ManGodAi4x / AquaCoop, Comic, Cinematic…Terminal Dark.

[Rman Virgil]

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I liked the names Palindrome and Bearheart. Elijah seems like a very interesting character. And overall a very captivating read.

Thanks.

This was my attempt to creatively re-frame WZ Creators back story, address what I consider major gaps and some key inconsistencies, and do so in an expansive & mythic way that does NOT violate the integrity of the original.

I have written many dramatic short stories with these characters (as opposed to "back-story" which is really discourse and not dramatic narrative - the difference between "show" and simply "tell") some posted, most not, but all supportive of prequel & sequel campaign mission possibilities based on my re-framing.

(key to re-establishing communications with the Moon and Mars colonies.)

RV, are you cooking up something here?

Actually, the mention of Mars is my honoring nod to Lav_Coyote's work over the years on his WZ Mars Campaign concepts and maps.

As for the "Moon"... perhaps.

If someone made a Moon Tertile set compatible with the current binaries (we had a set for v.1.10) I would do it using member Xenon's assets from his wonderful "X-Mod" - I think these would be a fine match with a Moon Scenario.

Depending on the Sky box, I could do this on the surface of the Moon with Mechs, Rovers, Borgs & Transports or with a cavernous sky box I could do it "underground" with just Borgs and Rovers or with a Bucky Fuller geodesic dome sky box (and moon structure features) I could do a Borg Moon Colony Settlement conflict.

The possibilities are really endless but like is always the case, the time & support to execute or implement, are quite limited.

- RV

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NOTE: Since we have turned another thread page, let me re-post on THIS page what we are taliking about and referring to.....


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"The Annals of the Project Protectorate: 2086 - 2120"

by Omar Gramaldi, official historian, appointed by third Project Director Elijah Bearheart in 2106.

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

Much has already been written of the heroics of Teams Alpha, Beta & Gamma and their missions in Arizona, Chicago & the Rocky Mountains but nothing of Team Delta and it's covert mission amidst the desolation & ruins of the once proud seat of government of the former USA, Washington, D.C..

The origins of Team Delta began shortly after 2086 & it's mission conceived and set in motion by John Hammond, the Project Protectorate's first Director.

From within the bowels of the subterranean military base that provided safe haven and the first central base of operations for The Project's mission to recover pre-collapse technologies and rebuild the world, John Hammond postulated that if Team Delta could find, excavate and bring back on line what was left of those vast repositories of humanity's collective knowledge & achievement, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institute, as well the collective national security intelligence located in the Pentagon, the rewards would be immeasurable. For knowledge translated into power, the power to transform the ashes of nuclear winter into a better world for all and deal with the malignant forces that initiated the Collapse.

John Hammond survived the radiation illness he suffered long enough to accomplish two directives.

The first was the smooth transfer of the Project"s military might into the able hands of General Jack Palindrome who was to eventually lead the successful 2100 Campaign and the coordination of Teams Alpha, Beta & Gamma's respective missions and also be elected the Project Protectorate's second Director in the election of July 4th, 2100.

The second directive was assuring the command leadership of Team Delta by his adopted son, Elijah Bearheart, who upon the success of Team Delta's mission in 2103 would be drafted to run for the office of Project Director upon the heels of Jack Palindrome's announced intention of retiring after serving-out his term in 2104. It was a landslide and Elijah Bearheart became the Project Protectorate's third director.

The life history Elijah Bearheart has as much bearing on events unfolding after his successful lead of Team Delta and subsequent election in 2104, as on a series of significant events prior to the campaign of 2100.

Let us preface Elijah Bearheart's entwined history with the Project Protectorate with some key little known facts preceeding the well documented events of the 2100 campaign.

It was a fortuitous, completely unexpected boon, some even calling it the second Project "miracle", that the discovery and occupation of the former NORAD enclave provided a treasure trove of specific pre-planed blueprints and ready to roll facilities for surviving a nuclear holocaust and the aftermath of a nuclear winter such as: bioremediation fungi cultivation on land contaminated by radioactive fallout, closed-loop plant carbohydrate & fish protein hydroponics, cybernetic human-machine interface tech, nano technology, human genetic engineering. seed reserves of high-yield grasses that were genetically modified for biomass fuel harvesting, scarcity inspired strategies for building an effective defensive war machine based on MUAV drone intelligence gathering and asymmetric, C-4, engagement doctrine.

In the years between 2086 and 2100, non-military forays out of the Project Protectorate's first HQ, the erstwhile NORAD enclave, were initiated with specific goals amounting to the basic survival of the Project populace but also begining all the processes that would gradually lead to ecological restoration.

It was on one such foray in 2088, led by John Hammond and tasked with bioremediation of the greater Rocky Mountain Region, that Elijah Bearheart first enters into the Annals of the Project Protectorate history.

As close could be determined Elijah was an unbearded youth of 15 winters when John found him splayed in the Garden of the Gods, outside Manitou Springs, half starved, extremely dehydrated, and suffering acute post traumatic stress disorder. The wounds of his body were sooner healed than those of his mind but during his year-long recover, the tale Elijah told in fragments, pieced together by the Project Psyche Team, was one to send harrowing chills down the spine of even the most stoic soldier. It constituted the Project's initial intelligence of how Scavs Tribes were culled by the factions we later defeated in the campaign of 2100, all of whom were operating under the direction of what we then came to call the Reed War Machine, Nexus.

The purpose of the cullings made for a cold, eugenic, scientific sense. Unlike The Project or those other Factions or Nexus itself, the Scavs had endured endured the worst of the Nuke Winter on the surface. Some perished quickly, some survived longer, and some showed little sign of ill effects. It was these last, the epigenetically blessed, that interested Nexus and in the cullings, all others but these were summarily executed. Elijah was one of these epigenetically blessed Scavs and capture during a Nexus culling of his tribe was the fate he had escaped.

The end to which Nexus put those culled we could only speculate for many years and none of the scenarios conjured in the War Games High Council bode well for humanity's fate on the planet and thus one of the driving forces for the events that unfolded during the 2100 campaign - and some years later, under the directorship of Elijah Bearheart, when incontrovertible intelligence led The Project Protectorate to consider the final victory over Nexus in 2100 a mere sham, a diversionary False Flag Operation, set-up by Reed himself to buy more time for his true objectives and seat of power out of the Far`East, what we would later identify as the ManGodAi Offensive. But we are getting ahead of ourselves with this strand of the history.

During the year of Elijah's healing, John Hammond formerly adopted the youth as his son, seeing to his basic education and integration into Project society as well his military training when he came of age in 2090.

In those years between 2090 and the commencement of the 2100 Campaign, Elijah served on many Foray Missions, first as a soldier and later a commissioned officer and commander. On not a few of these missions Elijah saved many an epigenetically blessed Scav from a fate worse than death at the hands of Nexus and its minion factions. But let us jump ahead now to Elijah's command of Team Delta & the results of its mission in Washington, D.C..

When Team Delta returned in early 2103, they brought with them invaluable knowledge and intelligence. Some of that included, but was not limited to, the exact location of half-dozen still intact major underground oil reserves in Corpus Cristi, Texas. the precise whereabouts of a top secret facility for the propagation of advanced hydrogen fuel cells & the manufacture of a most advanced hydrogen engine-chassis, more surviving oil reserves in Mexico & Venezuela, Nano and Genetic Engineering scientific research facilities in Rio and Santiago, a secret space launch facility in Costa Rica, the high tech War School enclave in Belize, and the deep space Sat-Dishes in Ecuador (key to re-establishing communications with the Moon and Mars colonies.)

All this intelligence would prove absolutely essential to the Project Protectorate's continued survival and advancement with its core mission to to recover pre-collapse technologies and rebuild a better world for all surviving humanity.

In the aftermath of what was at first blush considered the vanquishing of Nexus in 2100, the Project's Axis of Power was in a critically weakened state. Any strategy of expansion had to first contend with the known scarce energy resources on the North American continent.

The first initiative presented by the Project's third director, Elijah Bearheart, in 2104 was based on the successful intelligence gathered by Team Delta in 2103 and would form the basis for the Central American Expeditionary Force of 2105 (CAEF).

CAEF was a tremendous gamble for the Project Protectorate. Resources as scarce as they were, many in the Project Protectorate held it a grand folly and terrible waste to invest in anything other than further securing the immediate environs of the original NORAD facility and re-building the armed forces depleted during the 2100 campaign.

After several heated debates, and by the slightest of margins in the Protectorate's governing body, those in favor of CAEF prevailed and in the spring of 2105 the first of several expeditionary forces made their way south to the Yucatan Peninsula (those that followed would go further, deep into Central America, establishing a foothold at the Panama Canal and even further south to the Amazon Basin & Ecuador).

Hand picked by Elijah Bearheart himself to lead one of these early CAEF contingents was one Commander Kurt Mallory who was also a close confidant of the Project Director. It was during Kurt Mallory's expedition that incontrovertible evidence and First Contact made with Reed's true agenda embodied in the ManGodAi came to pass; what was later dubbed the "Titanium heel from across the great Pacific" or less formally, "The Infestation".

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

The cinematic shooting script I'll be posting next called "First Contact: ManGodAi" is derived from the above "Annals" and begins the story of Commander Kurt Mallory which is played-out in full on 4c-ManGodAi4X - what I am working on now here.

- RV

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[Rman Virgil]

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I had a decision to make. Continue with building this SP Skirmish Mode game play around the Gamer choosing ANY start position, 0 - 3, OR build the whole thing out of just ONE start position - Player 0.

I have decided to build it all with Player 0 as the fixed start position.
..........

A further conceptual refinement of how this build of SP Ski 4c-ManGodAi4X is proceeding.

Been a long time big fan of vid games in the brawler genre and their framework of BOSS stages.

This predilection has been influencing my current direction of development without my recognizing it at first - then, like an epiphany, it hit me. "Dude, your creating BOSS stages !"

Indeed, it is what I am doing.

Working out from the fixed start position of Player 0, you have 4 paths to choose from, essentially the 4 cardinal directions, and like a concentric circle, the further out you expand the more formidable the BOSS stages you face - a variable, escalating, level of challenge and difficulty. For as you chose 1 path and proceed to deal with it's challenges, the remaining 3 are triggered and will converge at your base of operations.

In a sense, the very last Nexus mission in the original campaign was structured basically like a BOSS stage. It always seemed to me to have fallen short in that respect and even felt somewhat more anti-climactic than epic. This last I hope to avoid in creating SP Ski 4c-ManGodAi4X.

Later today I'll post that cinematic shooting script, First Contact: ManGodAi as well the complete short story Mastan of the Scar so you can see how it grew out of my re-framed back story The Annals of the Project Protectorate: 2086 - 2120 as well see the difference between these 2 forms of composition (discourse in the form of future history & dramatic fiction).

- RV
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[Rman Virgil]

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The cinematic script that is based on this excerpt from the "The Annals of the Project Protectorate: 2086 - 2120":

...

Hand picked by Elijah Bearheart himself to lead one of these early CAEF contingents was one Commander Kurt Mallory who was also a close confidant of the Project Director. It was during Kurt Mallory's expedition that incontrovertible evidence and First Contact made with Reed's true agenda embodied in the ManGodAi came to pass; what was later dubbed the "Titanium heel from across the great Pacific" or less formally, "The Infestation".

The idea is that 4c-ManGodAi4X game play picks up where the cinematic ends.

=== Parsed Scav-Nex / ManGodAi Cinematic Script ===

- (Clock: 0:00)

SCENE 1:

* Ext. CAMERA: Tight Close-up framing rear section of Unit Transport in flight.

5 second dolly back to SCENE 2 Omniscient PoV.

* SCENE 2:

* Swift gray storm clouds, hard pelting rain against metal, thunder & bolts of lightning.

* The Unit Transport descends, slicing puffy clouds like tattered veils which suddenly part to reveal a turbulent watery expanse.

* Scudding above tsunami-like waves like a weary albatross, the Unit Transport engines whine in protest.

- (Clock: 0:30 from opening)

* SCENE 3:

* EXT. CAMERA swoops

( 3 second transition)

- (Clock: 0:33)

* Ext. CAMERA: PoV ends up facing the UT head-on, momentarily locked on the cockpit windshield in slight soft focus, two figures seated & one standing between them.

(hold 5 seconds)

- (Clock: 0:38)

* SCENE 4:

* Then the camera plunges into the cockpit as a series of still camera shutter exposures, ending up centered on the windshield looking out, in sharpened focus; two lightening scythes in rapid succession followed by crackling, muffled rumbles.

(6 second transition)

- Clock: 0:44

* SCENE 5:

* Camera POV: swaying back & forth, looking out through the front windshield, wipers swishing off the relentless downpour.

(hold 5 seconds)

- (Clock: 0:49)

* SCENE 6:

* Int. CAMERA: slow dollies back.

(5 second transition)

- (Clock: 0:54)

* Commander Kurt Mallory is standing between the Pilot & Co-pilot, in full battle suit but for his helmet, synaptic link collar a-pulse, jaw clenched, intently staring out.

(hold 5 seconds)

- Clock: 0:59

* SCENE 7:

* Int. CAMERA: Quick Cut transition to Commander Mallory's PoV. (The Commander now becomes the Camera POV till just before the cinematic ends.)

- Clock: 0:61

* The Unit Transport is rattling, buffeted by the force of wind shearing, back & forth, up & down. CAMERA shake reflects this state.

* The thunderheads part, revealing a full moon casting a stark steely light upon the whitecaps, causing them to standout like skeletal fingers reaching upwards as if to pluck the transport out of the sky.

* Bracing himself between the two pilot seats, Commander Mallory discerns a thin, unmoving, pitch black, scalloped ribbon in the distance that is surely a coastline. The mainland or an island, there was no way of knowing in this tempest with positioning instruments on the fritz.

- "We gonna make it ?", he asks flatly, composure intact.

* The pilot and co-pilot look at each other quick like, smile tight, turn back, looking straight ahead again.

- "No doubt about it, Commander."

* All the while you're hearing weather sounds, the metal stresses of the transport hull, the cackle and static of dysfunctional electronic communications.

* Commander Mallory looks down at the pilots console & then up at the extended overhead instrumentation.

- "Short of being a prophet, there's no way we can get a bearing in this mess and with half our sensors fried. Even if we had a lock we'd still have to maintain radio silence pending situational awareness intel and our MUAVs wouldn't survive five minutes in this crap."

* Before long the coastline is upon them; violent crashing waves, trees doubled-over just beyond the dark to foam rippled shore.

* The Transport begins to decelerate, engines laboring mightily, and eases into a wide turn over the wavering tree tops till they catch an upward beam of light, obviously artificial, in the distance & make a bead for it.

* A kilometer inland, visible through the blurry wet windshield, the grey outlines of a cobbled together, scav-like collection of structures. Next a swift rising plateau, a cliff face forming a natural rampart followed quickly by a snap shot view of what bore a strong resemblance to a Reactor with Cooling Towers and other structures that looked familiar but nothing like what scavs could build. All together, none of it was like their Project outpost destination.

* Standing out brightly in an otherwise storm stressed landscape, the landing beacon glowing large and a landing pad lit up by alternating yellow and green blinkers in the shape of coincentric circles.

- "That is definitely not what we're looking for. Cut the running lights. We gotta go dark back to the coast."

* The pilot pulls-up short of completing a half circuit of the strange base, tracking back to the violent waves they had hoped were behind them for good this night.

* Upon hitting the coast, Commander Mallory squeezes the Pilots left shoulder.

- "Hug the coast. We have to put some distance between us & whatever that was."

- "Commander, we gotta touch down soon," said the pilot pointing at one of the gauges.

* Mallory nods then peers out the windshield, looking for another break in the cliff-line.

- "There ! Follow that in and fire-up the running & landing lights."

* The Transport begins to rock even worse, like its about to blow rivets and break apart at the seams.

- "We gotta put this baby down before we ram a cliff headlong."

- "Do it !," Mallory orders, bracing himself behind the co-pilot's seat, a stubborn stance.

(63 Seconds total for this continuous scene from the start of Commander Mallory's PoV)

- (Clock: 2:04)

* SCENE 8:

* CAMERA PoV - Quick-Cut Ext.: Overhead looking down on the Transport

(2 sec transition to this sequence)

- (Clock: 2:06)

* The Transport descends, makes contact with wet sand, bobbing hard twice, an awkward belly flop, and starts plowing up ground like a boat cutting through swells, scattering dirt and foilage in its wake, leaving a puckered welt to either side like a bloodless wound.

(10 sec sequence to)

* SCENE 9:

- (Clock: 2:16)

* CAMERA PoV: Quick-Cut Int. cockpit of transport, framing the pilots & Mallory.

(2 sec transition)

CAMERA Shake.

* The transport rumbles to a bone-jarring halt, with Mallory having fallen to his knees.

- "Commander, we'd best check on the Drones & Greenies aft. Likely some puke we'll have to deal with."

(17 second scene)

- Clock: 2:33

* CAMERA: Slow Spiral Dissolve to black.

(2 second dissolve)

- (Clock: 2:35 Total Running Time.)

.

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NEXT up: "Mastan of the Scar - Redux" - the short story which partly dramatizes the Scav-Nex / MonGodAi point of view & opposition in 4c-ManGodAi4X game play.

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[Rman Virgil]

...

Here is yet another work sampling, one of endless ways of dramatizing back story and also a more nuanced and detailed "Scenario" that could form part of the subterranean groundwork for a series of mission game play experiences.

First - some back story snap-shots from which the short story that follows below, "Mastan of the Scar" is grown, in part, from:

....The end to which Nexus put those culled we could only speculate for many years and none of the scenarios conjured in the War Games High Council bode well for humanity's fate on the planet and thus one of the driving forces for the events that unfolded during the 2100 campaign - and some years later, under the directorship of Elijah Bearheart, when incontrovertible intelligence led The Project Protectorate to consider the final victory over Nexus in 2100 a mere sham, a diversionary False Flag Operation, set-up by Reed himself to buy more time for his true objectives and seat of power out of the Far`East, what we would later identify as the ManGodAi Offensive. But we are getting ahead of ourselves with this strand of the history.....

And:

....In the aftermath of what was at first blush considered the vanquishing of Nexus in 2100, the Project's Axis of Power was in a critically weakened state. Any strategy of expansion had to first contend with the known scarce energy resources on the North American continent.

The first initiative presented by the Project's third director, Elijah Bearheart, in 2104 was based on the successful intelligence gathered by Team Delta in 2103 and would form the basis for the Central American Expeditionary Force of 2105 (CAEF).

CAEF was a tremendous gamble for the Project Protectorate. Resources as scarce as they were, many in the Project Protectorate held it a grand folly and terrible waste to invest in anything other than further securing the immediate environs of the original NORAD facility and re-building the armed forces depleted during the 2100 campaign.

After several heated debates, and by the slightest of margins in the Protectorate's governing body, those in favor of CAEF prevailed and in the spring of 2105 the first of several expeditionary forces made their way south to the Yucatan Peninsula (those that followed would go further, deep into Central America, establishing a foothold at the Panama Canal and even further south to the Amazon Basin & Ecuador).
....

Both these are excerpts from the Future History back story - "The Annals of the Project Protectorate: 2086 - 2120" by Omar Gramaldi, official historian, appointed by third Project Director Elijah Bearheart in 2106.

A basic story arc: Dr. Reed uses Scavs directly and by proxy though his other prime mover creation, the ManGodAi.


Some other relevant back story arcs NOT included in the excerpt I chose to post from "The Annals of the Project Protectorate: 2086 - 2120" but which are part of my much expanded Grand Time Line:

Dr. Reed had a son, Jason, who was rendered a quadriplegic during his senior year at Cal Tech by a Neo-Luddite terrorist bomb. Using cutting-edge technology from the research arm of his multi-national company, Synaptics Inc., Dr. Reed made his son somewhat whole again and put him in charge of a top secret project set-up deep in the frozen tundra of the Russian Steppes, code named "ManGodAi". The Nexus events of the original Campaign were part of Reed's "Plan A", the ManGodAi, his "Plan B". (There was also a "Plan C" & "Plan D" but we'll leave those aspects of Dr. Reed's malevolent creativity for another occasion. )

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The short story, "Mastan of the Scar" which partly dramatizes the Scav-Nex / MonGodAi point of view & opposition in 4c-ManGodAi4X game play, is character driven and written in the mode of heroic myth because those are central to my chosen yarn-spinning aesthetic for this effort.

As part of the aesthetic technique I use, Scavs call themselves The Seven Nations, refer to Cyborgs as "Mekka", Transports as "Mekka Birds" and the Ultra Borged Jason Reed, leader of the ManGodAi contingent as "The Shinning One" and Ja-son of Reed.

Part of the "Mangodai" mission is to open up a new front in the Gulf of Mexico region and to enlist Scavs Tribes to create diversionary False Flags to squander Project resources and misdirect their attention from a southern geographic region that is rich in lost technology that could turn the tide of war and the very dominion over the planet's future.

So, without further ado.....

"Mastan of the Scar"

....

"Best have a healer look at that, my brother."

I was stirred from the Long Sight; from thoughts I would never utter to my fighting brethren.

I looked up and saw my clan brother Garrone Two Feather.

"It's but a flesh wound. Let the healers tend the seriously wounded. Your concern is appreciated, as always, my brother."

Garrone and I shared much life history, thus many words were not needed between us.

"As you will. I go to rearm my Jeep before the dawn gathering. Mitaguyasin, Mastan of the Scar." There was a shared jest in Two Feather's parting salute. The jest of warriors together forging against formidlible odds.

"At the gathering then..."

A thin sliver of of yellow-orange swelling slowly on the horizon. This I sensed more than saw, as Garrone strode off to attend the tasks of readying for this days battle and I again drifted into the Long Sight.

.....

My life tale begins at the foothills I call home, under the steady gaze of Mount Wakan, a days journey by trike to the waters of the Great Gulf and another days journey in Mekka bird from the coast to the isle of the Last Redoubt.

Peace had reigned ten summers within the Seven Nations before the Mekka alliance that forged our first war ties with the order that came to be known to us all as the ManGodAi, rumored in whispers to be a darker sect of what was once known as Nexus, come to our lands from the Far Western continent, across the great ocean, in the land bound together by a Great Wall of the ancestors.

A Shiny One of Metal, with fire pits for eyes, had come to my tribes village, the Wing Clan of the Eastern Scav Nation, before the on set of our fiercest winter in a generation, in the 20th season after the darkest days of men.

Much was promised and some I saw before leaving to journey with my warrior brethren on my Trike, Badger Strike, to fight at the Greybeard Caldera and our assigned outpost, Jian's Tang, on the island stronghold we called the Last Redoubt.

Hundreds of warriors from across the Seven Nations were brought together by the Shiny One, the Mekka leader of the ManGodAi, the one who called himself Ja-son of Reed and spoke as if he were spawn of gods and we but tools to serve his bidding without question or reserve.

Would that I had done otherwise, knowing as I do now that the cause was lost before it ever began. But in that thought I am but one of countless fools from the Seven Nations, for nothing could have changed the course we were all bound to follow as moths drawn to a hearth fire.

In the year of my passage from boy to man I came to my warrior name, Mastan of the Scar by facing down a pack of wild Sherots with but a staff. After I'd vanquished the fifth of six, a momentairy lapse in my guard was all the sinewy female leader needed to leap onto my back, locking her massive jaws around the nape of my neck in a death grip. Falling backwards, knocking the wind out of her, her jaws unclamped, and before I could position my forearm to choke the life out of her, she nipped a chunk of flesh from my cheek, which alas healed as a welt looking much like the hilt of a hunting knife. Thus was I dubbed Mastan of the Scar in my crossing to manhood and becoming a warrior of the Wing Clan.

But away from tribal affairs and my duties as warrior and leader in the Wing Clan, in the quiet peace of the home hearth fire fluttering warmth and hope, my woman calls me by my secret name, the name born of the Long Sight that is my gift from Tatanka. But that is between us and no other but the elder called Forked Road, our tribes Seer. I think of her now as I nurse my belly wound.

In all the days since brought to this isle by the Mekka Birds, we have lost count of the dead, have not even been allowed to give them proper burial rites, instead forced to battle long and hard, shoulder to shoulder, day in and out, drenched in each others blood.

True, there were moments of glory, a time all true warriors yearn to feel in their bone & sinew. Of that I have no regrets. The battles fought, even those lost, we strode with honor. That is the way of our clan, of all the Seven Nations.

But alas, there was treachery in the words of The Shiny One, Ja-son of Reed, who strode apart from al the other Mekkas with eyes of death without honor.

In doing his bidding I fear lost more than can ever be regained. A warrior's true heart can never be bought or sold like melons and tuber roots in a market bazaar. For we speak of honor itself, the sacred ways of the ancestors, and without this there can be nothing that truly matters.

Of that I am certain, as much I am that the flow of blood from my wound has been stayed for only a short while, enough time though to wield my weapon again this day on my feet, in the thick of it, in the worst of death's pitiless march.

There are but a few of us left here at Greybeard's Pass on the red road to the Landor's Plateau.

We must guard this compound on the plateau with our lives. So it has been commanded. For if we do not prevail it has also been promised that we will never see our home hearth fires again. In this I know there is no other course.

I, Mastan of the Scar, will fight till I am vanquished as will my warrior brethren, those few of us left.

But I too fear I will never again know the touch of my youngest yet in the cradle, my first son. That will be my deepest wound as we battle at break of day.

The sun rises in full bloom, shadows shifting, shrinking, as I make final preparations on my Trike for this days blood letting. So few of us left. Who knew what numbers we would face.

We say our prayers to the ancestors, the grandmothers & grandfathers, the Great Mystery, those left behind in the homeland, the dead not properly layed to rest, in silence. All know what this days outcome will be but we shrug the burden as if we were mighty giants and not mere blooded mortals.

Before I mount my Trike I turn and face my fellow Wing Clan Warriors, those few who will with me join in battle, perhaps our last.

I remember the words of warrior, his tale first told to me as a child at the knee of the elder Forked Road, a great leader who once roamed the lands of our ancestors, the lands we would not see again.

The words seem fitting.

This I said:

"Warriors of the Wing Clan, my brothers... the sun, Grandfather of our Nation, smiles upon us as we prepare again to meet the Northern enemy, those the Mekka Ja-son of Reed calls the Project Protectorate.

I say to you, my fellow warriors...

It is a good day to die."

With those words hanging in the air like carrion birds awaiting a wounded boars last gasp, I turned, I ...Mastan of the Scar, and strode with shoulders squared, to my Trike and fired-up the engine, double-checked my weapon cache.

In short order, I signaled the procession forward.

And for one last time I thought of my first son, whom I would likely never see again let alone teach the ways of a true Wing Clan warrior.

Such is the fate of one gifted with the Long Sight. You will know the day of your death and not be able to say farewell.

---------------------------------->


Well then, all told this thread constitutes hands-on, practical, glimpses into the various aspects of my WZ original vision and process with quite a few tangible fruits from my blank canvas crafting workshop.

Now I go off to complete the creation & full testing of 4c-ManGodAi4X before I must soon put aside all my WZ activities for the remainder of the year (at least) to focus on 2 RL dream projects that will be all consuming & challenging but with a very high ROI all the way around. And, just as important, sans any wasteful psycho-ego-tunnel drama toxicity to contend with. My chosen parameters of engagement as a multi-discipline maker, truth be known.

- RV

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[Rman Virgil]

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Present Status:

Trying to figure out HOW I could add Player 7 to the locked Team of 3 A.I. Players No. 1,2, & 3 and so far I'm thinking this will only be possible with a source code change to support it.

But I'm not really sure at this point what is feasible.

- RV

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I am also asking myself a series of sobering questions with a multiple frame of reference that stretches back to early 1999 with this game. Sans virtually any serious beta-testing support, sans any expansive intellectual or aesthetic engagement, and obviously not part of the "in-club" - what's the point of expending any time or energy in public activity & contribution here ?

Interest in the game and what can be done afresh to enjoy it amongst a personal circle of pals can still be carried forward by keeping abreast as a lurker and simply taking whatever is of interest in new developments and making use of those without any effort whatsoever at reciprocity ?

In thus framing these questions have I unfairly characterized the cultural context that exists ?

Don't expect any responses but at this instant I'm still inclined here to the risk of putting what I see & stand for out there honestly and with as much genuine grace as I'm able to marshal in a vacuum.

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[TVR]

... HOW I could add Player 7 to the locked Team of 3 A.I. ...

If I recall correctly, one can already set arbitrary slots to any mix of AI and players.

But if that isn't the case, I'll go find and fix and discrepancies in locked teams.

[Rman Virgil]

... HOW I could add Player 7 to the locked Team of 3 A.I. ...

If I recall correctly, one can already set arbitrary slots to any mix of AI and players.

But if that isn't the case, I'll go find and fix and discrepancies in locked teams.

Thanks TVR. Much appreciate your effort. I'm not really proficient in SKI A.I. as I am in CAM A.I.. Much about the SKI options I don't understand how it works.

My thinking with this line is to use SKI A.I. to create Campaign-type Map experiences. I think there are mappers (and non-mappers too, like modders, writers & artists) out there that would love to create new Campaign experiences but mastering the whole campaign scripting and structure is prohibitive. But if you can lock 3 SKI a.i. with player 7 a.i. you can come doggone close. It can be even more dynamic than the conventional CAM approach by not using fixed condition triggers to advance across the map - and thus, no walk-throughs. And you could also get around the whole message string trigger structure and simply create a Machinma with voice overs and cut-in stills to run before starting the game for your Mission Brief. Most folks can do that too over creating 3D CGI Animation Cut Scenes with full blown character acting.

I think there are a lot of Prequel & Sequel Campaign stories out there that folks are not ever gonna execute using the conventional campaign scripting and structure. But with this other approach it becomes more feasible and the heavy lifting then falls really to the creative imagination and mapping craft to make it happen.

- Regards, RV

.

[Rman Virgil]

.

.....

On another note, I'm not sure I like the "mortars in deep pits and walled off areas" idea. I think they should be easier to be attacked with direct units.

...

It's all good input Zarel and I'm inspired to creative changes which I think are even more interesting.

I am making 50% of those mortar trenches accessible by land but in a clever way. 50% I will keep as only accessible by air - Vtol sorties which I think are really cool & then Troop Transport deployment.

In making changes based on your feedback it's added more dimensionality to game play. Instead of just 50% I've re-done 80% of the Scav-ManGodAi Defense-Resource Trenches so that they can be captured by both Ground and Air ... or both at the same time. The remaining 20% I've left to be assets that can be claimed ultimately only by Transport tacs. Besides these 20% of the Trenches there are also the Red Beard and Crimson Mane Caldera Secondary HQ Bastions and the 2 hidey-hole Velocity Air Lift LZs.

Anyway, here are some snaps of one of the modified Scav-ManGodAi Defense-Resource Trenches -









.NOTE on Major Differences between 4c-Aqua Coop MP and ScavManGodAi.

4c-Aqua Coop MP implemented an idea that Olrox graciously offered me back in February of this year right in this thread and even though I spent some 6 months working on it, writing about it and posting schematics / screen caps on it, I was ultimately NOT able to properly balance beta test my implementation of it because it required all HUMAN players for that task and I could not get that support here - the skirmish A.I. not at all being able to serve in that capacity (I will ultimately have that support in late Sept. from my circle of LAN gaming pals).

This idea of Olrox's I dubbed back in Feb. as Variable Player Skill Handicapping Map Design and it is not at all a part of my current work on ScavManGodAi (as well some other major design elements) for the obvious reason that this map is designed for 1 Human Player vs. 3 Dydo Ski Team Locked A.I.s + Player 7 DyDO Scavs / ManGodAi A.I.

As a side bar - this is yet another example of the cultural differences between the first 5 year history of the game and the last 5 years. Never in the first 5 years of the game would a member take an others idea / work without a simple acknowledgment. Last few years that behavior has become a common place. And not just by the general populace. I'm guessing that's the norm for FOSS-Bazaar culture and I find it totally alien to my sensibilities to the point of being abhorrent. But since it seems to come with the territory it poses a fundamental ethical dilemma for me I can choose to ignore or divest from. It is only a game after all - is what I've been telling myself to this juncture.
.

[Rman Virgil]

.

Some pics of the rest of the Scav ManGodAi Resource - Defense Trenches that I've modified with an ample view of their surrounding sectors.









- RV

.

[Rman Virgil]

.

Current Map Preview July 22:



Note on what's still in a pending state for completing this build of ManGodAi4X:

Two things -

1.) 3 Dydo Ski A.I. in a locked team with Player 7 Scav Dydo A.I. for reasons already explained.

2.) Universal Feature Patch committed to the v.2.3.x branch - also for reasons touched upon already.

- RV

Lagniappe:



.

[Rman Virgil]

Code: Select all

 x allied with AI player #0 (or #1 is player #0 is human)

//only for first player, this is a feature for 2 player games.
  if ( _numPlayer > 2 ){ exit; }
  
  _player=0;
  while(_player < MAX_PLAYERS)
	{
		if( _player != enemy1 and _bool){
			if( !isHumanPlayer(_player) and isPlayerStillLive(_player) and !allianceExistsBetween(enemy1,_player) )
			{
				createAlliance(enemy1,_player);
        console("Scavenger AI: Alliance created("& allianceExistsBetween(enemy1,_player) &") locked("& alliancesLocked() &") between scav AI '"& getPlayerName(enemy1) &"' player #"& enemy1 &" and '"& getPlayerName(_player) &"' ");
        printDebug("Scavenger AI: Alliance created ("& allianceExistsBetween(enemy1,_player) &")("& alliancesLocked() &") between scav AI '"& getPlayerName(enemy1) &"' player #"& enemy1 &" and '"& getPlayerName(_player) &"'");
        _bool = false; //only for first player, this is a feature for 2 player games.
			}
		}
		_player = _player + 1;
	}
}

Dylan's script.

Should be able to modify for this project but something in the binary seems to prevent it from working in 2 player.

What ? & Why ?

And if this approach is a no go, another binary impasse...... then, How to work around it ?

I'll have to give it some thought.

- RV

.

[TVR]

I think I've already identified some limitations in the script itself, namely the if( !isHumanPlayer(_player), but some clarification on the two players would be nice, specifically what combination of AI and human player they are, and in which slots.

[Rman Virgil]

I think I've already identified some limitations in the script itself, namely the if( !isHumanPlayer(_player), but some clarification on the two players would be nice, specifically what combination of AI and human player they are, and in which slots.

Hmm... that sounds like a promising line....

But, do you think that the binary even allows for scav alliances in locked teams ?

It would seem that it doesn't & probably because they are basically spawned without the need for an economy. (Even though capped at 35 that's easily changed).

But honestly, I'm not sure really about any of that.

- RV

.

[Rman Virgil]

But, do you think that the binary even allows for scav alliances in locked teams ?

It would seem that it doesn't & probably because they are basically spawned without the need for an economy. (Even though capped at 35 that's easily changed).

But honestly, I'm not sure really about any of that.

- RV

.

I've thought about modifications I could make to get around this obstacle and I'm going ahead with them so I can finish ManGodAi4X in the weeks I have left before I'll be putting all things WZ aside to add the time to 2 upcoming RL projects whose ROI is manifold, substantive and a joyfull challenge in the context of Scrum-like collaboration. My favored element without reservation or doubt.

The modifications will involve topography & placment in major ways & some minor script changes which I'll have to bundle. Tried to avoid that last but no other way around the binary restraints short of changing binary itself which is a line I'm not crossing here.

That's it till I put up the .zip for DL for the possible one individual in the neighborhood for whom this will be an interesting & fun gaming experience of an enduring type.

- RV
.

[TVR]

I THINK I understand why scavengers placed on the map by default can't create alliances, as MP players and AIs occupy player numbers 0 to 7, while scavengers are #8, and the alliance code only creates alliances for players 0-7.

I suppose a possible workaround would be to move all the scavenger stuff to one of those player numbers, and then copy the scavAI script for that specific player number.

But I've only searched through all the multiplayer specific code, going to move on to the scav and map features code next.