Matrix Games Forums

This is my response for the release of Buka's Pacific Storm

At June 20th 2004, I posted as ujubine (I can't recover the account so I make a new one)

tm.asp?m=636159&mpage=1&key=qqp&#636159

In there I asked that there should be some level of tactical involvement in WITP.

I've played QQP's Battle of South Pacific since early 90's, which closely resemble Uncommon Valor in its gameplay, except we can directly control ship battles, set bombing priorities when attacking ships and see some nice animations sprites, I remember that I crossed my finger hard when I see my SBD's dive bombed IJN carriers, my logic and emotion went entertwined when I played it, Download it here for free and enjoy

http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=1290

The old SSG's Carrier at War is also nice, but it has shallow strategic feeling to it.

When I played UV and WITP in the 21st century, clearly I feel something is missing.

Now come, Buka's Pacific Storm with its TERRIBLE implementation yet brilliant concept. But at least it has shown us, that it is now possible to combine strategic and tactical level in a PC wargame.

Just imagine, excellent WITP strategic map and gameplay combined with tactical actions of Buka's Pacific Storm.

I sure really like to be able to control the SBD's in battle of Midway, just to make sure Hiryu won't escape in the first strike or strap myself in Betties to sink Prince of Wales but yet I still be able to act as supreme commander decisively in the whole PTO.

We surely do not flashy simulation like 1C Maddox's Il-2 Shturmovik, half of it would be enough, so we don't have to put excessive pressure in the coding.

We can set in the option to skip countless of minor encounters by setting minimum value of all units engaged, but when a big battle arrive, player can be given an option whether he want to feel the heat of action or not.

For naval battles, gameplay style like provided by Great Naval Battles series is enough for me.

But I'm sure if Matrix won't release the game like this, someone would....someday, I'll keep on waiting.....

It takes me 15-20 minutes to watch the combat replay just flicking through the summaries. If you add a tactical component to a copuple of battles each turn I would be there all day, never mind the 2-3 hours to enter a move.

I am sure there is a market for a game of the sort you are proposing but I doubt it could include the full scale of the witp. It wouldn't be WitP II but some thing else.

UM .. Pbem would be impossible under those kind of restrictions . and as Mantill says .. TIME would be a killer.

Finally some one who played QQP "battles of the south pacific"
I thought i was the sole person who ever bought that game,
If my old dos machine didn't gave up i would still be playing it.

A lot of things in that game i'd love to see in Witp .

if such tactical combat would be implemented, then the first question I would ask on this forum would sound something like "where can I turn it OFF?"

ORIGINAL: Fokkov2

Finally some one who played QQP "battles of the south pacific"
I thought i was the sole person who ever bought that game,
If my old dos machine didn't gave up i would still be playing it.

A lot of things in that game i'd love to see in Witp .

I loved that game. I would like to see the ability to destroy your own base like in the QQP game.

Fokkov, you still can play that game if you want to. Just use DOSbox programme. 100% efficient [:)]

Battered_grognard, wow, you haven't been called a "pirate" yet... he he he, someone is NOT doing his/her/its homework. Should I assume that that was a "personal attack", Mr/Ms X? As you can see, discretion above all [;)]

I get the game running , that's not the problem only the colors are all messed up that it hurt you eyes.
something with the vesa drivers, in the process of creating 1 working machine out of 3 old ones.

The destroy base is a nice feature, but what i realy miss in witp is to assign enemy tf as a target for bombergroups and same to assign fighters to the same group as escort.
Also you could play with the time of attack ,dawn , midday, or dusk all having effect ,
Same with assining cap,
Maybe the design team should take a look at this game to get some ideas (for witp2)
There's a lot of stuff in it people here are asking for.

Would like to know if any off them actually knows the game.

Fokkov, DOSbox CAN "emulate" old video/sound cards. Try it, it will not disappoint you. It's like you were using an old 386. It has to work [8D] It will not work with programmes made for Windows 98 (and you want to run them on XP, etc.). It emulates the DOS thing. Give it a try [:)]

Well..you can still play PBEM with tactical combat included, but the combat result depend on your ability to steer the aircraft and ship. But there always the possibility to turn off combat for PBEM game in option menu, I'm sure programmatically that would be easy.

If implemented correctly this feature won't lengthen the gameplay because we can skip all the action if we want to.

I wonder if anyone here ever play Microprose's '1942 Pacific Air War', it has real-time strategic map and nice air simulation for its time, I really enjoyed slamming those expendable bomb-laden Vals into the deck of Essex class carriers during the invasion of Mariana.

ORIGINAL: Fokkov2

Finally some one who played QQP "battles of the south pacific"
I thought i was the sole person who ever bought that game,
If my old dos machine didn't gave up i would still be playing it.

A lot of things in that game i'd love to see in Witp .

I've been able to play a number of old DOS games with Virtual PC. The company got bought out by Microsoft, but I believe I saw somewhere that they're now giving away the Windows version. With it, you create an entire virtual computer running inside your main operating system. Then you install an operating system on the drive created.

I tried DOSbox and I found Virtual PC worked much better. You need a copy of MSDOS to install though.

Bill

A capture from Pacific Storm...it does nice that we can directly control every aircrafts and ships in this picture...but it would whole lot nicer if this is a combat scene from 'War In The Pacific II'

Id love it.  Though I couldnt stomach pacific storm (tried it...loved watching the fight as long as I recongized...not even close to historical).   Just being able to watch a swarm of zeros battle wildcats would add a great deal to WITP.  If only I had programing skills .

Witp thankfully is a strategic game, not simulation.

Strategic games with action/simulation add-ons ALWAYS fail...

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Strategic games with action/simulation add-ons ALWAYS fail...

They are trying to be too many things at once. I don't want a lot of eye candy added to WitP that I will just shut off after the first day. I would prefer to see the effort go into developing a better engine with more realistic results.

Bill

And more FOW!

There are many extras and / or things I'd like to see redone or refitted for a WitP2.

But adding an RTS/flight sim tactical segment is not one of them.

I would like to see a bit more detail / control if they make a WitP2. I spend 45 minutes or so on watching the replay and setting orders per game turn. I'd like to think that I could specify load outs and target priorities rather than just juggle supplies and monitor morale and fatigue levels of air groups so they don't start falling out of the sky in their ops loss droves. The balance of decisions / tasks the player has to perform compared to the number of critical / interesting / important the player has to perform is slightly off I think [;)]

The same could be said for the combat replay. It's just too long for what it gives back. It's not completely out. But just a little too much unhelpful and time consuming detail - the much hated recon reports for one [:)]

ORIGINAL: Ursa MAior

And more FOW!

There is plent FOW in WiTP but we keep calling it a bug (leader bug, air transport bug, etc)[:D]

I don't agree that hybrid games "always fail." Medieval 2 Total War is a terrific game that succeeds both as a strategic turn-based strategy game and as a fun and innovative RTS. It's getting great reviews and strong sales. There's no reason the two game-styles can't cohabit -- well, no reason other than the finite resources and time available to developers. As for PBEM, if the strategic game is as deep as WITP, then that can be the basis for PBEM; "Forge of Freedom" is taking that approach, and that game's a must-buy for me. So in theory, I'd love a well-implemented version of Pacific Storm.

The trouble is that implementing a game with both engines is a staggering proposition, all the more so for a small studio like that that gave us Pacific Storm. Medieval 2 has a lot of resources behind it, but most wargame-makers don't. What's odd to me about Pacific Storm is that they got the 3D layer right, but they didn't seem to have put much thought into the 2D strategic game. By that I mean, they gave us a reasonable 3D implementation (using Blender and other open-source 3D tools), but the 2D strategic-map wargame is a disaster. Anyway, I for one give them credit for trying.