Attention: Unpublished Scenario Designers

[Redleg]

Here's the deal.

I am looking for unpublished scenarios made by unpublished designers. If you like, I will collect these and feature them on the Dirty Dozen each month.

Rules (Yes, rules)
1. You must not have ever posted (published) a scenario on a website other than Matrix forum.

2. The scenario must be your own.

3. The scenario must be for V7.1

4. The text file must be coherent enough that I can understand it.

5. The scenario must have been played by yourself at least once.
AI vs AI doesn't count as "playing it". If you do not like it enough to play it yourself, we shouldn't try to entice others to do what we won't do ourselves.

6. The scenario must have been played by someone else at least once.

If I get enough collected, I will look 'em over and make some tough choices. What I envision is featuring and trying to promote the work of designers who just have not made that last step and actually posted their efforts for the enjoyment of other gamers.

If I don't get any takers, I will have at least tried. If there are no offerings, I may offer this to the SPWAW designers at large but priority goes to new designers.

If you are interested in this, make a mental note about it and start polishing up your scenario. In a couple of weeks, I will again come here and solicite your scenarios. The first post possible will be mid-July.

Tip: get someone to play the battle and *listen* to what they tell you. Tune it up and who knows, maybe we will get another bunch of gamers hooked on SPWAW scenario design.

Go for it! This is a chance to put your scenario before a rather large number of gamers who visit the Dirty Dozen each month.

[Major Destruction]

A GREAT idea!!

If you want somebody to test your scenario (and you have a tough hide) , send it to me. I'm a tough critic but I'll help you create that great scenario.

Seriously, .......there are a lot of players out there who want to recreate or model a particular action, a historical moment and they get almost there...........but the game engine stops them.
Some of us have enough experience to take these experiments in history to a great model, one which can be educational. We can help.

Let's face it guys, this is not a game. It is a morbid pursuit.

Men, who are better than us, died for their beliefs. And we play games about this. (?)

We can at least honour their memory by recreating the history in as accurate a manner as possible. SPWAW gives us the tool. Let's use this tool wisely.

[M4Jess]

Redleg! Im in;)

just kidding.......

[Fradar]

Fine M4 Jess, a great idea.
What about your testing of Nam Dinh you solemnly announced ?:)

[M4Jess]

Fine M4 Jess, a great idea.
What about your testing of Nam Dinh you solemnly announced ?

Fradar, I sent you my report on that a month or so ago!

It was and is a awsome scenario!

I will try and locate it and foward it to you post haste!

If you have been reading any of the battle reports you know I have had alot of e-mail probs with aol..oh well... I will find it I am sure!

Jess

[Fradar]

Sorry M4 Jess, I did not receive it.

[Redleg]

I hope this encourages some designers to step forward and announce their presence to the SPWAW world.

[Mojo]

Well I wouldn't presume to call myself a designer yet but I have started working on a couple of scenarios based on the campaign in the Aluetians.

Well at least I've started the research and playing with map design etc.

[Redleg]

Super, Mojo.
Get at least one of them finished up and then who knows? You may find yourself hooked on the designing part of SPWAW.

[Fabio Prado]

5. The scenario must have been played by yourself at least once.
AI vs AI doesn't count as "playing it". If you do not like it enough to play it yourself, we shouldn't try to entice others to do what we won't do ourselves.

6. The scenario must have been played by someone else at least once.

Well said, Redleg!

I would say that those two are not simple rules - those are GOLDEN rules!:)

Hey, I'm still trying to make GD's Tigers get a DV in that great Kursk battle... A SUPER Redleg-made scenario coming soon, boys and girls!

Fab

[Fabio Prado]

Come on, show your best designs ever!
Send'em to Redleg NOW!


Fab

[Redleg]

Thanks for the support but please don't send any scenarios now.
Polish them up. Think about them. Test them.

In a few days, I will be past some busy times and will be ready and organized enough to accept any contributions at that time.

I must admit that I wonder if any will be submitted to become part of the "Dirty Dozen".

[Larry Holt]

SP has always used VHs to orient both sides towards each other as well as to calculate victory levels. This is not exactly how real life works (& why CL will use other criteria).

My idea is to have a GE recon force (AC, motorcycles, scouts, etc. backed by a small combined arms force: plt tanks, plt panzer grenadiers, AA, SP mortars, etc.) facing a large map with some exit hexes on the far side but no VHs to capture. The mission is to maneuver across their area of operations (the map) to locate SO units then continue to recon deeper (i.e. exit far side).

This is a realistic scenario but the question is, how to cause the player to form a comprehensive recon plan without leading him with VHs and how to score without VH's? Without them a player could just punch one lane through then exit. I don't want the GE side to have to kill SO units to get points (this is a recon, not combat mission) but how to score points for just locating unknown units?

My solution is to give the player an intell estimate of how many targets are out there. I will put very fragile, easily identifiable, high cost dummy units mixed in with the real defenders. The player will know what these are (say perhaps I will not have any KVs in the scenario but use KV icons). When the player conducts a successful recon and finds the real SO units, he can easily kill the dummy unit, get the points then move on without having to get bogged down in a fight. The SO will get several high cost strategic VHs (can't be retaken) at the start to boost their point total. If the player fails to find & kill enough dummy units even exiting his whole force will end in defeat. I will tell the player how many dummies he needs to kill (via the intell estimate) to get a draw or decisive victory (+ or - depending upon friendly and enemy combat kills)

What do you think? Would this work, be interesting? Has it been done before?

[Redleg]

I think the exit hex is a viable plan. I might consider labeling the exit hex(es) and let the player find out for himself how to get there and develop his own strategy.

It sounds like a very good design idea to me. I am always interested in designs that explore something different from the norm.

If you find that the human player cannot garner enough points, it will be pretty easy to increase the value of Soviet units so a reasonable attack will receive a reasonable number of points.

When you set exit hexes for the human, the AI will receive a number (1/3 of the value of human points) to begin with. The human will receive 3 times the value of the points sucessfully exited. You are correct, sometimes the numbers don't work out depending upon the desired outcome. But if you increase the value of AI units by some factor (say, double), it will throw extra points to the human player.

Another advantage to your design concept is the AI is much easier to control when these types of v-hexes are in play.

Blah, blah, blah. Sounds very good to me. Go for it. The Dirty Dozen is always interested in providing a good home to innovative scenarios.

[john g]

Originally posted by Larry Holt
SP has always used VHs to orient both sides towards each other as well as to calculate victory levels. This is not exactly how real life works (& why CL will use other criteria).

My idea is to have a GE recon force (AC, motorcycles, scouts, etc. backed by a small combined arms force: plt tanks, plt panzer grenadiers, AA, SP mortars, etc.) facing a large map with some exit hexes on the far side but no VHs to capture. The mission is to maneuver across their area of operations (the map) to locate SO units then continue to recon deeper (i.e. exit far side).

This is a realistic scenario but the question is, how to cause the player to form a comprehensive recon plan without leading him with VHs and how to score without VH's? Without them a player could just punch one lane through then exit. I don't want the GE side to have to kill SO units to get points (this is a recon, not combat mission) but how to score points for just locating unknown units?

My solution is to give the player an intell estimate of how many targets are out there. I will put very fragile, easily identifiable, high cost dummy units mixed in with the real defenders. The player will know what these are (say perhaps I will not have any KVs in the scenario but use KV icons). When the player conducts a successful recon and finds the real SO units, he can easily kill the dummy unit, get the points then move on without having to get bogged down in a fight. The SO will get several high cost strategic VHs (can't be retaken) at the start to boost their point total. If the player fails to find & kill enough dummy units even exiting his whole force will end in defeat. I will tell the player how many dummies he needs to kill (via the intell estimate) to get a draw or decisive victory (+ or - depending upon friendly and enemy combat kills)

What do you think? Would this work, be interesting? Has it been done before?

Don't forget that if one side has exit vic hexes the other side starts out with .25 times the value of the enemy force as victory points. If you gave the Soviets another .26 times the German force in fixed vic hexes the Germans can't even get a 3-1 if they exit all units and lose or destroy none.

While reading about the Tunisian campagn one of the tasks of the light armor was to find retreat routes through the hills if the main roads were taken. Something like this could be simulated by making hidden vic hexes on the correct path back towards their rear, that they have to find and pass over to discover the retreat route.
thanks, John.

[Larry Holt]

Originally posted by john g


Don't forget that if one side has exit vic hexes the other side starts out with .25 times the value of the enemy force as victory points. If you gave the Soviets another .26 times the German force in fixed vic hexes the Germans can't even get a 3-1 if they exit all units and lose or destroy none.

Yes, I can use strategic VHs to balance the point total but I also want the dummy units to be very high point units so that killing them is the only way to get a decisive.