Aces High Bulletin Board
Special Events Forums => Friday Squad Operations => Topic started by: Ripsnort on January 14, 2002, 08:09:02 AM
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I'd like to see a general feel from the community on how these TOD's are going so far, we've gone thru ,what, 3 or 4?
After you rank it, feel free to add comments on how you think they could improve.
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Please add comments if you chose 3, 4 or 5.
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The first couple of TODs were great. Mini-Scenarios with a visible command structure and objectives and orders, etc.
We knew what we were going to do days in advance and it allowed us some time to practice.
Nowadays, you seldom know what's going on before you arrive.
The last few have seemed more like a SnapShot than a TOD.
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Very interesting results so far. I also find Sandman's comments interesting, because I always seem to have my commands well in advance of the event. Which leads me to believe that,'What we have here is a failure to communicate.' Any ideas on what we can do to improve this?
What if we had an 'Allies/Axis' thread for each ToD and changed the password between ToD's so each side would have a centralized location for communicating, similar to what we do with scenarios? Or would that be too much work? (i.e.-Ronni probably already has more than enough to do).
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Maybe it's the time crunch. For the CMs and the command, I'm sure it's difficult to do this week in and week out.
Maybe the TOD happens too often. Maybe doing it every two weeks would give the leaders time to plan and communicate.
Oh... and I'm not slamming anyone. I know we all have lives offline. The last thing I want for anyone is the TOD to turn into a job.
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As far as I know, Daddog or the CM's give out the orders on Monday to the Frame CO. The latest I've seen orders distributed from a frame CO is on Thursday, and that only happened once. Wednesday seems to be the avg so far... anything that happens between the time the frame CO gives out the orders to the squads, and Friday, is a communication break down within your own squadron.
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Well, the only problem I have encountered, and I mean the *only* problem, is with "left-out" squads. What I mean by this is the following, and this is just an example, as it has occurred several times during my participations in the TODs.
My squad is sent to cap a CV because we are told the Axis will be attacking it. So, there goes my squad. 10 of us flying around/near a CV waiting for incoming Jabo/Ju88s. Nothing. Not one single plane, for two hours. This is a total waste of our time. If we are given a mandatory objective of defending our CV, the Axis, imho, must be given a mandatory objective of attacking it.
I think all orders for each country should have a counter-order for the other coutnry. Meaning, I dont think any squad should be flying around for two hours. It is a large time commitment for some pilots to give, and to spend it flying in circles for two hours is not so fun :)
But, far and away, the TOD's ROCK! I ranked them HIGH and just thought I would post this as a comment.
S! ALL CM's !!!!!
Nim
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I didn't choose 'very high', because I never give an exceptional
rating to anything on these kinda polls, unless I'm just
absolutely overwhelmed with how great it is--and it's not there
yet.
I almost chose 'high', but I liked the wording on the next lower
choice where it said 'room for *some* improvement'--there's
*always* room for *some* improvement.
I do think attendance and numbers balance is a problem. The
numbers balance seemed better this last TOD (Friady's)--until
the last frame, when only *one* of the Assassins showed up and
left us poor slobs in JV44 to be overwhelmed in defending our
target, which was supposed to be the job of our *two* squads.
I wouldn't mind seeing private message boards for each side to
encouage discussion on planning and such a la full blown scenarios. As it is now, with discussion and aars posted to an
open group after each frame, it makes the frames seem like
each is a separate event, instead of a single event comprised
of three frames.
I'd also like to see more taunting, and general 'Hate' between
the two sides, to make things a little more intense.
r5t444444454rrrr <-- my cat just typed that. I think you should
consider her opinion as well. :)
As a final note, I'd say communication from the CMs is a little on
the short side. Maybe I just missed it, but I'm not really sure
what happened to frame 2 of The Black Sea, for instance. All
that I saw was in the subject of a post by Ripsnort saying that
the logs were lost, or something? I did see another post asking
what happened, but no response?
All in all though, I'm pretty pleased with TODs. MUCH better
than either of the two AH scenarios I've attended.
anRky
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lol Rip you dog I was going to do this poll this week. ;) You beat me too it! Nevertheless I look forward to the results and the comments from the players.
:)
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AK
My squad is sent to cap a CV because we are told the Axis will be attacking it. So, there goes my squad. 10 of us flying around/near a CV waiting for incoming Jabo/Ju88s. Nothing. Not one single plane, for two hours. This is a total waste of our time. If we are given a mandatory objective of defending our CV, the Axis, imho, must be given a mandatory objective of attacking it.
I think all orders for each country should have a counter-order for the other coutnry. Meaning, I dont think any squad should be flying around for two hours. It is a large time commitment for some pilots to give, and to spend it flying in circles for two hours is not so fun
I just wanted to make a quick note. When I send out objectives to Frame C.O.'s they have been as you mentioned. Each side has three objectives to attack and three to defend. All have to be attempted. If you were protecting a fleet and the enemy did not show up it could have been because a squad did not show up or a Frame C.O. did not assign a squad to attack that target. I have trained Skernsk, Buzzbait this way and will keep doing so. :)
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Oops, sorry DD, hope I didn't step on any toes!
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S! DD
I understand when a CO of the Axis does not send a squad to attack a mandatory CV that it certainly is not your fault. I just hope it reflects heavily in the scoring. Not just for not destroying the Allied CV, but for failing entirely to follow a mandatory order/objective.
Perhaps the scoring should be designed around encouring attempts at orders. For example, if you are ordered to attack allied CV in area 8.8, and you do, but dont destroy it, you get X points. If you destroy it, you get 2X points. If you fail to even attempt, you get NEGATIVE X points.
I dunno, this just turns it into scoring which likely does not matter to many. I mean if the CO does not care about scoring only whether or not his pilots live and get to shoot things down, then we are back to square one. Perhaps instead of giving the LW an *option* for Ju88's, they should have a certain number of mandatory Ju88s.
Nim
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We were going to implement a scoring system similar to that nimitz. Unfotunately we are losing Exile (who is the master of that stuff) so it may not happen.
As it stands there is no penalty for not attacking all of the objectives we give to the frame CO's. Similar to a real battle as the events unfold plans change. For example when I had to C.O. for fatty in frame 1 I followed his plan, but we lost most of our IL-2's as they attacked the "primary" objective. Those IL-2's were tasked to re-arm and hit the "alternate" objective but obviously that was inpossible. In that frame we had to write that one off and settle for hitting "primary" and "secondary". It would not be a fun event for those tasked to cap that specific objective.
Perhaps the frame C.O's can mix up the offensive/defensive role for the squads. For example, AK's will CAP A2 for the first flight. After the strike MAG-33 will re-arm and relieve AK's at A2 and the AK's can then do an offensive attack to follow up MAG-33's. This is about the only sloution to the problem as I see it.
I'd like to hear otheres suggestions on the topic.
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I don't think it's such a big deal. There will be milk runs from time to time -- we expected that when we signed on. In a case of need, however, a good CO will have a plan flexible enough to change the assignment of a "milk run" CAP when it becomes apparent that the enemy isn't going to attack, or when he's got a need for those fighters elsewhere.
Of course, a good CO will move the squads around and get them experience doing a variety of things.
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Not at all rip. :)
Thanks for the feed back guys.......looking for more.
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I think the TOD's are great but there are a couple of snags that I have seen in the few I have flown in. Here are a few thoughts that I have dredged from my subconsciousness...
Low numbers - In the frame of Black Sea that I CO'd we had two squads that were way under strength. We had one pilot out of two squads show. I know that this is not controllable at all by the CM's but it really messed up the tasking and led to a lot of confusion. Maybe squads that fail to field players should be encouraged more rather than threatened with expulsion... Who knows?
Aircraft assignments - I noticed that the Sat TOD has mandatory aircraft type on the orders, is this going to be a feature for the next few Friday TOD's as well? I noticed that Black Sea frame 3 was 80% La5's, better than 100% La5's but again a bit too uniform for my taste. I'd like to see the mandatory plane % assignments used every TOD to avoid TOD furballing...
Terrain bugs - Not so much avoiding them because they will always be there but having a contingency plan. Maybe a "what if" action list could be drawn up for the CM running the event to help handle bugs.
Field captures - I don't know if they have been included in TOD's but maybe a frame could include field capture as a primary objective. Give the goon/M3 driver 3 or 4 lives and try to get a goon in... would be another factor in strategy. Good for gv battles maybe?
Hope these suggestions are helpful... :cool:
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A parser to compare mission objectives with the log and adjust total score shouldn't be too difficult to write. If I can get a raw copy of the frame log I'll take a shot at it.
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I love the TODs. Late for me, but WTH!! :)
I have always had fun, regardless!!
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"objective based" scoring is already in the works
I'll see if daddog wants to post some details for yall.