Simple Multiplayer FoF Campaign?

[Molon Labe]

Now that we've finished LWAMI 3.11 and I released my China single-player campaign, I'm hoping to go back to actually playing DW instead of just working on it.

But rather than getting into duels again, I was thinking about making a Force-on-Force campaign, one which would hopefully be much simpler than the GDT experiment a few years back. So here is what I have in mind.

Premise: Two opposing navies fight for resources in a relatively confined geographic location with lots of small islands; perhaps the Aegean. The navies will be composed of DW platforms: playable platforms, AI warships, aircraft, amphibs, merchants, etc. Each side is played by one or more players, in theory one per side is adequate, but obviously the more people that can join in the better the battles will be. The territory each side controls will earn resources/victory points for that side. The campaign can end at a set number of points or when one side runs out of ships or territory. The turns can be divided into Three phases.

Phase 1: Ante up
Each side declares what they're going to do with their units. The commands would essentially be "invade island X" or "protect island Y" or so forth. No detailed movement tracking is required, so a dedicated GM is not needed. Declarations can be done via email with password protected Word attachments. The password is revealed after emails are exchanged, so no one sees the other side's declaration before they have made their own.

Phase 2: Battle
Anytime two groups end up trying to fight in same spot, a DW mission is belted out and the fight is played.

Phase 3: Resolution and Resources
A side that successfully invades an island takes control of it. If both sides land, then the side with more troops will take control. There is room to add some complexity here with contested territory and casualties (e.g. control is achieved at 2-to-1 advantage, losing side takes casualties based on ratio of forces, reinforcements can be landed, evacuations can be so the troops can be used somewhere else). Territory that is controlled generates resources for the side that controls it. Those resources get stored on-site.
On-site resources can be shipped out in commerce as part of the Phase 1 declaration. If this is successful (the merchies don't get sunk), the side will receive revenues from this. There may also be some fixed income as well (i.e. taxes from the motherland). So you have money to spend to train troops or purchase new platforms. (The purchase would actually take place in Phase 1 of the next turn).


That's pretty much it. I see some details that need to be worked out with mission design, abstracted land combat, and figuring out the available units and their prices, but those issues don't seem insurmountable. Definitely easier than the GDT was. And the best part from my perspective is that this format doesn't need a dedicated GM because there is no need for any secret movements to be tracked; the players themselves can run it. Which means I can run it and be a player!

So, would anyone want to do this?

Very good idea, something fun to do when inside on summer time!
( It is summer here right now, where I live, in Finland)

My question is, is this going to played via Hamachi or similar, or just using DW's own connect to host service?
Because everytime I have had Hamachi or similar installed to my comp, It somehow screws up my DW. It seems I cant use DW's own connect to host service after that, and it is annoying.
I have tried to make the correct changes to DW's danerouswaters.ini, but with no joy.
So if you guys decide after all to use Hamachi or such, please write down some instructions how to make it work, Thanks!

[Molon Labe]

I personally don't care for Hamachi (the program...the fish is excellent!) but that would really come down to how many people can't connect without it vs. how many people can't connect with it.

[Hawk66]

How would you design the missions...I mean would there be AI units in such battles and would you randomize the locations/events so that the mission designer itself has no advantage ?

Hm...have to try out multiplayer...surely makes fun, especially multistations, I guess; the only drawback seems to be that you have to play several hours without interruption.

[Molon Labe]

I'm working that out.

Missions for something like this can be pretty simple because all you really need to to as a designer is put the right pieces in place. And the units present will be the units declared to that area by the players. My basic thought would be that you would have a goal line one side needs to reach or an area that one side must force enemy platforms out of. As for starting positions, you'd probably have a wedge or band of possible spawn locations... such that they start within 15-30 minutes of detection of each other, can fight the battle out in 2-3 hours max, and maybe with enough randomness to prevent spawn-killing and/or undue advantage due to a drop/restart.


Right now I'm assuming both sides see the .mu in advance of the match--no secrets. If secrecy is needed, there would have to be a dedicated GM to handle that.

[dd149]

This is pretty much the way the French and Italian community do it, with the recent progresses in the gameplay, a batch of new missions has been designed.