"War School"-A Map/Mod W.I.P.-locked sticky

[Zarel]

Here's an example (in game) of what I meant when I mentioned doing stuff by "hand" that takes time..

I like water maps where the water plays a significant role in how the game is played.
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I also HATE flat water scapes.... so this is what I do to change that -

Hmm. I wonder how that looks in the new terrain renderer. Want to download the latest trunk build and open it there?

[whippersnapper]

Hmm. I wonder how that looks in the new terrain renderer. Want to download the latest trunk build and open it there?

Hmmm.... that would be interesting to see. I'll try it later this week. I'm into my cinematic right now. Here's my 1st cut of the
character Akbar mentioned earlier. When I say "1st cut" I mean it will likely undergo changes by the time I make the
movie render for release. I'll also be pulling stills to illustrate the "Truce" story .PDF... stuff from my "cutting room" that
doesn't make the final movie cut. I'll see if I can have a sample from the music track for folks to check out over the weekend.

regards, whipper
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[Olrox]

His plate armor is very thin
xD
I mean, it isn't solid, it's a 3d surface!
Is there any specific reason?
Also, the colorful scenario and a grayish character Makes me wonder what it's all about!
Do you have any synopsis for us?

[lav_coyote25]

perhaps he is in a jungle environment.... seems to be shaking his fist at something/someone... perhaps, maybe olrox ?? lololol.... j/k. xD

[whippersnapper]

His plate armor is very thin
xD
I mean, it isn't solid, it's a 3d surface!
Is there any specific reason?

In the story "Crude in Sur America" it is revealed that the Scavs have moved on to an
advanced civilization that differs markedly from the Project or Nexus or the New Paradigm
or the Collective. Also Scavs, in my conceptions, are capable of scavenging much more
valuable and technologically sophisticated artifacts than wrecked buses or jeeps..As surface
survivors of the collapse and nuke winter, their Genome is also of tremendous value
to the other factions of which one of the manifestations are "Eugenics", gene engineering, oriented
One more thing I've done dramatically is have factions take-on Scav children to be trained and out-fitted
to their faction goals. The Project character Mallory was originally of the Scavs and as a pre-pubescent
had survived a Nexus raid on his tribe to be taken in by the Project on the verge of death, trained as a soldier
and when he was 18 was implanted with a synaptic link and outfitted with a borg battle suit. He retains
strong memories of his initial Scav upbringing.

As far as societal organization and culture I took my inspiration from the Iroquois Confederacy
(among other Pre-Colombian) sources in building this version of Scavs.. I have very deliberately
wanted to subvert Pumpkin's sources of inspiration - the first "Road Warrior" & "Terminator"
movies which for me, at least, invoked - "been there, done that", I can come up with something
fresh and perhaps even richer in possibilities...

Another component revealed in "Crude" are a major oil field-refinery and research facility
that the Seven Nations would sooner totally obliterate than yield to the Project expeditionary
force led by Mallory (he is also a main character 2 years later in "Truce" and has been given
a nick by Akbar's Tribal Elder Seer - "Mal of Orry".). That research facility has some technologies
that the Scavs are able and willing to exploit and a bunch they cannot. One technology they take on
is based on the MR Liquid Body Armor being developed at MIT's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies
for the Army's FF Warriors.

You can read more about these research projects here: http://web.mit.edu/isn/

Also, the colorful scenario and a grayish character Makes me wonder what it's all about!
Do you have any synopsis for us?

perhaps he is in a jungle environment.... seems to be shaking his fist at something/someone... perhaps, maybe olrox ?? lololol.... j/k. xD

Coyote is correct - a jungle environment is part of the journey in the story "Truce". 2 parties make the journey separately: Bearheart and his right arm Mallory from the Project... and Akbar and his son Chandar on the Scav Seven Nations side. Ultimately both parties converge where they are to negotiate a peace treaty to stand against a common enemy called the ManGodAi. The location is a sacred ground that poses a bit of a rite of passage
for both parties but especially the Project contingent, This sacred ground I have modeled on the Aniakchak Caldera in the Aleutian Range, Alaska,
morphology (though the climate is tropical) and is a quite dramatic section of the story which also includes "visionary episodes" - aka "altered states of consciousness".

I've attached a photo from the United States Geological Society.... You can also read more about Caldera's here:

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/sage/geology ... cepts.html

I hope I have given better context to relate.

regards whipper
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[whippersnapper]

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First cut of the Project character Mallory aka, "Mal of Orry"...
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[Buginator]

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First cut of the Project character Mallory aka, "Mal of Orry"...
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You know, if you squint really hard, you can almost say it fits in with the new trek movie... that is, until they get word of this, and then try to shut you down for this infraction.

[whippersnapper]

You know, if you squint really hard, you can almost say it fits in with the new trek movie... that is, until they get word of this, and then try to shut you down for this infraction.

Hehe..... well, let 'em come... I can prove my assets were created even before the movie production was announced with the
first trailer last November. Indeed I published another character (Jason Reed, Dr. Reed's son, from my movie "A Well Tuned Madness")
last summer, June 2008 I think, using almost identical art - 'cept for the characters face, which was totally different (Lav might remember that render)
I also combined that one with WZ Machinima. More likely maybe I was abducted, don't remember the event, and was Vulcan mind-melded
at some pod people honchos behest at Paramount Studios while the movie was in secret pre-production, heh.

Regards, whipper

[whippersnapper]

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Gonna be incommunicado for a few days so don't be offended if it takes longer for me to respond
than my usual timeliness...

But I will leave you with an Original Music Sampler of tracks I'm working on for this project. It's an MP3
in a .rar archive that's just 1.5mbs... running time about 1.5 minutes... a taste, if you will.

Here's the download link @ File Factory:

Truce Sampler T18.rar

http://www.filefactory.com/file/aghg41g ... er_T18_rar

It will take you to a page where you'll have to select "Download for free with File Factory Basic"

Then you'll have to enter a visual recognition code intended to defeat Spam Bots.... after that
you can download the .rar. Sorry I couldn't just give you a direct link or embed a widget player
right here to make it a little more convenient.

Oh.. & for those of you curious what I play I've attached a photo of my main ax, a Parker Nite Fly Deluxe
I got in 1998 and had customized to my fretting hand. It's my favorite E. guitar ever and she does
have a name but i ain't saying. I also play assorted keyboards and traps, use an effects bay for
my Parker and a Roland PMA music composer comp.. But you'll know I'm heavy on guitar lines in
my music when you listen to the sampler - though of course there are ample keys, traps and bass
voicings as well..



L8rs, whipper
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[Olrox]

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First cut of the Project character Mallory aka, "Mal of Orry"...
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Hmm I think that his clean face could use some scar...
I know it's cliché and all but it could make for something he looks everyday on the mirror and remember things
The main character from Front mission 5: Scars of war, Walter Feng, bear a scar made by a wanzer's empty machinegun cartridge that, after firing and with all the heat from the combustion of the propellant, fell into his face when he was a child. The scar isn't obvious such as Squall's (Final Fantasy VIII), but it is present, and that makes for a bit of uniqueness.

perhaps he is in a jungle environment.... seems to be shaking his fist at something/someone... perhaps, maybe olrox ?? lololol.... j/k. xD

hahahahaha, what, I'm such a lovely person, am I not???...
...
no?

xD

[whippersnapper]

Hmm I think that his clean face could use some scar...

I know it's cliché and all but it could make for something he looks everyday on the mirror and remember things
The main character from Front mission 5: Scars of war, Walter Feng, bear a scar made by a wanzer's empty machinegun cartridge that, after firing and with all the heat from the combustion of the propellant, fell into his face when he was a child. The scar isn't obvious such as Squall's (Final Fantasy VIII), but it is present, and that makes for a bit of uniqueness.


xD

Good idea. Maybe ear down along the jaw bone...

Here is the 1st cut of the Project character Bearheart... .... next - Akbar's son, Chandar...

@ Bug: Yes ... I know, if you squint he sorta looks like the actor Sean Connery but I think I'm cool with Sean and that he
won't be coming after me for my apparent audacity.

Regards, whipper
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[whippersnapper]

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K... here is another taste - Truce Music Sampler 2 - same instructions as before:

(with new file modifications to the text)

Again, It's an MP3 in a .ZIP archive that's about 2 mbs... running time about 2 minutes...

Here's the download link @ File Factory:

* Truce Sampler 2.zip

http://www.filefactory.com/file/agh4462 ... pler_2_zip

It will take you to a page where you'll have to select "Download for free with File Factory Basic"

Then you'll have to enter a visual recognition code intended to defeat Spam Bots.... after that
you can download the .zip.

In this sampler my guitar work is not so dominant and i give equal time to keyboards. The tempo is slowed down
some from of the "frenetic" voicings of the first sampler. You'll also hear my formative development of a choral voicing
(on synthesizer) that I'm associating with the Scavenger Tribes as their musical motif...

As much fun as this all is I have to put it aside for a little bit while I focus on some code work for my principal game effort -
"SOW 2200"....

L8rs, whipper
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EDIT: Sorry Olrox I missed this post till just now..:

whipper: "I also HATE flat water scapes.... so this is what I do to change that."

But is that vertex-painting or height changing?
Or a bit of both?
All this time playing warzone and some time in the forums, and yet I've never managed to do anything (anything at all, not just anything good) in the map editors / creators... I feel soooo lazy to learn tools that aren't as intuitive as those made aiming towards learnability and memorability
But if it's height, there could be ways of making effects such as this using the height map of the file.

In this case it is vertex painting.

Once before on a Campaign Map called "Crash" I tried to do it in my Height Map but was not happy
with the results. On that occasion I ended up making Reefs and Atolls which was something I
had not thought of doing before - these I ended up using to make tactical divisions by parsing the ocean
scape... A lot of work it was too dealing with all the additional shoreline.. This is also a technique I would NOT
use for Skirmish intended maps unless "H2O A.I." was ported to the WRP binary or if I modified "Become Prey A.I."
Templates and Scripts to handle water maps right out of the gate.

As far as the Map Editor - it was NEVER designed or intended for fan use. Pumpkin didn't even wanna release it
for months after the game came out. It took a lot of gentle persuasion to convince them it was a good idea to
let the fans have it even if they ended up bitching about how unfriendly it was - and the fans did bitch for weeks till
we wrote the first tutorial and Member HB came out with his masterful Map-Mod-Custom Tertile set called "Ariza" which
10 years later is still an enduring work of art, IMO.
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[Olrox]

Hmm, I thought so. Vertex painting is essential in games where the lighting engine is very basic, like in warzone, for instance. That is, If one wants not to rely on the renderer for graphical enhancement.
But the visual effect is very good!

I remember that when I was playing a Sandbox game in Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, I've created a space scenario, where I modelled the entire land to look like the top of a sphere itself, then added dunes pretty much like those created by fast winds in places with no or very rarefied atmosphere, then added some rocky peaks and craters... It looked absolutely awesome, but my computer couldn't handle to run the simulation on that game... Basically I've only had the opportunity to use the terrain editor, If I'd add a few rides an let the time pass, it was so slow that I could sleep waiting the game's day to pass... what a pity...
Not to mention I'm playing WoW in with all settings to the minimum and with a resolution that's half of my monitor's native...


But WZ2100 runs just fine!

With all settings to the maximum, hahahahahah!

[whippersnapper]

..

Oh man, Olrox, I know the feeling. I suffered likewise till I finally bit the bullet and built myself a new DT box the beginning of
the year off a Quad Core Mobo with a SLI config with 2 beefed-out NVIDIAs. No game in existence can bring that set-up
to it's knees. I especially appreciate it when it comes to rendering my Cinematics and CGI movie shorts. However, I still
create WZ stuff on my Toshiba Duo LT which is cool because that puppy goes with me when I travel, which I do regularly.

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UPDATE on Map & GPM Design Changes: Forgot to mention these earlier... got 'em going the beginning of this week.

1.) Changed up a major portion of the landscape inspired by the bocage of Normandy, France during
WW 2.... with my own twist, natch, to accommodate WZs limitations... I'll post some screens over the week end

2.) I also changed the 2 commands into 3 commands. This will make everyman for himself MP more challenging.
At the same time it will also make COOP MP a very interesting proposition. There are other consequences to this
change that dovetail with the addition of my bocage variant but I'm not gonna spell those out.

Just to clarify what I mean by "3 commands". You start with you're Project Base of OPs as normal but you also have 2 Scav
Forward Bases, in different locations, to also manage. It's similar to Campaign "Away Missions" 'cept you will have to engage on
3 fronts. I know the WZ Command scheme and UI are less than optimal for this type of situation in the sense of "maneuver
switch-tasking"... nonetheless, I think some MPers might have gotten bored with the usual game play gimmicks that would
never fly in the RL combat of even our present 21st century warfare.

Regards, whipper
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[whippersnapper]

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An Essay & Reference on my modus operandi for this project... The essay is
relatively short but the references are longish. If your preference leans towards Twitter
length expression then by all means vacate this thread post haste.

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


We are all entitled to our opinion or artistic vision. But there are qualitative differences as in
informed opinion or vision. In my case, informed by the best science has to offer
(in addition to the crafting artistic integrity invokes).

Most opinions on Nuke Winter, Post Nuke Apocalypse or Armageddon, that I've come across
over the years in regards to WZ 2100 are informed by movies like the "Road Warrior" or
"Terminator" series, Sci Fi stories like "The Stand", "On the Beach", "Alas Babylon", TV shows,
Graphic Novels and Comics, and other vid games...... In other words - Artistic Visions.
And that's fine up until peeps start speaking with the conviction of dogma. That's where I draw
the line and dismiss those types of opinion as lazy, ill-informed, and not worth the attention given
impartial authority. Beyond being intellectually annoying these pious pronouncements are artistically
stultifying, which is an even worse offense, imho. In short, rubbish and humbug, those type utterances

I too have seen many of the movies and TV shows and have also read a lot of the Sci-Fi stories,
& played games like the "Fallout" series, on the this subject. But in my fictive work I go back to the
Primary Science Sources for my inspiration and informed opinion as opposed to merely relying
on the filtered artistic vision of others (Tertiary sources), regardless of how much I may enjoy and
esteem, particular fictive works and their artistry.

I could post my NET primary sources here as I did on the topic of game balance in my
"Future of RTS" thread. Instead I will list my primary sources in book form that I have
studied over the years on this topic and deeply inform my WZ work inclusive of this project,
"War School" and the clarifying, speculative, details I've posted so far on back story, etc....

ALL the works below can be corroborated with Primary Sources on the Web.... just use Google
if reading non-fiction books is not your thing for whatever reason.. And, btw, Wikipedia alone
does not qualify as a primary source.

The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War by Eileen Welsome

Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy by Philip L. Fradkin

Under The Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing by Richard L. Miller

American Ground Zero: The Secret Nuclear War by Carole Gallagher

Medical Implications of Nuclear War by National Academy Press

Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West by Len Ackland

Worldwide Effects Of Nuclear War by U.S. Arms Control And Disarmament Agency

The Cold and the Dark: The World After Nuclear War by Paul R. Ehrlich & Carl Sagan

Nuclear First Strike: Consequences of a Broken Taboo by George H. Quester

The Tainted Desert: Environmental and Social Ruin in the American West by Valerie Kuletz

The Navajo People and Uranium Mining by Doug Brugge

U.s. Armed Forces Nuclear, Biological And Chemical Survival Manual by Dick Couch & John Boswell

Nuclear Weapons: What You Need to Know by Jeremy Bernstein

The Doomsday Scenario: How America Ends by Douglas Keeney

Yellowcake Towns (Mining the American West) by Michael A. Amundson

On the Home Front: The Cold War Legacy of the Hanford Nuclear Site by Michele Gerber

Under The Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing by Richard L. Miller

The Social Impact of the Chernobyl Disaster by David R. Marples

20 Years After the Chernobyl Accident: Past, Present And Future by Elena B. Burlakova

Children of Chernobyl : Raising Hope from the Ashes by Michael J. Christensen & M.Carter

Nuclear War Survival Skills Updated and Expanded Edition by Cresson H. Kearny

On Thermonuclear War by Herman Kahn and Evan Jones

Uranium Frenzy: Saga of the Nuclear West by Raye Ringholz

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich K. Gessen

The Legacy of Chernobyl by Zhores A. Medvedev

Chernobyl: Confessions of a Reporter by Igor Kostin

Chernobyl Record: The Definitive History of the Chernobyl Catastrophe by R.F Mould

The Consequential Damages of Nuclear War: The Rongelap Report by Barbara Rose Johnston

Chernobyl: The Hidden Legacy by Pierpaolo Mittica

The Effects of Nuclear War by Office of Technology Assessment and Congress of the United States

Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl by Adriana Petryna

Chernobyl: The Ongoing Story of the World's Deadliest Nuclear Disaster by Glenn Alan Cheney

Idaho Falls: The Untold Story of America's First Nuclear Accident by William McKeown

Chernobyl: The Forbidden Truth by Alla Yaroshinskaya, Michell Kahn and Julia Sallabank

Chernobyl Legacy by Magdalena Caris and Paul Fusco

The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War by Eileen Welsome

The Logic of Accidental Nuclear War by Bruce G. Blair

Cold War Secret Nuclear Bunkers: The Passive Defence of the Western World During the Cold War by Nick McCamley

Nuclear War Survival Manual, Protection In The Nuclear Age by FEMA

Chernobyl: Catastrophe and Consequences by Jim Smith and Nicholas A. Beresford

Space Wars: The First Six Hours of World War III by Willliam Scott & Michael Coumatos

Life After Doomsday by Bruce Clayton

The Truth About Chernobyl by Grigori Medvedev

The Nuclear Borderlands: The Manhattan Project in Post-Cold War New Mexico by Joseph Masco

Face to Face with the Bomb: Nuclear Reality after the Cold War by Paul Shambroom and Professor Richard Rhodes

Nuclear Insights: The Cold War Legacy Volume 1: Nuclear Weaponry (An Insider History) by Alexander DeVolpi

Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War by Hugh Gusterson

Teach Us to Live: Stories From Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Diana Wickes Roose

Silent Steel: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion by Stephen Johnson

Hiroshima Diary: The Unparalleled Eyewitness Account of the Dawn of Nuclear War by Michiko M. D. Hachiya

This Is Only a Test: How Washington D.C. Prepared for Nuclear War by David F. Krugler

The Worlds of Herman Kahn: The Intuitive Science of Thermonuclear War by Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi

Nuclear War: From Hiroshima to Nuclear Winter by Lawrence Pringle

To Win A Nuclear War by Daniel Axelrod

Hell's Fire: A Documentary History of the American Atomic and Thermonuclear Weapons Projects,
From Hiroshima to the Cold War and the War on Terror by Lenny Flank

Atomic Fossils: A Story of War and Deliverance in the Nuclear Age by Stephen Dustin

The Day After Midnight: The Effects of Nuclear War by Michael Riordan

** And for a broad spectrum of artistic visions on the subject that are also quite entertaining I would
recommend the following 2 anthologies of fiction:

- "Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse" edited by Stephen King, Cory Doctorow, George R. R. Martin,
and Octavia E. Butler

- "Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, 1895-1984" edited by Paul Brians

The long and short of all this is that there is NO authoritative artistic vision and that even when it
comes to the hard science there is no exclusive pat answer - just probabilities and educated guesses
that for obvious reasons connot be tested on a global scale for definitive assessments.

regards, whipper.
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