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

[TheGeoff]

I'll look into adding a draggable map soon, would definitely make navigation easier. It will also be helpful for selecting targets once SLBMs and cruise missiles are in the game.

As for minefields, I have no immediate plans to add them but I might put them in sometime in the future. I don't know quite how they would work... if the player can see the mines, they're easy to dodge and there's not much point to them being there. If the player can't see the mines it's basically rolling a dice to see if your sub explodes or not, which doesn't sound like much fun. :hmmm:

[SubwayCommander]

TheGeoff, it seems you used C++ to make this game. Did you use any external libraries to do so, or is it all your own code?

[TheGeoff]

Sub Commander is actually coded in Blitz Plus (a successor to Blitz Basic, available here: http://www.blitzbasic.com/Home/_index_.php). All of the game was written from scratch except for a few functions for processing .ini files.

[SubwayCommander]

Thanks! I used PEiD, which told me it was compiled using Microsoft Visual Studio. I guess there's still bugs to be solved in PEiD then.

[P-Dup]

Hello everybody,

first of all I really like Sub Commander. It really is a rare gem and has so much more potential! I just hope you stick to the roots when adding more features, so it keeps it's flair. Right now I really look forward to the next version and I can't wait for it to be realeased.

Now to my questions: Do the Radiation Suits reallly work? Because when I got a radiation leak from a damaged Coolant Pump and I send someone in to repair it, he get's several thousand mSv radiation and later dies, no matter if he is wearing a Radiation Suit and Leather Gloves with Gas Mask or Breathing Apparatus or both. Bug or feature?
At the moment I surface the boat and close the air valves in every room but the reactor chamber snd then open the Main Induction Valve to get radiation out. Is this the only way?

And what are the Chemical Suits used for? Ok, to protect from chemicals, but in what situation are they useful?

Keep up the good work The Geoff. you're making a lot of people happy and anxious for the next release.

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim P-Dup :sunny:

[Kommandant_Wesser]

EDIT: Latest Version: 0.23
Download Latest Version Here! (http://goo.gl/9lOLz2)
(Download, then unzip entire folder and run subcommander_0_23.exe)
VirusTotal link (to prove the link is safe): https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/5748e45baa0d6052eea8f28f0d3bba5a0a1fdea31f7348b705 45e9e8262b5508/analysis/1398952540/

Previous versions:
Version 0.22 http://goo.gl/Qpr0w1
Version 0.21 http://goo.gl/PsBCbK
Version 0.20 http://goo.gl/1PzpZK
Version 0.19 http://goo.gl/7J74vm
Version 0.18 http://goo.gl/3bcZ4K
Version 0.17 http://goo.gl/cRdSoM
Version 0.16 http://goo.gl/wwMJqL
Version 0.15 http://rapidshare.com/files/1713526527/subcommander_0_15.zip
Version 0.14 http://rapidshare.com/files/1265137437/subcommander_0_14.zip
Version 0.12 http://rapidshare.com/files/2245270754/subcommander_0_12.zip
Version 0.10 http://rapidshare.com/files/1693504064/subcommander_0_10.zip
Version 0.09 http://rapidshare.com/files/1053906501/subcommander_0_09.zip
Version 0.08 http://rapidshare.com/files/899958767/subcommander_0_08.zip
Version 0.07 http://rapidshare.com/files/3311299378/subcommander_0_07.zip
Version 0.06 http://rapidshare.com/files/3481182951/subcommander_0_06.exe
Version 0.04 http://rapidshare.com/files/4084177128/subcommander.exe

Guide/manual is now included in the .zip file, titled 'guide.txt'

Submarine Development Tools:
http://goo.gl/MxBNIc


Sub Commander is a free, independently developed roguelike submarine simulator with an emphasis on realism and freedom of choice. Originally, the game was envisioned to be a kind of cross between Dwarf Fortress and the film K-19 The Widowmaker but it is rapidly growing to a full featured submarine warfare simulator. Eventually I plan to simulate all aspects of cold war era naval and aerial combat, so the player's submarine will be in the midst of a dynamic, procedurally generated global war.

One of the main focuses of the game is dealing with accidents and emergencies aboard the submarine. Nuclear submarines are hugely complicated pieces of equipment and there's a lot which can go wrong - fires, flooding, radiation leaks, lack of oxygen etc are all accurately simulated. Careful management of the crew and the submarine's automated systems is essential to conquer these threats and complete your mission successfully. In some ways, it's like a much more complex version of Faster Than Light aboard a submarine (without the fancy graphics unfortunately!)

While the simulation of the onboard systems is highly detailed, I have tried to ensure the game is accessible to almost anyone and the learning curve is not too steep. The graphics are very basic but I try to keep them clean and functional - but I admit great graphics were never a priority for this game.

Key features:
- 31 nations represented in game, 23 of which are playable
- AI controlled navies consisting of 15 classes of surface ships, all with historically accurate armaments
- Huge in game map covering the entire globe, with more than 60 cities (uses high-res NOAA sea depth data)
- Realistic physics-based modelling of fire, fluid dynamics and radiation aboard the sub
- Extremely detailed submarine with accurate models of all important systems

Full Mac and Linux compatibility is planned eventually. In the meantime, players have reported it is possible to run the game through Wine on Linux and Wineskin Winery on OSX. The following instructions were posted in the Reddit thread for the game by user arcsey:
"Use Wineskin Winery. Create a wrapper with Wineskin 2.6.0 (current version) and use WS9WineCX13.1.0 as your engine. Just move the subcommander_0_21 folder into Program Files and set subcommander_0_21.exe as the executable. It should run fine without having to change any other settings."

Sub Commander is under active development, with new updates released anywhere from once a week to once every couple of months. Any feedback, suggestions or bug reports are greatly appreciated!


Edit:
A lot of people have recently asked about where to send donations / if I will make a Kickstarter etc. I'm amazed and honoured that people think this is a project worth donating to!

I want to make it clear that Submarine Commander will always be completely free, and that I do not in any way expect donations. Creating this sim has been purely a hobby for me and all through the development I never expected to make a cent from it. I don't want people to feel like they owe me anything for the game.

But if you love the game and really want to make a donation to the project, you can send a donation via paypal to subcommandergame@gmail.com
Thank you!

Screenshots (v0.20):
Nuclear reactor management
http://i.imgur.com/bu8DqPu.png

Navigation
http://i.imgur.com/xCDtNUw.png

Activating fire supression system
http://i.imgur.com/OCDEixj.png



Whoa, this game.......

IT is really good for some odd reason Great Work!!!:rock::rock::rock:

[Tango589]

Hi Geoff,

How much coolant does a reactor hold? I ask because I've got a bilge pump in the reactor room to pump out spilled coolant, in an effort to minimise rising radiation levels from a coolant leak when I'm submerged. Is this approach going to be of any use (is subcommander programmed to recognise what I've done)?

Also has anyone got any sub designs/mods they think are cool and want to share?

Keep Calm and Command On!:rock:

[TheGeoff]

Hello everybody,

first of all I really like Sub Commander. It really is a rare gem and has so much more potential! I just hope you stick to the roots when adding more features, so it keeps it's flair. Right now I really look forward to the next version and I can't wait for it to be realeased.

Now to my questions: Do the Radiation Suits reallly work? Because when I got a radiation leak from a damaged Coolant Pump and I send someone in to repair it, he get's several thousand mSv radiation and later dies, no matter if he is wearing a Radiation Suit and Leather Gloves with Gas Mask or Breathing Apparatus or both. Bug or feature?
At the moment I surface the boat and close the air valves in every room but the reactor chamber snd then open the Main Induction Valve to get radiation out. Is this the only way?

And what are the Chemical Suits used for? Ok, to protect from chemicals, but in what situation are they useful?

Keep up the good work The Geoff. you're making a lot of people happy and anxious for the next release.
Good to hear you're enjoying it!

Radiation suits significantly slow down the rate of radiation absorption, especially when the crewman is also wearing a gas mask / SCBA gear and leather gloves. The suits don't provide complete protection however, so if there is a lot of radiation present the crew should only work in short shifts. This still needs some balance and tweaking I think, radiation levels often increase more quickly than they should and suits don't seem to provide enough protection.

Chemical suits are not particularly useful at the moment, they slightly increase resistance to radiation but not significantly. They will probably be more useful in the future.

You're right that the best way to clear out radiation is to surface, open the induction valve and open all vents (no need to leave any closed, the contamination will not spread because purging fills the ventilation system with fresh air). This is currently not as effective as it should be though.

Hi Geoff,

How much coolant does a reactor hold? I ask because I've got a bilge pump in the reactor room to pump out spilled coolant, in an effort to minimise rising radiation levels from a coolant leak when I'm submerged. Is this approach going to be of any use (is subcommander programmed to recognise what I've done)?

Also has anyone got any sub designs/mods they think are cool and want to share?

Keep Calm and Command On!:rock:

That's a damn clever idea! Unfortunately the game doesn't realise what you're doing at the moment and pumping out the water will not decrease the radiation - the radiation level and water level are treated as separate quantities at the moment so pumping out the water will not stop the radiation. I'll try to fix this up sometime soon though.

[Tango589]

Cool, between this and the emergency flooding of of the reactor room with sea water, we'll have a comprehensive action plan for dealing with a potential '3 mile island in a baked bean tin'!

[TheGeoff]

Version 0.24 released!
Download here: http://goo.gl/owcu6w

Changelog:


AI ships now form battlegroups. These groups range in size from pairs of destroyers to large task force fleets with submarine escorts, and are usually tasked with either defending their homeland or seizing strategically important areas of sea.
Numerous improvements to the world map. Land is now in colour (both on the map and when viewed through periscope) so you can sea deserts, snow etc. The positions of several coastal cities have also been fixed, and several narrow straits which were previously impassible have been opened.
Mouse controls have been overhauled and significantly improved. The controls are now similar to most RTS games - click a crewman to select him, right click to give orders. Mouse controls should now work properly in fullscreen mode too.
Acceleration of AI ships now depends on their engine power and mass.
AI ships are now aware of torpedoes and will accelerate to try to dodge them.
Added Virginia Class Cruiser, Sariwon Class Corvette, Lupo class frigate, Georges Leygues Class Frigate and Kortenaer Class Frigate
Changed the way flooding occurs when the sub is surfaced. Now water will still leak in through damaged walls, rather than unrealistically rushing out of the sub like it used to.
Water can now leak in through damaged floor tiles.
Significantly improved rendering performance, especially when viewing the world map.
Added Norway, with cities Oslo and Narvik.
Added 3 new zoom levels to map for easier navigation. Number keys 1-6 control the zoom level.
Increased size of US, Soviet, British and Chinese navies to roughly historical sizes.
US and USSR strategic AI now consider controlling the North Sea and Norwegian Sea their primary objectives, reflecting actual cold war doctrine.
Mechanism to automatically shut Main Induction Valve if flooding is detected is now simulated. It can sometimes fail - in this case the valve can still be opened and closed manually.
Added sound effect for opening and closing Main Induction Valve.
Increased damage from explosions, in particular those caused by 120mm+ shells.
Cargo ships now dock at port more often.
Reduced power consumption of electrolysis system.
Electrolysis system no longer automatically switches off when the submarine switches to battery power.
Nuclear meltdowns now completely destroy the reactor core every time.
Nations added in the last couple of patches (netherlands, taiwan, etc) now use the correct military aircraft.
Changed several pieces of UI text to be more descriptive.

Fixed a bug which prevented Chinese Luda class destroyer from appearing.
Fixed a bug causing submerged submarines to appear on surface search radar.
Fixed a bug which occasionally caused AI ships to move over land when engaging the player near a coastline.
Fixed mouse controls for bilge pumps.
Fixed crash when viewing map near north pole.
Fixed bugs causing sunken ships to appear on sonar.
Fixed bugs causing recently sunken ships to be reported as visual contacts.
Fixed a bug which sometimes caused the "Exit y/n" prompt to disappear before a key was pressed.
Fixed rare graphical glitch on Weapons Systems Control Panel.
Fixed rare bug where water flowing out of broken machinery could sometimes pass through walls.
Fixed bug causing a small amount of water to appear inside lightly damaged walls.
Fixed a bug where the player sub would constantly try to steer north after sailing under north pole.
Changed default "cursor toggle" key to F1


Enjoy!

[Tango589]

I've found a problem. The game works fine in windowed mode, but when I try and play in fullscreen mode, the loading bar reaches the end of the screen and a box pops up saying 'Unable to set graphics mode'.:down:

[Myxale]

:rock:
A new release.
Will DL now!

You hard work is appreciated.

Kudos.

[BubbaJake]

Hey Geoff,
I got the same Unable to set Graphics error right on startup. I wanted to send you the debug file, but when I enabled debug the file was empty, even after loading the game. I use a 1920X1080 monitor and am running the game in fullscreen. Also, I am unable to dock for repairs at the farthest north port (playing as USSR).

Hope development is going well (aside from this)!:up:

PS: Works fine windowed btw

[TheGeoff]

Thanks for pointing out the problem. I have fixed it and the game seems to work fine in fullscreen now - please redownload the game and let me know if there are any further issues!

[BubbaJake]

I hate to be a bother, but I have found another small problem.

When in fullscreen, the dials and gauges flicker constantly. Not a gamebreaking bug, but none the less I thought I should point it out.

Hope it can be fixed,

Jake

[TheGeoff]

Did they flicker last version too or is this a new problem? :hmmm:

[BubbaJake]

Yeah, last version too.

[Tango589]

Awesome stuff, the new damage model works like a dream, everything's operational in fullscreen and I've just been beaten to a pulp by a soviet sub whilst on a reccy to Murmansk!!

KCCO :rock:

[TheGeoff]

Bubbajake, I have emailed you a new version of the executable - could you let me know if it stops the flickering?

If anyone else has problems with flickering graphics in fullscreen and would like to help me test a solution, please email subcommandergame@gmail.com.

[BubbaJake]

It runs with no flickering. Thank you so much!

[PatrickSF]

Sub Commander is actually coded in Blitz Plus (a successor to Blitz Basic, available here: http://www.blitzbasic.com/Home/_index_.php). All of the game was written from scratch except for a few functions for processing .ini files.

Hi TheGeoff,

First off: congratulations! What an accomplishment. I just downloaded and installed your game within a VirtualBox VM on my Mac (I don't have any Windows machines). On that note, do you know if BlitzMax let's you compile existing BlitzPlus code for a different target (e.g., Mac or Linux)?

Relatedly, do you think you'd ever open source the code to allow others to contribute? You are clearly a beast productivity wise with all the updates you've cranked out -- I just read through the 19 page thread -- but if it were possible to assist in some way (I'm a developer by education/profession) then I'd love to send pull updates your way on GitHub.

In particular, I could really see this game evolving into what SHO was meant to be for the online sim community: a place for us all to gather, chat in realtime, and stalk the f' out of our prey/each other ;) -- either 1v1 or in teams. Anyway, if you ever wanted to build server-side code to network the individual environments, there's a decent repository of snippets for Blitz (http://www.blitzbasic.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?cat=4); alternatively, may just be best to implement the network client in Blitz (obviously) and the server-side in something like Node.js or an existing platform designed for games. Given my expertise and experience designing networking protocols, this would probably be the best use of my time (again, if you're looking for any volunteer coders)!

Best,
Patrick

[Tango589]

In before the Committee!!

Welcome aboard Patrick!:salute:

[Aktungbby]

PatrickSF!:Kaleun_Salute:

[Jimbuna]

Welcome Patrick :sunny:

[TheGeoff]

Hi TheGeoff,

First off: congratulations! What an accomplishment. I just downloaded and installed your game within a VirtualBox VM on my Mac (I don't have any Windows machines). On that note, do you know if BlitzMax let's you compile existing BlitzPlus code for a different target (e.g., Mac or Linux)?

Relatedly, do you think you'd ever open source the code to allow others to contribute? You are clearly a beast productivity wise with all the updates you've cranked out -- I just read through the 19 page thread -- but if it were possible to assist in some way (I'm a developer by education/profession) then I'd love to send pull updates your way on GitHub.

In particular, I could really see this game evolving into what SHO was meant to be for the online sim community: a place for us all to gather, chat in realtime, and stalk the f' out of our prey/each other ;) -- either 1v1 or in teams. Anyway, if you ever wanted to build server-side code to network the individual environments, there's a decent repository of snippets for Blitz (http://www.blitzbasic.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?cat=4); alternatively, may just be best to implement the network client in Blitz (obviously) and the server-side in something like Node.js or an existing platform designed for games. Given my expertise and experience designing networking protocols, this would probably be the best use of my time (again, if you're looking for any volunteer coders)!

Best,
Patrick

Hi Patrick, welcome to Subsim! Glad you're enjoying the game. Good to hear it's working fine on a Mac too.

I tried the trial version of BlitzMax a while ago and it doesn't seem possible to compile BlitzPlus code. Unfortunately it looks like it's a fair bit of work porting BlitzPlus code to BlitzMax - there's an automatic import function in BlitzMax but it doesn't seem to do a great job and there's still a lot of stuff which needs to be done by hand. One day I'll get around to buying BlitzMax and porting everything over though.

The open source question is an interesting one, it's something I've thought about a lot. More people contributing to the project would definitely speed up development, and it would really help develop areas (like multiplayer) where I have very little coding experience. But on the other hand making the game an open source project seems like it would really complicate things (managing version control etc), and the community isn't very big yet so I doubt there would be many contributors (for example version 0.23 has had the most downloads so far, just under 4000 (http://goo.gl/9lOLz2.info)). There's also something really nice about personally understanding every little algorithm and every line of code in the game - if there's a bug or a crash, I know where to look and how to fix it. That wouldn't really be possible if a group of people with a wide range of coding styles were contributing.

So at the moment I don't have any immediate plans to go open source, but it may happen in the future. If I reach a point where I don't feel like developing the game any further I'll definitely release the code to the community.

But thank you very much for your offer! And thanks for the link too - I've been thinking about adding multiplayer more and more seriously recently so it could come in really handy soon.

[Arsonide]

As a coder that really enjoys your game, I wanted to voice my support of the fact that you are considering open sourcing it when you are done. Too many games die when their creators are done with them, even games with gigantic communities. (Cubeworld)

[Tango589]

A thought of another system that can go tits up: the ballast tank pumps and inlet valves. If something breaks you may try to surface or dive and nothing happens, or you start taking on ballast and diving uncontrollably, or you suffer an uncontrolled ascent. Is this realistic or am I taking the disaster scenario too far?:hmmm:

[Torkovsky]

TheGeoff, thanks for using the improved sound loops. I feel really honoured!
Best,
Torkovsky

[Aktungbby]

Torkovsky!:Kaleun_Salute:

[Jimbuna]

Welcome Torkovsky :sunny:

[TheGeoff]

Development of Sub Commander has been progressing pretty slowly lately (partly due to some real life commitments, partly due to an exciting new project I've started work on :ping:). I have added a lot of the code for handling ballistic and cruise missiles though, which should be a nice addition to the next version.

A thought of another system that can go tits up: the ballast tank pumps and inlet valves. If something breaks you may try to surface or dive and nothing happens, or you start taking on ballast and diving uncontrollably, or you suffer an uncontrolled ascent. Is this realistic or am I taking the disaster scenario too far?:hmmm:

Good idea - a ballast system failure could definitely be an interesting (and difficult!!) situation to deal with. Not quite sure how to implement it, since there's no actual in-game object representing the ballast tanks, but I'll give it some thought and see what I can come up with.

TheGeoff, thanks for using the improved sound loops. I feel really honoured!
Best,
Torkovsky Thank you for making them! :)

[Tango589]

Another exciting project from TheGeoff Corp. sounds promising, if it's anywhere near as good as SubCom! I look forward to being able to launch TLAM's at unsuspecting targets, will there also be TASM's available?

Keep calm and command on!

[DxMarovitch]

Just made an account on here just so I could say, this game is amazingly fun for how small it is. I can fit it on a crappy little USB drive and use it at work (lol!) and the new features and improvements are consistent.

I'm really looking forward to seeing TASMs and TLAMs added into the game!

Has there ever been a thought of there being a way to designate a specific crewmember to certain repairs? For example one person will automatically stop what they're doing and perform hull repairs, and another person will automatically repair damaged equipment?

Keep up the good work!!

Dan Marovitch

[Jimbuna]

Just made an account on here just so I could say, this game is amazingly fun for how small it is. I can fit it on a crappy little USB drive and use it at work (lol!) and the new features and improvements are consistent.

I'm really looking forward to seeing TASMs and TLAMs added into the game!

Has there ever been a thought of there being a way to designate a specific crewmember to certain repairs? For example one person will automatically stop what they're doing and perform hull repairs, and another person will automatically repair damaged equipment?

Keep up the good work!!

Dan Marovitch

Welcome to SubSim Dan :sunny:

[Aktungbby]

dxMarovitch!:Kaleun_Salute:

[TheGeoff]

Another exciting project from TheGeoff Corp. sounds promising, if it's anywhere near as good as SubCom! I look forward to being able to launch TLAM's at unsuspecting targets, will there also be TASM's available?

Keep calm and command on!
The new mystery project is hugely ambitious and I don't know if I can pull it off. So far so good though :)

I haven't added the ability for your sub to launch anti-ship missiles yet, but it's a good idea and they shouldn't be very hard to add - I'll put it on the list! So far I've

Just made an account on here just so I could say, this game is amazingly fun for how small it is. I can fit it on a crappy little USB drive and use it at work (lol!) and the new features and improvements are consistent.

I'm really looking forward to seeing TASMs and TLAMs added into the game!

Has there ever been a thought of there being a way to designate a specific crewmember to certain repairs? For example one person will automatically stop what they're doing and perform hull repairs, and another person will automatically repair damaged equipment?

Keep up the good work!!

Dan Marovitch
Welcome! Thanks for posting, glad you're enjoying the it. It's no accident the game is so small and portable, I do a lot of programming on my laptop on the train to work :)

It's not really possible to designate one crewman as 'hull repair guy' at the moment. You're right, could be a very useful feature though - having a chief firefighter, engineer, etc... I'll try adding it and see how well it works.

To clarify, these are the three ways you can currently ensure one crewman does a specific job:
- Click him then right-click the job (the damaged tile or fire or whatever)
- Select him by pressing V, press O to give an order, then moving the cursor to the job and press the appropriate key to assign the task
- Select every other crewman on the ship (one at a time) then press T to change what jobs they are allowed to do. Forbid them from doing the job you wanted the first crewman to do.

[Brother Grim]

WAR! Or is it?

Norfolk, Virginia: The predawn silence of the harbor was shattered this morning when an outbound oil tanker suddenly erupted into an enormous plume of oily black smoke. Questions as to whether or not this could possibly be an accident were quickly put to rest as, before the tanker's burning hull sections could properly settle to the bottom, two container ships also outbound suffered similar fates within 10 minutes. Into this sea of burning, broken hulls, containers adrift and charred remains, the US Second Fleet sent what assets it could hurriedly muster to counter whatever grave threat lurked unseen outside the harbor. Within the hour, two frigates, a destroyer and submarine had added their burning hulls, wreckage and a nuclear reactor to the carnage, making the channel unnavigable. The port authority has secured operations until further notice and the entire eastern seaboard is now on high alert, with all US and allied forces on increased alert. Runways were under maintenance at the time so maritime patrol aircraft could not be deployed to help counter the threat, but these aircraft are now airborne and attempting to cordon off paths of entry and exit from the area with sonar buoys. Soviet officials who could be reached for comment expressed doubt that an attack had occurred, instead stating that this was likely the result of capitalist workers bypassing safety in the pursuit of profits, rather than working for the common good.

In other news, a Soviet ship purported to be carrying humanitarian supplies to Havana, Cuba, was seen offloading mainly large crates of Vodka and a lot of cylindrical objects of unknown nature.

-AP

[Aktungbby]

Brother Grim!:Kaleun_Salute:

[Jimbuna]

Welcome :sunny:

[RedStorm]

Hello all, my name is Redstorm, and I just joined the forums today. I would like to say that I love Subcommander, and the tactics you can involve in it. I just have one problem;How do you detect enemy subs?

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim :sunny:

[Brother Grim]

Hello all, my name is Redstorm, and I just joined the forums today. I would like to say that I love Subcommander, and the tactics you can involve in it. I just have one problem;How do you detect enemy subs?

You can detect them on sonar, like other water craft. They won't show up on the tactical display (future fix??) but if you launch a torpedo from the weapons control panel while the enemy sub is selected on LOFAR, you will be shooting at it.

[Aktungbby]

RedStorm!:Kaleun_Salute:

[Jimbuna]

Welcome :sunny:

[TheGeoff]

I've just noticed that Google Chrome flags some versions as malware when you download them. Has anyone else noticed this?

(The zip file is completely safe, as the VirusTotal link in the first post proves. This is simply a false positive)

[kust]

Yep chrome thinks the zip file is a virus


Edit 1 The sub developement tool is flagged as a virus/malaware too

[TheGeoff]

Damn :/\\!! I'll see if I can contact google somehow and get them to fix it...

[TheGeoff]

The nuclear missile simulation code is almost finished and seems to work really well. The diplomacy system is also nearing completion. Turns out this is a very dangerous combination...

I wanted to check something in the missile code, so loaded up the game and sailed from Leningrad out into the Baltic to fire a test missile. West Germany assumed the missile was aimed at them and began launching their own missiles at the USSR... the USSR retaliated, the US began raining ICBMs on Eastern Europe and everything went downhill from there. Two hours later:
http://i.imgur.com/6fA63tC.png

[Tango589]

:har:

Holy freakin' crap, that is awesome!

What are the ramifications of something like this happening?

[kust]

If you still want ideas for your game i got one when you are in port you can recruit new/more crew choose what torpedos you want , tex electric or gas. Nice job with the diplomacy and nukes :)

[Tango589]

Good idea - a ballast system failure could definitely be an interesting (and difficult!!) situation to deal with. Not quite sure how to implement it, since there's no actual in-game object representing the ballast tanks, but I'll give it some thought and see what I can come up with.
A idea for implementing this may be that instead of having pumps, valves etc. to deal with in a failure, there is a buoyancy and depth keeping control panel that can throw a strop now and then.:hmmm:

[BubbaJake]

Hi, just wanted to say what a great job you have done on the missile system; looks fantastic. Can't wait to see the next update!

[Tango589]

As Bjork sung...It's Oh So Quiet!

[BubbaJake]

I have the sneaking suspicion that this silence will lead to a really big update... :D

[TheGeoff]

Version 0.25 needs to be a big update, it means we're a quarter of the way there!

[BubbaJake]

Version 0.25 needs to be a big update, it means we're a quarter of the way there!

Good to hear from you Geoff, can't wait to see what you have in store. Keep up the good work!

[Tango589]

Looking forward to the next thrilling instalment! Also wondering what this new big project is all about?:hmmm:

[TheGeoff]

I might post a screenshot and some details soon!

Also:

A idea for implementing this may be that instead of having pumps, valves etc. to deal with in a failure, there is a buoyancy and depth keeping control panel that can throw a strop now and then.

Forgot to respond to this but I definitely like this suggestion. I need to add a new control panel for the missiles anyway, so I might as well add a 'dive control system' or something like that while I'm at it. I don't know if this will make it into the next update but it's on The List™ for the future.

[Rex Ursus]

Hi there. I just found global conflict blue 2 and then I just found this. I'm interested. It seems that if the naval simulation community is going to have simulations we are going to have to build them ourselves.

So, I am wondering where I can download the latest version of this so that I might take a look?

[Tango589]

Version 0.24 is available on page 1, we are currently awaiting version 0.25 with baited breath!

[TheGeoff]

Hi there. I just found global conflict blue 2 and then I just found this. I'm interested. It seems that if the naval simulation community is going to have simulations we are going to have to build them ourselves.

So, I am wondering where I can download the latest version of this so that I might take a look?

Yeah, the link is near the top of the first page of the thread. Let me know what you think!

Funny you mention Global Conflict Blue, I actually made a rough prototype of a game similar to that a while ago (though it was simpler and focused more on the air combat aspect than the naval) Definitely agree that if nobody is making the kind of games you want to play, you should make it yourself - that's mostly why I started making Sub Commander.

[Tango589]

Funny you mention Global Conflict Blue, I actually made a rough prototype of a game similar to that a while ago (though it was simpler and focused more on the air combat aspect than the naval).

An air combat strategy simulator definitely speaks to my inner pilot!:up:

[TheGeoff]

I decided to post a quick progress report because this update is taking so long. Here are a couple of the features I've added this week:


The arctic ice sheet is now simulated - you can sail under it and even break through it if you have enough speed. Trying to smash your way to the North Pole like some kind of weaponized icebreaker is a definitely a bad idea though.

The AI for ships, aircraft and convoys have all been significantly improved. Nations will react faster and more aggressively towards any hostile subs detected in their waters, especially if you start launching torpedoes or missiles. Ships will now radio your position to each other and call for air support if it is available. Pilots are also better at planning attack vectors and flight paths.

Cities can be destroyed by nuclear weapons (meaning you are unable to refit there) and nuclear blasts will irradiate the surface (making it unsafe to refresh your sub's air supply). It seems I've made a simulation of Nevil Shute's On The Beach :o


Before I release V0.25, there are still several tweaks and improvements to be made to the diplomacy code, the UI, and several of the onboard systems. I think all of the major features are finished though, so with any luck it should be out next week.

[Tango589]

I decided to post a quick progress report because this update is taking soooo long.
Fixed for you!:O:

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm260/tango589/skeleton.jpg

I used to weigh 18 stone when v 0.24 was released...

Also, I'm on holiday until 1st October :up:, so I'll just have to wait.:wah:

[Wojtek94]

What with save game option? With this game will be 100x better than Silent Hunter;) I wait for this very long...:( Keep up the good work!

[TheGeoff]

You're in luck Wojtek, I was in the mood for a challenge when I read your post so I added a basic save/load feature to v0.25 :) There are probably still a few bugs to iron out but it seems to work pretty well.


The save/load code takes us past another milestone - the code for Sub Commander is now over 15,000 lines :woot:

[BubbaJake]

Alright, Geoff said hopefully this week, so it must be tonight or possibly tomorrow! Gosh anticipation is fun yet torture.

[TheGeoff]

Here it is:
Version 0.25 released!
Download here: http://goo.gl/eAy0BO (http://goo.gl/eAy0BO)

Changelog:

You can now save and load the game (at any time). Press S on the main menu to save, L to load. There is only one save slot currently and it will be overwritten every time you save - if you want to keep a save safe for later, copy the file "SaveFile.sav" to another directory, then copy it back when you want to load.
Added nuclear SLBMs to the game(cruise missiles and conventional warheads are hopefully coming soon). SLBMs on your submarine are controlled from the Missile Control Panel.
Added AI controlled ICBMs. At the moment every nation has nuclear weapons, to allow for bigger nuclear exchanges and more thorough testing of the nuclear war simulation.
Added two new submarine classes:

"November" - loosely based on the Soviet November-class submarines, equipped with 3 missile tubes.
"Typhoon" - an unusual double-hull design based on the Soviet Typhoon-class submarines, equipped with 8 missile tubes.

Added dynamic diplomacy system. Nations will now react to your actions in the game - sinking friendly or neutral ships can cause your nations to declare war on each other, for example. You can sometimes convince neutral nations to join your side by attacking their enemies.
SIGNIFICANTLY improved the AI of ships, convoys and ground controllers. They will now respond much more aggressively to detected threats, especially torpedo and missile launches. If your submarine is detected near an enemy port they will now vector fighters and patrol aircraft to your position. AI pilots are a LOT smarter now too.
Added ice at the North Pole.
Ship and aircraft AI has been optimised, resulting in much faster performance on older PCs.
Fixed an issue relating to propagation of radiation through seawater around sub.
Increased speed of aircraft to a more realistic level.
Fixed an annoying crew bug - if one crewman was given new orders halfway through a task, another would automatically pick up the old task where he left off. This often caused crew to jump into fires, drown themselves, or dash into the reactor room without any protection - it has now been fixed.
Fixed several bugs relating to the ventilation system.
Added seaports to Seoul and Pyongyang, making South Korea and North Korea playable.
OpenGL graphics now work properly. Using OpenGL usually results in a significant performance increase on older computers, especially when your entire sub is on fire. It can (rarely) cause crashes though, and it messes with the way rectangles are drawn for some inscrutable reason - if you experience this, it can be turned off in the gameoptions.ini file.
Numerous other small tweaks and bugfixes.



I have recently been in contact with a former US Navy submariner who has been an excellent source of ideas for new game mechanics (and new ways for things to go wrong :up:). With all the nuclear missiles and diplomacy I didn't get time to add the changes to this version, but you can expect a bunch of new features and realism improvements next update.

I also plan to redo the main menu and add a proper options menu, to avoid all the messing around with gameoptions.ini. If there are other features you would really like to see in 0.26, now's a good time to post 'em!

[TheGeoff]

And now, as promised, a quick look at the Big Exciting New Project (BENP™)!

The idea is to make a multiplayer cold war era submarine simulator like nothing else out there. Each player controls an individual crewman on a submarine, and every system aboard the sub is modelled to a Sub Commander level of detail (possibly even more complex). The players must cooperate to control the sub, engage targets, deal with disasters etc. The 'targets' can be either AI controlled surface ships or other player controlled submarines. AI crewman can be added for single player mode.

The game will be made using the Unity engine, which will allow for stunning, modern 3D graphics. I plan to make it available for sale on Steam through the Greenlight program.

It's a huge project, and to be honest I have no idea if it will ever be released. It will certainly take a year or two to get anywhere near a playable game. It's coming along pretty well so far though - the multiplayer code seems to work, I've roughly modelled the interior of one submarine and the code for hull breaches / flooding works pretty well.

Here are a couple of screenshots from inside a Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine in the game. Keep in mind that the game is very early in development. All of the 3D models are placeholders, and everything shown here will change many times before the game reaches an alpha state.


(Click to view the full size images)
http://i.imgur.com/3kFdjAml.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/3kFdjAm.jpg)

Flooding in the Fore Torpedo Room!
http://i.imgur.com/oxIJl80l.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/oxIJl80.jpg)

Interested to hear what you think!

[BubbaJake]

My gosh! That project looks amazing:up:! How far along is it? Do you plan to continue both projects? Also, just finished my first play through in 0.25, it was fantastic! Great work!

[TheGeoff]

I'll definitely be continuing to focus on Sub Commander, for the near future anyway. Even if I eventually switch over to primarily developing the 3D sim, Sub Commander would still be hugely valuable as a way to test new game mechanics and ideas... it's MUCH easier to code things in 2D with basic graphics.

The 3D sim is currently very, very early in development. So far you can join a server (supports up to 10 players), move around the sub, and play with a few levers and controls. The code for water flow throughout the sub has also been implemented. There are basic animations for walking, jumping etc, but I haven't made any character models yet so the crew of the sub look like US Marines from Iraq. One step at a time!

[Julhelm]

Hah, that's awesome.

[Rilder]

Oh my, Space Station 13 style Submarine Simulator, do want. :up:

[BubbaJake]

Space Station 13! Yes, that's what it reminded me of.

[Runibl]

Nice, that looks exciting.

[Alex1993]

hi TheGeoff i've got a new OS win 8.1 after i downloaded the latest version of the game the blitz engine throws me with errors like hell is there a way to run it ?

[TheGeoff]

Hi Alex. If you're getting an error saying "Illegal Memory Address" or similar when you try to start the game, there are two possible solutions that I know of. First, try running the game as an administrator. If that doesn't work, try adding the game to the Windows DEP exclusion list (instructions are here: http://www.windowsanswers.net/articles/dep-config).

One other thing I recommend trying is disabling OpenGL graphics, by going into the gameoptions.ini file and changing "OpenGL_graphics = 1" to "OpenGL_graphics = 0" (without quotation marks). OpenGL is a new setting in V0.25 which is on by default, so it might be the cause of your problem.

Good luck - let me know how it goes!

[Alex1993]

Hi Alex. If you're getting an error saying "Illegal Memory Address" or similar when you try to start the game, there are two possible solutions that I know of. First, try running the game as an administrator. If that doesn't work, try adding the game to the Windows DEP exclusion list (instructions are here: http://www.windowsanswers.net/articles/dep-config).

One other thing I recommend trying is disabling OpenGL graphics, by going into the gameoptions.ini file and changing "OpenGL_graphics = 1" to "OpenGL_graphics = 0" (without quotation marks). OpenGL is a new setting in V0.25 which is on by default, so it might be the cause of your problem.

Good luck - let me know how it goes!

Alright OpenGL is disabled and the game works now thank you so much

[Nickvr628]

Yes, YES! That 3D game looks amazing! What engine is it being developed in?

When you release it it it will be amazing. Also, I have a suggestion for the Nuclear Missile Console, allow us to zoom in and out like at the map screen. It is so cool to watch the missiles fly around. It is interesting though, as it appears that some countries will target you with their missiles, not just the cities. Is this because I am surfaced when I launch the missiles, or do they lock on to you anyway?

Another suggestion for quality of life. Make the radio messages more apparent, I have sat in port for a long time while doing recon missions, not realizing that I have already been given a new mission. Maybe add a flashing pop-up when you get a new message about missions or war decs.

Now a question, how do I dock at a friendly port to restock torpedoes, repair hull, ect. I heard that people can do that, just I do not know how. Thanks! Is there any variation with missions depending on which nation you play as? And are there any "launch nuclear weapons at x y z" missions that result from the AI launching missiles? I know that nations will declare war on each other, and may or may not fight each other in the background, but will a nation instigate a nuclear war?

I LOVE this game, it is like FTL with submarines (which is a good thing) and I hope it grows and develops alongside the 3D multiplayer version when it is released. Please make more spoiler pics when you can!

P.S. The November is my favorite submarine, due to it's versatility and that it has missiles!

[TheGeoff]

New custom submarine:
Zombie_2371 over at the Facepunch forums made this awesome new missile submarine, called the December class. Features four missile tubes, airlocks (if you want to flood your sub), and even a slightly customised misc system control panel!
http://puu.sh/bMDkN/c324523bf0.png
It can be downloaded here: http://puu.sh/bMDhF/40368fb8d5.rar



Yes, YES! That 3D game looks amazing! What engine is it being developed in?

When you release it it it will be amazing. Also, I have a suggestion for the Nuclear Missile Console, allow us to zoom in and out like at the map screen. It is so cool to watch the missiles fly around. It is interesting though, as it appears that some countries will target you with their missiles, not just the cities. Is this because I am surfaced when I launch the missiles, or do they lock on to you anyway?

Another suggestion for quality of life. Make the radio messages more apparent, I have sat in port for a long time while doing recon missions, not realizing that I have already been given a new mission. Maybe add a flashing pop-up when you get a new message about missions or war decs.

Now a question, how do I dock at a friendly port to restock torpedoes, repair hull, ect. I heard that people can do that, just I do not know how. Thanks! Is there any variation with missions depending on which nation you play as? And are there any "launch nuclear weapons at x y z" missions that result from the AI launching missiles? I know that nations will declare war on each other, and may or may not fight each other in the background, but will a nation instigate a nuclear war?

I LOVE this game, it is like FTL with submarines (which is a good thing) and I hope it grows and develops alongside the 3D multiplayer version when it is released. Please make more spoiler pics when you can!

P.S. The November is my favorite submarine, due to it's versatility and that it has missiles!
The 3D sim is developed in Unity, which I think will allow the game to have nice, modern 3D graphics while also being relatively quick and easy to develop thanks to the asset store. For example, I was able to buy a module which allows for realistic ripples and splashes in water for $30 - it would have taken me weeks to write that code from scratch.

Seems a few people are interested in improvements to the missile control panel map - labels, zoom levels etc. I'll work on improving it in a future update. Countries won't deliberately target you with missiles (I think), but you might get hit if you're near a port and a missile goes off course. Cold War era guidance systems aren't perfect!

To rearm at a port, get close (within one square) and press LShift+R. This doesn't work if the port has been destroyed by nuclear weapons for obvious reasons. Currently, the AI will never perform a nuclear first strike and will never order you to - this is because any nuclear actions are basically guaranteed to wipe out every city and end the world, and I don't want to force players to start a new game just because the AI went crazy and nuked everyone.

[kvn8907]

I first learned of this game in issue 256 of PC Gamer, in the Downloads section. I downloaded 0.22 and started learning it, thinking that was the newest version. I then realized that 0.23 was newer, but when I downloaded it, I was confused with the control scheme, and thought it was more difficult to control because right clicking no longer closed what window was open.
So, I kept playing 0.22 for a while. In particular, one Sunday my cable went out, and with nothing to do online, I ended spending almost 6 hours playing Sub Commander.

After I finally felt like I had gotten the hang of the game, and realized there was a short manual to read, I decided to read this entire thread from beginning to end. It was interesting to read how many of the troubles I did encounter with the game were the same troubles others were seeing, and I was pleased to finally learn what the purpose of Thick Leather Gloves and Chemical Suits are in the game. When I got to the change log of 0.23 I read about how the control scheme had changed, and how it was now easier to give direct orders to crew members. I also learned that for most screens, clicking on an unoccupied part of the screen went back to the default screen just like right clicking used to do, with the periscope screen being the exception, so I no longer felt like 0.23 had a more inconvenient control scheme.

Sub Commander, ever since I started playing it, had thus far always been a game about learning the submarine. It was fun in its own right, but I got the feeling that once all the intricacies of it were learned, that was as good as the game being finished. That changed with 0.25, and the two largest changes I've seen on it so far. First, the save feature was a huge change. With that, the game now ends when I get bored, sink/ kill all my crew, or get an impossible mission, instead of when I need to do something else or turn off my computer. Second, the missions became much more challenging.
On 9/25 I was playing a new mission with the new game version, this one to sink a ship east of Iceland. I found the corvette and two destroyers, slinked in close, fired one torpedo at each of the destroyers, which were hit, and two at the corvette. Unlike previous versions of Sub Commander, it dodged both torpedoes and accelerated to 42 knots (!) and zoomed close to me. It didn't have any depth charges and I was at periscope depth, so it darted close to me and then started running circles around me. I reloaded my tubes and fired more torpedoes at it, trying my hardest to lead the speedy little thing, and must have shot five at it, because by the time I finally hit it, I only had two torpedoes left, and if it had dodged those I would have had to make a long trip to some port to resupply.

Point being the game was never that much of a challenge until recently. All the times I took damage or sunk before were the results of either my own inexperience, such as not realizing that pressing T in the sonar menu made it possible to target a sonar signature, leading to an indefinite one-sided battle with an enemy submarine I was incapable of evading or destroying, or bad luck, such as encountering another ship while blindly navigating. This new version 0.25 seems to have more glitches and bugs than other versions, which I'll post in the proper subforum, but it's certainly a step in the right direction toward the game being more than simply learning how to play the game (which, don't get me wrong, was fun in its own right).

Finally, as for suggestions, I'd like to see more fleet actions. It would be interesting if it were possible to lure two enemy fleets in range of each other and help as they duke it out. Or, a timed mission where you have to get to a staging area to help with a fleet battle or else the battle will be lost. Or, a fleet battle that will not start until you are within 80 km of it.

I wish there were a few more ports further north, such as on Iceland, in Alaska, and in northern Russia.

Also, I've put a lot of thought into the possibility that has been mentioned about enemy ships being able to take multiple hits. On the one hand, for large warships, that would certainly be realistic. I remember vividly in Red Storm Rising a US Navy destroyer has its entire front section blown away, but due to its bulkheads, it stays afloat and is slowly towed back to port for refit. Also, in The Journal of Submarine Commander Von Forstner (old reference, I know) he mentions how transport ships don't typically have watertight bulkheads and the ones that do tend to only split the ships in half whereas warships proper tend to have watertight bulkheads with small subdivisions. On the other hand, in light of the example I just gave of a corvette zipping around like someone circle strafing in an FPS, I think the newest version of Sub Commander is challenging enough without requiring that I plug enemy ships with multiple torpedoes, or even having a dice roll that the torpedo hit someplace nonessential, like the ship's sleeping quarters.

Anyway, long story short, this has been a very interesting game, and I look forward to new updates. This kind of reminds me of Cortex Command in that it's a. retro-style b. released incrementally c. doesn't have a very comprehensive tutorial, and requires a lot of trial and error, which can be fun sometimes. I'm also glad to see it's free, though you could certainly charge $5 for version 1.0 when it comes out if you'd like.

[TheGeoff]

Thanks for the feedback kvn8907, interesting to hear your thoughts about how the game has progressed. You definitely raise an important point - until now a lot of the challenge has been learning to deal with the submarine and figuring out how to deal with the different types of disaster, rather than the actual combat aspects of the game.

0.25 significantly boosted the enemy AI and made the game more of a challenge and I'd like to take that further in the future. Enemies will get smarter, more responsive and better at teamwork - but of course your allies will also benefit from this. When AI ships seek out and engage each other properly there will be the potential for some amazing situations! I also plan to add some depth (heh) to the combat system by adding new capabilities to your sub like active sonar and decoys.

Glad you're enjoying the game and thank you for posting your experience!

[kvn8907]

Good to know. I have a break room at work, and now with the save game feature, it's practical to play the game for a few minutes on breaks and pick it up later.

Also, I just learned in the game that you can easily switch between people when assigning them to new compartments in the new versions of the game, whereas in 0.22 you had to go through a three step process on each crew member, which took forever if you wanted to assign everyone to a non-flooded room that wasn't the break room.

Now, if I had known about that feature that time when my entire submarine was flooded except for the Sonar room, maybe everyone but two people could have crowded into the sonar room while two people with welding torches and SCBA fixed the ship. :hmm2:

[TheGeoff]

Good to know. I have a break room at work, and now with the save game feature, it's practical to play the game for a few minutes on breaks and pick it up later.

Also, I just learned in the game that you can easily switch between people when assigning them to new compartments in the new versions of the game, whereas in 0.22 you had to go through a three step process on each crew member, which took forever if you wanted to assign everyone to a non-flooded room that wasn't the break room.

Now, if I had known about that feature that time when my entire submarine was flooded except for the Sonar room, maybe everyone but two people could have crowded into the sonar room while two people with welding torches and SCBA fixed the ship. :hmm2:

I think I'll add area assignment to the right-click menu for next time, That should streamline things even further.

Also thanks for pointing out the game was mentioned in PC Gamer, I had no idea! First time the game's been mentioned in an actual print magazine :woot:

[Tango589]

Dear sir,

I'm 86 days into a patrol and have been tasked with sinking a particular vessel. After having to stop off at Port Stanley to refit, I've reached the area the vessel was last seen and have searched high and low for him but to no avail: I can't find the little sod anywhere! Will I eventually be given a new order or do I just start a new patrol and give up on this one?

Yours,

Frustrated

Uk.

[Aktungbby]

NICKVR628 & kvn8907!:Kaleun_Salute:

[TheGeoff]

Dear sir,

I'm 86 days into a patrol and have been tasked with sinking a particular vessel. After having to stop off at Port Stanley to refit, I've reached the area the vessel was last seen and have searched high and low for him but to no avail: I can't find the little sod anywhere! Will I eventually be given a new order or do I just start a new patrol and give up on this one?

Yours,

Frustrated

Uk.

The ship might be a submarine, which would make it damn hard to spot. If that was the case you'd probably find a sonar contact eventually though, or more likely the sub would find you. It's possible but unlikely that the ship sailed out of the mission area completely. Or maybe this is a previously unseen bug surfacing.

Regardless, I have made a temporary solution for impossible missions.

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

[ikalugin]

Hi,
I have several questions:
- Do you need any assistance in the coding? I ask this b/c this is a big project for 1 man.
- How is the eye candy (3d sub commander) doing?
- Do you plan to use a complex sonar simulation, like that other sub sim project here?

[Nickvr628]

Please post images (or a video is you are feeling confident) of the new 3d sub-sim. I want to see more of it's awesomeness-ness. :know:


If you are feeling REALLY confident, you can release a tech demo of it, where you just walk around the submarine and can punch holes in the hull to watch the flooding physics. :gulp:

Godspeed to you in developing this game, and if it is good enough I would GLADLY pay for it.

[Tango589]

Regardless, I have made a temporary solution for impossible missions.

Cheers for the work-around, it'll save steam coming out of my ears with frustration!

[TheGeoff]

Hi,
I have several questions:
- Do you need any assistance in the coding? I ask this b/c this is a big project for 1 man.
- How is the eye candy (3d sub commander) doing?
- Do you plan to use a complex sonar simulation, like that other sub sim project here?
Thank you for the offer, but I intend to continue coding the game on my own for now. If in the future I decide to stop working on Sub Commander for some reason, I intend to release the source code so others can continue development if they're interested.

I will make the radar and sonar simulation in Sub Commander more detailed eventually but I don't have any immediate plans for it. Someday I'll probably play a bunch of Dangerous Waters then feel inspired to redo all the sonar code :ping: Also, the 3D sub sim I'm working on will probably have more detailed sensor systems than Sub Commander.

Please post images (or a video is you are feeling confident) of the new 3d sub-sim. I want to see more of it's awesomeness-ness. :know:


If you are feeling REALLY confident, you can release a tech demo of it, where you just walk around the submarine and can punch holes in the hull to watch the flooding physics. :gulp:

Godspeed to you in developing this game, and if it is good enough I would GLADLY pay for it.

Unfortunately the game isn't ready for demos or videos yet - I'll definitely take some videos once the game is more complete, but for now you'll have to make do with a couple of gifs:
http://gfycat.com/RareIndolentIntermediateegret#?speed=0.7
http://gfycat.com/UnconsciousThornyAcaciarat#?speed=0.7

[Tango589]

Those GIFs are looking good Geoff, I could almost feel my feet getting wet (and that's not because I've just had an accident:oops:):up:

[Karma441]

If there are other features you would really like to see in 0.26, now's a good time to post 'em!

I only downloaded this game this morning and instantly fell in love. I have always enjoyed games with a lot of depth and this game definitely has the potential to have a LOT of depth. The realism is great, though I don't know much about submarines I feel like I'm getting a pretty authentic experience here. anyway, my suggestions.

It would be pretty cool to give crew members multiple speeds, (e.g. crew members will move at a slower or 'walking speed' when there is no emergency but will move at a faster or 'running' speed when there is a fire, hull damage etc.) maybe even give some crew members an 'agile' attribute which would give them a slight advantage. another thing I noticed is that when a crew member dies they just come back to life once you refill at a port, but it would be pretty cool and a little more realistic to see them get replaced by a new crew member with a new set of skills and attributes.

I would also like to see something more interactive at ports on arrival; maybe a menu of options. These options could include things such as crew replacements, picking up different equipment or even taking new missions from the port rather than the radio. Another interesting feature could possibly be the addition of battleships and/or aircraft carriers which would add a whole different aspect of game play.

I know some of my suggestions are a bit 'out there' or just sound dumb but I hope a few of them help with the next update which I'm sure is going to be great. It's nice to see how well this game has come out and how big of an impact the updates have. The 3D version looks like it's going to be a blast, though I hope it keeps the same authenticity that the original has managed to provide. :up:

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim Karma :sunny:

[Karma441]

Thanks Jimbuna :D I found a few glitches I thought I would point out though they might be features :hmmm:

Periscope Submerged: the game says that the periscope is submerged while the maneuver control panel says it is visible

Unable to Reach Coolant Pumps and/or Outer/Pressure Hull: crew members aren't able to reach certain components of the sub (especially in the November, Typhoon and Triton class sub) to repair them though it might be a feature to not be able to repair the outer hull.

[Aktungbby]

Karma441:Kaleun_Salute:

[TheGeoff]

I only downloaded this game this morning and instantly fell in love. I have always enjoyed games with a lot of depth and this game definitely has the potential to have a LOT of depth. The realism is great, though I don't know much about submarines I feel like I'm getting a pretty authentic experience here. anyway, my suggestions.

It would be pretty cool to give crew members multiple speeds, (e.g. crew members will move at a slower or 'walking speed' when there is no emergency but will move at a faster or 'running' speed when there is a fire, hull damage etc.) maybe even give some crew members an 'agile' attribute which would give them a slight advantage. another thing I noticed is that when a crew member dies they just come back to life once you refill at a port, but it would be pretty cool and a little more realistic to see them get replaced by a new crew member with a new set of skills and attributes.

I would also like to see something more interactive at ports on arrival; maybe a menu of options. These options could include things such as crew replacements, picking up different equipment or even taking new missions from the port rather than the radio. Another interesting feature could possibly be the addition of battleships and/or aircraft carriers which would add a whole different aspect of game play.

I know some of my suggestions are a bit 'out there' or just sound dumb but I hope a few of them help with the next update which I'm sure is going to be great. It's nice to see how well this game has come out and how big of an impact the updates have. The 3D version looks like it's going to be a blast, though I hope it keeps the same authenticity that the original has managed to provide. :up:
Glad you're enjoying it, and thanks for the good suggestions. I particularly like the idea of an agility stat for crewmen - the stat would be affected by the amount and type of gear carried, so there would be an actual penalty for simultaneously loading up one guy with a gas mask, welder, toolbox, extinguisher, rad suit, SCBA gear etc. Definitely sounds like a good game mechanic to me.

A rearming / refitting menu when the sub is docked is planned, as are aircraft carriers. They've been sitting on the 'to do' list for a looong time but they'll be added eventually!

Thanks Jimbuna :D I found a few glitches I thought I would point out though they might be features :hmmm:

Periscope Submerged: the game says that the periscope is submerged while the maneuver control panel says it is visible

Unable to Reach Coolant Pumps and/or Outer/Pressure Hull: crew members aren't able to reach certain components of the sub (especially in the November, Typhoon and Triton class sub) to repair them though it might be a feature to not be able to repair the outer hull.
And thanks for these bug reports :salute: The periscope one is definitely a bug, I'll look into it. Pretty sure there are no inaccessible objects though, crew can climb over / under objects (if there is no other way) so they should still be able to repair that pump. And yeah, it's not possible to repair the outer hull while at sea at the moment - not sure if I'll change this in the future.

[wa2ddl]

Hey there, Geoff.
I downloaded the game a while ago, and I liked it a lot. I first got the 0.24, and the missile update got me very giddy. I remember spending the first 10 minutes just nuking everything, and watching the explosions. :) What I wanted to suggest, was, when you include the active sonar, could you also include distances? I always hate when I launch torpedoes, only to find out that the small frigate is too far, and outruns it. :shifty: That would be awesome.:ping:

Also, on an unrelated note, did anyone know that if you torpedo a USA vessel (get them from friendly to neutral), everyone suddenly signs peace treaties with you? :o I found that interesting!

...but does that mean that since there are no hostiles, that the engage enemy shipping missions becomes moot? What about the sink specific vessels?

Anyway, I will let you decide how that works!

(PS: Sorry to keep bringing up issues, but the December submarine, while great, seems to have some bugs in the loading of the torpedoes. I know you did not create it, so I am not asking you to fix it, but I am bringing it up so that everyone else is aware of the fact. This bug, when it occurs "wastes" torpedoes, particular loading a new when there already is one in the chamber, and loading a torpedo into the wrong tube, but displaying it is loaded properly, which can be annoying or deadly, depending on whenever you have an angry fleet of Soviets after you or not. :D)

A fan,
Dilqui

[Aktungbby]

Dilqui! :Kaleun_Salute:

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim Dilqui :sunny:

[kvn8907]

another thing I noticed is that when a crew member dies they just come back to life once you refill at a port, but it would be pretty cool and a little more realistic to see them get replaced by a new crew member with a new set of skills and attributes.


Don't you know that every seaport worth its salt has a large stock of life crystals on hand for just such an occasion? :-)

Video related:

http://youtu.be/62olGqRbaLs

[wa2ddl]

Thank you people for the warm welcome! Glad to be here:D.

[TheGeoff]

Hey there, Geoff.
I downloaded the game a while ago, and I liked it a lot. I first got the 0.24, and the missile update got me very giddy. I remember spending the first 10 minutes just nuking everything, and watching the explosions. :) What I wanted to suggest, was, when you include the active sonar, could you also include distances? I always hate when I launch torpedoes, only to find out that the small frigate is too far, and outruns it. :shifty: That would be awesome.:ping:

Also, on an unrelated note, did anyone know that if you torpedo a USA vessel (get them from friendly to neutral), everyone suddenly signs peace treaties with you? :o I found that interesting!

...but does that mean that since there are no hostiles, that the engage enemy shipping missions becomes moot? What about the sink specific vessels?

Anyway, I will let you decide how that works!

(PS: Sorry to keep bringing up issues, but the December submarine, while great, seems to have some bugs in the loading of the torpedoes. I know you did not create it, so I am not asking you to fix it, but I am bringing it up so that everyone else is aware of the fact. This bug, when it occurs "wastes" torpedoes, particular loading a new when there already is one in the chamber, and loading a torpedo into the wrong tube, but displaying it is loaded properly, which can be annoying or deadly, depending on whenever you have an angry fleet of Soviets after you or not. :D)

A fan,
Dilqui
Hi Dilqui, thanks for posting! The active sonar idea sounds good, I'll keep it in mind when I add it. Not sure how useful active sonar will actually be, since it should reveal your position to everyone nearby, but I guess that can be balanced once it's in the game.

I've never noticed the USA peace treaty bug, that's hilarious! I'll see if I can figure out why it's happening. Usually if you attack the US their allies will declare war on you and the Warsaw Pact nations will want to be friends, the diplomacy code is still kinda buggy though. If there are no hostile nations you will only be given recon missions, although your current mission will not be cancelled so you might still have orders to attack someone.

Someone else pointed out the torpedo bug recently in a different thread, apparently it happens in the default submarine sometimes too. Thanks for pointing it out, looks like it's a pretty common bug. I'll look into it, something strange is definitely going on.

Don't you know that every seaport worth its salt has a large stock of life crystals on hand for just such an occasion? :-)

Video related:

http://youtu.be/62olGqRbaLs

The Dig! I loved that game as a kid, never actually beat it though...

[Fieters]

Hi, I think I´m one of those old Computers. It´s running but if I zoom out my PC really slows down. So I would be interrested to see a "Computer Friendly" map :))

Excelent Job tho!

[Fieters]

Is there any page, where I can download subs?

[kritZ]

Been awhile since I've checked in, and I've been loving the updates. I've been having a few bug problems (or it could just be user error) which affect my gameplay narrative though. The most prominent one I keep running into is the bilge pumps won't work sometimes, which is a slight problem when trying to keep the sub from sinking. I'll have more than enough power, I'll have the diesel gen. on, but they won't pump.:06:

The other bug (albeit hilarious) was that the Russians were not very courteous. I was playing as the USSR, and I got sunk by the Americans, and then they drove off (Candadian-American?). The Russians seemed to have a surplus of depth charges though, and they seemed determined to pass them on to me.

It did lead to the most emotional moment of the game though, as my sub was grounded just off the coast of California, and my two remaining crew members were getting ready to abandon the sub and swim to the shore. One of them lagged a little behind, and he was killed by a depth charge.

RIP Chief Mills. :wah:

Would anyone be adverse to me making a subreddit for this?

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim Fieters :salute:

[Tango589]

I've been having a few bug problems (or it could just be user error) which affect my gameplay narrative though. The most prominent one I keep running into is the bilge pumps won't work sometimes, which is a slight problem when trying to keep the sub from sinking. I'll have more than enough power, I'll have the diesel gen. on, but they won't pump.
This may not be a bug. The efficiency of the bilge pumps diminishes the deeper your sub goes, as they struggle to pump the bilge water out against the external water pressure. The pumps run at max efficiency down to 30 m, then get less efficient the further down you go. After 100 m depth, the pumps are ineffective, which certainly makes for a race against time! AFAIK the diesel generators make no difference to the pumps. Your reactor is pumping out far more power than the generators could ever hope to.

[TheGeoff]

Hi, I think I´m one of those old Computers. It´s running but if I zoom out my PC really slows down. So I would be interrested to see a "Computer Friendly" map :))

Excelent Job tho!

Welcome Fieters!

Changing "map_render_style = 2" to "map_render_style = 1" in the gameoptions.ini file will help, especially when zoomed out. Also, make sure "OpenGL_graphics = 1" and maybe lower the "number_of_ships" and "number_of_aircraft".

Is there any page, where I can download subs?

At the moment the only custom sub I know about is the December Class, available here: http://puu.sh/bMDhF/40368fb8d5.rar

Hopefully more people will share their creations when the game is more popular. I should get around to improving the submarine editor to make it a bit less user-unfriendly too.

Been awhile since I've checked in, and I've been loving the updates. I've been having a few bug problems (or it could just be user error) which affect my gameplay narrative though. The most prominent one I keep running into is the bilge pumps won't work sometimes, which is a slight problem when trying to keep the sub from sinking. I'll have more than enough power, I'll have the diesel gen. on, but they won't pump.:06:

The other bug (albeit hilarious) was that the Russians were not very courteous. I was playing as the USSR, and I got sunk by the Americans, and then they drove off (Candadian-American?). The Russians seemed to have a surplus of depth charges though, and they seemed determined to pass them on to me.

It did lead to the most emotional moment of the game though, as my sub was grounded just off the coast of California, and my two remaining crew members were getting ready to abandon the sub and swim to the shore. One of them lagged a little behind, and he was killed by a depth charge.

RIP Chief Mills. :wah:

Would anyone be adverse to me making a subreddit for this?

As Tango said, the effectiveness of bilge pumps decreases as you go deeper. They will also not work if battery power is too low, but that shouldn't be a problem if the nuclear reactors are still functional.

There is actually a subreddit already, but it's very quiet and I don't think many people know about it. It's here if you're interested: http://www.reddit.com/r/subcommander/. I think people occasionally post about the game in /r/roguelikes too, someone posted a pretty good beginners guide (http://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikes/comments/2i74ty/does_anyone_have_a_decent_guide_for_submarine/) a while ago.

Poor chief Mills :(

[JerikTelorian]

Geoff, thanks for working on this title. It's really a fantastic little bit of software. I've always had a thing for games that give you lots of buttons/switches to manage, it's a really neat experience!

I've lurked the thread a bit but haven't caught the language you're using for this: are you writing it in C++, or something else?

It did lead to the most emotional moment of the game though, as my sub was grounded just off the coast of California, and my two remaining crew members were getting ready to abandon the sub and swim to the shore.

Is there an ability to abandon a sub or is this a bit of fluff? All of my excursions have ended in the deep.

[Tango589]

Is there an ability to abandon a sub or is this a bit of fluff? All of my excursions have ended in the deep.
AFAIK this is a bit of imagination and artistic license. If there really is a way to abandon the sub, it's news to me!:03:

[Aktungbby]

JerikTelorian & Fleters! :Kaleun_Salute:

[Jimbuna]

Welcome Aboard :sunny:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome :sunny:

[Dilqui]

For some reason, it is confusing my post with wa2ddl's...:-? But anyway, it's me!
(Edit): I posted something before, back a page. I discussed with Geoff the US bug. However, due to the anti-spam system flaring up for some reason, I had issues with my account, and my previous post was shown to be wa2ddl's. Anyway, I am back!)

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim Dilqui :sunny:

[Aktungbby]

Dilqui :Kaleun_Salute:

[Borodin]

I've downloaded and unpacked this promising game, but when I run subcommander_0_25.exe I just get a brief flash of a black window and nothing more.

Setting windowed = 0 in gameoptions.ini gives me a full screen of black, and a flash of some controls, but this too dies after a couple of seconds. I've also tried disabling OpenGL which had no effect at all.

I can't see any posts from people with any issues at all with this game, so I cannot imagine what might be the problem on my system.

I'm running Windows 7 x64 with an Nvidia GTX 760.

Does anyone have any ideas what may be the problem?

Update

I've just seen the "Crashes, Bugs and Troubleshooting" thread, which is where this post belongs. Could an admin move it for me please?

[kritZ]

JerikTelorian (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=333031), Tango589 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=238285) it is a bit of artistic license. I would be a cool, albeit kinda useless feature.

TheGeoff, have you considered making the crewmen move out of a room if there is radiation in it? It's a little annoying when I send in an unprotected guy to assess the damage, and then he just sits around and absorbs enough radiation to turn into the hulk.:ping:

[JerikTelorian]

JerikTelorian (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=333031), Tango589 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=238285) it is a bit of artistic license. I would be a cool, albeit kinda useless feature.

I figured, but I've found several neat little features that I didn't expect so I wasn't going to put it past Geoff.

TheGeoff, have you considered making the crewmen move out of a room if there is radiation in it? It's a little annoying when I send in an unprotected guy to assess the damage, and then he just sits around and absorbs enough radiation to turn into the hulk.:ping:

Nobody is going to claim that these chaps don't know how to follow orders, that's for sure.

Also, many thanks for the warm welcome from everyone :)

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim Borodin :sunny:

[Myxale]

Once again RPS has nice things to say about this game. And many posters in the comments section agree!:arrgh!:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/08/have-you-played-sub-commander/

:rock::cool:

[TheGeoff]

Geoff, thanks for working on this title. It's really a fantastic little bit of software. I've always had a thing for games that give you lots of buttons/switches to manage, it's a really neat experience!

I've lurked the thread a bit but haven't caught the language you're using for this: are you writing it in C++, or something else?



Is there an ability to abandon a sub or is this a bit of fluff? All of my excursions have ended in the deep.
Thanks! Glad you like it. I'm a big fan of those kinds of games too, especially the DCS series.

Sub Commander is coded in BlitzPlus (http://www.blitzbasic.com/Products/blitzplus.php) although I eventually plan to port it to BlitzMax, which is much newer and will allow Mac/Linux compatibility and better graphics (including support for custom tilesets) among other things.

I've downloaded and unpacked this promising game, but when I run subcommander_0_25.exe I just get a brief flash of a black window and nothing more.

Setting windowed = 0 in gameoptions.ini gives me a full screen of black, and a flash of some controls, but this too dies after a couple of seconds. I've also tried disabling OpenGL which had no effect at all.

I can't see any posts from people with any issues at all with this game, so I cannot imagine what might be the problem on my system.

I'm running Windows 7 x64 with an Nvidia GTX 760.

Does anyone have any ideas what may be the problem?

Update

I've just seen the "Crashes, Bugs and Troubleshooting" thread, which is where this post belongs. Could an admin move it for me please?

That's very unusual :hmmm: The only possible solutions I can think of at the moment are adding the game to the DEP exclusion list (http://www.windowsanswers.net/articles/dep-config) and running it as an administrator. If that doesn't help, try downloading an older version of the game and see if that works - if it does, let me know and I can compare the two versions to see what could be causing the problem.

JerikTelorian (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=333031), Tango589 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=238285) it is a bit of artistic license. I would be a cool, albeit kinda useless feature.

TheGeoff, have you considered making the crewmen move out of a room if there is radiation in it? It's a little annoying when I send in an unprotected guy to assess the damage, and then he just sits around and absorbs enough radiation to turn into the hulk.:ping:
Yeah, I should probably make the crew avoid heavily irradiated compartments where possible. At the moment crew can't detect radiation levels at all, so they just act like it isn't there until they start shaking and vomiting - I've been thinking of adding a Geiger counter as a piece of equipment which allows the crew carrying it to sense and avoid radiation.

Once again RPG has nice things to say about this game. And many posters in the comments section agree!:arrgh!:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/11/08/have-you-played-sub-commander/

:rock::cool:
Awesome! I knew something must've happened when the download rate (http://goo.gl/#analytics/goo.gl/eAy0BO/month) briefly went from about 10 people per day to ~700 people per day :)

[jartoch]

Hi TheGeoff, I wanted to thank you for this awesome little game, its introduced me to submarine sims which im really liking so far. I also noticed some things:

- Internal Space in the reactor antechamber is spelled with a capital S while this is not the case in all the other rooms.

- Also, when you shut down the turbines, and you restart them, they are instantly back at their RPM, or is this because of the momentum they have?

- When I was sitting in the starting port at 30M depth i did not strike the seabed, but after a few minutes i suddenly started getting messages saying 'you struck the seabed' 'the sub lifted of the seabed'. These came really quickly after one another.

Also, suggestion, is there maybe a way to get a nice fade effect on the radar?

[P-Dup]

I have some suggestions for this great game:

- I think there should be a possibility to mark positions on the map, where you spotted a ship by RADAR for example, so you can better track their general course and possibly their speed. Also the RADAR officer could give an approximation after some time of tracking a ship an the RADAR screen.

- As someone said before, the sonar should display the approximate distance to a contact, at least on the tactical console, so you don't have to guess if it is within torpedo range or not when submerged. (I don't know if this would be technically and historically realistic with only an passive sonar, though.)

- In my opinion it is a little bit to easy to sink enemy ships with the torpedoes. I think sometimes a torpedo should miss, even when firing at an unsuspecting enemy. Also not every hit should destroy the target immediately. I think the possibility of only crippling ships or having them sink slowly, so you don't know if it is really destroyed or maybe can still fire at you, would really contribute to the atmosphere.

- Sometimes it is a little bit annoying that you can't see hull breaches, when they are on a square where a piece of installation is.

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim jartoch :salute:

[Dilqui]

I have some suggestions for this great game:

- I think there should be a possibility to mark positions on the map, where you spotted a ship by RADAR for example, so you can better track their general course and possibly their speed. Also the RADAR officer could give an approximation after some time of tracking a ship an the RADAR screen.

- As someone said before, the sonar should display the approximate distance to a contact, at least on the tactical console, so you don't have to guess if it is within torpedo range or not when submerged. (I don't know if this would be technically and historically realistic with only an passive sonar, though.)

- In my opinion it is a little bit to easy to sink enemy ships with the torpedoes. I think sometimes a torpedo should miss, even when firing at an unsuspecting enemy. Also not every hit should destroy the target immediately. I think the possibility of only crippling ships or having them sink slowly, so you don't know if it is really destroyed or maybe can still fire at you, would really contribute to the atmosphere.

- Sometimes it is a little bit annoying that you can't see hull breaches, when they are on a square where a piece of installation is.

Hey man. I was the one who suggested the distances bit. I think the radar track and course would be a great idea, but wouldn't make much sense, since you can just directly head towards it. What would be more accurate would be some sort of TMA (Target Motion Analysis), which works off sonar, but it wouldn't be very douable, unless it was done automatically, and we got the track by auto.

Also, regarding the sonar: It is impossible to tell how far a boat is by PASSIVE sonar alone. Passive sonar is just listening at the water for sounds. Imagine trying to tell how far someone is by the intensity of their scream! You can get an idea, but not precise range. What I was suggesting was adding ACTIVE sonar, which is the pinging thing you hear in movies. It sends out some noise, and hears for the return. Active sonar will give you bearing and distance. Problem is, active sonar can be heard behind it's useful range. What this means is: While the active return might not see anything, someone could detect it. And an intercepted sonar return, while it does not give away distance, gives away your bearing, which means that the subs and other vessels know where to shoot to. So far, the only way to get distance accurately is by radar, which means you have to raise the scope, and possibly be torpedoed by that plane which was tailing you. (Seriously: US's P-3 orions are Satan on earth. If you don't get what I mean, get the US to declare war, and try to recon one of their ports. Jesus Christ!) And if the plane was not tailing you, it will be soon enough. While sonar might give away your location to underwater targets, at least it will not give it away to the P-3's.

And finally: Your section compartment. I really like the idea. Problem is, it would need to be proportional to the size. A small warship, because it's fast and a pain in the posterior, should be easy to take out, but larger warships should take 2-3 hits or more. It would certainly make it more tense. Otherwise, everything makes sense.

Also, sorry if this is too long. Might have gone a bit overboard, and watching some Dangerous Waters certainly did not help:) Hope this helps!

[Sashkakuhta]

Well, i just wanted to say that i managed to run the Sub Commander on android, using not-fully-free port of Wine called ExaGear Strategies.

Sub Commander itself loads very-very slow, but as far as i can say it runs fast enough to be playable.

Mouse emulation works OK, but its pretty uncomfortable to call a keyboard when you need to press a key, but its definetely more playable than i expected.

Photos (I wasnt able to take a screenshot when in emulator)
http://savepic.org/6454881m.jpg (http://savepic.org/6454881.htm)
http://savepic.ru/6295893m.jpg (http://savepic.ru/6295893.htm)
http://savepic.ru/6342996m.jpg (http://savepic.ru/6342996.htm)

Also, im a blitz coder too, and as a blitz coder im assuming that loading bar is decorative, but im certainly can be not right as i dont seen the source codes.

But i love this game, and i wish it to relase someday

P.S. Sorry for my English, its not my primary language

[Aktungbby]

Sashkakuhta! Borodin! and jartoch!:Kaleun_Salute:

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim :sunny:

[TheGeoff]

Hi TheGeoff, I wanted to thank you for this awesome little game, its introduced me to submarine sims which im really liking so far. I also noticed some things:

- Internal Space in the reactor antechamber is spelled with a capital S while this is not the case in all the other rooms.

- Also, when you shut down the turbines, and you restart them, they are instantly back at their RPM, or is this because of the momentum they have?

- When I was sitting in the starting port at 30M depth i did not strike the seabed, but after a few minutes i suddenly started getting messages saying 'you struck the seabed' 'the sub lifted of the seabed'. These came really quickly after one another.

Also, suggestion, is there maybe a way to get a nice fade effect on the radar?

Thanks for pointing these out. The turbine speed one is because the turbines don't have a detailed mechanical model in the game yet, I'll get around to coding it one day. The others are just bugs - good to know about!

When the game is ported to BlitzMax, it will be much easier to do fancy fade and transparency effects for the radar and other sensors :ping:

I have some suggestions for this great game:

- I think there should be a possibility to mark positions on the map, where you spotted a ship by RADAR for example, so you can better track their general course and possibly their speed. Also the RADAR officer could give an approximation after some time of tracking a ship an the RADAR screen.

- As someone said before, the sonar should display the approximate distance to a contact, at least on the tactical console, so you don't have to guess if it is within torpedo range or not when submerged. (I don't know if this would be technically and historically realistic with only an passive sonar, though.)

- In my opinion it is a little bit to easy to sink enemy ships with the torpedoes. I think sometimes a torpedo should miss, even when firing at an unsuspecting enemy. Also not every hit should destroy the target immediately. I think the possibility of only crippling ships or having them sink slowly, so you don't know if it is really destroyed or maybe can still fire at you, would really contribute to the atmosphere.

- Sometimes it is a little bit annoying that you can't see hull breaches, when they are on a square where a piece of installation is.

Good points. Active sonar with range-finding will definitely be added soon, and I might redo the radar screen eventually too.

As for the torpedoes - from my research and from talking to former submariners, I understand that modern torpedoes are so powerful they will split most small or medium size ships in half. Large ships should be a bit more resilient, and I'll make sure the game reflects that when they are added. Which should hopefully be soon, by the way - I've just started on the code for aircraft carriers.

Well, i just wanted to say that i managed to run the Sub Commander on android, using not-fully-free port of Wine called ExaGear Strategies.

Sub Commander itself loads very-very slow, but as far as i can say it runs fast enough to be playable.

Mouse emulation works OK, but its pretty uncomfortable to call a keyboard when you need to press a key, but its definetely more playable than i expected.

Photos (I wasnt able to take a screenshot when in emulator)
http://savepic.org/6454881m.jpg (http://savepic.org/6454881.htm)
http://savepic.ru/6295893m.jpg (http://savepic.ru/6295893.htm)
http://savepic.ru/6342996m.jpg (http://savepic.ru/6342996.htm)

Also, im a blitz coder too, and as a blitz coder im assuming that loading bar is decorative, but im certainly can be not right as i dont seen the source codes.

But i love this game, and i wish it to relase someday

P.S. Sorry for my English, its not my primary language

This is incredible!! I would never have expected it to work on android :o Well done!

Hopefully, the game will eventually not require a keyboard - all functions will be controllable by clickable buttons. That way no keyboard emulation will be necessary for touch screen devices, making the game a lot easier to play.

The loading screen is definitely not decorative, it is displayed while the game is reading from config files, loading units etc. Loading the map is by far the slowest part, and that's what the loading bar shows - each pixel of the loading bar represents about 700,000 square kilometers of the map (about 1100 squares). The map is about 5MB total, so blitz takes a while to load it all on slower computers.

[Myxale]

Sweet Android.

This game is the perfect companion for and Android device. No more lame candy crutch ( or was it rush?) Instead some imagine playing SC when the fancy strikes. :arrgh!:

[submersiblevalor84]

I'd like to see the following implemented in future releases:
-Cruise missile-capable subs
-Aircraft and Assault/Helicopter Carriers
-Iowa-class Battleships
-Additional aircraft types (Interceptors/Multirole/Bombers/Rotary-Wing)
-Escort Missions
-Joint-Operations Mission (With friendly task units and aircraft)
-Ranking system for completing missions successfully
-Command not one, but multiple subs when at higher ranks

[Dilqui]

Hey there! It's me again, with a new suggestion.

I was recently in a transit to recon Capetown. On the way there, however, I found several vessels. At the time, I was below the layer, and wanted a quick identification. So, I used the targeting computer to get a nation. Problem is, thought, there is no way, rather than zooming out and checking in the map (and this can be impractical or impossible sometimes) of whenever the vessel's country is currently at war, and if you are authorized to engage them.

What I was thinking was adding something like a War Listing of sorts, were you can double click on it, and the list of all countries at war with you are displayed. An extension of this could also involve allies. Even better, you can have a "Friend or Foe" counter in the targeting system.

Just a suggestion I was thinking about. Hope you like it! :D

A fan,
Dilqui

[TheGeoff]

I'd like to see the following implemented in future releases:
-Cruise missile-capable subs
-Aircraft and Assault/Helicopter Carriers
-Iowa-class Battleships
-Additional aircraft types (Interceptors/Multirole/Bombers/Rotary-Wing)
-Escort Missions
-Joint-Operations Mission (With friendly task units and aircraft)
-Ranking system for completing missions successfully
-Command not one, but multiple subs when at higher ranks
Good suggestions. Hopefully one day all of these will be in the game - they're now all on the list of future features. The only one I'm not sure about adding is the last one, but we'll see. Maybe it will be possible.

Hey there! It's me again, with a new suggestion.

I was recently in a transit to recon Capetown. On the way there, however, I found several vessels. At the time, I was below the layer, and wanted a quick identification. So, I used the targeting computer to get a nation. Problem is, thought, there is no way, rather than zooming out and checking in the map (and this can be impractical or impossible sometimes) of whenever the vessel's country is currently at war, and if you are authorized to engage them.

What I was thinking was adding something like a War Listing of sorts, were you can double click on it, and the list of all countries at war with you are displayed. An extension of this could also involve allies. Even better, you can have a "Friend or Foe" counter in the targeting system.

Just a suggestion I was thinking about. Hope you like it! :D

A fan,
Dilqui

Good point Dilqui. I liked this suggestion so much that I implemented it immediately - in the next version, your allies and enemies are all listed on the map screen:
http://i.imgur.com/PsDYdEq.png


Work on the next version is progressing slowly but surely. So far it includes several nice improvements to the user-friendliness of the game, many realism improvements (some suggested by a former submariner), a few new cities, and a LOT of bug fixes. But before releasing the update I still want to redo the main menu, and add a proper options menu to eliminate the need for messing around with gameoptions.ini.

[Tango589]

I can't wait, it all looks very good!:salute:

[Dilqui]

As the title says, I did not expect you to implement that so quick! Nice to see an active developer who takes part in the community. :)

I can hardly wait for the next version! I want to ask, but at the same time, I feel as thought it would put you under pressure...
Is there currently an estimate of when the next version comes out? I don't want to put any extra pressure or anything; you can just say you don't know. But it would be nice to have an idea of when it comes out.

Also, has active sonar been implemented yet? :ping: I just really want to know. :)

...look at me. I am blabbering like a fool now. :oops:

Anyways, I will sign off now, before I say something stupid. :salute:

The Fan,
Dilqui

[Dilqui]

I was browsing Youtube, when I found THIS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu3CWQSGSks

It's a playtrought of sub commander! It's version 0.23 in the video, so no nukes. :shifty: However, that is not the main jewel! Give the video a quick look: Especially somewhere around the 4-5 minute mark...

Tell me what you think!

[TheGeoff]

As the title says, I did not expect you to implement that so quick! Nice to see an active developer who takes part in the community. :)

I can hardly wait for the next version! I want to ask, but at the same time, I feel as thought it would put you under pressure...
Is there currently an estimate of when the next version comes out? I don't want to put any extra pressure or anything; you can just say you don't know. But it would be nice to have an idea of when it comes out.

Also, has active sonar been implemented yet? :ping: I just really want to know. :)

...look at me. I am blabbering like a fool now. :oops:

Anyways, I will sign off now, before I say something stupid. :salute:

The Fan,
Dilqui

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 :ping:

I was browsing Youtube, when I found THIS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu3CWQSGSks

It's a playtrought of sub commander! It's version 0.23 in the video, so no nukes. :shifty: However, that is not the main jewel! Give the video a quick look: Especially somewhere around the 4-5 minute mark...

Tell me what you think!

That's great! I'm impressed that he managed to accidentally find the 'destroy hull' and 'start fire' keys so quickly :har:

I know about a couple of other people who have made some nice videos about the game too:
Effing Controller has made a couple of cool videos, the first one is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLkJ6BUf3Q0 (the stuff around 6-7 minutes is great)
IchBinJaeger has made about 5-6 videos now, including one where he starts a nuclear war with a giant custom built submarine. His first video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXf7tfP4Dqo

[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. :doh:

So is there any way to skip?

[Tango589]

Hi Fieters, this should help:


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


:salute:

[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]

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 :ping:


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. :ping:

[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!:wah:

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.:hmmm:

[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/28675812/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]

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.

[USS Drum]

After playing the game for a few hours, I thought I would offer some feedback about things I think could be changed for the better:

1) Nuclear war doesn't make much sense at the moment, so I would like to see it expanded upon.
2) Throughout my entire time playing the game, I have only encountered one enemy submarine, and the very brief duel I had with him(He hit me with a torp and then ran off) was very intense and exciting, so increase the amount of enemy subs.
3) More in-depth sub combat, noisemakers, the ability to dodge torpedoes better etc.
4) I've only played about 5 minutes in the Foxtrot, but a snorkel would be nice.
5) Rear torpedo tubes.
6) The enemy actually attempting to dodge your torpedoes(At this point, there primary maneuver is just "Turn away and hope for the best").
7) Last one, ship-borne helicopters that should make trying to evade destroyers much more difficult.

[Tango589]

Hi Geoff, loving the latest update with the diesel Foxtrot Class, brings back many happy memories of SH3! Whilst the full screen crash problem is being investigated, is there any way to make the windowed resolution bigger, as a work around?

[JerikTelorian]

To add another voice to the discussion in difficulty, I think it might be nice to maintain a lower difficulty mode, if you can.

There's a very fun game in and of itself trying to maintain the boat and put out fires (literal and figurative!). Sometimes my patrols without bumping into enemies are the most interesting, trying to limp a wounded boat back to port in the face of a rapidly destabilizing situation are the most fun. I often find that when I bump into a task force, I'm getting solidly crushed (which is probably the way things should be, but I'm not sure how to shoot out juicy targets in a group like that?)

Part of this, too, is that I (despite having played SH4 a decent bit!) have never grokked the unique blend of patience and gut-feeling initiative the captains here have :arrgh!:, and this game gives a nice taste of that without making me really delve into a methodology that I'm just not sure I'm capable of. :oops:

I'm certainly not suggesting that additional AI and difficulty work should be ignored, but rather that it might be nice to have an "Arcade" or similar difficulty setting that lets you focus more on the managing of the boat and punishes poor submariner technique a bit less aggressively. :)

[USS Drum]

I think I found a bug on the Foxtrot, it appears that crewmen can not access the equipment locker.

[TheGeoff]

Interesting suggestions. Most of them are now on the to-do list and they will hopefully be addressed soon.

The fullscreen bug has now been fixed - it was a very simple problem, can't believe it took so long to figure out :/\\!! The bug with the equipment locker on Foxtrot class subs has also been fixed. Both download links in the first post of this thread now point to the updated version.

[submersiblevalor84]

I was trying out the new mini-update with the Foxtrot, but I decided to go with the November to see how a SSBN works in this game. After taking out some Israeli vessels and securing a military alliance with Pakistan, I got trigger happy and tried to launch a nuke at Narvik. And as the title said, I got a CTD... I hope it can be fixed in the near-future!

[Aktungbby]

:Kaleun_Salute:
submersiblevalor84! we seem to have missed your first two posts; forgive our bad manners!

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim submersiblevalor84 :sunny:

[Woxor]

As of the last update, where the fullscreen was fixed, I am currently CTD'ing a few seconds after starting a game, and immediately when opening the map. Any idea as to why?

EDIT: Turns out turning OpenGL off fixed this, however I CTD when launching nukes so that's another one to look into.

[Wojtek94]

Hmm... I think about one thing-random crush depth. If I set this to 310 meters sub take damage and water when I pass this limit. I know about random durability of pressure hull parts but its little annoying because crash depth have so detailed limit. Its possible to better randomize this? In one situation 310 meters give us a heavy leaking for other on 320 meter we get only little etc. For me it will be ideal option;)

[USS Drum]

Is it possible to edit the models of existing submarines? I'm currently planning on making a submarine based on the Alfa and the default model would be great in that role with a few edits(Mostly changing the overall shape of the hull and the position and shape of the stern diving planes).

Edit: Also, how do you set how fast a sub runs on the surface?

[Tango589]

Is it possible to edit the models of existing submarines? I'm currently planning on making a submarine based on the Alfa and the default model would be great in that role with a few edits(Mostly changing the overall shape of the hull and the position and shape of the stern diving planes).

Edit: Also, how do you set how fast a sub runs on the surface?
Hi Drum, it is possible to edit existing subs with the development kit, just open the desired sub in the editor and doodle away!

From looking at the subs performance file, it looks like the maximum speed is set there (for submerged running) and all other speeds are percentages of that, so the only way to increase the surface speed is to increase he overall speed (unless Geoff has some clever trickery up his Australian sleeve...)

[USS Drum]

Apparently I was using the old version of the editor.

Edit: I can't seem to download the new editor, are there other mirrors I could use?

[LHLF]

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.

Did no one answer to this question? I read the comments that came afterwards and it seemed that there was not a single person supporting this.

YES, PLEASE make a proper pdf manual!

A wiki would be awesome too, but since wikis take a long time to be formed and to become somewhat complete and reliable (especially with all the updates that change a lot of things), a nice, complete manual would be perfect for us who are still starting to learn the ropes and commands.
It would be great if it could include some tips about what to do in the beginning, how to be prepared for accidents and unexpected things too!
:salute:

[anakim]

Hi ! Everybody, :D

First this game are very cool, i'am an ancient seaman on submarine (sory for my poor english).

i have suggestion for fun .

1) It possible to have surface vessel for playable asset in the future ?
2) Captain Log's for diplomacy event and hit.
3) Same as dwarf fortress , continue game with other submarine after death.

thanks for this awesome gameGeoff

[Aktungbby]

anakim! & LHLF! :Kaleun_Salute:

[Jimbuna]

Did no one answer to this question? I read the comments that came afterwards and it seemed that there was not a single person supporting this.

YES, PLEASE make a proper pdf manual!

A wiki would be awesome too, but since wikis take a long time to be formed and to become somewhat complete and reliable (especially with all the updates that change a lot of things), a nice, complete manual would be perfect for us who are still starting to learn the ropes and commands.
It would be great if it could include some tips about what to do in the beginning, how to be prepared for accidents and unexpected things too!
:salute:

Hi ! Everybody, :D

First this game are very cool, i'am an ancient seaman on submarine (sory for my poor english).

i have suggestion for fun .

1) It possible to have surface vessel for playable asset in the future ?
2) Captain Log's for diplomacy event and hit.
3) Same as dwarf fortress , continue game with other submarine after death.

thanks for this awesome gameGeoff

Welcome to you both :sunny:

[TheGeoff]

Just got back from a holiday to discover I have a shiny new Best of Subsim Award! I'm very honoured, I certainly never expected this game to become so popular. A big thank you to those who nominated me and voted!


To answer the comments on the last page:
I was trying out the new mini-update with the Foxtrot, but I decided to go with the November to see how a SSBN works in this game. After taking out some Israeli vessels and securing a military alliance with Pakistan, I got trigger happy and tried to launch a nuke at Narvik. And as the title said, I got a CTD... I hope it can be fixed in the near-future!

This may already have been fixed in a mini-update - try redownloading the game. There was a small bug causing occasional crashes during nuclear wars.

Hmm... I think about one thing-random crush depth. If I set this to 310 meters sub take damage and water when I pass this limit. I know about random durability of pressure hull parts but its little annoying because crash depth have so detailed limit. Its possible to better randomize this? In one situation 310 meters give us a heavy leaking for other on 320 meter we get only little etc. For me it will be ideal option;)

This is certainly possible, I will probably implement this next version.

Is it possible to edit the models of existing submarines? I'm currently planning on making a submarine based on the Alfa and the default model would be great in that role with a few edits(Mostly changing the overall shape of the hull and the position and shape of the stern diving planes).

Edit: Also, how do you set how fast a sub runs on the surface?

Apparently I was using the old version of the editor.

Edit: I can't seem to download the new editor, are there other mirrors I could use?

Currently the sub editor does not allow you to modify existing submarines, I should get around to fixing that soon.

There is a different submarine editor with a nicer user interface here: http://filesmelt.com/dl/subcomeditor_v0.22_.4_.jar (made by Rayboy1995 of the Facepunch forums) which does allow you to load and save .sub files. It was designed for V0.22 so there might be a couple of bugs but it should work ok.

At the moment, there is no way to set the surface speed independently of the submerged speed. I'll add the ability to do this in the next version.


Did no one answer to this question? I read the comments that came afterwards and it seemed that there was not a single person supporting this.

YES, PLEASE make a proper pdf manual!

A wiki would be awesome too, but since wikis take a long time to be formed and to become somewhat complete and reliable (especially with all the updates that change a lot of things), a nice, complete manual would be perfect for us who are still starting to learn the ropes and commands.
It would be great if it could include some tips about what to do in the beginning, how to be prepared for accidents and unexpected things too!
:salute:

Welcome! A couple of people on other forums have suggested a PDF manual too, so I think that's what I'll make. The fact that it can be used offline is a major advantage of the PDF over the wiki in my opinion.

Hi ! Everybody, :D

First this game are very cool, i'am an ancient seaman on submarine (sory for my poor english).

i have suggestion for fun .

1) It possible to have surface vessel for playable asset in the future ?
2) Captain Log's for diplomacy event and hit.
3) Same as dwarf fortress , continue game with other submarine after death.

thanks for this awesome gameGeoff

Hi anakim! Thanks for posting, these are all good suggestions. I don't plan to add surface ships in the near future, but maybe eventually - the game code is flexible enough that it should be possible to simulate a frigate or destroyer one day. I do plan to make the captain's log more detailed soon, and saving a persistent world state should be possible too.

[LHLF]

Thanks for answering!

Looking forward to the manual then! :cool:

And congratulations for the award! You truly deserve it!

[Sashkakuhta]

I'm got an a suggestion: direct control of submarine crew
You can select any crewman and control him using WASD or arrow keys,
when selected crewman are coming close to some object (Control panel for example), the list of available actions will pop up.

For an examlpe, when the selected crewman coming close to reactors control panel, available actions will be open the control panel interface, see what components of panel are damaged, or repair it

[Fanwek]

2 questions, how do i turn the periscope, and is there a way to get rid of the dead bodies? a fire broke out in the torpedo room, and one of the crew members wasn't so lucky...

[Jimbuna]

I'm got an a suggestion: direct control of submarine crew
You can select any crewman and control him using WASD or arrow keys,
when selected crewman are coming close to some object (Control panel for example), the list of available actions will pop up.

For an examlpe, when the selected crewman coming close to reactors control panel, available actions will be open the control panel interface, see what components of panel are damaged, or repair it

2 questions, how do i turn the periscope, and is there a way to get rid of the dead bodies? a fire broke out in the torpedo room, and one of the crew members wasn't so lucky...

Welcome Aboard :sunny:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome Fanwek & Sashkakuhta :sunny:

[Fanwek]

thanks to all of you for the welcome, its been a while since i played a game that has a community that has welcomed me this warmly.

[Bigulp]

Hello, been enjoying this great game for a while. Recently went to try make my own custom sub, unfortunately I have been getting an illegal memory address error when ever I try to launch sub viewer. I'm not sure what other details I can give to help with this bug report. I looked around for solutions but wasn't able to find any that worked. Thank you for the effort and excellent game.

[TheGeoff]

I'm got an a suggestion: direct control of submarine crew
You can select any crewman and control him using WASD or arrow keys,
when selected crewman are coming close to some object (Control panel for example), the list of available actions will pop up.

For an examlpe, when the selected crewman coming close to reactors control panel, available actions will be open the control panel interface, see what components of panel are damaged, or repair it
That's a very interesting idea, I'll definitely put it on the list of things to try. It would certainly make difficult tasks like repairing the reactors easier. It could be interesting as a multiplayer game mode too... maybe one day :)

2 questions, how do i turn the periscope, and is there a way to get rid of the dead bodies? a fire broke out in the torpedo room, and one of the crew members wasn't so lucky...

In Sub Commander, the periscope basically shows a map of everything surrounding your submarine in a radius of several nautical miles... imagine the crewman is constantly turning the periscope and reporting what he sees. So you can't actually manually turn the periscope, because it is unnecessary.

Early versions of the game had a very primitive 3D view through the periscope, but it was not very useful and it looked pretty bad so I replaced it with the 2D birds eye view.

Hello, been enjoying this great game for a while. Recently went to try make my own custom sub, unfortunately I have been getting an illegal memory address error when ever I try to launch sub viewer. I'm not sure what other details I can give to help with this bug report. I looked around for solutions but wasn't able to find any that worked. Thank you for the effort and excellent game.

Welcome! That error usually means that the program was unable to open or read one of the files it requires. In the case of the sub viewer, this means it could not read either:

sub.sub
objects.ini
systems.ini
areas.ini

Make sure all four of these files are in the same directory as sub_viewer.exe. The sub.sub file is created by the sub editor when you make a sub, all of the others should be copied from an existing submarine (the default one, for example).

If the sub viewer still crashes with all four files present, please email me the sub.sub file you created (subcommandergame@gmail.com) and I'll take a look.

[Jimbuna]

Welcome Aboard Bigulp :sunny:

[JerikTelorian]

2 questions, how do i turn the periscope, and is there a way to get rid of the dead bodies? a fire broke out in the torpedo room, and one of the crew members wasn't so lucky...

Conveniently, if you refit at port, dead crew members will be buried and replaced by their identical twin brothers.

There was a small bug causing occasional crashes during nuclear wars.

For some reason I'm just loving "small bug" and "nuclear wars" in the same sentence. :subsim:

Thanks for all your work on this Geoff, hope you took a break and had a good new year.

[Bigulp]

Thanks for the welcome guys. TheGeoff you solved my problem perfectly, thank you.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome to SUBSIM Bigulp :sunny:

[TheGeoff]

A small new update was released which fixes some bugs related to saving and loading the game. In particular, the bug where occasionally you could not save or resume your game from the menu has been fixed. This update could save a lot of frustration so I highly recommend getting it (by redownloading the game) before playing any further.

Unfortunately your old save files will not work with this version.
Thanks for the welcome guys. TheGeoff you solved my problem perfectly, thank you. Glad it worked. Feel free to post about your custom sub when you're done, I'd love to see it!

[Nukesub]

Very cool sim! I just watched a video of it on youtube and came here to DL it and try it out.

It works but each time I exit the game I get a message saying that the executable has "stopped working". Not sure why I get that notification, of course its stopped wokring, I exited the game! ><

Anything maybe I have done wrong?

I look forward to playing around with this cool game :)

[Tango589]

Very cool sim! I just watched a video of it on youtube and came here to DL it and try it out.

It works but each time I exit the game I get a message saying that the executable has "stopped working". Not sure why I get that notification, of course its stopped wokring, I exited the game! ><

Anything maybe I have done wrong?

I look forward to playing around with this cool game :)
That always seems to happen, with no ill effects. It may be something to do with OpenGL, but I'm not sure.

[xnonix]

After several years without subsiming I have discovered this game! It's pretty cool even I haven't played it yet since I'm at work.

Congrats TheGeoff!!!

I can't wait to get home and take my hands on this monster!

I have some comments/sugestions about the features I have seen in videos about the game:

1. Every modern submarine it's based on stealth and 99% of the patrol is underwater. Active sensors like radar and active sonar are not commoly used and detection is based on passive sonar, passive intercept, ESM antennas or the periscope.
I see this game is more based on active sensors (for what I have seen on videos), and Towed Array sonars, Hull array sonars aren't modeled where they are the first sensors on locating enemy subs or ships on real life.

2. For modeling TMA, you can make the position accuracy of an enemy time dependant (more time tracking the enemy, better solution), giving a % on how good is your solution. When the enemy change course or speed your solution is degraded and your % decreases. Whe you change your course/speed your solution increases. This is done automatically by the crew giving the solution % and aproximate position based on error in the tactical map.

3. About the general game, I love the mechanics. It's awesome. I think the incidents in the submarine are too common and you could ballance it making training the crew on tracking targets, welding, etc, insteas of managing all those incidents.

Good work again, and keep it up!!!

[JerikTelorian]

3. About the general game, I love the mechanics. It's awesome. I think the incidents in the submarine are too common and you could ballance it making training the crew on tracking targets, welding, etc, insteas of managing all those incidents.

Good work again, and keep it up!!!

If you find yourself too busy putting out literal fires, there's a sub_reliability field in gameoptions.ini that you can raise. Might help you out, sometimes it seems my reactors are made from flat-pack sets with missing pieces :haha:

[Tango589]

3. About the general game, I love the mechanics. It's awesome. I think the incidents in the submarine are too common and you could ballance it making training the crew on tracking targets, welding, etc, insteas of managing all those incidents.
You can train your crew to get better at tasks. The more they do something the better they get. Choose someone who is a trained firefighter, give him an extinguisher and get him to put out a small fire you start in somewhere non-critical (crew quarters NOT torpedo room!). After a couple of practise runs, his ability will raise to skilled firefighter. Keep this up a couple more times and he will be a experienced firefighter. You can do the same thing for repairs and welding to get yourself a super-crew!:up:

[curiousepic]

Really enjoying this game!

A couple of requests to consider in future versions:



How easy would it be to make new missions have a maximum distance from your current location?
Do you intend to do something about the fact that the map's projection severely distorts distances at higher latitudes?
Any intention of supporting multi-level subs?
How about individual interior and exterior hatches on the torp tubes?

[Aktungbby]

curiousepic! :Kaleun_Salute:

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim curiousepic :sunny:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Really enjoying this game!


Welcome to SUBSIM :up:

[JerikTelorian]

Geoff, I have another bug report for you.

I went in for a refit after a long patrol. I started in the USA on a November-Class sub but berthed at Oslo, Norway to get more torpedoes before a push into the Baltic Sea.

I'm not sure these Norse guys have a grip on submarines, really.

http://i.imgur.com/lEw2PqM.pnghttp://

Firstly, they nicked my nukes. Maybe I didn't have a license and they're in impound or something, I don't know.
The torpedo loading pattern isn't quite right, I assume it's loading them in the style of the default sub. You can fire those ones that are halfway into the tubes, though.

http://i.imgur.com/XiYQJGZ.png

And by god when you order a reload your men will do it. That's what I like about these boys, they got pluck. Doesn't matter if you need to push the torps through an inch of plate steel bulkhead, they'll get the job done :hulk:.

When reloaded the torps work as usual. Also, you'll notice that the nukes don't get restocked (more to say that they were taken -- I hadn't fired them, the nukes were just gone after refit). Thinking this might be because Norway doesn't have nukes, I steamed back to Norfolk for another refit but no dice.

I've attached the savefile below. Happy to answer any questions you have!

Notes:
-USA
-November class
-Random start city
-This was my first refit of this particular run
-I had saved and loaded this game before refitting

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28675812/SaveFile.sav

[USS Drum]

Wait, you fired nukes without blowing up half the world?

[JerikTelorian]

Wait, you fired nukes without blowing up half the world?


Actually, the nukes just disappeared after the refit -- I hadn't fired them. Maybe my crew brought them to the bar when they went drinking in port and lost them in a poker game, I don't know. Thanks for pointing this out, though, I corrected this in my post.

[TheGeoff]

After several years without subsiming I have discovered this game! It's pretty cool even I haven't played it yet since I'm at work.

Congrats TheGeoff!!!

I can't wait to get home and take my hands on this monster!

I have some comments/sugestions about the features I have seen in videos about the game:

1. Every modern submarine it's based on stealth and 99% of the patrol is underwater. Active sensors like radar and active sonar are not commoly used and detection is based on passive sonar, passive intercept, ESM antennas or the periscope.
I see this game is more based on active sensors (for what I have seen on videos), and Towed Array sonars, Hull array sonars aren't modeled where they are the first sensors on locating enemy subs or ships on real life.

2. For modeling TMA, you can make the position accuracy of an enemy time dependant (more time tracking the enemy, better solution), giving a % on how good is your solution. When the enemy change course or speed your solution is degraded and your % decreases. Whe you change your course/speed your solution increases. This is done automatically by the crew giving the solution % and aproximate position based on error in the tactical map.

3. About the general game, I love the mechanics. It's awesome. I think the incidents in the submarine are too common and you could ballance it making training the crew on tracking targets, welding, etc, insteas of managing all those incidents.

Good work again, and keep it up!!!

Hope you're enjoying it!

The passive sonar and periscope are definitely the most useful tools the player has access to at the moment. As of v0.27 using active sonar or radar will immediately alert nearby enemies to your position, so they should rarely be used - but they are included because they can be extremely useful in certain situations. Other passive sensors like radar intercept and towed sonar arrays will probably be added in the future (the passive sonar behaves roughly like a bow sonar array at the moment).

I like the idea for TMA simulation, and will probably add this soon. It would definitely make combat a lot more challenging and force the player to plan attacks better.

As others have said, you can decrease the frequency of random accidents in the options file. I keep if fairly high by default because dealing with accidents and disasters is a big part of the game.

Really enjoying this game!

A couple of requests to consider in future versions:


How easy would it be to make new missions have a maximum distance from your current location?
Do you intend to do something about the fact that the map's projection severely distorts distances at higher latitudes?
Any intention of supporting multi-level subs?
How about individual interior and exterior hatches on the torp tubes?


Thanks for the suggestions!

1. The game already tries to assign missions close to you, but if it doesn't find a valid target nearby it will assign you a mission at a random location. I'll be improving the mission generation code in a future version so this happens less often.

2. I tried increasing your horizontal speed to compensate for the distortion once but it makes the submarine extremely difficult to control, and judging distances becomes hard. The control systems for missiles, torpedoes etc would also need to be remade to take the curvature of the earth into account. Since almost all of the action takes place at latitudes where the distortion is pretty minor I have no immediate plans to fix this.

3. When I first started on the game I planned to include multi-level subs, but there were always more important missing features and I never got around to adding them. It would probably be quite difficult and introduce a lot of new bugs, but I might do it one day.

4. Better simulation of torpedo tubes (hatches on both ends, requiring the tube to be flooded before firing) is definitely planned for the near future, maybe even next update.


Geoff, I have another bug report for you.

I went in for a refit after a long patrol. I started in the USA on a November-Class sub but berthed at Oslo, Norway to get more torpedoes before a push into the Baltic Sea.

I'm not sure these Norse guys have a grip on submarines, really.

Firstly, they nicked my nukes. Maybe I didn't have a license and they're in impound or something, I don't know.
The torpedo loading pattern isn't quite right, I assume it's loading them in the style of the default sub. You can fire those ones that are halfway into the tubes, though.

And by god when you order a reload your men will do it. That's what I like about these boys, they got pluck. Doesn't matter if you need to push the torps through an inch of plate steel bulkhead, they'll get the job done :hulk:.

When reloaded the torps work as usual. Also, you'll notice that the nukes don't get restocked (more to say that they were taken -- I hadn't fired them, the nukes were just gone after refit). Thinking this might be because Norway doesn't have nukes, I steamed back to Norfolk for another refit but no dice.

I've attached the savefile below. Happy to answer any questions you have!

Notes:
-USA
-November class
-Random start city
-This was my first refit of this particular run
-I had saved and loaded this game before refitting

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28675812/SaveFile.sav

This made me laugh and it's also really helpful - the bug has occasionally been reported before but nobody mentioned that they had saved and loaded the game before it happened. That's definitely the cause of the problem, looks like when you restart the game it forgets what sub you were using and when you refit it puts the torpedoes in the default positions. The game also refuses to give you any nukes because it thinks you're using the default sub. I'll try to fix this soon, in the meantime this will prevent the bug from occurring:

1. Start Sub Commander
2. Start a new game with the same sub as your old save file (eg. November class)
3. Wait for the game to begin, then press Esc and return to the menu
4. Load your saved game. You should now be able to refit properly.

[arl85]

Hi,
first of all I want to express all my admiration for this incredible work you are doing!

I just want to report you a couple of things:
it seems that in several screen (ex: periscope) you can change depth using +/- keys, but in F1 help this info is missing (at least in periscope mode).

Strictly related, I found that only in map mode you can see ordered speed (but not ordered depth) so I suggest to always display speed, depth and heading together with ordered one

and now some questions:


is there any advantage in stopping damaged systems while repairing? is there any "danger" in repairing a working damaged turbine, for example?
how does the algorithm for selecting a crew member when ordering "repair" or "assess damage" at cursor work? it seems that when I order "assess damage" a crew member is called, but when ordering a repair from the "damage assessment" view, another different member is called.
is it only related to assigned compartment/task permission or are experience in specific field and equipped equipment also considered ?


finally a bug report: while trying to save my sinking sub, I locked some bulkheads.
after a while, game started complying about "unable to find path". I thought "it's normal, no problem".
But after several cycle of different crewmembers complaining game hanged as how it was in a infinite loop. I'll try to give you more info next time.

[JerikTelorian]

and now some questions:


is there any advantage in stopping damaged systems while repairing? is there any "danger" in repairing a working damaged turbine, for example?
how does the algorithm for selecting a crew member when ordering "repair" or "assess damage" at cursor work? it seems that when I order "assess damage" a crew member is called, but when ordering a repair from the "damage assessment" view, another different member is called.
is it only related to assigned compartment/task permission or are experience in specific field and equipped equipment also considered ?




Regarding point 1, in my experience turbines and diesel engines should be shut down immediately when they break, as the damage can increase rapidly if the system is pushed while broken.

[Alfa15]

Geoff,

First off all. Thank you for the best cold war/modern sub game ever! I like most of you have spent countless hours playing SHIII with GWX, which I loved, and I havent played for a while.

I have always dreamed about an excellent cold war/modern war submarine simulator and this is so excellent. I stumbled across this just a couple days ago.

There is one feature that I really want. Is it possible to play the game in real time? So instead of a minute passing every second, the game would operate at real time. They way it is now can be a little arcadey when in combat. If it could operate at real time, so that you have time to manuever and everything, that would be great! With torpedoes moving in real time too.

I have lowered the game speed in the game options, but, that is more just a frame per sec speed, and lowering it too much makes it impossible to play. Unless you fine clicking non stop until you hit it during the frame.

Also, are you planning on adding countermeasures or am I just missing that?

Lastly, this would be so great on ios! Any plans for that? I know you want this game to be free, but, I would easily pay for this on ios.

Thanks!

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim Alfa :salute:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome Alfa :-)

[Pwnzorlol]

I love this game, but I keep encountering a bug everytime I play. Whenever I launch a missle, it launches fine, but most of the time it impacts wherever I sent it, it crashes the game. This isn't always the case, sometimes it impacts, but then when the other nations launch missles as well the next missle impact crashes the game. Is there any fix? I have tried increasing my memory and running as admin, but I still get no luck

[TheGeoff]

Hi,
first of all I want to express all my admiration for this incredible work you are doing!

I just want to report you a couple of things:
it seems that in several screen (ex: periscope) you can change depth using +/- keys, but in F1 help this info is missing (at least in periscope mode).

Strictly related, I found that only in map mode you can see ordered speed (but not ordered depth) so I suggest to always display speed, depth and heading together with ordered one

and now some questions:


is there any advantage in stopping damaged systems while repairing? is there any "danger" in repairing a working damaged turbine, for example?
how does the algorithm for selecting a crew member when ordering "repair" or "assess damage" at cursor work? it seems that when I order "assess damage" a crew member is called, but when ordering a repair from the "damage assessment" view, another different member is called.
is it only related to assigned compartment/task permission or are experience in specific field and equipped equipment also considered ?


finally a bug report: while trying to save my sinking sub, I locked some bulkheads.
after a while, game started complying about "unable to find path". I thought "it's normal, no problem".
But after several cycle of different crewmembers complaining game hanged as how it was in a infinite loop. I'll try to give you more info next time.
Glad you're enjoying the game! Thank you for these reports, I'll look into fixing them for the next update.

To answer your questions:

1. Some systems can explode if they are running with certain components damaged. For example - if a turbine is badly damaged, and you repair the rotor before repairing the speed governor, the rotor will spin too quickly and rapidly tear itself apart again. If you are unlucky, the repairman might be hit by shrapnel or the turbine may catch fire. To avoid situations like this, you should shut down the machinery before attempting repairs. It's especially useful for damaged nuclear reactors - if you shut down the reactor you can run the pumps at a lower speed, which will decrease the rate of radiation emission.

2. This is a bit of a bug. When you order repairs from the damage assessment screen, the game searches for a nearby crewman who is qualified and isn't busy. The guy performing the damage assessment counts as busy, because he's performing a damage assessment. This should be fixed some time soon!

Geoff,

First off all. Thank you for the best cold war/modern sub game ever! I like most of you have spent countless hours playing SHIII with GWX, which I loved, and I havent played for a while.

I have always dreamed about an excellent cold war/modern war submarine simulator and this is so excellent. I stumbled across this just a couple days ago.

There is one feature that I really want. Is it possible to play the game in real time? So instead of a minute passing every second, the game would operate at real time. They way it is now can be a little arcadey when in combat. If it could operate at real time, so that you have time to manuever and everything, that would be great! With torpedoes moving in real time too.

I have lowered the game speed in the game options, but, that is more just a frame per sec speed, and lowering it too much makes it impossible to play. Unless you fine clicking non stop until you hit it during the frame.

Also, are you planning on adding countermeasures or am I just missing that?

Lastly, this would be so great on ios! Any plans for that? I know you want this game to be free, but, I would easily pay for this on ios.

Thanks!

A few people have asked for a real-time mode so I'll look into adding it in a future update. It will require changing a few things around but shouldn't be too difficult. Good suggestion!

Countermeasures are planned, but they haven't made it into the game yet. Possibly next update - they're a pretty important part of submarine warfare so I'll add them as soon as possible.

iOS compatibility is unfortunately not possible as far as I know. Compiling the game for iOS or Android would require the entire game to be rewritten in a different language, which is not something I plan to do any time soon. People have managed to run the game on a Windows tablet though, and Sashkakuhta managed to get the game running on an Android phone using a Wine emulator: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=2262136#post2262136
So it might be possible using some kind of emulator... let me know if you try it!

I love this game, but I keep encountering a bug everytime I play. Whenever I launch a missle, it launches fine, but most of the time it impacts wherever I sent it, it crashes the game. This isn't always the case, sometimes it impacts, but then when the other nations launch missles as well the next missle impact crashes the game. Is there any fix? I have tried increasing my memory and running as admin, but I still get no luck

How long ago did you download the game? A couple of weeks after the release of the last version I updated it to fix this (hopefully it worked!). Try redownloading the game and see if the bug continues to occur.

[Pwnzorlol]

I just redownloaded the main version on the front page (.27) and it still continues to happen. I think the bug is still there :help:

[arl85]

Can someone explain meaning of skills and use of equipment?
I think I figured out some of them:

SKILLS


trained/skilled/expert welder - faster hull repairs
trained/skilled/expert repairman - faster repairs
trained/skilled/expert firefighter - faster at fighting fires
strong - ?
tough - will it become tired later?
leader - ?
technician - ?

EQUIPMENT


toolbox - faster repairs
welding torch - faster hull repairs
fire extinguisher - faster fire fighting
gas mask - ?
thick leather gloves - ?
chemical suit - ?
radiation suit - reduced radiation absorbed by crew member
self-contained breathing apparatus - crew member can breath in flooded or without-oxygen compartments.

any idea about the "?" ones?

edit: I found that seems you're unable to reduce water to less than 1 cm even with 2 pumps at max power.

[Sashkakuhta]

Geoff,
Some time ago you posted a post where you said that you going to port Sub Commander to a BlitzMax language. I wanted to say that it's may be capable of compiling for android (and even for some ARM-linux based devices) using custom build tools, those are summary called bmx-ng. Main problem is that there is no proper documentation for those tools. I wasnt able to make a 100% working setup, because theres no even installing instructions at the moment.

[arl85]

another report: is it intended that if you reduce secondary pump speed to zero the primary cool pressure light turns on? (together with secondary light also) also I found no way to turn it off (raising or reducing primary/secondary pump speed, etc...)

[JerikTelorian]

Can someone explain meaning of skills and use of equipment?
I think I figured out some of them:

SKILLS


trained/skilled/expert welder - faster hull repairs
trained/skilled/expert repairman - faster repairs
trained/skilled/expert firefighter - faster at fighting fires
strong - ?
tough - will it become tired later?
leader - ?
technician - ?

EQUIPMENT


toolbox - faster repairs
welding torch - faster hull repairs
fire extinguisher - faster fire fighting
gas mask - ?
thick leather gloves - ?
chemical suit - ?
radiation suit - reduced radiation absorbed by crew member
self-contained breathing apparatus - crew member can breath in flooded or without-oxygen compartments.

any idea about the "?" ones?

edit: I found that seems you're unable to reduce water to less than 1 cm even with 2 pumps at max power.

"Strong" seems to mean that they can carry more equipment (a toolbox and a SCBA and a welder and a fire extinguisher, etc.) without getting "Tired" so fast. They also seem to tolerate bad conditions (radiation, high pressure in a compartment, etc.) better.

I believe that Gas Masks reduce exposure to radiation if it is in the air. I'm not sure on the Leather Gloves but I think they're for firefighting.

[Tango589]

Is it possible to improve the Weapon Status screen, so not only will it show definite targets identified by periscope/radar/lookout, but also include targets picked up by the sonar ie. lines of bearing and approximate locations of targets by triangulation (linked in with the TMA idea mooted by someone else previously)?

[TheGeoff]

I just redownloaded the main version on the front page (.27) and it still continues to happen. I think the bug is still there :help: Thanks for checking, I'll see if I can figure out the problem.

Can someone explain meaning of skills and use of equipment?
I think I figured out some of them:


trained/skilled/expert welder - faster hull repairs
trained/skilled/expert repairman - faster repairs
trained/skilled/expert firefighter - faster at fighting fires
strong - ?
tough - will it become tired later?
leader - ?
technician - ?

EQUIPMENT


toolbox - faster repairs
welding torch - faster hull repairs
fire extinguisher - faster fire fighting
gas mask - ?
thick leather gloves - ?
chemical suit - ?
radiation suit - reduced radiation absorbed by crew member
self-contained breathing apparatus - crew member can breath in flooded or without-oxygen compartments.

any idea about the "?" ones?

edit: I found that seems you're unable to reduce water to less than 1 cm even with 2 pumps at max power.

You guessed most of them correct. For reference, these are the main effects of each skill and piece of equipment:


Welder - Faster hull repairs, slightly faster object repairs
Repairman / Technician / Engineer - Faster object repairs, slightly faster hull repairs
Firefighter - Faster at extinquishing fires
Strong - Can carry more equipment without tiring, faster at loading torpedoes
Tough - More resistant to fires and radiation, becomes tired less quickly
Leader - Inspires nearby crew to work faster. Better leaders have a stronger effect over a larger range.




Toolbox - faster object repairs
Welding torch - faster hull repairs
Fire extinguisher - faster fire fighting
Gas mask - Increases resistance to radiation, but crewman will become tired more quickly. Significantly slows down strenuous tasks like loading torpedoes.
Thick leather gloves - Slightly more resistant to fires and radiation, slight boost to torpedo loading speed.
Chemical suit - Slightly improves radiation resistance.
Radiation suit - Significantly improves radiation resistance.
SCBA - Same as gas mask, but the crewman can also breathe underwater or in areas with no oxygen.


Geoff,
Some time ago you posted a post where you said that you going to port Sub Commander to a BlitzMax language. I wanted to say that it's may be capable of compiling for android (and even for some ARM-linux based devices) using custom build tools, those are summary called bmx-ng. Main problem is that there is no proper documentation for those tools. I wasnt able to make a 100% working setup, because theres no even installing instructions at the moment.

Thanks for pointing this out, looks like it could work! I'll try to port the code across to BlitzMax soon and see if I can use those build tools. Unfortunately porting it across will take a while, I was pretty bad at coding when I started this game and I put everything in subroutines instead of functions :/\\!!

another report: is it intended that if you reduce secondary pump speed to zero the primary cool pressure light turns on? (together with secondary light also) also I found no way to turn it off (raising or reducing primary/secondary pump speed, etc...)

Thanks for the report, it's definitely a bug. The primary coolant pressure doesn't actually drop, so I'm not sure why the warning light comes on - I'll look into it.

Is it possible to improve the Weapon Status screen, so not only will it show definite targets identified by periscope/radar/lookout, but also include targets picked up by the sonar ie. lines of bearing and approximate locations of targets by triangulation (linked in with the TMA idea mooted by someone else previously)?

I originally planned to do this but never got around to implementing it when the sonar was actually added! I'll probably put it in for next time - would be nice to be able to use the WSC map underwater.




I haven't worked on Sub Commander much lately, I will probably get back into making more regular progress in a few weeks. Currently all efforts are focused on the (so far unnamed) 3D submarine simulator :ping:

Exciting news: originally the 3D sim was going to have fictional submarines roughly based on real designs, like Sub Commander. After extensive research and discussions with several naval museums, however, I've come to the conclusion that it's possible to fully simulate actual, historical submarine classes in the game. So you won't be running around some generic, fictional sub, you'll be aboard a meticulously detailed recreation of an actual boat.

So far I can confirm that the Foxtrot-class (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtrot-class_submarine) will definitely feature in the game :)

[Nickvr628]

I volunteer for submarine duty to beta test your 3d sub game. I am longing for a submarine game until subnautica releases their first "real" submarine that you can walk around in. :dead:

[Aktungbby]

Nickvr628! :Kaleun_Salute: Belatedly on your third post!

[Tango589]

Is it possible to increase the amount of info given in the orders to sink a particular ship, so the ship type is detailed along with the name? This would make submerged warfare more realistic, especially if you have to pick one target out of a battlegroup?

[kust]

you got any plans for making a currency system that when you sink a ship you get money and can also upgrade your sub etc?.

[kvn8907]

I've got myself into a situation in the game, and I'm not sure if it's salvageable.
I'm also not sure the class of submarine, but it's the one with all the bunk beds in the center.

So, after a big battle south of Odessa, I destroyed the ships harassing me but not before being hit several times by ships and aircraft. Pretty much every room fore of the break room is full of water. The ship sunk to a depth of 120 meters before I abused fast travel a little and grounded it on the sea floor.
The reactor is fine, but the trouble is that the outside water is 1319 kPa, and now even at full power the bilge pumps don't move any liquid.

Is there any way out of this situation, or are the poor sailors doomed to stay under the sea until they starve?

[Tango589]

I've got myself into a situation in the game, and I'm not sure if it's salvageable.
I'm also not sure the class of submarine, but it's the one with all the bunk beds in the center.

So, after a big battle south of Odessa, I destroyed the ships harassing me but not before being hit several times by ships and aircraft. Pretty much every room fore of the break room is full of water. The ship sunk to a depth of 120 meters before I abused fast travel a little and grounded it on the sea floor.
The reactor is fine, but the trouble is that the outside water is 1319 kPa, and now even at full power the bilge pumps don't move any liquid.

Is there any way out of this situation, or are the poor sailors doomed to stay under the sea until they starve?
It's my solemn duty to inform you that your crew have been lost at sea. May they rest in peace.:salute:

For what it's worth, the bilge pumps stop working below 100 meters, due to them not being powerful enough to overcome the outside water pressure. This makes any flooding a race against time to get the pumps running at full tilt, trying to keep your boat shallow, getting your most experienced welder kitted out with SCBA gear and welding like his bum depends on it!:salute:

[kvn8907]

:-(

Oh well, live and learn. I should have taken less damage, or blown ballast sooner, or fast traveled to shallow water sooner, or got someone welding sooner.

[TheGeoff]

Is it possible to increase the amount of info given in the orders to sink a particular ship, so the ship type is detailed along with the name? This would make submerged warfare more realistic, especially if you have to pick one target out of a battlegroup?

Good idea - should be easy to add, I'll put it on the list of things to do.

I volunteer for submarine duty to beta test your 3d sub game. I am longing for a submarine game until subnautica releases their first "real" submarine that you can walk around in. :dead:

It's nowhere near beta yet :)

I've got myself into a situation in the game, and I'm not sure if it's salvageable.
I'm also not sure the class of submarine, but it's the one with all the bunk beds in the center.

So, after a big battle south of Odessa, I destroyed the ships harassing me but not before being hit several times by ships and aircraft. Pretty much every room fore of the break room is full of water. The ship sunk to a depth of 120 meters before I abused fast travel a little and grounded it on the sea floor.
The reactor is fine, but the trouble is that the outside water is 1319 kPa, and now even at full power the bilge pumps don't move any liquid.

Is there any way out of this situation, or are the poor sailors doomed to stay under the sea until they starve?

Unfortunately there is no way to save them - as Tango said, the bilge pumps stop working deeper than ~100m so it's important to fix the breaches as soon as possible.


The 3D sim is progressing very nicely. The physics model for the submarine is steadily improving, placeholder art inside the sub is steadily being replaced with new 3D models, and I've found some excellent rendering tools for the water and sky. I'm really pleased with how it looks so far - here are a couple of WIP screenshots (completely unedited, click for larger versions):

http://i.imgur.com/Cfee6F5m.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/Cfee6F5.jpg)
http://i.imgur.com/xvYWA2gm.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/xvYWA2g.jpg)

[Tango589]

Looks mighty fine so far Geoff, I can't wait to see more!:up:

[TheGeoff]

A small new update has been released to fix a couple of bugs:

- Refitting in port now works correctly after the game has been saved/loaded. Torpedoes should now be placed in the proper positions and missiles are correctly reloaded.

- The crash which occurred shortly after a nuclear war breaking out has been fixed.

Please redownload the game to get the update. Note that save files from previous versions are unfortunately not compatible with this update.

[playful1510]

Unfortunately, I cannot get it to work properly on my computer. It opens, but then it closes within 5-10 seconds without any errors. Strangely enough, it works on my Win8 laptop, but not my Win7 desktop.

[TheGeoff]

Hmm. Try setting "OpenGL_graphics = 0" in the gameoptions.ini file, this has worked for others in the past.

If that doesn't work, try setting "debug_mode = 1" at the bottom of the gameoptions.ini file. This will let the game generate a file called 'debug_log.txt', which will describe what happened before the game crashed - email me the file (subcommandergame@gmail.com) and I'll see if I can figure out a solution.

[playful1510]

Hmm. Try setting "OpenGL_graphics = 0" in the gameoptions.ini file, this has worked for others in the past.

If that doesn't work, try setting "debug_mode = 1" at the bottom of the gameoptions.ini file. This will let the game generate a file called 'debug_log.txt', which will describe what happened before the game crashed - email me the file (subcommandergame@gmail.com) and I'll see if I can figure out a solution.

The OpenGL trick did it. I had tried to use debug mode before, and the log would just end in the middle of a line.

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim playful :salute:

[Aktungbby]

playful1510!:Kaleun_Salute:

[Myxale]

versions):

http://i.imgur.com/Cfee6F5m.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/Cfee6F5.jpg)
http://i.imgur.com/xvYWA2gm.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/xvYWA2g.jpg)

Mighty Shiny. I had no idea you were already this far.

Kudos for sharing.:salute:

[TheGeoff]

Mighty Shiny. I had no idea you were already this far.

Kudos for sharing.:salute:

Thanks! It's progressing quickly now, but there is still a long way to go.

Here's an early work-in-progress shot of compartment 3, the control room of the Foxtrot class submarine:
http://i.imgur.com/8YdcPfwm.jpg (http://imgur.com/8YdcPfw)
Of course there is still a lot of detail to be added here, and basic graphical effects like shadows and bloom haven't been added yet.

All of the controls and dials here are completely functional - and accurately controlling the submarine's depth is quite a challenge! The Project 641 submarines (foxtrots) were built in the late '50s and early '60s before modern control systems automated any of the ballast system, so the 12 tanks must be manually flooded and blown using the wheels you can see in this screenshot. Pages 39-55 of this manual (http://www.maritime.org/doc/fleetsub/index.htm) describe how the system works (it's a manual for a WWII US fleet boat but the same principles apply to most early cold war subs).

Of course if you don't feel like spinning the wheels and adjusting the dive plane levers yourself, you can have an AI crewman can do the job for you. Every station on the boat can be either AI or player controlled, so the game can be as complex or as simple as you want.

[Tango589]

Hot diggity damn, this sounds even more awesome than I could have hoped!:salute:

[Redrick]

Geoff, you are a beautiful person. I have played this for many hours over the months I have had it, but had no idea there was a planned 3D world.

I have work to do! I cannot just sit here, idling and praying for the coming releases!

[dsawan]

eagerly awaiting this too as did not know there was a 3d world.

[succerpunch]

Me' got a few suggestions:

1. Make crew automatically fight fires or the Fire Suppression System go on automatically.

2. Make nations status change over time for example: I play as South Africa (Where I stay) and say now some political thing happens then when I'm at sea I get a message saying all polish ships are hostile.

3. Make that nations get (sometimes) annoyed from your ship doing recon at there base thus leading to the political thing above.

4. A more user friendly sub editor. like no more .ini editing

5. The typhoon sub When the, I think its the heat exchanger or a Coolant pump when one of them get damaged I can't repair them.

6. Make a U-boat to play with if you play as Germany.

7. Make a plot coarse option.

You don't have to fix/implement these suggestions because these are just my opinion but it will be nice.

[Nickvr628]

When that submarine simulator is finished. It will be like Artemis Bridge Simulator, but with submarines. In other words, heaven.

But imagine it with Oculus Rift! The possibilities are endless.:o

[Aktungbby]

:Kaleun_Salute:Pwnzorlol & Redrick & Alfa15!

[TheGeoff]

Me' got a few suggestions:

1. Make crew automatically fight fires or the Fire Suppression System go on automatically.

2. Make nations status change over time for example: I play as South Africa (Where I stay) and say now some political thing happens then when I'm at sea I get a message saying all polish ships are hostile.

3. Make that nations get (sometimes) annoyed from your ship doing recon at there base thus leading to the political thing above.

4. A more user friendly sub editor. like no more .ini editing

5. The typhoon sub When the, I think its the heat exchanger or a Coolant pump when one of them get damaged I can't repair them.

6. Make a U-boat to play with if you play as Germany.

7. Make a plot coarse option.

You don't have to fix/implement these suggestions because these are just my opinion but it will be nice. Thanks for your suggestions - a few of these are planned, especially the diplomacy related ones. Also the ability to plot a course will be added eventually.


Hot diggity damn, this sounds even more awesome than I could have hoped!:salute:

Geoff, you are a beautiful person. I have played this for many hours over the months I have had it, but had no idea there was a planned 3D world.

I have work to do! I cannot just sit here, idling and praying for the coming releases!

eagerly awaiting this too as did not know there was a 3d world.

Thanks, and I'm glad you guys are as excited about the new game as I am!

When that submarine simulator is finished. It will be like Artemis Bridge Simulator, but with submarines. In other words, heaven.

But imagine it with Oculus Rift! The possibilities are endless.:o

I tried Artemis for the first time with a bunch of friends a few weeks ago, it's great fun. Hopefully my sim will create a similar atmosphere!

And no promises yet, but I see no reason why Oculus Rift support can't be included :)


On a related note, if anyone reading this lives in San Diego, Los Angeles, or Kaliningrad, Russia please send me a message.
I have a favour to ask! I can compensate you for your trouble.

[Wojtek94]

2D version of Sub Commander is dead? Thats was just great...

[TheGeoff]

No, it's definitely not dead! The development of Sub Commander is progressing a lot more slowly lately but I still have many more updates planned.

The focus of the next update will be the torpedoes. I've learned a LOT more about how these systems work from my research for the new simulator, and I plan to integrate that back into Sub Commander.

The magic auto-homing torpedoes will be replaced with a more realistic system, where:

Immediately after launch, the torpedo turns to a predefined bearing (either manually selected by the player before launch, or selected automatically based on your current target)
Once the torpedo has travelled more than a certain distance (also chosen by the player), the warhead and homing sensors will be armed. I plan to simulate both active and passive sensors.
Once the sensors switch on, the torpedo will enter a search pattern if it has been programmed to do so.
If the sensors detect a target, the torpedo will chase and attempt to destroy it. This means you must plan shots very carefully to avoid friendly fire or circular running torpedoes.


The system is still a work in progress, but I think it will really improve the game. One of the main complaints people seem to have about Sub Commander is how basic the combat system is, and I think this will help fix that nicely.

Decoys and countermeasures may also make it into the next update but I haven't started work on them yet.

[Tango589]

Looking forward to the next release!:arrgh!:

[Wojtek94]

Great news;) It is worth so much work which you do. Idea with the torpedo is cool but it will be still only shooting to the sitting ducks becouse enemy doesn't hunt for player. Just compare this to Aces of the Deep;) And finally stupid question-what with a donate? It is possible? Sorry for my bad english;)

Ps-what do you think about adding real time in game and few elements of AOTD campaign(data of hunted ships,cooperation with other submarines etc)?

[TheGeoff]

Enemy ships do search for the player if you are detected, but I think the main problem is they give up too easily. At the moment they simply travel to the place where they last detected you, take a quick look around, then return to whatever they were doing. I'll try to make them search more intelligently in the future - using search patterns, cruisers launching ASW helicopters, etc.

I'm also planning to simulate the active sonar on enemy warships more thoroughly in a future update. Hearing the pings of enemy destroyers searching for you is a vital part of any sub sim :ping:

Real time mode is also planned - it will probably be added as an optional feature in the next update.

If you would like to make a donation, you can send it through Paypal to subcommandergame@gmail.com.
Thank you!

[Wojtek94]

When can we expect new build? Just a moment ago I failed attack on convoy in AOTD(I waited for my first battleship-36000 BRT...). I'm not patient enough to attack battleships and wait for your game;)

[Tango589]

When can we expect new build? Just a moment ago I failed attack on convoy in AOTD(I waited for my first battleship-36000 BRT...). I'm not patient enough to attack battleships and wait for your game;)
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm260/tango589/y4gd6f.jpg

[TheGeoff]

I don't have an estimate for the release of the next version yet - I'm really busy at the moment so progress on Sub Commander is pretty slow.

So far the new torpedo system is implemented and mostly working, but not much else has been added.

[Wojtek94]

What do you think about SOSUS system? It raise realism and difficulty level. Journey across the ocean will not be so easy. But this is another part of hard work... How is your work going?:)

[TheGeoff]

SOSUS is something I've planned to add for a while, but the main problem is getting the AI to react correctly to the information. One of the major limitations of the AI at the moment is that it can't plan out long journeys well - calculating a path hundreds of miles long is incredibly slow with even the most efficient pathfinding algorithms, because the game world is a damn big place. I'm working on a solution to this problem involving pathfinding nodes and pre-calculated paths but it's not functional yet.

[Nickvr628]

Do you plan on adding VLS tubes to some submarines? The LA Class submarine had these, and I think that the would be cool to have for anti-shipping purposes.

Also, when a destroyer finds me in my submarine, it seems that there is really no way to avoid him besides running away. However the ship still gets off a bunch of depth charge shots on me and my sub is crippled. How should I deal with this?

[Wojtek94]

Unfortunately at this state combat is too simple. Hmm... Thermal layer-hide behind it and you will be invisible for enemy-or just go deeper at 25-30 knots. You can escape even with full speed. Just sail away. You can try Aces of the Deep or first Silent Hunter. This is real hardcore;) Five or more destroyers;> PING! PING!

[Tango589]

Unfortunately at this state combat is too simple. Hmm...!

Combat is too simple? Look at this report for overwhelming odds. I never stood a chance!

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm260/tango589/missionlog.jpg