No CM or designer wants to design a bad or non fun event. However, we do want the events to simulate the theater of combat at the time. Different theaters and different time periods had different conditions. Using the tools we try to simulate what we can to give it that flavor.
The 3k icon is fine, as long as its all the way to the deck.
This issue is probably the most divisive among the players and we CMs do know that. As I have stated it has been tried 2 times out of 12 (or 2 out of the last 6 designs). Changing from the 3k visibility has not been the norm.
The clouds/fog wind dont really bother the fighters that much, but it plays havoc with the bombs. Couple that with manual aim and you can bet alot of guys slated for bomber duty are going to feel like it was a waste of a night.
Several theaters of operations were known for their weather, Aeutians comes to mind. When including weather and or manual aiming a designer is trying to accomplish several possible things:
- A theater and time period might have been known for combat operations only being at a certain altitude, the Burma Campaign comes to mind that combat operations were in the teens not 20Ks or higher. So a designer has a couple of choices to A) just live with the players conducting operations at whatever alt they like B) to set a wind layer blowing down at max wind speed at say 18K C) Put some weather over the target so that level bombers need to operate at lower alts to make sure the avoid the cloud cover. This said designers should provide the players with a weather report so they can plan accordingly (i.e. Possible clouds over target fro 17K to 20K, winds at 10 mph 19K from the east).
- Manual calibration is used by some designers to make up or compensate for formations on and the available targets not needing much ordinance to kill them. Basically one two flights of B17s or Ju88s with formations can take out a small airbase by themselves. With manual calibration you make it harder and require each side deploy more bombers to make sure they get the job done. Or a designer can turn formations off. The challenge here is that while some bombers are survivable without formations (B17, B24, B26, Ki67, etc.) some bombers really aren't (Boston III comes to mind). So depending on the setting you will usually see formations on and manual calibration versus formations off and MA calibrations. Even then sometimes you will see MA calibration on and formations on when a designer wants to emphasize fighter combat and protection of small bomber force in his design. In this setting you will see a larger percentage of fighters involved than bombers since no CiC usually wants to deploy more bombers than they are required to.
- And of course the pilots in WW2 had to deal with weather conditions, so instead of it being sunny and clear skies all the time CMs every now and then throw in conditions that both sides have to deal with. Again the key here is for the designer to provide a weather report (just like pilots got in real life back then) making them aware of conditions and allowing them to plan accordingly.
The radar,since the dots are off isnt that big except when it flashes a base. If too small a ring, it can allow attacks to get in unopposed before the cap can intercept. INTERCEPTION of enemy flights should be the priority over any eye candy, or use of a tool that the game can provide the designer.
Different base under attack settngs (create by radar rings) simulate different theaters. In BOB it is much larger since the British had a very sophisticated early warning net that consisted of radar and ground spotters. In a Slot setup you have a the Coast Watchers so most designers go with a larger ring. In an Aleutians setup you have almost no infrastructure or population in the battle area hence a smaller ring. The same holds true in Greece. At the time Greece didn't have a strong infrastructure (making it very difficult to ground spotters to relay information) and the terrain made it very difficult to spot enemy planes far out from bases.
This said there are many ways to compensate for this. CiCs can deploy pickets to create a line which will hopefully spot incoming attacks far out from their intended targets. Also CiCs can task pilots to actively scout and to try to find the incoming attacks by flying out from targets and looking for the enemy. Both tactics have been used in the past many times. A CiC that just has squads orbiting a base increases the chance of an attack slipping by them when the are on the far side of their orbit.
A CM does not change the base under attack radius just because it is a tool or eye candy. They change it to simulate conditions. Again a CM needs to make players aware of this and other settings so that the can plan accordingly.
I guess all Im asking is that the designers and FSO CMs dont forget that where 5 people or so may be involved in the design of an FSO, and may be aware of every effect they produce, 500 others show up to play it. Every effort should be made to allow fights to happen, and in a way thats not totally alien to them. Where we appreciate their efforts in designing and running FSOs, please appreciate our time for showing up to play them.
Designers are exceedingly aware of the fact that we are designing for the players. This is why even during an event we will tweak and change things if results and data show that things are out of whack. At times we have swapped one squad from one side to the other when the player percentage we went with and thought was good is shown to be off do to the results of the frame. Or why me might introduce an additional plane to the planeset (in the case of Dodacenese I think that 109Gs and 109G6s can take on Spit Vs, Spit IXs, Seafires and C.205s. If the results show that I am seriously wrong in my logic then it is reasonable that the Germans would rush n 190A5s to help shore up the theater) or change the min and max numbers for plane types.
None of us want to see an event fail, flounder, or the majority of players not have fun. At the same time we have to do a balancing act where we look at the event as a whole ... the 500 player level ... and realize that we can't guarantee things down to the 5 player encounter. Sometimes things just happen and people see no action or something else happens. Sometimes giving the CiC as much freedom as possible to plan and run a battle means you are also giving them the freedom to fail. There area also many times that a vocal minority will complain about this and that and insist their point of view is the truth. Examples are a person swearing up and down that bomber came in at 30K even though everybody else involved says otherwise. CMs have to look into things like this and complaints about planesets and evaluate them but again we have to look at this from the overall event and from the 500 player view. 5 or 10 people being upset with something doesn't over ride the rest being fine with it. The rub is determining if it is indeed whether or not it was a local issue or indeed an event wide issue.
This is also why we post the description of the event in advance so that players can ask questions or raise concerns. If we find a concern valid yes, we will and have changed things in past events.
Squire, myself and Nefarious have been doing this for a long time. Daddog was the one who originally created FSOs (called Squad Ops way back in 2002). We don't want events to fail. We don't want to stick it to players. We strive for trying to make as enjoyable as possible for every player even though we know you can't sastify all 400-500 people playing. All we really ask is civility from posting concerns and interacting with us. Also to understand that maybe your experience is not the majority experience. We do spends tons and tons and tons of time looking into everything that is brought up by players. We are not your adversaries and would appreciated not being treated that way.
