Gary Grigsby's War In The East 2 WITE2

[Asid]

Gary Grigsby's War In The East 2 WITE2


Joel Billings
06/01/16

We are currently working on WitE2, which uses the War in the West map (expanded to cover to east of the Urals). This game will use all the new features in WitW (new logistics, new air system, etc.). It will have many other elements that are different from WitE1, although the fundamental ground game will be similar to WitW. We are building the database to include everything that was in WitW and WitE. This will give us the potential of creating a future game that would cover all of Europe from 1943-45. Using the map to create other scenarios from earlier in the war would also be possible (I expect modders will eventually be able to do this if they want to, although adding new armies is a lot of work). It is even possible that eventually a 41-45 WiE would be doable, but that would be a lot of work. Going back to 1940 or 1939 as the start of a full WiE is probably more than we'll ever do, although one should never say never. We are doing this while also working on a new tactical game inspired by Gary's old Steel Panthers series, something we are working on jointly with the Matrix development group. We hope that one or both of these games will come out in 2017, although this part of the post will self-destruct within 30 days and I will deny ever saying it.

[Asid]

Joel Billings
21/06/17


It starts from the WitW engine so it has expanded air and logistics rules. It uses the War in Europe map that was in WitW (but with further work done in the eastern areas to improve it further). The OB started from WitE's OB but with further research and improvements. Basically all data areas are constantly being improved. From this starting point there are may additional changes including big ones like the event system and theater boxes and smaller ones like double and single rail lines on the map. If you have played WitE you will recognize about 50% of the game, and if you've played WitW, you'll recognize another 25% of the game (give or take). Having played both you'll be able to jump in quickly and start playing, but you'll find lots of subtle and not so subtle changes that will impact your strategies. In theory, by using the WiE map, we have the potential for someday having scenarios that include both east and west, although as has been mentioned before, anything before 1943 would require more involved naval rules or treating the Western Front as a Theater Box until 1943.

[Asid]

Update on progress

Joel Billings
16/07/18


"WitE stated develeopment in 2000, was stopped and started several times (got distracted by War in the Pacific and a few other games during that time) and only got back to full time development in 2008. It released in December 2010. WitW started at that time and was released in December 2014. WitE2 started at that time, but we're also working on a remake of Gary's old Steel Panthers series. We're a small dev group and these games take a long time to develop. The testing time alone is enormous (testing for both bugs and game balance). We are still in alpha testing as there are a few major pieces of the game that still need to be completed before we can start beta testing. All we can say is that we are working on WitE2 and until it's in true beta testing we're still quite a ways out from release. "

[Selva]

Hmmm, i didn't get confortable with these arguments.

I own WiTE and WiTW and are both great games.

However, what i felt about this statement is that their are not going to introduce a significant change in the game besides a larger map.

It would really be cool if you could have the possibility to micromanage somethings (if you wanted to) like the focus of production of your country.

For example. You are the general commander of your forces, you noticed that you are going to launch a massive panzer operation in a couple of months, it would be reasonable to tell the politicians to focus the production lines to more panzers than field guns for example, that way, you would have much more equipment in your storages.

[General Sandman]

Hmmm, i didn't get confortable with these arguments.

I own WiTE and WiTW and are both great games.

However, what i felt about this statement is that their are not going to introduce a significant change in the game besides a larger map.

It would really be cool if you could have the possibility to micromanage somethings (if you wanted to) like the focus of production of your country.

For example. You are the general commander of your forces, you noticed that you are going to launch a massive panzer operation in a couple of months, it would be reasonable to tell the politicians to focus the production lines to more panzers than field guns for example, that way, you would have much more equipment in your storages.

This isnt the initial intention about WITE 2. I read, that the Devs basically wanted to add the improvements of WITW to the eastern front game.

I hope, that I misunderstood a posting, that they plan to only convert data, so that the earliest start of the German-Russio-War will be in 1943, like it is in WITW. ... Or at least that this info is outdated.

I dont really miss production management, cos this feature is intentionally recessed by the Devs anyway. You are only to be in charge of the pure operational tasks in this game.
Nevertheless IMO the perfect wargame was a symbiosis of the WITW, Hearts of Iron, Command Ops and Combat Mission series or Graviteam products like Operation Star. So unit production would be included.

But what I´d like to be changed is the strict withdrawal schedulings. It simply doesnt make sense, that mostly intact and highly skilled formations are getting dissolved, just because it is considered as historically accurate, cos a certain unit had been hit hardly in reality. Better to let the player select the units for dissolving or withdrawal from defined contingents by the highcommand.

[Asid]

They are basically adding the new parts from WITW to WITE2. This should eventually allow them to unleash the monster that is WITE" + WITW in one game 

[Asid]

Event System.

from the devs:

"This is probably the biggest change in WitE2 from the earlier games of this lineage. For a scenario designer like me it adds the ability to introduce unparalleled flexibility and variation to the game whilst also giving the ability to keep a scenario on track.

The system allows a range of actions to be set ( e.g. units unfreezing, multipliers changing) to occurrences in the games (locations captured, time reached). An example is D-Day triggering increased combat intensity in the Western Theatre Box which will encourage the Axis player to send units West. The system allows a probability to be set too so occurrence is not scripted to a given turn.

As the recent discussion has focused on Finland the screenshot shows the events related to the Finland Campaign from the editor and shows how the ability to have the Finns participate on the map has not been lost. "

[General Sandman]

What I missed in WitE was an accurate siege modus. I mean, there should be the opportunity to propperly only bombard fortified urban territories by large heavy arty contingents to soften the defence and hitting a certain amount of different structures without storming the objective with line formations yet.
Anybody heard about such a feature in WitE#2?

[Asid]

The Commmander's Report has just had a big overhaul.

Work in progress

Pavel (Helpless) has starred again by creating an improved system where the CR is now a sorted table which is modular and consists of 5 sections.

1. Functions.
2. Filters.
3. Column header.
4. Table.
5. Footer.

The really good thing as I understand it is that you can configure the tables as you want to present the data you need and this is saved in your preferences. As in old CR, table entries can be linked to some function (eg. go to the map and select air group) or quick filter selection (select all FB in type filter).
It is also possible to colour code particular entries.

[zakblood]

all i know is it looks and plays much better than WITE does, feels much different than WITW does and on one campaign im on atm, it takes epic to another level

under a NDA so can't say much if anything at all lol 

 

[Asid]

Thanks for the input Zak 

[Asid]

Information

By Red Lancer Dev


[...]The usual caveats of we are still in alpha and our focus is getting the main areas of historic combat correct apply.

Treatment of Finland
As you’ll have picked up from the thread the relative importance of the Arctic Theatre, its size and AI challenges has led us to abstract it for the Campaign games. What happens in the Theatre Box (TB) is governed by Events and CV. There is currently no event that triggers an increase in supply in the TB when Leningrad is captured but it could be added. In a similar way if the Soviet player fails to commit sufficient troops to the TB then LL ought to take a hit.

Rail Construction
Rails are not dynamic. As we have created the map we have carefully chosen the best compromise based on time and geography.

Moving Resources
I’m not 100% sure how the logistics system works with resource movement as it is largely hidden. I do know that the game now allows port depots to be switched between send and receive to allow freight to be better channelled by sea as required. Shipping values are set separately for the Baltic, Black, Azov and Caspian Seas. We could also add an event that triggers on cutting the supply from Baku, by say, capturing Astrakhan, Lagan or Makhachkala.

Agriculture
Your argument is well made. This level of nuance is applied through broad modifiers on supply as at the basic level we don’t separate agriculture from other resources – only oil is treated separately.

[Asid]

Update on release date
20/02/19

By Joe Billings: Dev

We don't like to give a time frame, especially when we're still in alpha. It's a lot easier to do it when you get to beta. Although a lot of the game is working, and working pretty well, we've got at least two major items left. Lately we've been working on changes to the air game to make it easier to use and make it possible for player's to turn a lot of control of the air forces over to the AI. Although we're using the WitW air system, we're trying to make more of it playable from the map. Also, the WitW AI assist works ok for WitW but needs a complete overhaul to make it worthwhile to use in WitE2. Once most of the air game changes have been made, we're likely to bring in more testers as players won't need to be familiar with the WitW system to come up to speed quickly. After that, we'll be working on a facelift for the interface. We'll be assuming a slightly higher screen resolution which will give us some more room when the maps up. Until the air game changes have been made, we're still a ways out. On the positive side, our scenario designers have 8 scenarios up and running now. Although they require some data changes for the air changes, they're in pretty good shape and the amount of data and historical research that has gone into these scenarios is more than I've ever seen. The scenarios are:

Campaign 41-45
Stalingrad to Berlin Campaign (Nov 42 to 45)
Vistula to the Oder Campaign (1945 Campaign)
Road to Leningrad
Operation Typhoon
Red Army Resurgent (Soviet Stalingrad Counterattack)
Red God of War (Operation Mars)
Velikie Luki 42 (tutorial scenario)

We hope to add a few more scenarios before release.

[Asid]

Work in progress

The line graphs are in WitW, so we are just expanding the items graphed for WitE2. The pie charts are a new element in WitE2.

[Asid]

Update on beta release
03/11/19

By Joe Billings: Dev

I expect that there will be a beta test phase before release. Right now we are working on the interface facelift and that should be done in the next few months (the final artist has just started his work). We're also working on changes to the air game. The ground game has been effectively at beta for several months, but we need to get the air game to that point along with the interface changes to say we're at gameplay beta. The air changes are going to require some rework of the AI, including providing some automated help for players. Until that happens it will be tough for some players to pick up the game. We may add a few more testers between now and the beta phase, but I expect we'll be adding many new testes when we hit the beta phase.

Once we start getting some of our final interface art into the game, we'll try to provide some screenshots.