Thoughts on the Demo.

[KevUK]

Hi folks,
I recently downloaded the demo for Arctic War, and so far am really enjoying it! Kudos for designing a game like this. As has been said many times, it reminds me so much of Fleet Command and Harpoon (although that was really in depth game), and I liked those games when they were released. Arctic war seems so similar to FC that its unreal; like a modern updated version of it and this is good. NWAC is addictive, and pretty good fun so far, although the music could do with some variation, but that I guess is not that important if you are focused on fixing bugs and expanding it which I hope.

It looks and feels like FC, but what I am also reminded of with this game is the DiD game EF2000, the game based around the Eurofighter released towards the end of the '90s. The setting (Scandanavia) is the same and also the campaign engine, called WARGEN, seems similar. Ever since EF2K was released, I was always wondering what else they could do with the campaign engine of that game, and I think that NWAC comes close to reliving that gaming experience. Very interesting.

The only thing at the moment that I would say about this is the scripted campaign missions (although not yet purchased the game, will do soon); it would be nice to have limited assets i.e you loose a carrier and it stays lost, you loose your fighters and you only have so many replacements, trying in a sense to make the campaign slightly more dynamic rather that scripted mission based. But regardless, so far its pretty fun and quite a unique fictional setting.

I am waiting till pay day to buy from Gamersgate, its quite a neat breath of air into this very untapped market, so kudos to the developers.

 

[unmerged(255172)]

Thanks for your feedback, KevUK!

Balancing the campaign has been a bit of a headache, since just adding or removing a single unit can be the difference between really easy and almost impossible. The units have also been updated and changed all the way up to (and in some cases beyond) release, which adds to this complexity. We'd really like to create a truly dynamic campaign, but we need a pretty established database, so we'll see what we can do later.

 

[KevUK]

Cool, eagerly waiting until Friday so I can buy it. Going back to EF2K (the flight sim from DiD), the WARGEN campaign was really good, that had limited assets and you could push the Russians from Norway if you did successful missions against airfields and how many fighters you took down. What was also good about that engine was the limited aircraft you had too, so really hitting a Russian airfield with loads of their aircraft could really make the game interesting. I know this is a Naval sim, but the setting was similar to what you have here. I really really loved that game and the campaign. I liked the fact that the AI would plan its own missions and you could see all the task flights take off and hit their programmed targets. I guess Falcon 4 was the only successor to that dynamic campaign.

For a first game from you, its good, fits a niche quite nicely around Fleet Command and the early Harpoon games. Its good.

 

[Nats]

I too loved EF2000, and its successor TAW, and its predecessor, TFX. I played EF2000 for years, until that is I discovered that the last (initial) waypoint in EF2000 is always used for an enemy fighter CAP point and by changing your waypoints manually you could always easily avoid the CAP patrols. But it was a great game nevertheless. But isn't it always the way, once you have played a game to death and learnt the cheats in order to be able get around its AI, it stops being so much fun? Anyway I loved the dark moody overcast atmosphere of EF2000 and it is well represented in this game. I always loved diving onto radar sites in EF2000 the best. They dont make games like that anymore!!!

But this game isnt half bad at all, and I have been very impressed with the gameplay so far. Certainly better than all the rehashed FPS and RTS games that are around these days. I cant understand who actually buys those games but I suppose it must be kids. I do feel slightly sorry that the younger gamers dont have PC games like Wing Commander, X-Wing, EF2000, Tornado, Frontier Elite, Syndicate (the original) and XCOM etc to play instead of all the rehashed rubbish that is developed now.

 

[KevUK]

EF2K was really a game I spent many hours on, so many. I loved the campaign game, the AI flights I could spend ages just watching them take off, seeing them following their flight routes going over the Fjords onto their targets. I had also some pretty impressive dogfights with the Russian jets, out of missiles, into guns, low fuel etc. Also detecting those inbound Mig 29s and taking them out long range was pretty cool. A great game no? TAW was good, but that was not the same campaign engine, it always had aircraft up, no limited assets like EF2K and thats what made that game stand out. Atmosphere as you said was really really good, the soundtrack was awesome and back then the graphics were not that bad (although so hard to play now. Time has not been good to those games, although memories are).

Yeah, most game are shite these days. Really. NWAC though is interesting, pretty good. Like to see changes and additions, but its old school I think.

 

[Nats]

Another game I loved was Tornado. Shooting along to an airfield target in the dark at 50 feet with tracers firing up at you - superb! All of these games had something unique about them. I even remember F117 Stealth Fighter - one of the earliest proper Amiga sim games I had I think - trying to weave through the doppler and pulse radars to bomb a target without being detected was really good stuff.

I see a lot to like that is quite unique in this game as well. I really hope its going to be more of this kind of thing and that we start seeing a resurgence in good creative games now that the Game monopoly has kicked the bucket and people are having to buy more games online, which means the small time devs can make a profit again.

 

[Tronjer]

My thoughts about the demo.

I installed NW:AC some days ago, along with Harpoon 3 ANW for comparative purposes.

Pros:
- 3D view

Cons:
- lack of vessel statistics and pictures
- less details and operations
- low level of incoming messages
- interface is too big (minor issue);
- is there a pause key?

Admittedly, I mereley looked into first mission, but the general feeling was like too much streamlining fo my taste.

 

[unmerged(255172)]

Esc pauses the game. There is no active pause, as this is an RTS. Thanks for feedback, Tronjer. We're constantly working on improving the game, and adding more data to the interface is definitely part of that.

 

[KevUK]

My thoughts about the demo.

I installed NW:AC some days ago, along with Harpoon 3 ANW for comparative purposes.

Pros:
- 3D view

Cons:
- lack of vessel statistics and pictures
- less details and operations
- low level of incoming messages
- interface is too big (minor issue);
- is there a pause key?

Admittedly, I mereley looked into first mission, but the general feeling was like too much streamlining fo my taste.

I gave it time. I played the demo and I thought, well, this *looks* kinda interesting, although the scripted missions were a problem, but if you enjoyed Fleet Command, and probably Harpoon, then this would be up your street. I would like more info on the units in the game, as well as even a semi-dynamic campaign with limited resources (although the missions do that to an extent - limited aircraft etc), but its fun. Enjoying it, best since FC for sure. Nothing else out there, is there?

 

[General Baker]

Scripted missions? The only scripting is the initial AI orders; after that, it's up to the real-time AI to crush you

 

[unmerged(255172)]

Scripted missions? The only scripting is the initial AI orders; after that, it's up to the real-time AI to crush you

Exactly. The AI only has initial orders, as you have seen, nothing else is scripted in any mission. It is all up to the AI reaction to what you are doing, and what it sees.