Hello friends! Our 25th diary continues to talk about the fortification theme, that we started here . It’s about buildings in Soldiers: Arena, something changed and now new mechanics have appeared for their usage. Buildings in the early games of the series wasn’t often perceived as a completely tactical object and had very limited functionality. In the Front Line gamemode, where the place of decisive battles can take place over any part of the map - captured building become the center of gameplay. Previously, you could only order your units to go into the building and link them manually to the windows. Considerable skill with questionable utility was required for such actions, because those clicks often could be spent on something more important. In the Soldiers: Arena we want to see the building as a completely defensive object, easily controlled and functional. First of all, we have added a visualization of fire zones, so player can always see the firing zones and the blind ones. Now you will see the fire sector by clicking on the building .
Now you can understand, without too much of a fuss, what flanks should be urgently strengthened, so that the enemy can’t take the building without paying a hard price.
In the future, we want to make the management of the buildings and fighters inside them more automatic. The defending infantry will choose the position for shooting by themselves, depending on the type of threat. For example, if tanks appear in the field of view, soldiers with bazookas or AT-guns will move to this side of the building. While shooters will stand at the convenient positions against the advancing infantry. The building will be "manageable" and you would be able to order it (or rather units inside) to attack the enemy of your choice, and soldiers who can most effectively confront this enemy will change their positions accordingly. We added the opportunity to strengthen the buildings. So the enemy can not break into the building by means of a cluttered entrance and boarded-up windows. Such structure becomes a real fort, and its defenders obtain much more (compared with unfortified ones) defensive bonus. The strengthening will take some time, but the more units that are inside, the faster this process will take. Some auxiliary units (e.g. engineers) will make it faster, but it would be better to replace them for the further defense of the building, as their fighting characteristics aren’t high enough to kill normal infantry.
But this does not mean that the gaming session will be limited to digging trenches and strengthening buildings. In Soldiers: Arena you will always have something to counter that annoying lover of fortifying everything. In the early games it was easier to destroy the building than fight for it. And it was fun, no doubt! But now you will be able to send your soldiers to storm the building by double-clicking on it (or by pressing the appropriate menu button). To succeed you will need the numerical superiority, because the defenders will have a good bonus to defense. Not all soldiers are equally good for the storming of buildings (the same situation with the defense). For example the units armed with automatic weapons (and anti-personnel grenades greatly assists) in the storming of the building will be much better than soldiers with rifles. AT-guns and bazookas in this battle will be almost useless, especially against the special assault troops.
If the defense or storming of the building didn’t go according to the plan, you can always give a command to retreat. But remember that soldiers can’t retreat instantly. In the case of fortified and barricaded building assault, this function will not be available. You’ll need to demolish the wall and organize the place for a breakthrough. When you’ve done with the wall, you can shoot the defenders from the outside, cause, you know, non-existent wall gives no bonuses.
You can throw a few grenades in the window, (it’s especially important to find blind spots in the enemy defenses in such tactics), burn down the enemy with flamethrowers or demolish the house with dynamite. You can also spoil the enemy’s Tea Party by rushing into the building on board your tank. Or, maybe, order an airstrike :)