Hello commanders,
You ask, we answer! On the heels of your requests about lifting “the fog of war” on WARNO’s upcoming development, today we will take some time to highlight what’s coming. It will be brief, but we will share more details about each specific topic in the next few weeks.
Yes, we know: it might only address some of your feedback and comments. Smaller, more intricate changes we will deal with a case-by-case basis. Instead, this post sketches a big-picture overview of new and updated features and mechanics for WARNO’s near future.
BERTHIER Out Now
Before we dig in, the latest milestone to grace WARNO, BERTHIER launched last week. Be sure to check out the two new Operations, The Kitzingen Ruse and Backhand Blow, that are now playable in-game, as well as a host of balance changes, unit updates, fixes, and more.
New Operations
Besides the upcoming changes, we can also lift a tip of the veil on the next Operations coming to WARNO:
- First up is a change of focus. The Götterdämmerung Operation will shine the spotlight on the East German Nationale Volksarmee (NVA) in a pitched defense battle in front of the recently captured Bamsberg during the first few days of the war. After a failed advance, and pursued by American and West German forces, the East German 11. Mot.-Schützendivision is in a desperate situation. To save the southern flank of the Warsaw Pact invasion, as well as the division itself, its do-or-die time for Mot.-Schützenregiment 17, who have to hold off NATO for as long as possible in the valley of Stegaurach.
- The second Operation highlights a French set-piece called The Dieburg Salient. As laid out in pre-war plans, French forces quickly came to the aid of NATO in West Germany at the onset of the invasion, both in SOUTHAG and NORTHAG. However, their swift deployment is overshadowed by the equally rapid Soviet encirclement of Frankfurt. As such, before everything is lost, the French 7e Division Blindée is redirected to CENTAG to forward deploy and defend a tentative foothold on the approaches to the city. The successful relief of Frankfurt lies in the balance.
Reworked Urban Combat
One of the more frequent feedback voiced is the state of urban combat in WARNO. We are currently in the progress of playtesting various options to improve urban warfare.
While we’ll go into more detail later, we can already mention that adding clearer view zones for units within cities and reworking urban density is part of a package to make fighting in built-up areas more exciting. In general, gameplay in urban zones will see a significant overhaul.
A New Map
The next tactical maps in the production pipeline will feature our updated take on the urban combat zones mentioned above. What’s more, we’ll also be on the cusp of releasing a new map. This map will integrate a landmark requested by players and allow you to test our new city gameplay. New buildings and many new urban assets have been produced to make this skirmish-focused map a reality. There is more: we have also updated our asset distribution on maps, which will produce more organic-looking cities. Again, more on the map soon.
Army General
We are far from idle when it comes to the WARNO’s upcoming Army General campaigns. The team is working hard on the new turn-based strategic mode, from reworking and improving assets to intro videos and unit placements. We even added an “extra” campaign to the mix on top of the four promised initially. Say whaaaat?
That’s right! To test the experience, we made a small Army General campaign, which proved to be so much fun that we repackaged it and upgrade it to full-fledged Army General campaign status, to be updated with intro, briefings, voice acting, etc. The other campaigns are also getting dedicated videos: one major one, covering the WARNO’s road to World War III, and one for each campaign detailing the specific strategy situation and briefing.
New Multiplayer Divisions
We know our community is hotly anticipating our Army General campaigns, but we wanted to give you something to play with already. To make up for the long wait, we created two extra multiplayer divisions, inspired by some of the formations depicted in the released Operations, Blackhorse’s Last Stand and Red Juggernaut.
These new divisions will not receive any new unit models (except those done for the campaign but haven’t been used yet for any skirmish or multiplayer use). What they will get are some new variants on existing units, as well as original equipment and slot availability allocation, giving these two new divisions, one NATO and the other Warsaw Pact, a distinct “flavor.” More on the new divisions soon!
Balance, Balance, Balance
The magic word! As you know, we increased the rate we deliver our balance patches. We changed our version-building process, allowing us to be more agile. Updates now come more often and more regularly.
As we like the new way of doing things, we intend to keep these updates coming with smaller, more frequent patches. This also means that each time we focus on a specific issue reported by the community and address them as soon as possible.
The first item on the board: we are addressing both unit speeds and tackling (we guess by now the infamous) “tank meta.”
See you on the battlefield
Let us know what you think. And a gentle reminder. When there are incessant, non-stop demands along the lines of “but what about X, or what about X,” the Eugen team is small but very dedicated and very hard working. Everything the WARNO community brings up gets checked, reviewed, and vetted. Changes take time, updates require work. Moreover, some suggestions or comments might not fit our vision of WARNO or how to make it pass a feasibility, technical, or fun check. Thank you for your understanding and patience!
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.