Distant Guns 1.5 Now On Sale!

[Lempereur1]

http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/pub...DG_1_5_v2.html

This is an enormous upgrade - not only are the graphics much improved, but the included scenario editor makes this an entirely new game in terms of flexibility and replay value. Highly recommended!

[PeriscopeDepth]

Under the hood stuff like AI and damage modeling also seems to be greatly tweaked. Well worth the $35 I paid to upgrade.

PD

[Bullethead]

Yup, there are a lot of under-the-hood changes in 1.5, not only in the damage system but some ship stats, too. You'll find that the relative value of the ships has changed somewhat, so that you'll have to alter some of your long-standing tactics.

[LobsterBoy]

I've had DG since it was released and enjoy it. I want to upgrade it, but I want to know the procedure first. Do I download the full 1.5 game and then activate it like a new product?

[Lempereur1]

Yes, download the DG 1.5 and install it.

http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/pub...DG_1_5_v2.html

You will have to uninstall DG 1.0

Go to the Website and buy the special upgrade from DG 1.0 to DG 1.5

A new License will be emailed to you. Activate as normal!

Enjoy!

Jim Rose
Stormeaglestudios.com

[LobsterBoy]

Is it necessary to send the original license back or not (since I'd be getting a new license) through the SHIFT-F12 feature?

[Lempereur1]

Yes, you must surrender your 1.0 License to get the special upgrade price. Use the Shift F-12

[LobsterBoy]

It's now working as advertised. Thanks! My first impressions from a quick battle of Ulsan game are the improved lighting effects from gunfire and hits (I stopped playing for a bit and stared at the flickering guns), and it seemed as though the Japanese were better than when I previously played the same battle. I must investigate further....

I hope my support also helps you create more fine products in the future.

[alexsmith]

Doubt about "Entirely new game" - but some improvements have been made as some disadvantages also!

If anyone of Storm Eagle could read this - would be very appreciate if they could answer a few questions!

What about 6-inch guns in 1.5? Looks like they lost most of the power they had in prior version - which is sad! Those days 6" were much more common cannons to strip them out - I think. Is it because of Jutland engine?

Next - the camera control options are STILL UGLY! Please think about implementing predefined views on selected ship: "On course" - to quickly appear just above ship to draw a course line, "To enemy" - to see in direction ship fires, "Fleet" - to view entire fleet or division from high. Switching between these modes manually makes my head ache!

Also camera has unpredictable behavior too often - I click "Binoculars view" - and when I return back - camera often jumps to random direction - and like that.

Also, too hard to track down damages to enemy - you may spend an hour kicking enemy battleship - and it's still "light" - you see absolutely no progress! When it became moderate - it's about complete, but before it looks like your ships are beeing damaged quickly and enemy is undamaged. I understand - enemy's damage is invisible - but there are lots of things that may be seen from my own ships which could indicate enemy's damage.
Draw something like "Visible fires" or "Visiible damages" - it also may be made to enemy's guns - I can see that heavy metals don't fire to long - so I can assume - these guns are damaged. Which would be a great help!

Also it is not absolutely clear - why Japanese ships are SO powerfull than Russian? One Japanese battleship is worth at least(!) TWO of Russian's which is not quite correct. What does ship "armor level" means? It confuses! You may think about cruiser with armor 6 as about the same as enemy's with 7th armor - but in battle you see it's not!

Also when you play against computer - it looks like enemy ship's hit two or even three times often than yours! THIS IS ANNOYING! This happens no matter which side you play for. Computer advantage - I convinced - must be not so apparent.

And at the end I would like to THANK Storm Eagle's team for the REALLY GREAT GAME! Which could be even more better - if they would do what I've written here

Best regards,
Alex Smith, Russia

[alexsmith]

Sorry, me again Forgot to mention - what I think, game REALLY requires something like "difficulty level tuner" - when you are green - it may seems too difficult for you, when you got experience - you need even more tough enemy. Because standard campaing is boring - when you play several times: almoust the same strategy for every side, almost the same tactics. Because we can not decline main historic line - player need some changes he could bring in game process. Best would be if there would be a land battles also - but these are dreams

[Bullethead]

Sorry to be lagged.

Originally Posted by alexsmith

What about 6-inch guns in 1.5? Looks like they lost most of the power they had in prior version

Nope, the RJW's 6" gun stats are exactly the same as before, so each hit still does the same damage it did before.

What HAS changed, however, is that their firing arcs have been made more realistic, which for most BBs and ACs means that fewer 2ndary guns will now bear in any given direction. Thus, fewer shots at a target than before in the same amount of time.

This had more of an impact on the IJN ships. Originally, most of them had 180^ arcs for all their 2ndary guns on each side, so all the guns on each side could shoot at any target on that side, which was of course ridiculous. Now the guns have realistic arcs so only a few guns on a side can shoot at a target on that side, depending on where it is.

The Russians originally had most 2ndary guns with 90^ broadside arcs. OT1H, this let them shoot too many guns on those bearings, but OTOH they had no 2ndary end-on fire. So now they're like the IJN, with some guns only able to shoot on the bows and quarters, and some able to shoot only amidships. Thus, they also have fewer 2ndary guns firing on the broadside now.

Also camera has unpredictable behavior too often - I click "Binoculars view" - and when I return back - camera often jumps to random direction - and like that.

Yup, that's something we need to fix.

I understand - enemy's damage is invisible - but there are lots of things that may be seen from my own ships which could indicate enemy's damage.
Draw something like "Visible fires" or "Visiible damages" - it also may be made to enemy's guns - I can see that heavy metals don't fire to long - so I can assume - these guns are damaged. Which would be a great help!

You can see fires and smoke, plus shell holes, on the enemy ships, at least if your display options are turned up high enough. You can also see which guns are working and which aren't by whether they're firing at you or not. Damaged guns usually still track you but just don't fire, whereas destroyed guns don't move and either have holes in them (turrets/casemates) or no crew figures (open mounts).

Also it is not absolutely clear - why Japanese ships are SO powerfull than Russian? One Japanese battleship is worth at least(!) TWO of Russian's which is not quite correct. What does ship "armor level" means? It confuses! You may think about cruiser with armor 6 as about the same as enemy's with 7th armor - but in battle you see it's not!

The main reason for the higher IJN BB and AC ship values, and the fact that they usually win 1-on-1 matchups with their opposite numbers, is that the IJN guns usually shoot much faster. Also, most of the IJN ships are newer than most of the Russian ships, so have a more effective type of armor.

The "armor value" shown on the telescope pop-up view when you mouse over a ship isn't used in the game. It's just an abstracted average value put there to give you a general guideline as to how well armored 1 ship is compared to another.

What matters in the game, however, is hit location and the armor at the location hit. Various parts of the ship have different amounts of armor. For instance, protected cruiser have no actual side armor at all, just a sloped lower deck. This protects buoyancy and the engines pretty well but nothing stops the whole hull above water from being riddled and set on fire.

Also when you play against computer - it looks like enemy ship's hit two or even three times often than yours! THIS IS ANNOYING! This happens no matter which side you play for. Computer advantage - I convinced - must be not so apparent.

There's no computer advantage. Both sides have the same accuracy, because both sides use the same AI gunners.

And at the end I would like to THANK Storm Eagle's team for the REALLY GREAT GAME!

Thanks .

[alexsmith]

Thank God - you're here, Bullethead!
I'm very appreciate for your answers but - as you could expect - there are a lot of still remains If you please...

Nope, the RJW's 6" gun stats are exactly the same as before, so each hit still does the same damage it did before.

While playing 1.0 I used to drown Asama and Izumo with 9 cruisers - 4 AC from Vladivostok with Bayan and 5 PC. My AC stayed in first line accumulating all the enemy's wrath while PC from second line - completely unharmed - threw their 6" shells at enemy's cruisers and drowned they easily.
Trying to repeat that success in 1.5 I found that PC seems to make no harm to enemy at all - only 8" guns were worth a bit - no matter from what distance. I spent a lot of time trying to overbeat enemy's 2 AC - and it was much more harder than before - like my PCs played no role at all! So I assumed that 6" guns are degraded in 1.5...

There's no computer advantage. Both sides have the same accuracy, because both sides use the same AI gunners.

Today I had an experience fighting Togo with Russian BB fleet: wide line of my BB (side to side) againts IJN keel line - not closer than 11km (running away to Port Authur) - so almost all my seven BB and 3 AC had the ability to shoot Mikasa at the same time while Japanese shoot from greater distances (hope my English is understandable enough

As a result of about an hour of battle Retvizan is burned up while Mikasa is still light and didn't lost a knot of speed. From the game log I calculated that my ships took about 16 12" (305mm) shells and more than 70 6" (152mm) - those are cumulative numbers, cause Japanese targeted different ships from time to time. I only targeted Mikasa during the whole battle.

Either my gunners didn't shoot Mikasa about the same or it's damage control is quite better than my - having no possibility to track down hit's of computer I may only assume, that computer is cheating In that case I only have chance to defeat enemy loading game over and over again - trying to overrun Random number generator. This means no pleasure from game at all

There is another example: Yellow Sea battle. 7 Russian BB + 3 AC against 4 IJN AC - 10 minutes, 6 km - head BB is moderate almoust heavy, Asama is mostly unharmed... Tell me it's not cheating!!!

Maybe I'm not a very experienced player: I only have won two companies in 1.0 - both for Russia and Japan. But in 1.5 - despite fire management is quite better now - computer became much more difficult to beat in the comparable circumstances...

Also the question: the game manual for 1.5 contains no explain of new Simulation options - where the Gunnery Accuracy and Gunnery Damage located. Should I assume that higher settings (slider to right) mean more accuracy/damage for BOTH SIDES while lower (slider to left) mean less? Or there is some other meaning of it because it's absolutely not clear?..

[Bullethead]

Originally Posted by alexsmith

While playing 1.0 I used to drown Asama and Izumo with 9 cruisers - 4 AC from Vladivostok with Bayan and 5 PC. My AC stayed in first line accumulating all the enemy's wrath while PC from second line - completely unharmed - threw their 6" shells at enemy's cruisers and drowned they easily. Trying to repeat that success in 1.5 I found that PC seems to make no harm to enemy at all - only 8" guns were worth a bit - no matter from what distance. I spent a lot of time trying to overbeat enemy's 2 AC - and it was much more harder than before - like my PCs played no role at all! So I assumed that 6" guns are degraded in 1.5...

I believe what you're seeing is the reduction in fire damage in 1.5. Folks complained a lot that in 1.0x, fires got too big too fast and quickly killed ships, so we toned that down some. IJN ACs were armored in expectation of being hit by 8" shells, so 6" isn't going to hurt them much. In 1.0x, their main effect was starting fires. With that reduced, they don't contribute much against armored targets.

Today I had an experience fighting Togo with Russian BB fleet: wide line of my BB (side to side) againts IJN keel line - not closer than 11km (running away to Port Authur) - so almost all my seven BB and 3 AC had the ability to shoot Mikasa at the same time while Japanese shoot from greater distances (hope my English is understandable enough

Sometimes the Dark Gods favor the enemy, not you .

Also the question

: the game manual for 1.5 contains no explain of new Simulation options - where the Gunnery Accuracy and Gunnery Damage located. Should I assume that higher settings (slider to right) mean more accuracy/damage for BOTH SIDES while lower (slider to left) mean less? Or there is some other meaning of it because it's absolutely not clear?..

The sliders affect both sides equally. Thus, if you increase gunnery accurace or shell damage from the defaults, you'll have shorter, bloodier battles.

[alexsmith]

Originally Posted by Bullethead

The "armor value" shown on the telescope pop-up view when you mouse over a ship isn't used in the game. It's just an abstracted average value put there to give you a general guideline as to how well armored 1 ship is compared to another.
IJN ACs were armored in expectation of being hit by 8" shells, so 6" isn't going to hurt them much.

So what should I expect from armor value of Asama - seven - comparing to armor level of Bayan - six? Especially when six IJN light cruisers having nothing but 6" burned Bayan to dust in minutes! Assume you use some other hidden data not displayed in ship's information - but how am I supposed to play having not such data and no ability to compare ships' values???

Sometimes the Dark Gods favor the enemy, not you .

You named your RND engine "Dark God", didn't you?

But that's exactly what I'm talking about! Concerning about quite realistic requires that battle is based most upon random events - as were in real those times! But it's a game killer! To avoid "Dark Gods" I should save and load - and thus all the above stuff doesn't matter: armor, hit locations, fires - only random is! That's pitty...

So, I gonna make a complete research - thank's to you included Scenario Editor in 1.5 I gonna create a few scenarios to make comparable results and collect statistics...

Could you please tell me your opinion - what two of Russian BB and Japan ships are closest in battle value? If I put up for example Tsesarevitch vs Asama - should it be "fair" accourding to their techs?