Dynamic Campaign in the simple form

[Fri13]

The dynamic campaign isn't impossible problem if not wanted to do it so. Many game developers has been required to develop it.

 

Next are just very rough/raw simplified examples:

 

You need to layout the framework for it by:

• Design the military structure.
  
• Design the tactics AI (formations, rules of engagements etc)
  
• Design the strategy AI
  
• Design the logistics AI (fuel, ammunition, vehicles etc)
  
• Design the moral/fear/greed AI
  
• Design the AI mesh communication networking over map.
  

 

What it basically means is that you have map divided to areas, that is basically automated already because you have the data for towns, crossroads, harbors, railroads. And then you have map with MGRS. You basically do a rough grid or hex map. And you give different weight to different grids/hexes based its strategic or tactical benefits or threats:

• If road is empty, it isn't a threat.
  
• If recon detects an enemy colonna moving on the road, the road is marked as a strategically or tactically important based the colonna size, units, destination of road etc.
  
• If enemy controls two cities/towns, then road between those is marked as a strategically or tactically important.
  
• If the road leads to friendly controlled city, the road is marked as a threat and importance is raised by various logics (friendly city size, amount of troops in the city, size of enemy movement, the threat position in the threat map (edge of your controlled areas is not so huge threat as enemy deep behind your lines).
  
• Does airfield/harbor/railstation etc exist in the area? Change the value of the area based that.
  
• What is the distance to the closest friendly and enemy controlled locations? Change the value of the area based that (means city behind enemy lines is not so highly valuable as city near already controlled area)
  

 

That would be just generating the strategically and tactically valuable mapping for AI to know how to move troops, where to call missions, recons and how to plan logistic routes.

 

Then you have supply AI that takes care of the supplies. Like airports can get transport aircrafts outside of the map, rail stations transport troops, fuel, ammunition between stations. Harbor allows ships to bring logistics. Roads allows fast transportation with colonna, while helicopters can transport anywhere on the map for troops.

Like the basic logistics is that first an aircraft like C-130 brings ammunition (like 50 AGM-65 and 50 AIM-120C) to controlled and well protected airfield. That means the C-130 actually flies to airport, lands and it is taken to airfield where it takes X amount of time to unload. Then the ammunition is calculated how to distribute it, on what airfields has shortage for given missiles. Then it is calculated is it faster/safer/possible to transport cargo on ground, on air or even on water. It takes some time to load the ammunition to required aircrafts (that means those needs to be available and called in for loading) and then get them transported. Then you can be sitting in the A-10C somewhere waiting that AGM-65 becomes available once it has been transported and unloaded, and then mission generator gets changes to start doing its work from there as ammunition required for missions is available.

 

Mission AI will weight threats and strategic areas, just very simple -10/+10 ratings.

It will plan the squads/platoons/companies/battalions to be used for given missions. Give them the mission parameters based the troops conditions. It will try to supply squads/platoons/companies/battalions in fighting order by commanding supply AI to deliver required supplies. It will also command retreats, joining troops (like if having two half-working platoons, it joins them as one), attacks and defense. Basically it is responsible to move troops around the map, but it will as well just create missions that are not executed but just offered (for players to fill). And it follows the real units percentage ratios like if losses for platoon are 30%, then that platoon can’t any more accomplish the missions expected from platoon, but is only anymore capable for tasks that are expected from a two squads. And if enemy has 3:1 ratio in firepower, it means defence is required, retreat is possible, but attack is impossible. If it is 1:1, then it is just defence and maybe movement to better positions (tactical map data, better to hold a city than hold an forest or hold an city center of forest than city on beach without supply line from sea) and if it has 3:1 or more, attack is wise, defense is possible but retreat is unwise.

 

The tactics AI is the common AI as now. It will plan just the flanking moves, times to strike and other individual units movements based the moral AI functions.

And moral AI is affected by many things like indirect fire support, surrounded by enemy, being part of larger force attacking/defending, having good supply lines and having recon data often acquired from enemy movements around. And of course having higher ranking/experienced troops with them.

 

The moral AI would simply be a set of rules that each unit is updated and tactics AI is using that data as needed. And mission AI will as well use that for used troops, like it isn’t wise to send same troops to missions without resting etc. So larger force allows to be used for multiple missions, as smaller force allows to create either less missions or many missions with weaker execution performance. Like send a 3 pilots every 4 hours to CAS mission that lasts 1 hour and you drive their performance to very thin. Or send 3 pilots from rotating 12 pilots pool where everyone gets 16 hours rest between missions.

Shooting down pilots, causing damages to aircrafts etc affects to moral, that then will affect to their performance or the other effects. Like shooting down 3 pilots from 4 fighter flight and not able to rescue anyone, will lower rest 9 pilot moral. If the airfield had four CAS capable aircrafts and 8 fighters and you lost 1 fighter and 2 CAS capable, it is very heavy hit to the ground troops support from the air.

 

And then comes some other slight simulations like radio communications, location informations etc. As we are talking about cold war era and so, you shouldn’t expect to see accurate GPS locations but rough estimations even for F10 map. There should be lag in the maps about where troops are and what are the commands. Like instead seeing troops moving on map, you see their positions from last report and then their planned movements and tasks.

And some can be jammed or out of range for radio communications, so you need to maintain that as well. And it brings the electronic warfare to the play, AWACS, FARP, radio sites etc. There is own AI that simply simulate the communication possibilities and environmental effects etc and updates them to the strategic or tactical AI etc. Like troops locations can go dark, pilots can be missing after jumping etc. So those other AI can’t command units until they get contacts to them.

 

Lots of things can be simulated in very rough manner, like just planning the routes, estimation times and speeds and then just pretend that it is happening when the human player is no where near or there isn't combat related to it and there can be cheats. Like a UH-1H transport helicopter transporting supplies behind own lines in safe place is nothing more than a scheduled flight to happen. An information that flight has started at ie. 1700 and flight will land at around 1750, carrying supply worth of X and the flight plan is shown on the map. The cheap part comes that there is just checked for simplified reason that is there possibility that combat would occur (the enemy AI doing the own planning and commanding) and if not, then there is not even need for simulating anything like that there. Just to keep it simple.

 

If a human comes to that area, all the models are loaded, the corresponding positions, speeds etc are calculated and positioned as it would have been modeled in the first place.

 

When there is high requirement for the simulation, it is the combat. Like three companies combat. That is where LOS is calculated and troops moral etc is affecting many things. But those would be fairly limited in longer run as the map is huge and they very likely wouldn't happen same time or be huge "All out" attacks as the moral parts would limit the effects etc.

And many of those are just simulated statics, like dropping a 250kg bomb 30m from a MBT creates random damages to it and that is it. No visual effects etc if there is no human seeing it.

 

There would be random collisions like at the mountains two colonna are going to meet around the ridgeline, there will be panic, defensive positions etc and radio communications for possible CAS etc.