Carriers at War

[Tripoli]

The_Admiral-  I just sent you a PM

[Toonces]

I was actually kind of serious about getting out of my head and dreams.

This is shaping up to be pretty much the WW2 carrier game I've had in the back of my mind for a few years now.  Everything I'm seeing is looking extremely loin-moistening.

One aspect that, not sure if you're doing it, but I'd love to see the perspective from the bridge of the action taking place.  What I mean is the ability to observe through the windows, or on a wing, to watch attacks developing, launching from own-ship, etc.  It sounds like you're not doing a full 3D walk around type bridge, but as a selectable station it would still be quite cool and immersive.  I'd like to see it where you're doing all that work on the bridge while, meanwhile, the ship is dodging and weaving, AA is going off all around you, and you're trying to maintain concentration and give orders during the chaos.

I don't know how exactly this would be implemented in a game, but it's the idea I've had.

Anyway, since you guys seem to have the WW2 carrier game taken care of, I can move on to the two other ideas I have percolating in my mind.  You guys didn't see those while you were snooping around in there, did you?

[The_Admiral]

Well I have my idea about what I'd like us to do once this is done (and well done, that is), both inside and outside of the current naval comfort zone we're making here. There's still time so no worries, you might carry on with your other dreams  ^-^

Regarding "realistic" views from the outside, yes, the latter third of the planned stations are mainly scenic-centered ones. One is a passage over the flight deck (hence the door on the side of the room) with visibility limited to the actual spot - that is 180° all the way to the stern and the bow (technically, there's the island between you and the starboard side of the ship). Another one is a Big-Eyes binocular station located roughly at the same spot, but with a 360° ability. It might be a concession to realism, but gameplay-wise I doubt that it is very interesting to move from a pair of static binocs to another one, so we kept it old-fashioned, like all the comparable games and sims did it before us. Third view is a forward porthole (you can see symmetric ones in both rooms) that allows you to watch the outside from your cozy quarters during action, but with a rather limited field of view.

At a certain level of difficulty, watching action from the outside means that you might get hurt or even die during an attack. It's not gonna be random of course, you need to get within the blast radius of a bomb/plane for that to happen. On the other hand, staying inside during air action is not going to make you immortal (if the island actually blows up, you blow up too - these are not immunity boxes, Bunker Hill and New Mexico are telling examples of what happens when it strikes "home" - and don't even mention the unfortunate Kaga!) but it is going to limit greatly your exposure.

Fear not though, we do not plan on simulating ankle-twisting or even your head hitting equipment during a torpedo hit... Even though it happened, and Fletcher actually got a Purple Heart for that. In game terms you're expected to wear your tin hat for most of the action, as for now our game takes place during condition 1-like situations, and lulls will be rather rare.

Still, the point is that deactivating external views will not confine you to the internal quarters of the ship totally, and you might be allowed to watch the action "à la Santa Cruz" if I may say. The possibility of your avatar dying will remain an option in the settings though, you might deactivate it if you want, but it will affect the final realism/difficulty ratio doing so.

I might add that we plan on having a very complete and immersive range of ambience sounds, some random and generic, some intimately linked to the action (orders being repeated during maneuver, announcements of readiness, whistles, some CAP action, etc... Everything you'd hear on the close-circuit as the flag officer, technically) besides the obvious sounds of battle. I want to live the whole thing and make you feel like you're involved in the action. Everything that will bring the player down to his/her actual in-game PoV instead of making him/her feel like a God walking among ants will have my preference.

I admit, from a game-design perspective, that this is a common trend in gaming as of late: that's what Burden of Command or Radio Commander strive for too, or even something that could be felt in Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa. These games increase the odds by somewhat "de-powering" the player, making him/her feel constrained by events, chaos, limited technology, a limited panel of choices and non-binary responses he/she can provide. But our goal is to make this optional for its most punishing/frustrating aspects (i.e. the survival of the avatar or access to external views) while keeping the fun and the immersion to a level that will take full advantage of a modern, mid-range PC hardware. Knowing games made after the 90s have hardly considered eye and ear-candy to be a priority (considering the costs involved, they were certainly in their right not to), we have room for maneuver ahead indeed.

[The_Admiral]

Oh by the way Toonces, about that dream thing...

I just came across an old post of yours about what your next dream might be... Is that the Iron Bottom Sound adaptation you mentioned, by any chance?
If so, make it quick, because serious surface action is next on our list  :))

I am not joking actually. The Flag Plot area is designed so that the right-hand room will be some sort of module that will change with the nature of the ship. On a Carrier it's a air-plot centered module. On a surface ship, on the other hand, it might have other more relevant stations (gun plot, surface radar plot, etc...). Wish us luck, for the first volume would need to work well enough for that, but... crossing fingers!

(and sorry for your next retirement project... :-\ )

[The_Admiral]

Hello everybody

Although we're not there yet for the announcement, I suppose I couldn't leave this topic without posting the sort of contents other saw already, it wouldn't be fair. On the eve of the holidays for the team, these little sequences do not weight much, but they are still pleasing to the die - and a testimony to the fact that things are going slowly forward. Might be a bit scant an update, but it's still better than nothing  :-"

First of all, we updated the engine when it comes to aircraft management and landing. Both operations are now smoother to the eye and feel less robotic/scripted. Our pilots are still too much of a bunch of hotshots, who apparently always have to catch the first wire... Should be "solved" soon enough.

Regarding aircraft management, as you can see we run a tight ship in pretty much every way - SBDs not having folding wings, unlike TBDs, they require a different arrangement in order to fit on the deck. I am happy to announce that the aircraft manager AI IQ is way higher than my own when it comes to that sort of chores.

Besides, we're conducting a few experiments on the air front too, in order to me ready for a demo reel. Our F4F3 got its animated surfaces, and now it is provided with the proper 4*.50 battery. We're gonna dress her like Butch O'Hare famed CMOH mount and she's gonna try her guns on a few betties. Here's sneak peek of what is currently in the works:

This is naturally a "chase" view, nothing else. We're not flying these planes, the AI is (and hopefully might stop going for Tarans on Betties soon... The woes of a young and enthusiastic AI!).

Finally, for le dessert de ces messieurs, here's the latest beauty drawn by our 2D artist. It depicts Norman "Dusty" Kleiss of VS-6 (USS Enterprise) recovering from his dive against Hiryu. "Dusty" Kleiss was one of the few pilots that day who had the distinction of hitting true both times he dived against a carrier. After his part in the attack against Kaga in the morning, he secured the second hit against Hiryu following Richard Jaccard's own impact. The blast resulting from both hits probably contributed to blow Hiryu's elevator against her island, as seen in the iconic photo taken later that day by a SBD.
Original art all the way, of course - that would make for a nice collector mouse mat, don't you think!





That's all for today, enjoy the weekend everybody! S!  8)

[steve58]

Here already...

[GroggyGrognard]

@The_Admiral  Wow, fantastic screenshots. Thanks for the appetizer.  :)


Groggy

[The_Admiral]

Thanks boys! Your support means a lot. 

I was going to post a reply to Steve about starting to print money - considering the limited response to this last update, if he was to be our only customer I had to get ready to overcharge him. Thanks to you Groggy, the final price just got reduced by 50%! Good teamwork 

;)

[em2nought]

considering the limited response to this last update

Sorry, been a bit busy making smart @ss comments regarding Epstein's shocking "suicide" all day.  :DD  If it's any consolation I've changed from olive drab t-shirts to heather gray so the drool marks aren't visible when they dry.  ;D

I'm not sure Devastator's need landing animations.  Did any ever return to a carrier after encountering the enemy?  ;)

[The_Admiral]

Well you're sure being harsh on the poor thing  :-[

They sure didn't have the opportunity to hit much besides Shoho, but they did their job. And they had a much better loss ratio than the Dauntless at Coral Sea, as the latter took heavy losses both above Carrier Division 5 and acting as makeshift CAP over TF17. On the other hand, the 20 TBDs involved in the strike only lost one plane that ran out of fuel in range of rescue and their defensive fire *might* have clipped a couple Zeroes. Naturally, no fish found its way to the target, but still...!

Actually on the eve of Midway, TF16 staff was adamant about having the fighters cover the SBDs instead of the TBDs, as experience at Coral Sea had shown they were supposedly more vulnerable (even though in the end, Enterprise's escort covered no-one and Hornet's escort went on with the bombers on the flight to nowhere - and got lost altogether). Ah dear... Poor Torpedo lads.  :-\  :'(

[Staggerwing]

Fun fact:
Ensign George Gay's experience watching the attack on the IJN fleet from the water after surviving his TBD's shoot down was the inspiration for a similar scenario during an episode of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica ('Resurrection Ship'). During a massive battle between the Colonial and Cylon fleets one of the main characters is forced to eject from his fighter and then hangs in space, watching, as the furious fighting goes on around him and the Cylon fleet's precious Resurrection ships are destroyed one by one.

[The_Admiral]

Aye.

But although Apollo was definitely there to witness the destruction of the Cylon fleet after ejecting from the Blackbird (we got it on film!), unfortunately some recent fact-checking did cast some doubt over the story of Ens. Gay's being actually in range of seeing 100% of what he said to have witnessed. Naturally, nobody was willing to call him out about his testimony, for all the best reasons considering his role and the trauma he went through, but it is among the myths that got debunked in the 2000s.

An analysis of his report can be found in No Right to Win, p.198, and the consensus (to put it mildly) is definitely (I quote) part fact, part fable: he might have possibly witnessed the attack to some extent, but not the sinkings as he claimed to have from 1943 on... :(

Still, if it gave us Resurrection Ship then it did more good than harm  ^-^

[GDS_Starfury]

its a masterful episode.

[Staggerwing]

^I thought that might bring you out of the woodwork.  O0

[The_Admiral]

Do you people play BSG deadlock at all? :hug: