Working on a new submarine sim: Sub Commander - advice needed!

[Fieters]

I really enjoy subcommander. But sometimes there are missions I would like to skip. It´s quite hard to play with 6000 ships and trying to find a single ship just in front of Murmansk.

So is there any way to skip?

[Tango589]

Hi Fieters, this should help:

Originally Posted by TheGeoff

I have made a temporary solution for impossible missions.

1. Download this: http://goo.gl/QsUsqE
2. Put MissionCompleter.exe in your game folder (the same folder as the Sub Commander exe file)
3. Save your game.
4. Run the Mission Completer (it should say "Mission complete!")
5. Load your game. The old mission will have been completely forgotten and you will be quickly given a new one.

[TheGeoff]

Yeah, that's the only way to do it at the moment. In the next version, you are able to request a new mission by pressing 'Z' in the radio screen.

[JerikTelorian]

Originally Posted by TheGeoff

I don't have an estimate for when the next update will be released - it mostly depends on how long the menu takes to redesign and how many other features I decide to add along the way. Maybe it will come out next week, if I get the main menu done over the weekend, but probably not.

Active sonar has been added ready for the next release. It tells you the exact bearing and distance to your sonar target, but will alert nearby warships to your presence. Most importantly, it makes a cool 'ping' sound

Greatness takes time; happy to wait.

Sonar should be quite fun. Of course, with active sonar we'll be able to defect to the USA. One. Ping. Only.

[TheGeoff]

Version 0.27 released! Download here: http://goo.gl/9avGXB
(Version 0.26 was an internal version which was never publicly released)

Changelog:

• Added active sonar. Press A for a single ping or LShift+A for continuous pings.
• AI ships now fire weapons at each other.
• AI surface ships are now equipped with historically accurate SAM systems, and can fire at AI aircraft.
• AI aircraft can now engage AI ships and aircraft.
• Hull size and strength of AI ships is now simulated. Very large ships may require two torpedoes to sink.
• Added images when refitting and vistiting destroyed cities (created by Chris 'Pilotguy' Liu)
• Reworked main menu. The menu now loads instantly, and there is a configuration screen allowing you to pick a nation, starting city and sub type before the game loads and the mission starts. This will be expanded in future updates.
• Added a credits screen to the main menu to acknowledge the contributions others have made to the project
• Added 6 new cities and ports: Alexandria, Den Helder, Jacksonville, Sevastopol, Kaliningrad and Yekaterinburg
• Added two new aircraft: the F-4 Phantom II and the MiG-21
• Added ability to reject mission and request new orders (press Z while using the radio)
• AI warships and destroyers now detect and respond to radar emissions from player submarine
• Fast travel is now unavailable whenever any type of enemy is nearby, even if they have not detected the player
• Added an option in gameoptions.ini for always allowing fast travel, regardless of nearby enemies
• Updated in game help text to show mouse controls
• Fixed Dutch and Belgian coastline and moved Amsterdam to its correct position
• Fixed North African coastline
• Allied, neutral and enemy nations are now listed on the map screen
• Reworked some of the maneuvering physics (mostly relating to speed) to be more realistic
• Added inertia to rotors in the turbines and the electric motor
• It is now possible to run the electric motor while turbines are engaged
• Added ability to toggle city names on the missile control map
• Damaged machinery now increases submarine noise signature significantly
• Noise from bilge pumps now also increases sub noise signature
• Diesel generator suction is now simulated correctly when main induction valve is open.
• Diesel engine noise is now correctly simulated
• Crush depth can now be set for each sub in performance.ini. If it is not set, it will default to ~300m.
• Fixed several bugs in water pressure modelling, ensuring pressure is evenly distributed on both sides of the hull.
• Fixed a bug where nuclear craters remained after the game was reset
• Slightly lowered brightness of shallow water to increase contrast on map
• Fixed a bug where the mission marker would not appear on the map at zoom level 1
• Changed the default key binding for toggling mouse control from F1 to F10
• Fixed a bug where the game would warn repeatedly warn the player about being too deep to launch missiles when spacebar was pressed
• Turbine generator can now be shut down for maintenance by switching off both turbines
• Fixed bug causing the turbine generator to explode less often than it should
• Fixed bug where resting crew would stay 'on break' if given orders to repair hull using the right-click menu
• Many more small tweaks and fixes.
• Save files from the previous version should be compatible.

Enjoy! Please report any bugs you encounter.

[TheGeoff]

Also, I've decided to do something to make the game more approachable to new players. I am considering the following:

- Making a proper pdf manual with diagrams and tutorials
- Making an online tutorial, possibly with gifs or videos
- Making a wiki

Which would you all prefer? Personally I think either a manual or wiki is the best option, but I'm open to ideas / suggestions.

[Tango589]

Hi Geoff, just downloaded, only to find Fullscreen mode is borked!

I just get a black screen with the standard Windows cursor on it.

[TheGeoff]

Hmm, strange. I can't think of anything added this version which would cause that. Have you tried turning OpenGL off in gameoptions.ini? Some computers seem to need it on and others need it to be off to run properly.

[Tango589]

Ok. I just changed the OpenGL setting and retried, but Fullscreen mode still refuses to start.

[JerikTelorian]

Geoff, I have a save that won't load (causes a crash as soon as I hit "L" on the title screen).

Before I saved the game, I was tailing a task force near Florianopolis. I was submerged, and as far as I remember had no damage. Radar may have been active. All crew members were alive; two of them were equipped with a toolbox, welder, and SCBA each.

Nation: USA
Starting Town: New York
Vessel: November Class

I've provided a link to the save in case you find it useful for debugging:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2/SaveFile.sav

Many thanks for the update, I'll keep an eye out if this happens again and hopefully have a better report for you!

[TheGeoff]

Thanks for the detailed report.

I'm working on solutions to both problems.

Edit: The save bug has now been fixed - please redownload the game to prevent this from occurring in future.

[Thymo]

Originally Posted by TheGeoff

Also, I've decided to do something to make the game more approachable to new players. I am considering the following:

- Making a proper pdf manual with diagrams and tutorials
- Making an online tutorial, possibly with gifs or videos
- Making a wiki

Which would you all prefer? Personally I think either a manual or wiki is the best option, but I'm open to ideas / suggestions.

I'd go for the wiki.

[TheGeoff]

I updated the game today to fix a number of annoying bugs which were inadvertently introduced in v0.27. If you downloaded the game more than 24 hours ago, I highly recommend redownloading it or you'll run into some very frustrating problems.

In particular, the ghost ships have been removed and the overly strict fast travel restrictions have been reduced.

Edit: Another mini update has just been released:
- Changed the function of the Escape key slightly, by popular demand (it now exits control panels like backspace instead of immediately taking you to the main menu)
- Increased the maximum number of crew from 15 to 20, to prevent crashes in some custom submarines.

Also, there is a new thread for sharing custom submarine designs here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=217354

[Wojtek94]

Hmm... This game is great(better than linear SH II) but where is danger? Combat is like shooting to sitting ducks:/ Just try to compare this to Aces of the Deep. In AOTD enemy can attack player with depth charges for over 2 hours. I miss thats moments And little question-what with real time in game? Its possible to make this? Thanks for many hours of great fun with your game and sorry for my bad english

[TheGeoff]

Another mini-update has been released.
Use the same download link as v0.27: http://goo.gl/9avGXB
This update focuses on improving the behaviour of diesel-electric submarines in the game.

A new submarine class has been added, closely based on the Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine. This submarine has no nuclear reactors so it functions similarly to the WWII U-boats and fleet boats which many of you are no doubt familiar with from the Silent Hunter series. The most obvious difference is that you will need to periodically surface and run the diesel generators to recharge your submarine's battery. The performance characteristics of diesel generators (on all submarines) have also been significantly modified to be more realistic.

Note that your diesel supply is limited, but I forgot to add a gauge showing how much diesel is remaining... so don't forget to return to port regularly. You'll probably run out of torpedoes long before you run out of fuel anyway.

Hmm... This game is great(better than linear SH II) but where is danger? Combat is like shooting to sitting ducks:/ Just try to compare this to Aces of the Deep. In AOTD enemy can attack player with depth charges for over 2 hours. I miss thats moments And little question-what with real time in game? Its possible to make this? Thanks for many hours of great fun with your game and sorry for my bad english

Thanks for the feedback!

The difficulty increased quite a lot with version 0.23 or 0.24, when I added much better situational awareness to the AI controlled ships. Sneaking into the harbour of Kaliningrad or Murmansk in an American sub can now be quite tense and challenging. But I agree, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

In particular, I plan to make enemies more likely to keep searching for the player after they have lost contact, and decrease the efficiency of the thermal layer. At the moment diving below the thermal layer makes your submarine almost completely invisible to all enemy sonar, which is not realistic.

Improvements to the mission assignment system will also help increase the difficulty.