The Doc's Bio Lab for Scav Experiments - & other oddities.

[Rman Virgil]

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Getting there.

Focus on the central formation. The surrounding terrain is my usual tile mix without the striation decal.... what I've been using throughout "New Pangaea's" no-snow cliff face zones. Removing the decal led me down the path of coming up with an entirely different tile mix to create snow cliff. I just could't use the same tiles with snow on them because of what I felt was a too pronounced "marble-like" result when the decal was removed.

As I got further into the experiments, I realized I didn't want to entirely eliminate the "marble" effect, just tone it down to a great degree (& on a variable continuum) and also break-up its apparent uniformity.

At v.34 I'm down to a 2-tile matrix; one stock cliff and one non-cliff re-assigned to cliff. The terrain renderer's interpretation is also impacted by tile alternation, vertex orientation and tile depth or density which, for short, I'm calling the No-Decal "RM Cliff Matrix" mix.

The attatched pics will speak to this better than these words.

Now I must re-do the rest of the heavily snowed "Laurasia" zones..... then continue with the GP form-function constructs and emergent property shapeing, zone by interlocking zone.
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[Rman Virgil]

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Had to go Wabi-sabi on the snow tile solution mix explained in my last post. It worked well for my cliff face presenting 180° but had some butt ugly issues when it came to using it for my monolithic, free-standing, 360° cliff face constructs, which are functionally essential to my shaping emergent properties (in conjunction with canals). I believe the issue is related to lighting and the method presently used to render terrain shadows. After much experimentation I came up with another tile mix that considerably, but not entirely, lessens the butt uglies and has the added pleasing effect of rendering something I'm seeing as snow-ice glaze. The attatched caps sum it all up visually. Btw, none of this is making use of FlaMe brushes, it's all tile by tile placement.
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[NoQ]

No Decal
Close Up
Modified Cliff Matrix
v.34

Great lighting on this image

[Rman Virgil]

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Thanks NoQ. It's a technique I use in some Machinma sequences and thought I'd try it on still caps. Been tempted to do more caps this way but haven't for some reason.
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[Rman Virgil]

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Yesterday I watched a recent History Channel show from the second season of thier series called "America Unearthed" on a connection between the NWO (New World Order) and DIA (Denver International Airport in Colorado). Here I've been in Denver since the summer of 2001 and have flown in and out of DIA at least a hundred times over those years and never before heard of this speculative connection. So I'm gonna make a slight detour from "New Pangaea SP" over the weekend to include this new connection into the "Expanded WZ Timeline / Backstory" and post the latest iteration here.

However, there's more to my experience than just what I've said. Something uncanny, erie and downright weird.

After watching the show I started doing some research on the NWO - DIA connection. During that process I came across a dozen other associated connections that are already in the timeline, have been in it for quite awhile; connections I spun out of my imagination in the spirit of Sci Fi speculation and prognostication..... or so I thought. The ref link I'll include from my research, post dates in publication my timeline iteration. So now if I had any doubt I came across such refs before and totally forgot about them, like some selective amnesia, when I conjured the narrative particulars out of thin air and wove them into fabric of the expanded timeline-backstory, that doubt is not substantiated by the calender. Don't really know what to make of this. Synchronicity ? Hamlet's famous soliloquy to Horatio about his dead father's ghost ? A manifestation of the geometric version of Langlands Program linked to quantum physics ?

That said, let me be clear that I am not by any means certain of the veracity of any of the NWO associations any more than I am of Hobbits being part of the evolutionary tree of homo sapiens (though there were some intriguring hobbit-like skeletal finds a few years back). On the other hand I do believe in the affirmative power of compelling story and that fiction is a lie that can convey critical truths. This to me is also the difference between enduring art, in any medium, and forgetable facility, however novel or expert.

Anyway, should have this latest Expanded Timeline iteration, that incorporates the NWO - DIA connection, up by Sat. or Sun... As for all the other connections specifically associated with the NWO - DIA relationship, connections I thought purely made up by me way back in one of the first iterations (all are in this thread), I'll leave for you all to spot if you're so inclined to follow up with the provided refs link.
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[Rman Virgil]

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Now that I have this last major tile mix figured out ("snow-ice glaze"), next up is working out the transition zones from medium to heavy coverage, moving to the far north of New Pangaea. This would be the overlap between Laurasia and Central Gondwana. Below is an example of such an intersection zone. Then there's still a bunch of form-function, GP dynamics, to work out along with these surface aesthetic transitions. Little by little it is all adding up on the continuum to compleation of a working whole. But for a number of reasons I can't accelerate progress anymore than the current pace. It really has to proceed at this steady, but unhurried, cadence.

Will get back to all of that after I update and post the next iteration of the "Expanded WZ Timeline-Backstory". Gotta strike while the iron is white hot.
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[Rman Virgil]

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Expanded WZ Timeline-Backstory update per above posting. Here's a link to the speculative connection between the NWO and D.I.A. (D.U.M.B.) in Colorado, plus other linkages long before part of the timeline - as well the new public cover "Aerotropolis" concept... (or "PsyOp ?).

http://truthstreammedia.com/denver-airp ... derground/

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And this recent post from the Kinda looks *Scavy* thread that is directly relevant to "New Pangaea SP":

I'm afraid all I know about it, Jorzi, is that it was photographed in a Tank Graveyard in Victoria, Australia and that it forms part of my central premise for the "SAR" scav faction in my "New Pangaea SP" project. Which is to say, there are military tank and aircraft graveyards all over the planet that are scavenger resources along with civilian junked tech. Both resources are often combined in scav ingenuity-imrovisation.

I have found RL hotbeds of scav ingenuity in the Middle East, Africa, Russia, China and Mexico. Homemade tanks, APCs, aircraft, hovers, artillery, missile batteries, excavators, subs and even a Batman "Tumbler" !

This, in part, feeds into my rationale for the scav "SAR" faction in New Pangaea being able to put up such a forceful resistance to the superior ManGodAi and Project forces and thier invasion pincers. The other part of my rationale is that the scav "SAR" are also masters of tactical "Earthworks" and that thier lands of "Central Gondwana", in New Pangaea, have been shaped to favor the weaker in tech, in what is a classic asymmetric conflict which slowly phase shifts from one sides favor to the other in a bloody 3-way dance.
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Thread: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11502&p=126477#p126477

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[Rman Virgil]

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For some reason I couldn't edit my last post so ....

I added a Color and Acronym Key and corrected some typos. Otherwise, the content remains the same in these new attatchments.

When I started the Expanded Timeline months ago I began with a slick and sexy design which I soon had to set aside with all the content changes inherent in an evolving W.I.P. for this rough, but easily amended, design. In a few months I will look to set aside some time to transfer all this content to the more appealing design. In the interim we'll keep an eye to any further content refinements.

I came to an unexpected and even startling new muse this past week related to both "New Pangaea SP", this expanded Timeline / Backstory (and the stories associated with it, short and long) and, actually, my entire relationship to the game. It involves another game almost as old as WZ that I never played until a week ago, though I've been aware of it for 14 years. It wasn't until I came across it as a stellar game case study in a one of a kind work on game design, published by MIT, that I felt compelled to get my hands on a copy and play it. This also relates to a very intense discussion we had at WZ's original retail bbs which involved members of the Pumpkin team, including the chief software engineer and a principle designer of WZ. I'm deep into this game right now so I'm gonna wait a week or so before I get into more details on the subject.

Anyway, time to ring in the New Year and may it be auspicious for one and all, both in and outside of the game that captivates us still.
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[Rman Virgil]

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Pretty sure this is my * final * Snow-Ice Glaze matrix along side some vestiges of the "marble-like snow" effect that I'm close to finished replacing. If NoQ hadn't suggested I explore getting rid of the decals I wouldn't have gone down the road that led to this final result I'm very happy with and which I feel is a much more nuanced and appealing aesthetic. Thanks again NoQ !
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[Rman Virgil]

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I will take a break from working directly on New Pangaea SP after this weekend to spend time next week on setting the stage for engaging it, by completing the detailed scenario for its GP experience.

So far I have a title ("Triumph in the Balance"), the story details linked to the Expanded WZ Timeline, a proper shooting script for a hybrid Machinma FMV, storyboards, snippets of footage, dilineated characters and a fully written-out, voice-over narration. What I feel the need to focus on this coming week is taking all that material and, at least, completing a short story that will help to create a mental picture for playing through "New Pangaea SP".

Strangely enough, this need dovetails with (is also informed by and thoroughly compatible with) my recent first time exposure to another 14 year old game I mentioned in passing a couple days ago here, that I am still playing and studying simultaneously.

That game, for 14 years, has been universally heralded as not only one of the best all time comp-vid games, across all genres, but also, through a number of those years, voted THE best ever created in the electronic era of games. That's a fact.

After I tell, and post, the opening story for "New Pangaea SP", called "Triumph in the Balance", I will tell the story of that other 14 year old game, my recent encounter with it, and its legit value and relevance to these proceedings, as I see it, naturally.

This last fits into my overall disposition of taking an interest in areas were I feel I have an opportunity, and a chance, to go beyond par for the coarse. While "New Pangaea SP" is already brimming with such, the scenario setting the stage for playing will represent the linchpin to it all. Another twist, if you will, from the stock 'n trade norm. The construction will be subtle and not in any way overbearing. As in all else, it will be entirely up to you what course to follow and how. In part, the short story is gonna present an ethical dilemna that will be part of your mission to resolve. There you have it, in bold relief.
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[Rman Virgil]

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The SS "Triumph In The Balance" is taking shape. For a hot minute I started entertaining the notion of making a little manga influenced comic out of it but quickly came to my senses that such would derail my progress with "New Pangaea SP" and that I could not indulge. So, as a compromise, I will do one graphic to illustrate the prefatory story device borrowed from the likes of SF Grandmasters like Asimov and Heinlein, of opening a yarn with a "Future History" quote. In this instance the illustration will surround a brief excerpt from volume one of "The Annals of the Project Protectorate: 2086 - 2120", a tome composed by one Omar Gramaldi, official historian, appointed by third Project Director, Elijah Bearheart, in the year 24 P.C..
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[Rman Virgil]

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5 days late (for I was way overly confident that I would be able to knock it out last weekend), here is the frontpiece graphic for "Triumph in the Balance", the SS/dramatic scenario that sets the stage for the opening GP of "New Pangaea SP". It's late, not because other things came up in RL which forced me to set it aside but rather it took me crafting x number of unsatifying permutations over 6 days before hitting upon this version last night, sleeping on it, then looking at it again today and concluding I just can't do any better at this time and I'd best get on with crafting and testing the final phases of "New Pangaea SP", as well coming up with a final draft of "Triumph in the Balance". So, that's how I'm proceeding.

Also, in the interim, I'm gonna collect my thoughts and insights from playing that seminal game I mentioned earlier that's been universally heralded as one of the greatest of the electronic era (in the last 15 years its held the #1 slot on a number of occasions, across all genres). I would endeavor to convey what that game's GPMs, and narrative contruction, mean to my efforts here, as best I have a handle on it and can effectively communicate it

BTW, the top panel of the frontpiece graphic represents historian Omar Grimaldi stationed at the Project reconstituted "Biosphere2" installation, in the Santa Catalina Mountains above Tucson, Arizona, which incorporates farmscape tech alongside the biosphere geodesics.
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[montetank]

What a fun to read
Great. I followed your story for a long time.

[Rman Virgil]

What a fun to read
Great. I followed your story for a long time.

Cool. Good of you to share that. It affirms the existence of what I can only suppose when I work on stuff. What I mean is that I imagine there is one other individual, besides myself, that will have a worthwhile experience as a result of the effort. What I get out of it can be readily surmised but if there were not another for whom there would be value, then the doing alone would serve and going public, superfluous.

I felt compelled to this graphic, and the narrative framing device's expository concision, to get at the heart of what I imagine a Post Collapse existence would be like and how it would shape everything, including how martial conflicts would be prosecuted, the tech emphasis inturn determining grand strategy and tactics on the battlefield, and the moral dilemmas that would naturally arise. The faux history informs the story-scenario (the graphic framing it, its composition, & even the color palette, are serving those functions too, btw), which inturn will set the stage for, and shape, the GP experience. Actually, it serves an essential, and interlocking function, with the whole of it which will be more than the sum of its component parts.... or, at least, that is central to my design imperative.

This is all nuts and bolts shop talk that will not be conciously apparent when engaging the actual experience, if my crafting hangs together effectively. It should all disappear into deep flow and fun and only in hindesight may you be motivated to reflect and deconstruct it to understand your visceral responses... but that is purely optional.
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[Rman Virgil]

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Part 1 of 2

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Elective Affinities: A Summa of "New Pangaea SP" ... or, aka, taking stock.

This is also as close to a Design Doc for "New Pangaea SP" as I'll compose and offer, while sacrificing the opportunity to instead come up with 500 - 1000 Corrupt-a-Wish posts. The tough choices we have to make sometimes.

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With the homestretch on the horizon it seemed natural to take a little time and make an attempt at a concise recap of what has evolved radically over the course of several months.

Changes have been non trivial from jump street. Beginning with the foundation of the project and clear on up through the superstructure. This resulting in by-the-seat-of-the-pants transformations, expansions & reconfigs.

Some of my experiences seemed in & out of Lewis Carrol rabbit holes. But, here and there, in more practical terms, calling for me to come up with added time-consumming work-arounds because of basic unresolved issues, and deficits, in the execution pipeline. I would not let any of these speed bumps and pot holes deter my progress, or waylay my trajectory, but it remains relevant on more than one front, not the least being Cowboy assuming FlaMe development going forward.

(Such issues as: no wysiwyg with respect to in-game terrain textures, absence of preemptive object "bounding spheres" for no conflicting placements, no way to make custom brushes, flagging conflict issues without coordinates upon compile, etc.. Then there is how the game terrain renderer itself works and how in-game terrain shadows are created.... to quickly name a few areas in need of some scrutiny.)

Now we will delve a little deeper into the design goals, and execution, which have continuously evolved as the circle of influence has expanded, becoming increasingly generative, interlocking and complex. The feeder tributaries flowing from specific aesthetic principles right alongside up-to-date insights from evolutionary biology and the cognitive sciences. Other concurent tributaries would include: system dynamics theory, exemplary asymmetric battles thoughout history & 21st century maneuver doctrine; the crafting of interactive story, puzzles and imaginative cartography as an adjunct to the story mind; and, what would turn out to be the linchpin pulling it all together, learning from a singular GPM design precursor what makes it one of the greatest games created in the electronic era of gaming, across all genres.  

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As nature abhors a vacuum so do I, and thus a need arose to reach out to an "Invisible College" comprised of those with the widest gamut of game design knowledge, expertise and interests, for critical & enabling conversations to advance, seamlessly, key components of the "New Pangaea SP" construct on the radically atypical forefront of GP, within the looming, and final, total integration phase.

In the absence of this last series of dialog exchanges, and meeting of like minds, I would likely be adrift at this stage, much like a sailing vessel becalmed in the eye of a typhoon (or be suffering the affective contagion of rigor mortis for my express passion becoming dissociated by residing in an inhospitable context).

At the end of this posting I will list, very briefly, my segue to that "Invisible College".

From here on, I will be going minimalist, so I will not be expansively explaining all terms, concepts and referents from relevant established fields. A few seconds with Google can easily handle that (if your interested) and if that doesnot suffice, I can always elaborate on request.  

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* I began my design effort with the following basic parameters and axiomatic definitions. *

~  "A game is a construct that invokes a voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles."

~ Both the "voluntary effort" and "unnecessary obstacles" would be inspired, and sustained, by the promise of "deep fun" realized throughout the GP experience.

~  "Deep fun is a cognitive flow state, universally prized."

~ All forms should serve a clear function. All functions should serve deep fun. All forms and all functions should serve one another in an interlocking system dynamic werein the whole is greater than the sum of its individual components.

~ Getting every detail just so, no matter how long it takes, is worth the effort. No detail is so insignificant as to not warrant that attention.

~ Absolutely essential to GP, there would be an interactive, original dramatic narrative component, entirely derived, and consistent with, the Expanded WZ Timeline and Backstory and this story element would also include at least one original art assemblage.

~ Art is a selective recreation of reality according to the artist's metaphysical value judgements. "New Pangaea SP" will in every way possible aspire to be an original, digital, multi-media work of interactive entertainment art.

~ All GP design constructs will take place within the current core distro, unmodded.

I divide WZ's unique RTS genome into 3 subsets.

First - what made it into Retail release v. 1.0.

Second - radical mutations added to, and subtracted from, the initial retail release genome in the months of April '99 thru June '99 ... then some changes and additions over the post lib era.

Third - the genome subset that was scaled back or turned off before retail release in '99 (decided in '98) for reasons related to economics, deadlines and software / hardware tech not being sufficiently powerful enough at the time to fully pull off the designs. It is in this area were I have been mainly focused since lib. It is my contention that WZ's greatness resides exactly here in unfullfilled promise. It requires core tech changes to fulfill, which are in part already underway, like the JS API. Others are yet to evolve. Like reconstituted UI widgets informed by CTA - Cognitive Task Analysis.

"New Pangaea SP" is an attempt to see how far the GP envelope can be pushed with only the 1st and 2nd subset of the genome in play.


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