V2 impressions part #2; war
Day 937, 17:13
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Published in USA 
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by
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by Necrosis
War
So, last article I looked at the economic module. This article looks at the bigger change, the 'improved; war module. As things stand, it seems like initiative, MPPs, and the such work in a similar manner to how they do right now. The changes come in the actual process of fighting. Oh, and this article is sorta long; might want to get something to eat in the meantime. Also, click subscribe now, I want my shiny medal.
Segregation of skills
As you're all probably aware by now, the fighting skills in v2 have been segregated into 4 different skills; Rifles, tanks, helicopters, and Artillery. You gain each skill at the same speed, and the only thing that changes is obviously your proficiency with your chosen weapon. Open release, each unit will have a vulnerability and strength against a different unit type; the rock paper scissors mechanism. Tanks > rifles > Artillery > helicopters > tanks. Quite simple. It is a boost to hit chance if you are a against a unit which is weak to you.
The war page
A guide to the war UI
The above picture shows the layout of the war page you'll be seeing in V2. It shows that each tile is a hexagon, and demonstrates the borders system which decides whom controls a tile (more on tile control later). Study this picture well, you're going to need to have a good grasp of the mechanics.
Movement and terrain
There are several different terrain types in the maps in V2. Plains are the most common; these provide a 20% defence bonus to tanks. Artillery gains from being placed in a city or town square, helicopters gain their defensive boost from hills, and riflemen benefit from forest squares. Rifles and artillery can move 1 hex per turn, tanks can move two, and helicopters can move three. If a terrain type is not mentioned, then there is no specific bonus.
It is also important to remember that not every unit type can cross each type of hex. Helicopters can move over all squares, and are the only unit able to cross river tiles without using a bridge. Only rifles and helicopter units can traverse mountain tiles. All other tiles are subject to normal movement rules.
Fight attributes
All military units will use weapons which have 4 statistics; attack, defence, durability and damage. Damage and durability are fairly self explanatory I feel; if you don't figure out what these do based on name alone, chances are the rest of the war module will blow your mind. Attack and defence are related to hit and miss chance. Currently, 1 attack point on your weapon translates to 0.3% extra chance to hit; defence uses the same stat to actual attribute conversion, however instead of effecting chance to hit, it affects the enemies chance to miss you; more defence results in less chance of being hit.
Constructions & healing
No longer will you get 5 fights, then go to the hospital, and be done for the day; the hospitals are on the battle maps themselves. Like all other products, they have 3 different attributes which are changed by customisation points; area of effect, total amount to be healed, and amount healed per turn. As you've probably realised, hospitals work by an area of effect system; if you stand near it's area of effect, at the end of the turn you will gain the amount of health it is set to heal. The total amount healed means that after a hospital has healed, for instance, a total of 55,000 damage, they will disappear from the map and be gone forever. This will result in hospitals being a far more valuable commodity than they are now; while most current hospital companies are government run, I can see there being some place for the private sector in the supply of hospitals, especially for global hotspots, as they will get through hospitals at a rate of knots
Defence systems have similar attributes; durability, defence bonus, and area of effect. They grant a passive defence bonus to whomever controls them, within their area of effect. As already outlined, this defence bonus will result in the units being hit less by enemy damage. Durability is the number of uses that they can have before disappearing in a similar way to hospitals.
A potential usage for the new how hospitals work is for large countries with foreign holdings to place a high healing hospital in a pointless region, and keep it under constant RW. They will then be able to heal there unimpeded, and then return to other battlefields.
Victory Conditions
This picture shows you the victory conditions. Controlling tiles is just as important as taking out enemies; you will need to have the tiles at the 24 hours mark if you want to stand a chance of winning. The tile with the capital on it is normally about two thirds of the way across the map, from the attacker's side. As a result you will either need to fight across hordes of enemies, and then capture the tile with the capital on it. There is also the opportunity for a helicopter strike across the map if the defending side are low in numbers; although considering the turn times, it still wont be exactly a speedy attack.
Deploying
You join the map that the battle is on by clicking the deploy button in the bottom right corner of the flash screen. Deployment is somewhat random, and you can only deploy onto the squares that are lit up. These squares cannot have any enemy units on them, and are controlled by your side in the fight.
Choosing your attack
So, you've moved to where you want to be, and you're now next to an enemy. Click the attack button, and click on the hex where there are people on the other side. You will be taken to a screen that looks something like this:
Top left is you, top right is the enemy you have selected, both squares are complete with relevant information you'll want to know before pressing set attack. The middle is the enemies on the tile; if there are more than 5 enemies on the tile, the game will not show more than 5, it will show a random selection of 5. This is not a bug, it's a feature. It prevents massive amounts of cherry picking weak opponents, and actually makes things slightly more balanced as a result.
The bottom row is the booster section; for extra goal, you'll gain the attributes seen in the picture. I suggest hovering your mouse over each one first though, as there are downsides to each; for instance, the +5 damage booster reduces your critical strike chance. These are reasonably balanced, and don't provide as much of a bonus as you might think at first glance.
The button 'go berserk' simply means that once you've taken out your first opponent, you will keep attacking until you either run out of enemies, or drop below 20 wellness.
The fight screen
Quite simple really, it shows you the damage you've done and the damage you've taken, players alternate between hits, and the first strike is based on a random element. Thats all really, I just wanted to show you all GLaDOS getting defeated.
Defending
So, your 2:30 turn is over. In the opposition turn, you should click defence, and select the booster you want to use. Quite simple really.
Overall
I'm not sure about this war module. If you have a lot of gold to burn, this will be a lot of fun. If you manage to spot someone you dislike on the opposing side, it can be a lot of fun. It will likely be more time consuming that war is now; although that isn't hard considering the complexity of clicking 5 buttons isn't exactly time consuming. I'm looking forward to this being implemented in the live server where actions actually have consequences; this will be what makes or breaks the war module; how people react to it in a real environment. Personally I'm on the fence; I'm not convinced of these changes as I was of the economic ones.
I am Dio. You are Dio. We are Dio.
So, last article I looked at the economic module. This article looks at the bigger change, the 'improved; war module. As things stand, it seems like initiative, MPPs, and the such work in a similar manner to how they do right now. The changes come in the actual process of fighting. Oh, and this article is sorta long; might want to get something to eat in the meantime. Also, click subscribe now, I want my shiny medal.
Segregation of skills
As you're all probably aware by now, the fighting skills in v2 have been segregated into 4 different skills; Rifles, tanks, helicopters, and Artillery. You gain each skill at the same speed, and the only thing that changes is obviously your proficiency with your chosen weapon. Open release, each unit will have a vulnerability and strength against a different unit type; the rock paper scissors mechanism. Tanks > rifles > Artillery > helicopters > tanks. Quite simple. It is a boost to hit chance if you are a against a unit which is weak to you.
The war page
A guide to the war UI
The above picture shows the layout of the war page you'll be seeing in V2. It shows that each tile is a hexagon, and demonstrates the borders system which decides whom controls a tile (more on tile control later). Study this picture well, you're going to need to have a good grasp of the mechanics.
Movement and terrain
There are several different terrain types in the maps in V2. Plains are the most common; these provide a 20% defence bonus to tanks. Artillery gains from being placed in a city or town square, helicopters gain their defensive boost from hills, and riflemen benefit from forest squares. Rifles and artillery can move 1 hex per turn, tanks can move two, and helicopters can move three. If a terrain type is not mentioned, then there is no specific bonus.
It is also important to remember that not every unit type can cross each type of hex. Helicopters can move over all squares, and are the only unit able to cross river tiles without using a bridge. Only rifles and helicopter units can traverse mountain tiles. All other tiles are subject to normal movement rules.
Fight attributes
All military units will use weapons which have 4 statistics; attack, defence, durability and damage. Damage and durability are fairly self explanatory I feel; if you don't figure out what these do based on name alone, chances are the rest of the war module will blow your mind. Attack and defence are related to hit and miss chance. Currently, 1 attack point on your weapon translates to 0.3% extra chance to hit; defence uses the same stat to actual attribute conversion, however instead of effecting chance to hit, it affects the enemies chance to miss you; more defence results in less chance of being hit.
Constructions & healing
No longer will you get 5 fights, then go to the hospital, and be done for the day; the hospitals are on the battle maps themselves. Like all other products, they have 3 different attributes which are changed by customisation points; area of effect, total amount to be healed, and amount healed per turn. As you've probably realised, hospitals work by an area of effect system; if you stand near it's area of effect, at the end of the turn you will gain the amount of health it is set to heal. The total amount healed means that after a hospital has healed, for instance, a total of 55,000 damage, they will disappear from the map and be gone forever. This will result in hospitals being a far more valuable commodity than they are now; while most current hospital companies are government run, I can see there being some place for the private sector in the supply of hospitals, especially for global hotspots, as they will get through hospitals at a rate of knots
Defence systems have similar attributes; durability, defence bonus, and area of effect. They grant a passive defence bonus to whomever controls them, within their area of effect. As already outlined, this defence bonus will result in the units being hit less by enemy damage. Durability is the number of uses that they can have before disappearing in a similar way to hospitals.
A potential usage for the new how hospitals work is for large countries with foreign holdings to place a high healing hospital in a pointless region, and keep it under constant RW. They will then be able to heal there unimpeded, and then return to other battlefields.
Victory Conditions
This picture shows you the victory conditions. Controlling tiles is just as important as taking out enemies; you will need to have the tiles at the 24 hours mark if you want to stand a chance of winning. The tile with the capital on it is normally about two thirds of the way across the map, from the attacker's side. As a result you will either need to fight across hordes of enemies, and then capture the tile with the capital on it. There is also the opportunity for a helicopter strike across the map if the defending side are low in numbers; although considering the turn times, it still wont be exactly a speedy attack.
Deploying
You join the map that the battle is on by clicking the deploy button in the bottom right corner of the flash screen. Deployment is somewhat random, and you can only deploy onto the squares that are lit up. These squares cannot have any enemy units on them, and are controlled by your side in the fight.
Choosing your attack
So, you've moved to where you want to be, and you're now next to an enemy. Click the attack button, and click on the hex where there are people on the other side. You will be taken to a screen that looks something like this:
Top left is you, top right is the enemy you have selected, both squares are complete with relevant information you'll want to know before pressing set attack. The middle is the enemies on the tile; if there are more than 5 enemies on the tile, the game will not show more than 5, it will show a random selection of 5. This is not a bug, it's a feature. It prevents massive amounts of cherry picking weak opponents, and actually makes things slightly more balanced as a result.
The bottom row is the booster section; for extra goal, you'll gain the attributes seen in the picture. I suggest hovering your mouse over each one first though, as there are downsides to each; for instance, the +5 damage booster reduces your critical strike chance. These are reasonably balanced, and don't provide as much of a bonus as you might think at first glance.
The button 'go berserk' simply means that once you've taken out your first opponent, you will keep attacking until you either run out of enemies, or drop below 20 wellness.
The fight screen
Quite simple really, it shows you the damage you've done and the damage you've taken, players alternate between hits, and the first strike is based on a random element. Thats all really, I just wanted to show you all GLaDOS getting defeated.
Defending
So, your 2:30 turn is over. In the opposition turn, you should click defence, and select the booster you want to use. Quite simple really.
Overall
I'm not sure about this war module. If you have a lot of gold to burn, this will be a lot of fun. If you manage to spot someone you dislike on the opposing side, it can be a lot of fun. It will likely be more time consuming that war is now; although that isn't hard considering the complexity of clicking 5 buttons isn't exactly time consuming. I'm looking forward to this being implemented in the live server where actions actually have consequences; this will be what makes or breaks the war module; how people react to it in a real environment. Personally I'm on the fence; I'm not convinced of these changes as I was of the economic ones.
I am Dio. You are Dio. We are Dio.
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Comments
Great Article
I think a good idea to take advantage of the new war module would be to form small squads of people you know and that are on at the same times as you to improve a countries effectivness in battle.
I personally am very enthused by the war model, you no longer can 2 click, but it is FUN not to.
Subbed, and Fourth Denied.
Good article. Military module seems underimpressive.
You should have said smthing about Revival and Health Kit
Winning battles will be a major time commitment now. You won't be able to get 100 guys to log in at the same time 30 mins before the battle ends. It take 30 mins to cross the map.
A serious look needs to be taken at changes in tactics. IRC coordination among squads will be vital to effectively control and defend areas. Not sure exactly how civilians will be directed in this module or how they can be effective logging on for short period of time at random
>> You should have said smthing about Revival and Health Kit
I considered health kits, but as it's still beta, numbers may well change. Same with revival, although I could've mentioned something.
Harlot; I agree. While lucky deployment can help with the time commitment, you're right in saying it'll take longer. IRC co-ordination, or even VoIP comms will be needed. To deal with civilians, IMO, have an in game chat room where they can go for advice on what to attack and where to move and things. We can't make people log on for longer, unfortunately, so we'll have to make do.
Cool. I guess.
Generals will be bullet magnets in this map. I'll have to make sure the command trench is a long way from the front line 😛
I agree with the general sentiment around beta players that newbs will have a really tough time understanding these complicated modules. Education will be extremely important in retention, exponentially more so than it is now.
GF stop making so many new articles 😛
votat
Very helpful article, thx.
Thanks for doing these GF.
Great article
I guess GF actually does do something o.O
I hate you 😃
> which decides whom controls a tile