Whats Next?
Re: Whats Next?
Hi, I think Chickamauga needs doing as a major battle- that would be fantastic 
Re: Whats Next?
I can't understand why it would not be possible to link AGEOD's Civil War II and SOW
(without the naval battles).
Export the OBB before battle in CWII, perhaps with some adjustments regarding
certain unit attributes, and fight the battle in SOW - perhaps on a random map or a map
for the region (sold by NorbSoft). Reimport the results after the battle into CWII and continue.
(without the naval battles).
Export the OBB before battle in CWII, perhaps with some adjustments regarding
certain unit attributes, and fight the battle in SOW - perhaps on a random map or a map
for the region (sold by NorbSoft). Reimport the results after the battle into CWII and continue.
Re: Whats Next?
@Floyd
It was suggested. I haven't tried CWII, does anyone know if they provide a way to export/import battles, or is the savegame in a human-readable or publicly defined format? If so then that kind of campaign is already possible.
Of course the devil is in the details, everyone wants a "campaign" but everyone has different definitions of exactly how that should work, and it's not really a "campaign" unless it meets their specific definitions. Any campaign game anyone makes is only going to satisfy a small percentage of the people who want a campaign. Think of all of the civil war campaign games that already exist, i.e. AGEOD 1 and 2, forge of freedom, victoria 2 civil war, and others, and imagine if you could fight the battles in SOW. Would that satisfy your needs for a campaign?
It was suggested. I haven't tried CWII, does anyone know if they provide a way to export/import battles, or is the savegame in a human-readable or publicly defined format? If so then that kind of campaign is already possible.
Of course the devil is in the details, everyone wants a "campaign" but everyone has different definitions of exactly how that should work, and it's not really a "campaign" unless it meets their specific definitions. Any campaign game anyone makes is only going to satisfy a small percentage of the people who want a campaign. Think of all of the civil war campaign games that already exist, i.e. AGEOD 1 and 2, forge of freedom, victoria 2 civil war, and others, and imagine if you could fight the battles in SOW. Would that satisfy your needs for a campaign?
Re: Whats Next?
I actually looked into linking ACWII and SOW, and yes it is possible, but the details are devilish. The turn files are human readable and easily parsed. The results of the turn are written to disk, so battle results could be written from SOW into them before the players see their ACWII moves.
There is a complication though - battles can happen at any point over a two week turn - how would you halt the ACW turn calculation at day 2 so you could inject your SOW battle results?
Another difficulty is in mapping ACWII concepts to SOW. ACWII does not deal with numbers of men, but more abstract strengths. You'd have to devise a method to map SOW stats to ACWII stats. While this is quite possible, it would mean you could not mix-n-match battle types (SOW vs ACWII calculated battles) as you would get wildly different results depending on which program ran the battles. While this doesn't sounds bad at first, realize that ACWII has many battle types that cannot be represented in SOW - most notably amphibious, entrenched defense and sieges.
There would have to be some work matching the unit types available in SOW and ACW. This is doable as both are easily moddable.
So, I'm working on a smaller scale project to link SOW maps together and have results carry through from battle to battle. I have a lot of base-line code done and am hoping to release the first part of the toolset this weekend. This will make creating a battle from the results of a previous battle fairly easy.
After that, I hope to have a tool for having a point-to-point operational movement system for moving from map to map. This will be a simple version of point-to-point boardgames like For The People
The object is to model choices about which road to take where and how to split up forces so at to not overload the road system. If that works out, I will add a simple supply and reinforcement system on top.
If this intersects with any work NSD is doing, please let me know.
There is a complication though - battles can happen at any point over a two week turn - how would you halt the ACW turn calculation at day 2 so you could inject your SOW battle results?
Another difficulty is in mapping ACWII concepts to SOW. ACWII does not deal with numbers of men, but more abstract strengths. You'd have to devise a method to map SOW stats to ACWII stats. While this is quite possible, it would mean you could not mix-n-match battle types (SOW vs ACWII calculated battles) as you would get wildly different results depending on which program ran the battles. While this doesn't sounds bad at first, realize that ACWII has many battle types that cannot be represented in SOW - most notably amphibious, entrenched defense and sieges.
There would have to be some work matching the unit types available in SOW and ACW. This is doable as both are easily moddable.
So, I'm working on a smaller scale project to link SOW maps together and have results carry through from battle to battle. I have a lot of base-line code done and am hoping to release the first part of the toolset this weekend. This will make creating a battle from the results of a previous battle fairly easy.
After that, I hope to have a tool for having a point-to-point operational movement system for moving from map to map. This will be a simple version of point-to-point boardgames like For The People
The object is to model choices about which road to take where and how to split up forces so at to not overload the road system. If that works out, I will add a simple supply and reinforcement system on top.
If this intersects with any work NSD is doing, please let me know.
Last edited by pakfront on Tue Dec 03, 2013 4:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Whats Next?
We have no problem with this project. Even if we were working on the same level, it is always valuable to see how someone else comes up with a solution. We built the game to be very moddable and we are glad to see all of the different ways people are taking the base game.If this intersects with any work NSD is doing, please let me know.
Keep up the good work.
-Jim
"My God, if we've not got a cool brain and a big one too, to manage this affair, the nation is ruined forever." Unknown private, 14th Vermont, 2 July 1863
Re: Whats Next?
Here is my 2 cents on the graphics. I am fine with 2D models. I don't really want an upgrade of the engine at all. I want the next game to be more colorful and vibrant. Take Command 2 was colorful and vibrant. SoW has a much more "dull" feel to it. This including everything from the choice of colors, to brightness, to the starting game menu, to the command bar. TC2M also felt more responsive to the player than SoW does, which feels clunkier.
Side by side:
Just my take, not hating on SoW, just a style choice.
Side by side:
Just my take, not hating on SoW, just a style choice.
CWGII -> SMG -> SMA -> WNLB -> ANGV -> TC -> TC2M -> SOW
Re: Whats Next?
Also, a small but important feature could be added. When you click to move a unit, make it so that if you hold the mouse down you can rotate and choose the direction for facing. Rather than having to click the wheel button numerous times.
CWGII -> SMG -> SMA -> WNLB -> ANGV -> TC -> TC2M -> SOW
Re: Whats Next?
Anyone who is interested in 'what's next?' - tune in here this evening at 9pm EST!
http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/nsd-ne ... cast#61093
http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/nsd-ne ... cast#61093