I was browsing steam this morning and decided to pick up this game, had a little money left over from my last paycheck so the £18 price tag and reviews convinced me. I've played for a few hours now and have some thoughts:
1) The visual design leaves something to be desired though the planets are rendered well. I don't particularly mind though because it gives a very retro-SF feel. What is frustrating is the user interface which is very sub-par. Perhaps it's because I'm used to Kerbal Space Program (which is a very polished game focused around orbital mechanics) but I found myself quite frustrated with the finicky maneuver node system that would require you to zoom in-and-out to fiddle with it, only to have to delete it when it's apparent it wont work and start again, rather than being able to drag it along the orbital track. There's also a lack of good information like closest approach to target. There's a ship designer that eventually unlocks and again the UI and controls are terrible, there's no simple drag-and-drop of parts. Everything has to be done through an ugly, unclear set of menus.
2) The game is somewhat fun and I'll get back to it after this. But if I had to describe what kind of game it was "Space Simulator" or "SF Combat Strategy" wouldn't be high on the list. So far this game feels like a puzzle game. Each level presents you with the task of taking command of some ships and setting up a series of burns so they can intercept cargo, stations or enemy vessels. There is some strategy involved, like making certain ships or weapons hit the enemy first, but the actual combat is very basic. The real challenge comes from having to set up the maneuvers just right, taking care not to use up your remaining Delta-V.
3) For all that it touts being "super realistic" it does have some rather strict assumptions that I'm not entirely convinced of. Laser weaponry is worthless beyond short range and other than drones and missiles you can't actually engage in combat until you're a fe.w kilometers from the enemy. This is annoying and not particularly realistic. I was hoping the mechanics allowed for fleets to engage over very long distances with the tactical decision being when to fire (longer range obviously being less effective due to enemy dodging). Unfortunately there's none of that and all combat takes place around planets/asteroids once the fleets adjust their orbits to fly by at a range of a few kilometers.
The game is ok and the lore and pre-mission briefings are quite cool. I get the strong feeling that the concept for a realistic, space combat simulator was developed long before anyone thought about how to make it an actual "game". However it's not that expensive and interesting. On top of that there seem to be frequent updates and patches so hopefully it will only improve over time.
In terms of relation to OA I'm not sure there's much we need to take from it. The assumptions of CoaDE are quite different to OA, even in the early timeline (exception being the very early 2000-2100). OA has effective laser focusing over long ranges and very-high delta-V propulsion. Both of those make the type of warfare seen in this game quite obsolete.
1) The visual design leaves something to be desired though the planets are rendered well. I don't particularly mind though because it gives a very retro-SF feel. What is frustrating is the user interface which is very sub-par. Perhaps it's because I'm used to Kerbal Space Program (which is a very polished game focused around orbital mechanics) but I found myself quite frustrated with the finicky maneuver node system that would require you to zoom in-and-out to fiddle with it, only to have to delete it when it's apparent it wont work and start again, rather than being able to drag it along the orbital track. There's also a lack of good information like closest approach to target. There's a ship designer that eventually unlocks and again the UI and controls are terrible, there's no simple drag-and-drop of parts. Everything has to be done through an ugly, unclear set of menus.
2) The game is somewhat fun and I'll get back to it after this. But if I had to describe what kind of game it was "Space Simulator" or "SF Combat Strategy" wouldn't be high on the list. So far this game feels like a puzzle game. Each level presents you with the task of taking command of some ships and setting up a series of burns so they can intercept cargo, stations or enemy vessels. There is some strategy involved, like making certain ships or weapons hit the enemy first, but the actual combat is very basic. The real challenge comes from having to set up the maneuvers just right, taking care not to use up your remaining Delta-V.
3) For all that it touts being "super realistic" it does have some rather strict assumptions that I'm not entirely convinced of. Laser weaponry is worthless beyond short range and other than drones and missiles you can't actually engage in combat until you're a fe.w kilometers from the enemy. This is annoying and not particularly realistic. I was hoping the mechanics allowed for fleets to engage over very long distances with the tactical decision being when to fire (longer range obviously being less effective due to enemy dodging). Unfortunately there's none of that and all combat takes place around planets/asteroids once the fleets adjust their orbits to fly by at a range of a few kilometers.
The game is ok and the lore and pre-mission briefings are quite cool. I get the strong feeling that the concept for a realistic, space combat simulator was developed long before anyone thought about how to make it an actual "game". However it's not that expensive and interesting. On top of that there seem to be frequent updates and patches so hopefully it will only improve over time.
In terms of relation to OA I'm not sure there's much we need to take from it. The assumptions of CoaDE are quite different to OA, even in the early timeline (exception being the very early 2000-2100). OA has effective laser focusing over long ranges and very-high delta-V propulsion. Both of those make the type of warfare seen in this game quite obsolete.
OA Wish list:
- DNI
- Internal medical system
- A dormbot, because domestic chores suck!