War on the Sea coming soon! (from Killerfish Games)

[glen55]

I would just like to say that I am finding this thread super-informative, and I am going to wait to buy until I hear more from this very spot.

It's threads like this that make this the best site for computer wargamers.

[The_Admiral]

They don't. You have to "buy" them at sea.
Can't use search patterns either. In that regard as in others, it is a big regression compared to, say, the strategic map in Task Force 1942 which had all that. I was personally very enthusiastic about WotS because I expected a remake of that part, even 1:1 wouldn't have bothered me. But it wasn't to be  :-\

Ouch. What a peculiar design decision.

My mistake tough, "buy" is not really the right word for that. They are on your carrier, but there's a strange mechanism that forces a 3h pause between each air ops. That means that either you send the kitchen sink in the air or not - if you send scouts first, you will not be able to launch another group before another 3h. Loads of posts about this in the forum, might be changed soon enough I guess.
Ships have to be bought so, that's a positive.

A lot of videos online though, it should be easy to get a better picture overall  :)

[Zulu1966]

Steam not usually my go to place for reviews but they seem fairly sensible at the moment for this game.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/realBattleSheep/recommended/1280780/

This one seems to explain in detail why its a no buy from me at this stage - a pacific games that doesn't at least get carriers to some extent right - even from a beer and pretzels point of view doesnt float.

Disappointing would be the word.

[Toonces]

Ouch.

I'm thinking I may just go ahead and refund without even opening the game.  Those types of features are going to annoy me instantly.

[Toonces]

Like show-stopping annoying.

I'll wait until the modders fix this stuff.

[steve58]

Was looking forward to this one, but I think I'm going to let it season some.  I'll "circle back" to it sometime in the future.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Yeah.  Submitted my refund request but my playtime is right at 2 hours so it might be denied.

I almost never buy newly released games anymore.  This is a good reminder as to why.

[rustyshackleford]

****EDIT**** This game has some MAJOR issues, and I will not be playing until they are fixed or modders can get at the game.


I cannot in good faith recommend this game after having a few more hours under my belt. Below are some of my gripes:

1. AI Autonomy - the AI is stupid AF in this game. You have to micromanage EVERYTHING. If you have a convoy of 12 ships and want them to attack, there is no general "Target Enemy" state that you can assign to the group and have them automatically engage. Instead, you have to manually select EACH ship, press "T" to put it into target mode, and then click the enemy ship you want it to fire at. You do this for every. Single. Ship. Individually. It's a major pain in the ass

2. Carrier tactics are non-existent that have come to light while I was playing the campaign. Not realistic at all, I can't send out a screen to search for enemy fleets. I had a squadron of Wildcats fly RIGHT over some Kates on their way to bomb my Carrier....like, passed 500 foot directly above them. The Wildcats did jack shit and continued on their merry way, dumb fat and happy. I had to again select each individual Wildcat, press T, choose one of the Kates, and THEN click a button called "Attack" before it finally peeled away from formation. By the time I did this for each Wildcat, the Kates had already had their way with my carrier.

3. My expectations for the Campaign were seriously wrong - I was hoping that I could choose to be a single sub (a la Cold Waters), or Carrier, or Destroyer and take control of it in a Dynamic Campaign while the war raged on around me. This is not the case. While you CAN operate individual ships in the Campaign, you have to do everything - from purchasing units to creating fleets, assigning them waypoints and orders and targets to attack and locations to patrol, etc. Too much micromanagement.




Bought it and the game is awesome, but take that with a grain of salt because I LOVED their previous Cold Waters/Atlantic/Pacific Fleet games. It's a little rough and has some recycled effects, but it's basically Cold Waters in WW2 Pacific. I think I'm in 

The UI is a bit wonky and as another poster said, feels like a mix-up of a bunch of different games. But if you're a fan of the Pacific, I can definitely see you getting your money's worth out of it.

I've amended my previous post in the hopes that others won't read my initial comments and purchase the game without knowing what they are getting. I still think there is a GOOD game somewhere in there, but it's not there yet. Fortunately, Steam allows refunds. I think I'll hold on to my purchase to support the devs since Pacific games like this are few and far between, but I won't be playing until some MAJOR problems have been resolved and/or/if modders can fundamentally change some of the core gameplay mechanics.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Got my refund thankfully. 

Shame about the design decisions regarding carrier ops.  Here's hoping Task Force Admiral is as good as it's shaping up to be.

[Sir Slash]

A big THANKS for all you brave Grogs that gave this one a first-class recon for the rest of us.  O0  Grogheads does it again!

[Gusington]

Well done SDR and Rusty, saving the rest of us some money.

[MengJiao]

****EDIT**** This game has some MAJOR issues, and I will not be playing until they are fixed or modders can get at the game.


I cannot in good faith recommend this game after having a few more hours under my belt. Below are some of my gripes:

1. AI Autonomy - the AI is stupid AF in this game. You have to micromanage EVERYTHING. If you have a convoy of 12 ships and want them to attack, there is no general "Target Enemy" state that you can assign to the group and have them automatically engage. Instead, you have to manually select EACH ship, press "T" to put it into target mode, and then click the enemy ship you want it to fire at. You do this for every. Single. Ship. Individually. It's a major pain in the ass

2. Carrier tactics are non-existent that have come to light while I was playing the campaign. Not realistic at all, I can't send out a screen to search for enemy fleets. I had a squadron of Wildcats fly RIGHT over some Kates on their way to bomb my Carrier....like, passed 500 foot directly above them. The Wildcats did jack shit and continued on their merry way, dumb fat and happy. I had to again select each individual Wildcat, press T, choose one of the Kates, and THEN click a button called "Attack" before it finally peeled away from formation. By the time I did this for each Wildcat, the Kates had already had their way with my carrier.

3. My expectations for the Campaign were seriously wrong - I was hoping that I could choose to be a single sub (a la Cold Waters), or Carrier, or Destroyer and take control of it in a Dynamic Campaign while the war raged on around me. This is not the case. While you CAN operate individual ships in the Campaign, you have to do everything - from purchasing units to creating fleets, assigning them waypoints and orders and targets to attack and locations to patrol, etc. Too much micromanagement.




Bought it and the game is awesome, but take that with a grain of salt because I LOVED their previous Cold Waters/Atlantic/Pacific Fleet games. It's a little rough and has some recycled effects, but it's basically Cold Waters in WW2 Pacific. I think I'm in 

The UI is a bit wonky and as another poster said, feels like a mix-up of a bunch of different games. But if you're a fan of the Pacific, I can definitely see you getting your money's worth out of it.

I've amended my previous post in the hopes that others won't read my initial comments and purchase the game without knowing what they are getting. I still think there is a GOOD game somewhere in there, but it's not there yet. Fortunately, Steam allows refunds. I think I'll hold on to my purchase to support the devs since Pacific games like this are few and far between, but I won't be playing until some MAJOR problems have been resolved and/or/if modders can fundamentally change some of the core gameplay mechanics.

   I was a bit wary of this game and obviously it has MAJOR PROBLEMS, but I'm happy with a lot of things about it.  It tend to play games in the editor anyway and there are interesting things to be done.  The hydrology in the game is the best I've seen for the South Pacific, the weather and wave states and clouds and lighting and island topography are good.  Here's a US sub off Florida Island north of Guadalcanal:

[MengJiao]

   I was a bit wary of this game and obviously it has MAJOR PROBLEMS, but I'm happy with a lot of things about it. 

   I've been looking into a lot of the more nautical stuff about the game.  The visibility logic works very well and the manual even mentions it:

- Light level: Time of day determines lighting conditions.
- Weather: Heavier cloud cover reduces visibility while rain or snow dramatically decreases visibility to about 50%.
- Sea state: Rougher seas make it harder to detect a contact and strong winds whip up spray.
Base visibility is displayed as a percentage on the Menu panel and is applied to ALL visual detections outlined below.
SEA
Visual detection of a sea unit is modified by the following factors:
- Conditions: base visibility as determined by lighting, weather and sea state as mentioned above.
- Height of observer: Larger ships are higher can see farther than small ones. This is shown by the visual horizon value. High flying aircraft can see further.
- Size of contact: Large contacts can be seen more easily than small stealthy ones. Visibility is modified by the visual detection modifier of the contact.
- Contact Speed: Ships at high speed produce more funnel smoke and a larger wake, while stationary ships are harder to spot.
- Land: terrain within visual range behind a contact obscures it making it harder to detect
- Illumination: a contact on fire, firing guns which produce muzzle flashes or illuminated by star shells are easier to spot

[Toonces]

I wonder if this game is worth it just for the editor and the surface battles.  Kind of like an offline World of Warships.

[IICptMillerII]

I have yet to purchase it but I'm watching a friend of mine play. He knows what he is doing which is a big plus. I still haven't seen anything that indicates its nearly as bad as some of the reviews claim. That said, I also still haven't seen very much of the game, so there could be large issues that I just have not witnessed yet.

Also, I would hope it goes without saying, but Steam reviews should almost always be disregarded for a multitude of reasons.