Quote:
Originally Posted by Kazuaki Shimazaki II
What you are arguing for is formal realism, and I've given you my thoughts on this on Post #53 & #58. They have already tried this approach in the 688I through Dangerous Waters series. I have enjoyed all those games. However, because of that, I am also aware of its weakness - because ultimately, you are not driving a real sub in a real, lethal fight, all that aid plus none of the complications means your Net Cognitive Load is much lower than a real submarine captain, even counting all the training he has and you don't. This is reflected in the frequent use of the Time Compression and 3D view systems - the game isn't stimulating you enough.
Have you considered that part of the point of the manual TMA, sonar and fire control systems (and even the Flood, Equalize and Muzzle Door buttons) in the 688-DW line is to give the otherwise bored player something to do? If it is really about formally simulating the sub commander's experience, those parts will be fully automated. However, to perform at those stations at a level sufficient to beat the AI is not in general difficult (and I am saying this as a person who has no illusions of being a really good player) so you still wind up with a lot of time to spare. Plus, if you need more time, there's always the Almighty Pause button (which has nothing to do with reality, of course).
Cold Waters has another solution to this problem - take away most of the aid you've been getting and make the enemy really lethal. And you know what? It works. As you tacitly admit, now you are task overloaded - your Cognitive Load is now much closer to a real commander in the thick of it. So you have to ask yourself, whether you prefer to be underworked in a subsim that formally reflects reality while actually not, or whether you want to feel like you are working just like a real submarine captain.
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I'm sorry man, I enjoy this game a lot, more that DW even but some of your arguments are just bizarre, to say the least.
What aid in DW are you talking about? Having a helmsman? I assure you, nobody would complain if Sonalyst would create fully working helm station with manual controls in DW. I also doubt they didn't do it to "aid" the player somehow. My guess would be that didn't feel it was necessary in the game - a thought which seemed consistent with pretty much every subsim developer. And I don't mean that the devs should remove manual controls from the game. They're fine and have their uses. But saying that the game shouldn't have optional direct commands is like saying you shouldn't have an autopilot in a flight sim, because "it will make you push that dreadful 'accelerate time' button".
And the argument, that removing manual TMA and sonar and replacing them with mandatory manual helm controls will somehow overload the player is just absurd. Steering the boat does not require half as much focus and brain-power as working a TMA solution. It does, however require player's attention. And just like some of us find searching for solutions tedious, others find piloting the boat tedious.
And my last point is... there's nothing wrong with time-acceleration during the boring bits.