Admiral's Edition General Thread

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: Woos

ORIGINAL: Buck Beach

I'm not sure I truly understand the full concept of AI scripting? What does it include? I am only looking for a very brief explanation.

To give a more simple explanation than Joe: In general AI scripting is if the designers of a game (or of the AI scripts) fix certain behaviour of the AI. The alternative is a free-planning AI which only decides based on its general algorithms and on what it sees the opponent do. A well-known example for AI-scripting (and "human-scripting" BTW) are the opening libraries of chess. For several moves there is a huge 'script' telling the AI how to react on each move of the opponent. Once out of the book, the AI has to switch to free planning.

Basic problem of AI scripting is that if you know what the script prescribes (either because you wrote it or due to several games against it) you can normally easily beat the AI since you can either make moves throwing it out of script or use the script against the AI (just expand quickly as IJ in WitP and watch the Allies AI try to attack base it is not scripted to give up already with insufficient forces; I think in TOAW it was landing some unit in the back of the enemy and see all units assigned to that city suddenly leave the front leaving gaps).


BTW I'm not an expert in AIs at all but is event scripting still state of the art for AIs? It seems to lack quite some flexibility. E.g. a script for the invasion of the Philipines would have to recognize and act upon several possible moves of the opponent (defend the beaches, fall back immediatly, sent reinforcements by ship (OK not that probable for the philipines) or plane, ....). Doing that all in an event driven script seems to be quite complicated to me.
Maybe for WitP-II one should look at the Robotics people (which I also am not an expert in) which seem to use task- and goal-oriented approaches to solve AI issues in 'games' like Robocup and Robocup@home.

Fair question and I'm not a robotics expert either but essentially the throughput work I've been doing on the semi-conductor tools is robotics and the paper I worked on is for IEEE-RAS ... and yes I think linear DES is a bit dated, but toss it on top of Petri Nets and presto - I think we'll be leading the pack again!

[Wild]

Hi all, I have been lurking around for a long time now, but have only recently taken up the daunting task of playing the game. I am however a long time player of Gary Grigsby's Pacwar. It is one of my all time favorite games. (Along with War in Russia) That being said  i am greatly looking forward to the AE, and will buy it no matter what the cost, but i was wondering if it would be possible to have different colors for the various allied land units just as in Pacwar. (Green for american,blue for british,yellow for new zeland etc.) I know you are all working on much more important things and that this falls into the realm of eye candy but i am so used to the different colors from Pacwar i find it hard to get used to just one uniform color.
Thank you all for the time and effort you have put into this great game.

[von Beanie]

One thing I would like to see that has not been mentioned anywhere in this thread or the promotional stuff is the periodic random generation of "missions" worth bonus points. It is frustrating to play the game and never see a Doolittle Raid type event because conservative play rules. When the British ship withdrawal event occurs the game could easily randomly generate a secret special mission for each side for that time of the war, and award significant points for executing it. The Japanese could be tasked with raids on the west coast, Sydney, Perth and other locales, or taking a specific location, and the Allied player could be tasked with raids on Japan, sinking XX tankers in a month or some such thing. The risks are obvious, but it might be a worthwhile option to try and generate more risky play by both sides (as happened in real life). 

[Stvitus2002]

making sure that the AI doesn't sail around until its tanks are empty and it's a thousand miles away from base...

Just fixing that would make AE worth the price.[8D]






WO

[BigJ62]

ORIGINAL: Wild

Hi all, I have been lurking around for a long time now, but have only recently taken up the daunting task of playing the game. I am however a long time player of Gary Grigsby's Pacwar. It is one of my all time favorite games. (Along with War in Russia) That being said  i am greatly looking forward to the AE, and will buy it no matter what the cost, but i was wondering if it would be possible to have different colors for the various allied land units just as in Pacwar. (Green for american,blue for british,yellow for new zeland etc.) I know you are all working on much more important things and that this falls into the realm of eye candy but i am so used to the different colors from Pacwar i find it hard to get used to just one uniform color.
Thank you all for the time and effort you have put into this great game.

Each country has its own bmp icon panel even in Witp1 so you can change it to any color you like. Look in the art folder.

[Knavey]

Will we have the ability to change PBEM passwords?

When an opponent drops out and you have to turn the game over to another opponent, I would prefer NOT to know the password but sometimes you just have to for the game to continue right now.

This question brought to you by Placekeepers!

[Wild]

ORIGINAL: BigJ62

ORIGINAL: Wild

Hi all, I have been lurking around for a long time now, but have only recently taken up the daunting task of playing the game. I am however a long time player of Gary Grigsby's Pacwar. It is one of my all time favorite games. (Along with War in Russia) That being said i am greatly looking forward to the AE, and will buy it no matter what the cost, but i was wondering if it would be possible to have different colors for the various allied land units just as in Pacwar. (Green for american,blue for british,yellow for new zeland etc.) I know you are all working on much more important things and that this falls into the realm of eye candy but i am so used to the different colors from Pacwar i find it hard to get used to just one uniform color.
Thank you all for the time and effort you have put into this great game.

Each country has its own bmp icon panel even in Witp1 so you can change it to any color you like. Look in the art folder.

I guess it was the allied buttons not icons that i would like different colors. Is there any way to change these?

[DuckofTindalos]

Everything is a .bmp file, and can be edited if you want.

[NormS3]

Just wanted to thank the Matrix team for over 2 years of wargaming bliss.  Have a few questions reguarding AE.

• Will hot seat function still work?  I have found this to be an important modding tool.
• Corregidor as a base?
• Any chance for some screen shots of each editor screens? (Drool.)

[Sonny II]

ORIGINAL: Norm3

Just wanted to thank the Matrix team for over 2 years of wargaming bliss. Have a few questions reguarding AE.

• Will hot seat function still work? I have found this to be an important modding tool.
• Corregidor as a base?
• Any chance for some screen shots of each editor screens? (Drool.)

Hot seat is still an option.

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: Norm3
Corregidor as a base?

No.

[pad152]

1. A few things for the AI Japan

- I would like to see from the AI is some variance like Japan trying to take Midway, Ceylon, Aleutians.
- I've tried with the editor to get Japan to invade some places like the Aleutians on turn one, after the invasions, the AI would not even keep these new bases resupplied or send the additional re-inforcements.
- Re-inforce/defend Marcus Island,Iwo Jima,Chichi Jima I've never seen it even defend these areas in 1942!
- Respond to invasion of any of the Kurile Islands

The Easy Way to Beat Japan in 1942
It's way to easy as an allied player VS Japan AI to invade Wake(retake), Marcus, Iwo Jima, Chichi Jima and start bombing main land Japan in 1942 with little or no response from the AI to retake or defend any of these areas!
You can do the same thing going through the Kurile Islands to attack Hokkiado

Add a Mining Phase
1. Where the AI uses some of it's subs to mine enemy ports
2. Use Minlayers to build defensive mines fields for forward base defense

[spence]

Is any sort of overhaul envisioned for Allied SIGINT. Most of what is listed in the SIGINT report concerns the disposition of the Japanese Army and most of it is not operationally useful. That was hardly the case IRL. In particular USN/Allied submarines received good actionable intel regarding Japanese ship movements (especially merchant ships) deriving both from the breaking of Japanese codes but also RDF and radio traffic analysis. The IJN Player actually gets better information regarding ship traffic in the enemy rear thanks to the Quantum Mechanics Naval Searches by Glens.

I might add that as an Allied Player I see the locations of my convoys all the time in my SIGINT Report. Since that file is generated by the Japanese Player during his turn it would seem that he has access to it. That seems wrong for a couple of reasons:
1) I don't need the SIGINT Report to tell me where my convoys are
2) it lends itself to abuse (peeking) by the IJ Player

Perhaps access to the appropriate SIGINT REPORT could be password protected by the Player 1/Player 2 passwords in AE.

[el cid again]

I think it is wrong for a Japanese human player to look at the Allied SIGNIT report. Any game this complex has things that require judgement. Anyone not up to this should not be considered a suitable opponent. This principle, of course, is a workaround: Spence is right - it would be better to somehow generate that report on the "wrong" turn - or to generate it during turn execution (the Japanese player turn is where things really happen) and then hide it until the Allied player has his turn - at which point it magically appears.

[el cid again]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown

ORIGINAL: Norm3
Corregidor as a base?

No.

There is a problem with fortifications under siege. Fort Drum is the classic case - because it cannot go the way it did - or could have - IRL. When Gen Waynewright surrendered, the Commander Fort Drum called his staff together. They reported ALL systems were functional. The only problem - one they could not resolve - was there was no significant amount of food - so they honored the order to surrender. Had they had food, they would have continued to close Manila Bay - for a long time. [See The Concrete Battleship where this was first disclosed]

In the game, by the time of the surrender, Fort Drum assets are badly or even totally attritted. Enemy action took of 26 feet of concrete - without taking down any system or weapon at all. But the game will take down all the big guns quite soon - and the smaller ones (there are fewer) even sooner. It would be better if there was a mechanism to designate a fortification - and then to protect heavy assets in particular inside it. Also if there was a way to keep supplies in the fort. Right now - I can put 90000 supplies in Fort Drum as a unit - and they will be used to feed the neighbors within about 3 days.

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: el cid again

There is a problem with fortifications under siege. Fort Drum is the classic case - because it cannot go the way it did - or could have - IRL. When Gen Waynewright surrendered, the Commander Fort Drum called his staff together. They reported ALL systems were functional. The only problem - one they could not resolve - was there was no significant amount of food - so they honored the order to surrender. Had they had food, they would have continued to close Manila Bay - for a long time. [See The Concrete Battleship where this was first disclosed]

In the game, by the time of the surrender, Fort Drum assets are badly or even totally attritted. Enemy action took of 26 feet of concrete - without taking down any system or weapon at all. But the game will take down all the big guns quite soon - and the smaller ones (there are fewer) even sooner. It would be better if there was a mechanism to designate a fortification - and then to protect heavy assets in particular inside it. Also if there was a way to keep supplies in the fort. Right now - I can put 90000 supplies in Fort Drum as a unit - and they will be used to feed the neighbors within about 3 days.

I was only addressing the question about Corregidor from the map side of things.

Maybe Fort Drum cold be added as a separate unit and/or have distinct devices with higher armour ratings? Or the code may be able to be adjusted to handle such situations better? But these are all questions for the land team. I think it would be best to ask them in the land thread, but I can pass this on to them also.

Andrew

[Shark7]

Another question concerning graphics, that being will our current still work with AE? I know there are several out there people have used to 'dress up' the game, and I've gotten quite used to the way it looks now.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: spence

I might add that as an Allied Player I see the locations of my convoys all the time in my SIGINT Report. Since that file is generated by the Japanese Player during his turn it would seem that he has access to it. That seems wrong for a couple of reasons:
1) I don't need the SIGINT Report to tell me where my convoys are
2) it lends itself to abuse (peeking) by the IJ Player

Actually, all of the reports are combined Allied & IJ reports, including SigInt. That's why you see your own ships in there too.

Perhaps access to the appropriate SIGINT REPORT could be password protected by the Player 1/Player 2 passwords in AE.

Providing separate reports for each player would be ideal. Is that on the table for AE?

[JWE]

ORIGINAL: Shark7
Another question concerning graphics, that being will our current still work with AE? I know there are several out there people have used to 'dress up' the game, and I've gotten quite used to the way it looks now.

Speaking only for the naval art portion, we are doing everything possible to accommodate existing art and existing ‘after market’ artists. Too many people have invested too much talent in enhancing the visual impression of this game to let it go to waste by a radical change of numerology.

There will be hundreds of upgrade and conversion models included, but the baseline models of the vessels will conform (as much as humanly possible) to the WiTP stock enumerations. The ideal is that the AE naval art pak will be suitable for all Matrix WiTP games. That means your ‘eye candy’ will continue to taste sweet.

[VSWG]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Actually, all of the reports are combined Allied & IJ reports, including SigInt. That's why you see your own ships in there too.

No, they're not. There's one combatreport.txt and one operationsreport.txt, but 2 separate SigInt.txt - one for each side.