Latest News       Supreme Ruler Cold War - Release Date: July 19, 2011       Supreme Ruler Gold - Available NOW for only $9.99!       GameTrailers.com releases some Supreme Ruler Cold War videos. (Feb, 2011)               Diary 5 | Diary 4 | Diary 3 | Diary 2 | Diary 1           SR2020 Expansion 'Global Crisis' Developer Diary 5     Supreme Ruler 2020 – Global Crisis Global Crisis Developer Diary #5 - DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) on Steroids Supreme Ruler 2020 is a game that allows players to take control of a nation and, for a time, exist in the world we have created. Our world however exists within fixed limits; the tech tree is finite, there are only so many units to research, and single player scenarios only exist for certain regions. (All other regions may be played in the campaign maps.) So... although we included in Supreme Ruler 2020 an extensive tech tree and a unparalleled number of military unit types, there was still room to grow! One area we are expanding upon in Global Conquest is the technology that players have available in the game both in terms of research projects and available unit designs. We have added over 100 new technologies and more than 200 new unit designs to the game which will expand research approximately thirty game years beyond what players have seen so far. We have tapped into some of the latest research advances being discussed in the real world to provide realistic projects - many of which can be used to alter the conditions of a region. For example, players will be able to explore topics such as neural implants, DNA computing and antimatter applications. Much of the new scientific research will be prerequisite for many of the new units in the game (such as units equipped with shields and particle burst weapons), while other research will unlock the new production facilities (such as Anti Matter Power Generation or Nano-Manufacturing for finished goods). However, not every new technology takes you immediately to a new unit design or allows you to build a new facility - many represent the scientific stages that you must go through to reach an ultimate goal. 'Holoprojection', for example is required for both military and civilian advances as players move up the tech tree and the 'Neural Implants' technology will unlock other scientific and medical applications. As with the core game, the new technologies added to Global Conquest can also effect Domestic and World approval of your region. For instance, although researching 'Neural Reprogramming' will boost both your nation's Law Enforcment and Cultural ratings, it will certainly be met with disapproval by other regions and by the United Nations. So make sure to weigh the costs versus benefits for each research item, and be wary of researching yourself right into a military conflict! Going forward with our first expansion pack, we wanted to make sure that there would be much more new content than just scenarios for our players. The new technologies and units are certainly a major part of that. If anyone has actually run out of things to try in the core game, the expansion should keep them busy for quite a while to come.  - Chris Latour, Game Designer / Graphics Manager, BattleGoat Studios           SR2020 Expansion 'Global Crisis' Developer Diary 4     Supreme Ruler 2020 – Global Crisis Global Crisis Developer Diary #4 - Hot Relations When we released Supreme Ruler 2020 we included two versions of the two original sandbox / campaigns. World 2020 in Crisis was a "Hot Relations" modification of World 2020 in which both good and bad relationships were amplified. Similarly, Melting Point was a "Hot Relations" modification of the Shattered World sandbox / campaign. The reason we did this was to appeal to different styles of gameplay. Some players wanted plenty of time at the beginning of the game to get their nation set just the way they wanted before it could be affected by changes in international relations. Others believe the game moved too slowly at the start and wanted more action from AI regions right from the word go. So, essentially these two distinct versions of the same campaign provided the player a choice of how quickly AI controlled international relationships would develop into either war declarations or into formal alliances... For the expansion pack we thought that this option should be incorporated not just into campaigns, but into scenarios and multiplayer games as well. And why include the same campaign twice with this setting being the only difference? With that idea in mind, a Volatility setting seemed an ideal addition to the Game Settings screen... and why only have High and Low Volatility, why not add a few extra degrees in between so that players can find the setting that they enjoy most. So for the Expansion Pack it is now possible right in the Game Lobby, for players to set the Volatility to 'None', 'Low', 'Medium', 'High', or 'Very High'. At 'None', only the original region relation settings and whatever actions have happened so far in the game will affect the likelihood of an AI region making alliances or declaring war. As you move the Volatility up to the higher settings, the threshold for such events gets lower. One of our goals throughout the development of Supreme Ruler has been to provide huge replayability possibilities - just imagine playing as Germany and with all other options the same, one time you play the world stays relatively calm while you're given time to deploy your army, research higher tech weapons, build up your economy etc... and the next time you play, but with High Volatility, Russia declares war against you in the first week! - David Thompson, Lead Designer / Co Founder, BattleGoat Studios             SR2020 Expansion 'Global Crisis' Developer Diary 3     Supreme Ruler 2020 – Global Crisis Global Crisis Developer Diary #3 - Battle Groups SR2020 is not your typical RTS/Wargame. Our maps intentionally and realistically feature regions of all sizes, and we do not limit the number of units a country can own. The only limiting factors for army size are having enough reserve personnel and enough money to fund your ambitions. When running a nation with fewer units, managing your military doesn't become much of an issue. However, when a player can have thousands of units to control (such as the continental USA) we have to pay attention to new challenges players could face. Over the course of development of Supreme Ruler we have introduced a few ways to manage units. I'll discuss a some of those first, then I'll talk about the new addition included in our expansion Supreme Ruler: Global Crisis. Cabinet ministers will help run your army for you until you get comfortable managing large forces. As you see fit you can take control over your military down to the battalion size. Individual unit settings and initiative settings by military branch offer many player options when they do want to roll up their sleeves and get into the action. You can also arrange units in stacks which can be selected together and some units can be tucked away in reserves until needed. Supreme Ruler also comes with the traditional 'number group' system found in other PC strategy games. Select some units, and pressing + <1> on your keyboard will bind those units to 'number group' 1. Later pressing <1> again will re-select those units. For traditional RTS games having ten (10) groups is adequate as they tend to limit unit counts to 100 or 200 units. Even with 200 units that's approximately only 20 units per 'number group' and many people may only group some of their key units. If you've played our USA map and wanted to group all your units 2000, that would be 200 units per number group. At 7 units a stack that's over 28 hexes filled with units. You could put less in each group but then you are left with not grouping much of your military for quick access. Introducing Battle Groups All of us at BattleGoat Studios have spent countless hours designing and discussing ways to offer better unit control and management to players. Much of our discussion took place with our members on our active 'BGForums'. Some discussions were heated debates and others were just brainstorming as we tried to come up with any feasible solution. One recurring request was for a form of regiment or divisional unit. While considering this approach the key obstacle was map representation. How to model a group of units as a new 'regiment unit' when battalions can occupy different locations became the main stumbling stone. Units damaged, going for repair, moving at different speeds were all things we considered. One day, instead of asking, "how can we finally design unit hierarchy (regiment, division) to work in Supreme Ruler?", I asked the question, "what do we want the player to be able to do?" We came up with a few thoughts. - Give players a better way to manage their large armies. - Help players manage forces on multiple fronts as they play on our large one-world map. - Do not change what players can already do, just offer some improvements. - Offer the ability to select groups using the map as well as the GUI. - Offer more groups for players to use - break through the 10 group limitation - Allow renaming of groups for those players who want to customize the naming systems for their military. - Create a system that will allow future improvements. One common request from players was that they wanted a few more number groups and the ability to rename them. That is what we have done, with a few extras thrown in as well. Battle Groups is the next step forward in allowing players to manager larger numbers of units. For players who already use 'number groups', we've just given you more groups and more ways to use them. For players who don't use number groups, our new system will hopefully allow you to create and use groups with greater ease. A battle group is created by simply selecting some units and pressing the 'Create Battle Group' button. You can still use the hotkeys, + <#> on your keyboard for the first 10 Battle Groups. Units in a group have their name modified to show where they belong and we've also listed in the GUI groups that are active. When selecting units on the map, a choice is shown to allow players to easily select the entire battle group the unit belongs to. We have also increased the number of groups from 10 to 99. Conclusion With the Battle Groups system in place it offers new ways to manage larger armies and lays a foundation for future Supreme Ruler development. There are many areas of the game that we haven't yet touched upon when it comes to grouping units. Here are a few possible areas we can explore. - Custom emails when a group is engaged in combat. - Sounds effects related to groups. - Cabinet ministers could help a player create battle groups - On-map HUD changes for stacks that have grouped units. - Map filters to hide or show only grouped units. - Settings such as allowing cabinet control over certain groups. - Pre-grouping units for players in certain designer-created scenarios - Allowing players to assign Battle Groups to hotspots. - Insert your idea here ________________. 'Battle Groups' may not solve everyone's wishes but it does move Supreme Ruler forward when it comes to unit management. It also offers a good place to expand upon in the future and as usual we'll rely upon our forum members to provide feedback on the system for possible future improvements. - Daxon Flynn, Game Designer, BattleGoat Studios           SR2020 Expansion 'Global Crisis' Developer Diary 2     Supreme Ruler 2020 – Global Crisis Global Crisis Developer Diary #2 - Multiplayer Scenarios One of the biggest hurdles in the development of Supreme Ruler 2020 has been determining how long multiplayer games should last. Supreme Ruler 2020 has multiplayer games where players take major regions such as Germany, Russia, or the US, and these conflicts can last dozens of hours. In the past, we've only allowed players to use the sandbox maps to pick regions, set victory conditions, etc. By limiting which regions can be selected, the player may have been able to get to a point where a winner (or the last human standing) would become apparent after a few hours of game play. But in most cases, the player would able to determine the winner until they have already been playing for hours. For the expansion pack Supreme Ruler 2020: Global Crisis, we've addressed this problem by including more than ten multiplayer scenarios designed specifically for shorter game play. Rather than having to take over the whole world, players will be able to more tightly define the victory condition and limit the starting regions. The majority of the new multiplayer scenarios are designed as two player games. However, we are also including three and four player scenarios, and modes that allow up to eight and even sixteen players. With these new scenarios, players will be able to complete some conflicts in just two to three hours. These new multiplayer scenarios are not necessarily based on the 'Global Crisis' storyline but have been designed to be of interest either for gameplay aspects or for historical interest. One of the ones I'm most looking forward to trying revolves around an attempted invasion of the United Kingdom. One player assumes the role of the United Kingdom and sees how long they can hold London from an attack by up to seven other players taking the roles of France, Germany, and possibly Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium and even Ireland. This really illustrates the difficulty of a successful naval invasion, even with significantly greater numbers. Another new element we added to expand the multiplayer scenarios is a lobby setting. In the lobby setting, players will be able to adjust the level of involvement and interest from the non-human regions across the map and will be able to change the scenario from anywhere between "peaceful" to "hot". - David Thompson, Lead Designer / Co Founder, BattleGoat Studios           SR2020 Expansion 'Global Crisis' Developer Diary 1     Supreme Ruler 2020 – Global Crisis Developer Diary #1 – The “Story” behind our first Expansion Pack Anyone who’s played our game knows that the possibilities to change the underlying story line for new play experiences are limitless. And there’s always something going on in the world that, thanks to human nature, can easily escalate into a conflict. Putting aside the precipitating economic factors that we’ve used for our story lines in both Supreme Ruler 2010 and Supreme Ruler 2020, there are many recent real world events that are, to say the least, ominous: In recent years Russia has renewed its willingness to intimidate its neighbors over seemingly minor slights; launching a two week Cyber Attack on Estonia in response to their relocation of a World War II Memorial to Russian soldiers; frequently threatening to stop natural gas shipments to Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic States, over a myriad of issues; being suspected of involvement in poisonings; threatening Poland directly with an attack should they sign the Missile Defense agreement with the United States; and of course not withdrawing their troops from the Republic of Georgia and officially recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The wealth of natural resources that are currently being developed in Central and Eastern Russia are providing hard currency that Russia did not have during the Cold War and it is definitely giving them a new sense of power. In addition to pressuring their immediate neighbors, Russia is once again flexing its international muscles, whether it be with its claims on the arctic regions, or by conducting joint military exercises in the Caribbean with Venezuela. To all of this, add the “Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation” that Russia signed with China in 2001 and in essence which provides a military alliance between the two nations, and one could easily theorize that the next Cold War could turn hot at any time… This is the story behind a new “Sandbox / Campaign” that we are finalizing for our first ever expansion pack. It will generally incorporate a new mix of alliances and influences along this idea. As well, many more additional international relationships that were not incorporated into SR2020 will be added; from the tensions between Greece and Macedonia, to the military cooperation between France and Brazil, to the growing influence of China in many African nations, and much more. Obviously this sandbox / campaign will not be the only new content to our game, but it provides a new slant to the story that will also be incorporated into many new Single Player and Multi Player Scenarios! - David Thompson, Lead Designer / Co-Founder, BattleGoat Studios

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