Strategic Command Blog Post #1: "New Features and the Game's Scope"

Thoughts from the dev team on Strategic Command's features.
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demyansk
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by demyansk »

I like a nice comprehensive final table to show results. It's fun to have something to look at when the battle ends.

Looks like a nice game.

Will this be much different than the Global Conflict game?
TheGreatRadish
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by TheGreatRadish »

ORIGINAL: TheGreatRadish

All very nice, thanks for this. However, i assume no mention of the ability to play as individual nations and not a whole alliance means it is not one of the new features? [:(]

I fear no response to this but answers to other questions is pretty telling. Hubert/Bill, can you please put me out of my misery on this one?
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Birdw
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by Birdw »

It would be nice before the save turn is actually saved if there were a listing of casualties from each side on that players turn.
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TSPC37730
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by TSPC37730 »

I'm really looking forward to this one.

What's the overall map size in terms of hexes? From the screen shot above, Poland itself looks to be about 20 hexes across! This allows for a lot of detail. On the other hand though, if Poland is that large, then how many units would the German player typically deploy during the initial attack on the USSR?
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Champagne
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by Champagne »

My humble opinion:

One of the problems with any conflict simulation about WW2 in Europe is that the players have knowledge of the historical facts but the real life nations and leaders did not. It is a real challenge for game designers.

Hitler did not expect his invasion of Poland to bring the UK and France into war.

Nobody expected France to fall quickly, but, in the game, this must be a likely result. In the games on WW2 in Europe that we have already, the UK and France go with a maximum "beef up" of France in order to make sure that history is not repeated. This can't be what regularly happens in the game, if the game is to simulate the actual conflict. In the game, France must have the same weaknesses as in history.

Hitler expected the UK to make peace after France fell. In fact, he was CERTAIN of it, and really did not prepare for any continuation of a ground war. Let us recall that even in the summer of 1941 during the height of Barbarossa, Hitler began to demobilize Germany's ground war focus and switch it over to an Air/Naval focus. So, obviously the continuation of the ground war past 1941 was unexpected.

Stalin was totally surprised by Barbarossa, but, this is an aspect of the real war that games have handled well.

Britain's plan to invade neutral Norway didn't happen only because Germany beat them to the punch -- that's another aspect of the war that's not easy to simulate in a game.

Finally, it is important to address the issue of the German war economy. We know that in real life, it is arguable to state that Germany NEVER put itself completely on a war time footing, economic-wise. We know that the Gauleiters always kept for themselves significant war material and war resources for their own domestic use. Bormann worked very hard to make sure that Hitler himself never interfered significantly in this mis-allocation of war resources.

The German Nazi leadership made very clear after Stalingrad that there would be "Total War". This implies that prior to Stalingrad, the German war economy was not on a total war footing -- and the facts of history bear this out.

How does a game designer handle this design challenge? It's a very tricky aspect of the game that should be addressed.
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Hubert Cater
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by Hubert Cater »

ORIGINAL: Champagne

My humble opinion:

One of the problems with any conflict simulation about WW2 in Europe is that the players have knowledge of the historical facts but the real life nations and leaders did not. It is a real challenge for game designers.

Hitler did not expect his invasion of Poland to bring the UK and France into war.

Nobody expected France to fall quickly, but, in the game, this must be a likely result. In the games on WW2 in Europe that we have already, the UK and France go with a maximum "beef up" of France in order to make sure that history is not repeated. This can't be what regularly happens in the game, if the game is to simulate the actual conflict. In the game, France must have the same weaknesses as in history.

Hitler expected the UK to make peace after France fell. In fact, he was CERTAIN of it, and really did not prepare for any continuation of a ground war. Let us recall that even in the summer of 1941 during the height of Barbarossa, Hitler began to demobilize Germany's ground war focus and switch it over to an Air/Naval focus. So, obviously the continuation of the ground war past 1941 was unexpected.

Stalin was totally surprised by Barbarossa, but, this is an aspect of the real war that games have handled well.

Britain's plan to invade neutral Norway didn't happen only because Germany beat them to the punch -- that's another aspect of the war that's not easy to simulate in a game.

Finally, it is important to address the issue of the German war economy. We know that in real life, it is arguable to state that Germany NEVER put itself completely on a war time footing, economic-wise. We know that the Gauleiters always kept for themselves significant war material and war resources for their own domestic use. Bormann worked very hard to make sure that Hitler himself never interfered significantly in this mis-allocation of war resources.

The German Nazi leadership made very clear after Stalingrad that there would be "Total War". This implies that prior to Stalingrad, the German war economy was not on a total war footing -- and the facts of history bear this out.

How does a game designer handle this design challenge? It's a very tricky aspect of the game that should be addressed.

Thanks for your post Champagne and I would say that Strategic Command uses a pretty robust engine with a variety of events and triggers to help address many of the possibilities that can happen in game, and despite our very good understanding of what happened in history and our attempts to avoid the same mistakes.

We use in game actions to drive various political alliances, war entries and even for some military mobilizations and avoid the pitfalls (as much as possible) of hard coded events or hard dates to handle key moments of the war.

For example, depending on German actions in the war they may delay Barbarossa a little bit, declare war on the USSR early, or they may eventually have to face a USSR at a time not necessarily of their choosing. Let's say Germany did not properly garrison the Eastern front or if they invaded the UK, the USSR may look at that as an opportunity to strike west under the right conditions.

Germany may go on a more total war footing and invest more heavily and earlier into Industrial Technologly, but of course this might come at the cost of investments in other key areas of research. We also use a bit of a catch up method when invested in Spying and Intelligence that can help to bridge the gap when one side takes a significant lead in particular areas of research that helps redress imbalances over the long term.

To help model the idea that Stalin was caught a bit by surprise by Barbarossa, we use a special unit event that places a historical OOB of units along the Eastern front, upon declaration of war, that are then typically destroyed by an initial Axis assault. This helps us ensure that a Soviet player doesn't pull these units back and away from the front, as historical hindsight would dictate, but at the same time, those units are then available to a Soviet player should an Axis player not properly plan and effectively launch Barbarossa and destroy these units as the Germans did historically.

There are inevitable liberties and some abstraction, but I think for the most part you'll be pleasantly surprised at just how flexible the game play can be with hindsight in mind, while at the same time working quite well within the historical framework of what one would expect for a European Theater WWII game.

Hubert
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Granfali
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by Granfali »

Traducido al español. [;)]

tm.asp?m=4133202
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BillRunacre
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by BillRunacre »

Muchas gracias Granfali [:)]
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EdwinP
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by EdwinP »

Will German AI occasionally declare war on the USSR early or does it always DOW on the same date?
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EdwinP
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by EdwinP »

Diplomacy

It is now possible to block diplomacy towards some countries, e.g. the USSR cannot attempt to influence Franco's Spain. We have also introduced the ability to limit investment towards historically neutral countries, so that, for example, only a small diplomatic effort can be made to swing Switzerland towards one side or the other.

Nice, historically only the UK and US applied diplomatic pressure; via threatened and actual embargoes, to keep Spain neutral. This change increases, slightly, the chance that Spain can be influenced to join the Axis. Will the SC3 AI ever launch a diplomatic campaign to sway Spain to its side given that it takes a sizable investment; at least it did in SC2, to have a chance of this succeeding.
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Hubert Cater
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by Hubert Cater »

ORIGINAL: Granfali

Traducido al español. [;)]

tm.asp?m=4133202

Thanks Granfali from me as well [:)]
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Hubert Cater
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by Hubert Cater »

ORIGINAL: EdwinP

Will German AI occasionally declare war on the USSR early or does it always DOW on the same date?

There is no set date but it works more like a timeline... essentially as soon as Germany has built up satisfactorily and once other offensives are completed it will DoW the USSR. So it may come a little early if the Axis AI has done well or on time, or a little late. It is dynamic this way.


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Hubert Cater
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by Hubert Cater »

ORIGINAL: EdwinP
Diplomacy

It is now possible to block diplomacy towards some countries, e.g. the USSR cannot attempt to influence Franco's Spain. We have also introduced the ability to limit investment towards historically neutral countries, so that, for example, only a small diplomatic effort can be made to swing Switzerland towards one side or the other.

Nice, historically only the UK and US applied diplomatic pressure; via threatened and actual embargoes, to keep Spain neutral. This change increases, slightly, the chance that Spain can be influenced to join the Axis. Will the SC3 AI ever launch a diplomatic campaign to sway Spain to its side given that it takes a sizable investment; at least it did in SC2, to have a chance of this succeeding.

Yes there will be games where the Axis will have successfully caused Spain to join its side.
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Bullibeisser
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by Bullibeisser »

news about the release date ?

german version ?
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Steely Glint
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RE: Strategic Command Blog Post! New Features and Game's Scope

Post by Steely Glint »

ORIGINAL: demjansk

I like a nice comprehensive final table to show results. It's fun to have something to look at when the battle ends.

I could not agree more.
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