Article Type: Preview
Article Date: September 17, 2001
The High Seas Beckon
I like ships. I really do. There is something stately, but also awesome about the way in which a large ship moves through the ocean. Having spent a fair proportion of my working life on and around big ships, it has always surprised me that there aren't more ship oriented simulations. Things like Fighting Steel and Fleet Command are perfectly adequate games, but they are both set at a strategic rather than tactical level. I want to command from the bridge, to feel a ship respond the helm and react to wind and waves. What I want, I guess, is a flight simulator for ships. I haven't come across anything recently that hit the spot in this respect (Task Force 1942 was a pretty good game, but it's a bit long in the tooth now), so I was distinctly happy when the preview code for Destroyer Command hove into view.
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Splash Screen  |
Destroyer Command (DC) is a new product from Ultimation that seems to offer everything an armchair admiral could want. The game will be published by SSI as part of their Digital Combat series and the list of promised features for the game look pretty impressive:
- Players can command any of the fourteen classes of destroyer operated by the US Navy in World War II
- Players can command a single ship, a squadron or a division
- Weapons available range from torpedoes, 40mm cannons, machine guns, depth charges, to the main battery of 5-inch guns, with the option to take direct control of weapons or issue commands to the AI crewmen
- Sensors include air and sea search radar and sonar; players have the option to take direct control or leave operations to the AI crew
- A highly detailed 3D world with exacting physics modeling
- Non-player units include other ship classes, aircraft and submarines
- Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean Theatres available in single missions and custom missions
- Campaigns available in the Atlantic and Pacific theatres
- Allied forces include British, Netherlands and French navies. Opposition comes in the form of the German, Italian and Japanese navies
- A variety of mission types including escort, attack and shore bombardment
- User-created missions can be based in all three theatres and include historically accurate opposing forces
- One of the most anticipated features of this game is the ability to play against owners of the soon to be released WWII German U-Boat title, Silent Hunter II via Internet or LAN. DC also features co-operative and head-to-head multiplayer options with other Destroyer Command players.
So potentially we are looking at something that is enormously ambitious in terms of scope and detail. Can you imagine a combat flight simulator that allowed you to fly fourteen different WWII aircraft almost anywhere in the world, throughout the whole war and against historically accurate opposition? No? Neither can I, but that's the equivalent of what Ultimation are attempting here. Based on the preview code, will they make it? From what I have seen so far, the answer is an emphatic "possibly". There are elements here that look really promising, and others that are, frankly, a little disappointing. However, it's worth remembering that the code on which this preview is based is very much work in progress. The game is still a few months from release, and I'm sure that a great deal of tweaking and fine-tuning will be done before then.
Set-up Options
When you first start the game, you must select the video card you want to use, and choose from the four resolutions on offer (640x480, in 16- or 32-bit colour, and 1024x768 also in 16- or 32-bit colour).
In the game, it's possible to adjust graphical or realism options. The graphic options include;
- Display Mode
- Fog
- MipMapping
- Range Fog
- Bump Mapping
- Specular Highlights
- Level of detail
There is a distinct difference between 16- and 32-bit modes in this game. Setting the display mode to 16-bit causes banding and jagged colour transitions. 32-bit mode looks much better, with smoother graphics. My system was able to run 32-bit mode with no adverse affect upon framerate. Curiously, I wasn't able to detect any difference in the display when setting Mip Mapping, Bump Mapping and Specular Highlights on or off. This may be a glitch in the preview code, and could explain why the graphics looked a little bland on my system.
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| Dusk Off the Coast of Greece |
The realism options include:- Limited Ammo
- Limited Fuel
- Dud Torpedoes
- Limited Visibility
- Realistic Reloads
- Vulnerability
- Run Aground
- External View
- Realistic Sailing
- Limited Target Data
The realism options can be set for any single or custom mission, and for campaign missions. When you set a realism level at the beginning of a campaign, it cannot be changed during that campaign.
Documentation
A proper manual - Hurrah! I always feel slightly short-changed when I open a game box and all that falls out is a CD case and a 16-page "User Guide". In this respect, DC is no disappointment. The detailed manual runs to 170 pages and is packed with information on all aspects of the game, as well as historical data on the ships involved. There is also a chapter devoted to providing walkthroughs of the training missions, something, I feel, that is a great help when you are trying to come to grips with the complexities of a new game.
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| The Ship Tour |
Within the game there is also a nice multimedia presentation on the various weapons, sensors and compartments on a typical destroyer, as well as a brief historical overview of destroyer development and technical data on each of the ships covered in the game.
Graphic Effects
The graphics are probably best described as adequate. The ship models look good, with turrets that train appropriately, dynamic lighting, puffs of smoke that belch from firing guns, and smoke from the stack that varies dependant on how much the engines are working. There are also fire effects on damaged ships. The only thing missing on the ships is any kind of structural damage effects. Ships show damage simply by replacing normal textures with damage textures. Masts don't collapse, superstructure can't be damaged and ships don't break up, which can make it difficult to assess damage to enemy ships. The sinking effects are good and varied however, with ships going down by the head, by the stern, or simply rolling over and sinking. I noticed that the German capital ships in the game had the swastikas on their decks replaced with more "politically correct" crosses. Fair enough, I suppose, but it does look a little odd.
The sea is something of a disappointment. It moves nicely, but there is no translucency (though curiously, some of the screenshots on the Ultimation web page seem to show translucent water, so perhaps this is a quirk of the preview code), no reflections, no whitecaps, no spray or spume, no torpedo tracks and no bow waves. Overall, the effect is of traveling over an undulating blue blanket rather than water.
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| An Atlantic Storm |
Sky, clouds and land all look acceptable without being particularly outstanding.
Ship Stations
The ship stations themselves look pretty good, with lots of detail and a plethora of working controls. Only a single set of ship station graphics are provided, so the interior views look the same regardless of the class of ship you are commanding. The stations available are (dependant of course on the class of ship selected):- Combat Information Center (CIC)
- Observation Deck
- Helm Controls
- Radio Room
- Radar Station
- Sonar Station
- Main Battery Director
- Main Battery Gun Turrets
- 40mm Anti-Aircraft Guns
- 20mm Anti-Aircraft Guns
- Torpedo Director
- Depth Charge Station
- Engine Room Station
- Damage Control Station
- Captain's Quarters
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| The Helm Controls |
At each of the weapon and sensor stations, it is possible to take direct control, or simply to watch the actions of your AI crewmen. The CIC is used for navigation, plotting friendly and enemy units and issuing orders to friendly ships. The observation deck allows a visual check of the surrounding area (with binoculars if required) and the Captain's Quarters provide a log of player actions.
One particularly satisfying aspect of the game is that, even with all graphic settings maxed out, the framerate was consistently fast and fluid on my system regardless of the number of units on screen.
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| Damage Control |
Audio and Environment Effects
Sound is generally pretty good, with good 3D effects, especially for aircraft. The crew voices that acknowledge every command can become irritating, and it would be nice to have an option to turn them off. It would also be nice to have some variation in the emotion of the crew voices. Terminal damage to the ship is reported in the same flat tone used to report a five degree change of course.
The environmental effects, like many other parts of the game at this stage, are mixed. Several sea states are represented, from calm seas with a gentle swell, to the Atlantic in the midst of a storm. The pitching and rolling of the ship is nicely done—indeed it's quite possible to feel queasy when watching the action from the observation deck during a storm. Oddly however, the ship always faces into the weather, no matter where it's heading. So, for example, it's possible to turn through 360 degrees in the middle of a storm, but always to be facing oncoming waves.
This is a deliberate decision on the part of the developers, as they claim that players would have difficulty operating ship systems during the excessive rolling caused by the ship being beam-on to the weather (during World War Two, destroyers in the North Atlantic were known to roll through more than 40 degrees). It's probably a sensible decision for most players, though I would have liked this to have been an option that could be disabled or enabled.
There are a variety of weather effects in the game, although some aren't functional in the preview code. These include storms, squalls and fog. Generally, these are well presented, though unfortunately, the weather doesn't seem to vary in missions (or at least not in the missions I played). Thus if a mission starts foggy, it stays consistently foggy, even if the mission lasts several days. Day and night are represented, although with little visual panache for dawn and dusk.
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| Off the Coast near Tripoli |
AI
The AI in this preview code is just plain dumb. In the case of friendly ships, sometimes catastrophically dumb. Friendly ships collide with each other, wander off on new courses unordered, sometimes fail to open fire either to defend themselves or when given a direct order to do so and frequently sail through an exploding depth charge pattern. Enemy units vary in ability from inept capital ships to Stukas that will destroy your ship with a single bomb. Having spoken to the developers, the AI is one area they are continuing to devote time to, so I would expect the final version to be much improved. Because of the suspect AI, it hasn't been possible to properly test the combat possibilities in single player mode. Certainly, combat is strangely uninvolving here, though I expect to see this improve as the game move closer to release.
Missions and Campaign
There are three options available in the Single Mission screen. These are "Historical Missions" (play in missions based on actual events in World War 2), "Training Missions", and "Custom Missions" (described in more detail below).
The historical missions give a good spread of action from the three theatres, with a variety of mission types available. Missions include the battles of Cape Esperance and Savo Island from the Pacific theatre, and escorting convoy ON.67 in the Atlantic. These are scripted missions, though there are some random variables to improve replay value. The five training mission are designed to be played in conjunction with the training section from the manual, and give good coverage on all aspects of destroyer operations.
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| Near misses bracket a damaged destroyer |
Campaigns are available in the Atlantic or Pacific theatres. Campaigns appear to be a linear series of scripted scenarios, with success or failure dependant on the ability of the player to achieve stated objectives. There isn't any choice of when or where the player begins the campaign. Both begin in early 1942, and the player progresses through the war, gaining access to new ships, sensors and weapons as they become available. Being killed or captured in a campaign mission, or failing to complete primary objectives, requires the mission to be replayed. The campaigns are dynamic only in having some random elements included, and that ships destroyed in a mission will not be available in subsequent missions.
The game includes the option to design custom missions. Given the vast number of units in the game, and the massive choice of locations, I was looking forward to re-creating some classic historical encounters. However, while this is (sort of) possible, the scenario editor was more limiting than I had expected.
While you can select the theatre of operation and friendly forces, these choices are so constrained as to make this more of a quick combat generator than a true scenario designer. For example, while you can set your mission in one of the three theatres available (Atlantic, Pacific or Mediterranean ), you cannot specify a location within that theatre. The AI simply seems to select a large open stretch of water, and drop your ships in the middle of it. Likewise, although you can choose any class of destroyer for your mount, you can only select a single option from merchant, cruiser, battleship and carrier for the other friendly forces. You also cannot choose a particular ship from any class so, for example, if you choose to have a carrier as part of your force, you can't select which carrier (it's also notable that friendly carriers don't seem to launch any aircraft in these custom missions).
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| Custom Mission Setup |
It's also possible to set weather, time of day, the composition of enemy forces (in the same broad brush way that friendly forces are selected), the relative positions of friendly and enemy forces and any enemy (but not friendly) submarines or aircraft. You cannot, however, assign particular duties (such as escort) to your units when creating the scenario, nor can you specify objectives or victory conditions. What happens is that the scenario begins with your forces in the theatre of your choice, but at a location decided by the computer. You make contact with the enemy, and start slugging it out. The scenario ends if your ship is destroyed, but not, strangely, if you destroy all the enemy ships. As it appears in this preview code, the mission builder is kind of fun, but lacks the flexibility to create specific situations.
Gameplay
As noted earlier, the deficiencies of the AI in the preview code make it difficult to assess gameplay effectively. There are also some other issues (which again may be quirks of the preview code) that make things difficult. For example, I was particularly interested in trying anti-submarine operations in the game. However, with all the realism options set to full, I found it impossible to attack submerged targets effectively. I had assumed that full realism would give me access to the same information that would be available to a real-life destroyer captain. Not so. In full realism, your AI crew will plot the location of a submerged target, but provide no information on speed, heading or depth.
The player is expected to interpret the display on the sonar screen to deduce these things. I didn't feel, however, that the manual gave enough information to make this possible. I then tried setting the "Limited Target Data" realism option to "off", but this didn't help much. The depth of targets are shown as "Less than 100 feet", "100-200 feet", "200-300 feet" and so on. As the manual explains that depth charges must be exploded within 10 feet of a target to assure destruction, this still left a wide margin for error. According to the end-of-mission results, I did destroy some submarines, but I wasn't aware of this during the game and it usually felt more like luck than astute gameplay.
Other aspects of gameplay also felt wooden. Enemy ships continue to sail in a straight line while being pounded by my guns. Enemy aircraft fly suicidally straight through my anti-aircraft barrage without jinking, swerving or breaking off the attack. Friendly ships often ignore enemy ships, even when under direct attack. The AI crewmen report in the same calm voices in the midst of a vicious attack. There is no real sense of involvement for the player, and often, gameplay feels more like taking part in an animated board game rather than a struggle against intelligent entities.
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| Air Attack |
I believe that most of the combat gameplay issues are related to the poor game AI in the current build and I hope this will change before the final release. At the moment, there is nothing here that truly captures the fear, excitement and uncertainty of naval combat. For a combat simulation, that's a pretty severe problem.
Other aspects of the gameplay are much better. The level of control that you have over ships under your command is good. Friendly ships can be ordered into a variety of formations and given escort, attack and navigation orders. You can also specify speed and initiative levels for friendly units, a well as ordering the use (or limitation) of sensors. Damage control is well implemented, with structural damage, fire and flooding as the main hazards. You can assign crewmen to repair duties, as well as flooding and counter flooding to fight fires and offset list. A nice touch is the ability to order "Abandon Ship". If this is done in an area free from enemy units, you may survive to be able to continue with a campaign.
Multiplayer
One of the big features of Destroyer Command is it's interoperability with Silent Hunter 2, allowing multiplayer ASW action over LAN or the Internet. Unfortunately, due to some technical glitches, it wasn't possible to test the multiplayer capabilities in this preview. Watch this space for a multiplayer preview just a soon as we manage to hook up.
Conclusions
There are tremendous possibilities here for a huge game that will capture the essence of World War II naval combat. The sheer variety of allied and opposing forces, and the geographical spread of the game could keep gamers engrossed for months. Even the slightly bland graphics are offset by a consistently fluid framerate. However, the quirks of the preview code (especially the suspect AI) make it very difficult to make a final judgment at this time. It's also notable that the preview code was time limited, and it could be that this is one of those games that really takes playing time to discover its true value. We will continue to report on new builds of the code as they are released to see if this ambitious project can realize it's potential. I'm sure we all hope it does.
- Compaq Presario 7477
AMD 533 MHz K-2 processor
128 Mb RAM
Riva TNT2 video card with 32Mb RAM
Monster Sound II Sound Card
