I'm starting to see a trend

[doobs]

and a bad one, (sorry but this has to be said)

When questions need to be answered, they need to be answered in a timely fashion, most do, but some don't, and as trivial it may seem we need those questions answered so we can proceed in planing. without this information, we cannot plan accordingly and have to make adjustments way later.

This dive in dive out of the boards and not answer is unacceptable,
if we can take the time than so should you since we are doing our best to run your scenario.

Scenarios should be the BEST part of this game and could be, but situtaion now SUCKS. and in my opionon is not heding down the right path.

Some prerequistes should be in place before CO's are assigned(no disrespect intended)

SCENARIO CO SCHOOL and yes myself and others would be glad to help.

Script all ya want, but instead put up balanced sides and experienced CO's
even if it means the CM team taking CO side of a Scenario.

I mean no harm nor disrespect but scenarios are goin down the crapper,
name me the last one to go off and be a good one. and how long ago.

all my piece has been said, again no disrespect just my point of view.
and my love of the game.



btw ROC this is an open challenge, your team vs ours.(new neutral event)
ready for a little schoolin are ya
we win we get CO School

Remember I luv ya all, just lookin out for the game and the community

[doobs]

ROC no disrespect ya know I luv ya, but I do want a crack at ya

[Kermit de frog]

Have an age limit of 18 or older to be a CO in a senario.


j/k  goldylocks

[Newman]

There is a time frame problem here..

You're in NJ. East Coast.

Brooke, Roscoroo, ROC and myself are on the West Coast. While you have had dinner, hung with your family, and watched some TV.. we are just getting home from work and starting that process.

OK Brooke works WAY more hours than all of us put together.. That's why we don't see him on the BB's until late.

Personally, I spend 10-12 hours a day at work, on the road with no ability to check boards. I dive in and out getting up early before work, sometimes stopping by home during the day, and late at night.

We all do what we can with what we got to make Scenarios work!

From my POV.. I was given a task of designing a new Scenario, or a rerun that I was in charge of, and a month to do it with the first priority a useable map.

I tried something new...

SALUTE!

Newman

And Scenarios ARE the best we have!

[Brooke]

Doobs, for urgent questions, did you e-mail Newman?  For anything really important, folks should e-mail the CM or designer.

On the axis side, such questions seem to get answered in a timely fashion.

[Krusty]

If there was a pre-requisite for ever being assigned as a CO I'd not have been one in BOB, nor would i have ever bothered to try "getting qualified"...

Limiting it to only the CM team is going to kill off 90% of the interest folks have in ever being a CO (then good luck getting one when you need one outside the CM team!)

My $0.02

[SkyGnome]

Spread the blame.  Having a newbie CO is no big deal, if he/she is surrounded by experienced group leaders, executives - and is encouraged to seek input.  The current Axis CO would be a good example of that.  Besides reducing the odds of catastrophic failure, it also spreads the blame onto the group to a large extent, so it is the group's fault, not just one guy.  Perhaps the CMs can step in and give a hand to the newbie CO in selecting an XO and his GLs to insure that there is an experienced and contributing staff to support them, and to make it plain that leveraging that staff is the COs job, not to just bark orders and play god.  The suggestion that draft orders be released to the command staff for review prior to full release would be very helpful in this regard.

One other thing plauging some of the new setups, though, is the victory conditions that require the setup CMs to predict with inconceivable precision the outcome of the engagement.  Husky, for instance, requires very nearly half of Sicily to be taken in order for the scoring to be close - every base to either side of that half shifts the score by 50 points ( 25 less for axis, 25 more for allies for each base.)  Believing that one could predict that outcome to that precision given all the variables involved requires an incredible ego.  Downfall suffered the same problem - a complex victory condition that was impossible to predict when designing.  A better aproach may be to make the victory conditions involve a relatively simple task that's worth a lot, then a progressive set of tasks that are less significant.  For example, Allies get 1 base on Sicilly for 100 pts, then each additional base is worth 5 or 10 or something (you'd need some other stuff, but just for illustration.)  In this way, the scenario can progress, and attrition and losses become relevant, while the odds of the event becoming a blowout in the first frame are reduced to nill, while at the same time the odds of running out of objectives is also nill.

And finally, the massively mult-lived events I feel rob some of the "special" from the whole thing.  Not only does the flying get lamer, but the fighting environment to a great extent degrades into MA style - with a sort of constant furball with new planes trickling in here and there at all times.  It also makes being a GL extrordinarily difficult, as one ends up with planes all over all the time (including one's self.)  Two rides are plenty (without bails/ditches being free), and making one a "target" ride (you know, stuka, kate, TBM, goon, etc) keeps the fun going, and allows the second ride to be out of the command of the GL.  Vamp cap specifically is a nightmare to enforce and oversee - the countless violations in the logs show that, and that's not to mention the range violations which are impossible to enforce.  Even when I first started events and wasn't a particularly capable pilot, learning to be calm and to survive in a combat environment is one of the most fun and rewarding things I've gotten out of AH, and I hate to see it leave the scenarios.

Just my $.03, since doobs brought it up.

[Easyscor]

Two different issues. Scenario design would benefit if the COs participated as they did in the past.

The main issue is to recruit a CO, and his command staff, who understand that 200+ people from all over the world are committing time away from their families to participate. Scenarios are not FSOs where a few hours for review of the objectives is enough to compete. Scenarios also require the hands on monitoring of the battle and quick response to counter unforeseen moves by the opponent.

[Fencer51]

Spread the blame. Having a newbie CO is no big deal, if he/she is surrounded by experienced group leaders, executives - and is encouraged to seek input.

You can have all the experienced people as SL/GL/XO etc, but when the CO is incompetant and holds the reins tighty, does not deligate and frankly doesnt have a clue or listen it does not help who ever is on their side.

Some prerequistes should be in place before CO's are assigned(no disrespect intended)

Prerequsites for COs should be a standard.   And quite frankly there should be a minimum age.  I will say that if certain people had not stepped up some scenarios would not have been ran.  Those that did try and listened to their team and did the job deserve a big .

SCENARIO CO SCHOOL and yes myself and others would be glad to help.

I too would be willing to help with this.  Alot of people probably have no clue as to how things should be organized, what format orders should be in etc.

Also CO's should not step forward unless the are 100% sure they can be there on time and spend the necessary time to do their duty between frames. (Which is why I haven't been able to step up so far)  Upwards of 150 people depend on a CO to do what they have signed up to do.

Disappearing during the week, not responding on the boards or to emails or missing a frame with or even worse WITHOUT notice is inexcusable for anything less than a natural disaster or power failure.  

Oh and ROC, I will XO for ya he's a punk you can take him.  

[HB555]

From a players POV,
The missing parts are critical to the flight and fight.
1.Orders.
Seeing the post for the 98th Bomb Group's mission for frame 3 is the first time I have known what we were doing in advance.
After frame 1, I was told my CO did not have my email address. Although it is known by the CO who is in his flight, it was not brought to my attention via a post indicating players X, Y and Z need to post or email their addy so that the orders get to you. My email was sent immediatly, via the text buffer at end frame, and also, by way of follow up, via email.
Frame two came and went, I still received absolutly no communication, although I was aware of the new plane, so I was able to practice it on my own to some degree.
The (I guess) temporary transfer to the 47th Bomb Group was a very unpleasant surprise. Knowing this in advance, my squad affiliation could have been deleted in preperation of joining the new squad. Seeing the 98th has orders, I assume I will be rejoining the 98th on Saturday? (If you are axis and reading this, disregard the above information.)

2.  "the plan".
It follows that if you have no orders, you have no idea what the overall plan is for the frame, other than the general idea of kill all the bases on the island.
It would be nice to know that "my group" was tasked with killing XXX at base XX, YY and maybe ZZ. Secondary bases AA, BB and CC if you still have ords, for example.

3. The practice.
Maybe not everyone has the time to conduct nightly practice runs, but a scheduled practice or two would certainly enable most to fly the planned mission once, if not twice.
In this area, ROC and Brooke are my 2 favorite CO's. Both planned two or more organized practices for each and every frame of every scenario I have flown with them, again, giving the dedicated team member a chance to learn the plane, learn the mission, and learn the people we were flying with. Not everyone made every practice, but at least we had a clue as to what player A would do in several situations, how good they were at it, and if we needed to hold a few guys back for cleanup.
Also, there was certainly no shortage of email and posts pertaining to the next frame. Everyone knew what his or her assignment was, and we had the chance to practice it to perfection, which in every instance, was duplicated on game day.

and that is my 5 cents worth.

[zorstorer]

Right on HB, I had the ABSOLUTE pleasure of having ROC in my squad for the first frame and it was AMAZING!!!  The amount of planning he did on the fly kept our flight ahead of the curve throughout.  Also escorting Brooke was a very fun task because you know if you let him get to the target, that target was in very big trouble.  

[doobs]

 The amount of planning he did on the fly kept our flight ahead of the curve throughout.

BINGO

[FiLtH]

Snoopy I hope you are coming back..that was only to save time so we didnt have to juggle guys out of the 98th that was full, and the 47th needed guys. Make sure you fumigate that uniform..OoZ's guys have scabies.

[Kermit de frog]

Originally posted by FiLtH
Snoopy I hope you are coming back..that was only to save time so we didnt have to juggle guys out of the 98th that was full, and the 47th needed guys. Make sure you fumigate that uniform..OoZ's guys have scabies.

[FiLtH]

LOL...Kermit has warts!