what new does BA2 offer?

[jnpoint]

Hi. I would be grateful if you, who have bought the early access, can tell what new BA2 can offer that BA did not have. Thanks.

[MartyWard]

Hi. I would be grateful if you, who have bought the early access, can tell what new BA2 can offer that BA did not have. Thanks.

Russians!

[jnpoint]

Hi. I would be grateful if you, who have bought the early access, can tell what new BA2 can offer that BA did not have. Thanks.

Russians!

I guess there need to be more content before I buy

[morge4]

Russians obviously, newer graphics and backgrounds.

Here are the offical Gameplay Changes from the BA2 forum...

Players in the BA2 Early Access Program have probably started to notice some gameplay changes compared to BA. Here are some details on a number of changes that may show up in the current EAP version:

Dynamic Terrain
- Terrain can change based on actions during a battle, for example "Open Ground" terrain will become "Crater" terrain when a tile is severely damaged, providing improved cover but costing more AP for vehicles to enter.
- A wrecked vehicle may improve the cover of a tile for infantry.

Breaking Down and Bogging
- Vehicles may have a small chance to break down or bog down for each tile they enter while moving (instead of one larger chance on the first tile of any route).

Time of Day
- Scenarios may automatically transition among day - dusk - night - dawn causing both visual changes and gameplay changes:
- Day - normal rules
- Dusk / Dawn - Reduced visibility range, weapon range limited to 6 tiles, reduced weapon accuracy
- Night - Increased morale loss when taking fire, low visibility range, weapon range limited to 3 tiles, reduced weapon accuracy

Hedgerows / Barricades
- A revealed unit adjacent to an edge object such as a hedgerow or barricade may receive cover benefit from the object when fired at from the other side of the object.

Trenches
- Units inside a trench receive additional cover and concealment benefits from enemies outside of the trench compared to enemies inside the same segment of trench.

Smoke
- Some units have a Smoke ability which will create smoke on a selected tile.
- For 1 to 4 turns, smoke will block line-of-sight past the tile.
- Units can see into and out of a tile containing smoke, but there is an accuracy penalty applied when firing in or out of smoke.
- The smoke action uses one of the shots available that turn and also uses up one of the smoke rounds avaiable to the unit for the duration of the scenario (replenished by the Resupply bonus).

Dash
- Infantry that have not fired in the current turn may Dash two tiles (non-diagonal) at twice the normal movement cost.
- If the unit was not visible to the enemy before dashing, it will not be reacted to by other units on the first tile of movement.
- The unit may be reacted to normally by eligible units after the second tile of movement.
- The unit is considered to have moved fast after attempting a Dash.

Partial Damage
- Hits against tanks which are near the penetration threshold can inflict partial damage.
- A heavy damage hit will either immobilise the tank or disable its primary weapon.
- A light damage hit will inflict one of a number of minor penalties to the tank.
- Accumulated partial damage may cause a tank to be completely disabled and abandoned.

Green Units
- Untrained units (indicated by a green triangle rank insignia) have less shots, less action points, lower reaction chances, and less morale than a standard unit.
- Green units can become promoted to standard units through combat experience. The Drill Sgt bonus cannot be used to promote a green unit.

Unit Experience
- Units gain an amount of experience towards promotion for destroying enemy units based on the relative value of the units.
- Units also gain a small amount of experience when receiving fire (if not suppressed) or taking an effective (morale-reducing) shot at an enemy.
- A unit's progress towards the next promotion is shown on the unit details panel.

Air Superiority
- A side may have a bonus which calls fighter cover to resist enemy air strikes for a limited number of turns.
- If both sides deploy fighters, the fighters of one side will be driven off.
- One active fighter bonus can only intercept one enemy airstrike or fighter per turn.
- An airstrike which encounters resistance from either fighters or AA may have an increased delay before its next availability.

Barbed Wire
- Barbed wire can only be traversed by tracked vehicles.
- Barbed wire is destroyed when a tracked vehicle enters the tile or when a significant amount of damage is done to the tile.

Reaction Visualization
- A coloured circle around the selected unit and target represents the unit's ability to react in each direction.

Artillery Movement
- Some artillery units (mortars, HMGs, small AT guns) can move a short distance without the assistance of a transport unit over some terrain types.
- Artillery units cannot move and shoot in the same turn.

[jnpoint]

wow - that's a lot of new features. Worth a try I think.

[pipfromslitherine]

Plus vastly more powerful editor, random skirmish maps in single- and multi-player, and lots more

(Oh, and Coop multiplayer too!) [edit]

Cheers

Pip

[Navaronegun]

More than one level of height?

[morge4]

More than one level of height?

Yes multiple height levels!

[Navaronegun]

How many? (He said, excitedly...)

[protectivedaddy]

What I'd like to know is how much better is it, I have read the 'official' but you get a better idea from the lads on the ground - so to speak - is it vastly different, better, bigger etc.


Also will it ever be possible to release an editor for IOS - what does stop it - hardware or software wise.

[Navaronegun]

Pdaddy, the limited ROM of the iPad essentially prevents this. And the limited access/utility of the file structure of the iPad.

[morge4]

How many? (He said, excitedly...)

I believe two levels IIRC from the pre-BA2 posts...have not played with the editor yet

[protectivedaddy]

Can the editor work on a surface tab running windows.

[pipfromslitherine]

Can the editor work on a surface tab running windows.

It will work on a W8 tablet I would imagine (more memory, better memory management...) but I really wouldn't want to try and live with it - given how keyboard shortcut heavy the editor is.

Cheers

Pip

[Navaronegun]

Pip, does BA2 do away with some of the limitations for modders the original had like the 64 unit limit per side and 128 overall.

[pipfromslitherine]

We aren't planning to increase the unit limits. While I know there are some people who would love to have massive battles, the fairly heavy technical cost of this is hard to justify given that most people would find a 128 unit turn a little too much to bear

That said, IIRC even in BA1 you can recycle dead units now, so you are not limited to 64 units in total in a battle.

Cheers

Pip

[LandMarine47]

I think a more appropriate number is 100. This IS Russia after all (I can see my MGs ripping rough Russian conscripts in Stalingrad

[rich12545]

When BA2 is complete, may I suggest you folks make a program to upgrade BA1 to include the new features. Sell it for $10-15 and I think it would prove profitable. You'll already have the code and will just need to fit it in the existing product.

[pipfromslitherine]

It's an idea, but I'm not sure that the market would be there for the same content just supporting the newer features.

Cheers

Pip

[rich12545]

What gave me the idea is that's what Battlefront is doing with Combat Mission. I don't know how much business there would be but Slitherine has a very large Battle Academy database and virtually everyone would be interested imo. I'd gladly pay $10 to add the additional benefits.