ManGodAi4x / AquaCoop, Comic, Cinematic…Terminal Dark.

[Rman Virgil]

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The Isle of Wight at the intersection of Dragon Maw & the Straits of Ouroboros.

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[Rman Virgil]

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A Landmarks Overview Update:

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[Rman Virgil]

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Dire Straits evolves.

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[Rman Virgil]

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A very shortlist of influences on the design of this map within the pure mapping constraints of WZ, heretofore mostly unexplored.

I provide these references as a clear statement that nothing comes about in a vacuum, there is a vast repository of seminal work that is not adequately represented (or correlated) in Wikipedia articles and as a manageable set of touchstones for those who may want to pursue variants or entirely different approaches to what emerges out of my implemented interpretations.

These handful of works are but a small sampling that hardly comes close to being exhaustive but it is still fairly representative of the tributaries that have fed my gestalt, my vision, the serendipitous synergies revealed in the crafting process.

I already mentioned the importance of

~ "The Art Instinct" by Denis Dutton which connects aesthetics to the cognitive and biological sciences, including Neo Darwin evolution theory.

To that, a wee more also central to my matrix of inspiration, decision making and execution - aka, my reality tunnel.

~ "First Person", "Second Person" & "Third Person" all 3 volumes edited by Pat Harrigan & Noah Wardrip-Fruin and covering from many angles the evolving relationship between story & game design.

~ "The Art of Strategy: The Science of Game Theory" by Avinash K. Dixit & Barry J. Nalebuff

~ How the Weak Win Wars: A Theory of Asymmetric Conflict" by Ivan Arreguin-Toft

~ "Asymmetric Warfare" by Rod Thornton

~ "The Principles of War For the Information Age" by Robert R. Leonhard

~ "Phantom Soldier: The Enemy's Answer to US Firepower" by H. John Poole

~ On Combat: The Psychology & Physiology of Deadly Conflict In War & Peace" by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

For the sake of brevity being the soul of wit, I will not elaborate here on the specifics of how each of the above have tangibly shaped "Aqua Co-op SE" - first bottom up, then top down, then round and round.

And yes... I am getting close to completing this phase but still have a fair amount to do yet - though I can now say with assurance what is left can be measured more in days than weeks

- RV
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[Rman Virgil]

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Velocity Sand Bars: Same GPM as the previously described Tactical Airlift LZs except without the cover - in other words, the Transports are clearly exposed to enemy offenses while you velocity deploy your Borgs to multiple vectors (though their exposure is substantively less risky than single vector mainland deployments). The Velocity Sand Bars far out-number the Tactical Airlift LZs.

Side Bar: I am uncovering a number of bugs in the latest release. They have no detrimental impact on what I'm doing but I'll make some time to properly write 'em up when I get closer to completing this phase of creation.

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[Rman Virgil]

Jian's Hilt:

{IMAGE}.... What's special about this area is that it will be one of 2 "Resource Caches" that will pose the challenge of a "surgical strike" (as opposed to a "bludgeon" approach) in that you can readily destroy the cache rather than adding it to your economy if you don't use your head first instead of just going with the "blood-lust" mind set. It tests your Commander acumen, in other words and rewards you for being in full possession your command faculties.

A couple things to add to that.

There is only one resource in WZ & it comes in 2 forms - 1 form goes on and on and the other form is finite and can be consumed or destroyed. So you can figure what I'm doing here which is a direct carry over from the WS 2113 Map/Mod GPMs and was never really developed in the Pumpkin Campaign as a viable and fun GPM to explore

"Jian's Hilt" will be matched by its twin "Jian's Tang" at another strategically significant geographic location which is both a Landmark and war-making Center of Gravity.

Also note the nature of how I'm working with the number 2 (& its multiples). While I am no occult, metaphysical, numerologist there is a significance and beauty to numbers that has always fascinated me and can obviously manifest in music as much as literature and the visual arts. In the context of Aqua Coop SE the two numbers I'm designing with are the obvious "2" and the NOT so obvious "3". Here's my base key:

2 = Balance

3 = Imbalance

"Balance" speaks for itself but I'll simply say that it is the foundation for creating a "leveling playing field" amongst all the players even within the Global Asymmetry of the maps topography. Though life is rarely "fair", we insist that our gaming fun be predicated on fairness. However, it does not end there.

The importance of the "Imbalance" factor is not so readily grasped and in some ways parallels the difference between playing chess on a 2D board and playing on a 3D board.

The 3 = Imbalance is implemented in quite a number of different ways... one of my iterations being the following:

~ Isthmus of Regret ~

This Landmark evolves topographically. It is one of several Centers of Gravity and also a gauntlet (there is stuff I'm not showing) on the road to conquering "Player 7 Scavs" Stronghold and capturing their rich cache of resources.

Quickly - 2 opposing teams and a 3rd common enemy that impacts EVERY aspect of the game's unfolding.

Now l won't detail all my implemented variations "3 = Imbalance" that have nothing to do with Player 7 Scavs, for obvious reasons, but instead I will give you a quick design rationale for WHY I've implemented these "3 = Imbalance" conditions.

A core ingredient to a 3D RTS's "Fun Factor" can be expressed simply in the phrase "at risk decision-making".

A lot of WZ's "at risk decision making" is slanted to NON-Combat decisions - what to research, what to design, what to build, and so forth. Of course these at risk decisions will later impact how you are able to wage war and yet they are not strictly decision-making in the battle theater, in the heat of battle, which is my focus. To fully develop WZ along these lines, as I have stated many times before, will require the full implementation of "Beta Widget / LUA".... however...

The creation of "3 = Imbalance" Local Conditions (as opposed to the aforementioned level playing field "Global Conditions") has allowed me to explore what I'm calling "contending with imbalance decision-making dilemmas".

Unlike the typical pre-defined, non-combat, at risk decision-making GPMs of the game, these "3 = Imbalance" decisions will be, and from the get-go, start of game, directly tied inextricably to COMBAT.

Just HOW I'm creating that you will have to discover for your self when playing Aqua Co-op SE. I will point-out that my understanding of both combat and the science of Game Theory have heavily influenced what I've done while also keeping uppermost in mind that this is a GAME entertainment and NOT RL and that the Fun Factor must prevail by a wide margin over any challenging condition that would slip too readily into an obdurate frustration.

- RV

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[Rman Virgil]

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Jian's Tang: The "2 = Balance" complement to Jian's Hilt.

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[Rman Virgil]

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This thread constitutes A User's Guide for Aqua Co-op SE in addition to providing a preview, series of progress reports and something of what is possible for those interested in WZ mapping.


Jian's Tang evolves... SEE attached screen cap below.

Posted in an other thread originally, the following provides some insight into Jian's Tang & Jian's Hilt that will be very useful when playing this map.

........there are a few different things going on here simultaneously that I will speak to briefly which puts the technique in a very specific, multi-dimensional context as I understand it.....

The Player 7 Scav Droids won't auto attack to escape. Scav Droids controlled by a Human Player will auto attack to gain access.

What I'm doing with this technique is creating a Scav Outpost to guard a significant (& destructible) resource cache that Human Players will want / need and to attack with artillery or IF Weaps will surely destroy the cache, pinch the human player in that whoever succeeds will gain an upper hand, which is why it is constructed such that only a "surgical strike" will win you the reward.

Think of it more a Supply Depot than a Scav Fortress Outpost or FB. The Main Scav Base Fortress does not use this technique and so only if the Scav Supply Depot Droids are taking punishment will the Main Base Scav Droids deploy (very likely intercepting Human Players long before ever reaching the breached Scav Supply Depot ground access). But throughout any maneuver by the human players will first have to contend with Non-Mobile Scav Defenses before they can even reach the Scav Supply Depot entry - same deal with all the vital real estate, including the Scav's main base, "The Last Redoubt".

One of the net consequences of all the foregoing (& other created conditions like looming attrition) is to slant the tactics more in favor of Vtols, Borg Airlift & precision control over blunt, mass, armor deployment offensives. (Even scouting has to be done with a mindful attention that the stock game does NOT encourage, let alone reward.)

Overall my use of Scav Player 7 Droids is minimalist because I do not want to spam them as cannon fodder and yet - through a combination of canny topography, concealed defenses, & resource distribution, Scavs are essentially effecting the 4-Dimension of game play; the ebb and flow of a threatened attrition (as opposed to one that is concerted, firmly forced or entrenched, and thus draining the fun-factor which we have to guard against in the design). At least those are my operational concepts.

............

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[Rman Virgil]

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Overview Update of Landmarks & Centers of Gravity...
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[Rman Virgil]

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Some North Eastern Landmarks:

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[Rman Virgil]

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Constraints, Challenges, Ingenuity, Serendipity, Lagniappes...


When I was working on Ws 2113 Map/Mod I could deal with most GPM goal challenges by resorting to Text Modding and Custom A.I. Scripting.

I have barred myself from those techniques with this project's challenges. A self-imposed constraint.

I've also committed to self-sufficiency when encountering problems or limits with the current binary / data set.

What's that old saw: "Necessity, the mother of invention."

Within those 2 fundamental self-imposed "constraints" I have had to resort totally to imaginative ingenuity in order to overcome the challenges posed by the original set of goals laid-out early on in this thread and to do so only by way of pure map-making craft (though i must in all fairness confess to being much inspired by such story-telling craft as the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the poesy of Nikos Kazantzakis & the fabulation mythos of Lord Dunsany).

The basic goal here, simply re-stated, was to create a fresh 4 Human MP experience.

In resolving the challenges within the constraints out-lined above, ingenuity has yielded a serendipitous outcome which also qualifies as a lagniappe.

The lagniappe is simply this:

In my solo Beta stress-testing, in SP Skirmish, playing with a particular SKI A.I. and various 3-Bot set-ups, what has emerged is a very satisfying Campaign-like game play experience without in any way compromising my primary goal of creating a fresh 4 Human MP experience.

I continue along these lines: testing, tweaking, creating, enhancing both GP experiences, testing, tweaking.... & so on. It will be done when its done. My drive to complete this Stock Edition is intact and unflagging for I also look forward to moving on, in due course, to creating the Elite Edition experience wherein I will incorporate already created mods and custom A.I. scripts. I do this all for the same basic reason given by mountaineers for climbing Everest - "It's there."

Side bar: As a direct consequence of meeting my goals within the matrix of self-imposed constraints just explained I have also had to re-conceptualize (actually deconstruct, even shatter) the conventional wisdom or stereotypes associated with those notions of what constitutes a "High Oil Map", a "Low Oil Map" and correlates between both. I could elaborate on that some more, just how I've gone about it, but I think it would best wait for release as I've noticed a number of instances in the past year of an unmistakable habit of swiping without nary a word of acknowledgment and while that's something I easily let go of rather than point out I'd still rather not encourage such classless behavior.

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[Rman Virgil]

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Stock Distro Data Set Changes Coming....

Part of the shortfalls I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was working around because I did not want to make this a Mod-Map and was gonna address in the Elite Edition as also mentioned at the time.

The stock data-set changes are needed and look to be excellent for all map makers who choose to work with them creatively with out-of-the box design approaches.

So... when I get a chance to work with this new data set I'll commence its integration into what I've done already with this SE version and I'm sure it will all be to the good.

In the meanwhile I'll have to push back my release of this SE version because it would be foolish (more like downright stupid) for me to continue without the new data set in hand to take it fully into account and make what modifications are called for in my executed designs.

Instead I'll spend time on some of the Mod-Scripting components of the Elite Edition which actually go in an entirely new & different dimension than the forthcoming stock data set.

- RV

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[Olrox]

Hey Rman, this should be of your great interest: Overzealous Scavs [Ideas and suggestions]

Possibly it'll add even more cards to your deck - Why stick to a Straight if you can try a Straight Flush

Hopefully we'll see those changes in the next betas, since Per mentined that the scripting for that isn't troublesome

I'm still anxious to see how all those landmarks and points of gravity and tricky resource caches all look when together

~Olrox

[Rman Virgil]

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Graphic Update of "Jian's Tang" ...Velocity Airlift & Center of Gravity Sector 5.

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[Rman Virgil]

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Graphic Update of "Crimson Mane" ... Velocity Airlift Resource Cache & Center of Gravity Sector 6.
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