Xwatt

Mikael was an absolute incredible soul. Always lit the room up wherever he was and was an absolute joy to be with. He left incredible memories within this community and it will be a real loss without him. We will forever cherish the time we got to spend with him and undoubtedly he will be sorely missed.

Maybe the point I was trying to get across was unclear, and if that's the case then my apologies. What I aimed to highlight was that Ahoyworld always seems to has phases, some where we are at peak and everyone is enjoying the community, and some where we have a huge incident that happens and we are once again left in a "rebuilding phase." Like the incident that occured recently. What I aimed to highlight was that Ahoyworld needs to aim to have a solid foundation, where when incidents like this occur (which are inevitable) the community needs to be strong enough to quickly recover, rather than taking another two, three or however many years it will take to build up the playerbase again I love all my friends in the Core Staff team, we left on good terms and I always try to check in when I can. But just because they are Core Staff, and they are the highest ranking, in no shape or form should that make them invincible to scrutiny - perhaps quite the opposite. And this in no shape or form means I don't appreciate the time or effort they put in, in fact I believe that most the time their hard work goes unnoticed, and I made this evident in my nominations for the AW end of year rewards. But having such a high rank and responsibility puts them in the centre of spotlight for attention, hence why they seem to get pulled up for scrutiny every time an incident occurs. And it's for good reason, being CS means that you have the responsibility of driving the future of the whole community, and this privilege should be respected, and therefore can be open to scrutiny as any job is. I can disagree and have civil discussion against the way they may run things, but you will never ever see me discredit them as a person. Of course, many people have come and gone in the history of AW. But what is perhaps the most distressing about this one is that the staff members who departed were perfectly happy with their role before said incidents occurred, and therefore loss of staff could theoretically been prevented. I have no doubt that AW will live on, it has despite much bigger bullshit being thrown at it in the past, but as mentioned before that isn't the point of this post. What I was aiming to show is that as a community we can't be having these divides so often, because more often than not it hinders our development more than it benefits us. also @MidnightRunner I shouldn't be the one having to tell you to tone it down, there are many times as CS I have wanted to act out, but a true leader keeps a level head, even in the most difficult of situations. It is nor a good look for yourself or Ahoyworld.

The following is a statement about the current affairs within AW, and the opportunity to provide, an open, constructive platform raising issues currently present within AW. Whilst I understand the decision to lock the other thread due to fears of exacerbating the situation, AW is a community ran by the players, and one that provides complete transparency and a space to openly discuss differing opinions. This is the way Mark T originally set out to run the community, and one that I followed up on myself, and therefore I ask for Core Staff to respect the right to openly discuss, without having to delve into private discussion. The following replies to this thread (If I get any) will be from members who wholly care about AW, and therefore CS should see this thread as a foundation to build on, and to read the criticisms provided and use it as an opportunity to shape the future of Ahoyworld. In an ideal world, members of the community can openly play within other communities, and there should be no repercussion in doing so. Perhaps, they seeked out other communities due a lack of what AW is offering. Other players want to be in communities that have operations on a massive scale, with a playerbase that provides that. Some people want operations that are more tuned to the milsim aspect, and again I see no issue in that. People have different wants and needs, and therefore they can seek out other communities if they cannot find that here at AW. The issue comes when it is from a community that openly incentivises and rewards players for recruiting within their own, and other communities. In this, they create a discourse and divide in other communities, and as a result gain a healthy boost within their own playerbase, without any repercussions or remorse about the divide they create in other communities. And we see this clearly now, said community has managed to create an argument within Core Staff about how the situation should be handled, as such this has then leaked down into the staff team, creating further arguments, and ultimately leading to the loss of some of the most senior staff, setting AW back again into a dire state that we found ourselves in not too long ago. So, in conclusion, who got the last laugh? Ahoyworld, or the other community that managed to create such a discourse within the highest ranks of staff, that ultimately, they benefitted themselves a lot more than it benefitted us. I love Ahoyworld, but once again there are blaring issues that will lead once again to the downfall of the community. The first comes from the lack of unity within Core Staff, and the lack of swift action to reduce the impact created. If CS were united from the start, do you really think this many staff would of left, or if the member of CS who stepped down was so wrong, why did half the staff team leave with him? While I understand there were guidelines to follow in how a report should be handled, the lack of input from the other members of staff and the wider community in general, made the final decision seem like it benefitted the bias of CS rather than what the community themselves felt was the right decision to make. Ahoyworld is not, and will never be a monocracy, the lack of transparency and willingness to hold open, public discussion has once again led to the downfall of the community. And then after all that, leaves the AW we have today. Many others and I involved have spent the last however many years building up a solid, dedicated playerbase once again after AWE had originally fell apart. It was a long, gruesome process, and it was a struggle finding new players as the ARMA community is extremely aged, and therefore there is not a constant flow of new players or talent anymore. This is a concern, because it means that rebuilding the staff team is a hefty feat, as there isn’t a flow of fresh blood to promote, but more importantly, it means you’re struggling now to get the large scale, combined operations that AW has always loved, with the 25-30+ people that we all desire. It’s evident from Sieges and many other people’s operations, where he now has to scale his operations down to accommodate for the lack of players, rather than creating these massive, expansive operations. I just wonder, how many “rebuilds” will it take for Ahoyworld to finally flourish or is it’s “golden era” limited to the memories some of the more senior members have about the past of the community. To conclude, I want this thread to be a civilised, open platform for Ahoyworld. Respect the privacy of others, and more importantly keep it constructive and make it somewhere where we can state our desires for the community moving forward, what it is doing wrong currently, and how it can be improved in the future. Staff have every right to remove abusive comments and directed hate, so I ask you to keep it civil and behaved.

https://www.twitch.tv/ahoyworld/clip/AmazingAffluentYakinikuGOWSkull?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKyH1bnWoQc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyKlpJt5y4A I think I come pretty close to that one too

AW MVP 2020: @GhostDragon the under appreciated backend wizard that has saved my ass many times this year! AW Most Friendly Admin/Moderator/Spartan 2020: I can't pick favourites of my children, I love you all equally AW Most Helpful Admin/Moderator/Spartan 2020: ^^^ AW Most Active Staff Member 2020: @Norris AW Strictest Staff Member 2020: AW Best Team Player 2020: @Mikael always down to have some fun no matter who he's playing with AW Most Helpful Member *Non Staff* 2020: @Stanhope the work rate is unlevelled AW Most Friendly Member 2020: @JJ Cakes no competition for this one really AW Tacti-cool member 2020: AWE players that wear all black AW Underrated Member 2020: @Moto never complains, always a good experience when playing with him on gamenights AW DAAASSS BOOOOT 2020: still not sure how this one made it to the award section AW Best Pilot 2020: @Gambit/ @Whigital AW Worst Pilot 2020: @Toasted_Bread_Slice https://www.twitch.tv/ahoyworld/clip/BlatantEsteemedShrimpWOOP?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time AW Best Voice 2020: @Minipily screaming https://www.twitch.tv/ahoyworld/clip/HumbleNiceKleeKappaPride?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time AW Funniest Person on Team Speak 2020: AW Worst Joke 2020: @LH5 explains itself really AW Best Moment 2020 (can be in-game, on Team Speak or Forum): https://www.twitch.tv/ahoyworld/clip/PricklySleepyZebraDoritosChip?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time nothing more fun than slaughtering unarmed Ahoyworld members (the start of that mission was absolute chaos aswell, me and midnight were in tears) AW Best Forum Post (please put URL in): A reminder that AW, and AWE is founded upon teamwork, and individual efforts are not the heroic ones, rather playing as a team and kicking ass is the way AWE should be played AW Dankest Meme Post In Discord 2020: pRogRamMeR MeMes AW Best Driver 2020: @Xwatt AW Worst Driver 2020: @Xwatt AW Best Fail 2020: https://www.twitch.tv/ahoyworld/clip/StylishTsundereNewtSmoocherZ?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time alpha will go down in the history books for this AW Best Ban of 2020: @MoonFire AW Team Speak Channel 2020: AWE Setup Room AW Best Screen Shot 2020: AW Best/Worst Call-out 2020: https://www.twitch.tv/ahoyworld/clip/SourSilkyGrassDoubleRainbow?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time DOC MY ASS AW Candidate for the Hague 2020: https://clips.twitch.tv/PleasantDifficultMangoBrainSlug there were many candidates here, but @Icze running over most of Lindis squad was absolutely hilarious AW Role Model 2020: @MidnightRunner the man that can do no wrong, both him and Norris will have many years of success as CS

Ahoy, I thought now would be a suitable time for a community update, as the title suggests I have a major announcement to make, and the last community update was in March, so I think the time is right to give the community an update about the current situation at AW. Xwatt Leaves Core Staff As the title of this community update suggests, I will be stepping down from CS. The main reason for this is that my own personal schedule has been getting increasingly busy and with that, I feel that I cannot the devote the time to AW that it deserves, therefore the sensible decision would be to step down. @Ryko always puts it best, real life comes first and must be given priority. I'd like to thank @Mark T for giving me the opportunity to become a Core Staff member, and I would like to thank the current CS team, and the staff team for the support they have given me over the years. But most importantly, I would like to thank you, the community, for backing me and supporting the decisions I have made in the past few years in an effort to positively move this community forward. On a brighter note, I would like to congratulate @MidnightRunner and @Norris, our new members to the Core Staff team. I have no doubt that these two will be able to make a positive impact to AW for years to come, and they have my full backing for any decision they will make. Midnight will be taking over the role of AWE manager, and Norris will be taking over the role of Public manager. I would like you all the congratulate these two, and I want you to support them wholly as you have supported myself. I&A4 The development of I&A4 is now back into full swing, and masses of progress has been made in priming it for public release. Just under a week ago, we completed a full 100% run of the mission, highlighting the progress in stability and allowing for persistent mission progress over the span of a few days. Please continue to leave your feedback in the dedicated I&A4 feedback thread, it is immense help in aiding Ryko to develop the mission. Feedback can be anything from bugs and missing items, to your feedback in how you think mission should be played. All feedback is welcome, and ultimately will shape the end product for the mission. AWE and Gamenights: AWE has had a ton of progress since the last community update in March, and we will continue to support the growth and development of the server for the foreseeable future. Currently, the server is rotating maps and factions after every one run of Liberation, and this method is aiding in keeping player retention, compared to the two runs that we did in the past. Support has been mostly positive for the switch back to CUP and ACRE, and we will continue to listen to community feedback about how we can better improve the server. Be sure to attend our Liberation Sunday events, in which you can find information for that in the events section of the forum. As for Midnights campaigns, we are currently in a transition period between moving towards a new campaign in both the Tuesday, and Friday operations. For the Tuesday campaign, this will be moving towards a zombie orientated mission, and the Friday campaign will be moving back to the PMC series, and more information about that can be found here: Alongside Midnights missions, we have two gamenights from @BenjaminHL planned, keep an eye out on the events section of the forum for the dates of those missions. Final Note: As always I want to thank the community for helping us to move forward in a positive direction. I want to thank the donators for their continued support in keeping AW financially stable, even during a pandemic where peoples income may be reduced. Being a community powered by your donations is a portrayal of the support you have for our community, and we will continue to make the suggestions and needs of our community the focal point before any major decisions are made. On a more personal note, I would like to thank all of you for the support you have given me as Core Staff for the past few years. I have absolutely loved it, and it is with regret that I have to step down, but I am in no doubt that this community will continue to live on and prosper, as it has done since it has been founded. I would like to give my personal congratulations to @MidnightRunner and @Norris, both of you have my full backing, and I am excited to see the progression of AW a few years down the line from now. Thank you all, Xwatt & The CoreStaff Team.

Zombies sounds like a pretty neat gamenight campaign

I’ll be setting it up before it goes live so if the selection is silly I’ll do some magic.

I remember in the earlier days of Kunduz where the ISR would actually tune in to the SR channel of the independent squads, clearing long range of information that is really only applicable to say, one squad. I understand that was probably dropped due to it being inefficient to have to dial in a SR frequency for what could be an emergency message, but I think therefore you can strike a balance of: Important and Urgent messages from ISR can be communicated over long range information that is relevant to all squads can be communicated on LR by ISR Smaller details and none urgent messages can be communicated by dialling in to the SR of the squad the message is applicable to at the end of the day, ISR is a valuable tool, but balance needs to be met when communicating that information across.

I think because I pre wrote this and moved it out of a staff forum, it got shoved under another post. So just giving it a little bump with this comment

Ahoy all, With the return of AWE, the Staff team have been formulating ideas about how to better make use of the roles we have available. With this, we looked into how to better make use of the current Field Ambassador program, and how to reintroduce the AWE Veteran scheme, to identify and recognise players we see as ideal role models for the atmosphere we are trying to establish across our modded server. As always, I stress that these roles are not being reintroduced to create a sense of hierarchy, but to instead recognise players that go the extra mile to help newer players, enforce the ruleset and provide an enjoyable experience to their peers. As Field Ambassadors are a greater bar of entry then Veterans, they will have added benefits that the veteran programme does not provide. The benefits of being in both programmes are as followed: Field Ambassadors A Field Ambassador, is a player who is recognised by Staff, as being an role model who contributes frequently to the community. - Selected By Staff - Exclusive Teamspeak Tags - Exclusive XML - Access to a discord channel with Field Ambassadors and Veterans (where both will get access to mission testing and feedback discussion with Staff) - Access to the "mission makers" discord chat, used directly between Staff and Devs in communicating the current and future development of AW - Acces to AW Gitlab, to report issues and give feedback on opinions on "to be delayed" features that will/won't get added to our missions AWE Veteran An AWE Veteran, is an exemplary and experienced player who is recognised by Staff. - Selected By Staff - Exclusive Teamspeak Tags - Exclusive XML - Access to a discord channel with Field Ambassadors and Veterans (where both will get access to mission testing and feedback discussion with Staff) We hope that by overhauling these schemes that it would both reward players that Staff believe to be making a positive impact on our servers, but also giving us a direct line in incorporating non-staff roles into the future development decisions we make at AW.

Welcome, I still remember your name back when I was more active on EU1, nice to see you around.

Nice to see you back again!