Public Test Map
Initially I was going to make a generic map to playtest the initial gameplay ideas, but I think it will be more fun to make an actual scenario.
Since the game is so scenario focused it makes sense to test this conceit right from the start. Also it will be a bit more fun to play.
I think the 1941 Kiev Encirclement will make for a good base for this for a few reasons.. Firstly it's simple - the operation was primarily based on infantry and tanks. Aircraft, artillery and complex things like naval landings and paratroopers can just be ignored. It's also straightforward and fun to play. Encircling the Russian troops inside the city by breaking through the north and south flanks to the east is quite an easy strategy to comprehend so the learning curve for players is kept low.
Finally it has the benefit of showing off one of the major strategic gameplay features of the mod - encirclements!
To lighten the research burden on myself I'm going to leverage Unity of Command's Kiev scenario. For now I'm going to take the units on a 1:1 basis, same with the hexes. It's a good baseline scale. Each pip on the unit's icon will be one unit in-game. Also, don't worry - a lot more Panzer divisions show up on turn two!
(full size)
Media.moddb.com
The only other decision is single player or multiplayer? Ultimatly it would be nice to offer it as a two player scenario but it's pretty one-sided. I don't think that the Russian side would be a lot of fun to play. For now it will stay as a single player experience and players will get to enjoy playing as the much more dynamic Germans.
If this mission works out ultimately I'll expand it into a tutorial mission for new players. It's a good mission to teach all the key gameplay concepts.
Progress
Right now the map is just about fleshed out but there's a huge laundry list of things to add.
I need to create infantry and tank units for both sides, add in the strategic resources and enable dynamic supply dumps (so pretty much everything).Once that's done I'll need to add some kind of basic AI - although it's defensive focused so should be quite easy.
On top of this I would also like to add two "extra" features.
Firstly some means for entrenching infantry but for now I'll probably just have a specific unit type of "entrenched infantry" rather than having it as a dynamic ability for now.
Secondly I'd like to have some way for units to cross rivers too but that's probably not going to be added any time soon. It will probably be some kind of channeled blink where units can spend supply and enter a vulnerable state in order to be able to teleport across after a cooldown finishes.A more elegant option might be to use triggers and make the unit temporarily hover, disable control, and let it float across at a slow speed under AI control.
Anyway that's where the mod is right now -
More updates to come!
Sweet! I just reinstalled starcraft 2 and I can't wait to play this mod :D
This will be for SC2 or Generals?
New gameplay is for Starcraft 2.
To confuse things we are also releasing a big, possibly final, update to the Zero Hour version in a month or so. More on that when it's more ready...