Matrix Games Forums

Hi there, 2 days ago I bought CAW and after a few hours of playing the game have the folowing "issues":

Why can't we order subs around?, we can order every other ship around so why not subs?

Why can't we detach damaged ships from a TF?, now ALL ships must stay within enemy AC range because DD "divine f@rt" took a bomb and cant go faster than 10 knots....??

It's almost impossible to HIT, let alone close airfields.

Why can't I destroy planes on the ground by bombing or shelling AF's?

Fighters can be set to strafe ships, but this has NO effect....

When an enemy strike comes in, I can't see if I have CAP up, or how many planes are on CAP?, is the enemy strike that comes in escorted?, are my fighters intercepting?.

Just some issues I noticed......

For the money I payed for this game, I am feeling disapointed...

At least B-17's are historically crappy at hitting targets at sea......

I must be spoiled from playing War in the pacific to much..........

Give the game more than a few hours of play; it's not WitP, or even UV, but I have enjoyed CaW when I wanted a break from the larger set-ups needed in those games. I've found CaW to be a superior battle-simulator, but not much more.

The ability to detach damaged ships depends on how the specific scenario was created, i.e., whether it is allowed or not. I found that it is easier to detach damaged ships in some scenarios than others.

See 16.2-2.1: You should be able to tell if your CAP is up by viewing the disposition of all your planes on the Carrier Screen (the CAP box is red). Otherwise, when you're attacked by enemy planes, note the icons indicating damaged/shot-down planes: an icon w/cross hairs indicates the plane was shot down by your CAP, an explosion indicates it got downed by your flak, etc.

Re Subs, see 16.6: no ahistorical wolfpacks!

Make sure you're patched-up because the game is somewhat lame w/o the latest patch.

ORIGINAL: wild_Willie2

I must be spoiled from playing War in the pacific to much..........

To quote myself,
CAW = checkers
WitP = chess

ORIGINAL: Rebel Yell

To quote myself,
CAW = checkers
WitP = chess

I remembered your quote: this is from the WitP forum, where Willie also posted his displeasure of CaW:

"That said, CaW has been compared to WitP/UV as checkers to chess ... "

ORIGINAL: wild_Willie2

Hi there, 2 days ago I bought CAW and after a few hours of playing the game have the folowing "issues":

Why can't we order subs around?, we can order every other ship around so why not subs?

Why can't we detach damaged ships from a TF?, now ALL ships must stay within enemy AC range because DD "divine f@rt" took a bomb and cant go faster than 10 knots....??

It's almost impossible to HIT, let alone close airfields.

Why can't I destroy planes on the ground by bombing or shelling AF's?

Fighters can be set to strafe ships, but this has NO effect....

When an enemy strike comes in, I can't see if I have CAP up, or how many planes are on CAP?, is the enemy strike that comes in escorted?, are my fighters intercepting?.

Just some issues I noticed......

For the money I payed for this game, I am feeling disapointed...

At least B-17's are historically crappy at hitting targets at sea......

I must be spoiled from playing War in the pacific to much..........

You raise a few issues and I have to say that you are motivation for many of the design decisions that you question! Not you personally of course, but gamers in general who are, mostly, unable to stop themselves from exploiting game rules and conditions to achieve victory, while violating history and the spirit of the game.

So, you can't control subs because you are a carrier admiral. You have nothing at all to do with the deployment of submarines. You might run into a submariner in a pub, but I wouldn't advise you stay because those boys partied very, very hard on shore leave.

You can't detach ships unilaterally because that would allow a player to create vast numbers of TGs made up one destroyer each, which would confuse both the human player and the AI. We feel that we should restrict the ability of players to take actions which their real life counterparts would never even contemplate.

Those ships the scenario designer considers high value, such as carriers and battleships can be detached, and they will form their own, AI controlled TG, which will head straight for a designated port. If you wanted, you could afford every ship this privilege, its only one entry in the Editor.

Alternatively, lesser ships that are holding things up can be scuttled, as detailed in the manual and the tutorial.

It's almost impossible to close airfields because it was almost impossible to close airfields, which are usually just a strip of grass or crushed coral. Your planes put holes in them and they bulldoze the spoil back into the hole and resume ops. Sustained bombing will damage and destroy the aircraft on the field, and that's how to close down an airfield.

Fighters can be set to strafe ships, but I don't know why you would expect it to have any lasting effect on warship or even on a cargo ship over sampan size.

If you have CAP set, then it will be up and attempting to intercept. The combat display will show you what is happening to the attackers. Even if they don't shoot down many attackers, they only have to cause damage on an attacker to cause it to abort its attack and their very presence increases the chance that the attackers would miss.

Carriers at war is quite a different game from War in the Pacific. It places the player in a particular role at a particular time in history. Yes, you do lose some of the godlike powers you have in WiTP, but the advantage is that you get a focused, fast paced game where you concentrate on command decisions and never have to move a single crate of supplies.

As mentioned by a previous poster, you should patch to the latest version, as this will definitely fix some issues related to airfield attacks.

Gregor

ORIGINAL: wild_Willie2

Hi there, 2 days ago I bought CAW and after a few hours of playing the game have the folowing "issues":

Why can't we order subs around?, we can order every other ship around so why not subs?

Why can't we detach damaged ships from a TF?, now ALL ships must stay within enemy AC range because DD "divine f@rt" took a bomb and cant go faster than 10 knots....??

It's almost impossible to HIT, let alone close airfields.

Why can't I destroy planes on the ground by bombing or shelling AF's?

Fighters can be set to strafe ships, but this has NO effect....

When an enemy strike comes in, I can't see if I have CAP up, or how many planes are on CAP?, is the enemy strike that comes in escorted?, are my fighters intercepting?.

Just some issues I noticed......

For the money I payed for this game, I am feeling disapointed...

At least B-17's are historically crappy at hitting targets at sea......

I must be spoiled from playing War in the pacific to much..........

Watch out... you are about to miss an excellent game. One secret... play the game and all you wonder about will be answered at 4am if you are lucky. Hint, remember this is a carrier simulation.

Are any more CaW patches in the works? If so, I'm hoping the next patch will have some player-made mods, esp. the Final Countdown scenario.

JoeD

If you are just looking for the Pearl Harbor scenario with the addition of the Nimitz to play as the American side I can do that up and post a link to it. I haven't looked at it since the most recent patches so I would have to make sure it is working OK. If you want to play as the Japanese side against the Nimitz that would require adding warcards (AI) for the American side which I'm not able to undertake anytime soon.

By all means, pse post the link w/instructions for downloading; much appreciated in advance.

Eventually SSG should incorporate successful/popular CaW player-made mods into a patch.

I admit waiting on the back burner to buy this 1. At one time, I was "this" close to doing so.. just, don't
know what kept me away. Possibly a temporary out of stock? None the less... I bought it late last night
and it's almost done d/l now. Can't wait to sink my share of bad guyz ! [;)]