Up and Coming: North Africa

[Brit]

Just thought I'd give players a heads-up. I've been playing around with some other ideas for getting more interest in the game. I'm kicking around a bunch of ideas, and one of them that I'm playing around with right now is just to put out some scenarios or a campaign. At this point, I'm putting together a North Africa WW2 scenario.

This scenario requires adding some new features to the game.

- I didn't like how monotonous maps look when they have lots of desert, so I added a feature to the map editor to paint some different colors on the map (you can see some color variations in the screenshot below). Just thought it would make things a little more visually interesting.

- The scenario requires the addition of "reinforcements" functionality, which means the scenario editor will include the ability to have predefined units show up at a specific time and location on the map.

- This scenario will rely much less on the production of new units in cities or technology research, and much more on the use of units created in the scenario editor.

- I'll probably add some headquarters and/or supply depots, and will create a custom ruleset with some light, medium, and heavy tanks. (Which also means players will have additional art assets to use in your own rulesets.)

I don't know when this will be all done, but just thought you might be interested in some of the upcoming features.

[rich12545]

Great idea.

[Dr Matt Lamb]

This looks excellent. You could do scenarios based on the Ardennes, Barbarrossa, etc. I like the idea about HQ and supply units and it will be interesting to see how those would work. I have often thought when you had a stack of units how good it would be to add a 'general' (Rommel, etc) or 'HQ' unit to give them a boost in their movement/attack/defence ratings. I guess if you are giving more tactical scale scenarios you do need rivers and bridges and with that comes engineers, etc.

[hoolaman]

That's cool.

Actually I was going to post about the lack of official scenarios and rulesets, which really makes the game seem a little devoid of human created content (Sorry Brit, I know the random map generator is created by a hardworking human).

Even the "New Game" menu is not very conducive to loading a mission or scenario, the new game menu is quite cluttered and unstreamlined, and possibly should start with a short list of options like "Load Scenario", "Random Map and Ruleset", and "quick game" and possibly a "Get Community Content" linking to the downloads area. The best community rulesets could be included in the release.

[V22 Osprey]

I like this. You could start a series of scenarios ranging from the Pacific to Operation Barbarossa.

Brit, I would love to have a ruleset that uses WWI, Modern, and Future type units in their own ruleset just 1940 gets its own. Like a 1914, 2000, and 2050 ruleset would be great.

[Brit]

Actually I was going to post about the lack of official scenarios and rulesets, which really makes the game seem a little devoid of human created content (Sorry Brit, I know the random map generator is created by a hardworking human).

Yeah, I know what you mean. I was thinking recently about how some strategy games have a campaign mode and skirmish mode (which are on random maps). In some sense, EoS is all skirmish mode.

Even the "New Game" menu is not very conducive to loading a mission or scenario, the new game menu is quite cluttered and unstreamlined, and possibly should start with a short list of options like "Load Scenario", "Random Map and Ruleset", and "quick game" and possibly a "Get Community Content" linking to the downloads area. The best community rulesets could be included in the release.

Yeah, I was thinking about rearranging the startup menu for exactly that reason. I thought I should also do more to promote user-created content so it doesn't get overlooked by players.

[Deadmeat1471]

I love this idea, as some people might have seen ive attempted to do several scenarios, one was Colombian civil war and one was Iwo Jima (with varied success!).

I love the ideas of scenarios, my biggest problem was the AI, scenarios have to be compatable with the games AI My colombian one never worked very well in that sense.

WW2 north africa seems a great theatre to choose

If you need any help with anything, Historical research or ideas or anything dont hesitate to ask Brit!

[Brit]

I love this idea, as some people might have seen ive attempted to do several scenarios, one was Colombian civil war and one was Iwo Jima (with varied success!).

I love the ideas of scenarios, my biggest problem was the AI, scenarios have to be compatable with the games AI My colombian one never worked very well in that sense.

WW2 north africa seems a great theatre to choose

If you need any help with anything, Historical research or ideas or anything dont hesitate to ask Brit!

Thanks! Yeah, I'd like to add some better features to the scenario-editor to let players direct the AI towards different goals -- in particular, to guide the AI along historical lines. Will keep you updated.

[rich12545]

One way to do that is the scenario designer can place objectives on the map. These can be seen or hidden and can be weighted numerically. So attacking units will have a percentage chance of going after the highest objective. This is really good also in meeting engagement scenarios where the SD can place maybe 3-4 different weighted objectives on the map usually somewhere in the middle. All kinds of stuff you can do with this.