First and foremost, I love Eugen’s RTS games. I have loved them since I first got my hands on the glorious jewel of a game RUSE. I am also an avid lover of WW2 and the brilliant, but tragic, role it played in shaping our modern world. In this post, I would like to spend some time to focus on and tackle what I think to be the most interesting part of both these topics. Aerial warfare, it was a decisive and comprehensive part of WW2, and I believe its importance should deserve some major attention in the upcoming game, Steel Division: Normandy 1944. I think that SD44 will suffer gravely in this department from what I have seen so far in the developer’s streams. Not only that but I believe that SD44’s aerial warfare will suffer even more with its smaller scale and narrower scope than its predecessor RUSE. The map will not as adequately balance out the movement speed and timing of aerial warfare. Planes already look quite inaccurate in their movements and speeds relative to the rest of the game.
Ok with my little rant completed I would like to present my ideas in ways to improve aerial warfare (side note I think the ship has sailed already for SD44, and that these ideas should be viewed as possible discussion points for future games or even free DLC, or hell if done well even DLC);
The main topic, I would like to discuss, is one that I believe at its core is an intrinsic key to an accurate and realistic implementation of aerial warfare, altitude variations. Altitude was key to aerial warfare in WW2. I think that there should be some mechanic in the game to control the altitude of the planes. This opens the door to an incredible array of possibilities that could greatly develop the wonder that I know SD44 could be.
The most realistic and difficult implementation of this mechanic would to be adding a functioning altimeter to planes, which you could see and control when selecting them. It would create an opportunity for more diverse stats and traits of aircraft. Giving accurate and diverse historical performance variations to planes. Such as varying speeds, turn rates, and climb rates for aircraft at different according to its altitude and whether it is climbing or diving. It would create, quite literally, a new dimension to aerial warfare. This has been a major oversight in Eugen titles, which I believe will be accentuated even more with piston engine aircraft without modern weaponry.
The easier path to implement would be a tiered altitude system. In its simplest form a low, medium and high altitude metric. However, I believe that a slightly more fleshed out tiered altitude system would be the best balance between a tiered system and an actual altitude system. What I mean by “more fleshed out” is making altitude increase in either 100, 200, or 500 meter increments. Giving aircraft different stats at each altitude. This can also be applied to payloads and different bomber types. Varying the altitude that a certain fighter can drop bombs. Fighter bombers could need to drop in their altitude to effectively drop their bombs or perhaps make varying degrees of accuracy between altitudes, lower alt being more accurate for fighters and such. The inverse would also be that large dedicated level bombers be more accurate but their flight performance suffering, like in actual life. Along with varying the performance of aircraft you could vary the amount of time the aircraft takes to enter the battlefield. This serves a significant role to aircraft balance with the rest of the game. Increasing the time of arrival with an increase of altitude. Which would limit the immediate presence of aircraft on the battlefield. Allowing the player to make specific per game decisions whether to call in an aircraft for immediate action sacrificing safety and altitude or increasing safety and altitude but decreasing the aircrafts immediate presence.
In summation, I believe that Eugen’s future titles could greatly benefit from enhancing the aerial combat, which I believe to be an immensely important part of warfare, especially that of WW2. – Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hope SD44 is great.
Ok with my little rant completed I would like to present my ideas in ways to improve aerial warfare (side note I think the ship has sailed already for SD44, and that these ideas should be viewed as possible discussion points for future games or even free DLC, or hell if done well even DLC);
The main topic, I would like to discuss, is one that I believe at its core is an intrinsic key to an accurate and realistic implementation of aerial warfare, altitude variations. Altitude was key to aerial warfare in WW2. I think that there should be some mechanic in the game to control the altitude of the planes. This opens the door to an incredible array of possibilities that could greatly develop the wonder that I know SD44 could be.
The most realistic and difficult implementation of this mechanic would to be adding a functioning altimeter to planes, which you could see and control when selecting them. It would create an opportunity for more diverse stats and traits of aircraft. Giving accurate and diverse historical performance variations to planes. Such as varying speeds, turn rates, and climb rates for aircraft at different according to its altitude and whether it is climbing or diving. It would create, quite literally, a new dimension to aerial warfare. This has been a major oversight in Eugen titles, which I believe will be accentuated even more with piston engine aircraft without modern weaponry.
The easier path to implement would be a tiered altitude system. In its simplest form a low, medium and high altitude metric. However, I believe that a slightly more fleshed out tiered altitude system would be the best balance between a tiered system and an actual altitude system. What I mean by “more fleshed out” is making altitude increase in either 100, 200, or 500 meter increments. Giving aircraft different stats at each altitude. This can also be applied to payloads and different bomber types. Varying the altitude that a certain fighter can drop bombs. Fighter bombers could need to drop in their altitude to effectively drop their bombs or perhaps make varying degrees of accuracy between altitudes, lower alt being more accurate for fighters and such. The inverse would also be that large dedicated level bombers be more accurate but their flight performance suffering, like in actual life. Along with varying the performance of aircraft you could vary the amount of time the aircraft takes to enter the battlefield. This serves a significant role to aircraft balance with the rest of the game. Increasing the time of arrival with an increase of altitude. Which would limit the immediate presence of aircraft on the battlefield. Allowing the player to make specific per game decisions whether to call in an aircraft for immediate action sacrificing safety and altitude or increasing safety and altitude but decreasing the aircrafts immediate presence.
In summation, I believe that Eugen’s future titles could greatly benefit from enhancing the aerial combat, which I believe to be an immensely important part of warfare, especially that of WW2. – Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hope SD44 is great.
