07-20-2020, 10:27 AM
Checked this out. Steam download, "free to play". I haven't figured out their economic model yet though I think in the end it comes down to the Planetside model: money gets you perks and nice-to-haves (XP boosters and such) and more money gets you side-grades. I'm not up to top tier yet but I suspect how it will work out is that getting one top tier ship is practical to do for free while getting a dozen of them will take months/years or money. At 10 hours in there's been no need to buy anything yet. You get a selection of ships (1 per nation?) and rank up off of that. So playing a rank 1 cruiser will unlock a same rank destroyer, battleship and the next rank of cruiser, paid for with in-game currency.
It's not really a "Purge game". It's a drop in, do a battleground, drop out kinda game. (I don't think you CAN group up until you get some hours in.)
Still, it's pretty fun. There's more depth to the mechanics than I was expecting. Shots tend to deflect at angles or high-armor-vs-small-shot (as in POTBS/Naval Action) and different areas of the ship can have different armor levels/hit points. It's somewhat obfuscated because they just show you a hit point bar but you'll notice sometimes you hit for high damage and sometimes for low damage or no damage because you're hitting an already destroyed area or a higher armor area, etc. So it's more than just putting around and throwing shells until someone blows up. Turrets take time to rotate as well, and have limited lanes of fire so you have to take that into account. In some cases you can spin your ship faster than your turrets can rotate so you may have to decide between getting a firing solution and continuing your turn (mainly for battleships).
Different ship classes:
Battleships:
Big armor, big guns, slow moving. Has secondary guns and AA guns that fire automatically while you control main turrets. Secondary guns will shoot at anything they have opportunity fire on but they're more useful against smaller ships. Seems to be the only ship that can repair hit points during the battle but it's limited. This is also the only ship type that has played about the same through the ranks.
Cruisers:
Usually larger numbers of smaller guns that fire more rapidly with a more maneuverable but still pretty easy to hit ship. At lower ranks you can sometimes go toe to toe with a battleship. At rank 4 I was in a cruiser that had torpedo launchers and it was practically OP -- the guns and greater survivability of a cruiser but the torpedoes of a destroyer made it a deadly ship. At rank 5, though, it throws you into battles with rank 5-7 ships and there it feels like the guns got bigger but the armor didn't so you just can't get into torpedo range. The cannons of the battleships will wreck you. Hoping they get their niche back for what I presume is the rank 8+ group because they don't feel that useful in the 5-7 range. I mostly play it as a battleship and occasionally try for a lucky torpedo hit from long range. Although the maps do have islands and sometimes you can get a short range encounter going where the torpedoes are useful again.
Destroyers:
Fast, small, hard to hit, hard to spot, super deadly with torpedoes, fragile if you can hit them. Pretty fun ranks 1-4. Doing torpedo runs on battleships is tricky because their secondary guns will shoot automatically and can hurt but generally gameplay is trying to catch opponents unawares and unleash torpedoes on them. At rank 5, it seems to switch styles because guns are bigger all around and destroyers mainly lurk, act as spotters and try to catch battleships by surprise, but mostly they seem to be spotters. If spotted they run.
There is ramming and friendly fire. Ranks 1-4 you'll be playing on teams that are mostly bots. 5+ seems to be where all the players are.
There are also aircraft carriers but I think you had to have been there for some event to have "early access" to them. I have no idea how they work. I think you directly control at least some of the planes? All I know is when you start seeing carriers, the "AA" rating of your ship suddenly becomes relevant. My German battleship has loads of AA and is handy at covering others while some ships have little to no AA and are practically defenseless against aircraft attacks. Overall though, carriers seem fairly weak though maybe that also changes at higher ranks. (At low rank they are clearly launching what looks to be biplanes but then, you're also sailing around in a WW1 era ship.)
It's not really a "Purge game". It's a drop in, do a battleground, drop out kinda game. (I don't think you CAN group up until you get some hours in.)
Still, it's pretty fun. There's more depth to the mechanics than I was expecting. Shots tend to deflect at angles or high-armor-vs-small-shot (as in POTBS/Naval Action) and different areas of the ship can have different armor levels/hit points. It's somewhat obfuscated because they just show you a hit point bar but you'll notice sometimes you hit for high damage and sometimes for low damage or no damage because you're hitting an already destroyed area or a higher armor area, etc. So it's more than just putting around and throwing shells until someone blows up. Turrets take time to rotate as well, and have limited lanes of fire so you have to take that into account. In some cases you can spin your ship faster than your turrets can rotate so you may have to decide between getting a firing solution and continuing your turn (mainly for battleships).
Different ship classes:
Battleships:
Big armor, big guns, slow moving. Has secondary guns and AA guns that fire automatically while you control main turrets. Secondary guns will shoot at anything they have opportunity fire on but they're more useful against smaller ships. Seems to be the only ship that can repair hit points during the battle but it's limited. This is also the only ship type that has played about the same through the ranks.
Cruisers:
Usually larger numbers of smaller guns that fire more rapidly with a more maneuverable but still pretty easy to hit ship. At lower ranks you can sometimes go toe to toe with a battleship. At rank 4 I was in a cruiser that had torpedo launchers and it was practically OP -- the guns and greater survivability of a cruiser but the torpedoes of a destroyer made it a deadly ship. At rank 5, though, it throws you into battles with rank 5-7 ships and there it feels like the guns got bigger but the armor didn't so you just can't get into torpedo range. The cannons of the battleships will wreck you. Hoping they get their niche back for what I presume is the rank 8+ group because they don't feel that useful in the 5-7 range. I mostly play it as a battleship and occasionally try for a lucky torpedo hit from long range. Although the maps do have islands and sometimes you can get a short range encounter going where the torpedoes are useful again.
Destroyers:
Fast, small, hard to hit, hard to spot, super deadly with torpedoes, fragile if you can hit them. Pretty fun ranks 1-4. Doing torpedo runs on battleships is tricky because their secondary guns will shoot automatically and can hurt but generally gameplay is trying to catch opponents unawares and unleash torpedoes on them. At rank 5, it seems to switch styles because guns are bigger all around and destroyers mainly lurk, act as spotters and try to catch battleships by surprise, but mostly they seem to be spotters. If spotted they run.
There is ramming and friendly fire. Ranks 1-4 you'll be playing on teams that are mostly bots. 5+ seems to be where all the players are.
There are also aircraft carriers but I think you had to have been there for some event to have "early access" to them. I have no idea how they work. I think you directly control at least some of the planes? All I know is when you start seeing carriers, the "AA" rating of your ship suddenly becomes relevant. My German battleship has loads of AA and is handy at covering others while some ships have little to no AA and are practically defenseless against aircraft attacks. Overall though, carriers seem fairly weak though maybe that also changes at higher ranks. (At low rank they are clearly launching what looks to be biplanes but then, you're also sailing around in a WW1 era ship.)
