Task Force Admiral - Command an early Pacific War US Navy CTF

[Luka-boy]

Microprose announced this a couple of days ago:
https://microprose.com/games/task-force-admiral



Task Force admiral Vol.1: American Carrier Battles is a single-player experience centered on the command of an early Pacific War US Navy carrier task force. As the overall commander, you are in charge of seeking the destruction of the enemy naval forces and preventing your opponent, the Japanese Navy, from accomplishing its objectives. To achieve your aims, you have at your disposal the most fearsome sea projection weapon known to Man in 1942: your carrier air groups and the task forces that support them.

As a carrier task force admiral in this pioneering age of air/naval warfare, assume the mantle of retribution in this innovative interpretation of a classic topic, as the first title in a new series that will further explore and develop the genre. Forget about the limitations of the past, and let the best of wargaming and simulation blend and blossom together in this new take on command at sea! Re-live the great battles of the first year of the Pacific War as if you were there yourself. In here there is no dice roll, no artificial skill-tree, no arbitrary stats, selective fog of war or supernatural crystal-clear communications. It is real-time crisis management for you, realism and historicity without concession, as little abstraction as can be, and loads of action, suspense and refreshing gameplay packed in the same single computer software.



The thrill of carrier command in a full 3D environment
Experience naval command from an innovative first-person perspective. Choose to ride the flow of battle through the eyes of an actual flag officer buttoned up in a flag plot, blinded by our advanced fog of war system; or play in a more relaxed manner with a traditional God's eye view served by a flexible camera system, fully-customizable realism settings, and an intuitive interface. With 95 ship classes and 42 aircraft types on both sides faithfully recreated with all their characteristics, expect the most complete array of units ever recreated in 3D for a Pacific naval simulation.


A finely-crafted blend of cult classics & innovative mechanics
As a game made by players of SSG’s Carriers at War, SSI’s Great Naval Battles and MicroProse’s own Task Force & Pacific Air War series, rest assured that the legacy of these classics is still alive and kicking in Task Force Admiral. The gameplay is designed so as to feel familiar to the keepers of this prestigious pantheon – and yet refreshing and appealing to the younger generation looking for the ultimate PTO wargaming experience.


A realistic and historical WW2 carrier experience like no other
Relive the famous battles of 1942 against the Japanese Combined Fleet with unparalleled authenticity. Ships and squadrons proudly fight in their carefully-researched camouflages and markings, as recreated by our talented digital artists. Accurately-named officers and pilots will answer your call and fight over Midway and the South Pacific in an array of richly detailed historical & hypothetical single scenarios. And if history isn’t enough, feel free to explore new what-ifs by designing your own carrier battles using our in-game mission builder or our quick scenario generator!


Immersion at its best
Our competitive graphics, polished SFX, audio comms, a dynamic soundtrack that follows the flow of the action & a simulation-based environment with physics will make you rethink the concept of indie wargaming. We hope that these high production values will contribute to make Task Force Admiral a breathtaking experience, whether you decide to observe an imminent enemy attack from your command quarters or follow your Dauntless bombers in their lethal dive. Don’t miss one bit of the action thanks to our post-combat 3D replay system, that will allow you to record your deeds and share them with the community.


Features list

• As an Admiral, command legendary American carriers task forces in 1942
• Innovative approach to serious wargaming in a full 3D simulation-based environment
• Pausable real-time, time compression available, no clickfest
• The most detailed & authentic WW2 naval command game ever made for PC
• A powerful in-game narrative engine managing scripted & random events
• Lead the US Navy in 30+ historical & hypothetical single scenarios
• Over 90 classes of ships and 40 types of aircraft meticulously researched & recreated
• Accurate real-life ship, aircraft camouflages & markings
• Advanced realistic ballistics and damage modelling
• Play it the way you like it: fully customizable realism & difficulty settings
• High-level of sound immersion, dynamic original soundtrack
• Post-battle replay player & full scenario builder included

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

I hope Microprose can pull it off. So far the 3D style operational naval command games have been a bit wonky. Victory at Sea Pacific comes to mind.

 

[Alfgart]

If we can't play as the Japanese and bomb the shit out of the filthy gaijin I'm not interested

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Here's developer interview from three months ago.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/02/14/the-flare-path-talks-task-force-admiral/

 

[Galdred]

Here's developer interview from three months ago.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/02/14/the-flare-path-talks-task-force-admiral/

It looks interesting, but at the same time, it is a shame that the game is a sequence of scenarios and not a dymanic campaign with strategic level decisions to make, but it is understandable, given that these would require a whole separate layer (but given that the commander of a carrier force is of much higher rank than the commander of a Combat Mission Battalion or Company, it would make sense).

 

[Burning Bridges]

This has been previously known as Drydock Dream games https://drydockdreams.games/about-the-game/ and looked a bit like vaporware.

I assume they bought the name Microprose because of one of the most fun games of all times, 1942 The Pacific Air War

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjUouTYGzbg

Oh man, flying directly kamikaze into carriers because I could not hit with bombs, those were the days.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Btw, Killerfish have also announced a new game on the naval side of PT, so this could be fantastic times for fans of the Pacific campaign.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1280780/War_on_the_Sea/

 

[Luka-boy]

Just noticed that the devs have been adding short videos to their channel for the past few months. Mostly just of them making assets or pretty videos of planes/ships/scenery.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv_rxX8PnLOVt77K3FaIPnw/videos

Also found this preview video with some new footage and information.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://drydockdreams.games/2020/11/20/legends-fall/

Legends of the fall

Spoiler

Ladies & gentlemen, welcome back to another Task Force Admiral update!

Those who have been following us over our social media accounts know that we haven’t been idle over the last few weeks. For all the others, it’s time to play catch up with the latest developments. Nothing too hot, but nothing too shabby either: business as usual, and we’re getting there, one step at a time! Come and join us for a little tour!

Catch me when I Fall: the Funny Tales of Carrier Air Recovery
Green Trees in the Fall: Revisiting from the Air the Battlefields of 1942
Falling Down: D3A Dive Bomber makes an Entry, US Ships learn to dodge
Birthday boys, fall in! Celebrating the Navy & the Marines

The Funny Tales of Carrier Air Recovery
We’ve been hard at work trying to make sense of USN 1942-era air recovery procedure in order to feed it to our engine. Back then, in that nascent art of making the most of one single busy flight deck, it really was easier said than done. Fortunately, actual examples of how it worked are out there. Jean-Baptiste did wonders when adapting the engine to the authentic issues of the trade instead of bending reality around our game possibilities. It is still work-in-progress of course, there’s a lot still left to polish, but it does show promise!

Naturally, the art of landing a plane on a moving, floating airstrip wouldn’t be a thing at all if it wasn’t for the technical ingenuity of the brains who came up with the idea of the arrestor hook. More than a hundred years after the first baby steps of naval aviation, planes are still recovered using the very same hook/wire combo – I guess it speaks volumes about how smart the original design was from the start. But even then, catching a wire is only the beginning for the pilot, and one small little sequence among many others in the overall flight deck ballet in the eyes of the Air Boss. The latter also has to manage each plane with a broader perspective in mind: where should he put the returning planes? Which should he send down below deck? Which should remain on the flight deck for quick re-arming and refuelling before another patrol? Notoriously tough questions when it comes to managing an American carrier, which by default and by doctrine was overcrowded, with a total number of embarked airframes far exceeding the capacity of the hangar. It was most obvious early on, when Japanese and British carriers were still to adopt this American “deck park” system too, and by habit and design were expected to keep the entirety of the air group below deck. As such, our US carriers require a strong AI logic to keep ’em open and busy, and hopefully we are on our way to provide just that.


Naturally, we are still making sure that the final result will look and feel as natural as possible. After all, you will be allowed to watch air ops take place from the side of your carrier’s island, and it needs to look kind of neat from afar. It is, truth be told, not yet 100% final: as you can see, planes still sort of sink a bit in the deck, wings still get folded a bit fast, we should add a delay to the release of the wire from the hook to simulate crew interaction, etc… But making progress pretty much every week at this pace is a most exhilarating and reassuring feeling indeed for everyone involved, and we sure do hope it shows!

At any rate, fear not. The Japanese side is also working hard on its own procedures and getting there, one strike package at a time, according to their own doctrine and specific carrier designs. We will soon be able to have our American and Japanese carriers send whole raids and watch our pixel planes and ship devastate each others – let’s hope that our next update will allow us to show you just that! In the meantime, enjoy this little piece of vintage Kido Butai business we did put together, with the kind participation of Miss Kaga and her little friends

Revisiting from the Air the Battlefields of 1942
Task Force Admiral doesn’t try to compete with Flight Simulator when it comes to its terrain, but we still gotta make sure that the ground is attractive enough not to break the immersion. Although this game is first and foremost about naval combat, landmasses cannot be ignored. After all, navies would not be fighting each other if it wasn’t for these pieces of real estate: in history, the control of the seas only ever so mattered when it lead to supremacy ashore.

Some time has been dedicated to providing the engine with an adaptable & dynamic generation process, which was showcased already in our previous update. Now that this was taken care of, we needed to make sure the trees, the coastline, the reefs and all the other outstanding features looked the act too. Here is the current autogen result, which is still, as always, work-in-progress material. The first shot is from an actual photo of the famous Owen Stanley Range, the mountain formation north of Port Moresby, linking the latter to Buna on the other side of the peninsula. The other screens are the in-game result.

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It looks not too bad from up here, but when you add some Dauntless love to the mix, I can assure you, it looks all the more gorgeous indeed! Sure, you wouldn’t probably see the Kokoda trail or entrenched USMC positions from that altitude, but we hope we will be able to convey somewhat this feeling, whether your birds are flying over Papua New Guinea or Guadalcanal.

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The South Pacific isn’t just about thick jungles though – it is also a place where paradise-like spots make you feel like taking a break with a cocktail on the beach. Rest assured that we will have that kind of place out there made just for you too!

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Although these are locations automatically generated from map data, we also need to give some special care to the most emblematic spots of the theater. In 2020, a player like myself just cannot accept the idea of having generic islands and airfields all over the place to stand for actual famous locations – this is not what our commitment to history stands for. Jean-Baptiste has carefully re-created the specifics of Midway atoll for a collab’ in the making, and we will make sure that places like Henderson Field, Rabaul, Port Moresby, Lae and the likes of them receive the same sort of love. In the meantime, here is our preliminary work on Midway’s Sand & Eastern islands, together with the detailed lagoon

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D3A Dive Bomber makes an Entry, US Ships learn to dodge
Following our paintshop updates in the last update, the Type 99 Kanbaku, better known under our latitudes as the D3A “Val” has now fully grown into the flying nightmare we needed. Say hi to the bane incarnate of Allied shipping in 1942.

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Its arrival coincides with the extra effort we have been dedicating to ship behavior. This time we focused on armament properties, handling and tactics.

As you can see below, our ships can already readily engage in real time any aircraft using their dual purpose and AA weaponry. In the case of the Porter-class destroyer depicted in the following video, the limited elevation of her turrets still allow her to engage low flying planes to a certain extent with dedicated time-fuzed AA rounds. These properly leave the tube and explode miles and seconds later, as they should, with no magic nor hitscan scam involved. Travel time is rigorously respected and abides to initial shell velocity and fuze time as computed by the director. Leading the target back then just was not enough – moving targets were to be engaged in a 3-dimensional environment with rudimentary tools. Don’t expect one shot one kills situation to be the norm!

As such, besides the combat air patrol and the light anti-aircraft artillery, the best defense for a WW2-era ship resides in its capacity to avoid whatever is being thrown at it. Good handling qualities, aka the ability of a ship to twist around at high speed with a short rudder shift time, a fast acceleration and a good turning circle, certainly contributed to the survivability of some highly successful and well balanced classes, like the Yorktowns were. On the other hand the Lexingtons were still the longest warships in the world in 1942, and Lexington’s own lazy rudder and slow response was to ultimately contribute to her doom. As you can see, our US ships are already zig zagging at high speed according to doctrine, unlike the characteristic donut-shaped maneuvers of the Japanese ships shown in our announcement teaser.

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Tactics were not only rehearsed at sea. Our US fighters also went through a strict drill in order to implement historical escort behaviors and tactics. For it’s not just a matter of having the right types of planes in the air, we also want them to put a convincing show. These formations were recreated from actual manuals and will be automatically observed by your pixel pilots. As a Task Force commander, you will still be allowed to somewhat meddle with the settings and give some specific instructions, but at the end of the day we expect our jockeys to know their trade. They aren’t supposed to be at flight school anymore!

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Celebrating the Navy & the Marines
Finally, a Task Force Admiral update wouldn’t be a proper update without Julien’s involvement. October & November were both important months for the US Navy & the US Marines, as the former celebrates its Birthday on October 13, while the latter does very much so on November 10. We went against the current tradition by sticking to good old Navy Day, which doesn’t mean so much today, but was an institution back in the 1930s & the 1940s, taking place every October 27. A lot of the great propaganda posters were based on this event which was the annual opportunity for the Navy to show its new toys, and as you can see on this postcard, we tried to re-capture the spirit of the times using our own 3D models!

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We did not forget the Marines either. As mentioned earlier, they will be there on the ground, fighting for Henderson Field, but also up in the air, above Wake, Midway and Guadalcanal. CACTUS in particular is the Ace in the sleeve of any good Guadalcanal scenario – the prize of these battles, for sure, but also a box full of surprises with its contingent of F4F, SBD and TBF planes that might strike at any force you spot at a moment notice, as long as you make sure that the critical info is passed along to the crew of the pagoda at Lunga!

As usual, the hi-def version of both artworks can be downloaded here, courtesy of our artist Julien! A perfect fit for your desktop, I have no doubt! Click below to download them.

Click here to download the US Navy Day & the USMC Birthday wallpapers!Download
Done! As always, as a last word for today, don’t forget to pay us a visit on our Steam community forums. It is always good for you to share your interrogations – and doing so, make us share our replies! In the meantime, as always, dear public, please take care… And stay safe! Cheers to all!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[agris]

Infinitron microprose in title here as well.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://twitter.com/DrydockDreams/status/1440796799099281408

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1281220/announcements/detail/3206008758348208424

Monthly Dev update #1 (April 2022) - TFA's Aircraft Carriers are back in action!
Easter surprise! Your new monthly rendezvous with the latest developments of Task Force Admiral

Spoiler

Dear Fans,
Dear Followers,
Old & new,

Welcome to this Easter dev diary for Task Force Admiral.

Sorry for having made ourselves scarce over the Steam store & our own very website for so long. I would like to give you a satisfying, simple answer to that, but it is a complicated matter. If you don’t care much for devteam babbling and came for the update proper, please jump to the part beyond the next one to get in the thick of it. Otherwise, here are a few introductory words.


Short Intermission: of Steam & our Communication Conundrums

We have not been deaf to the remarks made on the Steam general discussion boards. Yes, we have not posted much lately - but it does not mean that we were inactive, nor uninterested in maintaining the link. We simply had to make some choices.

As a small team - remember, there’s basically four of us – rest assured that we are working hard to deliver this game, and would love nothing more than to share our progress with the greater number. What is certain is that in order to reach our life goals, we all have to focus on our tasks at hand in spite of everything happening around us. Over the last few months, illness & fate have taken loved ones away, and with no exception we all experienced bad news – all of which crippled us emotionally, a feeling I am sure too many of you have experienced over the course of the last two years. Yet, fear not, for we have carried on.

None of these events proved life-threatening for the project proper, the progress of which remains unaffected overall. Nevertheless, you will certainly understand that some of us would rather use the extra time outside of what we devote to development & design to spend a few moments with the family in these trying times, or take care of important issues which cannot wait. In that regard, if we were to sacrifice something, we’d rather give up on extended communication rather than game progress proper, I think we can all agree on that. A call had to be made. It was made.

Those who follow us on social media will know that we still managed to maintain a good pace over there, with weekly updates on Twitter, Facebook & Youtube (check the community tab for the dope!). In order to maintain a proper presence on Steam – which obviously matters as it is the main public vitrine for our game, but also the most time-consuming one – we will from now on do our best to provide you with monthly updates. These will elaborate on the weekly updates already posted elsewhere, along with some new bites of good stuff. The same will apply to our website-based dev blog (which is in dire need of a new look, by the way). As we are nearing our own internal playtest, we need to put the history of our progress somewhere where it can be easily assessed and remembered, and our Steam community page seems to be the right spot for that, as eventually players will come to knock on that one door. I still remain hopeful that Steam will at some point introduce social-minded functions which will allow developers to expand less time and sweat to post even the smallest update, but we’re not quite there yet.

Anyway, to inaugurate this new monthly rendezvous here, are a few selected nuggets from the last few months. Hope you’ll enjoy the ride!

In-Game Videos in TFA - Historical Research in the Service of a Treasured Legacy

This month, we're offering a sneak peek of the prototyping work accomplished so far in regard of our in-game videos.

Although these videos certainly do not replace a proper modern interactive tutorial (these are planned too, worry not), we thought that it would be too bad to claim the name of Microprose and yet not pay homage to this classic feature of the late 1990s. Ladies & Gentlemen, allow us to introduce you to the first chapter of our Naval Academy module
Know Your Ships: The Destroyers
.

TFA is being designed in the tradition of the combat simulations and wargames of the 1990s, a time when developers would not shy away from expanding the lore of their work so as to strengthen the credibility of their game. Needless to say, our own inspiration is not coming from nowhere, and in this we're standing on the shoulders of giants, at least by the standards of our niche.

SSI's Fighting Steel IJN campaign intro video (2000) - hosted by Jeff Baker's Youtube Channel


Obviously back in the day, simpler graphics also meant that all this content was much-needed food for the imagination, but these thick manuals, narratives and spec listings of all sorts did leave a mark in the minds of the people of our generation (aka the 30-40s crowd). When the multimedia age emerged in the mid-1990s, games started to feature more generous video and audio contents, as the new supports which were the CD-ROM and then the DVD allowed for more leeway in that department. Games like M1 Tank Platoon 2 or Fighting Steel for instance would include a series of videos with the dual purpose of being both a source of entertainment and a learning tool in an age when interactive tutorials were not the norm just yet.

Microprose's M1 Tank Platoon 2's training videos (1998) - hosted by Adam Piskorski's Youtube Channel


Those were the days, when extra contents were seen as a welcome addition to existing means of instruction. Nothing was too good, indeed, when it came to provide the player with the much needed background and awareness he/she needed as to make sure not to look too silly once in command.

To make it happen, we had to design a fully integrated video player which should allow us to play these videos with subtitles in your own language. Full English voice-over is a guarantee - as for commentaries in other languages on the other hand, we'll see how far we can get before release. Can't promise anything, but fingers are crossed!

Another perk of the in-game video system is that it will allow us to let our imagination run wild when it comes to the in-game briefings. Not only will these be detailed as thoroughly as possible so as to provide you all the important keys to understanding the overall tactical & strategic picture, but you will also be able, as custom scenario designers, to provide your own creations with the amount of multimedia contents you will deem necessary. A few months ago, we delivered the community with an early prototype which outlines the level of research & historicity we want to adopt as a hallmark of our values. Allow us to post that one here once more for the posterity!

This one is showcasing the "long" Coral Sea scenario, which will take a few days of in-game time to complete. It begins before TF-17 strike against Tulagi, and will end with the success or the failure of the Japanese landing at Port Moresby.

Although there's nothing special on the technical side of things, we tried to innovate in regard of how the information is constructed & delivered. We went through actual archives & well-known reference books so as to try to provide the player with a realistic yet exhaustive level of intel contents. Doing so, we also tried to provide as much context as possible so that you don't need to be an actual WW2 PTO buff to understand the stakes. One of our inspirations were the briefings you had in Silent Hunter 4, others might see DNA from Silent Service 2 too!

These video sequences will be strengthened by a full text-based briefing which will contain all the details the player needs to accomplish the mission. Hopefully, it should work whether you are new to the topic or a very old Pacific hand, with Shattered Sword, Black Shoe Carrier Admiral or Neptune's Inferno as a bedside companion!

The Tactical View and the Fleet Board - New Ideas to Visualize Old Needs

Task Force Admiral will ship with a few interesting gameplay features you might not have seen before, at least under this guise. Features related to formations & the tactical map were detailed in our interview with Tim Stone over at the Tally Ho Corner, home of the holy Flare Path (see you at "M" for
Miniature interview
). Don’t hesitate to check it out! I will simply quote myself:

THC:
Which aspects of Task Force Admiral are consuming the most developmental man hours at present?


The Producer:
The formation system and the maneuvering AI that goes along with it has consumed a big chunk of our development power over the last two months. I think it’s a cardinal sin that in 2021 most naval games still have AI ships bumping into each other on a regular basis. I do understand that these things happen, but it shouldn’t be such a common occurrence when it’s broad daylight, everybody is in view, and nobody is actually being engaged. The men manning these ships were drilled for a reason, and drilled well. Collisions shall remain mostly a combat-induced occurrence or I will simply not deem the game to be functional. If my robot vacuum can avoid a chair in real life, my pixel boats should be able to find their way on the open seas! (...)

Besides, we are not giving up on the standards of our genre, as we do have a map interface already readily available for strategic moves and actions, but we needed something more easily relatable to the 3D world for hands-on moments such as air attacks or surface engagements. We ended up going for a system not unlike that in the Homeworld series with the so-called “sensors view”: a 3D tactical view which can be instantly summoned with a key stroke. So far trials have been going pretty well. It allows players to visualize altitude and distance more easily, it can be readily turned into a 2D-like view for traditionalists, and it provides the necessary background to use our cool smaller miniatures, which will make the in-game tactical map look like your average Fletcher Pratt-inspired living room.

We will go back in details to these functions over the course of the next few months, as new content is being added, fleshing them out somewhat. It is a relief, though, that it starts to look more and more like a real game rather than a tech demo. You can certainly take a breath now, we're on the right track!

The Art of Task Force Admiral - Giving Loading Screens their Old Glory Back!

Finally, Julien our 2D artist has been very busy over the last few months. A number of his fine artworks were published on our social media platforms. For today, we will focus on the main event, which was Julien’s rendition of Enterprise’s sortie from Pearl Harbor on December 9th 1941, following her nightly pit stop while Battleship Row was still burning in the background, giving the scene a rather gloomy look.

I can say that the team is truly blessed to count Julien as one of its pillars. Specialized and talented artists are not easy to come by and to combine. We are in the opinion indeed (French bias?) that art is really too important to be left in the hands of amateurs. How many times have you seen your favorite ship or aircraft on screen or on paper put in an awkward setting, paired with improbable or even anachronistic fellow models, with little to no concern shown for proportions, realism and overall credibility? To be honest, as of late, we have sometimes seen waifu-related art pay a better homage to the ships, the aircraft and the men we are trying to depict in TFA, than some games supposedly entirely about them. When you know that all it takes is a little bit of research, whether it is about the right sources or the right talents, it is a sad feeling indeed.



The amount of detail Julien went for in this scene is mesmerizing, whether it is about the appearance of Pearl Harbor that morning or that of Enterprise, which very specifically that day had not released her scouting, bombing and torpedo squadrons ashore. There was tension in the air indeed, as Enterprise had narrowly escaped the attention of the Japanese carrier force two days earlier. Her airgroup had suffered a lot, her SBDs being engaged during the attack on Pearl Harbor proper by Japanese aircraft, while her fighter squadron had fallen victim to friendly fire later in the darkness of the evening, as they approached NAS Ford Island. When she finally entered the port, her usual berth was unreachable, obstructed by the heavily damaged USS California. Moreover, there was no desire to linger and complicated maneuvers were prohibited: exceptionally, she would go around and drop anchor on the opposite side of Ford Island, where she would be attended by the oiler Neosho, of future dramatic Coral Sea fame. There would be no port call for the crew of Enterprise, as everybody was in a hurry to look for the supplies she would need for her next deployment – a job which usually would take several days in peacetime. To add to the overall feeling of despair, Neosho was inexplicably late to the rendezvous.

When she finally set sail in the morning of December 9, Enterprise had her fuel tanks filled up, her bomb bays full, her aircraft ready, as she embarked on her first actual war cruise. The “Galloping Ghost, off the Hawaiian Coast” was starting a war in which few would predict then she was to become the most decorated American warship of all times.

Talking about the glorious Yorktown sisters, let us not forget that yesterday was April 18, the 80th anniversary of the famed Doolittle raid. If you like Julien's work, let's post this one again, which celebrated the operation in most satisfying fashion indeed.

If you like this depiction of the blue lady and her valorous army fliers and might want them to grace your virtual desktop, click here to download the full resolution!

Here, it should be enough for today! If you liked what you've just read and you'd like to know more, don't hesitate to express your support by wishlisting Task Force Admiral. We're not quite sure yet when Enterprise, Hornet and their sisters will be ready, but we'll make sure to let you know when the moment will come for them - and for you - to join the Pacific Fleet!

Happy Easters to you all, and take good care!

The Task Force Admiral team.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Luka-boy]

Pretty nice dev interview.


Also this:

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

wow, just looking at all that data combined with 3D fleet command and operations gives me a huge boner...

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1281220/announcements/detail/3332122306741823239

Monthly Dev update #5 (August 2022) - Ghosts of Summer Past
The heat this month was no joke, but it does not mean we loosened our grip on the game between two dips in the pool!
Dear Fans,
Dear Followers,
Old & new,

Welcome to this August 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.

Hopefully we'll keep it short and to the point, with a recap of a few items of interest that have been explored this month, including some that were kept for this very update.

First of all, the video of the month, this time courtesy of our 3D artist Rizki. As people often ask us questions about our ships and how they're done, our artist filmed himself while recreating a ship from head to toe. Nothing fancy, it is an auxiliary, so it is comparatively simple - yet it is probably a good introductory video for those who might be interesting in trying out their skills in 3D ship making. Everybody has to start somewhere - might as well start with him!

His technique was mostly self-taught, like it is the case with many artists out there, so it certainly doesn't mean that there's a single right way to get to the final result. Yet, as Task Force Admiral will have to display massive engagements over a very large area, we made sure that all elements in the pipeline were as optimized as they can get. At the end of the day, this ship is a good example, as a game ready model which required less than 30,000 triangles. Sometimes the perfectionism, especially when it is all about applied knowledge, is about doing more with less rather than the other way around.




Featured in the video is AD-15 Prairie, as a good example of the auxiliaries you will find in-game. As a Dixie class tender, she shared a hull with USS Dixie (AD-14), but also in most part submarine tenders USS Fulton (AS-11) and USS Sperry (AS-12) and to some extent USS Curtiss (AV-4) - which requires a big fat hangar on the stern - all of which at one point or another contributed to the battles and theaters featured in Task Force Admiral vol.1, and will show up where they are supposed to be. And if they don't, well, you'll be free to tailor make some scenarios to make them shine! They will be joined by a large family of other smaller combatants, merchants or specialized vessels. Often ignored in the domain of gaming, auxiliaries were actually the most common sight even at sea or off the coast of Guadalcanal. Giving them the attention they deserve is paramount to making Task Force Admiral a bit different from what came before it, hopefully all for the best.



Note that Prairie and her sisters are only halfway to her homeport. It is time for Julien our 2D artist to ride the pipeline and use the assets produced by our 3D artist to give the ship her final look. In a game like Task Force Admiral, it is important to make the most out of the 2D art itself so as to complement, enhance the 3D model. Now that the original skin has been produced by Rizki, Julien can work his magic and start providing the ship with as many liveries as required - as you can see here with Kongo Maru, another one of these ubiquitous designs that you will often encounter in the game, and bomb accordingly.



The amount of work Julien accomplishes when fine-tuning 3D models into the ships you will have in-game is absolutely paramount to the end-user experience. You can very easily compared the result between the base 3D model of Yamato (1941) when she was fresh from the 3D shop in the July update, and how she looks like now, after a few good strokes of paintbrush and a huge load of talent. Hopefully we'll get to show you Prairie in her new clothes soon enough too!



Don't worry though, the art team wasn't the only one hard at work this month. Despite a short Summer respite so that we could spend a few quiet days with the family, one cannot say that time wasn't used productively




First of all, performance tuning is still on-going, and we did step it up a bit further. After the 50 v 50 dogfights of a few months ago, we wondered how it would scale beyond that, with, say, 200 aircraft and 50 or so ships in the same scene. We're happy to say that it is still going fine, with zero bug in sight. A most important matter when a battle like Midway entails having around 500 aircraft and 40 ships maneuvering in such a tight space. If they were to all meet in the middle of the ocean, one would have to take into account the workload of the AI and the effects proper, but when it comes to displaying these numbers, we are not too afraid.

On the GUI (Graphical User Interface) front, we have started the design process on the counters you will be using on the strategic map. Although the old tabletop-like wargame counters you could see in the original trailers were kinda cool (at least to yours truly ^^) and worked fine in our prototypes, it quickly became obvious that they were unfortunately a
cul-de-sac
design-wise. They wouldn't indicate the heading of the relevant task force or contact, would definitely loose clarity when zoomed out, even when rescaled... And last but not least, we just did not find a satisfying way to have them coexist when two forces are so close to each other that some sort of merging was required.

As such, we had to stray away from a purely skeuomorphistic approach by abstracting them to some extent. This will have the combined advantages of making the mission of the task forces clearer, and more obvious to the untrained eyed, while the round shape allows us to put a directional indicator along the ring. Although these below were early prototypes, we are definitely heading that way. Note that the large space above the ships will probably be used for a nationality flag to add to their readability. The facing will also help our color-blind players to more easily distinguish between friends and foes, beyond the colors themselves. As for the other information, it will be displayed in a dedicated pop up window during fly overs, not unlike what you had in games such as Task Force 1942 or 1942: The Pacific Air War.

Once the display system will be in place, at least sufficiently for proper testing, we will spend our time on the AI logic that brings these forces in contact and in conflict. Task Forces types, Tasks and waypoint types and everything they cover will finally be designed and implemented fully. As for the rest, it's reaching a point that I might call "mature" enough for dedicating our next round of effort to substance rather than looks. Getting there boys!

August was also, naturally the 80th anniversary of Operation Watchtower, which marked the beginning of the Guadalcanal campaign. Like all the rendezvous of 1942, we couldn't let that go without a small homage.




It came in the form of Julien's latest painting, depicting the last moments of unfortunate USS Quincy, sunk 80 years ago off the coast of Guadalcanal in the first of many bloody surface engagements in what was to become the Iron Bottom Sound. CA-39 sustained crippling damage during the engagement, leading to a dramatic loss of life, leaving more than half of her complement dead, wounded or missing in action.

Those who have an interest in learning more about her fate can read her official damage/loss report, available online at the Navy History and Heritage Command at this address.

Click here to download the high-res JPG version of Julien's work.

Finally, a shout out to Jochen Heiden, a noted
War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition
who has taken a liking to Task Force Admiral and has begun to cover us, and has kindly offered us shelter on his discord server too!

His tutorials are the top of the crop when it comes to taming that tough beast that is WitP:AE, so don't hesitate to subscribe to his channel if you are among the few ones who got acquainted with this monument these days, as it is sitting at a formidable -80% discount for an extra few days. If you're a PTO fan, that one game was very much worth its $80 - you can expect it to deliver all the same at $16!

That is all for today Folks!

Thank you all kindly for your attention, dear followers. Wishing you all a fine life September, especially to all those who study and work at school – days ahead remain tough, but there's one thing you can be certain of, is that we're way too far in development to let you down. Hopefully, we'll see each other again for great news by the end of the Fall. By the way, if you don't want to miss a thing, and aren't fond of Discord, Facebook, Twitter or else, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.



Cheers & see you for our next update!

The Task Force Admiral team.

 

[Burning Bridges]

that's a shitty update. I don't want to watch someone using Blender

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1281220/view/3282585172170900069

Monthly Dev update #6 (September 2022) - A busy month
September was filled with expectations - and progress was made!
Dear Fans,
Dear Followers,
Old & new,

Welcome to this September 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.

Life’s been sweet to us in September, at least by the standards set by 2023. We didn’t have much to complain about, we were among our loved ones, doing our work. That work, unfortunately for most of it wasn’t very graphic, and as such can only be mostly explained through the unabashed use of walls of text and a few diagrams. Yet, it was an important step in the direction of providing Task Force Admiral with a soul beyond its pretty face.

Operation Barebones, the codename we gave to our basic playable slice, is well on its way. This month was all about artificial intelligence & its strategic implications, along with efforts to provide the game with its strategic layer. With each passing week, Task Force Admiral is morphing into an actual game, and like many of you might think - clearly it was about time!

So as to make sure that the enemy and friendly AI in Task Force Admiral behaves in a believable fashion, we need to reconstruct carefully a scheme of thought. The AI will be asked to adhere to this logic, that tries to emulate the process you would expect from a commander faced with dilemmas, over and over again, and reacts dynamically to them – with some sense, but often with some wrong assumptions of his own. It means developing a specific set of tasks which will identify clear goals, whether these are dictated by the original mission objectives or by the ever-evolving combat situation.

Another department where some sweat was expended in no small measure is our interface for the Naval Search missions. Separate from defensive and offensive missions, this tool will ultimately allow you to program your sector searches, the ubiquitous opening move of any proper carrier battle during which both sides send scouts to locate their opponent before launching a strike.

Yet, although it is a common matter treated by all games about the topic, Naval Search ended up being a remake of the irreconcilable "the chicken or the egg" kind of conundrum: setting up a flightplan based on a given sector you wish to investigate (aka populating it with your aircraft) vs. generating a sector from the aircraft you have available. Sounds kinda simple & harmless enough, but it ends up being a rather game design-defining choice, and a tough one at that!

Each system had a few issues of its own when it came to providing us with the tools needed for the job. The latter is actually what people usually have in games like that - say, in Carriers at War, Task Force & Pacific Air War, for instance. You add aircraft from your pool, sub-sectors are created each time and add to each other, and there you go, that's the good old Microprose way many of you have been used to, easy to use. I'd know that, I could use it when I was 9 and set in another language, so it must have been pretty handy after all!

On the other hand, you also have the rarer breed of the sector taking precedence over aircraft themselves, 2by3's War in the Pacific being one example. But even then, a squadron is limited to one sector search at a time, which means that you need two units when you need to cover two sectors. Mostly, each technique encountered can be either put under one or the other doctrine, with their own limitations. These are limitations we attempted to solve in TFA, hopefully with some luck, observing the best practices and learning from our illustrious forebearers. Here's the preliminary result we came up with.

After some experimenting, we ended up convinced that the mission itself (aka the area to search) shall be the defining item, rather than the result of the air assets you have in hand - and if the latter don't work to cover your needs, then you'll have to revise your needs to take your limitations into account. Similarly, using a mission-based system rather than a plane-based system allows you to create as many search plans as you like, including two-phased ones or sector searches going in opposite directions, yet worked on separately by aircraft from the same squadron.

This done, the next stage will now include the vital doctrine-related & behavioral choices we want to inject in the gameplay, so as to allow you to brief your scout pilots - simply, but with some clarity - regarding what you expect from them. We will hopefully cover that in the next update, if all things go well in October, that is!

While Jean Baptiste our coder was busy trying to assemble the brains of our game, one cog at a time, obviously other had his own workload.

Now that most of the fleet is on its way to finalization, our 3D artist had some spare time to dedicate for a smaller task – and by that we don’t mean a matter not less important in the larger scheme of thing, but purely something that doesn’t involve big ships, but little men.

Our local pixeltruppen, that is our digital sailors, officers & other crewmen, are often requested as a feature in the comments left & right in our social media. Do understand that they are a concern for us all the same, but we are looking for the right most satisfying and balanced way of including them to the game without incurring a disproportional workload that would possibly affect our overall timetable and pipeline. For now, we will probably settle for static crewmen which will certainly add some bits of life to the scenes, despite their unequivocal stillness.



Adding animated models would require the opening of a different can of worms we can ill afford right now, but obviously our wish is to get there at some time down the line, especially if we were to be successful at release. It is, when all things are said and done, in the category of pure eye-candy, but this is the sort of feature that contributes its own valuable little step towards an improved overall immersion.

In the same fashion, don't expect these soldiers above to jump out of their Daihatsu barge and storm a beach. For now, it is all about adding some more immersion to the mix, and we will certainly develop this further as time goes once the game will be seating on solid foundations. But until then, at least we won't be afflicted with that silly "ghost ship syndrome" most of you dislike so much! Better than nothing, like they say.



As for the 2D front, we’ve been painting new ships one after another, while still researching better rendering techniques for our vehicles. As our skins are all layered with different effect, working on a given layer in order to improve a given effect doesn’t impact workflow as much as it used to back in the day when a single overall skin was to include everything you needed to dress up your model. Rivets in particular are a tough customer. Whether they are visible or flushed, they still require an extra bit of attention to render properly while being optimized so as not to slow gameplay to a crawl when a wave of 50 SBD is about to dive on the Kido Butai. The progress is probably more apparent with pics rather than words, so I’ll let the pixels speak!



And that will be all for this update! As a final word, yet again, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.



Cheers & see you for our next update!

The Task Force Admiral team.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1281220/view/3389548200201300022

Task Force Admiral Devlog #7 (Oct.2022) - Startin' to look like a game, indeed!
As days pass, TFA is truly starting to look more like an actual game rather than a cute screenshot generator!
Dear Fans,
Dear Followers,
Old & new,

Welcome to this October 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.

Some new progress to show this month. Most has been showcased in our previous weekly updates on our social platforms, but as these are usually limited in terms of length of text and media quantity, this update is an opportunity to put that all somewhere, where it matters, and where it will last!

We will actually start with the main dish. Those who have been following us know that we have been making steady progress in the development of the GUI & gameplay-related functions over the last few weeks, bringing Task Force Admiral every day a bit closer to an actual game, rather than a mere tech demonstrator, if I was to be say it in a silly way. Here's a series of comments we posted regarding our scouting system and how the AI interacts with it, which will offer some insight in what we've been doing.



First of all, we've been teaching our Artificial Intelligence engine the ropes of carrier combat - and carrier combat 101 says that a good battle starts with some good scouting. This was also the opportunity to test our basic friendly fog of war. Indeed, we wanted to make sure that you actually lose contact with your scouts (at least as a permanently spotted, accurate plot on the map) the moment they leave your immediate sighting and radar range. That worked. And when they come back, they are also coming back as unidentified aircraft, so that works too. So far so good.

Still, it would be a bit unfair to leave you with no clue whatsoever in regard of where their position is, so we added a small icon on their flight plan which tells you where they
should be
if everything went well. Naturally, if they got shot down without sending a report, them not returning at all will be your first hint that perhaps not everything went so well on that specific search sector...






In other cases, we also had contacts spotted before a radical turn, and with the original spotter shot down shortly after its first report, the AI was not updated and sent its aircraft out there in the void. An embarrassing episode for that Japanese raid indeed, missing its target by a whole 50-60 miles. Bad luck, but all too historical actually!

By recreating the conditions for the random blunders of the era, we sure hoped to see our game recreate them organically, with as little intervention on our part as possible. Fortunately, our theory in terms of design did deliver ultimately, and we had our first small AI carrier vs AI carrier engagement proceeding as it should - that is, absolutely chaotically. We have described it below:

Ok, it wasn't really a full-fledged carrier battle, as we're still adding feature after feature, but that was the first time carriers actually engaged each other in some remotely comprehensive way that involved a full day of scouting & attacks, before retiring at night (which was helped by the fact that these ships cannot sustain damage as of now - again, upcoming features).

What was more interesting was that it was a full AI on AI battle, with no human intervention, and it was pretty fun to see how things evolved organically from very similar, remotely different standpoints using our observer mode. It might look like much from here, but believe me it tells some beautiful stories, really, and ends up being a happy confirmation that the gameplay certainly has much original potential.
The day started with a scouting mission programmed for each side. Both carrier task forces had an "interdiction" task set for them, which implied that they would search a given sector, either provided by the scenario maker (the case here), the player (if it's a friendly TF) or generated from known data (that is, around the area the AI would expect the enemy to be the day following a loss of contact later during a scenario).

As scouts went on their respective business, they both encountered the enemy and reported its position. The scouts on the IJN side were sent up faster (as the US carriers started in a recovery mode, necessitating a few extra minutes of rearrangement of the aircraft on deck). That mere factor changed a lot of things, actually.



As the scouts left the vicinity of the enemy force (ultimately you will be free to order them to loiter & shadow relevant enemy forces, but it wasn't part of their instructions here), strikes were prepared on both sides. The scouts weren't shot down (we haven't programmed automatic CAP yet) so they went to the end of their research leg and returned. The info having reached the Japanese carrier force first, it meant that the Japanese raid went out first and cleared the decks before the return of the US scout above the Japanese TF.



On the other hand, the US strike was still assembling when the Japanese scout came back, and it was shot down by a fighter.



This resulted in the Japanese losing sight of the US force, while the US side didn't. As both carrier task forces changed their heading a few minutes after that to remain in range of the enemy, the US acout came back in time to report this change, but nobody was now in position to do so on the Japanese side. The result is that despite faster reaction times, the Japanese strike was sent on a wild goose chase. As the Japanese bomber slipped by the US force, missing it from 50-60 nautical miles, the US force went straight for the enemy. Yet, the US force also experienced its own issues: it was now approaching the Japanese carriers with part of its escort lagging behind after having attacked the snooper...



These events are actually reminiscent of actions that took place on different sides in 1942 (the afternoon IJN raid at Eastern Solomons, which missed completely the US force for the first one ; the catastrophic distraction of Hiryu's escorting force at Midway, going out of its way to intercept lagging SBDs on the ingress leg, along with a comparable event at Santa Cruz for the second). And it is refreshing to know that these kind of SNAFU events can be generated by the flow of battle as long as the conditions are met to recreate their causes. That's what happens with a handful of aircraft in the air - imagine when there will be dozens of them, with their comms & doctrine fully implemented. Can't wait!



As October went along, we added feature after feature to the engine. The AI is now capable of setting up CAP patrols and is actively engaging incoming strikes all by itself.



We are also working on AAA (anti-air artillery) logic. We are testing guns on a few platforms first, so as to make sure that they will be properly calibrated in-game. But even with just a mere two ships firing, the results are pretty convincing, if not impressive at times in terms of volume of fire... Approaching a US Task Force will ill intents will be costly, as it should be!
















It's all very work in progress of course, but it's a good taste of things to come. This one is quite buggy, because the ships did not have a hitbox yet, and the aircraft don't explose on impact just yet, but here's a Val getting shot down on its dive and hitting the water just a few feet away from the carrier, like it happened so often in 1942. Hopefully this aspect will be functional in time for the next dev update - and I'll happily try to record a Val attack from Yorktown's vulture's row!



And, last but not least, a few shots of the Japanese strike getting home. Or at least, whatever is left of it after overstaying its welcome over the US task force (and yeah don't worry, Shokaku's antennas will be lowered during air ops, eventually!)







Ok, that was a long trek already. Now for those who like nice looking models, we had a new addition to the roster with Wasp, re-made with much love by our 3D artist Rizki. I am quite sure those among you who know about that one lady will appreciate the research he went through so as to recreate all aspects of her specific construction.



Her peculiar side elevator has always been a fan's favorite. It will be around for sure, at least, when we'll have understood how to animate it properly!



She's getting the full treatment, and is nearly ready for integration. With some more objects added...



... and her basic skin applied, she will soon encounter the digital paintbrush of Julien, our 2D artist, for her second life, a little more than 80 years after her dramatic loss.



Now, as a final shout-out, I wanted to mention two videos of importance released this month about Task Force Admiral. First, obviously Stealth17's blockbuster who brought us quite a few new fans from all around the world. If you were interested in hearing a second opinion about our July gameplay trailer, search no more, that man has you covered!

And yet, if the perspective of a longtime UAD player wasn't close to enough, let me introduce you to Tim Migaki's take on the very same trailer - only this time for a full hour, and coming from somebody who's into real-life naval matters. About that, if you're into Navy stuff of all sort, and especially literature, don't hesitate to pay his great blog Fair Winds & Following Seas a visit!

Big thanks to both of them for their kind coverage

That is all for today Folks! Thank you all kindly for your attention, dear followers. Hope that extended gibberish made sense. That was another long one, but don't worry though - unlike what has been claimed by some out there - to my bewilderment really... - these updates do not affect in any way the pace of development, besides providing our single dev with some comfort to see his work being acknowledged and archived (who knows, we might need that for a making-of some day!). Our online presence is fully handled by yours truly, the producer, who doesn't get to write a single line of code or author a single stroke of virtual brush. Besides contributing to keep our feet firmly on the ground, while developing a sense of responsibility in regard of the feedback we offer our community and our publisher, these updates are a handy way to maintain a presence online and reassure those who might be wondering about the state of development of our baby. Hopefully, some of you do enjoy these monthly rendezvous. At the very least, we do!

As always, if you aren't too fond of Discord, Facebook, Twitter or else, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.




Cheers & see you for our next update!

The Task Force Admiral team.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Looks p. decent tbh fam, but I would really like to see how the ship on ship and ship on submarine combat is going to look like. It would be great if the game had other aspects aside of planing the aircraft operations.