Dreadnought?

[Elheru Aran]

So I saw a FB ad for a game...

Decided to take a bash at it because it struck my interest. It appears to be sort of World of Warships in Space. It's in open beta right now, currently F2P. Bit of a graphics hog, but once I monkeyed with the settings, it worked a little better (I'm running a... early-2010s Win7 machine with an AMD Vision card, for comparison purposes).

I've only played the tutorial so far. It seems fairly similar to WoWS, although you have more options for weapons. It doesn't play as nicely with my computer as I'd like but that might just be me. Movement isn't perfectly 3D, it's kinda like you're on a boat and you can slowly ascend or descend as you move along the horizontal plane. Basically, that bit with the Enterprise and Reliant in the Mutara Nebula? Pretty much that.

So far? Some promise. It doesn't seem terribly complicated. I might give it a go if the slow start-up times don't bug me too much.

[TheFeniX]

That your dated PC can run a 2017 UE4 game shows, to me at least, a solid investment in hardware and the optimization of the engine. The movement scheme sounds like Star Trek Online.

F2P and only like 15 GBs or so. I downloaded it because "Big ships hammering the shit out of each other" sounds cool. I have yet to try it out though. Will probably sometime this week.

[Elheru Aran]

It's a lot less dynamic than STO, the ships don't 'bank' nearly as much and turning is definitely slower. You also have to manually adjust your Z-axis (spacebar to go up, left-shift to go down). I guess you could say it is like STO... just about 2x slower. That said, the WASD controls are pretty basic and fairly intuitive. The weapons are also not particularly complicated; left-click to fire main weapons, Q to flip between big guns and flak, then 1-4 on the number-bar are your 'modules' which are either things like missiles/torpedoes or buffs.

One thing I need to find out, posthaste, is how to zoom in. There's an 'Artillery Cruiser' that's basically a big-ass cannon with engines, but it's not much good without a proper sniper-mode. A better mouse would also be useful as you can use your center-wheel or center-button to select 'energy modes' which will either turn on your shield or buff your weapons or engine; I have to manually select which one as my wheel hasn't worked in probably a year...

It's funny you call my computer a 'solid investment in hardware'. We literally bought it off the shelf at a Staples that closed three weeks later. Guess I just got lucky. I will note that it does chug a bit, but I don't know if that's my RAM, my processes or my connection. Probably a bit of all three.

[PREDATOR490]

Sounds similar to Fractured Space for controls and flight mechanics. The general concept is similar as well with the exception that FS has a tacked on PVE element. I would play it if it had PVE or Co-Op but PVP turns me off completely.

[Elheru Aran]

Sounds similar to Fractured Space for controls and flight mechanics. The general concept is similar as well with the exception that FS has a tacked on PVE element. I would play it if it had PVE or Co-Op but PVP turns me off completely.

Well I had time to kill this morning, so I gave Fractured Space a go.

Whaddyaknow, it's actually better. Play was much smoother, graphics were fantastic (though it still warned me that my drivers are outdated), and I far prefer PvE to PvP anyway.

Also, gotta love that one of the PvE ships' tag was "Ada <3Lace"...

[stardust]

Well I had time to kill this morning, so I gave Fractured Space a go.

Whaddyaknow, it's actually better. Play was much smoother, graphics were fantastic (though it still warned me that my drivers are outdated), and I far prefer PvE to PvP anyway.

Also, gotta love that one of the PvE ships' tag was "Ada <3Lace"...

I thought so too. When I finally got around to trying Dreadnought, I thought it was a shittier version of the same game. Three core factions, three subtypes; unlike in FS though, the handful of rounds I tried in Dreadnought had me almost insta-gibbed within two minutes. And it's not like I was wandering around alone; I knew to stay with the others. But between the overpowered nature of artillery vessels and the crazy healing ability of support ships, I quickly lost interest. A pity, cuz I had high hopes for it.

And at least in Fractured Space you can try ANY ship, even if you don't own it yet, you just can't compete online with something you don't own.

Both games are really pretty though.

[Elheru Aran]

I would concur, I enjoy the solo-play feature of Fractured Space quite a bit, and given that my time is fairly limited, I enjoy being able to just log on, blow up a few spaceships, and call it a day without sweating about my experience level or whatever.

[stardust]

I would concur, I enjoy the solo-play feature of Fractured Space quite a bit, and given that my time is fairly limited, I enjoy being able to just log on, blow up a few spaceships, and call it a day without sweating about my experience level or whatever.

EXACTLY.