WHY God - is there no decent Sailing Ship war game?!?!

[UdiHrant]

The eye candy and models in Nappy Total War are just fine but of course the speed is silly fast.

I would settle for a good top-down representation of a sea battle if the right elements were presented.

I would picture the following:
- reasonably accurate ship types and performance, speed, turning, firepower
- crew management including the ability to delegate on a few levels, captain, helmsman, gunners, sail management, repair, marines
- damage detail such as flooding, list, sail and mast, guns destroyed

The computing power and sophistication for this level of game is about 15 years old so im mystified as to why someone hasn't done one lately.

Salvo comes to mind but is butt-ugly.

[jason210]

Asw mentioned, Empire Total War, Napoleon Total War and East India Company all have decent sailing ship war games. The only problem with those is that none offer a simulation - the controls are like left, right, stop, go & go faster; and it all happens too quickly.

Napoleon TW offered the most immersion if you change the camera in the preferences script to unlock the developers camera which then allows you to move right in on the ship and move around and inside the decks.

There's definitely a gap in the market for a proper battle sailing simulator though, kind of along the Hornblower / Master and Commander lines, where you are not restricted by boundaries as in total war, and where you can actually dock in historic ports and so on. Would be so cool!

[soopaman2]

The closest I came to a decent age of sail era game was Empire Total war.

Too bad you were rarely attacked navally. Amongst all the other broken crap in that game. So much promise too.

[Sailor Steve]

The last sailing-warfare game I liked was Man O' War II.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...%3Bread-review

The point-of-view was first-person from the poop-deck of your own ship. There was a real-time map to help you keep abreast of the action, which helped because you couldn't always tell exactly what was going on.

It was limited but fun for awhile.

I will still fire up the original Talonsoft Age of Sail although like all early John Tiller naval games it ignores the existence of little things like land, time of day and for the most part, weather. Age of Sail 2 was a minor improvement in some respects but was self-limiting due to the total absence of a scenario editor.

In this age of instant gratification, the pace of any sailing ship combat simulator would be far too slow for the ADHD generation given that movement to contact was typically at a mere 2 or 3 knots. Nelson's ships took some 6-hours to close on the Combined Fleet, every minute of which changed the relative positions of the forces but even with TC would proceed at a snail's pace for the patience challenged out there. Of course the battles could always commence within firing range and so any simulator worthy of the name would probably conclude in historical results as many naval actions were decided before the first shot was fired due to relative positions when combat commenced.

Also, graphics fanatics would endlessly nit-pick specific rigging arrangements, paint schemes and of course, the player perspective would require either a horrible god's-eye view (like SES Jutland/Distant Guns) or a quarterdeck POV that would limit the spectacle aspects of the game. Finding common ground for these fundamental programming considerations would be next to impossible.

So, I suspect given the very limited potential commercial market and the inherent difficulty of meeting gamer's expectations we will not see any mainstream sailing warship simulator worthy of the name. That said, there's always a chance that some independent person or team will produce one as a labour of love but don't hold your breath.

I feel your pain at this omission but do not expect anything to change anytime soon.

[tater]

I agree. TW is weak. The first requirement for a decent age of sail sim is an accurate sailing model.

What I want is a frigate game. Or even a sloop of war. Sailing as the primary simulation. Gunnery, boarding, etc is easy by comparison. Allow grognard controls as an option, but have an easier mode with a "sailing master." You are skipper, and simply tell (or ask via GUI) the sailing master what you can do—put her "alongside at pistol shot on the larboard tack." (then it does that).

[con20or]

Amen brothers - and I loved Man O'War II as well. You were supposedly able to give fleet and squadron orders by flag.

I never could get them to work though..

I would love a good sim of a friagate and etc, with a dynamic campaign.

There are plenty of sailing sims out there, but they are all for yachts/laser dinghies etc - like Virtual Skipper 4- Im sure it wouldnt be too hard to edit them for an old warship.