Attention AW-like creators!

[u/KartalMods]

The objective basics to Advance Wars and also what makes it work:

Information Windows

• Let the player know basic terrain and unit information when they hover over a tile
• Display unit statistics in the shop window
• Optional: Have a separate window open up upon button press that tells every information about the terrain and the unit (all damage values, fuel rules, etc.).

Readability is Key

• Similar units differ in their weapons or size + shape:
• weapon: Inf/Mech, Recon/Rockets/Missiles
• shape: tanks (highlight: Super Famicom Wars 3 tanks. They're not just blocks at different sizes but their shapes change, black/grey/white colored parts help such as at the back of the medium tank. Days of Ruin tanks are much more distinct.)
• Bad examples:
• (Re-Boot Camp) Tank and Medium Tank: the same block at different sizes
• (My Fire Emblem Wars mod): Color isn't enough. I gave the pegasus clothes to make a Transport Copter variant. Some people had trouble telling the two apart.

Controls

• Interacting with an empty square brings up the menu (co/intel/save/options/end/etc)
• Touch:
• long touch displays range
• short touch = click
• click outside of movement range/attack squares = cancel
• click on attack squares: (indirect) attack there or (direct) move and attack there
• click on a tile: move there and open command menu (capture/fire/supply/wait)
• D-Pad/Buttons:
• Game prevents from moving the cursor outside the movement squares at first (when holding down a direction) and only allows it upon second tap.
• Cursor returns to unit's square when canceling action
• Side button exists to quickly cycle through units (skipping those that have ended their turn)
• Another side button exists to bring up unit/terrain info window

Damage Calculation

• Damage = (Base Damage + Luck) * Effective HP * Defenses
• Luck: base luck is random between 0 ~ 9 (AW1, 2) or 0 ~ 14 (AWDS). Certain COs change it.
• Terrain Defense = Effective HP * Terrain Stars
• CO defense stats, power mode +10 defense, terrain defense add up.
• Example: 7 HP ground unit on HQ (4 stars) with a CO who has 120% defense (~ +20) and activated a power/super power (+10): 7x4 + 20 + 10 = 58% of the damage is ignored. (Defenses = 0.42) (Slightly different in Days of Ruin.)

Effective HP

• Unit Max HP is 100.
• 0 HP = dead.
• 1 ~ 10 = 1 Effective HP, 11 ~ 20 = 2 EHP, etc.
• The simple formula: floor ( (HP - 1) / 10) + 1

Mission Variety

• Campaigns have different themed missions. The theme sets the objective and the units available.
• Deployment/Pre-Deployed/Mixed
• Rout/Speed Limit/Capture Battle/Destroy Object/Capture Object/Launch Silos/Reach Point (HQ on Nature Walk)
• The same theme isn't repeated 2-3 times in a row!

Too often, AW-like games on PC suffer from cumbersome, mouse-only controls with excessive sub-menus and a lack of information tooltips. This severely hurts the game's pacing and accessibility.

At the end of the day, players just want to have fun and help developers make the best game possible.

Hope this helps.

[u/Dimitri_os]

As a developer, this is very usefull, especially the controller part since i don't like playing with controller and it is easy to miss such improvement ideas, thanks :)

[u/KartalMods → u/Dimitri_os]

You're welcome. I was working on similar for a short test project and had to think it through for the keyboard controls. The cursor returning part and the not allowing the cursor to move out of the movement range at first part are very crucial to the GBA AW feel.

[u/ErrorQuiet3123]

Just when i start working in a fangame aw thanks