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unmerged(259095)

unmerged(259095)

Private
Jan 30, 2011
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Hi to everybody,

I am a moderator of BETASOM, (www.betasom.it) the greatest Italian Virtual Naval Community with up 4000 affiliate.
In BETASOM are present a group of players of Dangerous Waters;
we are around about twenty active players, that every week organizes multyplayer games with also other communities.

It is our intention, to be able to be of help in the development of your RTS NAVAL WAR, even also offering a collaboration in phase of development as Beta-TESTER, in particolar way, for multyplayer sessions.

As writing, in your forum, we asks already if it is possible to also insert other scenarios besides that arctic. Surely it will make the more game similar to winning titles as the series of Harpoon. Also in this sense we can offer you our collaboration for the management of the database of the Italian Navy units and the some good suggestion for a construction of a mediterranean scenario.

Good job !!! :rolleyes:
 
Hi, it's awesome that community like yours takes interest. That is usually a game gets a lot of mods.

Developers are making an arctic scenario to begin with, anything else is in the "maybe" and "later" category. However if you want to make for example an Italian navy with it's ships, then you should know that mods will be supported.

Also as far as I know developers have met with people that have experience with naval vessels, so if you know someone who has a military background, or technical one, I am sure they will listen to the advices given.

hmm.... I am sure it would be interesting with mediterranian navies such as Spanish armada, Italian fleet, as well as French and Hellenic one.
 
Hi and welcome Drakken,

It's really great that you take interest in the game. Beta is obviously a bit of time into the future, but it will be great for us to have experienced players in on it. Watch this space for news.

The map for the game is going to be the northern Atlantic region, and the units shipped with the game will concentrate on that region. We certainly have a great interest in the Mediterranean region, but I can't promise anything for version 1.

As xmasbeer wrote, we will make the game eminently moddable with new units, sensors and weapons, though we can't promise you'll be able to extend the map. Until we extend the playable region, I still think you'll love playing around up north, and you get to visit the land of the midnight sun without buying a plane ticket and freezing in the cold! :D
 
JanH said:
Hi and welcome Drakken,
As xmasbeer wrote, we will make the game eminently moddable with new units, sensors and weapons, though we can't promise you'll be able to extend the map. Until we extend the playable region, I still think you'll love playing around up north, and you get to visit the land of the midnight sun without buying a plane ticket and freezing in the cold! :D
Click to expand...

Thanks for your courteous answer, I have already seen the midnight sun in your earth, and I have to say that the Norway is one of the places, from me visited, more beautiful on the world... together with my beautiful Italy.

I wait for good news on the advancement of NAVAL WAR.
 
Environmental objects

Hello,
I am a Dangerous Waters addicted belonging to Betasom community, playing close with Master Drakken that was my mentor.

I am interested about environmental features that could be simulated in the game you are developing: will the weather condition simulated?

What about sea and air currents, cloud coverage, ice coverage in the different seasons and, more in general, are you providing the possibility to create specific regions with different weather conditions?

I take the opportunity to ask even if will biological objects be present in your further game (whales, shrimp, marine flora and fauna)?

Thanks in advance for attention.
 
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Hi and welcome sertore,
sertore said:
I am interested about environmental features that could be simulated in the game you are developing: will the weather condition simulated?

What about sea and air currents, cloud coverage, ice coverage in the different seasons and, more in general, are you providing the possibility to create specific regions with different weather conditions?
Click to expand...
We'll have dynamic simulation of the weather, including wind strength and direction (giving us sea state), cloud cover and precipitation.

We also simulate time of day (sun, moon) which along with weather decides visual detection ranges and all that.

You set up weather systems in the scenario which will then play out plausibly. The sun and moon is calculated based on the date and time the scenario plays out (ie, in winter far north, there will not ever be daylight).

All environmental factors influence sensor systems (e.g. IR is pretty useless below the cloud cover when it snows). High sea states render sea-skimming missiles inoperable, and aircraft can't land or launch at sea.

We don't simulate ice coverage in this release (admittedly ironic since it is about the arctic, but that will be a lot of work for very little gameplay benefit).

Sea and air currents are not directly modeled. You set up the weather systems you want, essentially.

I take the opportunity to ask even if will biological objects be present in your further game (whales, shrimp, marine flora and fauna)?
Click to expand...

We are unlikely to include marine life in the coming release. A good argument has been made to include whales which may confuse sonar operators, but that is at best a future update.
 
Mission editor

Hello,
I would like to ask you something more about the mission editor: I read some information about the chances to extensiveness MOD the game, but I think this will be managed by a dedicated editor, and it is not my current aim.
Now I would like to refer to the mission editor, used by players to make by themself new missions: how you expect to give to the users the ability to plan the ingame actions? Usual use of triggers and scripts or something else?
Which will be the level of interaction of the player with these instruments? Do you plan to have an high level interface or will you allow to the users the use of a sort of 'language' to create their scripts to manage the ingame events and actions?
Sorry to chase you on this matter, but I am eager to know which will be the possibility for user to make new scenario (as you know this is the main feature for communities that plan weekly meeting to play their preferred games).
Thanks as usual for attention and support.
 
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Hi sertore,

The game will certainly be highly configurable, ie moddable. That means that the database describing units, weapons, sensors, campaigns and scenarios will be editable by dedicated users.

We cannot promise a mission editor, especially not at launch, so you should be prepared to hack away at our xml files manually until we or somebody else comes up with a good editor.

Triggers are part of the scenarios/missions. We may expose user-supplied scripts, but again, no promises. If we expose scripts, it will be C# code with access to the same high level commands we use to design the game itself.

We're very dedicated to producing a game with solid core mechanics and a good user interface, and that is where we pool our resources until launch. We also very much want to help modders when the game becomes available, but the first modders especially should expect to do some digging and experimentation to reach their goals.
 
Thanks

Thanks for reply.
To be honest, what I read does not meet my current expectations, but anyway it is interesting to see that you are planning to leave full access to game database and mission design, even if at low level (C# is perfect for our knowledge!).
Indeed this situation will be a good opportunity for modders and game addicted to create add-ins to simplify the game interaction by itself, so please be kindly complete with docs and game specifications.:rolleyes:
 
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Multiplayer

Hello, I read the FAQs and other threads but I did not find anything of interesting about a key feature of the game: MULTIPLAYER.
I know this is the nightmare of developers and the dream of communities, and I am sure that your first answer will be: "Cannot promise anything, still in progress, we still have to finalize, etc..." but please, take my questions like possible suggestions on final solution.
Well... any information about multiplayer structure?
Maybe a client/server architecture, but will the server be centralized or any will any player able to HOST a multiplayer game on its PC like server?
And the most important thing, what about the possibility to enter in a game session even after its start, due to a delayed participation or a kicking off the play for network issue?
Please let us know about the current status of your plans, maybe returning on this key point in the future to let the forum attendances able to say their comment and desires: useless to say that the commercial success of your game for interested communities is really strictly related to this key feature...
Thanks in advance for attention and sharing information.
 
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Hi sertore,

Glad to see you know how it works in the world of game publishing :)

Multiplayer is a key feauture of the game, as you say, and a very high priority. The engine is designed from the ground up for multiplayer, and we use a client-server architecture. So anyone can host a game on a local network as well as the internet and invite a friend to connect (obviously, firewalls are a challenge here). It will not require any access to external servers.

I can't promise anything when it comes to resuming lost connections or late joining of an active game. We also are yet to determine what support we are able to put up for online matchmaking/lobby servers and all that. It's very high on our list of priorities, though.

Darned it, I want to kick all of your behinds online in NWAC. Prepare to be bear*-rushed! :D

* Tu-95
 
Thanks

JanH said:
...
I can't promise anything when it comes to resuming lost connections or late joining of an active game. We also are yet to determine what support we are able to put up for online matchmaking/lobby servers and all that. It's very high on our list of priorities, though.
...
Click to expand...
Thanks for reply!
As expected, but really happy to see that you are on 'battle stations' for this issue! :D
Please do not underestimate the people agreement on your multiplayer development and solution: specially avoid to drop solution from Heaven without anticipate it, checking for addicted's feeling, and keep us informed to let us able to active influence you in a positive way! :rolleyes:
 
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Time compression

Hello, today questions is a quite simple but damned important: time compression.
The possibility to increase the time rate is a primary feature for strategic games that require to be played on huge scenarios, but we are not talking about just a way that let the player able to switch to warp time, but to an intelligent mechanism that let the player able to increase the time rate having the possibility to choose events that can stop the running ahead, in example detecting of enemy units, inbound weapons, losting of contact on a target, etc..., etc...
How about that? Did you already inserted any interesting feature in your game from this point of view?
Thanks in advance for attention.
 
Good suggestions, all. There are trigger mechanisms in the engine that will make it quite simple to have the game automatically revert to 1:1 at such specific events, yes. We'll wait until playtesting to see what makes sense in this regard, and how it will look for the player.

Most likely, there will be no changes in initial time compression for player-vs-player games, but that is a different story.
 
Land building and sea installations

Hello,
before start to ask for some important functional features, I would like to know something more than cosmetic characteristics of the game.
Do you expect to insert any civilian building in the game?
Can you please list some example, like power plant, communication complex, command center, etc.?
How these will act? Just like cosmetic effects or can these be targeted by missile attacks?
And how about military installations in the game?
Are active emissions expected for these type of game elements?
Will any sea platform present in the game?
This could be useful to recreate artic scenario with the presence of oil-rigs, to prevent attack against them or to simulate a commercial block.
Thanks in advance for attention.
 
Hi sertore,

We're certainly concentrating our resources on what happens at sea. There will be land bases, most obviously sea ports and airfields, but structures like power plants and communications centers are certainly a possibility. You should not expect too much cosmetics at land. We have yet to determine how things like cities will be represented.

Military installations on land, like airfields, can certainly be targeted, damaged and destroyed.

Land installations, like all units, can emit radiation (they have sensors).

Oil rigs are likely, yes. There are also civilian units like civilian ships and airliners.

We haven't finished the storyline or campaigns, but we're thinking along the same lines :)
 
Ingame communication on multiplayer mode

Hello,
last question before start to ask about game mechanisms.
Is any communication facility present in the game regarding the multiplayer side?
Apart for your own development, I mean the use of internal communication feature like Teamspeak, Mumble, etc..., or the use of any support by international lobbies or gamerooms too.
If yes, do you plan to provide a way to separate the two or more side competitors?
Possible features? Voice activation, message from game to specific player or side?
Thanks in advance for attention.
 
Presentation of the game: interview to JanH

Hello Jan,
glad to see you and interesting interview!
Warm up your fingers now: in the next days we will start to chase you with specific questions about game mechanisms, hoping to give you some new ideas and to receive a detailed feedback from you.
Hear you really soon and many compliments for your brilliant game presentation!
 
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