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Brave New World (total conversion) -v1.0

Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2021 3:31 pm
by StuccoFresco
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Hi all, this is my first mod for Order of Battle. It aims to provide some kind of Operational feeling to the game. With fixed unit size and some kind of OOB behind the unit composition, I intend to lead the game in a more “organized” direction, a distant relative of more complex wargames like The Operational Art of War IV. The unit models have been replaced with NATO-style counters (thanks to Maitrebongo for that). Every unit represent a Regiment, Battalion or Brigade-sized combat unit with mixed equipments.

Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k18gz4kyl6y8o ... d.rar?dl=0

More details:
The scale of the maps is fixed, with hexes representing 2,5 to 4 kmq. This isn’t always consistent with artillery ranges and movement points, but I think it’s a decent compromise between realism and gameplay. In a typical battle, a single Army fights against another Army-level opponent.

An Army is made by a variable number of Corps, usually between 3 and 5. Those Corps are usually made of 3 to 5 Divisions and a Corps HQ. A typical Division is made by three line Regiments (Infantry, Motorized, Mechanized or Armored) and a Divisional Guns Regiment. All Regiments belonging to a Division will have the same name. Above those stands the Corps, and every Division who belongs to a Corps will have its name in it. Corps contain a variable number of Divisions: usually no less than 3 and no more than 5. Multiple Corps are grouped into Armies. Brigades are bigger “base” units that can fight more or less on their own thanks to their size and equipment. They are usually “elite” units with very high attributes and often a “specialization”. They don’t belong to any Division, but they can fall under a Corps together with other Divisions or in an all-Brigades Corps.

There are no in-game advantages to keep Divisions and Corps together: you can mix them as you wish, although I think it’s more satisfying trying to keep formations in order to have a better feeling of “realism”. To make HQ units significant, they have been given several abilities and an AA attack, making them useful to keep close to your line units. However, they are also fragile, and losing them decreases the amount of supplies, so you are strongly encouraged to keep them safe.

Air units represent entire Wings (circa 50 planes), and multiple wings are organized into Groups. Every Group has an HQ attached to it. Air units have a large amount of movement points, being able to traverse most maps in a single turn, but only 3 fuel points. You can launch three air units per turn per airfield. At the moment there are no naval units, but they are planned for later versions.

Currently, the mod features only 5 multiplayer scenarios, that I plan to re-design into two separate single-player campaigns. I'd really appreciate some beta-testing; I've tested them, but playing them in a hotseat is clunky, I've made several adjustments, and since I'm the creator everything is obvious to me so I may miss a lot of possible problems.

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Disclaimer: When I started modding I went on to look at other mods to learn about campaign making and file structure, and in the process I copied unit graphics into a big folder together with the unit sprites from the Unit Editor Tool, from which I later took images for the mod. I don't know if I took some other modder's work: if you recognize some ingame graphics from another mod, let me know and I'll replace it.

Re: Brave New World (total conversion) -v1.0

Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:46 am
by Mascarenhas
I think that when you replace the units for counters, the game loses its best. Why not keeping them?

Re: Brave New World (total conversion) -v1.0

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2021 8:21 pm
by JTFox001
Will follow with interest.

Happy to have a go at play testing single player scenarios when the become available. Not something I've done before but will to give it a go.

As for the screen shots I think I would prefer counters over a old style map board.

Cheers

Re: Brave New World (total conversion) -v1.0

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:49 am
by StuccoFresco
JTFox001 wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 8:21 pm Will follow with interest.

Happy to have a go at play testing single player scenarios when the become available. Not something I've done before but will to give it a go.

As for the screen shots I think I would prefer counters over a old style map board.

Cheers
Thanks, I'm working on them!

Re: Brave New World (total conversion) -v1.0

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:57 am
by terminator
What are the HQ units ?

Re: Brave New World (total conversion) -v1.0

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 11:51 am
by StuccoFresco
terminator wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:57 am What are the HQ units ?
To get an "operational feel" I wanted to include HQ units that, if lost, would hamper the whole army. I originally intended them to produce supplies, but couldn't make it work (can't remember why), so I decided to work around the issue by crafting events that decreased one side's supplies when an HQ gets destroyed. But that meant that a player was incentivized to just keep those VERY far from the front, while I wanted them to follow closely-ish their Corps (since they are mostly Corps HQ). I fixed the issue by giving them strong mobile AA capability, to simulate several SP-AA platoons being attached to them. They also help fortifying nearby units and can repair supply hexes. They are battalion-sized, which means they would lose badly to any frontline Regiment or even worse Brigade.

This way the HQs are very useful to have just behind the frontline, where they can provide support to their Corps and they must be protected by their player.

It's not a perfect solution, but in the playtest I found that it worked: I always tried to keep them close to their formation, and keeping them safe was a real necessity.



More details are included in the pdf manual inside the .rar.