Atlantic Fleet coming to Steam

[WallysWorld]

I don't think you can save mid-mission. That's the one big thing that's really missing.

[MengJiao]

That looks really nice. I have wanted a successor to Great Naval Battles of the North Atlantic for a long time - hope this one fills the bill.

This game is not a deep as Great Naval Battles... much lighter fare....

  It does seem light, but so far the battles are somewhat convincing.  After failing to sink the Bismarck with the North Carolina, I began to wonder if the thing was working at all.  The (hypothetical) Lion sank the Graf Spee in about a minute so that seemed to be working.  The next test battle was more interesting:  the Graf Spee took most of two broadsides from the Devonshire, disappeared into a lot of smoke and blew up a few turns later.  I think what happened was that a very lucky hit from Devonshire in the first exchange of frontal battery fire happened to hit the director (spotter in game terms).  The Graf Spee went on tracking fire on Devonshire's original closing rate while the Heavy Cruiser turned away slightly as it came to broadside.  I'm not entirely sure since I have turned target damage viewing off so I see hits and damage, but not system reports.  Anyway, Graff Spee scored no hits and Devonshire scored about a dozen.  Seems plausible.  Certainly more plausible than North Carolina not sinking the Bismarck.

[FlickJax]

That looks really nice. I have wanted a successor to Great Naval Battles of the North Atlantic for a long time - hope this one fills the bill.

This game is not a deep as Great Naval Battles... much lighter fare....

  It does seem light, but so far the battles are somewhat convincing.  After failing to sink the Bismarck with the North Carolina, I began to wonder if the thing was working at all.  The (hypothetical) Lion sank the Graf Spee in about a minute so that seemed to be working.  The next test battle was more interesting:  the Graf Spee took most of two broadsides from the Devonshire, disappeared into a lot of smoke and blew up a few turns later.  I think what happened was that a very lucky hit from Devonshire in the first exchange of frontal battery fire happened to hit the director (spotter in game terms).  The Graf Spee went on tracking fire on Devonshire's original closing rate while the Heavy Cruiser turned away slightly as it came to broadside.  I'm not entirely sure since I have turned target damage viewing off so I see hits and damage, but not system reports.  Anyway, Graff Spee scored no hits and Devonshire scored about a dozen.  Seems plausible.  Certainly more plausible than North Carolina not sinking the Bismarck.

The Bismark was an exceptional ship

[WallysWorld]

The developer posted this on the Steam forum about damage handling:

"The ships are all made up of individual compartments with subsystems assigned to them which take damage depending on where a shell hits. Waterline or plunging fire will generally damage compartments causing flooding, and hits along the superstructure will tend to damage 'soft' equipment. Compartments that catch on fire may suffer secondary explosions that damage adjacent compartments or even cook off magazines. The hit decals are placed where the hits actually occur," according to Killerfish co-founder Nils Ducker.

"The ships all sink dynamically because the compartments will always flood differently depending on where you hit them. So there are no hitpoints or canned animations here. Since we already had this basic system since Pacific Fleet and we wanted to add better submarine combat an underwater camera was must-have since pretty much day one. The underwater effects themselves went through several iterations before ending up what you see in the game," he said.

Not mentioned here is that shell impact angles against belt or deck armour are also factored into the damage model."

[MengJiao]

The developer posted this on the Steam forum about damage handling:

"The ships are all made up of individual compartments with subsystems assigned to them which take damage depending on where a shell hits. Waterline or plunging fire will generally damage compartments causing flooding, and hits along the superstructure will tend to damage 'soft' equipment. Compartments that catch on fire may suffer secondary explosions that damage adjacent compartments or even cook off magazines. The hit decals are placed where the hits actually occur," according to Killerfish co-founder Nils Ducker.

"The ships all sink dynamically because the compartments will always flood differently depending on where you hit them. So there are no hitpoints or canned animations here. Since we already had this basic system since Pacific Fleet and we wanted to add better submarine combat an underwater camera was must-have since pretty much day one. The underwater effects themselves went through several iterations before ending up what you see in the game," he said.

Not mentioned here is that shell impact angles against belt or deck armour are also factored into the damage model."

The damage seems pretty high.  I guess the hits always hit something (which is different from reality, where lots of hits don't do much).  I guess that is better than the usual solution to hits: most hits are nominal -- a few are critical.  In this game any hit is a critical of sorts with potential to do more damage.  So the Graf Spee has blown up after 2 16-inch hits (very fast) and after about 10 8-inch hits (six turns later).

[WallysWorld]

One thing that always annoyed me in the original GNB was that destroyers could take a lot of 13-15" hits and kept on coming. I remember hitting some destroyers with up 8-10 15" hits and still they kept charging at me except for a small decrease in speed.

I just finished the River Platte scenario as Graf Spee and managed to sink Achilles and Ajax and drove off Exeter which withdrew under a smoke screen.  I took some damage and had a fire raging for a while that finally went out and my secondary guns were damaged.

It may be light compared to GNB, but I'm definitely having fun with it and for that price.

[Cyrano]

OK, sorry to be that guy again, but have they intimated any notion of MP?

It looks better than VoS which would up a large disappointment for me and, as has been said, the price is certainly right.

[Barthheart]

OK, sorry to be that guy again, but have they intimated any notion of MP?

It looks better than VoS which would up a large disappointment for me and, as has been said, the price is certainly right.

There is no MP you broken record of a man.

[WallysWorld]

The developer has posted that MP and mid-mission saves could be added in a future patch. He will gather ideas from the Steam forum and consider them.

He's also working on a new naval game, but no details.

[Cyrano]

@Wally -- Thanks

@RogueMounty -- Hey, look, soooooome people prefer playing with others than, well, you know...and I know you know...

[Barthheart]

@Wally -- Thanks

@RogueMounty -- Hey, look, soooooome people prefer playing with others than, well, you know...and I know you know...

Ha! Just 'cause yer the same size as Napoleon and want to be Napoleon doesn't mean you have to combat other people like Napoleon... and, you know, lose in front of the entire civilized world.... sometimes the AIs are enough.

[Nefaro]

The developer has posted that MP and mid-mission saves could be added in a future patch. He will gather ideas from the Steam forum and consider them.

He's also working on a new naval game, but no details.

Thanks for this info.

After investigating this game further, it does look like a lot of fun.  At ten dollars, it's an easy purchase too. 


Was originally a bit perplexed that they would create a game about the whole range of WW2 warships, but then proceed to base it on the Battle of the Atlantic instead of the Pacific War.  Made sense after seeing mention that this is a sequel and the original was actually based on the Pacific.

So I hope that his next release is an updated & fancier Pacific one again, for more direct warship vs warship confrontation as opposed to mostly convoy tinkering.  I'd never complain about an 80s era WW3 naval war setting with this type of easy-to-learn engine, either.  Curious to see what it turns out to be.

[Nefaro]

Played a couple scenarios.

Torpedoed Bismarck with Swordfish.  Hit her with seven of eight torpedoes (the last torpedo bomber was shot down).  Wasn't sure if she was gonna go down, despite having two turret citadels blown out and numerous fires raging and listing heavily to starboard.  Had been peppering her with AP from the shadowing cruiser Sheffield's 6" guns, but obviously they weren't doing much of anything despite plunging fire into the deck & superstructure.  I think the fire finally spread to a magazine, because a huge explosion & shockwave eventually sent her slowly to the bottom.

Damn is this addictive!

Best ten dollars I've spent on a game in awhile.

Looking forward to devoting plenty of time on the open-ended campaign, purchasing & moving ships about.  I'd prefer to do it from the Allied side, but dunno if my ASW practice is up to par.  My Hedgehog hit attempts have failed thus far.

[RyanE]

How does this compare to Victory at Sea updated to 1.4?  I actually like VoS, but I am intrigued by the turn-based nature.  Just not sure that making a tactical naval game lends itself to turn-based gaminess.

[Nefaro]

How does this compare to Victory at Sea updated to 1.4?  I actually like VoS, but I am intrigued by the turn-based nature.  Just not sure that making a tactical naval game lends itself to turn-based gaminess.

I wasn't too enthralled by the gameplay vids of VoS I had seen, so I never picked it up.  Looked too tablet-y and historically detached (along with the other similar one).

Did like the idea of turn-based, if it was done well enough.

I dunno.  This one just seems more relevant to the subject matter, despite typical abstractions present in all games based on history.  The fire adjustment & targeting is reasonable and the damage model seems to be pretty good for what it is.  Extremely good, actually, for what it is - a $10 tablet port.  I'm surprised with how good it is.