Greetings and Invitation from =69.GIAP=

[tushka]

SALUTE!

=69.GIAP= members have spent many entertaining hours on your wonderful server, and compliment -=FA=- members and friends on your flying and on your sportsmanship.

I am an apprentice SEOW admin, having just completed my first "training" campaign, an intra-squad campaign (69.GIAP American wing vs the European wing), and I am looking for a tolerant and honorable opponent for my first (advanced) inter-squad admin training campaign.

If I understand correctly, you have not yet had the pleasure (and pain) of flying in SEOW. I would like to invite you to be our opponent in a small-scale campaign where we (the American wing of 69.GIAP) would fly "red" and you would fly "blue". "Small scale" in this case means a maximum of eight human flyable aircraft to be planned by each side for each mission, with the mission launching if at least three pilots on each side are able to fly at launch time (gunner seats may be available if more than eight participants show up on one side).

We would like this to be a WWI-style campaign as we have enjoyed flying with and against you on *your* server. This campaign would be flown on our server, using the latest version of SEOW (which has not yet been installed on our server).

Please take a week (I will be away for a week) to think about it and research SEOW and then let me know if you would like to proceed. If you wish to proceed we will then talk about the map, order of battle, SEOW settings, etc. As this would be only my second campaign as an admin I'd like to keep things simple, and avoid using the "supply" and "morale" features, but add the "factory production" feature for reinforcements, but this is all subject to negotiation.

In a small-scale campaign, you should only need one commander, though it might be wise to appoint an assistant commander. In our full-scale campaigns we use multiple commanders - an overall commander who sets strategy, and sub-commanders for fighters, ground attackers, high-level bombers, ground forces, and naval forces (if appropriate to the current scenario).

Mission planning is quite similar to designing missions in Full Mission Builder, with a few odd twists that we will have to explain to you. (I won't be the one doing that explaining, as I haven't yet learned that part of SEOW myself.)

As for time and time frame, I was thinking we could hold the campaign missions at perhaps 8 or 9 pm EST on a weeknight (far too late for most of our European wing), and I suspect that the campaign will take a month or more to get rolling. There is no rush.

As an "admin training" campaign, there are likely to be admin screwups, and SEOW itself can exhibit unexpected behaviors, so be prepared for a certain amount of chaos. War is hell. :-)

If you would like to see some of the other campaigns we have done with other squads, check out our "Matches and Challenges" forum (where I will post a copy of this message) at www.baseclass.modulweb.dk/69giap/forums.0.html or stop by and say hello in our "Public" forum.

Looking forward to more flying with you!

[tushka]

SALUTE! -=FA=-

I'm back! :-)

Hopefully you've had a chance to check out SEOW and 69.GIAP by now.

If you have any questions or concerns that you'd prefer not to post here, please PM me on this board.

Otherwise post away and I'll do my best to find the answers.

[RaVeN]

Hi welcome back.

How does it work? What is involved? Never used SE before.
could you get us up to speed so we known what we would be looking at .
Thanks RaVe

[tushka]

How does it work? That is a simple question that deserves more than a simple reply, but I'll try to keep it short.

SEOW is a dynamic campaign system in which all the planning is done by human commanders through a web-based "Mission Planner" interface, while the SEOW system itself keeps a database of information about what has moved where, been destroyed, etc so that the results of one mission persist to influence the starting conditions of the subsequent mission. The missions themselves are essentially co-ops, joined through the Scorched Earth room at HyperLobby.

Each side has two logins to the Mission Planner - one for the commander(s) and another for the ranks. The latter may view but not plan missions. Missions are generally held once a week at a set time. Mission planning should be done sufficiently in advance that the ranks may view their missions before lining up. The administrater will "build" the mission in the hour before launch, essentially merging the plans of both sides into the final mission file.

SEOW has many different features, some of which we will use (dynamic reconnaissance, dynamic weather, factory production, strategic bombing, etc.) and some we will not (supply tracking, morale tracking, etc... features that can be too burdensome for the commanders. :-) ) This is, after all, a *training* campaign, so let's keep it relatively simple.

We will host the mission planner and the missions on our own servers. The hard work is at the beginning... deciding what map to use, choosing settings, agreeing on production costs and the order of battle, etc. All of this must be done in advance of the initial template setup which is basically a map with a front line placed on it. The initial template is distributed to each side to use to set up their starting positions (within agreed upon guidelines). The admin then "merges" both sides and runs an initial AI-only mission which permits the forces to settle into their initial positions. After that, the fun begins. :-)

We have several experienced commanders in 69.GIAP, so we should have no problem finding someone to get you up to speed in the use of the Mission Planner. It is reasonably straightforward. I would expect for a small-scale campaign it should take no more than 15 min a week to plan a side's missions, so it should not be a huge burden.

The SEOW Wiki and SEOW Forums are good sources of information. See seowwiki.swil.fr and seowhq.net/seowforum

I think this "training campaign" would be a good way for you to get your feet wet with SEOW as we will do the heavy lifting (installing and maintaining SEOW) while you learn the ropes. It might also help your recruiting efforts. Flying with real goals and a strong incentive to stay alive certainly adds to the immersion.

[RaVeN]

Thanks for the very informative explanation Tushka.
Its seems that with a bit of guidance initially we could be well on our way to a fun event.

If we can muster the numbers to compete we will give it a try.
what would the minimum number of pilots required for such an event?
Thanks RaVe

[tushka]

For the similar-sized intra-squad mission that constitutes my only SEOW admin experience to date the rule was max 8, min 3 human pilots per side, but the mininuim of 3 was flexible if both commanders agreed to fly. We flew one mission where one side had one human pilot and the other had five, and at the end of the mission, the side with one had gained more advantage. Remember, if a human doesn't show up for a planned flight, it still takes place with an AI pilot. In fact, some flights are planned to be AI-only.

In any case, I am proposing that the missions will take place if at least three pilots show up for each side. If less, then we'll discuss it at the time and determine whether there is a consensus to proceed or not. In any case, there will be a fixed maximum number of flights that can be planned for either side to help keep the commander workload down.

For full-scale campaigns we generally have a 'no restart' policy, but for a small-scale campaign we can be more liberal as it is less of a hassle to perform a restart if necessary. We want everyone who shows up to have as much fun as possible.

I hope this helps. Everything is negotiable including number of pilot seats. I would expect 69.GIAP to have 4-5 pilots available for most missions as the Europeans should all be sound asleep - perhaps more on a good night, and fewer on a bad night. Unfortunately one of our north american regulars just went on extended leave. I had hoped to start training him as a backup SEOW admin in this campaign. All our other SEOW admins are European.