Took the demo for a quick spin yesterday.
I think they’ve hit the brief of taking the feeling of the original and updating it without tilting towards too many “modern” mechanics.
My main issues were just UI stuff, most of which I figured out, but my god, why is right mouse not used to exit menus? Having to reach for ESC all the time rather than just being able to right click out was v puzzling, esp as right click doesn’t seem to be used for anything else?
So much this. Backing out of menus seems like the second most common action in the game. It needs to be accessible.
It is obviously a very rough beta: the gamepad didn’t support but a single button here, which meant no backing off menus without pressing ESC as well. I doubt it is written in the design docs though!
Indeed. As a Proof Of Concept to generate wishlist and excitement though, I think they’ve done a very good job!
Looks great and a definite blast from the past. For me, Carrier Command was one of those iconic games with an ad in a magazine that I just stared at for hours and hours. I enjoyed the gameplay, but it could never quite match what I had imagined in my 10 year-old head, particularly since it was years between drooling over that ad and getting to play the game.
Now a remake of AV-8B Harrier Assault? Sign me up!
I liked Carrier Command at the time (on a friend’s ST first, then on a my pitiful CPC after — in wireframes!) but what blew my mind is when I tried it again a few years ago. It’s one of those games that were actually very much ahead of their time in such a way, I had little idea to actually play it back then. When I plunged back into it, I was amazed at the intuitivity and versatility of the interface, and had just an immense amount of fun.
I must be totally losing my mind in fanboyism, because I’m even more hyped after reading all this!
For instance:
I hope you’ve memorised your compass bearings, because they’re not displayed anywhere close to the torpedo station.
I read it as “oh my, this will reach Lovers in a Strange Space levels of coop partners yelling at each others”.
@Chappers if you don’t play with me, I’ll sue for divorce.
I am so excited for this game it is ridiculous. I cancelled meetings just so I can buy and play it the moment of release. The play test was awesome. The RPS article just psyches me up for the challenge.
With this and Highfleet Microprose is having a strong return to gaming.
I must have bought this within the first minute it was released. :D
Only got a couple of hours to play so I can’t judge it yet, but I’m pretty damn pleased with it so far. The developers quite clearly had immersion as their number one goal. The evidence abounds, from the crane and lift status screens to the deck spotlights and so on. The game never “breaks character”, and the sounds are good too. I absolutely feel like I’m on a carrier, especially with the way the deck pitches and rolls too.
Unfortunately with maximum immersion comes a command interface that could be more intuitive, and by god the vehicle controls are screaming for an order wheel. It’s annoying that you can’t drag-select a group of vehicles to give them all the same waypoint. It’s like Pulsar: Lost Colony in that a large number of things you do require pointing and clicking at various buttons and levers.
I’m not sure what to make of vehicle AI yet, and this will be make-or-break for single player viability of course. On the one hand, I had a group of Seals capture an island with minimal input from me. On the other, I asked a Razorbill to hover nearby for support, and it promptly flew straight at a cliff…
I’ll probably restart next time I play since I have a much better idea of what I’m doing now. My number one priority will be to get hold of some Petrels, because my god those Seals take forever to return to the carrier after a mission.
Also, I really want mouse controls for the air units.
Anyway, overall impressions are very good right now and I can’t wait to really get into it.
Edit: Breaking news! Apparently you can set waypoint altitudes, which I guess is what I should have done with that Razorbill. Now to find out how to determine terrain heights…
Didn’t the Arma people do a Carrier Command-a-like a while back? You could all have been playing this.
Except… it’s not good, and support on it was dropped almost immediately.
You should have played it before recommending this turd.
This one is actually good.
I didn’t like it, it felt more like a sequel to Missionforce Cyberstorm than to Carrier Command to me!
Maybe that’s why I liked it.
I really liked Missionforce Cyberstorm though. I make no sense :-/
Hostile Waters was fantastic!
I dropped in on a Twitch stream last night and the poor guy playing had all his air units crash into the deck when returning to the carrier. However, that has not happened to me so far. His carrier was moving at the time; maybe that was why.
Anyway, if there are vehicle AI issues to be worked through, hopefully the devs are on it. They must surely be aware that it was mainly the AI that sunk Gaea Mission.
I seem to remember a tutorial message about this in the demo that has gone away somehow in the final version. I noticed the introduction was a lot shorter than the demo’s, and seemed to feature much less messages overall.
I confess I was doing some test last night, and if the carrier is moving even so slowly (she speeds so fast actually!), the walrus couldn’t catch up to dock.
I haven’t run into the pathfinding issues others have mentionned online, so there might be something on the island generation front.
The atmosphere is just incredible.
Man, the carrier is a thing of beauty to work around. I don’t really get the complain about chairs, actually.
I think the tides (and weather in general) play a part here. My Seals very quickly sped toward the island but were very slow to return, and I think it’s because of the direction of the tide. I toyed with the idea of moving my carrier in closer but in the end didn’t want to risk smacking the little guys with the prow. :D
I’m at work for another seven hours, and I just can’t stop thinking about the game. I’m already trying to decide how to prioritise the islands, since they all manufacture different things. Those Petrels are really going to come in handy I reckon.
Does anyone know how island defense works yet? The original game had three island types you could set, one of which was defense. How do you passively defend islands in this game?