Carriers At War Development Diary

[alexs]

Hi Guys,

For those that are interested, I have started a development diary for Carriers at War. I will use it to describe what I'm working on at the moment, and to give a little insight into the development process.

I make no promises about the regularity of updates, but i hope to make a reasonable number of smaller updates (at least once a week or so).

The site is located at the link below.

- Carriers At War Development Diary -

Cheers
Alex
SSG

[tocaff]

So almost 2 months later.....................?

[JSS]

ORIGINAL: tocaff

So almost 2 months later.....................?

???

[bradfordkay]

Maybe tocaff mistook alexs' date of joining the forums (if you were to ignore the year of joining) for the posting date?

[Fishbed]

Man, ask you anything you want, you're our savior [;)]

[Justascratch]

Thanks Alexs,

I'm glad to see this wonderful game making a come back! It's going to be interesting to see how the design is modified to take advantage of all the hardware and operating system advances since the original was released!

[dobeln]

Yay! Looking forward to this!

[LitFuel]

I have a question about the graphical improvements...I've never played the original but I do know that for me to get immersed I need some visuals to go along with the action..nothing fancy just little touches to go along with what's happening.

For example: does the ship's picture change to show damage...smoke?..whatever..let's say the Yorktown takes a couple bombs...will the picture on the bottom change to reflect that?..what kind of little animations are there as far as a battle in progress....like I said nothing fancy just like to see something.

Also is this any similar to the Great Naval Battles series?...wish you guys could get that..that way I could play with German ships

[RayWolfe]

ORIGINAL: LitFuel
For example: does the ship's picture change to show damage

Well, the original did that.

ORIGINAL: LitFuel
that way I could play with German ships

Well, the original did that.
[;)]
Ray

[LitFuel]

Oh ,then it's not just the pacific then?

[RayWolfe]

There were scenarios covering the Atlantic, Med, North Cape, but mainly, of course, the Pacific. What the new iteration will cover, I don't know.
Cheers
Ray

[LitFuel]

Thanks....hope so, if they arn't going to give us a full blown Med/Atlantic game I would at least like to have a taste of it.

[RayWolfe]

I think you've got to bear in mind this is a carrier based program so the Atlantic except, perhaps, the hunting of the Bismark is not going to be it's main focus.
Cheers
Ray
PS The game installed on my machine is Complete Carriers at War. I seem to remember that it was the second iteration of the original so I've got a great many more scenarios than were issued originally and, knowing me, I've almost certainly picked up user produced scenarios.

[LitFuel]

Maybe they could whip up a little What If? scenerio with the Graf Zeppelin being built

[wworld7]

ORIGINAL: RayWolfe

I think you've got to bear in mind this is a carrier based program so the Atlantic except, perhaps, the hunting of the Bismark is not going to be it's main focus.
Cheers
Ray
PS The game installed on my machine is Complete Carriers at War. I seem to remember that it was the second iteration of the original so I've got a great many more scenarios than were issued originally and, knowing me, I've almost certainly picked up user produced scenarios.

First out of the gate will be "Carriers at War" NOT "Complete Carriers at War". I could be wrong but I only remember Pacific scenarios in the first one.

Flipper

BELOW BOLDING ADDED BY ME:

ORIGINAL: David Heath

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Is this going to be a remake of Carriers at War or Complete Carriers at War (i.e. with all the extra scenarios)?

Hi Terminus

This is a remake of Carriers At War not Complete Carriers At War. SSG has a lot of ideas they are working on so I expect we will see more Carriers At War in the future.

David

[LitFuel]

hmmm...seems like they could have just as easily re-did the Complete Carriers at War version, no reason not to other then make a few more bucks on a addon or additonal material later.

[Froonp]

ORIGINAL: LitFuel

hmmm...seems like they could have just as easily re-did the Complete Carriers at War version, no reason not to other then make a few more bucks on a addon or additonal material later.

Yes. I'm a little disapointed if they do CAW, and then Complete CAW a year latter. I already bought each and every CAW game published, and I would have appreciated a step further, with a 2006-2007 re-publication. As you say, addons can still be made and solds even if Complete CAW was released initialy.

[Steve Ford SSG]

ORIGINAL: LitFuel

hmmm...seems like they could have just as easily re-did the Complete Carriers at War version, no reason not to other then make a few more bucks on a addon or additonal material later.

It's not that simple. I was responsible for the Atlantic scenario in the old game along with all the ship and plane graphics. I did it just so I could paint the entire Kriegsmarine. However, it took nearly a year just to do the ships in a 16 colour DPaint palette.

It seems, all these years later, very little has changed. I'm still responsible for all of SSG's graphics. In the new version however every ship class has a hi-res profile plus a smaller top-down view and a series of matching silhouettes. But it doesn't end there. The ships then require animations for Explosions, Bomb-hits, torpedo strikes, escalating fires, smoke plumes, permanent damage, fluttering national flags, bow waves, wakes, smokestack plumes, Main and Secondary Gun muzzle flashes.

In the old game we only displayed animations on the ship profiles. Now we also display complete air strikes against an entire Task Group in a simultaneous top-down view. All these animations need to be properly registered to the underlying ship graphic. That's a job requiring some precision and attention to detail. It can't be rushed.

I'd love to do the Atlantic/Med ships again, and may well do so in future, but for now, the graphics load is immense. It's taken over a year to complete all the ship and plane pics for this initial release.
If I may illustrate: each ship profile first requires research to find accurate reference, usually from Conways or Jentschura
I then render the new ship in Photoshop. The end result is a PNG that includes every instance of that ship class in all sorts of sizes required by the various screens. It's a big job and there are well over 110 ship pictures in the game.

After the Ships comes the Planes, the Maps and then the GUI itself. But that's another story.

I hope this gives some insight into the development process.

[LitFuel]

Well, I can certainly understand all that and the fact that for such a small part of the game it would hold  up the release further.  I hope it makes it in someday...I'm just frustrated that the kriegsmarine always get's the shaft along with the Atlantic/Med in general. This game isn't really the best type for it since it's Carrrier based anyways, but I would take it...beggers can't be choosers.
 
 I suppose the best case scenerio would be for Matrix to try and get the Great Naval Battles series for an update. I also feel a game that focuses on U-boats would be nice. I can dream I guess.

[RayWolfe]

ORIGINAL: Steve Ford SSG
It seems, all these years later, very little has changed. I'm still responsible for all of SSG's graphics.

Ahhh! [:(]
Never mind, they don't still make you clean dunnies, do they?

Your explanation is well understood and I will be very happy to pay another ... say ... $2.50 for a years worth of your work. [;)]
Cheers
Ray