We hope you are well. We previously explained that WARNO - Tropic Storm needed a little more time in the Eugen kitchen, with extra attention needed to polish and touch up the models.
In today’s DevBlog, let’s look at the part that demanded the most work when creating our upcoming expansion: the brand-new Cuban battlefields.
We wanted to show what the team has been working on, and why we believe it is worth the wait!
From Roadmap to Reality
Way back in January, when we shared WARNO’s Roadmap for the year, what was supposed to become WARNO - Tropic Storm was still under wraps.
Much like the preceding WARNO - LANDJUT, the Tribute-style format of the expansion meant we - initially - only focused on giving you a series of new divisions, but no Army General campaign or Operations. Why? Because these types of features require a significant amount of work to produce and deliver; our original plan was simply to focus on six new divisions.
However, we got bitten by the bug, and our ambitions for WARNO - Tropic Storm grew considerably in the months that followed. A brand-new theater of war in the Caribbean and South America required more than a set of new divisions, we thought. Also, we didn’t really like the idea of having these brand-spanking new battlegroups duke it out on the good ‘ol European battlefields.
So… we dedicated ourselves to building a whole new environment for WARNO - Tropic Storm, not only new maps to reflect the expansion's exotic nature but also a full-blown Army General campaign.
What it looked like in practice was:
- Original: 6 new divisions.
- Actual WARNO - Tropic Storm: 6 new divisions, 1 new Army General campaign, Cuba Libre!, 1 new terrain set, 8 new multiplayer maps, around 40 smaller Army General map variants.
As you can imagine, each of these add-ons brought its own share of iterative testing and balancing.
Just a quick side note: while each of Eugen’s titles has its own terrain sets, this is the first time we have created a completely new one for an expansion. This was a entirely different challenge than adding just another map to an existing base game.
What Did It Take To Build Cuba?
Going tropical was very much a deliberate choice: WARNO already features a large number of European battlefields, and WARNO - Tropic Storm was the perfect opportunity to offer you something genuinely new.
Building Cuba from scratch
However, it also meant creating everything fresh for our Cuban battlefields: roads, vegetation, scenery details, and new buildings that reflected Cuban architecture (from individual houses and shacks to apartment blocks like those seen in Jatibonico). The list continues: tobacco and sugarcane fields, palm plantations, irrigation canals; all new environmental elements which would have to be created from scratch.
We also faced some additional challenges. The new maps are built around locations or structures that we aimed to recreate faithfully. For instance, the sprawling oil refinery at Cienfuegos (the map’s layout follows the real-life complex very closely) or the Zaza Dam and its large reservoir, the largest on Cuba, as to be seen on the Represa map. We put a lot of work into crafting the littoral and coastlines, from beaches and riverbanks to the Caribbean shore of Bahia, since water plays a much bigger role than in our previous maps.
A New Look After Dark
We also wanted to try something new with WARNO - Tropic Storm that we hadn’t done before: bring nighttime city lighting to our maps.
The new Cuban maps will have this new visual layer: street lights, signs, illuminated buildings, and any additional FX that will bring urban areas to life after dark. This will create an atmosphere quite unlike anything you have seen on our European battlefields.
But, as you can imagine, it added a considerable amount of new work. We felt it was worth it, though. It's another example of the level of detail we wanted to achieve with WARNO - Tropic Storm.
Testing, testing, and more testing
All the new models and the new lighting required their fair share of testing. A map can look great in the editor but play poorly once a full-blown WARNO battle is underway. Everything from how players read road layout to tree placement and the visibility of urban structures. These and many other questions were very present while we went through round after round of testing.
After the visual placement work was done, we started looking at the actual gameplay experience and game design. We placed command zones and deployment zones, then ran even more rounds of testing with our QA team. Every scenario was looked at from 1v1 all the way up to 10v10.
Strengthening the Team
You know how at the end of each DevBlog where we talk about new maps, we ask for your feedback and constructive criticism, and to keep those notes coming? We continuously aim to make a enhance WARNO, to improve the quality of the maps and deliver them in such a way that they stand out. You, the player, have always played a key role in this.
So, what better way than to integrate someone straight from the community into our Level Build team? He has already proven themselves with several modded maps, which were very well received by the WARNO community. They know Eugen’s tools inside and out, and now know firsthand what players like, enjoy, and expect from a top-grade WARNO battlefield.
The whole Level Build team has put a lot of effort into crafting these new battlefields, and we hope you enjoy fighting over them as much as they enjoyed building them!
The Army General Connection
On to the next big-ticket item that added a substantial amount of work to WARNO - Tropic Storm was - of course - the Cuba Libre! Army General campaign. We know it is a fan-favorite mode, with some of you playing little else. Given the expansion’s unique setting, it was the ideal opportunity to offer an Army General campaign that would feel genuinely different from the ones set in Europe.
All tactical battles in Cuba Libre! will take place exclusively on the new Cuban maps. And yes, the reverse is also true: you will never be fighting the Fulda Gap on the new Cuban maps either.
As we detailed in our previous DevBlog, Cuba Libre! will also come with several Army General improvements.
On top of that, to keep tactical battles fresh, each of the 8 new maps comes in several smaller variants designed specifically for Army General, around 40 tactical maps in all.
A New Way of Fighting
Overall, the new Cuban maps are denser than their German counterparts, which changes how battles play out. The rainforests and mountains of Soroa, the packed town center of Jatibonico, and the canals crisscrossing Delsur favor; all these maps with difficult terrain favor infantry and lighter formations, great news for divisions such as the 4th Marine Division, the 7th Infantry Division (Light) or the Venezuelan I División de Infantería.
More broadly, all the six WARNO - Tropic Storm divisions were designed with this terrain in mind, and they should feel right at home there. That said, not every battlefield is a jungle: open maps such as Alquizar, with its long sight lines across tobacco fields, still leave plenty of room for armor to maneuver.
This also means a real difference in gameplay between the German and Cuban battlefields. It may well reshuffle the deck: will today's meta divisions still dominate in this new environment? We are just as curious as you are to find out.
WARNO - Tropic Storm
WARNO - Tropic Storm is just around the corner.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4734100/WARNO__Tropic_Storm/
Check out all the detailed previews below!
- First up is the Western-aligned U.S. 4th Marine Division earmarked for the Cuban invasion. Check out all the details in this preview here.
- The Communist-aligned Cuban 1a División de Tanques gets its place in the tropical sun in this detailed preview.
- The combined U.S.-Colombian division 7th Infantry Division (Light) also contains a hefty covert CIA contingent. Read more about it in this DevBlog here.
- The “red” Venezuelan IV División de Infantería receives its preview in this dedicated DevBlog.
- Newly minted Brazilian allies deploy the mobile 3ª Divisão de Exército as part of the Western-aligned battlegroup. Read more about this division and the prolific Brazilian armaments industry in this DevBlog.
- The last of the Venezuelan divisions, the I División de Infantería, is previewed in this in-depth DevBlog here.
WARNO - Black Birds and Nemesis #9
One last thing: as WARNO - Tropic Storm is in the final stages of being polished, some of our team has already started working on the upcoming Nemesis #9 and WARNO - Black Birds. As you might recall, this latter expansion will feature 8 new divisions and 5 new nations historically either outside one or other major alliance, or otherwise reluctantly part of NATO or Warsaw Pact. Check out some of the latest models of the latter Tribute-style DLC below.
Until Next Time
The team is working hard to finalizing WARNO - Tropic Storm. But what can you expect? First things first: as soon as everything is ready, your favorite content creators will be straight out of the gate to preview Cuba Libre!’s campaign, along with everything else coming in WARNO - Tropic Storm.
As we said before, we are getting close to WARNO - Tropic Storm! We’ll keep you up to date when our next major expansion launches! And rest assured: WARNO - Tropic Storm will not be the last expansion of this kind, far from it!
Don’t forget to check out the ever-awesome WARNO community. Find the latest news on the Steam News page or visit the Steam Forums. Get together with other players on either the excellent Discord server, Reddit page, YouTube or our Instagram.
See you on the battlefield, commander.
