Many of you are aware of the controversy of having USA and UK in the same faction.
One of the problems with them queuing together is it means the devs ignore well over half of the Second World War in potential content.
i.e We cant have the Battle for France 1940 because USA wasnt in the war, nor can we have Iwo Jima because that was American only.
This game desperately needs new content to keep it going. That is a fact. Enlisted will not survive with the current trajectory of there being a BIG update every 18 months that is only a couple entirely fictional weapons for high rank.
Solutions:
Many players, myself included, believe that the UK-Commonwealth should be its own tech tree. We also think Germany and Italy should be separate and let Italy include other Axis nations (eg Hungary, Romania), like War Thunder.
We are aware though that the devs are not keen on this idea.
THEREFORE, I propose that soldier’s uniforms should auto change for certain maps, like they do in Hell Let Loose.
This will open up a wealth of new content for maps and potential new sub-factions (eg France, Finland etc.)
We can add new nation-specific maps, without having to interfere with queues or new factions. You would just queue as normal as ALLIES and go from there.
How it works:
In some ways this feature is already in Enlisted, though not properly utilised. Namely, Italian uniforms auto-swap to standard German ones in certain Eastern Front and Berlin maps.
For battles where nations fought alongside each other, nothing changes. Your British and American squads can fight alongside each other as normal.
Whereas, if Malaya/Singapore map was queued, any American squads in your lineup would automatically get standard British uniforms.
Likewise if the Philippines is queued, all your squads will become Americans.
What About Weapons?
Obviously the weapons in Enlisted are all over the place. Some weapons like the Thompson and various Shermans were used by USA or UK-Commonwealth anyway.
Overall I dont think it matters too much. Indeed players will note that most British-Commonwealth weapons tend to be lower BR and most American weapons tend to be higher BR. So I think this will work out okay with maps.
I.e If you are queued as British/Commonwealth in Tobruk (early-mid war) chances are youll be using British weapons like the Lee Enfield rifles, and if youre queued Okinawa (late war) theres a high probability you would be using American weapons like the M2 Carbine or M1919.
What About Voicelines?
I think voicelines should be able to auto change. Otherwise, similar to weapons, I don’t think it matters too much.
Here’s just three examples of very famous battles from WWII that would be great in game, yet are ignored:
We see a British-Commonwealth battle ONLY (Tobruk)
A joint Allied operation (Monte Cassino)
An American ONLY battle (Manila)
Defenders of Tobruk, 1941: Free Polish, British, Australian, Indian and Free Czech soldiers.
Free Polish soldiers advance at Monte Cassino, 1943. They fought alongside Americans and New Zealanders (including Maori who are praised by German Fallsmirjager for their tenacity and bravery).
Americans fighting in Manila, Philippines 1945.
- Yes
- No
I would also like to point out that the current Pacific War in Enlisted is just straight wrong.
At the moment we have a bunch of boring same-old, same-old generic Solomon Islands maps where British and American forces are depicted as fighting alongside each other at Guadalcanal.
In terms of Pacific Islands, the British never fought in that theatre.
It was either American-only operations like Saipan, Australian/New Zealand operations (eg New Guinea, Bougainville) or joint Australian/New Zealand-American operations like Lae and the Treasury Islands).
Similarly in Asia it was basically an all British and/or Commonwealth operation. Burma is the only theatre the Americans had significant investment in.
I believe Enlisted should reflect this reality.
Here is a list of places Australians fought in the war against Japan. Some were alongside U.S or British forces, others purely Australian (+ sometimes New Zealand).
I have included this just to give players an idea of the amount of potential maps we are missing out on in the Allies vs Japan sector alone just because we can’t have nation-specific battles.
Southeast Asia: Singapore, Malaya, Ambon, Timor, Balikpapan, Tarawa, Brunei.
Pacific Islands: Rabaul, Milne Bay, Kokoda, Buna, Gona, Sanananda, Wau, Lae, Salamua, Huon Peninsula, Finschhafen, Finisterre, Aitape, Wewak, Bougainville