Hello commander,
We hope you are well! Army General: it’s clearly one of the most frequently asked topics featuring high on your wishlist. So, what’s the deal?
In today’s DevBlog, we will give you a rundown of what is happening with WARNO’s upcoming massive strategic campaign mode. And what to expect in the coming future!
Please note that the localization and text writing within Army General is still a work in progress. Yes, there are a couple of typos and mistakes in the screenshots, but we are in the process of ironing them out.
Let’s dig in.
The Promise
First things first, let’s go back to the original promises we made when we kicked off the Early Access of WARNO. The launch of a game like WARNO, with the small team that is Eugen, means a big chunk of game development time, resources, and lots of fine-tuning and balancing.
When we launched WARNO, we gave you a tentative look into the development of our game. As you can see, we have delivered everything we initially promised… and then some.
We took the time to add a whole bunch of features that went beyond the original scope. Such as:
- More divisions.
- More maps.
- New mechanics (including urban warfare).
- New Traits.
- etc.
From the “might be” section, we delivered the Tutorials and the Operations (scripted scenarios), which leaves us the Army General campaigns.
We can confirm that WARNO will ship with at least one campaign (but potentially more) before the full, official launch out of Early Access.
Why so Long?
Sure, you might say, you kept your promise. But why is the Army General campaign taking so long? For that, let’s reveal a bit of development history.
From day 1, we were explicit in saying that we couldn’t start working on WARNO’s Army General campaign until most (not all) units were developed and implemented, as the AI and the autoresolve mechanic would need to be designed to use them properly. Of course, next to that, we were busy researching maps, Order of Battles (OOB), and potential campaign ideas. But, work on Army General’s scripting and balancing wasn’t able to start before milestone MASSENA (mid-July 2022).
As you might recall, our first Army General “Reveal” DevBlog was from September 2022. We had a rough first playable prototype by this time, featuring a full OOB and unit and formation pawns. However, it was a straightforward port of Steel Division 2’s Army General mechanics into WARNO. We could have been marginally content in just wrapping this up and shipping it, but it would have been counter to our vision.
In our perspective, WARNO’s Early Access is the opportunity to be ambitious and massively improve our Army General campaign. To go beyond and upgrade what we can do with a turn-based strategic mode.
Teeth versus Non-Teeth
We got to work. One of the first things we did was to rework the combat system, to define better and separate “teeth” and “non-teeth” battalions, meaning infantry and armor for the first versus artillery, air support, and auxiliary formations (recon, security, engineers) for the latter. We wanted the “non-teeth” battalions to be more relevant, letting them compete only alongside themselves but still bringing bonuses to the fight. As such, artillery, air support, and auxiliary now have their own category in the new Battle Plan phase (detailed in this DevBlog). Though it might sound like a mere UI reorganization, this change carried some serious AI tinkerwork to use this new system fully.
Scale
Another thing we wanted to resolve in our strategic mode was scale. While operations in World War II could last several weeks, maybe even months, within a six-year war, World War III in Europe was planned to be very short. The Warsaw Pact had about ten days to win an invasion, or else NATO would have been able to bring too many reinforcements (including REFORGER) to the battlefield after two weeks of fighting. Many studies and plans on both sides of the Iron Curtain envisioned the use of nuclear and chemical weapons in a myriad of ways: as a first strike, to break a stubborn NATO defense, or to contain successful Warsaw Pact breakthroughs.
Either way, at least in a conventional sense, World War III in Europe would not have been planned to last more than two to three weeks. In WARNO, that is our working hypothesis: a conventional conflict being played out over a limited amount of time.
That’s why in WARNO’s Army General, we have switched to a three-turn-a-day ratio (Morning, Afternoon, Evening). Which meant recalculating all units movement range to match the shorter turns. And of course, we’ll make sure that in future NORTHAG Army General campaigns, British troops won't fight in the evening, being tea time!
Reinforcements
In Steel Division 2, reinforcements could only be brought in by using Command Points. In WARNO, we stepped away from this economy. Instead, scheduled reinforcements are due at specific moments and will all arrive, regardless. Other types of reinforcements may or may not be granted, depending on events and strategic choices.
Urban Warfare
Urban warfare is another significant difference with Steel Division 2. In WARNO’s World War II cousin, this type of combat could only be settled through auto-resolve (as it lacked urban maps). We have decided to do things differently with WARNO, especially after hearing your feedback for more urban maps.
This is why urban maps will be integrated into WARNO’s campaigns, to be triggered when fighting on a specific section of the strategic map. WARNO’s Army General campaign will have its own set of small-scale maps for just such opportunities.
Each new mechanic we added, even if only for multiplayer, has repercussions in Army General. We have to “teach” the AI new battle plans, new traits, how to best use urban maps, strategic choices, units, etc. This takes time. To integrate and test all of it, we created a special campaign, smaller in scale. This testbed campaign proved fun enough to be added to the game (after a touch-up and update) as a fifth campaign on top of the four original campaigns: BRUDERKRIEG. You can read more about this campaign in this dedicated DevBlog.
Order of Battle
The Order of Battle mechanic has also been improved compared to Steel Division 2. We can now zoom in to platoon level, not just company level, in terms of formation detail. The user interface has been upgraded to follow suit, allowing you to navigate from strategic army level all the way down to platoon level.
Another element we changed was reworking specific formations that were too small or weak, with their equipment and personnel being distributed to other battalions as detachments. For instance, the lone motorized rifle battalion in a Warsaw Pact tank regiment was pretty weak and almost unusable as a pawn in its own right. We removed an infantry battalion from each regiment but buffed each tank battalion with an infantry company instead. Sounds complex, but it means that this infantry battalion is now split between three tank battalions as accompanying infantry. We have also reworked the display of pawn labels, allowing them to be more readable (but also a little bit sexier), looking more akin to those labels found in good ‘ol board wargames.
If at first you don’t succeed, try again
Once we integrated all our new features, the painstaking task of fine-tuning and balancing everything began. As they say, the last 10% of the work is the hardest; we had to try, change, update, and try again countless times.
At the latter stages of development of BRUDERKRIEG, the first campaign we will deliver, any gameplay change could have major consequences. For instance, changing core game mechanics, such as reinforcements, meant rewriting and re-recording audio lines, as this campaign features a full video intro, briefing, voice lines, etc. for each side.
Taking all the above into consideration, we hope you can understand why developing Army General took some additional time.
What we can say is that BRUDERKRIEG is in the final testing phase and will soon be delivered to the Strike Team for the ultimate round of testing. You should be able to see them stream it soon. In the meantime, not being idle, the game designers are working on fleshing out the next four major Army General campaigns.
Army General took its sweet time. We are on the home stretch for all campaigns. We can’t argue that it took longer than expected, and hence our sincere apologies!
WARNO LEAGUE SUPER TOURNAMENT
Before we leave you be, a message from our valued community member and online tournament creator Protosszocker. Mind you, these events are not organized by Eugen. Much like previous editions, and other player initiatives, we wholeheartedly support the event. If you have any questions, please contact the organizers directly.
SDL might have been in a bit of a slumber, but two major events are making their way to the community.
First up is the third edition of the WARNO LEAGUE SUPER TOURNAMENT to be played the 28th and 29th of October. Once again, get ready for some ruthless fast action over two days in a single elimination action.
After this event, things will get even bigger. Another WARNO league: WARNO LEAGUE SEASON 0.5! The Group Stage will start on the 30th of October.
In all our leagues, players will be put into different divisions, based on skill level. It shouldn’t matter if you have 10 hours or 1000! What’s more, both events have a cash prize pool. Be sure to sign up through the links below. You’ll also find more info.
WARNO LEAGUE SUPER TOURNAMENT
https://playsdl.com/tournament/warno-leagueST3
WARNO LEAGUE SEASON 0.5
https://playsdl.com/tournament/warno-leagueST3
Until next week
That’s all for this week. Tune in again next week! Let us know what you think.
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.
