Random Battles

[Ironclad]

This might seem an odd comment when you are about to start issuing a series of carefully tailored and accurate historic battles with multiple scenarios for an eager audience but is there any plan to provide a random battle generator at some point?

I know FOF had one which was great fun and my experience in pbem tactical battles in FOG and P&S is that the random battles generators tend to be as if not more popular than the wide range of historic scenarios provided. I recognise that for single player games this tends not to be the case and that multiplayer play is very much a minority interest and even with that group your historic battles may remain the main focus of interest, especially with so many varied scenarios available but it would be a welcome option to have if and when you are able to accommodate it.

[Gil R.]

Not currently, though Eric (= programmer) has talked about possibly having random reinforcement times/positions. But as I believe WCS has proven with our previous releases, we listen to all suggestions and try to implement as many as we can, so this is an obvious candidate for the "Wish List" thread when the time comes.

So you would be happy with random, generic units on the historical map, rather than something far more complicated that would involve randomized historical units (e.g. taking a brigade from Mill Springs and placing it at Manassas)?

[Ironclad]

Getting it on the wish list would be fine. I was thinking of generic ones using a variable points system with a few specialist units - ideally grouped into army types eg Early, Middle or Late Union or CSA, with Eastern or Western variants.

[djitters19]

I think a random battle generator would be very desirable especially for the multi-player format. You already have an excellent template in Pike & Shot!

[Erik Rutins]

WCS is great at taking community feedback, but it's worth noting that Brother against Brother in focus is more similar to the Battleground series in that it researches a few battles in great detail and accuracy from the map through the order of battle. There is a lot of content included with those battles and the scenarios are tested and balanced to provide as much replayability as possible, including the "what ifs" that often offer the chance to change the pre-battle historical choices.

We're also planning to release a scenario editor, so between that and the moddable data files, within the context of the historical battlefields included, you'll be able to create pretty much any battle you want.

Regards,

- Erik

[aaatoysandmore]

I've always found random better than pre-made since I first encountered random with a game called EMPIRE back in the day. Now, I'll hardly buy a game without it unless it has so many what if scenarios in the already generated premade edition.

[Gil R.]

There will definitely be a bunch more what-if scenarios, coming out on a regular basis. Frankly, those are easier to do than the historical ones.

In fact, just now while writing this post I thought of yet another that would be interesting to do, for Williamsburg.

[helmick]

A editor will be great and hopefully this will include a map editor.

Hopefully this still leaves open the possibility of WCS selling additional scenario packs at a later date.

[Gil R.]

No map-editor in the foreseeable future, but there is a scenario-editor there. Sometime in the next week I'll write up the modder's guide explaining how to use it, so for now I ain't saying how to activate it.

We plan to continue producing new scenarios, and making those available for free. The game comes with 25 -- though the tutorial isn't really a distinct scenario, so much as an existing one with a bunch of explanatory material -- and by the end of the year I'd hope to have produced at least a dozen more.

[zakblood]

if you want a certain battle played a certain way, play both sides and move both sides units to where you want them to both be in head to head mode, then sit back and watch while the AI does it's job, as you place, but it still fights for you both, had loads of fun playing on my own, with the AI just doing the fighting, i did all well most of the moves as not all moves go how you plan them all the time, which adds no end to re playability in single player v AI or 2 player head to head, or you playing both sides even, and PBEM opens up totally freedom of choice if that rocks your boat

[AlessandroD]

i did all well most of the moves as not all moves go how you plan them all the time, which adds no end to re playability in single player v AI or 2 player head to head, or you playing both sides even, and PBEM opens up totally freedom of choice if that rocks your boat

This thing remember me a boardgame series where the movement is handle by dice (Great Campaign of the American Civil War, operational) and this simple mechanism add a lot of replayability, nice feature indeed!