[NOTE: MISSIONS ARE NOT ESSENTIAL TO THE FIRST PHRASES OF WORLDWIDE TESTING
AND EXPERIMENTATION/BALANCING OUT OF WARFARE IN THE LAND. THEY ARE INTENDED
AS SUPPLEMENTAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (OF SORTS) FOR CONTROLLING MULTIPLE
LEGIONS, ORGANISING DEFENCES, THWARTING TOTAL SURPRISE ATTACKS, BRINGING
MILITARY TACTICS TO THE FORE TO AN EVEN GREATER EXTENT (AS OPPOSED TO
THE BATTLE REVOLVING AROUND PLAYER v PLAYER COMBAT, ULTIMATELY, AS WAS
THE CASE BEFORE). MISSIONS WILL NOT BE SUPERIOR TO A QUALITY COMMANDER BUT
THEY WILL MATCH OUT A MEDIOCRE ONE. FURTHER, IF PREPARATIONS ARE EXCELLENT AND
RESOURCES PLENTIFUL, AN ARMY CONTROLLED BY MISSIONS WILL BE A MATCH FOR
A LESS-RESOURCE RICH, MORE ILL-PREPARED INVADING HORDE REGARDLESS OF THEM
BOASTING PLAYER COMMANDERS.
THUS MISSIONS WILL REMAIN 'OFF' UNTIL FAIRLY COMPLETE RUN-THROUGH AND IN DEPTH
PLAYING THROUGH OF THE OTHER ASPECTS OF HELP 21/WARFARE IN AVALON. THE REST OF
THE SECTION DEALS WITH ALMOST ALL THE HANDS-ON FUNCTIONALITY, ALMOST ALL THE
IMPORTANT ALGORITHMS, MODES OF ATTACK/DEFENCE, TACTICS, SUBTLETIES, SPECIALIST
SKILLS ETC. THUS VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING CAN BE ASSESSED WITHOUT MISSIONS AND
IT IS THAT-A-WAY ATTENTION IS TO BE FOCUSSED OVER THE NEXT PERIOD OF SHORT
TERM DEVELOPMENT. READ THROUGH THE OTHER HELPFILES IN SECTION 21. THEY HAVE
ALL UNDERGONE COMPLETE EVOLUTIONS OVER THE PAST MONTH OR TWO, THE FINISHING
TOUCHES ROLLING INTO PLACE DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF JUNE 2008.
ONCE FAMILIAR (IF YOU ARE THE TYPE TO TAKE AN ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT IN THIS
FACET OF THE WORLD) THEN ALERT YOUR LEADERS (GUILD OR CITY). WHEN ALL FOUR
CITY LEADERSHIPS DECLARE THEMSELVES READY, TO ME, AND A MAJORITY OF ACTIVE
GUILDMASTERS (JUDGED BY GUILDUSAGE) - THEN SHALL THINGS BE SET UP IN
READINESS FOR A TESTGROUND WORLD WAR.
KEEP ABREAST OF THE BULLETIN BOARD FOR POSTS ABOUT WARFARE AND KEEP AN EYE
OUT FOR THE SOON TO BE RELEASED: HELP WORLDWAR. THIS WILL DOCUMENT THE
MEGA-TEST-SESSION, THE BIGGEST LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN FOR MORTALKIND
ENCOUNTERING A BRAND NEW SYSTEM IN THE GAME'S HISTORY... EXPECT ITS ARRIVAL
MID-JUNE. IF THE CITY LEADERS/GUILD LEADERS FAIL TO INFORM ME OF THEIR
READINESS TO COMMENCE THE BIG TEST BY END OF JUNE THEY WILL BE PROMPTED TO
HASTEN IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS. IF THEY ARE NOT READY BY MID-JULY, THE WORLD
WAR WILL BE BEGUN ANYWAY.
THERE WILL BE NO LONG-TERM DAMAGE DONE BY THE TEST WORLDWAR. ALL STATS,
TROOP LEVELS, EQUIPMENT, EXPERIENCE, POSITIONS, ETC - EVERYTHING - WILL BE
COMPLETELY RESTORED TO THE STATE IT WAS IN BEFORE TESTS BEGAN. AFTER THE
WORLD WAR TESTS ARE COMPLETE, THEN, AND EVERYTHING IS BACK IN PLACE AS IF
NO CONFLICTS HAD HAPPENED... THEN SHALL PEACETIME FINALLY BE LIFTED AND THE
FULL SPECTRUM OF AVALON GAMEPLAY BE AVAILABLE AGAIN. PATIENCE HAS BEEN MUCH
APPRECIATED. IT WILL REAP ITS REWARDS, I AM SURE.
.... what follows is the start-blurb of what will eventually become the
helpfile for HELP MISSION, documenting the artificial intelligence/criteria
based dispatches/dispatch combinations (and their execution) to enable
planned-in-advance largescale defence (and, to a lesser extent, attack). No
more need be written here today, since we have other fish to fry...
Missions are semi-autonomous goals, often alignment or demeanour based,
that involve the legion deciding to commit to a series of direct action
goals (and thus employ its specialist skills) depending on locale
circumstances, recent experiences and its condition. The pace of
decision making and the likelihood of selecting the most effective
short-term goal to achieve the more long-term mission depends on wisely
penned dispatches and the 'battletactics' specialist-skill. Pushing up
'battletactics' gives a legion greater autonomy, less reliance on
dispatches during the cut-and-thrust of a moment's decision making. In
most cases the missions undertaken are carried out by multiple-legions,
with a single legion declared as leader while others follow-on in
declared ranking order. This allows numbers to be controlled in pursuit
of certain missions - so as not to employ too many or too few about
crucial tasks (like defence of a guildhouse or a city gate). The
'leadership' specialist-skill comes into play here in augmenting the
efficiency and effectiveness of a legion in directing others about a
mission statement - with the lead legion often occupying one of the
least vulnerable positions for fear of losing highly-skilled leaders in
frontline skirmishes and thereby weakening the entire war machine.
You can review HELP GOALS, whose associated helpfiles are divided into
six sections, plus two sub-sections, covering all the command-orders -
those direct single action goals - everything a legion can do in the
land. It is the role of goals to define specific action, of dispatches
or the commander to decide the goals to execute and the parameters of
the goal in execution (i..e. whom to attack, what to construct, where
to march), and of missions to pull together criteria and circumstances
in a comparison from which emerges an end-result: a set of dispatches to
execute, goals to carry through, responses to make. Without goals a
legion would be motionless; without missions it would be helpless
without someone at its command-post. A city without missions
documenting, at the very least, its defence plan, is vulnerable in the
extreme. A legion may well engage, in self-defence, an invader if the
intruder happens to butt into it but a legion in barracks is never going
to meet enemy legions until their very doors are under siege - a time
too late, in all likelihood, to mount serious defence.
???? Missions come here ????
List of missions:
"demeanour" - defines the demeanour of a legion, affecting its decision-making.
"emulate" - commands a legion to emulate the actions/approach of another.
"defend" - determines the manner and approach taken when the legion is forced into a defensive position.
"attack" - specifies the reaction to take when in attacking role.
"passive" - defines the manner of a response to passive circumstances.
"retreat" - informs the legion of the broad approach to take when retreat is decided upon.
"pursue" - sets up the manner and action taken by the legion when it is in pursuit of a foe/target.
