Blue Water Development Diary

[Sparky_16]

Will Blue Water be released on steam and if so, in what time frame could we see this game on steam?

-Sparky_16

[Aktungbby]

Sparky_16!

[AzureSkies]

Originally Posted by SmokingHeadStudio

That are very nice Screens you show

i like to follow, and look forward to the Project.

best Greetings.

Thanks! I look forward to it, too!

Originally Posted by Sparky_16

Will Blue Water be released on steam and if so, in what time frame could we see this game on steam?

-Sparky_16

Yes! The current plan is to try to get an early access out by November 11th, the date that Able Archer 83 concluded, and thus the day that the events of the game will have started. Early Access would be extremely bare-bones, but will allow us to get feedback on the game early and possibly fund a great deal of expansion with it.

Of course I plan to meet the promises made with it so far no matter what, but a good turnout on early access sales could easily triple the number of aircraft, sub and ship classes that make it into the final game, double the number of missions and add a lot of neat details and mechanics in mind but that haven't been announced yet.

You won't find a page for it on Steam yet, though. That's something I'll need to be setting up soon.

Also, welcome to Subsim!

[AzureSkies]

Hello again, everyone!

It's Tuesday evening and time for a vehicle highlight - or at least a weekly update of some kind. With the new system set up, things have been moving a bit again.

Finally have some basic wake system implemented, and this week I've improved the gun system quite a bit. Did I mention that was done? Hmm.

Anyone familiar with modern naval combat will know that guns are almost irrelevant when it comes to world powers engaging each other, at least (modern asymmetric warfare is a whole different matter). However, depending on how successful missile interceptions and decoys are, they could become surprisingly relevant.

Nonetheless, they're certainly significant enough to be modeled, and I decided it'd be a relatively basic system to start with.



Notice the gun's radar directors - a recent improvement is that they track the target as well, now. Pretty basic stuff, but it's always fun to see incremental improvements.



A top-down-ish view to see the directors and guns on both sides in rest position and tracking a target, respectively (Notice the guns on the port side moving to the nearest position they can).





It's always fun to watch the rounds arc down to their target:



There's a lot more being done that isn't all being announced yet, of course, but I thought I'd share some of the work.

But now to today's vehicle highlight - short and sweet, it's the Ka-25 Hormone.

Developed in the 60s and entering service in 1972, the Kamov Ka-25 (NATO reporting name "Hormone") was somewhat aged by 1983. By this year, it had already began being replaced by the more modern Kamov Ka-27, which first saw introduction into the Soviet navy in 1982. Nonetheless, with being introduced only so recently, the Ka-25 was probably the more common helicopter in the Soviet Navy for a while still.







It had a cramped interior - not even tall enough for the crew to stand upright inside - but it could carry what mattered - two air-dropped torpedoes and/or conventional or nuclear depth charges.





Equipped with surface search radar, dipping sonar, and a MAD sensor, it was more than adequately suited for its ASW role.



During the Cold War, ELINT and "waving hi" to eachother's ships to do photography and gather intelligence was certainly not uncommon.



A quick disclaimer that many aesthetics are tweaked and improved fairly frequently, (for example, I'm not sure there's been more than two updates in a row where the water's settings have been exactly the same), but nonetheless, I do try to make the shots as accurate to what the final product will look like as possible, and these are, of course, taken in the game engine with the models and textures the game will use.

Thanks again for joining us, feel free to leave feedback, and until next time, clear sailing.

[ikalugin]

O dear, what did you do - did you just model Azov?

[agathosdaimon]

wow this looks really impressive.



i dont know if this is possible but would you be able to have the water notshow ship reflections like shown in the picture - perhaps its a limitation of the technology but ships simply do not have such perfect reflections in ocean water - the killerfish games look great too but also make this error , i always find such reflections make the ocean look still and shallow and like its all just in a big bath tub


if you cant do anything about it, thats fine, its just a detail i notice in games featuring oceans


your project nevetheless looks outstanding and i would buy it for sure!

[AzureSkies]

Hello again!

Well, this update will be a bit different than the norm - there won't be a vehicle highlight in the usual format but two new vehicles will get some spotlight, though both still have WIP elements that make them not quite ready for the full highlight.

First, I want to reply to "agathosdaimon"'s comment on the water - it is indeed very possible to ignore ship reflections but not sky reflections, and I see what you're talking about, comparing to real photos of ships on the ocean.

There's some give and take, though, given that ships do have a visible reflection effect when closer, and especially on smoother seas, but here's two pictures to show with and without:





...and yes, that is a Spruance. One of the two platforms I mentioned that are going to show up today but aren't quite ready for a highlight.

Anyways, the lack of reflection makes the ship seem a bit more detached from the water, but it does avoid the unrealistically clear reflections in the distance.

I think I know why this is happening, but it probably won't be very simple to solve. Other things are more pressing, but I'm glad you pointed this out - this is the exact sort of thing I like to get feedback on.

If this isn't solved by early access it might be a good option to leave, nevermind for graphical/performance reasons as well.

Anyways, one of the big things done this last week is ship waypoint navigation. Perhaps some of you noticed the two new buttons on the helm UI.


(this won't be the final icon for waypoints, but the triangles work well as a placeholder)

The two buttons do two unique functions: on the left with the steering wheel is the "auto-steer". With that on, the ship will turn the rudder to change course to the ordered course. If you take manual control of the rudder, it turns off to allow you to take control. You click the button to turn it back on.

The other button is the "auto-navigate". With that turned on, "ordered course" will automatically change to whatever the current bearing to the next waypoint is. You can also click the numbers in the "ordered course" box to change the ordered course directly - a mechanic that will be familiar to a lot of simmers out there - and that will turn off the auto-navigate. Again you can resume following waypoints just by clicking the button.

The end result is, with both on, the ship moves along its waypoints. With both off, you take manual control, without effecting the waypoints.

You can even leave the auto-navigate off to order a new heading without effecting your waypoints. Just turn it back on to return to following them. There's some other quality of life features to those buttons I hope to implement soon with regards to formations, but that's my solution to a robust and intuitive navigation system.

I hope I haven't made it sound too complicated... But it's my solution to the frustration often encountered in naval sims when you set up some waypoints, then need to break from them only temporarily, and have to set them all up again after.

Anyways, onto our new NATO helicopter!





Fresh out of the hanger, this is the SH-2F Seasprite. It plays the same role as the KA-25 "Hormone", with the exact same types of sensors on-board; a surface search radar, sonobouys, dipping sonar, and Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD). The MAD is the yellow-and-red striped object hanging from a pylon on the right side of the fuselage in the picture above.





Its armaments were also similar to the KA-25 Hormone, being able to carry two ASW torpedoes (in this case the Mk. 46 or Mk. 50) or two small air-to-surface missiles (AGM-65 Mavericks).

With a maximum and cruise speed of 143/130 knots to the Hormone's 113/104, it was fairly faster. Sources also cite 367 nmi compared to the Hormone's 216 nmi - but that's with two external tanks, which seem to occupy the same pylons that weapons would occupy. So it's hard to ascertain its actual combat range and endurance carrying two weapons, but it's probably very similar, if not a bit less.





Thanks for joining us, see you next week - or maybe sooner: As always, feel free to leave comments and feedback below.

[longface]

It looks really nice! Do you have any sort of development map, by the way, as in a plan for what units to develop first, or are you not ready to reveal that? Either way, great work so far!

[Herman]

Originally Posted by AzureSkies

The control panel shows different throttle settings such as 1/3, 2/3, Stnd, Full, and Flank. Will the player be able to issue specific speed commands like 17kts?

Naval War Arctic Circle only allowed ships to have generic throttle settings. There was no way to order all ships to move at the same speed. Giving a group of different ships the 'cruise speed' command meant they got scattered, since each ship had a different setting for cruise speed. It was a ridiculous situation, IMHO.

Your description of the 'auto-steer' function seems much more reasonable than the manual micro-management hell required by Cold waters; where the player literally had to play the role of dive officer and helmsman in order to conduct course and depth corrections.