Another week with mixed feelings. Happy since a lot of medals were awarded to myself and MAJ Clark. Sad because it was only myself and MAJ Clark. Sad when I see the participation rate in big ship wide competitions drop down to basically me. Dozens of medals the past few months have not been awarded, and apparantly the near certainty of winning one isn't enough to motivate people to fly a single free mission in a week. Even though people are flying - they seem to just not fly the assigned missions. Beats me why, and so far no definitive answer yet to my mail to the mailinglist. The same applies to multiplayer - plenty of people flying, plenty of people submitting screenshots. And no one submitting to the COM. Some people say their results aren't worthy or they like to at least have a chance to win. That doesn't fly with me as medals aren't being awarded. So that one person that would submit would be guaranteed a medal and a win or 2nd place. People say it's because they haven't been submitting screenshots at all. The question then is, why not. Are you still flying? Then why not submit? I know of several pilots who are active in Star Conflict, yet their names are not on the kill board.

I'm just glad the COM decided to renew his competitions for next year. Let's hope participation will increase. If anyone has any solid ideas on how we can make that happen, I'm all ears. Like I said in my email, I don't mind the medals, but if I submit a TIE pilot file with full cheats enabled and so only 25% of points, and I still win, that's not good!

On to other stuff, rant over.

I have submitted 3 competitions for next year for the entire TC to participate in, including the TCCS, both COMs and myself. The first is The GoG Games - X-wing, where we will fly all the X-wing Tour of Duties. Because they generally are rather large, upto 12 missions a piece, you will get 2 months to complete it. Remember to submit screenshots for all your victory debriefs, as the pilotfiles are useless! The second is The GoG Games - TIE Fighter where we will play all the original TIE Fighter Battles. One a month this time, and because there's 13 of them, we will put 2 of them in July. All official expansion packs are included. If you don't have the games, consider getting them from GoG.com. Both games together cost less than what I paid for TIE Disk back in the stone age! Both competitions basically follow the same strategy: The three highest battle scores win, and when all is said and done, the top 4 pilots overall will be awarded an extra shinie, with the coveted Iron Star with Platinum Wings for the winner. Since not all of us are high score getters, each pilot will also be awarded for participation: submit more than half (3 for X-wing, 8 for TIE) and win an IS-BW. If you complete all, you will also be awarded an IS-SW at the end.

The third competition is non flying. In the past, I've run competitions that involve games on your cell phone, so let's do that again. Dempsey's Mobile Gaming Mania will be a one month competition where at the end of the month, whoever has the highest score (submitted by screenshot!) wins. Top 3 players win. If there's anough people enjoying the competition, it will be extended to the whole year with a different game each month. Then we will also follow a similar strategy: all pilotscores will be added (relative to mine to prevent one game deciding the outcome), and the top 4 scorers at the end will be awarded, with an Iron Star with Platinum Ribbon for the winner, and participation medals for 7 and 12 submissions.

So what else is going on in the TC? The usual end-of-the-year quiet I guess. As in, nothing much except my recent frustrations in Star Conflict. The Squadron itself is rather quiet. Once again, many thanks to MAJ Clark for running the trivia in my absence, and good job to all who have participated this week. Remember, trivia incentive medals are ready to be earned!

Also, more kudos to the good Major for receiving a promotion in the Fleet Commander's Honor Guard! Well done, Legionnaire Clark! More kudos available, this time for LCM Nylan who took a most glorious victory in the Weekly Trivia hosted by MAJ Clark.
 

Delta squadron competitions

FLIGHT I: The Razor's Edge - Novaculum mortalis