Any news on the expansion?

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kai
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Any news on the expansion?

Unread postby kai » Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:48 pm

I haven't heard anything about the next expansion, is it in development? Any info avialable?

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Danielefc
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Re: Any news on the expansion?

Unread postby Danielefc » Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:24 am

AFAIK Its "under construction", one of the new scenarios is going to be Kursk and an editor might also be included. Thats all I know. However Tomislav is always really nice with answering questions - so maybe we can get an update? (Sucking up I know :lol: but its true)

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Tomislav Uzelac
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Re: Any news on the expansion?

Unread postby Tomislav Uzelac » Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:40 am

Hahah, yes the expansion is in the works. We've completed a few scenarios starting from Kursk and going west (so Rumyantsev, etc.). Now however, we ran into the boundary of our current map so I'm working on a new map.

I actually saw this question earlier and I wanted to reply with some map screenshots or whatever, but I'm still wrestling with some GIS software (GDAL/OGR just in case someone is interested). I'm actually thinking about writing a "making of " blog post for the game map, similar to what we have for the cover art.

Cheers! :)

kai
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Re: Any news on the expansion?

Unread postby kai » Wed Jun 20, 2012 2:40 pm

Thanks for the reply, Im really looking forward to it. Any making of is interesting to read, so go ahead with that. What I would mostly be interested in, though is if you tell us anything about new content apart from maps if there is any (new vehicles, new mechanics etc) - I don't want to have the campaign maps spoiled so much :P

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spillblood
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Re: Any news on the expansion?

Unread postby spillblood » Wed Jun 20, 2012 9:17 pm

Sounds pretty awesome. Using GIS for the campaign maps is pretty cool (shows that you're aiming for accuracy, both historical and geographical).

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Tomislav Uzelac
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Re: Any news on the expansion?

Unread postby Tomislav Uzelac » Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:02 pm

We use GIS for both the campaign and game map. The game map is then edited by hand because the graphics wouldn't work with the GIS data directly. Here are some examples: I am currently working on the Danube delta area. The screens show the new part of the map, but also how our GIS data interface looks.

Screenshot1.jpg

And now the GIS part. The lighter area of the map is completed (in the sense that it has land, obviously it's not complete). The darker area is just empty apart from the GIS data that we use as a guideline in the map editor.

Screenshot.jpg

@kai: list of unit types is being expanded as needed for 1943, etc. I don't have anything at hand to post, but I'll see with Nenad if we can post some in-progress stuff on the blog - it's alway nicer to see the actual unit icons rather than dry unit desginations and numbers.

Also, most probably yes, we will be adding a very small number of mechanics - but just to make sure later war scenarios work and no more. What's has been discussed: per-game limit on theater assets, an additional level of entrenchment, limiting elite units effectiveness in some situations (too strong). Nothing is finalized yet, we'll add only the minimum needed to make the scenarios at hand work historically.
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spillblood
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Re: Any news on the expansion?

Unread postby spillblood » Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:47 pm

Looks pretty awesome. I think the expansion will be epic.

kai
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Re: Any news on the expansion?

Unread postby kai » Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:58 pm

spillblood wrote:Looks pretty awesome. I think the expansion will be epic.

No doubt. Thanks for the reply!
I think it's good that you don't want to "overload" the game with features, sometimes less is more and that you got this makes your game so awesome.
Also, about the elite units: I think for actual gameplay it isn't so bad because big differences between units makes the decision where you deploy your forces more important. It does feel a bit strange that the Hungarian/Romanian/Italian are THIS bad, but for gameplay not so bad I think.

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spillblood
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Re: Any news on the expansion?

Unread postby spillblood » Thu Jun 21, 2012 9:07 pm

Yeah, elite units are balanced in most scenarios by the strict turn limits. You often simply don't have enough time to take advantage of their superiority, because some weak enemy units suffice to block your path (you can't get indefinite overruns, attacks often suppress some steps of your units).

RambOrc
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Re: Any news on the expansion?

Unread postby RambOrc » Fri Jun 22, 2012 12:42 pm

As far as German infantry > Russian infantry > Hungarian infantry goes, it's pretty accurate I think (in the Hungarian army stationed at Voronezh, something like half of the frontline soldiers didn't even have a firearm).

Romanian units were IIRC rather hit and miss, i.e. sometimes they performed really well and at other times really bad, which is rather difficult to depict with a standard game unit. Don't really know anything about the Italian forces on the Ostfront, but if they were similar to those deployed in the Balkans and Africa, then once again the in-game unit strength is spot on.