Feature: Skirmish Mode

[pipfromslitherine]

One of the new key features we want to have from day one is a skirmish mode which will generate random maps based on some user parameters. We know it was one of the most requested features on the original game, and even with the excellent random map mods it will definitely be a great addition to the game we feel.

Key ideas so far for user controls:

Season - winter, autumn, spring
Weather - Foggy, Rainy or Night.
Year - We will have to group units chronologically, so that they can be accurately be matched together.
Points value of forces involved
Mission style - attack, defend, meeting engagement
Style of map - players have some control over the amount of water, woods, hills, buildings, defences are on a map.
One interesting idea would be to add presets to generate historically accurate looking maps e.g. snowy, urban Stalingrad maps or open summer steppes.

[Reform]

Sounds like a great start and will give BA a long shelf life. A group of us have got together to play a short tournament and there is some debate about the various games we will play. Having the option to generate random games say attack, meeting and defend or with some objective (or separate objectives for each player) will keep the game fresh. Crack on!

[Granfali]

Is is possible to load a determined map with this feature? or have to be random maps?

[pipfromslitherine]

Is is possible to load a determined map with this feature? or have to be random maps?

I guess you mean use a constructed map but have it place random units?

Cheers

Pip

[random27]

i would love random maps in wich we buy units

[Granfali]

Is is possible to load a determined map with this feature? or have to be random maps?

I guess you mean use a constructed map but have it place random units?

Cheers

Pip

Same than Combat Mission. You pick parameters (year, wheater conditions, time, etc), buy your units and load a pre-built map (or random if you prefer).
I mean the game gives you the oportunitty to choose a built map previously built or a random map.

[IainMcNeil]

I would rather have player select a "formation" rather than a year and side. E.g. 1943 German Tiger Battalion, or Panzer Grenadiers etc. This gives more limits on what you can have and allows us to control the experience a bit better. I really like the idea as you'll get lots of different options but each one will have some choices but some min max components. There would need to be a way to load and save your army designs. Maybe we force you to do this ahead of time so when you issues/accept the challenge you have to select your pre-desigend army which helps the flow.

You could have a drop down for side and year and then the available formations are listed. But i'd like to have lots of options here and it would be something we could add to easily.

[johntindall]

Sounds bloody marvelous, Iain

[heyhellowhatsnew]

Oh my god I was about to ask for this here take all my money

[bruce1944]

This might be a great way to introduce "what if" battles with the late war tanks and assorted weapons! You know Formation Tiger 2 Battalion or JS 2 Battalion. Maybe even stopping the spread of the red plague...Pershings vs JS2s...wait i have to catch my breath...wow!

[pipfromslitherine]

Perhaps we can give you the option of all your units, or a single AH-64 and test out the old adage .

Cheers

Pip

[Benpark]

One thing that would be great to have in addition to this is a carryover between battles. You would have a historical set of units, and possibly a few points to spend on support for each different battle. You would fight the battle, and the resulting casualties would be saved to a file. This file could be loaded to fight a next battle. A certain percent of losses would be immediately returned as "lightly wounded" or "lightly damaged". Every 5th battle or so, replacements would fill a certain percentage of the losses, depending on the year there would be less or more, and of differing quality.

There should be 3 basic types of skirmish battles: attack (against prepared positions), meeting engagement, and defense.

Throw in a few historical maps at certain cycles of the "campaign", and it's perfected.

[pipfromslitherine]

One thing that would be great to have in addition to this is a carryover between battles. You would have a historical set of units, and possibly a few points to spend on support for each different battle. You would fight the battle, and the resulting casualties would be saved to a file. This file could be loaded to fight a next battle. A certain percent of losses would be immediately returned as "lightly wounded" or "lightly damaged". Every 5th battle or so, replacements would fill a certain percentage of the losses, depending on the year there would be less or more, and of differing quality.

There should be 3 basic types of skirmish battles: attack (against prepared positions), meeting engagement, and defense.

Throw in a few historical maps at certain cycles of the "campaign", and it's perfected.

Carryover between battles already exists (and is extensively used in the Market Garden expansion). We do tend to be somewhat sparing in our use of it, as it can lead to campaigns where you don't realise you needed to save more units until 3 battles past the point where you needed to do something! But we do know that a lot of people like the feeling of guiding a plucky set of units through a campaign.

Cheers

Pip

[Benpark]

Yes- the carryover in the scripted campaigns needs a more controlled approach. My suggestion is more geared towards the randomly created battles, in order to create something somewhat narrative (if selected) in terms of the ebb and flow of cumulative battles. If I recall, something like this was offered in Steel Panthers World at War.

Thanks for listening to suggestions. I'm looking forward to the result.

[Adraeth]

The best should be to have a random campaign based on random battles; the player should pick a formation (for istance panzer grenadier battalion), pick a start year and an end year; pick the number of battles.

The system should create a random battle, at the end of the random battle the player should fix losses, replace equipments, advance units in rank; then the player will go to the next random battle... and so on...