Matrix Games Forums

Is anyone keen on playing a game that lasts 1 month? With gradual activation of aircraft in air bases.
With simplified ground war.
What's the longest scenario so far?

that would be quite an endeavour to create - could a computer handle it even? would be impressive no doubt and i think if it hasnt been made already, there should be something special offered to anyone who does take up and complete such a challenge

Even if the computer can handle it, there are some problems.
1) Ordinance stores should be quite large, or set to unlimited.
2) Ground units do not replenish ammo so they can't shoot anymore after a few engagements.
3) The air war, no matter how many planes are involved is usually over in a day (or even less).
4) Player fatigue. At most, I play at 1 min time compression as higher ones tend to make it crash. At 1 min, it takes a while to play even a day. Players may not be able to commit a long time for a single scenario.
5) AI missions are not dynamic as they are stuck to doing just one mission. A very long scenario can be quite dynamic so the AI might be doing inappropriate things.

We've updated a number of ships for replenishment/refueling in the coming DB release.

Mike

ORIGINAL: mikmyk

We've updated a number of ships for replenishment/refueling in the coming DB release.

Mike

What about ground units?

I would love a 30+ day scenario!

The Event Editor is your friend. Ordinance(as far as airbases) can be replenished, when those C-130s full of goods from the rear lands at your FOB, teleport a stocked ammo dump, then group it to the base (The orders for the player would need to be clear of course)

Creativity and out-of-the box thinking, with these tools(that are updated/improved frequently). I think the 30+ dayer will get done.

ORIGINAL: Rudd

I would love a 30+ day scenario!

The Event Editor is your friend. Ordinance(as far as airbases) can be replenished, when those C-130s full of goods from the rear lands at your FOB, teleport a stocked ammo dump, then group it to the base (The orders for the player would need to be clear of course)

Creativity and out-of-the box thinking, with these tools(that are updated/improved frequently). I think the 30+ dayer will get done.

And what about the Ai side?

perhaps the game is just simply not designed to do a month long scenario - and surely there would be times of less thrilling activities that the player would prefer to skip. Being that the game only has 30mins set as the fastest speed. What happened in Harpoon were of course scenarios depicting various stages of a campaign. linear of course but thats still pretty good depending on the design.

I think it could be possible to setup repeating events and triggers for the ai that could have various missions switching on and off depending on the situation, however having the ai also knowing to select a different loadout well... until we have quantum computers i think there are inevitable limitations to how many things we can expect a computer to reasonably perform.
The more and more one looks at it the more factors there would be to try and factor in ad infinitum

And imagine the size of the game log generated. I think a 2 day scenario can generate a 60MB file already.

I am working on a 12 day scenario with the idea to force the player to make some choices with an already en route CSG called to use some assets off of Aden, while simultaneously ordered to assist in rescuing some VIPs captured by pirates. The idea is to split off from this, depending on the players choice, with 2 other scenario options of approximate equal time whose forces and objectives will be varied depending upon the player choices of the first. So definitely a lot of work involved, but at the end it would cover around 24 days between 2 scenarios, and with the split possibilities, will actually be created as 36 days worth of playing time [:D] though only 24 will be played.

Yeah that would be good. But my scenario is total air and land war in Germany (WW3) setting. It should be a continuous campaign. So I'll just do 5 days first and see how it goes.

It's sand box type with very little scripting.