Broken Country 1936-1939 mod for Day of Infamy

This is the third news article being posted for this project. This time I'll go over some changes related to our class-system, a few improvements regarding our gunplay, new weapons and a new map.

We are finally back after a year of "stand-by", time that has helped us discuss a few matters regarding the mod itself, the gameplay and other mechanics.

One of these changes has been the decision of adding new classes which should greatly improve the multiplayer experience of this mod, encouraging teamwork and creating new alternative options gameplay-wise. These two classes are the Support and the Medic. So let's start with the Support:

The Support class in Broken Country, unlike in vanilla DoI, isn't another machinegunner, instead, our support class is something closer to an ammo supplier or machinegun-assistant. Being a Rifleman with the hability of dropping ammo pouches. In this case, these ammo pouches are quite "buffed" compared to the ones that are already in-game, since they provide more ammo and can me used multiple times. It has also a speed buff which helps with his main duty, running across the front looking for machinegunners in need. Some of you may wonder how is this supposed to improve the multiplayer experience, since supports are barely used as they are supposed to. That's why we have also decided to do some changes to the Machinegunner class itself. Now machinegunners will carry only a few mags/drums, only enough to provide a little fire support but not a very maintained one, making them very dependant on suppliers, switching the individual gamestyle of the vanilla game to a rather collective gamestyle on our mod. This means that a badly coordinated team with a MG gunner left alone and a Support running to the front just like another Rifleman will probably mean that they are doomed and they are likely to lose the match. But on the opposite side, a well coordinated team could probably crush the enemy line, which could bring a wonderful experience, not only in MP matches but also in COOP.

The Medic class in Broken Country is still a very work-in-progress thing, since we still have to work a lot on it, mainly because DoI's engine limits our options greatly. Long story short, most good medic mechanics come from Plugins. Like the ones used in the "Let's Kill Bots" servers, which introduce a Medkit that can either be dropped on the floor to create a healing area or can be used to individually heal or revive players. Dragging dead players could also be an option. That kind of Medkit would greatly improve this class' gamestyle, making it very useful and very relevant in certain situations. But as I mentioned earlier, it comes from a plugin, which means that it doesn't come from our theater but from an independent file that only works when its installed on a server. Because of that, our Medic class will be left for the moment more like Screaming Steel's medic class, being able to drop medkits that work like ammo pouches from the Support class but they give health instead of ammo, wich is also ok but not as good as it could be.

And why did we decide to implement these changes? Mainly because we wanted to improve the player's experience in general. Day of Infamy was quite innovative with the Officer-Radio system, which could decide the destiny of entire matches due to the importance of the Firesupport system and was even ported to Sandstorm. "A system that encourages teamwork and makes the game way more fun", that was the philosophy that we took as our motto and thus, we implemented in other subjects.

Coordinated MG teams and medics helping around should create a better relation between players, specially with the window of opportunities and success that they can bring to a team. Basically, this mechanic could help unite players to fight together, quite like in other class-based-games like Valorant, and perhaps even create new small groups to play coordinated, which has helped maintaining alive other games like Mount and Blade Warband. In theory, this should make our mod more attractive and less monotonous for the community. And considering the current state of Day of Infamy, that sounds like great news.

Now let's get into a different subject.

The Spanish Civil War was, as we discussed in previous posts, a wonderful place to test new military developments that would be used later in WW2. Because of this, both sides ended up with tons of both old surplus weapons and newer models. For example, the Republic received a bunch of old black powder guns but also modern tanks and planes from the USSR.

Thus, we had to find out a way to depict such variety with the limits of the class system and the balance itself. We ended up doing something similar to what NWI did in Insurgency Sandstorm, where the Insurgent faction has both new and old guns to choose (AKM - Alpha AK). In Broken Country, you'll be able to choose between older bolt action rifles such as the standard Spanish Mauser m1893 and newer models such as the Czech vz24.

The difference between these will be a combination of realism and game balance. In the case of older rifles, they will be either free or very cheap to get, while being less accurate (in real life, the rifling on the barrel gets damaged after years of use, which makes those guns less accurate). In the case of newer rifles, they will cost a few more points, but as a trade-off, they will have a higher accuracy.

Speaking of rifles, let's dive deeper into some of our new models.

Coming as foreign aid, here's two of our newer rifles:

Mauser VZ24

Coming straight from Czechoslovakia, this is one of the most-well-made Mauser rifles ever created.

Many of them were sent to Spain, being used in great numbers by both sides. They can be either seen in the hands of Republican Gudaris defending the Iron Belt in the Basque Country or in the hands of Nationalist troops fighting in the cold streets of Teruel. Just as the zb26 light machinegun, they were seen as very high quality weapons and thus, they were greatly-valued in both armies. Here I have to quote the statement of a young republican soldier before crossing the Ebro in summer 1938: "We were given new weapons, not those older rifles that often exploded in our face due to the faulty ammo and extense use. These new czech rifles were well oiled and shone just like treasures, they were so accurate that we could take down fascists from distances that our eyes could barely reach...". VZ24 rifles were so effective in fact that after the war, a copy of it, the m1943 Mauser Coruña, was adopted by Francoist Spain.

Enfield Pattern 14

This veteran of the Great War also saw a huge use in the Spanish Civil War.

P14 rifles were sent to Spain from Britain and Poland in the early stages of the war among with Lewis machineguns. They had a decissive importance in the Defense of Madrid, since the city suffered a huge lack of firearms to fight back the advancing Rebel Army of Africa. Then, a bunch of these rifles came just in time and helped arming these new republican militias and the newly-arrived International Brigades that would defend the city from the Nationalist siege. Even though they were quite old rifles, being surplus from WW1, they were proved to be still very reliable and appreciated by Republican soldiers.

*NOTE: sniper variants won't be implemented in BC.

Now let's get into Grenades.

In Broken Country, just like in vanilla Day of Infamy, Screaming Steel, and so on, you will have both Offensive and Defensive Grenades.

But what's the difference between these two?

Offensive Grenades are meant to produce less shrapnel, while having a big explosion, like the german Stielhandgranate. Sometimes they would also be impact grenades, like our Lafitte, a cheap grenade used in huge numbers by both sides through the war.

Meanwhile, Defensive Grenades are the most popular ones, being the ones often depicted in most media, like the british Mills bomb. These produce more shrapnel, which makes them very effective in certain enviroments such as in CQB firefights. One of the most common Defensive Grenades in Spain was the M36 Universal, a simple yet deadly frag grenade.

Now let me introduce you into something very special.

MIRAVET

This is a map that we have been planning to do since last year but it requires a lot of skill to make due to his complex terrain and lack of sources. We are proud to finally say that we have a new mapper which is doing his best in replicating this real town in DoI.

The town of Miravet is located on the banks of the Ebro river, in the Tarragona province. It was turned into an actual battlefield on the first days of the Ebro Offensive in the Summer of 1938, when Republican Soldiers crossed the river and surprised the Nationalist Defenders, who had to fall back and resist in the old medieval castle at the peak of the town against waves of republican shock troopers and artillery.

After hours of fierce resistance, they had to surrender due to the lack of ammo, water and their high number of casualties.

You will be able to reenact such events in Broken Country, fighting from street-to-street, in the old church from the reinassanse and in the templar castle.

Will you be able to defend the town as a nationalist soldier or you will conquest it in the name of the Republic?

I hope you have enjoyed this article and all of our new content. Remember to join our Discord Server and follow us in both Youtube and Twitter to keep up with all news regarding Broken Country!

• Broken Country Discord Server - Discord.gg
• Our Twitter page - Twitter.com
• Our Youtube Channel - Youtube.com

Stay tunned for future posts!