- Idiots II
- Beachfront Property
- Castell
- Castell (All Toys Edition)
- Salt Riders
There was plenty of death for everybody, but until we got killed most missions flowed rather nicely!
[Tue] 02 Dec 2014 (Choppers Everywhere)
[Tue] 02 Dec 2014 (Choppers Everywhere)
Thanks to those 11 friendly people who made sure we got some nice tactical funtimes tonight. We wuvs ya!
There was plenty of death for everybody, but until we got killed most missions flowed rather nicely!
There was plenty of death for everybody, but until we got killed most missions flowed rather nicely!
Re: [Tue] 02 Dec (Choppers Everywhere)
Idiots II, first try:
Idiots II, second try:
Castell, Tigershark coming to land like a pro:
Castell Big Boys Edition, probably most unique view during FA session:
Salt Raiders, glorious last murder:
Idiots II, second try:
Castell, Tigershark coming to land like a pro:
Castell Big Boys Edition, probably most unique view during FA session:
Salt Raiders, glorious last murder:
Delete this marker please. You're scaring the tank.
My screenshots are being added using Steam Screenshots Sharing Script™. You'll need Tampermonkey (Chrome) or Greasemonkey (Firefox) On Opera should be good to go..
My screenshots are being added using Steam Screenshots Sharing Script™. You'll need Tampermonkey (Chrome) or Greasemonkey (Firefox) On Opera should be good to go..
Re: [Tue] 02 Dec (Choppers Everywhere)
Hey. This will be cross-posted in "Discussion". This whole rant came out of tuesdays session, so i figured i'd put it here as well. Would prefer replies to be made to the thread in "Discussion" subforum.
Session
Host
I've been away for a few weeks so it was nice to get to decide missions and herd you all around again! Tuesday sessions have been a somewhat rocky ride for the past six months, and i'd like to speculate a little as to why now. From a steady 25+ session, through a high of 36? sometime during summer, we've started bleeding people pretty drastically and now we average 10/15. This is, quite frankly, not what you want to see happen to the session you host regularly for half a year, but its something i wonder about the reasons for.
So i figured i'd speculate a little along with you. First and foremost i should say that anything that involves 2+ fireteams is dandy as far as i'm concerned, and smaller sessions makes it easier to get better at arma, as missions drag on much less than they do when we're 30+ (meaning a more relaxed atmosphere when it comes to more experimental stuff,and everybody gets more time "in the ring".)
missions
But still, big sessions are fun, and the slow dwindling during tuesdays have one immediate consequence, which sort of complicates matters.... Our missions aren't made for 10 people. FA missions have tended to focus on the 30+ spot when it comes to difficulty/slotting. Over the course of the past few months we have tried to make missions that are playable at the 15/20 spot, as we've been there a lot on tuesdays, and because we need something for off-peak sundays as well. That seemed to be going well, and fer/wolfs incredible effort to make new and entertaining stuff for us to play should really be commended by us all. Anyways. The point being that we were slightly behind the curve on those missions, they came as a response instead of an anticipation, meaning that a lot of time was spent with missions that are, quite frankly, overwhelming and with a decreasing fun value the fewer people attend.
So now we have nice missions for the 15/20 spot, but find ourselves again in the situation that we need to re-jigger these or make new ones that fit the 2 fireteam+ mentality. Which means we're once again behind the curve as far as missions that we have available on tuesdays is concerned. Making these is a surplus activity for all us mission makers. Sometimes its great fun to do, sometimes you just don't want to boot up arma. Especially not because somebody, somewhere on the internet has a craving for fresh missions. Personally, i make missions because i want us to have fun, and because i have things i want to play myself. But i also want to do it on my schedule, not based on a stressed "need" for more missions for our sessions. So yeah, missions will appear, but we're not a factory, so new missions happen when new missions happen.
stability
Lets face it, weird things happen during FA sessions with regularity. Just for this session we had the wrong kind of explosive charges and choppers that didn't land. We've seen a lot. Likewise in A2, but A2 had (to me) an inherent wonkiness in it that the slick presentation of A3s world kind of lacks. (the "i blame bohemia for making such a nice game"-defense!
Meaning that such events might be slightly more jarring than they used to be. I don't know. We usually just shoot the witnesses and hush it all up. So it would be nice if people commented on their view on mission stability in itself. How do people feel about missions being somewhat altered by assorted odds and ends that was overlooked (either negligently, or just because, honestly, some stuff just won't be noticed until we're in the thick of it.)
group coherence
You're a good gang. If i am to be honest i'm somewhat puzzled by the reticence when it comes to FTL/SL/CO slots, but be as that may, people should attend our sessions to do what they think is a good time, and if that is AAR every time then good for you. We hope you understand that you'll be occasionally force slotted regardless, but that is just unavoidable if we want to make it past the slotting screen sometimes. (Though i really should say that there are times when i also think "man, the command slots went too fast, i wanted one too", so that is good.)
But yeah. FA is a very open community. Drop in, drop out. This means that the longer you've been here the longer you've had to re-tread old ground with new comrades. Also there is no real set way of handling either squads or fireteams. People talk differently, people command differently, people follow differently. This causes the experience to vary quite a bit. The lack of a common core way of handling things makes us much more approachable to people who want to drop in/drop out/tune in?/drop dead? but also mean that you never quite know what you're gonna get. We want to be a place where people can try, and have the opportunity to fuck up liberally, but if you run into three bad squad experiences with limited/no comms or structure in a row you're gonna be a bit tired. That is unfortunate, and the workshop mechanism we've had for basic fireteam coherence in the past has been dormant for a bit too long imho (but then again, its on me to be there and host it then, isn't it?!
)
arma 3 mechanics
If nothing else we can agree that A2 was more game-ey than A3. A3 has added a lot of complexity that A2 lacked. That makes for a more engrossing game when you're in the thick of it and everything works, but it also makes for a much less fun game when things go wonky because [see above]. So the distance between the highs and lows become greater. Also, i don't know if the increased complexity limits the game's appeal for parts of what used to be FA's constituency. At the same time, since A3 is now more complex as a base, the jump across to mods becomes (perhaps?) less daunting, and very many of us have fond memories of Cherna and Taki. So if somebody says "hey, a mod or two and you'll be back in Cherna with pretty forests and "real" guns i can see why that can be very appealing. Also, there are A3 Mod communities that also have a rather lenient atmosphere related to attendance and such (like the sexy, sexy people of 1tac *cough* *cough*, and playing more than once or twice a week is a stretch for most of us.
Personally I really like the new A3 mechanics. Fatigue is cool, sway is dandy, stuff feels natural and smooth. But occasionally i think it would be cool to do the ice skating of A2 with 30+ people again and not have to worry about stances, fatigue bars and my rocket launcher swaying all over the place. So there is that. (Not enough to make me want to reinstall A2 again though, but hey, some people do.)
FA as a community has been playing with A3 for approximately a year now. Its a year that has had its ups and downs. Many great missions, some amusing fuckups, and some times when everything just plain old didn't work and everything felt sour. Thems the breaks. Above are some of my thoughts about the matter, but it'd really help to have yours. Both regarding what you enjoy with FA's sessions, but also an honest critical appraisal of what you experience that you feel could/should be improved. (And then a forty page outline in triplicate as to ways of doing said improvements. We'll also need bribes.)
So basically what i'd like you all to comment about is as follows :
What have been the ups and downs when it comes to your experiences with FA during the past ca six months?
How do you feel the missions are. Do they hit the sweet spot often enough? What do we need more/less of in our missions?
What do you think would make you attend more often?
What do you think would help to keep other people more interested in our events?
What should happen more/less during FA sessions.
Do you have any annoyances during your average FA session? Do you think said annoyances could be mitigated somehow?
FA's reason for existing is to provide a nice environment for people of all skill levels to enjoy an evening of tactical infantry oriented milsim-light fun. That will continue to be our focus. We'd really like to refine the experience with input from you all, but don't expect us to deviate from the aforementioned raison d'etre. We think the experience can get better, but it would really help to get your viewpoints as well. You've already given us plenty of thanks for hosting, so feel free to not coat your potential misgivings with unnecessary amounts of respect. We'd rather get some unfiltered viewpoints than watered down ones. (Besides, the more honesty, the easier to get the purges going afterwards!)
Session
Host
I've been away for a few weeks so it was nice to get to decide missions and herd you all around again! Tuesday sessions have been a somewhat rocky ride for the past six months, and i'd like to speculate a little as to why now. From a steady 25+ session, through a high of 36? sometime during summer, we've started bleeding people pretty drastically and now we average 10/15. This is, quite frankly, not what you want to see happen to the session you host regularly for half a year, but its something i wonder about the reasons for.
So i figured i'd speculate a little along with you. First and foremost i should say that anything that involves 2+ fireteams is dandy as far as i'm concerned, and smaller sessions makes it easier to get better at arma, as missions drag on much less than they do when we're 30+ (meaning a more relaxed atmosphere when it comes to more experimental stuff,and everybody gets more time "in the ring".)
missions
But still, big sessions are fun, and the slow dwindling during tuesdays have one immediate consequence, which sort of complicates matters.... Our missions aren't made for 10 people. FA missions have tended to focus on the 30+ spot when it comes to difficulty/slotting. Over the course of the past few months we have tried to make missions that are playable at the 15/20 spot, as we've been there a lot on tuesdays, and because we need something for off-peak sundays as well. That seemed to be going well, and fer/wolfs incredible effort to make new and entertaining stuff for us to play should really be commended by us all. Anyways. The point being that we were slightly behind the curve on those missions, they came as a response instead of an anticipation, meaning that a lot of time was spent with missions that are, quite frankly, overwhelming and with a decreasing fun value the fewer people attend.
So now we have nice missions for the 15/20 spot, but find ourselves again in the situation that we need to re-jigger these or make new ones that fit the 2 fireteam+ mentality. Which means we're once again behind the curve as far as missions that we have available on tuesdays is concerned. Making these is a surplus activity for all us mission makers. Sometimes its great fun to do, sometimes you just don't want to boot up arma. Especially not because somebody, somewhere on the internet has a craving for fresh missions. Personally, i make missions because i want us to have fun, and because i have things i want to play myself. But i also want to do it on my schedule, not based on a stressed "need" for more missions for our sessions. So yeah, missions will appear, but we're not a factory, so new missions happen when new missions happen.
stability
Lets face it, weird things happen during FA sessions with regularity. Just for this session we had the wrong kind of explosive charges and choppers that didn't land. We've seen a lot. Likewise in A2, but A2 had (to me) an inherent wonkiness in it that the slick presentation of A3s world kind of lacks. (the "i blame bohemia for making such a nice game"-defense!
Meaning that such events might be slightly more jarring than they used to be. I don't know. We usually just shoot the witnesses and hush it all up. So it would be nice if people commented on their view on mission stability in itself. How do people feel about missions being somewhat altered by assorted odds and ends that was overlooked (either negligently, or just because, honestly, some stuff just won't be noticed until we're in the thick of it.) group coherence
You're a good gang. If i am to be honest i'm somewhat puzzled by the reticence when it comes to FTL/SL/CO slots, but be as that may, people should attend our sessions to do what they think is a good time, and if that is AAR every time then good for you. We hope you understand that you'll be occasionally force slotted regardless, but that is just unavoidable if we want to make it past the slotting screen sometimes. (Though i really should say that there are times when i also think "man, the command slots went too fast, i wanted one too", so that is good.)
But yeah. FA is a very open community. Drop in, drop out. This means that the longer you've been here the longer you've had to re-tread old ground with new comrades. Also there is no real set way of handling either squads or fireteams. People talk differently, people command differently, people follow differently. This causes the experience to vary quite a bit. The lack of a common core way of handling things makes us much more approachable to people who want to drop in/drop out/tune in?/drop dead? but also mean that you never quite know what you're gonna get. We want to be a place where people can try, and have the opportunity to fuck up liberally, but if you run into three bad squad experiences with limited/no comms or structure in a row you're gonna be a bit tired. That is unfortunate, and the workshop mechanism we've had for basic fireteam coherence in the past has been dormant for a bit too long imho (but then again, its on me to be there and host it then, isn't it?!
)arma 3 mechanics
If nothing else we can agree that A2 was more game-ey than A3. A3 has added a lot of complexity that A2 lacked. That makes for a more engrossing game when you're in the thick of it and everything works, but it also makes for a much less fun game when things go wonky because [see above]. So the distance between the highs and lows become greater. Also, i don't know if the increased complexity limits the game's appeal for parts of what used to be FA's constituency. At the same time, since A3 is now more complex as a base, the jump across to mods becomes (perhaps?) less daunting, and very many of us have fond memories of Cherna and Taki. So if somebody says "hey, a mod or two and you'll be back in Cherna with pretty forests and "real" guns i can see why that can be very appealing. Also, there are A3 Mod communities that also have a rather lenient atmosphere related to attendance and such (like the sexy, sexy people of 1tac *cough* *cough*, and playing more than once or twice a week is a stretch for most of us.
Personally I really like the new A3 mechanics. Fatigue is cool, sway is dandy, stuff feels natural and smooth. But occasionally i think it would be cool to do the ice skating of A2 with 30+ people again and not have to worry about stances, fatigue bars and my rocket launcher swaying all over the place. So there is that. (Not enough to make me want to reinstall A2 again though, but hey, some people do.)
FA as a community has been playing with A3 for approximately a year now. Its a year that has had its ups and downs. Many great missions, some amusing fuckups, and some times when everything just plain old didn't work and everything felt sour. Thems the breaks. Above are some of my thoughts about the matter, but it'd really help to have yours. Both regarding what you enjoy with FA's sessions, but also an honest critical appraisal of what you experience that you feel could/should be improved. (And then a forty page outline in triplicate as to ways of doing said improvements. We'll also need bribes.)
So basically what i'd like you all to comment about is as follows :
What have been the ups and downs when it comes to your experiences with FA during the past ca six months?
How do you feel the missions are. Do they hit the sweet spot often enough? What do we need more/less of in our missions?
What do you think would make you attend more often?
What do you think would help to keep other people more interested in our events?
What should happen more/less during FA sessions.
Do you have any annoyances during your average FA session? Do you think said annoyances could be mitigated somehow?
FA's reason for existing is to provide a nice environment for people of all skill levels to enjoy an evening of tactical infantry oriented milsim-light fun. That will continue to be our focus. We'd really like to refine the experience with input from you all, but don't expect us to deviate from the aforementioned raison d'etre. We think the experience can get better, but it would really help to get your viewpoints as well. You've already given us plenty of thanks for hosting, so feel free to not coat your potential misgivings with unnecessary amounts of respect. We'd rather get some unfiltered viewpoints than watered down ones. (Besides, the more honesty, the easier to get the purges going afterwards!)