Give vovan game ideas!

[Barinthus]

Code it so that you can play SMAC/X with all factions in the game

[DarkCloud]

Now, of course, the game needs to be pretty small if it is to have any chance of completion in the four-week period, because I definitely won't be spending that much time on it. On the other hand, I want it to be at least challenging and interesting. I was thinking originally about another tetris or pacman clone or something like that, but that is all quite boring. If I were to do something like that, it'd mostly be transcribing the code of my old projects into this new programming language, which is not what I'm after here.

Code a trading game with simple graphics- like Machiavelli the Prince, or just use the trading module of Colonization->

Model it sort of like the old PIRATES...

A trading game would work well in 4 weeks.

Of course, a side-scrolling shooter or Invaders would also be a quick code... and a fun game- you could hide Easter Eggs, Cheats, etc. in the game and program weird enemies

good luck!

-dc.

[Kuciwalker]

I know - Elite!

[Gamecube64]

Could you do a worm-like game in 4 weeks?

[Urban Ranger]

Galaga or Missile Command.

[child of Thor]

Ah ok Vovan - i understand you now Clash is a great project

hmmm how about an anti-war game, make it kinda political about our world today

I did play a fun one a month back, it was a flash game i think, and you basicaly had a cross-hair that you moved around the screen and could fire missiles from. The background screen that was your target was a busy middle-eastern looking town, with lots of people walking about.
Amongst the civillians were a few guys in black that were the 'bad' guys. What you had to do was try to hit the bad guys without killing innocent people, if you did then when other civillians walked past the dead innocents they would cry a bit then turn into black clothed 'bad' guys.
It was a game in which you couldn't win - making quite a good political statement i felt when i played it.
If i can remember the link i'll post it here as it was a free game.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by child of Thor
Ah ok Vovan - i understand you now Clash is a great project

hmmm how about an anti-war game, make it kinda political about our world today

I did play a fun one a month back, it was a flash game i think, and you basicaly had a cross-hair that you moved around the screen and could fire missiles from. The background screen that was your target was a busy middle-eastern looking town, with lots of people walking about.
Amongst the civillians were a few guys in black that were the 'bad' guys. What you had to do was try to hit the bad guys without killing innocent people, if you did then when other civillians walked past the dead innocents they would cry a bit then turn into black clothed 'bad' guys.
It was a game in which you couldn't win - making quite a good political statement i felt when i played it.
If i can remember the link i'll post it here as it was a free game.

Evidently not quite up to grognard standards of realism, then.

"Analysis: Psst! Intifada's over

Arieh O'Sullivan, THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 10, 2004

It was a telling sign when senior commanders in the Central Command recently started counting the number of Palestinian stone-throwing incidents in the West Bank. For the past four years of the latest conflict, called by the Palestinians the "Aksa Intifada," the army counted mainly suicide bombings, shootings and petrol bomb attacks. Stonings weren't even mentioned.

Looking at the dry statistics, the level of terror has been reduced drastically in the past few months to what appears to be on par with that before September 2000. There could be a suicide bombing tomorrow, but then again there were suicide bombings before this latest round of conflict, too.

The Aksa Intifada is over. No one in the IDF would be foolish enough to make such a far-reaching statement, but the statistics speak for themselves.

From the IDF's perspective, the relative calm Israel is experiencing now is not connected to the death of Yasser Arafat or other changes in the Palestinian nation, but is rather the direct result of the aggressive action against terrorists by the IDF, aided by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Border Police. The army said it has arrested six suicide bombers since Arafat died a month ago. This shows the motivation is still there, but the capabilities are steadily deteriorating.

For the moment, the Central Command can mark for itself an impressive achievement.

"Our rate of catching terrorists is now quicker than their rate of replacing themselves," said a senior officer.

This means that the arrests and targeting of key terrorist cell leaders happen about as often as they take up command. They are nabbed before they gain sufficient expertise. In many cases, lower-level activists find themselves at the head of a cell, and even then spend most of their time avoiding arrest.

Just in the past two months, security forces have arrested some 800 suspects, including nearly 300 wanted fugitives, in hundreds of raids. Families have also turned in 20 suspected suicide bombers since September. That said, the Central Command recently published a booklet with the names and photos of more than 500 new suspected terrorists, drawn from a bottomless well.

"These guys are young, very young," said an intelligence officer. "They don't survive long."

Perspective is needed here. By the army's count, there are 2,075,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank and 229,000 Jewish settlers in 123 settlements. The State of Israel deploys about 10,000 soldiers to protect the country from Palestinian terrorism.

There are roughly 40 terrorist cells operating throughout the territories, mostly inside the large Arab cities.

There is no longer any organizational discipline among terrorist groups. The groups themselves are more or less cocktails of Hamas, Fatah Tanzim, Islamic Jihad and PFLP members. IDF sources described them as "less ideological and more territorial," employing gang-type extortion to survive.

The Palestinians are said to be in a state of anarchy, accumulated fatigue and suffering from a loss of a sense of internal security from increasing crime, murder and burglary. Only 10 percent of crimes ever reach court, and there is a return to the clan justice of old.

IDF intelligence holds that nationalist terror is on the decline and global terrorism is taking its place. This can be seen in the increasing involvement of Hizbullah in Palestinian terror. The army maintains that about 75% of all West Bank terrorist cells are funded, directed and even armed by Hizbullah. It is also expected that Hizbullah will try to infiltrate agents into the territories and terrorists may adopt some of its public-relations tactics like filming attacks.

Much has been written about the IDF tactics developed to wage this low-intensity conflict. Technology such as sensors and surveillance tools, together with an overhauled doctrine, have allowed the army to reduce its battle-order significantly in the past year. That means fewer soldiers are performing more missions.

Also, operations that once took a few days can now be implemented with three or hours' notice, and sometimes even less. Tanks have not been used in the West Bank for more than two years.

The IDF is proud of its record. It feels it has met its goals of providing Israel with an acceptable level of security, preventing internationalization of the conflict, blocking Palestinian achievements through violence and providing the government with an environment suitable for negotiations."

[child of Thor]

come on LotM play fair that was rather a heavy response!

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by child of Thor


come on LotM play fair that was rather a heavy response!

alright, sorry, you were the victim of a coincidence of me seeing that article just before i saw your post.

Seriously, and less heavily, Id like to see a game that realistically presents counterinsurgency, including intelligence gathering, building local police forces, economic reconstruction, etc, NOT a shooter (to the extent your flash game was simply poking fun at shooters, and the shooter vision of counter insurgency, I agree).

But to the extent that the designer of the flash game was trying to reinforce the meme that trying to kill terrorists never works, cause the act of going after them ALWAYS results in more terrorists, its just plain wrong.

[child of Thor]

could be interesting, a bit more of a challange than tic-tac-toe too

There were some pretty good old-school games on these themes too(CIA something or other and a few political simulators with real-politik messages), you might be interested in those LotM? the site of the domesticated wolf probably has more info on them as they are pretty old(80's early 90's?).

@vovan, are you going to tell us the results of all this? have we done enough yet?

[vovan]

Oh, yes, thanks alot folks! Plenty of ideas there. I haven't quite decided on it yet, but I will probably do something along the lines of either Boulder Dash, or Elite. I have never actually played the latter, but I've been thinking about making a sort of trading game for a while now. I usually get especially excited about this after econ lectures, and then the interest slowly dies down from there.

[child of Thor]

Elite Plus is a freeware download from Ian Bells site http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/game.htm .