Night Ops

A new guidebook please

Our N.O. Shakespeare needs to drop a new updated masterpiece guide.

*cough* psychlonic *cough*

While I appreciate the attempts at drumming up activity here, there's no need for this. Unless someone else is knee deep in an actual "guide" as we know it, there isn't one coming.

What's coming is less of a "guide" in the strict, linear book sense and more of an instructional format that can become coursework for anyone of any skill level.

When I wrote WOTS, things were a lot different. Outside of my own knowledge and skill being subpar by modern standards let alone what I personally know now, YouTube didn't even exist yet when Version 1 was written. The only resources available for stealth that weren't in the &T topic were shitty Paladin Press theoretical pieces and bullshido ninja books. There were a few good books for specialized skills but as good as something like the MIT Guide to Lock Picking was, books are frankly a poor medium for that skill much like trying to learn martial arts from them. Even Lockpicking101 at the time was locked behind a membership trust wall.

So, even as bad as it was, WOTS was a big deal back then because it was a purpose-made guide intended to help people sneak around. It wasn't necessarily the first, Infrared himself had written a guide but WOTS was my misguided attempt to cover every consideration one should have during the night. Back then combining it all into one piece like everyone wished for was taboo - everyone holding the knowledge hated the idea.

Today, a lot has changed. The overall quality of information out there has really stepped up and we can find all of these guides/videos on individual parts one would use on an operation that are vastly superior to anything in WOTS. So much so that reading it no longer feels exciting but outdated and a set up for failure IMO.

However, it is my belief that the cycle is repeating itself. The information out there, while quality, is all scattered to the winds again. In some cases, the info is good and correct but there are faults. Vital keys left out that would cause problems should it be used or information better suited to a soldier who has far more backing than we do here.

I had tried in the past repeatedly to consolidate all of this new info into a traditional "guide" format and became frustrated each time at how difficult it was to properly intertwine the information as it frankly needs to be. Invariably the effort bloated and felt like it was going off the rails, so I would stop after realizing there was no way to do the subject justice like that.

This new wiki project is my "new WOTS" in the sense that it's a modern attempt to be a definitive all inclusive work, bringing together current, improved knowledge into one place but also going further and making it easy and fun to learn from. It's meant to keep your attention and inspire. It fills the gaps left by the best of what's scattered out there. Further, it's more future-proof in that it can be rapidly updated to accommodate for the emergence of new technologies and techniques. It isn't a "wiki" in the generalized sense you'd get looking at a proper one, it is a guide that takes advantage of wiki software, essentially creating a sort of training program.

Be patient. I've been plugging away at it almost daily, it will roll out when I feel like it can accomplish its mission: educate and inspire on a level you won't find anywhere else today. I couldn't care less if activity here is on life support, it's my swan song to stealth.

I will also gather some data for you.