Official SEOW

Ok, created a few missions and now feeling comfortable with ME/DCS.

I looked around in the forums but didn't find a specific answer to this question so I'll ask here.

The squad I'm in (USN) uses DCG and we generally fly around 3 missions per campaign night(once a week). The host generates the mission, we fly, he generates the next we fly, etc...

How can we use SEOW in the same way?

Obviously there can't be huge wait times between mission while the generals enter all their orders.


What I assume most of you do is this in the same situation.
- Set the time to 4 hours to have 3 missions per game day.
- The generals spend the week prior to a campaign night plotting their missions. Basically setting all orders for the next game day.

How do you get around the "AI Hidden" flights? Let's say the first flight is at 6am. No problem as breather seats can be allocated. If the second mission is at 10am, wouldn't all the pre-plotted missions be AI only?

If you have the Aircraft Parking set to 100% and a flight you are going to have breathers fly at 10am gets destroyed on the ground earlier, what happens?

I'm very curious to hear how other squads use SEOW.

Thanks for your time!

Hi Opus,

Basically, the answer is that SEOW is not the same as DCG, so it doesn't make sense to try to use it in the same way. However, because SEOW is pretty flexible, your campaign can be customized in such a way to allow rapid planning phases between missions. A couple of pointers may help:

1. Movement orders for all types of units (ground/sea/air/rail) can be planned up to 24 hours ahead. But these movements will only be used in game if they commence in the designated starting hour of the mission. For example, if you have set a 4 hour mission duration in the DCS, and your first campaign mission is at 1100 hours, then mission orders commencing at 1100, 1500, 1900, 2300, 0300, 0700 will be used in successive missions. Movements planned to start at, say, 1600 hours will be ignored.

2. Losses incurred during the campaign will be applied to future movement orders. So if you plan a group of 4 T-34 tanks to move in 8 hours time, but it loses 3 tanks right now, then only 1 will move in 8 hours time. If it is completely destroyed beforehand, the movement order will be ignored. Same for aircraft. Also if the movement order is invalid, i.e. the unit is no longer at its starting location for the planned move the move will be ignored.

So, for your situation now, I would recommend the following ideas. First, use a 1 hour mission duration. Short, sharp missions. The host can end them at any time, e.g. at the 35 minute mark if all pilots are down. The system happily accepts this and moves the clock forward 1 hour anyway.

Second, if you want to fly successive missions quickly, plot a few missions of air and ground moves beforehand. Use different flights and platoons for each mission, because flights in the first mission will have to refuel and won't be ready for the second or maybe third missions.

Build the first mission, fly it, analyze it, then create the stats page. While everyone is having a good look at the stats, build the next mission, then fly it, analyze, create stats etc. Repeat until plans are exhausted.

It is perfactly achievable to run SEOW in this "rapid fire mode" mode. How appropriate this is depends purely on campaign scenario. We have run bombing campaign scenarios, e.g. Berlin, where a bunch of pre-planned bomber+escort missions go up against pre-planned interceptors+flak, with zero ground movement. Similarly, we have run scenarios where torpedo aircraft take off from carriers and attack enemy shipping with air cover over several hours. They key here is to plan long ship movement orders stretching over 5 or 6 hours, and disable "Ship Truncation" so that the ships continue their long paths over successive missions.

In summing up, you can use SEOW the way you choose. It is not a fast food service like autogenerators provide (DGEN, DCG, etc), but with a little imagination and forethought you can still cram a lot of diverse and detailed action into an afternoon or evening with SEOW.

Cheers,
4Shades

Very good explanation 4Shades! Helped me a lot, too!

I have a question left. What happens to ai and human planes if I stop the mission at 35 minutes, instead of the planned 60?

Will this mission considered as not flown? and will they be save at home?

I will try it later on by myselft, but if you have a minute time, you might want to write a few words Would be nice! Thank you very much!

Cheers!

Hi there Phil,

Breathers are governed by a setting in DCS under the Flight Modes tab called "Enforce Pilot Landings". By checking this, breathers will be reported as KIA if they don't land.

AI are not governed by this rule.

One thing I've been toying with is to artificially fudge the clock. Using your example, lets say that all your breathers are down at 35 minutes but you planned for a 60 minute mission. What I do is go into the log file and alter he end time to what I want.

You need to be careful as travel will continue during this mini-advance but combat wont.

Say you have a truck going from A to C and it will come into range on an enemy gun at point B at the 35 minute mark. But, as you ended your mission at the 35 minute mark, combat stops. If you do nothing, the truck will be at B when your next mission starts. If you advance the clock to the 60 minute mark in the log file, the truck will appear at point C when your next mission starts; miraculously passing by the enemy gun without damage.

I generally only tack on 5-10 minutes to avoid serious warping situations.

I think this is how it all works...might be wrong though...

You are correct Opus.

"Fudging" the clock is technically acceptable, but SEOW will start the next mission on the hour, no matter how long you fudge the mission duration for in the log file. But by fudging the clock you distort the battlefield fidelity.

Cheers,
4Shades