Men of War II (BW) News

Hi, guys.

Below is the full version of the development tree, as you requested in the comments. So that we have a subject for discussion before the diary (will be next week). Something can and will change, and something is "not implemented", so try not to overthink.

Wish you all the best.



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Hi, friends.

Today is one of those diaries in which we won't publish the gameplay video and won’t release the game… again. Again we won’t cure all runny noses in the world, won’t finish “A song of Ice and Fire” and, obviously, won’t return the kindness to the Internet. But there’s still something to talk about. A good half of the questions in the community about when to release, why so long and how can we dare to delay ourselves in the first place?! Let's try today to understand the conditions of work on Soldiers: Arena, and to hold a small retrospective of past years and delays. Let's talk about development and developers, about why two years are not many, and why two, not three, and even if three, it is still not too long. We will have a diary that can be referenced by seeing the next “Release date?!”, and you will have screenshots and answers.



On the Steam forums and in the comments is very easy to find lots of folks solidary with Emerson, but it's just not serious. Do we develop the game long? - Hell no! Do you wait for it long? - Probably, yes. The fact is that the time from the announcement of the game to its release does not equal the development time. In most cases, users will learn that a game is being developed when it is almost ready. Firstly, because at the final stage it is easier to correctly determine the remaining time for development, and secondly, because players do not have to become tired of waiting. After all, there is no shortage of games, and in 2017 alone, almost 7,000 came out on Steam. Keeping a player’s interest for several years of development is incredibly difficult (well, we are well aware of this), so the time of pre-release activity is usually not more than six months.

Game development often takes from 2 to 5 years depending on the complexity of the project. And there is an astounding number of factors capable of increasing the originally planned period. In the case of Soldiers: Arena, these factors were: the cancellation of ‘Nuclear Union’ and limited resources, the relocation of the studio to another city, the remake turned into a full-fledged game, the search for a new gameplay style, the overall complexity of the project, a small number of employees (less than twenty) and a number of other factors which we do not even want to remember. Oh, friend, we have gone through so much and have done so much for these two years, having so little that talk about way-too-long development and the jokes about the release in 2031 due to the sheer bewilderment. Below we will restore the chronology of events in making of Soldiers: Arena and try to explain why everything is as it is and why it is good.



The Steam store page was created in December 2015 and we immediately decided to keep in touch with the community all the way to the release. Moreover, this release has to happen in three months. In those days, Soldiers: Arena was supposed to be a remake of a multiplayer (and only this) part of Men of War, with steam features support and replacement of some models. Most of our team didn't even work on it but provided support for games from third-party developers using GEM: Battle of Empires, Gates of Hell, Draft Wars, and several others.

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Already in the first month, it became obvious that after such a long silence you expect something more than a remake from the Best Way. We already got used to the relocation, resumed the processes and, in general, also wanted to do something more. So the whole first and second quarter of 2016, we tried different options, thought over the list of new features, chose the version of the engine, but still, there was no talk about the new game. It was rather a more advanced version of the remake. It was so until the fall of 2016 when a new gameplay began to appear through the list of new mechanics and technical improvements. More precisely its sketch. It was different from the MoW and was both promising and controversial, and so far existed only on paper. The whole team started working on the game exclusively by the fall of 2016. It is this time that should be considered the beginning of work on the Arena-game.

Frankly, we could go into silence for the next couple of years and return only to the stage of pre-release activity, which was written above (these 3-6 months). But again we didn’t want to disappear, and we thought, why not take a chance to maintain a dialogue with the community from the first days of development? The great perspectives of regular diaries and the most early closed alpha test attracted us with constant feedback and warm motivating words of support from players. And we warmly welcomed these promising perspectives. And they gave us the opportunity to test and refute theories at the earliest stages, correct the mistakes that you find and get rid of what you are not very interested in. Remember that every comment you leave can improve the final game! Huge power in your hands, do not waste it all on “Releasedates?!”.

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The time from autumn 2016 to summer 2017 was the hardest. It was then that we tried to understand what the game should be and were looking for core gameplay. Time is interesting but often painful. Soldiers: Arena then looked like a fishing hut, to which we were trying to attach a medium-sized castle. It looked weird and often annoying. There was a lot of unnecessary and temporary, a lot of things that are added to the game, only to make it obvious that they are not needed in it. We tried a lot and refused a lot. By the way, all this can be avoided if you make a sequel or clone of something. In this case, the development is reduced to the replacement of models, animations and the creation of a pair of new campaigns. With such a project it is easy to calculate the time for development and meet the deadlines. It's pretty simple when you do not need to invent a new gaming experience, but we wanted to develop the series, and not treading water. It was at this stage that the basic principles of the new project were formed:

• Variability of gameplay. Make an army managing a mini-game in which there are no one hundred percent correct or incorrect decisions. So even the craziest set of units had a chance.
  
• The primacy of tactics. Proper use of units should be more important than “the fastest hand in the whole wild west.”
  
• Role component. Give the player the opportunity to play his favorite units and encourage him to play the role.
  
• Epicness. The battle should consist of a series of epic moments, and not of a sequence of identical actions like: accumulated points on your favorite tank, went on the attack, get wasted, accumulate again or ragequit. Session must be in suspense from the first to the last seconds.
  
• Readability battle. If you are killed, you should at least approximately understand by who, why, and how to get revenge.
  
• Team play. Cooperation with other players should be maximally encouraged and be the pillar of gameplay.
  
• Lots of content. Scope and possibilities! A huge selection of units, perks, and customizations for them, many commanders of various specialties, tons of cooperative. Later, a single-player component was added too, which was not originally in the plans, and which was influenced by you, guys!
  
• A continuous fight against useless units. With the development and receipt of new units, the old ones should not become useless. The gameplay of each should be considered a set of mechanic and sometimes mini-games.
  

But it is one thing to formulate, and quite another to implement these principles. After all, the end result is so abstract, and the terms are so approximate! Basically, everything has to be tested empirically. In a readable language: it was necessary to iteratively improve and modify. For example, we now have the fourth revision of HE-shells in our work. Fourth! In most cases, you just can’t predict and take everything for granted. Make, test, rework.

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In the second year of development, the first reports about the waay-too-long development have already appeared! The game at that time was not very stable and poorly optimized, but quite playable and it was already possible to go into Early Access then (in the end, alpha testers have been playing for more than six months already). But we decided that you should not be misled by the lack of interfaces, low fps, drafted models of vehicles and unfaceted gameplay. Yielding to persuasion in June 2017, we named the date - the first quarter of 2018. The development went on, the scale increased, the number of units, commanders and new mechanics grew. From the initial calculation of 60-70 units for each nation, we came to 100+ (and this figure continues to grow).

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The core gameplay was ready, and most of the features were implemented, work began on the interface, which is still going on to this day. It is worth saying that words like “interfaces”, “optimization” or “balance”, of course, do not convey the number of works behind them. “Interface hell”, “optimization swamp” and “balancing infinity” would be better suited. Make, test, rework.

In March, after the publication of the first videos, we saw that most of the community was not ready for fps drawdowns and lags. We were seriously surprised by this because all this time we were talking about getting into Early Access, which does not imply a ready-made, optimized and devoid of bugs game, as water does not imply soup. As in any beta version of the game, there will be bugs and imbalances in it. Ok, it’s probably worth doing optimization and network code before entering Early Access, we thought and changed the date to the second quarter of 2018. At the same time, we started several tasks from those same themes that were impossible to perform on the GEM engine. It is because of the complexity of these tasks that we had to postpone the release once again to the autumn of 2018.

And here we are. The core gameplay is ready, two playable nations too (we will most likely finish the USA after entering the EA), the impossible has become possible, and you can play without a slideshow even from mediocre PCs. Now we are a bit late with interfaces and network code. But in the next month we hope to catch up with it, but the plans, as before, are approximate. As mentioned above, Early Access is just the beginning and each delay makes this beginning more likely. It makes the game better, we become better prepared, and the players who paid their hard-earned money will become happier. Perhaps, we will first release a limited number of keys in order to simultaneously receive support from our most devoted fans, who are ready to treat problems and bugs with understanding and at the same time limit the number of users and keep up with support. Thanks to everyone who supported us on this way, helped with advice and inspired with comments. Guys, you're the best! Release date?!

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Hi, friends.

Under the last post, g0Dwarrior23 drew attention to the strange fact that you have not yet seen extensive documentation on multiplayer maps. And it was one of those “Oh, re-e-e-e-ally” moments when you realize that you did not see (didn’t show in our case) the forest behind the trees. In the diary about Polesie we talked about the reference search process, map zoning and showed some landscapes, which is interesting by itself, but does not provide an overall picture. To fix the situation (or lack thereof), today we will look at one of the maps from a bird's-eye view and take a walk through the main sights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2emqBAp_TE&feature=youtu.be

The ‘Village’ map can be divided into three lanes: dense buildings on the left, open area in the center and the forest on the right. The line of first team fights is usually close to the central group of buildings.

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The preferable flank is usually determined by the chosen commander and the troops he specializes in. In most games you will have to be in several places at the same time, alternately defending and attacking, retreating and supporting the offensive, and success can greatly depend on the choice of these locations. The better you know the terrain, your units, and the likely enemy tactics, the better you will be able to seize the initiative and unleash the potential of your chosen commander.

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Infantry dominates on the left flank. An Assault battalion is the most successful in urban fights, since storm troops have an advantage in capturing and defending buildings. Moving between buildings on the left flank, you can capture the territory almost down to the enemy’s spawn point. Here you can also strengthen the safest positions for howitzers and mortars, completely protected from direct fire.

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Tanks along the building need to move very carefully, gallantly inviting the infantry forward, avoiding succulent main courses of AT grenades served in bundles. Cannons with direct fire have nothing to do here, since you can only fire at close range and probably only once.

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The central and the biggest part of the map is the open area, which is the natural habitat for the Tigers, Panthers, and Lynxes. And that means there are many artillerymen who attend the safari there. Open spaces allow you to shoot over large areas, and a battery of anti-tank guns concealed in a good location can stop a tank rush even before it starts. However, the response to the brazen gunners who are shooting at an auto attack comes so fast that you usually don’t even have time to suffer. Here, with the support of tanks, infantry can break through faster and farther than anywhere else, since it is much more difficult to tie it up with a fight in an open field.

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The woodland on the right flank gives a lot of opportunities for tank breakthroughs. Because of the dense vegetation, stones and height differences, anti-tank artillery is almost useless here. So if you don’t want to see the enemy’s vehicles in the rear, it’s best to mine the narrow passages. In most cases, you hardly meet anyone in the forest, except for mortars hidden behind a stone ridge, so this zone is more often used by saboteurs to cross the front line. So cliche, but still effective.



Playing on all three flanks at once or putting pressure on one alone is up to you, but knowing the terrain and commanders will help make this decision right. For example, it is better to use anti-tank guns as a battery in a place where it will definitely shoot someone, since changing the flank quickly will not happen. Howitzers, on the contrary, are almost not tied to any terrain and can shoot from one side of the map to another, regardless of barriers and distances, although the accuracy with distance decreases significantly. Playing with heavy tanks, you often simply won’t have so many units to deploy them across the whole front line, but the infantryman just needs to be present at least in several places at the same time.

Before we proceed to inspect the village sights, we remind you that any point on the map can become paramount if the situation requires it. A particular building interferes with your plans? Raze it with your HE-shells. Are you afraid of open spaces? Build your cozy fort from bags, barbed wire, and anti-tank hedgehogs, make a moat of trenches and scatter the mines around. And feel yourself at home.

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The group of buildings in the center is the local navel of the earth. It can give a huge advantage and serve as a foothold for entering deep into enemy territory or help expand the front by half the map. That is why the clashes never stop here. A similar situation with buildings near the forest. Their capture will allow to see the nearest territory and keep the enemy in stress.

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In the central part of the map, closer to the rear, both teams have buildings that are simply created to be captured by the paratroopers. In addition, it is one of the best positions for a battery of howitzers, albeit the most obvious one.

In addition, any stone and any barrier can be used as a shield or additional armor for your units. The battle in the Frontline goes for the territory, and the better you know it, the easier it is to capture and defend. The easier it is to choose the right place for minefields, trenches or a breakthrough into enemy territory.



And briefly about the most interesting development. Now multiplayer maps will change their size depending on the number of players in the session. When playing 3 vs 3, the map will be cropped narrower than when playing 5 vs 5 and will retain the same combat intensity and an average number of units per map area. We will not go into details further, it will be better for you to try it out by yourselves.

So we use every existing one and create new opportunities to make the gameplay in Soldiers: Arena intense and damn diverse. And we are trying very hard so that soon you will try it by yourself. Wish you all the best, guys!

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Hi, friends.

We did not have enough time to prepare a diary this week. Sorry about that. Feel free to use your right and suggest the topic.

Wish you all the best.

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Hi, friends.

In feedback diaries we usually talk about some results and changes of recent months. About settings, features, models, funny bugs, interface pieces, units, and the rules by which Soldiers: Arena lives. But today we need to talk about the balance also. Talk seriously and sincerely. Under the last diary there was much controversy about whether the stormtroopers are balanced or not, and how the absence of an armored car or flamethrower can destroy everything. Before we proceed to a soothing-explanatory text, pay attention that the Tiger. Pz. VI was already on the cover of the diary about heavy tanks. How do you like this change?

• ... compare units with similar ones from other games / books / wikipedia. Limiting the range of fire or its absence, the range of the HE action, the disguise, the possibility of retreat, of capturing the vehicle or any other of the hundreds of game features can significantly affect the result. If in another game you can shoot a tank with the machine-gun, this does not mean that you can do it in Soldiers: Arena.
  
• ... think that duplicating units is good. It’s a mortal sin to produce the same units, differing only in skins! And it's not just about stormtroopers. StuG III Ausf. G and SU-85 are conditional analogs of each other, but are they the same? The SU-85 shell deals more damage, but StuG III Ausf. G is better at piercing armor at long ranges, has a machine gun and faster reload rate. Which of these characteristics are the most important, will depend on the chosen tactics.
  
• ... perceive the unit in isolation from the game. Combat in Soldiers: Arena is not limited to a set of duels. You can even destroy your anti-class if you use the conditions correctly. Do you think that the flamethrower is stronger than a fighter with a submachine gun? But what if the submachine-gun-guy lies in the grass so damn invisible? What if he successfully throws a grenade? What if he has an older tankman brother? This game is about choosing, creating and correctly using favorable situations. Among other things
  

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(Let's have some rest and help Dora the Explorer to find the elite sniper)

• ... forget that every unit has its own tasks! The PM-41 mortar has a bigger caliber than the BS-3, but that does not makes tanks easy targets for mortars. There is no point in comparing the stormtroopers in battle against stormtroopers, because you do not compare how well one air defense weapon destroys another air defense weapon, right? Units are balanced not in comparison with their counterparts, but in relation to whether it is good enough (and whether it isn’t too good) in performing their tasks. And there are always more than one way to accomplish this task. If you like to storm the building on an armored car more than to suppress it with a machine gun and annihilate the defenders with your shotguns, it's your choice. But this does not create an imbalance.
  
• ... simplify to the point of absurd. The presence of a flamethrower or an armored car is not the only important characteristic. There are dozens of them and we take into account everything! To give a PTRS-41 or a grenade launcher to every infantryman is not the only way to strengthen it in battle against tanks. We reduced the speed of tank turret rotation and it worked no worse. Added one AT and two AP mines to miners, so it makes artillery and infantry stronger in defense. Is ZIS-2 too strong for its class? You can change its level from the third to the fourth and its natural opponents will change from Pz III and Marder, to Pz IV and StuG. And this did not change its in-game characteristics. So "Let's give everyone a hammer" is not the only option, there are also more elegant ones. The only question is whether you want to look for them. We want.
  

Friends, we do like disputes about usefulness of units. What can not be said about reproaches that we are deliberately creating an imbalance. When a playable nation loses in one thing, but wins in the other, that's good. This is a balance of strengths and weaknesses. Also this adds some diversity. Do not look at the question so one-sidedly. You do not play one unit for the whole session. You do not have to figure out how to destroy a tank with a sapper shovel. This stuff is for digging trenches! The screenshots below show the composition of two infantry battalions: reconnaissance and sabotage for USSR and assault one for Germany. As you can see, you have a little more than one infantryman for the game.

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First row: Pak 35/36, Riflemen (Recruits), SMG infantry (recruits), Rocket-launcher infantry
Second row: LeIG 18, SMG infantry (Regular army), MG squad MG-34, Flamethrower infantry
Third row and fourth row: Separate infantry squad, Riflemen (Veterans), Sd. Kfz. 4/1, Stormtroopers, Medics

Sorry guys, but we have no English localization of this piece yet. Both battalions are infantry, but they are used for different tasks. The first should go to rush and attack, and the second should hide in the shadows. By the way, this is still not the final version of the icons and only one of the many options of managing the battalion. Which of them seems more interesting to you and why?

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First row: Riflemen (Recruits), Sentinels, SMG infantry (recruits), Scouts
Second row: Riflemen (Regular Army), Snipers, Scouts, BA-11
Third row and fourth row: Paratroopers, Aerial reconnaissance, Elite Snipers, Saboteurs, Medics



In recent months, we are working hard to make the game intuitive, enjoyable and remove as many bugs, lags and drafts as possible. Incredible gameplay, like the inner world - no one will notice, if not to reveal. Of course, you will not go into the game for the sake of the interface or super-beautiful icons, but definitely notice their absence. So we created more than two hundred icons and modified interfaces. All these windows, development trees, backgrounds, scenes and so on. And also redesigned the interface windows to support 4K resolution.

In addition to the hints on the loading screens and training missions, you will be introduced to the game with the system of interactive tips. By hovering the cursor over a part of the interface / battlefield / unit, you will see a small brief description about the management, tactics and tricks of the game. It's not easy to make a complex game intuitive. This is a long, painstaking work consisting of thousands of boring things that you will never notice. But unfortunately, this is a damn important part of the development.

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We tested the first mission of the Soviet campaign, which can be held as a solo, or in a co-op of up to five players. Also, we added a prototype of the new multiplayer map "Kursk fields" with a large number of open spaces. By the way, the landscape also affects the overall balance. On this map, guns with direct fire are stronger, and the life of an infantryman is sadder than usual.



Fought off bugs of varying complexity and amusement. In some cases, the level of amusement is so low that it goes into negative. You often rush us with the release, but why? Just imagine such a session. You are retreating on your beloved ISU-152, miraculously leaving the shelling, having repaired the track with the last crew member. You think that you already got the Lord by the beard and ready to laugh at the enemy-loser, when suddenly an armor-piercing-karmic shell shot you. How? Why? Who killed Kenny? It turns out that the retreat icon burned over your unit even in the fog of war, turning your way home into a corridor of shame marked with neon "Hit Me" signboards. And if the players could have no time to react, the AI simply ignored the camouflage mechanics in those days. "There are no eyes - there is no fog." - he thought and fired without unnecessary self-reflections.

The fact that AI refuses to comply with the gentleman code is demoralizing, but you are an optimist. You console yourself that actually love hardcore. When battlefield gives lemons, you make limonkas but not useless lemonade. You attack in the hope of fulfilling the task of capturing the flag and bring your team victory points. You squeeze out of yourself all the life that is left after the loss of the sweet ISU-152. You attack like the last time in your life and reach the goal! But … for some reason the points are not credited. You feel downfallen, deceived, devastated ... But your team still winning a little and at least the victory will be yours, which will compensate a bit for the suffering. It will be possible to say that you fought against the whole world and won and did not give victory to the dishonest bug-abusing opponent ... And while you think so, the skyey Charybdis opens its mouth deep in the rear and overthrows parachute rain. Because of the bug with victory points, the enemy gets such an advantage, as if he captured the entire map, Moscow, Berlin and Atlantis. Over time, you knock him out of course, cause you're good! Unfortunately, the time he won with his dastardly blow is enough to win. You would like to throttle the air in anger and "Fus ro dah" on the whole throat, but the last forces are already given to this fight. You want to go away from the computer, but your legs fail. You fall to your knees in the middle of the room, your mouth is open in a silent cry, and the rain pours directly from the ceiling, hiding your tears. Why? - quietly howling you, curling up on the floor, while the camera moves away, leaving you alone and confused.

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Do you really need this, my friend? Do you really need a game like right now? Or can we fix at least the most critical bugs? The ones described above, by the way, no longer exist, don’t worry, but their colleagues are still doing their job. And if we get rid of them, then you do not have to go through the seven circles of bugs, and we won’t wander through the icy wastelands of negative reviews obsessively repeating "We warned them". A little more support to finish what was started, and everyone will become a winner. You can do this, guys, cause you are the best!