A new training event

[Ares]

Hello guys. When I am playing in the server, most people know about formations and general comms, but I think it's more important to make people understand that even slowly loading up in the chopper in base, can be a huge motivation boost for example. It makes things not so messy. For example: Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 are in the separate columns. Alpha 1 get's in the chopper - walking. Team leader stays on the door and when the last member of his team is in he goes in and says "Alpha 1 is in" then Alpha 2 repeats. That's one thing.

 

Other thing is echoing. Today Alpha squad lead told us at the end of the night that we need to echo the command of our team leader. For example team leader says, Moving! the guy next to him will repeat so there will be a chain reaction and with that said, radio will be clear. Radio must be used for only important information. If you know about echoing, do it even if you think no one will do it. That's my case. I know that I need to do it, but i don't, because I think no one will do it. The people that heard this thing about echoing will remember it, but there are people that were not online, so just remember this thing and do it.

 

I am just suggesting to make another training event for this type of topics. Organisation and movement. If you guys want, you can contact me and we will work together to gather more info on better ways to move, communicate and organize.

[Josh]

Yeah it's nice when things like this happen. All depends on whom your squad lead/team leads are and the members of your squad some people do it some don't!

[FrOzT]

i second this..in regards to chopers, that goes for unloading troops as well..frustrating for me when i pilot is that i never know if everyone is off the bird when i lift, and have several times ended up with a straggeler sitting at base with me waiting for the next troop resuply

[PitsU]

Yeah, as a freshman/greenie I would also like to participate in such an event.

[Amentes]

i second this..in regards to chopers, that goes for unloading troops as well..frustrating for me when i pilot is that i never know if everyone is off the bird when i lift, and have several times ended up with a straggeler sitting at base with me waiting for the next troop resuply

 

I'd be all for a training session, but this is mostly down to Squad Leads.

 

It was quite refreshing yesterday evening to have Alpha SL tell his entire squad to never give the pilot commands, and then himself proceed to call last man both on embark and disembark. Smoother than Santana.

[Pancake]

i second this..in regards to chopers, that goes for unloading troops as well..frustrating for me when i pilot is that i never know if everyone is off the bird when i lift, and have several times ended up with a straggeler sitting at base with me waiting for the next troop resuply

I make sure to grab the crew chief seat whenever I can on the black hawk so I can yell when the troop bay is clear then hop out, if the gunners made it a responsibility to be the last blokes out and to check the bay for stragglers that would be a great help to the pilots who don't have a track IR on had to check behind them

[Nicolai]

> "The people that heard this thing about echoing will remember it, but there are people that were not online, so just remember this thing and do it."

 

Not being online or not being to any trainings is no excuse for not knowing this simple paradigm. It is a basic thing, that everybody needs to know previously to the first join to the server, not because it's general knowledge since a few decades, rather simply because it's here..

 

http://www.ahoyworld.co.uk/topic/3669-how-to-eu3-the-basic-guides/

 

Date of publication: 06 February 2015 - 01:40 AM. That's about half a year ago.. and I think I remember there is a far older version of this document, already in there for much longer, the February version being an update. Well..

 

Quote from paragraph "Core Principles of Combat Communications": "Confirmation and read-back. It’s important to confirm that you heard orders so that command knows that they are being understood."

 

As this is a HOW TO document and not a rule, it describes one possible way of doing things. Of course, there are other possible paradigms and it's not an obligation to do things exactly as they are described in a HOW TO, as it is no obligation to do things only like they are described in a HOW TO. Above, the author of that same HOW TO, even explains it once more.

 

However, if the team in person of the squad or teamleader decides for his team - like on the occasion yesterday - that this or that paradigm is the actual paradigm to be applied to a particular mission, the least thing you can do is to either submit to that decision and to back that decision as it was yours, or to simply disconnect.

 

I'm certainly one of the the last persons who is insisting on anyone doing things in this or that particular way. Also I like to experiment with paradigms.. and to find out the true grit of some paradigm, it's necessary to submit to and fully incorporate it first - otherwise your experiences with any paradigm will not be representing the whole set of advantages and disadvantages of any particular way of doing things and render your personal opinion on it to be of limited meaning.

 

But what I expect as a minimum requirement is openness in communication: a third possible reaction instead of simply submitting or disconnecting would be an answer like this: "I won't adhere to this paradigm, that we've just been told to use, because [... I discourage discussions in the battlefield, insert anything, I won't question it while being deployed - because your mom ...], do not expect me to [... insert what the paradigm would require you to do but you do not want to do ...]". It would help.. as there are few things more depressing than teammembers who are ostensibly confirming decisions during briefing and then slyly doing things differently when deployed. It enables the other teammembers including the leader to respect your particular way of playing the game and gives hints on what type of leading you prefer for supporting you better and what the team can expect from you.

 

On the one hand, beginners may prefer when being told each and everything, while more experienced players may prefer to be enabled to show more initiative on their own behalf, on the other hand, a team can be a team with much less hassle for the leader, when each member can be expected to behave in similar ways. Still, both ways are possible and possibly good ways of organizing missions, being hard enough for the leader to integrate both ways in one team. Finally, I have no doubt it's impossible to integrate the team when teammembers are not openly communicating their doubts, opinions, their expected digressions, who start their discussions in the front line of combat in the face of the enemy - overall behaving differently to what they have told before.

 

This worked very well in our team yesterday, we had experienced and less experienced players in the team and the more experienced didn't have much freedom based on the paradigm used - still we didn't have complaints or digressions and the experienced players still showed successful initiative, instead of just passively waiting for orders and depressing away - I couldn't wish for it to be better.

 

Remember being CMD, SL or TL is not playing "Simon says".. it's a hard job and anything you do, that makes these jobs more difficult, is something you probably should think twice about.

 

Remember guys: consent does not establish authority, it acknowledges it.

 

Good idea with the training! Such things need training, because they only start working, once you do not need to think about it anymore. Same thing goes for the use of direct communications, which was another paradigm, that SL decided for the mission yesterday, and which I perceived was assimilated by the teams in a way similar to how the read-back paradigm was assimilated. I'm very thankful for these two experiments combined yesterday.

 

Remember, that such a training is much less hassle and involves much less effort from the participants than it is required to integrate a team, which consists of both less and more experienced players, who usually also expect different experiences from any particular mission. Even here, there's more pressure on the more experienced players, as they are usually expected to be capable of adapting to the team and the team's paradigms more, than it can be expected from beginners and casual players.

 

Big thanks to Boogieman for implementing those two missions using those two paradigms.. I learnt a lot about those two paradigms, which I neglected in the past and what I experienced yesterday changed my opinions on both of these paradigms from "inappropriate" to "hey, that's possible.. and it even works".

[DakimDragco]

i second this..in regards to chopers, that goes for unloading troops as well..frustrating for me when i pilot is that i never know if everyone is off the bird when i lift, and have several times ended up with a straggeler sitting at base with me waiting for the next troop resuply

Another problem as pilot is people jumping out (ejecting) before you have properly touched down and said they could. People should keep in mind that the pilot, not your Squad Leader or Command, makes the decission when and were you disembark, or you could end on the wrong side of a 10m desync.

 

 

Oh, and a quick way to check your vehicle, check the "Interaction->Passengers...." menu, will show all those still in the vehicle.

[Ryko]

One thing I really enjoyed about Boogieman's SL job last night was the post-op talkbalk, it was really good to debrief about things that went wrong in the field.

 

Another thing I think a training session would be useful for would be the medical system.  We don't necessarily need to turn everyone into a medic, but knowing the basics would be very useful to keep other players alive until a medic can arrive.

 

I also really enjoyed the Zeus mission; it's a pity we ended up wasting the hostage.

 

-R

[Guest Wolfsauge]

Hehe.. yeah, the post-op talk I like as well. Sometimes you get a new perspective on what happened when participating.

 

Here is a nice video from Dslyecxi, that was linked on the official Arma 3 Twitter, with an even more in-depth review of some past mission they played:

 

As here, the reasons, which will make a mission fail later on, sometimes can already be identified at the very start - once perception has let itself be educated.

 

For example, some lesson I learnt from analyzing past missions based on video footage is how true it is, that in history it's a sign for propaganda at work, when any historic event (like a failed mission) is being attributed to a single cause. It's really tragic sometimes, how small things can mount up in such an unlucky way, that in the end a whole mission fails as a result. It's only a few words that would have made a difference sometimes. So true.. so tragic..

 

Yeah thanks to Glitch for the Zeus mission from me as well!

[Jason.]

I'd also really like to see some kind of training event for the newer players (like myself). Although I've read all the guides that are on here, I would feel much better actually doing these things in-game rather than just reading them in a forum. Maybe every now and then (a month) you could run a training session to help bring all the newer players up to speed on the basics.

[FrOzT]

i know that we are not THIS serious when it comes to the milsim part of the server, but this video is a really good one in regards to both pilots/crew and troops being transported...quite a few tips here, that i think might help expediting both embarking and debarking of troops, and also things that pilots should be aware of, both new and old ones..