Hello and welcome dzeijay,
Sorry for missing this posting earlier. Apparently a lot of threads were marked as read without me having seen them, so if anybody else feels we missed anything over the Gamescom week, feel free to bump it a bit.
Thank you for developing this promising game! The genre has been waiting for new masterpieces for quite some time now...
Just a few questions about the game since we've not seen the actual demos yet
1) Is the 3D part of the game just for visualizing the outcome or used for control/command purposes as well, meaning can the game be completely played with a tactical display/map only? Are the 3D models somehow involved in damage/outcome resolution or is damage computed behind the scenes and just visualized?
We are planning for the 3D view to be mainly visualisation. The interaction will take place mostly, if not exclusively, on the overview map. You should, however, receive very useful visual feedback about what is going on there, so it's not just eye candy.
2) Compared to e.g. Harpoon games, is NWAC going to be a similar simulation of naval warfare with tons of heavy calculations under the hood or more closer to an action RTS with simplified battlemodelling?
There's tons of heavy calculations under the hood, indeed
But we think that this does not detract from an RTS approach to the gameplay mechanics.
Simple examples: a detection is calculated based on a huge array of factors, including sensor power, bearing, distance, size/noise, stealth, coating, other nearby units, depth/terrain, sun and moonlight, the weather and jamming. So it's not a simple matter of being within a set range. However, for a player, you detect it, or you don't
3) Coastlines are going to be quite accurate, but are you enabling archipelagos as well for hiding purposes?
That's the plan.
4) Have you decided the final unit list already? Did any Finnish units make it there? =)
The unit list is not completed, but the Hamina class missile boat is on it indeed.
The Finnish air force is using Hornets, which we'll probably not include. Maybe we'll make a wild assumption and guess that the Finnish are going to get some Super Hornets as a replacement