Feedback & Suggestions

[Rayydar]

Some thoughts by just another addict:

First of all, the game is great. Nils did an outstanding job (except those static, straight wakes of turning ships which have been criticized elsewhere). I particularly love the twilight ambience and to watch ships going down. I also like the friendly and patient support on Facebook.

However:

1. There might be a technical issue:
the tap response on an iPad Air. Sometimes I have to tap on the (maybe superfluous anyway) 'Next' button for eight (!) times. Even worse: time-critical taps, i.e. bomber dive and release actions. Sometimes I'm hammering the glass (well, the plastic) out of my iPad and wish to have a mouse.
This happens regardless if the screen is cluttered with finger prints or absolutely clean. I'm not said to be particularly clumsy on touch screens, and I do not have this problem with any other app. Did other users experience this as well?
I have no notion of touchpad programming, but I guess there could be sensivity parameters. The point may be: if one does not tap exactly vertically in a 90° angle, scrolling takes place rather than the desired action. Adjustments of the camera sensivity parameter were not successful.

As for the game itself:

2. I'd prefer a free sequence of:
2.1 Ships: It is somehow confusing if you select a ship in the list and give a command which refers to another ship, the active one due to the fixed sequence.
2.2 Actions: It is disturbing when you are in an excellent shooting-position but first have to move out of it before you can really let your guns speak. There is an (otherwise inferior) game called 'Battle Fleet' providing two buttons for 'coarse' and 'shoot' for free choice.

3. Shore bombardment:
The use of radar is not possible because a tap shows the colored target markers. Reasonable so far, because land targets usually cannot be 'radared'. But sometimes, with a 5 - 10% chance, radar does work!

4. Collisions scuttling both ships:
Come on, is this realistic? Sometimes I lost a battle just because the active ship was zoomed in and I didn't see its neighbor. I read about the reason (prevent ramming of enemy ships). But this is what sometimes happened! Also, the history of naval warfare is full of collisions of friendly ships - the German Kriegsmarine was particularly good in that.

But AFAIK never ever both involved ships sank.
Suggestion: Inflict more or less damage depending on size / armor of the involved ships, maybe scuttle a DD, CL, CVE rammed by a BB - but do not scuttle both vessels unconditionally.

5. Subs:
I think both sides should have subs. Japanese subs were quite good and sank major allied warships. In the Atlantic and Mediterranean as well, both Brits and Germans made ample use of their subs.
In many scenarios, however, subs are deployed too far away from the enemy; thus they hardly or never have a chance to come within torpedo range. Their limited speed is realistic; their vulnerability when surfaced as well. But pleeease deploy them a little nearer to the foe.

So much for now.

[Onkel Neal]

Great first post.
I thought the touch screen lag was just me. I too have some trouble with the touch screen feel.

[Killerfish Games]

Welcome aboard Rayydar and thanks for the excellent feedback.

Tap Response: this is good to know. We've not seen this in testing, but we have heard if from others as well. Looks like an issue we'll have to examine.

Wakes: yeah we've copped some flak over the static wakes. Since the game is turn based the idea was to use them as vector displays of ship speed and direction (they shorten at lower ship speed). Unfortunately all the other graphics are so realistic that wakes do stand out as looking artificial and out of place. Good news is that the sequel already has bending wakes implemented and they look great.

Sequence of Actions: very good point. The bulk of these issues are due to implementing multiple player ships very late in development. We've solved this issue for the sequel.

Shore Bombardment: version 2.08 (Android) and soon to be released for iOS should address this issue. If the camera is focused on a target (airbase, bunker, fuel depot), then RADAR will give range to that location rather than just the centre of the island as it used to do. Shore bombardments will likely not be coming back in the sequel.

Ship Collisions: agreed. We had some technical issues with damaging ships and/or detecting the impact locations of various vessels. In the absence of a good solution we opted for the overly harsh rule of just scuttling both ships. Not sure if we'll go back and address this issue in Pacific Fleet, but for the sequel we are looking into finally solving this in a more realistic manner.

Subs: unfortunately we limited Pacific Fleet to 7 units per side. This makes it very difficult to add additional ships as well as forced us to drop either an IJN BB or sub. We dropped the sub so that the IJN camapign would be surface oriented. For US subs, when deployed alone they start much closer to the enemy. In addition when alone if they start in a bad position, they can just disengage and try again. This was intended to emulate the hunting of surface vessels and getting into position which some players liked, while others didn't.

Missions and Content: I think we underestimated player's appetites for naval engagements. 90 zones and Single Battles seemed like a lot on paper. How long does it take you folks to play through a campaign?

We learned much in the creation of Pacific Fleet. It is our debut game and does some things well but also has a few rough spots.

While you're here, what's your wishlist for a game like Pacific Fleet? In his review, Neal points out periscope view, torpedo salvos, sub depths, and a message log of events. What other features not in the current game would you like to see?

[Lewis Wingerter]

Hi I do have a wish list: Could you incorporate the Atlantic side with the British and German surface and subs.. Keep up the great work guy

[Rayydar]

Thank you for your nice welcome greetings, guys, and thanks for your detailed reply.

1. Tap response (contd.):
The weird thing is: It does not happen frequently but - according to Murphy's Law - just when you decide to dive with your throwaway Oka.
Seriously: There doesn't seem to be a pattern (and I'm trained to recognize patterns). As for bomber actions, I got into the habit of double-tapping; maybe it helps a little.
It may be useful to tell the developer which hardware and OS is used. Perhaps the prob restricts to iOS 7.x? Or to the iPad Air due to its new glassless touchscreen?

2.1 Free sequence of ships (contd.):
Did you overlook this?

6. Gunnery:
6.1 Range:
You are pursuing a distant enemy, get closer and closer but radar always indicates '> 45°' and your salvos are short by some yards. After some turns, out of a sudden, radar tells you: Yippieh, now you need only some 33° elevation! This seems to be sort of a giant leap for the gunner but a small step for mankind.
6.2 Number of shells:
After firing a broadside you can watch a 'significant' no. of shalls (not sure if those actually represent the exact number of guns) splashing into the water and, hopefully, hitting the enemy. However, if only your forward guns are involved, the no. of shells is limited to just two - regardless if your ship has superfiring twin or triple turrets (4 or 6 shells to be expected). The chance of a hit seems to be restricted correspondingly, i.e. it is poor, while it should be 2/3 or 1/2, depending on the ship's gun layout.

7. Strategic map preview:
There is a screenshot on the net showing the strategic map with flags (well ... one knows who the enemy is) and exact images of the opposing ships, as they are displayed in the shipyard. In my iOS version, however, there are only sketchy silhouettes of the enemy ships. Particularly, it is difficult to see the difference between a Cleveland and a Baltimore.
Is this an intentional kind of FoW?

General remarks:
I'm not sure if I understand that limit of ships within PF. Isn't an additional ship just another entry in an array of objects? Anyway, for a developer's first game PF is absolutely great , and I would regret if it would never be extended.
My suggestion: Make the sequel (called Atlantic Fleet in my mind, right? ) and thereafter, on the base of the new engine, a Pacific Fleet II.

BTW, the single battle feature, i.e. an ad hoc scenario editor is fine. Is it possible to make those created scenarios storable for repeated use?

How long does it take you folks to play through a campaign?

Two days (or nights). Because it's so hard to interrupt a campaign in a good game.

[Aktungbby]

Rayydar!

[Killerfish Games]

1. Tap Response
Yup, we've not seen the issue ourselves and can't reproduce it.

2.1 Free Sequence of Ships
Didn't overlook this. For the sequel all ships get turns at even intervals so the player can no longer fire all their guns at the enemy prior to the enemy responding.

Gunnery
6.1 Range:
This is mostly due to the overly exaggerated short distances in game. At short range, minimal gun elevation changes are required to change range, but at long range a large swing in elevation alters range minimally. See the image below and note the non-linear relationship between elevation and range (wow those v1.0 graphics have come a long way):

If a ship moves into gun range it can require a significant swing in elevation to bring the range down. In addition, the inherent error in RADAR readings is also exaggerated at long gun range for this same reason.
6.2 Number of Shells
Number of shells fired/displayed = 1 shell per turret.
Damage done by each shell = Damage * number of barrels of firing turret
We simplified things by merging shells from the same turret into a single projectile. In the sequel, each barrel fires an individual shell.

7. Strategic Map Preview:
The screenshot with the flags is the original v1.0 which was rejected by Apple due to the depiction of a real world nation as the sole enemy of a game. It was replaced with the current map in v2.0. No FoW intended.

General Remarks
The limit is mostly due to the balancing of the campaign as well as much of the code for AI, save data, upgrades etc being based on the 7 unit slots. We could add more ships, but it is a huge amount of work, so we'd rather move on to the sequel which is designed in a more modular manner and will have a much more open campaign.

From v1.0 to 2.0+ we ran into a few limitations, but mostly worked around them. The plan is to extent the concept with a franchise of improved featured games. Based on your suggestion you should not be at all disappointed when we officially announce the sequel

We could add the ability to save single battle data. It just becomes a low priority when we have to maintain an iOS version, Android version, Lite versions of each of these as well as the sequel to work on.

[Rayydar]

@TheGeoff: Excellent bug report and suggestions.

(The bilge rat nitpicks again: )
8. Essex deck armor:
It is pretty hard to damage the flight deck of an Essex with a Jap 500 lbs. bomb. Well, deck armor: 4.5". In fact, those CVs did have a horizontal armor of some 4.x" - on the strength deck / above the hangar deck. The flight deck, however, was not armored at all. No clue how to implement this in the game, though.

Originally Posted by Pacific Fleet

7. Strategic Map Preview:
The screenshot with the flags is the original v1.0 which was rejected by Apple due to the depiction of a real world nation as the sole enemy of a game. It was replaced with the current map in v2.0. No FoW intended.

Yup; I read about the IMHO ridiculous flag issue. But what I meant is:



On the left image (plain side view silhouette) one can clearly identify two Baltimores and one Cleveland, no matter if with or w/o flag background. Looking on the right image, can anyone tell me if I'm going to fight against a Baltimore or a Cleveland in the upcoming battle?

Originally Posted by Pacific Fleet

... the sequel which is designed in a more modular manner ...

Good news!

Originally Posted by Pacific Fleet

Based on your suggestion you should not be at all disappointed when we officially announce the sequel

I'm sooo looking forward to it! What did you say? Next week?

[Killerfish Games]

Interesting observation on the flight decks.

Originally Posted by Rayydar

On the left image (plain side view silhouette) one can clearly identify two Baltimores and one Cleveland, no matter if with or w/o flag background. Looking on the right image, can anyone tell me if I'm going to fight against a Baltimore or a Cleveland in the upcoming battle?

Cleveland! It has a single crane on the rear and the other give away is the rear rigging. Nonetheless the point you raise is a valid one. For 2.0 we attempted to clear up the map so that it would be less cluttered. The result is smaller 3/4 view ship icons which can be more difficult to interpret.

[TheGeoff]

I bought this game a couple of weeks ago after stumbling across the Subsim review for it and I think it's fantastic. Easily one of my favourite games for Android!

Yesterday I accidentally found a bug which allows you to take multiples of the same ship - I'm not exactly sure what caused it, but I'm pretty sure what I did was:
1. Go to the fleet management screen
2. Put the Kongo Battleship and Shokaku Carrier in the 'escorts' slots.
3. Buy a few upgrades for other ships
4. Return to the Kongo (I may have bought an upgrade for the Kongo too, can't remember)
5. Press the back button, start a battle, then suddenly realise I somehow have two Kongos.
I haven't been able to reproduce this bug because I now own every upgrade for every IJN ship, but I'll give it a try when I start a new USN campaign.

As for a wishlist:
A periscope view would be great, as well as a gunners view for the surface ships. While it wouldn't add anything gameplay-wise, it would be very cinematic to have a 'bridge view' or similar for each ship which simply positions the camera on the bridge (or conning tower) of the ship. The 3D models already look detailed enough that it shouldn't require any additional textures or graphical assets.

Also, a small graphical improvement which would be easy to implement: when you fire a lot of shells at a target and miss, every splash is identical and it is very obvious that there is only one splash effect. Adding just one or two more splash sprites would really reduce the jarring effect.

Awesome game, keep up the good work!

[Killerfish Games]

Glad you're enjoying the game.
Ooh interesting little bug you found there. We'll see if we can reproduce it.

For the sequel:
Periscope view is in.
Gunnery view is in.
New splashes are in.

Bridge view is interesting. We'll see if it adds much to the game and looks ok. Not sure how we'd handle ships with internal bridges...

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim Rayydar

[nikimcbee]

Love the game, great detail for such a simple game. (I mean that in a good way).

My only gripe, how hard would it be to add Japanese subs to the game?