The campaign map – a work in progress news

By Reto.Placebo, Code connoisseur

We are working on getting the campaign map and the server functionality behind it into a state where we are able to allow a limited number of players to play the part of commanders: Players who are able to move troops and resources around the map in order to both defend and attack.

In the first version we will explicitly pick the people who get to try this out but later we will implement certain mechanisms that will allow people who have an interest in this to invest in the strategical part of the war as opposed to the action part of the game.

In the first iteration the select few will be able to create a single Assault Team, a generic term for a squad with a specific kind of specialization, be it either infantry, mechanized infantry, paratroopers, armor, etc. – but down the line we will open up for people to invest in additional Assault Teams, and even organize with other players into commands.

So what happens when two enemy asssault teams go head to head on the battlefield?

Well, first of all both sides are able to size each other up and decide whether or not they want to attack – one part is usually a defender of a city and the other wants to capture it for strategical reasons. Theres an advantage in defending a city as opposed to attacking it so the defender might want to sit tight and await the attack – on the other hand he might want to try and eliminate the enemy just outside the citygates before backup arrives in which case we start a skirmish mission between the twoassault teams.

If the leader of either assault team initiates an attack a mission will spawn which players from either faction can join. However until the first player joins the mission the server will simulate a battle between the enemy forces, rolling the dice to see how the battle progresses.

This is somewhat similar to what you see in RTS games but at a much much slower pace: The focus is on creating missions which players can join and are able to influence how the war progresses, but on the other hand we want to put in mechanisms which makes it impossible for defenders to deadlock cities on the campaign map by not joining the missions.

When the first players join the mission the simulation is put to a stop and it is all up to the players to decide the outcome of the battle. This is not the same as to say that the campaign map is now completely detached from the battle, not at all. While people spawn in the mission and jumps into the tanks and vehicles, shooting enemies and getting shot, the assault teams will be updated on the campaign map as well.

If there is a unbroken supplyline from the battlefield to a nearbyreserve or superior command it is possible to move reinforcements to the battle boosting the number of spawns, vehicles and morale in general.

Of course this is also possible for the enemy, so make sure the commanders of your army are better leaders than the enemies

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(Heroes & Generals blog link)