Editor Case Study: Cattle Drive

[bcgames]

Making an engine for games...

The WEGOWW2 game engine has been in development for well over 10 years. Though WW2 has been the central guiding idea for creating game requirements--this does not exclude the ability for creating unique, non-warfare games.

One of the greatest opportunities I've had in the world of educational software was working with Jim Lunsford. He created a leadership development game called Explore! based on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. His Explore! game engine would have been perfect for creating a game about the Chisholm Trail and cattle drives in 1867...but...can the WEGOWW2 engine do a cattle drive?

Let's find out...



The purpose of this game is to organize a cattle company, purchase stock, then drive them North to Abilene, Kansas. There will be challenges/encounters along the way...weather, rustlers, Hancock's War, Custer, and a lot of cattle with their own ideas. That's the game description...now what can the engine do?

Let's Explore!

No. This is not a game for sale. It's about ideas about games.

Long Live The Editor.

[bcgames]

“By controlling the language, Big Brother controls the way that the people think. With a limited vocabulary, the people are limited in how much they can think, as well as, what they think about.”--George Orwell, 1984

And so it is with the WEGOWW2 engine. To control the language of your creation--you must look at the slogans files in the Program Files (x86)/Matrix Games/Stalingrad/languages folder. In the slogans file you can change the names of the world.

[kevinkins]

I enjoy out of the box thinking and stretching wargame editors to their limits. A cattle drive within the context of the overall pacification of the West would be interesting. Given a map of the old West, more types of objectives and ground assets to pay with (etc,), the game could be modified.

Kevin

[bcgames]

Today I looked at whether additional sound files could be added to the Stalingrad/sound/units folder. Nope.

This means Cattle Drive needs a separate install so it doesn't interfere with Stalingrad files. Don't want armor in Stalingrad to sound like cattle on the trail. Will have to replace the existing ten sounds with Old West SFX while retaining the WEGO Stalingrad file names.

Onwards!

[bcgames]

Also...the year data file included in the patch doesn't like entries from the 1860's.

[kevinkins]

Maybe cattle are a bit farfetched, but bison are not:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_cm_sIG ... n_I_Ausf_B

[bcgames]

Maybe cattle are a bit farfetched, but bison are not...

True DAT!

[bcgames]

I found an historical map of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas circa 1870s at the University of Texas Map Library. I've inputted the land and the Gulf of Mexico, and started working on the rivers. Mississippi River is in...working on Red River...

A cattle drive would average about ten miles per day so that will be the scale I use per hex. I'm using weekly turns so I'll start with an initial movement factor of 9 for the cattle company (1.25 MPs for a clear hex * 7 days in a week = 8.75; rounded up to 9). The distance between San Antonio, Texas (start of the Chisholm Trail) and Abilene, Kansas is ~800 miles. It'll take about 12 weeks (game turns) to git North...barring any circumstances along the way...and yes...there will be circumstances.

Folks interested in doing WEGOWW2 scenarios from scratch might want to check out the University of Texas Army Map Service Topographic Map Series at the following link:

https://maps.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/index.html

A lot WWII era maps there from Great Britain as well. Check it out when you get the chance.

[bcgames]

Still working through how to do this but...The Player(s) select (and pay for) the members of their cattle company from their initial bank roll. There will be a deck of cards representing a number of eligible candidates to fill the various roles in the company...trail boss, drovers, scout, cook, wranglers, etc. The final "hand of hands" will determine the quality of the cattle and the remuda...and the Command and Control value (CCV) of the cattle company (the riding & roping). Shootin'...well that helps define the attack and defense factors.

[Rosseau]

You and Mainsworthy on this forum should get together - you'd make an explosive team.

Good luck on the game. I'd buy it.

Also, wanted to say "thanks" for that map link. One could browse all those maps for...well, as long as one lives.

[bcgames]

Indeed. The Perry-Castañeda Library of maps at UT is one of the best resources available on the internet for historical game designers.

[kevinkins]

You might get some inspiration regarding game mechanics for Cattle Drive from this:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/621220/Nantucket/

[bcgames]

Exactly! I purchased this game last year on Steam. Likes it.

[bcgames]

Map development continues...

This has turned into a fun little historical exploration project. The Wild West was Kansas in 1867. The bulk of organized counties at this time were East of Fort Riley. Everything West was high adventure. Ellsworth, Kansas was "The Wickedest Town in The West", and Fort Wallace, Kansas (under the command of Captain Myles Keogh, 7th US Cavalry) was the "Fightin-est' Fort in The West". St. Joseph, Missouri was the base for The Pony Express and Leavenworth, Kansas was the base for the Butterfield Overland Dispatch (BOD) stage coach line...acquired shortly after its creation by a cargo-hauling company called Wells-Fargo.

Yes, context is important to the Cattle Drive narrative. To me anyways...

[bcgames]

Got the mountains, rivers and streams in...so this completes ~95% of the terrain's influence on the game. Next up...converting a WWII combat system to an 1867 cattle drive system.

[bcgames]

I'm going with four cattle companies in competition with each other. From this step forward we can see how unit counters can be modified to suit a different purpose. Each cattle company has its own brand. Each of these "units" are type HQ. They are color coded Red, White, Blue and Green for easy identification. They trace LOC to the Texas Cattle Association located in San Antonio.

Mod Work continues...

[bcgames]

How computer game modders have fun...

We played a BETA of Cattle Drive last night as a dinner party event. BUT...All the AI air events which I had used to represent "raids" by rustlers and Indians on the cattle companies--were aborted--100% of the time! Boring! Fortunately, the guests enjoyed the food and friends...and I puzzled. WTF!

I dived-in this morning to see what the problem was. Hmmm...oh...Heavy Antiaircraft. The problem was I used the type:heavy antiaircraft to represent the cattle and horses (remuda) of the cattle drive. Sooooo....the rustler and Indian AI "air events" were being aborted by the super heavy flak received from--The Longhorn Cows and Horsie Remounts. Duh.

Fix. Cattle and horses are now type:Partisan and Air Superiority value for Side1 (rustlers and Indians) = 5.

Now the World of the Cattle Drive turns again in greased grooves...

[bcgames]

Currently working on incorporating "Hancock's War" into Cattle Drive. Am sorting out the locations of the 7th Cavalry prior to the conference between Hancock and the tribes at Fort Larned, KS in April 1867:

[bcgames]

Working through the cattle trail event methodology, imagery and supporting sound files...and the AI triggers...getting there...

[bcgames]

Bad Assets...