Are other seasons planned? Or other regions (with DLCs)?

[Sunbather]

To be quite frank, I am a bit bored with having the same German regions and same Summer season when it comes to Cold War gone hot situations.

I think we can all agree that the Cold War would have started during the Summertime, and we can also agree that it would have happened in Germany (probably, but what about Finland?). BUT we can all see now that even modern warfare between major factions won't be over in a matter of months. So I am asking myself: will we ever get something like a Winter season in Flashpoint Campaigns? The backdrop would be that the Cold War has gone hot 6 months ago --- with all the implications: lower morale, strained supply, Western regions occupied by the WP, Eastern regions occupied by the NATO etc. etc.

I am also asking myself why it is always the WP that invades NATO territorium and never the other way around.
This is not a morale question, and I certainly don't want to spawn a discussion here. But from a gameplay perspective wouldn't it be nice to have the NATO actually invading Eastern Germany, for example? After all, the whole premise of a Cold War gone hot in Germany is fictional anyway.

As a bonus question: I've seen some talk about the engine supposed to be covering warfare from 1948 to 1995. Can we actually count on getting DLCs or standalone games about other conflicts, maybe even historical ones?

[SgtZdog]

• Yes, DLCs are coming, with Central Storm in the next month or two (probably February or later to be totally honest) This will cover central Germany (current scenarios cover southern Germany).
• Hopefully more to follow with northern Germany and the Fulda Gap.
• There will probably be more coming (perhaps as their own standalone titles) using the engine for other time periods/regions.
• The existing game has I think at least a few scenarios in the winter.
• You are fully enabled to make your own scenarios with the scenario editor at any time of the year and if you put in a bit of work even your own maps.

[Sunbather]

• Yes, DLCs are coming, with Central Storm in the next month or two (probably February or later to be totally honest) This will cover central Germany (current scenarios cover southern Germany).
• Hopefully more to follow with northern Germany and the Fulda Gap.
• There will probably be more coming (perhaps as their own standalone titles) using the engine for other time periods/regions.
• The existing game has I think at least a few scenarios in the winter.
• You are fully enabled to make your own scenarios with the scenario editor at any time of the year and if you put in a bit of work even your own maps.

Thanks for the lightning quick response. This is especially helpful because I am still discussing with myself whether or not to buy the game. I liked Red Storm in general but bounced off because of the UI and the lack of controls. The new game seems to remedy exactly that.

I am a sucker for snow maps, especially when it's winter outside in the real life. So can anyone confirm if there are indeed winter scenarios and if the tiles change to white then? I know it's pedantic but I just love me some snow.

[CapnDarwin]

I'm pretty sure there aren't any snow maps currently in the game, but we can do season renders of the maps and, at some point in the future, get those working in the game with seasons.

As noted above, we have a DLC coming early next year and others in work. We would also like to do game engines for both modern and world war settings. Both require a fair amount of work, changes in scale, and features to provide the same level of fidelity we have in the Cold War engine.

We also still have pending documentation on the Content and Modding aspects of the game. Hopefully, we will resolve some of that early next year as well.

[SgtZdog]

Update to add that you can also create scenarios set in different years by modifying the nationals data files (location is for a steam install):
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm\Modules\Common\Data

In the latest patch I think we added the scenario High Sticking which takes place in February, but it looks like that scenario is set to specifically take place in the rain, not the snow. It's pretty easy to use the scenario editor to tweak the weather to be the snow though if you want. Unfortunately for you I'm afraid we don't recolor the map to be snowy. The maps are flat images, so if you want a snowy map, you'll have to make it yourself I'm afraid.

[Sunbather]

I'm pretty sure there aren't any snow maps currently in the game, but we can do season renders of the maps and, at some point in the future, get those working in the game with seasons.

As noted above, we have a DLC coming early next year and others in work. We would also like to do game engines for both modern and world war settings. Both require a fair amount of work, changes in scale, and features to provide the same level of fidelity we have in the Cold War engine.

We also still have pending documentation on the Content and Modding aspects of the game. Hopefully, we will resolve some of that early next year as well.

Thanks for the fast and informative response! The future sounds bright!

I do want to add when the game released I was actually put off by the price and the little amount of changes (seemingly). But I must say what actually kept making me come back are your constant updates including new features, scenarios, and your overall communication with the community. I can also clearly tell that you're in for the long haul and not jump to the next project immediately. This is great, especially in 2023.
So yeah, most likely I will buy the game tomorrow

PS: As I am skimming through the manual right now, can I make a tiny suggestion: having an interactive content list on every page is cool and all but I like using manuals by searching for keywords, e.g. supply. However, with your manual "supply" is mentioned on every page due to the interactive content list. Maybe you could provide a "clean" manual. That being said, maybe there already is a clean, printer-friendly manual in the full game without that content list?

Update to add that you can also create scenarios set in different years by modifying the nationals data files (location is for a steam install):
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm\Modules\Common\Data

In the latest patch I think we added the scenario High Sticking which takes place in February, but it looks like that scenario is set to specifically take place in the rain, not the snow. It's pretty easy to use the scenario editor to tweak the weather to be the snow though if you want. Unfortunately for you I'm afraid we don't recolor the map to be snowy. The maps are flat images, so if you want a snowy map, you'll have to make it yourself I'm afraid.

Understood! Thank you for the additional info!

[CapnDarwin]

Yes, pretty much everything in the game is new or reworked/deepened in fidelity in Southern Storm with the new Cold War game engine.

[wandrr]

Update to add that you can also create scenarios set in different years by modifying the nationals data files (location is for a steam install):
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm\Modules\Common\Data

In the latest patch I think we added the scenario High Sticking which takes place in February, but it looks like that scenario is set to specifically take place in the rain, not the snow. It's pretty easy to use the scenario editor to tweak the weather to be the snow though if you want. Unfortunately for you I'm afraid we don't recolor the map to be snowy. The maps are flat images, so if you want a snowy map, you'll have to make it yourself I'm afraid.

I confirm that "High Sticking" includes both falling snow and rain, but the map tiles don't change. The snowy conditions seem appropriate for a Canadian scenario, as I sit here typing in the winter of Canada!

[CapnDarwin]

High Sticking has a date error for the weather that will be fixed for the next update. Maps are not tiles, and as noted above, we may be able to add seasonal maps down the road.

[Sunbather]

May I just reiterate how nice graphically modeled tiles would be when it comes to weather? Not only when it comes to snow in the wintertime but also when it comes to the other two European seasons, that is spring (muddy) and autumn (brownish and colorful trees).

One could argue, of course, that to graphically represent seasons is a minor thing. But then again, representing day of time graphically is already in the game (even the incremental changes of dawn and dusk). And that isn't even justified by a gameplay purpose and the naked gameplay gains nothing by it, strictly speaking. To date, Flashpoint Campaigns is the only 2D game apart from the Campaign Series and Armored Brigade that actually shows the time of day graphically. At the same time there are several 2D games that show the season graphically (Panzer Campaigns, Squad Battles, Grigsby's War in the East and West and many more).

Flashpoint Campaigns would be the first 2D wargame that has both: graphics for day/night/dusk/dawn AND seasons. For immersion this would be immeasurable. [again leaving aside the absolutely excellent Armored Brigade because it is 2D, yes, but it is not turn-based and it isn't hex based.]

I gradually came to love 2D much more than 3D in wargames. But I simply think that there could be done a little bit more when it comes to "technical" immersion, e.g. ambient sound, graphically visible day of time and weather etc.
After all, your new feature of having shots visually represented is not only a quality of life feature but actually heightens immersion. When I saw a SAM rocket going off for the first time, I just thought to myself: WOW! That really feels like something powerful just went off!

Sorry, I am rambling a bit now. Let me just say: I wish 2D wargames would do more for graphical and audio immersion. And since you already made such a huge step with implementing a visible gradual day-to-night cycle, I'd like to think that you are open to integrate even more of such immersion features. And one of the first things would be, in my humble opinion, to make the German landscape a tad more diverse. Since I was born and raised in Germany, I can attest to you that the German landscape does not look as monotonous as is depicted in games like Modern Campaigns, Flashpoint Campaigns, Combat Mission, Gunner HEAT PC etc etc. To give you an example: when you drive through East Germany at the end of August, barely anything is of a lush green anymore. The fields are harvested, the fallows fields are of a deep, saturated brown, then there is a lot of space on which nothing is grown so grass and weeds can just sprawl, but when it was a dry and hot summer those areas look much more akin to the color yellow than to a lush green. Then there are a LOT of industrial buildings that are not close to cities or towns. They seem to be in the middle of the landscape. I don't see that depicted in wargames either, be they 2D or 3D. (Armored Brigade is again an exception because they recreated the maps 1 to 1). Now, I don't want to insist on that kind of realism (i.e. fields turning from green to brown when the times changes from July to August), but I still wanted to speak up because the German land- or even townscape does NOT look like as it is depicted in like 95% of the wargames, Southern Storm included. So at least having 4 different graphics for 4 season would go a long way to finally depart from the completely idealistic picture of a Germany that is lush and green and completely deserted between towns.

[GolasYH]

• Yes, DLCs are coming, with Central Storm in the next month or two (probably February or later to be totally honest) This will cover central Germany (current scenarios cover southern Germany).

Glad to hear a more specific release time of the coming DLC, hope there won't be another delay.

[CapnDarwin]

We are working on a number of features and some data updates for the next DLC and Update. We also want that to work well and need to test things out, too. As we get closer to a firm release, we should be able to say more.