As there has been some key improvements to AI behaviour on the main branch I decided to update the demo to reflect them and give the folk who try this during NextFest as good an experience as possible. So as well as the information below the computer player will now have more chance to retreat units that have suffered badly before bringing them back to the fight when there is less threat. HQ's nearby will try to hold them in place though, the combat log will show in Yellow when a unit retreats.
Also the "Relief" scenario was meant to be an introduction of sorts, something easy for players who did not read the instructions... It was not great fun though so have replaced it with an early Cold War Scenario. This also means existing players can get their teeth into something a little different.
Demo:
First off was getting the demo out ahead of NextFest. Despite the issues around maintaining two code bases I did end up updating the demo more than planned to add things like a combat log, HQ changes and improved hill tile graphics. More recent changes to the full game have not made it into the demo simply because if I do everything twice then the whole process slows down.
There has been some really useful feedback from the demo, all of which has been taken note of. I am glad people are having fun with it and was pleased to see it get some external coverage too.
New: Fixed AI target selection so adjacent units now correctly focus fire on priority targets rather than spreading the love around. This was intended but not working correctly so the demo has been updated to fix this.
Campaigns:
CWB will feature a number of mini campaigns in which the player follows a formation through a chain of 5 or so battles. Completed so far are British and Polish campaigns set in 1983 and I have now completed the first scenario of the Soviet campaign which will follow the exploits of a Tank Regiment as the push Westwards.
Soviet Tank Regiments at the time tended to have 3 tank battalions, a mechanised infantry battalion and a self propelled artillery battalion. That's not a lot of infantry to go around when often only one company was available to support the push of a tank battalion and made for an interesting first scenario.
As you can see I did not do well, more shockingly this was my 2nd attempt with the first being a draw... Those craters to the bottom of the right of the screenshot show where US M1 Abrams roughly handled my poor T-64BV's.
New content and changes:
As well as the changes that made it into the demo there have been numerous other tweaks and additions.
HQ units are more relevant. As well as having a high VP value HQ units now provide accuracy bonuses to adjacent units reflecting their ability to direct fire. Of course taking advantage of that puts them at risk and AI artillery now puts your HQ's higher on its list of priority targets if it can see them.
Spotting range now changes dynamically, increasing if a unit is on elevated terrain and decreasing in thick forest or jungle for instance.
A little battle damage now appears on the map each time a sub unit is destroyed as you can see above, it's not much but is a first step into my attempts to inject a little more life into the battlefield.
And finally the Canadians have made it into CWB. The Canadian 4th Mechanised Brigade Group was deployed in Europe for most of the Cold War so it would have been quite rude to leave them out even if they can only be played in one scenario so far...
That's it for now, updates may be slower the next few weeks but rest assured the work continues.
Chris.