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Originally Posted by SeaQueen
I wouldn't say it was totally unimportant. Mk.1 Mod 0 eyeballs are some of the best sensors you've got, particularly with the airborne and surface platforms in the game. Good graphics adds a lot to that part of it. In multiplayer too, sometimes it's useful to just have a helo pilot zoom around and tell me what he sees, not worrying about any sensors. I've found a couple subs that way as they poked their periscopes up. :-)
I can. The opposite of DW is Harpoon. There, the ENTIRE focus of the game is on the database and engine. The interface is just tactical displays. It's probably a more realistic representation of a CIC or attack center in a certain sense, but at the same time, sometimes it's fun to just walk out on the bridge wing of your destroyer, or peer through the periscope of your submarine. It aids the imagination and makes the game more immersive.
I like DW and Harpoon for two different reasons. They examine two different aspects of naval warfare. I suppose one COULD make a graphics intensive Harpoon, but it'd probably be at the expense of the things that make Harpoon wonderful. Similarly, what first drew me to DW was it's wonderful graphics and the way it captured the feel of things.
There's a lot to be said for both approaches to video wargaming. I think naval wargames are actually among the most difficult to produce, particularly as a video game. As table top wargames they'e a little easier because the audience for those is a little bit more comfortable with abstract. The thing is, naval warfare IS abstract, and let's face it most of the ocean is just empty space.
I think there could be some wonderful graphics for naval wargames, though, particularly if the focus is on the environment itself. Representing coastal areas, the weather (fog, waves, haze, etc.), the water's qualities, bioluminescence, whales and dolphins, that's all good stuff.
When I was cruising aboard the R. G. BRADLEY as part of my job, we passed through the JFKs battlegroup which was out on maneuvers. I was totally blown away by the fact that you could hide an aircraft carrier in the haze. I could see it on the radar screen. We were looking right at it, but nothing was to be seen because the haze was so bad that day.
This is all a part of naval warfare too, aside from the more abstract questions of tactics. Ideally, I'd like a game that had it all.
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I agree. Its always a plus to be able to feel the power and majesty of the ocean around you... and it really drives home the immersion IMHO. I like games like Virtual Sailor just for that reason, the sounds of gulls, the russel of the waves, and hypnotizing undulations of the wavecrests... when well done you can practically smell the seawater. My perfect game would include substituting the Virtual Sailor graphics into the DW nav map graphics... the waves mechanics and ambient sounds are better. The DW models themselves? Well.... their skinning could use some work.
As far as the Consoles and interfaces... they aren't really much more function than than one could expect from the old 1990 or 1995 navy sims...
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/68...meShotId,9160/ ... some would actually say less functional, just with shinier buttons.
One thing I wish that SCS would consider is using more drop-down menus or list (like the SW Stadimeter or FFG sonar classification), rather than the tedius scroll menus (like the stadimeter classification of the LA, or NB classification of the LA and akula). Drop down menus/list are just more ergonomic and functional... its really a mystery why SCS opted the scroll boxes...
... other reasonable aspects of the GUI have been omitted as well... some more infamous omissions than others... The Harpoon waypoint selection for sub launches is missing, but present for the FFG, one of the most noteable descrepancies. The lack of a more in-depth torpedo wire control menu is another one of the bigger omissions that was mysteryiously neglected. Other omissions are less functional but more a simple matter of convience. For example the FFG has a TA depth menu, but the submarines do not... or a ingame sonar profile library (so that a suspected profile can be displayed on the NB without neccessitating a current signal, but more a quick reference of what the player will be looking for...fortunately this has been provided by independent contributors for out-game programs) is another omission that's simple, yet convient and would add to console utilization.
All and all I give the graphics a C and the console design a C as well.