https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/06/09/the-flare-path-mare-nostrum/
a very unique game....i love ancient warfare. Instant buy for me :notworthy:
Very interested... please say it's not turn based? AT least be WEGO! Real time is also fine.
Quote from: Destraex on June 09, 2017, 10:21:06 AM
Very interested... please say it's not turn based? AT least be WEGO! Real time is also fine.
It's WEGO. O0
OK I am now VERY VERY excited!!! Gimme!
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=650
It's being developed by the same guy that did the chariot racing game QVADRIGA. O0
Looks wicked cool!
every time I see this thread pop up I keep thinking it the board game from Academy Games
Geez...ANOTHER ancient naval combat game. I hope they do a WW2 version
^^ BEHOLD! -- THE SARCASM! :clap: :notworthy:
Quote from: Anguille on June 09, 2017, 10:06:43 AM
a very unique game....i love ancient warfare. Instant buy for me :notworthy:
Beat me to it! Should be fascinating. I will be definitely keeping my eyes out for it. :) Finally a game on ancient naval warfare!
Quote from: Destraex on June 09, 2017, 10:21:06 AM
Very interested... please say it's not turn based? AT least be WEGO! Real time is also fine.
Blasphemy!
Quote from: Barthheart on June 09, 2017, 10:56:34 AM
It's being developed by the same guy that did the chariot racing game QVADRIGA. O0
Ooooo really? ???
Interest: piqued.
Quote from: mikeck on June 09, 2017, 11:23:04 AM
Geez...ANOTHER ancient naval combat game. I hope they do a WW2 version
Agreed. I think galley combat in WW2 was far more interesting.
Smashing!
1: Quadriga = awesome
2. WEGO = Awesome
3. Topic = Other than my inevitable objection that this is not an age of sail game, awesome.
4. PBEM+ DELENDA EST
IN!!
Quote from: SirAndrewD on June 09, 2017, 06:29:18 PM
Quote from: mikeck on June 09, 2017, 11:23:04 AM
Geez...ANOTHER ancient naval combat game. I hope they do a WW2 version
Agreed. I think galley combat in WW2 was far more interesting.
I guess it's about being a chef at a galley kitchen in a battleship during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Quote from: SirAndrewD on June 09, 2017, 06:29:18 PM
Quote from: mikeck on June 09, 2017, 11:23:04 AM
Geez...ANOTHER ancient naval combat game. I hope they do a WW2 version
Agreed. I think galley combat in WW2 was far more interesting.
And WW2 is egregiously under represented in computer war gaming
Can't have it! Galleys had slaves and that is completely VORBOTEN this day and age. >:( Unless they are paid minimum wage and have Health Care included in their Slavery Benefits Package. :coolsmiley: No slavery included.... oar else.
Are the oars modeled correctly? I demand squared off edges. None of those corner clipped oars BS. :crazy2:
Slaves? Who used galley slaves again? This is the problem that Ben Hur caused. Probably thinking of French 16c galley slaves.
Certainly not the Romans apart from a time when they freed slaves in exchange for navy service iirc.
I think the Greeks were all free rowers as well as were the Carthaginians. In fact I think the Greeks used to sing instead of having drums to beat time. It was more of a flute... I have not read about this for some time. But will have to look it up again if I see the BETA.
It will be very interesting to see if the different factions have different tactical capabilities and rowing prowess. Especially with regard to formations and station keeping.
bbmike I regularly blaspheme when it comes to wargames :P. Realism all the way.
I agree with mikeck. Ww2 is over represented. Their are some really good ww2 naval games out thier. Atlantic Fleet is a good turn based one.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/420440/Atlantic_Fleet/
Quote from: mikeck on June 09, 2017, 11:23:04 AM
Geez...ANOTHER ancient naval combat game. I hope they do a WW2 version
But more seriously an age of sail game .... please....
Didn't the Rhodians, or Cypriots, have a pirate chasing vessel with a special mast that could be lowered, and raised very quickly.
This allowed them to chase pirates without wearing out their own rowers. Then when close to the pirate, the mast was lowered, and their own rowers easily overtook the tired pirate.
ARRRGGGH! We're tired. :arr:
There is also a great story about a very old large galley that had not been maintained. It was used as a flagship, but when it made contact with the enemy it was so old it fell apart.
Read that there are no campaigns because the historic naval battles were so far apart in time.
Quote from: Zulu1966 on June 10, 2017, 05:15:21 AM
Quote from: mikeck on June 09, 2017, 11:23:04 AM
Geez...ANOTHER ancient naval combat game. I hope they do a WW2 version
But more seriously an age of sail game .... please....
Well sure. I welcome any Naval combat other than WW2. It's all good
Gusington. That however does not mean that naval skirmishes were rare or that patrols were not common.
It's a little like saying that their naval battles were so far apart in ww1, so no campaign.
I'm quoting from the developer above, Des.
Pure naval campaigns were rare to non-existant in antiquity. There was a very practical reason for this. There was no room, even on the largest ancient warships, for the crew to do important things like cook meals or stretch out and sleep. Ships needed to pull up next to a beach if they weren't actually dragged onshore every night, so you generally couldn't station your fleet next to hostile coastlines that you didn't control for any length of time.
The rowers, by the way, were paid. Getting everyone to row without tangling their oars required a certain amount of skill and practice. The problem was that there were often two or three banks of oars on each side of the ship with the rowers sitting on benches above each other. One of the decisive moments in the Peloponnesian War came when a Spartan admiral significantly increased his oarsmen's wages, and Athenian oarsmen (many of whom were league islanders rather than Athenians proper) starting deserting so they could cash in by enlisting with the other side.
Here is the story. Read Gytheum.
From Battles of the greek & Roman Worlds
A chronological compendium of 667 battles to 31bc
from the historians of the ancient world
john drogo montagu
https://www.flickr.com/photos/36584627@N02/35189523856/
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4239/35189523856_bd0245d1ef.jpg)
Quote from: mikeck on June 09, 2017, 11:23:04 AM
Geez...ANOTHER ancient naval combat game. I hope they do a WW2 version
There was a sailing schooner squadron battle (RN schooners!) off Tobruk against an Italian submarine and of course the sailing schooner leader put up the "Engage the Enemy more Closely" signal. I think no one was hurt.
And then there were those Iceboat battles in Lake Lagdoga which the Red Army won (sailing Red Army iceboats with 45mm AT versus ice barges with airplane engines rigged up on them with 20mm gund)
And I'm sure the RN could have used a few triremes here and there in the Med. as blockships or something.
Sign me up for anything featuring triremes. I'm going to try to get into the beta. The RPS article seems to be the only substantial info on the game.
http://www.matrixgames.com/news/2407/Mare.Nostrvm.releases.on.November.2nd!
announced for release on Thursday
don't know if anyboys seen this date
WOW! I had no idea it was coming out this soon.... :bd:
Damn. That's going to be tough to say no to.
That does look mighty 'tasty'.
And of course the Halloween discount ends on the 1st!
I dunno, guys. I like the topic and happy to see something new that we don't see covered often, but honestly...looks like a snooze fest. <shrugging shoulders>
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on October 31, 2017, 06:20:28 PM
I dunno, guys. I like the topic and happy to see something new that we don't see covered often, but honestly...looks like a snooze fest. <shrugging shoulders>
Thinking the same thing.
Haters gonna hate
Quote from: mikeck on October 31, 2017, 06:40:31 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on October 31, 2017, 06:20:28 PM
I dunno, guys. I like the topic and happy to see something new that we don't see covered often, but honestly...looks like a snooze fest. <shrugging shoulders>
Thinking the same thing.
It might be a bit snoozy, but it also seems to have a few layers of coolness and visual interest (perhaps of a slightly soggy, snoozy kind, but still...). I'll get it and if I fall asleep then that's just one of those hazards that war on the seas of long ago can bring its soggy hypnotic wake.
I might be interested in a WEGO game like this! Galley combat is something I've never done. Though my laptop doesn't like water, too much bloom.
And if another WW2 game is never released, it will be too soon. I would rather play a Granada first person shooter than any WW2 game.
Quote from: Philippe on June 10, 2017, 09:50:32 PM
Pure naval campaigns were rare to non-existant in antiquity. There was a very practical reason for this. There was no room, even on the largest ancient warships, for the crew to do important things like cook meals or stretch out and sleep. Ships needed to pull up next to a beach if they weren't actually dragged onshore every night, so you generally couldn't station your fleet next to hostile coastlines that you didn't control for any length of time.
The rowers, by the way, were paid. Getting everyone to row without tangling their oars required a certain amount of skill and practice. The problem was that there were often two or three banks of oars on each side of the ship with the rowers sitting on benches above each other. One of the decisive moments in the Peloponnesian War came when a Spartan admiral significantly increased his oarsmen's wages, and Athenian oarsmen (many of whom were league islanders rather than Athenians proper) starting deserting so they could cash in by enlisting with the other side.
Looks like we got a reader here!
Seriously, though, if you actually read real history and not pop-history or video game flavor text it becomes obvious that 85% of the content in these games is either in direct contradiction to the evidence or just made up.
Most historical games and science fiction games are basically WW2 with swords or lasers.
http://www.matrixgames.com/store/650/Mare.Nostrvm
its been released at a lovely price
Waiting for opinions. :-\ Still waiting. Still waiting. Waiting......
Starts at around minute 52.
It's pretty much like AH's board game, Trireme, which is a good thing.
Doesn't look like you can play individual scenarios unfortunately. Historical battles are only accessible by playing them in turn through a campaign.
There is a skirmish mode with plenty of maps (not just all sea, either!).
Lots of options to trick out your ships and all your favorite features are here, including raking oars, boarding and fire weapons.
Skirmishes/battles don't have a time limit, but end when accumulated ship values exceeds half your fleet cost.
When out maneuvered, the AI likes to retreat to the edges of the map, which means battles can gravitate to there. It can be annoying having a lot of ships bunched together as if someone just tilted the map board.
The ship control is good, with point and click, but the game interface is, let's just say, utilitarian. I had an issue with the game fitting on my ultra-wide screen, but fortunately there is a screen resolution setting so smaller resolutions can be selected. Not ideal, but it works.
Multiplayer is PBEM via the Slitherine server.
So far I'd give it four sweaty oarsmen out of five.
Any hot seat?
http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/726630/manuals/Mare_Nostrvm_Manual.pdf?t=1509644729
Manual. Looks good. For the price will be picking this one up.
Is there anything other than battle? Recruitment? Ship Building and/or repair? Do crews gain veterancy/experience? Do leaders improve over time? Is there any difference between having ships crewed by sailors and marines as opposed to slaves, etc.?
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on November 02, 2017, 02:38:52 PM
Is there anything other than battle? Recruitment? Ship Building and/or repair? Do crews gain veterancy/experience? Do leaders improve over time? Is there any difference between having ships crewed by sailors and marines as opposed to slaves, etc.?
There is no carryover between battles. In skirmish, there are a lot of customisation options, including a variation of extra equipment depending on the ship type. Crew quality is a key attribute of a ship. It is set for historical scenarios, but can be adjusted (for a point cost) for skirmishes.
Quote from: Sir Slash on November 02, 2017, 10:57:47 AM
Waiting for opinions. :-\ Still waiting. Still waiting. Waiting......
So far pretty fun, You can put up sails and with better crews you can do oar rakes or put towers on your big ships and set the enemy on fire with ballistae. There are lots of configuration options. I've only played skirmishes so far, but they are pretty entertaining.
Thanks Meng. :clap:
Quote from: Sir Slash on November 02, 2017, 06:34:42 PM
Thanks Meng. :clap:
I had an interesting skirmish at the 600 point level. With my trusty Etruscans, I set up behind a promitory and placed the wind so as to drive the seaward wing of the Carthegenians into a gulf on the wrong side and keep them out of the battle. My fleet had nothing heavier than a sexterces -- big enough to carry lots of projectile weapons, but not so big as to be an easy oar-rake -- my three commanders were on improved triremes and the rest of the fleet was basic triremes for lots of oar-raking. Plus I put sails on the sexterces to allow them to run away quicker if needed. And oh woe unto the Carthegenians. Their central force was nothing but heptereces and Octerces -- easy oar-rake meat. And lo, the Carthegenia center moved right into the kill zone without any support for one wing went into the gulf beyond the promitory and the other was scattered by a sextercian raid. So into the kill zone went the Carthegenain heavy ships where they were oar-raked by light triremes, rammed by improved triremes and set on fire by sexterces. I was pretty surprised at how my set of fairly simple strategies (or more like strategems) worked out. Lovely game really.
Quote from: SirAndrewD on June 09, 2017, 06:29:18 PM
Quote from: mikeck on June 09, 2017, 11:23:04 AM
Geez...ANOTHER ancient naval combat game. I hope they do a WW2 version
Agreed. I think galley combat in WW2 was far more interesting.
Nearly suicidal even. Which reminds me: to avoid any snoozefestive atmosphere in the game you can run the turns at high speed and then rewind to see if you missed anything important.
Quote from: MengJiao on November 02, 2017, 07:00:41 PM
Nearly suicidal even. Which reminds me: to avoid any snoozefestive atmosphere in the game you can run the turns at high speed and then rewind to see if you missed anything important.
Good to know. Field of Glory II has been such a snoozefest that I've been playing it until I pass out in the wee hours of the morning. Hopefully this will be the same.
What kind of visual feedback is there for the state of your ships and crews?
Pass.
(https://i.imgur.com/s4MAXG2.jpg)
They need to figure out a way to make it clearer with the smaller ship outlines, but, looking at right, that's crew strength at top and then, left to right, CRUISING SPEED, MAXIMUM SPEED, QUALITY (Seamanship), HULL, RAM
They can decrease depending on the nature of the damage taken, obviously.
So far, enjoying it a great deal. Folks will correctly observe that it's another graphical step down from even FoG2, but that's not why I wanted in. The battles in Trireme are far too small and take for flipping ever to resolve...even War Galley has always struck me as too much effort for what it is. This is fun.
Quote from: MengJiao on November 02, 2017, 06:10:48 PM
Quote from: Sir Slash on November 02, 2017, 10:57:47 AM
Waiting for opinions. :-\ Still waiting. Still waiting. Waiting......
So far pretty fun, You can put up sails and with better crews you can do oar rakes or put towers on your big ships and set the enemy on fire with ballistae. There are lots of configuration options. I've only played skirmishes so far, but they are pretty entertaining.
Good to know there is skirmish. I though they're all historical scenarios.
The skirmish actually appears very robust.
Quote from: Cyrano on November 02, 2017, 08:28:07 PM
The skirmish actually appears very robust.
I was trounced really fast in this skirmish. The ram-crazy world of biremes and tremolous was beyond me. Ships get flipped over and sunk (you see them go down), catch fire, shoot arrows, throw grapples and lose crew markers. I just noticed that the command banners blow with the wind. Oh and in this image it is raining and I left the bases on for some reason.
I'm Biased as I am a sucker for naval warfare. First off I am happy that it is WEGO and I can play another human being in a PBEM type manner! Most tactical naval games are real time (or strat like WitPAE...a major investment in time). So far I really like the game, I was afraid it might be one that you play a week or two and there's little to bring you back to it, but I don't think that's the case. The game is basic but has some depth...simple but effective tactical depth and has varied play options. I also think its a good palette for future updates both in additional function and DLC, I hope they do both. For the price I think its a two thumbs up! Now only if NWS would release its next title...oh and someone make an age of sail PBEM capable game...and a PBEM capable WWI-modern naval warfare game...so many wants...
Quote from: gabeeg on November 04, 2017, 04:24:08 PM
I also think its a good palette for future updates both in additional function and DLC, I hope they do both.
Having worked on a Lepanto mod in Pike and Shot, would love to see renaissance galley battles in this engine.
I am unhappy to say this is a game made verbatim from it's parent board game rule set.
Can anybody confirm that ships travel any faster physically over a short distance? From what I saw speed was a constant but distance travelled seemed to be further or less according to rower effort. So speeding up to ram a ship in close proximity does not appear to be possible. In other words can I beat you to a hex or just go further than you in a turn past the hex?
Their seemed to be no impact on physics, because their is no physics model? It's all dice rolls with a chance to do things. Their is a chance to rake oars but no opportunity to ship oars. Raking is only a chance for ships in grappling mode? Or is it ramming mode?
It's all rock papers scissors according to the rules. Combat and boarding are pretty much just dice rolls as well.
The graphics of the ships are very late 90s. Looking more like age of sail 2 than a modern game. Again. No real excuse for this in this day and age.
No banks of oars depicted either. Just one bank of oars for everything. Everything seems simplified to the max. I know the excuse will be that so many ships need to be shown at once. But in this modern age we live (LOD, draw distance model changes etc) in this level of graphics is simpler than stylised graphics that just use shapes. The sea looks fine but the ships are really just good as silhouettes.
This could have been so much better. I have wanted a WEGO game for galley warfare for sssoooooo long. There is in reality not much you can do with this game but watch. You have very little control over what is going on other than to set a direction for the ships and whether they are in ramming or grappling mode. (I think you may be able to raise and lower sails as well?). Other than that you control distance travelled which will make your rowers tired or keep them rested. You do not have any fine control over ramming angles or where marines are stationed. No way to help win a boarding action.
As far as I could see the battles are set piece tabletop battles as well. The approaches so close that the setup phase is fairly redundant. Would have liked a world map with a little campaign manoever to setup the battle in a more interesting way.
This has some really good features but is mostly let down by ancient board game mechanics. Hexes and such. The way the corvus animation is done is good. I have not seen firepots in action.
For all my whinging this is a decent tabletop wargame representation. But not the advanced galley warfare simulation wargame I wanted. I will be grabbing it though in all likelihood. Because their is nothing else. Unless I can find a realistic rome2 galley warfare mod.
P.S. Who is the guy in the review talking about slave rowers? Perhaps he has seen Ben Hur too many times.
Quote from: Destraex on November 04, 2017, 08:15:41 PM
I am unhappy to say this is a game made verbatim from it's parent board game rule set.
Can anybody confirm that ships travel any faster physically over a short distance? From what I saw speed was a constant but distance travelled seemed to be further or less according to rower effort. So speeding up to ram a ship in close proximity does not appear to be possible. In other words can I beat you to a hex or just go further than you in a turn past the hex?
Their seemed to be no impact on physics, because their is no physics model? It's all dice rolls with a chance to do things. Their is a chance to rake oars but no opportunity to ship oars. Raking is only a chance for ships in grappling mode? Or is it ramming mode?
It's all rock papers scissors according to the rules. Combat and boarding are pretty much just dice rolls as well.
The graphics of the ships are very late 90s. Looking more like age of sail 2 than a modern game. Again. No real excuse for this in this day and age.
No banks of oars depicted either. Just one bank of oars for everything. Everything seems simplified to the max. I know the excuse will be that so many ships need to be shown at once. But in this modern age we live (LOD, draw distance model changes etc) in this level of graphics is simpler than stylised graphics that just use shapes. The sea looks fine but the ships are really just good as silhouettes.
This could have been so much better. I have wanted a WEGO game for galley warfare for sssoooooo long. There is in reality not much you can do with this game but watch. You have very little control over what is going on other than to set a direction for the ships and whether they are in ramming or grappling mode. (I think you may be able to raise and lower sails as well?). Other than that you control distance travelled which will make your rowers tired or keep them rested. You do not have any fine control over ramming angles or where marines are stationed. No way to help win a boarding action.
As far as I could see the battles are set piece tabletop battles as well. The approaches so close that the setup phase is fairly redundant. Would have liked a world map with a little campaign manoever to setup the battle in a more interesting way.
This has some really good features but is mostly let down by ancient board game mechanics. Hexes and such. The way the corvus animation is done is good. I have not seen firepots in action.
For all my whinging this is a decent tabletop wargame representation. But not the advanced galley warfare simulation wargame I wanted. I will be grabbing it though in all likelihood. Because their is nothing else. Unless I can find a realistic rome2 galley warfare mod.
P.S. Who is the guy in the review talking about slave rowers? Perhaps he has seen Ben Hur too many times.
The review is chock-full of misinformation of all kinds, starting with a weird restaurant-special delivery of latin, going on through sails and oarsmen (I'm sure there were slave oarsmen somewhere, but not so much on Athenian triremes say or even on Venetian galleys...even in Livy there is a story of Rhodian oarsmen being talked into risking all on a difficult battle when they all had the flu) to how crippling works.
Beyond that, my experience of the game has been different mostly because I wasn't expecting much and partly because I have some other things to gripe about:
1) How about an editor
2) what's up with the ships the AI picks (I think some editing would help the AI)?
Yet...I don't really see the combat as excessively simplistic. One odd thing is that if the average AI expenditure on ships heavier than a quinquereme excedes yours you will almost certainly win big. The bigger ships just get horribly oar-raked. I'm not sure this is realistic -- but -- it is interesting and it does make intuitive sense. So for that alone the game seems to have a slightly more complex dynamic than what I was expecting. The Ai (of course) has lots of odd problems BUT thing of all the easy fixes this game has:
1) editor
2) campaigns of some kind
3) improved AI
4) improved historical parameters (so you can't get relatively large ships relatively early)
5) improved oar and speed options
6) expansion to later periods and technologies.
Anyway, overall I remain happy and hopeful.
I agree. Slaves were only recorded a few times in ancient history. Usually when freeing them to serve on ships in emergencies! The rest of ancient history they were free well trained skillful rowers in most fleets. Later on in renaissance times and later they did use slaves though which is probably why people get confused.
Oh and you will also notice that their are no ships bigger than one square in the game. Which negates many small ships attacking a large one or perhaps visa versa.
Quote from: Destraex on November 05, 2017, 12:02:27 AM
Oh and you will also notice that their are no ships bigger than one square in the game. Which negates many small ships attacking a large one or perhaps visa versa.
A ship can definitely be attacked by multiple ships, either sequentially or at the same time, plus you can use small ships to box in big ships while you unfoul your ram and line up to ram again. Ships over the size of a sexterces are a problem for the AI as far as I can tell in that the AI builds them for skirmishes far too often and far too many. I have experimented with a few ships as big as a hepterces but the poor AI will happily build massive fleets of 8s and 10s surrounded by swarms of triremes and tremolas. In some ways this plays to the AI's strength in that it can coordinate masses of ships and that alone gives them a certain level of fighting power, though it also guarantees that the AI will block itself a lot of the time and have a lot of ships that go out of control (whereupon preservation trumps all apparently to the point that Uncommanded AI ships will more or less run themselves aground or go far from any hope of returning to command...I guess my uncommanded ships would do the same under the same circumstances). Still the skirmishes are interesting and I don't win many historical battles.
Quote from: MengJiao on November 05, 2017, 07:41:56 PM
Quote from: Destraex on November 05, 2017, 12:02:27 AM
Oh and you will also notice that their are no ships bigger than one square in the game. Which negates many small ships attacking a large one or perhaps visa versa.
A ship can definitely be attacked by multiple ships, either sequentially or at the same time, plus you can use small ships to box in big ships while you unfoul your ram and line up to ram again. Ships over the size of a sexterces are a problem for the AI as far as I can tell in that the AI builds them for skirmishes far too often and far too many. I have experimented with a few ships as big as a hepterces but the poor AI will happily build massive fleets of 8s and 10s surrounded by swarms of triremes and tremolas. In some ways this plays to the AI's strength in that it can coordinate masses of ships and that alone gives them a certain level of fighting power, though it also guarantees that the AI will block itself a lot of the time and have a lot of ships that go out of control (whereupon preservation trumps all apparently to the point that Uncommanded AI ships will more or less run themselves aground or go far from any hope of returning to command...I guess my uncommanded ships would do the same under the same circumstances). Still the skirmishes are interesting and I don't win many historical battles.
And things can even turn out worse than "Crippled" -- you could be immobilized (oar-raked on both sides, evidently)...if you are crippled you can still turn in one hex in one direction. You'd think some kind of repair would be possible.
Is there capturing and towing?
If you get oar-raked can you eventually move some oars from the undamaged side to the other and get some directional balance restored, albeit at reduced speed?
Quote from: jomni on November 05, 2017, 08:39:53 PM
Is there capturing and towing?
A captured ship becomes yours, though with no marines or firepower. It can still ram and do blocking.
Quote from: Staggerwing on November 05, 2017, 08:59:15 PM
If you get oar-raked can you eventually move some oars from the undamaged side to the other and get some directional balance restored, albeit at reduced speed?
No. The game has lots of odd limitations.
I mostly agree with Destraex's and MengJiao's views. I think they gave a pretty fair assessment of pros and cons. Overall, I am broadly happy with it too so far.
However, these are my first impressions. I've only had the game a short while, so am still getting used to it.
I do think the game would be much more user friendly if the developers updated the game controls to allow a "snap to combat" preference, and to polish up the UI focus with regard to zoom and moving round the map, as I found this aspect jerky, and not particularly user friendly when the action heats up.
On the plus side, it covers all the basics of galley warfare, and while the graphics might have been more inspiring what you do get is functional and clear.
Quote from: MengJiao on November 05, 2017, 07:41:56 PM
Quote from: Destraex on November 05, 2017, 12:02:27 AM
Oh and you will also notice that their are no ships bigger than one square in the game. Which negates many small ships attacking a large one or perhaps visa versa.
A ship can definitely be attacked by multiple ships, either sequentially or at the same time, plus you can use small ships to box in big ships while you unfoul your ram and line up to ram again. Ships over the size of a sexterces are a problem for the AI as far as I can tell in that the AI builds them for skirmishes far too often and far too many. I have experimented with a few ships as big as a hepterces but the poor AI will happily build massive fleets of 8s and 10s surrounded by swarms of triremes and tremolas. In some ways this plays to the AI's strength in that it can coordinate masses of ships and that alone gives them a certain level of fighting power, though it also guarantees that the AI will block itself a lot of the time and have a lot of ships that go out of control (whereupon preservation trumps all apparently to the point that Uncommanded AI ships will more or less run themselves aground or go far from any hope of returning to command...I guess my uncommanded ships would do the same under the same circumstances). Still the skirmishes are interesting and I don't win many historical battles.
I meant more like from the side by three very small galleys, like happened at Actium. I being also larger ships should be less able to turn in more than just 6 hex increments.
Quote from: Destraex on November 06, 2017, 04:57:45 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on November 05, 2017, 07:41:56 PM
Quote from: Destraex on November 05, 2017, 12:02:27 AM
Oh and you will also notice that their are no ships bigger than one square in the game. Which negates many small ships attacking a large one or perhaps visa versa.
A ship can definitely be attacked by multiple ships, either sequentially or at the same time, plus you can use small ships to box in big ships while you unfoul your ram and line up to ram again. Ships over the size of a sexterces are a problem for the AI as far as I can tell in that the AI builds them for skirmishes far too often and far too many. I have experimented with a few ships as big as a hepterces but the poor AI will happily build massive fleets of 8s and 10s surrounded by swarms of triremes and tremolas. In some ways this plays to the AI's strength in that it can coordinate masses of ships and that alone gives them a certain level of fighting power, though it also guarantees that the AI will block itself a lot of the time and have a lot of ships that go out of control (whereupon preservation trumps all apparently to the point that Uncommanded AI ships will more or less run themselves aground or go far from any hope of returning to command...I guess my uncommanded ships would do the same under the same circumstances). Still the skirmishes are interesting and I don't win many historical battles.
I meant more like from the side by three very small galleys, like happened at Actium. I being also larger ships should be less able to turn in more than just 6 hex increments.
That's true -- you can't effectively bring multiple small ships to grapple or ram large ships and that's just one of the many problems with the game in terms of representing galley fighting at close range with big hexes. Things kind of fall apart in the game when lots of ships get tangled up and the AI's tendency to use large ships makes perfect sense given how the game works at the hex level.
Each HEX represents something like 50m or so I would say. Meaning that you can fit anything from 2m boat to a 50m Hexeres in the same hex. Effectively making a 2m boat 50m long for boarding purposes. Unless the hexes are dynamic and in fact only their for player mechanics rather than phyiscal aspects. But that matters very little in practice.
Quote from: Destraex on November 06, 2017, 06:05:48 AM
Each HEX represents something like 50m or so I would say. Meaning that you can fit anything from 2m boat to a 50m Hexeres in the same hex. Effectively making a 2m boat 50m long for boarding purposes. Unless the hexes are dynamic and in fact only their for player mechanics rather than phyiscal aspects. But that matters very little in practice.
The hexes seem to be the typical tactical pre-industrial nautical hex size of somewhere between 50 meters or 67 yards (Close Action) and around 120 yards (or something) in Flying Colors, though there's not much detailed modelling of in-hex interactions -- even Flying colors does a bit more with the options available when more than one ship is in a hex....though there the hexes are bigger, but the time frame must be around the same magical/abstract 2-6 minute mark.
Still its pretty cool and with some tinkering could be a game that could cover a lot of historical territory.
http://www.matrixgames.com/news/2417/Mare.Nostrvm.Tutorials
Its gameplay is pretty simple to understand, but some mechanics are somehow harder to get a hold of. That's why we decided it would have been a good idea to create some tutorials for the game!
In the playlist that you can find below, you will be able to have a fast explanation of how Movement, Command and Combat work.
Might be usefull for someone.
This might be more my style! Shame it is single player and looks, like mare nostrum, to be on an antiquated engine with poor game creation skills just like the mare nostrum!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=916874497&searchtext=