Ship damage in Sea Power : Naval Combat in the Missile Age

Ship damage

The visual feedback for the ships is going to be largely centered around decals. Aside from one ship that I saw (that has nothing), there is going to be a one single damage variation for each ship.

Example of a damage variation

One of the devs has mentioned in a reddit comment that the reason for that is their desire to have more ships. With the means they have it's either less ships, more detail in the damage, or more ships, less detail in the damage, and they went with the latter.

So as I mentioned, the main feature in it is going to be the decals, and those are quite good. I'm not sure exactly which type they're using, but as you can see in the demonstration they will deliver pretty convincing feedback. There will also be different decal types for different munitions.

Decals can deliver pretty convincing feedback

And while it can look absolutely fantastic like on this gun right here, there are some limitation with this. And you can see that on the image above as well, on the right side of it.

By definition, there's no actual mesh deformation here and so you will often find it not looking quite right.

And lastly, there is one cool touch I haven't noticed when doing the initial demonstration, and that's the massive oil stain after a ship sinks. Beautiful stuff.

Ocean Pollution Simulator 2024

Aircraft damage

The aircraft damage here is actually more interesting than you might expect. You will have several damaged variations on the planes, with torn wings, tails and the nose too. You might have just one of those variations activate, or several.

And, along with that there's going to be a decal too, of a burned area at and around the point of impact and some holes.

This is the one I personally admire. They could easily "get away" with just having a simple damaged overlay that would be the same every single time, but they went for a decal that will give you varied results.

Plane damage, not an overlay

What stands out

• Despite the limitation that the decals have, they will provide at times just beautiful feedback. You can see that thought was indeed put into it.

• The plane damage actually exceeded my expectations for a game like this.

Conclusion

With the amount of ships in the game, we're not gonna be seeing a big damage improvement update, but I do think that it has quite a few interesting mechanics.

And, I do love the fact that naval warfare games of this type are becoming more of a thing. There are at least 2 more that immediately come to mind, and while neither of them has a big emphasis on damage, eventually there will sooner or later be one that will focus on the response side of it too.

With the capabilities that modern engines can offer, that can be a lot more than just great decals and a wide variety of pre made damaged and destroyed sections.

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