Destroyer Command 2...a RANT! by CaptainCruise

[CaptainCruise]

".....getting on egg salad box..."

Soapbox? Nah.....not how I roll...



OK, so why not?? :rock:

I know, I know.....I've heard most of the reasons why it will never happen. But if they can release 5 versions of SH, why not one more DC? It's a niche market, I understand that....but so was the SH crowd a niche market. And people keep buying the games even when they are always released early and buggy. I'll give you one reason for that.....besides the obvious one which is that we all just enjoy playin' this type of WARSIM.

Loyalty. :up: This crowd is loyal to the game and the "niche" we created, and loyal to all the brudda SubNuts and PlankOwners.....some of us who have been here going on close to 10 years now. That's a LONG time, people.

OK, off my rant. I've blustered enough up here. I just wanted to get this off my butt. I'm sitting here before staring at the jewel case for my Destroyer Command game, and it suddenly hit me....this was almost 10 years ago when we started this. Sooooo, I'm thinking....:hmm2:....how 'bout a 10 year Destroyer Command 2 "Anniversary Issue"?

Lets just say I'm not holding my breath.... :DL :agree:
Just a thought......thanks for letting me blab and hearin' me out.

Tom "CC"

[yubba]

Amen, brother I can't believe they haven't brothered to give the American WW ll Surface Fleet their due. I guess it falls into political correctness wouldn't want anyone too know how great we were. Pts too battlewagons would be cool, make it lite pc freindly. Tired of being Jerry want to be Joe.

[Sailor Steve]

No, it falls to sales. Destroyer Command tanked, and it's not worth it to them to make another one because they wouldn't make their money back. Any capitalist should be able to understand that.

Also I suspect that it would require planning from the start to make two games, as SH2 and DC were, at the same time so they could be made to work together. It's a lot of time and a lot of money for little return. If the originals had done better there might have been a second, but it didn't and the chances of something similar are low.

[yubba]

I could go for enigma models set in a destroyer command format of station screens with a sh4 campaign generator. It seem it always a quantium leap between sh 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, If they done it like IL-2 then we would have something. Could you see Dangerous Waters looking like Sh3 or Sh4, I had gotten the pts to run in sh4 and sh3, I loved it.

[Torplexed]

There's rumors and talk of a remake of the old Microprose title Task Force 1942. We can only hope.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/14/TaskForce1942Cover.jpg/256px-TaskForce1942Cover.jpg

[CaptainCruise]

No, it falls to sales. Destroyer Command tanked, and it's not worth it to them to make another one because they wouldn't make their money back. Any capitalist should be able to understand that.

You are absolutely right, Steve. And I do understand the numbers just aren't there to justify what it would cost to start a new project like "DC2" from scratch. I know DC did not sell that well, and I'm guessing the numbers lagged far enough behind SH2 that they just decided another release was a waste of time and money. OK....fair enough. On the flipside......have the numbers for the Silent Hunter series been THAT good UBI felt confident enough in keeping the game alive up to the present day? Even though they had a nasty habit of releasing each and every newer SH game too soon and too buggy? Enough so there was huge cries of anger from the fans every time? Obviously, I would guess so.....Also, I think a part of the reason is it just came down to subs are more popular than tin cans to mess around with. :haha:

Also I suspect that it would require planning from the start to make two games, as SH2 and DC were, at the same time so they could be made to work together. It's a lot of time and a lot of money for little return. If the originals had done better there might have been a second, but it didn't and the chances of something similar are low.

I agree, but I wasn't suggesting they try to make another interop game with DC2 right out of the gate, just a stand alone version at least to start with. They could leave their options open, of course, and write the code so future interop ability can be built in to the games if they decide it's feasable. Didn't they do something like that with SH2? They built in a bunch of code that was useless to the single version of the game, but was all there and ready to go when DC was released a few monthe later? I dunno, I may have my facts twisted here aand I'm wrong. If so, I apologize.

It wasn't my intention with my original post to make it seem like I thought there was a realistic chance a new Destroyer Command might be done, and that we should start a grass roots campaign to storm the halls of
Mt. UBI with calls and emails demanding they get cracking. If anything, my thoughts were more along the lines of feeling "nostalgic" about the old days, and six versions of Silent Hunter software staring at me from my computer games shelf. So, I felt a bit of a mood come on and let fly with my rant, guns blazing. :arrgh!:


Torp........I'm not familiar with that game, but it does look interesting. Let us know if you hear anything on it.

"CC"

[Sailor Steve]

Oh, I agree, I'd love to see a modern escort simulator. It might get boring, escorting several convoys and never getting a contact, then being assigned to stay with the convoy while other escorts go chase the sub. In fact most escorts only attacked one or two u-boats over the course of the war. On the other hand one of the problems I had with Destroyer Command was that it was accurate. Destroyers operate in groups and go where they're told. Any battle is going to involve being ordered to attack with the group, and that's all there is. Destroyers are never ordered to go alone deep into enemy territory and find and sink merchant ships, for obvious reasons.

The only thing an escort game would be good for is the multiplay, and I too would like very much to play something like that again.

[CaptainCruise]

.....On the other hand one of the problems I had with Destroyer Command was that it was accurate. Destroyers operate in groups and go where they're told. Any battle is going to involve being ordered to attack with the group, and that's all there is. Destroyers are never ordered to go alone deep into enemy territory and find and sink merchant ships, for obvious reasons.

The only ship going anywhere behind enemy lines alone to hunt is a sub. :D

Yup, I hear ya. The only players who may put up with that many hours of nothing, and understand that it is historically accurate and accept it is the few-true-blue, Tin Can Sailors of the Sub Club. For us, here, that was a good thing, but not good for game sales and the $$$ bottom line.

One option if possible to write into the game code might be to have the game limit long periods of no fighting. For example.....if one hour of game time passes without any conflict, the game would create a situation where a random enemy platform would attack the convoy. Nothing huge like a "wolfpack" of subs or squadrons of aircraft that would take a lot of time and interfere with a player or players reaching critical goals in a multiplayer game or single player dynamic campaign, just something to break the monotony of long periods of inactivity.

Geez....I almost sound smart! ACK!! :know:

The only thing an escort game would be good for is the multiplay, and I too would like very much to play something like that again.

Well.....we still have SH2 and DC hangin' around and I guess they still work. I haven't played them online in years since back in the heyday of the Wolfpack League/Eagle League conflict. Is anyone still playing it here?

The way the multiplayer is set up in Dangerous Waters sounds VERY cool. Being able to have a few people manning different stations on the same platform and the ability to coordinate and discuss tactics as a team is awesome. I can't wait to try it someday once I figure out how to play!!

:Kaleun_Salivating:

[Sailor Steve]

Well.....we still have SH2 and DC hangin' around and I guess they still work. I haven't played them online in years since back in the heyday of the Wolfpack League/Eagle League conflict. Is anyone still playing it here?
Neal recreated the Sub Club here within the confines of Subsim, but posts there are few and far between. I would't mind playing again. We had a lot of fun.

The way the multiplayer is set up in Dangerous Waters sounds VERY cool. Being able to have a few people manning different stations on the same platform and the ability to coordinate and discuss tactics as a team is awesome. I can't wait to try it someday once I figure out how to play!!

:Kaleun_Salivating:
Unfortunately for me I don't get excited by modern-day warfare, nor does manning different stations turn me on. But that's my problem, and I wish you luck with it. :sunny:

[Bubblehead1980]

DC would have been a great game if it had been completed and released without so many bugs and prob would have sold better. DC had a plane spawn problem as well, I remember japanese bombers constantly spawning much like stock SH 4, of course then you could just dive unlike DC.

I actually located my old copy of DC, anyone know if itll run on windows 7?

[Sailor Steve]

DC would have been a great game if it had been completed and released without so many bugs and prob would have sold better. DC had a plane spawn problem as well, I remember japanese bombers constantly spawning much like stock SH 4, of course then you could just dive unlike DC.
There are patches for both SH2 and DC which get rid of most of the bugs. I first discovered Subsim while looking for that very patch. Projeckt Messerwetzer makes the co-op work beautifully. I enjoyed many hours of DC with no problems whatsoever, back in the day.

I actually located my old copy of DC, anyone know if itll run on windows 7?
I intend to keep my current XP system forever, just so I can run the older games. But I'm sure there is a way. If old DOS games can be made to run, I'm sure older XP games can as well.

[Bubblehead1980]

There are patches for both SH2 and DC which get rid of most of the bugs. I first discovered Subsim while looking for that very patch. Projeckt Messerwetzer makes the co-op work beautifully. I enjoyed many hours of DC with no problems whatsoever, back in the day.

hmm im going to have to check this out, would be fun to play the DD against u a U boat.


I intend to keep my current XP system forever, just so I can run the older games. But I'm sure there is a way. If old DOS games can be made to run, I'm sure older XP games can as well.

lol i put the DC in the drive and it wont even start up the install.ahh

[CaptainCruise]

I actually located my old copy of DC, anyone know if itll run on windows 7?


I just started playing DC again on my Win7 Home Premium laptop, and it plays fine. Installed the official 1.1 patch and the PM Multiplay patch, still no problems. Then added a whole bunch of mods.....Vicker's graphics, skins, sounds, etc. and still it plays fine. I think I had one janus error the first time I tried to start the game, then after that it worked every time.

SH2 is another matter....:damn: :wah:

Installed everything and before it gets to the load mission screen I get a janus error and it drops to the screen blanker. I haven't figured it out yet. I know we had issues with janus errors back in the day, but we figured out how to deal with them and pretty much worked it out. It's been so long though I can't remember much of what we did to work aournd it. I'm gonna have to do some forum searches on this one and see what I can dig up from the past.

[joea]

Now this is a game I would buy in a flash. I loved DC even more than SH2 back in the day (which was about the time I joined the forum). Might try to reinstall again if I can find the disk.

[Sea Demon]

I totally enjoyed Destroyer Command back in the day. But I always wanted more. I was hoping that a Destroyer Command 2 would follow SH3. I would love to simulate WW2 destroyer operations like DC with the better graphics, crew animations, and other advancements made with the SH3 concept. Too bad for those of us that want DC2.

[Deamon]

I am wondering how many of you gentlemen wouldn't mind if the next DC would play in WWI ?

[Sailor Steve]

Since I designed my own WW1 tabletop miniatures game years ago, I suppose I might find that not only acceptable, but preferable.

[Bubblehead1980]

so I got DC patched and up and running with both the 1.1 and the operation hefen blah blah.So where do I go to run a MP ame? Anyone still playing? Would like to try it out.

[Sailor Steve]

My stuff is currently in storage, along with everything else I own. If I ever get it back I'd love to play again.

We used to run it on Mirc. I'm not sure how it works, but maybe someone will know. There used to be a whole other website called Sub Club. Neal has recreated it here; just look for it on the main forum menu page. Not many people go there, but who knows?

[Bubblehead1980]

My stuff is currently in storage, along with everything else I own. If I ever get it back I'd love to play again.

We used to run it on Mirc. I'm not sure how it works, but maybe someone will know. There used to be a whole other website called Sub Club. Neal has recreated it here; just look for it on the main forum menu page. Not many people go there, but who knows?


ill try to check it out.when you get your stuff out steve, let me know.Id like to give it a run.I played an atlantic campaign last night and managed to sink a u boat en route to Iceland, was fun.Just wish could see the charges blowing up around the boat and if the boat would surface.I take it you can surface in MP since running SH 2 Never played SH 2 so not sure how it works.

[Sailor Steve]

I take it you can surface in MP since running SH 2 Never played SH 2 so not sure how it works.
Oh yeah! I scored a kill once because the guy running one of the u-boats was trying to fly it like a plane. Operation Metzerwesser (or was it Messerwetzer?), the patch that fixes the multiplayer problems, also lets you control the u-boat dive planes. This guy tries to come from deep under to periscope depth in a big hurry, misjudges and hits the surface. I'm close by, get a call of "Submarine spotted!" I go directly to the map, click on the icon, order "Attack With Guns," and 10 seconds later five 5"/38s have blown him out of the water.

Another time in the middle of a game one of the u-boats suddenly reported himself dead. Seems he tried to come up in a hurry and forgot to center his planes. Halfway through the loop everything came unglued and he sank himself.

[Bubblehead1980]

Oh yeah! I scored a kill once because the guy running one of the u-boats was trying to fly it like a plane. Operation Metzerwesser (or was it Messerwetzer?), the patch that fixes the multiplayer problems, also lets you control the u-boat dive planes. This guy tries to come from deep under to periscope depth in a big hurry, misjudges and hits the surface. I'm close by, get a call of "Submarine spotted!" I go directly to the map, click on the icon, order "Attack With Guns," and 10 seconds later five 5"/38s have blown him out of the water.

Another time in the middle of a game one of the u-boats suddenly reported himself dead. Seems he tried to come up in a hurry and forgot to center his planes. Halfway through the loop everything came unglued and he sank himself.

Nice.Hopefully can play soon.

BtW, had something happen in a career mode.I was escorting a battleship to the Panama Canal in 1942.Somewhere around Cuba a report of "torpedoes sighted" came out, I was on the starboard flank, went to ahead flank, left full rudder and GQ, heading to intercept, went to the area the fish were located with active sonar, stopped and listened as well, couldnt find anything.

There was some type of lighted area on the map I went to but never could get anything, so after an hour rejoined the TF and continued on, was only attack of the patrol, very anti climatic.

Any tips?

[Sailor Steve]

Been too long. I don't remember.

[CaptainCruise]

so I got DC patched and up and running with both the 1.1 and the operation hefen blah blah.So where do I go to run a MP ame? Anyone still playing? Would like to try it out.


If I remember correctly, with the new multiplayer setup I think the way we played was one player with the fastest computer is the host and sets up everything, gives his IP number to the players and they all connect. After the PM patch and the switch from RunTime to DirectPlay, it didn't use an outside server anymore.

As long as the host had a fast machine with plenty of memory, and you didn't load up the game with 12 players and 30 AI ships, things usually ran OK and lag wasn't a serious issue.

If you still have the PM patches for SH2 and DC, look in the "readme" text files for info on how to set up a multiplayer game. I think a whole page or three was just about how to set up multiplayer games with the new patches.

One last thing. There may be a big advantage playing multiplayer games now. Compare the computers we use right now with what was available back in the day. We were all using single core CPU's, most not running anywhere near the speeds we have now. And memory.....HUGE plus now. For example.....I used to use between 512MB to 1.5GB of old school DDR SDRAM memory. PC3200 speed, which worked out to PC400. Now in this day and age we average anywhere from 2GB to 16GB of up to DDR3 memory which is I think almost 10 times faster, not to mention using 2GB to 16GB worth. My current laptop uses 8GB with a fast intel 4-core i7 CPU, and this thing would probably run laps around my old overclocked AMD Athlon XP3000 CPU, nForce2 based rig. It was fast for that time, but the stuff we use now can run these older games like butter, and maybe host larger amounts of players and AI content. I'd be seriously curious to see how a 5v5 or 6v6, or even more..... SH2 vs. DC match played out on our modern uber machines. :yeah:

:arrgh!: