Rule the Waves 3 News

We know there are a lot of fans of Rule the Waves out there; finally you can read all the new features and improvements that the developers have made for Rule the Waves 3.

There are a lot of changes compared to the previous game:

POLITICS AND STRATEGIC AFFAIRS
Rule the Waves 3 offers new nations, a new region and new political options, we made some changes to improve the strategic level of the game, such as:

• 8 AI nations will be in play
  
• AI nations can now go to war with each other and suffer consequential losses
  
• We added China and Spain as playable nations
  
• There is a new Baltic region
  
• Treaties get tonnage limits and you can affect treaty negotiations in more detail.
  
• Nations may now choose national training focused on Damage Control.
  
• Larger naval bases require more time and cost more to build.
  
• Before wireless telegraphy, strategic movements in remote areas may be delayed.
  
• Submarines can now be moved on the strategic map
  

SHIP DIVISIONS
Ship divisions give you unprecedented control over your own assets.

You are in control: You can determine for yourself the number of ships and their compatibility when you form your divisions. You can set your division's subordination and assign the role the division will play if it finds itself thrust into battle.

Each division is unique: You will find that each of your divisions will form its own personality, nurtured in training but forged in battle, and guided by the particular personality of its divisional commander. Whether it is in the chaos of battle or in the measured movement between regions, divisions will operate as a single entity.

Division nuts and bolts: Creating divisions is completely voluntary, you may use them or ignore them as you wish. Divisions may be altered slightly by the battle generator before entering battle depending on the number of ships assigned to the battle and the type of mission. There is no requirement that all ships in a division be operational or even be located in the same region.

NEW COMMANDERS, NEW BATTLES
Naval officers impact many different ship operations both in and out of battle.

Officer on deck: Every ship above the size of a destroyer will have a captain, while all divisions get a divisional commander.
Officers have ranks, and can be promoted; they have personal traits that can evolve as they age. Officers get a detailed personal history. They can be re-assigned, sacked, retire and expire from old age or die gloriously in battle (or be rescued from their sinking ship). They can be experts at maneuver, engineering, rate of fire, accuracy or diligently work to improve ship morale, but they can also be terrible administrators, lousy motivators, overly devoted to exercise or music, have a tendency to have ill-advised affairs or even fight duels.
Depending on your inclination you can exercise intimate control over promotions, assignments and sackings or you can ignore the entire system and let the AI handle it for you.

The AI fights better: AI nations will tend to avoid battles in constricted waters after aircraft become effective weapons. There are also changes to how forces act during battles. Fleets now have an overall morale that can affect how each ship in the fleet behaves in battle. Ships will be less likely to target already sinking ships, carriers are less likely to continue to operate aircraft when threatened by a downwind enemy, destroyers will take a more aggressive position when in a support role.

AIRCRAFT EVOLVE
Rule the Waves 3 offers a number of new aircraft types, weapons and airborne abilities.



More New Aircraft:

• Special squadrons with a mix of aircraft with specialized roles such as SAR, ASW & ECM.
  
• Helicopters offer better ASW performance and can be carried by most ships.
  

Fancy planes need fancy weapons:

• Medium bombers can deploy an experimental rocket-assisted torpedo
  
• Air-to-surface missiles can be carried by most prop and jet aircraft.
  
• Some aircraft are able to carry two torpedoes.
  
• Night aircraft require the proper technology and training.
  
• Light jets cost more than prop planes and heavier jets are even more expensive.
  
• Jets occupy more space on carriers than do prop planes, especially heavy jets.
  
• Carriers must undergo modifications to operate jets of any size.
  

SHIPS EVOLVE
Rule the Waves 3 provides new features for ships with new equipment and abilities.

Ships gain abilities new and old:

• You can install VTE, coal-fired turbines, oil-fired turbines and gas turbines.
  
• All ships age more appropriately, suffering a variety of ills as they age.
  
• Every move and battle is recorded in a ship history for all ships.
  
• Most larger ships will be capable of equipping a helipad to improve ASW.
  

Carriers launch into the jet age:

• Before they can operate jets, existing carriers must undergo an extensive refit.
  
• Carriers that are too small suffer capacity penalties when operating heavier jets.
  
• The conning tower may now be completely removed during carrier conversions.
  
• Carriers can operate helicopters to improve their ASW in a “special squadron.”
  

Ship construction and repair enhancements:

• Each nation has a maximum shipyard capacity.
  
• Helicopters can be deployed from any ship to enhance recon and ASW.
  
• If you build huge battleships, the AI nations may counter with its own behemoths.
  
• Damaged ships can be placed in mothball status to delay the cost of repairs.
  

SHIP WEAPONS SYSTEMS
New weapons, new systems

Pre–20th Century Systems:

• Short-ranged and inaccurate weapons but they were the best available in the 1890s.
  
• Early torpedoes have very short ranges but can easily sink an ironclad.
  
• Ships built in the 90s will have compound, nickel-steel or Harvey armor.
  

Post-WW2 Defensive Systems:

• Radar-directed AA guns gain greatly improved anti-jet and missile capability.
  
• Premium anti-aircraft protection in an efficient and compact package.
  
• Fast short-range cannons providing last ditch protection from missiles.
  
• SAM systems of increasing range and accuracy for all but the smallest ships.
  
• ECM systems and other countermeasures reduce the hit chance for missiles aimed at the ship.
  

Powerful new ASW Weapons:

• These weapons offer a longer-ranged ASW solution for small ships.
  
• Helicopters deployed on ships increase ASW capability..
  

The Ultimate Anti-ship weapons:

• By the 1960s missile weapons will begin to dominate surface combat.
  

SUBMARINES, DESTROYERS AND ASW
New abilities and new dangers.

Submarines rise: Submarines gain an operational mode in the Expansion as submarines can now move between regions. The total number of submarines on active patrol in a region will be reduced to account for boats in transit and undergoing refit, making long-ranged submarines quite valuable. Both submarines and ASW ships on trade patrol will do their work only in the region in which they are currently located. Missile submarines put in an appearance, but no nuclear power or weapons are included in the game.

Destroyers swell: Destroyers have been addressed as well, increasing their usability and use. AI nations now build substantially more destroyers. The AI uses destroyers more effectively by positioning them closer to the front of supported divisions. Destroyers get a new maximum size of 3,500 tons that allows them to effectively deploy guided missile systems.

ASW gets serious: Anti-submarine efforts have not been ignored. Surface ships gain improved ASW weapons with the introduction of rocket-assisted anti-submarine torpedoes. The introduction of helicopters allows most ships to improve their ASW capabilities by fitting a helipad. Even aircraft carriers can operate helicopters to improve their ASW efforts. You will be informed if you have too few destroyers to protect your fleet against enemy submarines.

For the casual player: Not interested in the additional work to manage submarines? No worries, the new functions of submarines can be automated. It's easy to turn over control of both the construction and deployment of submarines to the AI.

GUIDED MISSILES
A dangerous new world

ASMs - The earliest guided weapons:

• Air to Surface missiles - ASMs can be carried by most aircraft, including prop planes and eventually, helicopters. They come in several sizes and are equipped with warheads that are equivalent in destructive power to similarly sized SSMs. Guided bombs that can punch through most deck armor will be used by medium bombers as an early precursor to ASMs.
  

Surface to Air Missiles — Potent jet killers:

• Heavy SAMs - These weapons are very large and require a large ship for deployment. They have great range and can knock down aircraft even before they come close enough to fire their own weapons.
  
  
• Medium SAMS - The earliest guided missile weapons to be developed, medium SAMs offer very good anti-jet capabilities, but require considerable space, have some installation restrictions, and can only attack aircraft that are actively attacking their task force.
  
  
• Light SAMs - The main benefit of light SAMs are that they can be installed in most ships and in locations unavailable to heavier SAMs. These are close-in, last-ditch weapons without much more range, but with better accuracy than dual-purpose guns. They can also shoot down incoming missiles.
  

SSMs — Surface combat will never be the same:

By the early 1950s Surface to surface missiles will begin to transform surface warfare. While first generation SSMs are limited to targets within visual range, later generations have ranges that allow attacks even beyond surface radar range. Most SSMs lack great penetration power but cause substantial damage to upper works,

• Heavy SSMs - These weapons offer great range and power but take up substantial deck space. The penetration ability of early versions against heavily armored ships is fair but can be improved through technology advances. If they hit superstructure, they will cause massive damage fires.
  
  
• Medium SSMS - Medium SSMs provide good range and cause considerable damage. They can easily wreck superstructures and cause fires.
  
  
• Light SSMs - Light SSMs can be used effectively against lighter ships but can do little other than cause fires and knock down deck structures against moderately armored ships.
  
  

Air to Air Missiles — Deadly new weapons

• AAMs - Air to air missiles enhance the air attack ratings of aircraft that carry them.
  

A SUPERCHARGED SUPERSTRUCTURE EDITOR



New abilities for the Superstructure editor:

• Each superstructure layer may now have a different color assigned.
  
• The size of each layer may be individually scaled, expanding or contracting the layer to make the layer fit the image more accurately.
  
• Entire ship superstructures may be scaled, allowing a ship drawing to be used for different sized hulls.
  
• The position of individual layers, or the entire superstructure, may be adjusted vertically within the drawing, allowing precise positioning.
  
• A layer’s order may be changed (Change layer 3 to be layer 5.)
  
• Each layer and the entire ship superstructure drawing may be saved as separate files. This allows ship drawings and separate components, such as bridges and masts, to be reused between games or even shared.
  

We hope you liked what you read, Rule the Waves 3 is coming on May 18th, wishlist the game and prepare to command your ships.

As Rule the Waves 3 is a game with a large focus on the evolution of naval ship design, the ship designer is at the heart of the game. RTW3 lets you design any ship from a small corvette up to the mightiest super-battleship. And not only does it cover a large range of ship sizes, it handles over 80 years of technological development in naval history, from 1890 to 1970. The technologies used to build ironclads powered by reciprocating steam engines in the 1890s were of course vastly different from the gas turbine powered missile cruisers of the 1970s. Technological development is realistically covered in the game and will set the limits for your ship designs.

Designing a French ironclad in the 1890s

When you design a ship, you should try to think of its role within the context of your navy. Take cruisers for example. If you have a nation with widespread colonies and interests around the world, you might consider a colonial cruiser. This would be equipped for colonial service, it would probably be best to optimize engines for reliability, and you would want it to have long range. That will cost weight, so it probably won’t be very fast, but you will get a sturdy workhorse that can show the flag in the colonies and still be useful when war comes.

A scout cruiser for the Imperial German Navy

On the other hand, there might be a need for dedicated fleet cruiser as a scout for the battle fleet. High speed is desirable, of course, but we can live with cramped accommodation and short range, as it will only be operating in home waters. We can even be bold and optimise engines for performance, accepting the risk of the occasional breakdown. This is the opposite of the workhorse above. Here we have the temperamental racehorse, optimised for one mission, but sensitive and picky.

Yet another cruiser type might be the raider. We would want reliable engines to be able to operate for long periods away from friendly bases, and long range is desirable. Speed should be enough to avoid heavy enemy patrolling ships, but we could build her strong enough to defeat what she cannot run from.

These considerations are similar for larger ships. If you are playing Austria-Hungary for example, you have no colonies and no interests outside the Mediterranean. You can go for smaller battleships with low range, cramped accommodation and low freeboard, thus saving weight to make them compact but capable. Keeping down the displacement keeps down costs, so you can build more of them, and you will hopefully be able to fight nations with far larger resources who have worldwide obligations that require them to equip ships for service anywhere in the world.

A British G3 type battlecruiser in the 1920s

There are some specialist ships that you should not neglect. The lowly 400-ton corvette is actually an essential unit in any navy. It can patrol the coasts against submarines and its presence in an area will reduce the risks of mine strikes for larger ships. Having a decent number of small corvettes avoids having to use destroyers as ASW patrols, which could denude the battle fleet of destroyers.

Another ship to consider for nations with large colonial interests is the colonial gunboat. This will be a corvette with 1500 tons displacement or so, equipped for colonial service. This makes it good for fulfilling obligations to have tonnage on foreign stations, freeing up cruisers. If equipped with a couple of 5 or 6 inch guns, it can even put up a fight against an enemy raiding light cruiser.

The Light and heavy cruiser types will morph into missile cruisers from the 1950s as missiles will start to dominate naval combat. Missile cruisers usually specialize in either the anti-aircraft role or the anti-surface role.

A missile cruiser for the US Navy

But new construction is not all that the ship designer can do. Old ships might need modernization to be able to extend their service life in your Navy, and the designer lets you rebuild ships, within realistic limits of course. You can modernize fire control, change the secondary battery to dual purpose guns, add light and medium AA guns, floatplanes and other similar equipment.

Ship design might seem complicated looking at the screenshots above, but do not worry, you need not design ships from scratch. The ship designer has a powerful auto-designer that will design any ship type for you. A usual method is to press the auto-design button until you see something that you like, and then modify that ship design to your taste. Another way is to start with an existing ship design and modify that to take advantage of new technology or adapt it to new threats.

Ship design in RTW3 sees you continuously develop your ships to give your Navy the tools it needs to prevail on the high seas. Naval combat will be the ultimate test of your designs.

Rule the Waves 3 is a simulation of naval ship design and construction, fleet management and naval warfare from 1890 to 1970.

You are placed in the role of 'Grand Admiral' of a navy from the time when steam and iron dominated warship design up to the missile age.

Rule the Waves 3 lets you design and build the ships of your navy and lead them into battle when war erupts.

You can guide your navy's deployment, construction, and operations during a period of great technological innovation and political tensions.

While the game derives much of its technology and events from 'actual' history, you can also forge your own new history each and every time you play!

The game will be released on May 18th both on Matrix Games and Steam: Wishlist now.

Rule the waves 3 has a number of improvements over its predecessors. The most obvious one is the extension of the time period covered to allow for a truly epic scale. RTW3 starts in 1890, which means that the early game includes some really weird ironclad designs. The game mechanics have also been adapted to cover technology and tactics in that period, mainly shorter combat ranges and armor being stronger relative to gun penetration.

In the other end of the game in the post-WWII period up to 1970, the missile age has been incorporated. Where RTW2 had only the most modest beginnings of the missile age, in RTW3 you can design fully fledged missile cruisers with a wide choice of missile armament and missile defences. Various types of Anti-ship missiles and Anti-aircraft missiles are included, as are more modern light and medium AA guns. The technology of AA defences changes dramatically as the massive WW2 arrays of light and medium AA guns that are so distinctive of late WW2 battleships and aircraft carriers are replaced by fewer but more accurate radar directed weapons.

Jet aircraft are also now handled in more detail, and carriers have to be rebuilt to handle larger jet aircraft. Two new aircraft roles have been added, Heavy Jet Fighters and Jet Attack aircraft.

No other naval wargame allows for such a wide range, starting in the pre-Dreadnought era, progressing through the advent of naval airpower and continuing well into the missile age. Guiding your fleet through these major strategic and tactical revolutions makes for a lot of interesting and fun decisions.



But RTW3 is not only about increasing the time span. There have been many other improvements and additions.

For example, you can now group your ships into permanent divisions, and assign them roles relative to other divisions. In effect, you can set up the structure of your entire fleet. This will translate to battle, obviously with some modifications depending on the size of battle and the circumstances.



In RTW3 you can also now assign officers to command your ships. The officers will vary in quality and are differentiated by traits that can influence their behaviour, in battle and ashore. These traits are initially unknown but will show themselves gradually as officers progress through their careers.



Ship graphics have been improved in RTW3. Turrets have a national style, and it is now possible to make more detailed ship designs with visual adornments like ship’s boats, gratings and light AA guns being added. These will not affect the combat performance of the ship, but if you like creating beautful little ships, you will enjoy them in combat so much more.



Apart from these major changes there have been lots of smaller improvements:

* 8 nations are now in play.
* There can be AI vs AI wars without the player nation being involved.
* There is a new Baltic region.
* Treaties now have tonnage restrictions, and the player can affect treaty negotiations.
* Submarines are less abstracted and can now be moved on the strategic map.

We have also included a host of other improvements to the damage model, hit chances, air attacks, air combat and other aspects of the simulation. There have also been a number of UI improvements, many suggested by players of previous editions of Rule the Waves.

Rule the Waves III is a simulation of ship design, fleet management and naval combat that depicts the period from 1890 to 1970, covering eighty years of naval history with changing technology and tactics.

Rule the Waves III places you in the role of 'Grand Admiral' of one of the leading navies of the time. Playable nations are USA, Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Austria Hungary, Russia, Spain and China. The game will let you design and build the ships of your navy, and lead them into battle when war erupts. You will guide your navy's deployment, construction and operations during a period of great technological innovation and political tensions.

Playing as Italy, tensions are heating up with Austria-Hungary. Best to take a look at what we know about their ships.

The player will have to deal with interfering Navy ministers, Kaisers and Presidents, as well as other aspects of politics and economics. You can influence but not decide foreign policy, so to some extent you and your navy can be subject to the turns and twists of changing politics. While there will be periods of higher or lower tensions, you can never know for sure when your navy will have to stand the test of battle.

Rule the Waves is not a simple game. Ship design, battles and the limits of command and control of the time are portrayed realistically. Some grasp of 20th century naval warfare and warships is not necessary, but certainly will be helpful for players of the game. The game focuses on realistic ship design, technical development and naval combat and tactics. If you are genuinely interested in naval history, warship construction and the way navies fought and manoeuvred in the first half of the 20th century, this is a game that will keep you engaged for many hours. If you want quick action packed battles with ships exploding in 3D graphics and no complications, this game might not be for you. Be aware that graphics in RTW are adequate for the purposes of the simulation, but not cutting edge.

There is an in game naval almanac to keep an eye on the opposition. Here we take a look at the British fleet.

You will design and build the ships of your Navy. The game includes a detailed and comprehensive ship designer where you can design your own ideal ship, from dreadnought battleships down to the lowly antisubmarine corvette or minesweeper. However, if you do not want to design ships from the keel up, there is an autodesigner that can design the ship for you, and you can just change any details you might want to alter.

Once designed you need to build your ships. A battleship can take several years to build, and as technical development in the period covered move quickly, this means that ships can be obsolete by the time they are commissioned. As a player, this might be frustrating, but it affects the opposing nations as well. You will have to learn to live with it and learn how to plan ahead.

Designing a battlecruiser for the US Navy in the ship designer

There is a temptation to delay the design of that battleship you are planning, to take advantage of the latest technology. But you must keep in mind that as construction times of major warships are several years, you may find yourself in a situation where you have to fight with the navy you have, and not the one you are planning that will be ready in two years' time.

At your disposition you will have a naval budget. The budget will vary with political decisions, in times of high tension it will tend to rise, while in times of low tension, the politicians will tend to want to cut down on naval expenditures. You will often be consulted on foreign policy matters by the Kaiser, Prime Minister or President. Hawkish answers will tend to drive up tension and increase the navy budget, while more measured responses will keep tensions manageable.

When war erupts, you will coordinate the operations of your fleet and lead it on the seas of battle to further the ambitions of your nation. You can deploy your navy in sea zones across the globe. Battles are generated semi randomly depending on where your ships are deployed and depending on amphibious operations or other activities.

When tactical battles occur, they will be played out on the tactical map where your ships will deploy and fight according to the doctrine and technology of the time, which will change gradually over the ages of the game.

Battles are simulated with realistic tactics, formations and limited by weather and visibility. You can select varying levels of realism in command and control. On admiral’s mode you will only control your flagship, while other formations will be given roles in relation to the flagship.  On lower levels of realism, you can control all divisions of ships in your fleet and even the gunnery of individual ships.

Gunnery, torpedoes and later bombs and missiles and their effects will all be simulated in realistic detail. Armour penetration is of course covered, modified by current shell and armour technology. Damage to ships is realistically applied, including progressive flooding, fires and critical hits.

Later battles will include aircraft, both carrier-based and land-based, as well as missiles.

It is in war the ships that you have designed will have to stand their test in battle. Was that new battleship design such a great idea? And that cruiser that sacrificed armour for speed, how did that work out?  Only the crucible of real naval combat will give the answer.

There are options to start the game in 1890, 1900, 1920 or 1935. When the game starts, you will have an existing legacy fleet at game start. The legacy fleet is normally generated automatically, but can optionally be built manually in the 1900 start. The game ends in 1970, but there is an option to continue the game until 1980, though technological progress will trail off after the regular game ends.


Starting a game as France

Note that Rule the Waves centres around the campaign game where you design, build and fight with your own Navy. There are no historical scenarios and the starting fleets do not recreate historical orders of battle. The starting fleets for the various start dates are realistic ships for that time period and the various navies, but are not the exact ships that composed those navies at that time.

Rule that Waves is single player only, but with  a competent AI that will design ships and fight naval battles in a realistic manner.

In the upcoming developer diaries we will take a look at how Rule the Waves III differs from RTWI and II, ship design and also tactics and battles in the different time periods Rule the Waves III covers from 1890-1970.