{"id":1053,"date":"2015-10-14T07:19:14","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T07:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vrdesigns.net\/?p=1053"},"modified":"2015-10-14T07:19:14","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T07:19:14","slug":"barbarossa-developer-notes-3-who-is-going-to-make-my-cup-of-coffee-in-the-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrdesigns.net\/?p=1053","title":{"rendered":"Barbarossa developer Notes #3: Who Is Going To Make My Cup Of Coffee In The Morning?"},"content":{"rendered":"

continued from developer notes #2<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Chain of Command<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a little trickier than it first appears. Yes there is a Chain of Command. But where does the Player sit within it?<\/p>\n

Most military simulation type games answer this by having you, the Player, being at the very apex of whatever Chain of Command exists. It\u2019s an easy way to do it. You are the guy in charge. You make all the decisions. There is no need to worry about the implications of a hierarchy.<\/p>\n

\"blog_23\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are multiple subordinates who willing carry out your wishes. They are typically portrayed as a collection of stats. Their main purpose is to apply those stats as bonuses to various game mechanics. They have no opinions or agendas of their own. Their raison d\u2019etre is to carry out your orders as invisible, one dimensional characters, who are there in the same way as a mountain is there<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Of course not all games are like this. There are some excellent examples in other genres but they are rarely found in the world of military simulations.<\/p>\n

Back to the topic. The game takes a dual approach to the Chain of Command. For the Germans the Player is placed within the hierarchy whereas the Soviet Player finds himself representing the man at the top, Stalin. This allows the game to present two very different Command experiences.<\/p>\n

\n

Traction equipment lacking: Tests now in progress to determine serviceability of French traction equipment. Only limited mobility. Will have supply vehicles, but tactical mobility cannot be achieved (no ammunition columns). Two batteries are put on self-propelled mounts, to serve as heavy tank destroyers. \u201cTraction Bns., motorised\u201d could be formed, but chain of command and control would be very difficult in practice.<\/em><\/p>\n

F.M Von Halder\u2019s War Diary, 27th February, 1941<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

If you\u2019re Stalin, you\u2019re not going to be fussed about politics. Or opinions. You\u2019re a ruthless dictator. Anybody steps out of line and you\u2019ll have them lined up in front of a firing squad in short order. There is a directness and simplicity in being able to do exactly as you wish.<\/p>\n

Is this then, the typical war game approach as mentioned above? No. People are still involved and while they aren\u2019t going to argue the toss they will present other challenges. Still, once you put the Player at the head of the hierarchy the people aspect becomes less important. They tend to fade into the background. There needs to be a different focus.<\/p>\n

What that focus might be did indeed present a design challenge. The approach I settled on was to make it an internal one – Stalin\u2019s state of mind. More on this later but, for the Soviet Player, the role of the people involved, all of them subordinates, is not themselves but in what affect they have on Stalin himself.<\/p>\n

Cheers,
\nCameron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

continued from developer notes #2 The Chain of Command This is a little trickier than it first appears. Yes there is a Chain of Command. But where does the Player sit within it? Most military simulation type games answer this … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":651,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-decisive-campaigns-barbarossa","category-game-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrdesigns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrdesigns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrdesigns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrdesigns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/651"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrdesigns.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1053"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrdesigns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1064,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrdesigns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053\/revisions\/1064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrdesigns.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrdesigns.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrdesigns.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}