The Basics
Welcome to the Basics! To kick off what we hope will be an exciting career for you, we will go through the most essential materials that you'll need during your stay here.
First and foremost, in order to even begin your training, you must register your presence with the training staff. In all likely hood, you would have done this already by creating an introductory thread on the Naval Academy Comnet board - so well done, you've already gotten started.
Everything is done via the comnet, from training assessment through to participation in stories. It is recommended that, whilst you train, you take a look around the whole of the Comnet and familiarizes yourself with the various boards. As a member of the Navy, the two most important ones for you are:
- The Navy Main Comnet - This is where all out of context (OOC) discussions and announcements are made.
- The Navy Story Board - All stories, from personal to squadron, to competitions, are done here.
Once you have passed Basic Training, they'll really be no need for you to re-visit the Naval Academy board unless you become a staff member or are taking the advanced courses. But, if you're really feeling nostalgic, stop on by and say hello to the staff or welcome new recruits.
Outside of the Comnet, a lot of the VE's member ship talk to each other via IRC, a form of instant communication similar to MSN or AIM but on a larger scale. Member's of the VE access IRC usually by one of two ways: Via the Javachat client accessible from the main page, or by downloading an external client called mIRC.
Whichever one you chose, we do recommend that you try and get onto IRC. You're most likely to get noticed this way, as you are in constant communication with your leaders. Obviously, it would be unethical of us to hold it against you if you don't get onto IRC, as not everyone can/wants too, but it does make things a whole lot easier.
If you decide to download a program, or even use the javachat, you must keep in mind the CoC (Code of Conduct) which can be found here. Abusing these rules or creating problems with themselves will not go down well with the Ops (operators) of that channel. Information on how to connect to the VE IRC servers can be found in the Main Comnet board.
Unfortunately, there is an age warning that goes with both IRC and the VE as a whole, please make note of this if you are underage:
If the member is are under 13, they must have a parent’s permission to install and use mIRC. If they don't get approval or there is some other extenuating circumstance in which they cannot use IRC, simply notify the Academy staff of the situation.
Apart from that, those are the basics covered. Consider this your official 'Initiation' into the Vast Empire navy. As a final note, it is recommended that you familiarize themselves with the whole VE website by following links from the Vast Empire main page. This is a good opportunity to ask questions on the ComNet about our many features, such as the First Galactic Bank and Imperial Center. Not only will this help you during your career with the Vast Empire, but it will allow you to meet new members of the Vast Empire via ComNet interaction or at least to recognize some of the names off of the VE online roster.
With the preliminaries over with, you may now proceed to the next step: Flight School (FS).
Flight School is where the real training begins. The three chapters listed within will teach you the basics you need to know in order to be an effective member of the VEN. Culminating in a short test, Flight School is where it all begins. Click on the link to begin.
