Griff - I am sure GC does have another member on the way. We'll give him a month to see if he remains active, then you might have something.
Perhaps, in that time, the war will be over so that your asset transfers (ships and planets) are not in any way disputed (ie: under attack).
I would suggest starting now to end the war. But that is just a suggestion.
Please know that from a cynical point of view (ie: Theren's, though he may call it something else..heh), this move is not wholly unexpected.
I will be honest, I am not against both groups merging.. I am against them merging
now.
What bothers me the most though is that OOC decisions like this do carry over IC. IC-wise, TGC will dissolve and merge with ORS. That being the case, the only way mergers happen during wartime is if one faction "conquers" another. Obviously, ORS is not attacking and conquering TGC.
IC-wise, are you going to say, that suddenly all TGC civilians are loyal to ORS (a shadowy and secret government to be sure)?
The real question is: If permission were given, what would be the setting of your merger rp? Would your merger (IC) be set "after the war"?
If so then, how do you know what assets will be transferred if the war is not over?
At the very minimum, if we were to say "ok" (ignoring the missing TGC third member [as of now]) I would insist on some restrictions at the beginning such as (and I list these off the top of my head in no particular order):
TGC/ORS warships currently engaged in attacks or defending threads are not part of the merger (until the roleplays involving them have stopped and the losses removed from manifest).
TGC/ORS planets currenly under attack are not part of the merger (until the roleplays involving them have been stopped and losses/gains are removed/added from/to manifest).
ORS members will not post/participate in TGC battle threads started before the final post of the merger thread.
TGC members will not post/participate in battle threads started before the final post of the merger thread.
R&D's will not be able to be moved back and forth until the end of most (I am not saying "all" here) major fighting of war.
I am just trying to be fair here. This keeps your request legitimate and mostly absent of anything that "looks" funny (not questioning motives here).
And in case anyone really has a problem with this, I would remind them that this request wouldn't even be possible if the staff had not made a special concession to three 1-owner lightside groups to merge in the first place (suspending merger rules for them) thus creating TGC.
Still, I await more info on this 3rd TGC member that Griff alludes to and I welcome thoughts.
I am not inflexible if someone has a better idea. As long as they are civil.