Blitzkrieg Mod 5.2.0 Major Update
Hello everybody!
Almost a year has passed since we've embarked on a project that would fundamentally change the mod. For those of you just finding out about these changes and the "beta" now, here's a quick catch up:
For years BK has had a lot of trouble staying balanced between Axis and Allies. About a year and a half ago a survey was released to test a hypothesis on why the balance was always so volatile. The results in the survey found that a key reason why balance was also so difficult was because all the doctrines did not fall under a common design philosophy. Some doctrines were very specialized and required teamwork, but when was well supported became over dominating monsters. Meanwhile, other doctrines were well rounded and independent, able to put up a good fight but never had the same overwhelming end-game power as other doctrines. Additionally, there were clear "rock paper scissors" game strategies where certain doctrines were clear counters to other doctrines. The made it hard for players to play their favorite doctrines if an opponent simply chose a pure counter.
After dozens of surveys to players, long forum discussions, and watching endless replays, the devs decided to make a first "test" changes as a pilot with the iconic armor doctrine vs blitzkrieg doctrine. The results were promising. It was decided that all doctrines would benefit if they were balanced to be playable in 1v1's against all other doctrines. The reworks on doctrines focused not specifically on balancing the game but removing the "rock paper scissors" element of doctrine choice in games. With more standardized doctrine designs, balance should theoretically be much easier in the long run.
The time has finally come where we can release the 5.2.0 patch, an accumulated year's worth of effort in "modernizing" the Blitzkrieg Mod which features new doctrines, reworked classic doctrines, and updated fixes and mechanics. In addition to the feature changes, we also are introducing a new map! Because the mod has been tweaked to make the game 1v1-playable, we created a BK specifically designed 1v1 map. We look forward to seeing games and watching replays of the new doctrines!
As the map name suggests, there is a high probability we will be hosting a 1v1 tournament soon as a way of celebrating the new patch. We were so focused on making sure the patch was bug free and making final tweaks before the release, so we don't yet have all the details just yet. We will begin organizing for that soon enough.
You can see the really big changelog on our forum: forum.bkmod.net
Many thanks to all beta testers and our forum users for providing a lot of great feedback.
As always, we hope you like the changes and see you in game!
Almost a year has passed since we've embarked on a project that would fundamentally change the mod. For those of you just finding out about these changes and the "beta" now, here's a quick catch up:
For years BK has had a lot of trouble staying balanced between Axis and Allies. About a year and a half ago a survey was released to test a hypothesis on why the balance was always so volatile. The results in the survey found that a key reason why balance was also so difficult was because all the doctrines did not fall under a common design philosophy. Some doctrines were very specialized and required teamwork, but when was well supported became over dominating monsters. Meanwhile, other doctrines were well rounded and independent, able to put up a good fight but never had the same overwhelming end-game power as other doctrines. Additionally, there were clear "rock paper scissors" game strategies where certain doctrines were clear counters to other doctrines. The made it hard for players to play their favorite doctrines if an opponent simply chose a pure counter.
After dozens of surveys to players, long forum discussions, and watching endless replays, the devs decided to make a first "test" changes as a pilot with the iconic armor doctrine vs blitzkrieg doctrine. The results were promising. It was decided that all doctrines would benefit if they were balanced to be playable in 1v1's against all other doctrines. The reworks on doctrines focused not specifically on balancing the game but removing the "rock paper scissors" element of doctrine choice in games. With more standardized doctrine designs, balance should theoretically be much easier in the long run.
The time has finally come where we can release the 5.2.0 patch, an accumulated year's worth of effort in "modernizing" the Blitzkrieg Mod which features new doctrines, reworked classic doctrines, and updated fixes and mechanics. In addition to the feature changes, we also are introducing a new map! Because the mod has been tweaked to make the game 1v1-playable, we created a BK specifically designed 1v1 map. We look forward to seeing games and watching replays of the new doctrines!
As the map name suggests, there is a high probability we will be hosting a 1v1 tournament soon as a way of celebrating the new patch. We were so focused on making sure the patch was bug free and making final tweaks before the release, so we don't yet have all the details just yet. We will begin organizing for that soon enough.
You can see the really big changelog on our forum: forum.bkmod.net
Many thanks to all beta testers and our forum users for providing a lot of great feedback.
As always, we hope you like the changes and see you in game!