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Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm
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Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm is a grand tactical wargame set at the height of the Cold War, with the action centered on the year 1989. As the force Commander, you will plan and then issue orders and Standard Operating Procedures to your battalion, brigade, or regimental forces shaping the fight by maneuver and your intent.
Product page
Complexity: Expert
Period: Modern
Manual: PDF
Editor: Yes.
Theatre: Eastern Europe
Unit Scale: Brigade
Turns: Turn-Based WEGO
Players: 1-2
AI: Yes
Hotseat: Yes
PBEM: Yes
Trailer
About This Game
Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm is a grand tactical wargame set at the height of the Cold War, with the action centered on the year 1989. As the force Commander, you will plan and then issue orders and Standard Operating Procedures to your battalion, brigade, or regimental forces shaping the fight by maneuver and your intent.
The game engine is based on asynchronous WEGO turns. This means you will issue orders then watch a variable amount of time unfold on the battlefield. Then issue or adjust orders to react to what has happened as you execute your battle plan.
Flashpoint Campaigns-Cold War: Southern Storm is a deep simulation of combat operations where your forces are arranged in maneuver units of companies, platoons, and sections of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, infantry squads and teams, recon forces, engineers, air-defense and anti-tank systems, helicopters and more. As the Commander, you will need to use available off-map assets like long-range artillery, rockets, or airstrikes. You may be faced with the specter of using chemical or nuclear weapons to support your forces on the map and win the day.
Features
• Your forces will engage the enemy on 20km x 15km or larger rendered real-world map locations. Each hex is 500m of militarily significant terrain. Each battle can last 4 to 24 hours of in-game time.
• Your troops will meet their foes during any time of day and any weather.
• Your efforts in this complex battlespace will be constantly challenged by modeled features like Electronic Warfare, Air Superiority, Realistic Weather, Line of Sight and Fire, Terrain and Elevation, Smoke and Mines, and Human Factors like training, morale, and readiness. All these elements must be considered if you are to be victorious on the battlefield.
• To help you navigate these critical factors, the game is packed with information dialogs, map overlays, and range rings to aid you as Commander, master the situation, and understand the capabilities of your forces.
• Southern Storm covers areas of Southern Germany on 40 plus maps and an extensive selection of military equipment from 1980 to 1989. You will lead forces from the United States, France, Canada, West-Germany, Soviet Union, East-Germany, and Czechoslovakia. These nations will be fighting in many replayable scenarios and campaigns, both in solo efforts or with allied nations fighting by your side.
• You will be immersed in is a data-rich simulation where each nation has information on National Characteristics, Command Parameters, and Orders of Battle. Data Tables are packed with era-specific equipment and troops. Weapon Systems of the time such as guns, missiles, precision munitions, small arms, and much more are comprehensively modeled.
• As a toolkit, you can create your own scenarios and campaigns. There is also the ability to dive deeper and create or modify game data, artwork, and sound effects as you see fit. All these modding capabilities are supported by detailed documentation.
Asid:
Flashpoint Campaigns Souther Storm - #1 Dev Log
Wed Sep 28, 2022
Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm reveals all its potential.
The grand tactical wargame set in the 1980s Cold War era is approaching its release date and we will reveal in detail the great progress and improvements that have been made in all gameplay and tech areas.
From today, each week we will publish news and details regarding sensors, AI mechanics, combat control, features, mods, realistic weather and much more through Dev Logs.
The Dev Logs are articles with screenshots, sometimes accompanied by videos, published by Matrix Games to describe the game design in detail.
Dev Logs Road Map:
Dev log #1: UI/Info Displays/Overlays – Cover all of the changes in the UI, all of the new info displays (Staff, Dashboard, SUI) and run down the Overlays.
Dev log #2: Command and Control/Orders/SOPs – Talk about command ranges and delays, orders including formation and chaining different ordered, and discuss per orders SOPs
Dev log #3: Battle Planning and Scenario Design – Explain how to make scenarios and the awesomeness of Battle plans.
Dev log #4: Improved AI – A rundown of all the new and improved AI mechanics.
Dev log #5: New Combat and Spotting Mechanics – Breakdown all of the new elements to combat, ammo tracking, per target shooting, per sensor spotting and new arty mechanics.
Dev log #6: Other Features and Improvements – Grab up all of the other minor features and improvements like
Radars/ESM, Multi-national forces, mission graphics, realist weather forecasting, dedicated engineers, etc.
Dev log #7: Mod Friendly Design – Go over all of the editing and mod capabilities within the game system.
Today we will start with the #1 Dev Log, focused on all the changes about the User interface, information display, dashboard and much more.
Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm #1 Dev Log:
A New Look and Feel to the Game
The User Interface (UI)
The first thing you will notice is the complete change in the look and feel of the user interface (UI) from Red Storm...
to Southern Storm...
We have a cleaner look, better colors scheme, better looking maps, markers, and counters, but a similar initial layout of the information panels and main menu so Red Storm players will be familiar with the UI. There are some notable new features to the UI and those are as follows:
Many options for the look of the counters. This includes the silhouetted side views for vehicles, new NATO symbols, or Large NATO symbols for better identification when zoomed out. There are also several color options and a halo outline option.
You can design your own interface layout as the new game engine allows you to move almost every panel to a new location on your screen. We also support wide screen and multiple monitors.
Here is a screen with the map full screened and the main floating panels moved around, and the Log panel collapsed. All the main panel seen here can be collapsed and expanded when required.
The main menu structure at the top of the game has been revised and function more logically grouped.
There are also five options for muting the colors on the map to better see the counters and map markers. The latest is a fully muted grey-scale map look.
Detailed Information Dialogs
The game includes several Staff Reports to provided detailed information about your command, units, operations, and enemy assessment. The following is the Scenario Information Center which shows the Scenario Description and the Victory Status & Conditions Reports.
The other reports include Operations (deals with your mission and forces), Intelligence (deals with your enemy’s mission and forces), Personnel and Logistics (deals with your forces condition and ammo supply, and Fire Support (deals with your on and off-map artillery and air strike capabilities). Each of these reports has several tabs to show you the important information.
We should note that many of the maps seen in the Staff Reports update in real time as the game progresses.
Map Overlays
One area that has received several updated and new capabilities is Map Overlays. These are displays shown on the map that represent important functions of your units like Line of Sight, Spottable range, Weapons ranges, Emitter ranges, and Air Defense coverage to name a few. Many of these overlays can be shown for a single unit or for all units in your force. There are also Map specific overlays and a Modified Combined Obstacle Overlay or MCOO for short. Heck, we even threw in a Ruler so you can see range rings from any unit or hex.
Below is a unit Line of Sight (LOS).
Next is the Multi-Unit LOS for the Soviet forces.
A looks at the Emitters Overlay. The overlay shows both active (orange) and inactive (beige) units and the hexes open to detection.
Below is the MCOO for the Forchheim map.
This has been a small taste of all the new changes in the UI, the expansive number of reports and wealth of information at your fingertips. The On Target Simulations Development Team, Content Team, and Beta Testers have been hard at work to provide the best most detailed and realistic Cold War gaming experience that we can.
More Developer Blogs detailing more features will be coming in the following weeks are we ramp up to release.
Please feel free to comment and ask questions on the Southern Storm Discord Server.
https://discord.gg/CvvhuTpRTn
Asid:
Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm - #2 Dev Log
Wed Oct 05, 2022 1:28 pm
The Art of Command
Understanding Command Ranges and Delays
One of the key elements we try to capture with the game are the various differences in the command-and-control capabilities of the various nations. During the Cold War, NATO had a more flexible command structure and lower-level forces had more autonomy to adjust orders to deal with changes on the battlefield compared to those in the Warsaw Pact.
One way we differentiate between the various nations and their command capabilities is the National Data Tables and in particular the Command tab on those sheets. As seen below, we provide values for Command Radii and Command Delays based on the Headquarter’s (HQ) Level of the unit and its need to communicate with higher headquarters.
Command Delays are only one factor to how orders flow from HQs to subordinate units and back. Another key factor is the Readiness of the units, both the HQs and the subordinates. The more fatigued units become the more the main command cycle grows. Enemy Electronic Warfare also plays a major part in the overall command delay. The main command cycle can also suffer additional delays with the loss and replacement of active headquarters. There are many factors to be aware of as you command your troops.
Command radius also impacts resupply capabilities of units as well as the command delays. Units falling outside of their local HQs command range suffer loss in both resupply and recovery capability.
To help you command your troops there are a few tools and reports to help you get a clear picture of the current situation.
The one tool is the Chain of Command Overlay. Depending on the unit selected, line will be drawn from a higher HQ to a lower HQs:
From a HQ to its subordinate units:
From a subordinate unit to its local HQ:
In all cases the Command Range of the HQ in question will be shown on the map as well. Solid lines indicate in command connection and dashed lines mean out of command.
How well your overall command cycle is doing can be seen on the following:
Game Control Panel – The colored bars showing your past, current, and future (estimated) command cycles and an estimation of the enemy’s cycles as well.
You can view your command cycle in greater detail from the Operation Report on the SITREP tab.
A similar report (estimated) for the enemy is available from the Intelligence report on the Enemy SITREP tab.
You can also see command-related problems from the Personnel and Logistic Report (P&L) on the Staff Alerts tab. This includes units out of command, low readiness, or morale, and even transportation problems.
This gives you as the Commander a look at some of the main tools at your fingertips to be able to plan your battle and achieve success.
Issuing Orders to Your Troops
Orders can be given to a unit by right-clicking on the unit icon on the map and selecting an order from the displayed Unit Popup Dialog. Some orders just require selecting to set them (Screen, On Call, Hold, Resupply, etc.). Others require the player to designate waypoints or target points (Moves, Assault, Barrage, Hunting, etc.). With these latter orders you must finish the order by hitting selecting one of the options in the Orders on Arrival dialog that pops up when you are done selecting waypoints for the move.
Orders shown on the Unit Popup Dialog depend on the type of unit selected as seen in the images below.
It is possible to give orders for more than one unit at a time by the following means:
- Shift + Left mouse clicking on each unit you wish to issue a common order to. These can be units from different groups and headquarters.
- Select All Subordinate units in a formation by selecting their HQ with Alt + Left mouse click. This will highlight all subordinate units in that group.
The new formation pathing AI will take the single movement order and path the units in an intelligent fashion to avoid traffic jams and follow your SOP settings while dispersing at the final objective. You can, of course, modify the waypoints of an of the units.
One last item for orders is the heavily requested additions of more waypoints (now six) and the ability to change orders along a path. As seen below, you can change the type of movement (or fire mission type) of an order in the Unit Dashboard.
Setting Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Orders
One of the more requested features from Red Storm was the ability to set Standard Operation Procedures in more detail for your units. We have that now and it is a very powerful tool for you as the commander to wield. This tool gives you the flexibility to adjust many different operational parameters of your units, per unit, per waypoint, and for new orders. Grayed out parameters are not available for the selected unit.
These SOPs can be applied to the selected unit or easily copied to other units in the formation or of similar platform type.
This has been a small taste of the way you Command and Control your forces in the new Cold War game engine.
More Developer Blogs detailing more features will be coming in the following weeks are we ramp up to release. Please feel free to comment and ask questions.
Until next week!
Asid:
Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm - #3 Dev Log
Wed Oct 26, 2022
Creating Scenarios and Battle Plans
All the Tools to Make Your Own Battles
Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War ships with tools allowing you to craft your own battles and campaigns for you and others to play. Today, we will do a deep dive into Scenario Creation and Battle Plans.
You can get to the scenario editor from the game's Main Menu by clicking the Scenario button in the Edit group, as seen below.
Once you launch the editor, the game takes a minute to load up all the items it needs, and you will see the following screen.
There are a couple of options as to what type of scenario you will edit or if you will jump in and make a new scenario from scratch. If you are looking at an existing scenario or one currently in work, you can select one of the Load SCN File buttons and let that information load. If you start from scratch, you need to hit the Next button. Let’s do that.
The first thing you got to do is to decide when and at what time the scenario will start. The date impacts what equipment will be available for the battle, and the time of day will affect the lighting and weather. There are setting here for what type of scenario (Standalone or Campaign). Lastly, there is a text editor with a simple HTML tag capability for you to write your narrative for the scenario. This information is shown when selecting and playing a scenario, so make it explain the situation, so players know why the fight is happening. When complete, we move on to the next page using the Next button.
Now you select a map from the thirty or so available. The weather is also set on this screen by launching the Weather Selection dialog.
We could spend an entire Dev Blog going into detail on this tool, but to summarize, you can select the type of weather that can happen during the scenario. This selection can be precise or variable depending on the settings and is the basis for in-game weather forecasting.
The following panels in the Scenario Editor (ScenEdit for short) cover map markers that can be added to the map for use in the battle. These markers cover everything from mines and fortifications to chemical and radioactive contamination. Following that are the Air Superiority and Electronic Warfare settings for the battle. At the bottom are options for setting Maximum Resupply for any efforts done during the game. This setting can simulate either limited stock or an abundance of supplies.
Next, we get into the meat of the editor with Force Selection. Here you select which nations will play from the NATO side, the formations used, and the type of equipment in those formations.
After making the sections from above, the next step is to place those units on the map or, for some units like long-range artillery, off-map to support the on-map battles. In the image below, the units selected are placed on the map in default positions which a human player would start with, and the setup zone is painted on the map (in light blue).
Next, the Warsaw Pact forces are created and deployed on the map. These initial deployment locations will be used for a human player’s starting locations for the Warsaw Pact side. So, a basic correct layout of the forces is helpful.
Now we start working to plot a Battle Plan for the Recon force. You can set pathing and SOPs for these segments. There is one mission plotted and I am adding a new run to the south.
Here is the SOP Manager for making alterations to the Recon force’s Deep South Run. This management can be done for any mission for any force.
Now we go through and set missions for the remaining force elements of the Soviet units for the AI to use as its guiding during the game. After this we can build more entire plans with new starting locations, new paths via missions and new SOPs. Each scenario shopping with the game has three premade battle plans for each side. This allows you to play from either side and against a random or chosen plan. You can also build plans for existing scenarios and post those for others to use in their games.
The Scenario Editor with Battle Plans is a powerful tool for creating challenging scenarios for yourself and others to enjoy. We hope to have a thriving Mod community post launch and our team will be working to make new materials as we go as well.
More Developer Blogs detailing more features will be coming in the following weeks as we ramp up to release. Please feel free to comment and ask questions.
Until next week!
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Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm The Operations
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