Letter status 26082015

[Plant1ing]

Status Letter EU3 26082015

 

 

Hello all EU3 forum readers. I'm playing on Ahoy servers for about two months; time which I've spent in Arma3 world. I have never played Arma franchise before. That brought me to my first and favourite Arma3 community. I know a lot of people don't know me yet so I'll do my best to have great relations, tolerance and respect to Ahoy users like administrators and veterans had with me till now.

Okay, enough sweet talk. Let me start typing what this letter is all about. In this letter I'll address my observations regarding EU3 server. I'll also name a few players since their opinion is of a greater respect than mine from other players in this community. That would be the only purpose of naming. It is not in any way meant for any type of offence.

Let's talk about me so you have better understanding of my type of gameplay. I'm male, looking for good… heh not that kind of talk. - Supportive, helpful, compliant but questionable.

Yes I will always listen to my SL, and yes I will always help newcomers. I will always remember first time when I've joined, Nicolai and Leo helped me with recruiting. This is helpful community, ask nicely with good timing and you'll have answer in no time.

But hey, I still hear whining on EU3? Well yeah it's not all that shining and beautiful. There will be problems all the time but we can resolve them. We are civilized people behind the triggers

 

 

I took wings away from my team.

 

First problem is Luetin09's favourite: time spent *near Arsenal and around the base. He has also addressed this problem in his last video on his channel. Thirty five minutes *near Arsenal. Remember, I've typed and repeated *near Arsenal three times with a star in front. That is because I want you to think about that not all players are in Arsenal choosing their favourite dress to wear. People were just bored and have started to drive vehicles, popping flares or just hanging and having fun around arsenal box. Even Luetin09 was admiring that red bright light later when he saw that *something hit the fan.

I think we can find another solution for this. For example when you are finished with your loadout step away and meet with your team at briefing hangar. It would be also awesome if teams are clearly separated like small groups so when SL or CMD come they can give instructions easily. This will eliminate the problem of assumption of Arsenal fever or even guys staying inside Arsenal. SL's work is really demanding (hail to all SLs) but needs to be strict and decisive. That is the only way so the others won't question commands.

And there will be always a black sheep that is actually in arsenal picking its wool. But player Glitch has found a solution for that: “You have five minutes for arsenal.” End of story. To all us black sheep imagine this situation: You are late with your loadout; SL said to stay in base like a punishment for not obeying; you are crucial member in your team; your team lacks of crucial member; your team got wiped; you all need to work again that mission. You are part of a team, don't take your team's wings away. Play your role doesn't mean only take that item in your backpack. It means play in team as ONE. I remember when I first get on this server and I've already mentioned Nicolai and Leo helping me with way around. I've asked permission to stay in base to know what is for what, what to press, what to take etc. They have insisted I go with them and stick with one of them. They let me stayed at base. I haven't looked at that situation like I'm looking it right now. That day I took wings away from my team.

 

 

Instruments of our plays

 

Jenkins I feel like going that way. This will be hard to explain for me but bare with me. English is not my main language unfortunately. Because in human brain if person says one way, it will be done like that no matter what and we'll all see only that path. Let's invert situation. SLs decide approach and everything. SLs can argue, cause chick-fight, and whatnot. Put some dynamics also in mission planning. Not only on terrain. I don't have to believe, I know we have some brilliant SLs on this server but they don't express their way of doing things because they tag alongside CMDs command and don't bother. CMD is like bond between SLs, a structural thing that observes and connects.

Imagine situation, CMD says from his throne to go capture building. SL acknowledges that and proceeds with saying his fellow troops to go there. SL is on the field, he is seeing that there is enemy armada waiting there and his experience tells him no to go there. He needs then again tell CMD that building can't be captured right now. It can be done like this:

CMD:”go for objective Alpha on abc SL1!”

SL1: copy that CMD.

SL1: CMD this is SL1, Alpha hot on abc, How is bca looking for you CMD?

asking CMD's opinion on current deviation from plan in same time staying in touch with CMD, that is important!

CMD: CMD copies SL1, Sending your way SL2 for covering fire from cba.

SL1 now sees his prize with tunnel-vision but CMD is eagle eye that sees threat on path abc from greater perspective and sends support along the way.

Because SL needs to deal with battlefield and commanding chain he gets brain-freeze and dug in, sometimes forget to report to CMD so CMD gets useless on the battlefield. And time passes.

I don't know how this would work in Arma3 world but in Planetside2 (PS2) which I've played for two years before Arma3; platoon leader commands four squads with twelve troops in each. CMD/Platoon for SL is what is Maestro for musicians that create music (plays).

Instruments of our plays.

 

 

Talking is winning

 

We are humans and we like to gather around, socialize and talk about everything. This is conversation. *near Arsenal there is conversational noise all the time. It's like we are on market selling food for life, or for younger generations to understand staying in line for buying a new smartphone. You can't tell people to shut up. You can polite ask to Clear Comms. I know old veterans get nervous sometimes but they can gather inside our temple – our briefing hangar. Who wants to hear the mission will go inside hangar and be part of that. Who wants to socialize, stay around Arsenal. The only thing I would ask is to pick role that is not connected to other players. In PS2 Clear Comms would be called three times repeatedly. Imagine beautiful silence of 48 players listening to one man giving general orders. Then imagine a silence once again and listening to one man giving second orders to twelve players.

Radios are one of the most important tools on battlefield for soldier. I won't go now in how to use radios. When I go in transport or in the beginning when first “radio check” fill the air, I always make sure of my radio settings: one ear, headphones and frequency check. You can set additional channels or other squad channels. If you are SL carrying LRR and on safe spot, you could consider switching to stereo so your squad can hear CMD general message also. Only thing I'd ask is don't change frequencies. We all start with same frequency. Imagine a mess that we would made if we play against other players and not AI or we need to switch between 10 frequencies knowing the sequence. If you have to change a frequency for some reason, before doing that inform all others about doing that. At least once in two days I hear someone saying that he was in wrong frequency. That is not excuse. Check your radios all the time. Frequencies should be listed on the map. Just yesterday we had whole squad on another frequency and we had to send a guy to inform them on their frequency or why they won't respond to CMD. LRR equipment as we all concurred should be wear by SL but maybe we should have radioman slot also that way even if we have new player he could understand better how to respond, call, or send on radios their message. Maybe we should introduce also a Loadout slot so that we black sheep, fashion queens can dress up properly and not make and disturbance on ongoing mission. This will lead us to our next chapter.

 

 

Arsenal:”I have it, you need it”

 

I believe we are waiting to talk about equipment or as Marcus Kincaid from Borderlands 2 would say: “Guns, guns, guns! “Simple, elegant and brings a plenty of joy. But are we all happy with arsenal, restrictions and other stuff. I'll first step forward and say that I'm not. I don't want that Arsenal become a slot from Red Orchestra 2. I mean I really like RO2 but it's whole another level of gameplay. Disabling lockpick, sunglasses, uniforms and other stuff won't make any change in times of ppl picking stuff. That 35min length problem and proposition are described in the second paragraph. It's not the Arsenal. It's other smaller things that accumulate time. This should be main concern, not crippling arsenal. What I like in this game is freedom of doing things. I urge every admin member or core staff to reconsider and bring us back all Arma world can offer. I want my banana back! (I remember times when Nicolai actually counted how many bananas carryall backpack can take, fun times).

Next thing is particularly for Autoriflemen and their assistants. I was really enjoying playing carrier for player Wolf when he's Autorifleman. Only problem we had was we couldn't get along how to transfer ammo. One tip now is that Autorifleman place his ammo inside Arsenal crate (I like my base ground clean). Then informs his assistant that there is ammo in box to carry. Assistant then informs him how many packs he has taken. End of story. First time I was playing assistant for someone else I was greeted with this: “I'm using xyz weapon, I need you to carry me some ammo”. The procedure for newbie is like this then: Drop weapon, find Autorifleman's weapon, equip it, ask Autorifleman if he wants tracers, what color and whatnot, make room in backpack for ammo packs, drop backpack on floor, load your loadout, swap backpack, and it leaves one backpack inside arsenal or on the floor. Admin needs to clean the inventory mess on the ground. If you don't ask it would have been like that. Instead you can ask and he will drop that ammo for you. Again lots of unnecessary conversation.

I really like that administrators are giving us freedom of picking uniform with regulations of our choice. I hope it won't cross their mind to wear all same uniforms. Differences are what keeps this game dynamic. Maybe same uniforms would be a nice touch for Game Nights, but not on regular basis.

Officers can't and shouldn't think for us. This is particularly for explosives. Always check map to see what kind of equipment you need. You can't destroy a tower with rocket launcher we all know that. What we don't know is to bring explosives with us or ask who will bring them. It's nothing new when I say that we on EU3 go in armour clean-up or tower destruction without explosives or not enough rocket launchers for all the vehicles. Now the excuse could be there's no explosive specialist slot to select. If you ask me, whole point of selecting your role in the beginning is useless if you can't agree with others or play like a team. I would be more happy if someone asks me to bring more explosives than telling me that a certain gun is forbidden, I can't use that straw hat, I'm not on vacation etc. Nobody ever asks if somebody brought explosives or how many rockets we got in squad.

I know I'm risking ban with this but I like sniper rifles. Especially M2010. I was actually thinking convincing Baconmop to introduce m24 or any variant of Accuracy International. When there isn't a lot of players, no commanding officers or administrators in EU3 I roll with my favourite gun. That bolt-action experience. The sound of that gun gives me shivers and with all these mods I feel like I don't know what. Hell, it even comes with different colours. From all joyfulness I'm virtually slapping myself on cheeks. And yes my dream is slammed. When I asked why, the answer is something like this: there are lone wanderers, over powerful, behaviour. I have yet to see the manifest on forums why it's forbidden.

First lone wanderers; I don't believe there are any on this server and if there are any, they would be marked on map with new addition. On other server I won't name it but you will know which one when go alone you are kicked from server. End of story. That should be the policy.

Over powerful. Yes it's powerful, but m2010 is crippled with ROF. Noreen is greater threat and that is over powered, and if you want to kill something above 1 kilometre there is Intervention laying around. On other servers and on EU1 I had great time marking things on map for mortar team. It was my (don't get me wrong, this is a game after all—well I already feel bad for saying this) privilege and great experience working with mortar team. And I'm not even a part of their team on paper. Every shell was designated to marker on the map. I've spend more time typing and just looking than touching mouse. I'm saying this because snipers don't need to be killing machines, they can and should be just recon or observers in theatre of war. Sometimes I've returned to base without firing a single bullet. And I'll always call that a good day in Arma. If I want to kill stuff I'll go and play other games with all the kids that f*cked my mother.

Behaviour is something all by itself. Yes snipers are over powered in this way. They can be cocky and kill everything and not give any fun to other players.

Playing marksman or sniper on this server is no easy task in any way. But using all the equipment to calculate trajectory of a bullet is what is all about for me. If you ask me the hardest of all quests that is in front of sniper is finding the best spot. That is the spot where you can be in duration of whole mission without compromising yourself or your spotter if you have it and covering at least 70% of territory. If you can achieve of having all three then you are in perfect spot.

 

 

Ammo is free for all

 

One thing I haven't realized but I have to point out is type of ammunition. I always opted for 7.62mm over 5.56mm not realizing why all the fuss. I like “classic” look of weapons and HK417 caught my eye. Yeah, I'm also fashion queen deep inside. I have run with HK417 12inch barrel primarily – because my first gun was HK417 16inch before I was told to read forums about allowed loadouts. I've changed it to 5.56mm and this is the reason why. When you use 5.56mm you can ask fellow teammate to lend you some ammo or you can give it to them. That is the only point and I'll stick with it without concerning sound, velocity or penetration. Ammo free for all.

 

 

Rules of engagement

 

Chain of command—I want to talk about that separately. Rule 3 is your Bible, trigger is your messenger. End of conversation.

On this server there is always rule of Yellow weapon: Don't shoot unless fire upon. Weapons are green or red when commanding officers says that way. Even if I see there's a potential threat I always ask an officer a permission to shoot first. Maybe I just want to hear voice of Eggmuffin or Nicolai. They have very intriguing voices which are more distinctive than others. Especially Nicolai, who as a leader, I'll follow without hesitation. I need to question myself what I've written right this moment but I'll leave it open for laughs. I like to play this game on highest immersion out there. I'm taking someone's life to save mine or teams. ROE and other rules are all on forums and some more important are also written in Teamspeak.

 

These is still happening so I'll keep addressing it:

-don't use 20 or 30 mm guns – my game is moving like cards that have been dealt by 60-old dealer. If you have to use it please ask for permission first. I know it's a film but in Lone Survivor pilot asks for permission to engage even he sees there's a war zone below him. Yesterday was happy trigger also.

-If you are in heli don't hover over the combat zone we can't hear anything down there. Rule 8.

-officers should be more strict with timing. This will bring a lot in time reduction near *certain points.

 

No immersion:

- players showing on map

- shift+tilde showing direction of movement

 

I was very happy that administrators have introduced speedboats to Panthera map. This is a proof they are listening players opinion. Maybe I was selfish and should look wide angle on every aspect of server and not only what concerned me particularly. But hey, you can express your opinions. So if you have suggestion, critic or any other type of personal opinion, keep EU3 sub-forum active and full of constructive conversations.

I'm kindly asking administrators and moderators of this server to reconsider bringing all the goodies back to Arsenal and take into consideration my appeal for allowing sniper rifles on Ahoy EU3 servers.

 

Cheers,

 

Plant

 

P.S. Tomorrow is my birthday so I'll upload pictures some other time.

[Josh]

Wow, that was some read. I'll cover a couple of your issues. 

 

1st arsenal: Most people join the server load a loadout and move away. However sometimes it isn't always that simple and a lot of eu3 players dont have patience to wait for people to edit up a new loadout for a role they haven't yet played. (I've played eu3 from day 1. I haven't played all the roles and I certainly don't have loadouts for them.) You mention Luetins video. Terrible example. He walks off and does nothing to get anything moving and just moans about it.

 

IF you actually try to get people to move on EU3 they will, you just need to be willing to try more than once. Trust me. 

 

Squads are perfectly clear. If you don't understand them then jesus... Squads are separated into fireteams and marked on map appropriately. If you can't understand that then sorry.

 

Lonewolfs. We run the same policy. So if you see it please report it. Our biggest issue is people don't report stuff as much as they should.

 

That's all i've got time for but nice post. Good to see you're enjoying things.

[Despite]

 you can ask fellow teammate to lend you some ammo or you can give it to them

 

 

I in a way agree but I only bring 10 mags and on rare occasions I use all of them but like josh said ^ about people complaining about "dress up" just take inattentive and say lets go guys and people usually listen 

[DakimDragco]

I am a sniper/marksman fan myself, and love using that role to actualy be useful for my squad. I tend to just provide a medium- to long-range solution for taking out single stationary targets, like gunners on a 50. cal. Its a shame we dont have them on most gauntlet maps annymore, but i have to be honest and say they were being poorly used, with lone wolfs and AP/Lynx using snipers in wookie suits ruining the fun for ground forces from 1k away.

 

As for the whole arsenal thing, yeah you can get it moving with a little time and effort, though i often just dont feel like playing policeman and reminding people of the need to hurry along five times in 5 minutes. Unfortuetly Josh is right, not all those who are at the arsenal are playing dressup, some realy just never played that particular role and thus have no setup saved. Also there are different setups possible within a role depending on what the objective is. So we will never fully get rid of the arsenal thing, it's just how the game flows.

[Stuart.G]

Concerning Radio chitt-chatter: Shouting "Break,break,break" loud enough usually shut everyone up. IF they keep on blabbering just become more aggressive about it. (To a certain degree) or just say what you have to say and let the blabbermouths run to their death ^^

[Plant1ing]

@ Josh

 

You are right for arsenal. It depends of the player. When I've first joined, I was fashion queen myself. I've just wanted to look cool. Now I don't care as long as I have beard and that wool beanie. I've mentioned Luetin's video not because his opinion, but because of some kind of evidence to analyze what players are actually doing around in the base. It is confusing because of my word expression (Luetin's favourite).

Regarding squads. They are clear now for me but they may have not been used properly sometimes. but that was because there weren't devided into fireteams. I'm no expert and I'm still learning short and decisive commands over radios. Yesterday young_wolf did amazing job on coordinating two fireteams Alpha 1 and Alpha 2. It was really nice to see that kind of teamwork, even we haven't seen a fight (Destroy UAV mission).

 

Quote: "Our biggest issue is people don't report stuff as much as they should." - perfectly said.

 

   I still need to better organize loadouts and pick fights. I'm carrying 10 magazines at max. Think that in real life 6 is default for normal mission. I always run out of magazines. Ambient AI giving me hard times obviously, heh.

?Question. Can marksman run with team but somehow have overlook on them? I mean constantly moving with team but have better picture behind them looking flanks if we are going down the hill for example. I know going downhill should be avoided in some cases, but yesterday I was having conversation with young_wolf. The UAV was in the valley, We were questioning hills and being ambushed from 3 of them. We didn't like the approach but we rolled with it. Young_wolf designated one fireteam for one hill but second two were unguarded. Somehow we have endangered the whole operation. It was good that enemies have approached from only one hill.

 

Haven't fired a single bullet in that mission, but I have really enjoyed by coordination and teamplay. That's why I'm on this server. Like I've said. Yesterday was a good day.

 

@ DakinDragco : I think I, as a new player just need to learn where is what. Then the feel would be like shopping grocieries from one shelf. I always carry 4 demos. Sometimes we just don't have enough explosives. Or the next objective spawns near us. We can do briefing on the field and proceed to next objective.

 

This is my current kitbag loadout: 4xdemo, NVS, mags, Laser Desig+2xbatt., some medical stuff, AMS, Eotech 552, 2x smoke, 2x frag, spare earplugs. My gun comes dissasembled from loading loadout and I assemble it with stuff inside my backpack (optic, sound suppressor, laser and mag). Every now and then somebody forgets something. I'm here to help to make team vital and ready for operations. My favourite role is engineer or explosive specialist. Since there is only one and it's always occupied, I'm fine with running rifleman or rifleman assisant.

[Ryko]

@Plant1ng

 

I really enjoyed yesterday's UAV mission as well, I don't know if you also played the Ballistic Missile Launcher recovery mission that followed but I think that was also a great success (ie it didn't nuke anything and we brought it back to base with minimal casualties).  I had a sense that some people were grumpy in the UAV mission that we won without too much contact, but as you say, isn't that the definition of a successful mission?  I am thinking that people essentiallly want a challenge - targets to neutralize, some danger - but not so much that you actually get killed or can't complete the mission...

 

I'm interested in your point - "Or the next objective spawns near us. We can do briefing on the field and proceed to next objective."  In fact that's exactly what happened in that mission after we destroyed the UAV, there was a new mission to the north of the current position, I can't remember what it was but my initial sense was that we were well-armed, took no losses, and we were loaded out in such a way that we could successfully complete the mission.  I suggested that rather than just RTB with the heli we turn north to a new LZ and do a field briefing to take the next objective.  But I was shouted down (even though I was Platoon Commander) because "This isn't the EU1 server".

 

I think EU3 means different things to different people, even though its definition and heavy ruleset is laid out quite clearly on the forums.  I can almost hear the grinding of teeth when someone wants to do something outside of the box.

 

-R

[Despite]

just RTB with the heli we turn north to a new LZ and do a field briefing to take the next objective.  But I was shouted down (even though I was Platoon Commander) because "This isn't the EU1 server".

This is supposed to be realistic now i understand your point but in real life you would have to RTB to rearm patch people up and get set to go

 

@planting 

 

: 4xdemo, NVS, mags, Laser Desig+2xbatt., some medical stuff, AMS, Eotech 552, 2x smoke, 2x frag, spare earplugs

 

 

As I hope you know ;/ AMS is a marksman scope and you are not supposed to use it.

[Ryko]

@Despite - "This is supposed to be realistic now i understand your point but in real life you would have to RTB to rearm patch people up and get set to go"

 

Very few shots fired.  No wounds taken.  Similar mission.  Drop at the new LZ and brief before going in, in my opinion.

[Josh]

@Despite - "This is supposed to be realistic now i understand your point but in real life you would have to RTB to rearm patch people up and get set to go"

Very few shots fired. No wounds taken. Similar mission. Drop at the new LZ and brief before going in, in my opinion.

Don't know for some reason if it's stopped I haven't played much this last week but we often don't rtb if there isn't a need for it. By all means push the next mission if power and supplies allows it. You don't have to rtb if you have no reason to. We don't push that far.

Also if you're platoon commander, tell them to step back and let you do your job. If they fail to do so let one of us moderators know.

For no reason should you be shouted at for trying to lead the team.