I’ve loved this series for many years - highly recommended.
If, like me, you’re unfamiliar with ship terminology I’d suggest not getting too hung up on understanding exactly what bit of the ship he’s talking about. There’s lots of great historical detail - but O’Brian also tells a fabulous story.
I'm wondering if the game requires you to know all the sail names. That could be a big impediment to doing things in it! It certainly adds some difficulty in even reading those books.
It does! But having the simulation right there helps you learn them.
I had two main questions to answer when making this. First, how does ship physics work anyway; second, what is an appropriate UI that feels like being an officer ordering a couple of hundred people around? I previously worked on a flight sim, where it's appropriate to move a joystick, or a mouse, and have the plane respond straight away. I think that would feel wrong here - it would make the ship feel like a toy.
A benefit of the technical language is that it helps convey the idea that the ship is a big, complicated machine, with all the parts worked by people. It's also fun to see the strange words. So I decided to lean in to technical language and verbal commands. I was starting to work with git, and thought about using a command-line UI for the game; but I went with something inspired by the menus and hotkeys of old roguelikes.
I’m on book three and this is incredibly useful. The level of detail in the books is insane. I also reallllly liked the Russell Crowe movie, and wish they had made more. It wasn’t perfect, but it was fun as hell, and the napoleonic wars provide so much material for sequels.
This is the series that first showed me that the Kindle's built-in dictionary simply omits obscure words. I wonder why. It can't take that much storage space even for a very comprehensive dictionary.
If you enjoyed that series you might also enjoy the Otto Prohaska series by John Biggins. It's about a submarine captain in WWI, so doesn't touch on sailing too much (well the 4th book does), but similar maritime themes. Probably the best series of novels I've read.
Yes! I've read and reread them many, many times. There's nothing more comforting to me than picking up one of those books. I've never actually finished the series, I don't think I'll ever be read for the ending.
If, like me, you’re unfamiliar with ship terminology I’d suggest not getting too hung up on understanding exactly what bit of the ship he’s talking about. There’s lots of great historical detail - but O’Brian also tells a fabulous story.