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

[whippersnapper]

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On the Scav Seven Nations side - from left to right - The Seer, Akbar & Chandar the morning
of the journey to the sacred caldera to meet up with Elijah and Mallory, from their camp at the
foothills of mount Gray Beard...
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[whippersnapper]

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For the sake of efficacy I've aggregated all 4 original music sampler downloads
for the "War School Map-Mod & Truce Story-Cinematic" scattered hither and
yon in this thread into this post.....


The download links @ File Factory of all 4 MP3 file dls:

* Truce Sampler 1:

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

* Truce Sampler 2:

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

* Truce Sampler 3:

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ag02543 ... pler_3_zip

* Truce Sampler 4:

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ag172b7 ... pler_4_rar


- Links 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 compressed archive with the MP3s. Sorry I couldn't just give you a direct link
or embed a widget player right here to make it a little more convenient.

Regards, whipper
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[whippersnapper]

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Atop Mount Gray Beard which over-looks the Scav Seven Nation treaty camp..
an asset from "Truce: The Lesser Evil" cinematic.

[whippersnapper]

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2nd cover variant I'm posting for the "Truce" e-book (between the 1st and this one there are at least a
dozen un-posted ones.... & there will be more, no doubt, till I finally release the whole of it.)

Next: Over the week-end I'll post the next section of the illustrated story. That section is called
"The Roadless Way Out of Graybeard" and it is from the point of view of the Scav characters Akbar,
Chandar & The Seer.
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[whippersnapper]

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The brief opening pages of the illustrated "Truce" story.

"Worlds Apart" in 2 sections:

"The Roadless Way Out of Trinity" - modified substantively in language, story elements and layout from the first
posted version so don't skip. And if your into the evolution of craft, compare for yourself as the earlier version remains
posted.

"The Roadless Way Out of Graybeard" - the Scav characters are introduced.

What is left are 3 parts that are, in sequence:

"The Sacred Caldera" - already written and illustrated.

"Yuwippi Rings of Fire" - new addition, being written & illustrated.

"Coda: The Lesser Evil" - already written & illustrated.

If it wasn't for the "Yuwippi" chapter presenting itself to me recently as a necessary sequence,
I would've compiled the e-book by now. Oh well, the muse can be unpredictable but still must
be attended faithfully. That's the covenant.

Note - some "shop-talk" follows. Skip if craft details bore you to death.

As you can tell I'm melding Science Fiction & Fantasy genre motifs which is referred to as Speculative Fiction
in the pub biz but, more importantly, is in the spirit of the great Arthur C. Clark's observation that science far
enough in advance would appear as magic to us much in the way our 21st century artifacts appear to isolated
tribes deep in the jungles of Borneo or the Amazon. That is assuming they would register experentially in the
first place. Accounts of Columbus' first landing on the Taino shores note that the indigenous folks literally could
not see his sailing ships anchored in plain sight right before them. Even so called "higher civilized" folk experience
variants of this neurological phenomenon known as "cognitive dissonance". Humanity is hard-wired to be fooled
under conditions clearly explained by the work in the brain sciences over the last decade.

The style of "Truce" is very different from the mainstream dramatic fiction I usually write. Because there is
"world-building" involved the narrative has more exposition where as in my mainstream fiction I use far less
exposition because I make common assumptions based on sharing the "same world" and thus my narrative
in that mode of storytelling is heavily weighted toward dialogue... Even in this SF mode my dialogue has a
mainstream "feel" even as I try to convey a fantastic world sensibility

As a curio I will post later today my first cut render of the female Scav character "Oleen" side by side with
the final illustration that made it into the pages below. Basically, I made her too "pretty", in a Scarlett Johansson
way, to begin with. While she is not ugly by any means, the subtle differences are more consistent with the "world"
being invoked I feel.

I'll leave it there for now but will answer any questions or responses that may present themselves
in the interim.
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[whippersnapper]

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As a curio I will post later today my first cut render of the female Scav character "Oleen" side by side with
the final illustration that made it into the pages below. Basically, I made her too "pretty", in a Scarlett Johansson
way, to begin with. While she is not ugly by any means, the subtle differences are more consistent with the "world"
being invoked I feel.

Here ya go on that ....plus the latest version of the e-book cover.
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[whippersnapper]

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Hmmm... I'm fond of the bricolage process..... enough to think myself a quintessential bricoleur.
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[whippersnapper]

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Still trying out different layout ideas for the chapter headers...

[whippersnapper]

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My virtual doppelganger (a self-portrait of sorts) puzzled at first but then it hits me like pigeon guano -
time for lights-out .... and thanks for dropping by, its been edifying, in a roundabout way, on the
subject of IA - inequity aversion. There is also a delectable irony in that IA is directly linked to the
classic Game Theory of John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern.... How could I have missed it
for so long. Always in the details, both demons and gods. Recursion can be so loopy.

cya, whipper
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[whippersnapper]

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Still working on all aspects of this project but got side-tracked by a very serious problem that manifested & took
me awhile to first isolate and then decide amongst various remedies-solutions.

Essentially, I was doing some stuff in the Map-Mod phase that was breaking Become Prey a.i.'s proper
scripting roll-out. After determining what was causing the problem I had 3 choices - modify Truck a.i.,
modify BP scripting or take a different approach to what I was trying to achieve map-mod-wise. I'm a
strong believer in K.I.S.S. design so I chose the last approach. Back on track again with the game play
part of "War School".

Regards, whipper.
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[whippersnapper]

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The curtain will part again by the weekend..

...........

Funny how things happen.

I was working on the new section of the accompanying "Truce" story called "Yuwippi Rings of Fire" when I got a fresh idea for "War School" to make it more specifically COOP friendly in MP while not placing a serious handicap on "Become Prey" in skirmish. I'll have some of this new stuff implemented enough to show some screens in a few days of what this re-working amounts too. I'm pretty jazzed about it at the moment 'cause I don't think it's been done before or if it has, not enough to be a common place. Durn thing is becoming analogous to a 3D Chess board - keeping copious notes to myself on balance so I don't get lost in vertigo amongst the vertices.

Regards, whipper

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[whippersnapper]

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Still have to install the latest binary after which I'll take more screens but in the meanwhile -

This view point is from the N.W. Base looking South.

Left is part of the extensive lake way network criss-crossed with pontoon-type roadways (as opposed to "Bailey" or "Girder" types), Middle is the Bocage Terra form (after Normandy) and on the Right is one of the COOP Back-door Channels. (I'll take a diverse set of angle screens with the latest binary l8r)

Each base has 5 distinct ground access vectors of which 2 are dedicated COOP back-doors (B.Citadel to B. Citadel) and 3 free-wheeling which transition from Citadel-level to Sea-level.and there break-out into countless vector choices via water or pontoon roadways.

This "as is" will accommodate every man or gal for themselves (w/Scav Allys) MP, COOP MP and Skirmish with BP. There is currently a passive central "Citadel" to fight-over which I'm debating whether I should add an aggressive custom "Eagle" A.I. to as a non-selectable 5th player (and with a scripted victory condition as well).... giving it even more of a "Campaign" feel.... We'll see

L8r, w
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[whippersnapper]

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Better angle on 1 of 2 COOP "Back-door Channels" each Base Citadel has. These channels start as Base Citadel ramp to water, hit a brief
land mass bump, water again for a stretch, another land mass bump and back to water again right before the ramp leading to the next
Base Citadel. There are several pragmatic reasons for the particulars of this construction - it's not just an aesthetic whim. Will I lay-out those
reasons ? Hmmm...

Regards, whipper
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[whippersnapper]

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This post is for WZ Map Makers...

More than once in this thread I make a point of emphasizing the importance of map design being optimized for the skirmish A.I.. So much have I brought this up as to feel like I'm borderline harping.

This methodology comes as a result of much experimentation within Edit World and subsequent play-testing in-game over the years with more than half-dozen quality A.I.s created for WZ since it was first released.

Not so very long ago I came across just how closely "Halo" Level Designers worked with their A.I. team - the relevance to WZ map design was unmistakable (even though the games are from different genres) and I highly recommend checking-out what the Bungie dev folks shared here:

Teaming Up with Halo's AI: 42 Tricks to Assist Your Game

Regards, whipper
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[whippersnapper]

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...........This methodology comes as a result of much experimentation within Edit World and subsequent play-testing in-game over the years with more than half-dozen quality A.I.s created for WZ since it was first released.

I've also made use of the following tool sets which also deeply inform Commander Command Improvements I've specifically come to value as promising.


A.I. Experimentation Software Tools I have found helpful over the years...

• ------------------------------------------------------------>
  
  Land Warfare Modeling Software -
  
  EINSTein - short for Enhanced Irreducible Semi-Autonomous Adaptive Combat Neural Simulation Toolkit.
  
  The ISAAC Agent - or Irreducible Semi-Autonomous Adaptive Combat Agent.
  
  http://staff.science.nus.edu.sg/~parwan ... /jeff.html
  http://www.cna.org/isaac/einstein_page.htm
  http://www.cna.org/
  
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  OpenNERO - game platform for Artificial Intelligence research and education (Neuro-Evolving Robotic Operatives):
  
  http://code.google.com/p/opennero/
  
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  TIELT - Testbed for Integrating and Evaluating Learning Techniques
  
  http://www.tielt.org/
  
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  ScriptEase for Neverwinter Nights (aka, Memetic AI Toolkit) & their ORTS project:
  
  http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~script/scripteasenwn.html
  http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~games/
  http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~mburo/orts/orts.html
  
  ------------------------------------------------------------>
  
  FEAR - Foundations for Genuine Game AI.
  
  http://fear.sourceforge.net/
  
  Alive! - a sandbox for learning AI and game programming.
  
  http://alive.sourceforge.net/
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/alive/
  
  ------------------------------------------------------------>
  
  EXCALIBUR - Adaptive Constraint-Based Agents in Artificial Environments.
  
  http://www.ai-center.com/projects/excalibur/
  
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  S.C.O.U.R.G.E. - in particular its a.i. Decision Matrix
  
  http://www.scourgeweb.org/tiki-index.php
  
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  Breve - 3d Simulation Environment for Multi-Agent Simulations and Artificial Life
  
  http://spiderland.org/breve
  
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  StarLogo TNG - Imagination Toolbox for the modeling and simulation of complex systems.
  
  http://education.mit.edu/starlogo/
  
  ------------------------------------------------------------>

Regards, whipper
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