My new book “Wake up and smell the coffee – the imperative of teams” launches this evening in London. Really looking forward to the launch event with an exciting panel for discussion including Since the US Government starts hosting Search And Rescue missions after Touchdown commences, some civilians refuse to join the player factions - they want to join up with the military and leave the zone behind. Balance of Power: Part of why the various factions haven't managed to drive their opponents and the Xen creatures out of the Zone and establish dominion is that most of them do not get along at all - the Rangers and Damned Brigade are at war with one another over ideology, with both also opposing the Survivalists and NAC due to a dislike of the rogue civlians. The Shrine, meanwhile, just wants to be allowed to live in peace, but has aligned itself with the survivor factions because those two don't want to kill them for existing. The arrival of the player factions gradually starts shifting this balance in favor of the Rangers (who are aided by GDI and the Cygnus Fleet) and the NAC (who are friendly to the Grey Death Detachment), with the others either being hurt by their arrival (Mitchell gets a fair amount of the Damned killed while pursuing his vendetta, and the Phoenix Project decides to fight the Damned to gain the aid of the CIA), or remain mostly unaffected (the Survivalists only recently started working with Clear Sky, and the Shrine effectively vanished from the RP after the Conclave was retired). With the return of the United States forces imminent due to Operation Touchdown, the balance is bound to fall apart. Clear Skies is Powerhouse leaning toward Balanced, because while their Stalkers are all versatile fighters, all but one of their forces is elite.

Due to circumstances, the majority of the battle for the Fitzgerald boils down to this trope - while Flashpoint and the Damned Brigade are undeniably evil, the Cygnus Fleet doesn't want to use the nukes but also wants to make sure they don't fall into the wrong hands, GDI has similar motives but is willing to claim the nukes by force from the Cygnus Fleet due to believing Claude's claims of peace to be insincere, the Conclave wants to avoid being the target of the nukes on the ship (Flashpoint wants the nukes to destroy the Shrine, who are allied with the Conclave) and the Grey Death Detachment don't want to use the nukes either, but aid the Cygnus Fleet becuase they know that less well intentioned people will want to use them. Dr. Jonathan Pinto, Associate Professor, Organizational Behaviour & Negotiations, Imperial College Business School Simon Mac Rory understands the dynamic of teams and organizations and provides an insightful and thought-provoking approach to the team-based organization of tomorrow. Anne Heraty, CEO, Cpl ResourcesThe Decepticons and Atlas have only had one turn each, and don't have enough characterization from their posts to be judged either way - while the Decepticons usually tend to lean toward evil and Atlas is at least nominally on the side of the Angels, the Decepticons from the Shattered Glass timeline are heroic and Atlas can go to questionable places if Ironwood lets his emotions get the better of him.

Later-Installment Weirdness: Some of the factions that showed up later in the RP's lifetime had traits that made them overpowered compared to the original cast. Dangerous Deserter: Flashpoint as a whole is this, being a group of US Military deserters who are following their boss in pursuit of revenge. Of the human player factions, they are by far the most evil (only Tetrarch and ADVENT are worse, but they aren't human). The Expedition is so far unaligned, but their player is making moves to try and find the Shrine (who, being made of Vortigaunts, will likely be targeted by the military), and confirmation OOC that GDI will attempt to wipe out the Expedition if encountered because of GDI's own poor experiences with aliens means that they will likely be forced to side with the survivalists and NAC (both of whom trade with the Shrine and thus are at least somewhat open to coexistence) out of necessity. GDI is Powerhouse, focusing on using various extremely powerful units, including quite possibly the largest amount of armor in the game, but with the tradeoff that they can't really replace most of these units and have to focus on conserving them where possbile. Following Touchdown, it becomes apparent that while most of the player factions want to help the inhabitants of the Zone, their motives are wildly divergent - GDI and the Phoenix Project want to remove the alien presence and have shown no indication on if they would spare the Shrine, Clear Skies and the Grey Death Detachment are more aligned toward the Survivalists and NAC, respectively, niether of whom want to rejoin the United States, the Cygnus Fleet want to figure out a way home, the Expedition just wants to be left alone, ADVENT and Flashpoint are hostile toward almost everyone, and the Decepticons and Atlas have only just showed up. So teamwork might disintegrate soon.Goats and Soda What is a walking school bus? Hint: It has no tires but lots of feet and lots of soul