November 10, 2008
Supreme Ruler 2020: Global Crisis
Dev Diary
Multiplayer details revealed in
new Developer Diary entry
Paradox Interactive has today posted
the new developer diary entry from David Thompson, Lead Developer on Supreme
Ruler 2020: Global Crisis. The latest entry takes a close examination at the
multiplayer features.
Prior to the upcoming Global Crisis
expansion pack, multiplayer scenarios would typically last several hours. To
solve this issue, the development team has created ten new multiplayer scenarios
designed specifically for shorter gameplay. Additionally, the new multiplayer
scenarios allow for gameplay for up to 16 players.
One highlighted scenario involves
the defense of an invasion of the United Kingdom. Titled “Channeling Victory”,
in this scenario one player takes the role of the leader of the United Kingdom
and has to keep London secure during an attack across the English Channel by
other players taking the roles of France, Germany, and several other European
nations.
See below to read the complete
developer diary entry for Global Crisis.
Global Crisis Developer Diary #2
– Multiplayer Scenarios
One of the biggest hurdles in the
development of Supreme Ruler 2020 has been determining how long multiplayer
games should last. Supreme Ruler 2020 has multiplayer games where players take
major regions such as Germany, Russia, or the US, and these conflicts can last
dozens of hours. In the past, we’ve only allowed players to use the sandbox maps
to pick regions, set victory conditions, etc.
By limiting which regions can be
selected, the player may have been able to get to a point where a winner (or the
last human standing) would become apparent after a few hours of game play. But
in most cases, the player would able to determine the winner until they have
already been playing for hours. For the expansion pack Supreme Ruler 2020:
Global Crisis, we’ve addressed this problem by including more than ten
multiplayer scenarios designed specifically for shorter game play. Rather than
having to take over the whole world, players will be able to more tightly define
the victory condition and limit the starting regions.
The majority of the new multiplayer
scenarios are designed as two player games. However, we are also including three
and four player scenarios, and modes that allow up to eight and even sixteen
players. With these new scenarios, players will be able to complete some
conflicts in just two to three hours.
These new multiplayer scenarios are
not necessarily based on the ‘Global Crisis’ storyline but have been designed to
be of interest either for gameplay aspects or for historical interest. One of
the ones I’m most looking forward to trying revolves around an attempted
invasion of the United Kingdom. One player assumes the role of the United
Kingdom and sees how long they can hold London from an attack by up to seven
other players taking the roles of France, Germany, and possibly Norway, Denmark,
Netherlands, Belgium and even Ireland. This really illustrates the difficulty of
a successful naval invasion, even with significantly greater numbers.
Another new element we added to expand the multiplayer scenarios is a lobby
setting. In the lobby setting, players will be able to adjust the level of
involvement and interest from the non-human regions across the map and will be
able to change the scenario from anywhere between "peaceful" to "hot".
– David Thompson, Lead Designer / Co
Founder, BattleGoat Studios
