The Rank structure on this forum is incorrect

F

FlashFire82

Spaceman
Hey everybody,

I realize that I may ruffle some feathers as making this my first registered post here on the WCIC forums... but I just wanted to point out that there is a commonly made error in the rank structure that is used for the number of posts someone has. A Lieutenant General should outrank a Major General. I know that this doesn't make much sense, but as I'm in the military, it was just something that stood out to me.

Of course this will probably go unnoticed and all.. but hey... I just thought I'd throw my two cents in...
 
The rank structure on the board should correspond to WC canon, NOT to actual rank structure of current terran military.
 
As a simple aside...

The "modern" usage of "Major General" is actually just a shortening of "Sergeant Major General" thus it's ranked lower than Lieutenant General.(Though you'll have to admit a modern major general is better versed in vegetable, animal and mineral.)

Theoritically the WC rank might be based on the army rank of Major rather than RSM, thus be higher ranked correspondingly than Lt. Gen.
 
According to WC canon, A Lieutenant General still outranks a Major General. Actually, I remember being very confused when I first saw the rank structure listed in the documentation to WC3... because it listed Lieutenant General as higher than Major General. I thought "That HAS to be a typo in my manual"... so I went through life rather confused on the subject, until I joined the military... and then I discovered that the WC manual was right all along.

Just a note... but hey..... it's really not an important detail. Just something I thought that I would throw up there. I didn't mean to offend. :)
 
According to WC canon, A Lieutenant General still outranks a Major General.
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From the original Victory Streak (p.8), through all the console ports to the Kilrathi Saga release (p.70) the rank chart has always read "Lieutenant General (O8), Major General (O9)". We know it's wrong in real life, but Wing Commander has always had it this way (and didn't fix it when changing numerous other 'errors' in Victory Streak).
 
I surrender! Okay... I yanked out the old books and yes, you're right, Victory Streak does have it listed as such... perhaps that was why I was confused in the first place.

((I still say it shouldn't be that way though....))
 
FlashFire82 said:
I surrender! Okay... I yanked out the old books and yes, you're right, Victory Streak does have it listed as such... perhaps that was why I was confused in the first place.

((I still say it shouldn't be that way though....))
Click to expand...

You were not the only one confused :D
 
FlashFire82 said:
Hey everybody,

I realize that I may ruffle some feathers as making this my first registered post here on the WCIC forums... but I just wanted to point out that there is a commonly made error in the rank structure that is used for the number of posts someone has. A Lieutenant General should outrank a Major General. I know that this doesn't make much sense, but as I'm in the military, it was just something that stood out to me.

Of course this will probably go unnoticed and all.. but hey... I just thought I'd throw my two cents in...
Click to expand...

I was certain that would not actually go unnoticed.
 
TopGun said:
Maybe this Thread should be closed before it gets out of hand
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... I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about...

Oh no! People are having a civilized conversation! Better close it!

What?
 
Nob Akimoto said:
As a simple aside...

The "modern" usage of "Major General" is actually just a shortening of "Sergeant Major General" thus it's ranked lower than Lieutenant General.(Though you'll have to admit a modern major general is better versed in vegetable, animal and mineral.)

Theoritically the WC rank might be based on the army rank of Major rather than RSM, thus be higher ranked correspondingly than Lt. Gen.
Click to expand...

Nob...wow, long time no see, man.

Nob and I go way back from the glory days of X-Wing Alliance. ...he probably doesn't remember me :(

Anyway, I was thinking the same thing about how the Major General in Wing Commander might coorespond to the rank of Major, making sense for it to be above Lt. General.
 
If you want my honest opinion... I believe that when that whoever devised the WC rank structure simply didn't know any better. I mean... there are lots of fancy theories about why WC could use those two ranks being reversed... but I honestly think that whoever it was didn't know any better when he put them down on paper and now here we are.

After all... if you were writing it... would you have thought that this topic would be debated on a message board many years later?
 
I don't think there was any special reasoning behind it -- it was probably just an error that happened somewhere along the line (the man who wrote the actual chart was in the military... it could have been intentional on his part, it could have been a mistake -- or it could have been something that changed later on in editing, for the either reason.)

On the other hand, they did go through the chart to make it 'futuristic', giving all the enlisted ranks 'space' themed revisions and adding a new five star admiral rank...
 
I think someone here at the CIC should post a chart that shows the rank structure of Wing Commander and maybe slap it on the front page so we can all have quick access to it.
 
TC said:
... I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about...

Oh no! People are having a civilized conversation! Better close it!

What?
Click to expand...

I'm sorry for my remark
 
Bandit LOAF said:
I don't think there was any special reasoning behind it -- it was probably just an error that happened somewhere along the line (the man who wrote the actual chart was in the military... it could have been intentional on his part, it could have been a mistake -- or it could have been something that changed later on in editing, for the either reason.)

On the other hand, they did go through the chart to make it 'futuristic', giving all the enlisted ranks 'space' themed revisions and adding a new five star admiral rank...
Click to expand...


Actually there is a stipulation for a five star admiral...the "Fleet Admiral" is actually a rank that is possible in the Navy. However... they did add one rank that you can take from French military history. "Space Marshall" is a play on the French rank of "Field Marshall" or just "Marshall". However... it should be noted that a Marshall had authority over all aspects of the military. The military equivalent in the US would actually be the president as commander in chief of the armed forces.

I still really believe that it was probably a clerical error somewhere along the line and then simply never got corrected. No big deal... I'm sorry that this thread turned out so controversial... I meant to get some attention but I didn't really want it to get THIS MUCH attention.
 
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