Game: Advance Wars Wii?

Well I've mentioned this on numerous forums, and I can assure you now this post is not going to be very informative. But I guess I'll post it anyway.

On many discussion boards I have proposed the idea of Nintendo bringing Advance Wars to the Wii. This would serve three major purposes 1) Bringing Advance Wars to multi-systems would popularize it, as it is not very popular at the moment 2) With Advance Wars on the Wii you have more interface and online options, as well as more available features and 3) I think bringing Advance Wars to the Wii would give players some variety as to their style of play, for example I know avid console gamers to do not like handheld gaming.

You may be thinking, OK so why are you telling us you mentioned this on discussion boards, and well a I don't know and b I haven't made a post in two weeks and that's a sin right there. Let's discuss the controls.

Wii Remote: The player has an in-game cursor that can be controlled by moving and pointing the Wii Remote, press A to select a unit/base or B to de-select. + Can be Pause, 1 can check a units range, and holding C while moving around the map will ghost the units to allow view of the map without them and faster scrolling. The cursor can also be controlled by moving the toggle on the Nunchuk in the designated direction. All in all I don't see a flaw with this, and it wouldn't be that hard to market or develop seeing as all Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have to do is slap DoR onto the Wii, I don't know the procedure but it shouldn't be that hard right?

We could even call the game Advance Wars: Wii or AW:W. If there was a second AW game to come out for the Wii I think we could call it Advance Wars: W(II). We could also add old features to the game such as the War Room and the hard campaign. Possible edit some of the sprites and battle animations to match the Wii's level and put some contrast between the DS version as well.

We could also have 4 player and 8 player random Wi-Fi battles as well as a friend roster and a detailed ranking system according to player points which I think should work like this:

For every unit a player kills they get a player point, for every unit they lose they lose a player point. A player would start with 1,000 player points, anybody with PP's above that is obviously above average and below is below average. It works almost like a ladder rating system (were have I seen one of those).

Any units that attack and destroy within the CO Zone would earn the player 2 PP and if the CO destroys a unit they would gain 3 PP. That's just my idea, considering the current ranking system is determined by the amount of ribbons a player has which can be easily earned by terrible and amazing players, so I don't think they accurately depict a player's skill level.

Am I crazy, or is this a good idea? Please send your thoughts to me at keithteeple@gmail.com!

Lore: Flank Attack

So, this is the writing piece to the first level of my custom campaign that you can find at www.advancewarsnet.com. Here goes:

01: Flank Attack

Will sat his quarter at Wolves HQ. After their confrontation with Caulder, the Earth had been making a speedy recovery. Things were still not the same. The entire surface was divided into regions: A-Zone meant habitable or able to sustain life with minimal threat, B-Zone which was were most of the population lived, not quite as clean as an A-Zone but almost, then there was the C-Zones which people were not advised to enter. Any military personnel who went in, and out often were not the same, or didn’t come out at all. They had to be heavily sterilized and all their equipment destroyed upon entry of an A or B-Zone. C-Zones could not sustain life for a simple reason: a heavy concentration of radiation from the meteors that had hit Earth just years ago.

A Wolf suddenly barged into Will’s quarter. “Sir! Non responsive units have been spotted just southeast of our position,” said the soldier quite frantically. There had been no hostile contact for two years.

“Soldier, what confirmation do we have,” asked Will. The soldier explained a radar more detailed then Will needed to hear, but he was right. There were definitely two units, apparently tanks with a nearby HQ just out of the Wolves HQ. “Have we tried radio contact,” asked WIll again.

“No sir, they’re not responding to anything, we also deployed warning flares.” Warning flares were a canister that sprayed purple gas upon impact to ward away hostile, or curious on comers to stay away because this was a military area.

“Do we have any units ready for combat in the armory,” asked Will.

The soldier nodded “Yes sir, I’ll get them ready sir.” An unmanned UAV confirmed the thoughts that there were two hostile tanks nearby, there was also a confirmed siting on an HQ not too far away either. The only combat ready units in the armory were a recon unit and a mech unit with a rig. Will took command, and joined linked to the soldiers’ public radio channel.

“Alright guys, we’re outgunned by these tanks, they’ll shred through that recon and the rig in not too long at all, so it’s a matter of storming their HQ. Bravo squad, you’re to board the rig with Gamma and head for the HQ. Echo squad, shield them from tank fire. The outer armor on the recon should shield you for a few shots, but if not try to ditch in the nearby mountains. I’m sorry soldiers we’re low on rations so you’ll have to conserve fuel if possible. Use the mountains near their HQ as well to shield you from the tanks.”

Within minutes the battle was under way, Bravo and Gamma headed through the woods and got within a click of the HQ un-noticed. Echo was not far behind them. Upon their exit of the forest the hostile tanks caught sight of the convoy and headed for them. The squads got ready to be hammered, but then heard the distinct ting of bullets off metal.

Will’s radio channel cracked indicating someone was trying to link him. His HUD showed it was Echo squad. He accepted the link and listened “Sir, I think the hostile tank’s main cannons are offline. They’re firing at us with their secondary machine guns. We’re five-hundred meters from their HQ now and we’re going to ditch in four-hundred.”

“Good job, link me when you’ve entered the HQ.” Will signed off the channel and examined the confrontation from the UAV. In another five minutes Bravo, Gamma and Echo had out maneuvered the tanks, and Bravo squad had breached the enemy HQ. Will’s radio channel cracked again, and he accepted. “Sir, we’re in the HQ and there’s no resistance! None! I think we’re in the main room or something of that sort, there’s no personnel looks like they’ve ditched. We’ve confiscated some papers and are returning to HQ. No losses today sir, complete success!”

Without saying anything Will signed off. Five minutes later the soldiers returned, were debriefed, and WIll examined the plans. They explained a missile that held a tonne of liquid, called Hydroporium. This was something worth a look at. Suddenly WIll’s radio crackled from an unknown contact “This is not the last you will hear from us,” said an agitated Russian accent. Until now no one had even considered who the CO might be. The world would be plunged into a new apocalypse. Something that was deliberate.

Strategy: Rocketlocking

My sincere thanks go to GipFace from AWN for teaching me this tactic. I think I'll just re-summarize and put it into writing.

Rocketlocking is a technique used to prevent your opponent from gaining territories/key points on the map, by pinning them with rocket units. The most brief example I can give is positioning your rockets near several cities, ensuring they are in range. Any units that try to enter the cities to capture them will be destroyed by your rocket, it's that simple. This strategy proves useful in randon online matches are games have a set amount of time and when the time runs out the player with the most properties wins the game, and with an effective rocket lock, you can prevent them from gaining properties.

So how do we do it? It's not very hard, and it doesn't involve saving funds either. Assume we're playing an online, random match with no fog. Your player one (this strategy often involves FTA), you build a couple infantry or bike units and set off to capture your properties. Your opponent does likewise and soon your into day 4 or 5 of the game with a decent income.

You each have around the same amount of properties, but there is still a neutral cluster of cities on the map. You have 18,000 funds, enough to build a rocket with some left over. Perfect. Build your rocket in the factory closest to the neutral factories and on your next turn move it in range of the cities.

Most opponents will know what you're trying to do, and will not rush in with a single infantry mech or bike unit. They will try to counter this strategy with what I call the Rocket Lock Rush (RLR). Since a single unit can only attack one unit a turn, your opponent can send 2 or 3 infantry into those neutral cities, allowing time for your rocket to only attack and eliminate 1 infantry, allowing your opponent the capture of two bases before your rocket can successfully eliminate all the infantry.

So make sure you don't just leave a rocket sitting there, so once it's in place make sure you have infantry to quickly rush in and capture the cities under the protection of your rocket.

Short post and the second today, but that's a simple strategy which involves pin-point tactics, and can give you the edge in almost any game.

For a video from the #1 ranked DoR player in the world on rocketlocking, check this out: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=idnnQmSPT9o.

I just copied my forum post so some of it may not make sense but here goes.

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Rules
- No cheats/cheat software/hardware (i.e Action Replay)
- Only DoR, AWBW/any other online versions will not be supported
- Must have your own copy of DoR
- Must be a member of AWN (if you're a guest register NOW)
- Must have a valid friendcode/username
- Once entered you cannot change your DS username until the tournament has ended
- Matches cannot be played on design maps, unless approved (post an image here so we can determine if it's fair)
- Matches will be set up like ladder matches, players must agree on map/rules
- Caulder may not be used, any other CO is fine including no CO
- Don't enter if you have bad internet and can disconnect in the middle of a game
- If you do disconnect however, match will be counted as a win for the other player, unless they agree to a no contest
- May not receive assistance from other players during gameplay (i.e MSN/voicechat)
- Recording games via webcam is encouraged, as recordings can be used to settle disputes
- Games may be broadcasted over the Internet

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Now I'm not a mod here on the forums so I can't officially announce ANY prizes whatsoever, nor can I create them. But it would be nice with the approval of a moderator/administrator if someone could make a 1st Place, 2nd Place and 3rd Place badge for the participants that can go in the participants signature, also maybe another badge indicating that you are/were a participant in the 09 AWN DoR Tournament. If you have another creative idea for a prize, post here.

If you are interested in entering, please post your username (online display name for AW), your Force and Team as well, which can be accessed from the History Page under Records.

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Online name: CB09
Friendcode: 064 553 742 236
Force: Ground
Team: War Tank Corps

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All entries must be submitted by February 1st, 2009.

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And if you're not a member register at www.advancewarsnet.com

Map/Strategy: Pre-Deploy

For those of you who are offended over the fact that this post has 2 denominations it's because the topic couldn't be classified as one. . .thing, so I classified the post as a map examination and a playing strategy since this is going to include advice on both.

As you progress through the DoR Campaign many of the levels and maps you play on are pre-deploy maps, meaning that there are no factories, ports or airports to produce units with, forcing the player to use the units that they start with on the map. The reason that this is, is to force players to use a certain style of play against the AI, and it makes the game more challenging (if you're not far into the campaign, I might add IMPOSSIBLE). Sometimes on pre-deploy maps your enemy has the advantage of actually having unit producing infrastructure, so so start your outgunned, and then outnumbered. 

NOTE: Throughout this post, when I say pre-deploy map I mean maps that have NO unit producing buildings at all, as opposed to maps with neutral producing buildings that can be captured as the game progresses.

Sometimes we get lost as to how to use our units on pre-deploy maps, because if you lose that Md. Tank there's no way to get it back, you can't use factories, so we become a turtle and run away, that's probably the worst thing you can do. Allowing your opponent to gain ground on you, while you have a limited number of units spells certain death. You have to use tactics to hit your opponent, then quickly get out of harms way. Exploit weaknesses, figure out what your opponent does to counter your moves, and come up with a style to counter that. Does your opponent hit you with surprise attacks from artillery, or does he smash you with tanks and infantry? Does he try to surround you and pick off your units, or does he lack aggression? 

All of these factors must be considered when you are trying to conserve your units. Another extremely important thing to remember is to keep your infantry units alive. Even if this means sacrificing all of your best and most powerful parts of your army. Why all this for a poorly animated infantry? Well on pre-deploy maps we usually don't try to win via annihilation we try to capture our opponents HQ. And you can't do that without foot soldiers. If you have transports, load them with your mech and infantry, as they are safer in here, and have more mobility. Get a convoy going, this is what I usually try to base mine around:

2 Infantry Units

1 Rig

2 Recons

1 Tank

1 Artillery

Try to keep the stronger units on the outside, and the more fragile and important units towards the inside, almost forming a circle of protection, or as I like to call it: Sprite Night. Move your convoy down the map, and make sure to keep a couple units guarding your HQ. As your convoy advances, fend off any attacks as best as you can but don't ever stop to engage enemies that you don't have to, let them come to you. Once you unload your infantry on your opponents HQ, the convoy doesn't become useless, and go shoot at infantry on the mountains, they engage in their most important job: "Capping" the HQ. I believe I explained this in an earlier post, but let me draw some beautiful ascii art to vaguely explain the concept, then let me explain in words.

                                                                           TANK/RECON

                                                INFANTRY/RIG HQ/INFANTRY ARTILLERY/RECON

Uncase you didn't understand that, the HQ/INFANTRY in the middle represents an HQ with an infantry unit capturing it. The units to either side represent the units that would be surrounding the HQ. So the TANK/RECON above the HQ would mean you position a tank and recon unit there. Try to position your strongest units, so that they are facing the enemy. For example, if the majority of your enemies units, or their stronger units are at the west, put your tank and artillery on the west side of the HQ. 

The purpose of capping an HQ is to hold off your opponent for long enough (2 days) to allow your infantry to capture the HQ without being harmed.

Wi-Fi: Cheaters

Have you ever entered a match, and your opponent builds an infantry, then they move it, move it again, move it again, get to your base, capture it, all in one turn before you even get to make a move (no, this is not Caulder's CO power)? This is called hacking. On AWN I see a lot of you posting threads like cheatz help plzzzzz, and I see you post the exact same problem. I'll tell you how it's done. I want to let you know that I DO NOT encourage this kind of play at all, and if you have to cheat to win, I recommend going to the Tactics Room and asking Lin for some advice. 

It's done with a device called the Action Replay designed by Datel. The Action Replay is a card (much like a standard DS or DS Lite game) that comes loaded with tons of cheats for almost any DS game. Advance Wars happens to be one of them. There are cheats like Press L to Repair All Units, Max Funds, Unlock All CO's and Press Y to Move Again. These are only a few of them, plus players can design their own cheats and add them to the AR via their computer and using the Action Replay software.

Why use the AR? Again, it's useful for many games, when you're not playing online, like Pokemon, you can gain almost one level per kill, but I'm not here to talk about animals. The AR can also make gameplay simply more fun while granting players better in-game benefits. 

I'm going to tell you the truth. I used the AR in the AWDoR Campaign in the level were you fight on the Owl's Wings. Let's face it - that level is impossible! There's what? three waves of enemies, and they improve every time and you don't get repairs or anything? I'm sorry, but that's just way too hard. And to add to it, I didn't want to think that much at 2AM. 

And if you're thinking OMG that guyz a cheater im neverr gonna play him online cuz hes gonna cheat and kill me and meh record is gonna be bad well then I'll tell you that A) you don't have a record in DoR and B) I lost my Action Replay. Yeah I miss it. I also lost Pokemon. But AWDoR? NEVER! I will never lost that game, so you will see me on the AWN under the name Captain Brenner. Thanks for reading, and I think next I'll examine a map.

Id also like to thank Sealy for subscribing to the blog! You help keep it going. So please click "Follow this Blog". 

Campaign: Custom Campaigning

Your friend might have done it, or you might have seen it on the AWN Boards (www.advancewarsnet.com), but sooner or later your bound to come across someone's custom campaign. For those of us who want more than just the obvious a custom campaign is someone's own, made up story line featuring their designed maps. Usually they have existing CO's already. Custom Campaigns (I'm tired of typing that so from now on they'll be called CC's) can be simply a map with a little detail or paragraph describing the situation and the armies, to more than twenty chapters, each with it's own dialogue and map plus an amazing story line.

I, personally don't have time to make my own custom campaign (no, I'm just too lazy) all in one sitting. So I've decided to make one over time, right here in my blog! Every now and then I'll think up a new chapter and make it into a post, but in between I'll still continue to examine units, CO's and strategies etc. 

Back on track, custom campaigns over players a way to immerse themselves in the game more and it gives them something to talk about on forums or during a game plus it can also express your skills as a writer. Did you know that one of the writers of Advance Wars Series actually was a fan of the first, and made over twenty five custom campaigns with over twenty-five chapters each? It's pretty crazy, but people love it, and it can be done anyway you want it to, realistic or not. 

If you don't really know what I'm talking about here's an example of a custom campaign: http://advancewarsnet.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33972. This campaign is the best around in my opinion and was designed by delta_angelfire. 

So my conlusion is go ahead, I challenge you to make your own campaign, and if you do, email it to me at keithteeple@gmail.com or post it somewhere on the AWN Boards since that's were most of my readers come from.

And happy holidays!