Hello everyone,
After a lot of discussions with SMAN on Discord, I wanted to put a first batch of several lists I made concerning our many thoughts, ideas and suggestions for the future versions of World At War. Being myself a big fan of the mod, it's only natural to me to try to be a helping aid in the community (and also being a Dev IRL helps
) .
Keep in mind that these are only suggestions/ideas, and the goal here is to publish these lists so that anyone can come here and discuss it further with us. I myself believe that the charm of WAW is its variety and massive amount of content.
Having played quite a lot of games myself, especially in the later eras ( WW2, Cold War and Future Era ) , I believe that there's still so much potential to enhance the mod, especially with new units for these eras.
So we've discussed quite a lot of about several aspects, possibilities and new units to be implemented into the mod on Discord. I've made these several lists to be able to keep track of everything so far. Also, I've played around a bit with the code already, doing several little tweaks here and there, that I think are relevant and even necessary in some cases.
So without further ado, let's get going.
I'll start with the list of changes I've made on my local end of the mod ( I must say, after several games of testing against Deity AIs, I'm quite happy with these changes, and I would say that some were actually quite necessary in terms of balance/gameplay wise).
Local changes :
Unit changes :
- Buff Reaper Drone's unit ranged combat to 100
- Buff Private Mil Contractors unit from 80 strength to 90
- Buff BlackOps unit from 85 strength to 90
- Buff Missile Destroyer unit from 95 melee strength to 100
- Automation unit doesn't require Transparent Aluminium anymore
- Nerf Self Propelled Artillery unit movement from 6 to 4
- Strategic Bomber now requires the Bomber Factory to be built
- Wild Weasel now requires the Fighter Factory to be built
Unit switch :
- Move Blackops unit from Artificial Intelligence to Globalization
- Move Superheavy ICBM from Artificial Intelligence to Nuclear Fusion
- Move 5th Gen fighter from Digital Revolution to Stealth
- Move Nuclear Cruise Missile from Digital Revolution to Nuclear Fusion
- Move Stealth Fighter from Stealth to Manned Spaceflight
- Move Reaper Drone from Biotechnology to Stealth
- Move Predator Drone from Composite Materials to Lasers or Robotics
- Move Advanced Armor from Composite Materials to
Particle Physics ( to debate, the goal was to move it further up but i wasn't exactly sure to which technology )
- Move MOAB from Television to Advanced Ballistics
- Move CAS Helicopter from Robotics to Composite Materials
- Move Missile Destroyer from Nanotech to Lasers
( to debate )
- Move Nuclear Cruise Missile from Digital Revolution to Advanced Ballistics
( several tier of this unit could theoretically be added )
- Move Private Military Contractors from Supply Chain Management to Globalization
- Move Biotrooper from Hyperstructures to Genetic Biomodification
Building switch :
- Move Center for Disease Control from Biotechnology to Globalization
- Move Wind Farm from Artificial Intelligence to Telecommunications or Ecology
( to debate )
- Move Genetics Lab from Genetic Biomodification to Nanotechnology
- Move Biofactory from Genetic Biomodification to Nanotechnology
- Move Particle Accelerator from Plasma Production to Particle Physics
- Move Nuclear Weapons Factory from Mobile Tactics to Advanced Ballistics
- Move Advanced Warfare Center from Nuclear Fusion to Globalization (
to debate )
- Move Move Polar Station from Supply Chain Management to Telecommunications
- Move Art Gallery from Supply Chain Management to Television
- Move Casino from Supply Chain Management to Televsion
- Move Automated Manufactoring Plant from Digital Revolution to Supply Chain Management
- Only 5 Nuclear Weapons Factories can now be built
- Fixed a typo in Photonic Integrated Circuits technology description string
Now, I'll continue with the lists of ideas that I mentioned earlier.
Bugs that I noticed so far :
- Railgun armor can't melee attack/capture cities, it has a ranged attack (
not sure if intended or not, but i believe that this unit should be melee only )
- Nuclear missile upgrades into Superheavy nuke but doesn't disappears when upgraded
- Several stuck animations remaining, notably Rocket Launcher,
will have to do an extensive list later
Overall Mod Enhancement :
- Having overall less buildings that produce resources (especially Aluminium)
- Add " fast aircraft animations " enhancement to every WAW air unit (
this would possibly be quite big work as i'm not too familiar with how this works, so this is only a suggestion)
- The early stage of the WW2 era could I believe reflect the feel of the late 20s and early 30s better. (
More cultural/economic/happiness buildings, or even National Wonders ? Or any new original concepts for it)
- Implementation of a significant overhaul of the entire Nuclear Weapons system (WMDs). We've discussed this quite a lot, with mentions of enhancing the existing (amazing) AI nuke system implemented by SMAN, and even possibly adding completely new WMDs type of units to allow for a better gameplay.
This should probably be a main subject of discussion.
- Implementation of a significant overhaul of the Guided Missile system/logic. We've discussed the possibility of also adding a new type of unit, with several variants of the guided missiles (
for example, an anti-ship one) ; also, we thought of the possibility of adding a " building destruction " logic to the guided missiles.
This should also be a main subject of discussion.
Ideas for Unit Changes :
- Modern Armor and MBTs -
and a lot of other units that we could list later - should not become obsolete before a long time
- Move XCOM Squad unit from Atomic Manipulation to Energy Weapons
- Make Flak anti air gun obsolete at Rocketry
- Robot Infantry receives the Apocalypse promotion
- Power Armor Infantry is locked behind either a building (
and resources maybe ? ) or a National Wonder, Mechanized infantry upgrades rather into the hypothetical Advanced Mechanized Infantry unit
- Artillery upgrades into self propelled artillery rather than Rocket Launcher.
- The Special Forces could be made Amphibious, since there isn't an upgrade for the Marine unit in the Cold War era.
And now, for the topic that I think we need to discuss the most.
For the record, as discussed with SMAN, the goal is to try to make the Cold War and Future War eras as realistic as possible, compared to our world and how warfare is evolving today.
Units to Add :
WW2 era :
- Add existing V1 guided missile to the game
Cold War era :
- Add an " Heavy Rocket Launcher " unit. Main inspiration for it being the MLRS rocket launchers.
Note : " Artillery " unit model from CJ's More than a Future mod fits perfectly for this.
- Add a " Modern Infantry " unit - unlocked at Mobile Tactics - , the Infantry upgrades into it (requires no resources, rather easy to produce)
- Add a " Modern Bazooka " unit - unlocked at Mobile Tactics - , the Bazooka upgrades into it (requires no resources)
- Add the already Existing Advanced Strategic Bomber (special unit for America) globally in the mod. The strategic bomber upgrades into it.
- Add an " Advanced Mobile SAM " unit in the late Cold War era
- Add an " Advanced Self Propelled Artillery " unit in the late Cold War era. The self propelled artillery upgrades into it.
- Add a Tier 3 Nuclear Submarine in the late Cold War. The Nuclear Submarine upgrades into it.
- Add several new guided missiles units, with different types, like the Anti ship missiles.
- Add possibly several new nuke units, for example a tier 2 Atomic Bomb, could be a hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb. Also maybe another ICBM unit. (
as mentioned, to debate further)
- A building called " Military Research Center " could I think be added in the Cold War era. It could be required to unlock several powerful units. (
to debate)
Future War era :
- Add a mighty " Air Carrier " unit in the early/middle Future War era. This concept has been largely discussed with SMAN already on Discord.
Will post more info on that unit later.
- Add an " Advanced Nuke " unit for the Future War era. Maybe a Cobalt bomb, or something similar. (
to discuss further obviously)
- Add a 6th Gen fighter , early Future Era fighter unit
- Add a Future Era Fighter unit before the Plasma Fighter, the 6th Gen fighter upgrades into it
- Add a Bomber Unit in the early Future War after the Advanced Strategic bomber and the stealth bomber. Could possibly be a " advanced stealth bomber " ? Upgrades into the Suborbital bomber.
- Add Advanced Mechanized Infantry unit in the early Future War era (
I believe this is a must-add unit, considering how essential mechanized infantry will remain for quite some time)
- Add a basic Infantry unit for the Future War era. The " Modern Infantry " upgrades into it.
Note : Several infantry units of CJ's mods fit perfectly for this unit, namely : The " Marine ", the " Sentinel " and the " Centurion ".
- Add a " Biotrooper Bazooka " unit. The Modern Bazooka could either upgrade into it or into another unit.
(to debate further)
- Add a ranged, Drone unit in the early Future War era. It could receive promotions against armored units. The Reaper Drone upgrades into it.
- Add an early Future War submarine unit, before the Cybersub.
- Add an early Future War era Destroyer unit, before the Railgun destroyer. I
t could be called the " Laser Destroyer " .
- Add an early Future War Cruiser naval unit. It could be an Advanced Missile Cruiser, before the Railgun Cruiser.
Wonders to Add :
I believe a few wonders could be added in the Future Era. I don't have specific ideas for now tho.
- Manhattan Project, I think an healthy change could be to make it much harder to build it, so that not every Civ is able to research it automatically when reaching the WW2 era.
- Apollo Program, we could add the existing Apollo Program wonder mod into WAW. The mod makes Apollo Program give a free technology and some yields like a normal wonder, and the player has to build " Project Longshot " to be able to build spaceship parts.
That's it for today folks. I technically have more ideas and thoughts for later, but we can continue later, and first elaborate on what i just posted (yes that's a lot already
). Obviously some things will be kept, some others disgarded, and some others maybe modified to fit into the mod better. Anyway, i'm looking forward to some feedback on all this, and also on the incoming discussions about it!
Cheers, Kryptonian Emperor