Hello!
Welcome back to another WARNO DevBlog. In today’s post, we’ll look at the second Army General map for our World War III battle simulator.
Read more about the original reveal of WARNO’s Army General preview here, which also featured some images of our first map.
The production of new Army General maps has significantly progressed since our initial reveal. We would like to present the (almost) final result of the second map.
Keep reading to find out more!
Army General revisited
For you who don’t know what Army General entails: it is our popular strategic turn-based mode taking place on massive battlefields, intricately detailed and using real-life maps. Like the version found in Steel Division 2, WARNO’s Army General campaigns are all focused on NATO’s CENTAG area of operations, including the famous Fulda Gap.
Each campaign will feature its selection of formations and units, consistent with the order of battle for 1989, spread across both NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Each map focuses on a different sector of West Germany and the Inner German Border.
You will be able to play WARNO’s Army General campaigns either in single-player, versus, or cooperatively. WARNO will ship with four Army General campaigns.
Let’s look at the second Army General map: the Kassel-Paderborn area.
Historical context
To reiterate: the first Army General map was sneak peeked in the preview and centered on the Fulda and Frankfurt region. This would be the southwest invasion route for the Warsaw Pact and would see Soviet and American armored forces clash, with some German support (on both sides).
This second map takes place in the Kassel-Paderborn area, which is a 2-hour drive north of Fulda, and close to the junction of the CENTAG and NORTHAG areas of the command, Kassel being within CENTAG area of command, Paderborn within NORTHAG's one. The orientation is northwest. Both East- and West German formations will be heavily featured, as well as lighter troops, with paratroopers playing an especially prominent role.
A little bit about map making
One of Army General’s defining elements is the very large scale strategic maps. Each map has a surface of 22.500 km², which means a playable area of 150km by 150km. Building up this real-life territory in a realistic way is no easy task!
That’s why we had to produce several new assets specific to this mode - and improve our tech simultaneously. Rendering such a large area required the team to optimize the game and performance, ensuring we obtained an optimal gaming experience.
A second improvement was to increase the map’s readability. Players should be able to identify the various strategic areas at a glance, such as forests, plains, urban, etc. These are linked with the tactical maps that will launch when combat is initiated. Positioning your unit pawns on the strategic map, with the knowledge of the terrain, is essential in getting the best results in the subsequent tactical battles.
The design of fields and forests in the Army General map is intended to mark the gameplay terrain to be encountered.
The design of the urban areas also requires an accurate visual representation, but at the same time still provides a good dose of realism.
Each Army General strategic map uses special color and lightning effects to reinforce the atmosphere.
In other news
Moving on, a couple of tidbits on several gameplay elements announced previously.
- Amphibious capacity for some units still requires tweaking. We hope to provide more details about this new unit functionality soon.
- We are iterating on the FOB concept. Having gone through several variations, starting with an enclosed building (WRD style!), we figured that these earlier versions of a Forward Operating Base don’t fit on an active battlefield. After various passes, we made it more realistic, closer to an ammunition dump, something that could be built in combat. We needed all the new, small 3D assets to build it…
See you on the battlefield
That’s all! Check the latest news on the Steam News page or visit the Steam Forums. Get together with other players on either the excellent Discord server, Reddit page, YouTube or our Instagram.
See you on the battlefield, commander!
