March DevBlog - SitRep

Mon Général!

The French Empire was not built in a day. Neither is Grand Tactician: The Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815). In this DevBlog, we'll briefly discuss the current development situation of the Napoleonic Wars.

The Battlefield

The technical features of the re-built battle layer are mostly finished. The biggest differences to GT1 (The Civil War) are the scale, ie. the number of soldiers shown on the battlefield and handled in the simulation model, and the terrain generator, which creates the battlefields from campaign map topography datasets. What remains to be finalized is the “macro-AI”, responsible for maneuvers, and establishing the campaign-to-battle link, which is all about data handling in the background.

Audiovisual elements, that you can see and hear in the released videos and screenshots, are not yet final. Most elements will be further looked into, and variation added. The Italian theater specific 3D models, like houses for towns, and variety in the battlefield visuals, are in the works. We intend to add a similar papermap layer as in GT1, though this time around it’s technically a bit trickier. As the map is generated, it cannot be hand-drawn as a complete map like before. Audio elements to be added include touches to improve the atmosphere, such as historical drum and trumpet signals and voice commands that can be heard when the units maneuver and fight.

The full unit roster for the 1796-97 campaign in Italy is to be augmented with Italian units. This includes one of the main belligerents, the Piedmontese (Kingdom of Sardinia), but some of the minor nations also participated in the fighting, most notably the Papal States and Kingdom of Naples. Also other forces, like those of Venice, were present, even if they did not enforce their nations' neutrality militarily - but maybe they could have in certain conditions?

The Campaign Layer

We decided to re-build also the campaign layer from scratch. The required changes were so numerous, that trying to “bend” the old campaign engine would have been more work, and the end result maybe not as good. The campaign technical infra is well underway, with UI elements being added with the remaining mechanics.

First, the campaign map. In GT1, the campaign maps were fully built in the engine’s editor, which made them virtually un-moddable. This time around, the approach is more modular. There are two levels of maps: master maps and campaign maps. Master maps are large, and can contain vast areas like the whole of Europe. Campaign maps are created separately from a master map, either using the whole master map, or only a specified part of one. For us, this allows creating the master map for the Europe-wide grand campaign in parts, with each smaller campaign area populating the master map. For modders, this allows creating completely new master maps, like North America, and then “slice” smaller maps out of it for specific campaign scenarios.

The campaign map is created from multiple datasets, containing elevation (heightmap), terrain, infra, and resource data. From this a 3D mesh is created, terrain types are painted, roads, rivers and cities, etc. drawn. To facilitate different scale of campaigns, the different infra elements can be shown on the campaign map depending on their size. So, even if the Italian theater campaign map has much more details in Northern Italy, the same data set can create the same area with larger scale details for the European campaign. When generating battlefields out of the same data, even the smallest scale elements will be on the map.

The Playable Campaign Map and Military Supply System

From a game play perspective, the logic of how the campaign map infra is built is relevant. In GT1 the map is created from Important Infrastructure Points (IIPs) and cities. This creates a mesh, where each node is linked to its neighbours, and contains ownership, condition and economic data. Ownership is changed according to local military control, which can be established by deploying armies or building forts and manning them with garrisons.

In GT2, we have adjusted this model a bit, again to a more modular direction. Instead of two separate types of infrastructure, the map now contains elements we call “cities,” but that can be anything from a small rural village to a large city. Each such “city” can contain different kinds of military, economy, or national buildings. These “cities” can grow, shrink, gather wealth, and be garrisoned. They can be occupied, and as part of treaties annexed, de facto changing ownership. The locations and data are drawn from moddable datasets.

The economy model, which also contains the military supply system, has been adjusted as part of this change. We have a similar supply/demand and production chain systems as in GT1, but how it “flows” on the map, and how the military can exploit it, is handled differently. Now, the goods (incl. military supplies) are moved on the map, along the main land routes and sea trade arteries. This means, military units can intercept them even without the need to capture cities.

Military units are supplied from military magazines with supply trains, and carry only limited number of supplies with them. In Italy 1796-97, an army is the “top supply unit,” that contains the supply trains, and connects to available magazines. Subordinate units rely on the army level logistics tail to feed them, except if stationed nearby a magazine. This logistical system is quite heavy, vulnerable and has a limited operational reach. Stretching the supply lines too long means diminishing flow, and losing a line of communication to the base of supply can quickly lead to big difficulties.

Relying on the magazine system and long, heavy logistical tails was established during the age of enlightenment. The memory of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), with armies like swarms of locusts consuming and destroying everything in their way, was still haunting the societies. But the old ways are still a possibility, and war can feed war. Armies may purchase supplies from the civilian population, but also simply take them, or even demand contributions to pay the soldiers’ wages and fill the military coffers. Such “CIMIC” activities of course affect the mood of the population.

Progress

On the campaign layer, many other mechanics are already in place, like the fog of war. This has been augmented with deployed reconnaissance units (mainly light cavalry) being able to not only spot enemy units farther away, but also to block their recon screens, masking the movement of the army’s main body. But more about them later.

We will take a closer look at the different campaign mechanics as we finalize them and populate the map and the UI with visual elements. In the meanwhile, this month’s video shows some of the player controls and how order delays work in battles. Maybe GT1 veterans can spot a few improvements here and there?