter to be disenchanted (if possible), and the enchanting materials will be either used to skill that enchanter or sent on to Yaama. Yaama will hold onto a maximum of one stack of each item, excepting enchanting and rare materials. Zaann will hold onto a maximum of 100 total of each item. Thus, the procedure is this:

• Quartermasters note how many incoming items there are, and subtract the number of empty spaces in their inventory. This results in the number of items that need to be sold.
• Items are sold, attempting to sell the things that have remained in the bank the longest first. Any items that have been asked to be held are held. Duplicates of any given recipes will be sold, unless they are very rare.
• Items are pulled from the mailbox, oldest first, leaving any excess in the mailbox for the next day.
• The guild bank page is updated.
• Throughout the day, or during his play period, requests can be sent to the characters of the players holding the bank characters in-game, or to them via PMs on RPGnet. Items will be sent at the first possible oppurtunity.
• Repeat!

In addition, any items that do not sell on the first AH attempt will be sent to an enchanter to be disenchanted. Preference is given to those online at the time, unless an enchanter asks specifically for that night's items to be sent to him.