Hi everyone!
In this dev diary, we’re going to be talking about something that might feel familiar to anyone who’s played the original ICBM. For all the grizzled veterans in the audience, you probably remember the Strike Planner. Well, it’s gotten a bit of a makeover for the sequel, and there’s been a pretty major overhaul in terms of how it works and what it’s capable of now. So, now that the strike planner is old news, for ICBM fans both old and new, allow me to introduce you to the new War Room!
A STRANGE GAME. THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS NOT TO PLAY.
For those of you that are unacquainted, the Strike Planner in ICBM 1 gave you the ability to quickly assign attack orders to your units. You could get every instance of a specific unit type to attack every specific instance of an enemy unit type. So, for example, you could get all your SSBNs to attack enemy cities all at once, or get your missile silos to attack every enemy airport, or any other combination of attackers and targets. However, as handy as it is in a lot of situations, it didn’t have the nuance needed for ICBM: Escalation, now that regions are capturable, conventional warfare is widespread, and killing absolutely everything all at once isn’t necessarily what you want to do. At least not all the time.
The classic strike planner is returning, but the advanced planner is where things get interesting…
So, what does the new War Room have to offer? The short answer is discretion. In the new War Room, you have the ability to specify exactly which units you want to conduct the attack, and also specify exactly who to kill. So, let’s pose a hypothetical. Let’s say you’re playing as North America. Central America just sank one of your favorite aircraft carriers, so in a fit of blind rage, you decide you’re going to invade Mexico. Now, you could use the traditional strike planner and end up starting World War III, but that’s going too far. Right now your limit is only World War 2 and a half. Instead of hitting them with everything you’ve got all at once, you just want to soften them up, show them who’s boss, and then probably destroy your timeshare property in Cancun so you can finally stop paying for it. This is where the War Room comes in.
Introducing the War Room! Isn’t this fancy?
As you can see, like the Strike Planner from ICBM 1, you can now choose to target specific regions instead of entire factions. So, for example, if you’re only focused on attacking Northwest Mexico, your plan won’t end up wasting effort and missiles on destroying Colombia. You can also see in the attacker list that there’s a list of territories as well. That’s because you can also designate specific regions to attack from. So if you wanted all your missile silos in, say, Western Canada to fire at one target and leave the rest of them on standby, you can do that too. You can also get even more nuanced if you want.
Behold, more nuance!
As you can see, you can assign units from specific unit groups to attack targets as well. So if you group together some units, you can turn them into a task force and then direct them using the War Planner. You can also assign attacker locations and target locations by designating points directly on the map, so if you want to get REALLY specific and say that, for example, only missile silos within a 100 mile radius of some random spot in the middle of Kansas should attack, you can do that too.
I wasn’t joking, you can literally do that.
Now, being able to get stuff to blow up other stuff is great and all, but it doesn’t end there. You don’t want to just attack Mexico, you want your troops to invade and claim it as your own so you can watch that timeshare burn to the ground with your own eyes. But micromanaging armies? That could be a lot of work. But don’t worry, the War Planner has you covered! All you need to do is switch to ‘Invasion mode’ and then specify which armies you want to send in and where you’re sending them to. Once you give the order, they’ll automatically mobilize and invade to capture the territories for you.
Sure, they sank your carrier, but deep down, we all know this is all about that timeshare.
On top of all that, you can also stack multiple elements of a plan together, so for example, while your MRBMs are targeting an enemy’s air bases, your SSBNs can be targeting its missile silos, while your ICBMs strike at their cities, or any other combination you can think of, all executed with one click of a button. Endless possibilities! And there’s new options on how to conduct the attack as well. You can choose to bar weapons of mass destruction from the attack if you don’t want things to get out of hand, tell your units to automatically choose the best weapons for the job based on what they’re targeting, and even get your bomber pilots to fly far beyond their return point on a one-way trip, with the aptly named ‘Suicide Mission’ option. Your attack, your way.
If you’re clever, you can devise all kinds of attacks. Like a symphony of destruction.
Because ICBM: Escalation has a newfound emphasis on conventional warfare, slower escalations and capturing territory, the extra degree of control and precision that the new War Room offers is perfect for coordinating everything from low-intensity skirmishes and raids, to territorial invasions, all the way to full-scale thermonuclear exchanges. There’s no substitute for getting extra-involved and micromanaging every single unit in the attack, but now that the War Room is in play, if you can make a plan and press a button, you can do some serious damage…
And that’s it for this dev diary! Hopefully it’s piqued your interest and you’re already scheming about what kind of fiendish master plans you can put together. We love your feedback, so let us know what you think in the comments. There might be another dev diary in the future to look forward to, but we’re also getting close to the finish line. Either way, you’ll hear from us again soon!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2647680/ICBM_Escalation/