The first month of 2010 has seen rapid progress with the development of Naval War: Arctic Circle. Basic sensor systems, unit movement with complex waypoints, group formations, weapons, damage, aircraft launch and landing, different weapon loadouts for aircraft, just to mention a few things, now work. We can “play” the game as it stands, with a few quirks and limitations.
Inevitably, a few bugs still remain. For example, fuel consumption and range estimates are a bit off, so helicopters launched and sent into the far distance sometimes fail to make it back to base in time. Oops.
Other implemented features are not fully complete. When you reorganise a group or change directions, the group leader still moves full steam ahead without being concerned with the fact that other vessels are hopelessly out of formation and are struggling to keep up. Similarly, aircraft form a group after takeoff, but don’t yet wait for their comrades before rushing ahead towards the target.
Obviously, we are planning on adding the necessary functionality and fixing bugs in the days and weeks ahead.
2010 is set up to be a very busy year for Turbo Tape Games, and we’ll keep working on Naval War to bring you the best game possible. We are all looking forward to soon being able to go head to head with each other in the first competitive multiplayer in-house. We’ll let you know when that happens, and who won (unless I lose).