Info about Rule the Waves 3:

Official game description:
Build Your Navy, from pre-Dreadnoughts to **Aircraft Carriers** and **Missile Cruisers**!  
**Rule the Waves III** is a simulation of naval ship design and construction, fleet management and naval warfare from 1890 to 1970.  
It will place you 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 III** 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. While the game derives much of its technology and events from 'actual' history, you will find that you forge your own new history each and every time you play!
Features
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*   Campaigns start in either 1890, 1900,1920 or 1935 and can run through 1970.  
*   Monthly strategic turns with Battles resolved in a realistic tactical naval battle resolution system.  
*   Manage your naval budget, and deal with interfering Kaisers, presidents or navy ministers as well as a variety of historical events including naval treaties.  
*   Realistic design of ships ranging from corvettes to battleships and aircraft carriers.  
*   Research and technical development will determine ship design and tactics.  
*   Espionage will keep you up to date on the progress of competing navies  
*   Submarines, airships, aircraft and missiles will all appear and change the naval balance of power.  
*   Build, train, maintain and fight with your own 'ideal' navy.  
*   Construct coastal fortifications, airbases and other defenses  
*   Play as USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, Spain, Austria-Hungary, or China.

Release date: 18 May, 2023

Categories: Naval Combat, Ship Customization, Fleet Management, Strategic Combat, Resource Management, Single-player, Historical Strategy, Research and Discovery


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Premier Naval Simulation Experience (weight 0.94): Players consistently praise the game as a top-tier, highly detailed, and immersive naval simulation. Its unique focus on historical naval warfare, ship design, and fleet management from the 1890s through the missile age sets it apart from competitors, offering an unparalleled experience for naval enthusiasts.
- Highly Engaging & Addictive Gameplay (weight 0.75): The game is widely described as incredibly fun, engaging, and highly addictive, often leading to a 'one more turn' compulsion. Players report spending dozens to hundreds of hours enjoying the strategic depth and satisfying gameplay loop.
- Deep & Immersive Strategy (weight 0.57): Reviewers highlight the game's exceptional depth, complexity, and immersive qualities. It offers a rich, thought-through experience with extensive design decisions and well-researched historical accuracy, rewarding players who delve into its intricate mechanics.
- Robust Ship Design System (weight 0.39): The ship design system is a standout feature, offering immense freedom and detail in creating various historical and unique vessels. Players find great satisfaction in tweaking designs, managing budgets, and seeing their creations perform in battle.
- Accessible & Functional UI (weight 0.18): Despite an initial perception of complexity, the game's UI is praised for being intuitive, functional, and easy to learn. Clear menus, tooltips, and a well-written manual contribute to a smooth onboarding experience, allowing players to quickly master the mechanics.
- Balanced Learning Curve & AI (weight 0.18): The game offers a manageable learning curve for a grand strategy title, with effective battle AI and options for automation. The strategic and tactical layers are well-integrated, providing a challenging yet rewarding experience.
- Active & Responsive Developers (weight 0.09): The developers are highly praised for their active engagement with the community, listening to feedback, and consistently working on improvements and new content. This commitment fosters a positive player experience and ensures ongoing game evolution.
- Exciting & Tense Naval Battles (weight 0.05): Naval battles are described as exciting, tense, and thrilling, especially when large fleets clash. The dramatic moments of ships exploding or engaging at close range contribute significantly to the game's appeal.
- Effective Spreadsheet Simulation (weight 0.04): The game is sometimes described as a 'spreadsheet simulator' due to its data-rich, menu-driven interface. However, this is generally seen as a positive, contributing to its depth and allowing for detailed management.

Common complaints:
- Overpriced, outdated graphics and UI (weight 0.77): Many players feel the game is significantly overpriced given its minimalist, spreadsheet-like graphics and UI, which are often compared to older software. This visual simplicity and lack of modern presentation detract from the perceived value.
- Steep learning curve, poor tutorials (weight 0.71): The game has a very steep learning curve and lacks adequate in-game tutorials or explanations for its complex mechanics. Players often need to rely on external resources to understand the game, making it inaccessible for casual players.
- Numerous bugs and stability issues (weight 0.69): Players report numerous bugs, including crashes, UI glitches, save game corruption, and incorrect internal calculations. These issues, some of which are long-standing, indicate a lack of polish and stability, making the game feel like an unfinished product.
- Frustrating and unbalanced battle generator (weight 0.47): The battle generation system is a major point of frustration, frequently creating unbalanced, nonsensical, or repetitive scenarios. Players report issues with ship deployment, AI behavior, and a general lack of strategic control, leading to unfair and unengaging combat.
- Limited player control and agency (weight 0.3): Players feel a significant lack of control over strategic and tactical elements, such as fleet deployment, battle initiation, officer management, and national diplomacy. This limited agency makes the game feel restrictive and less like a comprehensive naval simulation.
- Problematic ship designer functionality (weight 0.14): The ship designer is problematic, often producing 'illegal' or unoptimized designs without clear explanations. Recent updates have also removed or broken key functionalities, making the design process frustrating and less efficient.
- Inconsistent and unrealistic damage model (weight 0.08): The damage model and battle outcomes are perceived as inconsistent and unrealistic, with ships surviving improbable damage or sinking unexpectedly. Specific examples include carriers being sunk by dud bombs while battleships survive multiple torpedoes, and aircraft not participating in battles despite being deployed.
- Flawed missile and jet age features (weight 0.08): The implementation of new features, particularly in the missile and jet age, is seen as flawed and detrimental to gameplay. Players find these later-era mechanics to be boring or poorly integrated, detracting from the overall experience.

Gameplay feedback:
- Deep Naval Management Simulation (weight 1): The game is a comprehensive naval simulation spanning from 1890 to the missile age (1970s-1990s). Players act as the head of a nation's navy, managing ship design, construction, research, budget, and fleet deployment, with a strong emphasis on historical technological evolution and its impact on naval warfare.
- Mixed Tactical Battle System (weight 0.45): The tactical battle system is a mixed bag. While it allows for direct control and offers varied scenarios, its random generation of forces and lack of strategic control over engagements are frequently criticized. Players often feel forced to manually fight every battle, despite the system being considered the weakest part of the game.
- Detailed Ship Design & Evolution (weight 0.37): Ship design is a core, highly detailed, and engaging aspect of the game. Players can meticulously customize various ship elements, including armor, guns, and propulsion, and witness how technological advancements (like radar, carriers, and missiles) dramatically change ship viability and combat tactics over time.
- Limited Geopolitical Control (weight 0.25): Geopolitical and national management aspects are largely abstracted and outside direct player control. While players can make some event-based decisions that influence budget, tensions, and alliances, the overall feeling is one of limited influence over broader political and economic factors, often leading to RNG-driven outcomes.
- Effective Torpedo & Destroyer Combat (weight 0.18): Torpedoes and destroyers are historically accurate and can be highly effective in combat, especially with technological improvements. Torpedo runs can be decisive, and destroyer designs evolve to support this, making them crucial elements of fleet composition.
- Steep Learning Curve, Deep Realism (weight 0.18): The game has a steep learning curve due to its depth and intricate details, but it is not overly complicated once understood. It rewards slow, deliberate play and aims for realism, with many nuances that players learn over time.
- Sensible but Flawed Battle AI (weight 0.17): The battle AI is generally sensible, often choosing to disengage if outnumbered, which is realistic. However, the battle generator can create unfair scenarios where the player is at a significant disadvantage, even when their overall fleet strength is superior.
- Environmental Factors in Combat (weight 0.16): Battles are influenced by various environmental factors such as wind, weather, time of day, and proximity to coastal defenses. Ship positioning and fleet organization are important, though random events can sometimes disrupt player plans.
- Spreadsheet-like Interface (weight 0.12): The game's user interface and overall presentation are often described as resembling a spreadsheet. This indicates a focus on data and numbers over visual flair, which might deter players looking for a more graphically rich experience.
- Dynamic International Conflicts (weight 0.11): The game allows players to lead a chosen nation, expand territories through war, and engage in multi-nation conflicts. Unlike previous iterations, AI nations now actively wage war against each other, adding to the dynamic world state.
- Basic Mine Warfare (weight 0.07): Mines and minesweeping equipment are present in the game, primarily for smaller ships like destroyers. However, there are no advanced tactical options like wolfpack tactics or specific mine-laying decisions, limiting their strategic use.
- Limited Submarine Utility (weight 0.07): Submarines are largely automated and have a limited, often insignificant, role in battles. Players have no direct control over their design or actions, and their effectiveness is generally considered low, even with technological advancements.

Performance notes:
- Resolution issues impact playability (weight 0.04): Players are experiencing issues with screen resolution, specifically needing to change it back and forth to make the game playable, despite some elements being legible at lower resolutions.
- Optimized visuals ensure performance (weight 0.03): The game's optimized visuals contribute to smooth performance, allowing for large-scale battles without performance degradation or complex management.
- Game crashes frequently (weight 0.02): The game is experiencing crashes, which significantly disrupts the player experience.
- Linux pop-up window bug (weight 0.02): On Linux, players are encountering a bug where pop-up windows appear in the background, hindering interaction and visibility.

Recommendations:
- Highly Recommended for Naval Enthusiasts (weight 0.83): The game is highly recommended for players who enjoy deep, realistic naval warfare simulations, especially those with an interest in naval history and ship design from the late 19th to mid-20th century. It offers an unparalleled experience for enthusiasts of the genre.
- Niche Game, Not for Everyone (weight 0.56): The game is not for everyone, particularly those seeking modern graphics, dynamic battle scenes, or simple gameplay. It caters to a niche audience that appreciates complex, spreadsheet-like simulations and is willing to overlook outdated UI and visuals.
- Steep Learning Curve (weight 0.5): The game has a steep learning curve, and new players are strongly advised to watch online tutorials or guides to understand the basic mechanics and get started effectively. It is not recommended for those new to naval affairs without prior knowledge.
- Current Issues Need Fixes (weight 0.47): Some players express frustration with current game issues, particularly those introduced by recent updates, leading to a temporary or permanent halt in their gameplay until fixes are implemented.
- Buy on Sale (weight 0.12): Many reviewers recommend purchasing the game only when it is on sale or from a reseller, suggesting that its full price might be too high for the value it currently offers.
- Battle AI Needs Improvement (weight 0.04): There are specific concerns regarding the battle simulation AI, with some players finding it not aggressive enough, particularly when fighting certain factions like the Japanese.
- Extensive Micromanagement (weight 0.04): The game offers extensive micromanagement opportunities, which is a positive for some players, though there's a suggestion that some systems could benefit from better automation.
- Recommended Starting Factions (weight 0.03): For new players, starting as America is recommended due to its financial stability and fewer geographical threats, while Austria-Hungary is also suggested as a viable faction.
- Join Discord for Support (weight 0.02): Joining the game's Discord community is recommended for players seeking answers to questions and a deeper understanding of game mechanics.
- Avoid 'Pure Green' Strategy (weight 0.02): Players are advised against adopting a 'pure green' strategy, indicating that this specific approach may not be effective or enjoyable in the game.
- Suggests Dark Mode Feature (weight 0.02): A dark mode feature would significantly enhance the user experience for some players, potentially elevating their overall rating of the game.
- Future Development Focus (weight 0.01): A reviewer suggests that any future iteration of the game should focus on excelling in a specific area that other games do not, to stand out in the market.

Other player notes:
- Basic, Spreadsheet-like Graphics (weight 0.36): Many players describe the game's visual style as basic, old-fashioned, or resembling a spreadsheet, often comparing it to older software like Excel or Windows 3.11. While some find it unappealing, others acknowledge that the minimalist interface effectively conveys complex information and is a trade-off for the game's depth.
- Steep Learning Curve (weight 0.21): The game has a steep learning curve, with many players relying on external resources like the comprehensive manual, YouTube tutorials (especially from RvT Wargames), and online wikis to understand its complex mechanics. While the manual is generally well-regarded, some feel it lacks detail in certain areas. Tooltips are available, but initial intimidation is common.
- Evolution of RTW Series (weight 0.09): The game is seen as a direct evolution from RTW2, expanding its timeline and improving the ship designer. It's recognized as a niche, hardcore strategy title, prioritizing gameplay and realism over modern graphics, unlike some competitors.
- Lack of Localization (weight 0.07): The game is currently only available in English, which poses a barrier for non-English speaking players. While some manage with translation software or by gradually learning the game's specific terminology, a lack of official localization is a notable issue.
- Desire for Historical Designs (weight 0.07): Players expressed a desire for more integrated historical ship designs, suggesting a feature that would allow them to access these without extensive manual effort. There's also a wish for more control over which technologies are present in a playthrough.
- Helpful YouTube Tutorials (weight 0.06): Specific YouTube tutorials from 'Mr. RvT Wargames' are highly recommended by players for easing the initial learning curve and providing helpful guidance.
- Price Point Concerns (weight 0.05): The game's price point, around $40-$45, was mentioned by players. Some found it a bit high, especially considering that simulation games rarely go on sale.
- Request for Multiplayer (weight 0.04): A significant request from players is the implementation of a multiplayer mode, indicating a desire for competitive or cooperative play within the game's framework.
- Unclear Combat Mechanics (weight 0.04): Players noted a lack of transparency regarding the game's combat mechanics, specifically how hit determination for both ships and aircraft is calculated.
- Steam Purchase Convenience (weight 0.02): Purchasing the game through Steam offers significant convenience over direct purchase from Naval Warfare Simulations (NWS), primarily due to automatic activation, updates, and regional pricing, avoiding manual key resets and email exchanges.
- Toxic Community Group (weight 0.02): The game's community group is not recommended due to problematic moderation and a toxic atmosphere, which detracts from the player experience.
- Intimidating Ship Designer (weight 0.02): The ship designer, while powerful, can appear intimidating to new players due to its complexity and numerous options.
- Lack of Data Sorting (weight 0.02): A specific point of frustration is the game's inability to sort and organize data effectively, a feature commonly found in spreadsheet software that players feel is missing.
- Commanders Lack Impact (weight 0.02): The addition of commanders is noted as an interesting feature, but players found their impact on gameplay to be minimal.
- Unique, Niche Development (weight 0.02): The game is described as a unique, 'outsider art' piece, suggesting it was developed with a clear vision but limited resources, contributing to its distinct character.
- Battle Screen Requires Imagination (weight 0.02): The battle screen's minimalist design requires players to use their imagination to visualize the combat, which may not appeal to all.
- Light Cruisers Unnecessary (weight 0.02): Light cruisers are perceived as generally unnecessary in the game, serving more as a 'flavor' or 'romance' element rather than a strategically vital unit.
- No Pre-Release Wishlisting (weight 0.02): The game was released without a prior store page, which prevented potential players from wishlisting it before launch.
- Cosmetic Details Require Finesse (weight 0.02): Adding cosmetic details to ships requires a degree of finesse and effort from the player.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.33): Players express satisfaction due to the game's deep and immersive naval simulation, particularly its detailed ship design, strategic depth, and realistic combat. The game's high quality, unique niche, and appeal to naval history enthusiasts contribute significantly to this positive emotion, offering a comprehensive and engaging experience.
- Frustration (weight 0.18): Frustration stems from various issues including problematic AI behavior, technical glitches, and a steep learning curve exacerbated by poor UI/UX design. Players also express annoyance with specific game mechanics, such as tedious ship building, lack of control over strategic elements, and issues with battle generation and auto-play features.
- Disappointment (weight 0.12): Disappointment arises from the game's shortcomings, particularly after updates that reduce the fun factor or introduce new issues. Players are also let down by the game's price-to-quality ratio, lack of content, poor graphics, and unfulfilled potential, leading to a feeling that the game does not meet expectations.
- Excitement (weight 0.08): Excitement is generated by new features, engaging naval battles, and the immersive experience of designing and seeing custom ships in action. The game's unique atmosphere, addictive gameplay loop, and the thrill of building powerful dreadnoughts contribute to a sense of anticipation and enjoyment.
- Joy (weight 0.06): Joy is primarily derived from the fun and enjoyable gameplay experience, including the satisfaction of ship design and interaction with the AI. Players find enjoyment in the game's unique nature, even when it involves spreadsheet-like mechanics or initial confusion, highlighting its replayability and overall appeal.
- Appreciation (weight 0.03): Players appreciate the game's depth, realistic mechanics, and well-developed simulation elements, particularly its ability to simulate historical naval warfare and force difficult decisions. The responsiveness of developers to community suggestions and the presence of a helpful community also contribute to this positive sentiment.
- Engagement (weight 0.02): Engagement is driven by the game's high replayability, dynamic politicking, and flexible ship designer, which allow for realistic gameplay evolution across different eras. The addictive gameplay and dynamic end-game scenarios keep players invested in the strategic and design aspects of the game.
- Amusement (weight 0.02): Amusement comes from the game's humorous aspects, such as its focus on naval spending, humorous criticism of complexity, and the freedom to build absurd ships with amusing consequences. Emergent gameplay and specific successful outcomes also contribute to this lighthearted emotion.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Players are surprised by the game's unexpected depth of simulation and its approachability despite its detailed mechanics. The uniqueness of the game and the outcomes of battles also contribute to this feeling of pleasant astonishment.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.01): Enjoyment is a general positive feeling derived from the overall gameplay experience, particularly the depth of ship design and battle aspects. The satisfaction of managing ships and engaging in naval warfare contributes to a fulfilling experience.
- Liking (weight 0.01): Players express liking for the game's core design, especially the management part and the meaningful decisions presented in the strategic layer. This indicates an appreciation for the fundamental mechanics and strategic depth.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is caused by unfair AI behavior, poor UI design, and issues with the battle generator, particularly when it leads to perceived unfairness and a lack of developer response. This strong negative emotion highlights significant pain points in the game's core systems.
- Anticipation (weight 0.01): Anticipation is driven by the game's appeal and the prospect of continued enjoyment and mastery. Players look forward to a rich journey of learning and strategic depth within the game.
- Challenge (weight 0.01): Players feel challenged by the game's steep learning curve, the complexity of torpedo mechanics, and the English-only interface. This indicates a recognition of the game's difficulty and the effort required to master it.
- Admiration (weight 0.01): Admiration is expressed for the game's unique vision and its successful execution. This highlights a deep respect for the developers' innovative approach and the quality of the final product.
- Acceptance (weight 0.01): Acceptance reflects players getting used to the game's graphics and acknowledging its overall quality despite initial reservations. This suggests a willingness to overlook minor flaws for the sake of the broader gameplay experience.
- Immersion (weight 0.01): Immersion is achieved through engaging gameplay that creates a strong feeling of being a fleet commander. This indicates the game's success in drawing players into its world and role-playing elements.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion arises from complex game mechanics and the intricate nature of naval concepts. This points to areas where the game's complexity can be overwhelming for players.
- Caution (weight 0.01): Caution is advised regarding the game's price and its specific target audience, as well as the need to set appropriate expectations for its gameplay style. This suggests that the game may not be for everyone and requires a specific type of player.
- Interest (weight 0.01): Interest is sparked by the game's complex and unique simulation features, which maintain its appeal over time. This indicates a sustained curiosity and engagement with the game's intricate systems.}