Questions for better understanding the MP and some recomends

[ViFF]

Hi, all

A bit of background first:
We are running a Battle of Britain SEOW Campaign on the 22GCT Italian server with the Italian, Israeli, Yugoslav communities, 242 Sqn and EAF squads (forgive me if I forget who else) and other Euro community members.
We are using the AWI2009 Mod (Air War Italy Mod) by 150GCT_Veltro.
The server is using the 128 player mod, and we are normally 85+ players on the server (which is awesome btw).
http://85.14.216.230/ScorchedEarth/MP4/ ... efault.php
We run missions on Mondays and Thursdays launched at 21:30 CET (we meet at 21:00 CET on the 22GCT TS).
EAF92_Brigstock is our campaign admin, and 22GCT_Gross is our server admin.


I have a few questions regarding the mission planner and SEOW in general, and maybe some recomendations.

Some of the questions maybe noobish as I have hardly ever played with the IL2 AI and single player (most of my IL2 flying, planning, and FMB experience is with online dogfight servers) and have just recently been exposed to the planning side of SEOW. I enjoy it very much and would like to learn the system inside out to make the best planning possible for my side. I've read the Wiki pages relevant to the MP.

Unfortunately I do not have any coding experience as my background is business and finance, but I can definately contribute from my military experience, I served in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as an Infantry Officer (rank of Captain) in the 1st Div. "Golani" Anti-Tank Regiment (TOW and other AT missiles) in the 1990s. Nowdays I do reserve duty once a year for about two weeks as an Division HQ Operations Officer.



1. Acks movement [question]:
When I assign a move for an ack I see it as a moving truck, but what happens when it reaches its destination? Does it immediately change to an ack or does it remain as a truck until the end of the mission?



2. Acks Object [recomendation]:
Since they change to trucks when assigned to move, is it possible to make the ack object be more then just the gun when stationary? i.e. the object (per platoon) would be the gun/s, the truck that moves it, sand bags (or other blast protection object )around the gun, ammo boxes, camo tent, etc. This would look a bit more realistic and also increase their visibility. a single gun on the ground firing an infinite amount of ammo with no objects around it seems a bit gamey...



3. AI flown aircraft [question]:
We have recently changed the fuel limit for both sides to 50%, so now the endurance of most fighters is less then the 1.5 hrs mission time. When does an AI pilot know he is "Bingo Fuel" and must RTB? do they know to do this at all? or will they allways follow their assigned route and crash if they run out of fuel?



4. How aircraft are counted as lost [complaint]:
We are losing aircraft that don't take off from the runway. From what I understand SEOW requires all human flown aircraft to take off and land (e.i. to register a cycle), otherwise the aircraft the mission stats will show the aircraft as "crashed". For example, we've had a few players that have disco'd right on mission start (after or during countdown) before takeoff. Their aircraft was sitting on the runway with no damage, yet the post mission stats registered the aircraft as crashed. Is there a fix for this? or is this an intended design feature?



5. C^3 & I (Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence) commnad point structure[recomendation]:
C^3 & I is a vital part of the ability of a military organization to function, even an organization with simple WW2 technology. Troops still need their commander to tell them where to go and what to do. The commander needs to have the ability to tell the troops where to go and what to do. This ability translates to an HQ where he can sit with his command team, radio equipment to despatch the orders (or human messengers when radio comms is u/s). You've got the intelligence nicely done with the recon, but I think you should introduce C^3 elements into SEOW that do more then just affect morale. It would probably be more of a limiting factor, i.e. each side gets some HQs and units would be tied to these HQs. Destruction of HQs would affect both morale but also the amount of moves / fighting ability / mobility of combat units... Locating and destroying an Battalion HQ or Division HQ has a negative affect on the other side's ability to fight & maneuver, HQs are mobile... etc. You get the idea.



Appreciate any and all insights from experienced SEOW planners and developers!


S!

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Hi ViFF, and welcome,

Here are some answers:

1. Acks movement [question]:
When I assign a move for an ack I see it as a moving truck, but what happens when it reaches its destination? Does it immediately change to an ack or does it remain as a truck until the end of the mission?

SEOW does not modify in-game behaviour of objects at all, so a truck at the start of a mission is a truck at the end of the mission, etc. For the AAA units, the default behaviour is to morph into a truck for the duration of a mission when it will be moving, and back into a gun for the next mission. However, the campaign designer is free to disable this behaviour by specifying a zero range for the AAA gun, in which case it cannot move at all! In such a case it must be transported as freight by a freight-capable truck or column, which is something you touched on below (Acks Object)

2. Acks Object [recomendation]:
Since they change to trucks when assigned to move, is it possible to make the ack object be more then just the gun when stationary? i.e. the object (per platoon) would be the gun/s, the truck that moves it, sand bags (or other blast protection object )around the gun, ammo boxes, camo tent, etc. This would look a bit more realistic and also increase their visibility. a single gun on the ground firing an infinite amount of ammo with no objects around it seems a bit gamey...

Sure, not a bad idea, especially if the placed objects were just scenery (so loss tracking wouldn't be complicated). Can you please suggest a list of FMB objects that would be suitable? I need object codes, as listed in a FMB file, not object numbers.

3. AI flown aircraft [question]:
We have recently changed the fuel limit for both sides to 50%, so now the endurance of most fighters is less then the 1.5 hrs mission time. When does an AI pilot know he is "Bingo Fuel" and must RTB? do they know to do this at all? or will they allways follow their assigned route and crash if they run out of fuel?

Not sure exactly how AI know this, but I have seen instances where an AI plane will leave its waypoints and fly back to base. On the other hand, I have seen them fly til they drop too. Good SEOW commanders will find ways around this.

4. How aircraft are counted as lost [complaint]:
We are losing aircraft that don't take off from the runway. From what I understand SEOW requires all human flown aircraft to take off and land (e.i. to register a cycle), otherwise the aircraft the mission stats will show the aircraft as "crashed". For example, we've had a few players that have disco'd right on mission start (after or during countdown) before takeoff. Their aircraft was sitting on the runway with no damage, yet the post mission stats registered the aircraft as crashed. Is there a fix for this? or is this an intended design feature?

I suspect your campaign admin set the campaign up with the "Enforce Pilot Landings" feature enabled. Check out the "Settings" link inside your sector page in the MP (top left hand corner).

5. C^3 & I (Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence) commnad point structure[recomendation]:
C^3 & I is a vital part of the ability of a military organization to function, even an organization with simple WW2 technology. Troops still need their commander to tell them where to go and what to do. The commander needs to have the ability to tell the troops where to go and what to do. This ability translates to an HQ where he can sit with his command team, radio equipment to despatch the orders (or human messengers when radio comms is u/s). You've got the intelligence nicely done with the recon, but I think you should introduce C^3 elements into SEOW that do more then just affect morale. It would probably be more of a limiting factor, i.e. each side gets some HQs and units would be tied to these HQs. Destruction of HQs would affect both morale but also the amount of moves / fighting ability / mobility of combat units... Locating and destroying an Battalion HQ or Division HQ has a negative affect on the other side's ability to fight & maneuver, HQs are mobile... etc. You get the idea.

I agree, and this has been proposed before. So far we have just implemented a Command and Control feature that allows special objects to reposition neighbouring units by loading and unloading them without incurring disembarkation delays. It would be reasonably easy to write a feature to prevent units moving unless there was a CCC unit within the control radius. That could be a start, but let me aska question to whoever is reading this: Do we want more ground war complexity in SEOW?

Cheers,
4Shades

[PA-Dore]

For English_Channel map SEOW users:

AI bombers don't take off from Kenley airbase (G13) (relief).
When I builded this map for SEOW I generally used the East point for take off point as 4shades's rule. (Kenley's take off vector = South-East)

So, change in Airbases table (take off <--> landing) (New take off vector = Nord-West)

If you run night missions, it would be fine to modified this airbase layout because if not, the template will be reversed (parkings, campfires...)

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Or you can avoid the reversal problems in the airbase layout simply by changing the airbase ATC Mode from "normal" to "swap".

Cheers,
4Shades

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Getting back to objects being created to make gun emplacements look better...

Check out this file posted by RxMan on the Ubi Mission Builders Forum (thread) in 2007:

http://home.att.net/~fb_rxman/GunEmplacements4071.zip

Just blindly placing sandbags, fences etc can affect the function of guns. But it could still be useful, e.g. it could affect LOS of some guns, and could prevent some AAA from engaging vehicles.

Even a simple horseshoe sandbag could have this effect.

Cheers,
4Shades