New military module – overview and screenshots.

Day 847, 12:05 • Published in • by Plato

Dear citizens,

Your patience will now finally be rewarded as we start our series of Insiders about the upcoming Military module.

So let's jump right into it: the new military module will be a turn-based massively multiplayer strategy game, in which each region is represented by a map. The map is the theater on which the epic battles will take place. And epic they will be! Hundreds, even thousands of players can deploy their citizens on a region's map as infantry, tank, artillery or helicopter units.

A map consists of hundreds of hexagonal fields (hex fields). Each field represents a certain terrain type like mountains, rivers, cities, and others. The topographic features of a map will be the basis for strategies, which unfold, for example, around capturing choke points like bridges and mountain passes. Each hexagonal field can also contain a hospital or a defense system, which cover a certain radius of hex fields around them, depending on their Area of Effect customization.

The heart of each map is the region's capital city. Who controls it holds the key for capturing or securing the region. But let's take one step after the other by answering some basic questions:

How can you attack a region?

Almost the same way as it is at the moment. The president decides which region to attack. Starting a resistance war also works the same as at the moment. One difference though is the Battle Queue: only one country can attack a region at any given time. If another country wants to attack the same region, it has to wait until the current battle has ended.

How can a country capture or secure a region?

The initial battle runs for 24 hours. If the attacking side managed to capture a certain percentage of all hex fields, including the region's capital city, the attackers will have captured the region; and vice versa for the defenders in securing region. If both victory conditions have not been achieved by one side, the battle continues in sudden-death mode: whichever side fulfills the victory conditions first, will win the battle and capture or secure the region.

How can I take part in a battle?

Just buy any kind of weapon from the market place, make sure your health is above the fighting limit, select the battle you want (and can) fight in, and press the "Join Battle" button on the battlefield page. You can then select the hex field where you want to enter the battle. Of course, you see all the other players on the map. It's also a good idea to use the eRepublik chat to meet with your friends at a certain location on the map. Once you deployed your citizen you can move about and engage in Player versus Player (PvP) fights. Of course, you can also fight unarmed if you think you stand a chance.


How do the PvP fight work?

In a nut shell: if there are enemy citizens located in an adjacent hex field, and if it is your turn, then you can attack that field and select one enemy out of five. You can also select a so called Booster, for example a hand grenade, to increase your chances of winning the upcoming fight. Once the current turn has ended, the PvP fight will take place. You and your enemy will shoot at each other until one of you gets seriously injured and have to leave the battlefield; it's always a last-man-standing situation. There are more details to consider, which we will cover in one of the next Insiders.


What does turn-based mean?

The attacking and defending sides in a battle take turn in moving and fighting against each other. If it is your country's or ally's turn you can move around the map and pick enemies on adjacent hex fields. When the turn countdown has come to an end, the PvP fights will take place and you will see their result's. Then the next turn starts. Now it is the turn of your enemies. This means you cannot move or actively attack. But you can prepare for possible attacks of your enemies by increasing your health or by equipping with a defensive Booster.


What are unit-versus-unit and terrain advantages?

We used two rock-paper-scissor methods to add tactical momentum to battles: infantry units have an advantage against artillery unit; artillery unit have an advantage against helicopters; while helicopters are strong against tanks, which are strong against infantry. You can still compensate advantages of your enemies by moving in certain terrains.

What happens to your military ranks?

You will keep your ranks but they will have a different effect, because you are not fighting against a wall anymore but against other players.

What happens to your strength skill?

Instead of one "strength" you will have four military skills: Infantry, tank, helicopter, and artillery. The choice will be yours how to distribute your existing strength skill points to the new military skills. You could, for example, transfer 100% on just one military skill or distribute the strength skill points in other proportions. It is up to you.

More about changes in a dedicated Insider, in which we will explain the details on how to transfer your citizen values and possessions into the new system.

How does it look?

Here are some actual screenshots from within the game. Please keep in mind that the screenshots are taken from the current alpha version, so not all graphics are final.

[img]http://wiki.erepublik.com/images/2/27/Screen_shot_2010-03-16_at_15.48.45.JPG[/img]
Larger size


[img]http://wiki.erepublik.com/images/d/d3/Screen_shot_2010-03-16_at_15.49.36.JPG[/img]
Larger size


Stay tuned and don't miss the upcoming Insiders in which we will focus on details of the military module.

Regards,

The eRepublik team