XPlay (G4TV) Video Review of Dangerous Waters

[SeaQueen]

Originally Posted by goldorak

Of course its possible.
Microprose did it for Falcon 4, why would it be different for naval simulations. ?

Even Microprose's original Falcon was significantly dumbed down from what it was eventually modded into. Part of the problem is that there's significantly more information in the public domain about fighter jets than there is about anti-submarine warfare systems.

I agree with you seaqueen, concentrate on one single theater and apply a dynamic
campaign engine.

One of their big complaints in the video was that DW consisted of an awful lot of driving around the ocean looking at nothing. Well... that's the nature of a naval battle. The ocean is a big place, and situations develop slowly. Battles are still fought over hundreds or even thousands of miles, but ships are slow relative to jets and the ocean is a WHOLE LOT OF NOTHING.

If you had a dynamic campaign, where situations could be allowed to evolve on their own in real or accelerated time, then you'd "jump into" the platform or exit it at will, and it wouldn't be so painful to patrol a barrier for hours or even a day or two and find nothing. You would only worry about the exciting parts unless you're like me and just enjoy setting a course and let things run while you read a book, and check in now and then.

It's important to recognize, though, that naval warfare has a fundamentally different quality from fighter combat. In a naval campaign, you wouldn't have a home base, necessarily. If you do, it'd be thousands of miles away. UNREP and combat logistics forces are important, but by the same time SLOC must be protected (and attacked).

I actually wouldn't mind to a certain extent if it was scripted, so long as it's well thought out. I'd rather it look like a genuine campaign analysis, though, than a cheesy submarine novel.

I've come to believe that the more people try to make subsims reproductions of cheesy submarine novels, the less interesting they get. That's part of why I don't like a lot of scripting and plotting. Cheesy submarine novels are CHEESY. Let's try to actually figure out what it's all about, ya know?