People taking CO spots but not knowing what to do in them.

[Manx95]

In recent Games Nights on both servers that has been instances of people taking on the role of CO without fulling understanding what the role involves.

In my own opinion this is affecting the standard of the missions executed on Games Nights.

The role of the CO is most certainly one of most important and vital roles in any mission (hence called first), the CO must decide on what assets they want, how many of said assets and their strength. Then there comes the briefing.... It is absolutely 100% essential that all of this is read.. then read again. The mission maker has not written this for the fun of it, they have written it because you need to know every last detail about what you can expect to have opposing you! There is no point putting a plan in place for what you think will happen. Read the whole brief!

At the end of the day you are the CO it is your responsibility to complete the objective(s) to their fullest extent. You are also responsible for keeping your men alive, the less casualties the better.

Games Nights are not nights for people to have a go you should try taking CO roles outside of Games Nights or talk to experienced members who have CO experience and they I am sure will be more than happy to help you.

EDIT: May it be worth offering CO training???

[Cobra.]

No for CO training. I don't see it being useful, people just need to sit and watch how it is done then when they eventually get a easy mission (defence) after being on the server for a few weeks grow a pair of balls and give it a go.

But going CO on your first few game nights is a shitty idea. You may want to but you'do be ruining other people's experiences to be brutally honest.

[ashley]

We can't keep adding training for every little thing, soon we'll have wake up and turn on your pc to play arma training.

Taking CO and being good at it is a mix of knowledge, maturity and practice. Not everyone is suited to the role even if they would like the play it all the time. The best way for someone to learn how to manage this role is by teamleading and squadleading, then going on to commander, or even taking an XO slot and just watching how the CO carries out the mission.

Squadleading and Teamleading are a good basis to start as they offer similar roles as to what the commander has such as micro management. The commander just has the added aspect of understanding the breifing and understanding the ability of the assets provided during the mission.

So my suggestion would be, take teamlead/squadlead slots to practice, then go on to commander during non gamenight times. Practice makes perfect.

[Terox]

Taking any leadership role is about having situational awareness and understanding how to use the assets available to you and furtermore rotating thje groups of players so none of them get bored sat around for too long (That last point is often missed).

Mission commander training may be possible, but how would you run a training session which to be worthwhile must have multiple assets available to manage when the chances of having 50 players turn to a training session is virtually nil.
A better option would be a combination of "On the job" training and a decent document
I for one would like to see good commanders taking advisory roles supporting new inexperienced commanders, same goes for squad leadership.
Thats where we need to be with this

[Beyond your Ken]

Making a training mission could be done with Ai as being the meat of the section and the instructor or asst. as the SL. The other option you have is the sections are full ai and the Zeus will talk as one of the Sl of each group.

The other option we could do is an instructional community video of basic of cmd. Then we keep advertising it on ts. We can then see if improvements are happening with this concept. I don't think many people read for manuals and would probably watch a vid instead.

I think it would be more best if we keep larger mission on the server 40< to more experience Cmders and 40> to less experience cmders. Reason being is that with less players you have in control the less dependent the mission is on Cmders plans as it is more based on the players skill. Larger the mission is the more important the Cmder is and skills of the players are less dependent. Though we could try putting new guy with an experience guy as the co medic or xo on larger missions. This could be put as policy rather then a rule.

[Face]

Making a training mission could be done with Ai as being the meat of the section and the instructor or asst. as the SL. The other option you have is the sections are full ai and the Zeus will talk as one of the Sl of each group.

I feel like this would not really help much because commanding a mission is not really something you can meaningfully simulate. The most effective way to help people learn to command in a "safe" environment (not actually being depended on by others) would be to make a video as you suggested or even just a google doc/forum post giving the quick ins and outs of what the responsibilities of a commander are AND more importantly what each asset is and suggestions of how to use them effectively or their strengths and weaknesses.

For example you could note that the main battle tank is very good at taking out enemy armor and fortified positions but is vunerable when inside towns. Just suggestions on how assets can be paired and how they can work well (or poorly) together. The main reason why I don't command is because I don't know how to use all the assets correctly but once I figure that out I'm sure I'd be more willing to step up.

[Tom]

Best way to learn is by doing... not by watching a video or reading a forum. Just go out there and practice! Who cares if the old guys like me don't agree with you.

Try on patrol ops first, you'll get used to the pace of the command comms and semi-quick decision making when you feel that you can comfortably command those missions, you'll breeze through game nights like no ones business!

[Beyond your Ken]

I do agree with you Tom that doing is the best form of being a better commander. The problem is that if you toss them into the deep end, they might drown. Giving them knowledge, training, or support from an experience player might help their start up as a more positive one. You don't how well people can handle negativity towards themselves if the mission ends up a disaster and if that will scare future prospects from taking command. Even in patrol ops a new commander may need the aid to start up.

I will disagree with you Face. Large portion of leading is communication and problem solving. As zeus you can create these problems that need be solved. The larger one is how to communicate orders from afar with no visual and tackle some issues like slow response from player after orders were giving and received.

The question is do we give them trial by fire or aid these new guy. The problem with training is that it takes a lot of time. You need a criteria of what you need to teach the player. A mission has to be created for this. Then you need to have instructors to keep teaching to new groups. That really takes the most of the time is the teaching new groups. Writing it in a doc would need the fewest people to help and may take less time overall. My opinion is people will not likely read a manual. Video may require a larger amount of people to be cast in the video and largest time would be editing it. It only has to be made once and doesn't constantly take away our time like training and more entertaining then reading a manual.

[Face]

I will disagree with you Face. Large portion of leading is communication and problem solving. As zeus you can create these problems that need be solved. The larger one is how to communicate orders from afar with no visual and tackle some issues like slow response from player after orders were giving and received.

You aren't wrong there but in my opinion the communication issue is covered pretty thoroughly in the FMTs and problem solving skills cant be taught in a 2 hour training session. Like its been mentioned before slotting up as a command medic or xo would be just as constructive as a training mission.

Ive slotted in as cmd medic and that first time i learned enough about how to manage people just by talking with the commander. One thing i think would be advantageous is if commanders started offering these slots to anyone trying to learn. Often times these roles are overlooked and not called for so we can have more firepower in the squads, but whats one less rifleman in the grand scheme of things?

I just feel like having the information on how assets are traditionally used available for aspiring commanders definitely cant hurt. Its kinda like chess, you gotta know how the pieces can move before you can play.

[SirBeagles]

Delegation is the key to successful command. Most people fuck up in leadership roles at first because they try to take on everything at once and get overwhelmed. You have NCO's for a reason, use them. Comms getting too much and distracting you from the decisions you have to make? Assign an RTO. Too much going on for you to manage the squads? Give the squads the independence to get shit done themselves. Hell the same thing works within the squads by putting more responsibility on your FTL's. Gradually you'll get the hang of everything and stuff shouldn't get too fucked up in the meantime.

Seriously though, I'm a bastard for it. It's just how I lead and it works damned well for me. I tell the squads what I want from them, then leave them to get it done. I don't want to micromanage you to hell and back, I want to give you a problem and you go solve it. Obviously it's not a straightforwards as that if you want it to work really well, but the principle is sound.

[LtBlack-Fire]

If You Don't Know How A Slot Works, Don't Take It.. Simple, But Apparently some people don't get the memo.