Battlefield Europe

[Powerslave]

So I started on a quite big challlenge. I am creating a big scenario that is set in modern day Europe. There will be 42 "regimes" ranging from Andorra to Russia. It will be possible to play from 1 to 42 human players (though I don't recommend more than 4 or so). To keep this managable all AI nation will be put to sleep and will only be wokened when a human nation declares war on them (in future variants I will try to have a full range of diplomatic options that allow players to use diplomacy to sway over ai nations to their cause). The goal of the game will be to own most VP after a certain amount of time.

The map is 200x196 big which make every hex approx 20-30 km.

I haven't decided on the size of units yet but I will try to have them as small as possible, this I have to try out. Also I will use specific units such as T-72 or F-16C or whatever exists. I have a very good database on todays armed forces in europe. Strenght of indivual units I will need help on but I will use other games as reference (SupremeRuler 2020 comes to mind). In general though units should not die as easily but be more proned to retreat instead.

What I hope to achieve is a scenario where you you have a large range of playing possibilties. Could you win as Ukraine against your Russian friend? or perhaps you are wondering how big you can become as Sweden and then brag about it on the forum?

Anyhow to keep me motivated I started this thread. Now I really can't back down and I have to finish what I started. I will keep a log on how far into making this scenario I am. Later on when I get the first nations on the map with units I'll need players that help me out with balance and such.

Done so far
Map 80%
Regimes 10%
Units 2%
Events 0%

[82ndtrooper]

This sounds very interesting and I will be watching this thread for progress [:)]

[Jeffrey H.]

Sounds a bit like the WWIII scenario just reading about it. Does sound interesting.

[Powerslave]

I continued updating the map. Now I only have Russia left to do and then I will add roads.

I've started on making units. I've decided to make the unit for a couple of nation first so I could start testing and see if the units has the right balance. I've also decided to make each unit a squad of ten men or one vehicle. APCs and AIFVs will have the passangers included into the combat stats. Unarmoured transports will however not include passangers into the stats. (All this can be changed if the scale are to small and it becomes unmanageable.)

My first nation I will do is Belgium. I've did some units and so far Leopard 1A5BE, YPR-765 (Milan), YPR-765 (25mm), M113A2 and Pandur are ready. Stats are very much Alpha and will probably change alot but I need to start somewhere.

I've research Belgiums OOB and the fighting part of Belgiums army looks something like this.

1st Mechanized Brigade
Armoured Rgt "2/4 Rgt. Lanciers"
Armoured Recon. Rgt "1 Jagers te Pard/Girdsen"
Mechanized Inf. Rgt "Carabiniers Prins Boudewijn Grenadiers"
Mechanized Inf. Rgt "Bevrijding - 5 Line"
2nd Rgt. Veldartillerie

7th Mechanized Brigade
Armoured Rgt "1/3 Lanciers"
Armoured Recon. Rgt "2/4 de Chasseurs á Ceval"
Mechanized Inf. Rgt "12 Ligne Prince Léopold 13 Ligne"
Mechanized Inf. Rgt "Chausseurs Ardennais"
1st Rgt. Artillery de Campagne

Immediate Reaction Cell
1st Paratroop Battalion
2nd Commando Battalion
3rd Paratroop Battalion
Para-Commando Field Artillery Battery (Bij VA Para Cdo)

14 Territorial Defence battalions/Regiments

There are also a Special Forces BN, an engineer section (with 3 engineer battalions).

I will use The Military Balance 2007 as my main equipment reference.

My plan is to make each Regiment or Battalion as actual combat unit that trace supply and HQ back to the Brigade and then to the main HQ in Brussel.

[Grymme]

Beautiful map and interesting, but very tough project.
 
A thought for you.
 
Maybe you could upload the map when finished. So others can use it to create scenarios.
Then when you have dont the SFTs, research ets. upload that also. so people can use map & Sfts.
Then place units, events etc.
 
If more people designed scenarios this way people would be able to use precreated maps etc. and we wouldnt have to invent the wheel over and over again (this is not criticism against you).

[explorer2]

ORIGINAL: Grymme
A thought for you.

Maybe you could upload the map when finished. So others can use it to create scenarios.
Then when you have dont the SFTs, research ets. upload that also. so people can use map & Sfts.
Then place units, events etc.

If more people designed scenarios this way people would be able to use precreated maps etc. and we wouldnt have to invent the wheel over and over again (this is not criticism against you).

What a great idea Grymme. THis would make scenario creation/modding much quicker & easier.

[Tagwyn]

If this game takes as long to play as some of the bigger ones. I'll pass. I'm too old already. t

[Powerslave]

ORIGINAL: Grymme

Beautiful map and interesting, but very tough project.

A thought for you.

Maybe you could upload the map when finished. So others can use it to create scenarios.
Then when you have dont the SFTs, research ets. upload that also. so people can use map & Sfts.
Then place units, events etc.

If more people designed scenarios this way people would be able to use precreated maps etc. and we wouldnt have to invent the wheel over and over again (this is not criticism against you).

That was my intention when I started this. However the map took such a long time and I was really getting tired of this whole project and that was why I decided to announce my project here. It also helps doing different things to move along and I have so many units, OOBs for different nations and events to do and I was really anxious to get started with that. However when the map is ready I will import the generic masterfile and remove all units and regimes and then post it as a map for people to use.

[Powerslave]

ORIGINAL: Tagwyn

If this game takes as long to play as some of the bigger ones. I'll pass. I'm too old already. t

Well I gues that depends on what you expect. I am developing this as a scenario pack. You will be able to play any of the 42 european nation in the game. While there will be Victory Points it's really up to the player what he want to achieve. Perhaps You will try to takeover the whole of Europe with Germany then yes... expect a very long game, however perhaps you as Serbia play against your friend managing Croatia... the game will indeed be much shorter. So it's really up to the player what type of game he want to play.

[Powerslave]

UPDATE!

I have finished with the Belgian, Luxembourg and the Netherland land forces and I've just started testing the units heavily. Things are going great and units are starting to behave the way I want them to. When I am happy with the tests I will move on and do the airforces for the above nations testing them at the same time. Navy comes after that.

I wish I could show a big screenshot of the deployment of the forces that are ready but I get some kind of error when I have screenshot activated, perhaps my map is to large? Here are some smaller screenshots instead.



Holland and Belgium...

[Powerslave]

Belgium and Luxembourg...

[lion_of_judah]

so has anyone heard anything about when this map will be finished?

[Joshuatree]

... I doubt it, this is a monstruous task for one person. Hats off if he will succeed though.

[von altair]

Whoah. A huge project over here. I am waiting for this scenario. If it ever comes
ready, it has potential for the same level than WaW is. Good work, keep it going!

[Powerslave]

I'm still working on this. However I had serious problem with the unit balancing. There are so many things that have to be considered and I did extensive testings on all equipment i've added so far with little succes. I just burnt out and put this project on hold for awhile.

I have started to work on it again and while I still have problem with the unit balancing I decided to start all over with the unit characteristics. Once I get this straight with the units I have it will be easier to add new units.

As someone said this is a pretty big project but it is also alot of fun so I don't plan on scrapping it all together.

As soon as I have some news I write about it here.

[Grymme]

What you have done so far looks great. I think many scenario modders (me included) suffer from the "i-want-to-make-the-greatest-scenario-ever-directly"-disease. Then when the hugeness of the project goes up for them they get burned and stop modding altogether.
 
So my advise is to start with something small. so that you can feel the fullfilledness of actually finishing the project. Then you can work yourself up to bigger and bigger and more and more complex scenarios untill suddenly one day you realize that that scenario you always wanted to do is within your reach.
 
As for using unit types. Why not just tweak the existing types a little. Rename them, change som important statistics and use them. They are balanced and work. I think it is more or less impossible to make a better balance as a hobby modder. Vic worked for four years on AT, to get it right.

[Grymme]

Saying the same thing here. How is it going Powerslave? Hope you finish the project. Otherwise you could always upload what youve got to the scenariobank.

[british exil]

ORIGINAL: Grymme


Vic worked for four years on AT, to get it right.

4 Years work and then he released the game, or 4 years including the forum helping out?

Phew some task. Respect!![&o]

[Grymme]

I think he said somewhere that the project period from Peoples Tactics to releasing Advanced Tactics was 4 years.

[Bombur]

For some reason, modding in AT is harder than expected. This happens due to the extreme flexibility of the game, which transalates in a very open design, demanding too much time for comprehensive modding. I took 18 months to release the difinitive version of my own mod, and also saw a dramatic fall in the release of new scenarios....well....