Weekly Arma Missions Signup

[=VG= Calv]

So it seems there is interest in having some more organised Arma gaming. First obvious step is going to be to get a list of who wants to play, and get a fixed day and time each week that everyone can attend. Due to timezones I expect either saturday or sunday to be the better options but we'll see what everyone says.

Firstly though, I think it's important that everyone is on the same page as to what these sessions are going to be like. The core idea is to move away from the unorganised way that public, persistent missions like domination and insurgency are and have some effective, organised, tactical missions with everyone working together.

While this isn't going to be some hardcore milsim gaming there needs to be a minimum standard set to allow things to run smoothly and enable us to actually complete missions.
The following is a very condensed version of the basic information that I would intend to have everyone know and put into practice regardless of what task or role they are fulfilling in the mission. The purpose of this is to allow everyone to form an idea of what is going to be expected for these sessions.

1. Structure - Initially the focus is going to be purely on fireteams. Establishing the basic infantry knowledge and gaining a good level of teamwork is essential before people use specialised roles such as pilot, mg, sniper, etc. When numbers increase additional fireteams, squads etc will be added.
Explanation of key structure terms:

Platoon - 46 men. Consists of 4 man HQ team, and 3 Squads.

Squad - 14 men. Consists of 3 fireteams plus Squad Leader and Medic.

Fireteam - 4 men. Consists of Team leader, rifleman, automatic rifleman and assistant rifleman.

Buddy team - 2 men. Consists of each half of the fireteam. Team leader + rifleman, and automatic rifleman + assistant rifleman.

2. Communication - Our comms will be split between teamspeak and ingame VON. It is easy for everyone to imagine that having 14 or more people all talking at once is going to be chaos. So a set of basic rules is needed to stop our ears from bleeding.

* Use the correct channel - To begin with there is only really going to be 2 radio channels to be used. Teamspeak will be reserved for fireteam leaders and command to communicate with each other on. Ingame Group VON will be used to communicate with the other people in your fireteam. So this means that the vast majority of us will only use the Group channel and during a mission will only really speak with the other people in the fireteam.

* ID yourself - Simple rule. Always identify yourself before saying anything on any radio channel. "Calv, contacts west", "Calv, wounded". It's a simple thing but makes all comms much more effective.

* Accuracy - Easy enough, be accurate as possible with your messages. "Contact over there", "Guy to the right", "Someone near that tree" etc serve no purpose. When giving directions to something stick to cardinal directions. N,S,E,W,NW,NE,SE,SW, etc. If you can provide a bearing then follow up with that (The vanilla arma compass is a bit crappy for reading bearing so don't worry too much if you can't.). For contact reports provide numbers and distance, doesn't have to be exact numbers just as accurate as possible.

* Brevity - Don't fill the radio channel with rambling or waffle. Keep your messages short and simple. The goal is to transmit your message in as few words as possible while retaining maximum clarity and accuracy. "Guys...some enemies to the west...looks like 4 or 5 of them, just infantry. Moving away from us, looks like they are about 200m away." contains mostly useful information, but fills the radio channel for a long period of time during which someone else may have something more urgent to report. "Contacts west, 5 infantry, 200m" gives the same information in a fraction of the time.

* Clarity - Always be clear in what you are communicating. Getting rushed, garbled or inaccurate messages over the radio serves no purpose, it just wastes time by requiring people to ask for clarification. The best way to accomplish this is by using commonly known terms and having all the info required before speaking. For example if you spot an enemy patrol in the distance, don't panic and immediately call contacts. Gather the info you need for a clear report. "contacts, west, 4 infantry". You can then if necessary go into further detail regarding distance, direction of movement etc.
Of course common sense must be used, if the patrol is 50m away and moving towards you, then call 'Contacts' just to alert everyone, then follow up with direction, number and distance as you can.

3. Movement - Basic knowledge for how you move when working as a team, mostly common sense but takes some practice.
* Cover all sectors - this means that as a fireteam you want all 360 degrees around you to be watched at all times. Simplest way of accomplishing this is to check what direction the person you are following is looking and look the other way. Most often when patrolling in the open or in urban environments Column formation will be used. So if the lead person is looking forward (as they should be if leading) the next person looks left, the next right, and the last looks to the rear. Therefore as stated, if you see the person infront of you looking forward, then look left or right, if they're looking right, look left. If you're at the rear, look to the rear.
Same applies when moving in buddy teams, always be covering a different direction to your buddy.
Always ensure to take into account the area and where enemies are expected to be, if you're moving towards an enemy camp and have friendly fireteams on the left and right of you then of course focus on aiming towards the enemy camp.

* Don't bunch up - Try to always maintain at least 3-4m distance between the person in front of you. Two reasons for this: Firstly, they need room to move incase they come under fire. If you're on their arse and they take fire, they're going to move back into you, get stuck in the open and get shot. Secondly, enemies tend to fire at where someone is, not where they're going to be. So if the guy you're following is spotted and fired on and you're on his arse, you're gonna end up walking into a bullet.

* No area is ever clear - Always expect an enemy to be around every corner and behind every tree. It doesn't matter how many friendlies have moved through the area and "cleared" it, until you have verified that an area is free of enemies with your own eyes, expect it to be hot. Even when you've cleared an area yourself, don't let your guard down.

4. Your Role - As mentioned the initial focus is on infantry fireteams. So your role is going to be working as a 4 man unit and supporting your fire team leader in accomplishing the tasks given to him. The basic essence of this is: Follow your leader.
Always maintain visual contact with your team leader (or buddy if split into pairs), watch your leader's movements and position yourself off of him.
* Secondly, Communicate. A team without communication is just a bunch of lemmings that are gonna walk into enemy fire. Keep your team updated on any relevant information. Spot enemies, report it. Spot friendlies that you were unaware of, report it. Hear an engine, report it.


And that's it really. I could go into more detail about formations, bounding, fire and move and on but these are things that will be picked up as we go. It may seem like a lot of information to read through but the majority of it is common sense that just needs stating so that everyone is on the same page.
Don't worry if you aren't sure about it all, these things will be talked about and demonstrated during sessions, any questions can be asked during those times.


Finally then, the initial point of the thread. Everyone who is wanting to attend this kind of weekly arma session please post and include what days/time you would be available. Remember to include your timezone.


Roster:
Calv
Terremer
ColdNfreeziN
lupago =VG=
Murderface
Sam
Switch
Jager
Savage
AirborneAlways
Castor
Pvt. Charry
Ingo


Time/Day
Saturdays 19:00 GMT (14:00 CDT)

[dman248]

I would love to play calv, but without ace/arce i just can no longer play normal arma.

[Terremer]

sign me up. also along with what he said, id love to play with ace and such as i havent gotten a chance to play with it yet.

[Guest ColdNfreeziN]

Sign me up also! Also i'm with the ACE/Acre thing. Ive been looking for somewhere to play as it looks to add a ton of realism to the game.

[lupago]

Sign me up, i think acre will be the best thing to coordinate the radios and coms. Eventhough i dont think we have that number of guys ready to play...

[=VG= Murderface0151]

im down. best day for me would be Sunday (Saturday for Stateside) and whatever time can be organised i will most likely be able to attend on that day.

adressed the ACE/ACRE topic, if we can keep it Vanilla in the meantime so we can induct as many players as possible, train them up, get our shit nailed. then begin ACE/ACRE to move into training with comms equipment and the like.

we really need to focus on the core of our operations which is movement and communication. even if we're bored with Vanilla by the 2nd day, i dont want us going into ACE/ACRE if we are not fully prepared. this stuff is going to have to be second nature to be as effective as we can possibly be, i'm sure you guys will agree.

[Sam]

sign me up too!

[=VG= Calv]

I agree with the ACE/ACRE thing and would definitely be pushing the session in that direction, but to begin with I think getting everyone on the same page with vanilla arma is the best way.

Once everyone is working well as a team I would probably introduce ACRE and get the comms sorted, as the radio stuff can be explained pretty easily and are actually easier than using the ingame VON/TS style.
Once that's done would then do an ACE session, spend time making sure everyone has sixupdater installed, get ACE setup correctly, then cover the basic new features: weapon resting, weight/stamina, medical system, explosives.

Launching straight into ace/acre just adds too much additional things that can go wrong and is more likely to turn people off. Also want to be able to get into running missions as quick as possible so that people aren't stood around putting up with "training" too much.

Murderface LAN_WROTE ...

im down. best day for me would be Sunday (Saturday for Stateside) and whatever time can be organised i will most likely be able to attend on that day.

Updated first post with time/day. Think that would be around 7am Sunday morning for you, that ok? Could maybe add another hour but would start being pretty late for any euros.

[=VG= Murderface0151]

7am Sunday is perfect.

just worried about these meets focused on Strategy/Teamwork/Tactics will clash with the meetings that are already currently being set up. unless we have enough people and are happy to have these as our ArmA meet days.

[=VG= Calv]

Murderface LAN_WROTE ...

7am Sunday is perfect.

just worried about these meets focused on Strategy/Teamwork/Tactics will clash with the meetings that are already currently being set up. unless we have enough people and are happy to have these as our ArmA meet days.

The idea is they're the same thing. There seems to be interest in regular events but as of yet no real schedule for it. So this is the first step in getting a day and time sorted and a rough idea of how many people want to do it.

[lupago]

And i think we should focus on weekend, sunday will be good but saturday mornign also works for me (7, 8, 9, 10, 11 am east coast US time)

[Switch]

Sign me up as well!

[Guest AirborneAlways]

Don't know if I will do weekly as I do have to keep the better half happy.

!wife

[=VG= Calv]

AirborneAlways LAN_WROTE ...

Don't know if I will do weekly as I do have to keep the better half happy.

!wife

Don't have to be there every week, would generally have a signup thread for each week. This is just to get an idea of who is interested.

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

I'm there..thanks for getting this post started

Calv LAN_WROTE ...

I agree with the ACE/ACRE thing and would definitely be pushing the session in that direction, but to begin with I think getting everyone on the same page with vanilla arma is the best way.

Agreed 100% ACE/ACRE will come once we get people used to the basics.

[Jager]

In granted nothing collides

[suomikeizari]

I'm in, but I still do study at a gymnasium, which has some ''responsibilities'' at weekends ;)

[chrisi123]

sign me up, too! :D but i'm really confused with all that tiem shit...

[Guest AirborneAlways]

deleted

[=VG= Calv]

Pvt. Charry LAN_WROTE ...

sign me up, too! :D but i'm really confused with all that tiem shit...

Assuming you're in Germany that's gmt +2 I believe, so would be starting at 9pm on Saturday nights.

[chrisi123]

Calv LAN_WROTE ...

Pvt. Charry LAN_WROTE ...

sign me up, too! :D but i'm really confused with all that tiem shit...

Assuming you're in Germany that's gmt +2 I believe, so would be starting at 9pm on Saturday nights.

ok thank you and btw it's a really good time for me :)

[Terremer]

i would absolutely love a basic ace training session as ive had the mod a week now and havent even gotten to play it. i understand that events probably will not have it for a while as some people are still learning the basics of the unmodded game. also i thought the training mission was nice yesterday, good work.

[=VG= Ingo]

sign me up

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

Calv what should our next steps be? Do we need to work on a training-specific mission or expand on the one we started? Rifle ranges are cool and all but I think the 'meat' of it has to be actual practice in movement/comms/tactics, etc.. thoughts?

[=VG= Calv]

SavageCDN =VG= LAN_WROTE ...

Calv what should our next steps be? Do we need to work on a training-specific mission or expand on the one we started? Rifle ranges are cool and all but I think the 'meat' of it has to be actual practice in movement/comms/tactics, etc.. thoughts?

Honestly was just planning on setting a date for next week, do a signup thread for that date.
Then spend 15-20mins in the training mission just going over the stuff I mentioned in this thread.
Then throw everyone into some missions, plenty of basic coop missions that are included with the game and available elsewhere that should be fine for just getting started, looks like we'd have enough for around 3 fireteams. May have to check the server to see what it has and maybe put some more on beforehand.
Most likely that we'll get massacred in some of the missions but it's all learning experience.

Just browsing for some decent looking coop mission packs.