Quote:
Originally Posted by PL_Andrev
Ok, already tested in multicrew mode (only two players).
Spotted disadventages: - Persicope permanent depth - hide / rise made by mechanist only,
- Battery level is going highly down (only few minutes of dive possible) and can be charged with... seconds on surface? (very, very fast),
- Surfaced speed is 30 kts / submerged 16 kts both direction (forward / backward),
- Reloading torpedo time: approx 1 minute per torpedo,
- Uncorrected depth of Bay of Puck (90-100m, wiki says that should be 2-6m depth average),
- Ships are hided by horizon line much much closer than in reality (2000-3000 meters I think),
- Tutorials are YT movies only (no TDC / gun training for non-SH fans)
- Starting mission with cruising destroyers? Hmmm... to difficult for non-SH fans...
Adventages: - all team have something to do, no boring game for everyone.
- game looks extremelly fast, but this is extremelly good playable
- playability, playability and once again playability
It looks like is much more disadventages than adventages, but playability with team-cooperation beats all disadventages. And again: a lot of unrealistic changes matches to team / crew cooperation.
Really good game with bright future! |
Good report. Yes, the demo gives a flavor of what is different about our game vs the Silent Hunter series. There is no way we are trying to dismiss SH3/4/5, those will remain great games to play. As you said, we are trying to get you into a U-boat battle with 3 friends/teammates and work as a crew, with a more procedural and social element.
The demo is just an alpha demo, there are a lot of things in it that won't be in the released version. The periscope will work up and down, the Chief will be in the control room, periscope depth will not be set and forget, etc.
The
consumables is an interesting question. Of course, the demo has everything working many times faster than real life. We would want to slow it down some, but, here's the important aspect: for consumables to have any impact on the gameplay and player decisions, they must make their impact within
1~3 hours.
Why 1~ 3 hours? Without any hard research to back me up, I have to estimate/predict how long a typical 4 real person co-op game will last. For starters, I am saying 1~3 hours. I have played a lot of MP games, and 1~3 hours is about right in my experience. I realize there are dudes who spend 60 straight hours on their games, but they are in the minority. Let's say once a week, you and your mates can control their personal lives enough to carve out 2 hours to play a mission. The wife says its ok, the kids are next door, and there is no football on the telly. Great! lets play.
You start the game, after 15~30 minutes you have engaged a massive convoy, you and your crew are getting into firing position. You attack, retreat to reload, re-engage but a corvette spots you and forces you down. All this time you are consuming fuel, battery, O2 and compressed air. Now, fuel is probably not ever going to be a problem. Battery and O2 could be, but are you expecting to stay submerged for 20 real life hours? No, probably not. So, in order to make batteries and O2 factor, they have to be sped up some. How much? hard to say at this point, we will do a lot of beta testing to get a good balance.
Right now in the demo, the batteries do drain quickly, and recharge really quickly. Not realistic at all--
but--I think the devs are on the right track. Design the consumables so that they do become a factor in the gameplay. And they have to do this within the 1~3 hour allotment that we expect to complete a mission.
We are discussing the ability to include save game functionality. If it would be possible to save the 4 person game and pick up where they left off, that would greatly reduce the scheduling burden. However, it is unknown if that is a do-able thing within the limit of our resources (2 man dev team). Again, my mantra: if first steps are successful, put on your running shoes!
Thanks for your comments, especially the playability, that is key to a successful game and I am glad you enjoyed that!
Neal