Mini campaign generator

[Dr Strangelove]

Something I would personally care for even more than the main campaign, would be a mini-campaign generator.

 

1. You basically pick the theatre, date and countries that would take part. Probably from just the ones that operate in that area - no Austria in the Pacific.

2. It would be great if the game had real-life designs and date when they’re available. That way you could create any conflict you wanted, with realistic forces. Campaigns where you design your starting fleet can be equally fun.

3. Some other parameters would be very convenient, like how determined the enemy is. A war against a weaker opponent who doesn’t want to fight would largely take part between smaller vessels and raiders, with both parties seeing trade protection as a high priority. An enemy desperate for a quick victory would try to force a grand battle ASAP. This would really let players tailor that experience and shouldn’t be that hard to do. A basic ratio of encounters and their types and modifications to the battle AI should do the trick.

4. Pre-set goals set by your government at the beginning of the war would also be a great addition to the previous point. Perhaps they don’t want you to fully destroy the enemy but just to interdict his shipping? Or perhaps they want to negotiate a peace settlement and require you to limit the operations to trade protection and above all avoiding losses that would embolden the enemy. Possibilities are endless and this would make every campaign unique.

5. Setting an approximate or maximum length of the campaign. Campaigns should obviously end if you obliterate your enemy, but perhaps your government only wants a short war and is eager to negotiate if no decisive battle is to be seen.

6. In long campaigns, you should be able to set budgets as well, as new ships can join the fight. 

This is something missing from other games. The ability to create your own campaigns and tailor them. It should be fairly easy to do, as bases, economy and AI should already be there for the main campaign, but would provide us with countless possibilities, and amazing replayability. It’s missing from both SAI and RTW series, which prevents me from enjoying them any more. Creating a campaign through an editor is hard in SAI and the ultra sandbox nature of RTW2 and the lack of conflicts between other nations make it feel empty after a while.

 

So, to sum up, just a generator that confines campaign features to a certain area and sides. It can probably mostly use the same features and systems as the main campaign, but allow for more intimate and less sandboxy mini-campaigns.

Edited January 4, 2020 by Dr Strangelove