@Mathias- good point, probably not too many Stukas in 1944. And I'm very much done with Call of Duty style scripted arcade warfare too. The Eastern Front is fascinating as the battle between two brutal empires for dominance of Europe. It plays more on ArmA/OFP strengths too for tactical decisions and large battles only partially in the player's control.
@Wolfrug- yeh sounds would be awesome! At the moment i'm going to enlist my cast of friends from Punishment Battalion to do voiceovers (not as many this time) but those American accents won't sound too authentic
@Cheetah- I don't know why Winter Island is so large, its basically just Paraiso in snow. Which is pretty cool just need to strip out the palm trees. A plants PBO was included but i did not insert it because it overwrote the original plants.pbo and i'm worried i'd lose the palm trees forever. have to sort that one out and i guess keep the other plants backed up somewhere (400 mB though).
Sketch of the first mission (hopefully replayable as either side, Red Army grunt or Captain, or German army private or Captain):
1944:
German troops in full retreat across frozen Russian steppe. Rearguard troops managed to lay a minefield with a gap for the Wehrmacht to pass through before the Red Army tidal wave arrives. German commander player has to decide which of three possible belts of defense to occupy before the inevitable bombardment and then play an elastic defense as long as possible. I'm going to try and use as much randomization as possible to make the game replayable and somewhat different every time, and a bit unpredictable.
Basically the German player gets a score based on: 1) how long he holds off the Russians before retreating off map (map being a certain area on Winter Island)
2) how many Russians he takes down before going off map
3) and how many Germans he loses
So no matter what the German player must withdraw, counterattack, withdraw etc but ultimately must know when to really cut his losses and escape. Casualties above a certain level and withdraw before a certain time would represent a failure.
If the player decides to play as a Red Army grunt or commander he must:1) Get to the objectives in the shortest amount of time possible with the Germans cleared out of the area
2) minimize losses (but not at the expense of time)
3) use the infamous Punishment Battalions to be the first wave
So that's what I have so far. Feel free to mention any suggestions/criticisms
Lee