Quarter 2 2023 Update

The past quarter has been eventful, with various updates and changes in our gaming community. Despite some initial setbacks in Star Citizen, we are pleased to see players returning. PlanetSide 2 has introduced exciting in-game transformations, attracting new recruits. The Arma division continues to thrive and has even joined forces with the PlanetSide 2 Division for epic “raid” nights. These cross-division activities exemplify our community spirit and offer unique gaming experiences to all members.

1. Embracing Cross-Division Play:
   One of the defining features that sets our community apart is the opportunity for cross-division play. We encourage each of you to venture into another division and participate in their operations. Each game and division has its own distinct style and gameplay, providing you with a diverse and enriching experience. Step out of your comfort zone and explore the vast world of our community.
2. Reviewing the Community CoC:
   Our Senior and Flag Officers are currently reviewing the Community Code of Conduct (CoC). It’s essential that every member familiarizes themselves with this document, as it serves as the foundation of our community values. While the CoC hasn’t undergone a major revision in years, our aim is to streamline it by focusing on the core principles that define us as a community. Non-essential information will be moved to accompanying documents or the Division CoC. We anticipate completing the CoC rewrite by the beginning of August.
3. Weekly Senior Officer Meetings:
   To address any community-related issues promptly, we have reintroduced the Senior Officer-only weekly meetings. This platform serves as an opportunity to identify and discuss potential challenges within the community, proactively finding solutions before they escalate. Whether it’s Division participation or member concerns, these meetings play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy and thriving community. If you have any topics you’d like to raise during these meetings, please reach out to your respective Officer, and they will ensure your voice is heard.
4. Permission Requests and Stream Announcements:
   We have revamped the permission request process in the #permissions-requests channel. Our former HR bot has been replaced by Dyno bot (@VVAR HR Bot), ensuring smoother handling of roles. The permission secure channel now includes links to request access to various resources, such as our Google Drive and social media accounts. Kindly utilize these forms when requesting access, as it facilitates efficient tracking and helps us manage access permissions effectively. Additionally, if you’d like your Twitch streams to be announced on our server, please send a note to Razzun, and we’ll ensure your streams are featured in the #stream-announcements channel on Discord.

Like we do at every community meeting, and in each quarterly updated, we would like to thank all those that continue to donate through Patreon or Discord Server Boosting. Our Patreon supporters: Aarius, aramova, Bushman, greg_nog, Karrth, Oni, RabbiMaxx, Razzun, ReapsD, Sivien21, Straker, TwoGreen, Zahraphim. Your continued support is greatly appreciated and is solely used to offset the costs of the Microsoft Azure servers that host all our communication tools and SCNet website.

Discord Server Boosting gives our Discord server a little extra flair from server banners to a custom join link. Our Discord Server Boosters: aramova, Ech0Whiskey, FallenHylian, Jeffon, MantisOlthoi, NeddieSeagoon, nomad, Sivien21, Sportswirth, Straker_Atrella, ThePeachPanther, Razzun, Zahraphim. Your continued support is greatly appreciated in boosting our server and giving us the many cool features such as the custom join URL and more additional emojis!

Division Updates

Another quarter, another update. Arma’s second quarter was characterized by ‘Operation: BugHunt’ and the pursuit of stable operations. Finally on June 2nd, we resolved the last barrier to stable operations – and successfully ran a large maze built by hand by OP Duckett. While we were mid ‘Operation: BugHunt’ – I ran operations for five consistent weeks to better test fixes, settings and other pieces that firmly reminded the member base why I’m the head of the mission making department. In the last few days we’ve seen published documents covering the students’ and instructors’ guide for our Basic Rifleman PQS and a ‘modded Arma quick-start guide’ to better optimize the now over 10 year old game. Look forward to Q3 when we finalize some long awaited certs and fully integrate drones, artillery, and other systems that will be fully coming online.

– ‘Fix-it’ Ferris, Arma Division Chairman

Welcome back to another Quarterly Newsletter! There has been a lot going on in the PlanetSide 2 Division the last few months, which means we have a lot to go over and discuss this time around. This is definitely the longest Quarterly Update for the PS2 Division to date, but I want to make sure I am giving anyone who reads this the proper detail and context. The division has felt very strong and alive lately, and I hope this quarterly update reflects that below. Let’s get started.

Construction Update

The Construction Update launched in May, overhauling most aspects of the old system while maintaining the basic process of setting up a base. We decided to make sure we are well-acquainted with the new system by committing two full weeks of Ops to nothing but construction-related objectives, resulting in some of the best Ops we ran this quarter.

Over the past month since the Construction Update released, our Active Member/Recruit Count has risen to over 40 unique logins, which is fantastic. Average attendance for Ops has also gone up by at least a few bodies. I’d like to personally thank everyone for showing up this past quarter, as more folks showing up to play makes everyone enjoy our Ops even more.

The recent surge in the relevance of construction has inspired me to reassess our general Operation strategies, but I’ll discuss and reflect on this aspect extensively further below.

NCO Program Update

The NCO program has been progressing about as fast as it can. To detail the process a bit, a group of folks were either selected for the position or they volunteered themselves. The purpose of the NCOs for PlanetSide 2 is to organize fireteams on a tactical level in order to take the pressure off of squad leaders. Squad leaders assign objectives and NCOs (Fireteam Leaders) figure out how to execute on those objectives, or maintain group activity while direct orders are not given There are currently 4 individuals still progressing through the program, with another group of potential NCO candidates being put together later this year.

Progress for the NCO program has largely been bottlenecked by my own schedule making it difficult to run a full Ops schedule every week. The less Ops we run, the less opportunities NCO candidates have to gain the necessary experience to be properly promoted. On a positive note, the current NCO candidates are all continuing to improve and show that they have the tools to be promoted officially for the role in the future. While it has been something I’ve said at more than one meeting so far, I do fully expect at least some of these individuals to be promoted within the next month.

You can expect some more detailed notes on our NCO program in the future (regarding things such as documentation, standardization, etc) in our internal channels, but I’m going to skip those finer points here to move on (much more to cover here).

A Shift in Operation Strategy

Over the past month, a number of Operations have brought to my attention a need or potential desire on my part to shift some of the overarching strategy we employ in our regular operations (think Blue Ops or Green Ops). Something else that has largely gone undiscussed until recently is PS2 division feedback from the previous survey back in March. I am going to take the time here to detail how our strategy during Operations is going to shift going forward, how this relates to some of the feedback, and how this will affect any given person during Operations.

Generally speaking, our strategy has been very reactionary. We have a number of pretty “tried and true” tactics we use that are applied as necessary during an Operation. PlanetSide 2 is a very chaotic game, and we as a unit ride along with the flow of that chaos without letting it push us too far outside of our comfort zone.

Going forward, we are going to make strategies revolving around a theme of “Control”. When I think about Operations everyone has enjoyed the most, we are generally in control of our territory or battlefield on both a micro level (tactically) and a macro level (strategically). Over this past quarter, it is my analysis that the strategies we have been using focus on prioritizing our own tactical comfort over creating a comfortable environment for us to operate across multiple territories or an entire lattice for an entire Operation. When we run Operations going forward, I want to make sure that we are prioritizing the long term effectiveness of our unit, not just the short term victories (“Winning the War, not just the Battle”). In order to achieve this, we are going to shift our focus towards creating “Control”, with this section of the quarterly serving as a blueprint/mission statement for doing just that.

The first order of business is making sure all of our fireteams have the Proper Support they need in order to be successful. I’m defining proper support to include things such as Manpower, Resources, and Information. While I still stand by the original mission statement of our Combined Arms Squad Structure, I need to reel in just how open ended this structure can be. Too many times this past quarter has one or more fireteams fallen apart and consolidated with another fireteam because they didn’t have the proper support, and that fault ultimately falls on me for not addressing this issue firmly and sooner.

What this means going forward is that any fireteam we are running will be given the proper number of people to operate at a bare minimum. We are not abandoning the Combined Arms structure at all, but instead curating the squad composition to make sure there aren’t too many people assigned to one fireteam. In order to prevent folks being told to do something that is outside of their skillset, there will be some more unit structure built around assigning folks a range of potential roles, but this will be discussed more below in the “Upcoming Feedback Survey” Section.

Once we have rebalanced our squad composition more permanently, another aspect that needs to be addressed is shifting towards having a Dedicated Logistics team. In order to make our operations more effective, we need to shift towards prioritizing redundancy in our spawn capabilities. Usually we rely on 1 or 2 spawn sources for any given fight, focusing on defending one of those if need be sources. In a number of battles we engage in, this simply isn’t enough. We are able to get away with it quite often due to our skills as a unit in other areas, but Spawn and Transport Logistics need to become a higher priority in order to continue to make our operations run smoother and more consistently. Scrambling to maintain spawns should become a thing of the past in the future.

There will now always be a fireteam dedicated to Logistics going forward during every Operation (with the exception of Bastion Ops due to context). This fireteam can be made up of a single member as fireteam lead depending on the situation/who is in attendance, but the Logistics Team will always be focused on non-combat related objectives for the squad, such as supplying spawns, transporting troops, defending existing spawn locations, and construction (more on construction to follow). With the help of other fireteams or a large enough logistics team, our goal is to increase the number of spawns we are providing for ourselves to 3 or more in every battle going forward.

The Construction Update has reminded me of times in the past where we have used Construction to control an entire front on the continent due to all the usual benefits Construction provides (vehicles, defensive position, etc.) and leveraging those benefits as a force multiplier, allowing us to achieve more than our unit size would suggest. We are going to make a deliberate move towards using Construction as a Fulcrum or backbone for our Operations going forward. What this means is we will be showing up early for Ops, developing plans, and building Construction Bases in order to provide all our fireteams with the resources they need to be successful. Logistics Fireteams will be in charge of organizing Construction and maintaining Construction bases going forward.

All of this organization and infrastructure is going to result in our Operations running at a Slower Pace than they have been recently. We will be removing excessive “Redeployside” tactics wherever possible. There will be a greater emphasis on dedicating our efforts towards specific fronts going forward instead of swapping back and forth between whichever looks the most appealing. Air Transport will be utilizing Landing Zones religiously instead of Redeployment in order to mount up, allowing our infantry folks a chance to breathe between engagements.

To be clear, I still expect everyone to be operating with the same speed and efficiency we have come to expect from one another. The difference now is that the movements and objectives we will be going after will be more achievable more often by a larger number of people, which will help us create consistency in the long haul.

I hope this has given everyone a vivid picture of how things will be changing. I do not expect us to make all these changes successfully overnight, but I have faith we will be able to find our footing on this new ground soon. Besides, most of these goals are things we have achieved in the past; the only difference is now we are going to make them a core part of our day-to-day Operations.

Recruitment

For the past few Division Feedback Surveys, there has been a growing sentiment for growth and larger attendance numbers for our operations. Starting in July, the primary goal of the division will become Recruitment for the rest of 2023. This was always the plan, but the last Feedback Survey solidified that as a plan that most of our members are on board with. This past quarter has had a reduced number of Public Ops mainly due to the scheduling issues mentioned earlier, which has led to us prioritizing our Standard Ops over Public Ops during weeks with reduced Ops schedules.

We will be returning to a standard of One Public Operation per week, with in-game comms and comms checks, in July. As time allows, I will be reaching out to other members of our Officer Corps to put together some methods for recruitment outside the game as well, which has always been something we’ve only tried on occasion. We want to provide everyone with the experience they desire, and more bodies is how we are going to get there. 

As a side note, we have picked up 6 new recruits over the past two weeks via a variety of methods, so we are already off to a pretty good start. I’ll mention in this section that we are working on scheduling another season of training for all the new folks in July, including both levels of Infantry Training, Air Training, War Asset Training, and whatever else we can put together. We will be reviewing all of our Trainings (especially Jump Spot Training) before anything gets scheduled to make sure everything is up to date.

Upcoming Feedback Survey

Even though the last PS2 Division Feedback Survey was a little over three months ago, we are going to need to run another one very soon due to the significant changes coming to the division, both in the near future and beyond. There will be another PS2 Feedback Survey in Early July, which will be longer due to the sheer amount of feedback/information we need right now. 

In order to provide the proper support to each fireteam during Ops, there will be a series of questions designed to help allocate folks toward only the roles they are comfortable with/excel at. On top of this, By September, Tuesdays will no longer be a regular Operation Day. This is due to expected schedule changes on my end that will prevent me from being available on Tuesday evenings for the foreseeable future. I would like to adjust our Weekly Schedule to whatever the new time slots we decide upon are in August in order to create that sense of normalcy before my schedule shifts occur. 

It is crucial that everyone who has played with us so far this year responds to this survey when it comes out so that everyone can be properly accounted for, and where possible, accommodated. Ops Role Allocation may become its own separate survey in the future due to the scope of that information, for example. There will be more details about Ops Role Allocation and the Feedback Survey in general soon, so please do keep an eye open for when this information gets posted. 

Conclusion

My draft for this Quarterly Update has surpassed 4 pages, so thank you to everyone who took the time to read all of this. As has been noted throughout the above text wall, you will find a series of follow-up posts on all of this news in the future in our Transmissions and Internal Channels as these topics become relevant. If you have any questions about anything discussed today, let me know.

The future of the PS2 Division is looking pretty bright, and that is all thanks to your continued support and faith in the division. Let’s move on to Star Citizen now.

– Cannon, PS2 Division Flag Officer

It’s no secret that the first two quarters of 2023 have been difficult both for StarCitizen as a game, and for our fleet. Throughout much of the first half of this year, SC Alpha 3.18 and it’s subsequent releases were plagued with a variety of issues which prevented many players from even logging into the game. Those who could were faced with degraded performance, and issues relating to persistence of player acquired items and inventory. Our ability to run operations suffered heavily as a result, and so did the activity level of our organization.

Things look to be on an trajectory for improvement with 3.19 and the recently released 3.19.1 patch. After multiple database resets and fixes to both client and backend services, we now have a much more stable environment with regards to long term persistence, and players are reporting much improved stability and performance of the game. If you’ve been avoiding SC due to the state of the game in early 2023, it’s worth checking out again for sure.

As our player activity increases, we are looking to resume a normal cadence of operations. At minimum, we’ll be holding weekly operations on Friday evenings, along with Saturday/Sunday events coming soon pending consistent availability of staff to host them. You’ll also see various events being scheduled throughout weekdays to include both trainings and missions to support the larger OPs during the end of the week.

As we look forward past 3.19, to the expansion of the Star Citizen universe beyond Stanton, and the inclusion of new large and capital class craft, our organization will continue to evolve in our structure to support our doctrine and long term vision of maintaining a mobile expeditionary fleet force. This concept was unveiled in a town hall meeting in late May, and more details are being worked out. This will be an effort spanning multiple months and potentially into 2024, and I believe it will be worthwhile for us to develop the systems and processes to enable the depth of persistent gameplay we all are excited about in SC.

Thank you all for your continued support and dedication to our vision as an organization, a fleet, and as a gaming community. I hope you all enjoy the upcoming summer, and I hope the experience in SC continues to improve for us as 2023 continues.

– Ech0Whiskey, SC Division Commanding Officer

Final Thoughts

Our community continues to evolve and thrive, thanks to the active engagement and collaboration of its members. By embracing cross-division adventures, participating in the CoC review process, attending weekly meetings, and utilizing streamlined permission request channels, we collectively contribute to the growth and success of our community. Let’s continue to unleash our gaming potential and create memorable experiences together!

See you online and see you around!