Enlisted Progression Suggestion
A super-thread from yours truly, that one dude who just can’t stop thinking about stuff at three in the morning and on his fifth cup of coffee…
Unit Research Trees
Bringing 50 Unique Soldier types to Research and Unlock, my suggested research tree would give a sense of progression one could follow over the course of a several-months-long grind-fest that still allows players to progress steadily while providing them with an end-goal.
Rifleman
Core infantry unit of the game, their progression reflects around development of their nation’s standard issue weapon and doctrine.
Engineer
An infantry-adjacent unit, often charged with building combat fortifications and demolishing critical structures and fortifications.
Gunner
An infantryman with a focus on establishing fire-superiority, their expertise with various machine gun types defines their role in combat.
Specialist
A unit with training in special weapons and tactics, they’re often equipped with special weapons which bring niche support to their squads.
Support
An infantryman with a focus on aiding their squad and others in battle, they provide the resources needed for the infantry to continue fighting.
Leader
The key to any successful squad, the leader is the lynchpin in bringing together tactical movements and infantry doctrine with special abilities and resources.
Assaulter
A newfound addition to infantry, these aggressive fighters bring overwhelming dominance to close-range combat and urban environments.
Grenadier
A longstanding position within the ranks of the army, grenadiers are equipped with their namesake weapon to clear enemy squads and fortifications.
Sniper
Named for their uncanny marksmanship, snipers are granted the right to use specially manufactured weapons and equipment to find and eliminate high-priority targets.
Tanker
The spearhead of modern warfare and the means by which land warfare was forever changed, the tankers feature special training to use the new iron horses of battle.
Airman
Bringing the fight to the skies above the battlefields, airmen are among the elite forces of their nation’s militaries and are given special training to rain fire from above.
Rider
The backbone to modern warfare lies not in the guns or bombs of the army, but its mobility and the motorists trained to ferry troops and supplies into the heat of battle.
Squad Research Trees
Bringing a new focus to how squad-level Research and Unlocks occur, my suggested research trees would give endless opportunities for squad customizations. Not only limited to equipment and weapon configurations and combinations, but also cosmetics based on the historical units used.
Rifle Squad
Featuring Fireteams to begin with, the Rifle Squad is the basic building block to creating your armies to fight back the enemy and claim victory on the battlefield.
Engineer Squad
These specialized combat engineering teams allow for the use of combat engineers en masse on the battlefield to help fortify or destroy key structures.
Weapons Squad
Heavily armed and trained in the use of special weapons and equipment, these hand-picked units support infantry operations by bringing oppressive fire power and the ammo to back it up.
Assault Squad
Trained in specialized combat tactics and often using unconventional approaches, these squads are enabled with special abilities that reflect their unique role on the battlefield.
[WIP]
Grenadier Squad
The shock troops of any modern army, grenadier squads bring heavy-hitting fire superiority and explosive power to the battlefield to create breakthroughs in the enemy lines.
[WIP]
Vehicle Squad
These teams of highly-trained and specialized support personnel bring to the battlefield the new ways of war, featuring powerful tanks, high-flying aircraft, and fast-moving motor wagons.
[WIP]
Summary
So, this is my suggestion mostly in full (at the time of posting this, my caffeine-addled brain is beginning to lose focus and I want to be able to attack this topic with everything I got before I burn out, so I’m off to do some reading or something). Feel free to comment and whatnot on it all, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of naysayers, but I’m looking for some key or critical feedback. Whether it’s on this suggested system itself, or its similarities to the War Thunder progression trees or other games with similar subjects and systems.
In the end, I personally feel that Enlisted is going to have to move away from Campaigns as a source of individual maps, and utilize the tried-and-true War Thunder tiering system. While Dark Flow had an interesting idea in breaking the war up into critical campaigns, their current execution has been poor in my opinion and revolves around repeat research too often to justify forcing players to regrind out preexisting campaigns. I’m already debating continuing to play if the next two or so campaigns are just rough rehashes of preexisting campaigns.
While I recognize the current system ‘just works’ (channel your inner Howards for that one folks), it wont for much longer and a common complaint already is the excessive amount of repeated research we have to do between campaigns for weapons and capabilities we can otherwise appreciate elsewhere. With the grind being so long and stretched out, if Dark Flow wants to retain the same length of general research, I think they need to seriously consider redesigning the entirety of their matchmaking and multiplayer experience to reflect it.
