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)
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.
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
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
Reason for change: to reduce unnecessary and unintended chatter.
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.
Reason for change: to provide more clarity between the difference between newer players