Join the new world

Hello everyone, I would like to start off by thanking all of you that participated in the recent survey, without your help we would have a much harder time trying to improve the Canadian Armed Forces for everyone. As of writing this article, I have received 31 responses, or roughly 19% of the CAF. There have been many great responses, ideas, suggestions and complaints from this, but I have to summarize the best I can, so I am sorry if I don’t get everything. I am going to provide your answers in chronological order, with a response in which I believe could be a solution or path to take.

1) Roughly how long have you been in the CAF?
Less than a month 16%
1 – 6 months 27%
7 – 12 months 23%
1+ Year 34%

Nice to see an even spread of membership, we are able to keep our veterans here, while still bringing in new members consistently.

2) For what reason did you join the CAF?

a) The first reason was being invited from a friend or comrade.
b) The size of the CAF indicated a strong community, a big army capable of influencing battles, and because it is the national military unit of Canada.
c) Lastly there was a fair amount of responses suggesting that organization and programs within the CAF were a contributing factor, similar to b) but I believe worthy of a mention.

3) How would you rate the Orders, Supplies, Organization, and ability to get help within the CAF?
a) Poor 25%
b) Average 44%
c) Good 31%

Now this may change with recent issues within the current government in regards to Military Funding. We will see how this plays out.

4) Have you been happy with your Daily Orders and Campaign of the day?
a) Yes 66%
b) No 6%
c) Somewhat 22%
d) I don’t care just give me candy and parts! 6%

5) Please tell us of one area you are very happy with about the CAF.

6) Please tell us of an area you are unhappy with, and what you would like to see fixed.

Now I am going to answer questions 5 & 6 here in one response as I see many areas overlapping, with people enjoying programs or attributes, but not satisfied with the quality and/or service. Overwhelmingly I received many praises about the community within the CAF, there are a lot of great people here, doing hard work, providing assistance, help, friendships and more. This is great to hear, after all it is a social game and if the community isn’t there, then we are not going to keep members. However, to the downside of this area is organization, which I have come to believe is behind most of the responses from question #6. The CAF forums are dead, and nobody seems to use the IRC at all. Personally I rarely use the forums, they are pretty dry, boring and I find not visually appealing or organized. I don’t know exactly how to change that, or if it would be better to try and resurrect activity within our IRC, which would be very effective for timed strikes. Just throwing it out there, but who would be interested in a Facebook group?

Secondly are supplies, many people are grateful for the supplies we receive, however it is our tax dollars that supply us so give us back our money right? This is a very touchy subject, which I had covered on in a previous article. I will personally sum up what I believe is the mentality behind supplies, with your responses included. “They are essential to our MU, soldiers need the supplies to be able to battle everyday, complete their DO’s, and to make a difference on the battlefield. Many are concerned that we are not receiving enough (more supplies means potentially higher taxes) and to receive them more efficiently. We need to ensure that new players are receiving enough supplies to get them set up and stable when starting out, while making sure that those players, who are well off, don’t take money from those who could use it more.” I don’t know how to go about this exactly, maybe a small base amount for all members across the board, with added bonuses for those who fight more. Open to suggestions here. I will add a note though on this issue of getting supplies out. I know it can be hard waiting several days to get the money you need. We, the supply officers do the best we can, I know personally I spend well over an hour just getting them out, never mind the paper work included, all on satellite internet in northern Quebec 😒. However, we will make improvements in the delivery system where we can.

Lastly was a concern for the chain in command within the CAF. I believe that this comes from a lack of quote “transparency”, many people, especially the newer ones, don’t have a very good idea of who to ask for help, and may be intimidated to ask “silly” questions on the CAF feed. If we utilized the forums we could certainly provide an easy visual breakdown of the CAF command, positions, programs, and people available to provide assistance. Increasing public awareness of who is in charge of what could help increase communication, and enrollment in CAF programs and future programs. I myself sometimes don’t know who to ask for what, so I could imagine how it is for new beginners, so this is a call to all you veteran players, active players, and just all round good people, lets be pro-active on our feed, helping out those who could use it. We are in the process of initiating a thorough and productive mentorship program, and will need the help from many of you.

7) Please provide a direction in which you would like to see the CAF go.
There have been many helpful suggestions as to where people would like to see the CAF go, some of which have been covered in previous questions and my responses, but I will try to cover the main points that were brought up.

Starting with the improvement of the IRC/Forums. As covered, people would like to see our communications increase, so we can become a tight knit community, and an elite force with timed strikes.

Many would like to see more/better mentorship programs, systems where new players can sign up, and receive a personal mentor for a given period of time, or until no longer needed. Personally this would have helped me in my beginning days, being a gold waster and all 😛

Get the word out on our communes, helping to better inform our members of how they work, and why they are good for us all. This ties in with the suggestion of better supplies, and what I mentioned earlier.

Growing in size and becoming more "elite" was a big one too. Many people want to make the CAF a formidable force, while insuring that we maintain a high level of active fighters.

Other mentionables: Games or prizes whether monthly, weekly etc., punishment for rule breakers (what rules right?)

I hope my summary of the September Survey has served some justice to the CAF, I am certainly very thankful to all of you who had participated and made this possible. I understand some of the answers and responses were already obvious, but I believe this is a good way of opening communication, getting ideas flowing, and hopefully pushing forward to bring positive change within the Canadian Armed Forces. We are a great group of people, and if we all continue to chip in where we can, we will continue to make this group a force to be reckoned with!

Thanks again
TheSmoke


1st Place – 6 Gold, 15 Q7 Weapons, 110 Q7 Food go to… Bullet Proof Fish!!!
2nd Place – 4 Gold, 10 Q7 Weapons, 60 Q7 Food go to… Chriswen!!!
3rd Place – 2 Gold, 5 Q7 Weapons, 30 Q7 Food go to… Ender100!!!