Introduction to UNITAF - Deploying on operations

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The FM outlines our core skills, policies and guides to ensure every member stands ready for the mission ahead.

Our dynamic ORBAT system is one of the hallmarks of UNITAF. The purpose of the dynamic ORBAT system is to ultimately fill all ORBATs with the most experienced and capable person available. It is primarily first come first serve but slot allocation must always be fair and transparent and therefore it's useful that members are aware of the various nuances within the system.

At a global level, an ORBAT can be set to have both a minimum and maximum rank. All ORBATs by default have a minimum rank of Recruit. The only exception to this is the Recruit intake itself, which has a minimum rank of Candidate. This is a rarely exercised mechanic due to the Tier system, but it is possible for Operations Command to set a minimum or maximum rank on a deployment. Typically this is used during officer meetings to prevent Officers from deploying to an ORBAT which clashes in the schedule.

For practice ORBATs some rank restrictions may apply:

• FTX Candidates, where the only rank eligible is Candidate (CDT)
• FTX Recruits, where the only rank eligible is Recruit (Rec)
• FTX Regulars, where the eligible rank must exceed Private (Pvt) with no maximum
• FTX NCOs, where the eligible rank must exceed Corporal (Cpl) with no maximum

On release of an ORBAT only those with an equal tier to the role in question will be able to acquire the slot. 24 hours from release is given for anyone holding the required tier to acquire the slot. Should nobody do so then 24 hours after release the automatic up-tiering process begins.

• 24 hours after release, anyone with 1 tier below the required tier of any vacant slot can acquire it, known as a 1UP
• 48 hours after release, 24 hours after 1UP anyone with 2 tiers below the required tier of any vacant slot can acquire it, known as a 2UP

Exceptions

• It is only possible to up-tier a maximum of 2 tiers (2UP)
• You cannot up-tier in a combat area if you do not hold at least Tier I in that area
• If you have acquired a Reprimand in the last 7 days

The system will always tell you why you cannot acquire a slot and will state the reason in a tooltip when the cursor is hovered over it.

A learner slot is a unique ORBAT slot for legacy combat areas which allows an individual who has not yet been able to gain any combat experience in a combat area to do so. It allows individuals to get their first step on the ladder allowing them to access the up-tiering systems for a combat area. It does this by only allowing someone who has practice experience but no combat in experience in a specific combat area to slot without needing the usual Tier requirement. 

Key points:

• One Learner slot is permitted per 20 slots on the ORBAT
• Learner slots can only be applied to Tier I roles
• Only someone who is Tier-0 in the area, can use the Learner Slot
• The Field Leader may choose to change any of the Tier I slots to a Learner slot at their discretion.
• To use 'L' Plate slots, you cannot have had Reprimands in the last 7 days, or any active PCFs in this Combat Area.
• If the learner slot is not claimed 24 hours after the release of an ORBAT, it will automatically become a normal slot

How to assign a Learner Slot: 

• From the ORBAT editor, roles eligible for conversion will be shown with a blue cap icon. 
• Should the slot not be claimed, the Field Leader can return here to convert the slot back to a regular slot.

Locating Learner Slots on ORBATs: 

• Learner slots are easy to find on open ORBATs, denoted by their blue cap and blue deploy buttons. 
• Once the slot has been claimed it is again denoted with it's blue cap.

Above: A learner slot as it appears on a typical ORBAT

It is possible for Field Leaders to lock slots on an ORBAT. If a slot is locked it is denoted by a greyed out slot and an absent deployment button replaced by the message "Contact Field Leader". 

Locked slots must be used sparingly and in limited circumstances:

1. For mission critical roles in which the Field Leader deems the person needs to be vetted prior to slot allocation, e.g.
   1. specific role play characters
   2. complicated piloting slots or aircraft
2. For missions where the ORBAT may not fill and a number of roles are locked to funnel slot allocation across multiple teams, before unlocking additional slots.

In any case, locked slots filled by manual allocation must follow FM/BP-247 - Manual slot allocation.

Pre-slotting is a muster period that occurs after ORBAT creation and before ORBAT release. The pre-slotting stage is typically 24 hours before release. During the pre-slotting stage Leadership and Mission Support slots are opened ahead of general release - allowing members to see who the Leaders and Mission Support Team will be before slotting.

During the pre-slotting phase the assigned Field Leader and Mission Support Team also slot to ensure they are allocated before general release. No other roles are possible to be pre-slotted before general release and pre-slotting is a self served process - except as outlined in manual allocation.

Field Leaders have access to a manual allocation tool which is the only method by which someone can be slotted without doing it personally via the ORBAT. Manual allocation can be used in a limited number of circumstances, as outlined below;

1. leaders and game-masters who have planned the mission; such as the Field Leader and mission developers
2. agreed leadership assignments
3. any person in the pre-slotting approved role areas who is unable to slot themselves in the pre-slotting window
4. in some circumstance a junior leader with an experienced supporting leader or visa-versa, these allocations should be limited to 1 pair per ORBAT.
5. Retired members may be manually assigned to a slot no earlier than 24 hours before the STARTEX time. Except where the retired member has a no-show within the last month. All other requirements of the policy still apply.

Manual allocation is for certain circumstances, therefore:

• no manual assignment of persons not meeting minimum or maximum rank requirements
• no manual assignment of persons with reprimands within the last 7 days
• no manual assignment of persons with active flags in the assigned combat area
• no manual assignment of non pre-slotting combat areas where the user doesn't have the required tier;
  • except when;
    • manually assigning a 1UP within a valid 1UP window
    • manually assigning a 2UP within a valid 2UP window
    • assigning a slot which has not been filled after ORBAT lock (or within 24 hours of deployment execution)
    • changing a role for METT-TC purposes after ORBAT lock

Slot priority in manual allocation: In the case that nobody in the active force has the requirements for a slot, then the next most experienced person can be manually assigned, should they not pursue the slot, this process can be repeated until filled - in this case there is no need to await the 1UP or 2UP windows. When manually allocating slots, priority should be given to those with the most official requirements - taking into account all other factors of this policy. 

Combat Fatigue balances slot allocation by adjusting the accessible time of different slots across ORBATs based on an individuals past activity and is applied to each tier (combat area) separately, it's purpose is to ensure fairer distribution of available slots. In short, the more active you are the more it will build up and delay your access to slots.

When viewing an ORBAT before release and during the Fatigue period, the ORBAT will display instead the time in UTC in which the slot will be accessible to you based on your own Combat Fatigue.

Fatigue is designed to address the following primary unintended behaviours of the Dynamic ORBAT System that will increase fairness;

• To give new members of UNITAF priority access to Core Infantry slots (by virtue of them being less fatigued)
• To spread wider access to specialist and lower supply slots by fatiguing regular deployees in favour of those at the same Tier/Experience
• Millisecond slot rushing on ORBAT release, by spreading slotting over the opening 15 minutes of an ORBAT.

Global Fatigue applies to all combat areas and is calculated from:

• 120 base seconds for every reprimand in the last 30 days (such as a no-show)

Local Fatigue only applies to the combat area of the applicable slot and is calculated from:

• 60 base seconds for each ORBAT completed by the individual
  • in the last 30 days 
  • in 60 days in the case of low supply slots, with less than 30 slots per month
• a bonus reduction in fatigue of 20 base seconds per hour of FTX/Practice attended in this combat area
  • in the last 30 days 
  • in the last 60 days for low supply slots

Local Fatigue + Global Fatigue = Total Fatigue and this total number of seconds is applied to each slot on an ORBAT.

• Combat Fatigue cannot be negative and there is no maximum fatigue.
• Combat Fatigue does not yet apply to the pre-slotting stage
• Combat Fatigue applies to both ORBAT Release, 1UP and 2UP stages
• Combat Fatigue does not yet apply to slots that have been recently vacated by someone else

The fatigue multiplier is a global value used to control the units fatigue calculations, it may be changed over time as we develop the system to make fatigue durations longer or shorter for everyone. It is is multiplied by the base second penalties and rewards to fatigue in the daily calculation. 

• If the fatigue multiplier is 1x then a reprimand penalty of 120 base seconds will be (120s x 1) or 120s
• If the multiplier is 2x then the penalty will be (120s x 2) or 240s

The current fatigue multiplier is displayed above fatigue calculations in tier progress views.

You can view your own combat fatigue using the Dossier Practice Progression area of your Dossier. It will show the total fatigue for each Combat Area, broken down by Global and Local Fatigue factors. If you have any questions about specific parts of your Combat Fatigue, you can reach out to Personnel Command.

Personnel should only slot to deployments in which they can guarantee attendance. This is considered good etiquette. If a persons circumstances change they should cancel their deployment at the earliest opportunity.

Cancellations greater than 24 hours from a deployments start time incur no penalty. For mission critical persons such as Leadership, cancelling persons should contact the Field Leader at the point of cancellation out of courtesy, and/or attempt to arrange a substitute.

Cancellations within 24 hours of a deployments start time will incur a penalty the severity will depend on two factors;

• how long the person has been deployed on the ORBAT
• how close the cancellation is to the deployment start time

The total penalty breakdown will be displayed on the cancellation confirmation screen and covered below in detail in the Penalties section.

If any person fails to attend a deployment in which they are slotted this is known a “No-show”. No-show is a specific term for any person who does not attend a deployment in which they are listed on the ORBAT at the official start time irrespective of whether they give notice or not.

No-shows are reported at ENDEX by the Field Leader for any person who is listed on the ORBAT and who did not attend. Slots vacating from no-shows will be offered to Reserves.

If any person foresees that they can no longer attend and are unable to cancel their deployment either due to it being too late, or because they don’t have access to do so they have an obligation to contact the Field Leader - in this instance the Field Leader will report the no-show prior to ENDEX and Reserves will be utilised to fill the vacant slot. In order to maintain a fair and balanced system, penalties are issued to those who no-show deployments they signed up for.

Persons arriving late to a deployment incur a global fatigue penalty known as LAP. Lateness is reported at ENDEX by the deployments Field Leader. The minimum LAP is 20s of global fatigue, increased by 1 second for every minute of reported lateness thereafter.

For example, if you were 10 minutes late to a deployment, your LAP penalty would be 20+10=30s of global fatigue. LAP can be no greater than 10 seconds per hour a person has been deployed to an ORBAT. LAP may be equal to but will never be greater than LCP.

All personnel assigned to a deployment must arrive promptly. Servers open 25 minutes prior to the official start time to allow time for loadout changes or technical issues, all personnel must be connected and ready to take orders at the official start time otherwise they are considered late.

If a person is late by this definition, their slot can be forfeited at the discretion of the Field Leader. Late persons may be offered alternative positions or may lose their place at the discretion of the Field Leader.

If any person is or will be late they have an obligation to contact their Operational Chain of Command to allow proper planning. In order to maintain a fair and balanced system, penalties are issued to those who arrive late to deployments they signed up for.

The purpose of LCP is to deter personnel from deploying to slots where they are not certain of their ability to deploy.

LCP applies when a persons attendance of a deployment is cancelled within 24 hours of the start time. The LCP penalty comes in the form of global combat fatigue (fatigue that applies to all combat areas equally) which increases the closer to the start time the cancellation takes place. The maximum penalty is 2 minutes, or 120 seconds.

The base LCP penalties are listed below

*5s per hour equivalent

Additionally, LCP can be no greater than 10 seconds per hour a person has been deployed to an ORBAT. If a person cancelling has been present on the ORBAT for 12 hours or greater in total, irrespective of slot occupied they will be liable to the full LCP penalty. By example; if a person has been present on an ORBAT for a total of 6 hours then the maximum LCP penalty will be +60s

Persons who “no-show” in accordance with the definition defined in FM/BG-250 - Failure to attend (No-show) will be reprimanded if they did not notify the Field Leader before the official start time - in addition to FM/BP-251 - Late Cancellation Penalties (LCP). Reprimands are a Dossier black mark which affect future promotions and standing. To prevent NSP, persons should;

• only slot to deployments where they can guarantee attendance
• notify Field Leaders at the earliest opportunity if their circumstances change

In the worst possible scenario that a person has been present on an ORBAT for greater than 12 hours, fails to attend and does not give notice to the field leader; they will incur the maximum penalty of 120s+ global fatigue via LCP and 120s+ global fatigue via Reprimand.

It is not possible to contest FM/BP-251 - Late Cancellation Penalties (LCP) or FM/BP-252 - Late Arrival Penalties (LAP) under any circumstance except where an error has been made by the Field Leader in reporting it (for example incorrect lateness). In this case contact the Field Leader initially and escalate if required.

Any person incurring FM/BP-253 - No Show Penalties (NSP) can contact their Chain of Command with their reasoning and request removal of the reprimand, should their chain of command approve then the total penalty is reduced by 120 seconds once the NSP is removed.

The LCP penalty still applies as exceptional circumstances cannot be used to reduce or remove LCP fatigue. Only one NSP reprimand is permitted to be removed due to exceptional circumstances per 6 months per dossier.