Nearing my 7th Month as Combat Operations Officer I have decided to take a look at what the Office has accomplished and what we need to accomplish in the future. The following is a shortlist of these things.
Accomplishments:
1. The Creation of IWATS MP to allow the pilots of the Tie Corps a better understanding of the basics of MP play in the club.
2. The creation of a COO website that has detailed information for Multiplayer gaming in the Tie Corps. The Website contains everything from tactics to how to join Battlestats.
3. The creation of 24/7 LoC submission form allowing players compete in multiplayer matches at any time of the day against anyone they want. This system has seen well over 300 matches since its introduction. It has also allowed the greatest amount of freedom in MP gaming in the TC ever.
4. The creation of the COO ladder system which allows any member of the EH access to ladders at any time. Any member of any subgroup can start and run a safe/cheatproof ladder. This system has been successfully used by the Dark Brotherhood for several events and continues to make ladder play an easy thing to do.
5. The Best finishes in XVT and XWA WoWs in the history of the club. The EH finished First in an XWA WoW and 2nd in an XVT WoW for the first time ever in one month. This was followed by several second place finishes in both XVT and XWA setting our most successful WoW consecutive months in the history of the club.
6. The first time in four years when the Combat Operation Office will not award 2000 less locs than the year before. The decline in LoCs continues, but it has slowed down this year for the first time in four years.
7. The policy of allowing any cmdr or higher the opportunity to run a competition out of #ehcoc at any time they choose. Anyone, anytime, can run a competition from #ehcoc.
Future Plans:
The future consists of several platforms being made available to the TC and EH as a whole. The COO will work to implement these games into our existing MP structure including several competitions based on these Platforms. I will focus a great deal of attention to the following platforms because they are "new" and are the most viable source of recruitment and activity for our players.
1. Freeworlds: This is our most current and pressing platform to instill a fair multiplayer system (By Fair, I mean LoCs will be awarded roughly at the same pace as XVT and XWA. Players will not earn 100 LoCs a night in any platform, ever. Or at least while I am COO). COOA HA Patel is currently working with several others to instill an activity tracking system in Freeworlds that will alow MP players the ability to be awarded. Currently discussion is underway to create a test Wing to instill FW to the TC.
2. Star Wars Galaxies Jump to Lightspeed: All manner of space combat will be taking place in JTL. It will support player-versus-player combat in a similar fashion to the Galaxies' ground combat system. Players who have declared "overt" status as either Rebel or Imperial are allowed to do battle with one another freely. You only need your mouse and keyboard to fly your starship in Jump to Lightspeed, and we support joysticks and gamepads. This games dynamics are going to be based on XVT and XWA in several ways. This platform will be handled by VA Terrak and the COO.
3. Imperial Alliance: I am not schooled on this gaming platform and will need to begin working with the SCO to implement some sort of MP gaming system that can be worked out.
So thats what the Combat Operations Office has done and what we are planning to do. I would like to point out that I am well aware of the SWG JTL role playing dynamics where you have to build a ship and then repair it. I find this little different from the role playing aspects of Freeworlds (make money to buy a better ship, sounds familiar) and little concern has been raised about this.
Currently XWA and XVT are not viable sources of recruitment or activity in the Tie Corps (noticed the Wing Numbers lately?). This is not a problem that is the EH's alone. The XWA and XVT community as a whole are dying, with each of the games nearing their end on the Zone. At one time in history a WoW had so many games going on that Battlestats could not handle the load of people scoring them, now we have WoWs that have 4 ranked clubs.
Rather than sitting in the Past, the Combat Operations Office will begin to shift its attention to new games. BEFORE YOU CRY: this does not mean that XVT and XWA will stop being a part of the Combat Operations Office. 24/7 LoCs will continue, Ladders will continue, We will play WoWs until the vanish, #ehcoc will still run MP competitions whenever you want them, and XWA Skirmishes and Imperial Storm Skimishes will still work the same way. Nothing is changing in MP other than a shif to focus to games that actually have an ability to draw new members and spawn activity.
News:
1. Star Wars Galaxies Jump to Lightspeed has an update at Game Spot. This update features a QA with developer Cinco Barnes and displays the intentions of how JTL will operate. It also details how the JTL team is full of experienced developers from such games as Wing Commander and XVT! Check it out!
2. Countdown to Oblivion and Sith Murder take place in #ehcoc tomorrow. You can catch the times of these events on the TC Combat Calendar!
3. Freeworlds enters closer to becoming a MP platform in the EH. Currently all Leaders have signed off on bringing this game to the EH! Look for large scale battles in space coming soon!
Long COO Report! Take it easy and Ill talk to you all soon.
FOA-COO/AD Khameir Sarin/SSSD Sovereign GSx4/SSx7/BSx6/PCx6/ISMx2/MoI/IS-1BW-1BR-1SW-1SR-1GW-1GR/LoC-RS-IS-CSx2/DFC-SW-BW-Rx1/CoLx2/CoB/LoA/OV-4E [TMPR] {IWATS-AIM-ASP-CBX-GFX-IIC/1/2-LIN-M/1/2-MP-PHP-RT-SM/2/3-TT-XML-XTM/1/2-XTT}