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Task Force Admiral WIP shows a ton of promise [Pacific]

Not much, but a little more information.
They do seem to be saying all the right things.

Agreed.

I find it immensely amusing that someone wonders why they would focus Volume 1 on US Carrier operations. The US didn't invent carriers, but the US and Japan certainly elevated the art of carrier warfare during World War 2. I would hope Volume 2 would be the Japanese perspective as well as the campaign engine. Volume 3 would be adding the British....into the Pacific. From a developer's perspective, they are going to already have the Japanese hardware modeled in Volume 1, they would have to add US AI and Japanese voice acting and the campaign with multiplayer in volume 2. For Volume 3, you could add the British into the Pacific. A lot of ship modeling to do, but Brit carriers in the Pacific carried a fair number of US lend Lease AC's, so that might give them a leg up. Volume IV could be Med action and Atlantic ASW/escort carrier stuff, also maybe Norway campaign, Hunt for Bismarck stuff.
 
Agreed.

I find it immensely amusing that someone wonders why they would focus Volume 1 on US Carrier operations. The US didn't invent carriers, but the US and Japan certainly elevated the art of carrier warfare during World War 2. I would hope Volume 2 would be the Japanese perspective as well as the campaign engine. Volume 3 would be adding the British....into the Pacific. From a developer's perspective, they are going to already have the Japanese hardware modeled in Volume 1, they would have to add US AI and Japanese voice acting and the campaign with multiplayer in volume 2. For Volume 3, you could add the British into the Pacific. A lot of ship modeling to do, but Brit carriers in the Pacific carried a fair number of US lend Lease AC's, so that might give them a leg up. Volume IV could be Med action and Atlantic ASW/escort carrier stuff, also maybe Norway campaign, Hunt for Bismarck stuff.

Yep, makes sense. We can only hope. I'm keeping my eye on this one.
 
Hello there Ladies & Gentlemen,

Big thanks to Rocketman for opening this topic and for his kindness, and thanks to the management too for allowing me in here, even though it will be a long time before I get to play my next PBEM (obviously, lately I haven't been much on the available side of things in terms of MP games, I s'ppose you can understand why :p)

Thank you all for the warm welcome, the words of wisdom - and last, but not least, your understanding. Believe us, having to cut our own wings short early on was a painful process, but a necessary one. Thankfully enough so far most people here and elsewhere see merit in this approach. We are glad that some people actually read the walls of text we put up *painfully* - I reckon ain't the best way to communicate, but at least people can't say they haven't been warned ^^

Of course I am welcoming any sort of question you might wish to ask. I might not answer immediately (got to keep an eye on many topics at once these days) but I will eventually.

Cheers!

Me & the Team
 
I want the Akagi flat top!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :p

Good luck with your project!
 
Hello there Ladies & Gentlemen,

Big thanks to Rocketman for opening this topic and for his kindness, and thanks to the management too for allowing me in here, even though it will be a long time before I get to play my next PBEM (obviously, lately I haven't been much on the available side of things in terms of MP games, I s'ppose you can understand why :p)

Thank you all for the warm welcome, the words of wisdom - and last, but not least, your understanding. Believe us, having to cut our own wings short early on was a painful process, but a necessary one. Thankfully enough so far most people here and elsewhere see merit in this approach. We are glad that some people actually read the walls of text we put up *painfully* - I reckon ain't the best way to communicate, but at least people can't say they haven't been warned ^^

Of course I am welcoming any sort of question you might wish to ask. I might not answer immediately (got to keep an eye on many topics at once these days) but I will eventually.

Cheers!

Me & the Team
Welcome to FGM. We are pretty laid back here, but we do like our games.

With volume one, you are planning a series of battles. Clearly you will have the historical ones. But with your influences including CCAW, will you emulate what they did and have the historical battle, but then maybe a variant or two that changes the battle in some way like they did in CCAW?

Can we assume battles will stretch from a Pearl Harbor until the end of the war?

Again, welcome. We are definitely looking foward to your game.
 
Dear all, good evening/morning!

To answer quickly, for volume 1, a series of 30 to 40 scenarios is planned - you might only play one side, but it doesn't mean experience has to be dull and repetitive. These are basically made of three different kinds:

- The basic, classic ones, based around historical action and narrative. Some of them will be longer than others and might propose different starting point (for instance when it comes to the early May action: full Coral Sea starting on the eve of the Tulagi Raid, later on the Day Shoho Died & or simply the Final Confrontation with CarDiv5). Let's say that's one third.

- The variants: these are classic encounters with a twist. Examples, using Midway: different (and random) vector approach for KB at Midway, CarDiv5 & Lexington available at Midway, Zuikaku at Midway, IJN surprise at Midway with Saratoga joining the fray, Yorktown joining Point Luck late, etc... You get your second third.

- The hypothetical scenarios: Wake relief moving forward, Enterprise & Yorktown coming across Japanese carriers during the early raids, Doolittle raid's TF-16 getting closer to Japan undetected but coming across a Japanese Task Force, CarDiv 5 striking at the Watchtower landings, possibly Blue on Blue fleet problems, etc... And that's a final third.

When it comes to maps & battles, Pearl Harbor is sadly out of the picture for now, along with some other areas. We will focus on actual US carrier activities between December 1941 and January 1942 (pretty much all the way to the evacuation of Guadalcanal). Pearl Harbor - as will the Dutch East Indies/ABDA, the Indian Ocean and the Aleutians - will be kept for the second volume centered on the IJN. Naturally, the release of Vol.2 will mean that new scenarios will be available for the US side too (and hopefully by then adversarial Multiplayer will be a thing). As you can see, the whole PH battleship row is missing, and so are the IJN slow BBs. These will join the roster in Vol.2, along with a sizable chunk of the Royal Navy and other forces (such as the missing Dutch & Anzac units that have fought in the new areas). Vol.2 will also extend the time frame generously into 1943.

Besides, Volume 1 will come with a random battle generator and a full scenario builder (the kind of tool we will use ourselves for creating the original scenarios) because we can.

There you go ^^
Thanks everybody!
 
Dear all, good evening/morning!

To answer quickly, for volume 1, a series of 30 to 40 scenarios is planned - you might only play one side, but it doesn't mean experience has to be dull and repetitive. These are basically made of three different kinds:

- The basic, classic ones, based around historical action and narrative. Some of them will be longer than others and might propose different starting point (for instance when it comes to the early May action: full Coral Sea starting on the eve of the Tulagi Raid, later on the Day Shoho Died & or simply the Final Confrontation with CarDiv5). Let's say that's one third.

- The variants: these are classic encounters with a twist. Examples, using Midway: different (and random) vector approach for KB at Midway, CarDiv5 & Lexington available at Midway, Zuikaku at Midway, IJN surprise at Midway with Saratoga joining the fray, Yorktown joining Point Luck late, etc... You get your second third.

- The hypothetical scenarios: Wake relief moving forward, Enterprise & Yorktown coming across Japanese carriers during the early raids, Doolittle raid's TF-16 getting closer to Japan undetected but coming across a Japanese Task Force, CarDiv 5 striking at the Watchtower landings, possibly Blue on Blue fleet problems, etc... And that's a final third.

When it comes to maps & battles, Pearl Harbor is sadly out of the picture for now, along with some other areas. We will focus on actual US carrier activities between December 1941 and January 1942 (pretty much all the way to the evacuation of Guadalcanal). Pearl Harbor - as will the Dutch East Indies/ABDA, the Indian Ocean and the Aleutians - will be kept for the second volume centered on the IJN. Naturally, the release of Vol.2 will mean that new scenarios will be available for the US side too (and hopefully by then adversarial Multiplayer will be a thing). As you can see, the whole PH battleship row is missing, and so are the IJN slow BBs. These will join the roster in Vol.2, along with a sizable chunk of the Royal Navy and other forces (such as the missing Dutch & Anzac units that have fought in the new areas). Vol.2 will also extend the time frame generously into 1943.

Besides, Volume 1 will come with a random battle generator and a full scenario builder (the kind of tool we will use ourselves for creating the original scenarios) because we can.

There you go ^^
Thanks everybody!
Thank you for taking the time to reply.

So how are you handling air units? As a commander, I am assuming we will be able to order missions? Can you automate some tasks, like CAP, ASW and scouting?
 
Waiting until the last sentence to toss in random battle generator and full scenario builder. Wicked sense of humor.
So, for the foreseeable future your team has no life?

Well truly yes but it started earlier - I happen to have a job and to be busy with my PhD, so I gave up on pretty much everything else besides these two obligations a long time ago. I am just the producer though, so it matters little in the end. The Dev Team is working 100% on the thing, and fortunately they get paid for their work too (and they work really hard ^^).


Thank you for taking the time to reply.

So how are you handling air units? As a commander, I am assuming we will be able to order missions? Can you automate some tasks, like CAP, ASW and scouting?

Yes, you will be ordering missions. Like any game in the genre for decades these will come with default patterns that you will be allowed to tweak afterwards.
Same with the CAP - you might want to give a broad instruction about how many planes you want in the air at any given time, but if you really want to micro-manage the thing, you will be allowed to set the patrol quadrants & the CAP ceiling/layering. Technically the degree of involvement of carrier flag officers was very different from one man to another (black shoe officer vs brown shoe officer, confident style vs overbearing style, etc...) so the full range of what could be expected from the admiral will be available. It's up to you to fine-tune your command experience, with some limits of course - you get to decide in which state the flight deck should be as you can mess with the air schedule, decide if planes get launched or recovered first, etc... but you will not get to say where you park a plane on the deck, for instance. Hope it makes sense :)
 
Thanks!
PBEM is unfortunately out of the picture though. Being a realtime based game, it just cannot be made to work with this system.
Still, when multiplayer comes (that is hopefully vol.2) we intend to allow multiplayer savegames, which will allow people to split a single game into several sessions (which is obviously yet another challenge when it comes to make sure everything is in sync). Carrier battles can be a long affair if you decide to forego time compression, and we want people to play it the way they prefer it.
 
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A few screenshots for you, gentlemen ;)
All of this is posted on our social accounts, so don't hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook if you want the latest updates. But in the meantime, here are a few shots of what we are brewing right now :)
Working on ship evasion AI, Dive-Bomber doctrine & AI, shipborne AA, navigation physics & new FX. Poor Hiryu pulled the wrong straw and is our sparring partner for the day. Enjoy the view from her doomed flight deck!


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Cheers
 
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