USAAC training program officially launched...details inside..

[Inferno]

So when is AA going to see this headline?

Its been 2 years or more since "talk" of a 'training" program has been about.

Any good news on the progress of this endeavor or is still in the meeting, discussing and planning phase?

 

[Tango]

It's almost done.......Training rooms will be on 1 hour before the Fun Events start on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights.
USHA_Kid has the list of trainers.

[Inferno]

Excellent!

Good work players

[shrapnel]

Yes, Fern, it's easy to talk about something but harder to actually do it.

The subject of training for new players was raised within the present USAAC administration last month and, after two short meetings, we have already reached broad agreement on how to proceed. Each of the squads represented by USAAC have committed to a program and have offerred volunteer trainers.

The time for talk is almost over and, hopefully, there will be enough people of action willing to give substance to the idea.

Apart from the current effort you should take solace from the fact that this problem has not, until now, been ignored. Many new players have been recruited and taken care of by new squads such as BSS , AA, TEA, and Ravens. This growth in numbers of players and participating squads is clearly attributable to dedicated individuals who have the best interests of the game at heart and are willing to make the effort. Those individuals deserve to be supported and that is what USAAC hopes to achieve.

Bear in mind that USAAC is not, as may be suspected, a group of self serving individuals. It is quite simply an amalgamation of participating squads who are willing to come together to provide support for the common good and the continuation of Air Attack. Any Air Attack squad can become a member of USAAC and be an equal partner in this endeavour. Any individual may step forward and offer to provide practical suppert to that endeavour.

Your concern is appreciated and, hopefully, we may look forward to your practical support in the common purpose.

[Inferno]

Well Shrap my dear friend as you may or may not know I have spent much time giving help to a newb or 2  in my day . I have wore the shirts of Ref and Guide giving of my own personal time to the betterment of the new fellers for a few years.
So I understand  and share your enthusiasm of the new program coming to fruition. A program like you describe does indeed have my practical support and admiration as well.
Only I dont play much anymore. Only for practices and matches and as much in between as I can fit which isnt much these days with a 2 hour travel to and from work anymore.

So yes I am happy to see something being developed for the new fellers.

And lets not forget Wizard who has done this for many years as well also as well as spots of other pilots who have helped randomnly through the years.

Personal mentors of mine through the years who have given personal time include Deleriux on inertia speed and altitude/Kid on a whole buncha stuff/Scalphunter on hot 109K tips/of course Madman who gave me firing tips Pre-WS days/Redbaron back in the day on the basics/and a few others who have given there private time to me as well. Sorry for not remembering all at the spur of the moment.

These individuals capture what support and help is all about as well. I have witnessed all of them helping out members outside of their squad.

This is the spirit of AA. Nice to see it being carried on!

[Firestorm]

Well said Ferny...very nicely put

[TANK]

Soon we change something and exclude new pilots from experienced pilots.
This means new pilots are not able to see or join the default FFA or team arenas.
Only private, event and the new pilot arenas.
Also included is a trainings arena without scoring for the new pilots.

In front of that change we need some increase in guides who are able to join that new pilot arenas and help them.
This arenas I hope become over time the major recruiting point for squads.

As the past have shown, a fix training program is a bit complicated, but can be done if someone stays behind that and really does push it.
Special team flight is good to do in a group. Basics are mostly bad since the experience from every pilot is different and what is for one a new thing is for the others boring.

[USHA_Kid]

Tank we are real close to presenting our training program.
We will be training 3 nights a week.Mon Wed and Friday's.

Instead of Guide we will be  using USAAC_Pilotname  as our tag.We will have about 8-10 trainers available to man the rooms.

Monday's will be basic's
Wednesday's will be intermidiate
Friday's will be  advanced..

Each pilot that uses our program will advance through each stage.....

This program will work along side the GUIDE program with no problem.
I think it will be a very good program for all newbies to use.

So your ideas fit right in with what we want to do.
We will also integrate Teamspeak use in the  program so we can talk with the pilots and get better results instead of typing everything in the rooms.

I'll let you know more details as we get it all worked out.We should be  ready in the next week or  2.

[TANK]

Yes, such a program would fit extremely good.
Sure a great benefit for the rookies and of course no problem with the Guide program, more like fitting perfect together.

This with the guides and the tag is no big deal. Just to identify them easily and knowing why and who is flying around with an AMa tag in some arena for new pilots.
Could lead to misunderstandings if someone uses a 2nd account there nobody knows, so the best is stick to such a tag for the new pilot arenas.

Since the Guide program is now only in the hands of Wizard and his helping hand doesn't show up any more we may need also someone new who is helping out there.
I try to put the train now on the right track, but I can't permanently helping out the Guides since I do have already a 300% full time job at the clp.
Only having some eye on the Guide program wouldn't be good enough, but we clarify that first with Wizard.

[Rb_Tullamore-Dew]

On another note:

Right now a user only gets promoted when the overall-ratio is positive. The ratio per flight-session adds to the overall-ratio.

So, if a rookie gets a positive ratio in a flight session and gets promoted to  - lets say - from Cdt. to 2nd Lt and leaves the arena, he will re-join as Cdt. anyway, as long as the overall-ratio remains negative.

Afaik there is a ´reset-button´available in the pilot-tag-manager on the CLP (http://www.airattack-central.com/pilotreset.php), in order to reset a possibly negative ratio to zero (0). But most - if not all rookies don´t know about the reset-button.

I think this should be automated, if possible. It wasn´t like this on other servers, such as KAA, GCPro and Wireplay. The ratio shouldn´t go below zero and shouldn´t become negative at all. Why is it ? Is it possible to change it or to reset it to zero automatically, if negative ?

If it´s possible, rookies could promote faster. Some looking for higher ranks and never receive them....

Now, this wouldn´t make them better pilots but it could help to avoid frustration and probably keeps some for longer in the game, before they quit playing.

[TANK]

Right, thats also some problem we did nearly forget.

Well, Deleriux is a bit busy and not that much available, but Topschrott could build that in since he is very familiar with the scoring system for pilot tags.

I think the scores shouldn't count at all once a ratio is zero instead of counting to minus and reseting them later. This would solve problems with rank if a pilot leaves and rejoins quickly a new arena.
Technically possible, but I don't like to change code I didn't write without having a real need or an emergency. Could confuse later the original authors and lead to more problems or senseless discussions like we had in the past.

But good point Tulla :)

Ohhhh, Btw.
The script change is build in and we are able now to hide arenas if a certain rank is needed to enter some arena, which means we hide actually the new pilot arenas for all without the right rank or the special right to join this arenas.
Now we have also the possibility to hide FFA and teams for new pilots which means that step one is alsready done and we just need some more "Guides" and some rules for Guides.
Than we can exclude new pilots from the hotshots and look if this works better.