The Future of Supreme Ruler Development / SR Next Generation

[George Geczy]

- keep scenario compatibility to save the work
- keep unit database compatibility in order to save development time and save massive amount of work and research already being done.
...

I think it's important to say right up front that even in a new engine we'd be looking to bring many of the core content items forward - there's been a lot of great work done over the past years (decades?) by BG devs and the community in areas like the unit database, regional information, map details, events, etc.

Some things will by their nature be a bit tricky - for example, how can you progress from a 1936 (or 1914) map to a modern map smoothly but historically accurate to reflect population redistribution, new urban development, transportation, etc. Not sure if we can actually overcome that particular problem easily, there will always be some tradeoffs. But with regard to things like our Equipment list, which even with its flaws is I think the best and most detailed database of its kind out there, we want to certainly just build on and improve it.

We also want to keep game datasets and structures familiar to players and modders. So we may add new data elements, and increased limits, but don't expect the regions CVP file to go away, etc.

-- George.

[SGTscuba]

Naval Mines, mainly just to get the system that has always been marked to be in game

Also, if your going for a new engine, will the direct X model format be replaced or will it stay the same?

[Balthagor]

just to get the system that has always been marked to be in game ...

There is no system, you can only flag units. It's nothing more than a yes/no value that no other bit of code looks at.

[SGTscuba]

just to get the system that has always been marked to be in game ...

There is no system, you can only flag units. It's nothing more than a yes/no value that no other bit of code looks at.

I know, that's why I asked for it to be fleshed out.

[Balthagor]

I just wanted to clarify that it will need bones before we can add flesh... there is no system designed, just a flag to track the units that might someday be part of some system.

[Cdiplayer]

I would really like to see the option for more in game customization, particularly the ability to change your nation's flag as the game goes on. I mean, if the AI can change flags through events over the course of a game, why shouldn't the player be able to?

[Rosalis]

If your able to get AI flags thru events, why wouldnt you be able to?

- keep scenario compatibility to save the work
- keep unit database compatibility in order to save development time and save massive amount of work and research already being done.
...

I think it's important to say right up front that even in a new engine we'd be looking to bring many of the core content items forward - there's been a lot of great work done over the past years (decades?) by BG devs and the community in areas like the unit database, regional information, map details, events, etc.

I sure hope your talking about SR2020 content. You know that game with tons of mods and aar's? Im not waiting to see WW1 units and techs on 2020/2025/2030. Let alone the 0 production facilties i still see after fixing it myself for 5 years.

Alot of suggestions will be improve that or enable this. But you also have to think about penalties to keep it engaging. If you have alot of military complexes world gonna turn against you, this was represented better in SR2020. Just like entrenching borders, the ai should take measures to protect itself, and best defence is a good offence.

Producing hundred of recon cavs or ww1 AT because you dont have light infantry design aint gonna help you. Setting up a regional sphere, trying to make allies to one of the superpowers, importing their units, forming a balanced army, once you declare war the superpower throws you with stuff like UN did in SR2020, that's gonna help them

[Rosalis]

Look at that, all requests stopped.

According to earlier statement of george ai look for ally preferably cloose to them (altho as human player i rarely receive diplomatic offers compared to SR2020). No statements have been given that importing/exporting units within your sphere (and rarely outside) isnt possible and lastly UN was just a region in SR2020, so it should be possible for superpowers to behave this way. So all thats needed is some love to the features needed. Then you could forget about a new engine and adding hundreds of unfinished features, but could just focus on updating the world in the game once a cpl of months and why not each year add a sandbox with the new year, no reason that old content need to be overwritten all the time.

If this is commercially a good idea thats not my department, but seeing how all requests stopped this will certainly help to sell more games. Those request come for a reason, if the game isnt engaging people looking for more features. You could always bring out more dlc once a year with more features or attention to a specific continent. 2-3 patches to fix issues that arise, business model done. Not saying a new engine should be out of the window, just giving options. The issue with dlc will be that content can be copied, but i guess you could protect that someway and seeing how many people actually know how to mod i think this will be a very small percentage of people. You will need access someway to the dlc anyway. Seem like most just wanna suport. Look at city skylines, most content in the workshop isnt from dlc content, users and modders just respect the dlc structure in that game. A service agreement that all content in the workshop remain property of BG and threaten with court if not respected will prolly be enough.

[Uriens]

One feature i'd like to see in the future is implementing weapons development and manufacturing companies as a diplomatic entity. Those companies do a massive push worldwide in the vehicle and tank design and manufacturing and also have manufacturing capabilities so that regions/countries can both buy licenses for new designs and order new units to be deployed to their countries (for hefty price ofc).
I don't think that adding each company separately is a good idea but you could add them as a joint diplomatic entity that you can conduct treaties with in a similar fashion you can with other regions with the exception that it would be limited to licenses and manufacturing of vehicles and they would have no visible assets on world map. How could it work - you would open diplomatic screen with them and have those 2 categories available, no treaties or resources or anything else. In a way they would be like replacement of the world market that was in 2010 (not sure if it was called world market back then, been a long time since i played that game) and that periodically offered regions new unit designs.
Regions that have bad standing or are expelled from UN probably should not be able access this feature (gives more incentive to not anger them too much) - those companies would not risk their reputation to deal with what is widely perceived as a bad guy.
They would also 'unlock' new designs/licenses based on current world wide research with a year or two delay. For example, someone develops rail gun technology, as it would take those companies to adopt and implement new research some time. The designs licenses implementing that tech would show one-two years later (exact number could be random and/or specified for each design in cvp file. However to be able to buy said licences a region should have their own research of rail guns developed but that research itself should not be available through this feature.
Widely available designs are, for example M113 APC which is either used for many other designs as a base or used by militaries worldwide. In game that means that any region that is eligible to conduct diplomatic deals with WM would also be able to purchase license for M113 design and be able to manufacture them on their own OR order a number of them from WM which would then use their own factories to manufacture and deploy them to region. WM manufacturing capacity could be specified in WM file and it would be continent based - so if they have 10 factories in Europe only 10 units could be ordered from European regions at one time. Also, buying finished units this way would cost much more then producing your own but if you need few units of specific type and for whatever reason don't have capability to produce them yourself, this is a way to go. Some regions IRL also don't have ability to produce units but order them from either other regions or from such companies.


I'd also suggest expanding region codes to something else then just single letter code and to allow moders to add new ones as needed. Right now, for example, i'd like Ukraine to have different code from say Russia or have Eastern Europe regions more separated instead having them all in the same group.

[SGTscuba]

I think the above 2 posts can be summed up with the suggestion that I made many moons ago, and that is for a strategic unit trading system. This basically allowed you to tag units as up for sale, almost in a way like the strategic reserve is (basically it creates a separate reserve), and then select the unit/units from a country, and then have it add it to a diplomatic offer which you could then make your offer. This would then allow nations that don't have access to your reserve status to see what units you have up for sale, and to then buy them. Obviously the cost would depend on relations. This would permit nations with more modern units, the ability to get rid of them, and those nations without production capacity to acquire extra units, provided they have the money and reasonable relations, which would be much closer to reality then now.

Potentially, I thought this might be extendable to a licensing system, where you could see the designs a country had, and then it would allow you to purchase X number of battalions of kit, with the country that has the tech then building it within their own production capacity. Obviously this system would need to be idiot proofed to prevent abuse of eating up all of an AI nations slots.

Here is the thread I made in the past:
viewtopic.php?f=83&t=26070&p=188114&hilit=SUT#p188114

[Rosalis]

That system is prolly already in place in someway, just as hidden feature. Guess its nice to market the patches to add features, but if those features are for the player game wont grow in the strategic scene. What you dont talk about in this feature is protection of sphere/your direct local region. Likehood of Saudi Arabia exporting units to their direct neighbours is much bigger i guess then for example outside middle east. Or France stop exporting ships to Russia after they increase world volatility.

I dont think president of Philipinnes agree fully with your proposed system. Terrorist groups came in his country, he asked for weapons from US, didnt got a single thing. Then after about a year China and Russia wanted to talk to him. Next week weapons were transported from China and Russia.

What about regions in africa and south america joining China sphere? I dont see a single thing of it right now in game. World might be isolated on the western front, but that leave it open for others...

[Balthagor]

That system is prolly already in place in someway, just as hidden feature...

On what exactly do you base this accusation? You seem to enjoy taking shots at our development team whenever you can.

The forum rule of "be polite" also applies to the dev team. I suggest you keep that in mind in your posts.

[SGTscuba]

The price/willingness to sell would be based on relations between the nations

[Rosalis]

That system is prolly already in place in someway, just as hidden feature...

On what exactly do you base this accusation? You seem to enjoy taking shots at our development team whenever you can.

The forum rule of "be polite" also applies to the dev team. I suggest you keep that in mind in your posts.

Yet you dont ask for a single save game for me, cause you know its true.

I base it on the fact that i see those units on the other side of the world. Just random. Like Merkava IV in Zambia. So much focus on units, but in the end it doesnt even mather. What happened to that topic where Netherlands bought out half of the world CW Russian units and were left with 10k useless units? All i know its still not fixed.

[Balthagor]

...What happened to that topic where Netherlands bought out half of the world CW Russian units and were left with 10k useless units?

I'm not sure, do you have ticket number? If you were rude in the post I likely stopped reading it. Link me the thread and I'll take another look.