WitE 2

[Joel Billings]

I've deleted some posts that got into a political discussion that doesn't belong here. Please take those discussions elsewhere. Thank you.

[gamer78]

In the War in The West selecting aircraft types in f10 mode was drawing range circles for all aircraft of that type. Map scroll was very slow when zoomed out. Turn processing speed is excellent. Could it be removed for future games and in WITW? [:)] I think I've wrote it in War in the west forum.

[MagicMissile]

Hello
It’s my birthday today. Any chance of a small update as a birthday gift? [:)]
Looking forward to beta/release.
Have a nice weekend.
/Patrik

[mrhuggles]

What are the chances of any scenario building tools? It'd be neat if players could edit their scenarios to be as historical/gameplay focused as they want

[Mehring]

Been away for years, sorry if this has already been covered. Was wondering if out of fuel could really be out of fuel and a unit lose all movement unless it opts to abandon heavy equipment dependant upon motorised transport. At which point it could becomes a "special" infantry unit with the option to re-equip.

[RedLancer]

ORIGINAL: gamer78

In the War in The West selecting aircraft types in f10 mode was drawing range circles for all aircraft of that type. Map scroll was very slow when zoomed out. Turn processing speed is excellent. Could it be removed for future games and in WITW? [:)] I think I've wrote it in War in the west forum.

A lot of work is going into improving performance and although the work is yet to be finished it looks like you will be able to choose to see range circles.

[RedLancer]

ORIGINAL: mrhuggles

What are the chances of any scenario building tools? It'd be neat if players could edit their scenarios to be as historical/gameplay focused as they want

You'll have access to the same editor as the official scenario designers. A lot less is hard coded than the original WitE so more scope for creating the scenarios you want.

[RedLancer]

ORIGINAL: Mehring

Been away for years, sorry if this has already been covered. Was wondering if out of fuel could really be out of fuel and a unit lose all movement unless it opts to abandon heavy equipment dependant upon motorised transport. At which point it could becomes a "special" infantry unit with the option to re-equip.

The less fuel a unit has the less MPs but there are no plans to allow units to shed equipment to maintain mobility.

[Capitaine]

ORIGINAL: Red Lancer

ORIGINAL: Mehring

Been away for years, sorry if this has already been covered. Was wondering if out of fuel could really be out of fuel and a unit lose all movement unless it opts to abandon heavy equipment dependant upon motorised transport. At which point it could becomes a "special" infantry unit with the option to re-equip.

The less fuel a unit has the less MPs but there are no plans to allow units to shed equipment to maintain mobility.

You know, the loss of heavy equipment incurred in retreating during the winter was THE primary reason for fabled "stand your ground" orders from Hitler during the Winter of '41-42? Without that kind of penalty, "no retreat" postures don't really make any sense.

[Mehring]

ORIGINAL: Capitaine

ORIGINAL: Red Lancer

ORIGINAL: Mehring

Been away for years, sorry if this has already been covered. Was wondering if out of fuel could really be out of fuel and a unit lose all movement unless it opts to abandon heavy equipment dependant upon motorised transport. At which point it could becomes a "special" infantry unit with the option to re-equip.

The less fuel a unit has the less MPs but there are no plans to allow units to shed equipment to maintain mobility.

You know, the loss of heavy equipment incurred in retreating during the winter was THE primary reason for fabled "stand your ground" orders from Hitler during the Winter of '41-42? Without that kind of penalty, "no retreat" postures don't really make any sense.

Interesting. Never thought of that. I was thinking mainly of incidents like Peiper's retreat from La Glieze, just one famous example where a unit had to abandon massive quantities of vehicles to escape complete destruction. I think there's something to be said for giving a one time MP allowance after fuel is gone, to represent unaccounted for stocks/siphoning and scrounging but the game currently allows units to manhandle vehicles and heavy equipment indefinitely.

[mrhuggles]

ORIGINAL: Red Lancer

ORIGINAL: mrhuggles

What are the chances of any scenario building tools? It'd be neat if players could edit their scenarios to be as historical/gameplay focused as they want

You'll have access to the same editor as the official scenario designers. A lot less is hard coded than the original WitE so more scope for creating the scenarios you want.

That sounds awesome, thanks for the reply

[RLWbb]

Rail Construction
Rails are not dynamic. As we have created the map we have carefully chosen the best compromise based on time and geography.

One way to simulate this is to be able to construct fixed rails but they are damaged (so to speak) and can be constructed by using the repair mechanism already in place.

That said, a new category of rail damage could be added called severely damaged (or first time construction) that cost more to repair the normal damaged rail (that still would have a roadbed that is largely intact. Thus the only change here from the exiting rail repair would be the extra cost to repair the rail.

Then these new rails could be constructed whenever the player so chooses. This solution could support histiocial new rails but not so much non historical one.

[821Bobo]

Similar proposition has been already suggested in the dev forum.

[RedLancer]

ORIGINAL: RLWbb

Rail Construction
Rails are not dynamic. As we have created the map we have carefully chosen the best compromise based on time and geography.

One way to simulate this is to be able to construct fixed rails but they are damaged (so to speak) and can be constructed by using the repair mechanism already in place.

That said, a new category of rail damage could be added called severely damaged (or first time construction) that cost more to repair the normal damaged rail (that still would have a roadbed that is largely intact. Thus the only change here from the exiting rail repair would be the extra cost to repair the rail.

Then these new rails could be constructed whenever the player so chooses. This solution could support histiocial new rails but not so much non historical one.

It might work but adds yet more complexity to historic research, in the data structure and for the player / AI. The number of instances where the addition of new rail lines would have a significant impact is very small and highly unlikely to recreate a specific historical moment. Remember that the size of the railyards are just as important to the throughput of freight by rail.

[Gilmer]

ORIGINAL: Red Lancer

Tungan

Thanks for taking the time to clearly articulate your questions. Let me try and answer. I’ve been busy with real life and WitE2 graphics recently so don’t be surprised if Joel chips in and corrects me. The usual caveats of we are still in alpha and our focus is getting the main areas of historic combat correct apply.

Treatment of Finland
As you’ll have picked up from the thread the relative importance of the Arctic Theatre, its size and AI challenges has led us to abstract it for the Campaign games. What happens in the Theatre Box (TB) is governed by Events and CV. There is currently no event that triggers an increase in supply in the TB when Leningrad is captured but it could be added. In a similar way if the Soviet player fails to commit sufficient troops to the TB then LL ought to take a hit.

Rail Construction
Rails are not dynamic. As we have created the map we have carefully chosen the best compromise based on time and geography.

Moving Resources
I’m not 100% sure how the logistics system works with resource movement as it is largely hidden. I do know that the game now allows port depots to be switched between send and receive to allow freight to be better channelled by sea as required. Shipping values are set separately for the Baltic, Black, Azov and Caspian Seas. We could also add an event that triggers on cutting the supply from Baku, by say, capturing Astrakhan, Lagan or Makhachkala.

Agriculture
Your argument is well made. This level of nuance is applied through broad modifiers on supply as at the basic level we don’t separate agriculture from other resources – only oil is treated separately.

You are a very considerate person to give us snapshots of what is going on at any given time. Cheers, sir.

[uw06670]

Is there a moratorium on asking for an ETA on the Beta? Thinking in terms of Season/Year. "Summer 2019" ?

[Joel Billings]

We don't like to give a time frame, especially when we're still in alpha. It's a lot easier to do it when you get to beta. Although a lot of the game is working, and working pretty well, we've got at least two major items left. Lately we've been working on changes to the air game to make it easier to use and make it possible for player's to turn a lot of control of the air forces over to the AI. Although we're using the WitW air system, we're trying to make more of it playable from the map. Also, the WitW AI assist works ok for WitW but needs a complete overhaul to make it worthwhile to use in WitE2. Once most of the air game changes have been made, we're likely to bring in more testers as players won't need to be familiar with the WitW system to come up to speed quickly. After that, we'll be working on a facelift for the interface. We'll be assuming a slightly higher screen resolution which will give us some more room when the maps up. Until the air game changes have been made, we're still a ways out. On the positive side, our scenario designers have 8 scenarios up and running now. Although they require some data changes for the air changes, they're in pretty good shape and the amount of data and historical research that has gone into these scenarios is more than I've ever seen. The scenarios are:

Campaign 41-45
Stalingrad to Berlin Campaign (Nov 42 to 45)
Vistula to the Oder Campaign (1945 Campaign)
Road to Leningrad
Operation Typhoon
Red Army Resurgent (Soviet Stalingrad Counterattack)
Red God of War (Operation Mars)
Velikie Luki 42 (tutorial scenario)

We hope to add a few more scenarios before release.

[OberGeneral]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

We don't like to give a time frame, especially when we're still in alpha. It's a lot easier to do it when you get to beta. Although a lot of the game is working, and working pretty well, we've got at least two major items left. Lately we've been working on changes to the air game to make it easier to use and make it possible for player's to turn a lot of control of the air forces over to the AI. Although we're using the WitW air system, we're trying to make more of it playable from the map. Also, the WitW AI assist works ok for WitW but needs a complete overhaul to make it worthwhile to use in WitE2. Once most of the air game changes have been made, we're likely to bring in more testers as players won't need to be familiar with the WitW system to come up to speed quickly. After that, we'll be working on a facelift for the interface. We'll be assuming a slightly higher screen resolution which will give us some more room when the maps up. Until the air game changes have been made, we're still a ways out. On the positive side, our scenario designers have 8 scenarios up and running now. Although they require some data changes for the air changes, they're in pretty good shape and the amount of data and historical research that has gone into these scenarios is more than I've ever seen. The scenarios are:

Campaign 41-45
Stalingrad to Berlin Campaign (Nov 42 to 45)
Vistula to the Oder Campaign (1945 Campaign)
Road to Leningrad
Operation Typhoon
Red Army Resurgent (Soviet Stalingrad Counterattack)
Red God of War (Operation Mars)
Velikie Luki 42 (tutorial scenario)

We hope to add a few more scenarios before release.

Thanks for the update.[:)] The amount of progress is very encouraging.[&o][&o]
Intersting scenarios so far but enventually I would like to see early war campaigns. 1939 - 40?
I would like to sign up for beta testing.

[uw06670]

Joel, thanks so much for sharing all of that information. I've recently started poking at WitE again, so I started getting curious about version 2. I'm excited to see what you all have created. Keep up the hard work.

[Capitaine]

As for scenarios, the ones I would find most desirable and critical to the game would be:

Army Group North 1941 (already listed)
Army Group South 1941 (in 1st Ed.)
Army Group Center 1941 (in 1st Ed.)
Fall Blau 1942