In an effort to keep things moving in a forward direction and help ensure everyone is on the same page relating to gameplay/scheduling and etc., please take a moment to review and reply to this post.
Let me start by acknowledging the fact that we are aware there are questions and concerns relating to various aspects of gameplay on the server currently. Hopefully this post will answer and address most of those. Our goal has always been, and will always continue to be; ensuring we have a quality gaming experience for all players on our servers.
That being said, it is worth noting that right now we have to deal with some technical issues that inherently make things challenging. A working example being the 'lack of proper missions' on the servers right now. Again, something we are fully aware of and working daily to resolve. We just ask new players keep things in perspective (this is an Alpha), and know we are working to resolve this specific issue as quickly as possible (again, inherently challenging..).
Assuming there is something worth playing on the servers, the next questions people usually have are, "When do you guys play?" or "When do you play missions?" or "Do you have any scheduled events?".
Well, first and foremost, we play whenever we are around and are not preoccupied with development or RL things. Historically, here at Alpha Squad, most members will be on TS if they are available to play. We encourage all other players to do the same. We have status channels explicitly for this purpose. Many members/players check the website to see if anyone is on TS before logging in. Worth noting, we do quite a bit of dev stuff here, so it's not unusual for several of us to be on TS but not playing (this is normal). Again use the channels provided on TS.
When do we play missions? Technically speaking, every time we play. That being said, there has always been, and always will be debate as to what exactly a 'mission' is ... which we will not get into here. Generally speaking though, we run a few different types of missions.
Missions, which are the typical 1,2,3 objectives. Firefights, which are single objective missions to eliminate all OPFOR (we use for testing quite regularly). And persistent missions, which are much larger in scale and usually provide various types of submissions and gameplay options. There are no rules relating to what is to be played or when, it is purely a situational decision made amongst the player currently on the server. With exception to the following.
Scheduled Events, we have a forum specifically for things we have scheduled. We do not schedule regular gameplay. It has always been, and will likely remain a 'come and play' environment on our servers. That being said, we understand the importance and desire for scheduled events. And as such we are currently running the mission chalks once again, and are looking to better accommodate new players with a more diverse set of regular events.
The absolutely critical piece needed for us to pursue scheduling new events, whether it be for mission play, testing, training or otherwise ... is Feedback! We need to know when you normally play. And at the same time we'd like to know what you enjoy playing.
So help us help you, please reply to this thread with your normal/ideal gaming hours. And additionally if you'd like, let us know what kinds of missions you like playing. This is not a topic for debate, so please keep your reply on topic and relative to the conversation.
We look forward to things going into ArmA3, and are truly excited to have some new and old faces around. Let's get the info posted so we can get things sorted and rolling.
-Hatchet
