OT: Age of Sail? Why not?
 

Off topic.

I've been thinking about this for some time now, and my thoughts are that this idea is absolutely, without question, possible.

My uneducated guess is that it would be relatively easy to build an amazing game in the age of sail, (or modern naval warfare for that matter) upon the SHIII engine. It seems all of the features and requirements are nearly all there, no? Navigation, fatigue, command, AI, weather, damage, time compression, etc. etc., etc.

Add ports, model the ships, develop the historical package, blend, bake at 350, and ding! - it's the year 1588, or 2005.

I'm not sure if there are a few games of the genre, but I think they would not be close to the complexity, game play, and visual achievement in SHIII. What impresses me the most about SHIII are the model details and the special effects. I'm still amazed at how well they created the water/ocean rolling and weather effects.

Imagine hunting down renegades, setting blockades, moving into position and engaging an armada at close range with your fleet's gunnery.

Dear Ubisoft, think about it. You have 75% of it already completed. Four hundred years of historical possibilities and a nearly endless franchise stream. Can I have a job? Thanks.

If there is such a game that is played in dynamic first-person, as opposed to a chess-like match played on a map, I'm not aware of it and would appreciate being pointed in the right direction. I've seen Age of Sail II, but it looks, well, awful.

:arrgh!:

Oh, I agree totally.

I would still much rather have Destroyer Command 2 before a SH4. Give me a Black Swan, a full rack of Depth Charges and command of a Royal navy Support group and I would as happy as Larry.

A decent Warship sim set in the age of sail would be a great sim as well. yeah, that I would love to see.

Isn't there a naval sailing ship game coming out?????? :hmm:


Wulfmann

Speaking of the Age of Sail, I'd like to see a model of Captain Nemo's Nautilus made for the game. That would be fun, although I guess technically the 1850s are the Age of Steam.

Actually there is two that I know of.

Age of Pirates & Pirates of the Burning Sea the later being a MMORPG

There's also Pirates of the Caribbean which has been out some time but with the Build 12 mod is quite excellent and imporves the game no end from the original.

All the info is at www.piratesahoy.net the subsim of sail.


Cheers,
David

The age of sail was the first thing that popped into my head upon the completion of my first U-boat patrol, I think it would be Outstanding to recreate using the SHIII engine. I would love to help in some small way if someone takes on the project. Modeling will certainly be the largest obstacle, at which I've failed miserably in the past.

To get fancy, 3-d 'stations' on the quarter deck, fore-mast, and gun-deck. ooooohh. A realistic sailing model, ahhhhhhhhh. The POTENTIAL! I don't think there has ever been a true Sim based upon this era, but what a wonderful feeling to simulate.

In reference to Davests post.

Rumour has it that there is a third,Sea Dogs II.
Its supposedly being developed by Akella,who also did the Age of Sail series and PotC amongst others.
In my own humble opinion,the best developers of Sailing ship games,there is.

They will be using the new generation Storm engine for AoP and if the rumours are correct SDII as well.
Apparently,also through rumours,the same engine may well be used with Pirates of the Burning Sea.

Akella have given a provisional release date for AoP by the end of this year,no doubt it'll be next year.
Flying Labs who are developing PotBs,have as yet,not given a date.

The link for Akella;

www.akella.com/en/newsarchive/2005/08/22/aop/


and for Flying Labs PotBs forum;

www.flyinglab.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?...

--------------------------------
forgotten to relate this before,Flying Labs are now taking applications for Beta testing PotBs.

I would really enjoy some sort of sailing game where you would have to get your ship in the right position for a broadside, load guns, maybe even board a ship and fight it out.

Agreed, I'd love to play as Michiel de Ruyter and KICK SOME ENGLISH BUTT! :arrgh!:

Or how about Nelson vs de Ruyter? :rock:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...tleOfTexel.jpg

This coming from the man that so vehemently opposed the XXI being included in SH?!?! :lol:

I would say the Nautilus would be about as fun as the XXI if we were going for "What if"....

I just didn't see the point in including a U-boat that never saw combat in a U-boat simulation. I didn't 'vehemently oppose' it. I just didn't see any point in doing further work on it when some folks who wanted it to be an 'uber sub' whined about how poorly it was modelled.

Completely wrong forum, I know, but I just saw this and wanted to point it out to those folks that were interested in sail. Looks like it's due out this winter.

http://www.burningsea.com/gallery.php



"Not bad in here, is it? No mail, no telephone. Solid wood paneling. Well-ventilated boat. Free food, too. "Rolling in clover" we are."

Pirates of the Caribean Did this rather well.


And I thought Pirates of the Caribean was originally going to be Sea Dogs II, but they changed the name because the movie was coming out at about the same time.

Has anyone had any success adding any player controled ships to SH3?

While the core graphics engine could be used, there would still be a TON of AI and control issues to conquer, not to mention all the ship design and damage models to build. I've never seen a real-time game make naval battles with multiple player controlled ships go smoothly (not that there have been many attempts). It is either a clickfest or reduced to the point of being a strategic game. Obviously there is a lot of programming needed, it isn't an easy task.

Being in control of a single frigate or something (a ship that could be expected to maintain some autonomous control rather than just follow in a line) would be cool though.

I wish Ubi would license out the engine to smaller companies. Look at how the Unreal engine gets whored out! I think the major spftware houses have the horsepower to make the graphic engines, while the smaller studios have the creativity and risk taking ability to put out the good games.

Is it really easy to produce a sailing ship sim based on the SH3 engine ? Does the engine allow for the effects of wind from any bearing on the speed of the ship, or how her sails should be rigged or even how many should be rigged and where on the masts ?

Can it be used to simulate the effects of chain-shot in rigging, grape against the crew or ball against the hull and masts and apply all that to the continued fighting ability/ survival of the ship

Does the SH3 engine allow things like taking the wind from another ship, the gradual build up a marine growth, crew fatigue in loading times etc ?

I have a feeling it might not. :hmm: