Looks like World Of Warships has yet another competitor.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/390670/
It actually has Submarines and ASW. ^-^ Along with more hands-on control of all weapons, such as being able to aim & fire individual guns/torpedoes, Secondary guns, and manually-aimed AAA.
Gonna check it out since it's a free-to-play.
Early look:
Forum says need lots of gold :(
The stupid thing about these games is the ability of deep water ships to sail on coastal areas.
They put little islands all over the map because open sea is boring.
Quote from: FlickJax on November 16, 2015, 04:40:33 AM
Forum says need lots of gold :(
The econ model is just like World Of Tanks. Which isn't great, but I guess it's the baseline. It has "gold ammo" which is a terrible concept, but I'm not sure it makes such a big difference in SO as it does in WoT. And I'll be making some comparisons to WoWS later in this post since some of you are familiar with that.
AFAICT, you can progress through the first few tiers just fine without spending a dime. Like the others. In SO thirty days of Premium costs around $9 US, so it's cheaper in that respect.
My initial impressions of Steel Ocean:
BAD
-The graphics are mediocre, but not offending.
-The real problem with the gfx is the poor optimization. Your framerates will be fluctuating too much during matches no matter how much GPU power you have. Possibility of an occasional hiccup or stuttering.
-There are games with better 'gold' econ models out there. This one is obviously based on the antiquated and overdone WoT.
-Not sure how the high tier match payouts are handled in this one yet. I imagine the repair costs are higher, at higher tiers, but in the low tiers they're almost non-existant. I imagine it shoots up at some point.
GOOD
-The gameplay is much more varied than it's closest resemblance, World Of Warships. The five types of ships are interesting, more so since...
-It has submarines and ASW. I'm really enjoying both, especially making depth charge runs on enemy DDs that are popping in & out of my (sonar) view.
-More skill-based freedom. You fire torpedoes & guns individually. You select how many planes to launch a squadron with (in CV), you have to manually shoot your larger AAA guns at aircraft. Just a lot more fine control and variety all around regarding weapons.
-HE shells don't work well, at all, against appropriately armored vessels. AP is the primary ammo you want to use against most other warships, barring the DDs & subs perhaps, if you're driving a BB or CA. Or the utmost desperation.
-This could be good or bad, depending on your preference, but matches are faster than WoWS. More action, less travelling. I just put this in the "Good" column because I feel like I'm not isolated or chasing the last few enemies for very long.
-Gunfire aiming can be more challenging in some circumstances. Since turning your ship will make your gunfire less accurate, and you need to straighten for a short time to get the best accuracy, there is more timing involved to your fire. It also makes gunfire easier to dodge with a smaller faster vessel that's maneuvering, but at the same time that zig-zagging will ruin such a ship's own shots. Feels pretty rewarding.
-Likewise there are no prediction cones for torpedoes. You'll have to learn to aim them by experience. They also have minimum warhead activation ranges, so no point-blank cheese shots. Lastly, you can fire each tube individually, so their use is flexible.
Just some quick impressions.
This game is rather rough around the edges, in places, but the gameplay has been very enjoyable in the matches up to Tier 3 I've played. It's faster-paced than the other game, but the way they've modelled the gameplay gives it more flavor.
Submarine gameplay by Krebs:
do you run out of torpedoes?
Quote from: jomni on November 17, 2015, 05:03:02 PM
do you run out of torpedoes?
You can, although I never have. I think most ships carry around 39-40 total, although some with very few tubes may only carry 20.
All the guns, AA, Torpedoes have limited amounts per match. You can adjust how much AP & HE you have for the main and secondary guns.
Carrier aircraft have limited fuel supply. So you can't just keep them circling around indefinitely until the perfect moment. Same with catapult recon planes.
You also should load up some smoke screen, repair, and extinguisher consumables once you get past the short Tier I & II stuff. Everyone can place smoke screens.
There is only one server cluster. It's listed as "North America" when I start it from Steam but the ping implies that it's somewhere overseas.
It has built-in voice for each side, although I've disabled it due to the possibility of obnoxious attention-starved children yammering away in it.
I may be a traitor for playing Steel Ocean instead of World Of Warships lately, but I've been enjoying some of the differences quite a bit.
Had some crazy rampages in my american Bagley-class destroyer last night. While you can't do near as much damage against enemy Battleships & Cruisers with DD guns (no magic HE fire), you can still torpedo the shit out of them. Although that can be a tricky endeavor since there is a notable minimum torpedo activation range. Plus.. a successful Depth Charge kill against an enemy sub is SO gratifying. I've had some serious seat-of-the-pants runs with my DD firing Guns, Torpedoes, AAA, and Depth Charges in some serious engagements. Intensely fun. 8)
On the other end, Battleship guns are extremely powerful against any surface ship they can hit. But they take awhile to aim; this game has a flexing CEP that gets wider the more you turn your ship or your turrets instead of a set spread range dictated by too much RNGesus. Therefore if you want more gun accuracy, you need to stop or reduce your turn rate, making it a trade-off between evasiveness and gunfire effectiveness for all types (although the smaller ships can aim faster after straightening from a turn). They also don't rely on RNG-dependent citadel hits. The only way to quickly take them out is with torpedoes (via ship or plane) or other BB main guns. And torpedoes are more difficult to hit with, despite their relatively long ranges.
Despite also being very Arcade-ish, like it's competitor, the ship class match-ups are closer to reality. DDs are generally going to have problems in a gun battle even against CLs (which DO have armor) much less anything larger. CLs are at a big gunfight disadvantage against CAs, and so on. So there is more Rock-Paper-Scissors regarding warship types, as appropriate.
TL;DR
In other words, there isn't as much RNG-dependence in this one. Your results are based more on player skill. It also has more control over your ships' range of weapons, as mentioned earlier in this thread. At the same time, the ships aren't quite as artificially balanced with stuff like overpowered HE. The ship classes' weapons are appropriately matched against other types, so you won't see DDs flaming BBs down.
I think Wargaming.net should take some cues from this one. It's good to have competition, so hopefully WoWS will step up and expand their game mechanics, and take another look at the existing stuff. A perfect example is their refusal to implement submarines in WoWS, stating that it would be unbalanced and can't be done, but SO plainly disproves that. WoWS seems very limited to me right now, in comparison, even though it still has a few advantages.
I'm not kicking WoWS to the curb, but this recent competition has shown me how much more gameplay & enjoyment could be had if WG put more effort into expanding their game mechanics and content. It seems a bit thin in comparison.
Got to play a Night match in my Tier 5 american DD.
You have to fire starshells (labelled as "Flares" in-game) in order to spot enemies at anything but short range.
Was pretty damn fun. This thing continues to be enjoyable for it's variety and more specialized roles.
Sometime in the past week they also fixed the FPS dips I was having. O0
You can get the Tier 5 premium British battlecruiser Repulse for free for the next week or so..
Gotta use the "Play Game" button for the free Repluse DLC on the Steam page here:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/430110
In-game, claim the reward on the reward page, bottom right. Open "Storage" tab, at top, then "Non-Battle Item" page of that window. L-click Repluse package and select "Use".
Some Tips:
-> In Battleship's & Heavy Cruiser's "Hawkeye" aim mode, for their main guns, use CTRL+Right-Click on the mini-map to quickly move your aim to that point.
Moving your bino view with your mouse is slow in this long-range mode, for purposes of fine aiming, so you'll definitely want to use this. BB salvos will wreck shit something fierce when your aim is on.
-> This game has a CEP-style aim point reticle and, therefore gun accuracy over which you have some control.
Kinda like first person shooters where the aim circle, and therefore the accuracy, gets spread out the more you move. Except in this game it spreads out when your ship is turning and, to a lesser extent, when your gun turrets are turning. Not so just straight forward movement. So if you want to be accurate, you'll have to briefly sail straight and wait for the aim circle to get more precise. Smaller ships with smaller guns can be more accurate, and aim more quickly, but they also have to zig-zag more to avoid the big guns. It's a trade-off.
-> In many cases, you'll want to turn after firing, when your guns start reloading.
Odds are that you're spotted (the spotting ranges of different ships aren't massively different in this one, but firing will extend it) and someone may be tracking you for a shot. Even if you turn a little, while reloading, it can be the difference between 3 or 5 shells hitting you from a salvo, or bouncing what would be plunging hits into your deck off the side of your thicker belt armor instead. In the case of smaller vessels, it's your best defense .. so turn more & often in between shots!
-> If you want the controls almost exactly like World of Warships, just switch the R/F and W/S keys for the speed telegraph stuff.
The default is more like World Of Tanks, where it took the inspiration. Also remember that you can set your rudder to keep a specific position (something like 4 or 5 different angles to each side), so you don't always have to hold rudder down to full. A midling rudder setting will mean less time aiming your guns after the gentler turn so use what is needed for the situation.
-> The Meta-game will seem rather confusing at first. You have officers to appoint in each ship's five officer positions, for example.
Tutorials will pop up from time-to-time, when you've unlocked new ships/tiers, so don't sweat it too much early on. Just run through them as they come. They teach-by-doing. Most of you will already understand the concept of unlocking & buying improved equipment on each ship. But there is also expendables such as Smoke rounds, Repair Kits, and Fire Extinguishers, and the aforementioned Captain & Officers to load up. I've made Officer presets in one of the tabs, for each type of ship (BB, CA/CL, DD, SS).
-> Torpedoes have a minimal run length before their warhead activates.
Another of the little, more realism-based, details that make this game enjoyable. You can see it on the "aim tape" when aiming your torpedoes. The short uncolored area from your boat out to the colored part of the line is where it won't explode. This is a big deal for submarines since torpedoes are their main armament, and there are limited supplies on-board, so you want to make them count. Yet it's best to get as close as possible for best chance of a torpedo hit, so you'll have better results getting close without being TOO close. When Destroyers come at you, don't waste torpedo shots once they're inside your activation range. Dive deep, evade, and pray that one of your teammates have guns on him while he's on a Depth Charge run.
-> Don't forget to switch to your secondary weapons when the need arises.
Every ship, even subs, tend to have extra weapons for use on different targets. Battleships and Heavy Cruisers can also fire their Secondary guns (although not in the "Hawkeye" bino mode like it's main guns), and AA cannons (AAMGs fire automatically). Others also have torpedoes and depth charges. Pretty much all of them can be switched between single & salvo fire mode using the tilde key (~), to the left of the '1' key. No need to double-click to fire all the guns at once (and.. explode into spaaace).
-> Night Battles.
Ohhhh are these fun! I don't get in them all that often but they're a nice change. Pretty straightforward. Spotting ranges are very short. So you may run right into a line of battleships in the dark and nearly shit your little destroyer pants. Everyone will start off with Starshells (known as Flares in-game) and you can occasionally fire one at some limited distance, to light up an area where, hopefully, an enemy ship is located. I think it's the F5 key to switch to the Flare but you can see it at bottom left, near your other weapons & equipment buttons.
-> The early tiers are easy to try out, so check out the different ship types.
The early tier ships are pretty cheap and there isn't much grind so spread out a bit after getting out of your initial destroyers. You'll appreciate the different play styles and get familiar with their strengths & weaknesses versus other types. Submarines are obviously pretty popular early on, but I've also had much enjoyment hunting them down with destroyers, for example. A wide variety of styles to be had.
** This game is often compared to Battlestations: Pacific and World Of Tanks having a baby. I've never played Battlestations so I dunno how that adds up.
Checked it out this weekend, found it to be pretty addictive. Graphics no where as good as WoW, but the gameplay options make up for that! O0
Quote from: Tuna on January 04, 2016, 08:35:56 AM
Checked it out this weekend, found it to be pretty addictive. Graphics no where as good as WoW, but the gameplay options make up for that! O0
More variety and such, definitely. O0
It's evident by the amount of jaggies remaining, even with 8xAA on, that their engine is using something running at a lower base resolution that isn't being scaled up to higher screen resolution settings. The ship models actually look pretty good, but it would be better if the 3D scene ran at higher res. The gameplay is enjoyable so it's okay with me.
When will they have this?
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/9R0Pz0i9zM23QimBVSj7G_ArGZZTzycK2tPVMXtx5A4I47wZjqj2-B4TV6RZuPTuX1yV1PfL-BfwthL5i0my0mdiz17J1VRaqVGtQ95KY9FKiKp4wbNl_j-IV4XjLBX1LH9vTMDnySuZSUpKFZ5S00EH8qA4cp8tbakptB1jhx07Y3TiQvfhSMN0sLI46xG0nN8kggYOQWTJkZLqWoW-qyDyhRRgnThMLqHl1yHe2GoYp1MXRvd7IG8v2OdjolIuiG95Pn5s0NyUpA3ePub2Xhr7XHZ9_5HhPds27st6sVj8A_q1OIP-J_OzyjXa7yd7h_2sn2vOxFFpGwto8ulMiIA8NxDE_MwIT8ii63GKwizB6sMzHl08ZRUR4EMM_bqSrlHIbjqt7_JmQ3ZKksKzGQfq0tvxaWGYeQ7cPNCSOTpkTQUFDQdVpw06hMLprSsaPzfuh487TtYbyq_PwI-acNDdg14b0lUlTqyGlz8daCUhciajfsE7HOgL8QZLN4fNxseHVWKM4o9JXdjIgVwG4dOgnwcMg_v_lrFpw-2Q-4bKmQvl4mCr7nSLdHQ1vFpx9CSm=w1319-h989-no)
LOL!
What the hell?
You and your anime. ;D
If you search youtube for KanKolle you will find out about the rest of the WW2 Japanese warships incarnated as schoolgirls.
Quote from: jomni on January 07, 2016, 07:14:59 PM
If you search youtube for KanKolle you will find out about the rest of the WW2 Japanese warships incarnated as schoolgirls.
Why, in Godzilla's name, would I do that?
:P
Just discovered Steel Ocean...having a great time. Enjoy it more than World of Warships.
Played it a while back. Was good but wore off pretty quickly.
I think for such a non-simulation game to enjoy it, I need graphics. I also think it was because it did not feel as much like being on a ship because of the physics and all the little islands.
Another thing hat wielded me out was security. You did not need an account when I played.
P.S. Their was a rumour that the Chinese stole the Battlestations pacific engine for steel ocean. Because I guess it looks similar.
Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 31, 2016, 05:40:13 PM
Just discovered Steel Ocean...having a great time. Enjoy it more than World of Warships.
It's a lot of fun.
Although it's also pretty arcade-y, like WoWS, the ship roles are more representative of what their real-life counterparts were. Having submarines, and the accompanying DD/CL anti-submarine capabilities, adds another layer of strategy to the matches. It also promotes firing AP at armored targets, rather than mostly HE when they're not perfectly broadside, as in WoWS. Just makes more historical sense in comparison and the damage modelling doesn't make HE the magic naval bullet that the other game does.
There are also some other smaller aspects of note. Night battles are lots of fun, having to fire the occasional Starshell to attempt sighting distant enemy ships in order to target them (each ship gets to put up one large flare at a time). They're great battle types - FAR more fun than the new ones in that other warship game - the missions with the bases and 'cyclone' annoyances don't really add any interesting gameplay.
My issues with Steel Ocean:
Not enough people playing it to make for large battles. When I first started playing SO, we were getting 10v10 or 12v12 matches which were a blast! But that was just during a small primetime period. The player base has never been large. Last few times I was in, they ended up being little 5v5 matches all the time. Obviously they don't want people waiting in queues too long.
I chalk the steady player base issue up to people in NA & Europe already having been invested in playing WoWS for awhile, before it was released in those areas. Both mentally and financially. I would be playing SO more if it weren't for some of the people I team up with not wanting to give it a run. A few don't even want to hear about it. ;D It's a common situation from what I can tell.
The graphics aren't as good. It looks like the game engine natively runs at about a 720 resolution and just gets stretched a bit to higher ones. It doesn't look horrible, but not as good as I'd like. Cranked the AA up to eleven. Fortunately it also runs accordingly and doesn't require much processing juice.
The battles are also over more quickly. Ship health just isn't as robust in SO, so just a few good salvos can sink someone. Then again, it doesn't have the ridiculously disproportionate damage of "citadel penetrations" in SO, which I certainly count as a good thing. Another is HE has only minimal effect against heavily armored targets, so you're not going to see little destroyer guns setting a whole Battleship ablaze and burning it down with just it's 5" guns. ::) I wouldn't really call this health/damage stuff a Con unless you really enjoy long drawn-out battles.
If I could regularly get into 8v8 or larger matches, I'd be doing more Steel Ocean. As it is, I still intend to casually play it when the WoWS devs inevitably piss me off with their uneven nerfs and annoying f'ing game mode additions. Wargaming's creativity blows... but their ships look pretty. :-\
I downloaded it last night to try it again.