Unit-wide Announcements / Headquarters
Future Training System (FTS 3) - Training Command Update

Happy summer everyone.

Following the July Officer’s meeting, I feel it is the time to provide an update on FTS, where we are at, and what we should expect in the coming weeks. I’ll give a summary at the top, but give a bit of detail for those interested below.

Crucially, the beta is now working, so literally anyone can log onto the beta site: beta.unitedtaskforce.net, log in as normal and see the current version of FTS. As we’re saying in this update, it is not completely finished so please view with this in mind, but you can go and see the workings shown later on, live in the system on your own profile.

Summary

Role Cards

• FTS3 is finished for role cards, skill points (SP), backdating experience, and useability
• We still need to do instructor adjustments i.e. give us a way to interact with it, but this can be done whilst in flight
• Role cards show you whether you can direct, 1-up, 2-up, or not slot into that role
• They show you how many SP you have per skill
• There is a breakdown on each skill as to where you got your SP from and how much
• Remember, this means that “tiers” will no longer exist as each role will be set to require its own value for skills it needs. One player may be able to access one role and not another, and another player vice versa based on their own individual SP.

Combat Area updates

• Anti-vehicle is currently being used to test FTS3
• Core Infantry, Medical and Marksmanship are waiting for this testing to be done before going ahead to allow us to learn from any errors
• Mission Support content has been signed off
• Comms, Logi, and Engineering are all close to finishing content
• Other areas are still working on content if at all

LTS

• For those areas not close (Cav, Rotary, FW etc.) we have moved the old SOP to the FM and tidied it up to stop policy being spread across multiple places
• The blocks are all guides or policy, no skills needed for LTS combat areas
• Players must still follow this guidance as they would have the old SOP and this is still enforceable with PC in the same way, only the location and clarity of the content has been changed.

Next steps

• Test Anti-vehicle in FTS 3 and go-live
• Create role cards for the other FTS2 (and Mission Support) areas, test and go-live
• Approve first releases for Comms, Logi, Engineering
• Create training teams for LTS to develop content
• All the while, when FTS3 is confirmed working, start developing the instructor adjustment mechanism of FTS3.

FTS config is finished for the first release

The first release will include, for the areas that go live:

• Roles will now have their own progression based on SP (Skill Points) for skills associated with that role. Role Cards will be found where the skill cards currently are in the FM

• The role card will clearly show which skills are allowing you to direct, 1-up, 2-up, or preventing you from slotting

• Clicking the skill block will show the current progress for the individual, and where the SP total is derived from

This will mean players will be able to look at specific roles, and see exactly which skills are preventing them from deploying in that role. They can also check which roles have a dependency on that skill to see where they can get it.

It also means that tiers are effectively a thing of the past. Players will unlock roles when they have the required points in the required skills independent of them unlocking other roles. No longer will a player who regularly plays one role, be somehow able to slot into a role of the same tier, with different skills, that they have never played before. This should mean increased levels of flexibility and specialisation/expertise.

Combat Area Progress

We have made great progress since our last update. Currently, we need to align all combat areas currently live in FTS2, to FTS3. This should then allow progression as it was designed. To do that, we need to build each area's roles, assign a SP value to each, and then pass it to the training teams to test. Testing essentially means looking at individuals in their current progression, and measuring that against the FTS progression to ensure they line up, or if they don’t that there’s a good reason.

When we have gotten Anti-vehicle confirmed, this will allow us to do all of the others more seamlessly with lessons learnt and errors corrected, meaning a smooth flow into FTS3.

With Mission Support’s first iteration signed off on 31/07, this means that the area will also follow suit through the process, but unlike the combat areas that are in FTS2, this will not truly go live until it has gone through testing into FTS3.

Combat Engineering, Logistics, and Communications, are all nearing completion of FM content for approval.

This leads me to the LTS areas…

Legacy Training System Areas with less progress to FTS

For Cavalry, Fixed Wing, Rotary, Combat Leadership, and Field Leadership, there has been some amount of movement, but not enough to warrant calling out their content as close to completion. This leaves us with SOP in those areas that we still follow, but is outside of the force manual.

Therefore the excellent Cpl Ross, with support from the great Sgt Jochem, have migrated these areas SOP into the FM. We have reduced the amount of words substantially, whilst keeping the essence of the content that was there and included this as guidance.

Whilst this means that the content is now in the FM in guide blocks, we do want to remind everyone that these areas are still enforceable with positive and negative observations and in more serious cases reprimands, for not abiding by the policy written, just as it was when it was in the SOP.

Instructor Adjustments

The purpose of FTS3 was to be a middle ground between LTS and FTS2. Players can progress based on deploying in roles and attending FTX’s and receiving SP for it.

To come back to the analogy we are using, the UK License Penalty Point system, players would play in role and accumulate experience, i.e. driving the car, but if observed breaking policy, i.e. speeding, by a traffic officer, i.e. a member of the training team, they would have points put on their license befitting the severity of the infraction, i.e. the instructors adjust SP to match the players observed competency. This means no more needing to tick off every skill to progress, now you can progress naturally by deploying on ops and FTXs, but those who are responsible for enforcing standards, have the option to adjust a player’s SP on a skill based on observation.

However, as we are all aware, we want FTS3 in as soon as possible to lift the limitations of FTS2. To do that we’re faced with a choice; go live without instructor adjustments for now and develop it in-flight, or hold FTS3 until we have done instructor adjustments. Hopefully it will be a big relief to everyone that we’ve opted for option 1.

Essentially, to use the analogy again, players can drive the car and accumulate experience, (to unlock new types of car I guess? HGVs or something?) and whilst people may still call the traffic officers if they see someone committing an infraction i.e. logging observations to PC, we haven’t yet got traffic officers on bridges with speed guns, or parking CCTV, or traffic cameras set up yet to ensure that players are receiving constructive feedback on their “driving” to make driving a better experience for other road-users, but nor do we think we need to do this before letting everyone drive to work.

It’s also worth noting that traffic officers won’t just be the bearers of bad news, by giving points. In plan, they will also be able to make recommendations to give good drivers more experience than their current car would suggest they have. The training teams are there to ensure good standards, both by supporting poor “drivers” constructively, and by accelerating the progression of good “drivers” through to more challenging roles that they should be capable of doing well.

This means that instructor adjustment of SP and how this works, is still TBC, but this shouldn’t be an issue since it can be tested and adjusted whilst players get the benefits of FTS3.

Conclusion

I hope this update gives a clearer picture of where we are, and that where we are is “pretty much there”. I assume there will be questions not answered here, but I am happy to answer them on request and if there are enough, I will follow up with either a TAFFCAST to answer, or a follow-on FAQ announcement.

Thank you for everyone’s patience and input and especially to James, J6, J7 and the training teams for contributing to this large change.

Captain WhiteWolf
Training Officer
UNITAF

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