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Alright, this is going to be a long one.
Please take your time to read through this nonetheless, as it is important that every member knows and understands the following points.
Over the last months, there have been a number of developments, some good, and some bad.
We have discussed these issues at length over the past few weeks, and all of us came to the following conclusions:

The first point is the drop in signups, sometimes forcing us to merge teams, and leaving some of the leaders frustrated with not being able to do their jobs (after all, it is hard to be a leader, if there is nobody to lead). To deal with this, we have agreed on the following changes in our platoon structure.

I) General company structure
Due to our current signup numbers, we have decided to switch - for the time being - to a 1-platoon-3-section lineup.
This will a) reduce the number of leadership positions slightly (we didn't have enough lead signups last rotation), and b) hopefully make communication slightly easier. This system will of course be adjusted if numbers start to increase again.
Before: http://i.imgur.com/hzqKyLT.png
From now on: http://i.imgur.com/lcwsfDa.png

II) Asset slots
Storm, Wolf and Tombstone slots will be available depending on the mission parameters. If the mission does not need a scout team, there won't be Tombstone slots. If we don't have armour available, there won't be Wolf slots, etc.
This will stop people from sitting around useless on the Nimitz, or carrying around their big sniper rifle if it's nothing but CQB.

III) Medic integration
With one platoon, medics will now be part of the platoon leader team. This gives the platoon leader a shacktac HUD, and allows for faster and more direct communication between infantry and the medics. As both the platoon lead and the medics are usually behind the front lines, this is an obvious match.

IV) Rotations
To make sure we get more people into leadership positions, rotations will be shortened to 2 months for the time being. This allows every member to have a shot at leading, and getting new leads faster prevents staff members from having to take over empty leadership slots.
Regular rules and limitations still apply as before, of course.

V) Certificaton system
The system didn't really work out all that well. While the certification courses were received mostly positive, the organisational effort wasn't really worth the payoff. So from now on, most of the role certs have been scrapped. Basic Rifleman training, Sapper, Wolf, Storm and Medic certs still will go as before, but stuff like autorifleman, grenadier, etc. will not be continued. Proper firing discipline and gear intel will still be provided on training missions or guide documents on the reach wiki, so you will not be completely lost.

The second point is the constant decline of comms quality since we dropped ACRE. Without half duplex forcing us to use proper communication protocol, the radio communication has been getting worse with people talking over one another, etc. We have decided to deal with this two ways.

I) We will take the next month to get comms back up to speed. During this time, we will try to instruct everybody how to properly use the radios and will monitor the quality of radio transmissions. If the comms get better again, everybody will probably be happier, as things will be smoother.
II) As soon as ACRE has fixed the minor problems we have had in the past, we will eventually switch back to it. It offers a superior simulation, and our radio comms have been at the best when we used it.

The third point is the lack of a defined idea what Reach is supposed to be.
From our survey at the end of last rotation, we have found out that over 3/4 of our members want a serious, tactical and challenging gameplay out of our operation nights. In contrast to that, quite a few members feel that the overall attitude has become more "casual", with players focusing on getting many kills, disruptive behaviour, etc. This indicates that there is no clear idea what this community is all about.

In the future, we will move towards a more serious attitude during operations. To clarify, on a scale from casual(I love to shoot dudes and run around with a sniper rifle and rocket launcher) to milsim (you better call me "sir", even if we're not in the game), we will move a bit closer towards the milsim part of the spectrum.

Image


What does this mean in particular?

On a behaviour level:
I) It does not mean we want roleplaying, or "yes sir, no sir" behaviour.
II) It does not mean that we want to get rid of all the banter during the slower parts of a mission.
III) It does mean a more patient approach to missions. Not every mission might be filled with firefights, and that's okay. In fact, the most successful mission might be one where we do not shoot a single person. No whining about not being in a Michael Bay movie.
IV) It does mean that we work towards the objective of a mission, even if that means that we leave some enemies behind. We're here to complete an objective, not to eradicate the entire enemy faction.
V) It does mean that we, as a team, look out more for each other. Don't forget people that have been shot, stick together as a team. We do not want any lone wolf behaviour.
VI) It does most definitely mean that we will still be a fun community to hang around and make horrible jokes with, to play all kinds of fun games, and be welcoming to new people.

On a gameplay level:
I) We will start using uniform gear. That means, there will be a specific camouflage pattern for a mission that will be worn by everyone (except Wolf, Storm and Tombstone obviously). This also includes a beret in the uniform for the debrief. For one, this is a nice ritual and adds a sense of community. Secondly, it just looks pretty awesome to have an entire company dressed the same.
II) Weapon choice will be limited by caliber on a mission to mission basis. This means there won't be riflemen carrying MXes and some carrying M4s. The big advantage of this is that everybody will be able to share magazines with each other, and resupply drops will be easier to prepare. You are of course still free to use your weapon of choice within that caliber (and the usual role/faction restrictions).
III) Optic levels will be decreased. Regular infantry optics will be limited to 1-3x magnification, designated marksmen will be able to carry 6-12x optics, and Tombstone still can use dedicated sniper scopes. This will discourage shooting at enemies outside of the effective engagement range and encourage suppress-and-maneuver tactics to close the distance to the enemy.
IV) Assets in a campaign will be tracked again. This means that at the start of our campaign, we will be given a certain pool of vehicles, and if we lose one, it's gone for the campaign. Returning your vehicles to base, and storing them safely will become more important now, which should discourage careless behaviour.
Assets lost due to game glitches will of course not be counted as losses.
V) ACE Advanced Medical system will be implemented. This will give medics a more interesting job, including medical vehicles and facilities. On the infantry level, this makes injuries more dangerous, which will make firefights more intense and challenging, as well as increase the stakes. People will be a lot more cautious, if a leg injury might cripple them for a part of the operation.
VI) Adding to this, reinserts will be on a schedule now. This leaves Storm more time for CAS runs and get rid of the "die, respawn, reinsert, no problem" mentality. Additional reinsertions will be available after completing a major objective, so mass casualties will still be covered by this.

So we have been rather quiet with information coming from the staff in the last few weeks, so here is a general catchup with what has been happening.

The Main Campaing on Altis has been put on standby

The main reason for this, is so we can take the community to new locations and try some new styles of combat. It also allows the Campaign Dev Team to sit down and work out where we want to go with the Campaign in the future. This brings us to...

We are doing some mini series side campaigns

This will allow us to make the missions we are doing as enjoyable to play as the Main Campaign missions, but won't require us to think months in advanced in terms of where to go and what to do

The 8 man Sections

This seems to be going rather well in terms of general feedback, however we think, as staff, that we still need some more time to work out the issues that come with a change like this before we cement it into our way of playing

Immersion Series

The Immersion series was started as an idea to get a different play style out of ArmA, and it has done just that. With the recent conclusion of the BAF immersion series, which caused us to look into the 8 man section setup for Tuesday Nights, we now move onto Korengal. Setkiro and Autumn are putting a lot of time into the Korengal series to make it as an authentic experiance as possible for our members

Weekend Operations

Thanks to members of the community outside of the staff team, we have been able to run more frequent Weekend missions, like Gadgets Patrol Ops. These tend to run on a Sunday Night and allow for more views on ways to play ArmA as a community

Certifications

Now we know that a few of you have been waiting for certifications for a while now, and that it only seems like a couple of the certs are still running. We are going to change this, as we believe that every cert within Reach has its place. Not unlike the Sapper Cert, which Saquesh has kindly taken some time to put together with Lunatic, which is now running more frequently

Thats all for now

Till next time

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