Bridge Over Troubled Water

download link updated

2009-07-04T17:07:00.002+02:00

Filefront has changed the url to the file, here's the new download link
http://files.filefront.com/Conflict+MEPS/;13537306;/fileinfo.html

In any case I did update all the previous posts containing the link.

elections and victory

2009-04-18T12:37:00.008+02:00

OFFICIAL DOWNLOAD LINK: http://files.filefront.com/Conflict+MEPS/;13537306;/fileinfo.html

I'm leaving this reply both in a new post and in the comments to the post "the end", and it applies to both Fubb and Skeptikon’s question: in order to win the elections you must look at one and only one parameter: the domestic public opinion. In order to be matematically sure that you'll be elected you must have at least 66% of the domestic public opinion on your side due to the rules explained at page 3 of the manual.
Let’s briefly review these rules: the electoral model represented in the game assumes that 40% of the people will in any case vote for you, 40% always for the opposition, 5% vote randomly because they decide at the last moment; what you have to bring to your side is that remaining 15% of swing voters, the most precious one in every election.
As you can see, you already know that 40% of the votes will be for you, and if you don’t want to count on that 5% of random votes you can only look at the swing voters. Since you win the elections if you have 50% + 1 of ballots it’s clear that you need to convince two thirds of the swing voters because that means adding another 10% of the electorate to you (two thirds of 15% is 10%).
The domestic public opinion value represent exactly how many swing voters have come on your side, or how much of that 15% of undecided electorate you have convinced. If the domestic opinion value is 20% you have added only 3% to the total number of people that will vote for you. Why? Because the calculation is

20% of domestic public opinion --> it means one fifth of 15% --> the result is 3%

Therefore you can be sure that only 43% of the votes will be for you. What happens if ALL the random votes are for you? 43% + 5% --> 48% and you’ll lose the elections anyway.

Another example: if you have conquered 50% of the public opinion you’ll be sure of having only 47,5% of the votes at the elections because

50% of domestic public opinion --> it means one half of 15% --> the result is 7,5% to be added to 40% of votes that you’ll have for sure --> 47,5%

The stakes are the swing voters, the swing voters are 15% of the total, the domestic public opinion represents how many swing voters you have convinced to vote for you.

Now, how can you convince the swing voters? There’s many ways, your foreign policy decisions will greatly affect the domestic public opinion. Some policies are unpopular and they’ll make you lose consensus among the swing voters, other decisions will be appreciated and your support will rise. Take a look at the bar showing the forecast for the domestic public opinion in the next turn, it will show you how your current decision will affect your image among the voters.

To conclude: to fulfill the electoral promises is a very good way to gain support but it’s not sufficient! Fulfilling the electoral promises will only grant you a bonus between 10 and 20% of the swing voters. If you look at the calculations you’ll see that 20% of swing voters means adding 3% to the total. So let’s say the domestic public opinion hates you because of your policy during your mandate, and let’s say you have 0% of domestic public opinion on your side. Even if you fulfilled the electoral promises and even if the maximum bonus is applied you’ll only have 20% of swing voters decided to vote for you, and that means adding only 3% of votes, so the total will be
40% of votes you’ll always have + 3% from the swing voters you convinced + random quantity up to 5%
and you’ll lose the elections.
You always have to nourish the domestic public opinion throughout the game to maximise your chances of victory. Every turn you’ll have to weigh your different options because a certain decision might give you a short term rise in popularity, but maybe it will make you lose U.S. support which grants you money and therefore the possibility to pursue your policy.
I hope to have clarified things a bit.

reply to Pampla

2009-04-11T16:32:00.002+02:00

Hi, thanks for your interest in the game.
The source code is available at quest3d knowledgebase
http://knowledgebase.quest3d.com/browse/detail/89
If you want you might describe your idea for an economic element in the game thread on quest3d forums here

new download link

2009-04-05T15:30:00.003+02:00

I uploaded the game to filefront.
The new official download link is
http://files.filefront.com/Conflict+MEPS/;13537306;/fileinfo.html
Cheers

problem with download link

2009-04-05T11:27:00.003+02:00

I noticed that the download link points to a file called "FileDroper File Extractor.exe".
This is the last problem I'll have with Filedropper, it's really a terrible service, and I suggest anyone to avoid it.
Anyway I removed the link, I'll post a new one very soon.

answer to fubb

2009-03-31T20:59:00.003+02:00

I reply here to Fubb as it might be of some interest to others.

He wrote:
"Great game, I only have one problem...I keep losing elections! How can I win one? I thought i was doing great, I enacted a bunch of my funds until the Palestinian crisis required 0 to maintain the current situation, and i was friednly to my neighbours (though if I had won the election, I would have bombed a Lebanese nuclear facility)"

You always have to keep an eye to the domestic public opinion, because it's the parameter that will decide the outcome of the elections. Try to have the domestic public opinion rise by choosing the right diplomatic options. Remember that you'll be able to see the overall effect of your decisions on all the game parameters through the three columns in the foreign policy screen: the right column is the predicted future value for each parameter given the current decisions, so use the right column as a forecast for what will happen in the next turn. Check the picture below to locate the domestic policy counters

Remember also that a good way to win the elections is to have the electoral promises fulfilled: they'll grant you a bonus on the public opinion that will greatly help your party as it's quite unique to see electoral promises fulfilled. Check the manual for details on the elections results.
Another way to win the elections is to win wars, they pay a lot in terms of popularity especially if you are considered as the offended side. Obviously if you've got a weak army it would not be wise to pursue the military option, so be careful to assess your situation and that of your neighbours: remember political realism!

A note on the Palestinian situation: keeping the level of unrest low will not grant you domestic popularity, it will only ensure that in the next turn you'll not have to spend much more to control the situation. Plus, a very bad situation will cause kamikaze attacks in Israel, and that will cause domestic public opinion go down, so definitely you should keep the situation under control from the start.
You might consider granting independence to Palestine, which has a lot of diplomatic advantages, but again will cause domestic public opinion tumble, so it's better to do that in the first turns, when you haven't too much to lose in terms of popularity.

Feel free to ask if you've got further questions.

the end

2009-02-12T12:18:00.005+01:00

The moment of truth has arrived, the point three years ago I imagined to be: follow the link and you’ll find the official release of the game!

It’s named version 1.2, I’ve added many tweaks and enhancements since 1.1, and I corrected a lot of bugs. It is the first stable and balanced release, so now I’ll accept comments and reviews; prior to this I never considerated critics as “legitimate” because even versions 1.0 and 1.1 were, in my plans, not definitive (but in any case I respected all the critics and took some design decisions based on them).

I’m sure that there’s some bugs I couldn’t see, and, most important, I’m quite sure I can change the various game items to further tune the balance. However in order to do this I need some people to play, because all the bugs simply can’t be found unless a certain number of games are played. The same applies to game balance: I can play over and over but my vision is biased, I must gather the opinions of many people who have played many times to further change the game settings properly. In spite of this I consider this version stable and balanced as I said, and from now on all future releases are the be considered as patches.

I rewrote a lot of sections of the manual. In any case consider that English is not my mother tongue, so please forgive any mistake I've done, both in the manual and in the game.

At this point I must thank again David Eastman, all the people who patiently read the blog and tried the earlier versions sharing their thoughts. For those interested the complete source code is available also, take a look at quest3d community forum to read comments on the code. I'll post a thread also on www.wargamer.com forums, it will be easier for me to answer questions in the forum than on this blog.

GAME VERSION 1.2
http://files.filefront.com/Conflict+MEPS/;13537306;/fileinfo.html

SOURCE CODE FOR THE QUEST3D COMMUNITY
http://knowledgebase.quest3d.com/browse/detail/89

Note: download links have been updated, the link on filefront is now the official one.

Ciao!

Goofy Foot

2008-12-28T23:16:00.002+01:00

I'm currently in the playtesting phase. I received no critics on the new graphics so I think it has been appreciated, and after all I find it quite useful during the game.
I changed some things in the game, trying to achieve a good balance. The most relevant thing I changed is the distribution of proficiency between attack and defence. If someone has read the manual could remember that units received a negative multiplier for proficiency points distributed to defence, justified with arguments that related more to political science than a game. I changed this rule, there's going to be no negative multiplier for defence, this is much simpler for the player to understand.

reply to Fubb

2008-12-01T23:27:00.002+01:00

I've added a control to set the details: shaders can now be disabled and 3d units will also switch to a lower detail if needed.
The next version should be virtually bug free and balanced, in other words it will be the final version. Any release after that will simply bring minor adjustements.

mirror link for version 1.0.1

2008-11-10T09:50:00.000+01:00

Here's the link to filedropper

FileDropper Free File Hosting

A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert MacNamara'd Into Submission)

2008-11-08T18:32:00.002+01:00

I present here a small step towards the final version. This release has some visible and invisible changes. Among the invisible ones there's the many bugs corrected, I'd say that 2/3 of all the bugs are now solved.

As you will directly see with your eyes I changed the menus for both the foreign and the domestic policy, I tried to accommodate some critics I received.

The philosophy behind the new foreign policy screen is:
1) give the current situation and the effects of the player's decision the greatest importance.
2) try to symbolize everything

Now 90% of the feedback text has been removed, and everything is conveyed via icons or graphs.

For the domestic policy screen I wanted to reorganize the sub-screens so that the player didn't have to spend too much time there. Now the player makes choices about new purchases, nuclear research, and palestinian situation in one screen. Then he can see the overall military situation in a separate screen as before.

The tactical map hasn't changed, honestly I felt there was no need to reorganize it.

Here's the download link (rapidshare), I've got more that one problem with filedropper, so as soon as I can upload the file there too I'll post the link.

http://rapidshare.com/files/161830767/cmeps101.zip

I hope to receive some critics on the new menus.

We're Not Gonna Take It

2008-10-18T19:11:00.002+02:00

I admit that it's impossible to remember the effects of all buttons, so I've added a sort of strip that reports all the values modified by the decisions of the player (e.g. bombing the nuclear reactor of a country has effects on domestic public opinion, on the relations with the U.S.A. etc); these side-effects were reported on the manual but obviously it is better to see them in the game.
Also, I solved some other major bugs.
I'd like to answer some of the critics I received after version 1.0:

1) it is too complicated: it is complex, but the player can decide how deep it wants to go both in war and in purchasing new units, two sections where it is difficult to take decisions due to the "asymmetrical" nature of units (for example infantry does not target enemy infantry but rocket artillery and helicopter, and is targeted by enemy artillery and tanks): Moshe Dayan is there to do almost all the job for you. Also, the manual for sure will be changed to explain better all the game's features.

2) the gui is not user-friendly: I've spent a lot of time thinking about the most essential and functional interface. Being a hobbyist I am absolutely sure that it's better to aim low than trying to impress the people with special effects whose consequence is to make the interface unintelligible. The interface is not aesthetically pleasing, but I think it's clear. Again, if the manual is not clear in this respect, I'll change it.

3) the tactical screen is slow: yes, it's slow, but not too much. I'll try to make it run smoother.

Soon version 1.1

another download link

2008-09-16T13:04:00.001+02:00

Here's a new link on filedropper, have fun.

FileDropper Free File Hosting

Pet Sounds

2008-09-15T21:21:00.003+02:00

Version 1.0 is here! I never doubted this moment would arrive. Before downloading it, an important note: this is a stable version, with the most giant bugs resolved, but it’s NOT the final version. Not only there’s still many bugs but also the gameplay isn’t balanced yet, you’ll notice for yourself while playing: many options produce exagarrated results, others produce too feeble ones. So why releasing it? Well, this version has all the features I planned, and also it’s playable from the first to the last screen (bugs apart), so it seems to me right to call it 1.0.

I included a manual also, I tried not to leave anything aside, and also sometimes I needed to justify some design decisions I took, so forgive me if it’s too long (but there’s many pictures also!).

Talking about design decisions, I am about to decide a small change in game design: right now the player must take into account relations with other countries as a primary factor. Relations go from 1 to 100, and are approximated to values from 1 to 5 which are the only the player knows (expressed as 5 possible colors on the main map and 5 possible phrases the counsellors tell the player). Two reasons for this:

1) to purposely keep the player uncertain about the precise relations levels only giving him a partial information, in order to increase impredictability following the player’s decisions and thus general “fun” for the player

2) to reflect the fact that in real life it’s impossible to precisely quantify the level of a relationship, either between humans, or between complex organizations as states: the only chance is to simplify the possibilities in broad categories like those in the game (i.e. “excellent”, “good”, “neutral” etc.)

But playing the first games I noticed that the player needs precise informations about the current relations in order to take the best decisions. After all, the game is not (only) about guessing the chances of a possible outcome, but (also) to make the right choice given a certain situation, and it would be unfair to deny the player the knowledge of the situation, that’s why I wanted to include “predictions” about political outcomes of a given decision (e.g. relations will improve, public opinion will be enraged, relations with the U.S. will rise etc.).

At the same time I don’t want to give the player too much information, or the game would lose appeal, so this is how I might resolve the dilemma: the player will know exactly the relation “value” with all countries, but the predictions he’ll have from the counsellors will be imprecise.

I still have to decide about this, however.

I invite everyone to give an opinion about this quasi-final version. Below the download link

http://rapidshare.com/files/145439065/cmeps.zip

Saludos

The Well-Tempered Clavier

2008-09-05T00:26:00.002+02:00

I'm writing the manual, I don't want to release a quasi-final game which no one knows how to play! my only concern is my ability to write about a complex matter in English.
I've seen on wargamer.com a thread about the original cmeps. I posted a link to this blog, a little bit of advertising can't do any harm.

Never Going Back Again

2008-08-08T23:12:00.002+02:00

Hey, I'm still alive! it's a lot I don't post anything, but I've worked so hard (on the game and on my job place!) and I've reached version 0.9, so the next post you can expect version 1.0. Beware: this will not be the final version, it will for sure be full of bugs and will have to be player over and over to adjust the balance, but it will be complete because it will have everything I planned.

I've replied to Amnon privately, and I saw his version: I like it and I'd like to see it complete!

@cyrus: I appreciate your constructive critic, and I have to say you're absolutely right in many respects: my version is not a clone of the original game, not anymore at least. When I started to build the game (years ago now...) I wanted to do only a remake. When the months passed I started thinking about ways to improve the original and then I decided what I wanted: an innovation respectful of tradition. I think I didn't miss my objective, as the game's structure is unchanged from the original. I added some things (the policy tokens for example or the elections) which do not alter the spirit; and I radically changed one thing, war, for which in my opinion the original did not give the player enough control.
Honestly, I wonder why making a simple clone with better graphics? even Amnon's version is different because it puts more countries in the cauldron. That's why I hope I can play with Amnon's final version one day, because it's different while being familiar.
Ciao
Marcus

Roving Gambler

2008-07-13T17:46:00.002+02:00

I've been working at the engine that rules the turn-based system, I started looking at the biggest bugs, and now I'm working at the newspapers between a turn and the other, this is more than enough to keep me busy!
@dorothy: what are your pc's specs?

Down South Camp Meeting

2008-06-23T23:10:00.002+02:00

I'm putting all together. All the sections I've been working upon in the last months are being checked and ordered to create what was missing in all the previous releases: the turn-based system. Not only it is a particularly delicate operation, but also I'm facing a new job, so I can't tell how long it will take for a new release. However for my schedule I'm at version 0.95

new download link

2008-06-11T17:16:00.001+02:00

If you happen to hate rapidshare or have to another problem downloading from it here's another download link.

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=464691

If you know another affordable free file hosting and sharing service let me know!

Toad

2008-06-05T20:51:00.003+02:00

Here's version 0.94; it does not add too much at this point, I uploaded it only to show the menus and the initial newspaper, which shows the game objectives in disguise: they are stated as electoral promises made by the player during his campaign and repeated in an imaginary speech in the Knesset. As a debug option you can press "d" in the newspaper screen to change the game objectives, just to have an idea of how it will work. I like the objectives, they help the player decide which course of action to take, but the player is not forced to follow them to win the game, he'll always have freedom of action.
There will be newspapers between turns also, to show a selection of what happened.
Note: only the "new game" option works right now, to exit the game just press esc.

A note on overlapping windows in the battle screen: they are not overlapping! the window on the right of the screen partly covers the battlefield and the enemy units when zooming in, but this is ok, since the focus of the action is upon Israeli units, which are always completely shown (unless I decide to let the player rotate at 360° the tactical battlefield, I haven't decided yet).

Here's the link: http://rapidshare.com/files/120359615/cmeps094.zip

Enjoy!

The Tennessee Waltz

2008-05-30T18:58:00.003+02:00

I could not reproduce the display problems documented; also one should not see the resize border, as I made it invisible, so I really can't explain what happened to Draco at 1280x800. However I slightly changed the code and I hope the game will be playable at any resolution.

It seems the newspaper are loved by the fans. Well, I'm adding them.

I did set up a small loading screen, which for reasons I can't explain now probably can't be kept, so the players will have to wait some second before going to the main screen without seeing anything; this is not good, but the players will forgive me.

questions and answers

2008-05-13T20:20:00.003+02:00

Estefano left a comment about a problem "There is also a big problem with your windows overlaps. They block the texts and don't size resize correctly."
I'm QUITE interested in this problem, can you send me some screenshots of what happens exactly? I set up the game so that it could be played at any resolution above 1024x768. Also, please give me the configuration of your pc.
Apart from that, it's not a playable demo because the game mechanics are still not complete, for example there's no turns yet, but there will be in the future.
I'm not sure I'll add the newspapers, I'll have to find out how to fit that with the general game flow.

@Draco: the shapes representing leadership really don't give an immediate idea of the quality of a leader, that's true. They are simply a subjective way to represent something. The design challenge in this case was to have 5 shapes clearly distinguishable, so I choose something that you could not confuse: a pentagon is clearly different than a circle and from a square etc. I excluded the triangle because there was not enough surface to host the stars.
The military summary gives you the real figures about the armed forces of the various countries, the military section is much expanded from the original so it is right to give the player enough information to play.
The button "grant Palestinian independence" is as simple as you imagined: it is a big simplification over reality, true. In this case all the problems that would emerge from such a decision are modeled by the great decrease in domestic public opinion that the player has to face. The idea of modeling the elections at the end of each game still exists, so it is clear that a player will have to decide early in the game to grant Palestine's independence, because it grants much better relations with the U.S.A., which in turn grant extra $$$, therefore the player can spend more money for Israel's army, and win a lot of wars. Every war won grants an increase in domestic public opinion, therefore the chances of being re-elected are enhanced.
For the battle screen, it's better to wait the manual!

Saluti

L'assedio di Corinto

2008-05-04T00:06:00.004+02:00

Here's version 0.8! I'd have to write much more than a few lines to describe the various features, but I prefer to leave that to the future official manual.

Here's the link

http://rapidshare.com/files/112306225/cmeps_0.8.zip

As always let me know of any issues.

A couple of important things: the main map has now feedback elements. The colour of the countries reflect the diplomatic relations between the country the mouse is upon (in white) and the rest of the middle east. The default country for which relations are shown is Israel for obvious reasons.

Then you can see columns of various shapes, altitude and colour, with starts upon them. A little explanation: I needed a fast way to represent a complex set of relations on a limited space, so I envisioned a unique indicator with four different "faces". Shape represents the quality of a given country's leadership: the shapes used are a pentagon, a reversed pentagon, a circle, a square and a rhombus to represent a leadership from the strongest to the weakest.

The second face is columns' altitude, it represents the stability of a regime: the highest the altitude, the strongest the regime.

The third face is columns' colour: it represents the public opinion towards Israel, with colours ranging from full green, pale green, gray, orange and red, to represent public opinions from the friendliest to the most aggressive towards Israel.

The last face of the indicator is the number of stars upon it, to represent the overall quality of the armed forces. One star: that country's army sucks; five stars: that country's army simply cannot be stopped.

Also there's feedback elements for nuclear research and possession of nuclear weapons, and for alliances and wars.

Now let's look at Israel's screen: I needed to represent a lot of important informations and options, all of which were a bit distinct from each other: a review of the strategic situation, the purchase new units, nuclear research, the Palestinian situation and an optional section where to review the internal politics situation.
Two solutions: put every sub-section in a separate screen, thus requiring the player to click one thousand times to go back and forth the screens; or put everything in a single screen, trying to have the player understand that the various sections were distinct despite they were in a single screen.
That was the idea before implementing a sliding windows method: the player can jump from one section to another just rolling up and down with the mouse. Thus the idea of a separation still exists while having the player remain in the same screen.
I spent some time thinking about the Israel's screen as it is quite important, and I thought a confused screen would have prevented many players from learning the game. Also, I left the graphics quite simple and functional.

You can see Dayan has been added in the purchase sub-section of Israel's screen: in fact he can give the player suggestions on how to spend the current remaining funds and with the chosen attitude, defensive (the shield) or offensive (the sword); note that Dayan's suggestion are limited to ground forces due to the way air forces are treated in the underground game mechanics.

In response to Draco's questions about Palestine: unrest level is random at the start of each game, there's a quantity of funds you have to spend each turn to at least maintain the situation as it is, although you are free to spend more or less funds in garrison and police duties. Doing so, unrest will be modified accordingly, so if you spend 50% less than required you can expect that unrest will increase in proportion, and vice-versa. A higher unrest results in higher percentages of suffering a kamikaze attack, which will negatively affect Israel's public opinion towards the Prime Minister (the player).

untitled

2008-04-27T16:14:00.002+02:00

I'm moving to a new house, so I'm a bit stressed, but I managed to keep working. I'm finishing the options screen for Israel, in which the player will be able to purchase new units, set the funds for nuclear research and deal with Palestinian situation, and also to review the current strategic and political situation.
First note: in the original game the player was forced to move some troops in the Palestinian territories to restore the law, here the military section is more complex, so if the situation becomes hot the player will have to spend part of the balance to maintain the order.
Second note: the options in Israel's screen are a bit unrelated to each other, for example the Palestinian situation is not related to nuclear research; rather than creating different screens for each sub-section I put everything in a single screen: the graphics will reflect this lack of relation, the result is that Israel's options screen is asymmetric.

Ballet des petits poussins dans leurs coques

2008-04-05T13:56:00.003+02:00

Having done almost all the feedback elemens I'm about to reach version 0.8
Henry asked me an option to play different nations other than Israel, but I'm afraid this is impossible, the game was built upon playing Israel, not only as a design decision but also as a programming element. The player could enjoy playing as Syria or Jordan or Lebanon (other countries that are in the center of the theather) but it would mean remaking the game from zero since all the structures of the game are built upon this difference between the Arab nations (ruled by the a.i.) and Israel (ruled by the player). Sorry.

Heatwave

2008-03-10T23:30:00.002+01:00

The latest version has been downloaded by 12 people, really not bad considering how long the game has been in development at this point. I know the general interest is very low, but this is positive: I can work without feeling an unbearable pressure, and interest will grow again.
I reached version 0.6 now, which includes the consequences of the player's actions upon the Israeli public opinion, the relations with the Arabs and with the USA.
I only wish I could escape this phase of mental inertia.

Goodbye Blue Sky

2008-03-05T08:55:00.002+01:00

I'm working on the buttons of the diplomacy screen, not on the graphics but on the logics behind those buttons. It's not a big deal but I'm a bit tired and I can't concentrate these days. Plus there's the new episodes of Dr. House on tv so I lose entire evenings of work because I can't miss them...

Memory Of A Free Festival

2008-02-20T22:17:00.002+01:00

Since the last post I've been working on the war engine, which is almost over. As I already said there will be only 3 levels of tactical deployment for the troops, instead of 5.

Alex suggested a complete rotation of the tactical screen, that's ok I'll do that in the next version, but I don't like it in the main map.

Ciao.

Boris The Spider

2008-01-31T13:53:00.000+01:00

As promised here's the first release of the rewritten version. It's in a semi-raw state, I think I'll change the units models with simpler ones because the frame rate drops all of a sudden when going to the tactical screen. Also, I'll have to change the models because, altought they were available for free from variuos sites, I didn't contact yet the authors to get their authorization.
I included two jpegs that briefly describe the controls.

http://rapidshare.com/files/88053373/confmeps_0.37.zip

Any comment is highly appreciated as always.

Catacombae, Sepulcrum Romanum

2008-01-18T19:38:00.000+01:00

I'm going the finish the tactical deployment screen very soon. The final touches include hints from Dayan on the order of battle and the disposition of the troops.
Stay tuned because the next post will include the new demo, although there will be very little interactivity, the concept of turn hasn't been implemented yet.

Concierto De Aranjuez

2008-01-09T22:31:00.000+01:00

The new gui is driving me mad, but I'm overcoming all the difficulties. I'll soon start with all the feedback elements from the counsellors, this time they will be less chatty: I saw that in the previous version the player was forced to read en encyclopedia at every turn for every nation, now I'll make more things expressed in symbols or directly on the map. There will be a new demo soon, but beware that it's not going to be very advanced as this is a rewrite. You'll notice an improvement in the file size, about 6mb against the 70 or so of the previous version.

I'm thinking about opening a second blog about Italian politics, but I would have to write too many obscenities every day.

(I Don't Know Why) But I Do

2007-12-24T19:49:00.000+01:00

I'm working on the gui, there will be some changes, for example the tactical operations maps will be in 3d. Sadly there will be no Christmas demo, sorry.

A sidenote: remember the counsellors that popped up when the player was on the buttons screen? they were Tzipi Livni for the diplomatic options, Meir Dagan for the Mossad and Dan Halutz for the IDF. I wondered if it was somehow illegal to use those photos in the game so I sent a mail to the Israeli government asking if there was some legal issue. The little problem is that I received a response but yahoo mail put the answer in the spam folder, and I realized only after cleaning the folder that that mail could be legittimate! Its title was something like "re: answer from the office of the prime minister", at the moment I forgot I sent a request and I really thought it was spam. However, this is only to thank the Israeli government for their answer, regardless of the content (which I didn't read, my fault).
In any case I had already decided to change the pictures to bring some abstraction (Dan Halutz has been removed some time ago, so my game was already obsolete): now the player will have as counsellors David Ben-Gurion, Eli Cohen and Moshe Dayan; it's nothing special, just three pictures, as three phantoms from the past that help the player.

Burning Of The Midnight Lamp

2007-12-14T20:38:00.000+01:00

I passed the ISCW! for the next few days I'll have some rest from the books.

I'm still working on the a.i., I'm on the purchases engine. I'm at a good point having completed the a.i. engine for the deployments, the order of battle, the disposition of troops and the diplomacy.

A note on the disposition of troops: in the old version one could choose between five different dispositions, more or less aggressive, for the land units. Now it will be possible to choose between three: I think it's better because now the player will have to choose a defensive, offensive or mixed disposition for each land unit, a concept easy to grasp. Five different dispositions were simply reduntant and confusing: in this case less is more.

Second note: in my previous post I discussed the possibility to transform the map into a round globe. I thought that from a design perspective the player would lose the feeling of playing on a board, so I might abandon the idea of a round base map, and enhance the sense of being in front of a board.

Build It Up - Tear It Down

2007-11-26T23:13:00.000+01:00

I'll soon have another slice of CCNP exam: ISCW! so I'll revert again to the good old rule 80/20 (percentage of time dedicated to study/to the rest of my life including confmeps).
In the meantime I have been more and more busy thinking about the main map of the game: a long time ago I boosted my abilities at making a decent 3d map with some shading. The result is a rectangular map floating in the middle of nowhere. Truly, I don't like it anymore, so I might throw away the hard work of those months for a new concept of map, enormously simpler but much more fit for the game. For me it's not difficult to choose something that works better in the overall picture even if the alternative costed me a lot of sleepless nights. However the final map might be (I haven't decided yet) a spherical map that the player would look at as if he was from space.

bsci passed

2007-11-09T20:49:00.000+01:00

Just a small note, I took that damn exam again and I passed it. It's about one week I'm on cmeps again.

a bad day

2007-10-17T17:59:00.000+02:00

For the first time I didn't pass an exam: Cisco BSCI. I tried it today and I failed. Porca puttana.

Also, talking about lost battles: a three years-long match at "The Operational Art of War" ended yesterday with my side completely defeated.

I'll be back on Conflict the day I'll be certified.

gli impermeabili

2007-10-05T18:59:00.000+02:00

I still have no new .exe to present, sorry. Btw I see somebody is still downloading the old version, they'll be disappointed for sure.
However, everything is going fine, I almost finished the diplomatic a.i., the good thing now is that a unique section controls the a.i. for all the Arab countries, in the previous version every country had its own a.i. section with a huge waste of cpu computing time.
I thought it would have been nice to include a screenshot of quest3d workspace, so here's a so called "channel group". The resolution is too low to distinguish anything more than little blocks linked together, those blocks are actually what makes q3d such a beautiful program.

pendulum

2007-09-18T20:43:00.000+02:00

Not much to say, I'm working! the new rewrite was really needed, the whole project has a new structure and thanks to the new concepts I'm implementig the size of the parts rewritten is about 5 times smaller than before. I wonder if the rewrite is something that happens to all programmers, a normal moment in development, as DE referred to it as something he expected sooner or later, at least I had this impression.

back in action

2007-08-28T13:03:00.000+02:00

At the end of a brief vacation I took a decision: the game will be completely re-written! in one of the last posts I wrote that someone would have thought the project was vaporware, but then I thought that I had no publisher, no fixed schedules, and (almost) no one waiting for the game. This project started as a means to learn how to program, now I want to implement more advanced topics in the game structure. And honestly, since I'll have to release the source code, I want to release something decent, otherwise the whole quest3d community would laugh at me.
I feel pretty confident now, and since I'll re-use the media assets, the whole re-write should not take an infinite time: I estimate three months to arrive where I am now with the current code.
The last reason I decided so is that I'm convinced that learning how to make a game at 70% means learning how to make a plan, making a clear project of all the features of the game in a well ordered manner. Let's say I want to learn the logistics of making a game, because so far I proceeded without a plan, and the whole game performance suffers from this.
I know this blog is followed by some people (the latest version was downloaded 20 times), and I'm sorry to issue a new delay, but the alternative was to produce a buggy load of bad code that was really a misery to work upon.
Sursum corda!

Soul Kitchen

2007-07-30T19:51:00.000+02:00

I'm uploading version 0.91, this will be the last release for some time because I'm beginning a three-weeks vacation.
The latest addition to the game is a sort of task given to the player at the start of each game, this in my opinion is useful to guide the player giving him a scope, otherwise the game would be too much open-ended, I wanted to avoid the people that will play the game to think "I'm in front of the map, what should I do now?". So when a new game starts the player can see phrases as "During the elections you promised to wipe out Lebanon". Perfect, the player now has something real to do. To fulfill the electoral promise will result in a final bonus on the approval rating between 0 to 15%, otherwise there will be a penalty of the same amount (these figures are likely to change during testing).
There's a lot of things that must be documented, but having concentrated so much upon finishing the last details of the architecture I had no time for the rest. At this point, apart from a couple of minor things, the game is there, only balance has to be adjusted, I remember I wrote this thing before but now it's true.
Another thing I've been thinking: how the game has been programmed. I had more time to study the engine recently and my skills improved a bit: I see everything I've been coding so far with so much horror... but if I rewrote the most terrible parts it would take other months, and the whole project would be defined vaporware. For sure, to keep working with really bad parts is not easy.
However the controls for this version are: spacebar to start a new game (a new game can be started in every moment), z for the next turn, left-click to pass from the "next turn" screen to the map. Sometimes, especially when battles are involved, you have to wait for a while after pressing z. Press esc to exit the game.

Here's the link to download the new version.
http://rapidshare.com/files/45981362/cme_0.9.1d.exe

Sons of the Silent Age

2007-07-23T15:33:00.000+02:00

I have completed everything that constitutes version 0.9, there's a lot of feeback now, plus there are the splash screens when starting a new game and when a game is over. In practice the game is done, only game balance has to be adjusted.

I'll describe briefly the structure of the game that has emerged with this version, this is not gonna change, as the jump from 0.9 to 1.0 will address stabiliy issues, game balance and possibly code optimization (believe me, now the code really sucks, part of this is due to the fact that until a couple of months ago I had a limited version of the engine that didn't let me use arrays, or finite state machine. I didn't use these features of the full engine because this would have meant to rewrite the game from scratch, I'll use them in future games, the only practical advantage for now is the chance to play an executable).
The player impersonates the head of the Israeli government, the player's final goal is to be re-elected as this is the first and final goal of every politician. One term lasts 25 turns (this length might be adjusted), at the last turn, if Israel hasn't been destroyed or a global thermonuclear war hasn't been triggered in the meantime, there's the general elections. To win the elections the player has to gain 50%+1 of the votes, he can hope to do this by convincing the public opinion: in order to do so the player must have Israel survive and possibly win a war. Declaring war will have a negative effect on the public opinion, if Israel is attacked the public opinion will rise, and in case of victory it will skyrocket. Other factors affectig the public opinion can be added during the testing phase.
The player doesn't have free-hands, because Israel is a democracy constatly kept under observation, not only during the elections, but every single day. A government (especially the Israeli one, which is the product a very divided society) must always weight the pros and cons of every action, and it can happen that, after some scandal or some other thing happening in the internal or international arena, the government simply cannot to some of the things it could theoretically do if one only watched at the majorities in the parliament or at the mere powers assigned by the constitution or other laws. These difficulties are modeled in the game as a higher or lower number of policy tokens, the decisions that can be taken by the player each turn.

I'll do some tests and then I'll release the official version 0.9

I Call Your Name

2007-07-07T19:32:00.000+02:00

Version 0.87 is the one I submitted to the competition. It has much of the feedback elements needed to play the game, but again there's still no balance between the various variables.
The good news is that the painful operations needed to play the previous versions are over! this version is an executable.
Enjoy

http://rapidshare.com/files/41576855/conflict_0.87.exe

Bron-Y-Aur Stomp

2007-07-02T18:33:00.000+02:00

One thing has emerged during this first testing period: the original game guided the player much more than my version, where there's no more the division between the first diplomatic phase and the second strategic phase. I have to counterbalance this lacking feature with more feedback, otherwise the player will be a bit lost.
I fixed a lot of major bugs, which rendered the game unplayable, so there has been no fine tuning of the game variables so far. I have to admit I'm still discovering important things I left unfinished... shame on me.

few news

2007-06-19T08:23:00.000+02:00

I started, among other things, the testing phase, this is gonna be a nightmare, there's a lot of parameters that have to be balanced. I'm also adding many many things (mainly feedback items) that will be inserted in version 0.9, the one I'll try to submit to the competition. I'm still paying the fact that I didn't prepare a plan, every evening I have to decide what I'll do the next day, a terrible thing in game development. In any case the game is sailing towards a fully playable (altough buggy and unbalanced) version.

so many things to do...

2007-05-30T20:35:00.000+02:00

...and so little time.
Working on the feedback is quite challenging: a ton of small things that I left behind had to be done. I also slightly modified the dialog window with the policy options (those in which you can see the three characters). Everything is going fine, but it's a time consuming activity! I'll also have to work on the main map, I want to display some things like alliances, wars, revolts etc. I'm optimist on the possibility to present a decent version to the new q3d competition.

starting version 0.9

2007-05-13T14:32:00.000+02:00

I'm working on an additional part of the a.i., that rules the purchase of weapons by the Arab nations. I'll add also an arms race feature: if no-one starts to purchase other units then the other players will do the same, but as soon as one starts a buildup of forces his neighbors will emulate him. The decision to start an arms race on part of the a.i. will depend on the aggressiveness of the leader and the strategic situation, so a weaker nation will try to balance the strength of his neighbors.
Then I'll start working on the informative text, a painful job that I'll try to do as quickly as I can.

mirror download link

2007-04-23T21:20:00.000+02:00

Here's new link to download the game, in case the other site is slow.

second release

2007-04-23T12:22:00.000+02:00

There's a new release, this has been tested on several PCs, so it should work.
Download the archive from here, unzip, and open index.htm with Internet Explorer. If you don't have the plugin already installed it should download automatically (be sure you're connected). At the start of the relase notes I added some lines with the new instructions.
Note that the old link to download the game has been removed; note also that rapidshare has not infinite download bandwidth, so you might have to wait for a few minutes before being able to download the file.

smadonnando...

2007-04-22T22:03:00.000+02:00

Obviously something went wrong, the viewer has got a couple of issues. Quest3d can be incredibly good but also enormously idiot sometimes.
I'll release a new version tomorrow that should bypass the bug in the viewer, the only minor problem is that the player will have to use a keyboard command instead of using right click.

Willy and the Poor Boys

2007-04-21T21:22:00.001+02:00

Surprise! version 0.8 is ready! here's the link to download it (NOTE, I removed the file because the version had a bug, the new link is two posts after this one!)
In order to play the game unzip the file, then open cme folder, then double click on file called "cme08r1". If you don't have the viewer on your pc it should download automatically. To quit the program press esc.
There's some accompanying notes regarding the new controls and, more important, regarding the war.
Enjoy, and as always, if you have problems opening the game let me know.

news of the world

2007-04-11T07:53:00.000+02:00

I took a break this Easter, a couple of days to recharge the batteries. I have to finish copying and pasting the code that rules war for Syria and Jordan, then version 0.8 will come out.
The main tasks for the next version will be to add all the informative text and to add a menu for the player which will let him purchase more weapons. If I can do this by July I can present the game to the quest3d competition.

Aoxomoxoa

2007-03-23T20:02:00.000+01:00

I'm late on the schedule, terribly late. The reason: the new war system (which is complete) needed a different handling of the turns. I'm coming up in these days with a new flow for the entire program. It seems a big issue but it's not, it'll only take some time.
I realize I really had to completely design the game before starting programming, I made so many mistakes I could write the book "The 5000 things you shouldn't do when making a videogame", but the experience points gained are a lot, and my desire to produce a complete product is stronger than ever.

the new war system reprise

2007-03-07T20:59:00.000+01:00

I've finished the new war engine at 90%. I'm now working on the interface of the military deployment menu: I decided that, even if it's probably the hardest activity I've done in the develompment process, the visual design of the screens is of the utmost importance. I reckon I'll spend another two weeks working on the new interface: it will let the player decide the deployment of the units directly on a map and no more through horrible buttons.

the new war system #2

2007-02-22T19:59:00.000+01:00

There isn't much to say: I'm still working on the war system. However I would never leave my four readers with empty hands, so here's a screenshot of the new GUI, this is the screen of the displomatic options, pretty self-explanatory. The screen for the military options is being created, it will be more complex, and less polite, but I have to speed up the creation because I want to present the game for a competition on quest3d.com

working hard on the new war system

2007-02-02T20:46:00.000+01:00

The title says it all. The old war system is being replaced by a new one. The old system was very buggy, probably the worst coded section of the game. Not only I'm rewriting it, but also I thought about a whole new sub-section of the game.

First of all, the player will have five army corps: tanks, helos, artillery, infantry, SAMs.
For both players:
tanks will attack artillery
helos will attack tanks
artillery will attack infantry
infantry will attack SAMs
SAMs will attack helos
This is gonna make war more spicy, even because the player will be able to choose the deployment (offensive or defensive) of the five corps for each front. The battles will be fought at turns (e.g. first the Israeli tanks will attack, then egyptian infantry will): the player, and the a.i., will choose the attack order at each turn. The player retaining the initiative will have the first move. The -hopefully- intriguing thing is that the human player will have to carefully plan the order of attack to maximize his advantages.

After this model will be completed I'll release version 0.8.
I reckon this is gonna take a couple of months.

new interface

2007-01-17T13:55:00.000+01:00

I'm at the fourth (and hopefully final) re-make of the GUI. The problem I had was: how to fill the screen with the buttons I made and rest of the graphics? the buttons etc. were not enough to fill the screen unless making them giant, a rather bad-looking solution. I realized that simply I could leave the screen with large void spaces. The background will be a darkened version of the main game map, this should leave the player with a link with what happens on the battlefield and what he makes in the options screen. These psychological problems are quite unexpected, I want to resolve every single aspect of the game, since I'm convinced a good final product will not only require coding but also a nice interface. I'll post a screenshot of the GUI as soon as it is completed.

a good GUI

2007-01-05T17:39:00.000+01:00

Let's not consider the word game of the title. I'm redoing the gui, the buttons, the menus etc...
Including the map we can say the graphics has been redone at 100%
The game should look nicer now, I spent a lot of time merely thinking the best design, which is quite a hard activity. I can't say when everything will be done, but I really have enough of this part, merely because I have the sensation my progresses were too slow. Last night I wasted three hours just to decide that it was better to make a texture 512x128 rather than 512x64...

the new map

2006-12-23T12:52:00.000+01:00

The work on the new map is over! here's a screenshot, isn't it nice? isn't it nice???? the national boundaries are the result of an extra job from vmap0 dataset. I like the fact that the map is not just a rectangle with a texture applied, but it's a "real 3d thing", you can clearly see the mountains, and the extra detail is achieved thanks to a normal map.
I can now start working on the new gui.
Meanwhile... merry Christmas!

two bloody months spent on the bloody new map

2006-12-19T13:55:00.000+01:00

Yes, it's the time it's taking to finish the new graphics, then I'll have to start with the new gui...
The good thing is that I've learnt a lot of new things, and now the map should have a better look. I only have to complete the map with the political boundaries, I've tried to mix the old map with the new one but the results were disappointing even if the projections of the two maps match.

normal mapping

2006-12-04T11:41:00.000+01:00

I've made a map combining texture and normal mapping, applied upon a very low poly model (my first idea required more than seven millions of polygons!). I'm still not satisfied because the squares that make up the final map can't be perfectly aligned, and the space between one and another can be seen. I've tried with one unique mesh, with rather big textures (8192 x 4096) but it seems it's too big a dimension for the engine (i.e. I can't see anything on the screen...)
I'll make some other tests, but I hope this part will not take too much time.

.fx shaders

2006-11-24T17:01:00.000+01:00

Another struggle, against .fx shaders. I'm not satisfied with the models I'm importing into my engine: my ideas were not to use texture maps, but only vertex colours. I believed this let the engine run smoother, but it's not like that. A convincing bitmap translation into vertex colors requires tons of vertices, so my ideas were wrong and I'm swiftly looking for different solutions.
I'll try to realize a combination of:

1) mid-poly models
2) normal mapping
3) vertex colors
4) texture mapping

I might switch to low polys models, as probably the point of view of the player will never get so close to discover the tricks. I've found FX composer by nvidia, I'll experiment with it in the weekend and I'll try to have clearer ideas by the next week.

still working

2006-11-20T10:57:00.000+01:00

I'm making some tests for the new graphics. I'm not satisfied with the raw conversion from a bmp to vertex colours, so now I'm experimenting with a raster to vector software: I take a bmp of a piece of terrain, I vectorize it, then I rasterize the vector, then I apply this "vec-ras" image to the vertex colours. The result I'm seeking is something like a cartoon-style map.

the privilege of the creator

2006-11-09T14:15:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, after weeks of stress, fighting against complicated programs like Blender and XSI, after hours and hours spent documenting on .x file format and on directx shaders I found a solution for my problem: how to convert a texture applied onto a mesh into vertex colors of the mesh itself.
I wanted a program to do this because I have to import large terrain data into the game, but I didn't want to use textures: for good results with terrain visualization they should be very detailed, and thus very large. Rather than loading a 200megs texture onto the program I prefer to use a high-poly mesh, whose vertices are colored according to a landsat texture of the same region.

The nice sensation, which probably only inventors or programmers or creators can experience, is to have found the light after a period of total obscurity, to have done something which was so simple and obvious but took so much difficulty to reach. In my case I tried very complex 3d modeling applications, posting tons of threads in all the forums of the world, and this vertex colors "thing" seemed such an advanced concept! Yesterday I found a program, Ultimate Unwrap 3d, which costs only 50$, and that can do this job with a couple of clicks.

I successfully converted a piece of elevation data into a 3d mesh with another nice program, Accutrans, and then applied and converted a texture with UU3d. Since I was rather sceptic and depressed, for million of tests already failed, I used a photo of a girl playing with a d***o.
I will always keep this .x mesh, the prize of my perverted perseverance.

blender & co.

2006-11-06T11:37:00.000+01:00

I suspended the coding, my efforts are 100% dedicated to the creation of a new map. I'm trying to export a mesh created in Blender into quest3d, the problem is that vertex color information is lost during the transition, so basically I'm hammering all the forums in the world to solve the problem. The vertex color issue is absolutely important, I can't really use a 100 megs texture of half Europe and the Middle East.
I've tried also with XSI foundation, but again its .x exporter sucks.

friends and foes

2006-10-23T10:14:00.000+02:00

I've re-done the part that rules the search for an ally for every country. The rule works as for the search of an enemy: every country will look for one friend and will adjust its non-vital interests to this friend. The non-vital interests are the relations with all the states which are not the current main objective of the country.
I feel so-so, the work on the new graphics has been mentally distressing.

news

2006-10-06T09:05:00.000+02:00

My efforts are now divided between two things: setting up a scheme for dynamic relations between countries, and trying to figure out how to import real terrain data of the middle east into the game engine in order to have a better graphics. The first effort led me to this scheme: each country compares its power with the power of its neighbours, those weaker than him become his possible targets, the weakest becomes his immediate objective. If he’s weaker than his neighbors he’ll expect to be attacked, and thus will try to establish good relations and alliances with the neighbors of his neighbor. If he feels he’s the main target of another nation he’ll try desperately to establish good relations with those neighbors of the neighbour by matching his foreign policy with that of the nation that he’s trying to approach. Quite complicated to explain in English, the sum is that a realist approach will drive all the a.i.-controlled countries, they’ll be scared by the power of their neighbors, and excited by their weakness, which should form a chequered pattern of relations.

The second effort is driving me to insanity, I haven’t decided yet how to import terrain data into the program. I’m learning Blender now and I’m fighting against contour lines, elevations, mapping projections etc., every time I think I’m near to have the complete picture something else opens a new galaxy that I have to explore.

dynamic relations

2006-09-26T14:55:00.000+02:00

In the past days I've been thinking a lot on how to create a dynamic system for relations between the countries. The system should model a realist point of view: countries will be frightened by stronger armies, while weaker nations will stimulate the worst appetites. I'm not coding too much, to think about this system is hard enough.

new version

2006-09-09T09:41:00.000+02:00

Hi all, it seems that the only viewer working right now is the incredibly slow web viewer. Here's the instructions:
1) download the new file here
2) unzip
3) open the file index.htm with Internet Explorer, and let explorer visualize the blocked content (the yellow bar)
4) at this point you should see a warning message telling you that you need the most recent viewer, if you accept it will download automatically
5) after the installation the viewer will load the project
6) it is slow!!! sorry for this but anyway you'll not spend much time on this version

version 0.7

2006-09-07T13:48:00.000+02:00

I'm uploading the new version on the new file hosting service MediaMax, is should be easier now to download the game, just clik on this link and you'll donwload a .rar file, decompress the file using winrar, you'll find many files in the directory, run the file named cme. In order to play the game you'll have to download the q3d viewer which you can find here. The controls are the same: left click on a country to bring up the menu, right click to go back to the map, press Z to advance of one turn, press spacebar to reset the game.

Now let's talk about this release: it took so long to do it, but I did a lot of things.
1) The a.i. can now take decisions whether to declare war or to offer an alliace to the other countries.
2) The a.i. can have arabs fight wars between each other.
3) If Arab country A is already at war with Arab country B, then only a fraction of A's army will be available against Israel. This fraction is partially random, partially determined by the strength of B's army.

There's a ton of things to do now, the most important of which is to add informative text for everything that happens during a turn. Now the only informative text that appears includes limited information on the internal oppositions and little else. This thing will be fixed by version 0.9. With version 0.8 I plan to finish the logic beneath all the buttons in the displays for each country (now many buttons do not have any effect). Before version 0.8 I might release version 0.75 which would add dynamic relations between arab countries. For example: A has good relations with B, but has bad relations with C. B and C sign an alliance, then A will have bad relations with B. However this feature might be added later.
If you've got any problems with the viewer let me know, for I'm using a beta release of quest3d.

this time it's true

2006-09-03T11:01:00.000+02:00

Yes, this time I'm really near version 0.7, I'll try to explain what I've done in the past two weeks. A.I. works on values that make certain decisions more or less probable, for example if a country has a weak army it will be less probable it will go on war than if it had a strong army. There many of these modifiers for each country: regarding the army, the relations with one's own neighbors, with his enemy's neighbors etc. These values are of tremendous importance for the final balance of the game, so they will have to be carefully tested and they'll have to be changed many many times. What I have done is to prepare an automatic system for the change of all of these values in a few clicks. Thanks to this, I'll be able to implement various levels of difficulty for these values in the end make the a.i. more or less aggressive.

towards version 0.7 - #3

2006-08-21T17:07:00.000+02:00

I've almost completed the code linking the war between the player and his neighbors to the war between the arab countries, a task which proved to be harder than I expected. Then I want to change to modifiers for the a.i., that currently includes too many factors and is very unbalanced. I know I scheduled version 0.7 to be ready long ago but I prefer to release a working version, plus, since this part accounts for a good 50% of the game, I don't want to speed up anything at the price of a bad final result.
A major lesson that I've learnt working on version 0.7 is the need for debug keys: for example now I have to test some triggers that should activate when nations are at war. I didn't prepare debug keys to have those nations declare war on my will, so I will have to test these conditions during normal sessions of game.

towards version 0.7 - #2

2006-08-10T12:46:00.000+02:00

I've set up a very simple mechanism for war between the arabs: when at war, the two nations battling have one chance to make a hit every turn. If one nations scores five times and has an advantage of two scores over the opponent it wins the war. Another case is that when a nations has an advantage of three scores over the adversary: in that case it wins without the need to have the minimum of five scores. The chance to score a hit is based upon the usual proficiency value.
I think this system, despite simple, models war between arab countries in a good way.
I'm now working on how a war between arabs affects the number of troops that the same arab countries can deploy against Israel. I thought this system, let's take for example Syria: it has -let's say- 120 units, which is 100% of its strength deployable against Israel. If Syria comes to war against Iraq a floating percentual value of its army will not be deployable anymore. If it comes to war against Jordan or Lebanon there's another percentual value subtracted from the total. This way if the player can establish an alliance with Iraq against Syria, he will have to fight against only a fraction of the total number of units that Syria has.
The problem is to decide how this floating percentual value actually floats... it could be that it floats based upon the relative proficiencies of the armies involved (if Iraq has a more powerful army Syria will be deprived of more units than it was if Iraq had a terrible army).

towards version 0.7

2006-07-28T13:57:00.000+02:00

Ok, the a.i. has been completed for all the countries, it will take some days (or weeks) to refine it and produce a version 0.7. Basically I have to do some tests, and also to link the a.i. to the way war, peace and alliance are modelled. I really can't make plans at this point, but in August I should be able to push ahead the development.

untitled

2006-07-19T20:57:00.000+02:00

I'm modifiying the modifiers ruling the a.i. Basically I'll add something and I'll remove some other thing. I think that in one week this milestone will be over, but will be this enough for the a.i.? now the computer opponents make their choices on a random basis: my modifiers are just a way to make certain decisions more or less probable. I've got no knowledge of a.i. so this is the best I can do, I think in most cases it will suffice but I might have to add other thing. For now the milestone of version 0.7 is set and I will not place it further.

relations between arabs

2006-07-08T11:15:00.000+02:00

This part of the game is taking a bit. For every country controlled by the computer I'm setting up these relations:
1) with the bordering countries
2) with the neighbours of these bordering countries

For example, Sirya is gonna have relations with:
1) Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq
2) Iran, Egypt

Second phase: for each bordering country the relations will be the sum of these values:
a) base relation between the two countries
b) military proficiency of the two countries
c) base relations with the other bordering countries
d) military proficiency of these other bordering countries
e) relations between the bordering country and all its neighbours

Let's take Sirya again, and it's relations with Jordan, the relations will be the sum of:
a) relations Sirya-Jordan
b) military proficiencies of Syria and Jordan
c) relations Sirya-Israel, Sirya-Lebanon, Sirya-Iraq
d) military proficiencies of Israel, Lebanon, Iraq
e) relations Jordan-Israel and Jordan-Iraq

The relations with the neighbors of the bordering countries contain less variables but the principle remains the same. The values of these variables will be summed and compared each turn with a random number, thus deciding whether there will be a declaration of war or an alliance offer.
I think it will take a couple of weeks to set up all these relations.

arab wars

2006-06-28T12:26:00.000+02:00

I'm still studying how to implement war between the Arab countries. I've thought about a simplified model, in which for example if Egypt is at war with Libya only half or 2/3 of its army will be available against Israel. This model would be much simpler to do but would reduce realism and fun. Otherwise I might use the same detailed calculator that is used for war between Arabs and Israel, but that would be a hell to do, and I risk to get lost, especially with a.i.
Also, I eventually decided not to participate in that competition. Simply, because there's still not much to play with in the game.

a small break

2006-06-22T11:20:00.000+02:00

I've taken a small break, I explored new ways to improve the graphics, plus I reinstalled winxp 5 times.
I'm back now and I'm setting up the relations between the arab countries: for each couple I'll setup a scale of relations form -2 to +2, that means from a 25% of chances of war between the couple per turn, to a 25% of chances of an alliance between the couple per turn.

version 0.6

2006-06-16T16:32:00.000+02:00

I'm uploading now version 0.6
War has been added between Israel and Egypt, Sirya, Lebanon and Jordan. War between these countries can be triggered by the player by selecting the "start invasion" option, in that case the player will be accounted for the war and he'll lose one policy token till the end of that war to model the loss of options a government has when it starts a war. If war is declared upon the player there will be no loss of tokens nor of loss of points at the end of the game. If one wants to test this option can repeatedly try to assassinate the leader of one those countries, at the second or third attempt that country will declare war on Israel. To advance one turn as always press Z, while to reset everything press SPACEBAR.
Note: I'll have to adjust the modifiers for government's stability, I've seen that almost all Arab government where falling after a couple of turns...
Next task is to setup relations between the Arabs.

d'oh stupid blogger.com

2006-06-06T18:44:00.000+02:00

Stupid blogger.com it's too slow! yesterday I posted 23 times the same thing because it was all blocked...

and stops my mind from wandering

2006-06-05T18:49:00.002+02:00

The part concerning war is done, I'll just have to apply the same calculation for all the countries bordering Israel. This will complete version 0.6, while in 0.7 I'll set up an ai for wars between the Arabs.
However I made a test and I think I adopted very nice solutions, the player could find himself in terrible numerical inferiority and still kicking hard the enemy! the concept of mobile reserve could be found also in the original game, for the units could be removed from or deployed to the fronts, but in many matches I made I never used this feature, and usually I found myself to defeat the Arab countries one after another, while I'd like the player to find himself attacked on all fronts at the same time.

war (reprise)

2006-06-03T10:01:00.000+02:00

The calculation for the battles is almost completed. I still have to place a security mechanism let's say. The reason is that the player could sniff the mechanism behind the battle resolution, and he could place just a couple of units on a certain front, maybe against 80 enemy units, because his initiative will make sure that the calculation is based on his two units! that means the calculation will have a counter of two, and then the battle will cease for that turn. I will insert a mechanism so that if the player has less than 1/5 (or another fraction, I'll have to test it) of the enemy's units the initiative will pass in any case to the enemy.

war

2006-05-26T19:49:00.000+02:00

After 10 days of inactivity due to my CCNA exam I'm working again on war. I've set up a simple mechanism for the battle resolution based on one factor: proficiency of the armies involved. It is a simple value which every round is compared to a random value, this comparison will determine if a unit has succeeded to destroy the enemy unit. If not the enemy has a counterattack at disposal. The calculation is repeated for every unit in the best army, which is the army with the highest proficiency. The reason is that the best army will retain the initiative and will impose it's pace on the worse army.
I'm not sure I'll submit the game to the q3d contest. My poor little game is still in an early stage of development, I risk to show the worst thing ever done in human history.

version 0.5

2006-05-17T20:46:00.000+02:00

I'm uploading version o.5 in the usual yahoo mail account. This time the file has been splitted in two because of the dimensions. The news is that now the player can try to kill the leader, which will trigger a civil war: when a dictator gets killed it is likely that everybody in his entourage will try to become the new chief. The chances of success are given by the public opinion (I've already explained what is intended with public opinion in this game): the more the public opinion sympathizes with Israel the more it will give a hand to the Israeli spy. A gray skull appears in the middle of the country which precipitates in a civil war, and a lot of points will be detracted from the player's final score.
I forgot to explain the basic commands. Left click selects a country and the policy options. Right click goes back to the main map. With "Z" the player advances by one turn. Spacebar is used to generate new random values.
My next task is an important one: war! I will have to setup a basic war modifier, so that war with a country gets closer or farther given the policy followed by the player. I'll also have to setup a basic AI so that Arab countries make war with each other...

opposition (again)

2006-05-05T19:34:00.000+02:00

I'm working on the effects of a winning democratic or islamist revolution. Simply, like in the original version, the country the revolution succeed is out of the game. It would be interesting to have the player to care about the stability of a newly created democracy in a country, but that would be beyond the scope of the game, which is not open-ended.
Another issue is with Iran, which is already an Islamist republic, so the player would be only allowed to finance the democratic opposition, or might substitude the islamist opposition with a marxist one, but I'm not sure how many marxists there are in Iran.
One last word: in the game there's the democratic opposition, which only means pro-western opposition, because if we look at Algeria or Palestine we see islamist movements reaching power through democracy.

version 0.4

2006-04-30T13:49:00.000+02:00

After some time of not so hard work here's version 0.4 Now all the countries but Israel and the Palestinian authority can be accessed. One can see the effects on the relations and on the public opinion of the various foreign policy options, for example the effects of supporting the opposition. Still there's not much to play with but the project is going on steadily, so I'm satisfied. I'm still thinking about a better layout for the big displays of the various countries. The problem is to have all the options in a single window, and the options should be divided in logical areas. Now these requirements are met but it's not very eye candy.
Israel and the Palestinian authority will be done later, for they'll require different options. Version 0.4 is available on the usual yahoo mail account, the password has been removed from the blog but anyone can ask it to me.

the opposition

2006-04-11T18:18:00.000+02:00

The oppositions modifiers are done. Basically the player can support two kinds of movements: democratic and islamist. When the player decides to start a coup the stronger movement will start the revolt, and the weaker one will join the government. The reason is that the two types of opposition are likely to fight each other for they are too different to ally in a real situation. The government would probably choose an agreement with the weaker opposition because it knows that the weaker opposition knows it would be exterminated by the stronger revolutionary party if it toppled the government. Thus the player can support both opposition because this would make the government weaker but then it would be more difficult for the coup to succeed.
Another news is that I eventually decided to work on all coutries' modifiers. So far I've been working on Libya's modifiers, so that I could easily copy and paste the code for the other countries. The code for Libya is becoming more complicated, so if I don't extend the work to all countries I risk to lose the sight of important things and to forget how I did something etc.

a few news

2006-04-08T20:15:00.000+02:00

I've added the modifiers for stability and for the two different kinds of opposition. I don't remember if I ever talked about this but it is possible to choose to support the democratic or the islamist opposition. The democratic opposition is weaker but it will bring a higher final score, the islamist is stronger but once a country has an islamist regime it will spread this form of government in the whole area. No more news, I've been doing part three of CCNA plus the intro exam. This week I'll work more on the game, and a new release is to be posted soon.

modifiers

2006-03-19T13:17:00.000+01:00

I've added the modifiers that link the leadership strength with the public opinion and the overall relations. The sense is this: a strong leadership will influence the public opinion and it will convince it about its foreign relations with Israel. A weak leadership will be influenced by the public opinion about the same subject. With an average leadership the calculation is slightly more complicated but let's say it will influence or it will be influenced by the public opinion given certain conditions. What is the public opinion related to the Arab countries? it is not to be intended like in western nations, it is more or less the influence that the historical families, the factions, the local clerics have on the national government. Even if the Arab nations are not democracies it doesn't mean that political power is not shared among many people: on the contrary there's a complex web of relations (that neither experts can fully grasp) on various levels of society that mount a pressure on governments. This pressure is condensed in the expression "public opinion": it is a tremendous force that weak leaders can mount, and that strong men can influence. This week I'll add the modifiers for stability: in general, the wider the gap between public opinion and foreign relations as set by the leadership, the less stable will be that regime; the stronger the leadership, the more stable will be that regime. I hope my English is clear enough.

third release

2006-03-07T20:39:00.000+01:00

It is time to release another version. It is possible to select only Libya and Egypt but it is enough to see how the tokens and the mobile reserve will work. I will now work on the invisible modifiers and on the visible messages appearing on the displays (on the big white stripe beneath the military options). The file is available on the usual yahoo mail account. David, what do you think about what has been done so far? do you like the new ideas I've had?

new concept

2006-03-04T20:05:00.000+01:00

I've modified the army deployment options: now the player can deploy the exact number of units on a front, retire some troops on another front etc. This way I can simulate the strategy of the internal lines, thus rendering the battles more dynamic. No other additions, I've had two busy weeks.

untitled

2006-02-20T20:27:00.000+01:00

I've completed the main display with all the policy options which will be available for all the countries. I've arranged the display so that in one shot the player can decide the course of action for that country. The style probably isn't so nice, but I really preferred the player to take all the decisions in one window. There are some changes from the original: for example now the player can support or disrupt the internal dissidents choosing between the islamist or the democratic opposition. The islamist opposition will take less time to widen and to erode the government's consensus among the people, but has serious drawbacks; on the contrary the democratic opposition will take more time to grow and eventually topple a government but it will increase the final score and it will give the player a bonus of policy tokens. Another modification is the military options: the purchasing phase has disappeared, as I found it of little interest. Now the player will start with an army value of 100, and he will be able to spend a token to strengthen the army by 5 every turn. The same can do his foes. The player can deploy every turn 10 "percent" or the entire army on a certain front. It is not exactly a percentage but an absolute value, in fact if the player strengthens his army and it brings its value at 115 his options will not change: to deploy 10 or to deploy 115 (all of his army) on a certain front. When battles are fought the "percentage" of the army deployed will go down because of casualties: so for example the player deploys 20 "percent" of his army on the Siryan front the next turn he will find that 17,5 "percent" remains on that front. I don't know which word I could use instead of "percentage", however I hope the concept is clear.

restyling

2006-02-10T18:32:00.000+01:00

I've spent the past three days on a new design, the original one was honestly horrible, while now the game looks much better: no more textures, everything is a 3d object! the result is that the game is faster too. The new version is available on the usual email address.
I also had an idea that would change the game's mechanics: the player will have a limited number of "policy tokens" to spend. For example he will have 5 tokens, so he will be able to establish good relations with one country, to support a dissident group, to assassinate a leader, to expand the army, and to post a brigade in the west bank, and no more than this! I will see if this concept works.
I've been experiencing something that I missed for a lot of years: new ideas. When I wanted to be a film director (at the high school) I used to have tons of ideas for plots, charachters etc. and many times these ideas came when I was about to sleep. I'm starting to experience all of this with this project, and I'm surprised that a gift I believed to be extinct only had to be fertilized.

first pre-pre-alpha

2006-02-06T18:00:00.000+01:00

I've worked on the basic interface, so the result is an interactive map of the middle east. If the player goes on a country a small description of that coutries appears, with five indicators. I intend to use these indicators as multipliers that will simulate an artificial intelligence of the arab countries. When the program starts these parameters are set randomly, so each game will be quite different from the others, the user can now press spacebar to see the change. Some parameter will influence the other parameters, for example a strong leadership will, each turn, improve the stability and the military strength (a reason for the player to fight early any charismatic leader that arises). A note on the military strength: it is a random value so it could be that Lebanon has a powerful army. It might sound odd, but in history the relative size of an army had seldom mattered (see Alexander's campaigns, the battle of Leuctra, Tannenberg, the Russo-Finnish war etc. etc. etc.), while the organization and the commanders always had more importance. So it is realistic that in small Lebanon a military genius emerges and conducts a great campaign. This multiplier however will be combined with another fixed or semi-fixed parameter that is the actual manpower, so to make an example: a spectacular Lebanese army would have the same overall destructiveness of an Egyptian army of average quality. I didn't define this second parameter so I can't tell the final results but this is the idea.
I decided this thing about the military power to obviate what was a flaw (in my opinion) of the original game: that the military strengths seemed to be fixed, so Libya was always defeated by Egypt, Lebanon's power was non-existent, Jordan was very weak etc.
I set up an address to store the various versions as soon as I implement something new. To play the .exe you need the viewer, you can download it at
http://www.quest3d.com/download/Quest3D_Viewers_3.0e.exe
The email address is

conflictmiddleeast@yahoo.it
password: ***********

untitled

2006-01-29T15:18:00.000+01:00

I've done the first exam of CCNA course, so this week I'll work again on the game. The map is done, I'll start with the interface design and with the interactivity of the interface, buttons, sliders etc.

some planning

2006-01-23T19:46:00.000+01:00

I have an exam this saturday (first part of CCNA course) and I'm doing some subnetting exercise, so I've got less time for the game. However I've started with the map, it will be very simple: it will be formed by a first level with the outlines of the states, and by a second level with the actual shapes of the countries. I want the game to playable with the mouse, so the shapes of the countries will be interactive elements, clicking on them will display a screen with the policy options for the current turn. There's other minor adjustements I'd like to implement later; for now I'm trying to write down some basic planning, with all the things to do, I'm sure this will bring some order, along with new ideas.

stupid memory game

2006-01-20T16:32:00.000+01:00

The stupid game of the title is almost finished. Meanwhile I started looking for maps of the Middle East on the web. I haven't decided yet whether to use satellite maps or not. The memory usage is not an issue I think, rather it's a design issue, I just don't like games that use those maps.

jeez

2006-01-17T19:13:00.000+01:00

I'm not a programmer, so even the most stupid thing like building a small memory game for me is an absurd difficulty. Before I start the cme project I'd like to have at least a basic knowledge of the program. Another difficulty is that I bought the lite version, which has very very limited features. I hope these restrictions do not come up when I'm already at a good point with cme.

conflict: middle east

2006-01-14T20:18:00.000+01:00

Many many thanks to Mr. Eastman, he has been very kind letting me remake "Conflict: Middle East", an old and simple, yet incredibly funny for me, strategy game about politics and war. This project will let me have a good training in the use of Quest3d. Agreeing to the conditions put by Mr. Eastman I'll keep this blog to inform on the development of the game. In the end the game will be completely freeware, and also the code, or better the file containing the channels, will be shared with everyone for free. Probably you'll find the code somewhere on www.quest3d.com. Note that I've just started to use the program, so the actual development of the game could take some time.
Again, many thanks to Mr. Eastman.

the starting point

2006-01-14T20:10:00.000+01:00

From: Marco Fera
To: David Eastman
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2006 7:17 PM
Subject: conflict middle east

Dear Mr. Eastman,
I am a young indie developer. I literally loved your game "Conflict: Middle East", and I would like to try to develop a re-make of this little jewel to train myself in the use of Quest3d, an authoring program I'm learning. I'm asking you the authorization for this re-make, obviously it would be clearly stated that my game is just a clone, and you would be credited for the original. Also, this version would be freeware.
I tried to look at Virgin Interactive, the original owners of the rights for the game, but it seems the company has been sold to other companies that eventually bankrupted, so it's a bit difficult to contact the old proprietors.
Feel free to deny me the authorization, I will understand it: I can only imagine the efforts you put in that game. Please, let me know any remark or suggestion.
Thanks for your time
Marco Fera

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: David Eastman
To: Marco Fera
Subject: Re: conflict middle east
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 16:50:53 -0000

Hi Marco,

First of all thank you for asking me. You are more than welcome to go ahead.
I probably had a part of my contract that stipulated that rights returned to me after a period in which the game wasn't published. Either way, there is no legal issue.

My only restrictions are are:

- The game and code must be freeware
- Keep a development blog if you can, and make your code available via a website.
- Yes, please credit me! Thank you.
- I have no code, so you are on your own.

Other than that please enjoy yourself and keep me informed as you go (via the blog). You will probably want to innovate in places so please do.

regards

David Eastman