Released! The first review please!?
 

Buy or not to buy?
Any opinions? The first reviews?

:Kaleun_Salute:

I'm with you, waiting on a review or Two before I dive in.
I'm itching to press the Buy button though, not sure I can hold off much longer lol

I've only been through the training missions covering the torps, missiles and navigation, but I'm really enjoying it! Quite fun driving the boat around even though I wish there was an option to just order depth, course etc. Maybe with a few simple evasive manoeuvres built in. Looks really good with meaty explosions. No crew voices though, but I'm really looking forward to jumping into the campaign.

I too am waiting for some more details, especially concerning control of the sub.
Are you saying that you actually have to drive the boat like with WASD and you cannot give a heading and depth setting like in Dangerous Waters?

I am getting conflicting reports on that on the Steam forums, no surprise there of course but if you could clarify that, that would be very helpful.

Thank you sir!

Waiting as well.

Mixed reviews on steam.
I'm worried about the longevity.
Will it get boring quickly?

Or is there enough in there?

Controlling the boat
 

You change the angle of the planes and the rudder up and down in steps of 5º using WASD, X will centre everything.

E & C add/remove bouyancy (flood/blow)

Q & Z step up and down the levels of engine power (stop, 1/3, standard, full and flank as I recall)

To me this makes it more fun than just ordering a depth , course or speed as the skipper would do IRL. It gives you more to do and keeps you busy (it's very easy to broach if you don't concentrate as you come shallow, as you may have seen Neal do in his video)

Ahhh ok. Thank you sir that is helpful.

The other thing I had read is its got built time compression that cant be set to 1:1? Is that correct or has that been changed?

Thank you very much for your information. Very helpful before making up my mind on this.

I am waiting on a review and hoping to see discount keys available thru the usual places like G2A or the other vendors. Probably won't be able to hold out until later tonight and will take the plunge so to speak. Somewhere I read the developers said they would add the ability to issue course/depth orders if there were enough requests for it. So if it is not already there I think it will eventually appear in a patch.

The speed multiplier is at the bottom of this options screen, as you can see it starts at 1.0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nxtgef9s4y...10%29.png?dl=0


https://www.dropbox.com/s/sqo7f2zn8w...89%29.png?dl=0

Great thank you!

As for the option to be able to just give orders. I hope they do add that or the modding community does. I will keep an eye on this.

I really want to support these guys but I am really not looking for a game where I have to "drive" the sub. I know that might seem like a small thing but for me its a thing. We will see though.

Thank you all and I will keep an eye here for more info before deciding.

I've found the easiest way not to broach is to use the ballast options (E and C).
1 think I don't like though is that PD seems to be 50ft for all playables ?

More reviews...please?
50 foot P.D. Across the board? Not a deal breaker but not a good sign either.

Disclaimer: I did buy it, but I have yet to play it.

Reading some of the negative reviews, it seems some of those complaints are comparing it to other games/sims like Dangerous Waters or Fleet Command. I think they're missing the point that its intent is the "successor" of Red Storm Rising and (in my opinion) should only be compared in kind to that game and not others. Just my two cents...

Get in there Slick and give us a few paragraphs!
:k_confused:

Nope its not, but hopefully something that can be changed with time.

Just tried it, looks like a solid subsim but I need to learn the ropes.

Soviet single missions would be nice (in vanila or as a mod).

Well after playing a couple of hours, I'll give it a try:

I would say Cold Waters plays like a mix of Janes Fleet Command and Sonarlysts Subsim Games.

You are tasked with commanding a NATO Submarine. But unlike the Sonarlysts games, this is not a "System Simulator", meaning that you can't use most systems directly. They are manned by your crew. You do most of the stuff from a map view like in Fleet Command.

So here is what you can do:
1. Navigate
You can set the speed of your Sub, The Balast Tanks and the Rudder. Speed is not controlable per Knot but in the usual telegraph steps (1/3, 2/3, standard, flank). Rudder is controlable in 5 Degree increments.
Other than that, you can do an emergency blow, silent running and thats about it. Given the fact that the game abstracts most stations, it feels arkward to control the ships movement in such Detail.

2. Sensors
You have the usual Sensor of a 688l available like towed array, hull sonar, active sonar, active intercept, Radar, ESM and Periscope. But beside the Periscope you can't control them directly, your crew does that for you. You can descide to use active sensor (like ping or radar), but just telling your crew to do so. Radar for example is activated when you raise the radar mast.
You can control the persicope yourself. There you can mark targets via a laser designator. So no stradimeter or advanced topics here.

3. TMA
TMA is done autoatically by your crew. For each contact a quality of the solution is shown as percentage. You can improve your crews TMA solution by offering them various things: Better contact quality (Sound layer, reduce distance, etc.), by maneuvering more, by using active sensors, or by identifying the contact type via an simplified narrowband display.
The contacts you crew tracks are shown on the map. Display on the map is only as good as the solution your crew has calculated.

4. Identiying Contacts
As written above, you can try to identify a contact via a very simplified narrowband display. Depending on Sound quality, freqzency lines are shown and you can match them with a reference to get the contact type. No Deamon or other systems involved.

5. Weapon Control
You fire weapons by selecting them in you Torpedo Tube or VLS display. Then you set a waypoint on the map to fire them. You can set stuff like search pattern, FOV and Depth, but it's not very detailed. Wire Guided Torpedos can by steered throuh an simplified interface or via dragging your weapon waypoint on the map. The wire can get cut-off.
Weapons that you can use: MK48, Harpoons und Tomahawks (And a non-guided torpedo, I forgot the type). And you have Noisemaker countermeasures as well.

6. Damage control
If you get hit, you need to tell your repair crew which compartment to focus on. You need to fight flooding or failing subsystems.


The game comes with a tutorial which explains the basics. Then there a single missions and a campaign mode. In Capaign Mode there is a simulated conflict between NATO and Soviet forces. You get Missions from high command, but you are free to act to your liking (But command appriciates if you do theire missions). You drive your sub from a world map till enemy contacts are discovered in your vincinity. Then the game drops into the normal single mission gameplay.

To sum it up:

Cold Waters has it moments. You can fokus on tactical decisions, because you don't need to operate all of the sensors yourself. The level of detail on the simulation varies greatly: From my point of view, the sound propagation model for example is modeled really well (with thermo layers, surface duct, convergenze zone and stuff). Other parts are modeled badly: I can launch a Tomahawk from 400 ft down, my towed array never cuts, even if I do the wildest maneauvers.
To rephrase my Fleet Command and Sonarlyst intro: You can only command one sub, as in the Sonarlyst games, but most of the systems are abstracted/simulated as they are in fleet command, meaning that you can use them directly, but rather from a map view.

Hope that helps.

Regards

Raskil

Many thanks Raskil! :Kaleun_Salute:

Bottom line....worth $40 or wait?

Bottom line. I think I will be worth $40 in the future, after it's had some polish and feed back. I've only got a few hours in but I like it. It's solid.

Woah, thats a tough one. It depends on what you want from it. If you are looking for a Dangerous Waters or Subcommand type of game, with all it's modeled systems I would say don't go for Cold Waters.

I had fun in Cold Waters so far, because I like the tactical aspect of it: You are mostly on your own im Campaign mode. which means you have to be really thoughtful with how you attack, how you want to escape and stuff like that. I've been ripped to shreds a couple of times now by a Tu-142 dropping sonar buoys all over me as soon as I fired my first torpedo. From my point of view, that aspect makes up for the sometimes flawed simulation.
If hat sounds like fun to you, then I would say "Go for it" :)