Реших да направя една темичка, където да събирам информацията за новата "мистериозна" (вече не чак толкова) игра на Victor ReijKersz (VR Designs) (създател на игри, за които съм правил теми тук и сме писали като Peoples Tatics, Advanced Tactics, Small General и Decesive Campaigns (от която излязоха досега две "серии", идната година ще излиза третата, посветена на операция "Барбароса")). Поне за мен (както е често с неговите проекти) играта звучи като нещо, което съм търсил отдавна, т.е. много интересен проект, въпреки че информацията е сравнително оскъдна. Но е възможно и друг да се заинтересува покрай мен, затова и създавам тази тема.
Първо, известното до момента (цитати от месечните отчети на Вик):
(т.е. играта като сетинг ще е ХХ век към НФ)
Този пост от блога му посочва кои стари игри са служили като вдъхновение за новата, та покрай това се промъква и още допълнително информация за проекта.
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Още не е ясно кога ще я завърши (няма да е тази година, това е сигурно), но проекта звучи изключително интересно за мен, както с оглед на досега показаното, така и на предишните проекти на Вик (едновременно много добри и много добре поддържани през годините).
Първо, известното до момента (цитати от месечните отчети на Вик):
I am spending most of my time on the new mystery project “workname Empire”. This is proceeding nicely and an artdirector has just been signed on. Work on the GUI and the campaign should occupy me the coming months here. I already wrote the storyline for the first 5 scenarios (of about 18) and will now implement them first for some internal alpha testing and seeing if it works, is fun and is interesting. It was nice to do some story writing for a change, but will have to see if my internal and business partners agree here. Let’s just say that I am aiming to make the campaign an interesting blend between a wargame and an interactive story.
I had some setbacks with the AI I was coding for Workname Empire. And putting quality above else I had to restart. As usual i tried to make a to deep AI in the first attempt and it turned out I couldn’t manage to make it work at any reasonable speed. Like just 100 iterations for a small group of maybe 5 units already took like 20 seconds… And if I actually made the AI look into the deeper future (like a round or 3) its speed dropped to completely unacceptable. So I took a big breath and restarted, this time using an approach that will guarantee speed. Where in the previous attempts I used cloned game states of the actual game state I am now using an abstract representation of the game state. Much like the human mind probably 
Basically when considering its moves the AI is now in its own little world, a world that is much more simple data-wise than the real game and thus much faster. I think a speed gain of at least up to a 100 times is going to be achieved by this new approach. This will leave room to add some some optional higher AI settings for players who want to wait longer to get better results.
I have made quite some further gameplay improvements to Workname Empire as well. Longer development time has some payoffs. The most interesting thing to share is that the leader model is really starting to get a lot body. The leaders are getting a lot of personality and development opportunities now. There are four classes: Troopers, Technicals, Administrators and Barbarians. Although I am not limiting the player in their character development there is a penalty for learning skills belonging to other classes. The interplay between regular combat units and the leaders is very good and I think it will be one of the strong points of this game. In a sense this game is going where no wargame has gone before. The game will also show the player that larger forces can be overcome by smaller forces if led by able and experienced officers.
Basically when considering its moves the AI is now in its own little world, a world that is much more simple data-wise than the real game and thus much faster. I think a speed gain of at least up to a 100 times is going to be achieved by this new approach. This will leave room to add some some optional higher AI settings for players who want to wait longer to get better results.
I have made quite some further gameplay improvements to Workname Empire as well. Longer development time has some payoffs. The most interesting thing to share is that the leader model is really starting to get a lot body. The leaders are getting a lot of personality and development opportunities now. There are four classes: Troopers, Technicals, Administrators and Barbarians. Although I am not limiting the player in their character development there is a penalty for learning skills belonging to other classes. The interplay between regular combat units and the leaders is very good and I think it will be one of the strong points of this game. In a sense this game is going where no wargame has gone before. The game will also show the player that larger forces can be overcome by smaller forces if led by able and experienced officers.
Well the game will be aimed at a bit of a larger audience, but it will sport a logistical/supply system actually a little bit more intricate than ATG and it will defenitely not field any german panzers of any kind for sure 
there will be 3 seperate play modes: a campaign game, random world games and stand-alone scenarios with four classes of leaders : Troopers, Technicals, Administrators and Barbarians.
(...)
it will be a different game than ATG and the DC series. Basically because I already have AT and DC and am also still working on them. I dont want to be a one trick pony. Workname Empire is aimed at a larger group of players while retaining the hardcore features of my previous wargames in more accessible format. The first title for this engine will indeed not be historical. You have to take some risks sometimes. But I will defenitely evaluate after release if that was smart.
The initial technology level will be very reminiscent of the mid 20th century. However as tech progresses the equipment and upgrades will get more modern era and even early SF-era. For example sideskirts (for tanks) is one of the research fields available, but so is eventually cybernetics research.
(...)
it will be a different game than ATG and the DC series. Basically because I already have AT and DC and am also still working on them. I dont want to be a one trick pony. Workname Empire is aimed at a larger group of players while retaining the hardcore features of my previous wargames in more accessible format. The first title for this engine will indeed not be historical. You have to take some risks sometimes. But I will defenitely evaluate after release if that was smart.
The initial technology level will be very reminiscent of the mid 20th century. However as tech progresses the equipment and upgrades will get more modern era and even early SF-era. For example sideskirts (for tanks) is one of the research fields available, but so is eventually cybernetics research.
One element I liked in Strategic Command 2 was the ability to chose which unit will receive which research upgrades. For a part of the research fields in like for example expensive environment suits you’ll see the same optional upgrades in Workname Empire.
However I must say I like the effect of non-upgradeable research as well since it creates diversity in your armies between state-of-the-art and older technology.
However I must say I like the effect of non-upgradeable research as well since it creates diversity in your armies between state-of-the-art and older technology.
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Още не е ясно кога ще я завърши (няма да е тази година, това е сигурно), но проекта звучи изключително интересно за мен, както с оглед на досега показаното, така и на предишните проекти на Вик (едновременно много добри и много добре поддържани през годините).
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