Artillery..not the god of war!

[adherbal]

There are several defensive oriented missions. The allied campaign starts with a number of "hold out as long as possible" missions before allowing them to take the initiative and go on the offense. The rate of succes in these early missions will determine the strength of the Japanese forces in later scenarios. The Japanese campaign's losing branch also features a few iconic defensive missions such as Okinawa, where the objective is to deal as much damage as possible to the attacking allies.

And besides the difference between offensive and defensive mission objectives, several scenarios - especially in multiplayer - will require the player to split his forces in both defensive and offensive groups. You may not have enough forces to go on the offense across the whole map, so it requires the use of cheaper defensive oriented units (ex. AT guns) to defend certain areas while grouping the main strength in an offensive spearhead to be launched against limited objectives on the map.

Hey, is there a Chance of Multi KI, dear OoBP?

The game allows up to 4 players so technically you can have 1 human VS 3 AIs but this is generally not used unless there is a specific reason to split up the AI into several players.

[Durin1978]

Will the multiplayer options allow then a cooperative game of 2 humans against 2 KI players, or 1on1 with an additional KI player for boh sides? And how about a cooperative campaign? Or isn´t that possible because of only one core force?

And thanks again for being so responsive, especially on a sunday.

[adherbal]

It allows any combination of human and AI players/teams. Multiplayer campaigns are not available at the moment but it is something we'll be looking at in the future. Obviously these would require specially designed campaigns so it's not a minor task.

[Durin1978]

This would give your titel something really unique. But I am not sure if this amount of work will pay off for you in the end.

[mictator]

oh yeah, that very very good to read this news. Multiplayer Campaign's

[donger]

Personally I'm happy that the developers decided to use a different approach and I don't see it as an attempt just for the sake of trying to be "different", but an attempt to make a good if not better game.

[LandMarine47]

I don't like the "Kill as many troops as you can" feeling, as it sounds like a core killer. These should only be used as end campaign scenarios! Please try and restrict these (I now fear the Iwo Jima and Okinawa Japanese scenarios)

[Rood]

How about you can mod your own artillery units as support? For example by just converting an existing AT unit and set it's 'hard attack' to zero and increase it's 'soft attack'

I understand your decision and somewhat agree but personally I would like to be able to use artillery as defensive units.
However if the pace is indeed slower than PzC than probably it will not matter much.

I really do like how you keep a fresh perspective on things though (same as PzC does not have 'overrun' for example).

[Myrddraal]

Units stats are moddable in OOBP, so if you really want to, you can. Having said that, give the game a try with this mechanism

[dijonace]

Units stats are moddable in OOBP, so if you really want to, you can. Having said that, give the game a try with this mechanism

Would like to...if given beta access. %wink%

[Rood]

Units stats are moddable in OOBP, so if you really want to, you can. Having said that, give the game a try with this mechanism

Well that's great news, and I surely will play the 'vanilla' game numerous times.
I hope beta testing is going great and we'll be able to enjoy this game, from what I've seen and read so far I'm really excited.

[bobk]

I would like to weigh in on the positive side of your artillery mechanics also. One of the things I hated about PG2 was attacking the AI, and getting plastered by 2, 3, maybe 4, hidden artillery units. I also like the AT changes, as unless you were totally defensive in PzC they were pretty useless. You could try to keep them a space back, and move up for a kill on a weakened unit, but it was alot of work for little reward.
That being said, I`m sure the modders will do their thing and provide plenty of alternate options down the road.