View Full Version : Initial Impressions Gents?
Well still Downloading it but I thought I would ask those that have purchased and played the full version? Is it as amazing as we thought?
I wiil do it.I didn`t see the game.Because i just copied it, i shall see tomorrow.But i`m wait to long,that stop on trial version.
I wiil do it.I didn`t see the game.Because i just copied it, i shall see tomorrow.But i`m wait to long,that stop on trial version.
Ahhh you can work later!!! :smoke:
Vigilante
27 Jul 06, 22:56
Well still Downloading it but I thought I would ask those that have purchased and played the full version? Is it as amazing as we thought?
Are you getting any indication that it's downloading, ETF? I don't seem to be connecting.
Are you getting any indication that it's downloading, ETF? I don't seem to be connecting.
Ya no problem..........Just have to wait for a Demo code to be sent to my email..........
griffitz62
28 Jul 06, 00:07
Ok, I just finished playing the one scenario that comes with the trial version. Didn't bother reading the near 200 opage pdf manual, just jumed right in. I had three Russian cruisers and had to make my way past four enemy ships.
The graphics are as good as the screen shot indicate. The controls and interface is very intuitive. I had almost no problems getting going. Excpet I couldn't figure out how to change course for a little while. Once I got it though, I was "in" thr game and the controls were not really getting in the way of enjoying the action.
By the time I figured out how to turn I was in big trouble. Ended up passing directly through the enemy line trading shots at no more than 200 meters in some cases. Very exciting and tense action. The visuals and sounds were great. My wife asked me if I could turn it down. :) Ended up losing one ship but the other two somehow managed to seperate and get away, but with a lot of damage.
I'm hooked and will be making the purchase shortly.
NormKoger
28 Jul 06, 00:44
Ended up passing directly through the enemy line trading shots at no more than 200 meters in some cases. Very exciting and tense action. The visuals and sounds were great. My wife asked me if I could turn it down. :) Ended up losing one ship but the other two somehow managed to seperate and get away, but with a lot of damage.
200 meters? That sounds like some of our test situations. Smoking debris flying everywhere, torpedo tracks all over the place...
The sound is particularly fun if you have a surround sound system. I have a 5 speaker surround setup on my main development machine, and I never get tired of moving the point of view to a location in the middle of a firefight just to listen to everything going on all around me.
griffitz62
28 Jul 06, 01:01
I have a great 5.1 sound system with a SB Audigy Platinum Pro and Klipsch speakers. I got zoomed in low and had ships all around me. When the windows started shaking with the sub-woofer my wife said enough. Didn't turn it down, just zoomed back out a little. :D
I can't remember the last time I was so completely drawn into a simulation-type game. I'm used to the turn-based, hex and counter wargames, but this is more like a first person shooter with the immersion factor, but retaining the depth and detail of a great wargame.
Probably i'm not so much good.....but even after reading the manual....i can't turn the ship...
I point on sea...the yellow lines appeared...but then if i right click....instead of issuing the order...the pop up menu' come up....
Anyone can tell me the exact procedure?
Thx
Probably i'm not so much good.....but even after reading the manual....i can't turn the ship...
I point on sea...the yellow lines appeared...but then if i right click....instead of issuing the order...the pop up menu' come up....
Anyone can tell me the exact procedure?
Thx
When the menu comes up do you select one of the turn options, such as turn by succession or turn immediately?
Just played out the trial battle at Ulsan and loved the whole deal so I bought the full game.
Purchase and installation was trouble free and straightforward. I then set up the graphics options to suit my machine with everything on max 4xAA and
4xAF, 1280x1024. I am running the game on an AMD 64 3700+, 2 Gigs RAM, Gainward 7800GS+ 512mb AGP, Audigy 2ZS sound.
The one option I did turn off immediately was the music! Sorry, but the music is awful. Sounds like it is done on one of those cheapo electric keyboards you find in a church hall or marriage suite in a registry office. Apologies to whoever did the score but you really need someone with a decent studio to improve the music. Anyway, music aside the opening menu is well laid out and it is very obvious what each button does.
I did not read the manual and just jumped into the Ulsan demo battle. This naturally led to instant confusion and I would recommend everybody prints out the Ulsan tutorial in the pdf manual to get the best out of the demo and learn the basics. I played Russian and the idea was to get my three cruisers back to Vladivostock, but I was heading in the wrong direction with four Japanese cruisers bearing down on me and firing long range shots with what looked like more enemy ships approaching me from the south. After some trial and error I turned the division west to cross the T of the Japanese ships approaching from the north and let the leader have a few broadsides before turning the division north at 18 knots. This temporarily surprised the enemy but they soon manouvered round and caught up. Gromoboi was pounced on by all four enemy ships and with a bad list she tried to make a break for Port Arthur, but sank shortly after. Ryurik was singled out for special attention next and after a terrific defence against three Japanese cruisers she succumbed to the deep. By this time Rossiya had got ahead and was making a break for Vladivostok. Long range shots from the enemy gradually weakened the ship however and she was only doing 2 knots with 5-6 active guns when I decided the game was up and chose to end the battle. Much to my surprise the computer decided this was a draw although I am sure Rossiya would have sunk within the next ten minutes.
Graphics look superb even when zoomed fully in to a ship and I like the way the damage modelling increases as the ships take more damage with broken masts, wreckage on the decks, dead crew, holes in the hull and wreckage flying through the air.
The view options take a bit of getting used to and I frequently found myyself looking at a blank sea or even the whole view upside down, but this is really just down to familiarisation with the controls and not a problem with the game.
Ship control and manoeuver was relatively easy considering I did not read the manual and I was able to set new waypoints and turn the ships in division or singly (to do this I left clicked on the lead ship, chose division, left clicked and dragged on the main screen to put the yellow travel direction markers in the right place, then right clicked on the sea to set an instant change of diection from the menu for the whole division). Firing control was also easy with the flipout menus.
The after battle report seemed a little short, but I may have missed an option for more info. The ship information screens are excellent and show the status of your ship at the end of the battle with hotspots giving the status on each weapon.
Overall I was drawn in by the game and wanted more of the same so I bought the whole game. Now I am off to read the tutorial and play the demo the right way :D Thanks Norm, looks like a winner :)
Some screens from my disastrous first foray onto the high seas. Click the thumbnails to enlarge :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/th_1.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/1.jpg)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/th_2.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/2.jpg)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/th_3.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/3.jpg)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/th_4.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/4.jpg)
My initial impression is quite favorable, even though this really isn't the type of game or historical period I'm interested in.
The cons first:
-A number of annoying little bugs exist, and it will crash occasionally.
-The UI needs some work.
-Hotkeys need to be user defined.
-I think the victory calculation is flawed (in the demo at least).
-2 copies are needed for LAN play.
-It is expensive (especially if 2 copies are needed for LAN play).
-I feel strangely detached from the action. Not sure how to describe this, but once movement and targetting orders are given there isn't much to do except watch and compress time to get to the end. Maybe this will be different with bigger battles and the campaign.
-No real damage showing on ships. I was hoping for missing funnels, turrets etc. Right now damage appears to be a texture overlay.
-Not really a con, but why a 30 day/play limit on a demo?
The pros: Everything else. :-) Including:
-Gameplay is fluid and tactics are easy (too easy?) to visualize. Hard to comment on the AI as there isn't much to go on in the demo.
-Graphics are excellent.
-The manual looks very detailed and comprehensive.
-Sounds seem quite good, although there don't seem to be many of them.
-Insanely super fast time compression (I've reached 500x so far).
-Runs extremely well on a 2.4ghz w/Ati 9700 (65+fps) at medium/high settings. Windowed mode even runs in the low 40's.
So although I'm rather impressed with DG from playing the demo, I'm not sure that it's worth a couple of small piles of Canuck Bucks. Hopefully some people will get into the campaign soon and we can find out if that will make this a must buy title. Ah well, off to try the Russians this time...
Commodore Rob
28 Jul 06, 12:38
Well I have just paid out m uk pounds it works out at a little bit over £32 which is pretty reasonable I think but then it dose sound better the the $59.95:)
Well only played it a little so far I am itching to get some MP action in so if anyone gets it let me know:)
Probably i'm not so much good.....but even after reading the manual....i can't turn the ship...
I point on sea...the yellow lines appeared...but then if i right click....instead of issuing the order...the pop up menu' come up....
Anyone can tell me the exact procedure?
Thx
Well The graphics are amazing but I too am having great difficulty to even conduct a simple turn. I can do it but I have to click several times.........use the keyboard. The axis of the helm jumps all over the place. I can steer better with the 1995 Fighting Steel interface, or even Age of Sail 2 when it comes to maneuvering a simple one ship. :crosseye:
I have read the turning/maneuver section 4 times still have a very hard time making steering corrections. Any suggestions guys?
I can now do a simple steering change but often it will take 30 seconds for it to get the line up properly or it will move around. Not very flexible. But hey the graphics are GREAT! Maybe we could have a simple heading/compass and just click on the course? Just an idea.
-2 copies are needed for LAN play.
-It is expensive (especially if 2 copies are needed for LAN play).
I agree 100%. Shame not to be able to share the experience with other would be Naval Sim's.......
But its is quite fun. I just have to figure out turning :laugh:
More misc observations...
- The installer will always place the shortcuts into the Storm Eagle Studios start menu folder even if otherwise specified.
- If you tap Esc twice when the intro starts only the Exit and About menu options will be available, and you must exit and restart to play a game.
- The soundset is very limited, and the repetition becomes old after a while.
- See pic for what I consider to be too much information available to the player.
- Had a BSOD & instant reboot on my laptop when entering information for the demo code.
- Having time compression revert to 1x whenever any ship maneuvers to avoid a collision is somewhat annoying.
The more I play the more things I'm finding not to like I'm afraid. As it stands now the reports about the campaign will have to be stellar to get me to click the Purchase button, because the demo alone isn't compelling enough right now to get me to buy.
NormKoger
28 Jul 06, 14:53
Well The graphics are amazing but I too am having great difficulty to even conduct a simple turn.
It may be helpful to pause the game when plotting movement. Before multiplay was implemented, that was a default option. These days I do just fine without the pause, but I remember when I thought the pause was quite handy.
I don't know if this applies in your case, but pausing can be particularly useful if you have a preference for very demanding display settings at the expense of frame rate. Use f4 to toggle the frame rate display. I find that the interface is much easier to use when the frame rate is above 20fps. Some of the test group preferred to have the highest possible display settings, even at the expense of frame rates that I would find unplayable.
NormKoger
28 Jul 06, 15:06
See pic for what I consider to be too much information available to the player.
I would like to understand this. Except for the division assignment (which I think I will delete on the first update) there isn't anything in your info popup that wouldn't be available in Jane's Fighting Ships. The info popup for enemy ships never shows the state of weapons, etc. Is it the existence of the popup itself that seems too much? Would it be better to show only something like "Armored Cruiser" and no other info? Or is there something else that I have missed?
It would be a challange to let the player id ships using a recognition guide..
Joblue
I would like to understand this. Except for the division assignment (which I think I will delete on the first update) there isn't anything in your info popup that wouldn't be available in Jane's Fighting Ships. The info popup for enemy ships never shows the state of weapons, etc. Is it the existence of the popup itself that seems too much? Would it be better to show only something like "Armored Cruiser" and no other info? Or is there something else that I have missed?
Ah, I was referring to the "Armored Cruiser Iwate Turn to Course 339" text below the ship itself.
And until he mentioned it I never thought about it, but I really like joblue's idea of an extra layer of FoW. Ships would be visible but would need to be ID'd manually to get detailed information about them.
Commodore Rob
28 Jul 06, 15:16
Just had a look at the manual for the first time 192 pages, erm any chance of a copy with hyperlinks?
It may be helpful to pause the game when plotting movement. Before multiplay was implemented, that was a default option. These days I do just fine without the pause, but I remember when I thought the pause was quite handy.
I don't know if this applies in your case, but pausing can be particularly useful if you have a preference for very demanding display settings at the expense of frame rate. Use f4 to toggle the frame rate display. I find that the interface is much easier to use when the frame rate is above 20fps. Some of the test group preferred to have the highest possible display settings, even at the expense of frame rates that I would find unplayable.
Ok I had a FPS of about 14........:surprise:
Ah, I was referring to the "Armored Cruiser Iwate Turn to Course 339" text below the ship itself.
And until he mentioned it I never thought about it, but I really like joblue's idea of an extra layer of FoW. Ships would be visible but would need to be ID'd manually to get detailed information about them.
Perhaps saying "Armored Cruiser Iwate Turning to Starboard, current heading xxx" ? In real life you would know the ship, but I don't know how you would tell its planned course while it is turning.
NormKoger
28 Jul 06, 16:33
Ah, I was referring to the "Armored Cruiser Iwate Turn to Course 339" text below the ship itself.
Oh, OK. It's minor thing but a good call. I will delete that info along with the division assignment info in the info popup on the first update.
I tend to run in debug mode most of the time, for obvious reasons. And I get a _lot_ of info players don't get. I just didn't notice this was still being displayed in release builds.
NormKoger
28 Jul 06, 16:40
Just had a look at the manual for the first time 192 pages, erm any chance of a copy with hyperlinks?
The help file has all the content of the pdf manual, and it is both searchable and extensively hyperlinked.
Hi
Does this simulation support multi-core processors like the AMD 4800+ or the new core-duo Intel processors? Is anyone using one of these? Is it necessary to set the affinity to single core?
Thanks! (for everything!)
Hi guys
Am playing the full game and enjoying it.
I do agree the turning of ships is a little fiddly but not to bad when you get used to it. I am playing the battle from both sides which makes it easier.
Graphics are great.
I would like to see one change and thats a speed of 0.5 instead of either 1 or 0.1. I like to slow down whats happening but find 0.1 too slow.
When i told my ships to turn and then reformed they just reformed on the new leader and did not turn, not sure what I did wrong.
Overall guys well done on an excellent product which I am sure will be a great engine for future eras as well.
Regards
Phil
Oh, OK. It's minor thing but a good call. I will delete that info along with the division assignment info in the info popup on the first update.
If you must tinker with it, make it optional. I may like to play with more info (or even ALL info). Whether this is "real" or not, lack of information/feedback in a game can take the fun out of it. Too much info is better than not enough.
I have it loaded and it seems to run fine. Have not had time to play.
NormKoger
28 Jul 06, 17:42
Does this simulation support multi-core processors like the AMD 4800+ or the new core-duo Intel processors?
Some folks have indeed run the game on true multi-core systems, and have reported no problems. The primary development machine was a hyperthreaded P4, so the game has always "thought" is was running in a multi core environment, has probably been exposed to most of the potential pitfalls during test, and the code is written to take advantage of multi core environments. The "AI" module in particular operates in its own thread, so in theory, a multi-core processor could really pay off when playing against the AI.
Just another plea to back up what Solops said about keeping current content removal an option for those of us who actually like to know what is going on ;)
Some folks have indeed run the game on true multi-core systems, and have reported no problems. The primary development machine was a hyperthreaded P4, so the game has always "thought" is was running in a multi core environment, has probably been exposed to most of the potential pitfalls during test, and the code is written to take advantage of multi core environments. The "AI" module in particular operates in its own thread, so in theory, a multi-core processor could really pay off when playing against the AI.
Forgive my ignorance, but does this mean that the "Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB)" that Dell sold me might actually do something better than a regular, old 2.8 GHz Pentium 630 processor?
I don't know what to make of this game!
1. The count down on the number or trys before you buy, starts each time you start the game before it's even authorized, if you start and stop the game 30 times before you authorize it that's it, that just plan dumb. :crosseye:
2. I hate the camera controls (Pan, Zoom), I don't think I will every get use to it. In every 3D program I've used held down the right mouse button and pan and zoom from that point. :angry:
Q: Is there a way to lock a camera on a specific ship?
3. You have no control what so every over individual ships, can't select ship speed, ammo types, ranging, specific ship or target area . I'm not looking to take over specific stations or guns, just the ablility to have some control over my ships. to me no ship control = no fun. :OHNO:
4. Damage control; when a weapon is yellow damaged, what does that mean, decreased rate of fire? not operational? I would like to get some thing more than just some thing turns yellow or red, specific damage report, time to repair, set priority/resources on what to try to repair on a ship, once again no control = no fun. :OHNO:
5. The game seems to be all about controlling the line, set a line of ships and point them in this or that direction, that's it? I feel like I'm just watching a battle, not controlling it. True, that maybe what a real fleet admiral does, but wheres the fun in that.
I would like to know what the campaign is like, because without it, there is nothing to do in the game. I was really hoping for was a 3D version of Action Stations or updated version of Great Naval Battles.
Hinchinbrooke
28 Jul 06, 18:43
Hi!,
New here, but have been following Distant Guns for quite a while. Anyway, put down my money this morning........... and been having a blast. Just to have a pre-dreadnought game makes the whole thing worthwhile:D
Having built ship models for Strike Fighters Project 1, the models in DG look pretty damn good given the constraints of large fleet actions.
................Oh, and REALLY looking forward to Jutland!!;)
Forgive my ignorance, but does this mean that the "Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB)" that Dell sold me might actually do something better than a regular, old 2.8 GHz Pentium 630 processor?
Yes. The Dual Core, means there are actually 2 processor cores within the physical processor. In addition to that pretty much all Intel processors are hyperthreaded these days, which is kind of like a pseudo-core (it allows the execution of multiple threads by how it marshalls the instructions in the pipeline, and there is state maintained for both threads in the core. So from the point of view of an operating system that chip will probably look like 4 logical processors. Hyperthreading isn't quite as powerful as separate cores, but between the 2 cores and their hyperthreads you should get some good performance.
NormKoger
28 Jul 06, 19:04
Forgive my ignorance, but does this mean that the "Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB)" that Dell sold me might actually do something better than a regular, old 2.8 GHz Pentium 630 processor?
In theory, yes. A multi-core machine _should_ have a higher frame rate due to the fact that the AI thread won't be eating up cycles on the only available processor. My guess is that the effect won't be huge, but it should be there. I set the AI thread priority fairly low, but it still has to chew through a lot of stuff every cycle.
Judging from the fact that DirectX seems to be launching a number of threads as well (in its inscrutable black box kind of way), the effect could be substantial. I just don't know enough about how DirectX uses those threads to be sure.
I am eagerly looking forward to one of the Core 2-Duo machines when they become available in August.
Quite a bit of processor power is currently being used just keeping track of object locations and alpha values. When multi core becomes more common, I will probably offload part of the object management to a separate thread. On multi core machines, that may allow us to have more smoke and longer wakes. You can never have too much smoke in an early 20th century naval game :)
I don't know what to make of this game!
1. The count down on the number or trys before you buy, starts each time you start the game before it's even authorized, if you start and stop the game 30 times before you authorize it that's it, that just plan dumb. :crosseye:
2. I hate the camera controls (Pan, Zoom), I don't think I will every get use to it. In every 3D program I've used held down the right mouse button and pan and zoom from that point. :angry:
Q: Is there a way to lock a camera on a specific ship?
3. You have no control what so every over individual ships, can't select ship speed, ammo types, ranging, specific ship or target area . I'm not looking to take over specific stations or guns, just the ablility to have some control over my ships. to me no ship control = no fun. :OHNO:
4. Damage control; when a weapon is yellow damaged, what does that mean, decreased rate of fire? not operational? I would like to get some thing more than just some thing turns yellow or red, specific damage report, time to repair, set priority/resources on what to try to repair on a ship, once again no control = no fun. :OHNO:
5. The game seems to be all about controlling the line, set a line of ships and point them in this or that direction, that's it? I feel like I'm just watching a battle, not controlling it. True, that maybe what a real fleet admiral does, but wheres the fun in that.
I would like to know what the campaign is like, because without it, there is nothing to do in the game. I was really hoping for was a 3D version of Action Stations or updated version of Great Naval Battles.
You can select ship targets, and maneuver ships individually. You can set ship speed as well. To see what damage has occured to a ship, select it, and press 'I'. That will bring up a screen that tells you in detail what kind of damage you have suffered. Perhaps 'F' which is the set follow view to have it lock on a ship. I haven't tried it yet.
I am really liking the game so far.
My only qualm so fat is that enemy AI is very very agressive and loves to close ranges and slug it out up close.
While this makes for very exciting gameplay it is not all that realisitc, naval commanders of the era tended to be very cautious and those that were agressive were few and far between.
I am also for keeping all the info that we currently get. I play at 1920x1200 and I have enough screen space to pack just about anything.
I find the campaign unplayable. At Port Arthur are a stack of four flags. (I saved it after the inital attack). Put the mouse on the bottom flag, text shoots across the screen, it goes black, and eventually DTDs.
Well I figured out how to change ships speed. What's with all of this fly on fly off crap? the terminology I just don't get it! I'm still having major problems with the pan & zoom. On my system you have to pause to issue order, other wize the screen just goes wild, the pan and zoom and course changes just spin around an around.
I still wish you had more control over ships, I had a russian ship dead in the water so I pull a protected crusier up to it, my ship would fire guns but not torpedoes? I fired at it for 5 mins, the russian ship went from 3% list to 5% list. How do you know when to stop shooting, ship wrecks could stay a float for days?
How do you know what torpedo range is or range for different ship weapons?
Weapon range circles, click on a ship, select a weapon and have a circle show the weapon ranges. I would have expected the ability to order a torpedo attack. The things I expected in a naval game just don't seem to be there.
Bullethead
29 Jul 06, 01:17
I managed to steal some bandwidth while my boss was in a meeting and have managed (between fire calls, wrecks, and dinner guests) to play this game a little, so this is very much a 1st impression. But here goes...
1. I like the "hang time" of the shell splashes, which in my experience is the 1st time in a sim that they've lasted a realistically long time.
2. I was very impressed with how private ships in divisions maneuver independently under their own AIs as necessary, then try to get back with the program. For example, turning to avoid collision, turning (sometimes more than once) to comb torpedo wakes, reacting to ships falling out of line, etc.
3. I'm kinda disappointed in the music being on/off only. A volume control would be wonderful.
4. I've had problems with keypad camera controls not working properly all the time. Sometimes they work as described in the manual, but often they instead lock into spinning the view around forever even when you take your finger off the key, and the controls to make the view spin the other way don't work except to stop the existing spinning.
5. I cannot at all change my in-game resolution. Every time I try, the game stops responding at the point where it says it has to reset DirectX. Other graphics options changes work OK.
6. I'm kinda frustrated with the inability to order ships to conduct torp attacks. OK, I know there's an argument that the decision when to launch is up to the officers on the specific ship(s) in question, not you as admiral. However, the admiral should be able to tell his subordinates to go conduct a torp attack on some general part of the enemy line, if not a specific ship. Or failing that, the player should at least have some indication of where he needs to be relative to the target to achieve launch parameters. Like when you're plotting courses, the line should show a different color if it goes through a good launch position (assuming the target maintains course and speed). Then you could at least move your ships to the right place and leave it to them whether or not to launch.
Looking forward to getting deeper into this shortly.
I was impressed with the AI during the PA attack. My Russians sank 9 of the 11 enemy ships while losing only 3. Ships that were sinking beached themselves. I pretty much just sat back and enjoyed the show.
But, it would be nice to know who was sunk or damaged after the battle. How many shells were fired, how many hit. Who was hit how many times.
I like that kind of detail.
I'm thinking there should be an option to fire torps when you want. The way Action Stations does it. Or at least the same way the guns are targeted.
I like Norms games (own TOAW III, Age of Rifles, etc.) and not many good naval games around. But what's up with the ridiculous pricing, game=64.95, campaign=24.95? They don't even need packaging or doc printing. What's up with the requirement to always be connected to the Net? When I buy softwate, I own it and should be allowed to install it on as many of my computers as I want. To bad they ruined it with the pricing and pain-in-the-ass copy protection/licensing.
They should allow people to purchase the game, download it, enter a code and away they go.
I realize there is a special right now for 64.95, but that is still pretty steep. If I got a nice printed manual and didn't have to deal with the stupid licensing and constant Net connection, I might consider it.
Oh well...
Neutrino 123
29 Jul 06, 04:13
Well, for one thing, the full game (including campaign) is about $60 dollars until the end of August. Also, an internet connection is only required to obtain a license; after you get the license, you can transfer it to any computer, though only one can have the full game at a time.
Commodore Rob
29 Jul 06, 05:57
with regards to the pricing well I personally think it works out ok, as in the uk the complete game works out at about £32 which is an average price for a game from the shops. However I am fully prepared to pay this much even though no packaging costs are involved, because, like it or not this is a neich game and I have seen too many fall by the wayside because they are not ecominically viable for the company.. and I for one would love to see expansions to this game into the first World War (and era that has never been covered as far as i know in naval terms) so I am prepared to pay.
Well I figured out how to change ships speed. What's with all of this fly on fly off crap? the terminology I just don't get it! I'm still having major problems with the pan & zoom. On my system you have to pause to issue order, other wize the screen just goes wild, the pan and zoom and course changes just spin around an around.
I still wish you had more control over ships, I had a russian ship dead in the water so I pull a protected crusier up to it, my ship would fire guns but not torpedoes? I fired at it for 5 mins, the russian ship went from 3% list to 5% list. How do you know when to stop shooting, ship wrecks could stay a float for days?
How do you know what torpedo range is or range for different ship weapons?
Weapon range circles, click on a ship, select a weapon and have a circle show the weapon ranges. I would have expected the ability to order a torpedo attack. The things I expected in a naval game just don't seem to be there.
The ships in this game get to a state where flooding exceeds pumping and that is usually accompanied by a slow or dead in the water speed. Stay away from him and let him sink if he is firing back or just have your battle line rake him and finish the job, which I did with a Russian AC looked pretty good :D
The manual gives effective ranges for guns and torps.
Phil
I managed to steal some bandwidth while my boss was in a meeting and have managed (between fire calls, wrecks, and dinner guests) to play this game a little, so this is very much a 1st impression. But here goes...
1. I like the "hang time" of the shell splashes, which in my experience is the 1st time in a sim that they've lasted a realistically long time.
2. I was very impressed with how private ships in divisions maneuver independently under their own AIs as necessary, then try to get back with the program. For example, turning to avoid collision, turning (sometimes more than once) to comb torpedo wakes, reacting to ships falling out of line, etc.
3. I'm kinda disappointed in the music being on/off only. A volume control would be wonderful.
4. I've had problems with keypad camera controls not working properly all the time. Sometimes they work as described in the manual, but often they instead lock into spinning the view around forever even when you take your finger off the key, and the controls to make the view spin the other way don't work except to stop the existing spinning.
5. I cannot at all change my in-game resolution. Every time I try, the game stops responding at the point where it says it has to reset DirectX. Other graphics options changes work OK.
6. I'm kinda frustrated with the inability to order ships to conduct torp attacks. OK, I know there's an argument that the decision when to launch is up to the officers on the specific ship(s) in question, not you as admiral. However, the admiral should be able to tell his subordinates to go conduct a torp attack on some general part of the enemy line, if not a specific ship. Or failing that, the player should at least have some indication of where he needs to be relative to the target to achieve launch parameters. Like when you're plotting courses, the line should show a different color if it goes through a good launch position (assuming the target maintains course and speed). Then you could at least move your ships to the right place and leave it to them whether or not to launch.
Looking forward to getting deeper into this shortly.
5/ the reset to a new resolution is not immediate, give it a few mins when it comes up with reset Direct X message. mine did this and worked fine.
6/ I thiknk the reason for this is the torps of the time were just so short range about a 1000 metres or less to be accurate and effective. Getting that close was probably more a result of the battle than a deliberate attempt to launch torps which made it more of an opportunist attack than deliberate.
Phil
Neutrino 123
29 Jul 06, 07:33
One way to control torpedo attacks is to have the ships 'hold fire' until you want the torpedo launch, though this is not ideal...
Hi all, hi Norm,
just registered here.
Oki,
downloaded the demo yesterday, printed out the manual and tried the Ulsan scenario like described in the manual (but I let the computer handle the Japanese division). Good for learning the basics, but a rather bloody experience... ;)
So the second time I tried a different approach, initially crossing the T, with all ships firing on the leader, then again turning away again as the they turned in on me etc. This tactics seemed to work rather good, as I finally got in the direction I had to escape to until I at one point realized too late my last ship in the formation at one point didn`t execute the last turn, so she got seperated from the others. I ordered to form up and slowed the other two ships to slow down a bit to let her catch up, but it was too late, she suffered heavy damage and lost speed, so I had to leave her behind. :cry:
Sofar I have only a few critics, but as I`m German I even might have misread the manual or didn`t get something right:
In the battle described above, my ships kept shelling the Japanese leader, as it mostly was the nearest target, so "target free" and "target leader" didn`t make any difference. This might be okay in the initial stages of a battle, but in such a setup, I would have liked the ability to target f.e. the No. 2 ship in the line, as I silenced a couple of guns on the leader and my idea was to bring down the firepower of the Japanese fleet. I just didn`t find an option to let my division fire on the other ships, like I wanted to do.
The AI seems to have the same prob, as they kept pounding my trailing cruiser, even when she was pretty much out of action with only few guns left and slowing down more and more. A real Admiral whould have changed targets to my escaping 2 undamaged cruisers, trying to slow them down too, as the firepower of the Japanese fleet was much bigger and finishing the last cruiser off later (if needed, she would have gone down on her own I think, with DM control down to 10% and fires out of control).
So is this a flaw, or am I missing something?
As for the rest, I`m very happy with this game, finally something to replace the dearly missed Burning Steel series by SSI. The camera is a little clumsy to handle, but maybe it`s getting better with more game-time. The graphics aren`t as brilliant as SHIII, but still very good IMO. FPS are always playable with almost all maxed out (AThlon 2700+, 9700pro with 1 Gig RAM). Sound is great too.
The only few critics, I`d like to have a little more control over the targetting of the ships of a division, as described above.
Greets and THX for a great game, will purchase it for sure this weekend, looking forward to the campaign.
Z.
I'm finding a successful tactic is to hold the big cruisers under constant broadside fire with my cruisers then send the destroyers in on fast runs so that they can release torps at close range. The enemy are so busy dodging large calibre shells from my cruisers that they seem to ignore the little destroyers swarming around them. I finished the Tsushima (engaged) battle last night with only five Russian ships left on the map, four of which were heavily damaged and probably never made it back to Vladivostok, it was a massacre :D The whole Russian task force split up into small groups that could be picked off one by one. The Aleksander III, Borodino and Oryel were each surrounded by five cruisers and pummeled until they sank. Great fun :) Click the thumbnails to enlarge.
Six cruisers close in on the surrounded Aleksander III
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/th_5.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/5.jpg)
The cruisers pass one by one and fire into the Russian cruiser
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/th_6.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/6.jpg)
Aleksander III wrecked by multiple heavy calibre hits and just before sinking.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/th_7.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/7.jpg)
Over she goes
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/th_8.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/8.jpg)
JaguarUSF
29 Jul 06, 08:51
I just didn`t find an option to let my division fire on the other ships, like I wanted to do.
If you select your ships and then right click directly on an enemy ship, a "target ship" option comes up.
Really?
Will try it out this evening!
THX man for pointing me in the right direction!!!
:thumup:
Z.
timetraveller
29 Jul 06, 09:50
I will definitely try the demo in time,
BUT,
$65 is way out of line for pricing here in the US.
If the price drops I'll probably buy it. If not, probably not. I had no idea you guys were going to charge this much for this game. And to make matters worse, it's download only, no box, CD, or printed manual.
The idea of giving the campaign addon away then charging for it later I don't understand. That makes the game $90?? What are you guys thinking??? This will not be a blockbuster at these rates.
TT
Commodore Rob
29 Jul 06, 09:55
The idea of giving the campaign addon away then charging for it later I don't understand. That makes the game $90?? What are you guys thinking??? This will not be a blockbuster at these rates.
TT
It never was going to be a blockbuster its called economies of scale
timetraveller
29 Jul 06, 10:26
It never was going to be a blockbuster its called economies of scale
Agreed. Poor use of the term "blockbuster" on my part. I should have said, "a nice seller for the developers". Which it may not be at these prices.
I'll stick to the upcoming Pacific Storm at this point. It's also moddable, which this is not according to the devs.
TT
My impressions of this game are quite good so far - apart from some lockup issues - saved game files sent to Norm already.
The price is kinda steep for no physical CD or manual - but I expected this from a niche game on a niche subject from a independent publisher & developer.
Took up the Russian underdog role and so far have two victories under my belt against the Japanese.
First battle was 1 Russian AC and 3 PCs vs. 4 Japanese PCs - lost 1 Russian PC and sank 3 Japanese PCs and crippled a 4th. The xtra destroyer division helped the Russians a lot.
Second battle occurred because of sheer luck. I had sent the 1st Pacific to camp offshore of Chemulpo on a regular basis - it was on their way back to Port Arthur they ran into 1 old BB (Chin Yen) and 3 PCs. Even more strange they turned about to close the range.
Perhaps it was the DDs and T-Boats that I deployed forward of the main battleline. Maybe they thought they were only facing small fry. So they ran into all of my battleships in 1st Pacific Sqdn (did not lose any BBs to the surprise torp attack at game start - did lose 2 PCs tho).
My Russian battleline was line abrest facing the Japanese as we close to gunnery range. I gave the local captains targeting descretion - they all targeted the Chin Yen (the old BB) and were pounding her right up until both sides intermixed their battlelines - then it became a point-blank brawl and knife-fight then.
Wow! What a tough old BB the Chin Yen was! With a armor value of 10 and German built to her name - she took hit after hit from the Russian BBs and was still only lightly damaged until the range came down to point-blank. I can see why the Japanese kept her when they defeated the Chinese in 1895.
Up until now the Chin Yen was giving as good as she got - against the entire Russian battleship force - until a Russian BB decided to emulate Nelson at Trafalgar and cut into the Japanese battleline directly astern of Chin Yen. Three stern rakes later and Chin Yen's crew was abandoning the flaming wreck.
After the sinking of the Chin Yen, mopping up the 3 Japanese PCs was kinda of anti-climatic and each PC swiftly sank one after another to point-blank battleship fire.
Honestly I expected the Russians to be mauled more since I was anticipating the notoriously bad Russian naval skills in action.
I seem to be settling into a strategy of sinking as many Japanese cruisers as the opportunity presents itself - this would mean my Russian cruisers, clippers, and gunboats can go merchant raiding without too much fear of a Japanese Flying Squadron intercepting them. No sign of the Japanese armored cruisers yet since they escorted the Chemulpo invasion.
I think the Japanese AI will have to decide on whether to keep his ACs with the battleship force or sending them out to make up for his protected cruiser losses soon. Otherwise he gives the Russians a free hand against his merchant shipping.
Yes. I'm having a lot of fun with this game. Just hope Norm can figure out the blackscreen lockups and CTDs so I can continue the campaign.
I like Norms games (own TOAW III, Age of Rifles, etc.) and not many good naval games around. But what's up with the ridiculous pricing, game=64.95, campaign=24.95?
I remember the very first computer game I ever bought. Carriers at War for about $60.00. I remember when home computers were first coming out. It was either MOVES or S&T that had an ad on the back cover for the $2,000 wargame, Computer Bismarck. (It was a bit more than that, don't recall the exact price. The Apple computer was most of the price.)
Besides, buy it now, and get a $90 game for $59.95. You could always buy HPS's Tsushima for <$50, but that is nowhere near as good.
Graphics look superb even when zoomed fully in to a ship and I like the way the damage modelling increases as the ships take more damage with broken masts, wreckage on the decks, dead crew, holes in the hull and wreckage flying through the air.
Some screens from my disastrous first foray onto the high seas. Click the thumbnails to enlarge :)
Great screenshots...I want to make some...
Oki,
tried the demo again this evening. Typical case of RTFM it seems. :o
Sorry, everything is fine with the targetting. I just didn`t get it right.
Again lost the Ryurik due to heavy damage (not sunk, but burning and dead in the sea), but did the same favour to Idzumo. Would have been better to detach Ryurik earlier from the line. With my superior speed, I chased down one of these protected cruisers, but finally we got a little to near to the coast, with the rest of the cruisers still chasing me. So I finally turned around to Vladivostok.
Great game. it`s around 2am here now, so I`ll purchase in the morning.
Z.
PS.: THX EURO.... here in EURO-land this game isn`t THAT expensive. :smoke:
The ships in this game get to a state where flooding exceeds pumping and that is usually accompanied by a slow or dead in the water speed. Stay away from him and let him sink if he is firing back or just have your battle line rake him and finish the job, which I did with a Russian AC looked pretty good :D
The manual gives effective ranges for guns and torps.
Phil
I've been playing computer-generated battles in pre-dawn visibility. This tends to make for quick and lethal encounters.
For example, I've seen two Japanese Protected Cruisers get rammed and sunk by Russian Battleships. I saw the Chen Yen take 10 torpedoes from Russian battleships (all on the starboard) and capsize in a few minutes. I've also seen a few torpedoes miss.
I've seen two Japanese Protected Cruisers get rammed and sunk by Russian Battleships. I saw the Chen Yen take 10 torpedoes from Russian battleships (all on the starboard) and capsize in a few minutes.
:surprise: Wow, haven't seen any activity as interesting as that yet. 10 torps on target is pretty amazing, was the Chen Yen disabled in the water at the time or moving?
:surprise: Wow, haven't seen any activity as interesting as that yet. 10 torps on target is pretty amazing, was the Chen Yen disabled in the water at the time or moving?
The Chen Yen had been the primary target of five Russian battleships for about 20 minutes at ranges from 3000 to 300 meters. In fact, the information button reported that she was the target of 8 ships (probably five central directors and 3 local directors? or three central directors, three local directors and two torpedo directors?). Damage was "heavy" and she was barely moving as four Russian battleships went by at 200-300 meters.
The information button did not show her as sinking until she started to capsize.
The Japanese Protected Cruisers were mostly holding their fire, so they may not have been visible and most of the time the Russians fired at either the two Japanese Armored Cruisers or the Chen Yen.
Anyway, its pretty interesting to see how a low-freeboard "Coastal Defence" battleship like the Chen Yen does on the high seas. She's pretty much a deathtrap.
Im a bit disappointed with the demo. :cry:
Part of it might be because of the era as it doesnt give me ability to manually use torpedoes. The demo is of course a bit limited too with only one ship type.
But when I compare to a game like Fighting Steel there are some elements that I miss. in FS there is a nice overview of your divisions and the ability to give both targetting and course/speed adjustments without having to move the camera around just to select the ships/division you want.
The camera controls are a bit awkward and cant be changed, to what I think lots of players are used to from other games, as the mouse buttons are now used for selecting and giving orders.
CBR
WallysWorld
31 Jul 06, 20:56
Just played a computer generated battle with about 8 Russian cruisers against the Chen Yen and about 7 Japanese cruisers. I lost 5 of my Russian cruisers, but I sank 2 Japanese cruisers.
Plus a lone torpedo hit on the port rear of the Chen Yen and it started very slowly listing to port. I watched the waters rise slowly over the deck until she finally turned turtle.
No problems with torpedo attacks as I just send in the ships as fast as they can go and turned them to face the enemy sideways and they launch torpedoes on their own.
Had a great time with this battle.
Is there any particular technical or tactical reason that my destroyers seem to only fire one torpedo during each run.... if and when they manage to get in range, I'd want them to launch all their torps in a hurry and get away, but they only ever seem to launch 1 (these are russian destroyers with several torpedo tubes).
Thats odd as my Russian destroyers are definately firing all three successively when they get a clear broadside view. Playing the campaign I just had the unfortunate experience of running into the main Japanese battleship force with my patrolling destroyers. Out of 34 destroyers I lost 27 :cry: and we only achieved light damage on each battleship/cruiser.
Maybe I'm just torpedo-blind. Which reminds me, torpedo wakes could definitely be more visible... at least your own.
You do have to be zoomed right in to see the torpedoes being released. I just sank a merchant with a destroyer and the three tubes turned to track the merchant before I was fully alongside then launched 3 fish one after the other. Zoomed in you can clearly see the tin fish heading for the merchant underwater and striking - nice detail !
Maybe it has to do with display settings or weather, because I could only barely make out the trails even when zoomed in all the way.
WallysWorld
01 Aug 06, 10:03
I seen my Russian ships fire off multiple torpedoes at once. That is, all their torpedoes on the side of the ship facing the enemy.
Well, so far so good. The game has crashed on me once, but that was after I made a video adjustment while an engagement was underway so perhaps that was the problem. Since then, it's run pretty well flawlessly for me.
Now all I need to do is figure out how to win the odd battle :)
B
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