Sakai

Hello CombatAce!!!! Some of you know me, some of you may not and for those people, I am Sakai07. I am an avid fan of all types of combat simulators, land, sea, air, and space. Through the years I have been coming to CA for downloads and good conversation, as some of the best folks I have met in the internet world hail from here in my experience. As I heard once a few years ago, "Welcome to CombatAce, come here for the downloads, stay for the eels" :D Now I have a bit of an opportunity to give back to the community. Living in a small city (pop. 8000) that hosts one of only two places in the USA that builds Arleigh Burke class Guided Missile Destroyers (DDG), and before that Ticonderoga class Guided Missile Cruisers (CG), I have a good grasp of what is required to construct a multi-billion dollar warship. Having close family work there over the years has allowed me access to the process of construction and general layout. Of course, the lead men are more then happy to tell you why their division is so vital to the construction of the ship, what they do, and how it fits in. It may seem self serving, but when the sign at the entrance says, "Through these gates pass the best ship builders in the world!" An ego like that doesn't seem all that out of place. The new DDG-1000 Zumwalt class DDGs should be in the water by the end of this year, the cutting edge of American naval design. All of this, plus my unwavering love of the game Harpoon, earned me a spot on the beta team for the up coming game, "Naval War: Arctic Circle". This is not a Harpoon killer, and it doesn't pretend to either. If you are looking for the most insanely detailed simulation of modern naval warfare to the degree that fun can sometimes be an accidental side effect of gaming, you should look else where then here. If you are the type of person who wants something akin to my favorite childhood game of battleship, you should look elsewhere too. However, if you fall into the crown that finds "Jane's Fleet Command" to be a blast of a good time, or maybe you want a lower fidelity game similar to Harpoon to wind down with after a long day, this is the game you have been waiting for!!!!! The premise, as any promo video search will find, is that with the ice caps melting and new seas being opened to exploration and exploitation, the competition over the untapped natural resources heats up to the point of a shooting war. Russia needs this to propel it's economic return from three decades of post soviet hardship. NATO, backed by the massive fleets of the USN and the two cutting edge CVs possessed by the UK, have decided to stop the Russians from taking over this important area. Not only will they push them back, but will then use these resources to fund the war and maybe put a few more people to work in the recession ravaged nations of Europe and the United States. Granted, I have never been real keen on the title, but it works. This game is a blast to play. Difficulty can be scaled, and when turned all the way up you really feel like you're playing an honest naval simulation. The graphics are light years ahead of Harpoon, and make the graphics in Fleet Command look dated as they should. The theater is interesting to me in that, it does play on the old reliable GUIK Gap from just about every WWIII scenario out there, but the dynamics of the world have changed. The stakes aren't quite as high as the fate of free western Europe, and the release of nuclear weapons isn't imminent. This is plain old fashioned air/sea warfare at it's finest. The really amazing part of this game, what IMHO really sets it apart from others in it's genre, is the ease and common sense used when building the User Interface. IMO, this can make or break a game. I have played games that had really good mechanics, but the UI sucked so bad I couldn't get into the game for anything. These are the ones that gather dust on the shelf/hard drive and barely see any play. The UI in NWAC is so very simple, yet extremely powerful at the same time. All of the information you need is one, maybe two clicks away. If you want the detailed version of the UI, you can make the two or three clicks to get there, or if you're in a hurry you can use the smaller buttons to get what weapon/sensor/jammer on line and functioning very quickly. Aircraft and ships that have special systems in board can have these systems used with no mess or fuss. For example, if the P-8 Poseidon is at your base, you can quickly tell if it's set up for Land Attack, Naval Attack, Anti-Submarine, Jamming, or Mine Warfare. Say you choose your ASW equipped P-8, ordering it to go to a location and start a search pattern dropping sonar buoys is really only two clicks away. Getting the radar turned on required two more. Now you have an aircraft with a mission and orders on how to execute it in all of 4 clicks. To order the Jammer or Mine Warfare versions of the P-8 to go to a waypoint and accomplish their mission is just as easy, 4 clicks. Launch and recovery of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft is handled seamlessly, with direct input from the player at a minimum so you can focus on the task at hand. I know that, being a tester, I sound like I am shamelessly plugging this game. The truth is that I just want to inform people so they can make good decisions concerning NWAC. I am dedicated to not letting this genre of game die out. In all of the years since Harpoon 3 was launched, we have had just one game that tried to pick up the torch and make it to the store shelves. Fleet Command was an amazing game for it's day, and I still play it today for the variety of units you can play with in a plausible environment. This genre doesn't have the sheer numbers that FPS and MMORPG type games can muster. Even a dud in those genres would make the amount of cash a smash hit would in ours. That gives smaller production groups the ability to put out quality product, something that we all benefit from. There just aren't that many of us out there today, so when something new comes around, we as a community really need to put our weight behind it. This was my motivation for joining the crew, since before all I could do to support the game was buy it. A small amount of that money reaches these folks, but that small amount of cash is dwarfed by only one good bug report that is fixed before launch, working to give people a working game on launch day, the way it should be. All I am asking of the community at large is to talk about it. I want folks to come on here and ask me questions, give requests, beg for screen shots, whatever. As long as we are talking about the game, I just don't care. Critical comments are welcome as well, but we need to keep it mature in here. I am open to constructive criticism, but just flaming people for having a different opinion gets you no where fast. I am going to head over to the beta forums in a few and ask the devs if I can post a couple screens over here. Exclusive stuff, since they sure as heck wouldn't be anywhere else since I am the one who will be taking them ;) Disclaimer - I do not represent Turbo Tape Games, nor Paradox Interactive. All opinions are mine and mine alone. My involvement with Turbo Tape Games is this, volunteer beta tester. I do not receive any kind of bonus or reward for getting out and talking about the game. This is on my own initiative since I do honestly believe in this project.

Hate to rez a thread, but..... In the four years since this game was released and failed pretty badly. No save game feature in a moderately complex wargame is just......der dah der. If any of you are genuinely interested in this type of wargame, Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations is really the only show in town. Learning curve is steep, but not so bad as the likes of Harpoon 3 since the user interface is much, much, easier to work with. I've been part of the core beta testing team for almost 4 years now and updates come just as fast and furious as day 1. In fact, the base game has received 11 UPDATES since launch. These are far more then bug fixes, new features have been added and the data base is being ever expanded. The support and feedback from this development group is second to none. If interested check you some "Let's Play..." type vids on YouTube, or head on over to the Matrix Games forums and have a look around. There is no demo and whenever someone asks about seeing if the game is right for them we always point them to the YouTube vids so having it here may save some frustration. Game is also available on Steam, which is kind of a new thing for hard-core wargames. NWAC had much promise, and it was a shame it didn't grow to it's potential. But now if this is something you may have been into, there is a real alternative. Also, IIRC, the source code for NWAC was released a while ago, if you want to try your hand, lol.

That is something I see fairly often at the forums as well. If enough people ask for it, it will make game at some point. That's the way these devs have operated so far, and I see no reason why they would change any time soon. Once the mission editor is out, I think the number of campaigns, missions, and multi-play skirmish maps will skyrocket. It seems everyone who bought the game is chaffing at the bit to build their own stuff. The mod sub-forum at the Paradox NWAC forums already has a number of projects. Not the least of which is one titled, Naval War: Cold War! That got me all sorts of excited to read, as that was what I had in mind for a 'perfect game' when NWAC was announced way back. Again, I am very happy to hear that the people that picked this up are having fun with it. I am very proud of the piece I played in getting it ready to ship. If the first game I ever had a real hand in testing had failed, I would have probably never done it again. So far, Panzer Corps and NWAC have both done very well indeed, so maybe I've got the Midas touch

Glad you folks are having fun with the game. I was surprised when I went to go buy a copy on Steam, the devs were kind enough to hook up the beta guys with a free copy. Mighty cool considering it's their first game and they're only charging $20 for it at that. Must be doing OK for them to not worry bout it. The largest gripes so far have been the lack of a save game feature (yeah, that's a big one) and the linear campaigns. Well, Jan announced that a mission builder is on the way and will be a free DLC for the game, happy days!!!

I think that's a favorable comparison, as there are still a good many people playing Fleet Command today! I was until I started up with these guys. I am hoping that, with the addition of follow on titles like the South China Sea or Indian Ocean, the content will surpass FC. I feel that the quality is already there.

NWAC Teaser Here is the official teaser released a few days ago. Doesn't show as much as I would like, but it's exciting and you get the idea of how the game plays during the exciting parts. :D

Heh, the prospect of having both SF2:NA and NWAC released close to each other means the virtual North Atlantic is going to be a very dangerous place. :D I must say, my wet dream is NWAC set in the late 80's/early 90's. The GIUK Gap is already present in the NWAC play area, all we need are some Cold War era ships, subs, and aircraft to throw around. Don't get me wrong, I am more then grateful for what we are getting, but that would send me right to war gaming heaven!!! :) I am hoping that a talented modder or two will decide to make NWAC - Cold War edition their personal baby. I have been really working over the idea of building a game of my own in my off time. A good buddy of mine is within 30 credits or so of a Bachelors in Game Design with a focus on modeling and art. I have floated the idea to him many times about starting a little indie game workshop. Neither one of us have anything better to do with out time, and a whole lot worse that we could use that time for. He bought all of his school books outright (got to love that GI Bill!!!) so I can use them to learn some of what he knows as well. The dev over at NWAC turned me on to the Unity 3D Engine when I told him I had aspirations of being a game designer myself in the future. This is a great looking engine, and there are a ton of tutorials on the page and on youtube to help along the way. The best part is that you can sell games created with Unity all you want without paying for use of the engine. The download is free, and in the end you could end up getting paid for the download if the game you design sells. Sorry about the OT stuff but if any of you are entertaining ideas of designing your own game, that is a good place to start.

Hello Jedi! How are things with you??? Nice to see the mods giving this thread some love ;) As for MP, adversarial is currently functioning very well and will be in game and working at launch according to the boss. And speaking of that launch, you should be able to buy the game THIS APRIL!!! I joined up several months ago, and things have been making steady progress towards a gold release candidate. I know the game will be available through Steam, but I am not sure if this will be the only method. I own Harpoon 3 ANW 3.9.4, Dangerous Waters, and Fleet Command and have enjoyed all of these for years. NWAC is my new back scratch when I get that familiar itch.

Here are the promised screen shots. Dev's said no dice on making my own and posting them, marketing and all that, that paradox is a pretty large and intimidating company when it comes to asking them for something. Don't get me wrong, the people I have talked to are great. Seeing as it's my first time being involved with any part of the production of a PC game, all of this is kind of new, exciting, and scary all at the same time. I figured you would like to see some of the close up shots of individual units. These are exactly how it looks in game. I am NOT making any comments on what hardware will run this game well, but my rig is running an nVidia 8400GS 512MB and my in game shots look just like this. Virginia Udaloy II Type 45 Vampire! Vampire! Halifax In game shot showing the UI. Astute Air ops in NWAC

Here is a partial unit list, accurate as of 2/26/2012. Ship classes: -- Type 45 -- Type 23 -- Queen Elizabeth -- Nimitz -- Arleigh Burke -- Wasp -- Baden-Württemberg -- Brandenburg -- Visby -- Gotland -- Gawron -- Admiral Kuznetsov -- Admiral Gorshkov -- Steregushchy -- Kirov -- Udaloy II -- Matka -- Iver Huitfeldt -- Fridtjof Nansen -- Hamina -- Mistral -- Halifax -- More+ (?) - Support ships may not be present in the game, since they "have little purpose in a game centered on combat" Sub classes: -- Ula -- Virginia -- Akula -- Lada -- Astute -- Type 212 -- Yasen -- Gotland -- More+ (?) Aircraft: -- Euro-fighter Typhoon -- EA-18G Growler -- E-3 Sentry -- E-2 Hawkeye -- F-35C Lightning -- F-22 Raptor -- B-1B Lancer -- P-8 Poseidon -- P-3 Orion -- Sukhoi FAK PA -- Sukhoi Su-27 -- MiG-29K -- F/A-18E Super Hornet -- Tu-22 Backfire -- Tu-160 Blackjack -- Tu-95 Bear -- Lynx Wildcat -- Merlin HM1/2 -- Kamov Ka-27 -- A-50U Shmel -- Boeing KC-767 (refuelling) -- Ilyushin Il-78 (refuelling) -- SH-60B Seahawk -- More+ (?) UAVs: -- Schiebel Camcopter S-100 -- More+

Thanks for the feedback guys! This being a predominately flight sim sight, the response so far is outstanding! @ JonathanRL - Glad to hear that you're excited and following the progress. When I first heard of this game, I was actually a little depressed since I knew it was a ways off and I wanted it NOW, lol. Fate had other plans, and I am a happier person for it. The Devs are a great bunch of folks. They listen to us whine, and admonish us properly each time with an appropriate number of lashes :D Seriously, they are very interested in what the testers have to say about the design of the game, and we can see that they implement the things they like from our minds. I think the team being mainly Norwegian helps with deciding which units make the game in the first release. It is an outstanding mix, and the European navies are well represented. The US is also well modeled, but you certainly don't get the sense that US kit is over powered, systems and weapons perform the way you would expect, with all their strengths and weaknesses laid out. @ B52 - I have never played Battlestation personally as I always assumed things were too far on the arcade side. The customer reviews I've heard paint a slightly different picture then my mind had, and I may yet give this a whirl. I am certainly not expecting something like HPS Great Naval Battles: Guadalcanal, but a lighter and still plausible version with much improved graphics would appeal to me. I just got my new graphics card up and running as an upgrade from an integrated chip set, so I will finally be able to see NWAC for all it's glory. Intense and Exciting are certainly two words I can use to describe NWAC. It sometimes feels like minutes of calm punctuated by moments of absolute terror. Just the way modern naval battles should be! :D @ Slarti - You sir, are the exact reason I posted this thread. You already have a love for the genre, but news of the game hadn't made it to you as of yet. I am also a fan of the genre, and I couldn't bear the thought of someone else like me missing out on this since word hadn't spread yet. If you head over to Sub Sim on the front page you will find several links to information about the game. The Official Site is here on the Paradox site. Some of the info has been there since the game was announced, but there are screens and videos to drool over. I highly suggest checking them both out. Sub Sim also has a good many mods for Fleet Command to expand the library and make game play a little more realistic. @ Swordsman - Glad to know we've got some fans out there ready for the lauch!!! The subject of modding the beta and of what tools will be available after launch was brought up just a couple days ago in the beta forums. AFAIK, while it's not a top priority of the devs, most aspects of the game will be moddable and instructions will be supplied, possibly even tools. This will not be the case at lauch, but the game itself will give you plenty to do in the mean time. The most common type of mods I use in games these days are UI mods, and NWAC has an outstanding UI, so I haven't felt the urge to change it. I would like to add the entire US Navy since the 60's, but this can wait ;) In fact, I don't know if I have played every unit available to me yet in the beta and there will be even more units in the retail copy. There is already an apparatus in place to edit/create missions. It isn't the most user friendly, and won't be how missions are edited in the retail version, but it's what we testers have to work with at the moment. I have been jabbing at the beta liaison dev to let the testers designs some of the missions that will go in the retail version. I think the chances are pretty good, but I have my fingers crossed none the less. Fear not, as soon as the game launches, I will be pumping out some more missions for folks to d/l. If I can manage it, I would like to have a few put together before launch so a little extra content will be available from the get go, but there are no promises there. Just an an FYI, I am trying to get dev permission to post a couple screens for you guys. As part of that, I will also ask them to come take a look at the thread to make sure everything is squared away, so if you have any idea's or questions, post em and if I get the OK I will answer them to the best of my ability, or relay the devs answers to you.

WooT!!!! Happy Birthday Suicidal!!!! I know I am not the only one who can taste the irony of wishing a chap with the handle you have a happy birthday, but I sure am glad that you are here for us to do so!!!! May all of your missiles run true, your bombs not be duds, and your lead computing gunsight to get the angle right!!!!

Here in Maine, there has been a big issue in regards to banning pitbulls state wide. I don't agree, since I was a kid I have been around them. It is not the dog, it is irresponsible owners, that cause the real damage. I feel for the individuals that have been attacked, but I have also seen some pits that are so friendly they wouldn't bust a grape in a food fight. The honest to god truth is, more people are bitten by DALMATIONS each year then by pits.

I am, as they say, a little too slow to keep up in an extreme study sim like A10C from DCS, I would be interested in this one as well!!!

I am going to second that, for an everyday cup of coffee, nothing beats Double D's!!!! As for exotic types, I would sure and hell try one, but the price is steep with twin girls at 13 months of age, so it would have to be on someone else ;) The wife actually just went on a rampage through several stores in order to find some Pumpkin Spice coffee, they only sell it during fall up here, and she LOVES it, more then me possibly.

LoL, the actors are not the same. It just happens to be that the actors they have in this movie and the "Tuskegee Airmen" HBO movie is that both sets of actors look a lot like the people they portray. The story is the same of course, but the CGI does look good. PLUS, it's about damn time the P51 gets a just spot light in a big holly wood movie in the 21st Century!!!

Every time I get a new rig or smoke a hard drive and then have to re-install FSX I say to myself, "self, this time lets try to keep the airplanes folder somewhere below 16GB for once!" It works for a couple weeks, and I know which ones I can't live without like my Carenado birds and some Flight1 stuff. Then, I have to remember where all the nice freeware stuff is and get that, like the Premier Aircraft Design (shame the loss they just suffered BTW) aircraft and some of the stuff I used to find at Nor-Cal Prop Club. Then one day I see something that looks really cool and I grab it out of impulse and only fly it once. As soon as the flood gates open, the planes just start to flow. And then, not too long after that, I have myself an 18.7 GB (current size) Airplanes folder!!! Good luck with keeping the add-ons under control, hope your self discipline rates a little higher then mine!!!

When I started out it was with the first series. I got Wings over Vietnam and an FPS about spec ops in nam in a package deal. I actually wanted the FPS and didn't play WoV for almost a year. I have always loved flight sims, but at the time I was really into hard core type sims like the Flanker series and Falcon 4.0 in it's almost un-playable state. I had heard that WoV was almost like the console game Top Gun in it's simplicity, so I never even bothered. What a mistake!!! I fell in love with WoV and started to mod the crap out of it. It was the first time I modded a game, and gave me confidence to mod others with success. I bought WoE next when I thought I lost WoV and needed my fix. After that, I had to get WoI and the original SF:P1. Being well into the SF series, when SF2 came out, I decided to just start with Strike Fighters 2. I really enjoy the mercenary campaigns and can still mod the game at will. I plan on getting WoE next, for the compatibility of add-ons, but I will still likely play a ton more of the Merc campaigns.

Hello CombatAce!!!! The folks over at Mission4Today have started a social networking site for virtual pilots called the Pilots Lounge. Originally for the sims covered by the M4T network, such as IL2 and Cliffs of Dover. I started a Strike Fighters 1 & 2 group over there and it has recently become the 3rd most popular group. I would like to invite all of you to come on over and sign up. The more pilots, the better for all, and this could really take off to become a Flying Facebook of sorts. Here is the link The Pilots Lounge and I hope to see some of you there!!!

I have the regular X52 (silver) and if you had a problem with the stick being to stiff, that problem was solved with the X52. I find sometimes I have to make more movement then I want to, but after getting used to it there are no problems. The one problem I know of with the X52 is with the cords that connect the stick and throttle. They get loose VERY easily and will cause a momentary loss of connection at times, even with the slightest nudge. I moved from the Logitec Extreme 3D Pro to the Saitek X52 and I have been happy over all. Since you are already familiar with Saitek products, I say go for the X52. If you have a bit of cash, get the pro version, but the regular will work just fine. Just as a side note, the X45 had the rocker for rudder control, while the X52 has a traditional twist stick. There is a lock for this on the stick if you have rudder peddles hooked up as well.

Very nice Stary. I have always wanted to visit Europe, not just the popular spots either, like Poland, Serbia, Greece, Yugoslavia, etc. Your pics were like a little vacation, since it's snowing here in Vacationland, it was nice.

No Tomcats except for the ones enforcing the "Axis of Evilness" over Iran Still, 20 years, doesn't seem like it's been that long at all.

I saw a statistic that said 80% of those employed in the United States were employed by a small business, those with 25 - 250 employees. This was in a text book in my intro to small business class. I can believe it. Even a franchise, like McDonalds, has a bunch of people that own the individual stores the each employ around 30 people. Its business like this that keeps all economies going. I have had to sign on to welfare, and it was the most painful thing I have done. Still not out of the rutt yet, but every week is another week closer. The two infants don't help the situation, but I wouldn't trade them for the world. And the girlfriend is psychotic, but what can you do right? I hope all works out for you folks, 2010 was crap all around, and I have hopes that 2011 is much, much, much better!

Thats right, I have gone and done it now, I got ALL four SF2's cause I couldn't bare to have just one or two. I must say, it has brought me out of my Strike Fighters slump. I never had the original SFP1 so I was happy with the merc campaigns as they were all new to me. The graphics have improved markedly, and that is also nice after so much FSX and RoF. The new mod system took me a bit to get used too (read the readme dummy, lol) but now I couldn't be happier. Think I will go make a video of my exploits for all to enjoy, till then............