(Good) Naval Combat Game?

[StarshipTitanic]

Please recommend me a game. I have only two requirements:

There must be a multiplayer component that supports at least 3 people.
The boats must be on an ocean, not in space.

Any era of naval combat is fine. Also, don't say Empire: Total War. I will play a game that is relatively old as long as it works well on XP/Vista.

[wautd]

Please recommend me a game. I have only two requirements:

There must be a multiplayer component that supports at least 3 people.
The boats must be on an ocean, not in space.

Any era of naval combat is fine. Also, don't say Empire: Total War. I will play a game that is relatively old as long as it works well on XP/Vista.

Battlestations: Midway is allright if you want to have it purely as a multiplayer game. (single player is rather short and the fact there isn't any kind of random mission generator is unforgivable)

[CaptHawkeye]

I could say Storm Eagle Studios "Jutland", but what's your stance on DRM?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but I feel obligated to at least mention Pirates of the Burning Sea. It is an MMO and thus has a subscription fee... but at least it meets the multiplayer requirement.

Once you get past the early levels it really is a pretty solid naval combat game, as long as you don't mind the more RPG-styled mechanics and the inevitable douchebaggery of playing a game on the internet. I would also mention it has a steep learning curve and as a result tends to turn a lot of people off of it right away, but given that you're specifically asking for a naval combat game, I'm guessing that's not an issue for you.

[RogueIce]

Fleet Command is a fun modern day-ish game (I say -ish because it was released back in 1999 originally, so it's modern up until around then). There were problems for XP but there are patches for that (which also let you choose loadouts for your aircraft, which was a nice feature). There's also a mission creator that is fairly easy to use, so you can make just about any mission you please.

EDIT: Ah, according to Wiki they did a 2006 rerelease that apparently makes it work quite well for XP apparently. Dunno about the various mods that were out there, but I'm sure they still exist somewhere on the Internet.

[Dendrobius]

Dangerous Waters - http://www.sonalystscombatsims.com/dangerous_waters/

Sure the learning curve's steeper than the Himalayas, and the graphics utilitarian at best, but not much is more fun than to have 2 guys in a sub hunting 2 guys in an Oliver Hazard Perry.

It's a very hardcore naval combat sim, very fun once you get how to make things work.

[Stark]

[quote="Brother-Captain Gaius"]This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but I feel obligated to at least mention Pirates of the Burning Sea. It is an MMO and thus has a subscription fee... but at least it meets the multiplayer requirement./quote]


AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Man you must be getting KICKBACKS. You're lucky all the other games mentioned are from like 1999 - PotBS might actually not be the ugliest game in the thread for once.

At least this thread serves to establish something Hawkeye and I already knew; there are no 'naval games', certainly no good ones. You've got Pirates and it's bastard offspring (like Pirates of the Burning Suck) and arcadey nonsense like Cattle Stations. Ironically the next Battlestations game is probably your best bet.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I don't know what the fuck your problem is with PotBS other than that you played it for 5 seconds and it didn't immediately stroke you off.

Seriously. Do you even have a legitimate complaint against it other than "it doesn't measure up to my ludicrously high standards for MMO/niche game graphics" and "my friend likes pirates and hates this game ergo it must suck a lot"?

[Stark]

How embarrassment, my damn tags are even broken. Fucking hard brackets.

And dude, PotBS being the ugliest and most boring pirate game I've ever seen, so terrible it turned off almost everyone, isn't relevant. It's just such a hilarious thing to suggest when someone is like 'hey I want to play a multiplayer naval-y game'. I wonder how they'll enjoy paying a monthly fee and the absolutlely horrible on-foot sections?

Your butthurt-ness with regard to the game is fantastic, though. It's got graphics that make EVE's old graphics look good and the only interesting part is the econ (ie not the naval stuff lol) and yet you're offended when people don't like it. Did you big brother design it? It's just another crappy niche MMO. There's thousands of them. Most of them are free, however. Still, it'll outlive Conan, so it's far from the worst.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

And dude, PotBS being the ugliest and most boring pirate game I've ever seen, so terrible it turned off almost everyone, isn't relevant. It's just such a hilarious thing to suggest when someone is like 'hey I want to play a multiplayer naval-y game'. I wonder how they'll enjoy paying a monthly fee and the absolutlely horrible on-foot sections?

The dude wanted naval combat games. As you so aptly pointed out, there ain't a lot of options. Thus, I mentioned a possibility, however remote, with the appropriate disclaimer that it may not be exactly what he's looking for, given I can't read his mind.

Your butthurt-ness with regard to the game is fantastic, though. It's got graphics that make EVE's old graphics look good and the only interesting part is the econ (ie not the naval stuff lol) and yet you're offended when people don't like it. Did you big brother design it? It's just another crappy niche MMO. There's thousands of them. Most of them are free, however. Still, it'll outlive Conan, so it's far from the worst.

In other words you have absolutely nothing to back up your bullshit with so you result to schoolyard horseshit. I'm not fucking 'offended' you of all people don't like it, I'm fucking annoyed when you jump all over my shit the second I mention it in any thread anywhere spewing your retarded, baseless drivel. If you actually had something substantive to say and legitimate criticism rather than "LOLOLOLOL BCG HAS SHIT TASTE IN GAMES" I wouldn't have a problem. And you haven't even played the game beyond level 5, so you don't know shit about its naval combat.

I'm all for duly deserved criticism of games and harsh criticism (I don't disagree with your criticisms of DoW2, for example, which are based in reason) at that, but "hur hur, look how much I don't like most games" is useless in the extreme.

And the graphics are just fine, by the way (JPEG artifacts aside), something which shouldn't even be an issue, given that he said he's fine with old games:

[StarshipTitanic]

I'm not interested in a MMO with a monthly fee, but thanks.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[JointStrikeFighter]

HOLY SHIT! THAT WATER IS HORRIBLE!

[Stark]

ITT we learn that 'ugly as fuck', 'boring' and 'innapropriate to the thread' aren't 'backing up' something something.

I've already mentioned the DK2-level walking sections, but how about the hilariuos boarding combat? People can claim it's 'fixed' all they want (just as they can talk about how the conquest system works, the npc mobs work, etc) but it's ugly and horrible. The 'backwards' econ system is literally the only part of the game that's even remotely interesting (since it's arguably more player-friendly than EVE's system) but given what I've heard about the conquest system it seems irrelevant.

And frankly, there's a difference between charming 90s graphics that were the best they could do and OH MY GOD THE AWFUL POLYS. I remember the pre-release screenshots that looked way better than the pile of shit we got at launch, which is a lol.

[The Romulan Republic]

Battlestations: Midway is allright if you want to have it purely as a multiplayer game. (single player is rather short and the fact there isn't any kind of random mission generator is unforgivable)

I'll throw out Battlestations: Midway as well. I'm sure not everyone will agree, but I sure found it enjoyable. I thought the graphics were more than satisfactory, and I actually liked some of the campaign missions a lot (mainly the ones where you control only one or two fast units), short as the campaign was. Also, in addition to the campaign, their are single player challanges (ie, extra hard stand-alone missions), most of which I have yet to beat.

My main complaints against it are the apparent lack of a tutorial on the demo (took a while to figure it out), the dificulty in finding people for a multiplayer game on-line, the fact that the main campaign doesn't go past the Battle of Midway, and the fact that while you can allocate crew to specific sections of a ship for damage control, you only have three units of repair men, so you always have to leave some sections with no damage control. I ended up just leaving my damage control teams on flooding, which I found to be most effective.

However, I think their's a tutorial in the full game, and in any case you can figure it out in a few minutes hitting random buttons on the keyboard. Most of my other complaints are just minor nitpicks, and not withstanding these minor issues, its actually one of my favorite games.

[JointStrikeFighter]

The tutorial is so cripplingly boring that you wouldn't want to play it anyway.

[Stark]

Midway is basically the only 'drive a warship' game in town, though. BS: Pacific looks significantly better, however, but I have no idea when it's supposed to come out.

[PainRack]

Fleet Command is a fun modern day-ish game (I say -ish because it was released back in 1999 originally, so it's modern up until around then). There were problems for XP but there are patches for that (which also let you choose loadouts for your aircraft, which was a nice feature). There's also a mission creator that is fairly easy to use, so you can make just about any mission you please.

EDIT: Ah, according to Wiki they did a 2006 rerelease that apparently makes it work quite well for XP apparently. Dunno about the various mods that were out there, but I'm sure they still exist somewhere on the Internet.

There are some really irritating problems with Fleet Command though. Mainly, the perversion of air combat. Air combat in the game equals to use a plane to draw enemy fire, use another plane to kill them. Rinse and repeat, including SAM sites. It encourages heavy micro-management of your air units in the game. For naval units, the game attempts to encourage emission control, threat levels and the like also encourage a form of microing in the game. Unless the revisied version gives better AI, be prepared to be a heavy microer.

[Stark]

Yeah, the guys I know who play naval games can talk all day about how broken that whole set of games are.

[Vendetta]

Midway is basically the only 'drive a warship' game in town, though. BS: Pacific looks significantly better, however, but I have no idea when it's supposed to come out.

April or so, I think.

Midway was alright, I'm not sure how it's MP community is doing, I'd expect a small but dedicated one, it's that kind of game. Though when it first came out there was generally at least one person per game who really didn't get it, produced no units, etc.

Was fun when everyone in the game was actually in possession of a brain cell though.

[Tolya]

There are some really irritating problems with Fleet Command though. Mainly, the perversion of air combat. Air combat in the game equals to use a plane to draw enemy fire, use another plane to kill them. Rinse and repeat, including SAM sites. It encourages heavy micro-management of your air units in the game. For naval units, the game attempts to encourage emission control, threat levels and the like also encourage a form of microing in the game. Unless the revisied version gives better AI, be prepared to be a heavy microer.

You can find SOME enjoyment in Fleet Command, but be prepared to kill your left mouse button finger in the process. Dumb air combat isn't the worst thing about this game. It's the moments when you have to manually click on every anti-ship missile launched from a squadron of Badger bombers heading towards your CVBG to order your SM2-equipped Ticonderoga cruiser to kindly shoot down incoming threat. And when Russians attack they do it with 50 or so anti-ship missiles.

I once emptied the SM2 launcher of Tico. It had 150 missiles. I fired them all - 2 missiles per a vampire guarantee a kill.

After that happened for like a 100th time in a campaign, I stopped playing the damn game.

[Oskuro]

You could also try playing the naval maps from Battlefield 1942. It's probably too simplistic, but can make for some fun LAN games, and the Pirates mod was OK.

[CaptHawkeye]

Who doesn't want to play bumper cars with Yamato?

Stark and I know that the 90s were just bursting with sims but thanks to our lack of rose colored glasses we also both know that many of them were hideously broken and incredibly unwieldy. That's why I can't even bring myself to play them even today. Even when I disregard the graphics. I tried to play Great Naval Battles a few months ago and found it so painfully inept in design that I never touched it again.

[RogueIce]

You can find SOME enjoyment in Fleet Command, but be prepared to kill your left mouse button finger in the process. Dumb air combat isn't the worst thing about this game. It's the moments when you have to manually click on every anti-ship missile launched from a squadron of Badger bombers heading towards your CVBG to order your SM2-equipped Ticonderoga cruiser to kindly shoot down incoming threat. And when Russians attack they do it with 50 or so anti-ship missiles.

I once emptied the SM2 launcher of Tico. It had 150 missiles. I fired them all - 2 missiles per a vampire guarantee a kill.

After that happened for like a 100th time in a campaign, I stopped playing the damn game.

Well they did change that so the ships will try and defend themselves. Seems like a last ditch thing though. Either that or they'll only auto-fire when the missiles are within the radar range of the Tico (? haven't tested that since I always have an E-2 up anyway).

At least changing the loadouts for air missions was nice, so my F-18s could actually be useful for ASUW instead of the Tomcat being the only Harpoon armed fighter on my flight decks. Don't know if they fixed much micro with the fighters since I tend to still do it anyway.

[Tolya]

Well they did change that so the ships will try and defend themselves.

What do you mean? Did they release a new version of the game? Am I something missing? Or are you talking about the patches?

[StarshipTitanic]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I downloaded a Battlestations: Midway demo but apparently it's multiplayer only. And if a (possibly better) sequel is coming out in the future I might as well wait for that one.