Gexozoid Creations

European Warfare 2

A whole new game?

Was thinking something about the mod the other day and after some time spent on calculating drawing and thinking i came up
with a complete new concept of the game.
Have you ever though of a simulation based on AC engine? Well in comparesment of this new concept with lets say EW: Napoleonica,
this new concept would give you the game in 1:1 scale with historical battles and it would even make the game more stable.
How so? Afterall historical battles of the era were fought with tens of thousands of troops per side and how would some 50 - 60
thousand troops make the game run any stable than the chrashing that occours at only some 5000 troops per side? Well the idea
is of completly reshaping the game, in that way that a single "physical" unit wont represnt a single soldier, but a single
unit will represent a platoon. Platoon will be made out of 30 troops with the same graphical level which is now but a single
soldier will be some 75-50% of the size that the current soldier is. Don't worry if you think the graphics will be at a lower quality
besides the size decreese, the grahics will be at the same level and the animations will be at even better level, with realistic
things like volley fire rotation of the platoon etc. and they wont move like sticks.
The whole fighting will be led at alot more realistic level you might even say it will be a sort of simulation.
A single platoon will have 30HP, each health point representing a soldier from that platoon, and the platoons fire power will be
30 aswell,but only at point blank, so at maximum fireing range a platoon will deal just a few damage points against the enemy unit
(that is killing just a few enemy men).
Ofcourse making the troops smaller, all other objects will be resized and reshaped to give the realistic ratio in a way you will
be getting larger maps by not actually increesing the size of the map itself.

What do you get with this concept?

-Realistic 1:1 troop ratios
-Basic formations that will be made out of platoon will be a 1:1 representation of a regiment, with the commanding staff,
a whole drummer band and real scale and regimental formations
-Making troops smaller ofcourse they will drasticly move slower than the troops move now, map makers will be able to create
real ratio maps and place real ratio troops which will make the element of space time in the game even more crucial
-The whole gameplay of the game will be more realistic and closer to life

What do you loose?

-Having a single unit representing a single soldier which after all gives you a bit more realistic feeling in that way but
doesnt give you the realistic feeling of the times battling due to other disadvantages of the engine
-Yes screenshots maybe wont look as vivid and poetic like they used to, but I belive they wont look much worse.

A WIP preview:

The big image gives you a look at a regiment (without the commanding staff and drummer band). The 2 smaller images give you
the look at the same regiment in the zoomed out mode. Still havent decided on which to use. The upper right gives you a reduced
conceptual look of the troops but in a way easens the playing (the small prussian flag represents how would a general with it staff
be represented on a zoomed out mode). Yes it looks nothing like an eye candy, but if this concept turns to live, you wont be using
the zoomed out mode as much as it is used now cause the normal view will give you more than a good view of the battle, and the
zoomed out mode will be just a good way too check out the state of the battle on a major scale.




PS sry if I was unclear or wrote nonsence anywhere cause I was writing this in a bit of hurry

yours truly gex

Hum...

can be tried, it's not really my favourite point of view, but anyway, it's something to test.

I was thinking myself to do something like this, but not with one men representating 30 ones, but making a 30 men animation for one unit slot. You see what i mean?

it was really hard to do, espacilly models (well, you can the same one many times, but we have to not make theim robots, like the quick pictures i made to test the engine with).

we have enough directions in gp to not make it shake at each turning movement. And enough anim types in md to have a real-like acting.

The wrong parts was about morale : it only work with killing units (ie an entire md) not woundering theim...
And about corpses : i know friendship^is a true vertue, but only dying by mass of 30, it's... weird ><. I tried to replace it with a melt of few corpses and fleeing men, but my last strong computer fried before i had the chance to test it.

Well, i exposed a few things i encountered myself, but not all. The fact is my tries slowed down when i was conviced this is too hard to do, espacially for an isolated man, and turned my attention to programmers, to find a group for doing a free rts engine based on this kind of vision (i mean AC one). But not enough people respond.

anyway, if you and your team (if you have) have the courage to try, make sure you can come back if things turns wrong. Especialy for the gp, keep a backup of normal scalled-ones in case of.

The troop ratio can be rather painful when you consider with the 5K limit you are actually playing regiments and brigades at most.

Platoon is probably as far as you would want to go (the English Line fired in Platoon volley, I believe 18 in a regiment front counting the Grenadier and Light Co.). Company would be nice, but would probably be overly complex and go blind looking at the icons(s).

The other thing that can be frustrating sometime is the formation cap available, which played with your proposed redesign would perhaps negate some of that effect.

Though this concept is quite doable, I rejected it mostly to the fact I do not have such time to develop it!

gex