Tides of War

This looks like it could be a flowchart for the upcoming single player competitions.. now all we need is someone to convert it to a working web page format to control the interactions and player screenshot uploads and generate the random security codes..

Awesome stuff!

I think Maxim has a great idea, and the guys at battlegroups should take a hard look at it, and incorporate it into the 1st cycle. The codes and 2 hour time limit just helps keep people honest. >:(

Maxim, see if you have a fix for this:

You use a specific code, to make sure no one finished the mission like 3 weeks ago.

Now, It's time for the second campaign mission, and if you have to have a new code, then you have to play the first mission again to get back to where you were.

If you use the old code, then that defies the reason for using codes in the first place.

How do you have a new code every time, while progressing thru the campaigns?

WHAT? nobody even noticed my cool little torpedoes showing the logic flow directions..

Heh heh.. I purposely did not explain much more than necessary so that you braniacs would get a chance to tear my idea apart and do some thinking, in order to help me find loopholes in my idea..

Now on to the Good Question - glad you asked..

Only new valid codes would work from one contest (weekend) to the next based on dates. The code is entered before playing the mission, and then when the missions results are sent to the web site, they would be a simple data file going into your designated upload area. (It may not even be necessary to post screenshots. As a matter of fact, I highly reccomend NOT using a screenshot due to space and convienence considerations, but a patch to the game). At the end of a mission, the patch would spit out an encrypted text file any time a valid code was detected as a GAME NAME, and the encrypted file would be able to be processed by a computer rather than having a human verify each screenshot.

How does all this work?

OK, with simple encryption programs that are out there these days, (but difficult enough to figure out) any code can have the date(s) of the current 48 hour contest weekend incorporated.. no two codes would be the same, even if you couldnt see the previous date incorporated into it, and/or with large enough mixed alphanumeric permutations and compared to the corresponding number of players involved, we wouldnt run out of codes before the sun went cold quite a few billion years from now..

Now try to put your game name into Enima Rising Tide as if it were a code. See how many positions are allowed? Now multiplying exponentially each character position by the previous position and the number that represents the total letters in the alphabet, and the numbers 0-9, and just for fun, throw in some special ascii characters and you get the idea of how many times squared, times squared, times squared etc etc that are potentially usable codes..

Of course the end user usually doesnt need to worry about all this mathematical mumbo jumbo, just knowing its a really big number usually satisfies most of the curious.

Yes, I saw your torpedoes, but I wasn't sure what they were, as they resemble little tampons...lol.

You didn't answer my question. The way it is being set up now, the battlegroups are planning on following the campaigns. Let's say you give me a code and tell me to report back to you in 2 hours or less. I play my mission 1, and report my results. The next time, you send me a new code, with the same instructions. Now, with a new code, I have to replay the first mission in order to reach the second mission. (Are you starting to see where I'm coming from?) New codes means new player file, which means starting new each time.

I was not aware that the way they will be doing things in the battlegroups would cause that effect. It's simply too early to tell.

Several things can/could happen:

1. I have already stated that the game could be patched to include some new functionality with codes / missions..

2. These forums already contain a simple method of copying campaign files to "skip" to any mission in any campaign.. which allows you to "start" anywhere.

3. The contest(s) may contain all-new missions or campaigns, with some alterations to accomodate for these functions, and the ability to re-sequence codes to include your previous results (name / level completed) when the code is reissued to you, so that you can then start where you left off, but still have a method of tracking for security purposes.

So, you have a good point about - not wanting to start a new player profile each time - therefore the GAME NAME may not be the absolute best place to put a code.. Let's presume the new patched version of ERT "contest" missions/campaigns contain a NEW data field for this code, and your game name / player profile remains unchanged.

They said that the dynamic single-player would be single missions that you would dl, so it wouldn't be like the campaigns where you start from scratch every time.

All we need now is a definitive answer from TAG if they can issue some type of security in the scoring system, and if they will be creating missions that players have not already practiced ad infinitum, and finally if they can automate the process so scores would be tabulated, judged and organized, uploaded thru a webupdate program of some type.

Some other things that need to be addressed.

Lets say two people get the same tonnage.. not entirely out of the question, they sank two of the same ships.. is it a tie? Or is the winner decided by least amount of time on mission?

Is it necessary to add additional measures of success, like who has most hull strength left? Or who has not wasted any torps..? Five merchant ships needed to be sunk and you started with 30 torps.. one player has only 20 torps left over, the other has 25.. someone was more skillfull, dont you think?

TAG has the ability to output an encrypted text file to assure security in scoring, and if they also know the internal game values such as hull, torps, etc.. it would be nice to have a few of these incorporated into the judging system.

I hope I am not asking for too much, just want to show people that there are some interesting ways to make this challenging and informative.

missions that players have not already practiced ad infinitum,

yeah , ad infinitum ....but haven't we all played it ad infinitum ? : )