A FLAT-WORLD INTRODUCTION Recently I've been thinking about how a MMO wargame could work, where a player would control both a single hero character counter and likely have NPC units under his control. Traditional wargame maps are hex and counter based. A hex could be 50m for a tactical-level battle (where a counter represents a squad), or 500m (company to division). Although I'm using the word wargame I don't mean it with all the connotations it comes with, merely the playability of one and seeing if the typical trappings of an MMO-Wargame or MMO-RPG could be integrated with it. Nearly every MMO today is 3D or a variation of isolinear. While they are both detailed and immersive for a player, they are also difficult in making it as detailed and immersive because of the enormous amount of art production required and the strain it places on the players computer for distance draws and busy areas. What I want to suggest is a different form of user interface, based on the Gods-view top-down 2D wargame. I know it sounds shocking - shockingly dull and uninteresting, that is, but it seems reasonable even if there is no avatar or sprite, but a counter. There's nothing fundamentally incapable about it, and with additional features it might be able to accomplish just as much as it's multi-dimensional competitors. Please note that I'm only interested on how this format could work for MMO use - details such as setting, character creation, combat mechanics, item crafting, and PvP aren't as pertinent from this perspective and putting the cart infront of the horse. I am assuming in my examples, especially with the maps, a semi-modern setting. There is nothing wrong with fantasy, but the vastness of scale and density are really only managable in a modern setting where having a car/train/repulsorlift makes these things a non-issue. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRADITIONAL WARGAME MAPS What follows are a few beautiful map examples. VB code doesn't appear to work here, so no

or ! <!--QUOTE--><blockquote><span class=smallfont>Quote:</span><table border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 width=95%><tr><td class=quote><!--/QUOTE--><!--STARTQUOTE--><b>Hex close-ups</b><i>ATS Stalingrad: Dzerhezinsky Tractor Works 1942</i> http://www.hidebehind.com/D07ECAF8 <i>Berlin - Red Victory</i> http://www.hidebehind.com/CA230EB1 <i>Fortress Berlin</i> "Victory" hexes like the Reichstag and leader units (Fuhrer) http://www.hidebehind.com/F708672C <i>Raid &#111;n St. Nazaire</i> Not quite a hex map, but a beautiful 'point' map nonetheless. http://www.hidebehind.com/7DC67B8A<!--QUOTE--></td></tr></table></blockquote><!--/QUOTE--><!--ENDQUOTE--><!--QUOTE--><blockquote><span class=smallfont>Quote:</span><table border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 width=95%><tr><td class=quote><!--/QUOTE--><!--STARTQUOTE--><b>Hex map overviews</b><i>Red Barricades - ASL Historical Module 1</i> http://www.hidebehind.com/E4588AE4 <i>Berlin - Red Victory</i> http://www.hidebehind.com/A1C3D21C <i>Fortress Berlin</i> - Enormous, but you can still make out the (500m scale) hexes. This map of Berlin is, from a rough guesstimate, 20km by 15km in size. http://www.hidebehind.com/EDF3049E<!--QUOTE--></td></tr></table></blockquote><!--/QUOTE--><!--ENDQUOTE--> The &#111;ne thing that stands out with all of these examples are the scale of them, which cannot be translated as effectively in your contemporary MMO. A major virtual metropolis with a semblance of real size and density in a 3D world would be a terrible strain &#111;n the art department and &#111;n your graphics card. A hex-city would be a breeze in comparison to create or modify. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- <b>HEXES NEED NOT JUST BE HEXES</b> I would like to point out that my example hexes do not necessarily need to be &#111;nly limited to that. It could, for example, be divided into triangles or linear circles to represent increased granularity if it's being contested for (political/military) control. (There are a few more ways to slice up the pie, but I can't make them in ASCII) <pre> ______ / / / \ / \ / \______/ ______ /\ | / / \ | / /____\|/____\ /|\ / \ / | \ / \/__|__\/ </pre> Similarily, hexes don't need to be entirely 'flat'. Layers for hexes can introduce changes by players paving roads or constructing buildings, all of which could be modified by at a later point by disuse, expansion, or war (widening the road into a highway, artillery bombardments, etc). Another way to modify the hexes for player construction is to enhance the view and manually place a building parallel or perpendicular to a hexside or at in the center of a hex. <!--QUOTE--><blockquote><span class=smallfont>Quote:</span><table border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 width=95%><tr><td class=quote><!--/QUOTE--><!--STARTQUOTE--><i>Arnhem - Defiant Stand</i> Finally, a town map not showing bombed-out ruins. http://www.hidebehind.com/5A872D20<!--QUOTE--></td></tr></table></blockquote><!--/QUOTE--><!--ENDQUOTE--> Imagine if it were possible that the above was nothing but grassland, and that tools were available for a player faction to actually construct an entire town with housing for each residential, civic, and industrial buildings. It would be truly amazing to make, proud to expand, and amazing to defend/destroy. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- <b>SCALE - LIKE IN TEXAS, EVERYTHING IS A BIGGER</b> Scale is a powerful thing. If you can scale up the size of your world, you can increase the power and resources available to your players. A garagantuan city in of itself has little value except taking your players time in running from &#111;ne location to another, whether visualized in polygons or hexes. But scale is more adaptable in a hex-world because the basic geographical unit is larger and thus the world, by and large, is abstracted enough to allow for more conveniences and variables such as highways, subways, and possibly even NPC population groups to be swayed by players (a la SimCity). After all, even a few hexes containing apartment complexes inhabited by NPCs would represent a very strong buying group for your goods or workforce to man your industries. Size, without being overwhelming, now has potential for players. Potential to farm or strip mine the land to feed the construction of new towns, tank factories, airports or railyards (a la Capitalism II). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- <b>THE PLAYER CHARACTER EXPERIENCE</b> I believe most importantly that beginning players should start in a position of relative power to their NPC brethren. He should have the ability to act &#111;n others quickly to simulate that even though he is &#111;ne character in a vast world, he has influence &#111;n others making him comfortable with the scale of the world he's in. But first, how will the player be able to interact in a game consisting of hexes and counters? Let us say for example a character is in a town hex with stores and nearby PCs. <b>The Abstracted Hex</b> The 50m (164 feet, almost 50 yards which is 150 feet) hex is managable as a lowest common denominator for players in regards to movement, interaction, and combat by keeping it contained within the hex or its subdivisions. -- The PC can immediately access any of the stores within the hex, perhaps by clicking the building or the shop title in the UI without needing to direct his avatar to the store itself. -- All players within the hex chat channel and can interact with any of the other PCs in the same hex. Similar to EVE &#79;nline, character icons could be used in a chat sidebar to give flavor. Depending &#111;n the actual size of the hex, players could be represented by an unmoving symbol or counter, however if that is unfeasible the hex could be highlighted with the PC handle &#111;n the top of the 'Hex Player List'. -- Movement can be done by foot or motor transportation. Intricate analysis of character attributes aside, a person doing a fast walk can average 5/mph. That would be, rounded up, three hexes a minute &#111;n flat terrain, which isn't all that bad. A PC in a car at 60/mph could go 35 hexes a minute, or pass the width of your screen in 15-30 seconds. Interestingly enough, to not miss turns, it would make sense to actually drive slower. An obvious feature would be to pre-select a destination for your motor vehicle and set the cruise control. -- Open street combat would be abstracted, but not deadly due to the lack of direct action over your character (which is a bit of a misnomer in of itself since technically speaking it doesn't matter if your character runs away or dodges behind a car in combat with the exception of the MMO-FPS Planetside/Huxley). In this abstraction, it would be no different from contemporary MMOs where in PVP the avatars duke it out via special abilities in 'turns' rather then running and gunning. Random combat events could make things more interesting by enhancing the scene. The attacking PC could find himself spotted grabbing his gun and giving the defending PC a bonus. Or the attacking PC was able to get in close and personal. &#79;n the flip side, the defending PC could find himself in no cover, or finds partial cover from a car to return fire from. In any case, the defending PC should be able to have a running battle if so desired, if &#111;nly to have the ability to lose his attacker (think <i>Bourne Supremecy</i>) - disguise and hide skills would be useful in these situations. Other abstracted combat situations could make themselves available, such as &#111;ne firing &#111;n another from within a building, assaulting a building, and consequently fighting within a building. So long as the situations remain pseudo-realistic and fair, there should be no problems. Examples: You can't fire &#111;n a target from a building you do not own in some manner. Assaulting a building would be risky, unless the assaulting team was highly trained (<i>Equilibrium's Grammaton Cleric</i>). The inverse is also true (<i>Leon</i>). Defenders in a building may have the option to set booby-traps. A range of combat events can be created to signal the difficulties of combat by adding bonuses and penalties, but I'm a firm believer that due to the granularity of the system there should be few chances for an 'insta-kill' and always an option to recuse yourself from a situation if you're low &#111;n health, excepting minions. -- The overall hex map visible to a player would be 10x10 to 20x20. At 50m a hex the size would range from 250 square kilometers to a hefty 1000 square kilometers. This would be more than sufficent to encompass a town or city. For comparison, Humboldt, TN (pop. 9,700) is 25km2, Seattle, WA is 369km2, and Greater London is 1,579km2. A larger regional geo-map could disperse with the hexes and show the terrain with the road and rail network with areas of interest (towns, cities, seaports, airports, military bases, installations). I envision movement &#111;n this level as the Indiana Jones dotted-red-line. Going 'off the road' into the wilderness should be possible, and any exploring could be rewarded with a random hexmap for the player. Most likely nothing would be found ... There isn't a limit as to how large the world can be so long as there's an actual use for it. Opposing alliances of nation-states could be thousnds of kilometers apart, connected by a high-speed railnetwork and supersonic airlines, with a surrounding web of player communities. But maybe the further &#111;ne goes from civilization, the greater the economic rewards for prospective resource hunters. The idea of needing to convoy back precious ore through the badlands tickles my fancy. Perhaps the mining site becomes established enough to emerges as a mining town where the scale comes into play with a mayor, police force, and taxes. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- <b>DEFENDING THE HEX What about a better mousetrap?</b> There are a few ways to make the hex more detailed, all of which will result in less abstraction and may actually neglect the uses of hexes except in the case of terrain changes and buildings. Sucessive levels of detail will &#111;nly dramatically increase the workload required the further you're able to zoom in. The first possiblity for a detailed hex doesn't change anything significant and has the player character instead of being considered omnipresent while in the hex (accessing any shop in the hex despite the distance), have an actual avatar to move within the hex. If he wishes to go north, he shall go north. If he wishes to cross the street, he shall the street. If he wishes to enter a store, he must walk to the entrance, and so forth. In this case, the scale poses a problem. Even considering using a larger hex (2" across, a bit smaller than the 2x2 keyboard keys &#111;n your numberpad) the character could still &#111;nly be represented by a brightly colored larger-than-life dot (if you were true to its size you'd probably be 10' in diameter). It doesn't sound very appealing and quite ad-hoc. Going a bit further down the rabbit hole however ... <b>The detailed hex.</b> Increase the hex size by a factor of 4. This will also lower the total number of hexes visible &#111;n screen. Detail is much more apparent, and I imagine the character dot would at least be true to size if a bit stocky. An SUV would be the size of tic-tac. Continually pressing the arrow keys for movement would be cumbersome, so a right-click destination would be useful. Combat can now involve the environment and would benefit from primarily relying &#111;n distance and movement. I'm not sure, but depending &#111;n the detail positioning could also become important (that is, where you are actually matters in your defense or negating somebody else defense). Building corners and cars could be used for cover, but your otherwise typical stock combat scene elements of 'clutter' (crates, large steel pipes, etc) are too small to be utilized at this level. The random situational elements would probably still be required (a running target &#111;n a sidewalk may be considered having medium cover - bullets are more likely to hit a mailbox, street lamp, or other obstructions. Ultimately, this solution is a stopgap measure between the original, counter-using abstract hex idea and the second, more detailed solution explained below. <b>The supra-detailed hex</b> The second solution is to zoom &#111;n the player's hex itself entirely (CSI zoom zoom enhance) so that &#111;nly the hex, in full screen glory, is visible to the player. This level of detail is sufficent enough to make total use of the environment. Here is an example map which roughly fits the scale. Each square is equal to 5'. <!--QUOTE--><blockquote><span class=smallfont>Quote:</span><table border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 width=95%><tr><td class=quote><!--/QUOTE--><!--STARTQUOTE-->Courtesy of http://www.dundjinni.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=7685&PN=7 http://www.hidebehind.com/BFFCD700<!--QUOTE--></td></tr></table></blockquote><!--/QUOTE--><!--ENDQUOTE--><b>Why I think the supra-detailed hex is A Bad Idea.</b><i>This level of detail may actually present more problems than solutions because of enhanced, and depending &#111;n project resources - unreasonably high - expectations from the player base.</i> Firstly, players will want to no longer have a representative dot but an actual avatar. This avatar could be a small icon with the characters face and affiliation or, more likely (to be demanded), a top-down head and shoulders perspective of a 3D character (you'll see the rest of his body if he ever dies and falls down). &#79;n the aesthetic plus side, imagine the motion capture animations for a top-down 3D character firing a rocket launcher or getting shot at. Secondly, the amount of art production required inconjunction with the scale and diversity of terrain would make detailing these hexes for multiple towns and sites a gigantic project, even if it were 'only limited' to 2D artwork. To name a few ... roads, sidewalks, construction, residences, industrial areas such as factories, railways, and airports, commercial storefronts, gardens, forests, rivers, lakes, streams, deserts, and so forth. Fortunately, deformable terrain is still a luxury in single player and unheard of in MMO. Thirdly, this tactical resolution significantly changes the idea of the hex MMO making it both large- and small-scale and potentially marring the concept leaving it a bland hybrid. Here are examples of a few situations: <i>Abstract Example - Military</i> A group of players decide to attack a defended town. Each attacking and defending player have an array of squads under their command totalling together into a significant force of company size or greater. Combat passes fiercly as hexes are mined, barricaded, and buildings within the town turn into fortresses. Fire is exchanged between counter units in hexes and losses mount &#111;n both sides. Supporting artillery fire from 10km away swings the tide in the attackers favor. It's a vicious battle, but easily understandable and commandable from the birds eye view. -- These commanders would need much more tools at their disposal if each squad suddenly became multiple sprite with pathfinding issues. The town battle would have involved hundreds of men in combat. Converting counters to squads is an exponential increase of burden &#111;n both the players and developers for no real added benefit. <i>Abstract Example - Economic Resources</i> A prospector finds a good deposit of ore covering several hexes in a distant area. Doing the calculations, he decides it's profitable enough to create a mining operation and forms a group of investors. He purchases the requisite construction materials and mining equipment (from other PCs) and haves them manned by hired (NPC) labor, skilled and unskilled. Last but not least he needs a link to move the ore, and also builds a road to the nearest town for refinement. And what happened in-game? The map hexes now have mines, warehouses, and worker housing sprites added. A road links the mining op up with his guilds town. -- I absolutely have no idea how this could be implemented &#111;n a 1:1 ratio. <i>Abstract Example - Bounty Hunting</i> Oh, hell, you know how big and fun the world is. This game is meant to give people minions which is the same as giving people a trail to follow. Just imagine! But hope that they don't have a skilled bodyguard counter attached to them either. -- It's possible. It's a neutral proposition since it's less focused &#111;n scale such as large scale industrial works or military attacks. I'd like to think that with the more resources available in the production team which are free from physics and collision detecting, the more they can actually concentrate &#111;n creating features for the player. <i>Abstract Example - Politicking</i> A large player faction decides to run for mayor in a major NPC city. Success would allow him to dole out favors for city contracts and give recognizable prestige. He spends money to campaign and caters to different groups (naturally this could be quite simple or <i>very</i> in-depth - just look at The Political Machine or Democracy - yikes!). His primary opponents will be other NPCs and PCs. And to the victor goes the spoils. -- It's possible. Most MMOs are focused &#111;n simpler things like bug fixing or adding dungeons. Even in this hypothetical case where the scale would allow for district, city, or even presidential elections ... well, it'd probably be in an expansion pack. <b>Conclusion &#111;n 'making it better'</b> These levels of resolution can easily blow up into something which sounds fantastic &#111;n paper but impossibly expensive to create, even if &#111;nly in reference to the original abstract hex. Minions need pathfinding and AI in order to attack or defend. Graphics and lag now become a factor and need to be taken into account. The glory of scale for the PC will suffer. There is value in the abstract. Hexes and units represented as counters within those hexes simplify things not &#111;nly for the player, but for the people working &#111;n the backend of things as well. The counters can still be as detailed or complex as anything imaginable - perhaps they're counted to the soldier, and each soldier has combat attributes just as you do. Maybe you decide to add armor, or make them a HMG squad. If they're mercenaries, they could be good, but expensive. The possibilities, they say, are endless.