Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Civil War 2 is the definitive grand strategy game of the period. It is a turn based regional game with an emphasis on playability and historical accuracy. It is built on the renowned AGE game engine, with a modern and intuitive interface that makes it easy to learn yet hard to master.
This historical operational strategy game with a simultaneous turn-based engine (WEGO system) that places players at the head of the USA or CSA during the American Civil War (1861-1865).

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Philkian
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Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Philkian »

From today on, we are going to share with you some information about features and "behind the scenes" of the upcoming Ageod's Civil War II. We hope you will appreciate this!

One feature a day: the birth of Civil War 2


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"A question that often arises is 'why makes Civil War 2 when American Civil War is already a complete and fulfilling game?".

There are several answers to this one. As most of you know by now, Ageod’s policy has been one of regularly improving their games post release with patches which are not only bug fixes, but also new features based on feedback from our vibrant community. Sometimes these feature requests are game specific and sometimes they are related to the AGE engine and benefit all games using the AGE engine. As American Civil War was released in 2007, it was becoming increasingly difficult to continue updating it without rewriting it from scratch as the engine had changed so much. This is one of the reasons we created Civil War 2, because sometimes the best thing to do is just start again, with all the knowledge and experience you gained allowing you to make a much better overall experience.

In Civil War 2, the interface has been changed extensively. We are not talking about a change in the look, which might or might not please everyone :) We are talking about changes in the way you use the UI making the game much easier to pick up and play for new users and yet still with all the controls the hardcore players want. The code redesign also allows us to structure things in a way that the development team can maintain it for years to come. Let's just take one striking example: the Load Game interface in Civil War 2 is in our opinion some light years better than the previous one. It displays your game very fast, in a clear and clean way.

While the UI is improved, Civil War 2 has a lot more to offer and also includes a range of new and updated features which were only possible with a complete rewrite of the game. One of the biggest additions is the regional decision model. These add a card like game mechanic that allow us to recreate lots of special case situations and events that it is very hard to model in another way. For example things such as raising partisans or sending the Confederate sub CSS Hunley to attack the US Navy. There are many others features too but we’ll cover those in more detail in a future diary.

So the bottom line is: Civil War 2 exists because it proposes a cleaner and intuitive new interface, with major additions in gameplay that we developed for the AGE engine over the years. Top that with a bigger map for some Western actions, and everybody should find something to like in Civil War 2!
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by RJinVA_slith »

Hello Philkian

I am looking forward to this game. The new interface looks especially good. The developers also have given attention to font sizes and other important useability details in their overhaul of the old GUI (see the AGEOD website for details). I hope other developers take heed (especially about the font issues). And if the user interface is as good as it appears to be, I will become spoiled immediately and want it in all my AGEOD titles. [;)]

The use of 'cards' in CWII is also an interesting development. AGEOD's WWI game uses cards quite effectively to represent historical possibilities and events. I admit I was surprised how well they work in the WWI game, so I have increased interest now in seeing them in CWII.

Does Matrix still plan to release the game on September 17? The August newsletter says so, but I haven't seen confirmation of the date anywhere else.

Anyway, thanks to you and AGEOD for the development diaries. I look forward to reading them all.

RJinVA
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Philkian »

HI RJinVA, yes, the game is scheduled for the 17th of September. The guys are working hard to make this happen! Thank you
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Philkian »

One feature a day series #2 : The essence of Civil War 2

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Returning players, bear with us! Before going knee-deep into the concepts of CW2, we should probably talk of the game in general, so that new people can picture the game more easily.

CW2 is a region-based game, on a map ranging from the Eastern coast of the US to the Rocky Mountains. There is definitely some room to maneuver, although the most intense actions will most likely be east of the Mississippi river.

Your armies will be the tools of your victory, and they make up the core of the gameplay, its essence even. You get many generals to play with, sorted by three increasing ranks. Your units can represent a large body of troops, like a full division, or more humble regiments, partisans even. All have their role though, because combat can be a subtle affair (although the game spares you the details and will roll the dices for you, rest assured). What's nice also, is that divisions are made up of units that can be recruited individually, like brigades, so nothing is set in stone, and you'll be the man in charge of organizing your armies, corps and divisions as you see fit. Some would ask: Is that a never seen feature in a civil war game? Our answer: for a game encompassing the whole war, a resounding Yes! CW2 boosts the more extensive and complete database of units and generals on the bloodiest war America ever faced.

Another unique feature of the game is how the turns are handled. Many games are still using the well known system of alternate turns: You play your turn, then your opponent, and back to square one. That's a good system, quite user-friendly. Its shortcomings start to appear if you want to capture the uncertainties of war though. Because in the real world, you and your opponent move at the same time, and as the famous quote goes: no plan survives contact with the enemy. In CW2 you may plot a move with your corps, to catch a weakened enemy division, but during the execution of the turn, the said division might retreat into a fortress, while a relief force unknown to you smashes your flank. These events happen quite naturally in CW2, thanks to the simultaneous turn scheme. The icing on the cake is that this way of resolving turns is also a very good way of speeding up multiplayer games. Whether you play with one or three opponents, turns can roll at the same pace.

So, a region-based game, where turns are executed simultaneously, where you move armies around a detailed map depicted in extreme historical accuracy thanks to a very talented research team... That's CW2. But even that is only a partial view of what the game is. Tomorrow we will start digging into the others features, one at a time.

Stay tuned!
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Blind Sniper »

Maybe you miss the other post, can you give me more details about these questions?

Logistic: it will be improved or semplified?
Orders: it will be possibile give more detailed orders in a row or only one order per turn? (I mean move and attack, then wait for severals days, then move again with a different posture, etc.)
Amphibious attack: how it will be handle?
Combat: it will be like AJE?
Recruitment: can I choice where a new unit will be build?
About PBEM, in the previous title was possible to cheat (easily) without a third player that hosts the game, is the PBEM system improved?

Thanks
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Pocus »

Hi,

I won't give too much details on some answers, as they will be part of new developer notes.
Logistic: It is basically the same as ACW1, with the addition of an optional setting called 'easy supply' for new players, that will be more gentle to them.
Orders: The system is the same as before, you can plot several turns worth of move but you can't change the posture several time in a turn.
Amphibious: No major change here
Combat: what do you mean like AJE? We made a new interface for the battle report, and there is a new feature that will allow, under some circumstances, to specify a battle plan and deployment.
Recruitment: Yes, you can precisely decide in which region you build a unit.
PBEM: No change here, if the hosting player wants to cheat, then that's still possible. Baring having an external server with automated turn processing, this will be hard to come with another scheme.
And don't get me started on a 'load counter', with people having multiple computers, it is quite easy to make one try per computer and cheat this way!
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Philkian »

One feature a day series #3 : The Map

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The map, in all strategy games, has a paramount importance, as it regulates the flow of the game. This is especially true in CW2, as some avenues of passages were favored by the protagonists, while others areas were much more quiet. One of the difficulty we had to face since ACW1 was to represent in an appropriate way, the short distance between the two enemy capitals (Washington D.C to Richmond are only 150 kms away) while keeping the game playable anywhere else, like along the shores of the Mississippi or the vast expenses of the Atlantic Ocean.

These issues, were solved in part by a careful designing of the regions shapes, so that the game favors operations in historical manners. We also have terrains of various practicability, with subtleties like cavalry being generally faster, except in mountains, or anything horse-drawn literally hating swamps or marshes/bayous (we have a lot of different terrains!). Finally, we have this concept coming from boardgames (yes, we are talking of these games made of paper and cardboard!): off-map boxes. An off-map box is like a very big region on the map, that units can enter the usual way, except it represents a whole US State sometime or hundreds of kilometers of ocean. This helps us abstracts a lot of otherwise problematic events, like commerce raiders vs Union shipping, or the French intervention against Mexico (yes, that's a feature) .

That said, the map is still huge, even bigger than the ACW1 map! Some will say: bigger is better! Well, sometime yes, but for CW2 this was not our motive really. We extended the map in all directions. To the north, the map allows the British troops in Canada to be properly displayed, because as you know, they can intervene against the Union (for those not up to date on that, check the 'Trent Affair' in your favorite browser). To the south Mexico is here and the Caribbean islands (admittedly mostly reserved for 'future use', depending of your enjoyment of the game). To the west, the great plains lie, with their (sometime) hostile Natives and precious gold mines (a West campaign is already available with Sibley's Campaign starting in Texas). To the east, the map display much more space, almost to Nova Scotia, allowing a better representation of the northern states of the Union (in the previous game they were abstracted).

What about the graphical aspect of the map. It has changed a lot compared to ACW1. In ACW1, the map had a hand-drawn aspect, because this was the technique used by the artist of the time. This technique is really nice and we like it, but it was almost impossible to achieve on a map as big as CW2. On the other hand, the CW2 map is very clear on aspects that were a bit fuzzy in ACW1, like the terrain of each region, with colors clearly showing where you are stepping into.

Anyway you'll still get all the features of ACW1 from the CW2 map, including the navigable rivers, so important during the Civil War, where ironclads, gunboats and emplaced artilleries exchanged countless blows.
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Blind Sniper »

Thanks Pocus for your answers, in fact the main issues for me are the logistic system (really too easy for a strategic game like this) and the lack of PBEM anti-cheating measures.

Good luck!
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Pocus »

Too easy supply system? I should perhaps take that as a compliment [;)], as it is one piece of complex algorithm, that call for supply or push it, from locations to locations over several iterations. In a way, you can imagine the supply distribution as a very large sheet of plastic, deformed by the weight of stacks, depots or cities, with supply being water 'wanting' to go to the depressions thus created. Kinda like gravity and masses.

Now you are perhaps saying that there is too much supply? That really depend of the places you go, in our opinion supply should not be a problem for players when deep in friendly territory with depots. Only large concentrations of forces or being at the end of a supply chain should call the attention of the player. In this case, you'll have to rely on supply wagons.

Last, if overall supply effect is too light for you, we have an option for die-hard veterans: historical attrition. This option lets you enjoy the kind of losses the armies of all countries had historically, I think 2/3 of the losses in the CW were not caused by battles, but by what we call modestly 'attrition' (diseases, stragglers, lack of food and water).
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Boomer78 »

Easy supply? For an AGEOD game? Wow. To each his own, I guess. I've been making my case over at their forum that they need to refine and simplify it a bit. We grognards are a fickle bunch, that's for sure.
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Blind Sniper »

Pocus, of course I'm not saying that is too easy the system itself (as algorithm), but keep supplied the units. [:)]
I think 2/3 of the losses in the CW were not caused by battles, but by what we call modestly 'attrition' (diseases, stragglers, lack of food and water).

I agree, for that I'm saying is too easy and I played with Historical attrition on. Also keep a landing invasion force supplied is not difficult as well.
Easy supply? For an AGEOD game? Wow. To each his own, I guess. I've been making my case over at their forum that they need to refine and simplify it a bit. We grognards are a fickle bunch, that's for sure.

In a strategic game like that the logistic should be an important factor, but except the first year then is rather easy to collect supplies, WSs, ammunitions and money, in fact I was always low in coscripts but never in other things, and yes playing CSA.

I'm not saying the game is not fun (otherwise why bother to write?), I'm saying that the logistic is not challenging (plus other things). Of course it is my opinion.
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Philkian »

One feature a day series #4: Units and Generals

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Units in CW2 are greatly varying in their role and size. When we developed ACW1, some years ago, we really asked ourselves if this was not an error to propose to players units ranging from a few dozen men or large brigades nearing the thousand troopers. We can definitively give the answer now: it works!

But why does it works? Because units are not the smallest entity handled by the game. Units are made of another smaller echelon named elements. These elements are really what matters when you command troops or fight a battle. Elements are much closer in size between each other and this by itself solves a lot of issues in a very natural way. For example takes the concept of frontage or battlefield width to put it in a more understandable way. You don't expect the game to allow an infinity of soldiers fighting at the same time against each other, particularly in cramped places like a fort, a wild and thick forest or in a mountain pass. CW2 handles that pretty well and automatically, because the number of elements allowed to fight is what matters, and not the number of units (imagine 3 divisions against 3 bands of partisans, that would be a short and bloody affair for the partisans in this case!). Command works the same, with bigger units needing more 'command points', so a general will often not be able to command more than 3 divisions worth or alternatively a lot more of smaller units.

Talking about generals, these fellows are very diverse in CW2. Some are Army generals and can command a lot of troops, some are more humble brigadier-generals. They all have three important statistics though: strategic rating, offensive rating, defensive rating. A few also have some special abilities, providing various exceptional effects, like Training Officer, Blockade Runner, Artillery specialist, etc. One of the particularity of CW2 (and the AGE engine series of games in general, pun intended) is that bad generals can't be disposed easily by the player, so that good (but still unknown historically) generals get the best soldiers. If you do so, by removing from command the most senior generals, prepare yourself for a bit of turmoil, as their grumbling will translate in lost victory points and national morale!

There would be much more to say about units and generals. They are one of the pillar of the game and handling them with care and attention, nurturing them even, is one of the joy of CW2. At first you may want to grab troops in huge stacks and throw them at the enemy, to satisfy some hunger for blood... but we really advise you to look at these virtual men in more details, so you get to learn of their strengths and weaknesses. They are definitively worthy of your attention, if only to remember that they are the electronic avatars of people who gave their life for their country, a long time ago.
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Duck Doc »

How long does it take to complete a turn playing the whole war scenario?
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Numdydar »

Actually for the most part supply was very easy for both the North and the South during the war. Even Lee's advance to Gettysburg did not have much supply issues.

I think you are confusining supply with lack of equipment. The two are not really the same. The South had a definate lack of clothing, certain weapon types, etc. This did not mean they were short on food, ammo, etc. So it really depends on how the game models theses two items as to how 'easy' supply is or not.

I really liked how Forge of Freedom highlighed the lack of proper weapons for the South and the ways the player could try and improve the Southern armies weapons. So I hope this game will account for the fact that the main way the sSouth improved the weapons they had in the early years was capturing weapon that were left behind on the battlefield after the South won the battle. Owning the battlefield was a huge help for the South at the begining of the war.
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Philo32b »

ORIGINAL: Numdydar

I really liked how Forge of Freedom highlighed the lack of proper weapons for the South and the ways the player could try and improve the Southern armies weapons. So I hope this game will account for the fact that the main way the sSouth improved the weapons they had in the early years was capturing weapon that were left behind on the battlefield after the South won the battle. Owning the battlefield was a huge help for the South at the begining of the war.

Other AGEOD games do already have a mechanic in place to capture the material benefit of owning the battlefield in terms of equipment: you are told you have captured a certain number of rifles, which translates (unless I am mistaken) into a certain amount of war supply. And war supply is necessary for a lot of units that players would like to build.
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Philkian »

One feature a day series #5: Card-driven flavor


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A major difference between ACW I and Civil War II is that players now get access to what we call 'regional decisions'. They were first introduced some games ago, but were only used commonly in Pride of Nations, our game set in the Victorian era. In CW2, they make a major return, and although they will probably not turn the tide of the war, a judicious use of their effects can be a major advantage to your side.

Regional decisions can be played during your turn, but can have a lasting effect or may need several turns to take effect. They all come with a variety of constraints so that they can only be played where it can be logical to do so. What they do is extremely varied, and they are even more powerful and diverse as before because they can now tap into the power of our scripting module (historical events are done with the scripting module, if you have played another Ageod game, you probably understand how diverse and - shall we say - surprising, they can be).

To give some examples, we decided to only allow the levying of partisans through regional decisions, so that only a few can be on the map, and only in certain areas. But that's just the beginning, because now partisans are needed to play several particular and quite powerful decisions, like blowing an enemy depot or harassing the enemy. We also get decisions representing the raid of Confederate submarine Hunley, laying sea mines, setting up a defensive network and many more.

What is nice with decisions, is that they can much more easily and conveniently model a rare event in the Civil War and (in addition to the pure coolness factor of dropping a game card on the map!) this is one of their great strength. Instead of trying to come up with a set of hard rules for a single unit of Confederate submarine, that will probably be used once or twice in a game, we can make a decision, that plays with a set of logical conditions and specific results, in a quite elegant way. The end result is that decisions are fun and simple to play for the player, whereas us the team can design them to represent the uncommon and specific effects relatively easily.
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

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One feature a day series #6: New functionalities

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We talked in broad lines, in the first developer notes, that Civil War II interface was significantly different from its predecessor, citing as an example the new load game window. But let's talk about the in-game additions, as this will be of great interest both to new players and returning players!
The ledger or strategic atlas got a lot of attention from us. First, there is an alternate view to the well know forces listing (used to check your stacks, i.e groups of units). You can now see all units of your army, one entry per line. So if you are searching for a particular regiment (I need sharpshooters!, I need a commerce raider!, I need a partisan!), you have at last a tool for that.

Then there are the historical options. I'm blurring a bit the line with gameplay here, because they are presented in a new interface (in three categories), but what is mostly new here is that they are much more numerous than in Civil War I. The most striking example being that you now see all productions structures on map, and can order new ones from this interface. Yes, you read it, if you click on Washington (ctrl-click actually :) ) then you'll see the factories and arsenals of the region, each with its historical image and information on the actual production. We believe this is a great improvement other the abstracted (and gamey) production of the previous game.
Continuing our tour of the ledger, another new kid in town if the Regions list. This window, as its name implies, allows you to sort, filter, check all regions on the map, on various criterias. Questions that you might ask are: Where are the regions producing war supplies. What are the regions with the strongest enemy forces, show me only regions with harbors sorted by descending level of supply (this question is for bean-counters ;) ). In any case, this screen is quite handy.

In additions to these major newcomers, you now get a few extra functionalities. The warmap (the whole game map shown in a single window) has also filters. The objectives screen list you the total combat power of your enemy and how many prisoners you have in your camps. The resources bar give you an history of the expenses from past turn.

And so on!
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

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One feature a day series #7: Battle Planner

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The battle planner is a brand new feature of Civil War II. It should appeal to anyone wanting a bit of control on the battlefield, while being light enough that you won't spend your afternoon reenacting each battle. For people not wanting the feature, there is an option to disable it also.

Battle planner looks and feels is deceptively simple, at first glance. But that's the possible interactions between your plan and the one of the enemy which makes a great deal of its interest. Before a battle happens, you'll be shown a window with a few 'deployments cards'. These are the possible deployments your army can take before starting the fight. These deployments are not always the same, by far, as they depend of the skills of your general, of the terrain and of the overall posture of your army. The most talented generals will have broader choices, and depending if your general is an expert in defense or offense, some deployments will be proposed and not others.

What you see of the enemy also depends of the skills of your general. If your general is more talented, then you'll know about the deployment of the enemy (this is possible because the battle planner only works for solo games, so the AI can tell you its choice as soon as you open the planner window). On the contrary, if your general is bested by the opponent, then you are shooting blind. Knows though (and this is quite reassuring) that the AI will not make its choice based on your, so you still have some opportunities to get the upper hand.

Once you have chosen your deployment (one card among up to five), then you get access to the actual battle plans (the ones who makes sense with your deployment): if you deploy with most of your cavalry in the front, then a battle plan can be 'Massive cavalry charge'. If on the contrary your deployment is 'fighting withdrawal', then one of your deployment will be 'Cavalry cover', and so on. If you are entitled to know the deployment of the AI, then you get the list of possible plans it can choose from, with a color coding to tell you which ones of your plans would be a good idea, if the AI takes plan A, B or C.

Once these steps are done, the battle unrolls as usual. A note though: the planner don't trigger for each battle, as this would become rapidly a chore, but only if you have a two or three stars general and if both sides have some significant troops. As you may know, battles in Civil War II are played in rounds, and each round the battle engine will check if your plan succeed or is countered by the enemy plan. Plans can have a tremendous effects on battles, for example a successful cavalry charge can cripple an enemy plan based on artillery duel, and in this case the artillery can be attacked by your units, even if normally artilleries can't as long as you have infantry holding the line. There is a great variety of effects, ranging from a modifier to a rating, to a special morale check to being able to attack support units...

As with most of the features of our games, you can also mod battle plans. We hope that you'll see all the potential of the planner, because we are really thrilled about it. We plan (sic!) to propose even more on this subject, should you enjoy it... Why not imagine for example that some deployments or plans are favored by some leaders, because historically they often used them (General Forrest is fighting your army, beware he will probably try to flank you!).
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by wodin »

This is the most exciting new feature for me...infact this feature alone has made the game go from "not really bothered"..to "on my wish list".
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RE: Developers' Diary: Ageod's Civil War II

Post by Blind Sniper »

Damn...this feauture really intrigue me...[:)]
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