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Admiral Keth

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Posts posted by Admiral Keth

    A minor suggestion for the Scenario Depot

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by Zitadelle:

    And, according to your profile, you brew your own beer? Being a beer snob (or is that grog?), I am interested in knowing what are your specialities.\

    Pulls up chair Ahh, so glad you asked...

    My selection of homebrews include:

    Old T-34 Motor Oil (Russian Imperial Stout)

    I started brewing this about 4 years ago and have been tweaking it ever since. Aged six+ months. Incredible depth of character and amazingly smooth. It is my speciality, and at 12.5% ABV, packs quite a whallop.

    Fulminator (Dopplebock)

    Another favorite of mine, but not quite right yet. A mere 9% ABV.

    Sopwith Tripplane Belgian Trippel

    Aged for over a year this baby is sublime. 10% ABV.

    Claymore 90-schilling Wee Heavy Scotch Ale

    Aged six months, 1 pint will last an evening. A paltry 7.5% ABV.

    Hawker Hurricane Tadcaster Porter

    "Not any old porter in a storm"

    A favorite session beer of me and my friends. 6.5% ABV.

    I'm also experimenting with a dry Irish stout and a Cherry Wheat, but they are nowhere near perfection yet.

    Any other homebrewers out there?

    [ October 29, 2002, 11:20 PM: Message edited by: Admiral Keth ]

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    A minor suggestion for the Scenario Depot

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Zitadelle,

    Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. It is the scenario authors, as well as the players who come back to review scenarios, who deserve high praise for their efforts in making The Scenario Depot a valuable Combat Mission resource. Credit also goes to Tom (Bigdog), Craig (Harv), and Paul for contributing countless hours to the improvement of the site.

    Good suggestion, and actually a fairly easy one to implement.

    I can display a CD graphic next to the name of the scenario on the CMBO or CMBB index page, similar to the Preview or AAR graphics. Another column would start to make the index page too wide, causing information to run off the right side of the page.

    Look forward to this enhancement in a couple of days.

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    BigDog!

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by xerxes:

    If I send in a couple of map pictures can you post it?

    You bet. Send them tonite and I'll have them up by the morning. Watch the overall attachment size, though. If you can, take a look at a couple of the existing Battle Previews and size the graphics accordingly.

    Conversely, if the graphics sizes are pretty big, send them in seperate emails (maximum 3 screenshots).

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    BigDog!

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by Robert Hall:

    No, there is still no correct map picture, just a blank page now!

    That is correct. For CMBO and CMBB maps, I have yet to add the fancy coding that exists for battles and operations which only displays the Preview button if a real preview exists. Instead, I simply show the button and link to the Preview page. If no appropriate file exists, no images are displayed.

    This task is on my ever growing "List O' Things To Code" for The Scenario Depot.

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    BigDog!

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by xerxes:

    My Marsh Madness QB map at the depot has preview pics from some other map.

    My map is a gorgeous swamp perfect for a player pick ME, the preview shows some ugly forest. smile.gif

    Sorry, just a bit of coding error there. All fixed. It was still referencing the old site's CMBO map folder.

    I also (finally) uploaded and linked the QB map.

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    Atlas' scenario design discussion.

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by Vergeltungswaffe:

    AK, hope that didn't sound like a complaint, :( because it wasn't. Just trying to be helpful.

    I am totally in awe of what you do at the Depot.

    I didn't take it as a complaint, but I am genuinely interested in what aspects of The Scenario Depot works/doesn't work for people. How else can I make it better?

    Originally posted by Warlord69:

    Thanks again Keith for your wonderful service you provide the entire community.

    It's just my way of giving back to the CM community. I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't believe in it. Instead I'd probably be brewing up another batch of my famous "Ole T-34 Motor Oil" Russian Imperial Stout. I suppose CM is doing it's part in keeping me from being a drunken layabout.
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    Atlas' scenario design discussion.

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by Atlas_TH:

    Keth,

    Thanks for you efforts on our behalf. Any suggestions we make are not meant to detract from the excellent job you and yours have made in creating/upkeeping the SD. Your site is the best already.

    Question: Can't you already zero-rate every category without hurting the overall?

    Question: How many hours would it take to change the "overall" score to an independent variable?

    Comment: The five star rating system could use s 1 to 5 scale and not literally "stars", per se. Not sure if that is useful enough to consider. Does that make it easier to program?

    -Cheers

    Zero ratings are not included in the total ratings. If a reviewer does not have an opinion regarding a particular aspect, such as PBEM, he/she should use zero.

    I opted to have the overall score calced each time, as there are occassions when reviewers ask me to go back and change an erroneous value in a review. This eliminates me having to go back through and manually calculate total values for a particular scenario. To answer your question...

    CMBB Only:

    1) 10+ hours to recode and test the pages.

    2) 2-6 hours to hand calc and validate the values in the existing scenario reviews.

    CMBO Only:

    1) 10+ hours to recode and test the pages.

    2) 50+ hours to hand calc and validate the values in the existing scenario reviews.

    I'm padding the estimates a little, but they are fairly close.

    Regarding the rating system - a 0, 1-10 system was opted for so that there was a much finer degree of differentiation between the hundreds of CMBO scenarios. Sort of like using a d20 for gaming instead of a d10.

    Originally posted by Vergeltungswaffe:

    Admiral Keth, for the last two days, I have been unable to review any of the CMBB operations. You may be well aware of this, but just thought I would mention it, in case.

    Yep, one of the many things that need to be addressed, not to mention a brutal work schedule and real-life issues (had a close relative pass away recently).

    Non-the-nonce, work progresses every day at The Scenario Depot. Suggestions, ideas, comments, and criticisms always taken in the light that they are given.

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    If I build it, will they come?

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by ColumbusOHGamer:

    Mikey has good point... bandwidth might end up being an issue. I use WOW cable for my ISP and don't know how they would feel about this. Maybe they won't care. The only way I know to find out is to try it and see what happens. You've got me thinking about that though....

    COG

    Bandwidth, especially for mods, will be a big issue. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what laid Manx's site low? The Scenario Depot has nearly a million page hits per month, and 10+Gb worth of traffic, and that's just for comparatively smaller files. Make sure your web host allows as much traffic (hopefully unlimited) as possible.
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    If I build it, will they come?

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    As WWB stated, the Scenario Depot already provides a single source for nearly every scenario that has ever been published (probably less than 20 old scenarios out there Keith hasn't found).
    Truth be known, I have prolly 50+ CMBO scenarios that I could never get the author to respond, thus never gained permission and never got posted. <sniff> Such a loss. </sniff> Plus there are 50+ CMBO scenarios hosted on other sites (like the Fading Hope campaign), that I would never be presumptuous enough to post even the synopses without their explicit permission.
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    Atlas' scenario design discussion.

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    All,

    I am reading all of this with extreme interest.

    Andreas - I would be interested in any ideas you had with regards to revision of the raating system. Keep in mind that radical changes involve between 48 and 96 solid hours of coding and testing, double that if the CMBO sections are to be revised.

    At this point, however, the rating system for battles and operations is unlikely to change without a major revision to the site. Code is simply too interlinked everywhere to begin changing how scenarios are reviewed. Although I daily work on various aspects of the site, these primarily involve minor code tweaks and field additions.

    As the builder of The Scenario Depot, I am perpetually dismayed at the ratio of downloads to reviews. However, I also understand that 95% of the CM community simply wants to play scenarios without any additional commitment.

    I believe it is up to everyone who enjoys Combat Mission to actively support and advertise The Scenario Depot. This, to me, is a reasonable request. The Scenario Depot generates no income for me, and I personally get no compensation from it, other than my good feeling of giving something back to the CM community.

    Should the Scenario Depot require that for every scenario a designers submits, he/(she?) must review 5 scenarios (non-friends, ones with fewer reviews...)
    Yikes! I'm not even sure how I could enforce that code-wise. Ideas?

    For #3 and #4, maybe you guys could all get together and make one official central link website database thingie for all these scenarios. Even if they're hosted in a bazillion different places, at least have one d*mn site which points to them all, is well organized, has a nice little review thingie, let's the user view them in different arrangements, (by newest, by medium, by Allied vs AI, you know). Well dang that would help I think. The way it is now... Yuk.
    How is this different than what The Scenario Depot offers now? Designers can host their own scenarios on their own sites, if they wish, or send them to me to host. How can The Scenario Depot be better organized? You can sort alphbetically, by Newest, or perform a search on just about any field in the Synopsis. I'd appreciate a better idea of what you mean by Yuk.

    It might not be the easiest site to use (I find the new buttons baffling... It took me forever to realize that the text for each button is in the headline, and changes on mouseover... Alt text would be helpful)
    SurlyBen, I'm already looking into a somewhat different menuing system, but there are tasks which have precedence at the moment.

    There is a new, well hidden search in the depot. Click on the battles selection and there are 2 links--list all buttons and search battles.
    With the advent of a new menuing system I'm intending to make the Review links/buttons more apparent and closer to the main pages.

    This is a big issue that needs some discussion. I do think scores are a bit inflated
    I, too, believe that folks simply don't rate scenarios the same way, hence my previously unresponded to request for someone to write a tutorial on "How To Review". I'm still looking for any takers. Send me an email.

    1. Use a 1-5 star rating (ala Big Dog). From movies reviews, people can more easily identify *=poor, **=fair, ***=average, ****=good, and *****=outstanding.
    This would be really painful, but not impossible, to code.
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    6 new battles at the scenario depot

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Uploaded and linked.

    Encourage scenario designers to make more and better scenarios...Be sure to review them after you play them!

    Gang: Friendly Reminder...I know everyone anxiously anticipates each and every new release, however, please remember that it is Scenario Depot policy to have submitted battles and operations uploaded no later than 24 hours after the actual file hits my inbox. If the designer submits a battle or operation synopsis, and sends no file, I attempt to contact them and cajole them into sending the file.

    Designers: If you are submitting a synopsis for a playtest scenario, and do not yet wish to post a file, make a note in the Author's Comments section. I can edit the comment once the file gets posted.

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    BTS: Scenario Needs...

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by Rob Murray:

    I have a question. Why are scenarios that are on the CMBB cd posted as new at the Scenario Depot? Doesn't make any sense to me. Just wonndering ( so nobody bite my head off ).

    Rob,

    That's simply the way that the system works. The "New" label appears on all battles, operations, and maps for 10 days after their initial submission.

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    Do people have any idea how to use the Scenario Depot correctly???

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by Panzer Leader:

    Why not a quick "Enter 0 if question is not applicable" rather than a windy treatise which will do more to dissuade an already minority of users?

    Actually a quite brilliant suggestion, one which will be implemented forthwith (or mayhap on the morrow).

    Yeah, I tried to find the email addy on the site not long ago and was frustrated not to be able to find it. Still settling in to the new digs, perhaps?
    A definite oversight on my part. Truth be known, there is still quite a bit of coding going on behind the scenes, such as the Author's section, plus some skunkworks projects I've got going in my spare picoseconds. I'll make a page with emails of all of the hardworking individuals (Big Dog, Craig, Paul, etc.) who contribute time and effort at the Scenario Depot.
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    Do people have any idea how to use the Scenario Depot correctly???

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Do people have any idea how to use the Scenario Depot correctly???
    Imagine my dismay!

    As fanatically opposed to censorship or alteration of reviews as I am, I have taken the extreme step of zeroing the PBEM value for this particular review. I felt that in this particular instance the rating was unjust. I am willing to hear from dissenting opinions, however.

    At the moment, I am immersed in coding up various aspects of the CMBB-side of The Scenario Depot, including a more robust Authors section. Thus I cast about for someone who would be willing to take upon themselves the task of creating a treatise on the proper usage of The Scenario Depot review system. This document would be made available on-line to all users, either through a PDF, HTML, or other method. This person must be skilled in English (mind you I have 15 years experience as a Senior Technical Writer, so I'll be fairly strict(Yes, I know I should be doing it...only so many hours in the day, don't you know)). Must have other skills, such as use of Acrobat PDF Writer, and HTML skills. Please apply via email.

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    The Scenario Depot has gone ?? OK I'VE FOUND IT

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Scenario Authors!

    Some of you have had a little trouble posting scenarios. This was due primarily to the Javascript which determined which formations (infantry, mechanized, cavalry) were available to which nationalities. I have removed the Javascript and hardcoded in the values into the drop-down list. Now, although you can select such interesting combinations such as Hungarian SS Cavalry, or Polish Guards Mechanized, there is error-checking in place which should prevent you from posting non-historical combinations.

    For those of you who had trouble posting, please give it another try. If it fails for you again, simply email the parameters to me, along with the file.

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    The Scenario Depot has gone ?? OK I'VE FOUND IT

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by MrSpkr:

    Great! When will you get the submitted scenarios up and running (or inform authors if you are not planning to so do)?

    Steve

    Apologies for the delay in getting scenarios posted.

    It's always been my policy to get files uploaded and linked within 2 to 3 days of receipt of the file, providing the author enters their own parameters. If I have to enter the scenario particulars, it could take until the next weekend.

    I am still waiting for files from the following authors who have posted scenarios:

    Hill 621 (Mike Wholaver)

    [ October 04, 2002, 10:34 AM: Message edited by: Admiral Keth ]

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    The Scenario Depot has gone ?? OK I'VE FOUND IT

    in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)

    Posted

    Originally posted by GWDWD:I tried to post a CMBB scenario review last night and got an error message. (Can't remember what the message was, it may have been a 404 error.) Are you sure it's working as it should?
    Yikes! My bad...I was conducting some tests earlier yesterday and I guess I neglected to switch a parameter back. I made the correction and posted a Battle entitled "Admin Test". Sorry!

    Also, will you eventually have the scenarios that came on the CMBB CD available for review as well? Not sure what the ability would be of you to post them for download since they're copyrighted, though I know you have the original CMBO scenarios on the site.
    It is my intention to have as many of the CMBB CD scenarios posted as possible. I need to get authorial permission first. The actual files will never be made available for download.
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