Hi everyone!
As you probably know, ICBM: Escalation is all about conquering and/or destroying the world. Usually these dev diaries talk about all the tools you’ll have at your disposal to do that or the mechanics of how they work, but we’ve never talked too much about the world itself. Since we’re going to be destroying it on a regular basis, let’s talk about the work we’ve done to make the world detailed, dynamic and immersive, while it’s being covered in radioactive craters.
Home Sweet Home.
Similarly to ICBM 1, where the map was split 8 ways, the map in ICBM: Escalation is now split into 10 factions, based on political and cultural similarities and boundaries, but with gameplay balance at the forefront. With the advent of territory capturing, we had to take things a step further and split each faction into 15 distinct territories, so that players can invade and annex new land, one region at a time. Each region has its own unique GDP split with certain strengths and weaknesses, and not every territory is created equally, so players will be able to be selective in how they pick their targets. For example, in Europe, Germany is the industrial heart that provides most of its military production power, but the British Isles has a stronger research and espionage base, so if a player wanted to cripple their production capacity or annex some land to boost their R&D budget, it’s more nuanced than just invading Greenland because it’s undefended. Since every territory needs to be adequately represented by its population centers, the map also features a whopping 520 cities, more than double the 200 featured in ICBM 1. Better learn some geography…
The new regional menu gives you an overview of the region’s population, its cities and economic outputs, and also any invasion progress, plus a visual representation of how much damage it’s taken. Mind the placeholder.
The world in ICBM: Escalation is also more alive in terms of the ways you can interact with other factions. Before, your options boiled down to forming alliances with some basic mutual agreements, or nuking everyone into oblivion. Now, ICBM wouldn’t be ICBM without the second option, but the diplomacy and espionage system has gotten a massive rework. Players now have the option to cut deals with factions individually, rather than just forming coalitions, and the breadth and scope of what you can do has expanded considerably. You can share individual technologies, hand off spare military hardware and warheads, support each other’s industry, provide economic aid, and even give up intel on what other factions are doing. Just like in the original, you can form multi-faction alliances if you want a more team-based approach as well, and can even choose to build on each other’s territory, if you’re not expecting to get stabbed in the back.
The new diplomacy and faction overview menu, where you can cut deals with another faction and also see what intel you have on them. You also get to put a face to who you’re dealing with now too!
The espionage menu has also been reworked for clarity, and is also a little more nuanced and less luck-based than before. Espionage was often overlooked in ICBM 1, but a skilled player that can leverage it effectively can work out what their enemies are up to, which makes things much, much easier…
It’s worth talking about the global community as well. As much as ICBM players love to joke about breaking it, ICBM: Escalation now features its own take on international law: The Geneva Convention. With the Geneva Convention, it’s easier to control the flow of the game and enforce certain ‘gentlemanly agreements’ and in a way, sort of change the rules on the fly. Factions can vote on issues like banning specific weapon systems or technologies, issuing a (temporary) nuclear ban to deescalate the situation if things get out of hand, declare a global ceasefire altogether, or to nullify all of the above if they’re out for blood.
The global forum, unanimously deciding chemical weapons should be allowed. Brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it.
And, also worth mentioning, since it’s in the screenshot and people are going to ask about it, we’ve also implemented a DEFCON system, which allows players to evaluate how much danger they’re in and make trade-offs between their economic outputs, and a suite of bonuses to improve their performance in a conventional or nuclear war. Starting at DEFCON 5, which doesn’t change anything, each level progressively drains more of the faction’s GDP but provides bonuses to protect against increasingly dangerous threats. So for example, DEFCON 4 will make it easier to fend off a conventional military invasion and put a slight dent in the economy, while DEFCON 1 will minimize your losses during a full-blown nuclear exchange, at the cost of grinding everything to a halt. There’s also something darkly satisfying about going to DEFCON 1 before launching dozens of nuclear missiles…
And that’s it for our latest dev diary! Let us know what you think and what’s got you the most excited. The beta test is still in progress and we’re looking into expanding the tester pool shortly, so keep your eyes on your inbox and your spam folder, because you might have that email coming your way. Thanks again!