Paul Vebber
Posts: 11430
Joined: 3/29/2000 From: Portsmouth RI Status: offline
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COmbat Leader is our attempt to start from a clean sheet and do a tactical game that SP:WaW players will be very familiar with, but will not have a lot fo the limitations in it (like an 11 year old compiler) that are teh root of teh remaining problems with SP:WaW.
We just can't fix SP:WaW the way we want, short of "gut and paste" of major systems, 'like spotting and artillery) and we have to be able to charge for teh product to make that level of change.
So we are basically the idea of a hex based, squad and single tank, top down display IGO-UGO game and "doing it right" based on all the input we have gotten over the years.
Teh first module will be a small step - we figure 3-4 years to get everything we want into teh game, so we are working on a "spiral developmet cycle" You get a firm foundation established, you get it out to teh users, and you get feedback for the next module.
The problems are, the first module doesn't have "everything" (in fact may be a step backward form some points of view) so some people are going to wait for "the end" to get "everything.
That is bad because if the initial two modules don't sell, the last ones will never get made, and players playing the game are a significant source of likes and dislikes about desing decisions and the game direction.
We have a firm direction we want the game to go, this will not be "game design by poll" but it has flexibility to accomodate things the few of us desingn/developers may not have thought of.
We have to get a game that uses a modern compiler, libaries, etc that we own, to go the "next step". Will this new game be SP:WaW ver 8?
EMPAHTICALLY NOT!!
What it will be is a whole lot of things that SP:WaW CAN'T be becasue of the limitations of the design. But it has to start of slow, look at how long it has taken us to go from SP:WaW v1 to V7! So in many ways we are starting over, but with a broader foundation that will allow us to build a much better game out of!
If you have liked what we have done with SP:WaW, you will not be disappointed!
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