Hi, I thought I would seek some feedback on some of the elements of the new games that we have in development.
I will start with Strategy and Conquest: World at War as this is the one I am currently developing and working through the rules on.
All the games we have in the planning stages will have differences, both in terms of game play, rules and options for players. The user interface is likely to be consistent so that you can navigate between games and pretty much figure out straight away how to do stuff.
The basic website interface will stay as it is, subject to tweaks.
As technology evolves and gives us more options, we will aim to integrate those that can benefit game play. Longer term plan is to have games available for access via smartphones/tablets so we move away from having players being dependent upon access to a PC.
We are also planning to add email support to Strategy and Conquest: Dark Ages and all future games. This is currently in the development stage so hopefully won’t be too far away. The in game email system is working well and adding the ability to send/receive game related emails away from the game interface is an enhancement to this.
So, Strategy and Conquest: World at War is a game that will be played across the entire map. There will be provinces as in Strategy and Conquest: Dark Ages but they will of necessity cover a larger area. There will be land, sea and air combat.
There will be a smaller number of starting empires/nations and they will be loosely based on real nations of the time period i.e circa 1905. You are likely to be able to play as England, France, Russia, Ottoman Empire, Germany, South Africa, a couple of Asian nations, United States, a South American nation or two, at least one more African nation and of course that major super power – New Zealand (might have to make this Australasia – will see how the aussies do in the rugby).
Bearing in mind that I ideally want 12 players roughly equally geographically spread, I would be interested in your feedback as to what the starting nations would be. All will start with roughly the same level of resources. I was also thinking of not having nation specific empires i.e just have 12 equidistant starting provinces. I am still open minded on this.
Other new things that will be showcased in this game are:
1. A very cool world map – bit of eye candy really, but it will be zoomable as in Strategy and Conquest: Dark Ages.
2. Tech levels – players will be able to invest in attempting to raise tech levels so that they will be able to recruit more advanced units. Thus you might have a Sopwith Camel unit available at Tech 1 and an F15 unit available at tech 9.
3. Political system – will give a nation a distinct set of benefits and costs.
4. Trade routes – will be automated but will give an option to grow income through establishing trade routes with allies and/or disrupting them through use of naval/air/submarine power.
5. Weather – will have an impact on combat eg Leopard 2 MBT’s will have an advantage over a Mark IV – note that I am really talking about differences in terms of tech level rather than specific vehicles.
6. Unit types – these will be reasonably generic so you will be able to purchase a Tech 1 Light Tank as opposed to a specific model. The last thing I want to get into is a discussion on the relative merits of, for example, the Spitfire and the ME109F or whatever.
7. Units will be grouped by type so for example, ships/uboats will be in fleets, aircraft in squadrons and infantry, artillery, tanks etc in armies. All will be commanded by a commander and you will be able to recruit an unlimited (subject to having sufficent income) number of commanders.
8. A Fleet, Squadron or Army will have specific orders available to it eg CAP, Escort, Probe, Blitz, SEAD, infiltrate, defend, assault etc and the phase system will facilitate interaction thus you will be able to have a fighter squadron escorting a bomber squadron on a bombing mission or task a bomber squadron with tactical bombing then follow this up with a blitzkreig from a panzer army etc. I think this will allow a lot of interesting things to happen with combat and make it both more enjoyable and also more challenging.
9. Production – you will be able to build a limited number of production units eg Universities, Power Stations, Mines, Air Base, Dockyard, Barracks etc. The building of these will allow you to recruit units in a province that they have been built in. Additionally, the building of (for example) a power station will reduce the unit purchase cost.
So, that’s a few of the things coming up in Strategy and Conquest: World at War.
I would be interested in general feedback plus anything that you would love to see in a game like this. As its still in development stage its not too late to add new stuff in or tweak current stuff.
Cheers,
GM2
