Expansion Ideas?

[RedBunny]

In another thread simovitch mentioned that any sort of game expansion is "still a ways off" but also said it's always good to bring it up for discussion.

So let's do so in this thread.

I do think we have to limit our expectations though. EDBTR ia an old (but great) game with an old codebase and the devs working on it now are freely giving their time and expertise for no monetary compensation (thanks guys), so I doubt Matrix is able to pour resources into any expansion.

But we can hope, right?

[RedBunny]

Here are some ideas:

Battles Scenarios

These can be one day or short scenarios but with the following characteristics:

1. Historically accuracy
Here I'm not only talking about accurate OOBs on both sides but when the scenario loads the missions of attacking players are already planned, as historically accurate as the game allows.Think the Schweinfurt scenario except the scenario loads with the historical missions for the attacking side. The player is free to tweak some, none or all mission details to see what happens.Personally I'd be interested in such a scenario on the first raids on Ploesti or on Peenemünde (can you guess some of my recent reading?)

2. Showcasing specific pieces of equipment or tactics
A single raid mission featuring the first use of Window would be interesting.Also, a series of a few scenarios each with an identical raid against the same target but the attacking force would have none or some available RCM equipment.Such a scenario set would also be a good training scenario for players.

New Campaigns:

I personally think the scenarios provided in the game do an excellent job of allowing us to explore the most important events and operations the game depicts.In addition to more scenarios featuring operations I'm not familiar with within the scope of the game and I have a couple ideas:

1. Operation Frantic - Allied aircraft operating out of bases in the Soviet Union (can you guess another book I might have read?).Only a handful of missions were staged from OF bases but it would be a different perspective for the Allied player.The Allied player would get reinforcements as shuttle missions add reinforcements which are sent on their way back on shuttle missions.This would potentially require a modest expansion of the map so maybe doable?

2. Siege of Malta - The Axis air campaign to subdue Malta.This would be fairly low intensity since I understand the Axis didn't seem to make this much of a priority.We have map coverage of Malta of course so that's good, but centering the action around Malta might present AI programming challenges.

I admit I'm just a beginner with the game and I don't know nearly as much about the Combined Bomber offensive as most of you (no nearly nothing about the BoB) so what are your ideas?

[simovitch]

I like the Malta idea, and I always wanted to do a small scenario that covers just the tactical ground support missions of the Mossies or the single engine fighter-bombers. Small scenarios using the current OOB's are within the realm of the current development team.

First priority is to make sure all the bugs are worked out of the base game and that has been no easy task - we are very close now though. In fact most of the bugs I'm fixing now were caused by my own efforts at fixing other problems for previous patches.

[The Almighty Turtle]

Malta makes a lot of sense and IIRC can be done without much drastic change to the map. I'd propose a couple ideas, one being smaller campaigns or scenarios focused on the island's siege itself, but I'd also propose something larger and more dramatic, focused on the battling convoys of the German-Italian attempts to supply the Axis in North Africa, and the Western Allied convoys trying to keep Malta alive.

Beyond that, it'd be nice to maybe have more early war expansion. I was excited for the possible 1939-1940 France coding and was saddened to see the project get cancelled and no more happen. It'd be kind of nice to see an early war campaign focused on the Phony War and the 1940 Blitzkriegs, with the struggle to either check the advance of the Axis or recreate them. Maybe something else like the Battle of Greece and Yugoslavia after?

Or perhaps an alternate history Sea Lion, where German forces operating from the Estuaries have crossed the Channel but need to strike North across hard terrain with the tentative support of their air forces, while the RAF and its friends rebased in the now-vulnerable North have to sally out to simultaneously regain air cover, protect their factories and radar from the air threat, check the German land advance, and hit the naval tethers? Or more limited campaigns where the war actually does start later like people expected it to? Perhaps the Stresa Front holds, or a one v one Germany vs. Italy struggle over the Alps and Austria erupts?

However, beyond that some ideas that came to mind for alternate history stuff. I'm not sure how much leeway we could have to expand the map, but one idea that came to mind for a much longer, bloodier campaign might be some kind of "Berlin-Moscow Expanded"/"Four Legged Axis" campaign or two, where Hitler succeeds in getting Stalin around to joining the Axis more formally in the Winter of 1940-41 (if not earlier) and so does not see the need to (immediately/for the forseeable future) invade the Soviet Union to secure cereals, oil, and other goods*, and Stalin decides to send the large but uneven and unbloodied VVS Westwards to help protect Axis Europe's factories (and with it the stream of advanced industrial goods and machinery he feels needed to help modernize the Soviet Union?). Or perhaps WW3 kicks off soon after WWII and the Soviets start steamrolling across Western Eurasia on land but have to contend with grotesquely unequal struggle in the Air, leading to them trying to protect the advancing fronts on land and any communist cells rising up in the rear while the Western Allies juggle keeping air superiority, keeping their land forces from being swept off the continent (and taking any squadrons left at vulnerable bases with them), supporting anti-Communist rebellions in the rear, and hitting the logistics in the rear?

I imagine this'd be troublesome since it'd require adding more Soviet planes and making them fit with the Axis, but it wouldn't involve truly weird stuff like more advanced jet fighters and escorting Stratofortresses from Persia to Moscow or the Urals.

* Knowing Shicklegruber and his milieu, they were probably going to invade the Soviet Union anyway due to the desire for living space, dealing with "subhuman" Slavs, and so forth (assuming the Soviets didn't beat them to the punch), but the immediate motive for the backstab happening when it did was the immense losses (especially in aircraft and aviation fuel) the Axis took in first the Netherlands and then Britain, the naval losses around Norway, and the ramping up of British and still-neutral-but-obviously-gearing-up American war industry meaning the Axis were more dependent than ever on Soviet resources and connections, coupled with the failure of the Axis-Soviet talks to get the Soviets into the Axis (mostly due to Molotov overreaching slightly and Hitler seriously overreacting to the fairly tame Soviet conditions). Had either side been slightly more restrained in those talks the Berlin-Moscow Axis could've been a real possibility, at least until they dealt with their mutual enemies or otherwise found it convenient.

[simovitch]

It is well that the 1940 or other expansion idea never materialized, because the game mechanics with the original releases needed so much work as you can see by the extensive patch notes. It would have been akin to putting mag wheels and headers on a Ford Pinto.

I find it Interesting and refreshing that folks believe that Bombing the Reich is a platform that can be expanded to a full European war. It gives me hope that the work of the "resurrection team" has not been in vain.

We are very close to the point where we can wrap up the 1.06 base game series and move on to 1.07 with new features like pilot training/interactive management and maybe a new scenario or two.

[mark dolby]

Can we have a pilot history with missions flown, kills made and what type? I know I've been banging on about this
Mark.

[JeffroK]

How would a true 2 sided game go with both sides able to plan raids and conduct interceptions.

My thought for a topic is NW Europe 1941-42, the base for it is already there.

[simovitch]

Can we have a pilot history with missions flown, kills made and what type? I know I've been banging on about this
Mark.

That's what I'm thinking, along with transferring pilots to pools and groups.

[simovitch]

How would a true 2 sided game go with both sides able to plan raids and conduct interceptions.

My thought for a topic is NW Europe 1941-42, the base for it is already there.

That's an interesting take on things. The base is there but the OOB and the coding would be a lot of work.

[todolist]

Maybe a campaign about the Air War in North Africa would be interesting.