Napoleonic FPS 9 days from steam early access - Holdfast Nations at War

Started by Destraex, September 12, 2017, 04:57:40 AM

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Destraex

I saw my son play that mode once. But it seemed very ... sedentary.
That is the worry with Napoleonic games. Making it exciting to be part of a line unit. In practice it would have been exciting. I think the key is to make the reload part a game mechanic that can be screwed up if you are not concentrating. That would make X amount of round a minute possible. Rather than an auto reload. That is the exciting part. Seeing if you can get rounds off before becoming DEAD.
"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

ArizonaTank

Quote from: jomni on September 14, 2017, 05:02:37 AM
Quote from: Destraex on September 14, 2017, 02:53:35 AM
Jomni. I knew that in mount and blade you could play as an officer with Ai as the soldiers. I just had no idea that you could do it multiplayer. Your right about nations at war. The scale seems to be smaller than mount and blade Napoleonic.

Yes you can MP with AI squads too. It's called Commander mode. But don't think a lot of people play that game anymore.

I love the commander mode...but it is true, haven't played it for a while.  If this new game would just take and improve what Mount & Blade did, it would be a great addition to my Steam bucket.
Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

Nefaro

Quote from: jomni on September 13, 2017, 06:46:55 PM
Quote from: IronX on September 13, 2017, 12:08:22 PM
Quote from: JasonPratt on September 13, 2017, 09:22:11 AM
Asid seems pretty happy with it so far, although by a logical consequence of the design, the experience is totally dependent on who you get to play with you (and to some extent who you get to play against you).

Joining a clan is probably key to enjoying this game. Because unless there is some mechanism whereby a commander can govern the actions of friendly soldiers, having a dozen or so Napoleonic avatars running around doing their own thing is going to ruin any sense of immersion - even then this will not totally eliminate lone-wolfing.

It's called skirmishing.  And it's an effective tactic to defeat a line. :D


   >:D


Most fun I've had in M&B:N was big skirmish battles around a group of buildings. 

While joining people for the line battles (not the 1 player commands a line, but 1 per soldier) sounded appropriate, before I started playing all those years ago, it ended up being pretty boring compared to attacking or defending a built-up area or battling at a choke point such as a bridge.  Still saw some people making lines during those, but it wouldn't last (and I didn't really miss it in the end).

ArizonaTank

Last night had a great time with M&B Napoleonics in a Commander game.  Had about 26 players on the server.  A real hoot....  Range of musket fire is too far and too accurate, but otherwise, felt authentic.  My officer spent most of his time looking around trying to maintain situational awareness, while the troops banged away at the enemy; but that was fun in its own way.  Hoping this new game can create that experience. 
Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

Surtur

Quote from: ArizonaTank on September 16, 2017, 02:31:20 PM
Last night had a great time with M&B Napoleonics in a Commander game.  Had about 26 players on the server.  A real hoot....  Range of musket fire is too far and too accurate, but otherwise, felt authentic.  My officer spent most of his time looking around trying to maintain situational awareness, while the troops banged away at the enemy; but that was fun in its own way.  Hoping this new game can create that experience.

That is exactly the experience I had with the game. Also remember a 250 player line battle. That was pretty cool to do, especially when our officer died and I was put in charge, without any communication with higher ups. It feld authentic enough as it really showed the chaos on the battlefield. Really looking forward to this game (and having the time to dive in).
"Gentlemen, You Can't Fight in Here. This is the War Room!"

Destraex

"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

jomni


Destraex

Lots of people request it while in game and lots of clans have locked servers that do it. I have not seen one yet though.
Think I would need to join a clan to guarantee it.
"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

Cyrano

I like it.

As with anything like it, it will be far better with clans/friends.  Neglected in much of the comments here is the naval system.  It has the potential to be spectacular with the right group.
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ArizonaTank

I took the plunge...but after several hours with Holdfast, will probably put it down until it matures. 

My initial thoughts....

-The game has a few neat tricks and a lot of historical flavor...but at it's core it seems to me it is just another on-line shoot-em-up.  I could be playing Verdun, Chivalry, Heroes & Generals, or any one of the dozen of so games of similar ilk.  All of those games have their charms...but for me unique weapons and uniforms alone don't really do it for me past a few hours of game play.  Sure it was fun to aim and fire a cannon, but it got old when my idiot team mate shot me with a pistol...apparently so he could take over the cannon.

-Nice to see that muskets are pretty inaccurate past a dozen yards.  Love the smoke, and how it blocks your vision when you fire.

-The game is not really very twitch jockey friendly.  A good thing in my book.  But still, on a least one server, there were a handful of bouncing bunnies.  Strafing, bouncing, turning...just to be difficult targets, or to gain advantage in melee.  Really ruins the immersion factor for me.  There was one game I played  (WWII Online maybe?) that dealt with that problem pretty well.  Your avatar got tired with each jump.  You could only hit the jump button so many times before you couldn't move due to fatigue.

-There seems to be little value in the many different classes of troops.  I am sure the game will mature in this area, but that dream is far away now.  Take officers for example.   Right now, about the only value I can see for an officer is as a banzai charge brawler.  Get into the enemy lines...use your pistol and sword...know that you will die.  Would love to see the game give officers a dozen bots so they could set up infantry lines....(you'd never get other players to do it...so it would have to be bots).

-I could not get onto many of the servers, despite what appeared to be openings.  Some of the servers had a great deal of lag.  May just be that I am on the wrong coast.  Assume this gets better over time.

-I was team killed at least four times....  Once might have been an accident...but three were deliberate.  I did not see any repercussions, but I could be wrong. There needs to be a penalty.

Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

Destraex

Quote from: ArizonaTank on September 23, 2017, 03:03:40 PM
I took the plunge...but after several hours with Holdfast, will probably put it down until it matures. 

My initial thoughts....

-The game has a few neat tricks and a lot of historical flavor...but at it's core it seems to me it is just another on-line shoot-em-up.  I could be playing Verdun, Chivalry, Heroes & Generals, or any one of the dozen of so games of similar ilk.  All of those games have their charms...but for me unique weapons and uniforms alone don't really do it for me past a few hours of game play.  Sure it was fun to aim and fire a cannon, but it got old when my idiot team mate shot me with a pistol...apparently so he could take over the cannon.
******* They need to get horses into the game. Even canon that can be limbered and moved. I love the game in general though. It's got a lot of fun features.

-Nice to see that muskets are pretty inaccurate past a dozen yards.  Love the smoke, and how it blocks your vision when you fire.
******* Agreed. More than a few times I have watched smoke float around bushes and realised where the riflemen were hiding :P

-The game is not really very twitch jockey friendly.  A good thing in my book.  But still, on a least one server, there were a handful of bouncing bunnies.  Strafing, bouncing, turning...just to be difficult targets, or to gain advantage in melee.  Really ruins the immersion factor for me.  There was one game I played  (WWII Online maybe?) that dealt with that problem pretty well.  Your avatar got tired with each jump.  You could only hit the jump button so many times before you couldn't move due to fatigue.

******* Agreed. This game is easy to relax and have a good time in without constantly being pinged by the snipers that permiate the modern FPS games. I agree with the jumping problem. But with a musket especially at range because it has accuracy problems sometimes you just get lucky and his dodge is equal to your accidental bad grouping and come together with him being dead :P

-There seems to be little value in the many different classes of troops.  I am sure the game will mature in this area, but that dream is far away now.  Take officers for example.   Right now, about the only value I can see for an officer is as a banzai charge brawler.  Get into the enemy lines...use your pistol and sword...know that you will die.  Would love to see the game give officers a dozen bots so they could set up infantry lines....(you'd never get other players to do it...so it would have to be bots).

******** Officers are of great use for organising troops in the battles I have been in where this happens. I had one server where everybody was using VOICE especially the officers to organise a line. That was great fun. The officers running around dressing the ranks while we were under canon fire. Seeing canon balls rush past your head is a real thrill.
But I agree in general that most classes are not really active at the moment. The carpenter and surgeon don't seem to work for instance. The British Grenadier looks strange as he is wearing a bearskin hat.
The many standard musket classes are just for people to gather units and train to use them for their specific purpose. So I don't expect huge variation their.


-I could not get onto many of the servers, despite what appeared to be openings.  Some of the servers had a great deal of lag.  May just be that I am on the wrong coast.  Assume this gets better over time.
******** They are optimising the servers currently and a lot of the servers seem to be private ones where the owners are tweaking the settings according to what their setups can handle

-I was team killed at least four times....  Once might have been an accident...but three were deliberate.  I did not see any repercussions, but I could be wrong. There needs to be a penalty.

******** I have also seen this. I asked for an admin and they responded but did nothing.
Most of the time it happens when you load a canon where nobody is around and get ready to fire.
Sometimes Teamkilling is an accident. I have done it a few times when somebody walked past as I fired or I came around a corner and killed my first enemy and am faced with another dark uniform that was behind the same wall aiming at me. Sometimes you just react.

"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

Destraex

"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

Destraex

"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

Hofstadter

Its taking so much restraint to not buy it. I eventually will, basically guaranteed, but I really want to see how it matures before I take the plunge. I do have high hopes for it though!!
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Jarhead0331

Well, it certainly looks very well done. How long does it take to reload a musket?
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