JTS Naval series online play

[Embis]

Last night Stejones82 and I played a demonstration game of Wolfpack on the Live Fire! server, and streamed it live from both sides. It was a fun game that lasted about 90 minutes and highlighted how as you might expect, playing against a human is very different to playing against the AI and is definitely the most satisfying way of playing the Tiller Naval series.

Streaming it Live from both sides was interesting, the spectators were able to switch from screen to screen to see the game from both the German and the Allied side whilst neither of the combatants lost the fog of war. We plan to set up a game of Guadalcanal in the near future and I would certainly like to try Jutland with a couple of players on each side. 

I will post here when we are looking for volunteers and offering invitations to spectate.

For anyone unfamiliar with setting up JTS games for online play, or with using Discord, we have an extensive help file on the server and often have people online who can offer some practical advice and assistance.

[Stejones82]

I totally agree! I consider myself an above average WP player (having served with the playest team) and was awestruck at the difference from having a live player!

The scenario was SC-42, a 1941 slow convoy. As in the real show, the Allies insufficient numbers of escorts and a well executed crafty approach by the German Kapitan saw the convoy hit in the flank with the escorts off chasing phantoms in the wrong direction. Man, was I punished for that bad decision!!

As Mark reported, the game lasted about 90 minutes of real time. We were able by mutual consent to increase game speed during lulls. The Discord host environment worked excellent and we enjoyed a nice chat and banter replete with bravado and trash-talk!

Great fun and really the way that these RT (not turn based) games are meant to be played!

Steve

[Compass Rose]

Sounds like alot of fun.

Yes, keep us posted when the events are.

[grognardgames]

Last night Stejones82 and I played a demonstration game of Wolfpack on the Live Fire! server, and streamed it live from both sides. It was a fun game that lasted about 90 minutes and highlighted how as you might expect, playing against a human is very different to playing against the AI and is definitely the most satisfying way of playing the Tiller Naval series.

Streaming it Live from both sides was interesting, the spectators were able to switch from screen to screen to see the game from both the German and the Allied side whilst neither of the combatants lost the fog of war. We plan to set up a game of Guadalcanal in the near future and I would certainly like to try Jutland with a couple of players on each side. 

I will post here when we are looking for volunteers and offering invitations to spectate.

For anyone unfamiliar with setting up JTS games for online play, or with using Discord, we have an extensive help file on the server and often have people online who can offer some practical advice and assistance.

Don't forget that we knocked out an SB game before your naval battle.  It was THAT easy. :)

It was fun watching your game but the most fun was listening to the under-the-breath cursing as you both try to find each other and avoid torpedos, lol.  Reminded me of my games!

I will attest that live play is surely something worth looking into.  We all know the AI is only good for learning mechanics, so when you put a human in the seat and go H2H it's something else entirely.  Watching your units rout in real-time is more fun than not...

Although I am not a naval gamer, I was curious to see how the game plays and it was enjoyable switching up and seeing both perspectives with FoW enabled.  

Highly recommend this method!

[Gary McClellan]

We used to play some pretty huge battles in Jutland back in the day (6 on 6), though as you add people, the synch issues get ugly and even catastrophic. In my experience, you could generally get a 2 on 2 game in fairly safely. That might not be so handy with WP (though there are a few scenarios where there are multiple subs. Maybe 2 on 1 or the like).

At a past Tillercon we had a grand ol time with a special scenario I made built for 2 on 2 play in Midway.

(Oh, FWIW, at least to me, Dogger Bank makes for a fantastic 1 on 1 scenario.)

[Embis]

The logistics of organising a 6 on 6 multiplayer is quite daunting but would be nice to try. I have set up the discord server so that two teams can have their own private comms channels either voice or text based so i am sure we will have a go at something that size in the not too distant future. Would be nice to try and live stream something like that as well. All sorts of possibilities are open now.

[Gary McClellan]

With more modern computers and better internet, I don't know how well or poorly a mass game would work.

I will give you fair warning that it was a very, very dodgy affair, and got worse the longer it went. What will happen is that the different computers start to "lose synch" and start seeing enemy ships in different places, or they "jump" or don't see them at all. The only way to fix it is to have the game host save the game, and everyone exit the game, reconnect, reassign, yadda.. Even that doesn't always work.

[Gary McClellan]

Oh, to put a bit more flesh on how we did it (back in the old Naval Campaigns Club)

If you're in a MP game, each player is assigned different units. This is done through the game engine, that part works pretty smoothly. We could use the ingame chat to communicate, and each player can only see what he can "see." In other words, if he has LOS, but not another player on the same side, the only one who can see the units is the one with LOS.

So, we would try to give fairly good reports. "Enemy BB, 24000 NNE my position, headed S at 14kts" or the like.

For a game like Jutland (we mostly used Jutland, with some Tsushima and Guadalcanal), we would often have one player in charge of the Battleline, another in charge of the Battlecruisers, with other players handing AC, CL and (especially) the DD/TB groups.

Lots of players always hated being "stuck" with DD/TB play, but I liked it. It was a challenge to keep out of the way when you needed to, but still be able to react to fight off your counterparts, *or* screen your big boys with smoke *or* set up a torpedo run when the time was right. It was generally pretty busy.

[Embis]

Thanks Gary We will bear those pointers in mind when we organise the game and will report back here to let everyone know how it worked out.