Hey David. The further south in Louisiana you live, the more certain you can be that YOU WILL GET PODS this season. Gnslngr, from New Iberia, just recently informed me that down here at this latitude in the state, we can over-winter, and expect the survival of around 80%-90% of our plants!
I just asked the same 'seed-starting" question to a couple of experts here, "Prehensile" and "Romy6". Both of these very knowledgeable pepper experts start their seeds outdoors. They are both from Florida. The consensus is, start your plants in the shade. The plastic dome that comes with the seed-starting kits is not really needed but it can help your set-up from drying out.
Prehensile takes the dome off when the plants reach 3-inches. He then waits for the third set of true-leaves to sprout before he starts gradually exposing them to morning sunlight a couple of hours at a time. Increase their time in the sun gradually.
Romy6 never uses the dome and starts exposing his plants to sunlight at the 6-inch mark.
Both of these guys grow monstrous plants with massive amounts of pods.
In the last 2 days, I just put about 70 seeds in starter trays. Outdoors.
Go ahead and start your seed. Even if the plants that take the longest to pod-up, don't give you fully ripe pods this season, if you over-winter them outdoors, you will have a MAJOR HEADSTART for next year!