Kriegsspieler wrote:Is there ANY reasonable chance that your version of WW2 will get the naval part of the war right?
This is a very tough question. First, the stuff I can say with certainty:
1) This is a very big thing here at the studio. It has been identified as one of the weaknesses of our past titles, and the development team all agree that this needs to be improved.
2) We are definitely putting in an effort to improve the naval elements of the game (Unit initiative, use of escorts / sub-hunters / carriers, etc), and implementing AI to use these features.
So, will we "get it right"? We'll put in our best effort on this. As you point out, it's a very difficult element of a grand-strategy game. I don't think I've seen anyone ever get it right before. But we will certainly make major improvements in this area over what has been in our previous games.
I have to admit I haven't recently looked at the threads on this forum with discussion and suggestions on naval warfare, but I will be doing that over the next few weeks, and I certainly would encourage people to start a new thread and discuss their ideas and wish-lists on this topic.
Oh, and by the way -- I would love to see the game begin before 1936.
This is certainly possible for a future update campaign or a user mod. The game engine certainly supports warefare going back as early as 1910 or so (which is basically where our tech tree and equipment list start) ... however, the earlier you go from 1936 the more work it is to edit the world - Especially if you go back before 1919 (when major border changes occurred in the world). But 1933 is certainly possible.
That being said, we chose 1936 because it did give a nice balance between giving a reasonable time for build-up, plus the possibilities for changing major relationships before things get too hot.
Thanks for the questions and the support.
-- George / BattleGoat.
