Age of Fighting Sail (v0.0.9)

[Moderator]

16:36, 21st Mar 2014
Hell_Master: Map approved with a rating of 4/5 (Recommended). See moderator's review regarding the map:

Review emerges!

Played it for 3-4 times and I must say that the concept looks great and is unique. A good addition to the warcraft maps.

But I'm really feeling lost in this game. I really do not like that you move randomly throughout the seas and it's pretty much based on luck (in my opinion since you have to had a good angle to shoot your enemy ships) if you get side on side with a enemy ship to fire off cannons. The idea of the cannot shots from sides is pretty much good but the idea of randomly moving around the seas and turning randomly to different directions is quite bad for me. I suggest in my own perspective to keep the original movement system where you have full control of any unit. Might reduce the uniqueness quality but will make the game much more friendly even for newbies. Also there could be a faster movespeed for the ships as well and the cursor when moving on points should show so you are actually knowing where you are moving. Everything looks fine just that which is for me quite an issue.

The 1-3 ships that LordDz suggested can be a possibility for you to add. Maybe make a difficulty: Normal and Hard. Normal has only 2-3 ships and Hard has 4-5 ships. You could also maybe disable the friendly fire or better yet, make a command or game mode that disables friendly fire because it gets quite annoying that a complete win suddenly turns out to a complete loss from the enemy due to the friendly fire which happened to me actually.

You could also improve the terrain by adding something in it like rocks in the seas. When you bumped on rocks, it will damage you and some natural events such as whirlpool in the seas. Once stepped, it can surely kill your ship.

Overall, this is quite a unique map but there are some things which I think is a disadvantage in the game and is not that newbie friendly.

Rated 4/5 still and Approved. Happy mapmaking, Fingolfin.

 

[LordDz]

Really cool map, however.
It would nice if you started with lesser ships, say 1-2 instead of the 3-5 you begin with now. Makes it easier for newer players to learn it.

And I had some lagspikes when shooting cannons. Great map otherwise.

 

[Heinvers]

COOL. It's a nice gameplay btw. I just love those burning destroyed ship sounds The battle is epic. Outstanding job man. 5/5 hell yeah 10/10

 

[Fingolfin]

Really cool map, however.
It would nice if you started with lesser ships, say 1-2 instead of the 3-5 you begin with now. Makes it easier for newer players to learn it.

And I had some lagspikes when shooting cannons. Great map otherwise.

I was thinking of adding the option of spawning with only a single ship, i was just really eager to get the map released for now. The issue would be that the random ship mode could turn out a bit more unfair, since one player could get a sloop and another a first rate... But we will see what i come up with.

The cannonballs have been optimized as much as possible, but yeah, they do lag in large battles. Sadly, the only way i could make it work smoother is to make all the cannons fire at the same time, rather than with slight, random delays, but frankly, i think that part adds too much to the realism to be removed.

In any case, the ammount of time i spent trying to polish this is unimaginable. I hope everyone enjoys playing it as much as i did making it.

 

[LordDz]

Well make everyone start with the same random low tier ship?
And if you can, make it a bit more obvious that you can buy stuff. At first I saw the income and wondered what it was for.

 

[Fingolfin]

I can add some extra hints on game start regarding that, or maybe like, a tutorial command that gives you some info. The low tier idea is good, perhaps gaining larger ships as you go will give you a sense of progress. I thought of making it like this:

You have an extra voting menu, where you vote for "Navy Size", options "small" and "large". If "small", you will spawn 3 ships if there are less than 3 players, and 1 ship if there are more than 2 players. If "large", you will spawn 5 ships if less than 3 players, and 3 ships if more than 2 players. Does that sound good?

EDIT: And by the way, did you notice the single player commands in the quest menu? They can be fun to play around with, disabling cannonball physics, or spawning epic ships for yourself. If you are having performance issues you can disable effects. Just a tip.

 

[Kazeon]

looks interesting from the ss.. 1/5 for now :3

have played the map
- Gameplay is interesting, so realistic @_@
- You need to improve it though, add more player maybe? add some corals?
- I'm hitting my own ships x.X

 

[Fingolfin]

I might add an option to disable friendly fire. Dunno why, but i just feel like it makes sense to have it there, but if lots of people are bothered by it, i will perhaps remove it.

I limited player count to 4 since too many ships will cause lag. I thought 4 players with a maximum of 6 ships each was a nice limit. I have some ideas on how to expand the map concept into something similar to an AoS, but that is pretty far from now. The idea was to have 2 teams of 4 players, where each player has one ship each. Each team also has 3 star forts, which you capture by landing troops which you purchase onto your ships from your own forts. Ships would also be able to board eachother (during boarding progress, ships would be invulnerable). Like i said though, it is just an idea, and considering the amount of time i spent on this fairly simple game, it would mean a monstrous amout of work.

 

[Mechanical Man]

Interesting, somebody ventured into sea combat, which was always considered boring.

 

[BandolXD]

Love those Ships < 3.

 

[eubz]

Downloading...

 

[Xonok]

Not sure if it's a bug, but the AI appears to apply on my own ships too.

 

[Fingolfin]

To keep things easier for the player, all ships have an autofire function which causes them to fire automatically whenever targets are in range. You can toggle this in the unit card.

 

[Xonok]

To keep things easier for the player, all ships have an autofire function which causes them to fire automatically whenever targets are in range. You can toggle this in the unit card.

Actually the newly bought ships also started moving around by themselves.

 

[Fingolfin]

Did they intercept and circle around enemies, or were they just sailing into the battlefield? All newly purchased ships are ordered to sail towards the map center. Also, ships moving too close to the map border will turn around.

 

[Xonok]

Did they intercept and circle around enemies, or were they just sailing into the battlefield? All newly purchased ships are ordered to sail towards the map center. Also, ships moving too close to the map border will turn around.

I'm not entirely sure. It seems that they simply went towards the map centre, but it was enough in many cases.

 

[Tal'Rarity]

Is there any chance of you reducing the lag in this?

It'd be quite cool if there could be 30+ ships.

Will eventually make a review.

 

[Fingolfin]

Is there any chance of you reducing the lag in this?

It'd be quite cool if there could be 30+ ships.

Will eventually make a review.

A review would be awesome.

Released version 0.0.3 just now which has some minor performance updates and bug fixes (see changelog). I don't think i could ever make it work for more than 24 ships though, without reducing the amount of cannons on each.

 

[Tal'Rarity]

Any chance you could hop on USEast and test with me Fingolfin? Or any other server like west or Europe?

I like to test with the makers of their respective maps if possible, I usually don't offer unless its a 5/5 possible map.

 

[Fingolfin]

Sure, if you host it? My router wont let me host.

EDIT: That was a nice game. There were some bugs though that surfaced which concerns me. The first one is how units are very unresponsive in multiplayer. I think i have found the source of this problem - it might be related to the script that makes sure ships move in formations whenever multiple ones are selected. I use a native called SyncSelections() to make sure that it doesn't cause desyncs, but this native is known to screw things up when used too much. I can either ditch the formation movement, or see if it works without that native.

The second bug is that ships will sometimes go crazy and start firing a constant stream of cannonballs, kinda like a minigun, while doing a barrel roll (the latter part was just the ocean physics responding to the immense recoil). I think this might have had to do with the fact that i destroyed instances of the fireData struct (which saves information on where and when cannonballs will be fired) before i used the ".next" member to iterate further through the linked list. This might have caused an infinite loop. It has been fixed now, and i hope it will work better in the next version. Other than that, i want to thank everyone who participated in testing it, it was a blast.

EDIT 2: Released version 0.0.4 which should fix the above issues. Let me know if there are still delays in the ship controls.

 

[Binsu]

Review emerges!

Played it for 3-4 times and I must say that the concept looks great and is unique. A good addition to the warcraft maps.

But I'm really feeling lost in this game. I really do not like that you move randomly throughout the seas and it's pretty much based on luck (in my opinion since you have to had a good angle to shoot your enemy ships) if you get side on side with a enemy ship to fire off cannons. The idea of the cannot shots from sides is pretty much good but the idea of randomly moving around the seas and turning randomly to different directions is quite bad for me. I suggest in my own perspective to keep the original movement system where you have full control of any unit. Might reduce the uniqueness quality but will make the game much more friendly even for newbies. Also there could be a faster movespeed for the ships as well and the cursor when moving on points should show so you are actually knowing where you are moving. Everything looks fine just that which is for me quite an issue.

The 1-3 ships that LordDz suggested can be a possibility for you to add. Maybe make a difficulty: Normal and Hard. Normal has only 2-3 ships and Hard has 4-5 ships. You could also maybe disable the friendly fire or better yet, make a command or game mode that disables friendly fire because it gets quite annoying that a complete win suddenly turns out to a complete loss from the enemy due to the friendly fire which happened to me actually.

You could also improve the terrain by adding something in it like rocks in the seas. When you bumped on rocks, it will damage you and some natural events such as whirlpool in the seas. Once stepped, it can surely kill your ship.

Overall, this is quite a unique map but there are some things which I think is a disadvantage in the game and is not that newbie friendly.

Rated 4/5 still and Approved. Happy mapmaking, Fingolfin and since your map is not in some development state anymore, you should change your version number to 1.0 or 1.0.0 and above. 0.1 or 0.0.1 are for development stages.

 

[Tal'Rarity]

It's not random though, more like he doesn't announce those wind physics, though you might be seeing the selection bug. If you can't move or cast/shoot then select f1 then your ship again. The movement seems to work to move towards the point slowly turning towards it like a realistic ship. Ships move fast if you sail with the wind.

I may as well post my review too.

Here goes;

You'll get a 5/5 when you let me know you fixed those nasty bugs, for now you have a 4/5 from me. I vote for approval which I am sure it is already approved.

Suggestions;
Keep the friendly fire, but add a mode to disable it
Add a mode to switch between movement types
Add a mode where both teams are in two giant ships similar to cruiser command?
You'll need to add land I think for this one

I agree with the random events
I think you should end up on other side of map if you reach bounds

My Opinion
This is one of the better sea warfare maps and one of the best while also having the most potential I have seen yet. I wish you good luck, and hope to see more. =)

 

[Fingolfin]

Thank you very much hell_master for your review, although i have to say i am surprised and dissapointed by it.

The fact that you claim the gameplay is random and lacking of strategy is a kinda weird thing to say and makes it feel like you diidn't really look deep into the game. The turning speed, and the fact that you cannot turn on a dime like in regular warcraft, is a huge aspect in stragegy and reuires you to make a lot of planning as to from which angle you should attack. Wind direction affects speed, and speed affects turn speed, so if you attack while facing the wind, you will take more time to align with the target. Sometimes though, you can use the wind to escape the enemy volley, but since the stern will recieve triple damage, you also need to be careful turning your back on your enemy.

Another aspect is formation. You want to position your ships so that as many as possible will have a firing angle on the enemy as it approaches. Large ships are also vulnerable, since enemy brigs or even frigates can sneak up behind them and stay out of their line of fire, while dealing broadsides to their stern. Hell, even firing the cannons at all is a huge matter of presicion and timing.

As for the idea of just having 1-3 ships, i already added that some time ago with the "navy size" dialog. Voting for "small" gives you 3 ships if there are 1-2 players, and 1 ship if there are 3-4 players. Having 1 ship per player also adjusts the random equation (when in random mode) so that people don't get ships of too varying sizes.

I don't know, this map was just such a huge piece of work for me - remaking the entire UI, modeling the ships and their destruction sprites, balancing the units, making such a complicated system run almost bug-free, bothering to make a custom victory and defeat screen and enabling all the advanced script aspects to reset and replay, making an ambitious presentation for the hive, and still i get the same rating as goddamn "Shinobi Showdown" just because this wasn't "your kind of map".

EDIT: Also, thank you for your suggestions, i will add a dialog for disabling friendly fire, and perhaps in future versions, you will be able to have procedurally generated reefs which deal damage, if i can get that to work. I still think the game is fine as it is, though.

@Dat-C3: Can you try this version online? Does it still have the selection issues? I am pretty sure i found the bug, so it should be fine now.

 

[SNIper of DARKness]

This is EPIC, It even supports AI, Just outstanding, Good job. Though, Ever thought about making something like this but with planes? I think you could work all the triggers and all, and it would be cool to see, Either way 5/5

 

[Binsu]

I'll consider making a review again here if I got use to the map. Good day. I really felt also that this could have deserved better as well.

 

[Fingolfin]

Just so everyone knows - this "selection bug" only ever appears in multiplayer, never in single player. Like i said though, i think it has been fixed now.

It's not random though, more like he doesn't announce those wind physics, though you might be seeing the selection bug. If you can't move or cast/shoot then select f1 then your ship again. The movement seems to work to move towards the point slowly turning towards it like a realistic ship. Ships move fast if you sail with the wind.

I may as well post my review too.

Here goes;

You'll get a 5/5 when you let me know you fixed those nasty bugs, for now you have a 4/5 from me. I vote for approval which I am sure it is already approved.

Suggestions;
Keep the friendly fire, but add a mode to disable it
Add a mode to switch between movement types
Add a mode where both teams are in two giant ships similar to cruiser command?
You'll need to add land I think for this one

I agree with the random events
I think you should end up on other side of map if you reach bounds

My Opinion
This is one of the better sea warfare maps and one of the best while also having the most potential I have seen yet. I wish you good luck, and hope to see more. =)

Can you explain what you mean by switching between movement types? The realistic movement is fundamental for the game, and the other systems would not work together with classic warcraft movement, in the way that hell_master suggested. Actually, if i were to have warcraft movement, this would just be a game of a bunch of warcraft units with custom models fighting eachother, and that, if anything, would be devoid of strategy in my opinion.

The part about making both teams control a single ship each is a really cool idea, but i think that would be a map of its own rather than a game mode, since it would require so many changes to the game.

 

[GaLaxY_256]

Cool Map! But still lag in Single Player with bots. However 5/5

 

[GaLaxY_256]

Cool Map! But still lag in Single Player with bots. However 5/5
EDIT:Add system that crush ships each other. This will make us feel like real ship battle!

 

[Tal'Rarity]

Myo Sett don't double post, edit and delete one of them.

I'll try later tonight to search for those bugs.

Switching between movement types by just giving players the ability to turn better, not like normal movement because like you said it would kind of mess up and I agree. However there is another option...
Low turning speed will do almost exactly what you have here so I suggest experimenting with it to see if it is a possible mode you could add.

Still basic wc3 movement should still be added as a mode so people can choose what they want. You should still be able to keep your cannons and stuff, just no special movement unless you mess around with turning speed. Maybe another mode where the speed valued are x2'd?

I am glad to help if I am able too. =)
So my suggestion for you would be to think about it and decide yourself for it is your map.

 

[TheWhiteWolf]

Awesome project, I hope to see more updates
The physics felt very realistic.
Visuals are excellent, and it even wasn't that laggy on my wooden pc!

Suggestion: Add damage on ship collision

 

[cleavinghammer]

Cool map so far. Two problems I've noticed is that ships don't follow each other when told to, and the bounty for your own ships shows up when sunk. A countdown to next income would be nice as well.

Also, minigun cannons while the ship is doing a barrel roll? You should consider leaving that in, because it sounds hilarious.

Would you also consider adding some forward/backward facing guns? The ships turn so very slowly, might as well have them do something during then.

 

[Fingolfin]

About the slow speed/turning, maybe you could have an "arcade mode", and a "realistic mode"? During arcade mode, ships turn and move faster, while during realistic mode they move just like now.

Cool map so far. Two problems I've noticed is that ships don't follow each other when told to, and the bounty for your own ships shows up when sunk. A countdown to next income would be nice as well.

Also, minigun cannons while the ship is doing a barrel roll? You should consider leaving that in, because it sounds hilarious.

Would you also consider adding some forward/backward facing guns? The ships turn so very slowly, might as well have them do something during then.

Well spotted on the ship follow thing. I will be simple to add and i will try to have that fixed for next version.

And yes, the minigun barrel roll was very, very awesome. Too bad it crashed my game after about 10 seconds, but at least i laughed myself to tears.

Awesome project, I hope to see more updates
The physics felt very realistic.
Visuals are excellent, and it even wasn't that laggy on my wooden pc!

Suggestion: Add damage on ship collision

Thank you!!
I'm sorry, but damage on ship collision would screw up the AI, and propably make it kill itself too often. It is also kinda hard to program.

 

[GaLaxY_256]

Myo Sett don't double post, edit and delete one of them.

I'll try later tonight to search for those bugs.

Switching between movement types by just giving players the ability to turn better, not like normal movement because like you said it would kind of mess up and I agree. However there is another option...
Low turning speed will do almost exactly what you have here so I suggest experimenting with it to see if it is a possible mode you could add.

Still basic wc3 movement should still be added as a mode so people can choose what they want. You should still be able to keep your cannons and stuff, just no special movement unless you mess around with turning speed. Maybe another mode where the speed valued are x2'd?

I am glad to help if I am able too. =)
So my suggestion for you would be to think about it and decide yourself for it is your map.

I have edited my post

 

[ziad]

Very good map fingy.(I wasn't aware youre working on it)5/5 +rep

 

[Xdraco]

this map is awesome !! *0*

 

[Velrog]

I just gave this map a go... well i've played for about 2-3 hours now but never mind. Seeing the way this map is made, i dare say this could be the begining of a whole new level of Warcraft 3 maps concerning Naval Warfare. I also wish to recommend that you add more ship types and also an Era advancement, each Era with it's unique vessels. Also you might wanna add room for more people, as well as a FFA mod to make it more interesting... >

 

[Fingolfin]

Thank you, it is awesome to hear that you like my map!

I would love to have more players in this map, but sadly the lag caused by the cannonballs firing gets too heavy if you have more than 4 players at once. I think i will reduce ship cap to 5 and also make it so that you spawn with 3 ships in "large" fleet size and 1 ship in "small", regardless of the amount of players - right now 5 ships each in a 2 player game is a bit too much (even though the lineup looks super cool).

As far as ship types go, i might add a steam propelled third rate, and maybe a "shotgun" frigate with canister carronades? Perhaps something between the brig and the frigate could also make sense. Adding ages though is too much work for me, and i also want to try and stick to one theme. The modeling takes a lot of time, and i am lucky enough to have these ships share some of the textures.

Another edit i want to make for next version is to reduce bounty while increasing periodic income. Sometimes, you end up with too little money to even buy a sloop, and waiting for 5 minutes to get enough is really boring. Also, the high bounties makes battles a bit too desicive, since the winner will end up at a massive upperhand.

 

[meatfactory]

Damn I was just thinking about making such a map a couple of days ago
But I got lazy and downloaded "Sid Meier's Pirates!". It would have been just the way you did it with a few minor differences which I can give now as suggestions.
The ships have a bit too much hp, maybe half would have been more realistic and probably the number of cannons can be reduced when the ship takes damage.
It's a bit hard to control more than one ship at a time. Maybe make some kind of wind variable so that ships can get bonus speed or reduced speed if not going in the direction of the wind.
Ps love the ship models.

 

[Fingolfin]

Ehm, well i would love to see you make a map like this in a few days anyway, but ok.

*Ship health seems quite accurate to me - a third rate can stand about three volleys from a first rate before it goes down - often times, being hit would not always mean being sunk i naval battles, since holes above the waterline do not affect the ships buoyancy. In the case of sloops and brigs, it often happens that cannonballs actually go above the ship, so they can dodge some of the fire from ships with many guns.

*Reducing the number of cannons would be cool - up until right now i have not thought of a good way to implement it, but i might have found something now. The problem was that, during a broadside, the script just loops from 0 to the number of cannons on the side which is firing, spawning the cannonballs from front to back, top to bottom. Thus simply lowering the .cannon_count variable will make all "broken" cannons end up in the same area at the lower rear deck rather than at the position where it is damaged. What i can do though is just add a boolean array, which when "true" means the cannon at that slot wont fire, and then when hit give a random chance that a random cannon on that side gets its flag set to "false".

*This game already has wind physics. You see the wind drection in the movement of the clouds. The direction can slowly change during the game and is randomized at every map start.

Thank you for your comment and feedback!

 

[Total_Warrior]

Oh my fuck it puts a smile on my face seeing something so astounding being done in Warcraft 3 and it's bullshit limitations. 5/5.

 

[kali]

Cool map, just waited for one of this kind!

But a bug suddenly occured (Single Player, me+AI vs 2*AI):
In Round 2, after some minutes, only few cannonballs were shot at once, then after some more seconds, all ships stopped to move and the shoot-spells didn't work anymore at all.

Suggestions:
I have totally to agree with the people who suggest coralls, random events (whirlpool etc.). This would add lots of fun. But do NOT listen to the people, who want to have friendly fire removed. This would make it little boring.

Maybe you should restrict the ship count per player using a kind of supply-system, like it is done in Star Wars: Empire at War
Every player there can have ships for 20 points, where a big Star Destroyer counts for example for 4, a small cruiser only for 2 points. Now you could not restrict the amount of players, but give every player x / amountOfPlayersInTeam points. Would be awesome for bigger LAN-parties.

 

[GhostThruster]

well.... a long time ago u asked me for my opinion. now, 6 exams later im ready to give it to you.

the quality of the map is undeniably above par. ive got nothing to say here that isnt blind, unconstructive praise. however, the gameplay is unintuitive, and therefore boring.

overall, it feels like player control is... gimped, if you noe what i mean. something as simple as the inability to see the 'arrow click' model when u order a unit to move creates a sense of disconnect with the player. then add the random things like wind change and coins, and it doesnt feel like the player is playing the game so much as watching the cpu run a simulator.

the main thing is this map doesnt give the player a sense of 'agency', ie) the translation of player decisions into game actions is unintuitive. a simple thing to fix this would be something like zooming the camera in, or increasing ship proportions relative to the map. this would increase players' perceptions of pacing, as well as making it seem like his actions are more meaningful because he can clearly see when he clicks a, cannonballs are shooting out. the way it is now for example, they are barely visible and theres nothing exciting watching water splash in the distance because of near-invisible missiles.

anyways, thats pretty much all ive got to say. of course, keep in mind the above is incredibly subjective. i cannot call this map bad, it wud be just as unfair as calling the kingdom of kaliron bad because i dont like rpgs. my criticism stems inherently from my personal preferences as a gamer, and as long as ur intention is for the map to be the way it is, then there isnt anything wrong with it. except u mispelt ur name in the quest credits, son of finwe

 

[Fingolfin]

well.... a long time ago u asked me for my opinion. now, 6 exams later im ready to give it to you.

the quality of the map is undeniably above par. ive got nothing to say here that isnt blind, unconstructive praise. however, the gameplay is unintuitive, and therefore boring.

overall, it feels like player control is... gimped, if you noe what i mean. something as simple as the inability to see the 'arrow click' model when u order a unit to move creates a sense of disconnect with the player. then add the random things like wind change and coins, and it doesnt feel like the player is playing the game so much as watching the cpu run a simulator.

the main thing is this map doesnt give the player a sense of 'agency', ie) the translation of player decisions into game actions is unintuitive. a simple thing to fix this would be something like zooming the camera in, or increasing ship proportions relative to the map. this would increase players' perceptions of pacing, as well as making it seem like his actions are more meaningful because he can clearly see when he clicks a, cannonballs are shooting out. the way it is now for example, they are barely visible and theres nothing exciting watching water splash in the distance because of near-invisible missiles.

anyways, thats pretty much all ive got to say. of course, keep in mind the above is incredibly subjective. i cannot call this map bad, it wud be just as unfair as calling the kingdom of kaliron bad because i dont like rpgs. my criticism stems inherently from my personal preferences as a gamer, and as long as ur intention is for the map to be the way it is, then there isnt anything wrong with it. except u mispelt ur name in the quest credits, son of finwe

Thank you for your honest and constructive response. Even though i enjoy playing this map, i can understand how many would feel that it lacks goal or ways of making desicions. However i dont think the camera is the problem, i already have a command for setting the exact camera height, and the wind does not "randomly change" more than a few degrees per game, it is mostly a static thing you have to consider when maneuvering. The arrow click model is an easy fix and i will add this as soon as possible.

What i need suggestions for though is how to add more complexity into the gameplay. The random events and reefs is cool, but i don't feel like it truly gives the player an opportunity to feel skilled at the game. One thing i was considering is adding a second hero shop where you can purchase upgrades for your ships. You would basically have a series of bonuses such as "Reinforced hull" (extra hp), "Extended barrels" (longer broadside range), "Crew Experience" (improved handling), "Weighted Shots" (increased damage), etc. You would apply them using an ability targeting the ship you want to upgrade. Perhaps you could have a "Quick Repair" ability which works kinda like the "healing salve" item on your ship (heals x hp over y time, interrupted if the ship takes damage). I dunno, let me hear your opinions.

Cool map, just waited for one of this kind!

But a bug suddenly occured (Single Player, me+AI vs 2*AI):
In Round 2, after some minutes, only few cannonballs were shot at once, then after some more seconds, all ships stopped to move and the shoot-spells didn't work anymore at all.

Suggestions:
I have totally to agree with the people who suggest coralls, random events (whirlpool etc.). This would add lots of fun. But do NOT listen to the people, who want to have friendly fire removed. This would make it little boring.

Maybe you should restrict the ship count per player using a kind of supply-system, like it is done in Star Wars: Empire at War
Every player there can have ships for 20 points, where a big Star Destroyer counts for example for 4, a small cruiser only for 2 points. Now you could not restrict the amount of players, but give every player x / amountOfPlayersInTeam points. Would be awesome for bigger LAN-parties.

Hey, glad you liked the map!

That bug sounds really weird, seems like something caused the game timer to stop running. If it ever happens again in single player, try typing "setInterval 0" in the chat, that will reboot the timer. If it works, let me know and i will check it out. It has never happened to me though.

I'm not sure what you mean about the point system, right now ships cost food, and each player has 6 food which means a maximum of 6 ships. I could ofcourse make the bigger ships cost more, which would solve issues with the cannonballs. Perhaps future versions can have 6 players if i can work this out.

 

[GhostThruster]

not to sound pretentious, but depth > complexity. depth arises from the number of possible outcomes based on ur choices, whereas complexity is the number of variables u have to consider. complexity can create depth, but generally u want to keep ur map easy to learn and difficult to master (ie. high depth, low complexity). if u'd like me to elaborate on what i mean i can. i get a lot of this shizzle from a youtube channel called extra credits

what i suggest is add in an element of map control by putting 'control points' across the map. these cud be like islands or a floating flag (hey if u've got floating coins then realism obviously ain't an issue), and basically when captured they generate gold. but u also want to add some risk towards owning them, like for example they also take up a small amount of food/supply. creates depth (since players must decide firstly if they want to devote a ship to capturing a point, secondly if they want to devote resources) whilst being simple to understand for the player.

in regards to ur upgrade idea, yes there is inherent depth in choosing which upgrades to use too, but its also more complex and requires players to know what each of the 4+ upgrades do. also decision-making is more 'constrained'; something like control points feels more 'active' and ... 'tangible', if u noe wat i mean, whereas upgrades have always seemed to be more of a 'passive' thing.

so yeah, nothing wrong with ur upgrade idea but just remember maximising depth > maximising complexity.

 

[Fingolfin]

You are right about the part about depth being the most important - packing a shitload of choices onto a player doesn't always make a great game. I always wanted this map to be about the real-life naval strategies, like forming a double line, traveling the stern, etc. Sadly, this map does not have that much replay value though.

As for the control points - this is an OK idea, but i am not sure if the gameplay allows for it. In games like DoW, you have lots of units on the map, and they spawn and die with some frequency. Standing still does not affect their ability to fight, and does neither hamper the pace of the game. The same cannot be said about this map, where all the fun is about sliding around, shooting cannonballs around yoruself. Killing enemies can take some time, and more often than not requires a dance around the map to get on top. Standing still makes you a sitting duck, and in games where each player has one ship, this hardly enhances the fun for the poor player who has to guard his little nest.

There must be more mechanics that players can use "on the fly", maybe a ship gets a random bonus (or experience) once it kills another, or maybe kills can generate points which you can use to summon storms, whirlpools or the Kraken? Or maybe you can do this, except it costs gold, so it becomes a choice, i dunno.

 

[plakkoek]

damn who did your modelling nice job on it map looks interesting ill give it a try

 

[Fingolfin]

All models are made by myself. There is a new version coming up, with 6 player support, some bugfixes, and further increased performance.

 

[Emm-A-]

Hi Fingolfin, I tested your map yesterday, and this fighting system resembles the old game port royale a lot.

I must say, the gameplay and the mechanics are very impressive and it is also fun to play. The AI is actually pretty smart, so i was overall impressed by this game!

The models themselves look so beautiful, if the sails moved with the wind, and they broke apart upon death, they would be equal to models from a real game! wow! You should really upload them because they are the best ship models I have seen so far!

Did you ever think of expanding this map to a game like port royale (If you happen to know this one), which combines sea battles and adventure, trading, strategy etc.?

Also a suggestion, which would enhance gameplay imo: Add some "chain cannon ball" ammunition, that slows ships when hit!

And lastly, I mean, if you added some close quarter-boarding possibility, this game would be a pure overkill of awesomeness!

Its a really good map, but you could add a lot more to this! Great job so far anyway

 

[Fingolfin]

Hello, thanks for the suggestions! Also, i'm way ahead of you!! I already added chain shots and sail damage about a month ago, but have so far neglected to upload it. I updated the version, now all ships have sail health represented by mana, and three levels of graphical sail damage. You can toggle between chain shot and ball shot on each ship individually - chain shot deals most damage when fired at the front or back of the sails. Also added a repair ability for good measure.

And yes, i did plan to add more stuff, including boarding! Initially, i wanted to make an AoS stype map where each team control two or three three star forts, and the enemy team would buy troops to try and capture them through boarding/invading. You'd make gold by purchasing trade items in your port and selling them at ports on the enemy's side of the map.