New Starters
Overview
The purpose of this page is to provide you with a guide for getting started with our community. If you are not yet a member of our community you can find a link to our Discord on the Home Page. If you encounter any issues, or have any questions when reading through this page, let a member of staff know and they will be able to help you.
Attendance Requirements
If you’re reading this document for the first time after joining the community, then you’re likely already aware of our attendance requirements and so this section won’t be must of a surprise to you. I will, however, take a moment to outline these requirements again just in case they were missed initially.
We maintain a simple policy of one out of every eight operations, to put that number into perspective, that’s approximately once every two months.
You might be wondering, why have an attendance requirement at all? While we seek to be appreciative of the fact that people have other real life commitments, the fact of the matter is just that we are not interested in retaining people who have an attendance rate lower than that - after all, we’re not just seeking to build a big roster full of people that don’t actually play.
Training Requirements
As a general community goal, we aim to keep training requirements to an absolute minimum. You won’t catch us doing training for the sake of doing training. That said, we do have some training requirements in order to ensure that we have a consistent level of skill, and that we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet.
We don’t have any regular weekly drill sessions.
Phase One
The Phase One is the basic training that everyone must do. It’s non-negotiable. It doesn’t matter if you’re brand new to the game, have ten thousand hours or if you’re a military veteran.
The goal of this training is to outline the very basics of how we play, giving a basic introduction to the way we communicate; squad level tactics; an introduction to the advanced medical system, as well as showing you how to use launchers and explosives. Even for a complete novice this usually takes no longer than two hours and anyone with experience will find themselves getting through it very quickly.
The goal of the session is to teach things that cannot be picked up intuitively. We’re not going to tell you all about how you press left mouse to fire your rifle.
Platoon Training
Every now and again (approximately four times a year), we’ll conduct a platoon training event. This will replace our usual Saturday event and we’ll instead get everyone on to go through the basic skills and drills. This is done in order to prevent skill-fade, as over time people can pick up some bad habits, leading to a decrease in the quality of the gameplay that we can provide.
As is the case with all of our training implementations, the goal here is to keep the theory low and the practical elements high. Any theory elements covered are frequently interspersed with live fire practice runs, all of which culminates in a platoon-wide mini operation to put into practice the skills that we’ve been working on.
Specialisations
Some roles in operations will require some additional training and/or certification of existing skills. As with all of our training, this follows the same pattern of only being necessary in the event that couldn’t otherwise perform the role without it. A good example of this is artillery support. We use the ACE advanced artillery system and so you’ll need to know about how it works before you would be able to use such a system in missions.
Another example is the role of pilot, given the criticality of logistics and transport during operations, we must ensure that anyone operating an aircraft actually knows how to use it.
You can find more information about any training requirements on the Discord.
Communications
Discord
For day-to-day communications and instant messaging we use Discord. We ask that you are active on discord as much as possible, as it provides a lot of community engagement outside of the official event times. It’s also used to publish important community updates like the weekly briefing and the rollcalls.
Teamspeak
We have a teamspeak server that we use with the ACRE2 plugin for ArmA 3. It’s generally only used for missions and events, and there is no expectation to be on it outside of official event times - however you are free to use it whenever you’d like. The connection information can be found on Discord.
Naming Convention
For the sake of cleanliness, we conform to a specific naming convention. This convention is your initial, followed by a full stop, a space, and then your chosen alias as outlined in the graphic below:
This needs to be a single pronounceable word.
You need to ensure that this name is configured as a nickname on Discord, and you will also need to setup a profile in ArmA that uses this name. A word of warning, do this with plenty of time before an event (if possible), as creating a new profile in ArmA will reset your keybindings.
Event Organisation
Roll Calls
The roll calls are (usually) posted at the beginning of the week in the #rollcalls channel on Discord. These polls help us to roughly estimate the number of attendees for each mission. The poll has the following responses:
- Yes - This means that you are 100% sure that you will be attending an event
- No - You are 100% sure that you are unable to attend
- Tentative - You are unsure whether or not you can make an event
Operation Etiquette
During community events, we have some rules that must be adhered to for the benefit of the group. These rules are designed to make missions run smoothly and ensure that we can get started in a timely fashion.
- We begin briefing the platoon at 1900 on the dot, with a squad level briefing then held at 19:10, and we’re usually underway by 19:15. You should be loading into the server no later than 18:45. Getting everyone loaded into the server before the scheduled start time ensures that we can start on time, and not spend part of our mission time waiting for people to load in. We appreciate that sometimes people may be running late, and if that happens, just load into the server as soon as you can.
- Don’t run around picking up equipment unless you are asked to do so. You should spawn with all of the equipment required to perform your role. If you feel that you are missing equipment that you could reasonably expect to have, bring it up with your section or fireteam leader who can advise.
- In the event that you are late, don’t try and make your own way to your team in the field. We have processes in place for those that Join in Progress (JIP), and for people who have respawned. Our priority will always be to get you into the fight as soon as practicable.
- Don’t start firing weaponry, getting into vehicles, or setting off explosives unless you are explicitly asked to do so. This rule applies when you are in a friendly base. When outside the base, your mission-specific Rules of Engagement (RoE) will determine what action you’re allowed to take with regards to discharging your weapon.
- We use the ACE advanced medical system. For those unfamiliar, there is a chance that when you sustain damage you will go unconscious. When this happens, don’t just hit the respawn button. It’s highly likely that best efforts are being made to get you back up, and respawning just increases the amount of people that we need to get back into the fight.
Discord Bot
To automate some admin tasks, we have a discord bot that will perform some routine functions. It’s primarily concerned with ensuring that people have voted on the roll calls. Here is a basic timeline of the bots functions:
- At 10:00 on Friday, the bot will perform a global ping to remind people who haven’t already voted, to update their attendance for the operation.
- At 19:00 on the same day, the bot will direct message those that haven’t yet voted, giving them a personal reminder to update their attendance.
- At 00:00 the bot will make a record of who has voted, what they’ve voted for, and a lost of those that haven’t voted at all. It will then make this information available to the admin team.
It should go without saying, but if we find that anyone has blocked this bot, then they will be removed from the community. There is a really simple solution to being messaged by the bot, and it’s to ensure that you update the roll call for the operation.
Modpack
What to expect
We tailor our modpacks on a campaign by campaign basis, so you can expect a modpack update every six to eight weeks. We’ll always aim to keep out modpacks as small as possible, and we’ll only utilise the bare amount required in order to make a campaign idea feasible. When a modpack update is available, a global ping will be sent out with a link to the modpack preset file.
For new joiners, you can ind this preset in the #noticeboard channel on discord
Installation
Please read the next section carefully, it’s often glossed over and it results in people making mistakes.
Teamspeak
Before continuing, please ensure that you install the latest Teamspeak 3 client in the standard default directory, this will help ensure a successful ACRE plugin installation.
ArmA 3
From the ArmA 3 launcher, locate the ‘Mods’ button on the left had side as illustrated below:
From the mod selection screen, select the preset dropdown menu in the top right-hand corner:
This will then open the present management menu. At the bottom is an ‘Import’ button. Press this button and select the html file that you downloaded from Discord earlier.
If you’re launching for the first time after installing ACRE2, ensure that you start the game with Teamspeak 3 FULLY CLOSED. It will attempt to install the teamspeak 3 plugin when you launch into ArmA, but it cannot do this if teamspeak is currently running.
Client-side mods
We have PBO enforcement enabled for our server. What this means is that the mods you have loaded must match those that are currently running on the server, or otherwise listed in our #whitelisted-addons on Discord. This system is enabled to prevent people bringing their own client-side mods into operations that have the potential to affect the experience for other players, such as mods that spawn additional units or content, or ones that allow players to access features that the mission maker has not intended to be accessible.
Ranks & Progression
While we pride ourselves on not being a particularly strict community, we have a ranking structure in order to give a sense of progression to members of the community.
Non Leadership
| Rank | Time Requirements |
|---|---|
| Recruit | None |
| Cadet | None |
| Private | 6 Operations |
| Private First Class | 12 Operations |
| Trooper | 24 Operations |
| Specialist | 52 Operations |
| Commando | 78 Operations |
Leadership
| Rank | Time Requirements |
|---|---|
| Lance Corporal | 12 Operations |
| Corporal | 24 Operations - 8 as Section Leader |
| Sergeant | 52 Operations - 12 as Platoon 2IC |
| Staff Sergeant | 78 Operations |
Training Courses
We offer several in-house training courses (some of which are required to progress). We only provide training where strictly necessary, in situations where processes or procedures are not particularly intuitive.
Phase One
Our Phase one course is designed to teach you (or confirmed that you already know) the basic of being a rifleman in an infantry team. It covers basic requirements like formations, squad commands, radio usage and ACE advanced medical system.
Pilot
Pilot certification can take two forms. Either competent pilots are verified to posses a decent level of skill, or pilots not yet at a satisfactory level are trained up a level of acceptable skill. Due to the danger that bad, inexperienced or incompetent pilots can pose to the entire platoon, members must be certified before attempting any piloting roles in an operation.
You can be certified in several sub-areas of piloting:
- Rotary Transport
- Rotary CAS
- Fixed wing CAS
Marksman
Our Marksmanship course covers the use of the ACE advanced ballistics system, and how to calculate and take accurate shots at range.
Tanker
This course covers the processes and procedures used when armour in employed in an operation - and certifies that the member is a competent user of these weapon systems.
JTAC
The contents of this course goes into detail about radio communications, and coordinating the activities of air assets in the field, and calling in Close Air Support (CAS) strikes.
Mortar
Demonstrates how to use the advanced ACE mortar system.