Link for the ANZAC Project Diary

[Pyros]

Greetings,

As the first part of the project is almost ready, several historical details about the various chapters of the campaign have been recently included in the project Diary.

But most importantly, there has been just added the gameplay element of the innovating campaign mechanism.

Read about the "Dual Adjustable Difficulty Campaign Mechanism"

by clicking the following link:

ANZAC Project Diary

cheers,
Pyros

[PatG]

Nice work. I was wondering why a Spartiate was so interested in Anzacs.

[Pyros]

Thank you PatG,

You also used the correct term for "Spartiate" (and not Spartan, as many use to say).

Basically for the biggest part of the war, the Spartiates were fighting along with the ANZACs in many battlefields, like for example mainland Greece, the Greek island of Crete, the North Africa campaign (the battle of El Alamein) and the Italian campaign (Rimini).

So for me it wasn't so hard to find resources concerning those battles.

But, my advice for anyone who wishes to make (or participate in) a project like this one is to:

A. Have a passion for military history.
B. Make a very good research before starting the design of a specific historical battle.

Sometimes it is much better to design a fictional (or semi-historical) battle, than to simply design a battle and then to put the label of a historical battle on it.

A historical battle is something extremely hard to re-create because the designer must take into consideration historical facts that determined the outcome of that battle (even the smaller detail may seal the fate of a battle).

So a historical battle should always be quite accurate concerning the following designing elements:

1. Map scale,

2. Mountain (rough & impassable) and swamp allocation of terrain,

3. Accurate road network with distinction between paved, dirt and trail roads,

4. Historical proportions of forces (an accurate representation of the quantity and quality of the TO&Es),

5. Accurate representation of the tactics, the support assets and the activation of the various units.


Btw, one of the most satisfying moments of a designer is when the historical scenario "behaves" like it should be.

Believe me, during the last couple of months I have read several emails from some very brave BETA testers that are reporting desperate situations... and scenes of total annihilation...LOL

But this is how things really happened during some of these battles, and therefor the player should learn that this is not a campaign where everyone may win easily by killing all AI units, in the contrary sometimes the player will have to struggle in order to keep his core force intact.

cheers,
Pyros

[PDF]

Pyros,
Your maps and scenarios are outstanding, kudos !
How much time do tou spend on a map such as Corinth (research+design proper) ? I fear it's *huge* !

And BTW I thought "Spartiate" was not used in English, but only "Spartan"... Do both exist and what's the difference ? In French we say "Spartiates" only

[Pyros]

Merci PDF,

The designing of a map is divided in several stages:

1. for Research 6 - 24 hours , which is cumulative for all elements of scenario designing (like deployment positions, TO&ES, support assets, tactical maneuvers etc...)

2. for digitizing the visual aids 1-2 hours,

3. for designing the Basic Topographic elevations 6 - 12 hours

4. for designing the important map elements (like Rough+Slope terrain, Impassable terrain, road network, capital houses with elevation etc...) 4 - 8 hours

5. for designing the decorative map elements 2 - 3 hours

6. for making the tactical and LOS corrections (during deployment phase) 1 - 3 hours

So the total would be something like 6 - 24 hours for researching phase and 14 - 28 hours for the designing phase

But this also depends on the accuracy the designer wishes to give to the map.
For example a 75 % topo/map accuracy will require only the 25% of needed time for a 95% topo/map accuracy.


Concerning the "Spartiate" vs "Spartan" here is everything you need to know:

In ancient Greece there were spoken several dialects.
In Athens they spoke the Attiki dialect and in Sparta the Doriki dialect.

In modern Greek we use the words "Sparti" for the town and "Spartiatis" for the citizen of "Sparti".

In the ancient "Attiki" dialect they used the word "Sparti" for the town and "Lakedemon" (earlier) or "Spartiatis" (later) for the citizen of "Sparti".

In the ancient "Doriki" dialect they used the word "Sparta" for the city and "Lakedemon" for the the citizen of "Sparta".

So, for the English language to use the word "Sparta" is like they have translated the "Doriki" dialect name "Sparta", which is fine with me...

But to use the word "Spartan" for defining the citizen of "Sparta" is not acceptable (at least for me).
It would be much better to translate this word as "Spartian" instead of "Spartan".

The French language is more correct in using the word "Spartiate", as it is much closer to the original Spartiatis (-tes pl.) Greek word.

cheers,
Pyros

[PDF]

Thanks Pyros for the Greek course also ! Now I know where does Lacedemon/ians come from !
BTW any ETA on the campaign release ?

[Pyros]

Hi PDF,

Around the 29th of July.

But it is a race against time, because I strongly wish to release the first part of the campaign before the end of July (August vacations).

For this reason over half a dozen of scenario tester are working toward this direction and the nerves of these people are hitting the red levels!!!

The campaign is definitely a highly complicated and advanced difficulty campaign and those brave scenario testers (without yet the help of any scenario text description) are walking to the edges of the impossible, unplayable and unpleasant, while trying to figure out how to stay alive from the advanced AI tactics.

But since the campaign is using a dual adjustable difficulty mechanism this is something that unfortunately needs to be done.

For all the above reasons, I will make a historical comment concerning the effort of these brave scenario-testers:

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon44.gif[/img] "Never, in the history of the Steel Panther game, so few people have suffered so much in order to help their fellow-gamers to overcome the imminent struggle for survival that awaits them once they start to play the ANZAC campaign... "

cheers,
Pyros

[PDF]

Huh, it will be *that* hard ? Scary ! :

[Sgt_Walrus]

Hello PDF

The answer to your question is.....YES!!!!!

I had to stop testing the other night before I smashed my screen in frustration at losing crucial core units....however, the moment I have free time, I will SMASH the enemy, or at least hide my units better :-)

Pyros is a legend.

This is beyond anything I have delt with in years of SPww2 playing. It is the closest to playing against a human, without playing against a human. The days of a walkover against the AI are over...he he...and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

Respect
SGT

[Pyros]

Sgt_Walrus said:
Hello PDF

The answer to your question is.....YES!!!!!

I had to stop testing the other night before I smashed my screen in frustration at losing crucial core units....however, the moment I have free time, I will SMASH the enemy, or at least hide my units better :-)

Pyros is a legend.

This is beyond anything I have delt with in years of SPww2 playing. It is the closest to playing against a human, without playing against a human. The days of a walkover against the AI are over...he he...and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

Respect
SGT

Jason,

If it wasn't for all of you (very talented scenario testers) and for your determination, dedication and your crucial suggestions then nothing of what exists today would be possible.

The creation of a scenario is an interactive activity and the designer gets a lot of his inspiration and motivation from his relationship with the scenario-testers.

I think that we have all learned a couple of new things by doing this painful process (like for example...never again volunteer to test any of Pyro's scenarios...LOL)


cheers,
Pyros

p.s My only request from all the scenario-testers (which BTW are also proven scenario designers) is to try and design (even a single one) scenario for the next update of the ANZAC campaign (sometime after September).
I swear that I will do my best as a scenario-tester!