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If you enjoyed Carrier Command's vector-graphic raster-shaded goodness, you may be interested in a sequel:

http://www.carriercommand.com/ (http://www.carriercommand.com/)

It's hard to know where they will go with the new version.  Will there be RTS or RPG elements?  Or will they stick with the first-person aspect?

I used to drink with one of the developers of the original Carrier Command in a pub in Leeds.  Nice bloke but can't remember his name for the life of me.  The game was, um, interesting. Don't think I had the patience for it on account of it not having a save feature or something.

I know it had a save, I just downloaded it from the 'net and ran it inside the DOSBox emulator.  I forgot the PC version didn't have much for sound, I'm used to the Amiga version.  But I'm not sure it's worth the trouble to get an Amiga emulator running.

Carrier Command was one of the best games ever, but didn't they already do a sequel ?

I was sure they had.

Battle Command.

You drove a tank.

It was shit. Never speak of it again.

Um, no.  Not that one.  Since it didn't exist.

I was sure there was another one that had 'Rogue Trooper' type AI chips that you could insert into the wee drones.  I remember reading a review of it as a Spiritual Successor to Carrier Command and I thought :  That's Shit.

AHA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_Waters_(game))

All games should have Tom Baker narration.

Wow! I knew this game existed but it came out at a time when I just wasn't playing anything much. Since then, I've always thought of it as a submarine simulation, not a futuristic game that's written by Warren Ellis.

A Tom Baker narration though - how does that work? "It's half past Birmingham and it's time to drive your tank to the enemy base. I had a tank once but then the wife walked in."

Is it actually any good?

I finished it back then and liked it. A good blend of first person vehicle combat and RTS.

Sweet, going to be watching this one.

It's good, but not omfg fabulous.

It's also cheap on steam, so go find out.

Any other way to get it? I don't do steam.

Are you sure about that? What's it listed under?

Looks like steam has taken it off sale.

Amazon.com are showing exactly one copy in stock.

I loved Hostile Waters. And Tom Bakers narration is actually really, really good.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31210803/zombie-hand.jpg)

This has now entered paid beta, or what they're calling "Play & Contribute (https://store.bistudio.com/play-and-contribute)" in this case. I have to say, it looks pretty good!

Thanks for the necro.  Lost track of this one.

This is just about a must buy imo. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR7gir9ApMM&feature=related

Though, no multiplayer.   :uhrr:

(http://www.carriercommand.com/newweb/wp-content/themes/cctheme/images/bohemia_logo.png)

 :grin:

I take it there's no sarcasm in your grin, 'cause BI kicks much arse.  Hence why it's a must buy.  No MP is a killer though.  Cant have an RTS w/o MP, sorry.

I showed this to a friend of mine, it didn't quite have the effect I was anticipating... he booted up the amiga emulator and began playing the original, and it almost sounded like he was going to start crying tears of joy. :grin:

Shit. I think my summer just got eaten.  :heart:

This is also my reservation. I am expecting the interface to be... questionable.

I'll second the thanks for the necro.

I loved the original on my ST (and also second the Battle Command was shit) and lost hours to it although the AI was a bit stupid once you realised how to trap and kill it at the first island.

One thing I never got though was the description of the Manta long range comms pod which said it also worked with the Walruses - Did anyone get it to work (or was it passive if you had a comms pod equipped Manta nearby?).

I found a PC version in a bargain bin years ago and snapped it up - unfortunately it was hugely buggy.

I never played the original Carrier Command, but this defiantly looks from the video to have a serious Hostile Waters vibe to it...

Gosh, why did my credit card suddenly appear majicamagicly in my hand?  :grin: All this needs is Tom Baker!

Nope. None. Just waiting for the reaction of others.

Ok, I'm in the beta, and there does not seem to be an NDA so I;ll give my first impressions...

Well the learning curve on this thing is approx like getting slapped in the face with a dead fish. Theres no tutorial in the beta, ad the game badly needs one. But for a beta its very very impressive. I've seen more feature complete games get launched.

I am finding my units difficult to control hoever. I'm more of a sit back, position my units and let the AI sort out the actual fighting kinda guy, but the game seems to be designed so you take control of the actual units and fight yourself. Which is fair enough I suppose, as you only have about 9 units including the carrier.

The controls are a little awkward, and in the beta you can't change the key layout.

But first impressions is this game is going to be fucking awsome on release.

Probably because thats how the original played, your units didn't have AI, they just had you or 'autopilot to waypoint'

Which basically mean you either attacked an island with the carrier (turret or cruise missiles) or with a Manta (since I rarely made it to/off the beach with a Walrus.)

So I never played the orig, and so I have no nostalgia factor. I'd play it, until I looked and they want $35.

Yeah... no. This is a $15 game.

They want 35 buchs for the full thing with benefits. You can get the game for 20 bucks now if you don't care about the soundtrack, an icon on their forums and a copy on Steam as well, and it will give you rights to download the full game at launch same as anyone else.

https://store.bistudio.com/play-and-contribute

Press release

http://www.carriercommand.com/2012/05/news-shipping-date-platforms-announced/


Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&v=q3SL6HoaDs8)

Pay to beta offer ends at the end of the month and is replaced by a more expensive offer

Or for 15 dollars, six months after launch in a steam sale.

The released an Xbox Trailer a few weeks ago. The first person parts are from the Campaign where you have to get off the carrier to do stuff (actually in the first mission you have to capture the carrier in the first place)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iADnsXPqrgc

Release on this was today. Pretty much the universal view on this is that it is really really fun. The only downsides are that it starts off with a pretty lackluster FPS mission that at least introduces you to the world, and the ground tank AI is pretty crappy. It gets caught up on obstacles a lot and has problems navigating.

Spotted it in the store earlier today and concluded that I'm not buying it for full price with TL2, Xcom, and civ5 still to burn out on. Not to mention the new version of blood bowl next month.

Someone post when it turns up on sale.

My thoughts exactly. Too many games to play right now, bad release timing for this.

You're right to skip it until a patch or seven. "the tank AI is a bit spotty" is about the same as saying ME3's ending was a bit uneven. The tank pathing is possibly the worst pathing I've see in a video game ever. I get at least one tank stuck doing something stupid (spinning in circles, rocking back and forth, stuck on terrain, ramming a friend and halting them both until you intervene, refusing to repair even though he's in front of the repair station and his orders are to repair, etc etc) every three minutes.

The concept is neat. The presentation is fantastic. The pathing cripples the game in my mind from a 8 or 9/10 to a 6/10. Yeah, it's THAT bad and completely central to the gameplay.

example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAdgkTD29Mk

It's really hilariously bad pathing.

I've found some workarounds though.

The Big one is simple., Set separate destinations for each walrus. Its actually pretty easy. Pres 6, click mouse, then 7 *click* 8 *Click* 9 *click*. After a couple of tries and practice, doing this is very fast. The destinations can be pretty close to one another, but as long as they are not the same destination most of the Walruses will happily line up and head for the destination. Generally only one will get hung up on something, and that only happens about 40% of the time. I've actually gotten Walruses to line up and cross a bridge with this method, with little nudging. (The last one got stuck at the end, but it was no problem taking manual control of it and charging in myself)

Don't use "Assist" to drag the walruses after you unless you are in fairly open terrain. Since YOU (or the assisted walrus) is the destination, and therefore the destination is the same, the Walruses will snarl up. Only hit assist when you are in a fight, and the walruses will surround and fight with you. Think of assist as issuing a battle command for the group, not a travel command.

Alternatively,  target something, then use the radial menu attack command to send them all off shooting. When the target is destroyed (even if you did the killing) they will be on standby, and won't move until an enemy shows up.

Stick to the roads unless you are running one manually. This one is pretty much a no brainier. The walrus is actually a very good ATV in human hands, but the AI cant handle it. If you want to do that sneaky cross country raid, then you are doing it on your own unless you are willing to swap between them constantly. Sorry. Thankfully the road network on the Islands is pretty good and will get you everywhere you need to go. It seems slopes really mess them up.

Make sure everything's on defensive. On offensive, they create waypoints in the direction of any enemy they spot, thus running off into the wilderness and off cliffs.

I've actually gotten the path-finding AI to down to just minor annoyance levels, with just very occasional babysitting, using these methods and on my last map I had some rip roaring fights with AI walruses and a hell of a lot of fun

If Walruses could rotate in place crap like the above video would stop too. But it cant and has to reverse and turn all the time. That's patch territory. ANyway since I figured out how to get Walrus's behaving themselves better I've been enjoying the game immensely.

Your workaround gives a 40% chance of failure per order, Sir T. That's the sign of really really bad pathfinding ;)

A 40% chance of one walrus getting stuck is better than a 90% chance of all four getting stuck. No-one is denying that the walrus AI has problems. And, I know you are not going to believe this, but I've seen worse vehicle AI. Dark Riegn II was so bad that it would typically get your entire force stuck in turns on the road and then release them one at a time to get murdered by the enemy. Battle Isle 6's was so bad it effectively ended the series.

 Incidentally the vehicle AI in Arma, also by BI, famously had problems as well.

I gave it a few more hours, and still think the pathing ruins the otherwise interesting game (also on the list of "what the hell" are things like the AI being terrible gunners and such, but that's entirely believable in the idea that a controlled unit will always be better than an uncontrolled one)

I pretty much love everything about the game except that it rapidly turns into a walrus babysitting simulator :(

There is a demo of the game out now

http://www.carriercommand.com/demo/

I see Carrier Command is half price on Steam.  Worth buying?

Yes. There is still some AI problems nut they have fixed the major issues, and the game is technically impressive and is a lot of fun. The MAJOR complaint is the veichle AI, and they have made big strides in fixing it. Its still not perfect but its manageable now.

Besides, its a break from the "every game is the same" whines we get, but when something a bit different comes alone people whine because it's *shock* different.