Hello bajtársak and fellow forumdwellers,
Enlisted had never been a military simulator or a hardcore historically accurate game, even back in the days of the campaigns, there were weapons and vehicles in every campaign that were out place, either because they were historically not deployed yet, were withdrawn from frontline use or were used by a different a nation’s armed forces entirely.
Regardless of those, the game felt extremely authentic to me the first time I played Enlisted, in fact the Stalingrad campaign gave me the best WW2 experience of my life and this is coming from a Red Orchestra 2 veteran.
But I also understand that most players have only basic knowledge about WW2 and thus don’t mind or notice prototypes, weapons and vehicles that are out of time or place.
The main game mode has become a World War II sandbox, which does have its own charm, but I originally came to Enlisted for the authentic WW2 experience which has been diminishing with every new update and I know for a fact that I’m not the only one.
Historical authenticity is now a far cry from what it used to be, players can now experience D-day landing like never before, with the soldiers of Republic of China storming the beaches of Normandy.
Bad jokes aside, there is a lot of unrealised potential in a dedicated realistic game mode.
The core of the concept is taking the already proven “Event fight” event format and improving on it. The realistic game mode would be accessible through the game modes window and through the event pop up window in the right side of the game menu.
The realistic game mode is permanent, but the playable campaign rotates, on average every two weeks (this time can be shorter or longer depending on how many maps the campaign has).
In realistic game mode, balance is not related to BRs and weapons are available from BR1 to BR5. The weapons available depend on the campaign and on the squad.
Balance without BRs
Each squad has a maximum number of power points available, every soldier must have a primary weapon and every primary weapon has a power point cost.
A BR1 gun costs 1 power point, a BR5 gun costs 5 power points.
The number of power points available depends on the campaign, generally later war campaigns would have more power points available.
For example, you can equip a Ppsh41 on a soldier in Moscow, but that will use up most of the power points available and the rest of the soldiers in the squad will be stuck with BR1 weapons, or you can choose a PPD-34 instead and have enough for a SVT-38 and DP-27 as well.
Captured weapons
In reality soldiers often capture enemy equipment and put it to good use.
In realistic game mode technological disparity is balanced by captured weapons.
If a player has the enemy weapon unlocked (by researching it in the appropriate faction’s tech tree) he can equip it, but beware that the amount of captured weapons a player can equip is limited.
Trophy weapons that are in the tech (such Axis Obrez Ppsh or Japanese obrez M2 Carbine) also count as captured weapons.
Weapons unique to certain units
Weapons such as FG42 a.k.a. paratrooper rifle 42 may only be equipped by German Fallschirmjäger squads.
USMC weapons are only equippable on US marine squads.
British weapons are not available to US soldiers and vice versa, unless they were historically used. This also applies to Germany and Italy.
Lend-leased
In reality soldiers sometimes did receive foreign weapons, trade firearms or picked them up from their fallen allies.
These weapons have their own special category the “lend-leased weapons”, these are limited in number.
For example, equipping a US submachine gun on a Soviet soldiers or a Japanese navy rifle such as the Type I rifle in the hands of a Japanese army soldier counts as a lend-lease.
Even a non standard weapon, like the M1928A1 (drum) on a US soldier would also count as lend-lease since drum magazines were not standard issue in the US army and the soldier had to acquire it privately.
Concept of assaulter weapons available in Stalingrad to Red Army soldiers in the Stalingrad campaign, weapons with numbers showing how many are available are limited while those without numbers can be taken infinitely.
Every campaign has different squads, in the Burma campaign, Allied squads are mostly Chinese and British while only a few squads are American. But in the Solomon islands and New Georgia (Pacific campaign) the majority of Allied squads are American and only a few are Australian. Naturally different nationality squads have different equipment available to them.
In reality, squads usually had around 12-20 men each.
They were led by the squad leader or the deputy squad leader if something had happened to the squad leader. Usually only the squad leader was armed with a submachine gun but as the war progressed submachine guns became more common. Usually each squad was supported by one light machine gun.
In realistic game mode, players can choose from a variety of different squads, but cannot change their composition. Each squad has 5 to 9 soldiers, but only 4 specialists and generally only 2 assaulter/machine gunners are available to a squad except very small squads.
Only squad leaders, deputy squad leaders, machine gunners, snipers can carry sidearms.
Pilots and tank crews also carry pistols, but as their primary weapon.
Concept of some of the squads the players could choose from in the Burma campaign
Sorry I could not fit the vehicles in a tasteful way
Upgrades
In historical game mode, weapons are unlocked by researching them in the tech tree.
All weapons are stock (have no upgrades), except for bolt-action rifles as all of those are max upgraded.
To keep things as simple as possible and the game mode slower paced, soldiers have no perks.
Vehicles
Balancing vehicles was the most problematic aspect of the campaign system, Tiger vs Staurt or Pz II vs T-34 was NOT fun for anyone.
To avoid that, vehicles are only available from a BR range and this depends on the vehicles that were realistic used in the campaign.
As an example, the Tunisia campaign would have tanks from BR2 to BR3, because while it’s true that the Tiger I H1 was used in Tunisia, no Allied tank from the period is available to counter it.
If a player does not own a tank or aircraft eligible for the campaign, he gets a bottom of the line light tank, tank destroyer or fighter aircraft.
Balancing both sides
During the campaign system, it was a common problem that players stacked only one side, thus in historical game mode, players are randomly assigned to one side at the start of the match.
Players playing in groups/clans also get assigned randomly, there is no guarantee that you will get the same team as your friends/members of the group.
Premium
A gap between players that pay and free to play players still exists in this game mode as well.
Players have as many squad slots as they had purchased and the limits (amount BRs, prototypes, lend-lease weapons) are increased proportionately.
Event and Premium squads that historically participated in the campaign can also be used, but they don’t have fixed weapons and have the same squad layout as normal ones. They can be equipped with both their premium weapons and tech tree weapons.
Not all premium squads are equally useful, For example MG42 (early) can be used in the Stalingrad, Rzhev campaign and Tunisia as well if we stretch it a little, while MG45 squad can only be used in the Berlin campaign alone. Some premiums like the Mp41 are king of the hill and can appear in most campaigns.
The immense potential
Historically accurate game mode has the potential to include conflicts such as the Spanish civil war, France 1940, Greco-Italian war, Sino-Japanese war and other conflicts that could never make it into the current squads game mode.
Some campaigns could have unique vehicle balancing like the Pacific had carrier only aircraft before the merge. Ideas as light tanks only, 3 fighter aircraft slots for both teams etc.
The end goal is to make the realistic a unique game mode that adds to overall game experience.
Benefit
Besides usual silver and research points earned in battles, players can also unlock legacy squads, by playing with them in this game mode. Event tasks and battle pass tasks that can be completed by playing squads game mode/normal game mode can also be completed.
There are many things I did not talk about but I trust that once we do have a realistic game mode, there will be a strong community behind it that will help shape the game mode with research, debates and suggestions of new weapons and vehicles that would improve the game mode.
- Yes
- No