Roguelike Armoured Commander II - sequel to WW2 tank roguelike

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://www.armouredcommander.com

Spoiler

He's working on a sequel.
http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Mustawd]

dat programmer art....

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/2018/02/18/new-start-and-a-new-weekly-build/

New Start and a New Weekly Build
Posted on February 18, 2018 by Rev_Sudasana
At the beginning of this year I took a hard look at the state of Armoured Commander II and decided to start fresh. I wasn’t happy with how the game was developing and I had learned a lot over the previous few months that would be difficult to implement in an established code base. So I started with a new, empty Python file and copied over each element of the game piece by piece, making changes and improvements along the way. Today I’m posting the first weekly in-progress build in a long time because I’m pretty pleased with how it is now coming along. The current game is still very limited but the core elements are in place. Many of the features I was working on late last year haven’t yet been re-added, but they are on their way.

More than anything else with this re-start I wanted to re-integrate your tank’s crew into the game, so I devoted a good chunk of the screen to them, and I went back to a modified crew action system similar to that in ArmCom1. This brings the focus of the game back to the men in the tank, including yourself as the commander, which I think was one of the strengths of ArmCom1. You can see details about your crew in the F3 menu; only the perception stat is used for now, others will be important later on.

The weekly build is available at the usual location. I’ve used a different packager this time from previously (PyInstaller) so if it doesn’t run on your machine please email me and let me know. I will continue to work with the packager options to try to produce a cleaner and more compatible build. If you don’t run Windows you can always download the source from GitHub.

EDIT: I’ve just uploaded a hotfix that should prevent crashes when displaying crew names with non-ascii characters.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[mondblut]

Part II is about the good guys for a change, right?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Beastro]

I wish someone would make a decent Panzer Commander successor with a good SP campaign(s).

 

[Monk]

Also, something like the Crusade in Europe game but with better AI and more variant scenarios.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[taxalot]

Make a roguelike about being a jew in WW2.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I think there is one about escaping the best Korea.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/2020/02/27/beta-1-release/

Beta 1 Release
Posted on February 27, 2020 by Rev_Sudasana

Armoured Commander II Beta 1.0.0 is now available to download. Lots of changes from the previous Alpha, including National Skills, a British Battle of France campaign, British tanks, and a number of other smaller improvements and fixes. I’ve tested this build quite a bit over the past few days, but any crashes please do report them to the email address in the readme file, or open an issue on the GitHub repo. Changelog follows:

Spoiler

General
ADD: Completed Battle of France (French) campaign
ADD: Battle of France (UK) Campaign
ADD: Campaigns can designate a list of National Skills that player crew are automatically granted at the start of the campaign. These skills cannot be otherwise added using advance points.
ADD: “Blitzkrieg” national skill for Poland Campaign
ADD: “Defend the Motherland” national skill for September Campaign
ADD: “Centralized Fire” national skill for Liberation Campaign
ADD: “Motti” national skill for Winter War (FIN) Campaign
ADD: “Defensive Strategy” national skill for Battle of France (FRA) Campaign
ADD: “To Victory!” national skill for Canada’s Best Campaign
ADD: “Superior Firepower” national skill for Patton’s Best Campaign
ADD: “Combined Bombardment” national skill for Battle of France (UK) Campaign
ADD: Master volume control to Options menu
ADD: Spearhead mission type: VP capture value of hex zones increases as player moves up hexrows
ADD: Portrait for SOMUA S35, R35 (Late)
ADD: German AI units: Panzer II F, Panzer IV D, StuG III B, Panzerjager I, SPW 251/10
ADD: Polish AI unit: Fiat 508 Taczanka
ADD: open_rear_turret stat to some vehicles, if they have no armour on the rear of the turret (eg. Panzerjager I)
ADD: Display and AP calculation for 15mm MGs as main weapon
ADD: British nation definitions
ADD: Mk VI C, A9 Cruiser Mk I, A10 Cruiser Mk II, A13 Cruiser Mk II, A12 Matilda II, OQF 18-Pounder to UK & Commonwealth forces
CNG: Ground pressure now indicated by shade of Movement Class display (lighter green = light GP, dark green = heavy GP)
CNG: Unreliable weapons now displayed in light grey
CNG: Small changes in appearance of menus and interfaces, display of unit weapons
CNG: Crewmen now begin with some resistance to fatigue, won’t affect skills right away
CNG: Re-sampled main theme music, now using all real C64 SID chip samples

Campaign Calendar
ADD: Menu tab to view campaign day journals

Campaign Day
ADD: Display of VP capture value for map zones
ADD: Randomly generated flavour text for targets of opportunity
ADD: Hovering the mouse cursor over a bridge depiction will display “Bridge” in the hex zone info console
CNG: VP capture value of different zone terrain types
CNG: Appearance of bridges on Campaign Day map
CNG: Minor changes to display and available commands depending on whether travel is possible or moving into a friendly-held zone
FIX: Enemy strength levels re-rolled and level becomes unknown to player if zone is re-captured

Scenario
ADD: If all enemy units are destroyed during random event, scenario ends immediately rather than starting a new turn
ADD: Player tank terrain and smoke level displayed more prominently in Player Info console
ADD: Player character can be saved from serious or critical wounds, or death, by a Fate Point
ADD: Shock test only applied if unit had 1+ acquired targets to begin with
ADD: Ambush check skipped if any enemies already destroyed, eg. from artillery attack
CNG: Advancing fire only effective if player tank has 1+ HE rounds available
CNG: Appearance of target recticle so as to not interfere with smoke depiction
FIX: Crash when motorcycle infantry is involved in a close assault
FIX: Crash when MG weapon was selected and crewman was set to Manage Ready Rack command
FIX: Crash when displaying message upon enemy unit withdrawing from battlefield
FIX: Squadmates not being removed properly when destroyed

 

[Reality]

I will try this out and describe the experience of playing as deliberately choosing outdated ww1 tanks.

 

[Reality]

Alright Battle of France

I played twice - The first time I played just one battle to understand the controls and mechanics, the second time I started HEX at 4A and ended at 2E (save and quit not death)

I'm playing as the least advanced tank available - the H35 (early- non upgunned)

This is an 11 ton tank being used against Germans in the 5.5-9 ton range. For WW2 France this is considered reducing weight. It shouldn't have the armor of the much heavier S35 or B1(not in the game) but I survived artillery twice and no Pz 2 could scratch me. It's gun is tragic, but most of the germans are using paper tanks, so I can beat them down by outlasting them.

1: Tank crew start with unspent skill points - commanders are even at level 4 - Pumping accuracy is a priority, although I'm not sure if outright raising PER is better than the eagle eye etc type skills.

2: Spotting - pretty much have to toggle Open hatch to spot people in a tank like this, rangefinder isn't going to help you. Enemy don't seem to Machinegun snipe you and you only have to do it for 1 turn so not too bad.

3: Movement - The game keeps you centered, so it kind of moves everyone else on the Tactical map - The game seems to roll a skillcheck on whether you enter a tile or remain in place. Naturally my terrible gearbox caused a lot of remaining in place, but the game seems generous enough to only allow one failure per hex, and will give you a partial failure message (you moved but not enough to enter a new hex) - The game can also make you bogged in mud, which requires a turn to get out of. In this particular tank, I always had the Commander "direct movement" to help out the driver, since after all, he can't really see anything because of the French design. The commander's accuracy penalty made trying to move and shoot futile anyway.

4: Shooting - The game has 2 stages of "ranging" bonuses for shooting and missing the same target, so I tend to burn my HE ammo to get my +35 to hit bonus before switching to AP. The first two fights I took at long range, but afterwards I always drove right up to people - The rain penalty was too strong, and HMG weren't getting through me anyway. This tank has a "man machinegun" option but it seems to fire automatically as a free action and always tells me that no crew in position to operate if I try to use it manually? Damage checks are done separately from accuracy checks. In my experience, Infantry and motoryclyes could often survive several turns of machine gun or HE, while armored vehicles died on the first successful AP penetration. The only module damage ever inflicted on enemies was tracking.

We took down
1 PZ 4 A
1 PZ 1 B
At this point a heavy rain started and never ended, giving huge accuracy debuffs to both sides.

1 PZ 2 A​

2 SPW troop carriers
4 Rifleman
2 HMG infantry
At this point I attempted resupply and it was allowed, even though I was ambushed in this same phase
1 Mortorycle MG
2 Stug 3 B
The Stug 3 B were invincible to our gun from the front, so we had to drive around to shoot them in the sides. Both of them "were recalled" but I gunned them down before they ran away.

Other notable events: I don't know how the squad mate mechanic works yet or how to tell where they are on the map. Only once did the allies claim enemy territory without me.

 

[Reality]

I was planning on doing a restart so I could see what the experience of playing a fast frail tank was but I continued the Battle of France to see what would happen.

1: The game ends the combat day at the end of every 8 hours - which is about 12 hex movements and 8-9 battles (higher or lower if you attack more flatland or more hill/forest). Your actual territory control doesn't seem to matter except for points.

2: The squad mate mechanic actually seems to work "blobber" style - all 4 of your tanks are on your same hex - the automatic machinegun as free action was actually your squad mates shooting (they are very stingy on ammo compared to the player) They can actually shoot AP like the player does as well. That said I found out how to manually fire my own machinegun.

3: But I didn't need it for infantry anymore... since I had discovered the "close combat" mechanic, where I could force battles with infantry and motorcycles to end in a single turn, by ending my turn in a hex adjacent to them with the drive command (usually I get to them, then pivot in place next to them, then use hull down to stay in place).

4: I went 5 days in my H35 Killing 39 Tanks and 42 infantry. On the last day, my driver was killed by a sniper and I was forced to abandon the tank because I could not figure out if the commander can swap positions. This at least taught me that what I thought about spotting by opening the hatch was wrong and their actually was risk involved.

5: The game doesn't end if you manually use the "abandon tank command" - as long as the commander is alive it goes on. It gave me a partial score for my Day 5 VP s and then it sent me to get a new French tank, this time I took the R35

6: In day 6-7 I saw some serious enemy scaling. Pak Anti-Tank guns and Panzerjager 1's were mixed into enemy forces, and even the once humble infantry now used hand held AT rockets. On day 7 I had snow, and I confirmed that the game does not "play nice" with giving you multiple "failed to move" events in a row on a single tile. The day 6 driver suffered serious wounds to machinegun fire while spotting, but unlike the H35 driver, he died at the end of the mission and not immediately, so I never had to abandon the tank.

7: Choosing to upgrade prime stats instead of getting new skills gives 2 stat points if your current is below 5, or 1 stat point if your current is 5+. I also found that you can shoot multiple times per round if you get a % based proc to keep the gun firing - it seems the main gun needs a skill boost, but the machinegun has a chance to do it even without skills. (not including the squad mate's 3 attacks)

8: On day 8 the game announced that my platoon was being called in for maintenance and I was given the option to either replace my tank with a new one or keep it. I took the opportunity to upgrade to the biggest tank, the S35. I am not sure if this was a random event or is scripted. I am also starting to wonder about the In-game-date ~ Will the game end after 6 weeks? I think with the present scaling I will get killed during week 3, so it shouldn't matter. I feel like the game is a lot more interesting now, so I look forward to playing it tomorrow, and hopefully finally switching countries.