Cold Waters

[trek]

Follow-up to my last post and referencing Jive Turkey's series of CW videos. For those of you who want to know if the game is fun I call your attention to his latest submission: "Cold Waters: Long Shot". If this one video doesn't demonstrate what fun is to you then nothing ever will. If KF supports this game as much as they did AF then we have a long-term gem on our hands.

[Nefaro]

Is anyone else having an issue with run away FPS in menus with vsync off? The game is a slow stutterfest with it on, but off my old ass 450 GTS card runs the game smoothly with all the bells and whistles on. The problem is in menus when the FPS jumps up over 200 and the heat on my video card goes through the roof.  :'(

Lower the Anti-Aliasing a notch or two, to lower the stuttering.

It starts off at maximum by default. 

Leave the V-sync on because the Unity engine will just run your video card at maximum burn the whole time otherwise.  Vsync will keep it from going thermonuclear.

[Nefaro]

Thanks for all the impressions info so far on this thread.

Can you guys who have it tell how deep the campaign is? is there any sort of dynamic skirmish mode?

I think I can swallow the $40 price tag despite the AWSD manual controls as long as it has the long term replayability and depth that RSR had.

The campaign is dynamic.

You'll be assigned one procedurally generated mission at a time.  But you move around on the campaign map manually, encountering various groups to attack/avoid as needed.

The campaign isn't "canned".  Which is a big PRO.   :bd:

[Nefaro]

Follow-up to my last post and referencing Jive Turkey's series of CW videos. For those of you who want to know if the game is fun I call your attention to his latest submission: "Cold Waters: Long Shot". If this one video doesn't demonstrate what fun is to you then nothing ever will. If KF supports this game as much as they did AF then we have a long-term gem on our hands.

FPSchazly also did a live play, and posted it on YouTube.

He's been making Dangerous Waters vids for a long time, and knows his stuff. 

I caught the tail end of it while I was downloading CW.  Was some serious Pucker Factor fun, seeing him counter & dodge a torpedo that nearly rubbed the coating off the side of his sub at one point.

[Toonces]

Ok, so I watched Jive Turkey's three videos.  I'm playing this game wrong.  I kind of knew that I suppose, because I remember the tactical display in RSR playing more like an arcade game than simulation.

JT is staying mostly in 3D mode and flying his sub around, and generally spending way more time enjoying the scenery than I was doing.  I need to go into this with more of an arcade game mindset.  It certainly looks like he's having fun.

I think I'll go ahead and keep the game since I already paid for it.  I can use it as a palette cleanser, or when I want to get my sub on, but don't want to go all hardcore CMANO, DW, SH, etc. 

Good call on the videos, though.  You (I) definitely get a better sense of what the developers were likely going for watching JT play.

[kludger]

The campaign is dynamic.

You'll be assigned one procedurally generated mission at a time.  But you move around on the campaign map manually, encountering various groups to attack/avoid as needed.

The campaign isn't "canned".  Which is a big PRO.   :bd:

Thanks for that confirmation, agreed, that's a huge PRO and just made the sale for me (along with the great shared impressions and videos in the thread).

[Toonces]

Ok, I'm not going to lie.  I just had a lot of fun.

I didn't realize how to select your submarine until I read the manual (I sound like JD).   ::)  So by pressing A and D you can select different types of subs.  I booted up the 1968 campaign and played as a Skipjack class sub, the crappiest one in the game.  Took my first mission to attack an amphibious group.  I accidentally broke my periscope because I clicked off periscope view, but not down scope.

Anyway, I tried to do a submerged run in and got boxed in bad by two ASW ships.  I snapshot torps at both and got one just as he unloaded ASW rockets on me.

Playing the game in 3D mode is way more fun.  There were explosions everywhere, I took some damage, got one kill, but the other guy was working with a May and they just savaged me.  Flying around in 3D mode watching the action is definitely the call.

[Jarhead0331]

^Seems like a lot of people are figuring it out. Reviews on Steam have gone from "mixed" yesterday, to "very positive" today...

[Nefaro]

The campaign is dynamic.

You'll be assigned one procedurally generated mission at a time.  But you move around on the campaign map manually, encountering various groups to attack/avoid as needed.

The campaign isn't "canned".  Which is a big PRO.   :bd:

Thanks for that confirmation, agreed, that's a huge PRO and just made the sale for me (along with the great shared impressions and videos in the thread).

O0


Just keep in mind that there are specific keyboard & mouse inputs, listed in the manual, that will help you out quite a bit.  Not always listed in the key command list, at the back, either.

For example, the campaign map to battle map transition has a factor many people are overlooking.  Even veterans sub simmers.  Both Left- and Right-Mouse buttons have movement functions on the campaign map.  The left is for moving full speed, the right for a slower cruise speed which allows you to begin battles at a slower speed.  Which is very important for detection purposes - both ways.  Mentioned on page 44.

Keep seeing YT'ers wondering why they're starting off each battle at 29 knots - being detected early, and closer to their intended prey, than they'd like.  Not knowing the movement commands was giving them a more difficult start.   :D   

[Toonces]

^ Yes.

If you can find a spot on the enemy's path and wait stopped for him to come to you, you get a much more distant start, and your boat will start at 5kt.

I'll tell ya, you guys better wear your big boy pants for the 1968 campaign.  That is friggin' brutal.  And Skipjack?  Suicide!  Good luck!

I just had a killer mission in my second sub, a Sturgeon-class.  Hunting a Foxtrot, got him finally, mostly through luck.  Was trying to clear datum from one of my own circling torps that was ringing around the Fox's wreckage, and stupidly went to flank, cavitating to get on with it so I could exit mission.

Didn't realize there was a Bear up there still hunting me.

This is something you really, really don't want to see.

Edit: crap, the screenshot didn't save.  I was near the bottom in 3D and you could see the shadow of the bear on top of me as it dropped its torp.  It was pretty epic.

Anyway, here's me getting the Foxtrot, before the Bear got me.

[SirAndrewD]

So far this thing is more fun than crashing an orgy at the Playboy Mansion. 

Going to be another long night tonight.

[mikeck]

So after initial impressions were a little meh....I'm assuming this now has the general Grogheads thumbs up?

[Toonces]

I think so.

I've come around.  It took me a while to appreciate what the devs are going for, but now that I'm getting the hang of it, it's pretty fun.  Hard.  I'm having little luck playing anything but the 688, so if you're looking for a challenge, there is one to be had here.

[Jarhead0331]

So far this thing is more fun than crashing an orgy at the Playboy Mansion. 

You, sir, have clearly NEVER crashed an orgy at the Playboy Mansion.

[SirAndrewD]

So far this thing is more fun than crashing an orgy at the Playboy Mansion. 

You, sir, have clearly NEVER crashed an orgy at the Playboy Mansion.

And if I did, I'd likely be arrested very roughly and spent quite some time behind bars, getting a very different experience from the one I'd get at an orgy at the Playboy mansion.

So, I stand by my opinion that Cold Waters is more fun.