L0ckAndL0ad's RtW2 review (translated)
May 16, 2019 8:37:46 GMT -6
bcoopactual, miv79, and 1 more like this
Post by L0ckAndL0ad on May 16, 2019 8:37:46 GMT -6
I've made a RtW2 review for a gaming site I used to write for. But it is in Russian, and I thought I should also translate it for your amusement. So here's a loose translation. I'm not a professional journalist nor am I English native, so don't judge. It's a quick and dirty translation. I'm also leaving the images out, you can see them in the original review.
Rule the Waves 2: review
Dedicated to those who like construction set/toys, indirect control and interesting game design…
Rule The Waves 2 (Naval Warfare Simulations, 2019)
RtW2, in its essence, is a global strategy game set during the first half of 20th century, focused on managing the fleet and naval battles. You are just an admiral, and not a head of state, nor do you have an unlimited powers and abilities, as it is usual in games.
By cooperating with local institutions (press, government, society, private companies), other countries (mudslinging, alliances, international treaties, spying) and reacting to events (scandals, economic crisis, revolutions, arms race etc.), you must fight for budget, maintain ships in battle ready state, renew them and fight for prestige of the fleet. When world tension reaches its peak, ammunition and torpedoes come into play, questioning everything you’ve accomplished and testing your sailor’s experience and efficiency of your ship designs.
Strategic level
There are two start dates - 1900 and 1920, and the technological limit is around 1955-1960, though you can continue playing even further. World map is formally separated into regions, where ships, bases and dockyards are located. Main (but not complete) list of available countries: Great Britain, Germany, Soviet Union, USA, Italy, France, Japan.
One turn equals one month and gameplay in this context is not much different from other turn-based strategies. UI design is, unfortunately, very archaic, both visually and by its content - most of the information is presented as monolithic spreadsheets in an old Windows environment. But it is functional enough and fits the requirements, so you can quickly get used to it.
The main dish here is a ship designer. You can get carried away and stuck here for hours. Plenitude of options does not become the problem of the interface, which you have to fight with, as it usually happens in games with positional placement of parts (a-la Tetris). In RtW2 designer instead you must think about what’s the most important - qualities and purpose of the ship. And that’s not just a question of “quality vs quantity”. Depending on your preferences, there might be a need to think about “speed vs armor”, “firepower vs defense”, “universalism vs specialization” and many other nuances.
But even though the ship designer is a great toy in itself, it is also neatly integrated with the game itself. Technologies develop swiftly and ships might become outdated even before being launched - you need several years to build a big ship. Fortunately, all countries are in the same situation. And the question is whether to wait for better technologies, or build with what you have right now - is at the top of mind.
Tech research is rather abstracted. Give up a certain percent of the budget, fine tune the priorities. Historical examples: IJN focus on torpedoes and torpedo warfare (and the best ones in the world), bigger combat radius of their aircraft. USN made focus on electronics, damage control and tough airframes.
Speaking of aircraft, you cannot design them yourself. You can order them, prioritizing certain qualities (speed, maneuverability, range, firepower, toughness, reliability). After a while you’ll be presented with several prototypes, and select one of them for production. Alternatively - buy aircraft from other countries.
Arms race - also an important strategic factor. What types of ships other countries build and how can we combat them? What weapons and calibers are used, what level of protection would be sufficient to counter them? What to do if they have more resources and ships than we ourselves can build and support?
Answers to these questions can be found by reading intel reports and the Almanac, where all the information is gathered. But beware that it is also limited by “Fog of War” rules. Same goes for other countries, and their reactions to what you develop.
Ships of your fleet can be in different states (active, reserve, mothballed), which in turn affects maintenance costs and crew experience. Range and some other characteristics also have long term effects - strategic mobility, reliability/availability, displeasure of the crews.
Speaking of displeasure. Its level is abstracted as a numerical value. High unrest can cause worker strikes, attempts to cut military budget, revolutions and defeat. Prestige works kinda the same, but in the opposite way.
When war comes, you don’t have any direct control of what your ships are doing. Depending on where they are, a number of scenarios can occur - from small raids to grand fleet battles.
There’s an ability to make amphibious invasions to capture enemy bases. For that you need to allocate resources and maintain local superiority in strength. Then you’ll have to land the invasion on tactical level, and, later, support your forces from the sea.
Submarine and mine warfare are abstracted, but can have huge impact on all levels, as on tactical (spotting, sinking or damage of ships), as on strategic (victory points, random sinking of neutral vessels).
VPs are accumulated for both sides. After reaching a certain level, politicians start thinking about peace. Government will periodically ask your opinion on how to proceed and how things are going - whether to continue the war to get more from the enemy, or should the naval budget be reallocated to support the army, if you’re not doing so great, or should the conflict be stopped, etc.
Tactical level
Principles of indirect control are used for tactical combat as well. Tactical combat occurs in a hybrid real-time mode, where each ‘tick’ of clocks equals one round, when all the combat events are resolved, and, aside from the usual visual representation on screen, written in event log.
Your fleet is represented with groups and divisions, where each is defined by the ship type and role. There are three levels of “involvement” that define the level of control versus how much is handled by the AI. On the lowest “Captain” level you can steer any ship. On the highest “Admiral” level - only main division.
Structure and relationships of divisions impact the way they behave. For example, the destroyers can be assigned to screen the battleships, and the cruisers can be asked to scout ahead of the main force. But there are global commands as well, which are broadcasted from the flagship: make a torpedo attack, retreat, etc.
Individual ship AI, tech levels (doctrines) and crew quality affect how good the ships follow orders, fire and fight damage.
Warfare itself changes with time. In WW1 era the main method of fighting was line tactics, where battleships competed in armor thickness and power of their guns. Naval aviation decades later changes the situation, adding mobility and flexibility of aircraft firepower into the equation, making slow and clumsy targets easy prey.
Aside from fleet battles, there are scenarios with ground targets and convoys present. Here, aircraft carriers again show their undoubtful superiority, both in terms of search of targets over large distances of water, and in terms of standoff attacks from safe distance.
Land based aircraft are controlled by the AI, and you can only give general orders and search pattern settings at the beginning of combat. This is both a balance solution and a reflection of historical difficulties in communications between groups separated by the large distances of water.
Ship-based aircraft are partially automated (while retaining control over parameters), but can be controlled in general. Don’t underestimate the AI - I was sunk and defeated without scoring a point in my first CV vs CV duel.
Simulation of all aspects of tactical combat is very detailed. Bad weather and smoke affects visibility and accuracy. Storm degrades sea-going qualities of ships and makes naval aviation stay in hangars. Thickness of armor and the angle of hits affect the severity of damage. There are too many details for me to list here.
The important thing is that all of this does not impede the gameplay, but enriches it. Many developers try detailing game mechanics so much that you start feeling having to wipe arses and tie shoelaces for your subordinates. In RtW2 you don’t have to control everything. You can entrust the AI to competently do what is asked of it and concentrate on the main picture.
As the battle ends, you can view the detailed statistics. Again, there are too many things for me to list, from hit ratios and event logs of individual ships to graphical diagram/plot of all fleet movements (with varied different of detail) for extensive after action review. You can see and evaluate how well did the ships you designed. Where was the enemy when you suddenly lost from the view, and what it did.
Conclusion
Rule the Waves 2, despite its looks, has a good number of interesting game mechanics, successfully utilizing the principle of indirect control - “guide, not handle”. Toys, having value of their own (ship designer and tactical combat) are skillfully integrated and broadly interplay with main game mechanics and principles. UI, especially for naval aviation, is functional, but requires quality of life improvements.
In my opinion, of all global strategies in this setting, RtW2 deserves its rightful place at the top of the ratingladder, he-he, spreadsheet.
Rule the Waves 2: review
Dedicated to those who like construction set/toys, indirect control and interesting game design…
Rule The Waves 2 (Naval Warfare Simulations, 2019)
RtW2, in its essence, is a global strategy game set during the first half of 20th century, focused on managing the fleet and naval battles. You are just an admiral, and not a head of state, nor do you have an unlimited powers and abilities, as it is usual in games.
By cooperating with local institutions (press, government, society, private companies), other countries (mudslinging, alliances, international treaties, spying) and reacting to events (scandals, economic crisis, revolutions, arms race etc.), you must fight for budget, maintain ships in battle ready state, renew them and fight for prestige of the fleet. When world tension reaches its peak, ammunition and torpedoes come into play, questioning everything you’ve accomplished and testing your sailor’s experience and efficiency of your ship designs.
Strategic level
There are two start dates - 1900 and 1920, and the technological limit is around 1955-1960, though you can continue playing even further. World map is formally separated into regions, where ships, bases and dockyards are located. Main (but not complete) list of available countries: Great Britain, Germany, Soviet Union, USA, Italy, France, Japan.
One turn equals one month and gameplay in this context is not much different from other turn-based strategies. UI design is, unfortunately, very archaic, both visually and by its content - most of the information is presented as monolithic spreadsheets in an old Windows environment. But it is functional enough and fits the requirements, so you can quickly get used to it.
The main dish here is a ship designer. You can get carried away and stuck here for hours. Plenitude of options does not become the problem of the interface, which you have to fight with, as it usually happens in games with positional placement of parts (a-la Tetris). In RtW2 designer instead you must think about what’s the most important - qualities and purpose of the ship. And that’s not just a question of “quality vs quantity”. Depending on your preferences, there might be a need to think about “speed vs armor”, “firepower vs defense”, “universalism vs specialization” and many other nuances.
But even though the ship designer is a great toy in itself, it is also neatly integrated with the game itself. Technologies develop swiftly and ships might become outdated even before being launched - you need several years to build a big ship. Fortunately, all countries are in the same situation. And the question is whether to wait for better technologies, or build with what you have right now - is at the top of mind.
Tech research is rather abstracted. Give up a certain percent of the budget, fine tune the priorities. Historical examples: IJN focus on torpedoes and torpedo warfare (and the best ones in the world), bigger combat radius of their aircraft. USN made focus on electronics, damage control and tough airframes.
Speaking of aircraft, you cannot design them yourself. You can order them, prioritizing certain qualities (speed, maneuverability, range, firepower, toughness, reliability). After a while you’ll be presented with several prototypes, and select one of them for production. Alternatively - buy aircraft from other countries.
Arms race - also an important strategic factor. What types of ships other countries build and how can we combat them? What weapons and calibers are used, what level of protection would be sufficient to counter them? What to do if they have more resources and ships than we ourselves can build and support?
Answers to these questions can be found by reading intel reports and the Almanac, where all the information is gathered. But beware that it is also limited by “Fog of War” rules. Same goes for other countries, and their reactions to what you develop.
Ships of your fleet can be in different states (active, reserve, mothballed), which in turn affects maintenance costs and crew experience. Range and some other characteristics also have long term effects - strategic mobility, reliability/availability, displeasure of the crews.
Speaking of displeasure. Its level is abstracted as a numerical value. High unrest can cause worker strikes, attempts to cut military budget, revolutions and defeat. Prestige works kinda the same, but in the opposite way.
When war comes, you don’t have any direct control of what your ships are doing. Depending on where they are, a number of scenarios can occur - from small raids to grand fleet battles.
There’s an ability to make amphibious invasions to capture enemy bases. For that you need to allocate resources and maintain local superiority in strength. Then you’ll have to land the invasion on tactical level, and, later, support your forces from the sea.
Submarine and mine warfare are abstracted, but can have huge impact on all levels, as on tactical (spotting, sinking or damage of ships), as on strategic (victory points, random sinking of neutral vessels).
VPs are accumulated for both sides. After reaching a certain level, politicians start thinking about peace. Government will periodically ask your opinion on how to proceed and how things are going - whether to continue the war to get more from the enemy, or should the naval budget be reallocated to support the army, if you’re not doing so great, or should the conflict be stopped, etc.
Tactical level
Principles of indirect control are used for tactical combat as well. Tactical combat occurs in a hybrid real-time mode, where each ‘tick’ of clocks equals one round, when all the combat events are resolved, and, aside from the usual visual representation on screen, written in event log.
Your fleet is represented with groups and divisions, where each is defined by the ship type and role. There are three levels of “involvement” that define the level of control versus how much is handled by the AI. On the lowest “Captain” level you can steer any ship. On the highest “Admiral” level - only main division.
Structure and relationships of divisions impact the way they behave. For example, the destroyers can be assigned to screen the battleships, and the cruisers can be asked to scout ahead of the main force. But there are global commands as well, which are broadcasted from the flagship: make a torpedo attack, retreat, etc.
Individual ship AI, tech levels (doctrines) and crew quality affect how good the ships follow orders, fire and fight damage.
Warfare itself changes with time. In WW1 era the main method of fighting was line tactics, where battleships competed in armor thickness and power of their guns. Naval aviation decades later changes the situation, adding mobility and flexibility of aircraft firepower into the equation, making slow and clumsy targets easy prey.
Aside from fleet battles, there are scenarios with ground targets and convoys present. Here, aircraft carriers again show their undoubtful superiority, both in terms of search of targets over large distances of water, and in terms of standoff attacks from safe distance.
Land based aircraft are controlled by the AI, and you can only give general orders and search pattern settings at the beginning of combat. This is both a balance solution and a reflection of historical difficulties in communications between groups separated by the large distances of water.
Ship-based aircraft are partially automated (while retaining control over parameters), but can be controlled in general. Don’t underestimate the AI - I was sunk and defeated without scoring a point in my first CV vs CV duel.
Simulation of all aspects of tactical combat is very detailed. Bad weather and smoke affects visibility and accuracy. Storm degrades sea-going qualities of ships and makes naval aviation stay in hangars. Thickness of armor and the angle of hits affect the severity of damage. There are too many details for me to list here.
The important thing is that all of this does not impede the gameplay, but enriches it. Many developers try detailing game mechanics so much that you start feeling having to wipe arses and tie shoelaces for your subordinates. In RtW2 you don’t have to control everything. You can entrust the AI to competently do what is asked of it and concentrate on the main picture.
As the battle ends, you can view the detailed statistics. Again, there are too many things for me to list, from hit ratios and event logs of individual ships to graphical diagram/plot of all fleet movements (with varied different of detail) for extensive after action review. You can see and evaluate how well did the ships you designed. Where was the enemy when you suddenly lost from the view, and what it did.
Conclusion
Rule the Waves 2, despite its looks, has a good number of interesting game mechanics, successfully utilizing the principle of indirect control - “guide, not handle”. Toys, having value of their own (ship designer and tactical combat) are skillfully integrated and broadly interplay with main game mechanics and principles. UI, especially for naval aviation, is functional, but requires quality of life improvements.
In my opinion, of all global strategies in this setting, RtW2 deserves its rightful place at the top of the rating
