With World Conquest version 1 arriving into the dev branch today, I wanted to give an overview of everything that's different and new about this new way to play Foxhole. Remember that World Conquest will initially be in a highly experimental state, which means that game mechanics and balance will be a work in progress. Also expect bugs.
What is World Conquest
World Conquest is one component of the upcoming One World Revamp. It is a large scale war that takes place over all regions in the world simultaneously. Players can walk or drive between regions via travel portals along border roads. Since the war is persistent across all regions, player activity in one region can have a direct impact on others.
One of the goals of World Conquest is to enable wars that last for many days (possibly weeks). Inevitably, the pacing of the game will be much slower. Players won't be able to build up their weapons and vehicles as instantly as before. More effort will have to be put into planning before a major operation can occur.
Resources
The Manufacturing Plant has been replaced by the Refinery
Resources that are submitted to the Refinery take time to convert to materials
Resource node respawn times have been reduced across the board
The new Refinery UI
Technology
Technology Levels for structures no longer exist
Technology is now unlocked on a per item/vehicle/structure basis at the Technology Center at the Port Base for each faction
Technology is unlocked by submitting Tech Parts to the Technology Tree
After a Technology is unlocked, the corresponding item/vehicle/structure will be available
Certain items & vehicles also require Blueprints to be printed before they can be produced
Blueprints
Blueprints are printed at the Technology Center
Blueprints must be submitted to a Workshop/Weapon Factory/Vehicle factory, before the corresponding item/vehicle can be produced
Producing an item/vehicle consumes 1 Blueprint
Technology Tree & Blueprint UI
Bases
Instead of being able to build Town Halls and Outposts directly, lower tiered versions of these structures must be built first
There are two types of bases
Static Bases - Fixed locations like Towns and Farms
Forward Bases - Location determined by players
Only some static bases can be upgraded to all the way to Tier 3 (Town Hall)
Each base has a Garrison Size, which dictates the radius at which defensive structures will be manned by AI
Garrison Size also must be maxed out before a higher tier version of a Base can be build
For example, an Encampment (Tier 1 forward base) must first be built
The Encampment Garrison Size must grow to 50 before it can be upgraded to a Field Base (Tier 2 forward base)
The Garrison Size currently grows automatically at a very slow rate
Note: We are looking into ways to influence the Garrison Growth rate in the future
Bases take time to upgrade to Town Halls or Outposts
Port Base
Port Bases are special areas in the coastal regions (e.g. Farranac Coast and Endless Shore) that act as the fallback points for each faction
Port Bases are heavily fortified and contain special structures like the Technology Center and more powerful versions of defensive structures
Port Bases are safe fallback points for each faction
World Map and Communications
The World Map can now be accessed from the Map screen by pressing 'W'
From the World Map view, clicking on a region name will display the local map for that region
In text chat, '/w' can be used to send a message to the entire team across the world
Special alerts are now sent to the world when
A base is under attack
A location has been claimed by either faction
World Map View allows any regional map to be viewed from anywhere
World Notifications will alert factions when a base is under attack
World Travel
Players can travel between regions by following a road that leads to a border. We intend to support travelling via water passageways in the future but this feature is disabled for now.
Player Visibility
Enemy players will no longer be visible on the F1 player screen
Win Condition
The war is now won by the faction that builds all available Town Halls
Static bases that can be upgraded to Town Halls appear visually distinct on the map screen (they have a gray background)
Towns that are part of the win condition now have a circular gray background on the map