Developement Diary 1 - Campaign Mode

[tniem]

I just read through the Developement Diary on GameSpy, http://www.gamespy.com/devdiary/september02/ron1/, and found something new that will be interestiong for anyone interested in RoN.

Tim Train explained how the way that campaigns are going to happen in RoN is a gradual conquering of the entire world through the ages. The player will conquer one province in each scenario/mission and only play in one age. Slowly each province won will allow you more resources and tribute to allow you to slowly move through the ages. It seems like a great feature.

In "Conquer the World," nations can take over the world or a portion of the world, one province at a time. Each conquered province adds tribute, special resources, or bonus powers to your nation, and each battle takes place over the course of a single Age. Players spend a lot of time in each era as a result, and can try out strategies and tactics with each era's units that would not be possible in the standard random map game. The scenario generator places the player in a number of different situations that give each battle its own feel.

He goes on to say that it is Risk meets RTS and that it is a way that even TBSers will like RoN. Sounds like it has a lot of promise to move along a campaign mode and have some variety each time you play through.

[ixnay]

I thought "Conquer the World" was seperate from campaigns, which will also be included. It definitely sounds like a good addition, though.

[Graham@BHG]

"I thought 'Conquer the World' was seperate from campaigns, which will also be included."

Quite correct. Go with that thought!

Glad to hear someone else is excited about CTW. We have been testing it a lot this week, and is it starting to come together nicely. It is great for those players looking for an epic campaign on a global scale.

[Sonic]

Oh yes, I seriously like that also. This is what I once suggested at Empire Earth fansite before the game was out. Emperor: Battle for Dune had something like this and I really liked that.

However, how about making this option more costumisable? Here are some suggestions:

Allow player to choose "ages per turn". For example if he chooses 1/2, that would mean 2 battles have to be fought per age. If he chooses 2, that means one battle per two ages. If he chooses 0, that means whole game will be in just one age. This would be very good for recreating world wars for example on real world map. And it would be much better than typical campaigns because unlike them you could also strategically act what to do next. And this means possible new endings for such wars. Also, it would mean lost battle is not the end of the world and you would be able to attack again, etc. Here is the example of how such think (WW2) could be solved:

World (on strategic view) is split in many territories, like Eastern China, Alaska, Greenland or South Africa. At start countries (if 8 countries is a limit then Germany, Soviet Union, United States, Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy and China) holds their own territories. Player could choose who to play as (or maybe the side would be pre-designed, but it would be of course better if side would be optional) and start a game with a strategic move. Strategic move could include moving your major armies/fleets, building new armies/fleets at your territories, doing all the diplomacy options. You could build new units into your armies/fleets by right-clicking on them and choosing what to build. Of course that would cost resources. resources would be also gained in the strategic move, and in the same move you could build up new buildings at each of your territories (obviously not all buildings everywhere - you couldn't build oil rigs in eastern Europe for example). After strategic move is done, you could engage to battles. You could engage into a limited number of battles per turn, probably also pre-designed. Each territory of the world would have a pre-drawn map on which battles would take place. Also, each territory would have one or several cities on it (depends on how much territory owner built). The objective of offensive battle is obviously to take these cities - if you will do so you'll get the territory. Offensive battles wouldn't have an economic side on them - you would be just attacking with what you have in an army you do an attack with. Sea battles also would go on something like that, just with ships instead of land armies and the objective would be to clear territory of enemy ships. Sea territories would be mostly the same, except some would have isles on them. You could of course do some blitzkrieg - just invade enemy territory, destroy some of the key buildings, and immidietly retreat until enemy taken some action. If you retreat, all units you retreated with will be considered part of the army later, ones which you lost in battle wouldn't. You could also form new brigades of armies and split up/add up existing ones in strategic move. On defensive battles, you'd have to destroy all enemies upcoming forces (or having him retreated). In such battles you could defend with army stationed in territory if there is such an army and if not, you'd be able to build troops at a time of mission (of course, number of troops possible to build would be limited by number of resources you had left since last strategic move).

Such games could be also done as scenarios. For example, with WW2 game if you are playing for Germany, triggers something like "if polandORfranceORdenmarkORbeneluxORnorwayORfinland attacked changestatus germany/britain=war"; "12 turn changestatus japan/usa=war"; "if easteuropeORbalkans attacked changestatus germany/sovietunion=war", etc.

[Alex]

I like this CTW option. It seems interesting. I like the idea of having time to explore thoroughly a given age, with all its strategic options. Considering the huge number of units featured in RoN, it will be nice to be able to play them with some more depth.

[Capt Dizle]

[tniem]

Sorry about the combination, I misunderstood. Sounds like this CTW is going to be a great feature and if campaigns are included as well, wow!

Sounds great guys.

[Alex]

hey, jimmy, we already know that you won't buy RoN...

[Capt Dizle]

I think I have already posted that I am not buying any more games at the initial price. I have become disgusted with the practice of dumbing games down and releasing games half developed.

That will be the rule. But the exception will be RON because of my gratitude towards BR for SMAC. SMAC is an incredible game.

Still, I find little about this game to be promising. I guess I am just plainly an old out of date TBS gamer.

[tniem]

jimmy they plan to have the code done in the next month or so and at that point play testing to get it right. To me that sounds pretty promising. Even Blizzard has had fewer patches then normal for them with WC3 as they took a ton of time to play test. I find that a positive sign.

[Crazy Dog]

Does this mean there can only be 8 battles?



Apart from that I like it.

[tniem]

Originally posted by Crazy Dog
Does this mean there can only be 8 battles?

What do you mean and where did you get it from? The only thing I have seen related to the number eight is that there is a limit of eight cities you can build. You can fight over those cities as many times as needed during the game.

[Alex]

Originally posted by tniem

You can fight over those cities as many times as needed during the game.

Not only this, but you'll probably will have to defend your own cities against attacks from your enemies, so there'll be plenty of battles to be fought, of course. As usual.

[theponyguy1]

When a unit gets behind a building or a tree, the unit shows up as a filled in outline. This totally covers up the artwork. I think there should be an option whether to leave the outline filled in, like in the screenshots, or not filled in, like in AOK. Please feature this option!