Supreme Ruler: The Great War announced

[steve58]

...as seen on Bluesnews.

BattleGoat Studios is delighted to announce the development of their upcoming Real Time Geopolitical Strategy/Wargame, Supreme Ruler The Great War. BattleGoat's Lead Programmer and Co-Founder George Geczy commented, "Supreme Ruler The Great War adds a new era to the franchise, building upon a game system which has evolved over more than a decade. The combat, diplomatic and economic systems developed for the series continue to offer a unique strategy experience, one which has always been well suited to global conflicts. The First World War remains a topic of great interest to historians and gamers alike, although few games model the strategic challenges that the great powers faced during that era. Adding a World War I title to the series fills a gap in both the franchise and within the PC strategy genre."

Game Designer and Project Lead Christian Latour added, "Since completion of Supreme Ruler Ultimate, the community has continued to ask if we'll be developing more content. Most players wanted us to go further back in history, and the First World War remained the most popular request. The scope of an entirely new era goes beyond adding another DLC to one of the existing games, it fits best as its own title within the franchise. Having developed the later eras already, we are able to add the earlier time frame and flow seamlessly into the gameplay experiences for which the Supreme Ruler titles are so well known. With the required development tools and an experienced team in house, we know that we can build the World War I strategy game fans have been asking for."

About Supreme Ruler The Great War
Expanding on sixteen years of development on the Supreme Ruler series of Real Time Geo-Political Military Strategy Games for PC and Mac. Supreme Ruler The Great War brings players back to 1914, to a world that has little understanding of the devastation that will be unleashed as long-time alliances and animosities drive ever-growing conflicts. Whether leading a major power or a minor nation, players can experience the tensions of a world descending into chaos. Campaigns follow paths similar to historical events while allowing players control of their own destiny, with the opportunity to change those events and chart their own course. Set-Piece Scenarios will provide for a shorter game focused on specific events from the era. As well, the ever popular sandbox mode allows players to customize their gaming experience by picking any nation and choosing their own preferred Victory Condition. With the further option of multiplayer matches, Supreme Ruler The Great War provides incredible amounts of replayability.

• World War I Campaigns for various major powers from the era.
• Take Control of any Nation in Sandbox Mode and impact the outcome of the conflict.
• Start in 1914 and progress well into the 21st century for an Epic Game-play experience.
• Challenge yourself with Set-Piece Scenarios for a faster-paced game.
• The butterfly effect... Influence the timeline and outcome of thousands of historical events.
• Use Diplomacy, Trade, Espionage, and Intimidation to influence the policies of other nations.
• Guide your Nation through the first war waged on a global scale.
• Modernize your economy to support whatever social and military policies you choose.
• Comprehensive Tech Tree features over 100 years of technology and equipment advances.
• Sophisticated Real-Time Strategic and Tactical Control of your Military Forces.
• Detailed historically-accurate Armies down to the Battalion level.
• Choose your level of control. Make all decisions or use your Cabinet Ministers to help.
• Battle the elements! Fully integrated weather model influences battlefield outcomes.
• Up to 16 players in Multiplayer over local network or Internet.

[Boggit]

I'm very cautiously optimistic about this.

I have very mixed feelings about the game, and seriously wonder if at battalion level this game will be a nightmare of micro management as per other iterations.

I'd be very interested if Battlegoat will allow the creation of a more realistic force structure, and given the potential timeframe of the game, will allow unit equipment to be upgraded, even at a cost of unit experience.

[OJsDad]

I'm very cautiously optimistic about this.

I have very mixed feelings about the game, and seriously wonder if at battalion level this game will be a nightmare of micro management as per other iterations.

I'd be very interested if Battlegoat will allow the creation of a more realistic force structure, and given the potential timeframe of the game, will allow unit equipment to be upgraded, even at a cost of unit experience.

+1

I've only played the original, but was very disappointed.  They had a great selection of equipment, but it seemed to degrade down to a click fest too often.  If I remember correctly, a small country like Canada seemed to have no problem fielding a large military that rivaled the NE US military.  And, as Boggit pointed out, as the maps covered bigger parts of the world, the juggling of battalion sized units and the engines inability to handle the amount of units, made it unplayable at uniting North America. 

[Gusington]

Never played any of the Supreme Ruler games. Are they more or less complex than the Hearts of Iron games?

[jomni]

Never played any of the Supreme Ruler games. Are they more or less complex than the Hearts of Iron games?

Well missiles are counted in the game. You have to build them, keep a stockpile, then arm your platforms. :)

[HoodedHorseJoe]

I've always found the Supreme Ruler games to be a bit impenetrable and unwieldy. They're definitely more complex than something like Hearts of Iron and sometimes clunky.

Can't fault their ambition though.

[OJsDad]

I only ever played the original SR:2010.  And it's been a long time since I played it.  There was research, economic and diplomacy in the game, but I don't recall them ever being overly complex.  It was the military side that go complex.  You could build just about any military unit you can think of and use it, including transports and tankers.  The military side of things seemed to require a lot of micro management.  If I remember, units were company sized, battalion at the most.  You couldn't group them together to form a brigade.  You could give orders to a group of units, but they wouldn't really work together.  Lot of micromanagement of units.  It reminded me of a lot like Warcraft.  You just through units at an objectives.  If you want any kind of tactics, you had to manage it.

I never got SR2020 because I remember the some issues with military side of the game existed.  One good thing with HOI games is that you can develop the doctrine to build larger more complex divisions.  That's something was missing and needed in the early SR games.  I'll be interested to see if they have addressed that in the next iteration.  It's definitely one of those games that I really wanted to like, but came away disappointed with. 

I may have to fire it up again. 

[OJsDad]

This looks to be the official wiki on the game.  May get a lot more information from reading it.

http://supremeruler.gamepedia.com/Supreme_Ruler_Wiki

[Gusington]

Thanks all.

[Rayfer]

I tried the iteration called Supreme Ruler 1936 and found it to be a UI head-scratching mess.  Similar is same regards to the earlier HoI series but nowhere near as playable.

[Swatter]

Just ask yourself if you want to play a major power at the battalion level. To me, this series has been a mess. I think this game had huge potential, but the developers had a vision that they never wavered from and it just isn't a well designed game.

I played 2020 with all of its warts, as far as micromanagement, but the world itself was pretty boring and the AI was brain dead. Once you got tired of building up your super-modern, super-cool military machine, the game was pretty much over. The AI was far too bad to be anything other than a tactics test-bed.

[fabius]

Just ask yourself if you want to play a major power at the battalion level. To me, this series has been a mess. I think this game had huge potential, but the developers had a vision that they never wavered from and it just isn't a well designed game.

I played 2020 with all of its warts, as far as micromanagement, but the world itself was pretty boring and the AI was brain dead. Once you got tired of building up your super-modern, super-cool military machine, the game was pretty much over. The AI was far too bad to be anything other than a tactics test-bed.

This. I sadly got the impression that the devs had great vision for SR2010, didn't take on board major issues such as unit control and AI for 2020. And since then have just been reskinning to milk past work as much as possible.

[bobarossa]

I remember them claiming that the SR: 1936 game would have improved control of groups of units (divisions?).  Anyone know if that happened?

[OJsDad]

I remember them claiming that the SR: 1936 game would have improved control of groups of units (divisions?).  Anyone know if that happened?

I'm guessing no.  Looking at their forum, someone is asking about SR:Ultimate, which I believe is the latest release.  One responder stated that they had modded the game to increase the size of unit by 4x, thus making brigades and not battalions.  Said they try to take it higher for division but it didn't work well for small countries.  So, based on that statement, the developers are still turning a blind eye to one of their biggest issues.  Yep, battalions work great on small scenarios, but you need brigade/division units in bigger ones.  One of the best features of HOI is the division designer, but for some reason the SR developers seem to think that battalions are all you need.  It almost like they want to do a Paradox style strategy game with a Total War style tactical game. 

[Jarhead0331]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/600280/Supreme_Ruler_The_Great_War/

The game was released yesterday. Personally, I see no reason to buy it if you already own SR: Ultimate, or really any of the last three SR titles, since they are all pretty much the same. It irritates me that this company takes their aging engine, makes some minor refinements to it, adds maybe a few more years or decades to the timeline and then releases it as an entirely new game at a premium price. This is DLC at best.

Anyway, I post news of its release since I know we have at least one member obsessed with gas and trench warfare.