Army trails

[rasqual]

Idea: when an army travels, it could leave "bread crumbs" to show it's path. This would be a long string of placemarks showing actual points along it's path, as an alternative to the lines. I'd also suggest that these placemarks nest a few days of history, perhaps organized by "today", "yesterday", "previous weeK' or somesuch.

To cut down on the network traffic requirements of the game, it might be that you'd want to relegate the historical "bread crumbs" to a new feature entirely, involving kmz downloads that result from user web queries. Heck, keep a history of everything that happens on Earth, so to speak. You could even create a network link produced by a web query that nails down a specific timeframe, and the user could play through that historical period from beginning to end, in a specified speed (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x).

Already people are starting to think about the past in this world. ;-)

But on the matter of the army "bread crumbs," I'd like to try something that I think would demonstrate how cool and instructive this can be for all players. It might take me a few days to set up. Worse, though, demonstrating it would probably require great circle navigation to be in play. If that's coming, and if "bread crumbs" are a possibility, there'd be some fun to see.

OK, I'll add another suggestion. The armies fighting in the open field notion? Make such battles possible anywhere. Armies could be intercepted enroute -- which would require some serious calculations about space and time. I'd also suggest supplying few widgets for this, leaving the hard work of rendezvous calculations to the players. Again, however, this would almost certainly require great circle navigation.

Also, let the battles play out over time. Seriously. Hours, man. Once the battle starts, the strength of each side should become known to the other. During the battle, players could disengage, withdraw troops, send more forces from afar, and so forth.

I gotta stop thinkin' . . .

Actually, I need to take a sabbatical from the game shortly, too. If you get great circle going, and if the breadcrumbs thing sounds not insane to you and you could implement it, a little demo might be my last fling for a while.

Mickey, ya done right with this thing. Kudos again.

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by rasqual

Idea: when an army travels, it could leave "bread crumbs" to show it's path. This would be a long string of placemarks showing actual points along it's path, as an alternative to the lines. I'd also suggest that these placemarks nest a few days of history, perhaps organized by "today", "yesterday", "previous weeK' or somesuch.

I've been thinking about exactly such a thing.

OK, I'll add another suggestion. The armies fighting in the open field notion? Make such battles possible anywhere. Armies could be intercepted enroute -- which would require some serious calculations about space and time.

This is coming. Really, it's the next major item on my list.

I'd also suggest supplying few widgets for this, leaving the hard work of rendezvous calculations to the players. Again, however, this would almost certainly require great circle navigation.

Actually, this would probably be simpler without great circle navigation. I agree that GCN is needed, but the math for something like this would be much easier without it.

Also, let the battles play out over time. Seriously. Hours, man. Once the battle starts, the strength of each side should become known to the other. During the battle, players could disengage, withdraw troops, send more forces from afar, and so forth.

I hadn't really considered that, but it makes perfect sense.

I gotta stop thinkin' . . .

Please do - you're melting my brain.

Mickey, ya done right with this thing. Kudos again.

Thanks.