What Subsim do you want to see?

[Bryll]

Hi there, fellas!

It's been a while. I've been a hard-core sub sim fan since I was a teenager. I began with Silent Hunter 1, 688 Attack Sub, and really found myself entranced once I hit Jane's 688(i) and Silent Hunter III - still my favourite sub sims to date, although Dangerous Waters is still the one I go back to over 688 as... well, let's face it, it's really just the same thing but with more platforms and better support for newer hardware.

Haven't been on these here forums for ages, either, but in the time since my days playing sub sims and re-watching Das Boot for the 816th time, I have had a major career shift from a database developer to a video game developer.

My brother and I founded Flat Earth Games here in Sydney, Australia, and are on our way to releasing our second game. Our first was an iPad/iPhone exclusive management/crafting game, and our second is a hardcore cyberpunk top-down action game for Windows/Mac. Wildly different games, with little in common except they were interesting technical challenges for me as a programmer.

My question is this: I have played many sub sims that have come out in the last few years, and most made me yawn or at least just made me want to go back to SH3 or Dangerous Waters.

We're a tiny team and it's unlikely we'd choose to directly make a sub sim, but I find myself coding little games (especially for iPhone) even in my spare time these days, so I'm curious:

What kind of sub sim would you like to see made? In your ideal world, if a developer went, "Aww, stuff it - let's make a submarine game"... would would interest you? Something new? A new setting we haven't seen before, or at least something which hasn't been done well?

Or a new platform?

A hard-core sub sim on iPhone? An early-cold-war nuclear sub sim, say, during the Cuban Missile Crisis? A Submarine fleet commander type game, where you are a Commodore or Admiral giving missions to your subs every day during WW2 or a hypothetical 1980s hot war a la Red Storm Rising?

Obviously, no guarantees here and like I said I doubt we'll ever have enough spare cash to make something as niche (and as much of a pet project for me) as a submarine sim, and I'm just kinda thinking out loud here, but I'd love to hear your ideas.

Let 'er rip! :-)

Rohan Harris
Flat Earth Games

[CCIP]

Hey, since you're into new platforms and mobile development, here's a suggestion - I think one game that could be brilliant as a phone/tablet sim is basically a modern take on the classic Red Storm Rising: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Storm_Rising_(video_game)

Doesn't mean you have to copy it, but there are some excellent concepts there that, decades after the original, still remain untapped. The simple interface, procedurally-generated missions, and a campaign where your score affects your progress of the war could translate well into a phone game. Cold war setting? Could be a great choice for making a game with an instantly-recognizable atmosphere, and when was the last time we got a Cold War game with a dynamic campaign? It's also almost like a hybrid of an admiral/captain game, and you could even take it more in that direction.

[Sailor Steve]

I'd like to see a WW2 subsim done right. Some have come close, but not like I would want it. I have a huge list of items I would want to see in my ideal sim. It would also be able to interact with the new destroyer sim I would build. Then other navies' boats. Then...

But I'll never have that kind of money, so dreaming is as close as I'll ever get.

[Haukka81]

WW2 subsim, Any other country than germany..

Good ideaa from silent service=> fast map moving so it won't take forever to sail patrol area.

Map that wont update real time but about 2-10min time between updates would be nice. We wont be alone on sub .. Crew can make something (this is where many hardcode fans And mods go wrong)

[TorpX]

I'd like to see a WW2 subsim done right. Some have come close, but not like I would want it. I have a huge list of items I would want to see in my ideal sim.

He, he, ... Ditto!

A well done version of SH4. And I too, have a long list of things I would like. One of these would be a randomized campaign where the player doesn't know beforehand where to look for shipping. This, I think, would enhance the replay factor considerably.

[Threadfin]

What I would like to see if I may dream, is an ultra-realistic WW2 sim, with a campaign that functions like the one in Falcon 4.

I would love a fully dynamic campaign where the player could be responsible for things like submarine deployments, patrol areas, overhauls, refits etc, essentially playing a strategic layer as though he were Doenitz, Lockwood, Christie or Fife. He would also have the tactical layer, in command of one of his boats. The war would progress based on the results of the actual combats (or lack of), in much the same way as the F4 campaign, with resources tracked, and production linked.

[Red October1984]

I'd be completely alright with a mobile remake of Red Storm Rising...but a WW2 sim done right sounds even better. :hmmm:

[Platapus]

A hard-core sub sim on iPhone?

Do those words even go together? :)

[Haukka81]

He, he, ... Ditto!

A well done version of SH4. And I too, have a long list of things I would like. One of these would be a randomized campaign where the player doesn't know beforehand where to look for shipping. This, I think, would enhance the replay factor considerably.




+1 For good campaing with lost of replay factor :timeout:

And good time ac that wont be slow (2048 is still toooo slowww) and wont slow down when something comes inside player area. (Hick up's tell that something is near and fells like cheat) :arrgh!: (good way to make it is look in aces of deep )