Men of War II (BW) News

Link

Hi, friends.

Despite the fact that we now are at an evening, it’s a new day’s dawn in the development of Soldiers: Arena. The day, in which “Releasedate?” will henceforth be turned into the request to “Patchdate?”. The day, in which there will be more certainty and fewer secrets. The day in which the cocoons of the diaries will turn into butterflies of the patches. And today, at the dawn of this day, let's talk about the nearest plans and some very important developments, about what to expect and what not to expect from the Early Access version.



In the past diary it was said that the release slightly delayed by the work on the interface and improving the stability of the network code. We did our best to avoid it, but another small delay is inevitable. As always, we know exactly how to use the extra time to benefit a project. Now it is possible to complete a number of works that we’d like to see ... completed ... already at the start of the Early Access (EA). Well, you know, all those little things from which the new day will become a little more encouraging.

Link

• Control. Make interactive hints on gameplay, session and metagame interfaces. Add a classic RTS mouse mode (LMB for movement, RMB for attack), the ability to drag icons onto the hotbar from the general menu and make controls more intuitive.
  
• Metagame. Create battalion autofill templates for those who want to fight as quick as possible. Adjust the price and balance of the ingame currencies: “silver” and “gold”. By the way, we are just starting work on the balance of the economic component. And if we assume that the final version is Sunday, then the EA ones will be Wednesday at best. Considering that at first the game will be paid, now the priority is to fill it with content.
  
• Statistics. Refine windows with statistics on utility units, session results, game history. There is a small chance that we will have time to finish the replay structure. All this will help analyze the errors and understand where your team lost and which of your units turned out to be the most effective.
  
• Commands. Add the ability to create and enter the game teams of real bros, proven over the years, victories and defeats. And of course, adjust the balance of autofit opponents.
  
• Campaign! From morning till night we worked so that the campaign for the USSR devoted to the first weeks of the Great Patriotic War was ready for the Early Access. It shall depict the bloody summer of 1941 with all the consequences: the blitzkrieg and audacity of the German attacks, durability, and counterattacks of the Soviet army, pain and hardcore, typical for MoW.
  

Link



According to preliminary, but rather confident forecasts, Soldiers: Arena will be available at the end of January 2019. The cost of the game is still under discussion, but we will try to name it in the next month. Pros that you’ll get for your hard-earned money:

• Ability to play earlier than others and support the development with word and deed.
  
• New gaming experience. Soldiers: Arena is really very different from other games in the series. To the already familiar and favorite mechanics we added a large list of new ones.
  
• Two game nations, more than two hundred units and three dozen commanders with a unique gameplay.
  
• Singleplayer/co-op campaign. One at the start of Early Access and another at readiness. We create each mission in such a way that it can be played in cooperative mode with friends, and so that each player can choose which units to call and what to do, cause leftovers from the host’s table isn’t enough for true coop experience.
  
• Skirmishes and battles against advanced AI, which in most cases will be better than your teammates.
  

Link

• Multiplayer game. We’ve made the game for this part after all! Meaty 5 VS 5 fights at a pace at which sitting in the bushes will not work. A huge selection of tools and tactics in order to arrange a holiday for you, and a gray hopeless weekday for your opponent. Detailed statistics for each unit to understand which part of your battalion screwed it up. Matchmaking to find rivals and teammates of your level. A balancer who won't throw you in a team against four filthy artillerymen.
  
• Support and quick patches. We kept in touch with the community for all three years from the creation of the page and are only going to gain momentum. Your tears, battle roar and the joy of victory will be heard and taken into account. Bugs will die, and features will be added. Early access is just the beginning.
  
• First echelon kit. Those who first come to the front must receive well-earned reinforcements. This shall include a premium account for three months, gold for the purchase of several premium units (2-5). The balance of gold is still not definite, so exact figures are hard to say at this point. And most importantly, two exclusive units that cannot be obtained in other ways: Pz.III Ausf.N and T-28E with a L-11 gun.
  

Link

Cons that will come with Early Access:

• Possible changes and reworking of interfaces.
  
• FPS drawdowns and bugs. New patches for the new day. And they will surely come with the occasional and unpleasant bug-surprises.
  
• Crashes. Speaking of surprises. We have a lot of enjoyable ones. Crashes in Soldiers: Arena even in the test version are not a common sight and regardless not a critical one. Now, if you are thrown out of the game at the end of the session or at the end of the fourth hour of the mission, you don’t need to tear your hair out and sprinkle ashes on the keyboard. Just click “reconnect” and continue the day of anger.
  
• Old models that we will change after the start of the EA. Many new animations and sounds are also in the plans for this period. You should be prepared for such situations.
  

Link



Friends, we remind you that it makes sense to skip the Early Access stage, when the game will be paid, for those who are not ready for the cons listed above. The game will not be polished to a shining condition. Therefore, we would like to see among the early adopters those who understand the essence of the EA and are ready to look beyond some things. For those who are not ready - in fact, it is better to wait until the game becomes free to play. You will save both money and nerves.

Buying the game in Early Access makes sense to those who want to see everything earlier than others, support the development and participate in it. This is an option for those who feel that they always wanted to give a shoulder and lend a helping hand to BW, but did not know how to do it. Well, even for those who are interested to see how Soldiers: Arena is changing and to be able to condescendingly tell beginners that one stormed Best Way office even BEFORE vanilla and the time that seems to be good ‘ol days for today's youth is actually a modern tale compared to what happened “back in the day”.



Anyone who wants to take advantage of this opportunity is welcome to the development front. And at the front, as you know, it’s hot and hard, one day is considered for two. Wish you all the best, have a good evening and ... good morning.

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.



Link Link Link

Link

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.

Link

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?!”.

Link

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.

Link

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).

Link

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?!

Link

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.

Link

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.

Link

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.

Link

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.

Link

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.

Link


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.

Link

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.

Link

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!

Link

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.