BURNED HORIZONS · published
// SITREP [0025]
[DEV]
[2026-05-06-1430]
[KAOS // DV-98]
[NAFOSEC // NC-RIGA]
[RE: THE OPERATOR SERVICE JACKET // PART I - ROLE DESIGNATIONS] In too many games, characters are interchangeable and disposable. You lose one, you replace them. Slot filled, problem solved. Maybe there is a name attached, maybe a number or two. But they are ultimately interchangeable. Assets. And you feel that. You never really feel the loss because there was never really a person there to begin with. That is the thing we kept coming back to. How do you build a game where losing someone actually means something? Where the operator you send into a hot zone has enough weight behind them that you think twice. Where the CT-17 who has been keeping your squad alive through three consecutive deployments is not just a medic slot you can refill. The answer is not one system. It is in the crack of a round going through a wall and what happens to the operator on the other side of it. It is in the conversations between operators who have been through something together. It is in a world that remembers what your unit has done and responds to it. It is in the weight of a decision made under pressure that you cannot take back. The Operator Service Jacket is an integral part of that. It is the record of all of it. Where they came from, what they did before this unit, the deployments, the wounds they carried back, the certifications earned the hard way. It builds as they build. And when you lose someone whose jacket has twenty entries in it, you feel it differently than losing a fresh recruit. Because it is so central to the player experience we are walking through it over the next several sitreps, block by block. The full jacket covers ten sections:
[HEADER IDENTITY BLOCK] Callsign, role designation, theater command, team assignment, registry ID, UCD/S grade, active SCAR tags
[DEMOGRAPHICS] Full name, date and place of birth, physical profile, languages spoken
[NEXT OF KIN] Listed family or personal contact, relationship code
[PREFERRED WEAPON] Primary weapon preference
[PRIOR SERVICE] Military or contractor record before induction
[SERVICE RECORD] Induction, rotations, deployments, operational assignments
[ARCHETYPE, TRAIT, AND ATTRIBUTES] Psychological profile, behavioral markers, core operator stats
[CERTIFICATIONS] Qualifications earned through training or service
[PATHWAYS AND SPECIALIZATIONS] Operational tracks and the skill sets that develop within them
[NARRATIVE BLOCKS] Service performance overview, biographical summary, personal anchors, field endorsements, FSO signature
This week we are starting inside the Header Identity Block, specifically Role Designations. And before we get into the list, it is worth saying why this matters. Your roster is not just a headcount. Every role covers something nothing else can. No CT-17 and your operators bleed out in the field. No RW-31 and you are walking into terrain you have not seen, against positions you do not know exist. No SE-88 and the enemy is talking freely while you are flying dark. No OS-91 and you are handling ordnance without the operator who was built for it. Breaches get sloppy, IEDs stay dangerous, and the margin for error gets a lot thinner. No HG-11 and your suppression becomes a different conversation. Every operator with a weapon can lay down fire, but nothing replaces the sustained high-volume output that gives your element genuine room to maneuver. Every gap in your roster is a liability that the mission will find. Building the right team is itself a tactical decision. One that plays out across the entire campaign. Every operator carries a Role and a permanent Role Designation. The designation does not change regardless of how the operator develops over time. Roles define orientation, not limitation. An AF-75 can develop trauma skills. A CT-17 can move into overwatch certifications. The jacket captures that growth. The designation tells you where they started and what they are built around.
AF-75 // Adaptive Force Operator
The unit's flex point. Frontline combat and gap coverage when specialists are down or unavailable. When something breaks mid-mission this is who steps into it. XO-39 // Tactical Operations Officer
The operational commander at any scale. Owns decision-making, coordination, and mission flow under pressure. When things start going sideways this is the role that either holds the element together or doesn't. CT-17 // Combat Trauma Specialist
Field stabilization and the long-term management of persistent wounds and scarring. Every firefight produces casualties. This is the role that determines whether those casualties come back. OS-91 // Ordnance Solutions Specialist
Explosives, EOD, structural removal. When the mission requires a breach, a controlled demolition, or something that needs to stop existing, this is the only operator built for it. Without this role you are handling ordnance without the operator who was built for it. Breaches get sloppy and the margin for error gets a lot thinner. LR-42 // Long-Range Solutions Expert
Overwatch, area denial, precision removal of high-value targets. Sees the battlefield before anyone else does and shapes it before the element moves into it. RW-31 // Recon Warfare Specialist
Operates ahead of or completely independent of the main element. Pathfinding, observation, close-access intelligence in denied areas. Finds the soft entry points, identifies enemy positions, reads the ground before anyone else touches it. Without this role you go in without knowing what you are walking into. SE-88 // Signals Exploitation Specialist
Electronic warfare, comms interception, network infiltration. Turns the enemy's own systems into liabilities. Also owns the team's tactical communications plan and operates forward, not from the FOB. Lose this operator and you lose both your offensive electronic capability and your communications security at the same time. AS-05 // Aerial Operations Specialist
Insertion, extraction, aerial resupply. The operator who gets a battered squad out of a hot zone when everything else has gone wrong. When the team needs to move fast, this is who makes it happen or doesn't. HG-11 // Heavy Weapons Operator
The anchor. Delivers sustained high-volume fire that generates significant Suppression Units, giving the rest of the element room to maneuver and control space in ways lighter weapons cannot sustain. WS-14 // Weapon Systems Specialist
Keeps the weapon pool functional in the field. Tuning, part harvesting, ballistic troubleshooting on the move. A degraded weapon pool in a sustained campaign is a slow crisis. This is the role that prevents it.
S4 // Operations Support Coordinator
Procurement, supply chain, financial flow, operator hiring. Every piece of kit your field operators carry passed through S4 first. The operation does not move without this role keeping it funded and supplied. S6 // Communications and Intelligence Analyst
Keeps internal comms alive and secure from the FOB. Processes field intelligence and turns raw data into actionable intelligence for the XO. The information picture the element operates on comes from here. S9 // Platform Maintenance Technician
Mechanical readiness for all air and ground assets. Base and FOB assigned as a rule. If the platforms are not ready the element does not move.
The role and designation system is the foundation of something larger. The intent, as we continue to build out the game, is for players to manage a full operational organization spanning multiple global locations. Assigning operators based on designation, skill set, and what their jacket actually says about them. Who is ready. Who is recovering. Who you can afford to lose and who you cannot. Inspired in part by the base management systems in Metal Gear Solid V but built to go considerably further. We are not there yet, but the role system is where that starts. The role tells you what someone is. The assignment tells you what they are currently doing. The jacket tells you everything else. Next Sitrep we dive deeper into the OSJ.
Hold the Line. Always Forward.
Слава Україні. Героям слава. //-- BACKER GAME KEYS CAN BE ACCESSED VIA UPLINK PORTAL:https://burnedhorizons.com/uplink
All keys listed in your Operator Service Jacket (Uplink Profile) so far can be activated, but currently only the base game can be installed. Once activated, the Forward Deployed Supporter Pack, Soundtrack, etc. will prompt an install closer to 1.0. ADDITIONAL KEYS CAN BE OBTAINED BY DIRECTLY SUPPORTING THE GAME'S DEVELOPMENT VIA THE DIRECT BACKER PORTAL:https://burnedhorizons.com/dbxWISHLIST/FOLLOW ON STEAM | JOIN THE DISCORD
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