This has the opportunity to be a great event on many levels.
The design itself is in a good theater, and you will see a good blend of planes and opportunities for combat, but I'd like to speak to other opportunities that will be built into this event.
The terrain and setup will undergo a great deal of testing for playability and correct settings. Once it is finalized, that is going to be the battle conditions. They are not going to change. The players will win or lose the event on their ability to team build and coordinate their efforts. No war had the perfect conditions for any side. Historically, one side always entered the fray in a dominant position, but the CM team has to take that historic battle and balance it for both sides to have an equal opportunity to win. So of course there will be some fudging of historical accuracy. We are playing a game here, not watching the military channel and reenacting a fight.
Stability in an event is the most important element we can deliver. If we expect the COs and players to invest their time drafting plans, mission orders, drive players to the forums to stay involved, show up for the practice times and really invest in the scenario, the CMs should make sure you have an event that stays constant so you aren't changing 2 months of plans the week after the beta test.
Our goal is to make sure you have the time to do this. We will make sure the conditions are stable and lock them down. The primary goal, at least so far as my personal objective, is to make sure you can count on, long term, the conditions of the battle. The design of the scenario cannot be to change mid stream to overcome some perceived inequity, the design of the scenario is to be stable so you have the time to overcome the obstacles in front of you. There are going to be obstacles, there are going to be mismatches, there are going to be problems, that's war, overcome them. Again, we cannot possibly expect you to do this with any solid results if you are not provided the resources to do it.
The Beta Test will not be the place to test the settings and battle conditions. It has never been the intention of the Beta frame to do this. It has evolved into that role, but not this time. The event will be complete and final before the beta. The COs and Players will have had ample time to test, train and practice on a completed event and terrain long before the Beta. The Beta Frame must be a fully attended event. That will be the only frame you have to run as an entire team, to test your communications, your command structure, your interaction and find the missing links before the main battle. It won't be the place to see if we need to swap planes or spawn points. The planes fuel conditions and flight times will have been verified long before hand, and your job will be to deal with the conditions as they are. You will have been expected to drill and practice for a month or more before the Beta so changing after all of this time would be a waste. It makes no sense to draft plans, graphically depicting waypoints and flightplans if we change the event after the Beta and you have a week to change it all. That effort alone causes our strongest players to ask "why bother" and show minimal interest until late in the process. It does no good at all to have an ongoing event "update" as you train and practice, again, because it causes too much confusion and distraction from your job. The event, when published, will be complete and you will be expected to invest your time learning and dealing with the conditions faced, not negotiating changes.
From the CM point of view, if the design has taken months to test and build on our end, and a change happens at the last minute, we do ourselves a disservice by not anticipating fully those unintended consequences of that last minute change. So again, it's all about stability and Our testing fully each condition of the event, not relying on some performance chart to tell us what is going to happen or not. And when the event is published, it will be complete. Yes, there are going to be announcements so you can see our goal, but like the grand premier of Star Wars in the 70s, you got a teaser but the movie didn't change after the premier because the masses thought Chewies hair was the wrong color. It is what it is.
The CM team, when it shows the final design, will give you an event you can count on. The COs will be driven to team build and given the opportunity to fully invest in the event. The winning team will be the one who does this the best.
We consider the Scenarios the premier event for Aces High. A major production like this deserves it's full attention and investment from both the CMs and the Players. We will be looking for COs and Command Staff that desires the stable platform to work from, and who will be willing to take advantage of the time they will be given to fully commit to this event, as we will fully commit to providing that stable battlefield.
The COs are going to be vital for the event. No CO ever had the full picture when tasked with a battle. He or She was told, we are going to move to this front, and I need you to get ready, orders will follow. They built a team on a cause, not the details. Whether you fly in the pacific, euro, in a 109 or a P51, your leadership style is what will make or break your team. The most successful CO will team build with nothing more than a general idea of a possible condition, and bring his/her players together to tackle "whatever" comes their way. This is going to take team building, not waiting for the registration to open, this is not a draft where you simply have to deal with whoever shows up, this is a Team Building Event where you will have the tools you need to support the long effort you put towards your team. Build a team that says "We'll do whatever, where ever, but let's get it done".
We are looking for COs to lead. Let us know if you are interested. Make no mistake, there will be alot of work to do. If you want your team to show up for the frames, then they need to participate early on in the planning, they need to be part of the discussions, they need to be driven to the training sessions, and they need to invest fully into the event. They will show up on frame day, all frames, winning or losing, because they have invested too much time to walk away. Again, our part of the bargain is we will provide a stable platform for you to plan on, and count on, and the support you need to make it happen.
Good to be back, looking forward to this event.
