Test / practice sessions
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Contents
Introduction
Running test sessions and practice sessions is a very time consuming activity. For most test and all practice sessions, you'll need at least two full teams to be able to do anything useful, and preferably some more people as support. Multiply this by the amount of time spent on preparing for, running and evaluating sparring matches, and the actual number of man hours becomes quite high. And not only is the amount of time spent quite high, the activity itself is complex as well, since the preparation is much more specific then most Agony roams and the results are more meaningful as well. All this can put a lot of pressure on the participants, potentially making it stressful.
Since we all play this game for fun, it is important to make the time spent on these sessions something fun for all people involved. Not all work involved will be fun (after all, who likes buying items and fitting ships?), but if the execution is efficient (little time wasted waiting) and effective (clear goals and expectations upfront, clear results in the end), most people will enjoy the overall experience. With that in mind, a good organization of these events will help achieve those goals. Work smarter, not harder.
This article is written to help organizing these events. Its target audience is the people doing the organizational tasks, but it also very useful for people participating in these events.
Setting up for test and practice sessions
Before you can run any test session, you need to get some things prepared. This section will help you.
Choosing a practice location
Practice sessions will be run on the test server Singularity (or Sisi, as it is commonly referred to). You need to select a system where the practice session will be held. Here are some pointers for finding a suitable system.
The system must have one or more stations with a seeded market. You don't want to travel far to get things, so you'll base out of a seeded station. Preferably, the seeded station has a medical facility for clone / pod jumping. Preferably choose a quiet system on Tranquility, since that will lower the chances of people using the system on Sisi, which cuts down on potential spies. A 0.0 system is preferred because it means you can use bombs, although it must have NPC stations with a seeded market, but a low sec system can work as well. A high sec system is not a good idea, since you cannot use out of corp alts without getting CONCORD trouble and prohibits the use of carriers.
It is also good to have a secondary location selected, so you can move in case of people disturbing practices. You can either have one close by and fly there (and perhaps use a carrier to jump stuff there), or one on the other side of the universe and pod-jump there. With each system, you also select the seeded station (or one of them when multiple are seeded) and rent an office there. Be aware that the office needs to be re-rented every time Sisi has a new mirror.
Setting up the arena
Once you select the location, set up an arena there. To cut down on warping time, create one in line but off grid with the undock of the station, so you can instantly warp there after you undock. You need at least 1 center can and 2 team warp in cans off grid with the center can. Create copies of the can bookmarks and put them up on corp contract. To save time, create the bookmarks on Tranquility so you don't loose them every time Sisi is mirrored, but only put cans there on Sisi only to prevent giving away your practice location.
Getting non-market items
It is possible you need certain items for setups that are not seeded with the market, such as:
- certain implants
- faction ammo
- faction ships
Either acquire these items on Tranquility and put them in the right place, so they get mirrored each time, or acquire them on Sisi.
Planning a practice session
To be able to do a practice session, you need a lot of people. That is why you should try to plan practice sessions on times and days when you'll have most chance of getting people to sign up. Historically this has been in weekends and in late European / early US time zones. These times will also most likely be used to run the tournament, so if people are not available in these times, they probably won't be able to fly in the tournament.
It helps to make the sessions occur at the same day and time throughout the tournament preparation. This helps avoid confusion and allows people to try an keep their schedule clear well in advance.
Don't try to over-schedule sessions. It is better to have one very effective session a week for two months then three sessions a week with a high rate of burn-out and ineffectual testing due to lack of people or lack of things to test properly. I think two permanent sessions per week should be the upper limit. There is always the possibility to schedule small test sessions in between when you don't need two full teams.
Running a test / practice session
Running a practice session is quite a lot of work. By structuring this in a well defined process with clear roles, activities and inputs and results, it can run smoothly while distributing the work load a bit.
Session inputs and results
Each practice session has a number of matches planned. The inputs for each match are:
- A fleet design per team
The output for each match is:
- A match report thread with match reports per team: One form thread per match (including re-matches) is started but will contain two reports, one per team, describing how the match went from each teams perspective.
Session roles
Each session has the following roles:
- session leader: He makes sure that matches are planned, all prerequisites for each match are met and time is used efficiently. He will be the tournament manager or somebody to replace him.
- team captain: each team for each match has a team captain. He will usually be the fleet designer or somebody to replace him.
- team FC: he will be the FC for the team. This will often but not always be done by the team captain.
- match recorder: each team will have somebody to record the events of the match and write a match report later.
- pilot: a pilot on either team, many of these needed
- referee: An optional but preferred role for calling match start and stop times and watching for boundary violations
Session activities
Session preparation
An important part of running a session effectively and efficiently is being prepared. Fleet designers are responsible for scheduling matches with the sessions with the practice session leader. They will have to make sure he knows:
- what matches are scheduled
- what the goals for each match are
- who will be responsible for each fleet per match
If he doesn't have this information, he will cancel the session. If he does have this information, he can ask people to sign up for the session, either with or without a role. He might also ask people to prepare by buying supplies and fitting ships for the schedules matches.
At the beginning of the session, he will determine if there are enough people to start the session.
Match preparation
For each match, teams need to be assembled, after which the teams get into their own vent channel. Each team assigns an FC and a match recorder. Once all this has been done, the teams can get into ships and assemble at the warp in point while discussing strategy. After that, it is time to start the match.
It is important to note that fleet design or ship setup is not a point of discussion unless specifically requested. If you don't agree with either, the best way to either provide feedback in the match report or get involved in the fleet design pro-actively. Each team captain has final say, although he primarily needs to stick to the fleet design to give it a valid test instead of redesigning it on the spot.
Match
The match begins by the teams warping in, starting a count-down to the fight. To make the level of realism high, the time between warp in and the match starting should be brief. The match ends either by the team calling for the end of match, the time runs out or one team being obliterated.
Match evaluation
Once the match is over, the arena is cleared while each team evaluates the match within their team, answering the following questions:
- What won / lost the match for us? Was it fleet design, FC choices or individual piloting?
- Did the match fulfill its stated goals? Why or why not?
- Do we need a rematch? Why or why not?
- Does the match recorder have all information to write a match report? If not, what is missing?
- Do we have specific questions for the other team?
After these questions, both teams join the same channel and briefly summarize their answers, ask any required questions and decide if a rematch is required. If a rematch is required, they start match preparation again with the same teams and setups. If no rematch is required but there are still tests to be done, match preparation is started for a new match.
It is important to note that discussion should be kept to an absolute minimum. If there is disagreement about certain conclusions, the best way to voice the differing opinions is in the match report. The practice session leader will make choices if no quick consensus can be reached.
Session evaluation
After all matches are done, the floor is opened for people willing to discuss the session in general, or the matches specifically. The match reporters write their match reports and publish them, allowing others to provide additional insights and giving fleet designers useful feedback.
Important Do's & Don'ts
Do
- Make sure you make every test meaningful by setting a clear goal and working to accomplish it
- Make reports of what actually happened instead of just the conclusions you drew from it
- Either step up if you want to contribute or step aside to allow others to do their job
- Thank people for showing up and donating their time
- Avoid wasting peoples time at all cost
Don't
- Don't start discussing fleet design until after the matches are done
- Don't be negative or critical: keeping a good atmosphere is very important
- Don't plan too many sessions: you'll just burn people out
