Hello commanders,
We hope you are well! We guess most of you are enjoying the fruits of our recent labors: the new milestone LEFEVBRE. Two new divisions, one new Operation, new T-80 tank models, and a host of updates have made their way to WARNO.
Let’s look at some upcoming changes today, specifically related to urban combat, as well as give a big shout-out to a great community-made resource: the WarYes website.
Feedback, comments and upcoming changes
Before we dip in for real: yes, people, we hear you loud and clear. All the feedback, comments, proposed changes, and other suggested improvements are being taken into account by the Eugen team. If we don’t react immediately, it doesn’t mean things aren’t cooking in Eugen’s kitchen. Mind you to keep the discourse to the developers and other players cool, calm, and collected.
Design choices, be it those affecting weapon stats, units, divisions, mechanics, etc., all come from a rationale powered by realism, historical accuracy, and, most of all, fun. We have been doing this for quite a few years, and we have a clear vision for WARNO. This means an authentic, immersive World War III battle simulator set during a conventional-fought invasion of West Germany in 1989. Our primary focus is making this base scenario exciting and realistic, including tailor-made decks, unit load-outs, strategic campaigns, and single-player scripted Operations.
To address some concerns out there, the Eugen team is hard at work on improving and tweaking the current “tank” meta, as well as revising urban combat (more on that below), introducing a new map (more details next week), and other changes. Have a bit of patience; with the game in Early Access, things are still bound to change regularly until the full launch (and likely after).
With that out of the way, a sneak peek at Urban combat.
A new way of fighting
Throughout WARNO’s Early Access period, many of you have voiced the opinion that combat within urban terrain could be improved. So we went to the drawing board and conducted many internal tests to see what we could do. One of the major elements we decided might work would be to revise the urban density of towns and cities, making them more fun to play.
What does that mean?
Urban warfare
In the current way of doing things, combat in built-up areas aims to create defensive positions on the map, encouraging a very high troop concentration. In cities, infantry leads the way.
The upcoming revised approach sees urban districts built around a main street axis instead. Empty spaces between districts will provide clear Lines of Sight. Districts might be linked by uncovered roads. Moving between urban districts will turn into a high-risk-high-reward maneuver.
From density to stealth
Buildings that provide garrison opportunities (houses, any kind of structure) will become more or less dense. Consequently, they fulfill a function as Line of Sight breakers, potentially being able to mask your units.
This encourages more dynamic tactical play, using cover and Line of Sight to fight at your own choosing. This also means tanks play a bigger role, shooting down streets but still being dangerously close to satchels, AT rockets, and ATGMs.
Spacing
We have created a new development tool that provides the optimal distance to separate garrison spaces. It takes into consideration standard ranges, depending on the weapon type. As such, cities and urban terrain are now built up using the following metrics:
- Hand-to-hand range: Satchel and explosive charges.
- Close-quarters range: SMG range, supply and Command traits.
- Remote range: Assault rifles, medium machine guns, rocket launchers. Beyond this range threshold, structures might be considered out of range of light weapons, but they still might be in the range of sniper rifles and heavy machine guns.
- Tank range: tank guns and ATGMs.
- Mortar range: this range bracket helps us determine which out-of-town forests and terrain features will be used a lot by mortars, AA, ATGM, and supplies.
Considering all the above lets us design new, more exciting towns and cities. These changes will create dynamic urban gameplay based on movement, quick decision-making, taking risks when needed, or even bluffing.
Urban is still the prime fighting space for infantry, but tanks become more appealing, while equipment and weapon load-out will be a decisive factor before a commander takes the plunge and enters urban combat.
WarYes Website
Now for something a little bit different. We want to shine the spotlight on a most excellent community-made website, the WarYes page. Created by StrikeTeam member Captain Toucan and community member izohek, WarYes provides an easy-to-use comparative tool of everything related to WARNO, from units to weapons, division breakdown and an automated patch note generator.
If you want to take your WARNO experience to the next level, be sure to check out WarYes. Browse the page, and compare one unit to the next. It’s got things like:
- Unit browser, including stats (even thoughts not visible because of UI limitations).
- Weapon browser, listing all the statistics from turn speeds to how fast specific rounds, missiles, or rockets move once fired.
- Comparison features, from infantry to units to weapons and more.
- Online deck builder.
- Deck library.
- Automated patch notes generator.
- Division analysis.
Browse the page, search for units, and compare them to others.
Check weapons featured in WARNO and see which units are associated.
Discover the deck library with loads and loads of decks from the WARNO community. High-ranking players are marked, so you can identify those decks that might make a difference. Of course, it's the skills that pay the bills. Filter decks for the divisions you like to play.
It's even possible to import and export decks from the game to WarYes and back again.
Really wanna win that internet fight of who/what/which is the best? WarYes even got a division analysis feature, giving you insight into which divisions are considered being the strongest (and weakest) in specific categories. Inspired by the community, of course.
Worried about another Eugen sneak deployment of a milestone or patch? Look no further and check out the auto-generated patch notes. WarYes analyses the game files between versions to display all changes (even those unseen).
See you on the battlefield
That’s it for this DevBlog. We’ll be back next week!
Don’t forget to join the passionate WARNO community. 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!