Steel Division 2 - Blog Post - Urban Maps

Hello there!

As promised in the blog post last week, today we are going to take a closer look at the planned urban maps for Steel Division 2. Hoorah!



We have been toying with the idea to include a different style of urban maps in Steel Division 2 for some time now. Implementing new maps is not nearly as easy as it looks, though. There are a lot of things to consider, from the buildings to add, their destruction levels and the cover they provide, to recreating a built-up layout that is not only logical but also fun to play.



There are a couple of other considerations. As Steel Division 2 takes place on the Eastern Front, towns and cities have a different make-up from those urban counterparts in Western Europe. They were smaller, with fewer inhabitants, and less densely built.



We get our inspiration by looking at maps and photos from World War II to get an idea of how towns were structured. Of course, most cities have a more or less defined center, but we are particularly interested in the whole picture: the road network, the type and size of buildings, how far does a city stretch out for, and more. For instance, we did some research into Wolomin, located close to Warsaw. A substantial battle was fought between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army in the Soviet advance on the Polish capital during the later stages of Operation Bagration.



What’s the aim of making urban maps? We wanted an urban environment where the foot soldier truly shines: they can vault from one point to the next, moving through and across difficult terrain with relative ease. The buildings provide cover. Even when blown up and lying in the rubble, squads are still protected to a certain extent. The short sightlines allow for ambushes, and especially vehicles and tanks, with their limited visibility, are vulnerable in the close confines of a city.



From a design point of view, this is great, but with Steel Division 2 we still want to allow for certain types of long-distance combat, specifically on the flanks. That’s why we made sure that there are open spaces to conquer and control.

Our idea was to create a mix of urban terrain, not only featuring “big city” type of closely spaced structures but also a “semi-urban” environment, where there will be more space between buildings and homes. Currently, in Steel Division 2 we have so-called neutral combat zones, forest areas, and maps containing spots of dense urban areas (Minsk, Orsha). We want to add this new type of semi-urban map to the mix. Not only in the Skirmish mode (online or single player) but also in our Army General campaigns.





We can tell you that we are working on several maps where cities or towns take center place. Furthermore, we are thinking very hard about the feasibility to make an urban map for the Steel Division 2 online 10v10 mode! More details about this later.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/988171/Steel_Division_2__History_Pass/

If you haven’t, get the History Pass now! It gives owners access to all the three history DLC planned for Steel Division 2. The History Pass includes today’s The Fate of Finland expansion and The Death on the Vistula expansion. And the third expansion? Well, we hope to lift a tip of the veil of what’s coming next for Steel Division 2 soon!

Don’t hesitate to check out our Steam forums and Eugen forums, or our social channels (Facebook and Twitter). You can also join us on our [https://discord.gg/TEeBArm]Discord server or Reddit page. Discord especially is a great place to find other Steel Division 2 players to kick off an online or coop match!

See you on the battlefield, commander!