Blue Water Development Diary

[p7p8]

LINK - or any information exchange is needed if you want to make multiplayer mode with cooperation option - where two players controls own warship/submarine and have different sensors and abilities. For example submarine player haven't the same "surface" situation picture like warship commander.
If multiplayer will be only 1 vs 1 link is not needed. But i think most players would like to play with team vs another players team.

For me best solution would be assigning roles. From battle group commander (where player controls own unit + every AI, to warship commander - where player controls only ownship


About time acceleration:
In my opinion it depends on maximum scale of battle. If map size will have thousands kilometers it really have sense. But i think scale shouldn't be so big. For me better solution than "slowest requested speed" will be automatically time managements. For example at beginning of battle both sides havent enemy contact and game would run x2 or x4. It allows to move own forces to key strategic points or for better tactical planning. After detection or some speciffic events (opening fire etc.) game will change time compression to x1.
It will eliminate situation described by @Herman

[Herman]

Originally Posted by p7p8

For me better solution than "slowest requested speed" will be automatically time managements. For example at beginning of battle both sides havent enemy contact and game would run x2 or x4. It allows to move own forces to key strategic points or for better tactical planning. After detection or some speciffic events (opening fire etc.) game will change time compression to x1.
It will eliminate situation described by @Herman

I respectfully disagree with this assessment. IMHO, it is never better to force anything automatically or make any management mandatory. Whenever there is any doubt, it is always better to grant the players the maximum discretion possible, because they can always choose to ignore something. If it is programmed into the code, then nothing can be done to avoid it.

Learn from the mistakes of other games such as Flashpoint Campaigns. They removed most discretion from the players and force AI-controlled actions that would be ridiculous to any human in command. However, there is no way to avoid them. The garbage decisions mandated by the AI/game engine replace reasonable and logical human commands and there is absolutely no way around them.

Forcing battles to only drop to 1:1 time compression upon contact gives away too much information. An unsuspecting player walking into an ambush is immediately warned of impending action simply by watching the clock drop down to 1:1 time.

I have personally used the 'drop to 1:1' time as a feint for my opponent to make him believe combat was imminent, even when I was still distant.

Another possible option lost is for one player to plan intricate manoeuvres such as flank attacks or coordinated approaches (pincer movements).

There are just too many limitations to this mandatory action. Please leave it up to the players. If there is a particular player who insists upon slow play, he is going to find no one willing to engage him. The problem eventually solves itself.

[p7p8]

For me time acceleration is not good choice but if you have to, better is to do it by automatic mechanism. When players can decide when time is set to x1 or x4 or more most players will set x1 in all game.
So your ability for playing with accelerated time will be pure illusion.

In other hand if players at beginning will decide to play faster, and sudenly you will notice time is slowing down to x1 you have the same information like you described above:

Forcing battles to only drop to 1:1 time compression upon contact gives away too much information. An unsuspecting player walking into an ambush is immediately warned of impending action simply by watching the clock drop down to 1:1 time.

For me acceleration should be used for tactical planning like: spliting forces, taking better positions etc. Not for making advantage over opponent: "i will delay returning to x1 time for surprising enemy.
In that case good automatic game system will be more effective and more "fair play" to each players

[Herman]

Originally Posted by p7p8

In other hand if players at beginning will decide to play faster, and sudenly you will notice time is slowing down to x1 you have the same information like you described above:

Not true. I occasionally drop to 1:1 time just to give the impression that I am doing something important. It keeps my opponent guessing so that he can never know whether or not the 1:1 time means that I am detecting him, attacking him, or just checking on the status of a unit. Used judiciously, it keeps all sides honest.

The important thing is that the option is always available to players and is not arbitrarily imposed.

[stormrider_sp]

Fantastic!! Really looking forward for this one!


How moddable will it be?

[strykerpsg]

Kudos AzureSkies!

This would be great in a market devoid of modern naval 1st person and/or 3D sims not seen since the 90s, with Destroyer Command, Jane's Fleet Command and other WWII naval sims. Some great suggestions already noted within the thread too.

Subscribed to this thread for updates.

[AzureSkies]

Just wanted to let y'all know there's an update on the Dev Diary. I want to start using it more.

[Amiral Crapaud]

Your ships are beautiful. Keep up to good work, bro!

[AzureSkies]

Another update on the Dev Diary.

Originally Posted by Alain-James

Your ships are beautiful. Keep up to good work, bro!

Thanks!