Fleet Command: The Poor Man's Seapower

Started by Toonces, August 31, 2021, 04:54:47 PM

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Toonces

'sup Team Grogheads.

Like many of you, I've had Janes/Sonalysts Fleet Command for a number of years.  When I first got it I was somewhat dismissive of it because it felt too gamey and not nearly as fun as Harpoon.

Just lately I've been really hungering for a modern naval wargame.  I have Harpoon ANW as well as CMANO and CMO.  But I just really have trouble getting into CMO.  It's a fantastic simulation.  However, just as I find myself starting to crave flight sims with less fidelity, so too am I starting to enjoy naval sims with less realism factor, and more fun factor.

I installed Fleet Command a few months ago, but still couldn't quite get into it as it felt very gamey.  But then today I found myself on the Steam forums and came across something called the "NWP Mod" for Fleet Command.  A great deal of sleuthing and searching, and I found working links to the mod and installed it, and spent a few hours with it today.  I want to bring it to your attention because it makes Fleet Command a more realistic simulation while simultaneously keeping the game simpler than Harpoon or CMO.  The graphics in the mod are updated, but still very poor by today's standards.  But they are functional.  The mod appears to add a ton more units and weapons, a bunch of updated scenarios, and a handful of campaigns to boot.

I'm going to link a YouTube video below that highlights some of what the mod contains.

Links to the mod:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/g78k33ib37jho6w/Fleet%20Command%20NWP_v19.2.1.exe?dl=0

This takes you to NWP version 19.2.1.  There is a newer 19.2.2 version, but you need to be subscribed to Tapatalk to get it.  It comes as an .exe file, so just point the installer to your Steam Fleet Command install and the installer does the rest.  The dropbox is hosted by SmartWargames (host of the video below) and I'm making an assumption the .exe isn't doing anything malicious. 

If you try it out, post here with your impressions.  I'm going to be spending many more hours seeing if this scratches the itch before Seapower comes out.





"If you had a chance, right now, to go back in time and stop Hitler, wouldn't you do it?  I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he's awesome." - Eric Cartman

"Does a watch list mean you are being watched or is it a come on to Toonces?" - Biggs

Jarhead0331

Awesome. I used to love this game...

Just not sure it will hold up after all thees years. I might give it a shot.

I've watched this German guy playing Dangerous Waters. He runs a lot of the old classics modded.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


smittyohio

I installed it last week and tried to get back into it.   The individual scenarios worked fine, as did the tutorials, but when I fired up the 1st campaign, it got really laggy even though less was going on than in some of the one-off scenarios.   

Toonces

Yeah, I ran into some crashes when I played a few different scenarios.  There are like 8 campaigns in the scenario folder.  The Red Bear campaign crashed on me every time, unfortunately.
"If you had a chance, right now, to go back in time and stop Hitler, wouldn't you do it?  I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he's awesome." - Eric Cartman

"Does a watch list mean you are being watched or is it a come on to Toonces?" - Biggs

Toonces

Alright so I've spent a few more hours with this tonight and I have to say, this is a very fun experience.  I'm am thoroughly stoked I booted this back up.

It's definitely "lighter" than CMO, but I'm going to be perfectly honest.  This feels far more like what it was really like to be a TAO on a ship than CMO does. 

I think where I made the mistake when I was younger is that 1) I didn't really know how being a TAO worked, and 2) the level of command in Fleet Command feels closer to real life than CMO.

This isn't to say CMO isn't good, or FC is better.  What I mean is that FC puts you very much in the Fleet TAO seat and you have less fidelity in what you can order your units to do.  A lot of what is done (weapon allocations for example, search patterns are another) is left up to the AI which is very realistic.  And I am totally digging the voice action in the game which is exactly what sitting in the TAO seat sounded like.

I'm playing it with the "action view" on in the 3D screen (F11 key) and so the 3D at the bottom will switch to wherever the action is at that moment.  It's very immersive and far more fun that I remembered.

I was having some crashes and I'm not sure exactly how this mod should be installed.  For me, on my desktop I installed the tv22 version first followed by 19.2.1.  On my laptop I did 19.2.1 followed by tv22 version.  I'm not clear what the difference is (in both cases I told the computer to overwrite everything.)  Thus far, with 19.2.1 followed by tv22 I've played about 3 hours in a scenario with no issues.

Here is the parent link to the various mod versions.
https://www.pointaimshoot.co.uk/janesscsfleetcommanddownloads/

I'm having a blast.
"If you had a chance, right now, to go back in time and stop Hitler, wouldn't you do it?  I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he's awesome." - Eric Cartman

"Does a watch list mean you are being watched or is it a come on to Toonces?" - Biggs

Yskonyn

Nice post, Toonces!

FC brings back many fond memories.
I hope the new find will bring you some good hours of fun!  \m/

"Pilots do not get paid for what they do daily, but they get paid for what they are capable of doing.
However, if pilots would need to do daily what they are capable of doing, nobody would dare to fly anymore."

Shelldrake

Thanks for the heads up Toonces! I will definitely DL and try the mod.
"Just because something is beyond your comprehension doesn't mean it is scientific."

Dean Edell

Jarhead0331

Quote from: Shelldrake on September 01, 2021, 11:27:51 AM
Thanks for the heads up Toonces! I will definitely DL and try the mod.

Good to see you Shelldrake. Happy you decided to pop in.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Toonces

I apologize if this is getting confusing; it is for me, too.  My laptop and desktop act very differently to various games and mods, and it doesn't help that I installed this mod in a different order on both machines.

Tonight I was playing a scenario for about two hours with no issues on my desktop (TV22 followed by 19.2.1).  Just at the best part, when I was in the middle of the big strike against the main target, hours in the making, the game simply locked up on me.  I have no idea why.  I did do a save prior to the lock up, but it was before I assembled the strike which was pretty time-consuming.

All of which is to say, YMMV with this mod.  As always, be sure to save often (unlike me), especially if you're heavily invested in a scenario.

I'm pretty bummed because up until that moment I was pretty pleased with the scenario's design, and was pretty challenged.  Ah well.
"If you had a chance, right now, to go back in time and stop Hitler, wouldn't you do it?  I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he's awesome." - Eric Cartman

"Does a watch list mean you are being watched or is it a come on to Toonces?" - Biggs

Wburn

The game can be a bit quirky. I was playing the a scenario recently and launched a EC3 which promptly disappeared. There is a glide wrapper that enables you to go to higher resolutions which is nice.
Here is a link.
http://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide

Toonces

Does using the glide wrapper make a big difference in the graphics?
"If you had a chance, right now, to go back in time and stop Hitler, wouldn't you do it?  I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he's awesome." - Eric Cartman

"Does a watch list mean you are being watched or is it a come on to Toonces?" - Biggs

Wburn

No, the 3D graphics just get stretched a little bit but the maps look better.