"Task Force Admiral" - WW II carriers RTS.

[Trooper117]

I learned some stuff today... great little video on the function and types of US Destroyers. Thanks mate!

[LukeFF]

Nice job - my maternal grandfather was born too late for WWII, but he served on quite a few WWII-era DEs in the 50s and 60s, including during Korea, including USS Gilligan. ?

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by LukeFF

[=FEW=Hauggy]

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/14/us/buffalo-uss-the-sullivans-sinking/index.html

Some ww2 Fletcher class destroyer almost sunk.

 

Can't wait for some more footage of the game, looks like it's coming along nicely.

[Vishnu]

Any updates?

[Amiral_Crapaud]

On 5/17/2022 at 12:25 PM, Vishnu said:

Any updates?

Hehe you've been following. Aye - no worries, we have drifted a few days south of the original date because I needed to add a big chunk of text, but here we are, having a May update still in May, fortunately.

 

There there:

 

 

Clik here:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1281220/view/3335491052029662093

 

Ain't much, but I dare say it is honest work (and the fingers are numb from the typing...). As we focus on the way fighter combat is rendered (along with physics, flight models, computer performance & historical research), it will be a tad closer to the heart of virtual pilots like yourselves, although obviously all of this is naturally AI fighting other AIs. You're watching, but we're trying to make sure it is entertaining to watch indeed.

 

 

 

Cheers & have a nice ride!

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by Amiral_Crapaud

[Trooper117]

Good stuff mate!

[Vishnu]

Soooooo looking forward to this game. It’s almost like Total War in the Pacific theatre where you control the strategy, and then zoom in on the action.   

Edited June 4, 2022 by Vishnu

[Amiral_Crapaud]

We're having a small steam dev update put online later today, but in the meantime, if you're interested in the main event... Here's some gameplay content for you to enjoy. Had to begin at some point I guess

Cheers!

 

 

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Hi there everyone
Posted our mandatory monthly update, hope you'll like the sound of it

Click on the big pic just below if you want to know more

 

 

This time it comes with an interview we had with Wolfpack345 of "Yuri-who-survived-BoM-BoS" fame. As you can see, we were in good company indeed.

 

 

Cheers everyone - and take care

[=FEW=Hauggy]

On 7/30/2022 at 10:40 AM, Amiral_Crapaud said:

Hi there everyone
Posted our mandatory monthly update, hope you'll like the sound of it

Click on the big pic just below if you want to know more

 

 

This time it comes with an interview we had with Wolfpack345 of "Yuri-who-survived-BoM-BoS" fame. As you can see, we were in good company indeed.

 

 

Cheers everyone - and take care

All that talk about subs made me want to ask if there will be any subs around threatening your carrier group

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Hey there Hauggy

 

Désolé pour le temps pris à répondre, j'étais parti sur autre chose, beaucoup de boulot avec la rentrée ^^

Yes there will be subs of course. Your aircraft are your safest tool to deal with them by maintaining proper IAPs (Inner & Intermediate Air Patrols) ahead of your screen. Proper coverage through Outer Air Patrols & routine Naval Search will do the trick too, but remember that these planes cannot easily reposition if your ship changes course. Dedicating a large proportion of your forces to ASW is a good way to ensure that you will remain safe, but obviously your aircraft can either do that or be useful in a carrier battle, so you might have to make some choices in terms of allocating your forces based on your understanding of the submarine threat within the frame of a given scenario.

 

Most importantly, don't expect your escorts to be more than substandard revenge weapons. Aircraft can deter a submarine from getting too close, but due to your own high cruise speed, limited sound technology, early tactics and available destroyer assets, catching a sub without get shot at first will be a rare occurrence for your screen. Consider that Japanese submarines succeeded four times in 1942 alone at torpedoing a US carrier (sinking two, damaging twice the same one too) - and yet at no point during these attacks or after them were said submarines destroyed by the escort, despite the destroyers being most aware of the threat and vigilant during at least 3 of these encounters.

 

In other news, since the last post we had two updates, the latter dealing with our early GUI attempt at rationalizing air search as a mission, which isn't too foreign to what I have just mentioned.

 

First one was our update from last month - or, more like, the month before last month for most of you readers already

 

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1281220/announcements/detail/3332122306741823239

 

We had some cool stuff, including a nice vid from our 3D artist making a ship from the keel up (and we'll have the 2D skin job ready perhaps for next month!)

 

 

And here's the one posted yesterday

 

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1281220/view/3282585172170900069

 

With our babbling GUI trials when it comes to setting up Naval Search missions (getting there, one GUI headache at a time!)

 

 

 

And some other cute stuff to go along with it

 

Have a great weekend all of you - and all my thanks again to Jason & the team for their kindness.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Amiral_Crapaud

[danielprates]

Youtube had a few images today regarding a first attempt at a carrier battle. Its merely four pictures but they are worth 4.000 words.

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Hehe Cheers Daniel
Well, to be honest there were nearly 4000 words provided with these though, I don't know where they went if you couldn't see them in the community tab hehe ^^
But here they are (they'll be part of the larger monthly dev entry this week ofc)

 

* * * * * * * *

 

Something pretty fun took place today. We had our first carrier battle in Task Force Admiral ❤️ Ok, it wasn't really a full-fledged carrier battle, as we're still adding feature after feature, but that was the first time carriers actually engaged each other in some remotely comprehensive way that involved a full day of scouting & attacks, before retiring at night (which was helped by the fact that these ships cannot sustain damage as of now - again, upcoming features).

What was more interesting was that it was a full AI on AI battle, with no human intervention, and it was pretty fun to see how things evolved organically from very similar, remotely different standpoints using our observer mode. It might look like much from here, but believe me it tells some beautiful stories, really, and ends up being a happy confirmation that the gameplay certainly has much original potential. The day started with a scouting mission programmed for each side.

Both carrier task forces had an "interdiction" task set for them, which implied that they would search a given sector, either provided by the scenario maker (the case here), the player (if it's a friendly TF) or generated from known data (that is, around the area the AI would expect the enemy to be the day following a loss of contact later during a scenario). As scouts went on their respective business, they both encountered the enemy and reported its position. The scouts on the IJN side were sent up faster (as the US carriers started in a recovery mode, necessitating a few extra minutes of rearrangement of the aircraft on deck). That mere factor changed a lot of things, actually.

As the scouts left the vicinity of the enemy force (ultimately you will be free to order them to loiter & shadow relevant enemy forces, but it wasn't part of their instructions here), strikes were prepared on both sides. The scouts weren't shot down (we haven't programmed automatic CAP yet) so they went to the end of their research leg and returned. The info having reached the Japanese carrier force first, it meant that the Japanese raid went out first and cleared the decks before the return of the US scout above the Japanese TF. On the other hand, the US strike was still assembling when the Japanese scout came back, and it was shot down by an escorting fighter.

 

 

This resulted in the Japanese losing sight of the US force, while the US side didn't. As both carrier task forces changed their heading a few minutes after that to remain in range of the enemy, the US acout came back in time to report this change, but nobody was now in position to do so on the Japanese side. The result is that despite faster reaction times, the Japanese strike was sent on a wild goose chase. As the Japanese bomber slipped by the US force, missing it from 50-60 nautical miles, the US force went straight for the enemy. Yet, the US force also experienced its own issue: it was now approaching the Japanese carriers with part of its escort lagging behind after having attacked the snooper...

These events are actually reminiscent of actions that took place on different sides in 1942 (the afternoon IJN raid at Eastern Solomons, which missed completely the US force for the first one ; the catastrophic distraction of Hiryu's escorting force at Midway, going out of its way to intercept lagging SBDs on the ingress leg for the second). And it is refreshing to know that these kind of SNAFU events can be generated by the flow of battle as long as the conditions are met to recreate their causes. That's what happens with a handful of aircraft in the air - imagine when there will be dozens of them, with their comms & doctrine fully implemented.
Can't wait!

(and don't worry, Shokaku's antennas will fold during air ops ~ we'll get there ? )
Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Amiral_Crapaud

[danielprates]

This keeps looking better and better.

[Trooper117]

Oh if only they were doing this as a flight sim as well!...

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Some more guilty pics for you gents, before our dev update goes live tomorrow. Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

Here we're currently testing the AA, only two ships were allowed to fire (and that they did). The strange course of the shells is due to aiming at Vals during their dive.

 

 

 

[Alexmarine]

1 hour ago, Amiral_Crapaud said:

Some more guilty pics for you gents, before our dev update goes live tomorrow. Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

Here we're currently testing the AA, only two ships were allowed to fire (and that they did). The strange course of the shells is due to aiming at Vals during their dive.

 

 

 

 

3/10 no Yankee carrier set ablaze. A most shameful display ?

[Amiral_Crapaud]

It's a comfort to know you're still alive.

Ok, perhaps not for the community, but for me it is! I do care

 

Our new Task Force Admiral dev update for October is live! With a few extra pics even those following us on our social platforms haven't seen just yet - & a lot of gibberish too. But no worries, if you're into PTO carriers, you'll probably like it still!  ?
Big thanks in advance for all the shares & likes on Steam! Rest assured that It always helps

Cheers & enjoy

 

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1281220/announcements/detail/3389548200201300023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by Amiral_Crapaud

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Hello there guys!

As always, the latest dope for the month is online at the very last minute! This way please for a little tour! Hope you will enjoy the ride

 

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1281220/view/3634997551241374623

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2022 by Amiral_Crapaud

[343KKT_Kintaro]

Ouija ? ?

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Aye, they've been calling it that way for almost a century by now

 

 

Interesting piece of hardware - which still hasn't been fully automated (or at least not to the point that you can let it manage the deck all by itself). How fascinating, to know that in 2022 you can leave your AEGIS system on auto to engage multiple threats with sophisticated weapon systems, but still need a guy and his team to tell you exactly where to park your plane...

And I can tell you, we've tried to have the AI do it for us, but there's really nothing convincing enough out there to replace entirely the human mind on such a task.

 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/how-things-work-the-ouija-board-10048217/

Edited December 1, 2022 by Amiral_Crapaud

[danielprates]

11 hours ago, Amiral_Crapaud said:

but still need a guy and his team to tell you exactly where to park your plane...

 

One of these days a Tesla completely failed to see a capsized truck straight ahead of it and slammed into it snout-first. Spatial distribution of stuff, as far as AI goes, is still way ahead in the future.

Edited December 1, 2022 by danielprates

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Hi there Gentlemen!
Hope you all had fun yesterday. Here's our latest update, if you're still into these!

 

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1281220/view/3636125350393350041

 

 

Allow me to take this opportunity to wish you all & all your loved ones a fantastic New Year 2023 made of happiness & health!

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[danielprates]

"It aint much but it's honest work".  Heh.

 

Well it IS much! Good camera controls can make or break a game, and yours looks fantastic. 

 

I think you guys got the grasp of a very important thing: many of us will not only enjoy the tactical/strategical side of the game, but also, we'll want to lay back and see the action unfold in cinematic fashion.

 

I said this here before. It would be a big mistake (as made by other similar games) to give fine control over, say, fighter wings. Like "click here to set altitude" or "click here to toggle bomb aim modr" or something. Much better is to keep orders at a command level, leave the minute combat for the AI, but guve us tools to see the spetacle unfold.

 

Damn I'm looking foward to this!

 

 

https://youtu.be/EmMogzuaLLs

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Happy to know that you like what you see Daniel

 

Another little dirty small update (this time with a special angle while we implement our water VFX in-game)

https://twitter.com/DrydockDreams/status/1613177469972152321

 

(below without the sound)

 

Edited January 12, 2023 by Amiral_Crapaud

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Some more innocent fun to end the week!

 

 

 

[Trooper117]

Awesome stuff!...

[Vishnu]

I can’t wait for this.   I absolutely love and still play the old total war Erie’s like Napoleon.   This reminds me of a pacific WWII version of Total War. 

[RNAS10_Mitchell]

 

Looks like a great sim in the works.  Unable to determine if fighter aircraft will be strictly AI, or if players can fly them?

[Trooper117]

No, it's not a flight sim in any respect...

[343KKT_Kintaro]

1 hour ago, RNAS10_Mitchell said:

 

Looks like a great sim in the works.  Unable to determine if fighter aircraft will be strictly AI, or if players can fly them?

 

 

Trooper is right. It's a strategy game, not a flight simulator. As the game's title reads, you are a task force high-rank officer, a US Navy task force admiral. If I got it right, when the game will be released, you'll deploy your fleet and make decisions from your office, or from your capital ship. Only then, if you want, you'll witness in external view how your aircraft fight the enemy's own fleet and aircraft. I think this game will be like in the "Midway" films of 1976 and 2019: high-rank officers make decisions... give orders... and, after that, wait and see what happens.

 

To the "Task Force Admiral" devs: would that be possible that a "flight-sim mode", though limited, is planned for this game, so that the player can sit in a cockpit and participate in dog fights and air missions albeit with limited physics and flight & damage models?

 

 

[RNAS10_Mitchell]

1 hour ago, 343KKT_Kintaro said:

 

 

Trooper is right. It's a strategy game, not a flight simulator. As the game's title reads, you are a task force high-rank officer, a US Navy task force admiral. If I got it right, when the game will be released, you'll deploy your fleet and make decisions from your office, or from your capital ship. Only then, if you want, you'll witness in external view how your aircraft fight the enemy's own fleet and aircraft. I think this game will be like in the "Midway" films of 1976 and 2019: high-rank officers make decisions... give orders... and, after that, wait and see what happens.

 

To the "Task Force Admiral" devs: would that be possible that a "flight-sim mode", though limited, is planned for this game, so that the player can sit in a cockpit and participate in dog fights and air missions albeit with limited physics and flight & damage models?

 

 

Ok. Thank you gentlemen.  How about the B17?  Sim or not?  Player flyable fighters?

[343KKT_Kintaro]

10 minutes ago, RNAS10_Mitchell said:

Ok. Thank you gentlemen.  How about the B17?  Sim or not?  Player flyable fighters?

 

 

That's a MicroProse project too, with a few player-flyable fighters and player-flyable B-17s, B-24s and Lancasters, but there's a thread for that... click here!

 

And there's an arcade for B-17s too, not by MicroProse though, which corresponding thread is over there: click here!

 

 

[Gambit21]

I wish it was a modern sim, as I have no interest in RTS. However...THIS is what great game design looks like.

Rather than here's some stuff, here's a map...have fun.

 

My compliments.

 

 

 

[Amiral_Crapaud]

On 1/20/2023 at 12:47 AM, 343KKT_Kintaro said:

 

 

To the "Task Force Admiral" devs: would that be possible that a "flight-sim mode", though limited, is planned for this game, so that the player can sit in a cockpit and participate in dog fights and air missions albeit with limited physics and flight & damage models?

 

 

 

At some point we'll get there, but we're simply not geared nor man-powered to do anything close to the level of Il-2. If we end up having something a little better than War Thunder in terms of flight model it will be already beyond our wildest dreams. In the meantime, rather prepare for a Battlestations experience if we let you take the wheel (aka, don't expect a simulator so much than an extra feature - like what you see in Gates of Hell, to some extent!)

 

As for the latest news, had a little work done on the aircraft side of things, I guess it will help compensate for the lack of cockpits & whatsnot

 

The bombing scene, remade, now with the right amount of ominous whistling

 

and the integration of the Val's Kinsei engine (that you could already hear above)

 

Also, tweaking the in-game Fovy (Field of view y-axis)  & well, it sure delivers. Put simply, play around that setting and every shot becomes a keeper. What a few degrees of different bring to the sexiness of it all is outrageous. It was pretty cool already on 1946, no reason for it not to shine now, 20 years later

Like everything else, camera-wise, it is entirely toggable on the fly using / and * on your numpad so that you can take your shot in-game (and in the replay mode, when there will be a replay mode).

 

I thought some of you might appreciate the... Mojo value of these shots. You tell me. Don't know if it will play well, but AARs sure will look cool! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by Amiral_Crapaud

[Alexmarine]

41 minutes ago, Amiral_Crapaud said:

 

and the integration of the Val's Kinsei engine (that you could already hear above)

 

 

 

Kyūkyū-shiki, my beloved ??

[343KKT_Kintaro]

Merci Crapaud, very complete response. I asked the question because I was curious about the answer, I wanted to better know your project but, indeed, if I want a good sim I'll stay with the sims I know. Otherwise, my understanding is that you are clothing a strategy game with a sim-like graphic environment... and this is really great. Good luck!

 

 

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Apologies, the January dev update is pushed back a few days due to a bad cold on my part, so in the meantime you get a few extra video reels as a token of appreciation. Cheers

 

 

 

 

[Trooper117]

More good stuff!!!

[Amiral_Crapaud]

If you ever thought you were going to have a productive Sunday, I will destroy this illusion right now, if you'll allow me.

 

Quote

 

It's live! Our dev update for Task Force Admiral  is now (belatedly) online on Steam. This one took its sweet time, but it was worth the wait. 2023 begins with a few hot videos. Thank you for your shares & your likes, it would mean a lot! ❤️

Cheers & have a great Sunday all of you!

 

 

This way please: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1281220/view/3671032056785639317

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Amiral_Crapaud