*New Pangaea SP* - combat of a different sort.

[Rman Virgil]

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In the end, I subscribe to how Paul Valéry expressed it:

...A work is never completed except by some accident such as weariness, satisfaction, the need to deliver, or death: for, in relation to who or what is making it, it can only be one stage in a series of inner transformations.

It's a good time to let go as I'm starting to second guess myself. I've tried to anticipate as many possible questions that could arise and provide answers. If I've overlooked anything, I'll have to speak to it next week when I return from a wilderness sojourn in the Rocky Mountains.


A brief intro to GP:

* "New Pangaea SP" is a thoroughly asymmetric, and peculiar, mash-up of CAM & Challenge. Stealth, timing and surgical precision, in multi-vector maneuver, are vital to success. Ditto for your builds (where and when to) and how carefully you go about procuring atypical, fragile, resources (as well managing thier clear limits). You have to consider multiple fronts, and centers of gravity, every step of the way, in a manner that is non-rote. The decision making requires dealing with a close to wargaming level of conflict complexity, and wide spectrum situational awareness, without succumbing to panic. You also have to be able to decisively sacrifice on a par with a successful Queen's Gambit, when rote heuristics are strongly pulling you the other way.

* There's been no effort on my part to achieve universal GP appeal. I know for sure there is a segment that will hate it but they already have a vast repository of Addons to make them as happy a seabed of clams. The audience for this creation is a specific subset, for now. However, that audience could be vastly broadened for this type GP if Commanders were fully deved according to Warzone Creator's original design genome intention.

* This is definitely not a High Oil or even Middle Oil situation. It falls within the Low Oil continuum but I have totally redefined what that means within the specifics of my construct design.

==============>


- These first 4 reads are crux to grokking "New Pangaea SP" offerings (as is being able to decipher and glean intel for strategizing from the "Map Preview"):


* "Triumph In The Balance": The short story, and accompaning graphic front piece with Omar Grimaldi future history snippet, that sets-up the gameplay situation of 'New Pangaea SP'.


* SAR Time Line: Essential Details and Backstory.


* "Puzzle Ditty" clue of core significance to unlocking a major challenge.

And remember, your goal is not to defeat the SAR (though for the heck of it you can try) but rather this:

* Your "New Pangaea SP" altered GP mission goal becomes: prevent the ManGodAi from getting thier hands on the Advanced Global Weather Modification Facility and crushing the SAR out of existence in the process.

There are but 2 ways for you, Team Epsilon interim leader, to achieve this and still sustain possible future agreeable diplomatic relations between the Project and a sovereign SAR - defeat the ManGodAi or destroy the facility... and, in either case, minimize SAR casualties.

* Note: A .JPG of the "Advanced Weather Modification Facility" is included in the attached .Zip along with the "New Pangaea SP.wz" and "Map Preview.jpg".


* The GP Sandbox aspect of 'New Pangaea SP'.

You can always alter what has been done to remake it into whatever suits you as a better GP experience. Just take it into FlaMe and have a go at it.


=============>


- These last 4 reads are optional, though I do believe they offer key insights that some may find of useful interest and generative value:


* "Elective Affinities" - the Design Doc for 'New Pangaea SP' - Part 1 AND


* Part 2: Design Doc.


* Expanded WZ Timeline & Backstory: A 2-part graphic.


* Connecting the Dots - The Motivational Context: Past, Present, Future.


===========>


- A recap of 2 closing thoughts:

1.) I would recommend you not go into Debug and initiate God Mode to study "New Pangaea SP" (you'll still have to uncover the critical "timing interlocks" through induction play). Instead, I would recommend taking a screen shot of the map preview and studying that as there are many clues to be gleaned from it (along with my postings) that won't rob you of the grit, grace & delight of discovering as much on your own. But that's up to you, of course.

2.) Besides the Trolleyology dilemma set up between you, the ManGodAi and the SAR, there is another central dilemma you will face. It has to do with self-preservation to battle another day at the price of deep sacrifice - of letting go when the mightest pull is to hold on tight. The tactic of "meat shields" represents an arcade GP of this notion. I like arcade as much as the next gamer but I wanted to move my GP dilemma along a continuum away from carefree, unfeeling sacrifice to really, truely, feeling the deliberated loss. So there will be that additional departure from the GP decision making norm to add to the rest of the atypical constellation of experiences you will come upon, that I hope will captivate in its parts as well as an integrated whole.

============>


I consider the Map Preview of "New Pangaea SP" essential Intelligence gathered by the 2 Transport's sensor arrays on the way to the crash site which becomes your opening base of Ops.

Along with the first 3 reads linked at the top of this post, being able to decipher the info provided by this "Map Preview" is really not optional if you are to grok the gameplay. It is so important that I am including the latest .jpg of it in the .zip attachment containing the "New Pangaea SP" .wz file.

Note: "New Pangaea SP" will show up as a Map-Mod and the only reason for that is that the .wz includes a Rocky Mountain tile set instruct to pre-empt the decal application. This was done because I believe the cliff terrain tiles look better without the decal. Thanks to NoQ for that suggestion. I still believe the decal works well with the "Arizona" tertile set.


=============>


A shout-out word of thanks to:

* NoQ and Berg for all thier splendid efforts without which I would not have even attempted this. NoQ for all his A.I. creations, his suggestions to increase detail and eliminate cliff decals. Berg for his spot on Scav art work.

* Flail 13 for creating the 'FlaMe' editor. If all I had available was Pumpkin's 'Edit World' it would have been practically impossible to do what I did on such a scale.

* Aubergine for all his work, input and genuine, multi-dimensional presence.

* Jorzi and the AR team for thier efforts which inspired throughout most of my dev even though in the end I had to sadly forego running the mod for code technical issues beyond my ability to resolve.

* Goth and Lord Apocalypse, for thier inspiring efforts and caring input which brought to life what got me into WZ in the first place.

* Shadow Wolf for his prodigious "Contingency" Mod and sharing some of his narrative creations.

* Montetank for inspiring map making shop talk.

* Iluvalar for his singular "NRS" creation and deep insights into the game.

* Crab for his outstanding new WZ Guide.

* The "Invisible College" from the Virtual Reality Gaming community for thier thorough understanding of, and feedback on, my atypical GP goals.

* Mero .... well, just for being Mero.

* The Pumpkin Team for thier powerfully inspireing, and original 2-fold, GP design genome - as well thier collaborative commitment MEME, front and center, with thier retail audience.

* And last, but not least, the FOSS Development Team, for making WZ a cross-platform future contender in the RTS genre, 15 years into the 21st century.

Of course, while I may have been inspired by others, all short comings in what's been done are entirely on me.

=============>

Getting started:

* First...

* Download latest "Ultimate Scavenger AI Mod" for WZ v.3.1 (ultimatescavs-1-15.mod.wz) HERE


* Instructions here:

* What is a "mod" and how do I install it ?


* Config File Locations


=============>


After installing "Ultimate Scavenger A.I. Mod" per above, how to set-up "New Pangaea SP RC1.wz" for playing is as follows:

* Extract the "New Pangaea SP RC.wz", "Map Preview.jpg" and "Weather Mod Facility.jpg" from the .Zip attached to this post.

* Place the .wz in your Maps Folder.

* Go into the Single Player Skirmish Menu and select the 2P map as "T-1". This was my dev setting and I cannot speak to how it plays starting at T-2 or T-3. In all likely hood it would require changes.... or it could be cooly different. I just don't know.

* Turn Scavs on.

* Set Prefs to: No Alliances, High Power and Advanced Bases.

These are the dev settings. If you change these, it won't play as designed and would have to be remade, which you can do yourself in FlaMe if you wanna get into it as a Sandbox, remaking, experience.

* You are "Player 0".

* For "Player 1" Select "NULL BOT" at the "Insane" setting. This was my dev setting.

If you desire to reduce the difficulty, this is the setting to scale back as you choose.

* Launch and engage.

* I would suggest 10 - 20 mins the first time to get a feel for your situation. Then quit out and study the provided "Map Preview" to begin a more informed strategizing. Remember what I said about the importance of gleaning critical info from this "Map Preview" and the clues provided in the first 3 linked reads at the top of this post: opening Short Story, SAR Timeline / Backstory, and the "Puzzle Ditty".

OR Read my New Condensed Guide with fresh details and tips:

*** The Guide ***

==========>

Alas, the .zip download.



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[montetank]

Congratulations, Rman Virgil-excellent story with an excellent map. I opend the map in flame. Size 249x249. Wow
Let me say, you are the new Sisyphos. I see so many details-super cliffbrush. The whole map is in a perfect harmony. Remembers me a little bit at the "water lily pond" from Claude Monet
I cant wait to play a game later
Thank you very much.

Thats, what i call a map

Regards

[NoQ]

You can use this one, i guess:

• nPangaeaSpRc1.ini

  (298 Bytes) Downloaded 275 times

You can place this into /challenges/, merge scav mod inside and you get a self-sufficient map-mod (you can also edit name and description and enemy party name).

Unfortunately, challenge maps don't work as expected on 3.1 (you'd still have to put this both into maps and mods folder, or ship the challenge file separately instead, or something like that), but people seem to have gotten used to it.

Also, note that NullBot would choose a different weapon pair tech branch in every game (so you'd essentially find yourself randomly in one of five different challenges every time, so difficulty may vary). I usually put fixed personalities into challenges (which makes me want to make multiple AI opponents to still cover the whole tech tree). For a single enemy, if such randomness is undesired, it might make sense to make a personality that uses NullBot-EASY tech route (that is, research everything more or less uniformly), but with adaptation enabled (and rebalance the map accordingly, taking more-stupid-but-more-fun AI tech path into account). It is also easy to do, i can make the necessary modification, just ask (i guess we could also put it into the base game if we want to add NullBot-based challenges).

[Rman Virgil]

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That was a blast. Something about meeting nature on her own terms, outside the cityscape bassinet, that rejuvinates a weary soul. That is, backpacking into the wilderness for the better part of a week. My sole electronics a SAT phone in case of a dire emergency. Not everybody's cup of tea. However, far more can still have a thoroughly rewarding experience doing it for just one over-nighter, and many do just that instead. A difference of degree but not of kind, I believe.

Looks like the sheer length of my first post, along with it's many warnings about the challenges involved not being for everyone, made it sound like this was about as much fun as gutting out a gruelling Navy Seals bootcamp. Trying not to mislead expectations, I may still have, albeit unintentionally.

This is still very much a strat game construct and not an imitation of RL. There's a fundamental difference which I'll simply define in due coarse here. My approach will be more abreviated in this post, be more crystal clear in that brevity and, at the same time, reassure that taking a look out of curiosity is motivation enough and worth the time spent.

First...

@ montetank -

Sisyphus is an apt, and witty, double-entendre analogy for the long process of conjuring the final results.

I've been captivated, for years, by the possibility of being able to make something in WZ GP comparable to the Queens Gambit in chess. It is that powerfull a gaming experience, IMHO. I hope what's been done is not a disservice to that tradition.

I thank you for taking the time to check this effort out, for voicing your appreciation and for posting your thoughts informed by your own hands-on experience. Means a lot.

@ NoQ -

That looks like a more elegant way to present it. Thank you for doing it. I must confess I've not spent any time with INI and my understanding is weak.

.... Also, note that NullBot would choose a different weapon pair tech branch in every game (so you'd essentially find yourself randomly in one of five different challenges every time, so difficulty may vary). I usually put fixed personalities into challenges (which makes me want to make multiple AI opponents to still cover the whole tech tree). For a single enemy, if such randomness is undesired, it might make sense to make a personality that uses NullBot-EASY tech route (that is, research everything more or less uniformly), but with adaptation enabled (and rebalance the map accordingly, taking more-stupid-but-more-fun AI tech path into account). It is also easy to do, i can make the necessary modification, just ask (i guess we could also put it into the base game if we want to add NullBot-based challenges).

To the extent that I understand your proposition to use a type 'NullBot-EASY' as the basis of 'Challenges' in the base game, I think it a good idea because I believe, for one, the audience for the SP experience has always been greater than MP. I also think it could work with "New Pangaea" as is and be more interesting for those whose switch-tasking prowess would evolve better with this option than when presented with an Insane NullBot.

In conjuction with making 'Challenges' that are NullBot-based in the base game, I think map makers will have to better understand thier full power in executing designs that are made to influence A.I. vectors, velocity and timing. Certainly these factors need to be considered when designing for multi-player with all humans, however, there are design considerations that differ in designing for non-sentient opposition.

=========>

~ For all who may have a seed of curiousity about all this but prefer a quicker read to get to the heart of it......

Montetank hit the nail on the head by pointing out the use of cliff face.

The understanding of the power of cliff to shape the gameplay experience deepened along the way, between befuddlement and stalls in my dev.  

This was a design journey of discovery with the use of cliff face, in conjunction with a small set of other terrain form factors, to ultimately serve a host of integrated functions, that went like this (in the most concise way I can express), one goal function informing the next, begining with:
 
》Triggering an overall visceral, visual, evolutionary hardwired, aesthetic experience >

》create a variety of topographic-driven martial tac & strat opportunities >

》support an intergrated & vivid narrative >

》invoke a certain set of evolutionary hardwired conflict emotions and heuristics (the "Queens Gambit" form serving as such a trigger) >

》create more than one ethical dilemma >

》find the challenge sweet-spots between frustration and gratification >

》propell the voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles to the very end (how a game essentially differs from RL).  

To do all of that, the mapping forms (cliff being central to that matrix of interacting factors) had to shape the 2 emerging A.I.'s vectors, velocity, interaction with each other & the player (as well their emergent changes with each initial play thru), the challenge timeing interlocks and the dramatic momentum - without altering scripts. This is where the "Sandbox" dimension comes to the fore.  

All the challenge difficulty "Sweet-spots" could only be constructed to my sensibilities for the obvious reason I can be no other (and serve the audience subset who happened to share them) or the impossibilty of serving all others with different tastes and levels of prowess. However, for the other audience subsets who differed in those challenge sensibilities, they can readily (in a matter of minutes, not hours, let alone days, weeks, months) go into user friendly 'FlaMe' and make the changes that would appeal more to thier own challenge sweet-spot sensibilities.

After playing "New Pangaea SP" those change factors you feel need to be changed, can be identified on the "Map Preview" and then simply altered in 'FlaMe' by subtraction or substitution. Then the "Sandbox" to play-out what you imagine better suited to your likes becomes purely that and, by the same token, can also be the stageing of an evolving combat skill "Lab" to test yourself.  

To get stronger and more proficient at crit switch-tasking that emphasizes multi-vector combat, the gratification has to exceed the frustration in determining the challenge sweet-spots, but that dynamic changes with the prowess progress, so the construction in a best case scenario should not be fixed, or static, to account for that player's beginning proficiency and then to promote, and reflect, its evolution.

In a nutshell, this construction is intended to be customizable friendly and to inspire an evolving GP experience that leads to greater levels of switch-tasking prowess.

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[Rman Virgil]

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In the midst of prunning and archiving files, bits of spring cleaning if you will, I was thinking the phrase "In it, but not of it." would make for a smashing headstone. Then I came upon my graphic, attached below, that I'd done a while back for this effort, still a WIP at the time, but when I made a story editorial decision I saw the necessity to exclude it from the final release, so here I stopped. However, this could still do for this post, me thinks.

I put this graphic aside specifically because I cut out its complementary narrative thread from my setting the stage, "Triumph In The Balance", short story. That plot thread involved the SAR commander prophet Ezerus, a former New Paradigm cyborg, and one of a handful of defectors from the canonical factions to join the SAR cause after the events of the original NEXUS campaign. I believe Ezerus reflects a wee bit of my long facination with the Templars. But even more than that, it speaks to my inclination to fully flesh out characters, as with terrain and GP, in 4 dimensions and with Ezerus that meant sacred beliefs, alongside secular considerations, at the center of acts prosecuted in the SAR faction backstory.

Originally this endpiece graphic was concieved as a bookend to starkly contrast the SAR perspective with my posted frontpiece render of the Project historian Omar Grimaldi and his snippet of core future history that ventured to make sense of the chaotic events that unfolded in "New Pangaea SP" in the broadest context of a Post Collapse world (reposted below for comparative convenience). I did this scenario rewrite, that caused the removal of the attached SAR graphic, to tighten up the focus on The Project Protectorate point of view for the sake of gameplay consistency with narrative logic.

At this stage of the meta game it seems to me the excluded graphic merits a place outside my archives & in this thread for its clarion call, if nothing else, of "Resistance Is Not Futile", having something of a ring to it that sums up the SAR faction in a phrase and thier refusal to be dominated, exploited, bamboozled or marginalized in any way, shape or form. They are percieved as purely isolationist by the other factions but like all stereotypes, any slice of truth is offset by injustice let in through the backdoor.

There is also the apt metaphorical headstone aspect to the whole of it, expressed in the first paragraph's phrase - "In it, but not of it.", that invokes crossing a Janus threshold where for however much you may look back fondly, there will never be any actual going back, its having become something else entirely. The once rich cornucopia transformed to a less compelling state.

Then again, headstones can become poignant milestones to other, more inclusive, realms if the bubble of perception is at least semi-permeable and not petrified in presumption as inviolate truth. And so it is.

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[AWarZoner]

wow..Wow..WOw..WOW! Great grafics!

[Rman Virgil]

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Appreciate your taking the time to share your impressions, AWarZoner.

For me if the graphics serve the story world, its characters and the GP (in turn served by the level design), making them all more vivid, then great. But if the graphics amount to no more than a pretty window dressing segue, then they are the culinary equivalent of cotton candy and I would deem them utter failures.
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[AWarZoner]

Maybe you should Remodel all the Scav-stuff! Your ideas with Scav's are great!

[Rman Virgil]

Maybe you should Remodel all the Scav-stuff! Your ideas with Scav's are great!

It's but one way out of many that they can be imagined. I also know it's not in the cards for me to do anything like that. Besides, Jorzi and Berg are way better at it than I'll ever be.

At heart my passion in visuals has been, from way back, pushing pigment across canvas with brush or pallet knife in hand; the smells of linseed oil, orange turpene and turpentine in the air, working wet on wet. I'm also very found of aquarelle. Plus, I'm by nature way more into into the non-representational: impressionistic, abstract, fauvist, et al.. Heck, a few of my all time favs are Wassily Kandinsky, Clyfford Still & Marc Chagall, so that'll tell you where I'm coming from.
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[AWarZoner]

I recall you saying:

I passed on the Blender PhD myself some years back myself.... j/k. Half regret it now, actually.

If you redesign the Scav's you would hopefully not regret it!

P.S. I will try to download and play *Pangaea SP* as soon as possible!

[Rman Virgil]

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You remember that. It's been a while.

I just spoke to this in the "Wheel" thread so I'm gonna be downright lazy and quote myself.

.......

That said, I need to get back to my language passion full tilt, which is English, and a SF novel started over a year ago (which I'm also illustrating following the publishing tradition of 19th century fiction books). This brings me to also answer your posted suggestion in my "Pangaea" thread about doing something more ambitious with Scavs - no can do. And its more an issue of energy than time. Only have so much and thus have to choose, out of all that appeals, a managable subset of what I want most to invest my pastime energy in. For the foreseeable future, it's the illustrated SF novel.

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[AWarZoner]

Some back on topic discussion!
* Pangaea SP * is a hard challenge/combat! I can't yet beat it!
I like it! And thanks for contributing this challenge/combat I apreciate it!

[Rman Virgil]

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Thanks, AWarZoner.

I'm trying to write a basic guide that is Not a Walkthru or that contains any spoilers. There are several ways to achieve the Mission Goals. But right up front, from the very begining you have a window of time to make a series of key decisions and non are typical. So, in all fairness, I should find a way to better address that. I thought that playing 20-30 mins to get a feel and then quiting out and analyzing the Map Preview, along with those 20-30 mins experienced, to strategize specifics to try in your next play thru would do the trick. It may be that the guide is needed to address the atypical in a general way, from the get go, because it is not as readily ferreted out as I described.
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[Rman Virgil]

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The Guide:

~ Let's first go thru the stages of preparation, then break out the key details from there that need further expansion to make the atypical Game Play (GP) crystal clear.

1.) Apprehending the guts of the opening story scenario that sets the stage, and connected interactive mind-set, for the GP Challenges to be faced is not optional.

2.) Carefully analyzing the Preview Map, which represents valuable Intel from which you, the Commander, can form a first cut Threat Analysis and Resource Distribution Assessment of your situation - also not optional. This extends the GP details offered in #1.

3.) A first time 20-30 minute play thru which represents your opportunity to expand, boots on the ground, your Situational Awareness that inturn is combined with your understanding derived from steps #1 and #2, such that you are in the best possible position to form a viable strategy, with supporting tactics to execute and thier commitment order or timing interlocks.

========>

"...Combat of a different sort..."

What exactly does that mean ?

* Right upfront this guide should restate a basic premise I worked from, at its plainest:

GP would be forged and driven by a melding of a particular type of story and 21st Century maneuver warfare.

~ What kind of story ? Heroic, in the fundamental sense that the odds of prevailing are clearly stacked against you (hence the title, "Triumph in the Balance") and many of your decisions involve tough choices. Atypical choices in that for you to fall back soley on rote memorization from past experience won't be sufficient to bail you out when you find yourself between a rock and a hard place, which is actually how it all begins, thus:

* You must resist the SAR without trying to destroy them.

* You must contend with the ManGodAi but your mission prime directive was not to engage them at all, so you didnot come equiped for such an encounter and there is no doubt their force strength is greater from the start and they are immediately preying on your north western flank.

* Plus the SAR have misinterpreted your emergency response to acts of nature (that resulted in an unintended ManGodAi scrape forcing the crash) as a ruse and betrayal of your parlay agreement with them and thus are simultaneously nipping at your south eastern flank.

* Then there is the Project precious resource situation at the crash site - your start base of OPs. This brings us to a huge difference in how oil resources are handled in "New Pangaea SP" from the norm and why it was done this way.

~ WZ has one resource in 2 forms: typical oil wells and atypical oil barrels. The asymmetric distribution of these 2 forms of oil resources creates new GP opportunities and experiences.

* Specifically....

~ Attrition by way of typical oil wells can be remedied by atypical oil barrels in the form of SAR Supply Depots / Supply Lines.

* From your early on assessment of the start base, possible attrition is a factor to consider and prompts these basic questions:

- Can I hold this position ?

- Should I hold this position ?

- If yes, what are my options weighed against typical resources available immediately and those that can possibly be procured: typical wells and atypical oil barrel SAR Resupply Depots.

- To go after the atypical SAR Oil Resupply Depots entails the high risk of losing limited assets by venturing thru fortified, hostile SAR space, based on a first-cut Threat Analyisis of the Map Preview Intel and your first 20-30 min Play thru. I'll tell you straight up, it's a gamble well worth taking and positive results, while not a cake walk, are very doable once you get the hang of it.

========>

* "21st Century Warfare".... what does that mean and how does it relate to GP in "New Pangaea SP" ?

~ In 21st century warfare there is no single front line or center of gravity. It is asymmetric and multi-vector, driven by coordinated velocity to deal with potential multiple "Center of Gravity" (CoGs) threats. It is informed by threat analysis based on intel and poised situational awareness. There is nothing of fairness or balance in the challenges you must face. As the story is an ocassion for heroic challenges, so is the GP.

~ It also makes for new tactical possibilities such as:

~ Exploiting asymmetric topography, factoring cliff and LOS in an unpredictable lay of the land dominated by rolling elevations, 360 degrees, on a 249 x 249 scale that is checkered with SAR Earthworks and Oil Resupply Depots that you can exploit to make up for your initial disadvantages if you can muster a combination of nerve, imagination and composure under multiple threats.

~ Calculated risks, gambits and sacrifices in tactical maneuver present real possibilities for ultimate triumph starting from an inferior position of force strength and initial resource allocation bordering on attrition. This would include a WZ version of the Queen's Gambit in chess. Having mentioned this before without a clue as to what the heck I was talking about, I will now give you a clue. The WZ "Queen" = Your Start Base !! Take it from there, if you dare.

~ Build Orders can still be a deciding factor but the decisions cannot be executed rote; they must be determined by specific Threat Analysis and Situational Awareness, plus the 2 forms of oil resourcing and thier asymmetric distribution.

========>

~ Am I asking too much of an RTS ?  

~ Do Extreme Sports ask too much of sport ?  

~ Perhaps we should call it something other than an RTS. Extreme RTS ? RTS + ? I prefer ARTS for Advanced RTS. "New Pangaea SP" is therefore WZ 2100 as an ARTS. Specifically, a continuation of Pumpkin's original, but curtailed, GP design built around the Commander design they couldn't fully realize because of the economic and technologic constraints of 1997-99. With those fully deved Commanders this GP is no longer niche. Just the opposite, I dare say.

~ What is needed to carry foward Pumpkin's curtailed original design for Commanders ? The JS API to address AI and the newly proposed WZ Qt Launcher to address changes to the Command & Control GUI and Mini-Map.

~ What would be the reconsituted relationship between Player, Commanders and GP ?

~ There is a splendid example in the recent "Ender's Game" movie based on the classic 1985 Sci Fi novel which was an inspirational favorite of WZ's lead software engineer and one of her core designers. That would be the climactic battle with Ender the general and his supportive team vs. the "Alien" armada.

~ The relationship in WZ terms would thus be:

1.) Player = Ender,

2.) Commanders = Supportive Team and

3.) GP = 21st / 22nd Century Warfare (as opposed to WW 1 or 2 in Sci Fi window dressing).

In conclusion, I have believed since the retail bbs commenced 1998, that within this nexus is to be found WZ's still unique and unequivocal promise of greatness yet to be, well into its second decade of initial creation.
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[Rman Virgil]

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Check out Xenon's X Mod v.1.3 (if you wanna try a totally different and interesting graphic set experience) here:

viewtopic.php?f=49&t=11829&p=129106#p129106

In my tests there have been no probs running side by side with "USM". Also no Pixel Buffer Overflow CTDs like I ended up experiencing half way thru my dev when loading the "AR" mod, after about 45 minutes of game runtime. Could never figure out a fix and from what I came to understand, could point to a major stumbling block in Pumpkin's source.

Here's a screen....
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