Let's get ahead of ourselves : Axis Operations 1944/1945

[Bee1976]

Well until now, AO has been labeled "East" so far. So i assume, even in the ahistorical part we will spend most of our time to defeat russia.
But maybe the devs split it up in ao44 historical and ao44 ahistorical and we will fight on all frontlines. keep AO splittet up to east and west and historical and ahistorical will mean more dlcs (which is nice) but it will also mean a long time until allied corps, soviet corps, afrika corps and so on.

[Wolfenguard]

depending on the route we have 2 different locations of the frontlines.
maybe there is again 1 dlc for 44
depending on the tokens, we start 44 with different maps and goes back after x missions to a non splitet route and split again at the end.
for the first 1/3 of the year we are in the east, the next 1/3 we go to the west and the last 1/3 depends on the route again
story technical, if we play the historical path, we were send to the west Front to repel the invasion, maybe we are send back to home for a strategic meeting. At the meeting we get the informations that the invasion startet and we should take command of army x so long ourer army is transported back. we start a small mission with only untrained aux units and the next one with a small amout of ourer core army, we can only defend some strategic points.
for the alt history, we get the informations that the invasion has started and trough ourer victorys we were send back to repel the invasion. we start 1 or 2 missions later and play the maps in attack mode in an other order.
the last 1/3 depends on the final route, if we stay historical we play defending missions, if we play the a historical route, we have some more attack missions and maybe help the repel the invasion in italy and make a first attemp to conquer afrika

[Wagner0445]

Since the DLCs are labeled East for now I believe we will stay on the Eastern Front. We will most likely Get a few defending Scenarios at the start. In Ahistoric mode, we will defend the Ukrainian territory of Army groups south or the Caucasus. And then we will either continue offensive operations and attack Voronezh, or Leningrad, or Smolensk or we will merge together with the historic path and get something like the 6th army to prevent the disaster of Bagration.
In the Historical Path, we will get to experience the retreat from Leningrad and a much harder Bagration operation.

in 1945 East they will have to make two completely different campaigns. Losing, the same way they did historically, with the oilfields in german hands and much more soldiers on the eastern front is unrealistic and a little flavorless. Most likely we will get to push the soviet union to its collapse and a white peace with the Allies. Then we will either get a 1947/48 Dlc where Germany tries again to take on the allies similar to the Sealion Dlc in Panzer corps 1 or we will get 1941 to 1945 West Dlcs.

[PaxusZero]

I had to double check and so far as I know the AO's have not been labeled East. Just given a year (or in the case of the Spanish Civil War, just that as a title.) So last AO was Axis Operations 1943. Not 1943 East.

[Bee1976]

I had to double check and so far as I know the AO's have not been labeled East. Just given a year (or in the case of the Spanish Civil War, just that as a title.) So last AO was Axis Operations 1943. Not 1943 East.

Uhm i tripple checked, and you are right. Slith mainpage, Steam-shop and youtube launch trailers all label the dlcs with just a year, not "east". Ok there are the flags of the countries you fight, but im pretty sure, like 95% that is was labeled 1943 east ??
Maybe in some announcement...or just in my fatasy/hope....

Ok there werent many battles outside of russia and i think, if there will be an "Africa Corps" this DLC might cover a lot of them, but i dont know. The allied landings in italy might offer enough content for a pure 1943 west.

But only Kerensky/Edmon/Pat or Rudankort might answer the question what is coming, and im pretty sure none of them wont. I hope there will be an announcement/beta fpor 1944 after the summertime vacations.

[VirgilInTheSKY]

I had to double check and so far as I know the AO's have not been labeled East. Just given a year (or in the case of the Spanish Civil War, just that as a title.) So last AO was Axis Operations 1943. Not 1943 East.

Uhm i tripple checked, and you are right. Slith mainpage, Steam-shop and youtube launch trailers all label the dlcs with just a year, not "east". Ok there are the flags of the countries you fight, but im pretty sure, like 95% that is was labeled 1943 east ??
Maybe in some announcement...or just in my fatasy/hope....

Ok there werent many battles outside of russia and i think, if there will be an "Africa Corps" this DLC might cover a lot of them, but i dont know. The allied landings in italy might offer enough content for a pure 1943 west.

But only Kerensky/Edmon/Pat or Rudankort might answer the question what is coming, and im pretty sure none of them wont. I hope there will be an announcement/beta fpor 1944 after the summertime vacations.

Campaigns since AO 41 I think, are all "XXEast" if you check the installation folder where these files are located. That's why we all talk about a western DLC sometime later for the same year.

[DefiantXYX]

I just finished AO 1940 and the game asked my if i want to import my core to "1941 East" oder something like that.

My main concern is, that the development will end soon.It might take 10 years or more to finish all the outstanding years/dlcs.The ahistorical part wont get easier, since they have no foundation to base on.

Is it even worse to make more DLCs moneywise? In other games you can waste 10€ for just some cosmetic nonsene, in pc2 its a lot of work.

[Bee1976]

I just finished AO 1940 and the game asked my if i want to import my core to "1941 East" oder something like that.

Campaigns since AO 41 I think, are all "XXEast" if you check the installation folder where these files are located. That's why we all talk about a western DLC sometime later for the same year.

You both are right, thx
I knew i saw that 194x east label

My main concern is, that the development will end soon.It might take 10 years or more to finish all the outstanding years/dlcs.The ahistorical part wont get easier, since they have no foundation to base on.
Is it even worse to make more DLCs moneywise? In other games you can waste 10€ for just some cosmetic nonsene, in pc2 its a lot of work.

Well i can understand that concern. I would lie if i wouldnt admit, that i share it from time to time. There is a content drought" considering PC2 Pacific and AO. I mean the the first DLCs came really fast after release, and now its slowing down a lot. And well the communication level is decreasing aswell.
But its one of the most or the most played slitherine Steam game so far (i dont remember correctly what Marco said), so well there is a dedicated fanbase, there is potential.

In other games you can waste 10€ for just some cosmetic nonsene, in pc2 its a lot of work.

Indeed. I avoid using coupons and stuff, and pay the full price for Slitherine games, because i want to support the devs and slith. And yes 10 € is a real good price for a full DLC. I spend a lot of money in other game like wow on cosmetic stuff and i dont regret it.
But i still hope for "flavor" dlcs in PC2, like some music variation ( i love the pc2 ingame music, but well after 5 hours of playing....)or special themed fun camos/(zombie mode hehe) and so on.
They could milk me dry

[88Flak]

Well, the bell is about to toll at 3 months since AO43. Not a peep about AO44 yet or even Pacific. Any chance you guys could throw us a bone with a little meat on it? We could really use an update. Thanks.

[Bee1976]

Well, rigght now its still holiday/vacation time. I bet we wont get information on 44 or pacific before the next tea time, im not sure when that tea times will start again, but i think in september.

but hey slith its my birthday, present me sone neat insider informations pls xD

[Raganr129]

My birthday is Sunday next week, I would also like news on AO44 or Pacific please!

[DefiantXYX]

I am finishing AO 1943 these days for the second time. I am curious, do you guys think you will be able to go back to the historical part, after playing the non-historical version?
Imo that should not be a problem, it not like you already defeated the russians. There could be a turning point again, if you dont succeed you have to fall back, Wagners tells you your allies failed, your ressources are exhausted and you start retreating on the eastern front, like when you did not win kursk.

[Bee1976]

I am finishing AO 1943 these days for the second time. I am curious, do you guys think you will be able to go back to the historical part, after playing the non-historical version?

Im sure this might be possible, with some creativity, to create ahistorical events like loosing hte oilfields. This might lead the story to historical events in 44 (Bagration i.e.)
But i really hope the team avoids this!
the campaign tree in 43 is quite short for the historical path and quite short for the ahistorical part. and im prett sure it will cost 1-x missions to return a ahistorical story back to the historical part.
i mean the game offered like 10000 times to play the historical outcome or the ahistorical outcome. you had to collect tokens to play the ahistorical path and there was a final decision.
and well i think players decisisons should matter and make a diffrence.

[adiekmann]

I am finishing AO 1943 these days for the second time. I am curious, do you guys think you will be able to go back to the historical part, after playing the non-historical version?
Imo that should not be a problem, it not like you already defeated the russians. There could be a turning point again, if you dont succeed you have to fall back, Wagners tells you your allies failed, your ressources are exhausted and you start retreating on the eastern front, like when you did not win kursk.

The game doesn't really know what path you took, just like it doesn't know whether you chose to defend the airfields or the rail station in that Stalingrad scenario. You choose. I think you get to decide whether you want to play historical or ahistorical. You're not locked into one path. Now, I imagine most players completed both paths. I believe the only significance to doing this in AO43 is that you end the DLC with two separate cores. I don't know for certain, but I think that whichever path you choose in AO44 will be matched up the corresponding core that you ended in AO43.

But you only completed one path, then simply reload a scenario at a point where you can also compete the other path.

[Tassadar]

I was thinking that 1944 might be separated into two DLC - historical and fictional, but that does not make that much sense after all. The best approach would probably be a one DLC (assuming we still look at the East path now separate to a possible future "West" path line in PzC 1) with two different starts, but the ability for the fictional route to still regress back to a historical one if certain bonus objectives are not met. I'd even say it should be a requirement for the player to regularly exceed minimal requirements, since the whole fictional path is a very unlikely one, so it should contently add a few extra challenges like it did in 1943. There can be a point at which both paths converge in 1944 if these extras are not met.

[DacianWarrio]

I'm really jealous of the beta testers that are privy to AO 1944. Are we gonna be able to win the war in the east if we arrive from a Victory Path AO 1943 and do really well in AO 1944?

[Kerensky]

I was thinking that 1944 might be separated into two DLC - historical and fictional, but that does not make that much sense after all. The best approach would probably be a one DLC (assuming we still look at the East path now separate to a possible future "West" path line in PzC 1) with two different starts, but the ability for the fictional route to still regress back to a historical one if certain bonus objectives are not met. I'd even say it should be a requirement for the player to regularly exceed minimal requirements, since the whole fictional path is a very unlikely one, so it should contently add a few extra challenges like it did in 1943. There can be a point at which both paths converge in 1944 if these extras are not met.

This was originally planned, but proved to be unfeasible. The two histories are drifting too far apart, which is great from a content variety point of view.

SPOILERS




Ironically, the best visual representation for this change is Ana Sofia Wagner. Her arm can't and will never grow back.

[DefiantXYX]

Ironically, the best visual representation for this change is Ana Sofia Wagner. Her arm can't and will never grow back.

Why not, "german wunderwaffe" makes everything possible
But to be honest Ana got only 1-2 small text passages in a whole DLCs. Not that hard to sail round her lost or not lost arm.
And but the way I cant tell you often enough, that I really like these backstories, would like to see or read more.

[Bee1976]

This was originally planned, but proved to be unfeasible. The two histories are drifting too far apart, which is great from a content variety point of view.

Uhm, what exactly was originally planned ? two seperate dlcs or 2 pathes that might "reconnect" ?

oh and may i ask a question ? i know you already answered it in the past. But maybe times have changed

Can you or the team offer us at least a small roadmap for the stuff to come after 44 ? Or maybe the stuff that is planned for next year ?
i know you and slitherine dislikes roadmaps, you already said that. and well after the fanbase reaction on the pacific delay i can understand if you all are not interested in giving us a roadmap. because things can always go wrong - but:
there are some slith games that recived at least a vague roadmap for the near future like Starship Troopers or Battlesector.

and maaaaaaaybeeeeeee there is some hope ?

[Tassadar]

Ironically, the best visual representation for this change is Ana Sofia Wagner. Her arm can't and will never grow back.

Why not, "german wunderwaffe" makes everything possible

You mean this guy for example?