Introducing: Home Bases!

[Mickey]

There are now official "home bases" that you can establish. I see that many of you have already created yours, but if not you can go here to set yours up.

After you set it up, it will appear on the map with the other bases and cities. Even if you choose not to set it up, people can still attack it using the web interface, so you can't hide!

As of right now, location doesn't matter, although I've put some guidelines in there (don't put it in the ocean, etc). Eventually, the location of the home base will enable you to move armies to/from cities more quickly, but will also leave you more open to attacks.

So, enjoy!

Mickey

[worldwind]

Not working. There comes always a message to log in, but i'm logged in (the menu is on the left).

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by worldwind

Not working. There comes always a message to log in, but i'm logged in (the menu is on the left).

That's very strange. Try going to your main page and choosing the link from there. Let me know if that works.

Anyone else having this problem?

[Bastian]

the homebases should also look like the cities (what is set up in the city parameters) and be connected with lines to the owned cities
edit: oh i think color and opacity is right but you forgot the shape

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by Bastian

the homebases should also look like the cities (what is set up in the city parameters) and be connected with lines to the owned cities
edit: oh i think color and opacity is right but you forgot the shape

Correct. They have color and opacity, but no shape and they're all the same height. I'll add those other features shortly.

I was thinking about the lines as well. Should maybe the lines ONLY go from the home base to the cities, or should they go from every city to every city (like they do now) as well as the home base?

[rasqual]

It'd be nice to get away from the single approach to extrusions. The home bases could be pyramids with different numbers of sides. They could be collections of sharp quills. They could be anything.

A simple thing they could be is an iconic "balloon" tethered to the ground by a 10,000 foot line. Just give an icon altitude and you've got it.

Key point: need to move beyond simple vertical extrusions. I *do* like the use of these to indicate some quantity of whatever, though. Good way of using 'em.

OH! I almost forgot. A problem with the armies/troop strength stuff.

There's something a bit amiss about needing to spy to find out whether an "army" is 100 troops, or 100,000. In general, when real forces attack a real city, they don't have intelligence about what quantity of "armies" are in the city -- they know about it's troop strenght. How many battalions, platoons, whatever -- those are organizational details that would only be known by spying. These numbers are generally inferred from observed troop strengths. I think in some sense, it's currently precisely the reverse, in GEwar.

I'm going to attack a city, and I know numbers that are intimately part of my enemy's logistical structure, but I *don't* know what, on a normal terrestrial battlefiled, I could see with my own eyes (actual force strength)? That's just backwards.

Think. Plan. Code. Act. Run. Hide. ;-)

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by rasqual

It'd be nice to get away from the single approach to extrusions. The home bases could be pyramids with different numbers of sides. They could be collections of sharp quills. They could be anything.

I agree. However, the more complex they get, the more the network link is going to grind on our server. Simple extrusions mean about 15 lines each in the KML file, with just a handful of simple calculations. A pyramid would mean at least three times as many lines of code, the quills would be insane. It's also going to become an issue on the end users PC. Try opening something like the statue of libery model on the main site and watch your performance screech to a halt.

I'm planning on adding more standard shapes (a few star shapes) and you're welcome to suggest more. I just don't think we should be messing with those too much when we're talking potentially hundreds of cities, hundreds of bases, all being reloaded many, many times per hour.

A simple thing they could be is an iconic "balloon" tethered to the ground by a 10,000 foot line. Just give an icon altitude and you've got it.

That's a good idea.

There's something a bit amiss about needing to spy to find out whether an "army" is 100 troops, or 100,000. In general, when real forces attack a real city, they don't have intelligence about what quantity of "armies" are in the city -- they know about it's troop strenght. How many battalions, platoons, whatever -- those are organizational details that would only be known by spying. These numbers are generally inferred from observed troop strengths. I think in some sense, it's currently precisely the reverse, in GEwar.

I follow you.

I'm going to attack a city, and I know numbers that are intimately part of my enemy's logistical structure, but I *don't* know what, on a normal terrestrial battlefiled, I could see with my own eyes (actual force strength)?

Actually, when you attack it tells you exactly how many troops you're facing off against, on an army by army basis, so that somewhat covers what you're saying. You make a good point, though.