EH Time
UTC

FC Report # 0 (2004-07-21)

This report was submitted by VA Bond

July 2004

07.21.04

Applications Open for Internet Officer:  07.04.04
As Submitted From:  Executive Officer (SA Astatine)

Internet Office

Overview
The Internet Officer (IO) is responsible for providing technical consultancy to the membership of the Emperor's Hammer on matters relating to the Internet, such as web hosting, website construction and
other areas. In addition, the position oversees a number of ongoing projects, such as the EH Message boards, Image Archive, etc.

Selection Criteria - Essential

1. Proven experience and knowledge of at least one server side scripting language (ie. ASP, PHP, JSP, etc)
2. Existing general knowledge of a range of computer-related matters
3. Be a member of good standing of the Emperor's Hammer for at least one year
4. Ability to work well with a range of EH members, including the Fleet Commander and Executive Officer
5. High active, online presence, such as IRC, message boards, etc.

Selection Criteria - Desirable

1. Demonstrated application of advanced server side scripting.
2. Proven experience with databases
3. Proven ability in graphic design
4. Good command of the English language

You must address each criteria with supporting evidence. Simply saying "Yeah, I can do that" is not enough. Include specific examples and situations to back up your claims. You should meet at least the essential criteria to be considered for the position. You must include at least three (3) references in your application. At least one of these must be a former or, preferably, current superior. Ensure you have their permission first, as your application will be viewed in a negative light if you have not gained their permission. Applications should be directed to the Fleet Commander ( fc@emperorshammer.org ) and Executive Officer
( xo@emperorshammer.org ) with the subject "Application for Internet Officer".

Should you be successful in the position, you will be expected to perform core duties of the position to an acceptable level. This also includes tasks outlined in the EH Tasks List. You will be reviewed upon
these tasks and based upon that performance, you may be rewarded or punished.

CHS Open For Applications:  07.04.04
As Submitted From:  Executive Officer (SA Astatine)

Imperial Senate

Overview
The position of Chancellor of the Senate will offer a unique challenge to applicants. Applicants must address the following criteria:

Selection Criteria - Essential
1. Proven command experience, at a level of TIE Corps Wing Commander or equivalent.
2. An acceptable level of online presence.
3. Fast email response time.
4. A clean record.
5. The ability to work with a range of EH personnel.
6. A plan for fixing the Senate.

Selection Criteria - Desirable
1. Member of the Senate.
2. Proven track record in improving a sector of the EH or a subgroup.

You must address each criteria with supporting evidence. Simple saying "Yep, I can do that" won't be enough. You must also include three references - including at least one superior. These references will be
checked. Applications are to be directed to the Fleet Commander ( garonin@aol.com ) and Executive Officer ( jpboyce@indigo.net.au ) with the subject "Application for the position of Chancellor".

Freeworlds In the EH - Current Status:  06.27.04
As Emailed From:  Flight Officer (FA Cyric)

Flight Office

Grand Admiral Ronin,

As promised here is the information concerning Freeworlds, it's link to the EH and the steps that I think need to be taken next. On this email I have included those people I feel have some authority/say over the matter. If I've missed anyone out, then please forward this email to them. Important links are included at the end of the email.

Overview

Freeworlds (FW) is a Star Wars based, multi-player total conversion mod for the game Freelancer (FL). It keeps all of FL's game characteristics, but transplants them to a SW universe. Players can engage in combat missions or trading. Combat can be either by accepting missions (which vary in difficulty level and thus reward money) from NPCs which may involving destroying a particular target, or they may involved Player vs Player engagements (something that is particularly encouraged). Trading involves buying particular commodities at one location and selling them at another for hopefully a large profit. Trading can occur between players although this is uncommon. Trading is generally the easiest way of making money but requires several hours of work to get anywhere.

Each player belong to a faction, none as either a member or non-member tag. Non-member tags (IMP, CIV and NR) are for those people that do not belong to PC factions in the game - those people who have just started playing usually. Most EH'ers current use the tag "[IMP]EH_" to show that they are Imperial and a part of the EH. Member tags are PC Squadrons or groups, such as [ScytheSq] or [NovaSq] and again, these will be Imperial, New Republic, Pirate or some form of Corporate group (e.g. Corellian Engineering Corps [CEC]).

Playing the game as a non-member is perfectly reasonable, however, the primary server on which we play, Burnout 24/7 USA, is designed to be more beneficial for those who are a part of member tags. Member tags receive a greatly expanded ship list (fighters, transport that they are allowed to use), they receive a significant amount of starter money (on Burnout, this is currently 10,000,000 plus 2,000, 000 per active member - defined as someone with 8+ hours playtime) and generally benefit from the community spirit more.

Non-member players work from a restricted ship list for their particular tag (IMP, CIV etc), which is generally 4-5 basic ships. The cost of these ships is the same for non-member and member.

Current Status

A new version of FW was released last Friday (1.64) which had some major changes. The prices of ships were increased by a lot, in some cases by 300%. Several new ship designs were added to the game. A large number of ships were removed from the non-member ship list and a few were added (although not enough to offset the change). Some ships, such as the Corellian Corvette, have become severely restricted in their use. Other changes include the addition of a CD check. If the original CD is not in the drive, then the mod will not work. This is a problem for some people using backups, or those who have lost their CD. In addition, there have been some minor and one major stability issues fixed. Overall, for the established FW community these changes are good news. However, for those casual and non-member tag players (such as the EH'ers), it's generally bad news, but I'll go into this later.

Currently there are around 15 EH'ers actively playing FW (I'm sure it's more now), although this number is in slight flux since the latest release. Marcus Caine who I know has been in contact with you, heads up the FW TDA Squadron, which has 12 part-time members. The purpose of this Squadron is to generally play FW, test things out and try to come up with workable solutions for problems. There is also a much-used Freeworlds Discussion Forum on EH boards which contains a lot of commentary, Q&As and other things from the users. It's worth having a quick browse through this board (particularly the announcements and sticky posts). It's a good way of bringing yourself up to speed on the current situation.

In addition, a few weeks ago, SCO/FA Ender mBind secured a mirror download for the mod. So should the FW page be taken offline, we still have access to the mod.

One of the current issues facing us is if FW does become an officially supported platform within the EH, then how to track activity and reward it. This has caused a fair amount of discussion on the board, but no solution so far. I have one which I would like to put forward as a possibility:

Legion of Combat

I believe that the LoC, like for any other MP competition, should be used to reward MP events within the game. However, due to the nature of the game's set-up, it's not quite as simple as your regular XWA match. The problems are:

Deciding how many kills = 1 LoC
Tracking the # of kills and by whom
The time and place of matches

Within the game, you may encounter a hostile (defined by the tags) at any moment...should you engage and kill this hostile, is that deserving of a LoC considering it's an MP kill within the gaming environment?

I think for the sake of simplicity, the answer should be no. I think engagements/duels/matches should be pre-arranged like any other XWA/XvT/JK event. The details of a match (length, # of kills etc) can be arranged by the two or more opponents prior to the match. In addition, the server system of FW lends itself well to hosting small games. The idea is that one person hosts a temporary server on which the match is fought. The server host uses "IONCROSS Freelance Server Operator Mk III" to keep track of the match. This program is very powerful and freely available. It allows the host to keep track of events on the server, outputs logs and allows characters to be modified server side (which is useful if you want specific ships to be used). The host can either act as a 3rd party observer within the game, or take part in the match, whether it's 1vs1 or 4vs4, since everything will be automatically logged. The host sends a report of the match to either the COO directly, or whoever is moderating the competition (of course we can assume there will be multiple matches per event/comp). Each player on the winning team then receives one LoC from the COO, whether he bagged one kill or ten. This is the same as how 2vs2 XWA/XvT matches currently work.

I would also suggest that LoCs from FW kills earn that pilot 5 FCHG points rather than the usual one, and no points be earned from missions. This should offset the fact that XWA/XvT players can earn FCHG points from LoCs and by completing custom missions & battles. It was suggested that 1 FCHG point be earned for completing FW missions. However, the range of difficulty in missions I think makes this unfair. The simplest way would be to hike up the value of the LoC.

Activity Tracking

Tracking activity in a MMORPG can be somewhat difficult, but I think if you go with a simple system, it'll work best. For this I would suggest that all FW players be registered as either a Trader or Fighter. The activity of a Trader can be measured by their time online divided by the amount of money they have (this information is shown on tables on the Burnout site). The activity of a Fighter is measured by the number of kills he has achieved. A screen-shot of the character profile in-game will show all of this information and more.

The CMDR would then add this information as part of the weekly activity report and at the end of the month in Monthly Squadron Evaluations (MSEs). For now, all this information can be kept on paper or on something like a spreadsheet. There is no need for fancy database changes or anything else that may jeopardize the entire plan.

Next Steps

Items that need to be sorted include establishing a system of rules for MP combat and conduct on the server. The server employs it's own set of rules & policies, known as the Rules of Engagement (RoE). The RoEs are pretty straight forward and for the most part, common sense. However, if you're not familiar with them, then it's easy to go breaking them. This then usually leads to a swift banning from the server. There is a system of getting unbanned, but it may take a few weeks, depending on the severity of the offense.

This leads to the important question - is breaking a RoE an automatic violation of the AoWs/CoCs? In my opinion, it depends on what you did - something for the Security Officer to review on a case by case basis. For example, using a cheat mod of some kind is a quick way to be banned on the server. But it's also on par with cheating in XWA. So this may call for charges of Conduct Unbecoming and whatever the cheat one is (AoW 407 I think). Another breach of the RoE may be landing on a hostile planet. Well, that's not all that serious and the ban from the server (which is probably temporary) should be punishment enough. Repeat offenses may warrant further action. I think this is a simple thing to deal with, as long as the SO, or someone from his Office, pays close attention to the ban chart on the Burnout site.

Another important thing is the establishment of some kind of IWATS course to cover all the rules, conduct, how to actually play the game and more. I've been asked to write this, however I think we should wait until things like activity and the tag are resolved (I can't write about things that haven't been decided on :P).

I mentioned above that the recent update is generally bad for the casual player (or EH'er), but only because we do not have a member-tag ([EH]) yet. By having our own tag, we have a ship list which we have a say in and some money to get us off the ground. And most importantly, we become an official part of the FW community. The presence of the EH will shoot up and more people will be interested in knowing who we are. This of course is one of the major objectives - the potential to get new members for the club.

To get our own tag, GA Ronin, either you or someone you designate, needs to speak with the admins of Burnout (such as Zaccarow or Burnout himself) and get the ball rolling. Those of us who currently use FW do not have the authority to negotiate on behalf of the club and so we're currently not moving forward.

I would like to emphasise my strong opinion that getting our own tag is the most important thing right now with the recent update release. The longer you leave it, the less say you have in things like the ship list. All the current issues such as activity tracking can be resolved eventually. Getting our own tag doesn't commit us to anything other than having some active members, which we have anyway.

Important Links

- Freeworlds Site: http://www.free-worlds.com/
- Burnout Homepage: http://usa.assassinsden.com/Default.aspx?tabid=43
- Burnout Server RoE: http://usa.assassinsden.com/Default.aspx?tabid=26 & http://usa.assassinsden.com/Default.aspx?tabid=38
- Burnout Forum: http://usa.assassinsden.com/Default.aspx?tabid=22 (need to be registered to see most forums - takes 2-6 days)
- Freeworlds (EH) Discussion Forum: http://www.ehnet.org/mb/viewforum.php?f=118&sid=51de3053c5d652670f88b6c756a1b7b0
- IONCROSS Resources for Server Hosts: http://www.ioncross.com/

GA Ronin, hopefully I've given you enough information to start making some important decisions. I have no doubt the others on this list have questions and suggestions which are welcomed.

Thank you,

High Admiral Priyum
Dark Adept, Arcona Consul
COO Assistant, Logistics Assistant
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MoH/ICx2/OoR/GOE/GSx4/SSx3/BSx3/PCx5/ISMx10
MoI-BC/IS-1BR-2GR/LoC-CSx9-Rx1/MoC-3BoC/CoE/CoLx4/CoB/LoAx2/OV-5E
SC/DC/LSSx2

Newsletter No. 104 Posted to the FLeet:  07.04.04
As Submitted From:  Executive Officer (SA Astatine)

Office of the XO

Online Viewable: http://nl.ehtiecorps.org/nl104/
Downloadable Zip: http://nl.ehtiecorps.org/nl104.zip (11.4 MB)

NEWSLETTER DESIGN NOTES:

Medal of Allegiance Awarded to Zaccarow:  06.30.04
As Emailed From:  HA Priyuim

Emperor's Hammer Medal of Allegiance
(Please see Operations Manual for medal descriptions)

Sirs,

I write this email today to recommend someone for the Medal of Allegiance. The description of this medal taken from the Operations Manual states:

The Medal of Allegiance is awarded to individuals who are not members of the Emperor's Hammer or it's subgroups and who have provided a service to the Fleet.

A while ago the Emperor's Hammer became involved with Freeworlds and the general FW community. From day one, an individual from this community has helped us (the EH'ers involved) in getting acquainted with the game and the community itself. Most recently he's been instrumental in getting the club it's own tag for recognition within the most popular FW server as well as setting us up individually with access on the Forums and our own customized ship-list. This individual is Zaccarow ( zaccarascrow@hotmail.com ).

Whatever the outcome of Freeworlds in our club, Zacc has gone above and beyond in his efforts to help us out. I feel that the MoA was created for exactly this kind of situation and I strongly believe it should be awarded to Zacc as a way of expressing our gratitude.

Thank you.

High Admiral Priyum
Dark Adept, Arcona Consul
COO Assistant, Logistics Assistant
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MoH/ICx2/OoR/GOE/GSx4/SSx3/BSx3/PCx5/ISMx10
MoI-BC/IS-1BR-1GRx2/LoC-CSx9-Rx1/MoC-3BoC/CoE/CoLx4/CoB/LoAx2/OV-4E
[DRAG] {IWATS-GFX-IIC/1/2/3-M/1/2-NS-RT-SM/1/3-TT}
SC/DC/LSSx2

Medal of Communication (MoC) Revisions:  07.11.04
As Emailed From:  Communications Officer (AD Turtle)

Emperor's Hammer Medal of Communication (MoC)
(Please see Operations Manual for medal descriptions)

The Medal of Communication is awarded to first-echelon (squadron or equivalent organizational units) unit members by their Commander for an outstanding level of communication in a particular month. Such communication will generally include, at a minimum, e-mail contact with the Commander and the unit in general, a high level of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) presence, and activity on the EH Message Boards. Commanders are authorized to award this medal once per month to one individual in their unit. Subsequent awards will upgrade the Medal of Communication as follows.

Bronze Oak Cluster - For two awards
Silver Oak Cluster - For three awards
Gold Oak Cluster - For four awards
Platinum Oak Cluster - For five awards
Diamond Oak Cluster - For six and subsequent awards

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