News on the ONLINE CAMPAIGN GAME

[Erado San]

Hi guys,

Just a quick update on the status of the Campaign Game.

I have been working on the draft set of rules, and it's looking good. I have to finalize a few issues tomorrow. By the end of tuesday, I will have the draft set of rules ready. There will still be some issues left that we need to decide on, but I think I can present some options that will allow for a very entertaining Clan Campaign War.

Just for convenience sake, I think we'll have to forget the ideas about stationary Ronin. I'd much rather have the people who don't belong to a clan grouped together in one or two groups, who'll act as a clan in the game.

As far as economics and armies go, I can also program this to work with more or less the same economics as in the game itself. A lot of the stuff I have been doing for my own campaign ideas fits in nicely with the ideas presented in the previous thread. This will not cause a major delay. Armies would then be represented by the actual units that are there, instead of the koku values they represent, which would mean that a battle must then be fought with the exact units that are in the army. Further more, the normal build and train rules would be used. I will present this idea in more detail tomorrow, and then you can simply choose what you would like.

The whole thing will be web based, with java applets to run the stuff.

Player management is still the biggest problem, and there will be some options to be decided on to minimize the problems.

I think I can have a working version ready within 3 weeks, and start a playtesting session on kyushu with about 10 players. Then we'll know whether it works smoothly enough, or that we need to tune it on certain aspects (I expect some problems will crop up).

With player management being a big issue, I think we can only have recognized clans in the campaign, that is, clans and players that are known to be reliable and that you can depend upon to be online when they need to be, because you'll definitely have to be online at least 3 times a week:


To make your moves in the moving phase.
To find out if you have to do battle after all the moves have been processed.
To fight the battle(s) you got yourself in to.
To feed the result of the battle you have fought in to the campaign databases.
[/list]

If too many players/clans join that can not guarantee they will be online, the whole thing just might collapse.

Some time next week all recognized clans will be approached to find out if they're interested and we can get a clear picture on how many people will be in the game.

Enjoy!

[Rob]

Great news Erado San!

I can barely wait! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

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AkaiRob Hojo
Honour to Clan Akai Ken

[Link(Micke)San]

Hi Erdo!!
Same here cant wait.....Chain Clan will be there.

Ps. if you need any more betaplayer i will give my time at your service!.Ds.

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May the honour be with you all....
-LinkSan

[leoknite]

kool, got a question will RA be a clan or ronin, or what?

[The Black Ship]

Well I'm sure I speak for Fearful Ways when I say....we can't wait either!!!!!

Leo,

What do you want to be listed as? You guys are pretty well organized, I think you could go either way. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

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Niger Navis Navis Sesquiculus ShipOfFear

[Methabaron]

Quote Originally posted by Erado San:
Just for convenience sake, I think we'll have to forget the ideas about stationary Ronin. I'd much rather have the people who don't belong to a clan grouped together in one or two groups, who'll act as a clan in the game.[/QUOTE]

I specially like that part since I am in no clan !!!

Great News and Good Job Erado.

Metha



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"It is astonishing with how little wisdom mankind can be governed, when that little wisdom is its own."

[Erado San]

Leo,

Count RA in as the 'Definitely Not a Clan' Clan.

[Shiro]

If I understand correctly, no individual people get to play, they must be part of a clan. Is that correct? If so, some people (such as me) lose out. I haven't played online due to the fact that I'm much more interested in the stratagy section of the game.
-Shiro

[This message has been edited by Shiro (edited 12-06-2000).]

[leoknite]

so wait a minute which do we go as a clan or a ronin in a group o crap its so confusing, ahhh my head o the pain erado u confusin me.

[Erado San]

First:

The Unofficial working title of this effort is Clan Wars.

Leo,

Poor guy... Let me explain:

RA is a group of layers which don't belong to a clan, and have formed an alliance. So you're a group of people, right? That group of players will represent a faction (avoiding the word CLAN here) in the Clan Wars Campaign. So, RA gets the same as the clans: starting provinces, starting armies, starting koku. In the Campaign, your faction is called what you want. Call them the hoochie coochie men if you like...

Shiro,

No doubt individual players that don't belong to a clan want to join as well. My suggestion is, to have individual players join, but group them in factions. Say, if 20 individual players join, they will be grouped in say 2 factions. Then the same applies as mentioned in my response to Leo. How we will group them, I don't know yet.

I did promise to explain more yesterday, but it was mayhem at the office, so that will have to wait until perhaps late today or tomorrow.

[Shiro]

Sounds good to be! I like it! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
-Shiro

[Towashima Masakaido]

At last the dream I have fought for so long will be realized

well done guys.

[leoknite]

lets take all ronin, and shoot em to the moon, whoever does'nt splat is in one group, whoever does is another, works well eh! Ok Ok I'm 15 I have to say something stupid every 5 minutes!

[Magyar Khan]

i will have a group of players, and i hope to enlist some old veterans who didnt play the game for a long time....

[Avenging Warrior]

Great news Erado, you're a god!
The Red Samurai Guild is currently re-organizing, we'll be there.

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Life has no meaning. Do not concern yourself with it.

Superb Erado !!

Clan Kenchikuka will be there.

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Honour to Clan Kenchikuka.

Visit my resource centre at:
http://terazawa_tokugawa.tripod.com/terazawatokugawa

[This message has been edited by Terazawa Tokugawa (edited 12-07-2000).]

[Erado San]

Hi Guys,

I just added the first part of the Rules to my site.

Go there (link in my signature) and click on 'Clan Wars'.

The rest of the rules will be added over the weekend. But from this first part most of you will be able to see what will be in it.

Enjoy it.

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Need my help? Visit Erado San's Shogun Tech Dojo (http://members.tripod.lycos.nl/Erado/)

[Rob]

Nice work Erado-San!

These rules offer the best possibility yet of an enjoyable campaign game.

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AkaiRob Hojo
Honour to Clan Akai Ken

[Zen Blade]

LETTER FROM ZEN BLADE

"I'm waiting here, on Kyushu, for you guys... I don't see anyone yet, so guess I get first dibs on land... I want the river province.

[takes out book and starts talking to himself] Now, how do I want to go about building my castle.... hmmmm... Ineteresting, I definitely don't want to make it out of straw....

-Zen Blade"

btw, for the playtest, how are we going to do koku/provinces? It isn't exactly the most fertile of lands...
did you have in mind a general increase in land values by let's say a factor or 5 or something?

keep up the good work

-Zen Blade

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Zen Blade Asai
Red Devil
Last of the RSG

[leoknite]

when magy said old veterans, probably one of em is seb4969 if I'm correct we screwed hahaha!

[Zen Blade]

but that's good news!

kahn,

one other idea that my be good to test out early on is the idea of being able to train troops already in existance...
i.e. being able to raise their honor by one per season by paying the money needed to up the unit's honor level.
The basic idea would be that if a unit were training in a season, it could not be used to go fight a battle that season, but at the end of the season, when training is done it would be ready to fight again.
I think this would be a good element to add to the game... it wouldn't necessarily have to replace the "famous" upgrades of buildings, but would allow armies to improve themselves without having to increase numbers.

-Zen Blade

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Zen Blade Asai
Red Devil
Last of the RSG

[Magyar Khan]

i think starting with a simple and flexible campaign would be the best option, then later see what is the best playable and fun feature to add,.

[Ieyasu]

This is wonderful news! What a great new dimension to online play. I hope it all works great, Eradosan.

Once a schedule is worked out on play... I sure would like to try and be in on the fun.

Cheers.

[Zen Blade]

how are things going Erado???
any updates?

-Zen Blade

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Zen Blade Asai
Red Devil
Last of the RSG

[Erado San]

Now that you mention it, Zen....

Have started working on the java applets. It now loads the map and draws the borders correctly (So when a province changes of owner I will not have to produce a new map with new borders, the applet updates the color accordingly). Buttons for move, build train etc are in place. Will start working on the routines behind them soon.

There will be an option in the applet to maintain your units after a battle. First it juggles all units of equal troop type into one pool, creates as many full units (60 troops per unit) as possible, and then the player has a choice to make for the remainder:
1 - Disband the remainder, and add 75% of its koku value to his account
2 - Pay koku to restore the remaining unit to full size

BTW, there may also be a disband option in the game for units you no longer need. you will then also get 75% of its koku value in return.

In the koku values mentioned here I will take the honor level of the unit into account (of course).

Later today or some time tomorrow there will be an update to the rules section on my site. Some rules will be revised and some more will be added.

[ShadowKill]

Just like the commercial for Direct TV say's
"I love you man" http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

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Fear not the sword to your front, but the blade at your back.

http://www.geocities.com/peacekeeper316/Shadow.jpg

[Methabaron]

Looking good ! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

Metha

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"It is astonishing with how little wisdom mankind can be governed, when that little wisdom is its own."

[Shiro]

To the top! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif Anything new?
-Shiro

[Magyar Khan]

i know he is still working on it, steady as he goes....

[Methabaron]

Although EA has already announced officially the release of the MP campaign (seemingly along the Mongol expansion) I think we will play with Erado for a long time before anything official is actually released... keep it up!

Metha

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"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."

[Zen Blade]

I agree,

besides..... who knows if the official one will be any good. or have the ability to use the scenarios, which people are bound to create (if the scenario editor rumblings are true)

-Zen Blade

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Zen Blade Asai
Red Devil
Last of the RSG

[Erado San]

Well,

for one thing, the MP Campaign game that's being released will not feature an option for the clans to have a go at each other, which is what my version will be all about.

[hach]

" I think we will play with Erado for a long time before anything official is actually released... keep it up!"


something your not telling us methbaron??? (^_^)

hach

[Methabaron]

Heheheeeeee,

Erado is a nice guy but not thaaaaat nice. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

All I meant is that the official ETA for the expansion is Spring 2001 which for me means May-June 2001 to be realistic... maybe.

Metha

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"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."

[Magyar Khan]

and if we learn from the past we will have springtime at next years christmas!