This editorial was sent
in by the XO of the 187th VFW Avengers. It is a report of their Operation
Red Warrior weekend of 4 on 4 Force on Force Multiplayer Falcon 4 competition
with the 16th Flying Tigers. He speaks of the trials and tribulations
that led to the weekends success.
A Rumour Of War - By Dusty "Redwolf" Rhoades
Dusty "Redwolf" Rhodes
Executive Officer
187th VFW Avengers FIRST TO FIRE! www.187th.org
About a month and a half ago, I received a e-mail from my commander of
the 187th VFW Avengers, my boss, via our e-mail list for the wing. He
told us to prepare for wartime operations against the 16th TFW Flying
Tigers. Well being a good Executive Officer I wanted to know who the
flying Tigers were. So I used the Falcon Webring and looked up their
website. I quickly found out they were a 4 squadron wing, with well over
40 members and rising. Holy Cow! This was certainly going to be interesting.
I got in touch that night with Kevin "Darkstar" Brown to find out the
details and what needed to be done to make this happen. Over the next
4 weeks things got completely hectic and FUN. I learned from Darkstar
that we were to fly 3 missions a day on a Saturday and Sunday. The missions
would be Force on Force with a 4 versus 4 format. Being the mathematical
genius I am not, I quickly realized what was being proposed were 8 people,
in Falcon 4.0 Multiplay, all at once, fighting each other, using the
1.07 patch. "Oh my" (a nice way of putting it) I thought to myself, this
is really gonna be a challenge. A third person created the missions so
neither wing would have the advantage of anyone knowing the mission details.
To add to that, both commanders agreed to abstain from the fight because
if anyone had any knowledge about the missions it would be them, as they
were the contact point for that third party. Shameless ata boy now: Thanks
Vexx for the work on the missions, they were challenging and hair raising.
I now had to put together a duty roster of, at the very least, 12 pilots.
The commanders, in all their wisdom to create realism, decided if you
were listed as MIA or KIA after your mission, you could no longer fly
any other missions. Here I had 24 Falcons to fill and they strap me with
that. Your killin me! Didn't he realize we only have 29 total people
in our wing. Well I had my marching orders and started my duty roster.
I figured with the month and half notice everyone should be able to plan
ahead for this event, i.e. prepare the wife or significant other. Well
without going into too much detail, it didn't go off like I thought.
But the happy ending came about, after we had to cancel the first weekend,
when due to technical difficulties we just couldn't get the first mission
of the war off the ground.
Back to the drawing board we went. We notified the wing that the war
was cancelled until the next weekend, and yes, I now had to put together
a duty roster and only had one week to do it. The divorce court was about
to be in session for some of us! Well to Darkstar and my delight, we
had 20 pilots from our wing alone show up for the war. I was almost overwhelmed
with guys telling me, "Let me in there, I wanna kill somebody over there".
Wow, such hostility and dedication. I was certainly proud how the Avengers
rose to the occasion. In the view of many people this was a victory for
on line gaming and Falcon 4.0 in particular. So Microprose if you are
reading this, we are here, and we are here to stay. Keep the fixes for
this Sim coming and we will make this THE greatest sim ever released.
OK back to the fun. We did an estimate of the number of people that came
to the 187th's dedicated IRC HQ. We estimate about 100 people visited
throughout the weekend. They included Sleepdoc from the Falcon 4 Ibeta
team, and Frugal from www.frugalsworld.com
, arguably one of the better flight sim website there is (Editors note
:hehe the cheque is in the mail).
The 187th used BattleComm for the first day of the war. BattleComm was
chosen by us over Roger Wilco as our dedicated comms link. Well Microsoft
I hope you are reading this too, BattleComm still has several issues
that need to be addressed if the 187th is going to keep it. We ended
up changing to Roger Wilco the second day cause BattleComm was just too
buggy. The 16th was very patient with us during these comms problems.
I flew the first mission of the war and could not transmit but could
receive. Luckily I have practiced a lot with the in game chat and was
able to communicate somewhat effectively.
In the end, we were able to complete with no real problems, 2 of the
first 3, 4 vs 4 missions, on the first day. We tried for several hours
to fly the third one, but Falcon had given its all and just wasn't gonna
let us do it. We changed the format and instead flew a 3 vs 3 dogfight
with no Sim problems. We ran into tech problems along the way, ranging
from, lockups, Falcons exploding on the taxiway, Comms problems, you
name it, it happened. I really have to give credit to both the Avengers
and the Flying Tigers, they showed the patience of a saint in working
through these problems. People were being offered as sacrifices to the
Falcon gods if they could just get the mission to take. 2 of 3 did and
man were they intense. Voices were certainly a couple of octaves higher
when the slammers started flying. The 16th showed their make up by handily
defeating us in all 3 engagements. (Officially the results have not been
released but they were no doubters) They showed superior tactics and
planning , in executing their war plan. Hats off Flying Tigers YOU DA
MAN! (for now hehe)
The second day was the ultimate test in patience for on line gaming and
marriages. Unfortunately the Falcon God had only one more mission to
give us and it was a screamer. We were able to finally get the first
mission accomplished with some extraordinary effort and patience. It
took 2 hours and numerous reboots and cursing spells to fly. Again the
16th were able to take care of business. (this time hehe) We went on
to the second mission and let me tell you, there were some overly stressed
moments. We spent almost 4 hours trying to get this mission off the ground.
People were rebooting, making excuses to their wives, cursin, prayin,
trash talking, and some other actions which will remain secret for generations
to come. In the end, mission two was a scrub. That Falcon God gave us
a resounding "No Joy". I personally spent over 16 hours on line over
the weekend, much to my wifes chagrin. (If ya need a divorce lawyer guys,
my wife found a good one) Others spent even more then that, planning
strategizing and doing whatever it took to fight and win on the virtual
battlefield.
All in all this was one of the most fun , yet stressful weekends I have
spent with Falcon 4. The sportsmanship and camaraderie shown by both
wings tells me that on-line gaming is here to stay. With dedicated groups
like the 187th and 16th, wars like this should be taking place on a regular
basis, especially once 1.08 patch and beyond make their long awaited
appearances.
The Command Staff's and aviators of both the 187th Avengers and the 16th
Flying Tigers would especially like to thank the staff's of www.SimHq.com
, www.Frugalsworld.com , www.Combatsim.com
and www.Dogfighter.com
for the outstanding support they provided. If you are thinking of starting
your own little on line war, contact these people, they will publicize
it and help make it a web-wide event (hey now there is a new title).
Until next time, I am off to make sure we get our Falcons back in the
air and train, train, and train some more for the next challenge to "push
Falcon to the limit and beyond".
