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Deus Ex Vintage Game Club Playthrough

Andrew Armstrong — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:49:46 +0000

Training and onwards!

I’m currently playing through Deus Ex, in the Vintage Game Club. I’ve pretty much put what happened and the goings on in three posts for the first three areas, which link to my gallery of pictures I take which have even more detail. So much detail in fact I can’t really add a lot by making a new post here so if you’re interested in my method playing this rather open RPG, or on how the game plays, you can read my posts and see the gallery. There’s around 3 area’s a week, to space the game out some more, so I’ll stick to that kind of schedule and post a weekly update - maybe a bit more in depth in future.

Oh, but if you do want to play this game, I recommend the beta HDTP for a bit more improved graphics (and updated OpenGL renderer, so choose that for your rendering). You should also remap a lot of the keys, it’s not an FPS so I found stealth melee my preference (hit stuff a lot with a baton, they fall down unconscious. Or a electric prod. Hit them in the back well and they go down in one!). Also you can never sell anything, ever, or really store anything anywhere, and stores are also rubbish, so keep that in mind

Well worth playing so far, I’d recommend it to anyone - I played the sequel, and it’s much better (more open, better RPG stuff, and just plain better for not being an outright FPS).

Red Alert: Gameplay and Singleplayer AI

Andrew Armstrong — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:48:49 +0000

Red Alert!

EA recently released the original Command & Conquer: Red Alert as a download, both discs meaning the full game, as ISO’s. It is a promotion for Red Alert 3, but since I loved the game and after going back to it, still do for all it’s flaws, it was a good excuse to replay one of the campaigns.

I decided, why not write about the gameplay and AI in this classic? Well, why not indeed! This might also tempt you into trying it, if so, it does work on XP, with a note it can also crash for no reason, which I found out rather tediously. If you decide to play this on NT-based systems, prepare for saving a lot, since there are no autosaves. WINE is meant to work well with it too, which is nice.

Introduction

Text briefings?! in an RTS?!

Red Alert is a rather old RTS game, and we’re talking older-then-Starcraft RTS. It really only uses a few inputs - the mouse, and left mouse button only, the “Guard Area” (G), “Scatter” (X), “Force Move” (Alt) commands, and command group keys, which were Ctrl+Number to make a group of units be re-selected. No shortcuts for building things, or even moving around the map (which had to be done via. the mouse). The game did have some other rather less used things - waypoints (Q), and formation mode (F). There is also no tutorial - this is because the game manual (which I actually own, since I do own the original and expansions ) was pretty hefty, and included a full tutorial for the first two allied missions.

The map is top down, preset to less then the full 640×480 resolution since it was cropped. The classic sidebar from the original Command & Conquer is there on the right, with buildings next to units. The units are selected as you’d expect, mostly with drawing a large box to select many. The graphics are great pixel-based sprites, speed is smooth even with a variety of visual effects and sounds. For the time, it looked rather outstanding for an RTS, with two theatres of war - snow and temperate.

Allied FMV

The game itself has 14 missions per campaign (Allies and Soviets), with around a quarter of those allowing a choice of two or three alternative maps - this was pretty neat, actually, and did offer some replay value (with some options actually being decidedly harder then others). Story generally appeared via. cutscene. For their brevity, the cutscenes were well done and added a sense of depth to otherwise arbitrary maps, and progression was rewarded with more progress through the war until the other side was defeated. I chose the Allied missions, so that’ll be what my analysis is based off - a good thing, the Soviets generally have the better, but more expensive troops and defences. The allies are cheaper, weaker, but in greater numbers. Many campaign maps however required specific use of key special units or small amounts of units.

Skirmish game

The game also has multiplayer/skirmish which I fondly remember playing a maximum of 2 hours of on direct dial up modem play with a friend. The AI in mutliplayer/skirmish I’ll explain at the very end, there is really no AI in the singleplayer game, as we’ll find out.

The game had the mission add on pack Counterstrike (no new units, but a fun Ants campaign and some tough singleplayer missions) and a much better expansion Aftermath, which had new units on both sides, more tough and varied singleplayer missions and many more multiplayer maps.

Gameplay

A sizeable tank force, but not enough for this level just yet.

“Tank rush” is one major phrase in this game. Since the buildings are based around power, there is no economic viability in actually using more then a few defensive structures once tanks are available except for the speed and ability to repair them against smaller forces. You can overwhelm anything with enough tanks. Infantry generally suck, although the AI uses them quite competently as we’ll see.

Limited-unit missions feature, here with Tanya

Apart from tank rushing, the gameplay isn’t too varied - it’s build up an economy, protecting your economy then building enough tanks to steamroll the opponent. In singleplayer, the later levels generally become this (if only because this is, in fact, entirely necessary) and multiplayer is it to a T. There is no viable use for infantry, so once the campaign gives you vehicles to play with you generally ignore them - the cost and vulnerability is too great. There are specific levels which involve limited supplies of troops and no base building - which need more expert attention, and some patience - infantry really do suck that much.

Singleplayer AI

There is absolutely no AI in the normal sense in the singleplayer campaign. Instead, we have a great deal of scripting to setup basic AI routines for normal “Base” AI’s with automated teams they send out in preconfigured attack waves, and more specific scripting for controlling specialised scenarios, such as an escaping spy.

These AI’s are all based on the game’s in built scripting system - which you can make your own maps with. I looked at it back in the day, and some of the features were pretty robust for using AI groups, and actually having legally-bound AI players (which use their resources correctly, and manage their base reasonably well). A funny bug however was that multiple production buildings if owned by one AI player meant that when one unit was produced, it came out of every building at once!

Generally the game was setup in a similar style to the original Command and Conquer (and many future singleplayer RTS campaigns), with the AI’s being passively aggressive and rarely sending a large enough force to destroy a base with some minor exceptions (mainly in the expansion packs which were much more aggressively paced). To do this, the AI’s, once put into production mode (which usually wasn’t immediate, as the player had to setup their own base first) built squads of troops, then sent them out where the scripting commanded them to follow specific waypoints and then usually at the end of the waypoints do an “Attack”, so the AI takes over and automatically attacks the enemy base. A sample bit of code, from the game’s own final level is below with comments and screenshots of it in action:

Code in the scenario ini file:

batk3=9,4,14,0,1,-1,-1,3,E1:5,4TNK:1,V2RL:1,6,3:12,3:68,3:26,3:27,0:5,0:1

Deciphered in a map editor:

Name:     batk3
Owner:    BadGuy
Priority: 14
Max:      0
Num:      1
WayPoint: -1
	
Team:     Rifle Infantry        5
          Mammoth Tank          1
          V2 Rocket Launcher    1
	
Orders:   0 Move to waypoint... 12
          1 Move to waypoint... 68
          2 Move to waypoint... 26
          3 Move to waypoint... 27
          4 Attack... Vehicles - any
          5 Attack... Anything
	
Options:  Only autocreate AI uses this team type.

This one specifically was as basic automatically created AI team, which went as directed on the map below up to the general location where the enemy base should be (waypoint 27 is further north), and finally attacks it. On the way, resistance is also attacked but otherwise not pursued. The AI will choose a random attack group in it’s orders to use, so this is one of around 6 varieties this soviet force uses.

Map editor view - red lines are the waypoint usage. The last waypoint is a little further north, then automatic attack orders take over. The groups always wait for stragglers before continuing to keep in some form of formation.

The base which this enemy builds it’s groups. You can see some tanks and infantry ready to be put into groups.

The actual attack group from above, at waypoint 68.

There were also obviously ways for the AI to use it’s abilities such as the Iron Curtain, Paratroops and so forth, usually in the same group codes. Groups and pre-placed units could also do slightly more advanced things, such as “Area Guard” rather then the standard variation, which was much more intelligent about attacking things in the area it tries to protect, as well as “Guard Unit” where it could be the AI protects it’s ore trucks with some troops. Patrol routes could also be easily setup, meaning a good way to make spy missions with patrolling guard dogs in some cases. Interestingly, some units could be automated - planes and helicopters did their job adequately once built with no need for AI orders, automatically refuelling and attacking. Abilities such as paratrooper were also automatically used if not scripted. The AI will also, if allowed by their “AI level”, repair and rebuild its base structures.

Anything not under a specific group control would also be available to defend the AI’s base, which was do automatically. Generally, against smaller to medium forces depending on the mission the AI held up and unless wasn’t able to (due to the scripting) rebuilt its forces and base as it could. Against larger forces, it toppled easily and once key buildings were lost and finances ruined, it might sell everything and go into “Hunt” mode to suicide it’s remaining forces (and helpfully speed up the end of the game).

Obviously, it is an AI left to always fall to the player. There are rare occurrences of defensive missions, where the AI can if left alone build up a sizeable force to send against the player. A few missions also allow the AI to build up it’s base from scratch, meaning if left alone makes the players life hard with a fully operational (and rebuilding) base, with forces to match. These were more interesting cases, with one Soviet mission much more paralleling a standard multiplayer map, where the enemy AI didn’t have so many free reinforcements, and built up his own allied base before attacking, while the player did the same on his side of the map.

Still, it is all scripted behaviour. There is more interesting single-unit behaviour - the routines for scattering infantry, guarding areas and defending ore trucks were much less predictable and tough to beat. If you didn’t take that Ore truck out in one go, you’d see units following it later to defend it - and defend it quite competently. This also played into a key part of the game - you could actually cut off the AI’s funds and they’d definitely stop producing units - a good strategy on almost every level. Perhaps a problem was, in fact, they never rebuilt the ore trucks, oh well

Victory! Soviet nukes stopped, London is safe!

The fully scripted missions with set forces all made good use of set pieces and special abilities. These could be the most fun and least monotonous - and certainly the hardest (many had time limits), where major unit management came to the fore, and the “lacking” AI which was much more tough when such small armies were involved, especially guard dog AI

I’d not give this any points for ingenuity, but for the missions it works - the game obviously is a little before AI that could reliably provide what the designers wanted (look at the multiplayer AI below), and with complete control it certainly is a polished and fun experience. The entirely extreme enemy bases were hard to attack with the AI as it is, and so only attacking groups really needed to be sent out from time to time, which scripting provides very adequately. The expansion packs generally had much tougher missions, with less resources for the player and much earlier and deadlier attacks and troop groups. Each level had limited replayability of course, and so usually once was enough to outwit the AI sides and move on.

Multiplayer AI

A first for the Command and Conquer series, the multiplayer AI was basic to say the least, but did function. It basically didn’t do much more then randomly choose units and buildings to place down - with percentages for the amount of a certain type of troop it could produce. At intervals the “Attack” command was called and the majority of the AI’s units beelined to the nearest base. The AI was unaffected by GAP generators, and didn’t need it’s map so the Radar was useless to it, and it never built sea units. As it went, it was an interesting diversion - the units all spread around its sprawling base, waiting for the attack order, making it look very disorganised to say the least - and in this case, the disorganisation always lead to its downfall.

These show the soviet base, over a period of a few minutes building, and an attack force from a different base. My game crashed, else I’d show you the sprawling mess a final base is. - attacks, as long as you concentrate your forces, are usually pretty easy to deal with - as long as your own economy is as strong as the CPU’s.

Conclusions

I of course know good scripting can replace basic AI, and in this case it’s a well done case for it. For comparison, this was released in 1996. Age of Empires 1 was released in 1997 - which used some basic rule-based AI for it’s campaign and mulitplayer, and Total Annihilation was released in the same year with similar AI. Starcraft with more rule-based AI, were released in 1998. Age of Empires 2 with improvements to the rule-based AI, was released in 1999. To be honest, all of the titles generally stuck with scripting for the majority of behaviours (or at least, initializations for the AI), although most automated the base building and rebuilding, and unit production which Red Alert did with scripting.

Crushing defeat - poor soviets. Lets hope future RTS games’ AI’s are better!

Therefore, it provides a level of fun but no replayability, and certainly for me, no challenge in the base-building, tank-rushing levels. The “Hard” difficulty level doesn’t change the AI, only changes the cost of the players units and their strength (so, less in hard) sadly. With no reaction to my force, for instance not building anything to defend itself when under attack, or striking out at my army with much effort there isn’t much to comment on its ability. Do what you might, the same things will attack you, although leaving the AI alone usually means they’ll build up more defenders over time, merely delaying the inevitable.

Possibly, the game could be leveled as completely unbalanced, but in the favour mightily of the player. Which is fair enough, I found some levels quite difficult when I was younger, so they perhaps justifiably made the game easier in general

So, the campaign was rather fun - and the limited-unit missions tense and more fun then the others. Levels were designed well, and the expansions really mixed up some crazy stuff. Well worth a little play if you have an opportunity - but not for the AIs competence, or any kind of replayability

Rough Guide to Hydro

Andrew Armstrong — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:29:15 +0000

I decided on a whim to enter The Guardian Gameblog’s “Rough Guide to Videogames” competition, and I actually won one of the prizes! I decided to not to a typical “guide”, but a classified report on Hydro. Since they couldn’t include all my snapshots from the game (with real letters on them and everything!), I decided it’d be worth posting here.

June 1968 declassified US Government Intelligence Report Area codename: HYDRO REF: ZYZZY/01304

Located in the Nevada desert, the Alpha Electric Dam (Fig. 001) powering the local farms is the front for a Builders League United (“BLU”) run intelligence gathering facility (Fig. 005) located in the engineering area, where the vast majority of the hydroelectric power goes to BLU radar operation (Fig. 002).

Reliable Excavation Demolition (“RED”) instituted a underground base (Fig. 006) hidden at the main entrance used to stage a take over the facility. RED had previously detected BLU’s spying activities, and so tunnelled a secret entrance without their knowledge to counterspy before attacking the facility outright.

Constant fighting to take control of the entire facility took place once RED attacked half the facility, the Dam (Fig. 001) and Radar (Fig. 002), cutting off the main entrance to the facility in the process. BLU retained control over the Turbines (Fig. 003) and engineering area (Fig. 004).

Special security doors (Fig. 007) were put into action by BLU to stop RED’s access to all areas apart from ones BLU wanted to retake, although they also stop their own movements. Access to each of RED or BLU’s hardened bunker facilities is only allowed once the rest of the facility is taken due to the power required from the Dam to force open the entrances to the intelligence bunkers (Fig. 005, 006). Even once the facility controlled, reinforcements from the opposing side airdropped in to retake half the facility again, restarting the battle afresh.

The entire facility was finally destroyed when the Dam was blown in a espionage activity by both RED and BLU personnel simultaneously (Fig. 008) leaving the area flooded (Fig. 009).

Intelligence pictures obtained from BLU and RED agencies, contracts SPY/083875 and SPY/083876.

Hope it sums up well the general feel of the map, since it hasn’t got much “backstory”, and obviously nothing to interact with as such in it, I made up what I felt was right.

The Amateur

Andrew Armstrong — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:00:22 +0000

The Amateur, the tale of a amateur professional hitman who just keeps getting random things to kill, has finished. Worth a read if you know the Hitman games, and want a chuckle Start here, reading it out of order is no fun

This Week, I Have Been Mostly Playing…

Andrew Armstrong — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:38:45 +0000

This week I have been mostly playing…

A mix of things - a massive game of Sins of a Solar Empire (still incomplete), replaying Warhammer: Mark of Chaos’ Good campaign, Calamity Annie, Jill Off, the first episode of American McGee’s Grimm, Guitar Hero III and many hours of Team Fortress 2. Some of these games are worth explaining more about…(now with pictures!).

My glorious fleet!

First off, Sins of a Solar Empire I’ve had for a while. It drew me into a game, although admittedly I wasn’t prepared for simply how long things take to do in it. Playing a full 2v2v2v2v2 map with 5 solar systems, over 120 planets and so forth really really takes ages. I’ve now officially declared my team the winner, since I’m not spending several hours conquering the other half of the galaxy with my AI teammate, since originally half the players were put in two separate solar systems, and the other 3 lay empty - not quite what I expected. Still, it was entertaining - you can see my fleet at some later stage of the game, and I got many achivements such as actually researching everything which takes hours. Still highly recommended on smaller maps at least, but I think waiting for the expansion with a singleplayer campaign will be more to my taste.

A MoK skirmish battle. Massive charge slugfest basically.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos is a bit predictable. Entirely scripted AI, limited tactics (compared to, say, Medieval 2: Total War) and a rather dull plot doesn’t serve up much, but I like playing Warhammer, and the campaign doesn’t take very long to play (at least, no constant reloading). Still has some fun moments - castle attack and defense, and some of the set battles are much more fun then the rest of the game - and it was never outright boring or a chore, so enjoyable for me. I’ll recommend Medieval 2: Total War before it though. I’ll probably give a miss to the expansion until it goes down in price, although it is said to be harder - something that the campaigns are most not. No modding tools means nothing can be altered either, since that’d be ultimately cool, but cest la vie!

Calamity Annie I had a go at - it wiped me out on the end levels, sadly, and I didn’t feel like playing it again. Takes twitch gameplay to another level, and it’s got some neat artwork. Might be worth a few minutes of time, it at least didn’t take me long to get near the end. Also from auntie pixelante was Mighty Jill Off, a platformer I could cope with (simple controls which take a little skill to master), with really well thought out levels and some neat artwork and start/end cutscene stuff. Must be the only game I’ve played a character who was a dyke gimp to a queen who loves doing what she’s told. It builds up well, took me less then an hour but I can’t remember exactly how long, but deaths sometimes were frequent - there are some devilish bits in there. Real sense of accomplishment playing it! What more could I ask for?

American McGee’s Grimm - A Boy Learns What Fear Is, I played since it was available for free (seeing a trend here?). It’s quite a simple platformer, or groundformer - you do a lot of buttstomping and wandering around, but there are not many difficulties. Definitely would be good for children, the happy fun story is turned by the titular Grimm into his own horrible version - although really isn’t too bad content-wise, it is somewhat surprising some of the changes, and the story works in the “Dark Theatre” ending you get. The artwork is cool - made it really fun turning things nasty. I don’t think it’s a series for me though, because while the others might be interesting to play for the story, the gameplay is too shallow and game really too short, so I might grab it when it is cheaper, and more to the point when all of them are released, so I can do them in one big playthrough, rather then one a week. Worth trying out the free episode though, gives you at the very least a pretty neat story with good visuals and some funny too

Guitar Hero III is old news, but I got brought it last weekend for my Wii. Finished the standard list on Easy…now working my way through Medium. Need to get another guitar for the co-op mode, which I enjoyed playing at the last LSUCS LAN. I’ve always enjoyed rhythm games (Go Elite Beat Agents!), this is no exception, although I don’t have much skill in it I find but I am happy to stick to lower difficulties

Om nom nom nom

Team Fortress 2 came out with the Heavy update this week. Certainly enjoyable patch content - the new heavy weapons are nice - the gun is to me underpowered in the slowdown department (it’s hard to notice it working) and the boxing gloves are good, but the Sandvich really turns the class into a more acceptable loner position. Heals yourself for 120 health (out of your 300 possible) while standing still munching for 4 seconds - can you imagine a “normal” multiplayer game having such a treat?

The maps and modes added are variable. Arena mode…not for me. It involves sitting out if you lose (as a spectator), randomised teams, heaven knows what goes on with scoring, and it’s the horrors of sudden death again. I wasn’t bad at it - but with no major objective and short bouts of battle (and waiting around if you die…) has turned me off it. The new Alpine setting is really pleasant and fresh however, and I hope to see more maps using it.

The community maps, however, are a treat. CP_Steel is amazing - I played the 4th beta of the map for as long as a sever had it up a month or so ago. It’s a great CP map, and totally flummoxes some people which is good (I think it takes less time to learn then Hydro’s horrible presentation however, there are some good usability additions to the map, such as dynamic blackboards - and an instruction video too!). A lot more strategy is required for the defenders to cover two active points, more then two entrances, and lots of things going on at once. PL_Badwater_Basin is nice too - a single, wider-area payload map. Possibly a tad easy to defend the end point, as always, but otherwise quite nice and affords a lot of different strategy and routes over Goldrush. Kudos to Valve for including Steel! I hope to see many servers host it in their rotation.

Well, that’s that. I’m away this weekend, hope to fix my gallery then. Sigh. - Gallery fixed. New pictures added

Eegra Five-word/Haiku Review Database

Andrew Armstrong — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:19:35 +0000

This is worth a read, I chuckled at many, You might do so to!

Progress Quest

Andrew Armstrong — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:22:12 +0000

Possibly the most fun MMORPG I’ve ever played! (Or just a fun take at the genre. Go go progress bar! Get me precious XP and gold!)

Back from Brighton

Andrew Armstrong — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:18:21 +0000

I’m back, with many a photo and note on what I went to at the Develop conference this year. Helping out was good, with better start times and organisation this year. I’ll post up all I can over the next few days, there was some really interesting things that are worth noting. My notes won’t be as brilliant as a few of the Gamasutra writeups - I might invest in some kind of audio recorder next time and use that, if the conference organisers allow it, since it’d make it a lot easier to record quotes since the sessions are not recorded.

Going to Brighton Again

Andrew Armstrong — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:51:27 +0000

I’ll be at the Brighton Develop Conference for the second time volunteering all next week. If I have the internet, I might make nightly posts, but probably my hotel won’t have wifi or more likely I won’t have time. There’s a lot more going on this year out of hours, so I really hope I’ll be busy to be honest

I’ll take some pictures and see if I can’t note anything interesting down. There’s a few game AI talks, one being a keynote, and I am sure to see many other interesting things. Keep an eye out in a weeks time

The National Museum of Computing

Andrew Armstrong — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:42:41 +0000

The Museum

On Saturday 26th, I made it along to The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, in Block H to be precise. I’m aiming to volunteer some time before I apply to jobs, and also have an aim to sort some IGDA Preservation SIG work too.

The museum itself is in a pretty functional state when I had a tour - they still are tirelessly working on maintenance and fixing old machines and sorting new donations but there are around 6 or 7 rooms of material to look through, two of which are on the Bletchley Park tour. It also is currently free to get into, although I think a pass to the park is required. So, from the outset well worth a visit if you want to know of the beginnings of digital computing from the Colossus onwards - as long as it is a Saturday visit

See my gallery for the full picture set, including some of the back room stuff

This seems to also be the major location now of any computing museum work. Sadly the Swindon museum has been put in storage, before I got to visit, and National Science Museum has a rather smaller display then I’d like, but against the more natural science Computer Science doesn’t have much space it’s fair to say.

If there is anything interesting I help with while there, I’ll report on it. The work is fascinating and the plans to finish the expansion of the museum for a potential September 2008 opening to the general public looks awesome. On the game side, there are of course some stored games machines, game software and so forth although it is no special aim of course, and hopefully will become fleshed out once the museum expands.