Modern Warfare Proposal

[Col. Tartleton]

I'm just brainstorming at this point although I've been thinking about this for a fairly long time, but I think this is a viable concept given developments in other mods. Time frame being most likely 1970-Future. Potentially earlier if there's enough left in the unit limit. Essentially what are described as 3rd and 4th generation warfare. So nothing pre WW2.

The map is approximately the same scale as the vanilla one but extended to include the entirety of Europe, Africa, India, and Central Asia (just over 1,000,000 pixels). Most countries (generally not playable) will have a single capital city and a few PSF major cities but the larger or more developed countries will be able to flex with multiple global cities. Leading members of the EU really demonstrate this. Germany, France, the UK, and Italy are quite capable of punching above their weight. Countries like India and Russia will really dominate the map. Russia being spread out over a huge area and India being extremely dense. China is on the map as well, but only their western regions. The primary campaign would be a sandbox, but specific wars could be well served by more in depth campaign maps.

With my selection I tried to maximize hot spots. The Indian subcontinent is a mess with various claims between major players like India, Pakistan, and China. The middle east is host to the Greek, Israeli, Arabian, Iranian, and Turkish hostilities. Then there's the cluster of Fs that is Central Africa. Then you've got Islamist activities all over the place and who knows what else. Balkans, North Africa, various separation movements. All kinds of fun stuff.

Battlefield units would include infantry, mounted infantry (because special forces mounted units are extremely cool, and china has bull cavalry for fighting in the Himalayan mountains, etc.) mechanized infantry, armor, self propelled artillery, shorter ranged artillery, and air cavalry (anything that can VOTL, be it helicopters or harriers to explain why they're hovering, not strafing,) Proper heavy artillery and air support will be represented with Fires Support Vehicles which would basically serve as tanks with fairly terrible accuracy and limited ammo but outrageous firepower or Forward Air Controllers who serve the same role but have the advantages and disadvantages of being infantry. Combat Engineers would be able to deploy Tank Traps (Dragons Teeth and Barbed Wire) to impede movements.

Ideally at some point cities would be redesigned to fit the modern theme, but it's a minor issue.

Unit sizes would be kept to a minimum. For example, replicating a Stryker Company would be almost a full stack. 1x2 Command Strykers, 1x3 Gun Strykers, 1x2 Mortar Strykers, 3x4 Personnel Strykers, and a Fire Support Stryker. Then dismounted would be 9x8 Riflemen with sergeants. 1x4 command team. 1x4 Sniper team. 3x8 HMG teams.

[karaislam]

middle east one looks interesting.if a mod appear which included turkish armed forces(which i proudly served in)i may help about weapon modellings.it seems so hard in m2tw engine.weapon animations needed.

[Larkin]

It'd be too difficult to work with the current gameplay - NTW and FotS are still quite stagnant compared to the fast pace of modern warfare. It'd require a whole new engine, or extremely in depth coding and new animations.

That said, it would be cool to see.

[Razor]

I tried one about WW2. It's very (if not too) complex to make it work and make it somewhat acceptable. How would you tackle medieval settlements, 20 units limit per army, airplanes etc.? Still I'd love to see it succeed some way...

[Col. Tartleton]

The Republic of Turkey is at the center of things. They're a local great power, they're definitely going to be a playable faction MHP.

Well here's how I see it: Let's look at an infantry squad:

Riflemen use burst fire, so 7 30 round magazines would scale down to 70 trigger pulls. I don't recall what the ammo cap is, but it's more than that I'm fairly certain. Obviously it's going to take some custom animations for firing and such. Up close it's bayonets and combat knives.

Really small units, you put them in the rougher formation, spread out, that's starting to look more modern. Several wounds a piece for guys with body armor. Keep it simple. Is it going to be as accurate as a game built up from the ground? No. But it'd be fun.

Armored vehicles and flying models have been done so I think it's all possible on M2 although it wouldn't be possible on the new games.

But I think to start infantry vs infantry would be best. America vs Russia.

[Yayattasa]

Tank/IFVs/Howitsers turrets can be simulated with the cavalry archer I suppose.
How big would be the basic infantry unit? Fireteam level, squad or company?

I think the most difficult would be making the AI use the units as they are supposed to be used. I can already see it moving them all in formation lol

[Col. Tartleton]

Tank/IFVs/Howitsers turrets can be simulated with the cavalry archer I suppose.

That was my thought. It'd take some animating obviously, but it should approximate.

How big would be the basic infantry unit? Fireteam level, squad or company?

Squad/section. Fireteams is too fiddly IMO.

I think the most difficult would be making the AI use the units as they are supposed to be used. I can already see it moving them all in formation lol

I don't know. I think it will do fairly well. I mean it won't be company of heroes, they're not going to duck and weave through terrain, but if they shoot from the correct stance, can hide anywhere (crouch), walk with their guns correctly, fire somewhat plausibly, and are in a semi/very loose undisciplined formation in a non linear arrangement it's going to look fairly plausible I think.

I'm going to try to play around and get a unit into the game. I'll probably just use existing models and skins from say Battlefield 2 or something and go from there.

The advantage of these tiny units I think it that it will run better with attractive somewhat higher poly models. A full blown 4v4 20 unit match shouldn't stress the engine. It's only going to be like 2000 men tops.

Also tactical nukes are in consideration depending on the start date. I'm fairly sure they're small enough. 150m kill radius and a 400m plague radius. But it's probably not game play friendly.