Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Yankee66

While the price being undisputably high, it's also damn fine piece of software for an audience that is still considered being a rather small niche market.

I started playing these strategical/tactical wargames back in the day with Harpoon II, which was followed up later by Fleet Command and then Dangerous Waters. Inbetween came the "land combat" simulations like "Armored Task Force or Close Combat.

As of late, I played more "Total War" than any hardcore simulation. So I consider myself a returner to the warsim-genre. Not a complete newbie, but someone who once learned the ropes a while back and became rusty.

So, my first impression after playing it for a couple dozen hours:

The performance is good and it seems to run rock-stable. I am playing it on a Win7, 64Bit with 16 Gigs of RAM and a GTX 570 and haven't run into any problems so far.

The tutorials work really well. The way they are executed makes you read a little and think a lot. They take you by the hand and explain the basic concepts of the game through hands-on experience, while being clear and concise.
For me, they worked so well that I only looked into the manual to find out what custom overlays and the 1/3rd rule are, and I can still hold my own in most scenarios. :)

The "flow" of the game is impressive. Especially when looking at some rather clunky interfaces of other hardcore wargame titles.
Nothing you can do in the sim seems "hidden", and overall I had no problems putting missions together for my Units, then have them execute manual movement and firing orders in an emergency situation, before giving control back to the AI. This makes reacting to new situations easier than I thought and cuts down on the micromanagement.

From what I've seen of the AI, it pulls off believable and challenging tactics without making me feel like it's "cheating". I need to see more of it in more hours of gameplay to make a more detailed assessment. But the fact that it seemed to react to my actions in an appropriate way, and also differently in similar sessions, makes me like it from the get-go.

Something I always love to do is starting the scenario editor. And I did so with "Command" after just 2 or 3 hours of gameplay. And I love it. Again, nothing seems hidden or hard to reach, the concept of Triggers, Events and Actions isn't hard to grasp. Not entirely easy for those without prior knowledge, but also not hard to understand.

I was able to put together a very small test scenario, containing a carrier with a custom contingent of planes, a Sub and some land-based targets on a custom overlay in under an hour. The hardest part, if you can call it that, was setting up the custom overlay for the first time. Your explanation in the manual is really good and works well. The second time went much smoother and faster. Custom overlays are fun! :D

The sounds are kind of ok, although generic, and not without crackling. But looking at how much a game like this generally needs sound – like a cow needing a bicycle – it's not a big drawback or an annoyance. And I am sure there will be sound mods soon.

To conclude my early impression:

If you want to get into wargames, get back into wargames or get a modern wargame that's worth playing and also shows a lot of potential – get "Command".

The price of admission is high, no sugarcoating that, and the learning curve, although lower than in most hardcore sims, is still high, but if this game manages to build a strong community, I am sure it will provide years of wargaming fun.

quote:

ORIGINAL: NefariousKoel

I'm let down with the UI. It's just incomplete IMO.

While there will be bugs & such on any release, it's the UI that's the most lacking. I'm fighting it to get to the info that I need, and looking for features in it that aren't there. The poor performance on my PCs also exacerbates the issue when you have to sort through menus and windows that should've been easily reached from the window you were originally in.

It needs some work in most areas, but most notably for UI features & ease-of-use.

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ORIGINAL: Primarchx

Sounds like that may be an issue with your performance concern. I run an i7 2.4Ghz, 12GB RAM, 256GB SSD and decent video card and have no performance issues. I'm actually surprised how elegant the UI is when it comes to running a complex battle situation. Could it be improved? Of course, and I expect there will be things that the player base will want that will come along in due time.

quote:

ORIGINAL: NefariousKoel

I'm let down with the UI. It's just incomplete IMO.

While there will be bugs & such on any release, it's the UI that's the most lacking. I'm fighting it to get to the info that I need, and looking for features in it that aren't there. The poor performance on my PCs also exacerbates the issue when you have to sort through menus and windows that should've been easily reached from the window you were originally in.

It needs some work in most areas, but most notably for UI features & ease-of-use.

quote:

ORIGINAL: thewood1

I was already informed and I think its in the manual. Air patrols are set up with reference points that are done relative to the main ship. It is a little less simple to do, but much more functional and solves several problems with H3's formation editor.

Some aspects of Command seem harder at first, but you finally start to see how it works, they have usually enhanced a feature.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Primarchx

This. You set up air patrols as Missions. RPs can be slaved to groups in either fixed or relative bearing and missions tasked to them. Even better you can manually move the RPs around if you find you want to resize or reposition the mission. Takes a bit more work but is more flexible.

quote:

ORIGINAL: thewood1

I was already informed and I think its in the manual. Air patrols are set up with reference points that are done relative to the main ship. It is a little less simple to do, but much more functional and solves several problems with H3's formation editor.

Some aspects of Command seem harder at first, but you finally start to see how it works, they have usually enhanced a feature.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Primarchx

I witnessed a lot of work done on pathfinding and station-keeping to keep it as true as possible. I haven't seen a ship go aground yet, though in some very tricky coastal areas where pathfinding is extremely challenged you might see some funky formations. In these circumstances player intercession may be required.

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ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

As long as ships don't run aground, I'll pick this up. Nothing worse than doing an Indonesia scenario in Harpoon and no matter how much you tweak a formation or routing, a ship or two will run aground. Some sort of order like "automatically stay in waters deep enough for the entire task force" would be nice.

Cheers,
CC

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ORIGINAL: Cougar_DK

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ORIGINAL: 21SEC

I do wish in the air tutorial that the starting location was a bit further from the enemy.

Spending some time today reading the manual. It definitely explains a lot of things. Can't wait to get home this evening and apply what I've read.

+1, I ignored the tutorial and launched a E-2 to get a picture before committing my F-14s. Bad plan

quote:

ORIGINAL: kondor999
He certainly had an opinion about the DDG-1000: GWAAAG. WTF does that mean? Anyone?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Banquet

Having now played through the 3 tutorial missions I have to say I am really impressed with Command. Considering the jaw dropping amount of detail, it's actually pretty user friendly. I love games where I can micromanage if I want to, but hand off to the AI if I prefer. Command lets me do exactly that. It is great to assign an ASW mission to a frigate and watch the helo take off and begin patrols. Setting up missions like this is easy and scaleable for 1 helo or a whole fleet.

There's something about watching blips on a map and letting the imagination take over... 2 Tornados, hugging the terrain - hell for leather... will they get through the air defences? SAM! SAM INCOMING! FLARE, MANEUVER!! Just blips on a map, but it sucks me in big time!

With a database so vast, the entire planet as a potential battlefield and a level of realism and detail crafted to be as believable as possible - count me in on this one :)