Slitherine

After taking a sort-of-summer-break it's time for another "what's next" report.

Artillery Balancing
The artillery changes brought by the latest update have not been received well by all. We have decided to undo the change in a small update very soon, and then take more time to review or rebalance this concept. With Skirmish Mode and future European Front campaigns in mind, we still feel artillery in its pre-patch stage is too effective at "sniping" weak units from long range. Skirmish Mode is likely to require all sorts balancing tweaks anyway, which brings us to the next point:


Skirmish Mode
We have every intend on bringing the long anticipated Skimish Mode into the next major update. More information will follow soon.


Specialisations Revision
The specialisation system is being largely redesigned. Instead of the existing rigid system of offering 2 choices during various stages of a campaign, the new system will be more similar to a tech tree style design. Specialisations will now be much more numerious and can be purchased using "Specialisation Points" (SP). These are awarded on completing scenarios and for specific secondary objectives.

The new system allows much more freedom and flexibility, allowing us to give access to Specialisaitions for all nations/campaigns in the future update.

Below is an early, work-in-progress version of the new panel:

Thumbs up for the planned next steps, I hope everything goes smoothly.
Have you considered flipping the X and Y axes of the specialization panel to see if that saves some space and improves the clarity of the progress tree layout?

cool features!!! This game going be better...Im waiting for the another news...

Please make it optionable (like some rules in PzC), because there are many players, who feel well with the new arty rules - at least in Winter War.

adherbal wrote: Artillery Balancing
The artillery changes brought by the latest update have not been received well by all. We have decided to undo the change in a small update very soon, and then take more time to review or rebalance this concept. With Skirmish Mode and future European Front campaigns in mind, we still feel artillery in its pre-patch stage is too effective at "sniping" weak units from long range. Skirmish Mode is likely to require all sorts balancing tweaks anyway, which brings us to the next point:

I still thinks, that arty works fine in Winter War. Surely I feel also this, because this is my first OOB game and I *used to* this version of arty. I think - at least in Winter War - the game concept is instead of "rush into the fight" method and inflicting/loosing str points in direct engagement, it is more about efficiency. A unit whit low(er) efficiency could be hit much easier with less casualties. Good example for this: inf against light armor. If the tank has low efficiency, the inf can inflict damage to it, even without taking casualties. So, int that way, arty works very well: it pounds the efficiency of the enemy low, so after it, the inf, or armor can deal with the weakened enemy. I play it on the hardest level. Stronger arty would *totally ruin* the game balance of the existing WW campaign!

What I see more problematic, that the arty cannot give any defense help. Therefore the AT guns are totally vulnerable at therefore absolute useless. The arty should give defense fire for the AT guns at least. But honestly, without arty support, even the trenched inf cannot hold long, and therefore a coherent, strong defense line cannot be created. I would vote to give the arty at least 1x support possibility/turn in the case of hostile attack.

I'm very glad the artillery is going to be "re-tweaked " , I think a good compromise between the two points of view can be found without rushing choices.

Great idea to open up the specialization into a branched tree!

While I appreciate any news from the developers I also note the still lacking information about any future A.I improvements in the development roadmap. Does that mean the A.I cannot be improved or what is the reason behind it ? I would appreciate a frank answer about the plans or a statement that there are no plans to invest time to improve it. I am not asking for a specific date just information if there are any plans at all to tackle all criticism of it here, on Steam and in the Matrix forums.

AI is constantly in development. Currently our focus is on the skirmish AI, which requires a sort of strategic level on top of the tactical AI - which is mostly directed through scripting in the campaign scenarios.

Skirmish will be a great testing ground for AI and overal balancing because unlike the campaign scenarios, everyone starts with exactly the same resources.

This is fascinating, to watch this process unfold. I only wish I had been here from the beginning.

Question to the developers. Are the DV looking into the bugs in event triggering in Winter War and the issues with the german language version of the game etc.?

Regarding AI, although of course the focus is on Skirmish, we do continue make tweaks and small improvements to general performance where we can.
This is an iterative and incremental process.

This is all very exciting! Can't wait ... but, I guess I'll have to.

GREAT NEWS!

Finally a good Specialisation tree.
Too bad people find the new arty system underpowered. I find it realistic. Actually the old system is overpowered in my opinion.
Anyways Great game, wish I could help some ha !

Ga zo door

Looking forward to the new specialization system. It looks really like nice. I'm kind of surprised regarding the artillery change revert. I find artillery quite balanced at the moment.

We need more and longer campaigns as soon as possible. All the tweaks should be secondary. Love the tech-tree idea.

WarHomer wrote:We need more and longer campaigns as soon as possible. All the tweaks should be secondary. Love the tech-tree idea.

Ah, yeh, would love to see another campaign. Game is quite addictive !

Personally I think first fix, balance and tweak the game , then release new features and new scenarios

adherbal wrote:We have decided to undo the change in a small update very soon . . .

So when might we expect this mini-patch, if you don't mind my asking? I put my OOB playing on hold pending this update. Thanks.

bru888 wrote:

adherbal wrote:We have decided to undo the change in a small update very soon . . .

So when might we expect this mini-patch, if you don't mind my asking? I put my OOB playing on hold pending this update. Thanks.

+1. Wondering that myself