Victory at Sea anyone heard of this one ?

[tgb]

I guess I probably should not have selected the Prinz Eugen as an opponent in my very first battle (2 British cruisers, 1 destroyer vs the Prinz Eugen and 2 destroyers).  One of my cruisers took out the two German destroyers, but Prinz Eugen sent all 3 of me ships to the bottom...

@ tgb -- as for your ? (in the other VaS thread) about saving mid-battle, not seeing any option to do that.

Thanks, man.  You just saved me $25.

[steve58]

Still fiddling around with the Custom and Historical Battles.  HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales just bested Bismark and Prinz Eugen.  8)

Under Battle Settings you can select Port Attack/Defense, Convoy Attack/Defense or Blockade Attack/Defense.

Weather selections:  Clear, Cloudy, rain or snow.  Also can select Time of Day.

Countries represented:  Great Britain, Germany, USA, Japan, Italy, France, Free Franch and Vichy France, but just read on the Steam forums that in the campaign, you can only play as Britain or the USA.

Ship AI for both sides can be set from 1 to 10.

[Gusington]

Only Britain or the USA in the campaign eh...hmmm...I was hoping for Axis campaigns too, German and Japanese.

Then again the chance to play as the Hood, the Bismarck, etc...tempting. I have already purchased Battlefleet 2 however. Wonder if I should wait for this to drop down from 25.00...

[sandman2575]

Yeah I'm a little surprised at the price-point.  Maybe spoiled by other indy titles like the excellent Gettysburg Ultimate General retailing for a cool $10-spot. 

Mostly curious about how it handles carrier ops? 

IMO, Eidos' Battlestations Midway / Pacific titles were underrated.  Very video-gamey, yes, but also good fun, and found the carrier operations often a blast.   I wonder how this compares?

[steve58]

Only Britain or the USA in the campaign eh...hmmm...I was hoping for Axis campaigns too, German and Japanese.

Then again the chance to play as the Hood, the Bismarck, etc...tempting. I have already purchased Battlefleet 2 however. Wonder if I should wait for this to drop down from 25.00...

They'll be looking at expanding the campaigns...hope they do.

"The team is looking to expand on the campaigns, however, so it is possible that you'll see Axis campaigns in the future. "

http://steamcommunity.com/app/298480/discussions/1/35220315726955546/

[steve58]

sandman -- didn't have a chance to check out carriers yet. I'll try to fire up a custom battle tomorrow and post something if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

[Cyrano]

Just scratching the surface myself over here, but, so far, here are my thoughts:

What I like:

1.  It feels like VAS, which is a system that, as I've said, strikes a nice balance for me between the painful realism of a Seekrieg and simple arcade shootey-uppy-ness.  You can see the system working under the hood if you've played the tabletop version a lot.  I like and respect that.

2.  The graphics are nice.  Not fantastic, but nice.  It's largely ocean after all, so the key thing is to keey the framerate up and the splashes and explosions coming.  It manages that well.

3.  The number of "roll your own" options is very nice.  Borrowed directly from the game and they give you a fair range of choices -- many ahistorical -- but historical battles at sea, like all battles really, have their limitations as men rarely fought where they didn't think they had an advantage.  Along this line, the variety of fleets is very strong.  The point-buy/cherry pick system has a lot of potention.  Who's up for a battle between three Yamatos and four Bismarks?

4.  Sound is suitable -- again not magnificent -- but it does what I wanted it to do.

5.  The campaigns hold great promise, in my mind...they're feeling a bit like Pirates at the moment, but, again, the campaigns included in VAS and OOB did when you played them out on the tabletop...

6.  The navigation system -- left click to turn -- works very well.  I'm also quite fond of the green "you have this far to go" turn arc that appears during a turn.

What I wonder about:

1.  Lack of mid-game save.  This is a real head-scratcher to me.

2.  The camera angles are lacking.  You can't get any lower than about 30 degrees which is something I always find immersion-killing in a 3D game.  No programmer I, but, surely, given how little is going on graphically, this could be lowered to "sea level"?  I also want to see the ships more closely than one is a allowed to.

3.  There quite a few scenarios included with VAS and OOB...historical type.  I can't imagine where they've gotten off to...this couldn't have been a complicated proposition.

What needs fixing:

1.  There needs to be MUCH -- I stress MUCH -- better communication between the game and the user re: what's happening to ships that aren't on his screen.  You can have a ship reduced to slag and never quite know why...other than the slowly-disappearing health bar on the upper left.  Even ships you can see have the all-important critical hits reported via fast-disappearing text.  This should be logged for review.  If it's intended to be hidden by FOW, fine, then don't show it at all.

2.  My desire for MP here is well known.

3.  There may be nothing to fix here -- it's really part of the system it comes from -- but the key bit of carrier war (the hunt for the other guy) is all but certain to be lost.  The aircraft rules in VAS were not good and were significantly redone for OOB...it's still not a game that, I suspect, will handle air ops as well as, say, Guadalcanal or Midway by JTS.

Overall, I'm glad I'm in...the people running show seem to love their product and seem interested in moving it forward.  Happy to support them...

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

[steve58]

...more feedback from James ET about the Axis campaings

Don't worry axis campaigns are a high priority. We just wanted to give them the respect and justice they deserve

http://steamcommunity.com/app/298480/discussions/0/35220315754688031/

[steve58]

Just did a quick custom battle to try out carriers.  Carrier Ops are pretty simple.  Left click on one of the plane icons (fighters or bomber/torpedo), then right click on the target.  That'll send off a flight to attack.  Can also use the fighters to defend.

[Jarhead0331]

Its not bad, but I don't think its a $25 game.  $19.99, at best.

[DennisS]

Its not bad, but I don't think its a $25 game.  $19.99, at best.

The very definition of value is the price that one is willing to pay.

The values you quoted are a difference of $5.01. If you sense of value is THAT good, the good on you.

Personally, if I can get an hours' worth of play out of each dollar I spend, I'm happy. I figured this out from my 60+ games bought on steam, and the number of hours I played them. I have had some tremendous successes, with cheap games like Railroad Tycoon II at 40 hours, or Civ 5 at ... 198 hours.

Back on point. Can I get 25 hours out of this game? I ... THINK so, due to a very, very strong interest in the genre, and in naval history in general. The number of books I own on the subject is absolutely in the several hundreds.

[Jarhead0331]

Its not bad, but I don't think its a $25 game.  $19.99, at best.

The very definition of value is the price that one is willing to pay.

The values you quoted are a difference of $5.01. If you sense of value is THAT good, the good on you.

Personally, if I can get an hours' worth of play out of each dollar I spend, I'm happy. I figured this out from my 60+ games bought on steam, and the number of hours I played them. I have had some tremendous successes, with cheap games like Railroad Tycoon II at 40 hours, or Civ 5 at ... 198 hours.

Back on point. Can I get 25 hours out of this game? I ... THINK so, due to a very, very strong interest in the genre, and in naval history in general. The number of books I own on the subject is absolutely in the several hundreds.

Value is of course a very subjective determination.

In my opinion, the production value, the content, the game mechanics and options do not make this a $25 game. I would have felt more comfortable paying $19.99 or less. Nevertheless, I do think it can be a fun game so I do not regret my purchase and I will stick with it.

[Grim.Reaper]

Its not bad, but I don't think its a $25 game.  $19.99, at best.

The very definition of value is the price that one is willing to pay.

The values you quoted are a difference of $5.01. If you sense of value is THAT good, the good on you.

Personally, if I can get an hours' worth of play out of each dollar I spend, I'm happy. I figured this out from my 60+ games bought on steam, and the number of hours I played them. I have had some tremendous successes, with cheap games like Railroad Tycoon II at 40 hours, or Civ 5 at ... 198 hours.

Back on point. Can I get 25 hours out of this game? I ... THINK so, due to a very, very strong interest in the genre, and in naval history in general. The number of books I own on the subject is absolutely in the several hundreds.

Value is of course a very subjective determination.

And ultimate value does not come until after you make the purchase since people have no idea how much they actually will play the game....likely to entice more people at $19.99 price point, then a $24.99 price point, its just the way a lot of the consumers think (being under $20)....during their impulse to buy, they don't rationalize it is only $5 more.....

Regardless, I do agree value is very subjective and everyone decides that for themselves based on how much they like the material.....for me, just recently buying Battle Fleet, I'll likely wait on this one until a typical sale comes along.

[tgb]

The other factor in determining what I am willing to pay for a game is what comparable games are selling for new. Frontline:Road to Moscow released the same day is $8.  Battle Fleet II, released a couple of weeks ago was $10 ($8 on sale).  Are the production values, polish, gameplay, and longevity of Victory at Sea more than twice as good as either of those?

I don't know, because of the 3 I only have Battle Fleet  2.  But I kind of doubt it.

[sandman2575]

Thanks for the impressions, steve and cryano --  carrier aspect sounds a little primitive ... And surprised you can't play as the IJN -- would much rather do that than play as Kriegsmarine.