Hopes and fears, but still optimistic

[TheLastSterling]

I have to admit, I was shocked to see that Eugen is making a new Steel Division game. Not many RTS have been set in the Eastern Front let alone the later stages of it. While I find this news great, I do have some misgivings over the game. Namely how SD2 might cause the first game to further decline in players. From what I have found, Normandy 44 doesn't have the largest of player base, and with the new game coming out will divide the players between those that have the first and those that have the second games. This doesn't bode well for SD2 if we assume that only a fraction of Normandy players decide to buy. The highest Normandy ever went based on steam charts was 4,600 players with 400 still playingv as of this post. This won't be good for SD2 if it follows the same trend as Normandy 44.

But in a way, SD2 does offer some hope in it's name; it's SD "2", not just Bagration. If Eugen does offer expansions, it technically does not have to be set in just the Eastern Front. From the opinions of others I've heard from, SD44 was pretty bland in terms of map design with nothing but hedgerows and cropfields. Assuming Eugen offer DLCs, we can have other places such as the Italian Campaign. One of Wargames series biggest strength was the large variety of maps and factions that can be played all in a single game.

One thing I hope Eugen can do to keep Normandy 44 alive and hopefully keep SD2 from declining is to allow the previous Normandy Campaign (i'd be annoyed if I had to pay for this after buying SD44) Divisions into SD2. Taking a page from the old Company of Heroes series where if you had one game, you could play against players from other games, but only using the factions in yours.

I can forgive some mistakes that Eugen did with Normandy 44. I just hope that they can be fixed in SD2.

[damoj]

I have to admit, I was shocked to see that Eugen is making a new Steel Division game. Not many RTS have been set in the Eastern Front let alone the later stages of it. While I find this news great, I do have some misgivings over the game. Namely how SD2 might cause the first game to further decline in players. From what I have found, Normandy 44 doesn't have the largest of player base, and with the new game coming out will divide the players between those that have the first and those that have the second games. This doesn't bode well for SD2 if we assume that only a fraction of Normandy players decide to buy. The highest Normandy ever went based on steam charts was 4,600 players with 400 still playingv as of this post. This won't be good for SD2 if it follows the same trend as Normandy 44.

SDN44 has dismal player numbers and it is exceedingly likely its playerbase will shift to SD2. Eugen may be pulling an AirLand Battle style move, advertising the Eastern Front but retaining SDN:44 assets for launch or DLC, just as ALB retained EE assets despite focusing on Scandinavia as a theatre.

The main thing to hope for is a return to Wargame's core gameplay, which, given the experience of SDN44's god awful player numbers vs. WGRD's significantly higher ones, is a reasonable thing to hope for.

[Nerdfish]

WG EE was also extremely niche. ALB had a lot more players. Hopefully the same helps.

[Sigirdiwarth]

Player count is not terribly important in a strategy game where only 2 to 4 people are needed to have a good time.