Enigma: Rising Tide (gold edition)

[ASWnut101]

Hey, I'm just wondering if any of you other guys have Enigma: RT.

I've got a question on why, no matter what, you cannon hide from a destroyer. It always finds you. even if you are at 1kt or 9kt, engines off or on, it will always find a way to kill you.

Also about AI depth charges: Why do they ALWAYS guess your depth correctly? They havent missed once yet.

[EAST]

depending on the mission, the destroyers may have been set with you as detected. If you start on the surface and they are within about 4000m they will detect you.

You can avoid them and lose them. Remember that when they drop charges you have a period of time after they go off to go flank, change depth and direction. 15 seconds after the last charge goes off, you better be engines off or at least ahead slow.

When they are closing in on you (and know your position) go at flank. They see you anyways so just go like hell. When they are within 1000k meters, cut your engines and go hard to port (or starboard). As soon as the charges roll, go flank, dive and turn the opposite direction (unless of course they are passing you on that side). Detection is based on depth, distance and sound.

Hope that helps.

http://www.deepsix-online.com/phpbb

[Bonfleck]

Enigma, imho is the most ridiculous submarine game ever . I'd rather go to a goodwill store and find a commodore 64 and a copy of silent service than waste a minute on enigma.

[Wülfe]

Was thinking about buying E:RT, but my buddy let me try his copy that he got off of ebay... and imho i think he deserves a refund for the wasted bandwith & shipping. we got more enjoyment out of our old nes.

[EAST]

lol.

I love posts like these; insightful, intelligent, well thought out and informative.

Perhaps as defenders of good gaming taste you could elaborate on what you didn't like about the game. You never know, you may say something worth paying attention to....it could happen.

[Wülfe]

The most promising thing about the game was the voice interface, but with average graphics for the times, and AI that from the looks of it was frankensteined togeather not to mention that it cheats most of the time. Yeah I bet your wondering how i figured out what the ai was doing w/o cheating myself, ez: an external memory reader. When i saw them go to full attack mode when the motor at minimum power for only a second, I knew something was fishy. My guess was confermed when it pummeld my exact location & depth within a few minutes. No historical accuracy there. but if you like trying to beat games that cheat then by all means I say play it. If ya'll prefer more realistic stuff, i say find something else. Personally "Aces of the Deep", back in the day was a true challenge for me. They might have fixed a few things in patches, but i cant say since I've been having fun on WoW, and not worrying over a program that has AI issues. It kinda fell flat on its face with the multiplayer rumor i heard flying around. Maybe if they gave the development a few more years, and released it on the Wii they might have had better luck.

[Deamon]

Originally Posted by Wülfe

an external memory reader.

Hey which one are you using ?

[EAST]

Interesting response.

The graphics were just average for the time. Somethings were a little better, some (like the ocean) a little worse. Our physics are good, but limited. Sound was good, sometimes great. Music was very good - a full original score by Tim Clarke. Our voice response was the best in any game period. Probably the worst thing about Enigma (besides no multiplayer) was the misunderstanding (and mis-marketing by Dreamcatcher) by the subsim afficionados about what Enigma was supposed to be. Everyone wanted a multiplayer AOD or SHx, Enigma wasn't that. Hell, half the people who bought it during the first 3 months didn't even realize it was alternate history.

Our objective with Enigma was NOT to create a ship simulation, but a command simulation - an experience: One guideline was never letting the player be more than 3 minutes from combat; we had to because we have no time acceleration in the game. Another was to create a high pressure situation, layer by layer in each mission. We did this by mis-direction, pre-discovery, carefully timed segments in the missions (enemy aircraft coming in JUST as you were coming in range of a convoy for example).

Face it, SH3 does a much better job of letting you pretend you are running a real submarine, you can plot your approach, take readings and use a TDC to setup your shots. But without time acceleration, SH3 would be beyond boring.

We wanted to focus on the actual combat experiences themselves - attack and avoid, broken approaches and pursuit, overwhelming odds, poor position on a sweet target. Command decisions.

I think you are mistaking what you are getting from looking at the memory. The AI was forced to play by the same rules as a player. They both utilized the same interfaces in the same way for controlling the ships/subs, they both utilize the exact same discovery methods and rule sets with only 1 exception: The mission scripts can be set for any ship to be aware of any other ship. In most cases, the enemy ships will be aware of your position at the beginning of the scenario, or shortly after it starts. This is likely what you were observing.

Not only does the AI not cheat, it utilizes group tactics (surface vs sub) as well as pretty standard naval strategies throughout. I know guys (not on our dev team) who could finish campaigns in a day. Some completed all the patrols and campaigns for surface and submarine for all factions within 2 weeks. Considering some of your comments, its clear you made your mind up before playing it. Nothing wrong with that, your loss not mine.

Incidently, even without getting a multiplayer version done, Enigma has sold very well and continues to sell a couple 1000 units a month more than 3 years after its initial release. We did it as a group of starving developers with next to ZERO funding and singlehandedly revived the genre. Don't agree? Check your history - SH3 was never coming out, UBI made that clear. Naval was dead in the water. Then Enigma started getting interest and making money...then UBI decided to re-look at SH3 (check the development start dates for yourself). Then came the Battlestations Midway video, Navy Field, et. al.

You may not like Enigma, but we accept your thanks for kicking this genre in the balls and getting it rolling again.

--East

[ASWnut101]

man, some nasty comments on this thread..........

to bad they didn't state what was so bad about it, just how things like SH3 were better.

Btw, Thanks EAST for the info!

[navyvet]

I have never been able to get this game to install but once. At start up it locks up my computer up. I tried many times for support. Sent a copy of my computer and followed all directions. Never a response. I let it collect dust as i play SH111. What am I missing?

[EAST]

Navyvet, a lot of the installation issues had to do with Starforce. We have non-starforce versions being sold in Europe now and in January in Australia. Hopefully we'll be able to release a starforce free version here - or a patch.

[Theta Sigma]

I can't wait.

[Moezilla]

Interesting points brought up, I've been looking into getting this game and knew very little about it other than reading the box one day. I didn't get it and a couple of weeks later I went back but it was no longer at EB, EB was also no longer EB by then. lol

The game idea is interesting, I like the alternate history aspect and that you can play different sides in different fighting vessels. The game is an SF game so that right there puts the brakes on things for me, until it comes out as a non-SF game. Don't want to mess with that anymore, there's been enough discussions about SF to last a lifetime on the web already. lol

When a non-SF Gold version comes out I will give it a shot though, sounds like it could be fun.

[wetwarev7]

I've been eyeballing this game myself, trying to decide wether to get it or not. Does any who has the game like it, and if so what are the things you like about it?

[Enigma]

This game is awesome. I dont get the responses above, different strokes for different folks I guess, but I loved this game. The sub vs sub stuff was a hell of alot of fun, the "fantasy" play out of the war is awesome, the boats are creative, the action is intense, I loved playing with voice commands (although this could be a little troublesome on occasion)..its an all round great game. Its not for simulation nuts, its for people who love a great game. (I happen to be both. )