DW is showing its age. It's rearing its ugly graphics.

[Castout]

Been quite some time since I played DW the last time.
DW is showing its age now on my widescreen monitor
If it only supported widescreen resolution at high resolution it could breathe some more life into it even with 16 bit graphics.

....sad Sonalysts has decided to jump the ship on games...
now they are responsible for making the younger gamer generation losing some IQ points by not presenting alternative to repetitive mind numbing shooter and simplistic RTS . . .

Anyway I just feel l need to vent this feeling....I feel we need a 'new DW'. There are only few games which bring me fond memories playing them and SC and DW were one of them. Whenever I feel alone in my campus dorm especially at fridays or weekends I would just fire up SC even when I actually wasn't really playing it just lying on my bed listening to the in game music thinking to myself I'm not alone my crews are with me lol. Oh the good old days. Love the in game music. I was a broke student but happy now Im broke and unhappy lol. With no near probability of a new game from Sonalysts....

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Castout

....sad Sonalysts has decided to jump the ship on games...
now they are responsible for making the younger gamer generation losing some IQ points by not presenting alternative to repetitive mind numbing shooter and simplistic RTS . . .

No, you cannot blame Sonalysts, they made four outstanding modern naval sims. They did not sell enough copies to warrant further game development. That's our fault as customers.

[goldorak]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

No, you cannot blame Sonalysts, they made four outstanding modern naval sims. They did not sell enough copies to warrant further game development. That's our fault as customers.

Yes and no. Yes the game was a commercial failure but not because of us who bought it but because the "brainwashed masses" just didn't get it.
Which brings me to the second point, when you're going to sell something to someone make sure you give him what he wants (at least in part). Bringing a game with a 10 years old graphics engine was not a good decision. Say what you want, but the first thing to hook people to games is "eye candy".
Once you have them on the hook, you can go on saying how realisitic the simulator is etc, etc, etc... but until that point you have got to do everything in your power to excite new players.

[goldorak]

Originally Posted by Castout

Been quite some time since I played DW the last time.
DW is showing its age now on my widescreen monitor
If it only supported widescreen resolution at high resolution it could breathe some more life into it even with 16 bit graphics.

At the time nobody (even gaint publishers such as EA, Ubisoft, etc...) was adding support for widescreen monitors. So SCS is not to fault here.
And as for high resolution, the game goes up to 1600x1200 which is pretty high, unless you're wanting to play on a 30 inch monitor which is preposterous.
Now since the game doesn't have native support for widescreen (and may i say that a lot of classic pc games don't have support for widescreen it doesn't make them any less classic and enjoyable ) hardware comes to the rescue. Either your graphics card or your monitor should have the option to maintain the correct 4:3 aspect ratio on a widescreen monitor. That means that you'll have black bars on the right and left but the image will not be distorted.

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by goldorak

Yes and no. Yes the game was a commercial failure but not because of us who bought it but because the "brainwashed masses" just didn't get it.
Which brings me to the second point, when you're going to sell something to someone make sure you give him what he wants (at least in part). Bringing a game with a 10 years old graphics engine was not a good decision. Say what you want, but the first thing to hook people to games is "eye candy".
Once you have them on the hook, you can go on saying how realisitic the simulator is etc, etc, etc... but until that point you have got to do everything in your power to excite new players.

These are both good points, but they're in opposition to each other. If you use graphics as a hook, then the people you bring in are exactly the people who just don't get it. And then you get even more reviews like the one we got on Attack of the Show or whatever the hell that was.

[goldorak]

Originally Posted by Molon Labe

These are both good points, but they're in opposition to each other. If you use graphics as a hook, then the people you bring in are exactly the people who just don't get it. And then you get even more reviews like the one we got on Attack of the Show or whatever the hell that was.

No no they are not in opposition. You have to think in terms of a "school analogy". Kids are naturally curious beings, but many times its difficult to get their attention. So what do you do ? You try to get them excited about something that sparks their curiosity. Now that doesn't mean that every kid will stay and pay attention, but many will.
Gamers are not idiots, even those that like to play fps or rts or game genres that typically have nothing to do with military simulations. Many don't know wether they will like a game such as Falcon 4 or DW until they have learned about it or try it out. And it is in this phase that you have to capture their attention. Sure many will say I don't like it, but some will say I didn't know this genre but it looks iteresting. I'll give it a try. Publishers, even niche publishers have nothing to loose to hook these players, and everything to gain. But you have got to get them to at least have a passing look on your game, and that cost is graphics.

[Castout]

It's sad that most people do not want to play games that require them to learn.

They just want to jump right in to the game.

I mean games that let you jump right in usually don't offer much that's why you can just jump right in while games that require you to learn usually offers more strategic or tactical depth or both that simpler games don't offer to its players.

I like DW and SC very much and I don't get it why the masses don't.

@Goldorak I just knew it from you DW could support 1600x resolution.. I've been playign with 1024x800 resolution and tyhat's why it's so jaggy.

[Sea Demon]

they made four outstanding modern naval sims. They did not sell enough copies to warrant further game development. That's our fault as customers.

Yes. Sonalyst's games have been very enjoyable. But how is it "our" fault? Where did we go wrong? Unfortunately, I have a hard time assigning blame to anybody. I did see Sonalysts take some steps to better their chances to make the game profitable with the first publishing effort (Battlefront). They tried to offer customers incentives to buy with the hopes of added playables as well. I think they were also hoping each of us would help "sell" the game to other interested parties such as friends and associates. Too bad it didn't work out like they wanted it too.

[smithcorp]

I saw this thread over at SimHQ ages ago and wondered if anything had come of it. I don't mind the graphics (they don't turn me off the game - how good do the graphics of a sonar screen need to be?) for DW but I would be interested in getting it to fit better on by 1400x900 LCD monitor.

Does anyone know if this potential workaround/toolkit would work with DW?

Thread here: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.ph...ml#Post2646240

[Castout]

I can tell you that that workaround didn't work for SH3 for me

[smithcorp]

And I've since confirmed it didn't work for DW either. Pity.

[Blacklight]

I think that even WITH hot graphics, this game would have sold poorly. All the kids (who are the majority of the gameing market) heard about a 500 page manual, they'd run away screaming. The majority of the ones who would actually buy the game would probably be bored as it's not an arcade game with constant action and explosions jumping out at you every five secconds.
There just aren't enough of us to really keep this niche market afloat very well. Most of us are NOT the typical target consumer for video games.

[Task Force]

Originally Posted by Blacklight

I think that even WITH hot graphics, this game would have sold poorly. All the kids (who are the majority of the gameing market) heard about a 500 page manual, they'd run away screaming. The majority of the ones who would actually buy the game would probably be bored as it's not an arcade game with constant action and explosions jumping out at you every five secconds.
There just aren't enough of us to really keep this niche market afloat very well. Most of us are NOT the typical target consumer for video games.

Not all kids are that way... (Just alot of them.)

[688iGuy]

I think Microsoft Flight Simulator is the perfect example of the successful complex-sim business model. Eye popping graphics for the simple minded consumer, yet a highly complex and realistic simulation for the dedicated fans. With the exception of maybe flying an ultralight, I would say that game is just as difficult, if not more so, to learn, yet people buy it, including kids. Why? Graphics.


Its the same reason nobody buys Sega Genesis games anymore, people don't want to buy yesterdays technology.


It's not a matter of market. There are just as many Tom Clancy reading, naval oriented individuals out there as there are casual propeller heads, but they need to be drawn in.


Sonalysts shot themselves in the foot with this one by offering piss-poor graphics. The dedicated fan who will buy a game regardless of visuals is a very small market for ANY sim. Take away Flight Simulators graphics and I'm sure its fate would be the same as DW.



Not to mention I think the campaign was very weak, the game was riddled with bugs, etc etc. They half-assed it.


Don't get me wrong, I love the game and am one of the few dedicated consumers would have bought this game regardless, but Sonalysts messed this up, not us, and not the masses for not accepting crappy graphics. The blame falls squarely on Sonalysts. They blew it for all of us.

[Molon Labe]

You can only do so much with a limited budget. More attention to graphics would have meant less attention to the simulation. And then we'd just have another Silent Hunter or something.