Hello guys!
Last week we ran a community survey 2.0 about the importance of the various elements of the game. We got 49 responses via google form and 23 across our Community hubs on Steam.
We want to say thank you to all participants for your effort and for sharing your thoughts and ideas with us - we have studied your feedback and found lots of valuable insights there. Some of your ideas we will keep in mind while making the first gameplay trailer for the Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty as key points for it. While other insights will help us develop the game in the direction that will be more meaningful and valuable for most players.
Here are the results of survey 2.0. But before that, a small recap about the survey's rules: Below you can find the list of key aspects of the game in our view. These aspects are given in a randomized order to avoid bias. Rate their importance for you personally on a scale of 5, where 5 is very important and 0 is not important at all. Please notice, that different key aspects can get the same number of points.
Results of survey 2.0
1. All unit models are historical and become available at historically accurate time of the campaign. Same with the enemy troops. | Example: Historically Finland had very limited military equipment and was purchasing it from different countries, so you will get to create your own mishmash of historically available units: Command the Finnish Infantry and Bofors AT guns, Swedish Recon cars, captured Soviet vehicles, including BT-7, T-34, and KV tanks. Make use of pre-war British Bristol Blenheim bombers, covered by Dutch Fokker and US Buffalo fighter planes. Purchase German Pz-IV tanks, StuG assault guns, and Ju-88 bombers.
2. Between the battles you can learn Headquarters skills that allow you to get unique tactical advantages. Command points system allows the flexible balance of the number of deployed troops - the more you deploy the less active HQ skills you can use. | Example: Your artillery could fire twice per turn, or your Aircraft units could land and take off without losing movement points.
3. Lots of unit classes: Infantry, Tanks, Artillery, Anti-tank guns, Anti-aircraft guns, Assault guns, Armoured trains, Reconnaissance cars, Fighters, Tactical bombers, Strategic bombers, Submarines, Destroyers, Heavy cruisers, Battleships, and Carriers. All units have their unique skills and set of level-up abilities and equipment. | Example: you can even use Armored trains (including the legendary Saviour of Karelia) or Railroad artillery installations that are rare guests in digital wargames.
4. (hi)story-driven gameplay. | Example: lots of primary and secondary objectives with in-game dialogue by historical figures. Completing certain objectives provides unique global bonuses or trophies.
5. Classical wargame with modern 3D graphics created with Unreal Engine 4. | Example: you can see close up shots of tanks and other units moving with real physics across uneven terrain and enjoy the realistic 3D unit models instead of the usual counters.
6. You can gain Heroes throughout the campaign and assign them to chosen units. All heroes are historical figures and allow units to get special powerful skills. | Example: The deadliest sniper in WW2 history - Simo Häyhä - will join your troopsWith 542 confirmed kills, and an unconfirmed total number of 705, not only was Simo Häyhä the deadliest sniper of World War II, but perhaps the deadliest sniper of all time. His nickname “the White Death” was well-earned.
7. Different victory types, awards and ranks. You get different victory types based on your performance throughout the operations. That determines what awards you get and when you will be promoted to the next rank. | Example: All awards and ranks are not just an insignia, but provide gameplay bonuses - higher ranks means more Command points, while awards also provide discounts for units and make the HQ unit stronger.
8. Cinematics - around 70 minutes in each title. | Example: before and after every operation you watch a cinematics sequence with historical characters delving deeper into the events of WW2 and the historical flow.
9. Advanced supply system - great depth with little micromanagement. | Example: There are different types of Infrastructure across the map. Supply points transport the supplies across the map. If you break the supply chain by damaging, capturing or cutting off (blocking with ZoC) its elements - the enemy troops will be left without supplies.
10. Both historical (75%) and alternate history (25%) operations. | Example: You can enjoy both real historical battles and explore “what if” outcomes based on real plans and were never realised, like Sea Lion, or Operation Unthinkable.
11. Improved combat system - lethal vs nonlethal damage, 4 levels of spotting, various skills and equipment, significance of terrain, LoS and ZoC, different weather conditions and nighttime. | Example: the tactical moves feel quite diverse thanks to the original Panzer General mechanics that went through a very significant rework and upgrade.
12. Advanced transportation system - ground transport (trucks and APCs), train, aircraft or ship transportation. | Example: all ground units can be assigned truck or APC they board if they have to move far - at the same time they are vulnerable while in transit. Additionally, you can board trains, ships and aircraft for large distance troops transfer and landing operations.
13. All types of units can get special equipment, allowing you to finetune your troops to better tackle the task at hand. | Example: Units can get diverse equipment such as: flamethowers, sappers squad, mortars, recoilless rifles, smoke generators, torpedoes, incendiary shells, or even dummy tanks.
14. Upgrade units to newer models to carry over crew’s experience. Out of line upgrades are more expensive. | Example: Upgrading Pz IV C to Pz IV F is much cheaper than replacing it with a Tiger II.
15. Advanced naval combat system - all ships have parts such as all sorts of armament, hull, engine, flight deck, etc. with their own HP and functionality that deteriorates as they are getting damaged. | Example: Ship has extra defense when its Engine part is operational. When the engine is damaged the ship loses its movement points and the extra defense it had due to mobility. Same with all types of guns etc. The maintenance team repairs the ship overtime, but you could also use the emergency repair team in case your ship is in dire straits.
16. You can play some of the enemy units as well, if you manage to capture them during the battles. | Example: In Spirit of Liberty Finns can get their hands on Russian BT--7s, T-34s, KV-1s, ISU-152 and other cool stuff.
17. All units gain experience and can learn additional skills every time they level up. | Example: Infantry can get a Forced march level up skill allowing it to move 2 extra Move points 3 times per operation. Artillery can learn to move 1 tile after firing to quickly change its position etc.
Make sure to wishlist Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty - Prologue 1939 to get notification when the free prologue goes live. As always we do appreciate all sorts of useful feedback from the players - so make sure to share your thoughts with us after playing the Prologue.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1683420/Strategic_Mind_Spirit_of_Liberty__Prologue_1939/