Vacuity

Ugh. That's more than slightly inconvenient. So basically, there's no practical way of replacing the one you're using short of getting it destroyed? That doesn't seem like good design to me. I suppose I'll just have to live with the shell cannon for this strategy campaign (only three islands left).

So, nearly wrapped up my first strategy game and have both the shell and plasma main weapons available to build for the front weapon point of the carrier. Obviously, they both have advantages, but how do you choose which one is installed? Right now I have the shell weapon installed and I want to be able to switch it for the plasma weapon. I have both weapons on the carrier, I just cannot work out how to switch which one is installed on the weapon point.

Dun-dun-DUUUUNNNNHHHHHH! Ahem. Anyway. I've just failed the Thermopylae mission quite miserably. Personally, I don't think I did that badly, it's just that my walruses got stuck in the mountain pass. Went for a river bath. Took the scenic route(s) out of each set of buildings that get captured. Decided to attempt a 50-point turn on a bridge. So, now I know why people complained about the walrus pathing as being atrocious. Sorry. It's a terrible letdown when you feel you're playing fine, but your squad decides to go take a mud bath together. Is there *any* way to get the walruses to stick with me well enough to make it in time? Edit: Tried again from the beginning, which went better for a while, until the repair laser walrus just stopped following altogether. Stopped. In the middle of a flat area. Not even trying to move. Needless to say, that put a limit on how much further I managed to successfully go.

Uhh, as I said, she arrives within about a minute of me arriving at that first island. I could probably undock my mantas (and walruses) to send them somewhere, but by then, I think she would have arrived. Taking the island before she arrives is definitely impossible. And this is the first island in the campaign after Fulcrim. (I timed it, 51 seconds from the autosave point to the alert) OK, I'll try that with the plasma cannon. Probably a few times as I doubt I'll get it right the first time. I guess the plasma cannon has a longer range than I thought? On the automatic system it only opens fire when something gets within range of the mini-radar. And when the enemy carrier is that close, I get destroyed in short order. Ooh, I just tried it out. Worked, uhh, reasonably well. I think I should reverse my ship at maximum reverse thrust as well to prolong the time before she opens up with the other weapons. I managed to force the enemy carrier to retreat, but I took a fair chunk of damage in the process. Interesting that the AI always takes out my plasma cannon first. Good work there by the developers. Of which I see you are one. Thanks for the game! It's fun! And that's from someone who played the original as a kid and loved it. As an aside... Why call the carrier 'he'? Traditionally, ships are considered female. In fact, they're one of the only inanimate objects given a gender in English. The only others I can think of offhand are countries and cars, and cars are sometimes 'he' to some people. I suppose if you're thinking of the AI itself, that could be a 'he'... Not important, just a minor query. Edit: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... Actually, I think your advice may have worked a little too well. This time I managed to hold her off long enough that she disengaged very shortly after she had closed and opened up with her own weapons, and so my plasma cannon didn't get knocked out. So I chased her down. And destroyed her. Umm. On the very first island post-Fulcrim. :confused:

OK, once again, I think I am missing something. I finished Fulcrim without too much trouble (a few crashes here and there, but hey...), and so I move on to the rest of the islands. The first island I arrive at gives me the usual "You need to disable the firewalls." No worries. And then moments later the enemy carrier arrives. Huh? Of course, I don't have a huge amount of fancy weaponry because I've only just completed Fulcrim and got access to the rest of the blueprints, attempting a head-on attack is suicide, trying to bomb him with my mantas (I have two bombs) results in my squadron getting swatted out of the sky in very short order. Oh, and I cannot run away to a new island as the option is disabled. What am I supposed to do?

Thanks kindly for the info, The game is rather good fun, and the Walrus pathfinding isn't as bad as I was led to believe, though it has had its moments here and there. A narrow bridge? Let's approach it from a 45 degree angle! It *is* rather different in execution from the original, and the FPS sections are awful. I hope there aren't too many more of those.

So, these garages on the islands I attack seem to spawn an infinite supply of them. While I can see it adds to the 'challenge', there's a certain frustration when I send a damaged walrus back to the carrier, only for it to be picked off by a laser-wielding manta that respawned from the base nearest my carrier. Essentially, there's no way to make an area safe. This is really just adding tedium to the game as it means I absolutely must abort any attack and retreat multiple walruses (even undamaged ones) back to the carrier as an escort for the damaged ones. Then bring them all back up again together to the point of interest. It's not adding tactical or strategic depth, just time/tedium. Is there something I'm missing here? Am I able to destroy these garages? If so, is there any latter penalty for having damaged additional infrastructure once I take the island?

You had to be careful with your units in the original game. Which was my problem as an eleven-(or so)year-old. I got way too into flying those mantas around, adding my own sound-effects and all those other things you do when you're eleven years old and playing a game that's overstimulating your imagination. It's probably fair to say that I had way too much fun playing the game to be bothered about winning it. I'm aware of the premise of the game. Particularly, I'm very well aware that the premise includes Walruses that are capable of functioning as combat units. I am very sad to hear that. I'm also aware that the original game almost certainly has a rose-tinted glow from my childhood memories, which tends to give anything a tough challenge to live up to. I'm not averse to using mods, but I get a little grumpy about being forced to use mods just to make the base game function as designed.I guess I'll have a quick look at this mod while there's still a couple of hours left on the sale. Otherwise, I'll wait until next time it's on sale, come back and see if there have been any patches. Thanks for the feedback and the discussion. I certainly wouldn't have bought it without your feedback, and now I... might buy it. Edit: Hmm. I made the purchase. I'm blaming you guys if I regret it. :p

Well... my memories of playing the original were of trying to use both the walruses and mantas. To be honest, the game was a bit beyond me at the age I was, so I was never very successful (I never won the game, which may be one reason I'm still so interested now). Only being able to really use one set of ROVs seems like half the game's missing. I guess I'll hold off until I see that the major bugs have been squashed before I buy the game. I really don't want to buy a game that's not properly functional, even if it is quite cheap. To the devs: if this game gets patched up then I will buy it. And if I enjoy playing it, then I'll recommend it to others. But right now I'm very reluctant to part with either the cash or the time, and a Steam sale doesn't really change that.

As a huge fan of the original game, I am sorry to ask this, but is it actually worth the time and money to buy and play? If the walruses are essentially unusable, it's a huge problem, assuming the game works much the same way as the original game. I'm not sure how serious the other problems are, but I'd bet I'm not the only person with fond memories of the original wondering whether this game is just going to be a disappointment, even at £5.