Sad indeed

[jdkbph]

I posted a plea to the devs on the SES forum, asking that they consider unlocking the game configs and data in the hopes that community effort can breathe life back into Eohippus (sorry, I couldn't resist). I was ready for a negative reply while hoping at the same time for some support for the idea... but I was not expecting the complete and total silence.

It's kind of creepy over there actually.

Anyway, while this place doesn't seem much more active these days, I figured I toss this out there and see if anything happens.

I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on where this game, or this genre, is going from here?

Is Jutland salvageable somehow? Has anyone tried to crack the encryption on the files so we can access, and hopefully remediate, some of the more serious flaws?

Is there anything else out there that we can look to, or look forward to?

I know about Iron and Steam. I've watched some of the demo play videos posted on the web, and it strikes me as more of a casual thing... perhaps more suited to an iPhone or iPad app... rather than a serious in-depth treatment of the subject. Are there any players of that game about? Is this a fair assessment?

JD

 

[thewood]

I posted a plea to the devs on the SES forum, asking that they consider unlocking the game configs and data in the hopes that community effort can breathe life back into Eohippus (sorry, I couldn't resist). I was ready for a negative reply while hoping at the same time for some support for the idea... but I was not expecting the complete and total silence.

It's kind of creepy over there actually.

Anyway, while this place doesn't seem much more active these days, I figured I toss this out there and see if anything happens.

I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on where this game, or this genre, is going from here?

Is Jutland salvageable somehow? Has anyone tried to crack the encryption on the files so we can access, and hopefully remediate, some of the more serious flaws?

Is there anything else out there that we can look to, or look forward to?

I know about Iron and Steam. I've watched some of the demo play videos posted on the web, and it strikes me as more of a casual thing... perhaps more suited to an iPhone or iPad app... rather than a serious in-depth treatment of the subject. Are there any players of that game about? Is this a fair assessment?

JD

Are you kidding me? S&I is probably more detailed than SES ever even considered for Jutland. That is from a fleet standpoint. Jutland is too focused on ship details and being pretty and not enough on fleet actions. Great example...no smoke screens.

S&I also includes every major naval force imaginable and is completely moddable...and no DRM

btw, how's our favorite ex-gamesquad moderator doing over there. Last I checked he was lamenting SES's lack of concern. That after coming over here and wrecking this forum by trying to eliminate any bad comments about SES. Guess he finally saw the light.

 

[jdkbph]

No seriously. That's the impression I got watching the videos. The game was playing (or being played?) so fast I couldn't see how the author could possibly manage or evaluate anything in detail. I haven't really looked at it much after seeing that. I guess I should take another look.

I'm not sure what's going on over there in the SES forum. I hadn't been following for some time. I just happen to look in about a week or two ago after noticing the game was still installed on my machine. I fired it up and almost immediately became frustrated and remembered why I hadn't bothered with it for so long. I guess I was hoping that some sort of miracle patch had been issued in the interim. No such luck however.

It's all just a damned shame. Dumb.

Developers of niche products like Jutland just can't afford to alienate their audience the way they did. Neither can they afford to take that "we know better than everyone else" attitude, ignoring their audience's input. Dumb and stupid.

I suppose they're now making themselves feel superior by telling themselves that they built a superior game but the hobby is just dead... the interest and the market just isn't there. Or maybe it failed because the DRM wasn't strong enough! Dumb, stupid and ignorant.

Well, anyway, thanks for the tip on S&I. I'm actually heading over that way now to take a closer look.

JD

 

[Reckall]

One of the best things in Steam and Iron is how the game can simulate the commander perspective at any level of command. The videos show "Jutland" played the way Scheer and Jellicoe could follow the events: order divisions around and hope for the best. They couldn't micro-manage what happened on the single ships. Of course you can do that, and complete the scenario in two weeks or so

In smaller scenarios, instead, it becomes vital to know what is happening on every ship. It is there that the level of detail put in the game becomes apparent. There is an excellent review of Steam and Iron floating around which details the hundreds of variables factored in the game. You can find it here: http://www.wargamer.com/article/3179/pc-game-review-steam-and-iron-a-second-look

 

[thewood]

Since there is all this thread necromancing going on...thought i would take my turn...

 

[Redwolf]

DG is an example of a game that really pissed off the honest customers by letting them get under the steamroller of the anti-piracy efforts, both in technology and in how they communicated with us. You can't do that if your audience is so small anyway.

Throw in Gestapo moderators like Saddletank who suppress perfectly valid discussion of those aspects (which of course is also to blame on Don because he allowed one of his mods to run amok although none of the critics violated Don's forum rules).

And the expected but still sad result ... the game is dead, and in a very hard to fix state to boot, like the OP correctly points out.

 

[jdkbph]

Jeez... it's almost as if someone was intentionally trying to bury something.



JD