Preview: Europe in Ruins
A Company of Heroes Modification
Company of Heroes has become a runaway success since it's release in September 2006, and the online community continues to grow. Now, modders are creating new content for this WWII-based RTS, and one of
TG's own is working on a mod.
Europe in Ruins is a persistent war mod created by fldash that takes the great gameplay found in Company of Heroes and distills it into a tabletop-themed wargame. With no official expansion in sight just yet, EiR could be just the thing to pump even more life into this already-great game. Since this is a preview for the mod, some of the things outlined in this article may change in its various releases. It is still unpublished at this point, but an Alpha version is said to be coming soon.
I have never personally played anything similar to what's proposed in Europe in Ruins - although the idea is not new. Participants are involved in a large scale war that plays itself out over the course of many weeks. The war map will be represented on a website, and players will be able to challenge enemy-held territory to either gain or lose ground in the grand scheme. The overall scheme of the war is turn based, and players may fight for territory during each week-long turn. Battles are waged individually in the game. Win the battle and your army wins the territory and resources within. Lose and you'll have to regroup and try again.
Here's the catch - you must allot which units you'll take into battle BEFORE the match starts. A command hierarchy is established with one player on each side serving as General, and so on. Higher-tier commanders will allot resources to lower level commanders for them to purchase units and abilities for each of their in-game battles. No in-game construction of units or buildings is planned, aside from defensive structures like obstacles and bunkers. So choosing the appropriate mix of units is key going into the battle. Helping those units survive is equally important, since this is a
persistent war mod. Surviving units will earn veterancy, and be available to use in future battles. You won't battle over resource points in-game like you do in vanilla CoH either. Territory in-game is controlled based on occupation, not control of the resource points typically found in CoH.
The mod's creator fldash has graciously answered some questions about the mod.
Evo: Why create persistent war mod?
fldash: Ultimately, the single player game in almost every RTS to date is a campaign or war of sorts. There’s a story and a reason for the madness. However, once players get online, it’s only about each game or match. There is no reason, no story, and no greater goal.
Simply put, with the mass success of persistent worlds and role playing games, we thought we could be the first to offer something for the RTS genre of games, obviously picking Company of Heroes due to its modding flexibility, awards, and great background for creating a persistent war, World War II.
What will the win conditions for each battle? Annihilation or VP control?
The win conditions are constantly getting talked about in the developer’s forum. Right now it’s based on auto-territory control (
see video), time, and annihilation. There are certain instances where a winner for the battle will not be declared and it will continue into the next round of play.
Why not include in-game resource management and unit construction?
We wanted to create a unique bond and feeling of worth to each of your units. If you know that the tank you have is the only tank you are going to have for the whole battle, you won’t treat it recklessly knowing that you can build another in 60 seconds.
As for resources, too many times the games become about cutting off supply and less about the actual battle. We want our players to focus completely on the battle when they are in game, they can worry about resources, cutting off supplies, on the war map which makes more sense.
How do you see the pre-battle allotment of resources changing the overall strategy of the game?
It will greatly increase the value of each of your units as I previously mentioned. Furthermore, you’ll need to take into account war reports and perhaps your ability to watch the replays of previous battles to determine what type of units the player you are about to battle likes to use.
How will the mod handle reinforcements and unit special abilities/upgrades?
Reinforcement of infantry units will be bought before the game. Once you reinforce to this amount, you will have no more reinforcements. Reinforcements are also only available from your halftrack units and so keeping them out of harms way will be important.
Unit upgrade and special abilities will be handled similarly. Upgrades will always be bought before the battle and stick with that squad as long as it’s alive. In addition to the fee to buy the upgrade, there are also munitions fees in game for their use. You assign the amount of munitions for each battle much like reinforcements.
Will players have the option to surrender to preserve units?
After moves are made on the map, players that wish to retreat may do so from their map sector to avoid battle. They will lose a percentage of their units.
How is veterancy earned?
Veterancy is earned for both Axis and Allies the same way: by killing other units. Infantry, vehicles, and tanks all gain veterancy at different levels and the veterancy is carried over as long as the squad stays alive.
I understand players will be sorted into a command hierarchy to manage resources. How will that work?
We haven’t really decided how players will be placed into the hierarchy. Obviously during testing, those in high command positions will be developers and contributors.
As far as resources are concerned, at the beginning of each round, the war general on each side is assigned all the resources earned from the sectors he owns. He then divvies them down to the Colonels who divvy them down to their Captains. This all happens in the initial part of the round/turn just before unit moves. It’s all done through the website and very simple to see how much you are giving to each player under you and how much tax you have to pay.
Will doctrine abilities be available? How will that work? Are command points still earned through battle or are they alloted before the fight?
Players select their doctrine at the start of the war and each of the 5 companies they can control shares this doctrine. The doctrine abilities are assigned given at the start of the battle but we haven’t really decided how many command points the players will get to select which abilities they want in game. We are toying with the idea of giving players command points based on their hierarchy level meaning a general may have access to all of a doctrines abilities, a colonel most of them, and a captain only a few.
With the pre-allotment of units, does Airborne company lose the ability to paradrop troops, AT guns, and supplies?
No. This is very hard to manage with SCAR because of their ability to arrive at any time. However I think I’ve got a pretty good idea on how to do it. Supplies will be available but we haven’t decided to what extent.
How long will each turn last. How long will wars run?
Each turn is scheduled to last only one week. We may need to increase this to two weeks in the beginning while players get used to the system.
Wars will run until one side is dominated and no longer able to be competitive in the war. This can be decided by the league admins or by this surrendering sides hierarchy.
Will the team defending the territory get some sort of bonus? How to you plan on sorting that dynamic of things?
Defending teams definitely get a bonus. This is a ‘setup’ time bonus in game which can be anywhere from 3 minutes to 12 minutes. We are also planning on more dynamic things like attacking rear sectors to decrease their resource output for a few turns, etc…
Will this mod support both 1v1 and team games?
Yes.
Will you need to set up a scheduling system, or can players handle that on their own?
Veterancy is earned for both Axis and Allies the same way: by killing other units. Infantry, vehicles, and tanks all gain veterancy at different levels and the veterancy is carried over as long as the squad stays alive.
Some in the community have said this looks too complex to work. What do you say to them?
It’s really no different than those silly little text-based browser games that are a dime a dozen on MPOGD, only we have a nice front-end for our wars.
Where is progress being made? Where is it stalling?
Progress is being made an all fronts. I believe all the technical hurdles have been crossed and it’s just a matter of getting everything programmed. We only have two programmers working on the project.
How can people get involved in developing the mod?
If you have ideas you’d like us to consider, post it on the
forum. If you’d like to get your hands dirty and do some programming,
contact me directly. I really need someone graphically inclined to help with the website and for other small things.
When can we expect a playable Alpha?
Due to the amount of public apprehension surrounding the mod, it won’t be available until we have a system that looks good. Despite being billed as an alpha, if everything isn’t up to snuff, I have the feeling many members of the community will turn and go and we’ll have a hard time getting them back. All that said, soon.
Thanks for speaking with me about the mod, fldash.
Europe in Ruins is probably one of the most talked-about mods for Company of Heroes right now. It's one of the first mods that promises to do something more than simply change the attributes of various units or add functionality to change basic gameplay. EiR is subject to some speculation because of the perceived complexity of it's web/in-game interaction and it's command hierarchy. But it shows a lot of promise. If it gets the support of the community it has the potential to really take off.
Thanks to fldash for talking with me about the mod. We'll look forward to playing! For more info on the mod, visit the
Europe in Ruins website.
