Slotting.

[TEG]

This is the rules (as i know of) about slotting, as many people are unaware of them, or aware of ones which are not entirely true. (Aggravatingly, FNGs get the short end of the stick here, but that's with good cause)

1) Specified People. People specified to pick a specific role take first grabs. That can be anything from Zeus picking Slots for people to battle buddies to evaluations.

2) Tag Holders. People who have completed the training of a specified role get grabs next, unless specified otherwise.

2.5) Trainees. People in training for a Tag can SOMETIMES get privileges under holders but above veterans. Most of the time, they're treat as holders however.

3) CMs and Veterans. People who have the 3 lines next to their name, or the pink symbol, in Team Speak. This is often merged with Regulars, however.

4) Regulars. People with only 1 line, reference NatNanny.

NOTE. FROM A BRIEF DISCUSSION WITH AN UNNAMED CM, NO TIME LIMIT IS SET BETWEEN STAGES 4 AND 5. THIS APPLIES TO ALL MAIN MISSIONS UNLESS DIRECTLY SPECIFIED.

5) FNGs. We get the 'sloppy seconds', and are often in squad leads cuz regs don't pick em. There is no time limit, and FNGs must wait until specified to take the slot.

Glad we got that cleared up.

[ChaosShadoWolfe]

Mind you, there are FNGs that are actually decent at a specific job. Godzi for instance is an great advanced medic, while I can fulfill a proper 2iC role or Squad Lead role myself. As you said it, we get the short end of the stick... Admittedly, there are FNGs out there that outperform regulars that take SquadLead slots because "hurhur I wanna sqwudlud!" FNGs should be able to get the tags as well in my opinion, under the condition that those with tags get priority OVER regulars, but under other tag holders and Trainees. And then when they achieve Regular status, they will be counted as Tag Holders fully.

Edited June 28, 2017 by ChaosShadoWolfe

[Lenny]

To be honest, I have seen how slowly FNG's become reg and thus I fully agree that FNG's should be able to get tags (and when obtaining a tag should automatically become regular)
Perhaps before training let at least one regular 'vouch' for them.

I suggest you post what i just said in community feedback and/or think tank suggestions.

[cineafx]

53 minutes ago, Lenny said:

and when obtaining a tag should automatically become regular

I personally would rather say that getting a tag counts as some rep. So you don't get regular instantly but faster.

Or alternatively after receiving a specific (smaller amount) of rep you can get tags and that would make one regular instantly.

Both would have their own disadvantage.

Edited June 28, 2017 by cineafx
at --> as

[Silver Snow]

Opinion coming from a recently turned Regular (small amount of bias?)

I personally think that FNG's, if they prove themselves from having people vouch for them (reliable sources) along with being observed/verified by trainers/higher ups, they deserve to earn tags. However, in missions where tags affect slotting, I think slotting order should go like this:

1. Regulars+ w/ tags + Regulars+ w/ tags (in training)
2. Regulars+ & FNG's w/ tags
3. FNG's

For #2, how FNG's w/ tags works is they can slot up at the same time when Regulars+ w/o tags start slotting but only into slots they have tags for.

Example: Alpha Medic Slot is open and an FNG named Jeff with a medic tag can take snatch it before a Regular+ does. However, if all Medic Slots are filled, Jeff waits till FNG slotting.

---

Additionally, once an FNG w/ tags turns Regular, they'll be required to prove themselves once more to show they deserve the tags.

---

And like @ChaosShadoWolfe said, I've come across some FNG's that honestly do a better job than some Regulars in slots like Medic or Squad Leading and deserve to be examined for FNG tags if they are ever implemented.

Edited June 28, 2017 by Silver Snow
Fancy title + forgot about trainees + more explanations + supporting Wolfe's point

[Blutze]

8 hours ago, Silver Snow said:

1. Regulars+ w/ tags + Regulars+ w/ tags (in training)
2. Regulars+ & FNG's w/ tags
3. FNG's

Eh. As much as I agree that there's gotta be some changes (three bloody months is what it took me), making the slotting process more convoluted is not the way. An aggressive way to keep it simple would be to throw all tagholders together regardless of FNG status and otherwise use your system, but on the big picture that might cause bad blood and something along the lines of Lenny's and cineafx' ideas would be preferable.

In the end we should probably keep in mind why EVERYBODY starts as FNG: You could be the most awesomest player in all the wide world, but we don't know that yet. If you prove yourself by passing an evaluation, maybe it is time to drop those doubts.

[Vesper Akiri]

10 hours ago, Lenny said:

To be honest, I have seen how slowly FNG's become reg and thus I fully agree that FNG's should be able to get tags (and when obtaining a tag should automatically become regular)
Perhaps before training let at least one regular 'vouch' for them.

I suggest you post what i just said in community feedback and/or think tank suggestions.

That's because, as you should already know, getting REG tags isn't a set time. There a pre-requisits to achieve REG status, but this is also tied hand in hand with your overal contribution/activity in the group and how you portray yourself.

If you get involved with a lot of people and are active on the forums, then chances are you'll get REG tags pretty swiftly. If you keep to yourself and just turn up now and then to play the occasional mission, then chances are that you would take a lot longer to get REG tags.

It's not a difficult concept to understand, it baffles me why people still don't get this.

[Doctadoone]

The problem I always bring up in these situations is that not all FNGs are FNGs. The FNG group houses some members who have been with us for a month or more and are on par knowledge wise with regs or even higher. In the case of those who play but don't use the forum this is even higher as the forum is our baseline for attaining your chevron. These people are more than qualified to be regs sometimes but either because of a lack of time or lack of forum activity, they don't get their chevron. Then there are the actual FNGs. Individuals who hop into a main mission and have little to no prior knowledge of how to play. Sure some know the basics but they aren't quite on the level of a regular who knows how we play as a unit and community and knows what is right and wrong here. It's the difference between the guys who talk in side chat and those who ping Zeus. There's also the case of those FNGs who come in here and tell us that everything we're doing is wrong, that we aren't doing things correct and often we don't want them taking skill roles because they become insufferable. I'm talking about the FNGs who start enforcing their limited understanding of the rules on Veterans and CMs, those FNGs that tell people they can't take the medic slot when that individual has the medic tag and is a regular (both situations are actual examples of incidents I've seen this week alone).

The problem is we mix both of these FNG subsections into one group, much to the dismay of the more experienced players. Many FNGs come here from watching a streamer or youtube personality *cough* Cyanide *cough* and have no idea how to play Arma, but some are a bit too eager to try! That's why, in my opinion, they get the final slots. Because otherwise, we have rookie pilots who say they can pilot well when all they really think is 'I wanna fly the chopper! I wanna fly the chopper!' 

Sure this isn't the case all the time but we see plenty of new faces and names on the TS who are eager to prove themselves and try to hop into it too quickly. Because we don't know a lot of people in the FNG group we can't really let them go before the more experienced members, and as a result, this, unfortunately, holds back the up-and-comers who ARE good at these skill roles. We'd need a whole new rank to separate the trained from the trainees.

In my opinion, the rate at which we all attain regular status is too slow and as a result, it holds back the eager players who aren't as bored to death of this game as we all are. When I was an FNG here, I played everyday. I was in every mission I could get into, main or otherwise and played until my eyes hurt cause I enjoyed it. Now I play in maybe 40-60% of the main missions and rarely stay past mission two or three, and clicking that squad lead slot has become a little too hard for me to do on occasion. Somedays I don't want to deal with it and I just want to grab a 5.56 LMG, as much ammo as I can carry and spray down some russians rather than try to keep squad mates from dying and dealing with all the stress that comes from listening to the long range. I remember when I was an FNG I rarely got into the third mission of the evening, let alone the second; but these past few days we've been dragging in the entire FNG room for both main missions #communityisdying and squad leading so many people who aren't as familiar with the game can be a real challenge for me sometimes. I'm more than happy to teach, just not in the main missions. 

I know we lowered the prestige value recently from 10 to 7. Maybe a tweak from 7 to 5 is in order given the circumstances as all candidates with required prestige get screened by the CM team anyways. Or I like Lenny's idea of if they earn a tag or two regular status may be in order as the forum only aspect of earning the chevron is a bit limiting. I can perfectly understand why we have it, having individuals be active on the forums is a must, but again, it's another way of separating out those who know how to play versus those that don't. That's just my two cents on the subject matter anyways.

Edited June 29, 2017 by Doctadoone

[Lenny]

2 hours ago, Vesper Akiri said:

If you get involved with a lot of people and are active on the forums, then chances are you'll get REG tags pretty swiftly. If you keep to yourself and just turn up now and then to play the occasional mission, then chances are that you would take a lot longer to get REG tags.

It's not a difficult concept to understand, it baffles me why people still don't get this.

Check some fngs. Some of them are active on TS and have a good number of posts on the forum... yet they are not reg.

You only get reg by prestige. So you gotta hope that when you post on the forum a veteran sees your posts and decides to upvote it. If that doesnt happen you wont get reg  no matter the effort you put in

[Guest]

For me I play on this server because it is fun, not to become a regular, not to get some fancy image behind my name in TS. 
I Like Lenny's idea about getting a tag and being considered on par with a Reg in regards to that tag. To me showing the dedication to put in the work to get the tag,  shows how committed you are to this community. It's also a reward for those who have been here a long time and can be seen as a  stepping stone to getting reg. 

[Slouchy Orc]

So with the whole slotting thing (which this thread started with) good on you for making it in the first place. I can understand the difficulty of understanding our system at first so thank you for making it. Now as a reminder to people posting about the system of becoming a regular, please move the discussion to another thread. This is an interesting topic and from the current posts that are focused on it, a dedicated thread will be a better solution then piggybacking on this one. Please only post on this thread if it is focused towards the topic of slotting and not the current system of becoming regular.

[ChaosShadoWolfe]

Understood, I'll make a separate thread for it immediately. My apologies for starting this discussion, I did not expect it to extend to this format.

EDIT: I made a topic for the system discussion in General chat. I will refrain from linking to it out of respect for the original post.

Edited June 29, 2017 by ChaosShadoWolfe
Notifying that I did as requested