.
So what I've decided to do a few days ago is go back to v.1.10 and a modified version of that source whose binary will support a Campaign Transport MP Mod were I can further make changes to the variable velocity parameters which donot defy my comprehension like they have in the v.3.x source implementation.
Laser-focused, I've gotten results quicker than anticipated.
4c-AquaCoop Peep MP is designed for strictly MP and its
Airlift Supply Logistics Gameplay component will work beautifully if and when the v.3.x implementation of the
CAM / Super Transport is revisited and tweaked along lines spoken to in
Experiencing the Super Transport - Ways to Improve ? . Till that happens
4c-AquaCoop Peep MP will NOT be released. It's a shame because my experiments with modified v.1.10 source on my 2000
Firefight Ops map all point to this being an expansive command decision-making experience, exhilirating fun and a fresh, new, viable tactic for MP.
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In my head I have always seen
4c-AquaCoop Peep MP and
SP SKI 8c-ManGodAi4X as a simultaneous release. The former for those who favor MP and the later for those who mostly enjoy SP.
With this recent wave of experiments I am seeing that while
4c-AquaCoop Peep MP release is untenable at this time the release of
SP SKI 8c-ManGodAi4X is viable with some managable modifications - mainly because the use of the
CAM / Super Transport can be made non-pivotal and, indeed, the
Cyborg Transport alone made plenty good enough for the new set of GP opportunities & tactical possibilities to shine as conjured.
SP SKI 8c-ManGodAi4X is strictly for Skirmish Mode. Through various techniques the Skirmish A.I. is influenced, without scripting changes, to emergent, dynamic, behavior.
"Emergence" is one of 2 concepts I've made use of from
Complexity Theory - the other is called the
"Adjacent Possible" and this one applies to the human player. Both concepts manifest in way more interesting game play than stock or standard SP Mode efforts.
In both these efforts the dominant asymmetry is obvious in 3 dimensions with an aesthetic style that favors naturalism based on a landscape aesthetic informed by the latest insights of Neo-Darwinism and the Cognitive Sciences. Because of the WZ maximum map size limits I've also crafted a geographic compression inspired by the literary tradition known as
Magical Realism. Paramount as well for me in crafting were the challenges of asymmetry in a game world always invoking the issue of a
non-level or unfair playing field and how I have redressed these apparent imbalaces of asymmetry in 3 dimensions is by creating boon counter-balancing in the 4th dimension for those with command werewithall.
I don't doubt that the forgoing concision is achieved by evoking a sense of the cryptic, if not sounding deliberately obtuse, and at the expense of a transparent clarity. But I don't want to write a mini-treatise (& I'm sure most don't want to read one in a BB post) so take these merely as clues and a conceptial lexicon that will become clearer once you experience first hand the new set of GP opportunities & tactical possibilities - as well the A.I. behavior. Experiencing first hand will ultimately be the best explanation (supplemented by Googling the conceptual lexicon provided above).
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Re-Cap of some principal inspirations for 8c-ManGodAi4X game play - something of a design mash-up:
1.) The last set of culminating Missions against Nexus in the original Campaign - thought they had some good elements but the end result fell far short of the promise and was indeed, anti-climactic when it should have been EPIC.
2.) August 1993, Somalia, known as
Black Hawk Down (book & movie) - a joint Army Rangers & Delta Force operation that lasted a total of 18 hours.
3.)
BOSS stages from
"Brawler" genre games.
4.)
Taninsu Gake Akido training.
5.)
4G / C41, asymmetric, velocity, warfare doctrine.
6.)
Archetypal Story weaving techniques from the
Adventure & Thriller genres applied to interactive game world narrative constructs.
7.)
Complexity Theory concepts of "emergent behavior" and the "adjacent possible".
8.)
Cognitive Traps and hard-wired Heuristics revealed by Cognitive Science research of the last decade.
9.) The
"Flow" psychological state of optimal performance.
10.)
VRG game design & philosophy.
11.) The
Art Instinct & Evolutionary Science
12.)
D.A.R.P.A. directed and funded R & D.
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As I work on the final modifications
SP 8c-ManGodAi4X (to account for the unfinished state of the CAM Transport implementation in v.3.x) I will take this opportunity to explain the new
NON-intuitive game play opportunities & tactics that I have created as well some of the above inspirations from which they are derived - ones I have yet to speak to, that is, & only in brief, natch.
I will start in the next post by illustrating the possibilities of the
Resource Caches called
Crimson Mane & Red Beard..... then I will explain the mechanics of
Velocity, Multi-Vector Deployment Sand Bars followed by an explanation of the
Stealth Airlift Cyborg Transport Deployment LZs (all with clear screen caps) and concluding with a recap of the opening BOSS stage design and what to expect with the rest of the BOSS stages. After that I should be finished with
SP SKI 8c-ManGodAi4X modifications-testing and proceed with its first time release accompanied by graphic set-up instructions to play.
Yebo, sanibonani, RV