A List of Potential Improvements!

[AdmiralMandalore]

This message will be copied over from where I originally wrote it on Steam, with an addition to the intro. I did more research into Game-Labs to ensure I had my understanding correct.

First off, a huge thankyou, and salute to Thomadis (who's work I have adored since DarthMod) and the whole team at Game-Labs for both your previous titles and this excellent title. I have purchased and played all your games, and exhaustively played all of them except Age of Sail. I truly appreciate the passion and dedication you have in delivering amazing War Game experiences that are unrivaled and in a league of their own when it comes to immersion and realism in putting one in the shoes of a tactician of each respective era. I look forward to all your future work and have through word of mouth shared my love of your games to many of my friends! 

Copying my list from Steam seems to have changed the colors, and I apologize as I haven't figured out how to easily format it to appear normal.

First off, I would like to thank the man (I believe that this series of games was created by the person who first made the DarthMod mods for Total War, then Ultimate General and now this?) and team behind this game. It is fantastic. I will be leaving a full review to inform the community of what it has to offer, and my praises are quite high.

With that said, while playing I compiled a list of the biggest issues I personally had with it, but ones I feel apply to all who play and can be at least relatively easily fixed. If you're reading this and are on the fence about buying this game, please disregard my critiques, and instead go read my review on the page, or just know that despite these flaws, it is still an immaculate gem of a game that is well deserving of your purchase, even at full price.



This list is non-exhaustive, as while I was in the process of compiling it, I lost the original copy, then quickly re-created this one, and still planned and plan on expanding it. These issues were for the Late October-Early November build.
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Automatic Pause, or at least switch to X1 time, and potentially an Audio Alert when enemy torpedo is spotted. Some battles last almost 6 hours with lines that get spread out hundreds of kilometers, and being able to watch each group at the same time without this option is painfully tedious especially when said ship SPOTS the torpedo but does not actually actively evade it.

Add a Green Icon to indicate friendly torpedoes, when actively spotted by allied ships

Enemy taskforces for missions presented in a range of 1-3CA? 3-5CL? Etc, based on recon score, which would add much more intrigue and realism to the first encounters, as well as which ship you might be facing in battle. This would also increase the need for recon score in taskforces. Currently, it feels like the mystery and mythos of the first encounter and spotting silhouettes through the fog is dispelled simply by knowing too much about the opposing task force at start of the battle.

Ability to set up task force formation before battle starts, or at least weight the groups given at start of battle to be in battle lines grouped by same max speed/tonnage. I appreciate a well screened task force being given to me already, but the groups are in shambles and even then I don't fight conventionally & tailor my screening tactics to exactly my unique ships and taskforce abilities.

Switching to reverse not immediately breaking engines while paused, so if pressed by mistake while paused, can un-reverse and not have broken engines. Especially as a new player, this was incredibly frustrating. It usually happened not during battle, but right at the end of my already painstaking re-organization of task forces where I accidentally clicked the wrong button as my focus began to waver.

Passive “Shore Bombardment” bonus from Capital ships for major offensives in coastal provinces, relative to number of big guns & caliber. Small bonus, but still there.

Countries dissolving/collapsing while at war when down 1 million points in a war not getting out “scott free” as if your country takes no war goals, and allow a country that was utterly defeated to reform/be split to a million pieces. Currently, it punishes the player for winning.

Default “triple click” for non-lead ship in formation to split the ship from its battle line, for emergency maneuvering. Like a setting you can turn on or off where triple right click default splits that ship out of the line, this would allow for faster torpedo dodging or emergency retreat after getting slammed or being bracketed.

Major decisions having an optional confirmation window, that can be disabled, so you don’t double click (due to lag/delay in input) and end up giving 1 billion dollars to an enemy nation you were about to declare war on.

Ability to either disable number keys from switching ship hulls, or even more ideally being able to use the undo button to restore a ship design of a different class, so one doesn’t lose their entire ship design by one single button miscue.

Ability to spend excess Naval Prestige, some potential ways to spend it might be granting vessels with combat experience/experienced crews medals, increasing Naval Funding % directly (in exchange for -GDP or vise-versa, ability to suggest an invasion of a smaller country, etc.

Political options for minor countries, even if only related to breaking alliances, or offering old ships for sale to current allies.

Ships avoiding firing when high probability to hit allied vessel, whether with torpedoes or with guns, unless in the “Aggressive” firing modes. (this mainly is to help AI, as I watched an Austro-Hungarian Battleship 1 shot another one as they were rubbing against each other. It took me like 45 seconds to figure it out cause I was like “I don’t have any 14.3 inch guns in this task force, what the hell hit them???”)

Improvements to clumping A.I. in general, too many vessels are easily sunk as 2-3 enemy ships become stuck on top of each other and take collateral damage.

A better diplomacy system for allies engaging in warfare. Perhaps an event to be called to war, that might include gaining some naval funding upon acceptance if you and ally are outmatched versus enemy Navy.

Ability for minor powers to replace fallen major powers as ship producing countries, if GDP and ports are of proper level.

Diplomatic event to sell or buy naval technology from Allied countries.

Ability to capture (or at least get scrap value) for ships that surrender due to high casualties with minimal damage. Multiple times I’ve had enemy battle ships surrender when at 80%+ Structural and Float condition due to intense fire and small caliber guns causing kills. Perhaps require a “skeleton crew” to be added from your existing crews to capture the Prize Vessel until the task force which captures said vessel reaches port. A similar system existed in the previous game I believe?'
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I will re-post a similar message on your forums, as I truly love this game and hope to see it reach its highest potential and be as successful as possible, and I think these changes will be steps in that direction!

I greatly Appreciate your game, & look forward to the completed builds and the full vision coming to fruition! I plan on finishing my first campaign as the Good Ole' US of A, and will expand this list. If it is replied to by someone on your team, I will expand the list here. If not, I will create a new post! 

Now, however, it is time to Raise Anchor & Set engines to Ahead Full!

Thanks Again,

-AdmiralMandalore

[Guest]

Hear hear. Good and thorough list, while at the same time no suggestion to completely change the game

Edited November 24, 2023 by MDHansen

[Nick Thomadis]

Hello @AdmiralMandalore. Thank you very much for the long list of improvements and your kind message.

We cannot promise anything since we plan to offer updates which include mainly new hulls and not drastic new features of the game from now on. But we will use a lot of your suggestions for potential new improvements of the future.

 

[Wowzery]

On 11/24/2023 at 10:10 AM, AdmiralMandalore said:

Countries dissolving/collapsing while at war when down 1 million points in a war not getting out “scott free” as if your country takes no war goals, and allow a country that was utterly defeated to reform/be split to a million pieces. Currently, it punishes the player for winning.

I like this.  Lately I've avoided some battles against transports to avoid causing a country to go under and lose the ability to invade/take the territories.

Or allow a better system to suggest invasions of territories which have no government from a nation which has gone dissolved.