Announcements
Communications Center, United Task Force

It's only been a few days since my last SITREP, but this month we've really got a substantial amount of activity going on, so this SITREP focuses on mostly operations and practices, wheras my last SITREP contained some pretty big strategic points.

So without futher ado, let's get started. 

Push to Talk (PTT)
Reason for change: to reduce unnecessary and unintended chatter.

As I mentioned in Ember 9 from tomorrow, operation for at least the next week (including Ember 10) will require you to use Push-to-talk (PTT) for local voice. I know many people including myself use voice activation or push-to-mute, but I'm sure we can all agree that between the bags of Quavers, screaming children and keyboard cats, this is only going to get worse in larger missions, and we as staff are comitted to giving it a go as well, to see what kind of positive impact this can have on operations. 

I'm sure for some this will be a mild inconvenience, but I hope we all reap the rewards of people thinking (and pressing) before speaking.
This is not yet confirmed as a permenant change, but like most things - we'll review this in a weeks time - so please use the After Action Report system to feed back your thoughts when you attend any of the operations using forced PTT in the coming week.

If you were like me, and wondering how you were going to hold 3 keys at the same time in order to transmit on your additional radio channel fear not - TFAR automatically activates your mic when you use your normal radio keys, so this key you setup is only required for talking off radio, personally I'll be using my current push to mute key as a push to talk.

If you have some sort of extreme fringe case reason why you can't comply with forced PTT, please talk to your chain of command.

Changes to the Candidate and Recruit Ranks
Reason for change: to provide more clarity between the difference between newer players

From today, applicants will be assigned to the Candidate rank from the point their application is made, right through to the completion of basic training, opposed to being promoted to recruit upon the completion of a induction. This will provide more clarity between Candidates, Recruits and Privates, we're also increasing the requirements for Recruits to be promoted to Private, from roughly 1 Practice and 1 Mission to 2 Practices and 6 Missions. Essentially (it'll make more sense once you've read the below) Recruits will need to achieve Core Infantry T-II before they are promoted further.

Removal of the Support Weapons Practice Area

Following the rebranding of Basic Infantry to Core Infantry Skills, we're also removing the Support Weapons area and merging it into the Core Infantry Grouping, so all SOP for this will be moved to Core Skills, as well as all hours you've achieved in both Operations and Practices. This is mostly due to the fact that support weapons itself, is something everyone should be able to do, and we consider it a 'Core Skill'

This change will happen in the coming days, and all your hours will be moved over automatically.

Not ONE but TWO new campaigns

With Ember 10 hitting it's grand finale this Sunday, we're really excited to announce that from next Tuesday, we'll be running two full Campaigns simultaneous alongside each other. The first will be Operation Herrick which will be campaign Lead by 2Lt Zero and most frequently Field Lead by SSgt Ben - it will take place on Alternate Tuesdays. Herrick will see UNITAF deploy to Eastern Afghanistan in a British Royal Marines and Royal Engineers counterinsurgency role, using 3CBs BAF units. Herrick will be an infantry focused campaign.

On Sundays, Operation Vertex will take over from Ember, Vertex will see UNITAF deploy to the Russian Finland border, in a snow capped valley with a range of grassland and rocky outcrops, the deployment will be lead by the US Army Rangers, and the US Air Force in a supporting role. This will be a conventional campaign, with frequent use of paradrops and littlebirds, with the possible appearance of heavy cargo aircraft.

- Don't forget to setup a Teamspeak Push to talk key

- Speak to your chain of command, if you have any issues with any of the above

Please note our general unit policy has been updated.

Version 6 / Updated Wed 09 Sep 2020
Addition - Code of Conduct

--- STARTS ---

In addition to the Discord Community Guidelines we expect you avoid the discussion or debate of the following topics on our services;

• race & culture
• religion or belief(s)
• sexuality
• politics (including geo-politics and gender politics)

If in doubt, don't say it and remember to respect everyone.

---- ENDS ----

You can read the full policy (version 6) here https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/basic-infantry/unit-policy

Welcome to this month’s monthly SITREP from Headquarters. If you're joining us in the last 30 days or so Welcome to UNITAF - I hope you're enjoying your time here so far. This SITREP contains a range of changes both past and upcoming as well as the discussions and focuses from up and down the chain of command, it's designed to keep everyone up to speed with the thoughts of the senior Chain of Command.

So without futher ado, let's get started. 

For more meat on the below summary, you'll find it further down in this SITREP.

- Today we publish "Roadmap 2021" which contains the confirmed future plans for UNITAF

- We've made policy updates to the General Unit Policy

- We've made policy updates to the Organisational Chain of Command Policy (ORGCOC)

- Pvt Grezvany13 has made some outstanding updates to the UNITAF Mod, which we'll talk about below

- We've added the highly requested "other games feature" you can find it in your account settings

- We've added the requested "custom clientside mods" feature, you can also find it in your account settings

- We recently re-tiered the Field Leadership section, moving all roles up one tier, and introducing a Junior Team Leader role.

Activity and Recruitment

I'm happy to report August saw another, slightly increased 15% increase in active personnel (what we call the total active force) from 53 to 61 and another 25% increase in total slots deployed over the month. 

As I mentioned last month, I really concern myself with the Total Force Strength, which is the best indicator of the health of the unit, and it continues to show an upward trend, I'd just like to commend the ORGCOC, and all the recruiters for the work they are doing on this front. As you'll see from my SITREP, recruitment is a big focus for UNITAF .

The number of deployments, naturally increases with activity, I've been pushing the ORGCOC to ensure we have regular operations around the Sunday anchor, we're lucky to have many active and talented GMs and AGMs that have provided another 24 deployments in August (up from 20 deployments in July)

Moving over to After Action Reporting, I'm really pleased to report August as a all-time record for Field Leadership and Communication, with an average of 86% and 80% respectively across the 24 deployments.

Server performance, tactics and teamwork, also all see a rise from July.

Promotions

This month, I was pleased to be able to approve the following promotions, and if you've been in UNITAF for any period of time you'll know that this month see's some substantial promotions in the ORGCOC, as well as a large number of new Privates and PFCs.

I'll be touching on the ORGCOC movements later in this SITREP, but it's great to see such a large number of PFCs across the unit, and equally - the privates coming in under them. I'm looking forward to promoting our first Specialist (SPC), hopefully in the not too distant future.

A massive contgratulations to all of the above, well deserved.

August ORGCOC Changes

Obviously we saw some massive planned changes to the Organisational Chain of Command in August as I promoted 2 Officers, 3 Sergeants and 2 Corporals. As the Total Force grows, it's important we seek out new leadership to continue to propel UNITAF forward, and this is a process we will continue on our way to a Total Force of 120, seeing us double in size from the date of writing.

It's important that with UNITAFs current state, that we transition the control of the unit across the COC, and reduce all single points of failure, this has seen UNITAF decentralise Server Administration, Development, Recruitment, Training and now Operations. This de-centralisation and focus on the military chain of command, allows myself as Commanding Officer, and other members of my Staff and Troop Command, to focus on things like this, our future and strategy - as the day to day operations are covered by the rest of the ORGCOC, which in turn will expedite our progress further still.

Unit Policy Changes

Clarification was added to the Unit Policy about "multi-clanning", we allow multi-clannning but we've had cases of recruitment whereby members join the discord in order to DM members of the server. To avoid this we've now blocked access to members of the public to see you on Discord unless they are a Recruit (inducted) and we've also added a section to the policy about advertising or inviting UNITAF members to other servers or communities. If you're unsure, check with a member of the ORGCOC for clarification.

ORGCOC Policy Changes

We've made changes to the Organisational Chain of Command policy, that now means that ORGCOC Members (NCO, SNCO and Officer) are required to hold double the minimum activity requirement of regulars (2 instead of 1 operation per month) in order to hold their position. This is mostly to ensure that we have active and dedicated leadership. Secondly, it's now a requirement that ORGCOC members lead in their current grade around 50% of their deployed time. For example;

Corporals must lead teams or squads ~50% of the time
Sergeants must lead squads or platoons ~50% of the time 
Officers must lead Squads, Platoons or Companies ~50% of the time

Obviously this is not a hard fast rule, but it's purpose is not to make sure only ORGCOC members lead, rather to make sure that those that lead most often, are members of the ORGCOC. There's a real value to having our most invested members in leadership positions, as they are the most invested in what we are doing, and are bound by all of the required policy, that the wider membership are not.

NCO Applications

While there are no current vacancies, we continue to seek out future NCOs SNCOs and Officers, check out our ORGCOC Policy and speak to your Troop or Section Commanders for more information.

Leadership Tier Changes

All leadership positions have moved up one tier this month, so FTL is now T2, SL T3 and so on. We've added a new Junior Team Leader role at T1. This is because I believe leaders need more experience than the system allowed for, and because I prefer to limit the number of newer team leaders on larger operations, for a better balance.

I continue to review all areas of tiering, so there may be future changes.

Acknowledgements

There's so many people I'd like to thank this month;

- as we reach the end of Operation Ember, a big thanks must go to 2Lt Kevin and PFC Link

- Pvt Grezvany13 for his amazing work on the UNITAF mod, which will be coming soon

- Cpl Sharkhus for some outstanding Recruit Section recruitment and training

- Pvt Tipjay for his entertaining and paintstakingly edited videos, such as the below from Operation Ember 4

UNITAF Strategy

Roadmap 2021 is the culmination of a process spanning back to the 2019/2020 Annual Survey, and the last 3 UNISTAFF Meetings as well as combing through your suggestions and feedback. I like to think UNITAF does things differently, and our starting point for doing things here is usually to look at what other units do, and then just turn it upside down. One of the things that made us progress so far over the last year, was having a clear roadmap of where we are going and why, and one that stays true to the reason we started in the first place.

I'm happy to present the updated Roadmap, Roadmap 2021 - the content covered there is huge, so I won't repeat it here as you can head over there at your leisure and to see all the exciting things we're getting up to over the next 12 months, and what UNITAF will look like in a year from now. I'm excited to see much of it take form. 

Of course if you have more ideas, feel free to suggest them, or discuss them in the relevant channels.

You can view Roadmap 2021 here

Recruitment

Recruitment is a major focus in September, please do assist where you can, through streaming, Reddit, Discord and through word of mouth, you invite your friends and support us in these areas. Especially when helping to develop recruits.

UNITAF Mod

Pvt Grezvany13 has been doing some outstanding work with the UNITAF mod, which we should start to test over the next month or so, features include;

- Automatic setting of radio channels, buddy teams, colors, units and callsigns

- Replacing the table with a UNITAF Menu, easy access to loadouts, earplugs and nvgs

- In game OPORDs and ORBATs

- Completely replacing the UNITAF Mission Framework with a lightweight easy to use version, embedded into the mod

I'm really excited to see it soon, and I hope you enjoy it when it comes. We at this point, must have one of the most dynamic software systems in the entire MILSIM community, and I'm looking forward to see it progress further.

Tuesday Campaign (Operation Herrick)

2Lt Zero will be announcing Operation Herrick, earmarked for a Deployment at the end of September, which will tie in with the end of Operation Ember (on which note, I don't have details of our next Sunday Campaign just yet) Herrick will be a Afghanistan deployment with the 3CBs British Royal Marines under UNITAF, I'm really looking forward to seeing it, I just thought I'd steal his thunder and announce it here.

This will see UNITAF running similtaneous operations weekly on two seperate anchor days, Sunday and Tuesday.

The Campaign Center

I won't mention too much here, as the campaign center is covered on the Roadamap, but it is our intention to launch it for the start of Operation Herrick, and the to-be-named Sunday campaign. If you don't know, the Campaign center will be a place for centralised Intel, HVTs, images, and all elements of grouped operations in UNITAF, bringing much more lore back to our deployments and also re-integrating the logistics and assets system. 

- We're testing DUI in order to get around using ST Interface due to the colour reset issue

- Server issues over the last few weeks have been resolved

- Russian FSB Loadouts Faction Approved

- BAF 3CB Loadouts Faction Approved

- 3CB Mods Approved

- Alpha Gear (Russian) Mods Approved

- Nothing to report/request

It's been another green month for UNITAF, with some really exciting developments on the horizon, and a growing, happy force.
I look forward to seeing you on a deployment in September.

Welcome to this month’s monthly SITREP from Headquarters. If you're joining us in the last 30 days or so Welcome to UNITAF - I hope you're enjoying your time here so far. This SITREP contains a range of changes both past and upcoming as well as the discussions and focuses from up and down the chain of command, it's designed to keep everyone up to speed with the thoughts of the senior Chain of Command.

So without futher ado, let's get started. 

For more meat on the below summary, you'll find it further down in this SITREP.

- We are looking at changing 'Basic Infantry' to 'Core Skills' and to put a much greater focus on it.

- We are concerned about FPS on Operation Ember and are working hard on a solution

- There are open NCO positions and applications are currently open

- We reviewed the 2019/20 annual survey

- A 2020/21 roadmap will be published this month

- Changes are coming to the rank system, specifically around NCOs

- Changes are coming to the practice system

- We continue to support smaller mid-week operations

Activity and Recruitment

I'm happy to report July saw a 13% increase in active personnel and a 30% increase in total slots deployed. Which is encouraging to see as the world exits lockdown, as I mentioned in the last SITREP. Much of this great work can be attributed to 1 Section (SFC Kevin, Cpl Sharkhouse) as well as our dedicated GMs and Field Leaders for putting on another 20 great ORBATs in July. It reports a encouraging trend line (post COVID-Curve) of course.

Due to our unique ORBAT system, I tend to not look at per-mission attendance since the size of any given operation is not a good indicator of activity, below is the main metric I concern myself with when it comes to growth, which is to show how many unique personnel deploy in any given period, and will roughly correlate to the size of the active force, as seen on the live organisational Chain of Command. (Typically we'll deploy half of this number at most at any given time)

Promotions

This month, I was pleased to be able to order the following promotions:

There are a number of Private First Class, edging toward eligibility for Specialist, and I look forward to reviewing these soon.

NCO Applications

I'd also like to remind you all, that I have asked all Section Commanders to send recommendations for a number of NCO positions we are considering. Due to changes in SOP also addressed in this SITREP, there are likely to be NCO positions opening, please contact your Chain of Command to apply. Irrespective of whether you are a NCO already applying for a more senior position or a non-NCO applying to become one.

More information on the process can be found here: https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/field-leadership/nco-unit-policies

After Action Review

With the exception of performance issues with Operation Ember, which I assure you we are working on, AARs throughout July have been on trend.

Acknowledgements

As I'd mentioned above, I'd really like to Acknowledge Sergeant First Class Kevin and Corporal Sharkus, for the outstanding work in 1 Section - as this has been a big focus of the Command Staff over the last 2 months, to ensure we continue to have enough boots on the ground for regular operations.

UNITAF Strategy

Recruitment while a major focus last time, takes a back seat this month, in August we will continue to keep our efforts on tick-over with NCOs managing multiple sources, and we expect to see a steady growth from this.

Roadmap 2020/21 I hoped to have more information on the roadmap for you this SITREP, but due to scheduling of UNISTAFF meetings this will likely happen in the next SITREP. Nevertheless, any of you who've been with us a while will be familiar with the Roadmap we published when UNITAF was born some 17 months ago, (you can find it here) suffice to say, I'm happy to report that we've achieved most everything we set out to do, and then some. Part of the Roadmap 2020/21 strategy is that we will be publishing a brand new roadmap over the next month or so, which all our plans and intentions for the next year at least. The roadmap will contain improvements across the board, from suggestions, the annual survey results as well as discussions at NCO and UNISTAFF meetings. Suffice to say, having a long-term roadmap is vitally important and doing it is what has catapulted our efforts over the last 17 months.

You can expect to see improvements and changes to Ranks, NCOs, FTX's & the Practice system as well as a raft of SOP improvements as part of a long-term strategy to provide better progression to more experienced members, as well as more effective leadership and organisation. Suffice to say we remain commited to being the best in class.

NCO Policy Changes - I have been discussing with the staff proposed changes to NCOs and the Organisational Chain of Command. In a nutshell, we look to solidify the NCO position to be looked at less as a rank in itself, and more of a position of responsibility. What I would like to happen is for those who are dedicated in game leaders to apply to and become NCOs, where their time commitments allow, and should NCOs not be able to lead any longer, that they return (either permanently or temporarily) to enlisted ranks - as I think those who put that little bit of extra time and effort in, really do produce the best operations and missions. This will result in most NCOs, SNCOs and Officers leading in their grade around 50% of the time. We'll continue to allow anyone with the applicable Training Requirements to lead in grade, but expect us to put a much bigger focus on NCOs leading, and there will be new guidance and SOP published soon on this. We expect that the roster of NCOs will change more frequently due to this and while at first this may seem odd this will I think naturally become a very healthy exercise, as we rotate leadership on a more frequent basis.

Standard Operating Procedures and FTXs while part of a longer-term exercise, perhaps the biggest takeaway from the annual survey was we must put a bigger focus on Core Skills, having our primary role category called 'Basic Infantry' is not representative of what I'd like to see over the next 12 months. Subjects like movement, team theory and CQC are vital core skills that must be practiced outside of 'Basic' training. We have already launched a more in-depth practice for CQC and you should expect to see a raft of T-II and T-III Core Skills SOP and FTX Updates over the coming months, hopefully forming the majority of Practices.

Casual Operations are taking a back-seat for now, I don't believe they have much of a place outside of special events, such as TvT or Special Occasions.

New Mission Development and Game Master SOP we a have begun the process of summarising the requirement to develop your own UNITAF campaigns and operations, as well as provide clear guidance to Game Masters, you can find that information here: https://unitedtaskforce.net/training/sop/mission-support - there is also a Mission Support FTX upcoming on the schedule, if you've not seen it already.

- LAMBs Danger.FSM remains in-core, we're happy with the difficulty but are monitoring FPS and will continue to test other options for difficulty and AI

- CUP Units, Vehicles and Weapons was approved for use

- We've lifted the lid on the mod set, and have a raft of mods pending approval (we'll do this in the minor SITREP later this month)

- All default loadouts have been switched to USMC-WD for Ember, and the M27 becomes the standard Rifle

- Cpl Wilson has produced a full framework for British Special Forces (BAF-SAS) which is approved for use on official operations

Nothing to report.

- Please ensure that if you can no longer attend a mission that you are on the ORBAT for, that you unslot as early as possible, or use the Reserve Feature. Note that we are now actively tracking all no-show instances and also any lateness. While we have no concrete responses to this in place, don't be surprised if your Section Commander get's in touch, or if 1UP requests are denied. Be considerate of others, we remain reasonable but this has been getting out of hand recently. I'd also like to add, that we will be changing the deployment system somewhat to allow operations to have dynamic closing times. For larger ORBATs, in the future expect that you can slot right up to the hour that it starts, but that pulling out of an ORBAT on the day of the deployment while possible, will automatically issue you with a no-show warning.

These tweaks are being discussed, but we want to ensure that operations are as smooth as possible.

- If you are interested the NCO positions as mentioned in this SITREP, then contact your Chain of Command.

All in all, a fantastic month with increases across the board, some great Deployments and it's always great to Welcome new blood. I look forward to providing future updates on the Roadmap as we look to our plans for 2021.

I never thought I'd say this, but my staff tell me I need to talk more - so welcome to the first in a series of monthly-to-bi-monthly SITREPs. Which I hope will be a welcome and informative endeavor. The aim of the SITREPs is to improve how we communicate major changes to all members and to communicate UNITAF's areas of focus, in and out of game.

 I expect these to be issued 1-2 times per month issued always on a Friday evening, which will coincide with the introduction of any major changes; roughly in the form of;

- A major one once a month
- A minor one once a month, offset by two weeks 

So without futher ado, let's get started. 

For more meat on the below summary, you'll find it further down in this SITREP.

- Today we're issuing an annual survey for 2019/20; please submit it here
- Operation Ember commences this July 19 - mods have been published
-Mod requests are addressed in the Perspective section of this report
- If you submit 'OK' or 'Poor' AARs you'll now be required to make comments
- We're putting a heavy focus on recruitment right now 
- We're addressing SOPs that are not being executed correctly with FTXs
- We're adding new SOPs for areas we feel need more structure

Activity and Recruitment

The last few weeks have seen a general decrease in the attendance of main-line official missions, we're keen to keep this above 30, but is expected as the world exits lock-down and returns to work and education. It's important though that we turn our hand to recruitment during this time in order to flatten the curve. You'll hopefully have noticed this effort already, and anything you can do to assist your COC with this is greatly appreciated.

Promotions

There are no current vacancies for NCOs, we do keep a constant eye on numbers and so anyone looking to pursue I'd advise you contact your Section commanders so they are aware for when vacancies do arise - they can also tell you what to do to get the best chance, as it is competitive. We do also have quite some PFCs who are edging towards eligibility to Specialist, but more practice hours are required before that is approved. Practices are something that I believe we must continue to do - it's evident in our performance that without consistent re-training and practice, standards cannot be maintained.

Acknowledgements

Especially given the timing of this SITREP I'd like to thank and acknowledge Cpl Mattjamco's contributions with Operation Pavise which is our #1 rated Campaign Deployment at 85% across it's 1273 man hours.
Pavise has been all around well received and houses some of UNITAFs standalone best rated deployments, with 5 of them being at or near 90% or above; including Dark Waters which achieved 100%

UNITAF Strategy

Recruitment is our main priority in the coming period, as I mentioned prior, the effects of lock-down will have an adverse affect on deployment scale, but it's a given that we remain dedicated to high-scoring and difficult operations being delivered to the schedule. We continue to believe that the more people that get to experience them the better, so quality and selective recruitment is key. If you think you can help with this effort, the best place to start is the #j1-recuiting channel on Discord.

Standard Operating Proceedures and the general improvement of our execution is our second priority. We've identified a number of weak spots in performance such as contact reporting, spacing, mission briefing which we are working on addressing in the coming weeks. This will come in the form of more targeted FTXs (hence the role preference center) and also revisions to and additional SOPs being added to cover blind spots.

Mod Requests we've received many a mod-request in the last month or so, and while there are many great mods we'd like to include, at the moment we're at our mod-limit using the current launcher-based system. We're looking closely at alternative options which will allow us to increase the number of mods used, and will as with anything consider all changes carefully. So please do keep sending them in, and be assured it is mostly for technical reasons that we have been yet unable to expand this list further. I would expect, some further news in the next SITREP regarding this.

- Marksman and Sniper loadouts have been expanded into 3 weight classes
- AT and AA Assistant roles have been added to the ORBAT system
- NVG Settings have been adjusted
- LAMBs Danger will be trialled again during Operation Ember, to increase enemy difficulty and lower enemy supidity
- We have and will continue to trial the use of specialised Weapons Squads in addition to Rifle Squads and in accordance with SOP
- All NCOs have been added as whitelisted Commanders on the Liberation Server.

Nothing to report.

The UNITAF Annual Survey 2019/20 submit it here

All in all, we've had some fantastic deployments over the last 1-2 weeks and I'm excited to see what Operation Ember brings as we ditch the Desert MARPAT and don the Woodland, a greater use of Naval, Air and Land assets should see Ember as being one of the most diversified Campaigns so far. Let's hope, as we embark on it we're joined by some new blood, and maybe some old blood too - who knows. Let's get to work and I'll see you in the next one.

Afternoon all, this is a brief update - each of the below updates do have actions for you to execute. I'll just add it's been a fantastic couple of weeks, and that we're excited to be moving on to our next campaign this month.

There's plenty in the works, and expect to see more updates soon.

Role Preference Center

This week we added a role preference function, including training/practice request to the roles directory and so long as you are logged in, if you just head over their by (clicking here) you'll see a new section, like below that explains more information about it. Please do update yours, when you have a moment to do so.

It's going to be a really useful tool for us in the long run, and something we'll likely add to the application process too.

New Campaign Inbound

As you'll know by now, Operation Pavise is steaming towards a finale in Bolobongo and while there are some special operations needed to wrap up operations in Africa, we are now targeting July 19 for re-deployment to our next campaign.

We'll be sharing more details about it soon, but as I'm sure you've heard - we're asking you to make sure you have set your DLC ownership in your account here on UTFN.

The new campaign we hope to use Apex, we also have some very kind members who have offered to gift copies of Apex DLC, so if you need this please contact SFC Kevin to discuss further.

• From the logged in profile dropdown
• Select account
• Scroll down, to see the DLCs
• Set owned/not owned as required

Recruiting and Retention

I recently asked the Sgts to recommend someone who could head up the Recruit side of the COC and this week promoted Pvt Sharkhouse to Cpl. This is part of a wider chain of command re-org where we are no longer assigning Recruits into the main chain of command until their have ended probation, and are promoted to Private.

This, I hope will hugely increase the retention of Recruits, as they get the specialist attention they need in the early days of membership.

I'd also like to congratulate Cpl Sharkhouse, since in his short time in UNITAF, he's become someone who is highly regarded across the board and is exceptional at handling new members.

This is part of a wider focus on recruitment that you'll see us starting in the coming weeks. If there is anything you can do to help with the wider recruitment effort, please get stuck in, #j1-recruiting on Discord, is the best place to start.

All the best, and I look forward to seeing you on deployment very soon.

Evening all,

What a fantastic week it's been, the public server has been massively popular and we're looking forward to hosting our first 'scheduled' public server night later today (Saturday June 13).

Over 25 of the active force have already tried it out and over 200 hours have been logged this week alone, with the Top 10 as below:

Liberation Updates

As you should know by now, the Liberation ongoings are reguarly posted in the #j11-liberation-server channel on Discord, and all of the suggestions have been collated over on our development site contribution center over at http://docs.unitedtaskforce.net/project/view/19/ - an update was rolled out in the week, but we will be putting out a further update today - prior to tonights session.

Please do keep the comments coming on Discord.

Public Server Night

As you should know, for Saturday night we've organised into the official schedule a Liberation session, this is a loose session with no ORBAT where we have advertised the start time and date, but we welcome anyone to join at any time over the course of the evening, so don't feel like you must join on the dot. 

We expect people to slot in the lobby and play the role as slotted, there are no restrictions and we also expect people to play in teams using general proceedures, but this should be no different to normal Liberation server options as I have seen it.

We're looking forward to seeing how it goes, and if it's well recieved then we will continue to schedule them to promote mass public server action - to hopefully pull in some new members too.

New Event Types

I always encourage the staff to promote and support activity like the above, so to properly support you with that, we've added a new Event type to the operations center. This event type sits alongside casual and official operations, but instead has no ORBAT, simply just a Coming / Not Coming toggle, so you can indicate your intent to rock up to these kind of events, as mentioned above.

Above you can see prior to me indicating my attendance, and below after - note it only shows the number of those who have RSVP'd

The eagle eyed among you will also notice it's being utilised for meetings, and it'll even tell you if you are required to attend and deal with excusions from mandatory meetings for the members of the COC, NCOs and Staff. If you're expected at a mandatory event it'll say 'I am required'

If not, it'll simply say 'I'm not required'!

Finally, if you'll recall a recent update where we added automatic calendar feed subscriptions for mobile devices etc, we've also added these new event types there too, so you can either get automatic notification of all events, or just of the ones that you're opted into!

If that sounds like you, then hit the green button below next time your over at the Operations Center, to set that up.

Thanks all, and I hope to see you later today on Liberation for our first scheduled public server session.
Please don't forget to head over and mark if you're coming, as per the above - head to the Operations Center (https://unitedtaskforce.net/operations/view/upcoming) and just click 'Mark as going' next to the event.

This update can be discussed in #j10-website and #j11-liberation-server on Discord.

As we enter our 1st anniversary year, 3 major projects are being worked on by many people, and focused on by the UNISTAFF team and I. Those are;

• A new campaign center with logistics and economy elements for official campaigns
• A new player experience improvement
• A public server

As always you can see the progress of all of these on the roadmap https://unitedtaskforce.net/roadmap

SSgt Zero has recently rolled out a Buddy System in line with #2, and developers are working away on #1, which we're really excited to roll out soon.

Liberation

We are currently testing a Liberation server 24/7 on ops.unitedtaskforce.net, port 2302.

We wanted to ensure that any public server we run for UNITAF has the same style of play, and unique elements that UNITAF has. Sgt Ben has worked very hard over the last 3 months to find a solution to this, and we have settled on Liberation.

• Uses the UNITAF base mods + Lythium
• Arsenals are limited similar to our operations, but there is much more equipment than normal, we plan to update this soon, so the higher your UNITAF rank the more equipment you get
• Vehicle access is restricted to UNITAF Regulars (deployed on official ops in the last 30 days)
• Currently the server admins are the 4 Members of UNISTAFF, but we will look to expand this.
• The server otherwise, uses the exact same settings as our operations

Liberation is a typical capture the island style of gameplay, but with a unique economy where you have to purchase equipment and earn resources, which fits well with our style of operations.

We hope that this will provide a nice platform for members to self organise mini-sessions, operations, patrols or even practices using Liberation and this is something that the staff team are happy to support.

We've got a dedicated channel on Discord for reporting issues, bugs called: j11-public-server https://discord.gg/by8TxY6 Please also use this if you need to request permissions for vehicles etc.

We'll work with regular players to publish a rules list for the server, but please;

• Do use the server to practice
• Do play as a team, and where suitable use SOP and normal structures
• Do represent UNITAF well, and report any issues with public players
• Do provide feedback and suggestions to the J11 channels

You can find an online guide to KP Liberation here: https://greuh-liberation.fandom.com/wiki/GREUH_Liberation_Wikia

I would encourage you all to give it a go, and we hope it will be a popular destination for players & we look forward to the feedback in the channel above.

As part of the phased introduction of the Tier system we introduced back in February we have now updated the ORBATs for official operations to allow anyone who has achieved the required Tier of any role to deploy to it without requesting a 1-UP when they don't exceed the previously required minimum rank.

This puts us into a slight hybrid state, where you can still over-ride the Tier requirement for official ORBATs IF you exceed a certain rank. For example, a Private First Class (PFC) can still deploy to a Anti-Tank Medium Role, even if they don't have the Tier, but a Private would need the Tier as they don't exceed the rank requirement.

This will lead us to a full switch over soon, where even if you have the rank, you will still require the Tier - which is the final goal, so please ensure you attend the FTXs for the roles you generally deploy to. We'll keep our finger on the pulse and make that change at a time that feels right.

Upgrade your own ORBAT role

One of the bonuses of this system is that you will be able to upgrade your own ORBAT role (within reason). We already allow people to request upgrading their ORBAT roles, so for example if your are T2 in Anti-vehicle, you can slot into a T1 (Light Anti-tank) role and then request that it be upgraded to a T2 or T3 role, i.e. Medium or Heavy.

A better example might be if you slot into a Rifleman role, is changing it to a more advanced Infantry role such as Grenadier.

Soon this will be automatic, allowing you to change loadouts or roles yourself (or via your Operational COC), based on your dossier, but for now you'll need to contact the Field Leader or your Operational chain of command.

Obviously, when this is released fully, it will depend on the role, we can't upgrade a T1 Aircrew role to T3 Fixed Wing, if it's not required. But for many roles, it's a nice thing to have. 

Future Balancing

Right now, we will monitor performance in roles but we do expect to balance roles or tiers in the future. For example we may feel that we would like Fireteam Leaders to have more experience, or Pilots to have less, and so on and so forth. Which may lead us to move roles to higher Tiers in order to achieve this - but as above, will be done with consideration at the right time. And with a particular avoidance to re-tiering the roles rather than the tiers.

I hope you enjoy a bit more freedom and reward for having practiced in any given area, as a result of this update.
If you'd like to discuss this, Training, SOP you can do so in #j6-training-and-sop on Discord

Good evening all,

Following a record turnout for Operation Diffidentia 6, I wanted to provide a general update on various areas with a bunch of really exciting developments that the UNISTAFF team, NCOs and contributors have been working on, with a focus on the new and proprietary UNITAF Integrated Mission Framework we recently completed.

Recruits and Promotions

We've had a influx of new recruits recently (welcome to you all) and this is a trend that we hope to continue at pace over the coming months - while this is probably in light of the global lockdown, the completion of the IMF succeeds a major part of our roadmap https://unitedtaskforce.net/roadmap which means we look to begin UNITAFs public launch in the very near future, which will see us pushing UNITAF into the eyes of the wider Arma community, as well as engaging with the BIS Community Team and Streamers etc. This will afford us more regular and sizeable operations.

Integrated Mission Framework (IMF)

I recently completed a 8 month long ambition of integrating our website here, with the game along with some help from some of our contributing friends - which now allows us to interact with the game from and using our website accounts. This already implements features such as:

• Injecting loadouts when you spawn/deploy based on the position you select here on UTFN
• Dynamically selecting your spawn position based on the ORBAT
• Setting rank patches and uniforms according to mission parameters
• Doing all this in real time, allowing us to change things on the fly

We're working on developing currently

• Buddy team support for ORBATs
• Automatic radio frequency setup based on ORBATs
• Automatic team assignment for STHUD/BFT based on ORBATs
• Loadout customisation via ORBATs
• Arsenal expansion based on Rank/Tier
• Additional Loadouts based on Rank/Tier

A note on the Lobby/Spawn Area

Please be reminded, that the servers using the IMF will be onlined at T-30 to allow Zeus, NCO's and Recruits to connect for the purposes of Planning, Set-up and testing. We ask all on the ORBAT to be joined by the mission start time, in time for the briefing at +5 minutes. You will not get access to any equipment before this time, so if you do join, please do not mess around in the spawn building, it is there to provide a smoother start to all missions.

Video Demo of the early release of the IMF

The framework will be published to our contributors for use across Practice, Casual and Official Operations, and afford us a unique angle not covered by any other platform that I'm aware of. This will speed up, massively load in and setup times for missions, utilising data we have already through UTFN.

Default Loadouts & Arsenals

With the IMF using the loadouts, we will be soon publishing the contents of all default loadouts, as well as that of the arsenals, so from the ORBAT you can see the default contents of loadouts. As mentioned above, this will also be customisable, and furthermore allow us to deploy as multiple factions, using the same system. As always, feedback for the Loadouts can be send either through the COC or via #j6-training-and-sop on Discord.

Upcoming Events

With something scheduled for almost every day this week, there's plenty going on, and we're due to deploy on Operation Pavise, East Africa from Sunday.

See you in the field!

Afternoon all,

This week we've rolled out some great quality of life features and I wanted to show you very briefly one that might help you when managing your mods for UNITAF, as well as save a lot of time for our administrators and mission developers.

I've kept this tied up in a short 4 minute video, which you can find below.

As always, if you'd like to discuss this, or have any questions feel free to put them here or in the assocciated contribution channel which is #j8-mods

This already happened, people living in the past.

Evening all,

Just a reminder that Daylight saving time (DST) kicks in from Sunday, 29 March which means the clocks are going forward by one hour for the UK. Other parts of the world have already done so.

For our UK friends that means we will be on British Summer Time (BST) one hour ahead of UNITAF time which will continue running on (UTC) until October. Sunday Operations will be at 1700hrs UTC or 1800hrs BST in the United Kingdom.

Irespective of where you are in the world, UTFN always shows operation times in your local time zone, so don't worry. Any questions, please fire them at your nearest NCO or Staff.

That'll be all.

As you may be aware from the Array of casual operations recently using TFAR (Beta!!!), we are comitted to testing it now in a official capacity, and the first planned operation with TFAR will be on Sunday March 8th.

Please refer to the correct mod on the workshop:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=894678801

Note that post install, you need to manually transfer the Teamspeak Plugin from the Mod Directory to the Teamspeak Plugins, it is not automatic.

If you need help setting this up, please do use #help on discord.

We will issue further information prior to Sunday 8th, as well as preparing our ORBATs, and mission frameworks to support TFAR.

In the last few moments, I pushed the biggest update to our website since launch, the bulk of which is outlined below, but many other things are included too.

Over the last month or so I've been fairly busy working away at the bulk contents of this announcement, but what I will cover in this update from UNISTAFF is the overhaul to the training/practice system we have released today and why we have done it.

Training/Practice Overhaul Background

This really is quite a substantial change to a system we invested heavily into, but it became apparent in late January that it was too complicated to understand and also overly convoluted. Further to making it simpler to understand, we also needed to double back on one of the things UNITAF is about, which is not doing things for the sake of doing them, and having a reason behind everything we do.

To that end, we have completely replaced the training checksystem, qualifications and schools system that has been implemented until now.

Part of the feedback on the old system was that it was too focused on getting people to pass, rather than actually or genuinely focusing on getting better at a role, or practicing some procedure.

What we've done

The old training schools view has been replaced with the new roles based view, it uses the same 11 role categories that the ORBAT and Roles directory uses, and so from this view, you can now see / link to all the roles, your progression in these areas, and to the SOP

Clicking on SOP on any one practice area will take you to the SOP view, instead of having SOP per role, SOP is now grouped entirely by practice area, and is generally (hopefully) easier to navigate, link to and to understand.

This is designed to act as a reference point, should you wish to read up on SOP, but it's not required. I'll come on to that in a moment.

Let's talk about progression

I mentioned before we've sacked the qualifications system, we've actually replaced it with something that was already there, the Tier system, before the Tiers worked on Positions only, and now we've moved them to work on Areas alone. In simple terms, to 'Tier Up' in an area, it takes a combination of hours playing in that area, and then hours practicing that area, the more you have, the higher the tier, the higher the Tier, the better roles you unlock (for official ORBATs anyway)

The roles directory splits roles into Tiers, as you can see here.

As a general rule, the higher tier you are in an area, the more specialist roles you can take, you'll also get to work in smaller detachments and take bigger guns, basically.

How do I know / see how I'm progressing?

Great question, you can do it two ways, either from the main practice view, and clicking on Progression on the area you want to look at, or via a new section of the Dossier called 'Practice Record' - which is neat, because it means you can spy on everyone else's progress too.

Here is my progress in each area - clicking on the progress button will take us over to detail on that area.

So below, we can see each relevant Tier, anything it requires, unlocks and your progress in it, as I said before we want people to get experience and practice in areas, and so the entire system is designed to reward time spend doing and time spend practicing.You can also see a log of where those hours have come from, be that from Operations or indeed Practice Operations.

You may notice that some areas have multiple roles that contribute to them, so for example, an hour spent in support weapons or anti-vehicle, automatically gives you an hour in basic infantry as well. Likewise, an hour in Field Leadership gives you an hour in Communications too. This is because they are so closely matched in experience (but not visa-versa)

Practice Operations / FTX / Field Training Exercises

Up till now, we've done 3 FTX's, and none for the last 8 months, an operation basically designed to get better at or practice something that would be difficult to do in a official operation, where we're focusing on objectives. We will commit to hosting 2 per month from now on, one will be specifically for the NCOs, which we've already hosted one recently, and also for people interested in becoming an NCO, and once per month also, which will be for all to attend.

A practice op format is basically that the first 45 minutes covers procedures, practicing of something specific without generally getting shot at, or rather in a rinse/repeat format. It will be followed by the normal duration of mission content, but instead the mission is designed specifically around the thing being practiced. In short, we're focusing on getting better, rather than on the objective. I'll talk a lot more about FTX's soon, but I hope you all attend them, we will do our utmost to make them as enjoyable as operations, and in actually doing them - operations will get better too.

Practice operations have a SOP / Training Order rather than an OPORD, it'll list out the Areas being Practiced and also the specific SOP being covered, useful so you can find out if it's of use to you.

Who can run FTX's?

FTX's are no different to any other operation, so long as a NCO is present, anyone can run an FTX, be it with 2 people or 20. You just need an NCO to set it up for you. Then it's just a case of picking the subjects, deciding how you’re going to practice them and then off you go. If you want to practice with a friend, that's fine too - this is very much a self-learning system, where we practice together, using the SOP as a reference.

A final note on SOP

I have spent the last month or so making sure ALL SOP for all roles, areas and possible scenarios is published, and that process is now complete, with very few exceptions (Zeus etc) we've also added more roles to the roles directory. 

Future Plans for Ranks/Promotions and Arsenals

While not finalised, coming very soon we will be able to confirm a few future plans that link into this update;

1. Your combo of op/hours and practice/hours will derive your promotion through ranks
2. Your rank, as it improves will (very soon) i.e. within weeks give you a better arsenal, 7.62 weapons, extra gear will be available if you are progressing the system

It's taken a lot of work to get to this point, I hope it's been worth the investment, and I want to thank everyone who contributed their concerns with the old system, but also who have helped design, test and implement the new one. We will of course keep tweaking to feedback, but for now - I hope to see you in a FTX soon.

While it's only been 2 days since I last issued a UNISTAFF update, we've been so busy I'm issuing another one to mention a some new shiney things.

New ORBAT Roles and in-game positions directory

In my recent update about ORBAT Locking (Phase 1) I said we would be releasing a new area to the Operations Center called the roles directory this was released yesterday and I hope it proves really useful to both new and existing members alike. Below I'll point out a few features of it, and then mention some future plans we have for it too.

You can find it via the Operations Menu first and foremost

Or in other handy places, like next to ORBAT positions or ORBAT skill areas, just click on them, and it'll take you to the role directory, and then land you on the role you clicked on

We also put it in other handy places you might see role names, like for example - on your past deployments page in your dossier.

The purpose of the Role Directory is to list every active role we can place on an ORBAT, grouped by skill area, so you can navigate the areas using the menu on the right hand side.

What's really great though, is we've written up a short bio for every role, so you can read up on the roles your interested in, and it'll really help to de-mystify some roles, and help you decide what roles you'd like to pursue (or avoid!) Some other things you'll find are:

• How many hours UNITAF members have spent in the role
• Who the most experienced member of UNITAF in that role is (by operation hours)
• What the minimum rank requirement for ORBAT locking is
• A list of any training qualifications related or required by that role
• A fancy picture (although we kind of rushed these out, so please send me some new ones if you can better any of the role images - let's have some competition!)

In the future the plan is to add loadouts to the roles directory, so you can see all the default loadouts we use, right here on UTFN - which we hope will help us improve those, too.

Obviously part of getting this out is heavily tied in with ORBAT Locking, we need to have a directory so you can look up the requirements for all the roles, right now - Qualification Requirements are not forced, but rank is. These aren't finalised, and we will re-balance the requirements according to feedback.

New Specialist Ranks

The eagle eyed among you will notice that some of the new roles in the roles directory require some new ranks, namely:

• Specialist 3rd Class (SP3)
• Specialist 2nd Class (SP2)
• Specialist 1st Class (SP1)
• Master Specialist (MSP)

You can find out more about these on the Ranks and Structure page by scrolling down to them, there are some basic descriptions of what we intend to use them for, the details will be finalised soon. I was conscious that we only had 2-3 ranks for non-leaders, and I wanted to bring some in so that in the long term, we have a more visible way of representing experience for non-leaders, and rewarding those for embarking on the future (coming soon) advanced trainings.

Do read about them on the link above, I will note though that all these new ranks irrespective of grade, are still out-ranked by Corporals in respect to the chain of command.

Chain of Command Update

Most of you are familiar with the way in which the COC works in UNITAF, if not you can head over to the COC intro to read up on it. Anyway, we realised that since most members are either inactive or active the rank distribution was slightly off, so we have re-issued the guidance on the number of subs each leader can take in the COC, Corporals are now 5-6 versus 6-10, and we've opened up a little breathing room to bring a new Corporal on board - which we need to do as we sometimes struggle for team leaders, so the NCOs are fielding candidates as we speak - so if your interested, speak to yours!

Promotions and Transfers

This week I also asked Sgt Kevin to step into a Cpl role - which was nonpunitive - I am conscious that Squad Leaders are few and far between, in doing so I promoted Cpl SoapyTarantula to Sergeant, to reflect both acitivity but the most likely candidates for these roles. Soapy has also Field Lead a few operations over the last few months, and I'm sure will continue to do so as we grow.

Activity / Inactivity Changes

Finally, we have updated the COC Charts and Roster Lists, by removing a bunch of members who have not played within 60 days, which is the upper limit for Reserves, this is mostly automatic, but I think all you should know is;

• Regular (active inside 30 days) we currently have 28
• Reserves (inside 30-60 days) we have 3
• Inactive (outside 60 days) - we've added a discord role for this, and (Inactive members are removed from the COC

That's all for now.

This week is the first time we have employed ORBAT Locking, this communication will explain simply what it is, why it's here and how it effects you.

If you'd like to discuss, the contribtion channel is #j6-training-and-sop on discord

What is ORBAT Locking?

When viewing a Order of Battle (ORBAT) which lists all the availible positions, UNITAF members are able to select which roles they wish to deploy to, ORBAT Locking refers to the restriction of the access to certain roles based on two primary restrictions; Rank and Training, this is now live and you may see some different functionality when looking at an ORBAT.

Rank Locking

The below image shows new functionality, whereby the role of Squad Leader requires the rank of Sgt (as shown in orange) as a minimum rank. In yellow the button reflects this requirement and disables your ability to deploy to this role. hovering over this button will display an explainantion. 

Rank locking above the rank of Private is currently only applied to Field Leadership Roles, recruits can access most fireteam roles, some - such as Combat Engineers, Grenadiers etc require you to be at least a Private.

We have added a 'Roles' directory to the operations center, where you'll be able to view the requirements of all roles outside of an ORBAT. It's accessable via Operations -> Roles or you can click here to open it

IETC (Initial Entry Training Course) Locking

When you make the rank of Private, it is assumed that you understand the core policies and SOP of UNITAF, but sometimes new SOP may be added to IETC, or you may be marked down for demonstrating a lack of understanding of basic SOP, in this case, you'll loose access to any role which requires any rank other than Recruit, as seen below, this shows my deployment screen based on my IETC having some red-checks on it, restricting me to some basic fireteam roles.

Note hovering over the button will explain the issue to me, clicking the button will take me right to my IETC profile, so I can identify the issue, speaking to an instructor or my COC will easily fix this.

We have added a 'Roles' directory to the operations center, where you'll be able to view the requirements of all roles outside of an ORBAT. It's accessable via Operations -> Roles or you can click here to open it

Future Training Locks

In the future, beyond the initial Phase 1 roll-out of ORBAT locking, we will add further requirements to advanced roles, expect to see this tie in with the training system for medics, pilots and special forces units, including marksmen, leaders, snipers and so on. We will monitor the effects of Phase 1, and keep everyone up to date on Phase 2 roll-outs.

Why ORBAT Locking

The primary purpose of ORBAT locking is to improve gameplay by ensuring that any person in a role is at least competant at it, it ensures brand new members can't automatically allocate critical mission roles and prioritises and rewards those whom have trained in a role to be able to access it before those who haven't. It's principle role is to promote and encourage the use of the training system, and the employment of SOP. In the future it will also be used to give a larger variety of weapons and gear to those who have progressed the training system too.

"One-upping" - Playing Roles you're locked out of

One-upping is a process of requesting to take a role you're not qualified for by contacting the leader (FL) of the operation and asking them. One-upping is encouraged task-force wide, it allows you to practice roles. Future fireteam leaders are encouraged to "One-up" in official operations, you can "one-up" into any role at any time by asking the ops FL.

The FL is not required to approve your "one-up", but as always, we will do our best to accomodate requests, the best way though is to work towards meeting the requirements of any role, which will mean you'll always have access to it.

Finally, One-upping allows us to make sure when new members are trying roles for the first time, that we can strategically place experienced members around them.

If you'd like to discuss, the contribtion channel is #j6-training-and-sop on discord

ACE Medical

Extensive testing has been underway over the last week or so and we've settled on what we feel to be a suitable group of settings bearing in mind the ACE changes that came with the last update. Two points to note:

• Morphine takes time to kick in now, don't overdose on it, and be sure to communicate with medical staff if you've injected yourself, so you can avoid overdosing, if you overdose on Morphine you will have to be MEDIVAC'd from the AO.
• To ensure we can prevent death (to force us to deal with casualties rather than respawns) it's possible for a casualty to get a large number of wounds (50) which would require the same number of bandages, for this reason, if a patient is unresponsive with a large number of wounds (20-25+) then the senior medic present can initiate a medical evacuation with the command element, the patient will be lifted by land or air to a field hospital where they will be dealt with and then re-inserted.
• The use of a Personal Aid Kit now requires a Doctor (Squad Medic) and a medical vehicle or a medical facility.

Mods & Modpack

• Diwako's ACE Ragdolling has been removed as of today, as it's no longer supported by ACE in light of the medical re-write and the developer has indicated that there are no plans to support it
• Simplex Support Services has been added, this will allow field leadership to utilise support and force multiplication units from the ACE interaction menu, and open up a wider variety of mission options.
• PPS (Player Persistant Statistics) following a further test we've removed PPS, but we have plans to assist the developer with making changes, so expect to see it back soon.

Default Loadout / Roles

• Corrected default uniform pattern
• Added 2 Variations of the AR Role, M249 Long and M249 Short versions
• Added 3 Variations of the Grenadier Role, M4, M16 and HK416 versions
• Added the HAT, Heavy Anti-Tank Role
• Removed old ACE Splints and Items
• Removed some MRE/Canteen Items
• Fixed some cases where roles wouldn't spawn a GPS

The Default Arsenal

• Added more variations of default assault rifles
• Added a larger / better variety of backpacks
• Added more variations of head protection
• Various other miscellaneous items have been added
• Removed the ability to set a patch, rank patches will be automatically applied (or Red Cross if your a medic)

It's been a little while since my last task-force wide update, so below are a bunch of important announcements rolled in. Please note I'll also likely not post updates textually via discord, rather just link to them here, since I am able to track who has read and acknowledged them.

Please ensure you take note of them, and indicate you have understood by clicking the Acknowledge button above. I would also appreciate it if you asked others to do so too, as I know people don't often read them, but there is important information below.

Operations, Mods Updates and Scheduling

We're pleased with the current progress, both operation turnout and ratings are generally ok or good, that's ok but not Excellent. We're working on some of the weaker points raised in many of your after action reports, and hope to see this reflected in them during weeks to come.

We are adding @CUP Terrains and @CUP Interiors to the presets for Operation Hammer from this Sunday December 8th onward. Please note this is a 3GB update for most. I have already added the Preset over on the Operations Center, so I suggest heading over there to import it to your launcher ASAP - if you need any help, use the #help channel on Discord.

This is primarly because we're changing Operation Hammer over to Bystrica, but also to give us better varitey for upcoming operations. Hammer will likely run on this stretch until mid-January at the earliest, especially now with the map change, but as always we'll gauge from after action reports how people feel about the current maps.

We will continue with weekly operations throughout the holidays, and plan to host a Christmas special on the 22nd, see https://unitedtaskforce.net/communications/topic/24 for suggestions, this will be confirmed soon, but will likely be a mix of COOP and PVP/Competative with a Christmas Twist. 

The New Members List

We've added a new members page over at https://unitedtaskforce.net/roster/list we hope this keeps you all better connected via Steam and also to promote members Twitch and Youtube content, we will be rolling out via UTFN a feature to hold twitch and youtube content right here on our site, very soon. 

I'd also like to encourage anyone that can, to stream or record sessions, and send these and any screenshots into Discord, as it will ultimately be very useful to us in the long run.

The second thing you'll notice, is we're showing who owns what DLC on this page, this is something you can personally edit by going to your account at the top right dropdown -> Account. Adding this is very helpful as it means we can plan our next campaign, which the running theory is will require Apex DLC.

After Action Reports

You'll likely know that we've added the MVP feature, and while no data from this will be released right now, we're going to monitor it and as and when we will make announcements, this is tied into the new Awards and Citations page on your dossier.

Please can I ask that you ensure that when you make AAR Comments, you indicate what we can do to get a better score from you. This is what they exist for and we've noted that at times this is not the case.

Website Avatars

We'd like everyone to have a custom avatar on the website, so if you don't happen to have one yet, just send it over to me on Discord, or if your not sure, or want some help taking one, just let us know as we're happy to leave the servers open after operations to facilitate this.

Recruitment and Staff and Contributions to UNITAF

I've been speaking to many recently about the current staff system and we're going to be shaking it up considerbly over the Chrismas period and beyond, we recognise that the model of a few people doing a lot won't work in the long run and we want to make it clearer to everyone how you can help UNITAF grow and prosper, by just doing your little bit, or as much as you want to support what we do.

Details about this will go out soon, but suffice to say we want as many people involved in recruitment, mission making, mission ideas and so on as possible, and our job really is to make it as easy and time short as we can, anybody recruiting just one person a month, designing or Zeusing one mission a month, or just coming up with ideas, at scale - we believe will be the key to growth into 2020.

That said, even before I get a chance to write up these changes, if you'd like to help, just drop me a message and I'd be happy to have a chat with you about it.

Finally, there have been literally hundreds of changes to the website here over the last month, and I can't detail them all here - you can view all the changes over on Change Log 4 on the UTFN Changelog here: https://unitedtaskforce.net/communications/topic/13#r37

Change List 4
02-12-2019

Changed/Improved

• Changed the ORBAT, OPORD and Preset buttons on the Upcoming Operations Center to be disabled if a preset, opord or orbat is not yet available
• A new version of the past operations page, which groups operations by campaign and shows campaign statistics
• New UTFN logo on all pages
• Customised the home page dependant on if the user was logged in or not, and customised the CTA buttons
• Made the communications (comms) page simplier by removing many of the unused categories
• Automated the change of user status between Regular and Reserve

Fixed

• An error in the way AAR ratings have been rounded, they are now more accurate
• A bug whereby a user could vote themselves as MVP
• An issue where the OPORD was hard coded for Operation Torrent

Added

• An hours in role and Tier indicator to upcoming ORBATs
• A LOA feature whereby a user can be set away to a certain date
• Global hours now shows on the website home page
• Finished version of the Awards and Citations module on user profiles, is now live
• Mod Preset button to Operations center, which downloads a Arma 3 Launcher Preset file
• Social Icons to User Dossiers (for Steam / Youtube and Twitch
• A new Full Member list page, shows a lot of information about members
• Added DLC's and Social accounts to the User Account page, user can add which DLC's they own, and social account links
• The ability to vote an MVP on operational AARs

It's all go this week, and about time that we provided an general update on things-going-on, what with the 4th HQ Staff meeting taking place last night, it seemed to me the ideal time to do so.

ORBATs
We have discussed and made some changes to 'standard ORBATs' used for missions, and have made some changes to specifically this Sunday's mission, to ensure all elements have a maximum of 2 radio channels either 1 down or lateral and one up.

Vehicle Crewman / Specialised Roles
In response to feedback and suggestions, dedicated vehicle crewman roles have been and will be used on ORBATs when required by said operation, we encourage you to try these roles and please do feedback to @Operations SNCOIC (S3) via the normal methods as your try this role, so we can tweak it's usage. The vehicle crews will act for now as an element under the same command as the Fires Support Group, which in turn will be under the command of the Platoon Leader. We've allowed specification of Driver/Gunner positions on the ORBAT, these elements while mobile with often be slightly back from the Infantry Frontline, but provide vital fire support and/or movement and mobility.

Training Sessions
We are looking into some more practical based non-mandatory training sessions to rinse/repeat operational scenarios in-game without using Operations as the space to do so, @Training Staff (S7) will advise in more detail in due course, but essentially the aim is to provide a more practical way to absorb unit SOP, or indeed improve ones skills. This is in addition to the other methods in place, such as the training checks and challenges.

Mod Changes
There have been some mod removals and additions, the appropriate staff team will announce the details ASAP. One notable addition is the ability to CPR a casualty (chance based) who is in cardiac arrest back to life via ACE Medical, and with a higher chance when using Defib Pads, we hope this will add another option for troops in frontline scenarios. Details to follow.

Database Driven Ops
As mentioned in the last ops briefing, we made a bit of a breakthrough in development this week, we now have the technical capability to insert game data to and from the website to the operations in real time, we intend to use this to persist map markers, vehicles, assets and managing these things using the website, and hopefully, to allow full management of loadouts on the website, and have them injected as you join the server on operations. We're excited to see where this goes, and how it will assist us going forward to do some pretty unique things.

I'm sure you'll agree there are plenty of exciting things on the radar, there are a number of other important announcements coming soon - to which the staff teams are currently working on and I / they will look forward to sharing them in due course.

Finally, as I did during the meeting, I'd like to re-iterate my thanks to all the staff and staff IC's for the outstanding work they are doing, and I'm sure you will all agree that it's very much appreciated, please do thank them, and of course should you like to get stuck in and help, contact the relevant staff head via the Structure -> Staff page here on UTFN, to find out how you can get stuck in.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this general update, please do comment directly here or via #general-chat on Discord.

Change List 3
28-08-2019

Added / New Features

• Avatars to Dossier Profiles
• Training Records to Dossier Profiles
• Advanced Training System
• Training Videos
• Training Challenges
• Training Requests
• Support for Training Schools
• Changed Instructor Lists on Qualifications to be Per School
• Discord Role and Nickname Management through UTFN, supporting Rank Changes
• Ability to 'Hide Green' checks on Qualification Check View
• UNITAF Roadmap Functionality
• Database Editors for Staff Teams
• Discord S3 Notifications on ORBAT Slotting Event
• 'Not Attending' View for NCOs to see who's not attending an ORBAT
• Statistics blocks for Deployments added to Dossier Views
• Logistics / Assets Finance System is now live, updating a midnight daily
• Mission Objectives injected automatically onto Opords
• Custom scrollbars for webkit browsers
• Chain of Command view for Personnel List

Changed / Improved

• Operation Status on Ops Center is now dynamic
• Homepage / Ops Center shows 'Live Now' when an operation is ongoing
• On training overviews member lists, changed score to % completed
• Added Tooltips to Roadmap items to make it clearer they are clickable
• Design of Assets/Stores View

Bugs Fixes

• AAR Ratings have been fixed / corrected, as they were calculated incorrectly
• Mobile Design of SOP Popups
• Double Scrollbar on Mobile devices

Removed

• Personnel List view

1. "Light up FOB" option can be used at any time near an FOB, but please only use it for your own sanity when an FOB is not already lit. Local effect only.
2. DAGOR variants added
3. M1045 added (Tow Humvee)
4. Changed some of the Medical/Engineer scripts
5. Updated CBA for some Boxloader and other functions
6. Modified 'flip vehicle' script so that people with a toolkit should be able to use it as well.
7. Updated Arsenal whitelist to include new Privates/Recruits (have not modified for other promotions, sorry).
8. Flatbed from Contact DLC added. Can load (small) vehicles, and the Huron containers with Boxloader mod.
9. Boxloader Bulldozer added. Can delete fauna, fences, sidewalks, and other junk.
10. Boxloader pallets added including ones that will work with ACE logistics if the ACE integration mod for boxloader is installed. Boxloader Regular pallets will fit in more vehicles as they are smaller.

BIG EXCITING CHANGES

Well, it's about time we took action on the form we sent out a few weeks ago. After some boring testing and researching we have enabled verified signatures on the server.

This means we now have control of what client side mods are used while in mission. This allows us to monitor and give everyone the best possible server performance. Please see below for all mods that are currently allowed on the server during mission. Please note the reason why some mods have not been allowed client side is due to either conflicts with other mods, outdated or are not needed.

You will notice that in the Arma 3 Launcher mods will be listed as numbers. This is just a way around the data limit steam have in place for the launcher, this is the only way around this when running so many mods and keys. In short, you can ignore this as it will enable the mods needed and not change anything locally on your system. Then if you scroll down you will see the optional mods that you can enable. 

Current base mods NEEDED;

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1796922002

Current OPTIONAL mods which are supported and allowed;

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1788445307

If we have missed your most favourite client side mod, please feel free to request here. We will look in to your request and test. https://forms.gle/v5eWUzWyV9Hnt5SQ8

Regards - Cpl Ben

New Changelog, version 019:

1. The FOB objects (The Cargo HQ) is now lit with lights.
Notes: Dismantling an FOB will not delete the lights at this point in time (unless you disconnect/reconnect). Also, ACE does not detect that they are proper light sources, so you will still need to use a flashlight near it at night.

2. "Make me a..." Scripts are removed.
All players have medic and engineer abilities. Allows players to switch roles faster without having to worry about another setting.

3. RHS USAF 0.49 Addtions.
Integrated some of the new vehicles/weapons from the 0.49 update. Includes:
Stryker (M2)
M1220 Crows Variants
M1238A1 M2
Mk17 (Scar) variants Incl ammo types and silencer
M249 Light

4. KP loadouts should work now.

5. Build radius issue fixed (should not crush you now).

6. Older RHS USAF items added:
Some foregrips
HIMARS

Altis and Tanoa versions have been updated to .019

Here are the changes:

1. Hunger/Thirst removed


2. Ranks Private and above are now a part of the Arsenal whitelist.


3. Arsenal Whitelist expanded to include more throw/put objects, as well as other objects such as Kestral, Agtrag.


4. Night and Silent scripts updated to include all Whitelisted weapons (if available).


5. Humanitarian missions have been polished up a bit.


6. Build circle around objects has been shrunk considerably.


7. More UNITAF have been added to logistic/commander whitelist.

Change List 2
03-08-2019

• Changed all countdown timers to refer to the users local timezone as detected by UTFN
• Changed all times to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and changed the UNITAF clock to UTC
• All times are now UTC and/or the users local timezone
• Added a 'Hide replies' toggle button to the Comms Center
• Adding spacings to the Comms area blocks
• Added database support for in-game statistics
• Added Discord Auth support, will be later used for login/role management
• Added Training System Support for Multiple Schools, ready for adding new Quals

Here are the big additions for a (working) ver 18:

Humanitarian Missions Depending on how low your reputation is, one of two Humanitarian Missions will spawn.

1. Refugees - Heal all of the refugees. Each refugee you heal will give you a certain amount of rep points.
2. Supply Truck - Deliver a truck to a city. Completing mission will give you 20 rep points. Each is on a hidden timer for 20 minutes. Once the timer is up, it checks to see if it was completed. Arsenal: Greatly expanded with more gear, weapons, etc.
    

The humanitarian missions are pretty simple because I wanted to get them working and all the ideas I had to make them pretty haven't worked out well so far. But I am continuing to improve. For instance, the Refugee mission spawns everyone in a tent, but sometimes they spawn in a mass of people.

My next version will actually build bed rolls for them to spawn on so they aren't clumped together.

Please note: @ACE_Ragdoll is being removed from the UNITAF Official Modpack due to a suspected conflict causing players not to be able to see/hear one another when death occurs/respawn.

We will add mods to this collection as and when changes are made, please favourite this collection and click 'subscribe to all'

We will make announcements as and when, you just need to open it and click 'subscribe to all' each time a change is made.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1796922002

This method is only so you can download mods ahead of operations, to avoid creating pre-sets you can still join the server from the launcher as normal.

UTFN (United Task Force Network) is the name for the software built and maintained for UNITAF at https://unitedtaskforce.net

The long term goal for UTFN is an immersive platform to extend the persistancy of in-game campaigns and operations by providing a platform to interact with and change the course of operations using UTFN. The platform also supports the growth and managment of UNITAF by way of automation and data management, supporting NCOs, Officers and staff with vital information.

Planned Features (Not yet implemented)

• Rank / Medals View showing requirements/prerequisites and showing the users whom have attained it
  
  
• Roles/Preffered Roles system showing requirements/prerequisites of roles both in and out of game, show the recruitment status of each role and allow transfer requests between roles
  
  
• Statistics system, to track in game events such as bullet fired, kills, casualties, ACE Medical, Vehicle interaction to provide stats per user such as most used weapons, ammo, # kills / deaths, average engagement distance, furtherst kill etc etc. Stats will be averaged over units for AAR purposes.
  
  
• Full Logistics simulation allowing S4 staff to manage the purchase, deployment of and maintenance of UNITAF assets. Finance system supports this, with political factors implicating the income.
  
  
• Qualification/Progression based ORBATs and UTFN controlled gear management: To control the availibility of in-game equipment based on UTFN databases, so more advanced / qualified members of UNITAF have access to equipment they are trained or positioned to use, promoting progression to newer members.
  
  

Below is a link to a playlist of Youtube Videos explaining certain features of UTFN, be aware that as development speed is quite high, the videos may show older interations of features.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRoNyQXQSKt1Z8sFHiboGmJIcLil84E4s

This page will be updated periodically as new ideas are confirmed either by the development team or from the UTFN suggestions page. Below will follow updates and changelogs.

We have a server up now, which will remain up for the next week, until the first Operation this Sunday.

Please be sure to follow the below guide, to setup everything as needed prior to this operation, as always we are on hand in #help if you need any assistance.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10RoopFKH4CodcFSQPdiAv0xdNVqwUK5pOfrsMs3uaJw/edit?usp=sharing

This post contains Day 1 information about what's happening from today (June 1) leading up to our first deployment on June 16. 

• We're launching www.unitedtaskforce.net to our pre-launch interest list members, to allow you to register accounts
• We're using this time to kill some bugs and get some feedback
• There are a lot of features which we have disabled during this launch period
• Features will be enabled on www.unitedtaskforce.net between June 1 and June 16

What we want you to do

1. Register on www.unitedtaskforce.net and follow the instructions to complete your application in full (it's imporant that you fill out all the sections, including the sections relating to your preferred roles)
   
   
2. Let us know when complete in #general-chat on Discord to get your account processed fully. Please include @Personnel Staff (S1) in your message so they don't miss it.
   
   
3. Download the Mods by following this guide (CLICK HERE) we will have some testing servers up next week.
   
   
4. As you know, you must confirm your slots for upcoming missions as early as possible. To slot yourself: Log in to unitedtaskforce.net > click on Operations, selecting one of the two confirmed mission dates that you can make and going to ORBAT > Descide your desired slot > Click Deploy
   
   

Feel free to ask any questions or report any issues directly here, or via Discord. We'll be providing futher updates in due course. If you have any issues at all, please use the #help channel on discord.

Please click Acknowledged at the top of this page once you have completed all the steps.