Hello there pilots. As you may or may not have already read from the FC’s email, there has been a shift in Commanding Officer for the VSG. And as Dave has mentioned, this shift was brought on due to differences in management style. There is no one specific occurrence or event which brought about this change; it is merely the general outcome of the events over the last two months. There has been much tension since the VSG was brought into being, and it is my goal to bring this tension to a healthy level.

I have been among the masses now as one of you for pretty well two months, and have thus been privy to many an opinion first hand. I do hope that I can use this new knowledge to aid in my following tenure. I also know for certain that it will help me to correct my own faults which were present during my tenure as RgF CO.

Command Staff

First off, I would like to let you know that I already have a relative date to which I will be stepping down and letting my staff take over. This will be somewhere around the middle to end of April, at which point afterwards my internet status is as of yet unknown. In this three to four month period, I will make it my prime directive to train up two folk for running this fleet.

This now brings me to my next topic at hand, the VSG Command Staff. What I am picturing right now for a proper CS is one composed of people who are open-minded, fresh, and active on both platforms. As such, I will be asking for people to email myself with applications for the XO and SO positions who fall under the following categories:

1. Is relatively new to the RS (6 months to one year of service, roughly), or
2. Has been with the RS as a less prominent member but has the recommendations of other prominent members. (ie. Someone with squadron xo or so experience who has been around for 1-2.5 years(ish, these ranges are not set in stone) and is recommended to me by a squadron commander or other person in the chain of command)
3. Has (at least) a very good understanding of one platform, and a general understanding of the other platform
4. Has little attachment to our predecessors (RgF and IBG)
5. Is full of energy, spirit, and potential to do good for the fleet.

Some of you may be thinking these are somewhat general expectations, but I hope to get more specific details about the applicants in the applications, telling me anything about yourselves which you think would be beneficial to the fleet in some way. Also, since Docks was already XO of the fleet, he will be under consideration as well, however I will be looking at everyone at the same level of discretion.

VSG Tour 1

Now, something many of you have been itching over for a good half month now, is what is going on with VSG 102. We have been pestering Anton and Cable for over a month now to get the mission done, to small avail. The missions team has now given the original builders an ultimatum deadline for them to submit their finished (or at least unfinished) product. If we do not receive anything, we have a backup plan in place and ready in case it’s needed. We are hoping to get 102 out to you guys this week, however that is but a tentative time frame. More info on this as it becomes available.

Merits

The next thing which I would like to touch on, is the merits system. There have been excessive complaints about this. Yes it needs tweaking, but we’ve used it for one mission. A few changes I will be looking into are:

1. HIER merits
2. Zero report merits
3. SP to MP balance

The HIER merits are the largest cause for dissent on the system. Their initial intent was to reward the squadron who showed these qualities exceeding that of the other squadrons, and as such to help promote a healthier atmosphere. Apparently something went wrong. The nature of their awarding can easily be swayed by bias to certain squadrons, and this is how many people saw them, as favourite points. This will be worked on so that the criteria can be more easily defined for future use (I do not see a need to just remove them, especially after last month with the way people acted).

The zero report merits were a smaller problem with some people, and I personally saw some redundancy in them. As such, I will be making the following additions to their usage: Zero reports are for those who are unable to report at all during a mission due to technical or RL reasons, however are still present enough to contribute to their squad or RS by other means; Only one zero report will be accepted(and thus one merit awarded), as submitting two is just redundant; People who have reported on one platform cannot report a zero on the other platform, as we have made available the games to you, plus, it seems redundant again.

As for SP and MP balance of merits, I spoke with a few who talked about how this system was supposed to encourage MP gaming, but when looking at how much time and effort was needed to get the MP merits of equivalence to that of a single SP run, I saw a balance issue. I will attend to this in the following week or two.

The Multiplayer Front

Now that I have concluded the major pressing issues at hand I can now move on to some lighter and more enjoyable issues.

First off, the ICTE happens every Saturday, and I have been starting to see more people go to fly there. Good stuff and keep flying!

Second, the BSC Week of War starts this Friday. Clubs have been slowly signing up this time round, but I’m sure by Friday we’ll have plenty of folk to fly against. I’ve also noticed that our WoW contingent of pilots is growing (slowly, mind you). I hope to see more of you out there.

Third, this Thursday I am planning on holding a come and go tea type deal…. Wait, I mean come and go Multiplayer “thing”. I don’t exactly have a name for it, so for now I’ll call it the Come and Go Tea. Basically, this is going to be a pre-practice practice for the soon to be upon us ORW III. Over my years with the WoW and ICTE events, the most annoying thing that a person can have when going for some multiplayer gaming is not being able to connect when the time comes. So, what I want to do throughout the day is to have a few people (myself, and I’ll rope in some of the other XvT and XWA gamers) to help you get around your connectivity issues before you go in to participate. We’ll work on connectivity, flying strategies, and other pertinent issues (like having fun!) to multiplayer flying. I am thinking of having it run all day if possible where you can come in at a time good for you.

Finally, as was lightly mentioned just previously, the ORW III event is just about upon us. I have heard through grapevine info (and FC Dave) that there will be a pre-event practice happening next Sunday (21st), so I hope to see you out there to measure up the opponents.


Well, that about sums up what I have to say as I move into my new position. And I’d like to sign off with a brief mission statement:

To better the Rebel Squadrons, to better the Fleet, to better the Community, to better Myself.