Official Website: Supreme Ruler: Cold War

Outpostgamez had the opportunity to sit down with David Thompson, Lead Designer / Co Founder of BattleGoat Studios.

From Ruglian….
Q: “did they improve the Army attacking ?! and my army can use Sea attack Automatically ?! that's the important thing in the game i want ( i hate to move army manually )”

A: One thing we’ve done with Supreme Ruler Cold War is introduced a system of Theaters around the world and Battlezones within those theaters.  Now players can designate that a theater is a high military priority and automatically their Military AI will deploy unassigned units to that theater.  And similarly, units arriving in a theater will deploy to the battlezones that have been given greater importance.

Not only have we added theaters and battlezones, but we’ve also incorporated a Merchant Marine into the game.  Essentially when units need to cross an ocean, they will travel to a port, automatically "load" into a merchant cargo ship, go to the destination port, and disembark back into the land unit.  Obviously when at sea, these units will be virtually defenseless so you will need to take steps to adequately defend their shipping routes.  This feature does not mean we’ve eliminated military naval transport ships.  They still exist in the game and provide a little more defensive strength when getting units through dangerous waters.  As well, the merchant marine requires a port for both embarking and disembarking, and you still might need landing ships if you’re planning a surprise invasion along undefended shores.

From Stuckenshmidt…
Q: Does the diplomatic system make any sense at all now? Will AI-countries agree to a peace and save some of their territory instead of going down because "they don`t like me so don`t talk to me"? Can the AI finally handle the supply system? Or simply: Is this at least a vaguely realistic game or just another "Dominate the world in no time because the AI is stupid as hell"-game?

A: There are many improvements to the AI over our previous games, and we will continue to develop it even more with better tactics long after release of Supreme Ruler Cold War.  The very nature of this game versus the storyline of Supreme Ruler 2020 make all the nations much more interested in peace in the first place and therefore more likely to want to restore it.Also, one of the key concepts for the game is the spreading of “Spheres of Influence”.  Although intimidation through military power might have some benefit, it’s also likely to scare countries into the enemy sphere for protection.

From Samilou…
Q: Any concrete samples of detailed historical flavor and events simulated?

A:  The whole point of using the Cold War era is so that we can use that historical background.   There are many, many, examples I could cite of historical events that we are incorporating into the game, from colonial independence, to civil wars, to Soviet oppression, and more.  I suppose some of the most well-know Cold War events are the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Russian Invasion of Afghanistan, the conflicts in South East Asia, and of course the Space Race.  Rest assured, all of these events and hundreds more are incorporated into the game and will trigger if conditions allow.

Q: How much flexibility will be offered on the diplomatic arena as opposed to 2020 (for others than superpowers)?

A: Not sure what is meant by this question.  We’ve always allowed you to deal with any other independent nation in the world and we continue this in Supreme Ruler Cold War.  One feature that is new for Supreme Ruler Cold War is that your State Department will be unable to deal directly with the colonial states of another country, not until they gain independence anyways.  And since one of the main goals of the game is to bring other nations into your Sphere of Influence, this does increase the importance of relations with developing nations.

Q: ….And on internal politics?

A:  Internal political policies is one area that hasn’t changed a lot since the last game.  You can still control taxation and spending policies as well as commodity elements.  However the Tech Tree has increased dramatically over SR2020 and many of the new elements will certainly help your domestic agendas.  One new area for Supreme Ruler Cold War is an increasing importance of the "Opposition Parties".  Now not only do Democracies have to worry about losing elections, but the ability to fund Opposition groups and to encourage insurgencies is a key game element.

Q: Any simulation of internal rebel movements, non-military protests and civil war?

A:  Much more attention is being paid to Insurgencies and Coup d’états this time round.  They were such an integral part of Cold War tensions that we would be remiss if we didn’t include them. 

Q:….Coup d'états? (see above)

Q: Simulation of differing economic systems?

A:  There have always been a lot of internal differences in costs and policies based on the type of government that was in power in a nation.  We are continuing with this idea and have made some additional tweaks, especially since we have to incorporate the whole idea of colonial possessions.  However some of the core gameplay concepts of "centralized control" remain, which may give players a bit more ability to influence their regions than the real-life leaders may have had.

Q: What efforts have been done to speed up the game, and to what extent has speed been boosted?

A:  Actually before I answer that for Supreme Ruler Cold War, you might want to know about it for Supreme Ruler 2020.  Based on some of the game engine improvements we’ve made, we’re actually about to make a new update available for SR2020.  This update will improve game speed in many areas by about 25% over earlier versions.  There will be of course additional improvements to the speed for Cold War, especially in times of peace, where a form of "fast forward" gameplay will be supported.

Q: Has anything been done to increase modability and freedom and ease of scenario editing?

A: Yes and no.  We have created better systems within the studio to change data and create specific scripts and scenarios.  However we have not yet developed a good front end for these tools that make us able to release them to the general public.  After the release of Supreme Ruler Cold War we are planning on dedicating time to creating some of these tools that will make modding easier.  They will be released as a free update as soon as they are available.  And like our previous games, Supreme Ruler Cold War does include the ability to create new campaign and scenario "cache" files for modders, so right from day one players who edit the text-based data files directly are able to create significant new mods, though it may take a bit of work.

Q: Will countryside population levels be more flexible as opposed to 2020?

A:  We try to reflect accurate population levels and distribution based on the starting date of our game.  If you are asking whether there is much movement of population, then the answer is “no”.  That’s not to say that there is No Movement, but it is minimal.  Most population change will continue to take place in urban centers (towns/cities).   

Q: Finally, simulating the privatized part of the economy which the state has limited control of?

A: As mentioned above, this is not an area that we have done much development in for Supreme Ruler Cold War.  The concept of centralized control (to give players full control over their region's progress) still remains.

 

From Boris ze Spider…
Q: Will I be able to pit my forces against my opposite ideology’s forces indirectly, i.e- Korean War?

A:  Yes.  North and South Korea will be at war and forces acting within those countries will support the war of their ally without necessarily having to declare war themselves.  So, Chinese troops in North Korea will fire on U.S. troops in South Korea, but if a Chinese Patrol Boat drove by a U.S. ship in International Waters, then neither ship would fire on the other.

From Cheesehead…..
Q: Are there going to be tactical nukes, such as low yield bombs, artillery shells, and unguided missiles?

A: There will certainly be Tactical Nukes that could be developed and deployed within the game.  Freefall bombs and short-range nuclear missiles are supported, though nuclear artillery shells are not.  Using them though might not be the wisest of ideas .  Based on the Cold War’s wonderful theory of “Mutually Assured Destruction”, any use of nuclear weapons will likely escalate beyond what was intended.

Q: Are there going to be chemical and Bio weapons, both strategic and tactical? The soviets did have bio weapons program throughout the cold war.

A: We’ve struggled with the idea of including chemical and biological weaponry right back to our first game, Supreme Ruler 2010.  We know that many countries have developed them, but we frequently have had arguments within the studio as to the practicality of using these kinds of weapons.  Chemical weapons are generally not seen as strategically or tactically significant over other strategies, and their greatest effect is not military but civilian casualties.  Biological weapons obviously have significant issues as well, and again their primary target is civilians.  So for the purposes of our games we have left them out.  This is the case with Supreme Ruler Cold War as well, but we may reconsider this with mods and expansions.

Q: Are SLBM's going to work similar to those in SR2020?

A: I’m told to say “Stay Tuned” for an answer to that one !  Look for an upcoming Developer Diary with information on Nuclear Weapon use in Supreme Ruler Cold War.

A:  Unlike Supreme Ruler 2020 there will be options on how to deal with captured territory.  Whenever a conflict ends you will be able to choose to return territory to the original border or annex what you’ve captured.  Also, in the case of the Korean War, any land the US captures would now be captured on behalf of South Korea.

Q: Is it possible to have strategic recon planes, such as the U-2 and SR-71, and be able to overfly countries without them DoW'ing a country?

A: Yes!  We’re loosening up and improved the rules of incursions, especially for Air and Naval units.

Q: Similar to above, but could we send subs into other countries sea territory without a DoW?  (see above)

Q: How exactly will Missile silos work? Will we still need all the support structure for them, like it was in SR:2020, or could we simply have a hex with a control center and a bunch of missile silos? How will they be targeted? Can we select pre-set targets for them?

A:  One of the Developer Diaries that we will be releasing closer to the launch date will be a breakdown of how we’ve developed the whole nuclear war aspect of the game.  That will include everything we’re doing from deployment to targeting, to “Mutually Assured Destruction” and it might even answer the question of whether it’s possible to win a nuclear war.

Q: Will we be able to share nuclear weapons, similar to the NATO nuclear weapons sharing agreement?

A: Deploying your nuclear weapons and launch platforms to other countries will be possible, but the idea of sharing their control with another nation will not.  Launch control will only reside with your country for your weapons.

Q: I assume that resources will stay the same, or will there be new ones, or more of them?

A:  We’ve always liked our commodity system.  While we did spend a large chunk of time reviewing it for possible changes, in the end we decided to keep it as it was, as it represents the major global-market commodities in the real world.

Note: Outpostgamez would like to thank those that submitted their questions for our interview of Supreme Ruler: Cold War