Sea Power’s Early Access roadmap is troubling

Page Up, the key I crash-dive when I want to screengrab a Steam game, has seen an awful lot of action this week. Sea Power, an almost-upon-us naval wargame with brooding good looks, deep realism, but a disappointing attitude to tuition, is to blame.

Because the preview build comes without tutorials, and, judging by this roadmap, it may be some time before instructional missions grace the Early Access version due on November 12, the mixture of bafflement and captivation I’ve experienced over the last few days, could well be the lot of many new Sea Power players in coming months.

While SP’s UI and controls need little elucidation, unless you’re a seasoned Harpooner, Cold Waters fiend, or Command: Modern Operations practitioner, using the game’s myriad sensors, weapons, and weapon platforms sagely is going to prove tricky.

If I’m honest, the two clear-cut victories I’ve managed to secure thus far, probably owed as much to luck as informed decision-making. The Alfa class sub I sent to the bottom on Wednesday, succumbed to doggedness and shoals of Mark 48 torpedoes rather than anything resembling cunning. Was I maneuvering wisely and employing USS Baltimore’s sophisticated sonar apparatus, and noisemakers, optimally? Probably not.

Kirpan, the Royal Navy hand-me-down I trashed with gun fire before bedtime yesterday night, was vanquished by a player who simply reacted to incoming fire by right-clicking the chart icon that was the likeliest source of that fire. Hardly a Nelsonian triumph.

In more complicated scenarios, it’s much harder to prevail with luck alone.

I’ve played a Vietnam War challenge called ‘Dong Hoi’ several times, and, slightly worryingly, don’t seem to be getting any better at it. In my first playthrough, I lost the USS Higbee to eels launched by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. In the second, MiG 17s caused serious damage to two of my destroyers. Third time out, my ineptitude reached new heights plumbed new depths when I somehow managed to engineer a meeting between one of my vessels and shells from a coastal 100mm AAA battery.

Fortunately, being fairly clueless in Sea Power is no obstacle to having fun. As the following photo album hopefully illustrates, even when things are going pear shaped, the game justifies its CPU/screen time with spectacle and ambience alone.

12 Comments

  1. Looks fabulous!
    I believe a draft game manual will be released with the game, and eventually, there will be game guides on Steam. So hopefully, those resources will elucidate some of the more tricky game systems and effective strategies.

    • Yes I think there will be many content creators making videos/tutorials on it so I’m not worried there.
      And having played Cold Waters I should be able to build my knowledge onto that.
      I’m more worried about the wait for the campaign, but then again it looks like the community will make custom scenarios. But it feels like maybe one will spoil the game by playing before a campaign is available.

  3. In the meanwhile, there is a wealth a material on the proper use of various sensor suites in the Command world. Some of that might prove fruitful reading while not being -directly- applicable.

    • Great vid. Hopefully Triassic will link to it or embed something similar in the Early Access release.

      If they aren’t planning to add tutorials for a while, I’d also like to see optional (click to reveal) tactical guidance/advice in some or all of the briefings.

  6. Excellent article Tim, thanks (and jealous you got to play it early). I wonder if Commander Doug Littlejohns is going to play it? I’d love to know his thoughts on it. Is there any way you could contact him and ask him to comment on the game? It would be amazing if you could do that. His old mate Tom Clancy would likely be proud, RIP dear Tom, sadly missed. What do you think?

  7. Tim-

    I have been up for the challenge since they announced the title. Only 2 days to lift off. Thanks for the article and your thoughts.

    KSBearski aka HOA_KSOP aka Barry

  9. My one observation is that it has taken CMO literally 12 years to get to its present state of development. Then again, CMO has to contend with things like CEC with its complex interaction between firing platforms and off board sensors (and that’s just one small example). Things in the 80s were certainly simpler, but not that simple. I think it will take years for Triassic to iron out all the edge cases, which is how it went with CMO and Harpoon. Harpoon, of course, never actually *got* there.

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