We hear a lot of talk about rank in the game. It's certainly true that rank in Battleground Europe doesn't have a lot in common with leveling in other games, but there are reasons why that is; and why no matter what we do with it to expand and improve it's role in the game it might never be what leveling in other games teaches you to perhaps expect of rank in our game.

Even taking this into account we know that rank needs to have a more tangible function in Battleground Europe.

Part of the difficulty with this is the range required in equipment variety to assign "ability" in the game to different ranks. Unlike fantasy role playing games where combat is not FPS PvP like it is in WWIIOL:BE (it's normally TPS and level driven) ... a raw recruit can kill a 7 year vet if he gets the drop on him, or just happens to be a better combat player. We don't have "levels" in the game allowing you to enhance your basic abilities, our levels are tied to equipment ability for the most part. This is actually one of the attractions for new players, because they don't have to start at level 1 (ability wise) and avoid combat with level 20 players. They can actually (if they are good and smart) use the inherent differences between their equipment and the "better" equipment the vet may be using, and potentially be able to beat that vet. While obviously not a common scenario, that it is POSSIBLE is what is important. In other games a level 1 guy is never going to beat a level 20 guy.

In order to do this in a better (rather than worse) way, and to provide a gradual and incremental skill tree to climb, where the branches are not too great a reach from one level to the next, requires in a game like Battleground Europe a broad spectrum of equipment to employ within the existing rank paradigm. Additionally, this paradigm has to be spread over 3 branches of the military skill tree to cover Army, Airforce and Navy. Obviously due to the many challenges this presents to a small team like ours, this has always been a very thin aspect of the game to date.

But that is changing. The next implementation of the game (v1.29) will see a much more rounded out skill tree path for those who play the air combat aspect of the game, because we have 2 or 3 aircraft in each tier the war progresses through, to employ towards this function of the game. You can see this plan in it's first phase here in the Hangar forum. We can and will expand this approach to apply to armour, infantry and eventually, the Navy. A lot, of course, will rely on our ability to increase the number and variety of equipment units to employ in this manner. I suspect that the next branch to get this kind of phased implementation will be the Army through both infantry and armour aspects, including the next equipment models we do allowing us the scope and breadth to create a more rounded and gradual incremental path to follow through that branch of the armed forces.

Naturally there are also other features that will allow us to improve this aspect of the game such as an improved scoring system (for all branches) and a wider variety of roles to be played such as defensive objectives in addition to other more support oriented roles that currently don't really exist in any tangible and obvious form.

So stick around and you will see these kind of things grow and expand as so many other aspects of the game do, as we evolve it to the next level of "awesomeness".