IMO, if the engine is capable of doing subs well—which are a small fraction of ships—then it models ALL warships well done right.
Allow surface ships hooks that aren't as hacked in as the surface unit as submarine model. Done.
It's not that hard. If active sonar actually worked spot on in a sub... it would work on a DD in the same engine. Ditto every other system. If subs can function properly on the surface, the engine "does" surface units.
The critical addition would be arbitrarily large numbers of compartments (a good idea anyway, IMO), and a better surface unit DM (progressive fires, etc).
Assuming that stuff is in there, or can be added, you get an ENGINE that does, well, everything. That means they bang out SH5, and maybe SH6 or add-ons (for money!), and heck, they could add a surface war add-on.
The trick with multiplay is the lack of time compression. A "join on the fly" system would get around this, and it would be novel, too.
Allow a player in single player to be available for MP. Any such player is entered into a pool of players. He plays the game normally. At the point he gets a warning of enemy ships, the game checks the enemy units vs playable ship types, and polls the pool of other players. The first to accept and join pauses (and saves) his current game in progress (single player), and jumps into a DD/DE/whatever.
The host still controls time compression, so the escort player has to plot a course that stays within range of his charges, but looks around for subs. He might never see one.
Could be pretty cool if done right.
|