Continue Playing?

[harbinger 1]

Just as the games dialogue box asks...

I very much appreciate the latest patch - an unannounced surprise from the devs but much appreciated.

However, I can't really find anything much that has changed. Ok - we can now have some upgraded equipment available in Strategy mode, some peeps have had some crashes fixed, but there is nothing fundamental in the game that has changed. I just started a new strategy game, timewarped to some random island, message appeared that one of my islands was under attacked. Plotted route there, resupplied on way, and immediately engaged the enemy carrier.

It sent out all units, which was nice, but they didn't last long. Same old tactic of getting behind, brew a coffee or open a beer, whichever - but after 5 minutes it's game over. Whatever happened to Ultra Nasty Carrier who would utterly Bubba you if you didn't have everything maxed out? Part of that, it seems, is that in strategy you already start maxed out - a couple of build queues and you have everything needed, and I don't believe the opposing carrier has the same access to gear. Maybe, as many others have suggested, introduce a technology ramp?

Walrus pathfinding is still broken, I'll not say any more on that, because frankly I'm embarrased to even mention it.

Removing the hostile gun emplacements on Neutral islands - I'm in two minds about that. It was a surprise to find one, and it meant you had to actually do something apart from just map or hook a walrus to the command centre. Actually, that is something I'd like to see re-introduced. Just please, PLEASE make it totally random, or there's no point.

Talking of island defenses - in the very first version we had, you could click on an island defense unit and take control of it, wether it was a gun emplacement, a walrus or a manta. I just loved that! Sadly, it disappeared, wether due to balancing issues or pathfinding code or whatever, but I still feel that is something that should be back in the game. If it takes you 7 minutes to timewarp to an attacked island, why not have a minigame of Defend while you'd otherwise spend time listening to that music and "produced" sounds?

Enginewise, I think there's been an improvement in FPS but I cannot tell if thats due to better coding, or new drivers. It does look a lot better with shadows on max, all I can say really.

Just my two pennies. As the game dialogue asks - I'll continue playing, because there is hope buried in the mud.

[Antares 1]

Yes absolutely. I will, too. Games like this or my older game "Hostile Waters", are really fun. They have a Arcade style in the gameplay, plus a little strategy. I like them. Maybe I am old (42), but I like those old games which you put a simple coin in the machine, and you could take on the enemy. The music and the atmosphere sounds (sound of birds, sea, storm, rain...etc) is great as it is. This is just marginally seen on "Hostile Waters". But this game is very sofisticated engineside. That it is a little boring with the strategy against the carrier is only naturally. If you play the same game or remember the moves you make in the same game for more than twenty years (since the old Carrier Command) there is no wonder, that it becomes a little booring. Remember, this gamestyle was intended for the beginners of the homecomputers. Which were 10 to 16 years old at best. The only sad thing is that the ESRB rating is for 17 years or older guys. Which the game not deserves. On TV you get all things you wish to see, by accident and on Internet there is no way to control what kind of things you can download. Regardless the age.

Pathfinding. Yeah, that is a little annoying, but I have seen worse (in my last 20-30 years of gameplay). Younger guys, would just take over and play and not analyze why the computer isn`t doing what it is supposed to do. They are more spontaneous than we old guys.... (I hope I did not offend anyone. Simply stating a fact. )

[Gnrl_Grad 1]

Still the big issue for the overall strategy game and re-playability is beating the enemy carrier too easy too early. The patches and bug fixes are indeed great but as long as the enemy carrier is too easy to beat early on it will deflate the game and put me off playing. I wish they would just add a respawn timer option for the enemy carrier because this would make a dramatic difference to the strategy game and it certainly wouldn't betray the original if it's just an option.

Technology ramp in strategy game would be great too, there would be great potential to add more depth to the strategy game if we had to find new technologies and weapons instead of starting with full tech tree.

[Appogee 1]

I don't agree with carrier respawn. Having one deadly enemy and needing to defeat him is fundamental to the idea of Carrier Command. It would be better to have the enemy carrier way tougher than you at the outset, until you are finally able to bring him down to your level by choking his supply lines.

That way, there's no early easy victory early on. If you see the enemy carrier early, you run for your life. Or perhaps sacrifice some Mantas to slow him down. However, he should have so much fuel and supplies at his disposal at that stage, that you can't beat him.

Later in the game, with his supplies only coming from a few islands, and repairs slowed accordingly, he's able to beaten.

The tech tree is a must-have in my view. Otherwise I always capture islands the same way, using the highest tech. That makes it boring after a while.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Appogee
expanded on my idea

[Gnrl_Grad 1]

I don't agree with carrier respawn. Having one deadly enemy and needing to defeat him is fundamental to the idea of Carrier Command.

But it would be an option, you could still play with "classic rules" if you want but at least the option would be there. Balancing the enemy carrier for all players and play styles is going to be a tough task as is already apparent -> P&C Beta, official release and a couple of post release patches later and it's still too easy to beat it. I imagine they don't want to make it too tough for people who want a quick jump in and play action game and I understand that but a respawn option would be a quick fix for those that find destroying it too easy and want a longer strategy game. Even if they make the enemy carrier "perfect" the respawn option would still be good to have.

[Appogee 1]

Fair enough, having it as an option can't hurt, and you're right, some people would prefer it.

By the way, IIRC, the carrier in the very first P&C Beta was deadly. It was only in the subsequent Betas that it stopped being dangerous...?

[Robbson 1]

I don't agree with carrier respawn. Having one deadly enemy and needing to defeat him is fundamental to the idea of Carrier Command. It would be better to have the enemy carrier way tougher than you at the outset, until you are finally able to bring him down to your level by choking his supply lines.

No, I think it would be the best idea to stick to the gameplay of the original game: After the enemy carrier got destroyed the enemy builds a new one when he has still some islands to produce something. It takes ages till it is completed so you can use this to your advantage and get the remaining islands to cut his supplies.

That way an early encounter wouldn't be a big problem, too.

[jureidinim 10]

Getting the AI to be perfect will take time and a lot of testing/tweaking. So I hope they continue to even incrementally improve upon it with each patch.

Putting in a tech tree option, where your carrier starts out "underpowered", will make you NOT want to face the enemy carrier right away until you tech up, and even the "easier" islands will be a challenge. Also islands with research labs would become very important.

This I think would be an ideal setup - but that too would take time and testing to balance.

The respawning carrier is also needed I think just to keep it interesting. Right now, I would think this would be the easiest thing to implement which would give a huge (good) impact to gameplay.

Put a slider in the game setup screen with options: NO RESPAWN, 10mins, 20 mins, 30 mins, RANDOM (game randomly chooses from 10 - 30 mins each respawn).

Each respawn is at its stockpile island. If all islands captured before enemy respawns, you win. Could even have the respawn counter work on the player too (game would accelerate time though for player until player respawns).

As it is now - in answer to the OP - it is hard for me to enjoy it know as it stands for exactly the scenario you described. That pretty much sums up how all games play out now. Grab a few (2-4) islands, get alarm of carrier attacking, go kill him.. game over. And that is with the other bugs you described.

They have confirmed they will continue to patch and the mods tools are still coming - so there is hope :-)

[Ravey 1]

There is another option here and that is to introduce a player v player mode. This game can be a lot like chess. The first time you beat the AI you feel pretty good but then you learn how the AI behaves and you start to beat it easily. It's extremely hard to make the AI adaptive.

So changing the game to multiplayer would be a more positive move than making the AI more difficult. I can think of at least 3 game modes that would be entertaining. One v one, or even a team based strategy. Then there could be a war zone style island defence game, many carriers each defending it's own Island.

You could even try a - one carrier, many players - approach where up to 9 players control a single unit in the game.

By the way if you made this an expansion pack I would buy it.