Admiral Frodo March Reporting for the Emperor's Hammer Tactical Office on 05/26/05, report #187.
Tactical Officer's Opening Statement
3573 total custom missions online!
So, from now on bugs reports will be read and fixed within two weeks. We got two this week, they were both fixed within 48 hours.
I've decided to remove a few testers and open applications again. Remember that former TCS (aka: People I've fired) may still apply as long as they promise not to be lazy the second time around. Check TC news for more details.
Time for a rant:
I'd like to address the issue of slander in bug reports and battle reviews. Its not quite an issue yet, but It seems to not be pointing in a very good direction. Being the creator of many battles with questionably good content I can assure you that bad reviews are sometimes hurtful. Don't get me wrong, Post bad reviews! Go ahead, just don't make any assumptions about the mission creator or TAC staff in the review, or else it will be deleted. Don't go talking about the mission creator's skills being inadequate, and "The Betatester who flew this should die painfully". Those comments aren't very welcome and I'd rather you avoid them. I post a review for each and every battle I fly now, take them for examples if you wish, I've given low ones as well. The point is, reviews are important, being civil in them is a must. The same goes with Bug Reports, please refrain from slandering the TAC staff that corrects it, I'm trying to keep a stress free harassment free environment and I can tell you right now that after correcting about half the Anteater bugs myself, I don't really look forward to reading bug reports that are written in anger...Thank you in advanced for your courtesy.
Rant Over
This week was also the house of a few releases, expect some more XWA missions tomorow or sunday, my CA is working on those.
Also I'd like to announce that I will be taking quite a long semi-leave this summer for the duration of about a month and a half. For this reason I will be hiring a TACA soon, he will be announced publicly once he is placed on the roster. Over the course of this half leave you will only notice my personal activity get a bit lower, the rest of the office will keep rolling at about the same pace. This is schedualed for the end of June, more on this in future reports.
Tactical Announcements
-XvT Free 189, XvT Free 190, XvT Free 191 and BoP Free 34 were released this week!
-Operation Anteater concludes!
-There are currently 3 to 4 TACTICAL SURVEYOR OPENINGS!
-Expect a new Competition soon. We're in a bit of a break mode for comps.
Tactical Projects
-Operation Ant Eater: Complete! I can delete this thing next report :P
-Frodo's Quest for More Missions: This is my own personal quest to get mission creators to create more, I used quite a few means, mainly by competition and by posting news items that could help people start creating missions. I think I'm doing pretty good...feedback anybody?
-Fix those IWATS!: The TAC staff is fixing our IWATS courses! In collaboration with the TO we're bringing our course standards up. XTM was updated, XAM is being updated and a new course will replace TACS and the sequel coursese!
Tactical Tasks
-More missions and faster turnaround in relation to testing:
I'm going to ask the FC and XO if we're doing good at this yet.
-More support relating to new platforms (Jedi outcast academy, SWGB): SWGB now has 2 active Tacticians and many, many testers, we are ready to deal with SWGB bugs and the number of battles on the compendium has increased drastically. If anybody would like to be JA staff, please contact me as soon as possible. Our new project will improve support for older platforms as well.
-Coordinating with training office to set up new training resources for new platforms: The SWGB course is there. Gimme some time on this JA stuff.
-Restart Project Pheonix and fix any bugs in the mission compendium: Done!
Competitions
-Pilot of the Week Competition: The Pilot of the Week this week is...Master! For putting the nail in the casket for XWA bugs. Standings are: Brukhar-1, Archangel-1, Master-1.
Tactical Roster
Tactical Officer: AD Frodo March
Command Attaché: VA Master
Tactical Assistant: COL Marcin Szydlowski
Tactician: LC Apophis Kuma
Tactician: FA Ender mBind
Tactician: VA Gidda
Tactician: CM Brukhar
Tactician: COL Marcin Szydlowski
Tactician: VA Locke Setzer
Tactical Surveyor: COL Abel Malik
Tactical Surveyor: LC Apophis Kuma
Tactical Surveyor: LC Archangel
Tactical Surveyor: FA Ender mBind
Tactical Surveyor: VA Gidda
Tactical Surveyor: COL Marcin Szydlowski
Tactical Surveyor: VA Stuart
Tactical Surveyor: MAJ Aft Skylek
Tactical Surveyor: COL Brucmack
Tactical Surveyor: CM Ayudanter de la Clars
Tactical Surveyor: CM Brukhar
Tactical Surveyor: COL George
Tactical Surveyor: VA Pickled Yoda
Tactical Surveyor: LC Ric Taldrya
Tactical Progress
TIE: In Queue=0, Under testing=4, Total=4
XvT: In queue=9, Under testing=2, Total=11
BoP: Empty
XWA: In queue=2, Under Testing=8, Final Check=1, Total=11
SWGB: In Queue=2, Total=1
XW: In queue=6, Total=6
JA: Empty.
Grand Total= 33 We hold steady at 33 despite 4 releases. Don't worry about the large XvT Queue, I'll have that fixed momentarily.
Important Links
TAC database 1.0
TAC Manual 3.0: Online Version
TAC Network: http://tac.minos.net/ or http://www.isdcolossus.com/tacdb/beta/
Mission Creation Forum: http://mb.emperorshammer.net/viewforum.php?f=19
Custom Battle Submittion Form:http://www.isdcolossus.com/tacdb/beta/batsubmit.asp
Tech forum
BSF tutorial
X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter Mission Editor (XvTED)
TIE Fighter Workshop
X-wing Alliance mission editor (AlliED Shareware Version)
Frothy's Corner
I don't mean to be harsh in my reports, but please keep in mind the feelings of the TAC and his staff when posting Reviews and Bug Reports :)
Don't forget that Palpatine Crescent up for grabs the pilot who submits the most missions in the month of May, its a tight race but we'll see who wins it in my next report!
Have fun flying,
[Salute]
TAC-PROF/AD Frodo March/CS-3/SSSD Sovereign
GSx2/SSx7/BSx3/PCx9/ISMx8/MoI/MoT-2gh-34rh-19bh/IS-4BW-6BR-1SW-3SR-1 GW-1GR/LoC-CSx6-Rx3/DFC-Rx1/CoSx6/CoL/CoB/LoAx2/OV-4E [TMPR] {IWATS-FLA-HIST-IBX-IIC/1-M/1/2-MP-SM/2/3-TACS-TM/1-TT-WM-WPN-XAM-XT M/1/2-XTT}
"Ultimate Mission Creation Warrior"