Sea Dogs II - beautiful graphics

[Sean Tudor]

I have just watched the Sea Dogs II trailer (http://www.swordandpistol.com/files/sd2full_trailer.zip).

What a fabulous looking game ! Hopefully the game will ship this year. I have been wanting a new Pirates! game.

[Tom Chick]

Looks good. For a bunch of ghost ships.

Seriously, though, the graphics are impressive, but it seems to me doing photorealistic sailing ships kind of requires men in the rigging and on the decks, don't you guys think? Those battles look great until you realize there's no one driving, much less firing the cannons, kissing the gunner's daughter, hoisting the mizzenmast, and whatever else they did back then. Maybe I'm just being too picky...

-Tom

[Ben Sones]

In the demo they had running at E3, there were men on the decks of the ships. It's one of the game's new features.

If they can make the game NOT be a buggy mess like the first one was, it might be fun. We'll see.

[William Harms]

In addition to the men working the rigging, etc., during combat you see your crew fighting by your side.

I haven't seen the trailer; does it not show this stuff?

[mtkafka]

This game looks very cool. And it will have an editor to boot on release... supposedly. Plus the people who worked on MW are supposedly testing and helping out with it... so it'll be really really cool.

I liked the first Sea Dogs too, so I'm pretty geared for this one.

etc

[Desslock]

>In addition to the men working the rigging, etc., during combat you see your crew fighting by your side.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if that didn't make it into the second game, since it was originally intended to be part of the first Sea Dogs.

[Gordon Cameron]

I want a game that combines the cool rippling-wave effect of Sea Dogs' water with pixel-shading a la Morrowind.

There were moments where I really liked Sea Dogs but it didn't all quite come together. Odd, as the gameplay was basically a one-for-one update of Pirates! I guess what works in 1987 doesn't always work 15 years later.

[Chris Floyd]

Pirates! was far more elegant. I didn't have to watch some goofy guy with an epileptic butt seizure (seen that guy run?) wander around boring pirate towns trying to find work. There was much more to Sea Dogs than a revamping of Pirates! I'm excited for the second one, but I hope Bethesda gets some more time to shape it. I haven't played Morrowind or anything, I just think some experienced American developers could make a big difference in polishing up the gameplay. No offense to Russian developers in general, but the story never worked from what I saw.

[Sam Parker]

Nvidia had Sea Dogs II running in its meeting suite at E3, and there are definitely pixel shaders on the water's surface. The water was much better than Morrowind's, primarily because it was more dynamic. The tech demo had various weather states that dramatically changed the color and behavior of the water. Plus, one of the shaders on the water modified its reflectivity/translucency relative to the viewing angle.

[Sean Tudor]

Nvidia had Sea Dogs II running in its meeting suite at E3, and there are definitely pixel shaders on the water's surface. The water was much better than Morrowind's, primarily because it was more dynamic. The tech demo had various weather states that dramatically changed the color and behavior of the water. Plus, one of the shaders on the water modified its reflectivity/translucency relative to the viewing angle.

The water does look nice. I also loved Morrowind's water. Are there any other games in the pipeline that use the new water effects. Could the same effect be applied to lava ?

[Anonymous]

The water does look nice. I also loved Morrowind's water. Are there any other games in the pipeline that use the new water effects?

I hope so!

[Bub, Andrew]

Water?
What is it with you guys and water?

[Jason Becker]

"Odd, as the gameplay was basically a one-for-one update of Pirates! I guess what works in 1987 doesn't always work 15 years later."

That game was an update of Pirates!? Maybe a half-baked attempt at an update.

[Sean Tudor]

Water?
What is it with you guys and water?

It's the water man ... it's ... just ... so ... beautiful ... join ... us ... in ... the ... water ... Andrew ...

[Tom Chick]

"You think water moves fast? You should see ice. It moves like it has a mind. Like it knows it killed the world once and got a taste for murder. After the avalanche, it took us a week to climb out. Now, I don't know exactly when we turned on each other, but I know that seven of us survived the slide... and only five made it out. Now we took an oath, that I'm breaking now. We said we'd say it was the snow that killed the other two, but it wasn't. Nature is lethal but it doesn't hold a candle to man."

-Samuel L. Jackson, Deep Blue Sea

[Jason Becker]

Seeing him get munched by that shark was one of the great movie moments in recent years.

[Gordon Cameron]

"Odd, as the gameplay was basically a one-for-one update of Pirates! I guess what works in 1987 doesn't always work 15 years later."

That game was an update of Pirates!? Maybe a half-baked attempt at an update.

Come on, the gameplay was obviously derived from Pirates! You sail your ship around and get into battles with other ships. The action shifts between a larger map view and a closer view for battles. You can sink or capture enemy ships. The sea battles can be decided by a one-on-one swordfight between you and the captain of the other ship. You can also attack forts. You need to keep your crew large and happy. You can trade or steal and make money from goods like sugar, rum, etc. You go to towns, which have taverns, shipyards, and Governors' offices. You talk to the Governor who will give you letters of marque, quests, etc. You can be allied with, or enemy of, various nations including Spain, Britain, France.

The gameplay templates are nearly identical. That Pirates! is a classic while Sea Dogs was not a success, IMO either speaks to a) poor execution on Akela's part, b) what worked in 1987 isn't sufficient in 2000, or c) some combination of the two. I suspect C. Having said that, the water effect is still really cool and Sea Dogs is one of the nicest screensavers I ever paid $20 for...

[Jason Becker]

It would be closest to A at best.