I'll get to a more well done AAR eventually, but I feel these issues should be addressed now. I also want to start out apologizing for the block of text below, feel free to skip it if you wish; it's directed at Captainkirk05.
captainkirk05 wrote:
Now here are my complaints. As most know I like to detail these so fixes can be made in the future.
Hit calling was disgusting. I do not believe in “shoot’em till they call it!”. For one, I would run out of bb’s trying to get some of these terminators to call their hits. Two, that is how people get hurt, and leads to overshooting of players who are playing fair. A few bad apples ruin it for everyone, as other players start refusing to call hits from players who should be out, it becomes an epidemic. What I do believe in is referee action. Remove the bad apples from the game so the rest of us can have a good time. I didn’t complain to authorities at the game because we had one single referee/admin who had no way of knowing what was going on at every place at every moment. I have a few highlights of these terminators on film, I will see about making a Youtube tribute to their no hit calling awesomeness. Thankyou to the players who were honorable in their hit calling, I remember all of you and have the upmost respect for you as players, as I saw some of you calling what I would imagine to be some the softest long range bb flicks ever.
First off, I do look forward to seeing those videos. Second, I'm sorry you had such an issue. Third, hit calling was brought to my attention twice, once in the morning on two fellows, once in the afternoon and I witnessed it once. I'll touch more on this in a sec, but if you have an issue, there were many AOSC reps on the field you could have spoken to about this, if not mentioned something to me myself. I don't know of an issue if no one complains, and this, sadly, is one of those things that can only be dealt with when it happens.
captainkirk05 wrote:
Game administration was lacking. I would expect the rep of a game that has been listed for weeks now to bring his game book, but apparently it was lost after lunch. The games before lunch proceeded smoothly, the breaks between games were short but sufficient. After lunch, we spent a huge chunk of time, 20 plus minutes, listening to the rep try to figure out what a good game to play is. While the field fee is $10, realize that some of us are driving 2+ hours away, spending $40+ on gas, and want to get their playing time in. Not getting enough playing time is one way to ensure some people don’t come back. I also don’t consider that manhunt game of 30 vs 4 actually playing anything. It’s called walk around aimlessly looking for bright colors for however long (the 4 guys hiding had Hawaiian shirts), and most of you won’t see any action. I’m sure it was exciting for the 4 guys hiding, but for the rest, we just sat on a log and waited for the game to end.
It was, I didn't do a good job. Honestly, I'm surprised there aren't more people complaining about the game or how the day went. We did actually start late, and lunch was much longer than it should have been, partially my fault, partially because no one moved when I tried to get people back up to play. After lunch, when I realized I had left my afternoon's props up at the parking lot, I attempted to radio in the truck driver, but could not raise him, thus, I improvised. In a previous game day, many people had a great deal of fun hunting one team, so much fun, in fact, that we did it twice that day. Perhaps, instead of sitting on a log the whole game, you could have tried to find those guys, changed your attitude to have a little fun. If you'll remember, those 4 brightly colored guys won that round.
I am sorry you feel you didn't get your money's worth out of the game, with the long travel times, and the longer weights after lunch. That is my fault, and I apologize.
captainkirk05 wrote:
Game types were “meh”. Even though there was some weird objective to win given, it was never really one that was attainable. The real objective to most of the trench battles- Shoot something. There was no way to win without the admin fudging the mechanics mid game to get it over with. It was a stalemate shooting gallery for both sides. Not saying it was no fun, but it would have been more fun if there was a reason to actually try to win instead of just increase your personal kill/death ratio. And then the manhunt game I previously mentioned. And as for the last game, it would have been perfect had the tan team spawn not been right on a flag we had to take.
Every objective I gave was attainable. I know it seems impossible for one team to take the other team's one and only respawn, but it's happened, many times actually. The last skirmish day we had at SQA, one team succeeded in taking the respawn. Hard objectives are sometimes the best way to get people to sling some plastic. As you saw, that's exactly what the purpose of the trench battles were, shoot something. The captive game was poorly thought out, I thought the teams would perform one way, when they didn't, either one of them. That just resulted in a flat stalemate. I attempted to change stuff around, but you are right, I should have just called the game. Personally, I don't like games that involve HVT, but a friend requested it, and in place of another death match variation, I decided to go with that scenario instead.
As I said before, the manhunt was due to lack of resources, and because it had been overwhelmingly popular at a previous game. As for the flags, that was also very well liked this go round, and again, a product of improvising. In an attempt to get the next game going as quickly as possible, I had some helpers place the flags, as I went over the rules. I had no idea where 2 of the 4 flags where when I placed the teams on either side of the field. But even knowing where the flags are, I don't believe I would have placed the teams any differently, the green team had equal advantages in comparison with the tan team. However, next time, I will place the flags in better locations, along with having a little better ruleset for the scenario.
captainkirk05 wrote:
SAFETY. It wasn’t there. There is this illusion of safety at the field (and all AOSC games for that matter), but let’s be honest it’s not there. This is why I never take off my eye protection on these so called cold fields. Hence why I also ask many shooters closer than 50ft who hit me what their MED is. The mags out, eye pro off rule is not implemented safely. Most people remove magazines, and a few people don’t. At this time everyone has their eye pro off. We end up yelling at those with mags still in, and they reluctantly remove them. The funny thing is, none of the mag’less guns are safe. Most still have one bb in the hop up, ready to shoot out at the pull of a trigger, or the shorting of wires as we heard at one game. The illusion of safety leads to careless actions that can endanger others, as I’ve seen too many people “dry fire” a bb out of their safe and empty gun while on a cold field. As safe as you want to be, always realize there are one or two people not following the safety rules, while being extra goofy playing with their guns and endangering everyone around. This situation is created by a lack of enforcement of rules, and bad timing with taking eye pro off as players are still emptying hop ups and mags. I’m not jumping on just this game’s rep on this issue, it goes for every AOSC game I’ve been to, and not to just bash on the hosts but a lot of this rests in the hands of the players, who many do not care for the safety of their fellow players, meaning the admins must turn into big meanies and get strict with them.
Safety is always an issue, not saying I'm ignoring it, but at the same time, I can't spend 5 extra minutes between each game making sure everyone has their mags out and chambers cleared. I announced cold field when it appeared that everyone had mags out. Something I encourage you to do is to say something, speak up. Ask those people you see with mags in to take them out, if they talk back to you, get an admin to enforce it. You won't get in trouble for respectfully enforcing rules at SQA. While I had other "helpers" they only do so much, and as you pointed out, I am only one man, I can't see everything all at once.
captainkirk05 wrote:
Continuing about safety, I would like to note I and two others were shot by a red tagged gun, meaning a 100 ft MED. And I was shot from 40 ft away, full auto. Luckily he had horrible aim and I only took a glancing hit. I addressed the player about his actions, and also addressed the game admin at the scene. I heard the game admin say something to another player, but nothing to the player violating this essential rule of safety. As game administrator and event representative, one of the duties is to ensure rules are followed, especially those directly concerning the safety of the event attendees. I would like to know what action, or non-action was taken on this player? I do not wish punishment for this player, but I do want to know if the admin even cared to talk to this player, or make attempts to prevent another mishap. I know from the past that Dom has required players to use a 0 ft MED pistol for breaking MED’s, was there similar action? Or was it ignored?
It is unfortunate if this offends anyone, but realize that since the badge of the AOSC was worn on this event, it is being criticized as such. Yes I had fun and enjoyed myself out there, but I was looking forward to much more than what I got out of the day.
I spoke with the player concerning the 100ft MED mishap, and spoke with the people that chronoed the gun. While marked with a 100ft MED tag, the reasoning behind this was because the gun chroned several low numbers, we are talking sub 100, and then had one unusual spike above 500, while most of the time giving an error. The Admin nearby told the people running the chrono to give the man a red tag because of his strange chrono readigns. After speaking with the man, I found out it was a stock gun, one that I have a great deal of experience with, that that exact one of course, but with the same make and model. Due to this information, I let him go with a warning. Should I have been stricter on him, probably. But there are many problems here, one of which was why a gun that chronoed over the full auto limit was allowed. This is something I will deal with, and make sure situations like this don't happen again.
This game was not originally an AOSC game, but a simple skirmish day put on by SQA. When the AOSC's plans dropped out, they asked SQA if they could use that day to host an AOSC game day. SQA agreed, but the game plan was not changed because it had already been announced that it was going to be a $10 skirmish day. Skirmishes are meant for local players, not trying to discourage you from coming out, just realize that skirmishes are skirmishes, they aren't OPs.
Now, aaaalllllll of that said. I'm glad to hear that you did have fun. I hope to see you out there again, lol, even if it's not on a skirmish day. We do do larger operations, just not very many of them. I want to apologize if it sounds like I'm trying to dodge issues, or if I even sound apathetic in some areas. I assure you, I'm not. This weekend was unusually difficult for me, and it showed in my planning and how the games were run. I've run many games, and have been doing it for years. I really am a little surprised more people don't have more negative things to say about the weekend. I guess the excellent weather put people in a great mood. Again, I want to thank you for your input, a thousand "you did great's" aren't as valuable as one "you could have done better here's", I appreciate your tough judgement.