A Renewed Warmap
Good morning and welcome to another Europe In Ruins Dev Blog. This week we begin to take a look at some of the features coming in the upcoming launcher update, starting with the Warmap!
As the warmap has been historically a poorly explained part of the mod, here I will go through the entirety of how the warmap works, highlighting new features as I go.
[h2]Getting Started on the Warmap[/h2]
The initial view of the warmap at the start of a war
At the start of the war, and whenever you build a new company, you will need to first deploy to the warmap by clicking on the deploy button, and then choosing from one of the sectors the warmap presents you with.
The sectors of the warmap each represent areas of Western Europe, by clicking on a sector you can find out more about it.
Sector Overview for Paris
Here we can see:
Sector bonuses are a new feature this patch, and as such, here is the full list of available bonuses:
The war progresses! Allies have made large advances in Northern France, but have almost lost Italy!
Now that your company is deployed to a sector, you can choose the type of action your company will make:
The Allies continue their Northern push while losing more ground in the South. We can also see the player using the airport to attack St. Ettiene
[h2]Warmap Action Cards[/h2]
A selection of Allied Warmap Action Cards
To engage further with the warmap you can make use of warmap action cards (the green ones) these have a huge range of effects, while a lot of these are already in EIR, there are quite a few new ones so let's go through them
That's all well and good, but what is this war focus? Well, it's a way for commanders to set a focus for their side of the way. Any player who makes an action on the warmap (attack, defend etc.) which targets a war focus gets an additional warmap card dropped at the end of each game.
[h2]The Endgame[/h2]
With their southern flank collapsing, the allies make a dash for Berlin in attempt to score more VPs
For a long time there has been no endgame in EIR, every few months a wipe would be done to reset the huge amount of vet which had built up. With the revamped warmap, the endgame will now be tied to the warmap. Both sides will be fighting over victory points, with the first side to reach 3000 (subject to change) will win the war!
VPs are gained by controlling key sectors with small gold, silver, or bronze star icons. Gold stars are for primary objectives and provide 25vps per full cycle, silver is for secondary objectives and provides 15vps per full cycle, while bronze is for the war focus, and provides 5vps per full cycle. In addition, fighting battles while either attacking/ defending etc. a VP will also net VPs.
But what happens when a war is won? First of all the end of the war means a wipe. So make sure to use your warmap cards when a war is reaching its closing stages! Also, every player will be given rewards to get them started in the next war, these rewards are based on participation in the previous war. Some of the rewards that will be given are:
With these huge changes to the warmap, along with the rest of the patch, there will be a wipe next Friday, alongside a few hours downtime while the dev team tests and I hotfix any major issues.
That's all for today. Next week we will look at the all-new commander tab you may have noticed on some of the screenshots, a whole new class of warmap cards, and a host of other improvements and bug fixes!
As the warmap has been historically a poorly explained part of the mod, here I will go through the entirety of how the warmap works, highlighting new features as I go.
[h2]Getting Started on the Warmap[/h2]
The initial view of the warmap at the start of a warAt the start of the war, and whenever you build a new company, you will need to first deploy to the warmap by clicking on the deploy button, and then choosing from one of the sectors the warmap presents you with.
The sectors of the warmap each represent areas of Western Europe, by clicking on a sector you can find out more about it.
Sector Overview for ParisHere we can see:
- The sector name
- The bonus provided for being stationed in the sector
- The current defence of the sector, if this hits 0 the sector is captured by the opposing side
- The current defence modifier for the sector, this is a percentage modifier for all defence actions taken in the sector. That is to say if a defend action were to add say 120 defence points to a sector after a battle, but the modifier was down to 75%, that battle would instead add 90 points. This means a sector with a low defence modifier is harder to defend than one with a high modifier.
- The amount of Victory Points (VPs) the controlling side will earn every full cycle, a full cycle is every 100 turns for each faction, that is a 2v2 counts as 2 turns, and a 4v4 counts as 4. The VPs are what is being fought over in the war.
Sector bonuses are a new feature this patch, and as such, here is the full list of available bonuses:
- Manpower - +200 Manpower for all companies stationed here
- Munitions - +50 Munitions for all companies stationed here
- Fuel - +30 Fuel for all companies stationed here
- Airport - Companies based here can attack/raid sectors two sectors away
- Barracks - All infantry units in companies based here get +1xp per game
- Factory - All vehicle units in companies based here get +1xp per game
- None - No bonus from this sector
The war progresses! Allies have made large advances in Northern France, but have almost lost Italy!Now that your company is deployed to a sector, you can choose the type of action your company will make:
- Attack Sector - Attacking a sector allows lowering its defence points based on the result of each battle you partake in.
- Defend Sector - Defending a sector allows raising the sectors defence points based on the result of each battle you partake in.
- Support Sector - Supporting a sector will raise the defence modifier of the sector, which will otherwise slowly decrease as battles are fought in the sector, in addition, it will increase the defence of the sector by half of what defending the sector would do. This option is only available to the Infantry, Royal Artillery, Defensive and Scorched Earth doctrines.
- Raid Sector - Raiding a sector will directly reduce the defence modifier of the sector based on the result of each battle you partake in, in addition, it will lower the defence of the sector by half of what attacking the sector would do. This option is only available to the Airborne, Commando, Blitzkrieg, and Luftwaffe doctrines.
- Assault Sector - Assaulting a sector will lower its defence by 1.5 times what attacking the sector would do, but also lowers the defence modifier of your own sector, leaving it more vulnerable to attack. This option is only available to the Armour, Royal Engineers, Terror and Tank Hunters doctrines.
The Allies continue their Northern push while losing more ground in the South. We can also see the player using the airport to attack St. Ettiene[h2]Warmap Action Cards[/h2]
A selection of Allied Warmap Action CardsTo engage further with the warmap you can make use of warmap action cards (the green ones) these have a huge range of effects, while a lot of these are already in EIR, there are quite a few new ones so let's go through them
- Dig In! - Add an amount of defence to a friendly sector based on the card rarity.
- Bombing! - Remove an amount of defence to an enemy sector based on the card rarity, this cannot be used to capture a sector.
- Fortify Sector! - Increase the defence modifier of a friendly sector based on the card rarity.
- Break the line - Reduce the defence modifier of an enemy sector based on the card rarity.
- Extra HQ - Add a temporary spawn point to a sector for 150 turns.
- Rebase Company - Move your company to any friendly sector
- Battle Plans! - Move the friendly war focus to a new sector, lasts 250 turns.
- Disrupt Plans! - Move the enemy war focus to a new sector, lasts 250 turns.
That's all well and good, but what is this war focus? Well, it's a way for commanders to set a focus for their side of the way. Any player who makes an action on the warmap (attack, defend etc.) which targets a war focus gets an additional warmap card dropped at the end of each game.
[h2]The Endgame[/h2]
With their southern flank collapsing, the allies make a dash for Berlin in attempt to score more VPsFor a long time there has been no endgame in EIR, every few months a wipe would be done to reset the huge amount of vet which had built up. With the revamped warmap, the endgame will now be tied to the warmap. Both sides will be fighting over victory points, with the first side to reach 3000 (subject to change) will win the war!
VPs are gained by controlling key sectors with small gold, silver, or bronze star icons. Gold stars are for primary objectives and provide 25vps per full cycle, silver is for secondary objectives and provides 15vps per full cycle, while bronze is for the war focus, and provides 5vps per full cycle. In addition, fighting battles while either attacking/ defending etc. a VP will also net VPs.
But what happens when a war is won? First of all the end of the war means a wipe. So make sure to use your warmap cards when a war is reaching its closing stages! Also, every player will be given rewards to get them started in the next war, these rewards are based on participation in the previous war. Some of the rewards that will be given are:
- 1 gold per warxp (the XP value used to determine your rank) across all companies
- The top few contributors to the war for each side (Contribution being a weighted sum of the results of attacking/defending/supporting/raiding sectors) will gain warmap cards which cannot be dropped in packs or postgame.
- More to come! I haven't quite decided on all the post-war rewards just yet, as some will be based on some mechanics I am still developing
With these huge changes to the warmap, along with the rest of the patch, there will be a wipe next Friday, alongside a few hours downtime while the dev team tests and I hotfix any major issues.
That's all for today. Next week we will look at the all-new commander tab you may have noticed on some of the screenshots, a whole new class of warmap cards, and a host of other improvements and bug fixes!