Collateral Damage: Tiny Dialog based niggle

[Dauntless69]

This is a teeny tiny lore 'bug' that I'm sure most players will ignore, but to me it's a bother.  In the Story Arc Collateral Damage, Petty Officer (Assuming 3rd class) Laura Lockhart addresses you as 'Sir' before informing you that you were given a temporary rank of Sergeant.

 

First off a Petty Officer is Naval including Coast Guard Rank, SGT is what the other forces, like Army and Marine, use.  And unless she's PO3 (Petty Officer 3rd Class, which is what the others call Corporal), she's ALSO equivalent to a SGT on up.  In fact, she might outrank you is she's a Petty Officer 1st Class.

 

Also, in the American military the honorific Sir is solely used for Officers, like Lieutenants or higher.  Petty Officers and Sergeants are Enlisted, so you call them by their rank, which in this case would be Sergeant.

 

I know most players, and even roleplayers wouldn't care about such a tiny thing, but the only reason I went down this rabbit hole is because one of my current characters is former U.S. Army and I'm one of those losers who cares too much about lore and want to get the 'backstory' right.

 

If I have a suggestion, it's to change her rank to Corporal and have her call you Sergeant in place of Sir.  IF possible.  Otherwise, I will suck it up.

 

Thank you for your time.

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, Dauntless69 said:

Also, in the American military the honorific Sir is solely used for Officers, like Lieutenants or higher. 

No, it isn't. It is required when addressing a higher rank commissioned officer and not using that commissioned officer's rank, which is any commissioned officer if you are enlisted, but "sir" or "ma'am" are appropriate terms of address for any higher ranking officer. That includes non-commissioned officers from Sergeant or Staff Sergeant on up depending on the military branch. For instance, when addressing a Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force, the correct terms of address are Chief, Chief Master Sergeant, Chief Master Sergeant <insert last name>, or "sir" or "ma'am" as appropriate for the individual unless that individual instructs you not to call him "sir" or her "ma'am". Until such time as that higher ranking non-commissioned officer tells you not to call him "sir" or her "ma'am", it is an appropriate term of address. (Though the reason why those individuals typically choose to not be addressed as "sir" or "ma'am" is often to differentiate that individual from a commissioned officer.)

[Dauntless69]

Fair enough, maybe solely was the wrong word to use.  Would primarily be better?  (Honest question).

 

Either way, it's a tiny bother for me, but it does bother.

Edited October 21 by Dauntless69

[Rudra]

11 minutes ago, Dauntless69 said:

Would primarily be better?  (Honest question).

Not really. It really is up to the individual being addressed, at least in as much as it applied to non-commissioned officers.

 

13 minutes ago, Dauntless69 said:

Either way, it's a tiny bother for me, but it does bother.

I'm not arguing against the OP. I always found it weird that she was a Petty Officer addressing a brevet-Sergeant as "Sir" as well. I just figured that in their world, maybe Petty Officers fall into a different category. So I have no problems with her rank (in the dialogue) being changed to Corporal. (Though she seems to hold a higher authority than that would normally entail.)

[TygerDarkstorm]

Regardless of the sir thing, I would love to see the dialogue made more accurate as Paragon is considered to be in the US and thus, I would presume, follow US military customs for addressing these sorts of things. Hopefully this would be a sort of small, easy thing they could fix/implement and not bork the kooky code too much.

[srmalloy]

20 hours ago, Rudra said:

or "sir" or "ma'am" as appropriate for the individual unless that individual instructs you not to call him "sir" or her "ma'am".

...with the stereotypical "Don't call me 'sir'; I work for a living" retort from sergeants. And you'll get the occasional jerk, as well; I remember the senior NCO in the IT department I worked in who got promoted to E-9 who would get offended if you referred to him simply as 'Chief', instead of 'Master Chief', no matter how informal the setting (unless the person doing so was an officer, in which case he'd just be bent out of shape and would be even more anal about it to the rest of the department, including the civilians, afterward).

[Rudra]

8 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

...with the stereotypical "Don't call me 'sir'; I work for a living" retort from sergeants. And you'll get the occasional jerk, as well; I remember the senior NCO in the IT department I worked in who got promoted to E-9 who would get offended if you referred to him simply as 'Chief', instead of 'Master Chief', no matter how informal the setting (unless the person doing so was an officer, in which case he'd just be bent out of shape and would be even more anal about it to the rest of the department, including the civilians, afterward).

Yep. Some people just suck.