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Incline Walküre - development thread (a Ukraine War, Jagged Alliance 2 spiritual successor)

tomphonse

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
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Overview:
I’ve been developing a Jagged Alliance 2 spiritual successor over the last couple of months, set during the Donbas and Ukraine wars.
It's main twist or hook is that the player camera, the view you control the game through, instead of it being a floating abstract camera into the world it is a physically present drone. The game will start with the 2014 Donbas War and continue through to the present day.

Gameplay:
Like JA2 the game will be divided into strategic and tactical layers. So far development has only been made on the tactical layer. The tactical combat in Walküre is not only taking after the base JA2 game but also the 1.13 mod. Large 100+ AP pool to allow for high resolution in the AP economy. Ballistic sim autism, all the movement modes and stances, etc. etc. Here's a video showing some of what's been done so far (no where near finished).



Gameplay->Strategic Layer:
For the strategic layer the game will start out with the objective of capturing a majority of strategic tiles in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Either by time passed or by completing a percentage of this objective the full scale Russian invasion will begin. From then on the end game objective is to end the war. The first way is via time where after so much in-game time the war just ends due to both the Ukrainian and Russian economy collapsing. Depending on what cities and regions you hold at this point will determine whether the war is considered won, lost or stalemated. The second way is by building up the Russian Volunteer Corps and/or Free Russia Legion and their network of Russian dissidents to start a coup. This will open up a second strategic map in the Moscow Oblast with extremely difficult battles but will provide I think the most satisfactory ending.

Gameplay->Planned Differences from JA:
One of the main differences in philosophy from JA will be the game's focus on battles with larger amounts of units. I am talking at the peak of the game 50 vs 50 battles, platoon sized. Due to this, certain aspects of unit management on the strategic layer will be streamlined, such as being able to set units to use default or custom made loadouts that then you can have replenish in a single click when at a resupply area and calculates the cost all in one go. See the idea is not to retard the complexity or customization but to have the tools there available so the player deals with less tedium. You will still be able to buy individual 9mm bullets, inventory manage them on each unit, and individually load them into each magazine but you will also be able to do something like create a loadout called Assault2 which has an AK, 4 frags, 320rnds etc. and just click a button to buy all of that for every unit with the Assault2 loadout. There should be a similar system for leveling up too.

In addition to this will be the implementation of non-character units and systems such as calling in artillery, dropping grenades from the drone, calling in (player controllable) kamikaze fpv drones, and vehicular units such as tanks and APCs.

Rather than strictly mercenaries you will recruit foreign volunteer characters and characters from various Ukrainian military units. From the Azov Brigade to the 72nd Mechanized Brigade to Makhnovist activists to Karelian Nationalists etc.

I have also been working on implementing a destruction physics system similar to Silent Storm:
destructionA.jpg
destructionB.jpg


In addition to the semi-fictional campaign there will also be historical and hypothetical scenarios that will be like the historical battles in Total War. That is something I think JA is missing, sometimes you don't want to play an entire campaign and just want to battle. I aim to make dozens and dozens of these since all they are is taking maps from the campaign, moving some stuff about, and then determining a preset player unit roster and enemy roster. For the historical ones there will be a series of intro graphics showing the context of the battle and such. The idea is that for the historical ones the encounter will replicate the battle as close as possible and not be balanced at all. Where as the hypothetical ones will be more game-designer pilled and about creating fun level design and challenges.

Story & Æesthetics:
You the player, are a CIA agent who gets to make their own special ops battalion made up of various foreign volunteers and soldiers from Ukrainian units. Having the player be a CIA agent helps as an entry point for western players as both you and your character are brought up to speed on the history and factions at play. Like the original JA2 the story for the most part will take a back seat with most of the game's narrative character coming from party banter. Included however, will be a large in-game enclyclopedia/codex covering every Ukrainian unit, battle, various political history, various culture things, and intense weapon and vehicle autism.

Core to the experience of Walküre is replicating the æsthetics of Ukraine war footage from Telegram and other social media. Non-gameplay UI elements of regimental emblem watermarks, camera noise vfx and all. Another aspect of this which is currently being worked is the first person PIP view that plays during player controlled unit's move.

pov2.jpg


The end goal is to replicate the æsthetic of this video (timestamp 12:00):



The combination of drone and soldier view with an immersive and chaotic intensity.

Special attention will be placed on the soundscape. SFX will be harsh replicating the sound of being picked up through soldier's intercoms. Whilst layered on top will be a dark electric ost with splashes of phonk and metal.

Localization:
This is a solo-developed project by myself who basically has no money. I am an English speaker only however, I have so far implemented a machine translation to українська. I hope to in the future get a proper translation done (so if there is any weird stuff in the screenshots and videos that's why).
 

Modron

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Will building destruction be permanent and show up on future defenses/assaults at the same location?
 

tomphonse

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
Will building destruction be permanent and show up on future defenses/assaults at the same location?
That would be very cool but will have to investigate how to do this. My worry is that it'd probably result in your save file straight up being 4gb's or something several hours into the game. Probably a more simple solution would be there are just various default states a map can start at like untouched, 25% destroyed, 50% destroyed etc. Rather than trying to save the exact placement of each rock or something
 

mondblut

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Like JA2 the game will be divided into strategic and tactical layers. So far development has only been made on the tactical layer. The tactical combat in Walküre is not only taking after the base JA2 game but also the 1.13 mod. Large 100+ AP pool to allow for high resolution in the AP economy. Ballistic sim autism, all the movement modes and stances, etc. etc. Here's a video showing some of what's been done so far (no where near finished).

This is... interesting. Providing it's a semi-sandbox like JA2 and not a bunch of stupid railroaded "missions".

The end goal is to replicate the æsthetic of this video (timestamp 12:00):

I presume "faggots are coming down the right trench" voiceover is in?
 

tomphonse

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
This is... interesting. Providing it's a semi-sandbox like JA2 and not a bunch of stupid railroaded "missions".
Yep the strategic layer and battles will be sandboxes. For a more designed experience one can play the historical and hypothetical scenario battles as mentioned in the OP.

I presume "faggots are coming down the right trench" voiceover is in?
Absolutely. Nothing will be censored or whitewashed. Ukrainian soldiers will speak how they do in real life. Controversial Ukrainian units such as Azov, Right Sector and Vedmedi SS will be featured as will controversial enemy Russian ones such as Rusich group.
 

Ryzer

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It's 2024 and this game uses neo-nazism symbols such as the Wolfsangel. Also where are the pronouns and the diversity quota?
 

tomphonse

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
It's 2024 and this game uses neo-nazism symbols such as the Wolfsangel. Also where are the pronouns and the diversity quota?
The "Modern Gaming Audience" is not my target.
My target audience is Western Grognards and Ukrainian & Russian (the М8Л8ТХ kind) nationalists
 

tomphonse

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
Something I forgot to mention
Another thing that differs from Walkure and nearly all tactical cRPGs is the lack of a fog of war.
Since you are a drone you will be able to see any and all units on the battlefield. However, if the enemy has a drone they too will be able to see everything too. The exception to this will be interiors which go back to requiring a player unit's line of sight.

Even though you the player will be able to see an enemy this doesn't hold true for your units. Meaning that there will be a major accuracy penalty for getting them to fire through a bush for instance.
 

None

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The camera being a drone is cool but I think you went overboard with how jerky the movement is, plus the constant buzzing noise of the rotors is going to get annoying. I don't think you need all that to sell the idea. I'd tone down the jerkiness of it by quite a bit or add in some easing to make movement less abrupt. The rotor noise could be removed completely, or just become active when you're using the drone directly to drop bombs or whatever.
 

tomphonse

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
The camera being a drone is cool but I think you went overboard with how jerky the movement is, plus the constant buzzing noise of the rotors is going to get annoying. I don't think you need all that to sell the idea. I'd tone down the jerkiness of it by quite a bit or add in some easing to make movement less abrupt. The rotor noise could be removed completely, or just become active when you're using the drone directly to drop bombs or whatever.
Agreed. The player drone movement is definitely due for a rewrite as it was the very first code I wrote when I started the project with much less experience.

The current soundscape is definitely a work in progress also. I am torn on whether to completely remove rotor noise but agree that it should feel different. I want to get the input of an audio person since I have little experience or intuition when it comes to sound.
 

tomphonse

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
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can you play as insane tranny "Sarah" Ashton-Cirillo?
No, but I think Gunther Fehlinger will be a recruitable volunteer
well, if you care at all about verisimilitude then you should be able to pick pronouns and be trans. that's just being consistent with reality in the ukrainian army.

I don't want the game to be political :smug:
human rights are not political. also, please remove your retard react from my initial post. it doesn't align with how i feel about it. thanks :salute:
 
Joined
Jan 23, 2024
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I hope Gonzalo Lira aka Coach Red Pill makes an appearance in a Ukrainian prison mission and dies.
Funny you say that.
I was talking to my friend a few weeks ago about making an apartment block battle where you take out Gonzalo Lira.

View attachment 57669
Finally, a game where I can treat journalists as they deserve.
Calling Coach Red Pill a journalist is being extremely generous. He died as a lived, an absolute retard.
 

tomphonse

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
Game looks nazi, need diversity, add hardcore muslim chechens to both sides
Ukrainian allied units such as Dzhokhar Dudayev, Sheikh Mansur, and OBON will be represented as will the Kadyrovites.
The tactical combat prototype battle I have been making that is shown in all the content so far is the first Battle of Mariupol (2014), hence the heavy presence of Azov. The insignia and other aesthetics will change based on the composition of your units and where you hired them from.
 

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