Repost of an old thread, but with a twist.
TL;DR:
Have a year based matchmaker where each “campaign” would simply be categorized roughly by year, instead of predefined weapons + nations, allowing for better representation of minor nations to play as and minor conflicts/maps to fight on.
The main idea
Instead of having 4 campaigns we got currently, we would have a mix of these large campaigns, as well as smaller campaigns. Large campaigns would include Pacific, Battle of the Bulge, Stalingrad, Invasion of Italy etc in addition to the 4 we have, while small campaigns would be things like A Second Sino-Japanese War campaign, or a Winter War campaign. Each campaign would have a list of possible participants, as well as a “star rating” indicating its era, with campaigns taking place later in the war having a higher rating.
Star rating
This would be a slight modification to the current “stars” we have ingame already. The ones we see on soldiers, and weapons. Weapons that are more powerful have a higher star rating and upgrading them also increases the amount of stars they have. However, there would be more stars, up to around 10. And each star would have less impact on upgrade cost etc than we would have currently. More on this later.
Matchmaking
Matchmaking would be based on the highest “star rating” among your squads, and will match the range of star ratings of the campaigns. For example, Normandy would have a range of 6-8 stars, with 6 stars excluding some of the more rare/powerful stuff like MP-43 or Panther tanks, while those would be allowed in the 8 star matches. This also means that players with gear of 9-10 stars would not be able to participate in Normandy. For ease of matchmakers, players with only a few stars less than the campaign amount can also participate, meaning that players with 4-6 stars could occasionally get into a match in Normandy. These could be considered as “uptiers”, similar to War Thunder. My suggestion is a maximum uptier of +2 stars, but this is adjustable.
Weapon upgrades
Weapon upgrades would mostly stay as is. You disassemble spare weapons and use those to upgrade weapons to get bonus stats. These bonus stats will increase the star rating of the weapon, meaning that you cannot use these upgraded guns in campaigns with low star ratings such as Moscow. This would act as newbie protection.
Soldier upgrades
Again, can stay as is. Except every even star would increase perk slot capacity by 1, and each uneven star increase perk point capacity, to keep soldiers from getting too powerful at 10 stars. Again, prevents low star soldiers from fighting in early campaigns.
Squad upgrades
I am not quite sure how I want to handle these, as fully upgraded squads definitely do have an advantage over stock squads. I think simply giving the squad +1 star for each soldier in them beyond the base 4 (or whatever the amount will be after the squad reworks) should do enough, with the exception that troopers do not give these extra stars. Should give only a minor bonus to experienced players at most in early campaigns.
Campaign upgrades/progression
of course, this system would prevent the current campaign based progression from working. So instead, each nation will get one of these upgrade trees, instead of axis/allies per campaign. The major nations such as Russia, America, Brittan and Germany will of course have much more levels than minor nations, because there are much more weapons / vehicles to unlock. As such, I think a maximum of 100k XP per level should be okay, if using the same leveling rate as we got currently
Monetization / Premium squads
The current premium squads would be moved into the “shared” progression set for their nation, and all star ratings would still apply to them. One thing that may be added to them, however, is increased XP gain for their nation’s campaign tech tree, similar to how premium time does so right now. Hopefully the amount of “P2W” aspects from various mechanics will be reduced drastically thanks to the matchmaker system.
New players playing late campaigns
Some new players might want to play the late era / high star rating campaigns, but might not want to grind through the entire early section of progression. As a solution to this I think for every 2-3 stars, there are “demonstration squads” that you can opt to queue with instead of your normal squads. These squads would offer 1 Assaulter, 1 Engineer and 1 Tanker squad upgraded to that tier of progression. They would not be modifiable in any way, shape or form, but be competitive enough to give you a fun time in the late era campaigns until you can unlock them.
List of possible campaigns
Nations not included in this list will not be able to join matches of that specific campaign!!! This list merely suggest star ratings, they are all open to change, of course. But they are included to give you a general idea of the “power level” of each campaign, in rough chronological order:
- Invasion of Poland: Has 2 subcategories. One would be Poland vs Soviets, the other would be Poland vs Germany. We can also have a Liberation of Poland campaign on the same map, with Poland + Soviets vs Germany with a higher star rating. Star rating would be 1 on this one.
- Invasion of France: Can use some of the Normandy maps, but also should include maps around the Maginot line. It would be France + Brittan vs Germany. Star rating: 1-2.
- Second Sino-Japanese war: Japan vs China. Star rating: 1-3.
- Moscow: Already exists. Would have Germany vs Soviets, with a star rating of 2-4.
- Winter War: Finnish vs Soviets. Star rating: 2-4.
- Pacific War: USA vs Japan. Star rating: 2-4.
- Tunesia: Already confirmed/in development. Brittan + USA vs Germany + Italy. Star rating: 2-4.
- Battle of Kharkov: Would include both first and second battle on the same maps. Germany vs Soviets. Star ratings: 2-4 / 5-7.
- Stalingrad: Another Germany vs Soviets “map pack” essentially. Star rating: 3-5.
- Kursk: Again, Germany vs Soviets. Star rating: 5-7.
- El Alamein: Germany + Italy vs Brittan + USA. Star rating: 3-5.
- Iwo Jima: Last combat for Japan vs USA. Star rating: 3-5.
- Invasion of Italy: Canada + Brittan + USA vs Italy + Germany. Excludes Italy from participating in the higher star matches. Star rating: 4-8.
- Normandy: Already exists, but would be expanded into Canada + Brittan + USA vs Germany. Star rating: 6-8.
- Battle of the Bulge: Canada + Brittan + USA vs Germany. Star rating: 7-9.
- Battle for the Rivers: Would include the battles near the Rhine, Elbe and the general Ruhr area. Last combat for Canada + Brittan + USA vs Germany. Star rating: 8-10.
- Berlin: Last combat for Soviets vs Germany. Star rating: 8-10.
Why this?
Above all, it will allow more flexibility towards adding new campaigns. There is no need to copy paste a large amount of progression stuff into there, such as MP40s being available in practically every campaign that involves Germany. We also get the ability to have more nations in the game, including minor/obscure participants of WW2 such as Canada, China and Finland. It will also improve matchmaking as there won’t be hard separations between campaigns. If Normandy needs some more players, Tunisia “level” players might end up joining a Normandy match. Lastly, it will also protect new players against players that have progressed further.
Overall this is a rough rework of that previous suggestion and will need some adjustments. Please keep your feedback about it constructive in the issues you may see with this, so we can think of solutions to them as a group.
