Computers, the Final Solution?

Wizardry Screenshot

My issue of "Wargames! Presenting all aspects of this exciting hobby" magazine (1985) is full of gems of articles and titles. For example, the final (unattributed) article is entitled, 'Computers, the final solution?'

The article doesn't really make clear what the problem is, but spends a good two pages covering the usage of computers in gamingland circa mid eighties (with competition between Atari and BBC at the upper end of the author's perception of the market). I assume Asquith wrote the piece, as he was the editor at the time. If so, it makes an interesting development on his ideas put forth in the opening piece, 'Computer Wargaming ... is easy?'

The author in 'Final solution' surveys the field of 'wargamers' as we then were; tabletop players, board gamers, role players*. In brief, the author doesn't think that tabletop wargamers will have much need for the computer and that it won't affect them much in what they do. For the boardgamer, the limited range of quality product at the time seems the main concern. So, jury still out on whether computers will solve all their gaming needs.

For roleplayers, the author first looks at the range of classic dungeon crawl games that were around. I personally remember two of these, Zork (text based) and Wizardry. For the record, I never got the chance to get any further than frustrated with either of these games. All a bit lonely, however, on one's own.

This is where the author makes their most interesting and final comment, announcing that Ultima III, which allowed for group play on networked computers, was the reason that computers indeed were the final solution for our ultimate gaming needs.

Which is kinda comforting to know.

*Note the absence of the dedicated 'computer gamer', one who's gaming existence is defined by the computer itself.

Computer wargaming ... is easy?

Tandy TRS 80

The title of this post was the title of an article by Stuart Asquith in "Wargaming: presenting all aspects of the Hobby" (1985). At the time he wrote that article we'd moved past the kit built TRS-80 (illustrated above) and into the age of BBC, Commodore 64, Apple 2e and the early IBM PC's. Asquith saw the main role of computers as an adjunct to tabletop gaming rule mathematics, spent a lot of time putting his rules into BASIC code, thought there was a role for computers in this aspect of the hobby. He was pretty excited at the prospect of being able to link computers together to hundreds of "K's" of processing power and looked forward to the future.

It is particularly heartening to note that one of his group's first two projects was to 'computerise' their Spanish Civil War rules (a point which I missed at the time). Good to see that SCW and interwar period gamers were at the front of the wave, even in 1985!

Needless to say, I report the above after finding a copy of said magazine in my 'archive' of the era. Lots of other goodies also, including a 1980 'Breakout' magazine "Dedicated to the future of gaming with computers". I'll read and report when I find the thing again (as I already filed it away in a fit of organisedness).

When that was published, we were building our first PC's at school instead of going to sports (true geekness). Hence the picture of the TRS 80. It had an onboard memory of 4Kb and used a audio-tape and tape deck for data storage. You had to program your own game for it. I was very proud the following year when 'taught' the computer to 'teach itself' how to play noughts and crosses (tic tac toe).

Ah, memories...

Learning Curves

As someone who came relatively late in life to console gaming, my first major disadvantage when competing with anyone under thirty is their seemingly innate symbiosis with the controller (above), though after a hundred races I am becoming more familiar with its subtleties. I am, however, more familiar and thus more comfortable with something like this...

Of course, lack of comfort with the 'controller' is not the only form of disadvantage one faces as a dinosaur with a new toy, although it is rather obvious when one first plays a game which one first played in a PC version (eg. Call of Duty Blackops - biggest budgeted and biggest selling (PS3) game - or Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - about which I have previously written a bit). I've even tried out the latest iteration of my favorite IL2 flight simulater - Birds of Prey (a subject post in itself). For now, suffice to say that I find the keyboard is my preferred, though the console is more convenient (don't need an encyclopediaic knowledge of Alt QWERTY to master it), means of doing stuff in an action game.

Which all means that, when combined with youth's natural neurological advantage in picking up things quickly and reacting to new surroundings faster, not to mention better reflexes and hand/eye coordination, we older gamers are thrown back on those old staples, rat cunning and persistence.

All in good fun, of course.

Holiday Gaming - online GRAW, EF, RK

Over the past two weeks I've dabbled a bit in online media for gaming. Surprise surprise.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - classic shoot 'em up for the thinking player. Have had it for a year or so and played single player on desktop, not the best at it (still haven't finished the programmed scenarios). High tension game, however, big maps and difficult scenarios with good sound and graphics. Here is the link to a user video on youtube which shows someone playing through the mission I have gotten stalled on (in the mass fire fight at the end). This dude makes it look easy.

Anyway, after maybe a year of having the game I finally 'patched' the game with the official patch and had a look at the multiplayer function. There seems to always be a dozen or more games going on online at any time, most of them being cooperative games on usergenerated missions. It's a game of small interlocking fire teams and rests a lot on observation and tactical movement. Good fun. Also of some interest is that one can make one's own machine act as a server. This is especially useful here in Australia considering the usually high 'ping' penalty we pay for living here (most game servers being on the other side of the planet).

East Front II - continue into turn 3 of the 1941 scenario of what looks like a russion cavalry brigade and tank regiment attacking a string of isolated german company's at a number of crossroads etc. The russian tanks appear poised to 'overrun' in the next turn.

Renaissance Kingdoms - Since I last wrote of this here I have done a stint as Field Marshal of the Royal Scottish Army, backing on to a term of about two months as Deputised Field Marshal while my predecessor underwent court martial procedures. My own time as Field Marshal was marked by a Court Martial of none other than my ingame wife, with me having to determine penalty once the Military Council had determined guilt. My penalty managed to upset nearly everyone to some degree for some reason. That was before Christmas. After Christmas I faced a vote of no confidence amongst the army as a result of the High Command being mighty upset at what they saw as the leniency of the penalty I had handed down in the court martial.

The no confidence vote was taken in each of the three regiments, the officer corps and the high command. These five results were tallied, equally weighted, and I ended up losing my job by one vote. The High Command voted against me and the officers did, but galloway and glasgow regiments supported me. There was only one vote cast in Ayr Regiment and it was against me and effectively determined the whole show. Ironically, this voter made clear that he thought the decision was fair and just but that I shouldn't have been the one to make it due my relation to the accused. I won the majority of the votes but lost in the tactics of it over the xmas new year break. So my character gets to live a normal life again after over a year as general of a regiment and then effectively as a warrior lawyer in the military courts as field marshal.

An unexpected turn indeed.

Medieval Total War II

I recently picked up the almost latest in the Total War series of comp games. Having missed the initial 'Samurai', loved the original 'Medieval', played 'Rome' for many hours, I was keen to finally pick this copy up. I had to wait until they released the latest 'Empire' game for the price to drop. But it finally did, so I did.

It's quite like Rome Total War in its gameplay, albeit with DVD quality battle scenes etc. Haven't played it enough to get a grip on whether the ingame action has improved or not.

I have only the 'basic' version of Medieval II with none of the expansions included in the 'Gold Edition'. Thus, I only get the 'short' or 'Long' campaign options for each of the five basic nations - England, France, 'Germany', Venice and Spain. I am hoping that the options open up like they did in Rome once one has successfully completed a short campaign.

Both short and long games start in 1080 ad. For my first attempt i am playing the Holy Roman Empire (Germany). Hopefully that will let me have some teutonic knights and some Knights Hospitilar to play with in time.

More on it as I get the hang of it.

Dark and Moody Online Dice Roller

As part of my job as Steward of Scotland in RK it became necessary to use an online dice roller that was simple to use and provided accessible time stamped results that are publicly viewable. I needed it for the selection of Scotland's first Grand Jury from a number of volunteers for this important work. It was very important that the process be transparent, nothing worse than a bunch of suspicious scots with an axe to grind, so I thought I'd remove the most likely source of their suspicions.

After calling for volunteers, we needed to cut down the number to the eighteen that were needed, and then to allocate them to either the Grand Jury per se or one of its two alternatives. Doing it by random lot seemed to be the way to go.

After looking at several sites, I settled on using this one.

The Dark and Moody site also seems to be the home of traditional RPGs translated into an online environment, and bears checking out for that alone. I particularly like the fact that there are Call of Cthulhu games going on here, that being my favoritist ever game system and amongst my favoritists games to play.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter

I was passing through Gametraders (2nd hand computer game chain store) the other week when came across the next gen of the Ghost Recon first person shooter game stable. It was only $20 so I got it. I have enjoyed Ghost Recon since it first came out (way back early this decade). I've previously picked up the two expansions of the original GR. I haven't competed them, however, as other games took my time up in the meantime. I knew that this Advance Warfighter was out there, but had never seen it before.

Needless to say, I was quite looking forward to having a look.

Love it. Same old scenario based style of play from the original game, with each scenario having various sub objectives as you work your way through it. The first introductory mission is set in Guatemala City, a dense urban environment with nests of rebel snipers and sentries keeping the streets unsafe as you collect your scattered team and then try and complete your mission.

Very tense most of the time, great soundtrack. Your team is composed of three other soldiers which you can command through your HUD (Head Up Display) gear, much like the real thing in the digital battlespace of the 21st century.

I still haven't completed the first mission after over 10 hours of playing. Great Fun.

And more games

I visited the 'Hi Tech' fair at Wayville showgrounds last weekend. It was like it was hidden away in the back room of the shed of the 'Home Improvement Show' which dominated all the pavilions. But we eventually found Geek Corner. In Geek Corner was a big table with lots of greatly reduced comp games (ie $5 each). I couldn't help myself and got four games Diplomacy (after the board game), Panzers (Platinum - real time C&C type interface, WWII armour tactical), Merchant Prince II (Trading and discovery turn based strategy game of renaissance treachery and patronage) and Great Invasions (RTS mega game of dark ages 350 - 1066, military economic diplomatic and religious).

The last one has really sucked me in over the past week. The online reviews aren't very complimentary to it's understandibility or its documentation. The criticism is well justified. But the game appears well worth the effort to learn. I hope to pop up a brief review of the game in near future.

Renaissance Kingdoms continues to thrive by the way, have recently gone on an ingame tour of the scottish counties with a bunch of MacTavish kinfolk. Has been a great gaming and social experience. More on this also, soon.

I hope.

Review - John Tiller's Campaign Series

I recently posted this comment on a review for John Tiller's Campaign Series over at Gamersinfo.net, a bit cheeky considering I haven't yet seen a copy. Haven't been able to source a legitimate copy in Australia I'm now debating whether to a apply a crack to the copy I've found or, for the first time, pay good cyber dollars for a game. There'd normally not be an issue here (with my ethic of internet=free) but I, and I think so many other ubergeeks, who have enjoyed the game since it first came out as East Front in the early nineties feel some kind of moral obligation to reward the folk who have ensured we can continue playing long after XP is becoming a memory (East Front etc don't play on Vista).

Online AAA

As I said in my last post, I have found an online server for us Axis and Allies players. Since writing that post I have had a chance to check it out in more detail. I like it.

Have played the Axis forces in a game against the AI. It is supposedly 'low' in its intelligence, but is still giving me a run for my money. I won't bore you with a rundown of the game I am playing except to say that I can see perhaps more clearly the vital roles of the Atlantic and Chinese theatres of the war, often obscured by more obvious aspects of the war in most treatments of the subject.

If you already like the game, you'll probably like online AAA. If not, and if you can lay your hands upon a set of rules to make sense of the game engine, it's worth having a sus.

And if you really like your wargames in realtime and on this scale, perhaps check out Hearts of Iron.

Remember Zork? Then look at this!

Zork was one of the first computer 'adventure games'. It was text based, with simple geometric graphics of landscape (if my memory serves me right, though that might have been another game called 'Adventure'). It was played on the old green screen CRT. A combination of mapping issues, tricks, puzzles, riddles and such like problems, it was great fun and highly addictive.

It looks like it has generated a minor academic history (as I guess does the early days of personal computing generally). Here, for example, is a recent accademic paper on it. It's a guide to caves upon which the game's map was based. I haven't read it all, but the pictures are amazing!

Thanks to Yehuda for the link.

Australian Skies

I have just flown on the 'Australian Skies' server, between 16 and 18 planes flying almost full real version of '46. I flew two sorties in about an hour. Got shot down both times, without causing any damage to either air or ground targets of which I'm aware. Flew P-40C Kittyhawk, generally against Ki43a ('Tony'(?)). At various times I got guns on target in the air, and managed to drop a bomb on an (empty) airfield.

Most of my fellow pilots, on both sides, were australians. They were all quite serious, however, there being none of the usual banter I so enjoy. Perhaps that's because there were so few americans (like, one)? It's funny, as I'd just been telling my wife how my countrymen seem to shoot you down as soon as look at you, no matter what your skill level, while those from other nations will be more willing to offer a bit of advice before the coup de grace. Then, I hop on this server for the first time and notice that 'vulching' (strafing planes on or near the ground) is expressly permitted on this server - it is banned on most others. Mercy is discouraged on this server.

To make up for this, though, it is a fun server because it leaves you to try and construct missions within the parameters of the server's scenario - with achievable victory conditions for both axis and allied. When either side reaches its victory condition, the server reboots with another map and mission. The two scenarios I saw appeared to be fairly historical and intelligently put together.

My only gripe wasn't against the server or the pilots I flew with and against (many of whom belong to the Wedge Tailed Eagles online squadron). Rather, it was against the pilot 609_Jericho, he was a 'friendly' who shot at me as I went to bomb enemy airfield and then proceeded to hunt me down. I noticed that his kill previously had also been against a 'team mate'. This is very fustrating. A server message encourages to report 'team killers' to the server. I am waiting to receive my registration, and will report this player when I do so. Hope he gets banned.

Cruel server indeed...

IL 46 Arrives!

While I flew to Melbourne for a few days at the start of my week and a half holiday from work, my darling wife went and got me a copy of Il 46. How absolutely lucky am I to have a wife like her!

I've loaded the single DVD disk, patched it with the one required patch, glanced at the huge range of planes I can now fly over the incredibly varied landscapes available (basically, all of WWII and more). I will shortly go onto one of the big mashup online dogfights which seem to occur 24/7 over at Hyperlobby (under the 'Forgotten Battles' game listing).

If you're wandering, IL46 is a combination of my beloved Pacific Fighters game with those that preceded it together with their expansions. In other words, a WWII flightsim paradise!

4th PF Mission

I have developed a fourth mission in my PF Milne Bay Campaign - Aug 11 - three flights of kittyhawks scramble to head off incoming squadron of zeros and several Kate bombers.

This one took awhile to create. The allied airfields are becoming increasingly populated with tents, buildings and equipment and there is now a chain of radar stations along the the north coast. But, although it took awhile to do this, the bulk of my time was spent sorting out the actual planes.

I was basing it on actual events, when 12 zeros came in and were met by about 22 kittyhawks. I found if I organised it that way it was way too easy for the allies to knock down all the zeros. So I cut back the number of Kittyhawks. Now, the player's side is more likely to lose than win unless rapid and effective action is taken against the first flight of zeros, barrelling in on the airfields with their little 60 kg bombs.

Initially I had problems with the zeros dropping their load over the ocean and engaging the allied planes in a massive furball dogfight. That still happens with flights 2 and 3 of the zero, but I have made the lead flight come through low and early so that it won't react to the player's flight unless the player squarely locates and attacks them first.

I added the bombers, coming in 20 min after the zeros are scheduled, so that just when you think it's over there's another serious threat.

3 PF Missions

I have been busy today. I somehow managed to find time to do a few things around the house while I rectified my first two Pacific Fighters scenarios (to make them 'historical', though the RNZAF Buffalo in the July 24 Mission is a flight of Anzac wargaming fancy). I also wrote a third mission, based upon the first air raid experienced on Gurney Field in the campaign (Aug 4). By the next scenario (Aug 7), radar will be operational - allowing a 20 v 12 P40 v Zero dogfight. It will be interesting to see how far I can push the amazing Full Mission Builder within the game engine.

Here's a flavour of what I've done so far:

July 24, 1942. Dusk. Brewster Buffalo scrambles from Gurney Field to catch high flying 'Emily' Recce plane.
July 26, 1600 hours. 2 P40 Kittyhawks head off to ambush 'Emily' over northern islands. Prowling Zeros.
Aug 4, 1630 hours. Patrol of Kittyhawks diverted to protect Gurney from raiding 'Val' divebomber plus zeros.

Milne Bay Campaign Update

I have now completed creating the second scenario in my series of Pacific Fighters missions set over Milne Bay (New Guinea) in 1942. In this mission the idea is to scramble in a Brewster Buffalo at dusk and try to catch a nosey high flying Japanese recce plane. Not easy to do without getting one's engine (at least) shot out. I have managed to do it, but had to crash land in a clearing in the jungle to survive.

Upon reading the chapter on the battle in the Official History (WARNING - 2 MB download here if you click) of the campaign I realise I've got a few of the details wrong, but am tempted to keep on going as the next few missions will merge with the reality of the actual campaign from about the next mission (that which I have just completed is a 'prelude'). From here on in, my pilots will fly Kittyhawks.

It takes quite a while to create a mission, and even longer to test it out (flying it a number of times on 'auto' to see that the parameters work, and then doing it manually to get the 'feel' of it).

Immersing myself as I have over recent months inbooks about flying, airwarfare and new guinea jungle warfare I am amazed at what those men (generally) went through.

Flight Update

Well. I've created the first mission of what will one day become my Milne Bay campaign. This mission combines an interception of Jap recce plane, and if the timing is right a dogfight with some raiding zeros over home airfield. I have flown it and managed to shoot down all three zeros (2 rookie, 1 veteran), followed by the inevitable crash landing on my own runway in the late afternoon. My flight leader took out the Recce plane. Good fun and engrossing.

Next mission will be a scramble to engage a raiding divebomber and its escort in the dusk. The one after that will be a search for, and the one after the bombing of, troop transports with invasion force bound for coast north of Milne Bay. After that, I'll be into the campaign proper as it has become known. All these scenarios are based upon air engagements by RAAF 75 and 76 squadrons.

My online experience has tailed off a bit at present - I was taking too many hits and not getting any of my own on target and even my generally robust ego was taking a battering as a result. I still pop on for an hour or two every few nights though, and my flying is improving.

Was nice to hear from you Linus, we have met online and I am Xenophonic.

Flight Update & Cricket Celebration

In the last 10 days I've probably flown nearly 20 hours. Nil kills (though have had guns on target several times). I have crashed far more often than I've been shot down, probably averaging 3 to 5 sorties per session. I have been flying P40 Ms. Now that Norwegian has gone from the PF lobby in Hyperlobby, almost all of these online jousting sessions have been over Hawaii (though last night flew over the Marianas for the first time). I have noticed a bit more 'vulching' recently - when 'vulchers' prey on planes taking off and landing (ie when least powerful and most vulnerable).

I have put maybe 10 hours into learning a bit about the Full Mission Builder, using the site linked in the sidebar. I am building small missions over Milne Bay, losely basing them on the historical experience of RAAF squadrons 75 and 76, flying Kittyhawks against Zeros and Vals, lots of ground and naval attacks. Milne Bay was the first time the Japanese were comprehensively beaten on land in WWII. It tends to be a bit overshadowed by the Kokoda legend. But that's another tale...

Have had a go trying to use the game to play online direct with Wayne. Not any luck, the client computer in the setup keeps 'timing out' instead of connecting. The computers are recognising each other, however, so I have tweaked a couple settings and maybe we'll have a bit more luck when we (hopefully) try again over the weekend.

Oh yeah - while talking about games I should say YIPEE for the Aussies winning the World Cup cricket (for the third consecutive time). And this after taking a clean sweep of the ashes test series against England over summer (first time in 80 years)! That is one awesome team, and as they retire one by one (Langer, Warne, McGrath, and the guy that just walked out saying he'd had enough after the first test [Damien Martin]) one gets the feeling it is the end of an era. Well done lads!

PF Milestones - Online and Otherwise

I haven't got long to post here, so will limit it to highlights for the last 24 hours (isn't it cool when your gaming sublife develops at such a rate that such a short space of time is significant). Of course it relates again to Pacific Fighters (albeit, played Munchkins last night).

Firstly, I managed to land my plane on its wheels on the runway without causing damage. This was a milestone! I haven't repeated the exploit in the five or so missions I've flown since, but have at least got to the runway and almost into position before either crash landing or crashing. Problem seems to be coming in either too high or too fast.

Second, although I was shot down in dogfights last night, I was at least putting up a semblance of a show consistently, and was no easy mark to take down. Again, one of my assassins said after doing the deed that I'd really put him through the works before he could get me. A bit of a complement as this guy also is a top rated ace. I also got shots on target last night a couple of times, alas not enough to score a kill. Have also added a bit to my bombing tally on Norwegian server, putting me into the top 20 bomber pilots by result.

Finally, I went hunting and found a guide to the Full Mission Builder component of Pacific Fighters. Not only that, I have used it to construct a mission designed for landing training. The potential that this Mission Builder has to expand the game experience - allowing everything from single training missions to full on online co-op campaigns is awesome!

I have put a link to the Mission Builder tutorials on the sidebar of this blog.

Back to work tomorrow...

PF Online Sessions 17 - 20

In the last couple days have put in four very solid sessions of Pacific Fighters.

Session 17 - Sunday Morning - flew a couple hours on Norwegian Server, great map of small part of Gilbert Islands (?) in late war. Flew several missions with bomb loaded Mustangs. No significant damage to japs. Believe I crashed twice, after getting out of two dogfights to save my even newbier colleague.

Session 18 - Sunday Night - flew Norwegian again. This map, over Hawaii and dogfighting most of the way. No real shots off, shot down several times. Again, Mustang.

Session 19 - Monday Arvo - flew Norwegian. Hawaii. Night time. P40 M. Several bombing runs through empty skies. Destroyed several planes on the ground. Crash landed on all but last mission, when ambushed and shot down. Never saw it coming.

Session 20 - Monday Night - (a) Phoenix server. Hawaii. Gnarly dogfights on low difficulty. Wayne was online also. Good fun. Neither of us shot the other down. I got a couple opponents, but in each instance shot down before could claim kills. (b) Maddog server. Hawaii. Very gnarly dogfight on almost full difficulty. Again, put shots on target several times but got taken out myself before landing attempt possible. Mainly P40M. Brutal game.

Norwegian server keeps its stats sheets online, which is really interesting to review. I've flown about 8 and a half hours on it so far.