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[.Uberren]

Thanks for the kind words :D

I am currently working on some more detailed versions of the units for the battle screens.
Here's a WIP for the AI infantry:

[danieru]

Meanwhile I've been working on the AI. We now have an AI which will make some pretty fantastic 1st order tactical decisions. So smart is this AI that I can now see real broken aspects of our balancing. 

[danieru]

Oh this is pathetic update. 

I rushed today to get the AI presentable for a video and it turns out the infantry damage values are 100% broken. Eight infantry slugging it over multiple turns do no damage to each other. See for yourself:



Guess I'll be returning to that damage system.

[danieru]

Image dump!

[danieru]

Today we added sound effects and music  . We bought a large pack of stock sound effects and just listened all day to everything. The sound effects don't quite match in tone ( ) but having any sound is massive improvement.

The music is also stock licensed but should work to convey each nation's tone and theme. Our plan is to commission proper music so this stuff is likely temporary.

Video demo:

[danieru]

Uberren is working on the battlescreen litetank and he decided to make the infantry more cartoonish:

[danieru]

We had our first play test! 

The poor tester had to put up with about 3 restarts. Each time we'd hit a game stopping, I'd take 5 minutes to fix then we'd try again.

It turns out our Heavy Tanks are super-mega-overpowered. The optimal strategy is to buy two at round start then camp the enemy's base. Everything the enemy builds will get leveled the next round.

Also I redid the fog of war to work by de-colorizing hidden land. Before it just darkended the terrain but that made it hard to see how buildings were visible.

[danieru]

Wow, it was a month ago that Uberren did up the beaches. I didn't think they had fallen behind that far on the todo list.

Today I finished off the beach placement system and got our new road end tiles ingame.

[danieru]

The map background has been bothering me. It is too plain.

So I present to you our new background!

[pmprog]

Uberren is working on the battlescreen litetank and he decided to make the infantry more cartoonish:

I, personally, preferred the look of the infantry back on the first page



Might just be me though

[Netsu]

I like the new models way more, much better

[kruxus]

Have to say I too prefer the small cute ones.

[danieru]

I, personally, preferred the look of the infantry back on the first page



Might just be me though

Thank you for mentioning this. The good news is those infantry are not changing. The new infantry are only being used on the battle screens. The battle screens are where attacks are visualized, think of it as an animated cutscene. Our goal with the battle screens is to open the player up into a more literal interpretation of the world. Thus the game map is a metaphor complete with tank sided factories. Meanwhile the battlescreens are the "real" world.

Part of the new infantry is necessity. The cute infantry we use on the game map cannot be animated. If you look at their arms you'll notice that they cannot extend to an aiming position with their rifles. Likewise animating them running could get weird.

Later today I am writing up the weekly newsletter. That should have a few renderings which make the battlescreen idea clearer.

[danieru]

Sorry guys I'm really tired. I posted those images I mentioned, the ones for the battlescreen, in the newsletter. Please do give them a look.

[.Uberren]

Hullo, I just put together a quick mock up of what the "new" units are going to be used for to hopefully clear up some of the confusion.

[danieru]

I've been working on the AI. To my great shame the AI is having more fun shuffling units about instead of attacking 

[SirNiko]

AI shuffling units instead of attacking is not a bug, it's a tribute to the original Advance Wars goofy AI that obsessed over destroying empty APCs.

One thing I am not seeing in this thread that I think is important: how, if at all, is your game different from Advance Wars? Is it just the 3D graphics? You're replicating it pretty closely (albeit with fewer features like lack of CO powers), which leaves players (like me) who already have Advance Wars little reason to play your game.

As a fan game or a for-fun project, though, this is absolutely gorgeous and well crafted. The detail in the soldier models is particularly impressive. Hopefully you're giving the same treatment for all the units, so that each army has their own iconic tanks and ships.

[danieru]

That's an important question, thank you for asking it.

So, why don't we play Advance Wars? I'm serious. I also own several copies of AW yet I never play them again after beating the campaign. Which is weird since the TBS formula has fantastic playability and each mission can be replayed with numerous ways.

Yet Advance Wars never gave the player much reason to do so. It tried to do so with unlockable maps and unlockable COs. As a kid on holidays I spent days grinding Spann Island. I unlocked almost everything yet AW had only succeded at getting me to replay ONE map. Now in a way it was my own plain fault for grinding the shortest map.  Still players are players and if you let them take shortcuts they will do so.

So there are two major features we're adding to Super Battlelands which will force players into making the most of the game.

1. Terrain Deformation.
2. Branching Storyline

Terrain deformation brings an aspect of base building. Think building roads and forts. This multiplies the player's options when replaying. Imagine advancing a tank frontal assault while building a road to the frontlines. With your new road you can afford bringing units back to heal up. Or maybe you build out a road in front of a choke point and trick the opponent into fighting from this weakened position. That's just roads. Now imagine what you could do with bridges 

We think what sets a Turn-based Strategy game apart from a Turn-based Tactics game is the scale of planning. In a tactics game the player focuses on each battle and minimizing losses. In Super Battlelands the player focuses on gains. A high priced Bomber might be worth losing if it distracted an AA unit from your capturing infantry. Likewise losing a Battleship might be worth building a bridge straight to the enemy's HQ.

We're looking for features which increase strategic depth and replayability. To this end our storyline will have different routes and multiple endings. Even the maps you might play through will change. Think having a story timeline which reacts to how long you take in missions. Or demands from opponents which make the next map more difficult depending on how you answer. You may even find yourself with an ending which is nothing like what you expected. Imaging switching sides part way through the campaign!

Our ultimate goal is to create a game which holds its own and introduces more players to the joy of TBS games.

Now let me take the chance to say we are working to give every unit/nation combination their own high detail model. Just this last week Uberren finished off both the LA and AI litetanks:

[danieru]

I figured out what caused the AI over population. The defence values for beaches were missing. This caused the HP of any unit attacked on a beach to become NaN. From there any unit these infected units attacked would themselves become infected. Fixing that caused the AI to behave much better.

It now creates plays like this:


Meanwhile Uberren finished off the Hi-Detail litetanks and dressed em-up.

[danieru]

After more work on the AI it now puts up a good fight.

I'm Yellow and the AI is Purple. I truly lost this session. The AI stopped every attempt I made to grab property. Meanwhile I had wasted my starting cash on 2 heavy tanks, 1 of which got lost in the initial wave.



Now this only happened because I gave it a head start. That goes mean we could design maps with large AI advantages and call it a day. Except I've got several more ideas and plenty of CPU overhead so we've got plenty of room for growth.

Upsell: please do checkout this week's newsletter!