ManGodAi4x / AquaCoop, Comic, Cinematic…Terminal Dark.

[Rman Virgil]

This map is getting more & more interesting on each screenshots

Keep up the great work RV

BP

Thanks BP. And I will. I'm very close to puting this out for MP all human Beta Stress testing after almost 3 months steady work on it (which I'm limited in what I can do solo). Just basically have to integrate the new Player 7 Special Scav A.I. currently under development by DylanDog.

After this last part is done I'll begin working in earnest on finishing the Elite Edition were in I'll be integrating some of your very own fab Scav work into my modified Scav A.I.

Side Bar: For those who wonder about all the time spent & some of the unususal map layouts - I have given much loving attention to these topographical details not just for aesthetic immersion but for simultaneously enriching the scope of game play tactical opportunites. For example some these recent screens serve additional purposes I have not spoken to specifically ..... namely, expanding hit 'run, gambits and ambush opportunities which I find way more fun & satisfying than spammming of any sort.

- RV

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[Rman Virgil]

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A FlaME Overview covering a goodly portion of the last sequence of in-game screen caps.

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[Buginator]

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A FlaME Overview covering a goodly portion of the last sequence of in-game screen caps.

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Rman, (sorry for the OT) just curious, have you seen any difference in path finding / path walking with more complex maps ? Does it happen more / less frequently ?

[Rman Virgil]

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A FlaME Overview covering a goodly portion of the last sequence of in-game screen caps.

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Rman, (sorry for the OT) just curious, have you seen any difference in path finding / path walking with more complex maps ? Does it happen more / less frequently ?

Oh that's cool - I see it as a fundamental and relevant question.

I have 3 basic tests for this. I've done 2 of 'em extensively and the PF / PW passes with flying colors.

These 2 tests (which I also do in Drive Mode to also catch my flaws in topography) are:

1.) Vtol & Hover groups, to and fro, from mainland to islands, crossing bodies of water and cliffs.

2.) 40 Unit mixed land unit groups (Borgs, Tiger Tracks and Scav Trikes) criss-crossing the mainland dealing with multi-level, serpentine cliff face tracts, choke-points, ocean shorelines and lakes.

Now the 3 rd test I have not spent much time on because it is influenced by oil resource placements which for me is dependent on how the Player 7 Scav A.I. currently under development by DylanDog turns-out for my final decisions in this area.

This 3rd test is a special case focused on Scouting Trucks A.I..

In the past this has been a source of serious problems for map makers and Players (both human and Ski A.I.) because Trucks would get stuck ranging on Oil resources at the shortest distance, as the crow flies, irrespective of blocking tiles. Which is to say, if there where a longer path to the Oil resource that was not obstructed they would not seek it if they first encountered the other as the crow flies but blocked. Trucks would continue to cluster and in tighter locations this would quickly escalate into bottlenecks with other units joining the cluster-frack.

Scouting Trucks and setting them off blindly without command attention is a poor tactic on Aqua Co-op SE which will get you into trouble real fast and this is by design on my part so that while this 3rd test is still important for me to do it is not as critical a condition as it would be on most standard maps which do not deliberately make this tactic disadvantageous.

Now, if memory serves me accurately, Per dealt with this Truck Scouting A.I. issue last year but at the time I was working on War School and I was designing Oil placements and access points to eliminate this problem so I wasn't concerned with a stock source solution to the problem.

That said, even though Aqua Co-op SE is specifically designed for all human team play and for discouraging mindless Truck Scouting, Aqua Co-op Elite Edition is an other story because it is designed for Skirmish A.I. Players and they use the "mindless" Truck Scouting tactic (even the custom skirmish A.I. that I am working on, & will bundle with it, which is mainly focused on dealing with the challenges posed by Island Conditions). In short, from my perspective, this 3rd PF-PW test I do will be way more critical to Aqua Co-op Elite Edition even if the issue was dealt with last year on a stock source level because the topographic intricacies of this map exceeding most conventional maps and because of my set of prioritization criteria for oil placements mostly focused on Combat Tactical opportunities of a Campaign-like flavor and NOT easing the burden on "mindless" Truck Scouting A.I...


- RV

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[Rman Virgil]

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Compelling Vistas.... &, yes, I am zoomed out to max strategic view and utilizing max allowed map elevation for these panoramas. What is strikingly demonstrated here are some of the optical "tricks" (Olrox's descriptive term, though I like to think of 'em as superlative craft artistry - guess I'm biased. ) I employ to evoke what is understood in current Neo Darwinist theory as humanity's landscape "art instinct". It is also for me central to creating as sense of "unfolding adventure & suspense" in purely visceral ways via terrain variants.

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[Rman Virgil]

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Some More Vistas of Critical CoGs:

Let me also stress again that it is really only because of Flail13's FlaME that I have I gone full bore on this type cartography. I did make fledgling attempts with all previous WZ Editors in years past but it was painstakingly NO fun, way, way, too time consuming and the results also fell far short of what is now possible.

And yes, I'm aware of the slight cosmetic flaws here and there but rest assured I'm in the process of dealing with 'em all as I continue working on refining topography and completing GPM / Player 7 Scav A.I. related matters. Just letting you all into my workshop, warts and all, cause ultimately there ain't no shame in my game. Part of the normal process really.

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[Rman Virgil]

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NEXT: While I have begun work again I'm still in a holding pattern on Balance issues tied to Player 7 Scav A.I. development. Ergo this post and the post that follows which will comment on the 33 Strategies of War and how they relate to both stock game play on conventional maps and Aqua Coop SE as well how the modus of reverse engineering (which I've used in Campaign Mission designs in past efforts) crept into what I was doing here in MP without my being consciously aware of till I took this recent break and started re-reading Robert Green's absorbing "The 33 Strategies of War".
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Didn't forget this. But, in addition, I'm at the front end of a trip where I've shifted focus to what is explained in the thread entitled Photos of Textures for New Terrain Renderer ?

Still, I can put out there some specifics and some broad strokes.

First, details of the inspiring work referenced:

"The 33 Strategies of War" (Joost Elffers Book) ~ by Robert Greene.
* Paperback: 496 pages
* Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (December 14, 2007)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 0143112783

So the subconscious put to work what I've assimilated over time - from this work and a lifetime of many other experiences. Reverse engineering in the sense of:

"What do I have to create to make possible the effective ability to utilize as many of these strategies as possible with in game play that is at once fun, expansive & richly satisfying for not relying heavily on rote, predictable, non-combat, non-maneuver, non-command/control, switch tasking ?"

(I might add to do this also within the extant limited Command UI/AI tasking mechanics...)

There are a couple assessments attached to this:

How many of the 33 Strategies can you do at present in off-the-shelf WZ 2100 ?

How many in Aqua Co-op SE / EE ?

Instead of answering those questions right now with specific numbers (which I can but won't because that particular debate is better suited to another time & context rather than here and now), I will post a summary of the 33 Strategies of War from which you can draw your own conclusions.

Summary of The 33 Strategies of War:

Part I: SELF-DIRECTED WARFARE

1: Declare war on your enemies: Polarity

You cannot fight effectively unless you can identify them. Learn to smoke them out, then inwardly declare war. Your enemies can fill you with purpose and direction.


2: Do not fight the last war: Guerilla-war-of-the-mind

Wage war on the past and ruthlessly force yourself to react to the present. Make everything fluid and mobile.


3: Amidst the turmoil of events, do not lose your presence of mind: Counterbalance

Keep your presence of mind whatever the circumstances. Make your mind tougher by exposing it to adversity. Learn to detach youself from the chaos of the battlefied.


4: Create a sense of urgency and desperation: Death-ground

Place yourself where your back is against the wall and you have to fight like hell to get out alive.



Part II: ORGANIZATIONAL WARFARE


5: Avoid the snares of groupthink: Command-and-control

Create a chain of command where people do not feel constrained by your influence yet follow your lead. Create a sense of participation, but do not fall into groupthink.


6: Segment your forces: Controlled-chaos

The critical elements in war are speed and adaptability--the ability to move and make decisions faster than the enemy. Break your forces into independent groups that can operate on their own. Give them the spirit of the campaign, a mission to accomplish, and room to run.


7: Transform your war into a crusade: Morale

Get them to think less about themselves and more about the group. Involve them in a cause, a crusade against a hated enemy. Make them see their survival is tied to the success of the army as a whole.



Part III: DEFENSIVE WARFARE


8: Pick your battles carefully: Perfect-economy

Consider the hidden costs of war: time, political goodwill, an embittered enemy bent on revenge. Sometimes it is better to undermine your enemies covertly.


9: Turn the tables: Counterattack

Let the other side move first. If aggressive, bait them into a rash attack that leaves them in a weak position.


10: Create a threatening presence: Deterrence

Build a reputation for being a little crazy. Fighting you is not worth it. Uncertainty can be better than an explicit threat. If your opponents aren't sure what attacking you will cost, they will not want to find out.


11: Trade space for time: Nonengagement

Retreat is a sign of strength. Resisting the temptation to respond buys valuable time. Sometimes you accomplish most by doing nothing.




Part IV: OFFENSIVE WARFARE

12: Lose battles, but win the war: Grand strategy

Grand strategy is the art of looking beyond the present battle and calculating ahead. Focus on your ultimate goal and plot to reach it.


13: Know your enemy: Intelligence

The target of your strategies is not the army you face, but the mind who runs it. Learn to read people.


14: Overwhelm resistance with speed and suddenness: Blitzkrieg

Speed is power. Striking first, before enemies have time to think or prepare will make them emotional, unbalanced, and prone to error.


15: Control the dynamic: Forcing

Instead of trying to dominate the other side's every move, work to define the nature of the relationship itself. Control your opponent's mind, pushing emotional buttons and compelling them to make mistakes.


16: Hit them where it hurts: Center-of-gravity

Find the source of your enemy's power. Find out what he cherishes and protects and strike.


17: Defeat them in detail: Divide and conquer

Separate the parts and sow dissension and division. Turn a large problem into small, eminently defeatable parts.


18: Expose and attack your opponent's soft flank: Turning

Frontal assaults stiffen resistance. Instead, distract your enemy's attention to the front, then attack from the side when they expose their weakness.


19: Envelop the enemy: Annihilation

Create relentless pressure from all sides and close off their access to the outside world. When you sense weakening resolve, tighten the noose and crush their willpower.


20: Maneuver them into weakness: Ripening for the sickle

Before the battle begins, put your opponent in a position of such weakness that victory is easy and quick. Create dilemmas where all potential choices are bad.


21: Negotiate while advancing: Diplomatic war

Before and during negotiations, keep advancing, creating relentless pressure and compelling the other side to settle on your terms. The more you take, the more you can give back in meaningless concessions. Create a reputation for being tough and uncompromising so that people are giving ground even before they meet you.


22: Know how to end things: Exit strategy

You are judged by how well things conclude. Know when to stop. Avoid all conflicts and entanglements from which there are no realistic exits.




Part V: UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE

23: Weave a seamless blend of fact and fiction: Misperception

Make it hard for your enemies to know what is going on around them. Feed their expectations, manufacture a reality to match their desires, and they will fool themselves. Control people's perceptions of reality and you control them.


24: Take the line of least expectation: Ordinary-Extraordinary

Upset expectations. First do something ordinary and conventional, then hit them with the extraordinary. Sometimes the ordinary is extraordinary because it is unexpected.


25: Occupy the moral high ground: Righteousness

The cause you are fighting for must seem more just than the enemy's. Questioning their motives and making enemies appear evil can narrow their base of support and room to maneuver. When you come under moral attack from a clever enemy, don't whine or get angry--fight fire with fire.


26: Deny them targets: The Void

The feeling of emptiness is intolerable for most people. Give enemies no target to attach. Be dangerous and elusive, and let them chase you into the void. Deliver irritating but damaging side attacks and pinpricks.


27: Seem to work for the interests of others while furthering your own: Alliance

Get others to compensate for your deficiencies, do your dirty work, fight your wars. Sow dissension in the alliances of others, weakening opponents by isolating them.


28: Give your rivals enough rope to hang themselves: One-upmanship

Instill doubts and insecurities in rivals, getting them to think too much and act defensive. Make them hang themselves through their own self-destructive tendencies, leaving you blameless and clean.


29: Take small bites: Fait Accompli

Take small bites to play on people's short attention span. Before they notice, you may acquire an empire.


30: Penetrate their minds: Communication

Infiltrate your ideas behind enemy lines, sending messages through little details. Lure people into coming to the conclusions you desire and into thinking they've gotten there by themselves.


31: Destroy from within: The Inner Front

To take something you want, don't fight those who have it, but join them. Then either slowly make it your own or wait for the right moment to stage a coup.


32: Dominate while seeming to submit: Passive-Aggression

Seem to go along, offering no resistance, but actually dominate the situation. Disguise your aggression so you can deny that it exists.


33: Sow uncertainty and panic through acts of terror: Chain Reaction

Terror can paralyze a people's will to resist and destroy their ability to plan a strategic response. The goal is to cause maximum chaos and provoke a desperate overreaction. To counter terror, stay balanced and rational.

Back to the adventures & fun tasks at hand.

- RV


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[Rman Virgil]

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Getting some interesting shots. I expect many more to come as I get into the heart of the trip. Will post some lo-res samples in a couple days in the New Photos for Textures thread in the Lounge BB. (I've settled on shooting 3264 x 2448 @ 8mbs per original file.)

But my reason for this posting here does relate substantively & directly to Aqua Co-op (Love Jabberwocky but will save for another posting occassion. )

A few weeks ago a thought occurred to me which I am sure was in some measure partly responsible for my motivation in shooting specific game stuff on this trip - very different kind of shooting than what my artist eye normally looks for a la Bresson or Man Ray.

Let me come at this thought from square one.

I very much like the game world the New Terrain Renderer for v. 3.0 makes possible but the inability to control tile rotation presents challenges - challenges this shooting assignment attempts to come at on the very front end of a creatiion process that some artists are at present endeavoring to meet head on in an effort to create new, immersive & exciting GFX assets for v. 3.0

So.... what I have been doing in Aqua Co-op with the old tiles and stock renderer is take those constraints, turn them on their head, so to speak, and through tile rotation control (& vertexes as well) create some really interesting visuals which (at this point at least) will likely be lost in translation to the New v. 3.0 Terrain Renderer. (I've yet to test because I honestly do NOT as yet want to take the chance of having my present enthusiasm for all my visual aesthetic efforts sorely deflated. I'm sure I'll get over this hesitation soon enough when I'm done.)

In short, right now, I have more effective creative power on specific local levels (clear through the global aggregate) with the old tertiles & stock renderer than with the new.

The old presented challenges to artistry. The new does as well. I have a sense it will all evolve for the best in the near future.

- RV

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[Rman Virgil]

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Hit 'n Run - opportunities by land AND by water ways; all told, presenting an asymmetric, puzzle-like, labyrinth with so many deployment permutations as to defy any singular walk-through. At least that is the idea. Again, a balancing act between unpredictable delight and challenges that do not slip into a sense of frustration at the unfairness of it all. Unlike RL with all its inherent unfairness & injustice, we want our games to be fundamentally fair & just in their challenges for that is central to the fun as much as is providing an unpredictable, but level, playing field to test your all around mettle.

This brings to mind the Great Game, an expression first associated with the RL espionage of the late 19th & early 20th century and somewhat popularized by the masterful yarn spinning of Rudyard Kipling. That original meaning of "Great Game" persisted through the Cold War but after the fall of the Iron Curtain has taken on other meanings not at all related to shady statecraft.

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[Rman Virgil]

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The last post, and its raising of the RL Great Game, also led me upon reflection to consider something central to Frank Herbert's masterpiece "Dune" and, specifically, his creation of the religious order he dubbed The Bene Gesserit.

On page 19 of the novel there is this:

The Bene Gesserit Littainy against Fear

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Another related line from the story (& oft quoted):

"It is by will alone that I set my mind in motion".

The connection here, in my mind, is that all these varied fun battle opportunities I have spoken to as "Aqua Co-op SE" design components have yet another face in much the same way that the written Chinese character for crises is made-up from 2 characters - the one for danger & the other one for opportunity.

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[Rman Virgil]

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Balancing Status:

Still holding off on balance issues related to final resource quantity / location placements and Player 7 Scav force strength / location placements for reasons explained earlier.... however....

I recently uncovered in testing a substantive imbalance between the 2 Novice Player start positions that I am now addressing through major topographic modifications. The greater the topographic complexity the more occasions for balance shortfalls to emerge, especially when committed to a total asymmetry wherein you forswear a cookie-cutter, cut 'n paste, approach to start position balance.

Here are caps of some of these new terrain changes:
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[Rman Virgil]

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Overview & Screen Cap of area referred to in my last post that I am re-doing to effect better balance between the 2 Novice Player start positions. Besides carving up the landscape differently I'm also having to add cliff face to the one position in such a way as to off-set distance & square foot real estate disparities. Could have saved myself a lot of time and trouble by simply doing mirror-images but this approach is presenting me with challenges I find very interesting plus the in-game pay-off is that the experience of covering the map by land, water or air, is satisfyingly varied throughout.
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[BlueMaxima]

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Summary of The 33 Strategies of War:

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Sounds like a modern version of Sun Tzu's classic.

Otherwise, this already looks like a fantastic map.

[Rman Virgil]

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Summary of The 33 Strategies of War:

Sounds like a modern version of Sun Tzu's classic.

Indeed, there is much of Sun Tzu's classic within it's covers. However, with some substantive additions.

The Art of War was written almost 2500 tears ago and one of the many additions in The 33 Strategies of War is that it draws beautifully on the past 2500 years by quoting in the margins hundreds of the finest minds both East & West. It's an inexhaustible treasure trove of such sparkling writing.

Another difference is that Sun Tzu's classic has at it's core winning without bloodshed which is also at the heart of most HTH martial arts, followed closely by the principal of a true master warrior - "injure only to the degree necessary to end the conflict." Which simply means, for example, you will strive to break a limb even if an opportunity for a clear & easy death blow presents itself. Now The 33 Strategies of War also differs from Sun Tzu in that it has an equal central focus on those strategies of winning that from the get go will surely entail bloodshed.

On the same shelf as The Art of War & The 33 Strategies of War I have another work I've yet to bring-up which turns on the following provocative and controversial premise:

War can be preferable to peace....

This work is "War: Ends and Means" (2nd Edition, 2006) by Paul Seabury & Angelo Codevilla. Amazing in it's scope and artful compression; its original insights into the dynamics between strategy and operations unequaled in any other work that has come to my attention over the years.

Otherwise, this already looks like a fantastic map.

I do hope that as it exhausts my investment of map crafting in the service of all my fighting insights that it will prove inexhaustible in the ways to play with it.

Though I have made a fair number of WZ maps over the years, I've never put as much into a single map as I have here and that, in great measure, is due to the power of Flail13's FlaME. Never say never but, at the moment, it is unlikely I will attempt another map as ambitious as this one. I am already hearing the Siren Song of entirely different challenges calling me in this all too brief life.

- Regards RV

Latest Entire Map Overview... This is NOT a Final .... but close. I am still in the midst of majorly modifying the far Northeast Quad Topography which constitutes the start position of one of the 2 Novice Player Bases so that they are equitable with each other even within their many asymmetries.

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[Rman Virgil]

Latest Entire Map Overview... This is NOT a Final .... but close. I am still in the midst of majorly modifying the far Northeast Quad Topography which constitutes the start position of one of the 2 Novice Player Bases so that they are equitable with each other even within their many asymmetries.

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Below shows the major modifications to the far Northeast Quad Topography just about completed to its final form. Comparing this new screen cap to the one in my last post you'll readily discern my progression and if you go back to an even earlier overview you'll also see the original form of the problem before I started making the major changes.

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