Games with good ship-to-ship combat? Sea, space or other.

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Half of Tally-ho corner article about it.
https://tallyhocorner.com/2022/01/dublin-sinks-and-rises/

...
Although Ivan Mostyaev’s naval WIP shares a timeframe with Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts, Killerfish’s Atlantic Fleet is the title it most closely resembles. The out-of-date but impressive alpha lets curious armchair admirals play a selection of canned and customisable WWI scraps, glimpsing in the process ballistics and damage modelling of rare quality.

...

 

[0wca]

Battlezone

Kinda off-topic probably (not really a ship-to-ship combat game tbh), but I second that.

Been playing BZII: Combat Commander remaster with the Total Command mod (all campaigns from BZ1). It's fucking awesome.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

I don't think I've seen anyone mention Rebel Galaxy yet.


The space combat is a little bit arcade, but it's a lot of fun. You can't move your ship up or down, so it plays a lot like naval combat. You have turreted weapons that can fire in arcs and you have broadside weapons that only fire to the sides. I would say that broadsides are the most powerful and the most fun to use.

 

[gurugeorge]

Pirates of the Burning Sea had pretty good ship to ship combat at one time, although the game's dead now (it still exists but there's like 10 players), and I think they oversimplified it a lot at one point. But for a time ship-to-ship was quite nicely pitched between simmy and arcadey, between numbers-based and twitch-based (steering and positioning were realtime and twitchy with you and the AI constantly trying to get good position, and wind was an important realtime factor you had to be aware of that could occasionally change the battlefield fast; damage and accuracy were numbers-based).

Shame about that game, it had some charm and promise in its early days. But they kept fucking around with the melee combat (it was actually better in its original version I thought) and apparently the higher end/faction stuff was never satisfactory to endgame players. It had some good ingredients though, you could even explore some of the coastal jungle areas where it almost got into "exploring lost temples for treasure" territory.

Unfortunately, it was a case of ambition exceeding technical ability. I could see an AAA MMO like that doing really well with modern graphics and similar systems, but all working properly and non-jankily, and with a properly fleshed-out endgame. PoTBS had great numbers at launch, so there's obviously a market out there for that kind of game.

 

[Gostak]

I second Barotrauma (boat not ship, though ;p and focus is unfortunately not on boat vs boat but it has that as well; but it is an incredible offering) and Airships: Conquer the Skies (building/tweaking designs is solid and
campaign may get heaps better soonish with diplomacy, has boarding as well which I love).

Gotta suggest subcommander here: https://subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=202304

And when the chance is here, the charming:
A pirate quartermaster
Combat is like an abstracted Sea Dogs affair with a typing game and often
ends in boarding combat. Not deep but so neat!

Adrorium maybe (combat actually seemed simplistic, though)? I like it but did not play it much at all so far.
In development, you can currently play it for free. Available via several distribution channels.

F-Zero X :p


I have to check out Aether, looks cool, thanks!


Also have not played these but bookmarked them when I myself was searching for ship combat games with boarding:
Sea Wolves on itch.io Appears to be an unfinished Sea Dogs like combat demo in ASCII.

Pirates of the Stormy Sea also on itch.io

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Found this when I was checking out previous games of a studio which is making game about Traveller universe.


Apparently 3rd game of a series I've never heard about. There's steam demo which I might check out when I have time for that.

 

[Alienman]

Looks a bit laggy.

 

[Echo Mirage]

Likely mentioned already, but Cold Waters.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I think I've seen something similar, but with bunkers in WW1 style setting.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

Go play Admiral Dreadnoughts on Steam.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Demo on GOG.

 

[gurugeorge]

Demo on GOG.

Extra points for extensive use of greenscreen aesthetic

 

[anvi]

Looks promising!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Beowulf]

Early Access

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

or games where player has more direct control during combat like in ancient Pirates!

Pirates! (1987) -> Pirates! (2004) -> ACIV: Black Flag (2013)

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Pretty kewl Lovecraft submarine game. Big focus on multiplayer, really shines in co-op, but you can play it solo (which works fine). The AI isn't the greatest though.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/602960/view/3637254425215117856

Preview: Pre-patch for Barotrauma 1.0
Hello everyone!

We are excited to tell you our 1.0 release is coming this spring. Before that, we’re releasing a pre-patch that includes some final fixes and changes that we wanted to release while still in Early Access.

For many players, the most noteworthy additions in this pre-patch are reworked poisons and status effects. Unfortunately, these changes mean that some mods will not function properly until the creator updates them. We’re sorry for the inconvenience, but we hope that by releasing these changes in advance, we give all modders enough time to update their mods before our big release!

Poisons

• Monsters can be infected with poisons, making poisons and the medic class more useful in combat.
• Poisons have been redesigned to provide more interesting and varying effects, and the overall strength of poisons has been adjusted.
• Applying poisons will increase the players’ medical skill.

Status effects

• Changes to the overall targeting logic of status effects.
• Status effect skill and item requirement checks have also been changed.

These changes will require some mods that use status effects to be updated. Please see this Steam forum post for more details.

Other changes and additions

• Transparent visors for diving suits.
• Modified clients are no longer able to pick up unpickable items.
• Some submarine upgrades now cost materials or items in addition to money.
• Better support for playing the multiplayer campaign without a host or someone with campaign management permissions on the server.

Important information about Barotrauma 1.0
In preparation for our 1.0 release, we are going to adjust Barotrauma’s pricing on Steam in two weeks, on February 10. What this means is that the next two weeks will be the last chance to buy Barotrauma at its Early Access price – and we have a new discount period starting today to give everyone one last good deal on the game before we reach 1.0. Please tell your friends if they have been waiting to dive in! The price increase will not affect anyone who already owns Barotrauma.

Read more about the update and our plans on our blog, and stay tuned for the pre-patch next week!

Also:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1482750/view/3672157322355020238

Waves of Steel 1.0 launch in ONE WEEK!
After nearly four years of development, we're almost there! Just seven more days and Waves of Steel will finally ship. Ahem.

You can help!
Small indies like us need all the help we can get from fans and followers. Here's some things you can do that will really make a difference:

• Tell your friends
  . Word of mouth is critical! We can't afford the kind of advertising budget that the big companies have, so this is the best way for new people to be informed that the game exists.
• Wishlist the game
  . Steam tracks every wishlist, and is more likely to show games to new people on its store pages if they're popular.
• Buy the game
  . This goes without saying! Game purchases, especially in the first week after launch are super critical.
• Leave a review
  . Steam also tracks reviews! You don't have to say a lot. A sentence or even just a word is fine.

With your help, I know we can make Waves of Steel a success! Thank you for your support!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Spelljammer is coming to Steam.
I think it had reputation of having boring ship-to-ship combat.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Nutmeg]

Best is Warship Gunner

 

[Gostak]

I wish I could say Airmen but it is supposed to be bad.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://www.steamandirongame.com/features

 

[Gostak]

Hmm, nobody mentioned AirBuccaneers yet, it's OK.
I only ever played the UT2004 mod version.
There is a mod to improve its bots further (SmartBots by <br>).
You can give them all kinds of commands with the V voice menu.
https://www.mapraider.com/maps/unreal-tournament-2004/airbuccaneers/3320/ABU-BlockingTrainer Comes with version 02 of those improved bots IIRC but there is a 04 as well, which I have.
It is kinda low paced and brutal. Also teamwork goes a long way. The bots are very, very good considering what this is. It has got a good tutorial, a nice custom musket blocking training map and a cool stats/highscores keeping and ranks system. I adore it because I love riding shotgun on vehicles and this is practically made for this. Team manning airships. Boarding moves or switching ships in flight (because yours is about to crash upon the next hit e.g.) is super fun when you manage to pull it off. The wind mechanic is a bit meh, especially on the Domination gametypes. And the improved bots (at least) do not seem to go for the treasure booty drops in Treasure Hunt it seems.



They made a standalone version later as well.