Well, I've been thinking of doing a pirate RPG, something along the lines of Sid Meier's Pirates! - but without the dancing <g>.

It would have the same capabilities, sail around, visit ports, send landing parties ashore, etc.

The one thing i haven't figured out is how to handle the POV for ship to ship. Pirates! uses a "copter cam" view (look down on the battle area). Age of Sail II use a "chasecam" view (look at target from behind your ship, with cinematic camera motion). Both sort of suck when it comes to targeting your guns.

At the moment i'm contemplating one of 3 methods:

1. chasecam

2. coptercam

3. first person

in first person, you'd walk around the deck during battle, shouting orders, taking the wheel, sighting a gun, etc. this sounds like it might be more realistic and more exciting as well.

any ideas or suggestions?

which of these sounds best, or does something else sound better?

The answer to your question is so simple that it might have been too obvious to realize.

Your Target Audience Determines the View - always the case with the most successful game developers. For example, if you are marketing your game to 2D and 2.5D teenage fans, then bird's eye view would be the way to go. The more mature and sophisticated the audience, the more likely they are to prefer first person view, for another example.

You should also take a look at the naval battles from the current entry in the Assassins' Creed franchise. Their setup seems to work pretty well.

They have a fairly standard 3rd person camera, which free-looks centred on your ship - it's pretty much the same camera used for the rest of the game (i.e. standard 3rd person RPG camera).

if this is a single player game i would rather have guns firing be automated or per button press, while i was steering the ship. also how are you presenting the dueling/battles? if they are not done in first person then you should probably present ship battles the same way. if you wanted to add a first person view it might be cool, if the AI and orders were done well enough to perform steering or firing guns or other actions in a respectable manner. it would really give you that feeling of being the captain, if done properly.

now that i think about it, i say go for it and see what you can pull off. if it works, great. if not try one of the other methods.

the plan is to build an entire immersive VR world set in the Caribbean during the pirate era. A big sandbox RPG like Skyrim, with a setting like Pirates of the Caribbean.

for the first person method In naval combat, the AI would run the ship based on your orders (heading, furl/unfurl sails, fire as ye bear, boarders away, etc). at any time you could walk up to a station (wheel, gun, rigging), select it with the spacebar, and take over manual control of the station. Similar to the style of play in Silent Hunter IV.

The answer to your question is so simple that it might have been too obvious to realize.

Your Target Audience Determines the View - always the case with the most successful game developers. For example, if you are marketing your game to 2D and 2.5D teenage fans, then bird's eye view would be the way to go. The more mature and sophisticated the audience, the more likely they are to prefer first person view, for another example.

You know, I think you're right. Too obvious. Then it should be first person. Perhaps with a supplemental bird's eye view to help the player maintain situational awareness.

Sid Meier's Pirates! is great, but it always had that sort of "G" rated Disney-esque kid's toy feel to it. Perhaps its was just the graphics and the somewhat contrived melee combat system. If it weren't for the kids toy feel, the time limited game, and the somewhat limited scope of the game world, i'd probably just play Pirates! instead of contemplating building my own.

You should also take a look at the naval battles from the current entry in the Assassins' Creed franchise. Their setup seems to work pretty well.

They have a fairly standard 3rd person camera, which free-looks centred on your ship - it's pretty much the same camera used for the rest of the game (i.e. standard 3rd person RPG camera).

No dramatic camera movements? Just straight up 3rd person view? Age of Sail II did this slewing camera thing that made for very dramatic camera angles, and great cinematics, but was rather annoying for targeting. You'd be just about to come to bear, and all of a sudden the camera would slew around, and you'd lose the line of sight you were lining up.

Have you played SteamBirds? That way you could make the sea battles a little more tactical and it is "easy" if you want to command more ships. And the user can focus on what to do instead of trying to do stuff as quick as possible. You could though add a time limit if you want some pressure (ala Greed Corp)

naval combat with be real time flight simulator style of some sort, similar to Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Age of sail, Pirates, Silent Hunter, 666 attack sub, Aces of the Deep, etc.

pace of game play will actually be somewhat slow but tense, this is the nature of naval combat simulators, well at least until the depth charges start falling, then it gets REAL busy, REAL fast! <g>.

Time limits don't make sense from a realism point of view. Engagements would last until contact is broken.

really, this is going to be a pirate simulator, not a game. like an f-16 flight sim, but you control a pirate instead of an f-16.

in general, i don't make games, i try to make simulations.

that's one of the appeals of the first person view naval combat. its more realistic. Nelson didn't fly over the ocean in a chopper at Trafalgar, and he didn't have his men lash him to a boom and swing him out over the side for a better view either! He had his compass, spyglass, sextant, charts, observations of wind and water, and what he could see around him. I'm pretty sure ship's clocks (used to determine longitude) didn't come into use until later.