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hellfish6 · 11-01-09, 01:45 PM

I second the surface sim. I played Enigma because it let me command small surface ships - not because of the submarines. I've always had the SH series for my subs, but for my surface ship fix I have a handful of half-baked mods for the SH series (DD Fletcher and CL Cincinnati for SH4).

The Cruel Sea is one of my favorite books... and I'd love to see a modern game that puts me in the command of the corvettes, DEs and DDs. Hell, throw in CLs and CAs and I won't complain.

If you really want to do a sub game, how about for avoiding the extremes? Sim gaming tends to go to extremes - either WWII or super ultra modern. There's a 60-year gap in the middle there with tons of subs that have never been made into a sim.

What if you made a hypothetical sub sim based in 1962? Or 1975? Or '85? Cuban Missile Crisis goes hot, Cold War goes hot, etc. You'll certainly be able to carve a niche for yourself - when was the last time you saw a game that let you command a Foxtrot-class or Permit-class? In the early '60s you still have a lot of WWII technology but with the nuke boats, guided missiles and electronics just starting to become prominent. You've got a lot of diversity in ships and battle locations, you've got a lot of WWII-esque types of fighting (especially for the Soviets against NATO convoys and shipping) but you've also got the ASW/H-K, espionage and recon missions too.

I can think of one other game series that has done this - the Strike Fighters series of flight sims by Third Wire . They specialize in those early-mid Cold War aircraft put into hypothetical conflicts (in SFP1 and Wings Over Europe) or as part of a couple of Cold War fights (Wings over Vietnam and Wings Over Israel).

They're not exactly making money hand over fist, but they're doing very well for an indie company with only one full time employee. Namely, they're still alive after many years, and still producing.

I see the key to their success is their flexibility. The games thrive because there are tons and tons of mods. The game's architecture is very open and it is very easy to add new aircraft, terrain, flight models, etc. People buy the core game, which offers settings and capabilities with a couple of aircraft, but then they go and download all the mods to fulfill their special interests. In a way, the games really do become everything to everyone - with mods, you can be a MiG pilot even if the vanilla game didn't let you.

If you can make a good game engine for subs (and possibly surface ships) set in a plausible Cold War environment, I can see it being successful. I think you'd have to make it open for modding too - that way you can spend your time working on the engine and setting yourself, while only building one or two player-controlled subs (or ships) in detail and letting modders flesh it out.

Anyway, just a thought. I wish you well!

11-01-09, 01:45 PM	#9
hellfish6 Seaman Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 37 Downloads: 23 Uploads: 0	I second the surface sim. I played Enigma because it let me command small surface ships - not because of the submarines. I've always had the SH series for my subs, but for my surface ship fix I have a handful of half-baked mods for the SH series (DD Fletcher and CL Cincinnati for SH4). The Cruel Sea is one of my favorite books... and I'd love to see a modern game that puts me in the command of the corvettes, DEs and DDs. Hell, throw in CLs and CAs and I won't complain. If you really want to do a sub game, how about for avoiding the extremes? Sim gaming tends to go to extremes - either WWII or super ultra modern. There's a 60-year gap in the middle there with tons of subs that have never been made into a sim. What if you made a hypothetical sub sim based in 1962? Or 1975? Or '85? Cuban Missile Crisis goes hot, Cold War goes hot, etc. You'll certainly be able to carve a niche for yourself - when was the last time you saw a game that let you command a Foxtrot-class or Permit-class? In the early '60s you still have a lot of WWII technology but with the nuke boats, guided missiles and electronics just starting to become prominent. You've got a lot of diversity in ships and battle locations, you've got a lot of WWII-esque types of fighting (especially for the Soviets against NATO convoys and shipping) but you've also got the ASW/H-K, espionage and recon missions too. I can think of one other game series that has done this - the Strike Fighters series of flight sims by Third Wire . They specialize in those early-mid Cold War aircraft put into hypothetical conflicts (in SFP1 and Wings Over Europe) or as part of a couple of Cold War fights (Wings over Vietnam and Wings Over Israel). They're not exactly making money hand over fist, but they're doing very well for an indie company with only one full time employee. Namely, they're still alive after many years, and still producing. I see the key to their success is their flexibility. The games thrive because there are tons and tons of mods. The game's architecture is very open and it is very easy to add new aircraft, terrain, flight models, etc. People buy the core game, which offers settings and capabilities with a couple of aircraft, but then they go and download all the mods to fulfill their special interests. In a way, the games really do become everything to everyone - with mods, you can be a MiG pilot even if the vanilla game didn't let you. If you can make a good game engine for subs (and possibly surface ships) set in a plausible Cold War environment, I can see it being successful. I think you'd have to make it open for modding too - that way you can spend your time working on the engine and setting yourself, while only building one or two player-controlled subs (or ships) in detail and letting modders flesh it out. Anyway, just a thought. I wish you well!