The Digital Battlefield

THE DIGITAL BATTLEFIELD
Play Miniature/Board Games on the Computer!
by Paul J. Calvi Jr. 17JAN97

I've been working on a way to play board and computer games (including
Full Thrust, Dirtside 2, and Stargrunt 2 to name a few) on the computer,
which, for the sake of brevity, I will call the Digital Battlefield. I
know that at least one gentleman is in the process of programming a
JAVA-based program to play Full Thrust over the Web. Such a program will
be quite a boon to FT players everywhere, but until such a program(s) is
finished I think I may have a very workable solution (Note: this system
works equally as well with any miniatures game as well as any low
unit-density board game). I have worked on such a system for various
reasons. First, I wanted to be able to play these great games without
the need to purchase and paint miniatures--I know this is part of the
fun, but one only has so much time, space, and money to devote to a
particular series of miniatures as well as gaming in general. Second, I
also wanted to be able to keep a game setup for longer periods of time
and taking up a table for a long time is not always possible. Third, the
computer offers unlimited flexibility/customization and, of course,
allows one to play games over email.

=WHAT IS NEEDED=
All that is needed to use the Digital Battlefield is any vector-based
drawing program that allows multiple levels of zoom, the ability to
group objects, the ability to rotate objects, and preferably, the
ability to import and rotate bitmaps. I use Corel Draw 7.0 and Corel
Xara because those are two programs I have and they both work extremely
well (Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand are two other common
drawing programs). Of these programs, I would recommend Corel Xara
because it does all that is needed and only costs $100. If anyone knows
of a cheaper program that has all these functions please let me know.
Also a raster-based "paint" program is also helpful for unit and terrain
preparation/modification.

=ADVANTAGES=
The advantages to playing games using the Digital Battlefield are many:

* It allows a larger playing area than is practical on the table top.
Both Corel programs support page (and thus "table") sizes over 100in on
a side. This is a larger area than most people have available for normal
table top games with miniatures. The multiple zooms allow one to zoom-in
to greater than 1:1 scale and out far enough to view the entire
"surface." Centimeter and smaller scales are also easily used allowing
even bigger play areas.

* Because you are using a vector-based drawing program to play you can
play using anything you can draw. Obviously the better artist you are
the better your ships will look, but even the graphically challenged can
easily make respectable looking ships in just a few minutes. These
drawings can be scaled as needed to fit any scale and rotated in anyway
to play the game.

* Extra units are infinitely available so you'll never run out of ships
or counters.

* The big advantage to the mentioned drawing programs is that they allow
one to import bitmaps (For FT players this allows you to use the
beautiful B5, etc. ship counters available on the Web).

* Another advantage for email play is that file sizes are very small.
With vector units, file sizes are about 20-50K for the largest battles.
With bitmap units, files get larger (200K+) but can be controlled by the
bitmaped files' sizes and color depths. Of course with compression
programs even these files could be made very small for transmission to
your opponent.

=DISADVANTAGES=
There are of course a few disadvantages to playing games this way as
well:

* The disadvantages will vary due to the computer system and program(s)
used. First of course is simply the loss of aesthetic beauty of a table
top miniatures game (or board game). 

* Depending on your computer monitor size and video resolution, you will
have greater or lesser enjoyment with the Digital Battlefield. I play on
a 17in monitor at 1024x768 resolution and think it is just fine. When
zoomed out to max the ships are still distinguishable. Someone on a
14inch monitor at 640x480 resolution may not be so lucky.

* Also, depending on how big your game is, what you use for ships
(vector vs. bitmaps), and which drawing program you use, you may or may
not get satisfactory performance in scrolling and zooming-in/out while
playing the game. Processor speed, amount of RAM, video card speed, and
the graphics program itself are all factors here. On a P150 w/32MB of
RAM, game performance was excellent even with large numbers of bitmap
units.

=HOW TO PLAY=

The first thing you need to do to use the Digital Battlefield is setup
your game environment. This involves choosing your play scale, setting
up your page in the drawing program, making your map, and making the
play counters (unit and administrative). After setup, play proceeds
almost as it normally would on the table top.

-Scale and Page Setup-
I've tested three setups for miniature play; first was an inch scale.
Everything works fine at this scale and it presents no conversion
problems at all, but the 100 inch limit is still a bit tight for larger
games. Another option is to use a 81/2 x 11" page size and use a 1mm =
1inch scale. This looks fine on screen and allows you to print your
battles onto a single piece of paper for reference (with a 600dpi laser
printer the units are very small, but discernible). My favorite setup
uses a 140 x 140cm page size. This allows maximum maneuver room and a
good "true" size (Also, the centimeter scale just happens to fit
perfectly with the graphic Babylon 5/Star Wars counters available on the
Web for FT.) Remember to turn your rulers on to aid in movement during
play. The Preferences or Options settings usually allow you to adjust
the default rotation of objects (15 or 30 degrees is probably the best
choice). Most draw programs have a grid scale you can turn on and
adjust. I would recommend turning the grid on. It also looks good as it
can represent a "star" background or make the map look like it is cut
into military grid squares.

-Making the Map-
Because miniature games are designed to played without a hex grid the
draw programs scale and measurement functions work perfectly. If you are
playing a game that needs hexes (or you just want to use them) you can
overlay the page with a hex fill. Otherwise, you can just play on the
bare page (you could make a colored background, but this hides your grid
and slows down scrolling). For ground games (such as DS2 and SG2) you
can either construct simple terrain as you would on the table top
(hills, forest areas, etc.) or make a very detailed map to scale (this
will slow down your game performance depending on how detailed you got
and your computer's hardware configuration). In either case, it is best
to make the map "layer one" and play on a second layer (if your program
supports layers). You can get as creative as you want here and use
bitmap objects for great looking terrain, use "landscaping" vector
objects, or just make simple geometric shapes. Once designed, the map
should be saved as a single object (group) or layer to prevent it from
getting altered during play.

-Making the Units and Counters-
The easiest way to make units for games is to open a bitmap image of the
units (such as the FT B5, etc. ship counters available on the Web) in a
paint program, cut out the individual "pieces" and import them into the
draw program to use as counters (at the centimeter scale this works
perfectly for FT). The pieces can be "modified" with numbers/comments
either in the paint program or right in the vector program. During play
they can be moved and rotated as needed. The disadvantage to bitmap
objects is that they are larger (in file size) than most equivalent
vector objects (but not always) thus slowing down game performance and
increasing game file size; they also lose "resolution" at certain zoom
levels making them harder to distinguish and, depending on your play
scale, may or may not scale well without losing fidelity. Your own
preferences and system setup will dictate whether you wish to use bitmap
objects or not. You can open any paint program and make simple
administrative (move/shoot/command, etc.) counters for import into the
game. You can also copy/paste/duplicate/clone units easily to create
large numbers of units.

The alternative to bitmap objects is vector ones made in the draw
program itself. These are infinitely scaleable and rotatable and usually
are very readable at any zoom level. If you keep the objects simple they
also give very speedy game performance. You can add unit IDs, etc. to
the units when you make them. Remember to save the finished units as a
single object (group) for easy handling during play. Obviously you can
easily make simple administrative (move/shoot/command, etc.) counters as
well. Remember you can copy/paste/duplicate/clone units easily to create
large numbers of units.

You can make "damaged/destroyed" versions of any units. An alternative
with vector-made units is, when they take damage, to un-group them and
remove part of the design (say a warp nacelle or an individual fighter)
and then re-group them again. This adds some nice visual excitement to
the game and also aids in play. With either vector or bitmapped objects,
as units are destroyed game performance will increase.

As noted, you will need to make various administrative
(move/shoot/command, etc.) counters to play your games. An alternative
to the counters is to simply "write" on the play surface as and where
needed during play. Just type out what you want and scale it down to
size. Depending on your play scale and preferred zoom level this could
be a convenient or annoying alternative to premade "counters". You can
also use this technique for making notes to your opponent during email
play. The grid scale and rulers make judging distances and moving units
easier, but I have also found that making premade "movement templates"
works very well. These are simple rectangles of various lengths. To use
them just drag the appropriate template in front of your unit and then
drag your unit to the other end of it and you just made your move. The
draw programs allow you to be as precise as you wish (in fact, far more
precise then you could ever get on the table top).

-Playing the Game-
Playing any of the games using the Digital Battlefield is done
essentially the same as you would play on the table top. You can use
written record sheets and normal dice or use computer forms or text
records and dice rolling programs for play-by-email games if you wish.
As with any manual (board) game, play-by-email may require various
modifications to the sequence of play to accommodate the lack of in-turn
player interaction. Also, and most importantly, this system has no game
protection so don't play with someone who you think may be tempted to
cheat.

=TIPS AND TRICKS=
**You can use the drawing programs text and other features to make notes
during play on the game board (or off to the side) or to show other
activities.

**Make "shadow" versions of units to show previous positions.

**If you have access to a color scanner, you can scan in your un-punched
counters, open them in a paint program, and then "cut" them into
individual units for import into the Digital Battlefield.

**In FT (or other space/naval games) you can use your programs line
drawing ability to create "course lines" that allow players to see a
fleet's maneuvers during the game. You can make these a very light color
during play so they are not intrusive and then darken them at the end to
get the "big picture".

**A seeming limitation to the Digital Battlefield is finding players
with a compatible drawing program. This limitation can largely be
overcome using common graphics formats. For example, Corel Draw 7.0 on
Windows 95 can read and edit Adobe Illustrator .eps files from the
Macintosh. Thus, in this case, players with completely separate, and
seemingly incompatible, systems can still play as if they had the same
system.

=OTHER COMMENTS=
HPS Simulations has a DOS "game" called Aide de Camp that allows players
to play any board game on a computer. It has many features that my
Digital Battlefield system does not have (dice rolling, unit tracking,
etc.) but also has many limitations (including a fixed sequence of play
and a poor aesthetic look). A Windows 95 version was supposed to be
available soon, but I recently spoke with Scott (the owner) and he said
version 2 may be a year or more away due to problems with the program's
compiler. This is a real shame as a professional, flexible system such
as this is sorely needed. Players should still give Aide de Camp a look,
for many games it works very well and a number of board game company's
sell pre-made ADC modules for their games.