Jane's fleet command and this

[Evilfisher]

sorry if i posted this wrong, this is my first time posting...

been following this forum for years

anyway i wondered if the creators of this game have heard of janes fleet command. been playing it for years and one of my favorite naval games simply because of its realism..

now it works pretty bad on new computers and had to fix hours to make it work on windows 7..

but the game is still awesome.. controlling aircraft carriers... launch aircraft of your choice.. choose the speed, attitude and position where your crafts are going ect..

will this game feature some of the same things?

is the sinking of ships and destroying of aircraft realistic?

will there be cruise missiles you can follow with the camera as it travels miles and miles?

how much controll do we have on ships and aircrafts?

will there be neutral aircraft wich you will have to avoid?

will there be custom scenario builder or a map editor?

 

[unmerged(255172)]

Hi Evilfisher,

Yes, I know Fleet Command. Alas, had loads of bugs early on so I lost patience and played old Harpoon instead... It is a great subject matter for a strategy game.

The answers are yes, yes, maybe, detailed control, yes and yes.

 

[tommo8993]

Yeah, fleet command is buggy but with the naval warfare project mod its not.
Harpoon is great but it needs a new installment not just a re-re-re-release like its on now.
I have really high hopes for this game, cant wait

 

[Evilfisher]

Hi Evilfisher,

Yes, I know Fleet Command. Alas, had loads of bugs early on so I lost patience and played old Harpoon instead... It is a great subject matter for a strategy game.

The answers are yes, yes, maybe, detailed control, yes and yes.

ok thanks! that sounds awesome!

yes the game was a bit buggy and had graffical problems quite often. but i still have it, now the scenarions are quite boring but with the custom scenarion editor i almost never get tired of it..¨¨

one of my favorite things was the camera. normally in RTS games you only follow one unit or just the main screen all the time. but there you could follow the missiles as they flow towards they target.. ¨

also i hope there will also be older units, like the f-14 and the phoenix missiles /drool

maybe some old passanger planes you must avoid.. or simply a few bonus aircraft carriers with world war 2 planes (hey thats an idea for special edition)

 

[tommo8993]

yeah, agreed.
I know the game is set in 2030 but i think some older units should be included. Such as the soon to be phased out britsh invincible class carriers, type 42 destroyers and type 22 frigates. Plus the cut up nimrods and harriers.

 

[Gibsnag]

Plus the cut up nimrods and harriers.

The USMC is still using Harriers and will be for the near future iirc, although another 20 years would probably be a stretch. The F35-B is, however, looking in worse and worse shape....

 

[molonlabe223]

The answers are yes, yes, maybe, detailed control, yes and yes.

On detailed control... Can I pick your brain on that in a bit more detail? I'm wondering what to expect since this game seems to be inspired by FC but with an RTS interface. I have a few specific questions, most of which are directed towards having options that would give players control without having to micro-manage:

1. Formations? Will ships (and aircraft?) be able to be assigned and un-assigned from formations? Would there be options to move ship stations (like in FC) or perhaps to toggle between positions relative to the heading of the formation leader vs a fixed true bearing position? Could ROE or unit behavior options be applied to the formation, as opposed to just being applied to ships individually?

2. Ship control. To what extent will control be based on the typical RTS functions of clicking to select, and then right clicking the map or an object to give an order? Would there be any options to adjust ROE to allow auto engagement of targets under certain conditions, and would those options include ship movement or just weapons fire? Would there be a way to pre-plan a missile attack (parameters: ships firing, # of missiles, targets, waypoints, launch times/delays) and then execute it with a single command, or are we condemned to a click-fest if we want to do a saturation attack?

3. Aircraft. This is the most interesting area, because both FC-style games and RTSs leave a lot to be desired here. RTSs fall short because the aircraft do not work together, you just select a location or target, they fly there and attack. FC fell short because aircraft control was a tedious micro-managing affair, and it was maddening to try to keep aircraft out of dangerous areas and get them to attack as part of a team.

It would be awesome if a player could create aircraft packages composed of a flight or multiple flights of aircraft, each assigned a mission and a loadout, and that the aircraft AI could carry out the mission based upon those parameters. For example, the player selects an aircraft carrier and selects "Plan air mission," a box opens and a table is displayed. Each line of the table represents a flight in the package, while the columns are the parameters. The first parameter would be aircraft type and number; the second, mission (SEAD, Strike, Escort, BARCAP, etc.), the third a mission parameter (e.g., if strike, then the parameter is the target, if escort then the parameter is the flight being escorted, if BARCAP the parameter is a location/waypoints, etc), and the fourth is loadout (which should be selected automatically once the mission and mission parameter are chosen, but the player could edit). The end result is that the player needs to spend about a minute in planning--the table is going to require about 6-8 clicks per flight in the package--but once the aircraft are in flight the benefits from not having to micromanage and improved combat efficiency make it worth the minute of planning.

So to put that all in the form of a question... What will aircraft control be like and what plans do you have to address the shortcomings of those who have come before you? Will there be any planning options?

Sorry that's so long, but what can I say? My interest is piqued.

 

[unmerged(255172)]

Hi Molon Labe,

A lot of very good questions there, and much of it is about things we haven't fully decided yet.

Clearly, we are basing the gameplay on having units in groups with formations (which you can reorganize and break out of at will) of both surface and air units (and subs, if you really want to). You can give orders to entire groups, and they will coordinate their attacks and so on.

Ship control: the default settings is that everything automatically shoot at air, while the player must initiate other engagements. Most of the time it will be unwise to have an autoattack on surface, since you will waste your most valuable long-range missiles on the first enemy you detect, which may not be a valuable unit. Still, it is possible we'll add "fire at will" as an option.

When it comes to automated coordinated attacks, we have been thinking about it, even planned it at some time. So far we're leaning away from it, for two reasons. 1) The user interface for such a big, coordinated attack will be very complex, and something more fitting for a turn based game than a RTS. We'll try to avoid complex dialog boxes in the action user interface. 2) The player should really need to do stuff in the game, or it's not that fun. As a player, you should have a steady flow of non-trivial tasks and decisions to make. let's say you want to make a coordinated attack, and you have some surface within range and you launch two groups of aircraft from different angles. You will then move everything into position, and issue three different engagement orders at the right time, in addition to controlling air to air units for protection. It takes skill, and I think coordinating attacks is the kind of things it will be great to master when you get experience with the game. In pvp, it may be a crucial key to who wins. So our current thinking is, we'll leave a bit of this to the player.

Note we haven't made these decisions yet, and of course when the UI is in an advanced stage and we're actually playing the game, we may see that this needs to be revised. We appreciate your thoughts and opinions on this!

 

[General Baker]

Oh wow, I cant wait for this. I'm hoping it will be very realistic!

A few questions:

1. Will it contain real named warships?
2. Will it include navies like the Royal Navy, French Navy etc?
3. Will it be possible to command fleets etc?
4. Might it be possible to create new ship classes etc? :3
5. Will there be any coordination with land operations?

I'm really looking forward to this!

 

[molonlabe223]

Thanks for your answer, Jan. We obviously have different ideas about the meaning of "skill," but I don't think you'll do any worse than FC and I welcome the improvement.

 

[unmerged(255172)]

Thanks for the encouragement, General Baker!

1. Of course!
2. RN, surely. France: unlikely for this Arctic version.
3. Yes
4. Through modding, surely.
5. There are no movable land units in the game, but we and you are free to tell a story about it in the game.