Developer Blog - April 19th, 2017

The Latest News and Information from BattleGoat Studios

Moderators: Balthagor, BattleGoat

Post Reply
User avatar
Balthagor
Supreme Ruler
Posts: 22083
Joined: Jun 04 2002
Human: Yes
Location: BattleGoat Studios

Developer Blog - April 19th, 2017

Post by Balthagor »

This war - it's gonna be Great!

Today I'd like to share some details about the ongoing development for Supreme Ruler The Great War (SRGW). We've been working on the project for a few months now and much has been achieved, but there is still lots to be done. The level of detail provided in Supreme Ruler games always creates a large amount of work just mining the required data to build a model of the world that properly reflects the era represented. But it takes more than just data to make the game. I won't be discussing any new features today as no new features have gone through full testing yet so their implementation could still change drastically. I don't want to give details that might eventually be completely different. But the good news is there's lots to talk about!

The User Interface

Since we're entering a new era, or old era as it may be, we felt it was best to update the look of the interface to make players feel like they are a century back. The entire user interface has been visually update at this point. Since this doesn't affect other parts of the game, the decision was to have this work done early. The various departments and controls are in the same location as Supreme Ruler Ultimate so that the controls remain consistent for those familiar with the game. We'll likely see minor changes to accommodate new features before release but much of the interface should proceed with what is in now. And since that's the case, I'm happy to reveal the first screenshot for the new game!
Image

The Map

Certainly one of the larger tasks, and really a series of tasks that touch on different areas. It is proceeding well, with the new borders in place and region groupings assigned for June of 1914. We'll be continuing to review the borders as we work on other areas since there were so many changes from before the war to after. We want to be sure we've caught them all. Some of the details included giving Bulgaria a large part of Thrace, part of modern day Greece, which they had taken from the Ottoman empire only recently. The empire of Austria-Hungary also had a large territory that included a small piece of modern day Italy. The French/German border was also a bit west of where it sits today. Germany also had colonies in Africa and Asia which needed to be assigned.

While the border themselves are important, what's found within those borders is what really makes the region. The world's roads are essentially all gone. There are a few stretches three or four hexes long, but that's about all. They have mostly been replaced by large networks or rail lines. France, Great Britain and Germany in particular have extensive rail networks connecting most of their cities. And those cities have fewer facilities that what we find in 1936 and later eras. That's the work currently underway, with most of the colonies having been reviewed and the independent nations still to be done. These will need some economic review once new baselines for World GDP are established. Another notable change is that there are far fewer airfields, since few countries actually kept military aircraft before 1916 and there simply was no infrastructure for them yet. Many colonies in Africa and Asia now consist of nothing but cities and a sea pier. This is certainly a map with many countries still untouched by the industrial revolution.

The Regions

Filling in the data for each region is where much of the research comes in. We have identified the leaders we will need for 1914 and the years that follow, now they need to be assigned. That task is however on hold, as engine changes seem to have created an issue with events for leaders. I'm waiting to hear back from the dev team for a fix on this, but there is plenty else to work on in the meantime. Flags for regions, relative technology level and population totals have been added and some of the less impactful data points such as literacy and life expectancy are also in. We still need to assign known technologies and unit designs to the regions. Thankfully in 1914 there aren't too many of either. Another task that's underway is the Orbats, the inventory for each region of land, air and naval units. The limit use of air units is seen here again. We've got data in for more than half of the world, but many orbats contain units that are not yet completed in the equiment database, so still lots of work to be done there.

Gameplay

This is an area that's just starting to get more attention. Research has been done around the various events between regions, but we needed the values for the map in place first. Relations between regions are still to be set as well. The technology tree has had some minor changes, mostly around military technologies to differentiate units from the 1910s and 1920s. Here our development is benefiting from how far into the past research was done during SR1936 development.

Music

This is something that is scheduled for April and May as it doesn't impact the game directly, but we want to be sure that the game has its own unique sounds. Our goal is to replace they key audio files and add new sounds for some of the new units. It's easy to forget the audio in projects like this so we've been careful to have updates for music in our timelines.

Models

One of the most exciting things about a new Supreme Ruler game is always the new units that get added. Again, these can all come in later in the project so haven't been a top priority, but work is underway and I can already share our first two models
Image

So we hope this provides some insight into our development process and where the project stands now. I hope to have more to share in a few weeks as the game continues to come together. Thanks to everyone for your support and your interest in our project.
Post Reply

Return to “News”