Supreme Ruler 1936: Battlegoat Studios - The interview

[Atlantis 166]

Le Clan des Officiers asked David Thompson about his upcoming strategy game: Supreme Ruler 1936. Battlegoat is the studio behind the Supreme Ruler series, which started in 1982. This time they're working on a WWII title, with an improved version of their famous game engine. So time to get more info about SR 1936 and its features.

1°) Could you please introduce yourself and present your position in a few words?

My name is David Thompson and I am the Lead Designer and one of the co-founders (with George Geczy, our Lead Programmer) of BattleGoat Studios.

2°) Could you please also introduce quickly the team which is working on the game?

We are a small five-man studio located outside of Hamilton, Ontario. Our team consists of George and myself, Christian Latour, Daxon Flynn, and Stephane Corre. Chris and Dax work on all aspects of the game, from map editing to unit balancing, to GUI design, and anything and everything else that needs doing. Stephane is our Graphic Artist. The nice thing about a small studio is that we’re all part of the decision making process and although this sometimes makes for loud afternoon meetings, in the long run it definitely makes the games better.

3°) Before focusing on your new project, would you please give us an overview of the Supreme Ruler series (previous games, philosophy, etc)?

The Supreme Ruler series actually started in 1982 when George was still in High School. He developed and marketed the first “Supreme Ruler” as a text game for the TRS-80 line of computers. After that he got distracted by opening a computer retail store where we began working together. We had the opportunity in 2000 to sell our business and this gave us the ability to revisit the idea of “Supreme Ruler” as a Windows based game.

We could have gone in many development directions at this point, but we decided on the rather hardcore geopolitical strategy genre because it was a genre that made people think, not just click a mouse fast. We knew what games were out there and we felt there was a void of intelligent strategy games and they were the type of games we enjoyed playing the most.

We decided on doing a near-future concept first, providing players with an environment that they would be somewhat familiar with, so in 2005 we released “Supreme Ruler 2010”. It wasn’t hard to envision the world falling apart with economic and political crisis all around. Our second title, “Supreme Ruler 2020” developed further along the near-future theme and was our first to really break the limits of how many nations could be represented and played as. Rather than continue along this path though, we decided to tackle historical timelines with our third release, “Supreme Ruler Cold War”. At that point we wanted to integrate historical events into the game and let players make their decisions possibly knowing what historically transpired and doing what they could to change history.

4°) Why have you chosen especially this historical period?

That brings us to our current project, “Supreme Ruler 1936”. Right from the start it was always our plan to end the series with a World War II version. We knew that we wanted our World War II game to be the ultimate “Supreme Ruler” and the culmination of everything we’ve learned from the previous titles. We also know that this is the most popular era for strategy games, so that we had to be ensure it was as accurate as possible. It was also the last real point in history that World Domination was really on the table, so that’s always an enjoyable goal for gamers!

5°) In comparison with the previous games of the series (like SR 2020 and SR Cold War), have the engine been improved? How did you proceed to adapt the engine to this new type of conflict (WWII)?

Every version of the series has seen significant improvements to the engine, but none nearly as significant as for “SR1936”. As a game progress with our series, it is common for there to be literally thousands of units operating independently around the planet, and it has always been challenging to keep the game from bogging down when an AI region does a massive operation such as a naval invasion. Combined with the huge militaries of WWII this became even more challenging. George has spent a considerably chunk of time perfecting the game engine and utilizing whatever specs the players’ computers have, so even with the thousands of units, game speed has been increased greatly.

Other than performance, the AI is probably the other most significant adaptation to the engine for WWII seeing as the types of military units present in WWII are considerably different than the more modern and mobile militaries of our previous titles.

6°) Considering the production planning, to what stage are you currently (pre-alpha, alpha…)?

Currently we are just completing Alpha and hope to be in Beta within the next 45 days.

7°) Will the player be able to control all the countries in the world?

We continue to have different game-play modes for this release. In Sandbox mode (Single or Multi-Player), players will have the option to play as any Nation (not Colony) that existed at the possible starting points of 1936, 1940, or 1941. As well, they will also be able to customize their victory conditions and even the extent of historical events they’ll experience. In Campaign Mode however, players will have limited choices as to their starting nation and will be guided more by pre-defined objectives. There will also be historical scenarios provided, giving players an option for shorter games.

8°) Could you give us more details about the economic system in the game? Have you planned to simulate specifically the war economy of this period?

Our economic model is based on a centralized economy so leaders have individual control of their resources, as they would in a typical wartime economy. Further we have modified many other aspects of our model to reflect the conditions, demands, and expectations of the period.

9°) What about the diplomacy system? Will it be possible to ally with other countries? Will the player be able to choose his allies freely or will it be necessary to follow the course of history? For instance, if you play with Italy, will you be able to switch to a democracy and join the Allies?

Again this will go to the type of game you have opted to play. In Sandbox, everything is open to change while in Campaign or Scenario your objectives are more spelled out for you historically. To specifically answer your question; Yes, it would be possible to play a game as Italy and join the Allies and pursue whatever agenda you wanted. However, to progress in a Campaign game as Italy you would have to follow the more historical path and likely find yourself part of the Axis.

10°) Will you integrate some spying and sabotage models? Will you be able to disturb an enemy country by messing up its production, by murdering politicians or supporting another political party? Will it be possible to influence a neutral or enemy nation?

Yes to most of those… Diplomacy and Espionage can be key elements of gaining or undermining an alliance. We’ve adapted the and expanded the Spheres of Influence we used in Cold War. Instead of NATO and Warsaw, we now have Axis and Allies. Every action between countries could possibly affect their sphere leaning and the influence they have over other nations. Even public responses to events that don’t involve your nation first-hand, could affect your position.

11°) How does work the technology tree? What are the latest innovations available (until what year can you play)?

We’ve always incorporated a significant technology tree into our games and this is no exception. And like the real-world, our tech tree is intentionally not balanced at the beginning of your game. If you decide to play as China in a Sandbox game, one of the first things you’ll notice when Japan attacks is that they have a significant technological advantage. What techs you decide to research yourself or acquire through trade can definitely help you survive.

12°) What about the solo mode? What campaigns and scenarios will be available?

Because of the length of time it takes to play our game through, Single Player is certainly the more common mode. Seeing as the Axis were the aggressors, most of the Campaigns will be played from their side, but we will certainly be including some Allied based Campaigns as well. I can’t yet provide a final list of the campaigns and scenarios that will be included at release, but there will be three starting dates for the Campaigns which should give your readers a good idea of what to expect; March 1936, May 1940, and June 1941. It is our goal to include at least seven campaigns and a half dozen scenarios upon release, but it really is the customizable Sandbox mode that provide the incredible replay-ability of our games.

13°) What are the historical campaigns and scenarios integrated in the game?

See previous question.

14°) Will SR 1936 and Cold War be compatible in any kind of way (like exporting savegame from 1936 to continue a campaign during the Cold War)?

Not specifically. They are different games and in some ways not compatible. However WWII does not need to end at a specific date and the game can be played way past its historical 1945 conclusion. The units and tech tree in the game can take players into the 21^st century!

15°) What are the main features of the multiplayer mode? How many players could join a same game and what will be the different game modes?

We allow up to 16 players over network or internet. We are also customizing some of the victory conditions to accommodate shorter multi-player games with modified objectives and scorecards. One of our favorite types of game for studio multiplayer test nights is; everyone starts as a less dominant nation such as Argentina, Portugal, Canada, etc… and tries to conquer as many other nations as possible in a specific time limit. And of course you get double points if you knock off another one of the human players!

16°) Could you give us more details about the units in the game? How many units will be available by country? What will be the main types of units?

As was typical of WWII, the most common type of units were infantry. We do have a military consultant helping us out with the ORBATS (Order of Battle) for each nation, so the starting inventories and specifications of Tank Battalions, Artillery, Ships, Air Squadrons are all based on actual historical values.

17°) Will the morale and sense of organization be taken in account to calculate the combat efficiency of a unit?

Military Efficiency and Morale will certainly be important to a unit’s battle success. Historically even thought the Russians held a numbers advantage against the Germans, the quality of their equipment and the inefficiency of their battle plans nearly cost them the war.

18°) How will be defined the chain of command and the supply line of a unit? Will the HQs add some bonuses to the troops?

Supply is crucial to the tactical military element of our game. The longer a location is occupied, the more its supply will grow (starting at zero as you capture new territory). Chain of Command is not really used as much within our game. There are Command Units that will help provide benefits to your other units, but they are not nearly as important as keeping a well-supplied and well-maintained force.

19°) Will it be possible to select some officers with special skills to command the armies?

No… this is not an area of the military we developed. On the other hand, units will gain experience and become more efficient and effective in battle.

20°) Will some secret weapons (like German V2) be available?

Players could decide to pursue special research projects such as the German V2 program or the Manhattan Project in order to win the war.

21°) Will the game be mod-friendly?

The simple answer is Yes. We have made many adjustments towards this and have plans post-release to help encourage and support this community even more.

22°) Even if the project is at an early stage, have you already a release date (or period) scheduled?

We don’t have a specific release date yet, but we are hoping for February or March 2014.

23°) Thanks for your time and answers. Would you like to add any last word for your fans?

Only to say thanks for the terrific support we’ve received over the years from our players. We’re not in this to sell a million copies, we just try to develop a quality playing experience that our target players will enjoy and appreciate and play over and over again!

Supreme Ruler 1936 on Battlegoat.com.

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