Hey everyone! As you may know, I've been away on a summer break since releasing EA16. I'm back now and wanted to update everyone on exactly what I'll be working on. The Conquest Mode has always been the end goal for Ravenfield, and it has been teased in the main menu ever since the first Steam version. Originally I had planned to ship the Conquest Mode within one year of the first Early Access release, but that obviously didn't happen :). Instead, I spent most of my time working on modding support for the game, and general game improvements. Even though the original release target for 1.0 was missed I think it was worth it thanks to the incredible modding community creating tons of really cool mods for Ravenfield! A huge shoutout to everyone involved with creating/playing/making videos of mods!

Conquest mode

I'm now shifting my dev time towards finishing up the Conquest Mode. This means that the upcoming EA updates will have playable versions of Conquest Mode, where more features will be added incrementally in each update. Eventually, the final conquest mode will feature army upgrading, weapons/vehicle research, and story elements. This is what the Conquest Mode looks like right now (you may recognize this scene from the game's greenlight trailer):
Each game level is represented by a tile on the world map, and each tile can be held by up to 3 battalions at the same time (represented by the blue/red soldier miniatures). Conquest is played in turns, when it's your turn you may move your battalions to any adjacent tiles. If there are any enemy battalions already occupying that tile a battle will start, loading the game level that tile takes place on. It is important to consider how many battalions to attack with, having larger numbers than the enemy is a big advantage. The objective of Conquest Mode is to take over the enemy HQ tile, but each owned tile will also provide you with valuable resource production. Resources include battalion production, money to buy new equipment, and research points to discover new weapons and vehicles. After some playtesting it was obvious that having only 10 tiles on the world map wasn't ideal, it would be interesting to provide more paths and possible tactics to the player. From the desire to add more tiles, I also played with the idea of adding new tiles where battles would play out quicker. These tiles would represent less crowded battlefields such as hills, roads, fields etc. When battling on these tiles, the game would load a level with a different style to the others:

Engagement Levels

Engagement Levels are open and straightforward levels that are designed around fast, agressive engagements between the two teams. These levels typically take place on smaller, symmetric terrains and victory requires effective use of vehicles. Here's an example of an Engagement Level concept:
Because most points lack proper defenses, the Engagement Levels work very well with the Skirmish game mode where an all-out assault is highly effective. These levels play a lot faster than the "normal" levels which is a huge plus: when playing the campaign you will experience more battle variety. Another strength of Engagement Levels is that they can be designed a lot faster than a normal level, meaning that there can be a greater number and variety of them. In fact, I have already designed a few concept levels to try out the ideas behind Engagement Levels in instant action mode. During this week I'll be adding one level each day on the beta branch for people to try out. On friday I'll make all concept levels playable at once.

Modding

Because my focus is on Conquest Mode, another programmer (who made the ingame map editor) will be working on adding more features to the modding side of Ravenfield. For example, the Conquest Mode will be fully moddable, allowing you to create your own war scenarios. We also have some other exciting plans that we aren't quite ready to show/talk about yet!

To summarize

Here's what to expect of the upcoming updates: This week (on the beta branch): One Engagement Level concept per day from monday to thursday. All levels available on friday and forward. EA17: A very work in progress but playable version of Conquest Mode. EA18,19,20+: Improvements to Conquest Mode and game polish. Ravenfield 1.0: Final Conquest Mode with story elements. I hope this clears up where the Ravenfield development is heading and that everyone is as excited for Conquest Mode as I am! /SteelRaven7