XWA Combat Chamber simulation idea

[LC La Forge]

I know that we don't have any XAW missions in our Combat Chamber, which is annoying but expected due to the low quality of editors out there (the ones I've seen, anyway). In light of this, what if we split XWA into two section: Skirmishes and Missions (or some other names). The Skirmishes would be the SKM files that are created in XWA, and missions would be anything pumped out of an editor (as per usual). To keep things fair, only the missions would be for offical credit (ie you would not file an FPR for a Skimish mission - call it training or whatever), but people could download the SKMs just to fly.

I think it'd be an easy way of expanding our Combat Chamber and giving people (especially those on the Nemesis) new stuff to fly.

Comments?

[Calder]

Good idea, Commander. You ought to talk to FA Polanski about it.

[AD Polanski]

I like the idea of that, I think that we should sort something like that out - any ideas of how you'd like to credit these - as full sim counts? or something else? or no credit?

[Fel]

We've enumerated the three options:

1) Full Credit

In my opinion this works quite nicely. A mission is a mission, and flying a skirmish is a simulation, just a slightly different sort than usual.

2) A Different System of Credit

A lesser variant of the MoC? It's doable, though I think it may be redundant. Either we can have them worth less (5 skm = 1 mission, let's say, for example), or count towards a different medal entirely.

3) No Credit

I don't favour this option: Skirmishes should count for something, at the very least.

Regarding the MoT
I don't think skirmishes should count equally for the MoT. Designing one skm is nowhere near designing a full mission. Either they should be worth less (5 skm = 1 mission, let's say) or not counted at all. We could have a lesser variant of the MoT for skirmishes but that's splitting hairs.

[LC La Forge]

I'd say no credit for the Skirmishes - they're not exactly full missions. Call them training missions or whatnot. This would primarily be for letting people who want to post a good XWA SKM do so, so that others could use them.

Ideas, anyone?

[Calder]

I agree with Commander La Forge in that the amount of effort it takes on both ends (design and flying) a skirmish is not what goes into a mission.

However, what are we trying to do here? We're trying to encourage people to actually go do something. Therefore, I think we need to offer some sort of reward/credit for any form of activity, even if it's not in the traditional mission sense.

I would therefore support what Admiral Fel proposed in terms of a "partial credit" system where x number of skirmishes count as if you flew 1 mission. I think five is too high though. Perhaps three?

The issue then becomes how we keep track of this, and who does the tracking.

[LC La Forge]

Which is the problem inherent in that system. The reason I favor no credit is because I'm looking at this from the coder's point of view (and that's the point of view I would most likely end up with in that situatoin, as I'd be coding it). We'd have to somehow differenciate between a normal mission and a SKM, and I don't know if the way we have things setup now would support that or not.

Also, I don't like the idea of creating yet *more* medals. It's not that hard (assuming we can differentiate) to take the number of normal missions and the number of SKMs divided by (using the above examples) 5, rounded down, and add them up for the total used for the MoC. That's not the issue, because that's easy.

I know it says somewhere in the Combat Chamber information (see the officer's manual) that some downloads (missions, if you will) are for credit, and some are not. This is a direct application of that.

As for MoT, no credit. Coming up with a SKM takes all of 5 minutes, and is not worth it. Creating a normal mission for TIE/XvT takes much more effort and skill.

That's just my opinion. Comments?

EDIT: So to answer Captain Calder's question: It's not who does the tracking; that's the database. It's how do we make it do just that.

[Calder]

For the record, I'm also opposed to creating a medal exclusively for this. And my only thought on the tracking aspect is this: what if it weren't automated?

What if it were manually kept track of by superiors? Or do we think that the volume would be too large to accomodate this realistically?

[AD Polanski]

Ah it is not hard to implement the database and system a slight change to make it x (say 3) skms equal to one mission... trust me on this A simple change and voila, we're done

[LC La Forge]

Okay then, how about we say the partial credit system for SKMs for the database, and using a similar recongition system, no credit for the MoT?

Good?

[Syrtaras]

Basically, yes, giving out rewards is a good idea. The difference between *flying* a mission and a skirmish depends on a variety of factors. A fully packed skirmish with several waves of starfighters might be more challenging than a simple "real" mission, for instance. So, if at all, I'd suggest a factor of x2 or x3.

*Designing* skirmishes really isn't a hard thing to do. Even a very simple XWA mission takes a lot longer to design than a huge (i.e. swarms of fighters) skirmish. Thus, I think the difference factor should be a lot higher here - x8 or maybe even x10.

[LC La Forge]

This is why Syrt was the NavyTC not once, but twice. He was good at it.

[Fel]

I'll also put myself behind x3 for credit. The x5 was just a made-up example number.

I suppose x10 is probably a good number for the MoT -- they are easy to design.

Next question is how we determine that a skm is different enough from another to count as a whole different skirmish. Ideas?

[LC La Forge]

That's a database thing, and it sounds like Admiral Polanski already has it worked out in his head.

[Fel]

You misunderstood what I meant. I mean how different does one skirmish have to be from another before it is counted as a new skirmish. If the only difference in say "ISD Nemesis vs. Pirates" and "ISD Chimaera vs. Pirates" is the set of Imperial fighters you get, is that counted as a different skirmish?