Still On The Topic Of Crew And Multiplayer

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

a question regarding the engine room gang in a sub sim...

i know we've sorta touched on this before, but i need some reasssurance or dissuasion here...


do you think people would enjoy playing an engine room chief mechanic, aboard a multiplayer session in a sub game... uboats in the north atlantic, or fleet boats in the pacific?

his area of control would be 1- the engine room crew (start,stop,adjust diesel power, direct diesel output to propulsion or recharging, open/shut induction) 2- the motor room crew (control motors while submerged, electric distribution panel) 3- damage control assignments...

his primary duty station would be in the engine room...

he would be able to roam to the bridge (captains ok), on deck (prior to departure and captains ok), to the chief petty officers area...

... or does it sound like it would be boring and not interesting enough for a player.

thx

--Mike

[timmyg00]

Originally Posted by Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense

a question regarding the engine room gang in a sub sim...

i know we've sorta touched on this before, but i need some reasssurance or dissuasion here...


do you think people would enjoy playing an engine room chief mechanic, aboard a multiplayer session in a sub game... uboats in the north atlantic, or fleet boats in the pacific?

his area of control would be 1- the engine room crew (start,stop,adjust diesel power, direct diesel output to propulsion or recharging, open/shut induction) 2- the motor room crew (control motors while submerged, electric distribution panel) 3- damage control assignments...

his primary duty station would be in the engine room...

he would be able to roam to the bridge (captains ok), on deck (prior to departure and captains ok), to the chief petty officers area...

... or does it sound like it would be boring and not interesting enough for a player.

thx

--Mike

I think a few might like it, but the vast majority of players will stick with the tactical side of things.

TG

[Polak]

I'm for sure one of those players who would play as an enginie room chief mechanic. That concept sounds very interesting to me.

[Letum]

sounds rather dull on the face of it.
how about we give them the sonar radar, TDC and weapons management as well?
This would leave the Klauen to make all the decisions and the "Crew" player to run the sub

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

nooope... sorrrrry the Exec's got the tdc and the sonar crew management duties...

besides, when the alarm rings, one player would have his hands full shutting down the diesels, closing the induction, switching on the motors for propulsion... every manned crew position has it's responsibilities... especially during the dive... especially engine room/manuevering and dive/ships control...

... the way i'm working it, ya gotta 'rise up the ranks', so to speak, starting out with a billet in the engineering spaces, then moving up to...

Diving Officer (planes,helm,ballast,vents)

then Executive Officer (plot,sonar,tdc,fire control)

then, finally, to Captain (attack scope,navigation, radio,command)

so, in total, there will be a four player submarine crew if all the billets are filled... unfilled billets are AI logic controlled... and every crew position wears multiple 'hats' meaning that they have multiple related resposibilites...

in single player, you are the Captain, and can take command of any station, otherwise it's AI controlled.


... anyways, that's the final gameplan... but it's taking me a while to get done... lots of rewrites... this and the graphics issue, i'm tempted to release a simplified game with simplified graphics... it's really becoming a pain.


THANKS for the input guys... more to come soon...


--Mike

[Polak]

Really Mike, I'm in love with the idea.
The rank system also sounds very good to me.

[Letum]

I love you too Mike *kisses and hugs*

[Hitman]

IMHO

1.- Pros: In any multiplayer game you can add a lot of appeal to those players who would like to start multiplaying but lack the skills to do more complicated roles (Torpedo shooting, manouvering) if you give them roles with little or no effort to be done well. This feature would no doubt attract to multiuplayer many guys who would otherwise not have interest in the game, or at least to play the game in multi. You know, it's like the guy who plays the small silver triangle in an orchestra....he would not participate if there was not such a simple instrument to play.

2.- Cons: Is it really worth to complicate the project to include this extra role? Are you aiming at a large scale, wide public sim? If you are looking for a niche in the market occupied with serious gamers who want realism, I think many will pass on that feature, while casual players will probably not buy a sim with such a steep learning curve just to play as engineer.

My 2 cents

[Deamon]

Hi Mike,

Originally Posted by Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense

do you think people would enjoy playing an engine room chief mechanic, aboard a multiplayer session in a sub game... uboats in the north atlantic, or fleet boats in the pacific?

I think this also depends on how ditailed this dutys are simulated and how much happen on this dutys, malfunctions and maintainance for example. There are also aditional dutys like maintain the engine diary and stuff. This should be tested and then maybe additional featuers could be added to break the possible linearity of this station duty.

But i think it's clear that only a minority would play this stations and maybe to just see how it works and then move to tactical stations. For most that would be more of an adjutainment station and there for would be good if it's modeled more in ditail so that people would want to stick to it a bit longer.

I think it's worth to give it a try.

Deamon

[Kapitan]

give it a go sounds good

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

Thanks for the input guys... i'm taking everything into consideration...

I've decided to go with my original code in 3DRAD... what this means is:
1- no bump mapped pixel shaded graphics...
2- no spectacular looking reflective water...
3- it'll run on almost anything from a 733 mHz system with a GeForce2 or better (faster systems for multiplayer)...
4- i'll be able to get it out within the next month...

i've given up chasing the DOOM3 look, and settled for graphics that i think will still look good for this genre... i've really reached the end of my rope with delay upon delay, always one problem or the other cropping up with the newer engines... i apologize to those who were looking forward to that... and also for the unnecessary delays when i wound up going with the code and engine i had originally started with...

maybe version 2 will incorporate some of the 'newer tech' stuff... but, right now, i've gotta get this out 'yesterday'... and this seems like the only way to do it...

ok... the first release will be set in WWII, the Pacific theatre, and you will join the game as a officer volunteering for sub duty in the US Navy...

expect a look and feel similar to that of the orignal Medal of Honor... or as close as i can come... and the game will progress along in the fashion, with some open endedness added as to afford some freedom to the path the game will follow... in short, what you do can affect your mission and it's outcome... and that can affect future missions... to a point...

the US will win the war regarless... whether or not you survive to see it though, depends a lot on you and how you mannage your crew...

you'll start the game in sub school, then be assigned to your first sub as a junior officer, and have to work your way up to Exec, and eventually to Captain...

there will also be multiplayer deployments available (it seems to be working ok so far on a lan, i may have to do an online test here soon), where you play either as commander of your own sub, or as part of the crew, commanding your section (as you will have to do in a lot of the single player missions) and having direct control over it...

a lil side note here... this 'crew coop' multiplayer is something i've worked on for quite a while now, and i've gotten something that i think will impart an added sense of realism and immersion to the experience... the idea of a few players sharing duties and coordinating for a successfull attack should be really cool...

i'm streamlining a lot of the old code... taking out a lot of unnecessary and what wound up being boring stuff... (for example, instead of actually taking the first person postion and view of the crewman at the station you are commanding, you will remain at your officer command view and command the station directly from there)... and what i've got so far, should leave plenty to do for everyone, even if there is a full crew (4 players) in a multiplayer session...

the stations are work intensive, simplified recreations of the real thing... and a mistake on your part can doom the sub and it's crew to a watery grave...

so... that's where it's at right now... lemme get back to work...i'm coding and modelling and texturing and testing... i hope to have something soon...

--Mike

[Oberon]

All sounds great stuff Mike
I look forward to seeing it...if there's any way I can help then don't hesitate to give me a shout.

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

... i'll probably be running a multiplayer test or two, will give yo a shout OB thx


also... by popular demand, and in order to help facilitate the pace at which i'm trying to maintain... i've reluctantly decided to streamline things down even further, and discard the engineering spaces...

most players polled found it an extraneous element, and would choose man more action oriented crew position over this one...

removing it also means a reduction in the number of players required to fully man a sub in multi-player... and a whole section of code logic that can be eliminated, thus reducing the overhead necessary to run the game smoothly...

finally... subsequent versions of the game, with nuclear subs, really didn't have much for the guys back there to do most of the time... so, i guess it was really just someething i wanted to put in after seeing some nice shots of the manuevering room of some real subs...

... it just seemed so cozy back there

--Mike

[Letum]

A release in a month?! And there was me thinking that this was all pre Alpha!
On a side note, would you like any 3d modles makeing? PM me if your intrested.

Originally Posted by Mike

... it just seemed so cozy back there

Brewing a pot of tea on the diesels, drying your wet clothes, warming your feet and listening to the pistons sing as the sub gentaly sways in the morning brezze.

[nacra]

Good news Mike! Keep the faith.

Paul

http://Sub-Log.com