Quote:
Originally Posted by Usurpator
Interesting idea, however, we have no plans for anything like this. Our plan is for the corvette to work just like the uboat, with a handful of players manning different stations. We plan on accounting for this when we design gameplay. For example, a scenario where a single corvette is guarding 1-3 very important ships, and the uboat has an hour or so to sink them. This way the corvette does not have to cover a lot of ground, and the uboat has a limited time to act, so we don't get infinite games of the uboat just waiting.
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Many thanks, it's heartening to read how the player operated corvette is going to be implemented initially. The time-limit is interesting, however, I think the time-limit MUST be configurable by the lobby owner. The reason for this is that it would allow for a 1 hour game v a handful of merchants, or, the usual 3 and a half hour games which typify a usual organised game with up to 4 uboats v a large convoy, with set TOI's etc. So the time limit should probably be configurable from the start so that the maximum flexibility can be built into the gameplay experience?
As for the "convoy commander" directing AI escorts, I see this as the next logical step AFTER what you're envisaging for the initial player operated corvette, as this will help vary the gameplay experience, which is much needed.
The final step, as I see it, is to allow players to drop into any escort, be it Bittern, Tribal or Corvette, with the AI (directed by the convoy commander) doing the repetitive "dull" asdic searches, and the players dropping into any escort that picks up a u-boat on asdic (or "sees") a uboat, (or leaves an escort that has fallen astern of the convoy to man a better positioned one.)
In this way it is not necessary to have equal numbers of escort players to uboat ones, and the majority of the dull work is done by AI, but those movements and tasks are directed by a human intelligence, rather than a dumb-as-fence-post AI. I fully appreciate that this is a process, and that simpler iterations will need to be introduced initially. The playable corvette does sound like a great 1st step!