Difference between revisions of "Sim:WTF"

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<div style="padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-left: 10em; padding-right: 10em; text-align: left; color: gray; ">"Because every successful video game is eventually reduced to an acronym in the popular lexicon."</div>
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<div style="padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; padding-left: 5em; padding-right: 10em; text-align: left; color: gray; ">"Every successful video game is eventually reduced to an acronym in the popular lexicon."</div>
 
<div style="padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 10em; padding-right: 10em; text-align: right; color: gray; ">—Tony Lovell</div>
 
<div style="padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 10em; padding-right: 10em; text-align: right; color: gray; ">—Tony Lovell</div>
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[[File:WTF_SearchlightNov2020.jpg|thumb|right|600px|A destroyer is caught in a searchlight]]
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'''With the Fleet''' is a first-person WW1 naval simulation.  It is very social, very realistic and quite literal:
  
<video id="z6JRQauZvis" height="373" width="640" desc="Demo, August 2016" frame="true"/>
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* No orbiting cameras &ndash; players use their eyeballs
'''With the Fleet''' is to be a massively-multiplayer naval simulation with a first-person perspective set in the period 1890-1925.  It is currently in prototype form.  3D artists and programmers who would like to collaborate and encouraged to contact me.
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* No typing chat &ndash; players talk to each other
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* No ships devoid of humanity &ndash; dozens of AI- and player-sailors work together on each ship
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* No HUDs or GUI busyboxes &ndash; players manipulate the 3D equipment of their ship in the most literal way that is still pragmatic
  
==What it Will Be==
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==What is the Status?==
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Recent Windows and MacOS playtests demonstrate multiple player- and AI-actuated sailors walking the deck of a destroyer, using the equipment on board and conversing via VOIP and speech recognition.  Development continues toward creating a global game continuously running and able to support large battles with multiple players aboard each ship.
  
With the Fleet will be a continuously-running massively multiplayer naval simulation in which players are the officers and men of the navies of the Dreadnought Era.
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Anyone who feels they might be able to contribute artwork, coding, or other expertise are welcome to inquire to join a playtest.
  
They will find themselves aboard a ship, able to walk the decks, use fairly literal representations of the weapons, searchlights, helms, etc, and converse with other sailors, whether they are player- or AI-actuated &ndash; voice-over-IP and speech recogition will see to it that "the other guy" knows what you are saying.
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==Design Principles==
 
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<video id="3mVpFVNef78" height="373" width="640" desc="Demo, August 2020" frame="true"/>
The pace of the action will be measured and methodical, promoting opportunities for socialization and drill with your crewmates.  When they occur, battles will be memorable in a way that the frenetic lather-rinse-repeat pattern of most games could never permit.
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'''With the Fleet''' will be a massively-multiplayer naval simulation with a first-person perspective set in the period 1890-1925It is under active development and is currently in a demonstrable prototype form.
 
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Unlike other naval games and sims, your means of controlling the ships and formations will be limited and literal.  You are not a ship, or a fleet.  You are a sailor or officer.  Only those people who can hear your voice (whether directly so, or via a convenient voice-pipe), read your flag hoist, or copy your wireless transmission will be able to act upon the informationTheir own communications and actions will spell out the results from there.  No control panels, no chat channels, no roving mouselook camera over your formation, and no jumping between ships or acting on information not realistically available to you.  While it is impossible to guarantee complete delivery on the vision, that is the gist of what I am striving to achieve.
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==What it Has Been==
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In 2002-2006, I created a rough single-player simulation of the entire fire control system of a Royal Navy battlecruiser called [[Sim:FAI|Fleet Action Imminent]].  It was coded in Java, and used a defunct 3D visualization plug-in on Windows. FAI was coarse in appearance, but expansive in its content and rigor.  I twice presented videos of its functionality to distinguished Royal Naval audiences in the UK, first at the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Services_Command_and_Staff_College Joint Services Command and Staff College] in 2005 and then at the {{UK-Excellent|f=tp}} in 2006.
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==What is the Status?==
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See our Blog for more information, but the quick take is presently that I have modeled one unarmed destroyer coarsely and demonstrated VOIP, speech recognition, and networked play on an architecture that should permit large scale battles.  It is coded in C# on Unity3D, which permits solid end-user builds on Windows and MacOS.
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My design tenets repudiate those of pretty much every other naval game.
  
My immediate goal is to make the destroyer more richly functional, and to demonstrate the basic gameplay premise more fully so that I can use the app to seek funding to complete a first edition software title.
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* each player is a sailor, not a ship
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* you have a role &ndash; some players command others
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* you see from your sailor's eyes, not from a voyeuristic ship-orbiting camera
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* there will no neon "HUDs" overlaying the screen
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* you will feel like you belong to a "band of brothers"
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* you will learn something
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* the pace will be slow &ndash; the action will be momentous
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* submarines and aircraft are ancillary to the real fun
  
 
==See Also==
 
==See Also==
 
{{refbegin}}
 
{{refbegin}}
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* [[Sim:WTF/Player_Client|Cheat sheet for playtesting]]
 
* [[Sim:WTF/Blog|Developer's Blog]]
 
* [[Sim:WTF/Blog|Developer's Blog]]
* [[Sim:FAI|Videos of Fleet Action Imminent]], the "prequel"
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* [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3UIaMpy31AFn8H1z4IDXMEsY1oYhyiYw Youtube Playlist of Development videos]
* [https://join.slack.com/t/navalsimsonunity/shared_invite/enQtNTIzODY1MTM3MDYwLWJlYjg5NDA1MWI5MTI2YmQzOTA4OTllNjkwNmU4ZDgwMjM0Yjg1ZDY4NjU5NTMyMjVmYWZiZDk3YjA1N2M3MGY Slack for people developing Naval sims on Unity3D]
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* [[Sim:FAI|Videos of Fleet Action Imminent]], the single-player "prequel", which was broader in scope
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<!--* [https://join.slack.com/t/navalsimsonunity/shared_invite/enQtNTIzODY1MTM3MDYwLWJlYjg5NDA1MWI5MTI2YmQzOTA4OTllNjkwNmU4ZDgwMjM0Yjg1ZDY4NjU5NTMyMjVmYWZiZDk3YjA1N2M3MGY Slack for people developing Naval sims on Unity3D] -->
 
{{refend}}
 
{{refend}}

Latest revision as of 14:01, 17 November 2022

"Every successful video game is eventually reduced to an acronym in the popular lexicon."
—Tony Lovell
A destroyer is caught in a searchlight

With the Fleet is a first-person WW1 naval simulation. It is very social, very realistic and quite literal:

  • No orbiting cameras – players use their eyeballs
  • No typing chat – players talk to each other
  • No ships devoid of humanity – dozens of AI- and player-sailors work together on each ship
  • No HUDs or GUI busyboxes – players manipulate the 3D equipment of their ship in the most literal way that is still pragmatic

What is the Status?

Recent Windows and MacOS playtests demonstrate multiple player- and AI-actuated sailors walking the deck of a destroyer, using the equipment on board and conversing via VOIP and speech recognition. Development continues toward creating a global game continuously running and able to support large battles with multiple players aboard each ship.

Anyone who feels they might be able to contribute artwork, coding, or other expertise are welcome to inquire to join a playtest.

Design Principles

Demo, August 2020

With the Fleet will be a massively-multiplayer naval simulation with a first-person perspective set in the period 1890-1925. It is under active development and is currently in a demonstrable prototype form.

My design tenets repudiate those of pretty much every other naval game.

  • each player is a sailor, not a ship
  • you have a role – some players command others
  • you see from your sailor's eyes, not from a voyeuristic ship-orbiting camera
  • there will no neon "HUDs" overlaying the screen
  • you will feel like you belong to a "band of brothers"
  • you will learn something
  • the pace will be slow – the action will be momentous
  • submarines and aircraft are ancillary to the real fun

See Also