View Single Post
Old 02-24-09, 06:13 PM   #2
Bullethead
Storm Eagle Studios
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Wakefield, LA
Posts: 284
Downloads: 0
Uploads: 0
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by sandbag69
1. The ability to have a view from a ships bridge using binoculars or telescope.
You can already do this. Put the camera in follow mode so it tracks the ship whose bridge you want to stand on. Then move the camera to that ship's bridge. Then hit F5 to bring up the bino view.

Quote:
2. To mimic the sending of orders to individual ships, divisions or fleets by wireless from the bridge of a ship (without the gods eye view). Obviously there would need to be set instructions available that an Admiral could use. example would be to select a ship from a list and have a drop down menu for course change and speed etc.
In WW1, they didn't have realtime radio. Radio messages were sent in code in Morse, so usually took about 20 minutes to arrive in the hands of the intended recipient. The officer wrote the text on a pad and gave it to a runner, who carried it to the wireless room. There another officer had to put it into code by hand, then give it to the radio man to type out in Morse 1 letter at a time. IF (a big if) it was received, it had to be written down letter-by-letter, then decoded, and finally carried to the bridge.

Thus, realtime ship-to-ship communications were done visually, with signal flags and blinking lights. These had very limited range in daylight, couldn't be used at night due either to being invisible or giving away your position, and the means were quite subject to destruction by flying shrapnel.

If we were to implement WW1 communications methods in the game, you'd be stuck on 1 ship for the duration. You'd only be able to give it direct orders, could only control other ships that were within visual signalling distance in daylight, and your ability to do even that would disappear quickly if your flagship got hit or even near-missed. For news of the enemy over your horizon, you'd have to rely on very lagged, often insufficient, and certainly inaccurate wireless reports from ships you couldn't control at all.

This doesn't sound like a lot of fun, so we decided not to do that. When you jump around giving orders to distant ships, consider yourself the local commander acting on your own initiative. Because there's no way the real C-in-C could tell you anything.
__________________
-Bullethead
Storm Eagle Studios
In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there are bacteria
Bullethead is offline   Reply With Quote