Kull
Posts: 2625
Joined: 7/3/2007 From: El Paso, TX Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: fbs But, if you could have a WITP-style, brand new game designed from the ground upon your ideas, which ideas would they be? That is, if your dream WITP game could be built (it certainly can't), what would you incorporate to it? The purpose of this thread is just to have fun with blue-sky ideas, so a cookie will go out for the most interesting (albeit realistic) idea coming out there. A "virtual staff" would be the real time saver. Think of it as a limited, task-focused AI - not designed to carry an entire nation through the war, but one that's capable of looking at a task and providing useful recommendations on how to achieve it. For example, lets start small: Suppose I want to set up a series of convoys that will carry fuel and supplies from the West Coast to Australia. I begin by clicking on the destination hex and then click on one or more hexes that contain the assets which my "staff" is free to use in it's calculations. Default would be unallocated units, but you can define other options at your staff interface. So the staff asks how much supply/fuel I'd like to transport from San Diego and LA, and I plug in a value. The staff plots out a suggested route as a line on the map and I can "click-and-pull" it into waypoints. Perhaps I can make the convoys repeatable or one time and maybe specify their frequency or limit the number of ships and or escorts. At some point I say "go" and the staff quickly calculates out a few options, one of which I select, and it's on to the next task. That's a fairly simple example, but the key idea is to provide a single goal and a relativly small number of resource points, and then let the "staff" do the dirty work of assembling the task forces and maintaining them. Even big invasions aren't necessarily that hard, so long as you break it down into discrete activities. I want to invade Japanese controlled Rabaul in mid-42, so the first step is to determine the invasion "launch point" and use the staff to assemble all the required assets there. Step two would be to use the staff to set up all the various invasion related TFs and send them on their way. Even things like CAP. Set some rough parameters, click the bases where you want it, select those containg the units that can provide it, and let the staff determine the units and altitudes, and all the rest. Your job as CinC is to set goals and then approve or deny the staff's recommendations - maybe even put up an "aggression" slider to alter the types and/or content of the recommendations. What makes AI "hard" is the number of individual data points to be calculated. When you limit the number of variables, suddenly a "Virtual Staff" becomes a possibility. Maybe not WitP 3 even. Maybe WitP 2.
< Message edited by Kull -- 10/24/2009 5:41:17 AM >
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