OP: Faded Giant 4 - Event Schedule

[SANDMAN! 16]

A word on running long form Milsim events: Im part of a team that puts on18hr Misim events up here in Canada that draws a crowd of about 360-400 players (we've sold out in under 10 minutes every year). We've run it successfully for the past 4 years...I've been part of it for the last 2. As a team of Players we like to put on a game that Players will enjoy...that is rule number one (after safety of course)...players need to be having a good time. As a team we generally like to attend long form games...its where we excel... traditionally we like a 24 hours milsim event before a Skirmished based event as it presents a challenge that we love.

 

That said, we run 18hr events...and we do this for a reason; namely, the player base is just not ready for a 24hr. Sure, some teams and individuals can and have gone the distance, but I can assure you if the base isnt there, a 24hr event turns into a shit show real fast. So I get what AMS is going for here. Now....personally, I feel that 8hr's is on the low side and would like to see that bumped up....OR as an alternative, stick with the first 8hr evo and then start the second the Crack of F^%& the next morning. Unless there is room service included, Im not driving from Canada to sleep for 12 hrs! LOL! End at 21:00 restart at say...04:00 -05:00. Lots of OH-DARK-HUNDRED playtime as well as some down time.

 

We were at copperhead this year and it was awesome regardless of the timings, so we're looking forward to another great experience from AMS and the awesome player base it has attracted. AMS have been evolving and Im willing to continue to let them do there thing. They're great at listening to the players, so if enough of us bitch about the game length, Im sure we'll see longer and long games being put on. 

 

See ya'll Soon

[trini 2]

I agree and I live close to the event and have been at II and III

..it time should extend.. hopefully this will be taken into consideration as myself and other feel the same way... if I were coming from as far it would be more of an issue..

For a event that is always sold out I think running till morning should be possible.. it's wet here last few Days but no rain today not dry but not muddy either. .. and the nights are not cold and has not been all week. The forecast calls for rain but so was the last few days and I'm in shorts all day and night drip of rain from time to time...

[Mr. Yuk 229]

After attending the last two AMS events I would be pleasantly surprised if even 70% of the players lasted all 8 hours. Attrition has been worse then that.

 

In my experience for games to last longer, planned downtime must be included at part of the Op plan. The majority of players, regardless of how milsim they are, are not conditioned for continuous action over long durations. The problem then becomes what is the customer base paying for? I personally have no problem sitting in the rain watching a road all day, but unfortunately it seems the majority of players are looking for trigger time. An example of this would be the most recent Operation Broken Home. The majority of the platoon I was in vanished looking for trigger time.

 

I honestly believe that AMS has found a happy balance of playing time and action. Don't stress it until you have given the time format a shot. Please give your feedback after your experience. One thing I know for sure is that the AMS crew appreciates their customers and their feedback and are continually evolving to provide the best playing experience and value that they can for us.

 

Just my $0.02

[JPDouglas77 4]

Mr Yuk, thank you for being the only team rep we got any guidance from and sadly the only leader we really met at this event. Sorry we left early but we were very displeased with the rest of the CoST leadership. Between all the team kills and lack of operational Intel being based down the event came off as a back yard free for all and those type events are of no interest to us. Our team consist of retired infantry men and Airsoft community professionals, we invest a good majority of our time to the often missed and hardly used tactics of pre plans, intelligence sharing, squad and platoon support tactics as well as leadership and battles space control. We do look forward to seeing you and yours in Buffalo real soon. I hope this event was simply a gaggle fuck due to a large number of first time leaders or weak leaders and perhaps AMS will be more critical next time they select upper leadership for the future events.

[Loco Actual 57]

4 minutes into the game, my personal group of 8 got split up into three tiny cells and the remainder of 1-1, who had been tasked out prior to the event (or atleast those who made the effort to find me and plan at the CoST briefing) immediately had their plans blown apart by a faster reacting UFS than we'd expected. From there, comms went to shit because of the buildings, and at that point, all bets were off.

 

Friendly fire happens a lot. I doubt you never shot someone wearing green, especially with how dark, loud, smoky, and fast this AO tends to be. It's annoying, yes, but the good news is that should mean there's a higher chance of a medic being nearby for you. Once plans go to shit, it's up to you to make the game good for you. The main objectives are clearly laid out, and if you want a FRAGO but can't reach anyone on command net, head back to the FOB and get the word. Every single member of my team got lost, team killed, confused, over-grenaded, cut off, turned around, and more, and the van ride home was still stories of having an awesome time. Relying on leadership to provide you with an awesome game is like relying on AMS Rick to simply give up when captured. It's not likely, so make your own awesomeness.

Thanks for a crazy fun weekend AMS and we'll see you again soon!

[DaRooster 122]

Being military myself I can see where some might have found FG4 frustrating. Personally, I found the event to be a blast.

 

While AMS is Milsim you have to remember a lot of the people who participate and even some of the staff have no formal military training. That has been balanced with having people with military experience involved and creating an event that is meant to be challenging but FUN.

 

If this were a real world OP there would be more than just guys running with guns and a hand full of leaders pointing the way. There would be intel guys, specific radio guys, special teams, guys with big maps in rooms full of computers, TONS of planning, and of course real attrition.

 

An AO of this size with the missions in place would have been conquered by an experienced force in less than an hour in a real world situation. But with respawning, tons of ammo and grenades, lack of true experience in the field, and folks who are not superbly conditioned and a time frame to which you have to spread out the fun...you have to find a balance.

 

The best advice I got before getting into large scale milsim events is that if you are not having fun...go find it.

 

My entire team got split up within the first 10 minutes, comms went to shit, fog of war became a real issue, and all I knew was that I had a radio that I could coordinate with people and a gun to shoot bad guys with. If someone found something I called it in. If I needed to regroup, I asked for a location. If I needed tasking, I asked for it. If I couldn't get back to my team, I attached myself to a team that I could get to and acted as their dedicated comms guys and filtered info up and down the COC.

 

I rallied teams, I led charges, I came up with impromptu plans, I followed instructions as I got them, and I shot UFS all while capturing control points ( did this 6 times), passing down intel for FRAGOs, and hunting for items.

 

Was it like the real thing? Not really...but the real thing isn't really fun at all now is it?

 

Point is you have to adapt to what's at hand and if you aren't having fun... go find it. I would have liked to have been able to stay with my team of guys longer but in all honesty I was with them only about 10% of the time...if that. But I was ALWAYS with A team and I stayed in the fight until the very end.

 

And by the way...CoST Pride!

[JPDouglas77 4]

Then why do they call it MilSim. Hey whatever just my opinion and not sure where loco is getting the waiting for leadership to provide me with a fun time. Hey genius you were a squad leader ever hear of leading. It's a funny thing leaders do even in MilSim.

[Loco Actual 57]

I can't lead people that aren't present. Aside from my group, only three other people from 1-1 bothered to show up to the CoST briefing to meet with me, and I got zero attempts to reach me from anyone else. As we all know, once the game starts and things actually happen, plans are worth littl, especially in a facility that is very comm unfriendly. I'm sorry you think I was an absent leader, but aside from the briefing formation I barely saw anyone from 1-1 and not a soul approached me asking for direction or objectives.

 

Come back next year and take the role of SL and show us how you would do it. A genuine request, as some inadequate leadership has been mentioned a few times now. I'm not claiming to be infallible or some kind of Chesty Puller; I'm as vulnerable to fog of war and equipment failure as anyone.

[JPDouglas77 4]

Sadly I do not even know who our squad leader was. The only roster we were on had SNFA1 as our squad leader but then we were told to adhere to the original roster and we had no assignment on that roster. We arrived Friday and completed check in tried to walk AO found it was closed and it was only 1pm. Then we hang out trying to find some other CoST players, we were unaware of a CoST meeting for players other than the leadership. If you were 1-1 we were 1-5 i believe then when we assembled we fell in with group two. So pretty much without knowing who to look for and where we even started from since the roster changed we spent a lot of time trying to pick up with any team that needed help. As for team kills, yeah i have been and have shot green by accident. What happened in the crane bay was not that. With the challenge password being so simple too many people were using the others word and cause too many players to assume they were tan. So whatever, I didn't enjoy it. It would be quite naive of me too assume I will enjoy every event i go to. But the important thing here is to give and listen to all feedback. I'll look into the SL position, I didn't this round because this was my first trip to GTI. Thank you all for listening and again your feedback. Nice to see we all can discuss this without drama.

[Loco Actual 57]

The roster situation was definitely a little rough, to say the least. I'm curious as to what the challenge/pass was because at the CoST meeting Noe decided we weren't going to set anything up for that (a debatable decision but not mine to make.) This may have been a cause for some of the innumerable FF incidents.

[JPDouglas77 4]

Why would we not use one. Definitely a very poor choice on him. We heard green being used hence they must be tan. I would have loved to have meet this Noe character. Did he volunteer for that slot or did AMS put him there? Sadly for a commander to do his best he almost would not have time to play/ shoot stuff. I thought he would have been located in the FOB directing missions a little command and control. I can see where some teams did have a blast at Faded but I am not sure CoST as a company/ unit overall can say it was a success. I just may have to put my big boy pants back on and inquire about some of these leader slots. I'm just not excited to perhaps becoming too military for the player base these events draw. Some damn good tactical airsofters I know we're never in the military and its a bit of a sore subject so I tread lightly. Loco, thanks again, can't stress enough of how impressed I am with this forum and the participants.

[Greg.AMS 175]

Why would we not use one. Definitely a very poor choice on him. We heard green being used hence they must be tan. I would have loved to have meet this Noe character. Did he volunteer for that slot or did AMS put him there? Sadly for a commander to do his best he almost would not have time to play/ shoot stuff. I thought he would have been located in the FOB directing missions a little command and control. I can see where some teams did have a blast at Faded but I am not sure CoST as a company/ unit overall can say it was a success. I just may have to put my big boy pants back on and inquire about some of these leader slots. I'm just not excited to perhaps becoming too military for the player base these events draw. Some damn good tactical airsofters I know we're never in the military and its a bit of a sore subject so I tread lightly. Loco, thanks again, can't stress enough of how impressed I am with this forum and the participants.

Hey man I have been reading these posts and wanted to soak it in before giving a reply, so here goes.  First off I am sorry for your less than great experience at the game.  After reading your posts a few times I would like to suggest that if you decide to give AMS another try that you should indeed sign up as a squad leader, depending on the roster you might not get a squad leader role but who knows. Furthermore I feel that you should give UFS a try.  UFS structure is not any better than COST but after reading your posts if might suit you better.  Either way please feel free to give us any futher constructive feedback, you can contact any of the owners, myself or Alex on these forums or even private message us, might not be able to please everyone all the time but that does not mean that we take this lightly.  If indeed you give it another try I would also suggest that you ask questions about intel ect at the FOB when you can.  Im a combat Controller and still ask the CO or XO for assignments everytime I am back at FOB.  We try to keep some type of leadership at the FOB but when it hits the fan sometimes it is not possible.  Thanks again for your feedback.  Yankee out.

[CAD_Mason 12]

I hope this isn't the same for this years.... I'm going to be travelling 15hrs down to this game and would like play for more than 12 hours with 30hrs of travel time. Plus keep in mind that this year, DST ends 5 NOV 16 2400. So everyone will get an extra hour of sleep that night.

 

Maybe just 2 longer evolutions... I was thinking 3 could be fit into something like; 1000-1600, 1800-2200, and then 0800-1400... but then like you said you have an issue with people showing up for the night game, which I remember from FG3.

 

2 evolutions might be best, but I would still like to make them a little longer, sunrise is at about 0747 and sunset at 1831 Saturday, but we cannot start that early because of chrono and remaining safety briefs and I understand that, so... 1200-2200 and then 0800-1400, this is still 16 hours of gameplay like previous years but in 2 games instead of 3.

 

0800 might be an early start time, but, everyone will get an extra hour of sleep and it will feel longer because of DST with sunrise changing to 0648 the Sunday morning. Even accounting for getting up 2 hours prior to Sunday start ex and being up 2 hours after Saturday end ex, it would be 7 hours of sleep for those worried, which is plenty... we do lots of sleep deprivation in the CAF and function on a lot less than 7 hours of sleep over 1 day. haha (more like 6 hours of sleep over 4 days)

 

I just feel like 16hrs is back to what the event used to be and would involve a little more night play as well, plus you might get the attention of a few more people willing to travel the distance for an event that is a bit longer.