Command Of The Sea - Development Log

[CommandOfTheSea]

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Tirpitz_Italy_Naples_w1400.png



Hi everybody!

after 2 years of work on our game Command Of The Sea we're finally ready to release the first screenshots & information to the public!

Key Points of the Game:
- Historically accurate simulation of naval warfare during World War 2
- Global Open World (~360 000 000 km²)
- First Person Gameplay & walkable ships
- Under development
- Crowdfunding



https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Video_Thumbs/Capsizing_ThumbButton.jpg (https://youtu.be/8s0aPD53jP8)



Details:

1.1 Whole Earth Open World
At first, we’d like to create a digital copy of the whole earth (well, only the oceans and the coastal areas) as a gameplay area. We’ve developed a way to achieve that, and if you take a look at our Screenshots you’ll see that we’ve already been able to reproduce locations of the world with an accuracy of a few meters!

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Tirpitz_Italy_Morning_w1400.png



1.2 First Person Gameplay
Then we’d like to be able to command our own ship, and as a player we’d like to be able to interact with our ship from a First Person View, we’d like to be able to walk on the deck, we’d like to be able to command the ship from the bridge, to enter the machine room and to take a good read in our cabin. We’ll start with a Battleship of the Bismarck Class, and add more playable ships as our community supports this.
In a distant future, we even want to make the game playable with a VR Headset.

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Tirpitz_TurmAnton_FirstPerson_w1400.png



1.3 Dynamic Weather
Further, we’d like to have a realistic dynamic weather system with low hanging clouds, fog, rain and snow. This is especially important for the time before Radar (or FuMO/RDF) became so dominant in naval warfare. Back then visual sight was mandatory for any engagement on the enemy.

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Tirpitz_Gotenhafen_Fog_w1400.png



1.4 Celestial Navigation
Additionally we’d like to simulate a correct day cycle, moon phases and star movement for any place on the earth, at any given time between 1939 and 1945. This will allow celestial navigation, so if provided with a sextant & a watch the player will be able to determine his position by the stars (or the sun). The technical problems for this milestone are also solved already

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Orion_BearIsland_w1400.png



2. State of Development:

We’ve started to work on this game in early 2016. Since then we’ve heavily focused on solving the most obvious technical problems, to determine if it’s even possible to build this game of our dreams.
As you can see we’ve come a long way since then, and about 95% of the most difficult problems are solved. We’ve built a small (~100 000 km²) digital copy of the world, covering Spitsbergen, Norway, Germany, Italy, parts of Africa and Antarctica. We’ve created a reproduction of Sun, Moon & Star movements between 1939 and 1945, we’ve created a playable & walkable Ship (Tirpitz), we’ve created primitive, self-navigating AI Ships and a visual sensor for AI Players and we have a primitive weather & ocean system. So we’re confident now that this project is doable if we get enough support from you and our community ��


3. Next Milestone -> Tech Demo:

Our next milestone would be the development of a playable tech demo. As described above we’ve solved most technical problems, now a lot of time expensive grunt work needs to be completed to release a Tech Demo version of the game that’s actually fun to play.
This Tech Demo shall include:
– an Open World covering 250 000 km² around Norway, the North Sea, Great Britain, Germany and the Bay of Biscay
– a first playable & semi-walkable version of Bismarck
– one or more AI opponent that’s capable to challenge Bismarck


4. Further Roadmap:

4.1 Pre-Alpha
Once the Tech Demo is working we’ll start working on a Pre-Alpha version of the game. In this Pre-Alpha we’ll include a bigger playable Open World, more AI warships, AI merchant ships, an improved dynamic weather system, a basic NPC crew of seamen & officers for our player ship, first harbor buildings and AI airplanes for reconnaissance & attack

4.2 Alpha, Beta:
In the following game versions we’ll continue to expand the playable Open World, add more AI ships & planes and more harbor buildings.

4.3 Game Release:
The first release of the game should include the whole North & South Atlantik as playable Open World, and a reasonable number of AI warships, merchant ships & planes to provide a good & entertaining gaming experience.

4.4 Further Releases:
For further releases we’d like to expand into the Pacific Theater, with the US Navy Pacific Fleet and the Japanese Imperial Navy. That will also include Aircraft Carriers.
We’d also like to create playable submarines, especially for the German side of the game, commercial surface Raiders (like Atlantis & Thor) a VR game mode, and multiplayer options.
We consider this game as an ongoing project, and hopefully we’re able to create a large enough community to support & fund for the years to come!


Thanks for your Support! :Kaleun_Salute:

[CommandOfTheSea]

Update August 17th, 2018:
Our Tech Demo is ready to be released! -> Download (https://www.commandofthesea.com/installation/)
Please take note that it only offers very basic gameplay at the moment.
To be eligible to play you need to be a Sponsor/Patreon of our Game, and you need to register for a Player Account too https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/f4c/1/16/1f642.png



By the way we are a crowdfunding project, so it would be great if you could support us on Patreon.com, even $1 would help to speed things up a bit! :)

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/Patreon/Patreon_banner_v2_400x212.png (https://www.patreon.com/CommandOfTheSea)


It would also be great if you could help us by sharing our posts on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Command-Of-The-Sea-777623272421202/) / Twitter (https://twitter.com/CommandOTS) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/commandofthesea/)
The more people we are the faster we'll be able to achieve results :)

Oh yeah, and finally our own website -> CommandOfTheSea.com (https://www.CommandOfTheSea.com)

[CommandOfTheSea]

For promotion purposes we've created a little hypothetic scenario where Tirpitz is taking a short trip from Gotenhafen to Oslo/Norway in January 1942 :)

Tirpitz passing Hela Peninsula, medium fog
06:40 in the morning, January 12th, 1942
(State of Development February 13th, 2018)
https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Tirpitz_Peninsula_Hel_Fog_19420112_0640_w1400.jpg


Map position Hela Peninsula
https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Tirpitz_Peninsula_Hel_Fog__Map_19420112_0640_w1400 .jpg

[CommandOfTheSea]

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Tirpitz_Sunset_Oslo_w1400.jpg

Our latest Version 2018-05-27 is almost ready. During the last weeks we've made parts of Tirpitz walkable for the player, added some basic sound effects, improved our sunsets, added a little AI-Ship (visible in the left-foreground) and implemented a lot of smaller tweaks to get closer to a playable demo for you guys! https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/f4c/1/16/1f642.png

[con20or]

looking good - nice models!

[CommandOfTheSea]

looking good - nice models!

Thanks, even though Tirpitz is missing a lot of details at the moment, like her medium artillery, or her AA-Guns :)

[CommandOfTheSea]

Our first Video is ready!
Unfortunately this time without audio commentary, cause we're still waiting for some better equipment to setup our little "studio". But I hope you still enjoy it :)

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Tirpitz_Oslo_Video_Thumb.jpg (https://youtu.be/_yL24keZN9Y)

[CommandOfTheSea]

Development Log 26.6.-13.7.18

To keep you guys a bit more informed and updated about our ongoing work we've decided to share our internal "Development Log" with you in a simplified form.
Although it might be a bit boring to read sometimes, it'll provide you with more inside information about our progress :)

Actually we're working on our Demo Version to get it ready for release, during the last 3 weeks we've completed the following tasks:
- added blocking volumes to our ingame landscape, to avoid that players reach unfinished areas.
- corrected some graphic errors in our landscape.
- finished adding some variables for "Mercator Projection" for our WorldMap.
- improved textures & materials for a more realistic look of wake & deadwater behind ships.
- tested influence of swell on Tirpitz's ability to hold a straight course.
- added three preset for graphic settings, to allow lower settings for weaker machines.
- created Tutorial that launches at first game start.
- tested compression & encryption of game files for less HD usage.
- fixed a huge and difficult bug within calculations for EarthCurvature (took us more than a week)

[CommandOfTheSea]

We've fixed a major bug in our Player Account today.
For our upcoming Demo Version release we ask all contributors, sponsors & patreons to update their Player Accounts with their PayPal or Patreon Emails, to enable us to assign your rewards to your accounts :)


Player Account Login -> https://www.commandofthesea.com/player_account/login.php

[CommandOfTheSea]

Our Tech Demo is ready to be released! -> Download (https://www.commandofthesea.com/installation/)
Please take note that it only offers very basic gameplay at the moment.
To be eligible to play you need to be a Sponsor/Patreon of our Game, and you need to register for a Player Account too https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/f4c/1/16/1f642.png

[CommandOfTheSea]

After the release of our actual Development Version as a playable Demo Version in late August (see https://www.commandofthesea.com/installation/) we’ve focused on the development of a realistic Armor Penetration Model.

It was more difficult than expected, but the results so far look very promising, at least promising enough to affirm that we’re on the right way! :)


Next step will be some polishing of the textures, and the addition of particle effects (smoke, debris), and then the first tests with a real ship.....

[bracer]

Very cool project!

What are you counting in into the penetration model?
What do you mean, test with a real ship?

Cheers!

[Oubaas]

Watching with anticipation. I'll be interested in this one.



:Kaleun_Salute:

[CommandOfTheSea]

Very cool project!

What are you counting in into the penetration model?
What do you mean, test with a real ship?

Cheers!

The armor penetration model we've created so far has only been tested with single or multiple homogeneous 20cm steel plates. Either one plate arranged after each other or built up in "boxes" with various angles to simulate the internal structure of a ship.

Now we want to implement the whole system on our in-game ship Tirpitz, theoretically that shouldn't be too much of a problem, but it's rather time consuming cause the new pieces of "code" need to be implemented for every single piece of structure for the ship :)

[bracer]

Since you are testing various angles, does it mean you have angle of impact in the calculations? Will the projectile bounce/not penetrate if the angle of impact is too high?


Any idea how your gameplay/missions will look? Time compression?

[CommandOfTheSea]

Since you are testing various angles, does it mean you have angle of impact in the calculations? Will the projectile bounce/not penetrate if the angle of impact is too high?


Yes definitely, with our actual model a projectile can either ricochet, or graze off some material or penetrate a steel plate (or any other material like concrete). The likeliness of penetration depends on the weight & speed of the projectile, but also on the amount of i.e. steel in it's incoming flight path. So a 90° hit has a much better chance than a hit coming in at 75°.
And a ricocheting or grazing projectile might also penetrate/damage a secondary armor plate, or whatever comes in it's way :)

For each following obstacle we're doing the same simulation, considering that the projectile is much slower now.
What we don't count in at the moment is the deformation of the projectile itself after it's first penetration. We've postponed that to later updates as there are more important things now to do to get our next update out for the players.


Any idea how your gameplay/missions will look? Time compression?

In our actual Demo release it's just possible to cruise around in southern Norway, Denmark and northern Germany, but with our next update we plan to implement some land based AI gun turrets within the Oslo-Fjord (Oscarsborg Fortress to be exactly). Land based because it's simpler & faster to implement for the next release.
Then we want to start working on a real AI opponent Ship and in the long run we want to focus at first on Single-Player Missions i.e. scenarios like the Battle of the Denmark Strait, etc...
And in the very long run we want to develop towards Single player campaigns (like in the Silent Hunter series) and Multiplayer gameplay (Coop or PvP) :)


Time Compression will also be implemented rather soon, otherwise warfare at sea might take a bit too long for the average player.

[CommandOfTheSea]

Oscarsborg Festning April 9th, 1940

Short Story:
At April 9th, 1940 the “Battle of the Drobak Sound” (Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dr%C3%B8bak_Sound)) took place in southern Norway when the German heavy curiser Blücher tried to break through to Oslo and was sunk by the 28cm coastal artillery and torpedo batteries at Oscarsborg Festning (Fortress).

In Game:
We’ve implemented Oscarsborg Festning as a “Point of Interest” in Command Of The Sea. These are locations in our open world where we’re using a much higher landscape-resolution and pay special attention to details which involves a lot of “handcrafted” 3D-Models.
At our actual state of development (October 2018) we’d like to implement some AI coastal artillery there, which should serve as a intermediate step towards smart enemy AI-Ships.
Feel free to compare our reproduction with the real location on Google Maps (https://www.google.at/maps/@59.6753576,10.5997964,2763m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&authuser=0), although some details have changed during the last 80 years, as it’s now polished up as a tourist attraction.


BTW, the screenshots below are linked to the fullsize pictures.




https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Oscarsborg/Oscarsborg_Festning_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Oscarsborg_Festning.jpg)


https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Oscarsborg/Oscarsborg_Festning_1940_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Oscarsborg_Festning_1940.jpg)


https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Oscarsborg/Oscarsborg_Festning_April_1940_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Oscarsborg_Festning_April_1940.jpg)


https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Oscarsborg/Oscarsborg_Festning_April_1940_Evening_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Oscarsborg_Festning_April_1940_Evening.jpg)

[CommandOfTheSea]

Oscarsborg almost ready!
Oscarsborg is almost ready, our AI and Armor Piercing simulation is almost ready too.
During the next weeks we're going to implement everything with our 3D Models, for our next Game update :)



https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Oscarsborg/Oscarsborg_Moses_Firing_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Oscarsborg_Moses_Firing.jpg)


https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Oscarsborg/Oscarsborg_Moses_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Oscarsborg_Moses.jpg)


https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Oscarsborg/Oscarsborg_Joshua_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Oscarsborg_Joshua.jpg)

[CommandOfTheSea]

Armor Piercing
The Armor Piercing simulation we’re using punches real holes into the object at the exact location where the projectile hits.
Therefore we take the velocity of the projectile and it’s mass to compute it’s impact energy. Then we take the armor thickness and the projectiles impact angle and determine if it could breakthrough, get stuck, or would just graze off/ricochet.
That way it’s also possible to simulate multiple breakthroughs in a row, i.e. 2 or more plates of armor, or multiple decks.

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/ArmorPiercing/Armor_Piercing_2_w1400.jpg



https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/ArmorPiercing/Armor_Piercing_1_w1400.jpg

[CommandOfTheSea]

Visual & Sound Effects


During the last weeks we've added visual & sound effects to our guns and impact/armor piercing simulations.

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/ArmorPiercing/Oscarsborg_Firing_w1400.jpg


https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/ArmorPiercing/Smoke_WaterSplash_w1400.jpg


https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/ArmorPiercing/Tirpitz_Deck_Fire_2_1400.jpg


https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/ArmorPiercing/Tirpitz_Deck_Fire_w1400.jpg

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/ArmorPiercing/WaterSplash_1_w1400.jpg

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/ArmorPiercing/WaterSplash_2_w1400.jpg

[Relmu]

Uh, you guys might want to get a torrent or something, that's a huge file....

[CommandOfTheSea]

Uh, you guys might want to get a torrent or something, that's a huge file....


Yes, in the long run we'll definitely switch to a more professional way for distribution, but right now we're in a very early stage of development :)

[CommandOfTheSea]

Tirpitz capsizing & sinking

We've created a little video showing our sinking (and capsizing) simulation for our ships. The scenery is located around Oscarsborg, nearby the historic sinking location of the German heavy cruiser Blücher.


https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/SubSim/Video_Thumbs/Capsizing_ThumbButton.jpg (https://youtu.be/8s0aPD53jP8)

[Platapus]

Question on the video.

Would the propellers still be turning that long after the boilers were flooded?

[CommandOfTheSea]

Question on the video.

Would the propellers still be turning that long after the boilers were flooded?

No, but we haven't implemented a function that stops them by now :)

[Julhelm]

How big is your team?

[CommandOfTheSea]

How big is your team?

We're actually two people, ideally we'd like to build up a small team of 5-10 people in the long run, that would definitely speed the whole development process up a bit :)

[adrians69]

This has the makings of a great sim. I'll be watching closely

[CommandOfTheSea]

Rebuilding Tirpitz with new Armor Plate Model, with realistic thickness

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20190910/ArmorPiercing_1_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20190910/ArmorPiercing_1.jpg)

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20190910/ArmorPiercing_2_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20190910/ArmorPiercing_2.jpg)

We're actually rebuilding Tirpitz with new structures that reflect the true Armor/Steel plate thickness of the real Tirpitz, as our previous 3D Model "only" represented the outer shape of the ship.
At the same time we're constantly testing it against the land based AI Artillery at Oscarsborg :)

[CommandOfTheSea]

Projectile Ricocheting SloMo

We've created a video to show some more details about the projectile impact simulation we're using. Including some slow motion footage and some insights about our speed of sound implementation.
Hope you guys enjoy it! :)

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20191125/Ricocheting_Projectile_Slomo_button_w1000.jpg (https://youtu.be/Daua_JSQHbk)

[CommandOfTheSea]

Command Of The Sea - Trailer

We had some fun creating a Blockbuster-Style Trailer, hope you enjoy it too! :)

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20191224/Thumbnail_playbutton.jpg (https://youtu.be/RAktTLUmxjQ)

[CommandOfTheSea]

It's a Bismarck!

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's a Bismarck!

At least in the making... :)
We've initially applied the camouflage that was used during the Battle of the Denmark Straight following May 24th, 1941.
Although she might not be as appealing as her sister Tirpitz with her Baltic Camo, it's easily visible that this painting scheme is very effective against a bright horizon in the North Atlantic. It's a painting scheme for a work horse!

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200326/Bismarck_1_w1200.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200326/Bismarck_1.jpg)

[CommandOfTheSea]

Bismarck Closeups

Today I'd like to share a few more details about the latest improvements we've applied to our Bismarck Model.

If you take a close look you'll see that parts of the previous camouflage is shining through at the hull and the main deck. That's NOT because we were lazy... :)
We've used pictures of the German "Bundesarchiv" as reference, like the one at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1984-055-14%2C_Schlachtschiff_Bismarck%2C_nach_Seegefecht.j pg


https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Details_1_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Details_1.jpg)

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Hull_Camouflage_and_Wetness_Effect_Waterl ine_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Hull_Camouflage_and_Wetness_Effect_Waterl ine.jpg)

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Deck_Camouflage_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Deck_Camouflage.jpg)


As you can see there the old camouflage is still shining through, the black & white stripes on the hull were hastily painted over on May 21st, 1941 in Korsfjord, and the swastikas on the main deck on the following day (as no more air recognition for the Luftwaffe was needed where she shall go).

We've also started to apply a decent "wetness" effect at the waterline, this is only static at the moment, but we do have plans already to make it dynamic so it really is only applied were the hull get's wet due to the waves.


https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Wooden_Deck_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Wooden_Deck.jpg)

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Painted_Deck_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Painted_Deck.jpg)

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Deck_Treadplate_2_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Deck_Treadplate_2.jpg)

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Deck_Treadplate_1_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Deck_Treadplate_1.jpg)


And we've overhauled the surfaces of our decks with physical based rendering materials, a nice looking, slightly worn and at some places painted wooden deck, and a tread plate deck. I really love the looks of it. The only downside is that I'm very unhappy now with the remaining materials on the ship, we'll have to improve them too sooner or later. But the potential for photo realism is really a great outlook :)


https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_After_Superstructure_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_After_Superstructure.jpg)

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Crane_Catapult_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Crane_Catapult.jpg)

https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Hangar_Boats_w1400.jpg (https://www.commandofthesea.com/images/20200407/Bismarck_Hangar_Boats.jpg)


That's it, I'll go back to work now so you all can play with Bismarck with our next release in Summer 2020!

[bracer]

That's insanly beautiful! That wooden deck looks photo real!
Nice Bismarck model! Is it the same Tirpitz model modified, or did you build it from scratch?

I see you moved the crane, which is one of the differences between Tirpitz and Bismarck. You could also remove the caps on the two rear AA-directors if you want to recreate more of the historical differences.


Looking forward to this!

[CommandOfTheSea]

That's insanly beautiful! That wooden deck looks photo real!
Nice Bismarck model! Is it the same Tirpitz model modified, or did you build it from scratch?

I see you moved the crane, which is one of the differences between Tirpitz and Bismarck. You could also remove the caps on the two rear AA-directors if you want to recreate more of the historical differences.


Looking forward to this!




Thanks, yes we've just just modified the 3D Model of Tirpitz a bit and applied a new paint scheme. And while we were at it we started to experiment with PBR materials for the Decks. I'm really looking forward to the day when we have enough time to apply them to the whole ship.

You're the first who mentioned the caps on the rear HA Rangefinders, I was hoping that it would take longer :) I already have that on my to do list, but will postpone that for now.
Oh, and as a hint, considering the outfit from May 22nd 1941 and after, there's one more little detail that's not right! :salute: