So yes, the first update in over two weeks. This is kind of on purpose. Its Ramadan, and trying to recode a battle system is not the best thing to decide to do during it. The last round ended late Thursday night, and I half hoped to have had this done by Friday, but its here now and I slipped in some extras along the way.
This update is in fact the first update of two which will be revolutionising the way combat works in Wargames. This update is mostly behind-the-scenes, but you should be seeing the fruits of it already. There is much stronger emphasis on the type of unit, and kill-ratios make more sense. No longer will an overwhelming enemy be completely unstoppable till you hit their defence rating.
Talking of ratings, those have all been re-evaluated. Tanks like Shreaders and ships like the Iron duke (and also the Avro Vulcan air wise) had amazing att and/or def values to make them stand out. Now, all units are under 100 att and 100 def, ensuring there is much more focus on combining unit types rather than overwhelming stats. Ships, long cheap shots for quick kills have been beefed up, to the point you can have hundreds of ships shooting at each other and still not have one go down. This should give them enough survivability to stand strong in the face of adversity.
For non-ships its the opposite, they should be creaming a lot more now, and better represented by numbers and unit types. Hacking and slashing away at a superior enemy shouldn't require half a game to do so. In further balancing, the cost of oil per attack has been modified for tanks. To show the different levels of Tank types, Light tanks now take half the normal amount (5), while Heavy tanks take twice (20). Medium tanks continue to have the regular amount (10).
I've had complaints that bulk buy at 5,000 is still too low. Without having to change too much, I have pumped this up to 9,999. I haven't yet made it automatically use Million notes though (one for next time).
Finally on the issue of units, this version's main new feature: the ability to select a 'region' of units to pick from. Up until now, I've had a wide mix of mostly UK designs made up of US equipment to fill the gap, with the occasional continental European unit. I'm now in the process of splitting these up, starting with Tanks. The regions available so far are Europe and Americas. As the Abrams Tank was the only US tank in the game previously, I've created 6 new tanks to go with it. The Europe region continues to have all the old tanks minus the Abrams.
In the next version, I'll be attempting to split it further with Planes and Artillery next. Other regions planned in the future is Asia (including Russian equipment) and Africa (including Middle Eastern, for hardcore players only).
In an attempt to brighten up the options screen, I've coloured my dull boring grey options into a variety of colours. I've also created a new reference sheet to explain what all the options does, and this automatically pops up when creating a new nation. After creation, this pop up will change over to the pre-existing Building reference which explains how to use the grid. There are also some bug fixes, relating to naval combat.
I'm hosting now for another 2 weeks (because of Ramadan, I don't have the strength to update it every week). Hopefully afterwards or soon around then I will have the second update in regards to combat.
My Tank is better than your Tank:
* Fix: Fixed some issues regarding naval combat units not recognising as navy.
* Fix: Fixed an issue with Ports being taken without enemy ships.
* Change: Bulk buy changed from 5000 to 9999.
* Change: When importing, it'll display the # of goods in full format.
* Change: Improved combat deals more proportional damage for size and strength of armies.
* Change: Improved combat allows ships to actually act tough and not die so much.
* Change: When attacking, it only immediately transfers to combat land if your not doing anything.
* Change: Altered the icons at the start selection screen to be more colourful than just grey.
* Change: Att and Def values for almost all units have been modified, most of them to lower values.
- This is to promote better use of unit types over what can be spammed for high att or def values to only effect the overall course of battle.
* Change: Oil cost for tanks have changed. While Medium tanks stay at 10 per attack, Light Tanks are reduced to 5 per attack and Heavy Tanks to 20 per attack.
* Change: The pre-existing building reference sheet automatically pops up after a nation is created.
* New: Can now select units from different regions, resulting in a new way to play.
- Currently the regions are Europe and Americas:
- Europe has the Challenger 2 Modern Era Medium Tank, and all other tanks other than the one below from the previous versions of Wargames.
- America has the Abrams Modern Era Medium Tank, and 6 new Tanks to replicate the same number that the 'European' region has.
* New: A new reference sheet has been added to the help menu for what all the options do when creating a nation. It also pops up automatically.
